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A must-see: Quilts in the Paducah, Ky Quilt Museum, from prior quilt shows, by BIDEOBOB on YouTube:
For anyone interested in watching a lovely tutorial Vimeo about fabric scraps, quilts, history and ideas, Have a look at Eleanor Burns, From Scraps to Quilts. Plus, an absolutely adorable young woman does a Vimeo about a quilt made “from a million billion” knitted ‘hexapuffs,’ in a quilt she calls The Beekeeper’s Quilt.
You gotta love Eleanor, who demonstrated at the Paducah KY Quilt Show in 2010. She is surrounded with lovely antiques (first link above), and demonstrates atop a wooden ironing board. I have pulled two antique wooden ironing boards from dumpsters here, and I still have one, just because I think it’s pretty, plus, I oughta just open a fabric scrap business, I have decided. I finally quit pulling linen and lace and yards of fabric scraps from dumpsters, because I did not know what to do, other than look at it.
Actually, I know nobody bothers much with links, but have just a peek at the two women above, and agree with me: Now, I don’t quilt, but I honestly cannot imagine why I wasted so much time with alcohol. Why didn’t I just skip all that and have what these women are having? Honest to God, how I tortured myself, when I could have been this happy, artistic and productive. That said, I have solid plans for my future show-stopper quilt that I will make someday, when I take up this precise art. I’ll call it ’1000 Cranes,’ and it will have movement, joy, color and melancholy, just like the real cranes, who take their difficult migration journey over the Himalayan Valley of Death each year.
As BIDEOBOB mentions above, the Paducah Quilt Museum prohibits photography, I am guessing to prevent light damage to the show quilts, so here are some Saturday Art photos, from the public domain on Flickr:
Triangle Tilt Quilt – For The Love of Solids Swap – Round Two by Sarah @ pings and needles, blogged here.
Quilt in the Window by abmatic
Quilt Top by Cindy_FL
Family Quilt by daneen_vol
Eleanor speaks of the fabric scrap bags that the pioneer women kept and even willed. Their fabric scrap bags sat beside them on the wagons. How I wish I had kept a fabric scrap bag, with my son’s shirts, maybe my father’s service clothing, my mother’s nightgowns or scarves, or my husband’s ties!
21 Comments
I had a quilt when I was young that my grandmother maid. Rather like the striped one above.
Kept it till it literally fell apart.
My therapist in Fl. quilted and was very good at it.
Quilts a way cool…..and warm and comfy in the winter too. :-)
The Quilt Museum is going to have upcoming exhibitions of Civil War Era quilts and other antique quilts, and I think we will try to make it to this. I never knew how amazing these quilts could be, until I moved here. One thing that is interesting is that the quilting is very different than the precise arts of spinning and weaving. My sister does her own spinning and weaving, she is a guild judge, so I thought I’d look around town for a nice spinning/weaving-type gift. I swung by one of these amazing little shops with the Berninas that cost as much as a car, and asked about weaving gifts. They looked at me like I had just arrived, by way of Martian Ray Gun!
Wow. That was hideous. I had a glaring typo in the first sentence, and it took me until now to see it!
Oh, well, fixed it.
Thanks, C-S, very nice. Actually, quilts were part of family tradition in my own family, but we were not so close that we ever were part of the group that got together and worked on them. My own family kept scraps to make into rag rugs, but they were not art, they were for utility. I hope you create something beautiful, and share it with us here.
So cool, rug rags from scraps? I’ll bet they looked like art and not utility. While I can likely do a post featuring the beautiful weaving works of my sister, I am not a precise artist. I am a great one to find things in the dumpsters, and I have ideas, but I am not sure I could ever create one of these gorgeous quilts!
From what I can gather about weaving, it involves quite a lot of math. I will ask.
Thanks Ruth.
OT: We just busted our parrot, in the bathroom, brushing his beak with the electric toothbrush. He got the toothpaste out first by opening the end of the tube with his beak. The parrot (Nikko) let loose with some foul language, when Fred took the toothbrush away!
*snort*
Jake the cockatiel here makes squeaky toy sounds, just like the dogs’ playthings.
LOL, this bird, I tell ya. He comes running up the stairs this morning just as fast as he can run, making the microwave noise, to remind me that the microwave was, not only done: Errt Errt Errt, but also, that I would have to stir and then re-start, Eet, Eet, Eet. The starting and stopping sounds are different, and he figured I needed a little reminding.
These are so beautiful. Thanks CS
what an amazing medium for expression.
You’re welcome Elliott, and I agree. The fabric colors are amazing, I never realized there could be so many shades to each color.
(just so ya know, it still says form instead of from in the first sentence)
Thanks for the post & pics.
Oh wow, thank you. You see, here’s the deal, oldnslow, can I call you oldnslow? Good. Shhh, don’t tell anyone. I corrected an even worse one than that earlier! LOL, now look. These things aren’t necessarily the author’s fault./ Seems that my in-house editor, who I am married to, missed the both of them. Which means that today, anyway, he was about as useless as buttons on a dishrag.
Thanks, and off to correct.
OMG.
You can’t have a dull life with that parrot!
I don’t remember the “buttons on a dishrag” from the thread about sayings, but then you might not of said it then or I might not be remembering it now.
I’ll put that in the category of things I wish I’d grown up hearing all the time so I could just say them naturally.
This thread has had me on my computer now for about 5 hours. It started when I went to click on the link for the bee quilt. Then I just kept clicking on links from there and now here I am noticing I seem to have missed making dinner.
Oh! Don’t I know it. And I don’t even quilt, for God’s sake. I just can’t get enough of it. I started watching Eleanor, in her insanely good mood, and I mean I wanna make me a quilt now!
Also, I love colloquialisms. I grew up with quite a few, because my parents are down-home Missouri, who also lived in the South (New Orleans and Atlanta) for many years, and then I picked up more since moving to Kentucky. Growing up, we really did not think of these priceless, practical and hilarious comments as anything odd. They were simply part of our everyday language.
-If his brains was gasoline, he wouldn’t have sense enough to run a Piss-ant’s Go Kart around the inside of a donut.
Who thinks this stuff up?
My so-called dinner has turned out to be crackers, half a chocolate bar and a tangerine.
With that, I think I’ll go get another Louise Erdrich book and dig in. I loved Round House so much I’ve taken a couple more out of the library. If you haven’t read it, I think you’d like it too.
Well, from what I have just looked up about this author and book, you are right, I do love stories like this. Just thinking off the top of my head, for example, I loved the book Midwives.
Thanks again, and have a wonderful evening reading.
This is lovely, CS. I will check the links.
Had a quilt myself since childhood, still have the damaged remnants. I review quilting books all the time. Love color & all that it can do. You have heard of Kaffe Fassett, AND, AND, AND … surely … ?
You could absolutely make a business out of all those fabric scraps … or supply the business I might make of them …. LOL!
Love cranes – a personal totem. I have a picture of cranes at Mt. Everest (another interest) and I didn’t know there was more to know about that: thank you, will be reading up!
Rag rugs: TOTALLY! I have a few purchased that are falling apart. I had 3 huge boxes of rags that I lost … and I plan to make some of my own and maybe SELL them (one of my crafty business ideas). Rag rugs can definitely be works of art: I’ve seen them in books about such art and artists.
Those silly birds! I haven’t laughed so loud in ages.
And I enjoy your sayings so much!
Actually, no, I have not heard of Kaffe Fassett, but oh, wow, textiles! Does his stuff ever look cool!
Thanks for stopping by, and if you do happen across a link or two I hope you enjoy!
He’s been putting out books since, oh, the ’80′s I think ~ AT LEAST 1/2 of them should be available in your library. Eye candy for the crafty types! I love his fabrics because the colorways are cool AND the designs are rendered in several colorway variations.