I returned from Asheboro, NC last evening! First thing I did? Head to the hot tub! I am loving having our hot tub in the gazebo off the deck, watching trees go from blossoms to new leaves, seeing how the grass has become so fresh and green just over the past couple of weeks....spring is definitely arriving! Slow in coming, wet and rainy, but it is spring none the less!
Last night I experienced my first loud thunder-bumper storm here. It was fun being down in the basement studio all safe and dry while the storm rumbled on through. I wondered if our power would go out, but it didn't, luckily. I had to put borders on the baby quilt for my sister who is expecting her 4th baby, another niece for me, any day! I may miss the baby's arrival due to my travels, and the quilt is likely NOT going to be ready to ship for a couple weeks yet, but I don't think the baby will mind.
Anyway, back to Asheboro! Even tho Asheboro is only an hour's drive or so from my house, I had never been there before, so it took me into new territory. One of the fun things about traveling is meeting up face to face with people I have known via the internet for years, but had only communicated via email. I had the pleasure of finally meeting Mary, and got to stay at her beautiful home! Her decorating is so much my own style...or the desire of style, because it sure isn't evident in what I've done so far with this house! But her house is warm, wonderful, comfy cozy, and little quilt vignettes are every where! We just had the best time, and I'm glad she is close enough that we can get together for sew days or antiquing or whatever. I hope we will.
She took me to a fabulous antique mall....I must have hit the jackpot because she said the last time she was there there were NOT as many quilts! But this time...woah baby! And the prices were reasonable! She had her camera and took pics of my shopping fun. I ended up buying 5 quilts...most of them in "cutter" condition, but I bought them because I could so relate to them. I would love to recreate them....I just knew I would have so much in common with the women who made them, even as humble as they are. One is in complete shreds....But the design and the quilting in it are fabulous. (No pic of that one in what she sent me home with, but I'll get pics of it when I can) The deal of the century was in a "junk" flea market mall down the street from the antique mall, where I asked her to read the tag for me.....
"Mary...does this say $10.00?? Or is it supposed to be $100.00??? It was TEN DOLLARS..needless to say, we paid the lady quickly and ran!! *LOL*
This broken dishes in a 9patch variation quilt really caught my eye. LOok at those colors! The red is so vibrant....it's got shirtings and indigoes..plaids, stripes, prints...Everything that just "floats my boat!" The backing...simple home-dyed cotton...which I suppose really isn't all that "simple", I can't imagine what a pain it was to boil fabric to dye it in those days! The quilting is baptist fan, wonky as can be, and executed in black thread. I've got several antiques from this era that use black thread for quilting on utility style quilts. I LOVE IT.....I want to quilt with black thread on a utility quilt project like this. The blocks are big and chunky. She probably had to make it fast out of what she had to provide warmth for her family. And, it looks like the blue piece wasn't quite long enough...so what did she do? Added on some left over green. My kind of gal!
This "Northwind" quilt ALSO came home with me! Who would have thunk that *I* who has been in love with quilts with a gadzillion SMALL pieces would be so drawn to quilts with BIG blocks? I used to not like BIG block quilts at all...and they really have grown on me. This one also has a simple muslin type backing. The fun thing about this one is it is all pieced by machine, even the binding (turning the back to the front) is by machine. It is hand quilted tho...this time in diagonal (well SORT OF!) rows. You know how we would follow the patchwork as a guide to where our diagonals should pass through the block? This one has no rhyme or reason as to the placement of the diagonals..they just go wonky... ;c) Yep...a gal after my own heart (or was it a guy?? who knows?)
Look at that ONE lone cheddar block!? And notice how there is a row of "Burgundy" blocks that goes across the center of the quilt in a stripe? That is something we wouldn't do today. But in lots of old quilts, they grouped "like kinds" together..where we tend to scatter them so things are more spread out and try to avoid having the same thing touch each other. I love that they had less rules than we try to impose on ourselves. Maybe a life lesson in there somewhere?
This quilt was another FABULOUS FIND! The quilting is SO small, and some of these blues I think may have been green at one time...the yellow washed out of those over dyed greens and left the fabric a greenish blue again. The brown is probably hand dyed, maybe some of the others too. This quilt has such WONDERFUL blocks! I love the design. I have no idea where to put all these..but they just have to come live with me, if even just for a while...This is a very EARLY quilt. The batting is so thin it is almost non existent, and the quilting is so close, and echoed and echoed...
The other two quilts I didn't get pics of...so I'll have to do that for another post. I'll leave you wanting and waiting for more!
We met up with a dozen or so quilt guild ladies for dinner, and then off to the guild meeting we went. Mary took some pics...and I just had to laugh. This one looks like I'm doing the quilter's version of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" !!
It's tax prep weekend..along with everything else...and then I'm headed to the DC area of MD on Monday!
Buddy Update....not good folks. :c( The doc got in there and there is more damage than was visible on the xrays. Buddy is going to have to have more work done on Tuesday, they are going to have to put in some plates instead of the simple wiring and pinning that they thought. He really did a number on his carpals/metacarpals when he jumped off the deck...please keep the good thoughts and prayers coming! He's home with us and all bandaged up and on meds until then! Jeff and Dave are going to have to deal with him since I'll be in MD....
