Sweet Home Quilt Co.

I just finished up a two-year stint as Program Chair for one of the local guilds, and while I am glad not to have the responsibility of finding and booking good speakers, I must say I will definately miss meeting and getting to know the really talented speakers.

The last “official” program of the year at Cotton Boll Quilters in Covington, GA was a lecture/trunk show by Teddy Pruett of Lake City, FL. Teddy is a warm, genuine and very funny lady who has a tremendous knowledge of quilt and textile history. She has presented numerous times at Paducah and in other venues across the country, and she is an AQS certified quilt appraiser. Her specialty is “southern” quilts, and I was fortunate to have her give me an appraisal on several of my “southern” family quilts. It is fascinating to look into the fabric and color choices, and the workmanship  and be able to almost go back in time to understand the maker’s choices.

Anyway, Teddy’s lecture/trunk show for the guild was titled “Other People’s Fleas,” and it was not only informative, but she made it fun with her engaging banter.  The lecture description from Teddy’s website reads, in part, “A wild and wacky look at quilts made from recycled items, many of questionable character. How to work with old blocks and tops – and how to decide whether or not you should alter them – how to make the most of the good, the bad, the ugly, and the totally unsalvageable! “  Teddy shared with us many old blocks and tops, and the ‘new’ works she’d fashioned by using the bits and pieces to make a new whole. She has a quirky sense of humor and a fun, fun way of interpreting her thoughts using recycled, found objects.

This is a crib-size Lone Star quilt with beautifully done applique baskets and leaves in the border. Hard to tell from the picture, but the leaves and stems of the applique, which were once green, are now tan because the dye was not colorfast – typical of the time period. 

This amazing quilt was made of all half-square triangles, probably about one inch finished! According to Teddy, the piece has 11,000+ pieces! How did she know? This piece was hand-pieced and hand quilted!

See the holes in this one? Teddy cuts pieces from unusable tops and uses them in her ‘new’ quilts. Parts of this top were really worn and not fit to use, but she managed to get some blocks from it.

Another fabulous example of using bits from an old top to make something new & wonderful! Notice the blocks from the old top have been pieced inside and outside the blue medallion in the new quilt.

We had a good laugh over this fun and funky quilt top. Is it a puppy dog or a  boot? Remember when we wore the heavy, chunky-heeled boots??? That’s what these blocks remind me of – how about you?

This top was truly amazing to see up close. The circles are all pieced of tiny little triangle scraps – some were mere slivers! Very well done, though, and in amazingly good condition.

This quilt was one of my favorites because it was so well done, but also because it gave me ideas of how to use my own stash of embroidered linens. Most of these pieces were crewel embroidery, adding texture and dimension to this quilt.

One thing I learned from Teddy is that no matter how ragged, every old top has some little something that can be salvaged.

Last, but not least, is another favorite of mine. This is a small doll quilt pieced from men’s neckties. The interesting thing is that the tiny scraps were foundation pieced to adding machine tape! This helped control and stabilize the slippery nature of the tie silks, and also allowed the little quilt to be “quilt as you go.”

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little recap of Teddy’s program. It was so much fun, the guild members enjoyed it, and I truly enjoyed getting to know Teddy. If you have an opportunity to meet her or hear her lecture, don’t hesitate. You won’t be sorry!

Feeling the need for a road trip, I talked Pat into going with me on Friday to the American Legacy 2009 Quilt Show being held at the Georgia Agrirama in Tifton, GA.  I thought it would do her good to get away since she’s been pretty much homebound since February with the knee replacement, and I knew I desperately needed a diversion!

We left the shop about 8AM, and the plan was to arrive in Tifton just before lunch, see the show, have lunch, and be back to Atlanta before Friday rush hour traffic set in! We had a nice drive down (3 hours!), with Pat working on handquilting her Whig Rose quilt while I drove, chattering like magpies the entire time! Anyone eavesdropping on our conversation would have been totally confused because we tend to skip back and forth and cover a multitude of subjects all at once! We know what we’re talking about, but anyone else would probably think we were a little schizophrenic. At any rate, we made it to Tifton without incident and thoroughly enjoyed the quilt show. It was a great first effort for the Georgia Agrirama Foundation and the Wiregrass Quilters Guild.  I’m sure Pat will share her favorites, but here are a few pictures that I took for you to enjoy.

Best of Show winner was “And They All Became Stars” by Jane Rodgers, quilted by Rae Giddens. This quilt also won First Place in the Collaborative category.

My selection for Viewer’s Choice was the Third Place winner in the Art Quilt category entitled “Emerald Treasures” by Barb Forrister. This small wallhanging was amazing – she used commercial and hand painted fabrics, dyed cheesecloth, wool, roving, and beads and incorporated needle felting, machine applique and machine quilting.  The turtles were all 3-D – I took several close-ups, but alas, my photography skills are sorely lacking! Trust me when I tell you it was terrific!

Top Right is a small wallhanging (also by Jane Rodgers) that I thought was a terrific use of the Dick and Jane panels and coordinating fabrics that were on the market recently. This quilt was titled “First Grade.”

Bottom Right is another very striking quilt that caught my attention. Titled “Classic Serape Native American Rug Design” and made by Ruth Wise.

A few more of my favorites from the show. Top Left is “Not Freddy’s House but Ann’s House” by Ann Barker. This is her rendition of “Freddy’s House” by Freddy Moran, and it was bright and cheerful!

Top Right is “Wagon Wheels” by Rae Giddens. Again, bright and cheerful, this quilt reminded me of Australian quilts that I’ve been seeing on several blogs usig a more traditional pattern with bright, contemporary fabrics. A showstopper!

Bottom Left is “Old Shoes” by Jane Rodgers, which she made from a photo of her old shoes. Bottom Right is a close-up to better show the details. Even the laces looked real! Jane is apparently a very prolific quilter as she had a lot of quilts in this show!

A big treat was a display of vintage quilts from the collection of Jackie Harper of Fitzgerald, GA, along with a wonderful display of toy and miniature antique sewing machines from the collection of Jan Winter of Ashburn, GA. Now if you know me at all, you know that I adore antique quilts and sewing implements, so a lot of my time was spent inspecting these beautiful quilts. Enjoy!

There were several of these antique quilts that I would have loved to have in my collection!

Speaking of antique quilts, one particular reason that I really wanted to attend this show was the opportunity to meet Teddy Pruett, who is an AQS certified quilt appraiser from Lake City, FL. I’ve been corresponding via email with Teddy for a while because I booked her to do a lecture for Cotton Boll Quilt Guild on April 28th, and she’s also going to do quilt appraisals at the shop on April 29th. I only got to speak with her briefly as she was quite busy doing appraisals at the show, but I could tell just from our brief contact that her lecture is going to be a lot of fun. She is a delightful lady! Call me if you want details about her lecture, or to book an appointment for a quilt appraisal with her.

On our way back home, we detoured to Ashburn, GA to check out a place called French Farmhouse Antiques that we’d seen a roadside billboard for…we found a few treasures but no antiques. I think their definition of “antique” was different than ours!

A quick lunch at Cracker Barrel and we were barreling toward Atlanta. Traffic was bumper to bumper, and came to a dead stop about 15 miles from our exit. We saw one minor fender bender, but that wasn’t the problem – I guess it was just all the holiday traffic, combined with spring-breakers headed home from Florida! Luckily, I knew the back way so I jumped off the first exit we came to and we zipped right along. We were also concerned about predicted stormy weather so we wanted to get home as quickly as possible.

All in all, it was  fun day. I was tired, but it was definately just what the doctor ordered for me! Pat looks a little exasperated with me, don’t ya think? I’m sure she’ll have some goofy pic of me on her blog in a day or two, so this is just payback in advance!

Thanks, Pat, for a most Excellent Adventure!

Melisa