Sweet Home Quilt Co.

More pictures of the beautiful quilts from the Festival of Quilts Show and the members of the Heart of Georgia Quilt Guild.

Cottage and Flowers by Joyce Jones
(hand appliqued and hand quilted!)

Toots’s Flower Garden by Alice Smith
A Piece ‘O Cake pattern, Alice started this quilt in Utah in 1987, worked on it in Hawaii, Korea, Florida and New Hampshire, and finally finished it in Georgia! I wish you could see the machine quilting done by Alice on her Bernina – it was simply amazing!

Hidden Star (miniature) by Kathy Darley

Buttons Blooms and Baskets by Alice Smith

Stretched Chains by Page O’Neill

Miss Lily’s Baskets by Sandy Gilreath
(an original design)

Hartwell Commons by Sandy Gilreath
Quilt features silk ribbon embroidery, free motion quilting, and applique. This quilt has been selected as a semi-finalist in the AQS Show & Contest in Paducah, April 2012.

How Does My Garden Grow by Jeannine Burton
This quilt was fabulous with machine embroidered applique flowers and crystal “bling” all over it!

Raj, Rob Roy, and Ralph (Rooster series) by Beth McGinn

Blue Flame by Carol West

Pansy Baskets by Sumie Martin

Exotic Flowers by Joyce Jones
(hand appliqued and hand quilted)

Mill Wheel by Laurene Wooten
(hand pieced and hand quilted)

Angeline’s Garden Quilt by Angeline Walker
(Angie’s first applique quilt!!!)

Friends and Flowers, You Can Never Have Enough by Sheila Bender
(hand appliqued)

As I mentioned earlier, talent abounds in this guild. Many members had 7, 8, 9, and even 10 quilts entered in this show! And you can see that they really, really love applique and do some absolutely amazing work! I am always awestruck and inspired while viewing the masterpieces created by this guild!

There were a couple of special exhibits that I’ll share with you in a separate post so that I can share the stories, too. In the meantime, if you have an opportunity to attend a guild quilt show and view the local talent, please do so in support of the quilters who put so much time and effort into their work. But remember, don’t touch the quilts or you could end up like these hapless folks…

Melisa

I had so much fun this weekend vending at the Heart of Georgia Guild’s Festival of Quilts Show in Macon. I am always honored to be asked back, and the ladies of the guild are so sweet and wonderful to the vendors that it really isn’t like working at all!

This is our booth (sorry the picture is so dark!) I usually put up my drapes but decided to leave those off this year and I was glad I did…it opened things up and I didn’t feel as closed off from reverything as I usually do! Had a great time visiting with Jean and Kathy who were doing demonstrations right next to me!

There is no shortage of talent in the Heart of Georgia Quilt Guild, and it is very evident in the quilts entered into the show. Warning! Many photos to follow…it was just too hard to narrow them down too much! I’ll do a second post with more pictures later this week. Enjoy!

Piece and Plenty by Susan Crook

This was my view for two days as this quilt hung right in front of my booth. Susan does amazing applique, and her color and fabric choices mimic my taste perfectly!

Baltimore’s Country Cousins by Linda Strickland

An amazingly beautiful quilt made by a quilter who proclaims to not like applique!

Paper Pieced Christmas Quilt by Page O’Neill

Christmas Quilt by Page O’Neill

Page actually made two of these quilts…for bunk beds!

Yikes! Stripes! #2 by Alice Smith

Wholecloth by Miriam Shurling (and a close up)

This quilt was purchased at an auction already sandwiched and ready to quilt. Miram finished it with hand quilting.

In the Garden by Mary Ramsdell

Irish Chain with trapunto roses…beautiful, spring colors!

Feathered Pineapple (wholecloth) by Faye Schnable

This was a pre-printed wholecloth design altered by the maker and longarm machine quilted. Trapunto is done using wool batting. (Wholecloth quilts are so difficult to photograph – there is no way to do it justice!)

It’s Never Too Late to Plant a Friendship Garden by Kathleen Melikian

Southern Heritage by Faye Schnable

A Tribute to Gerald Walker by Angeline Walker

They’re Coming to Take Me Away! Ha, Ha! by Beth McGinn

Aptly named…look at the gazillion pieces in this quilt and all those points!

That’s all for now…I’ll post more later!

Melisa

We get calls all the time at the shop from people who are cleaning out ________ (Grandma’s, Mom’s, Aunt Sallie’s, etc.) house and have found a big stash of fabrics that they don’t know what to do with, so they call us to see if we can use them. I rarely say no to these offers because we can often use these fabrics for charity quilts or at the very least, the pet beds we make for the local animal shelters. Many times these donations are not usable for our efforts, but I have learned to check the boxes and bags even if they seem to be filled with nylon lingerie fabrics! You just never know what hidden treasure could be lurking at the bottom of the bag!

Here are a couple of “hidden treasures” from such a donation. The donated bags were filled with “smelly” (as in musty/dirty) fabrics of indeterminate fiber content…I knew we couldn’t use them even for pet beds because I’d never ask anyone to sew with them as nasty as they were…but I dumped the bags out anyway just in case I might uncover something usable. I am so glad I took the time to do that…

This full-size quilt top out of vintage shirting fabrics was stuffed into a zippered bag and buried at the bottom of one of the bags under all the unusable fabrics! A gentle wash to remove the surface dirt was all it took to bring this treasure back to life! I think it is crying out for some Big-Stitch quilting!

And as if that wasn’t enough a second bag yielded these treasures…

Three vintage feedsack fabrics! I haven’t washed these yet because they were in good condition, not musty or dirty, inside a plastic bag. They are a nice addition to my feedsack collection!

As the old saying goes “never look a gift horse in the mouth!”

Melisa

I think I’ve forgotten how to blog it’s been so long! I’ve been spending every spare moment planning our workshop with Terry Atkinson and working on new samples and displays for the shop and everything else has taken a back seat…shame on me! We’re in the home stretch now, though, with the workshop (sadly) behind us, and just about everything ready for the two quilt shows where we’ll be vending in March (you DO have the Heart of Georgia Quilt Guild’s Festival of Quilts and the Lake Oconee Quilt Guild’s Quilt-Fest on your calendar, right?) Preparations for Shop Hop are coming along so perhaps things will begin to get back to normal (whatever that is!) around here. I’m slowly, but surely getting caught up and I thank you for your patience!

We’ve had beautiful quilts brought in recently to share and I have been very remiss in getting these accolades posted…we enjoy seeing your projects so much, and just because I’m a lazy blogger, please don’t stop with the sharing!

Ann made this cheery scrap quilt from her Batik scraps…the strips finish at 1”!!!

Carolyn has been busy! Love the two-color baskets quilt (I am itching to make a two-color quilt!), and those flying geese? Be still my heart! Wish I had a better picture of this quilt…it is gorgeous!

I’m sure many of you remember Claire, who worked in the shop for a short while (until her husband up and whisked her off to Macon for a job transfer!). When Claire started working with us, she knew how to sew but did not quilt. In less than three months, she made her first quilt (on the left) using our Beginner’s Quilting program, and quickly moved on to her second quilt (on the right) which she made using a vintage fabric that had been gifted to her. She even modified the pattern to take best advantage of the fabric print! Smart girl…we sure miss her at Sweet Home!

Leiann whipped out a Texas Two Step baby quilt for a gift in between finishing up her PhD projects!

Ruthanne finished her 2011 First Sunday Block Party Thangles BOM…you can finish quickly when you keep up with making the blocks each month…who knew? I love how this color selection turned out…it is the batik version and I wasn’t sure about it when I first picked out the fabrics, but I love how the dark block background makes those stars shine!

That’s all for this post. There is a lot going on around here, but some things I can’t share right now. I have pictures from the workshop with Terry, but since we were testing a new pattern for her I can’t post those yet. Teaser…you’re going to love her new design! And if you missed her workshop, we had a fantastic time…just sayin’!

Melisa