A Stolen Quilt Gets Remade With Great Results.

Here is Charlotte's quilt that she had to remake from scratch when her quilt was stolen last year in my Story Quilt Class. This quilt is about her beloved brother who died of AIDS. It has all of his favorite things in there and is a nice and lasting memory of someone she loved and wanted memorialized. Who could you be remembering in a quilt today?

Great job Charlotte! I love the subject and the colors! NOTE-she used my alphabet fabric from the Grandma line. If you want some of that fabric reprinted to do your own names etc., write to David@Benartex.com . Charlotte,You overcame the sadness of your quilt being taken and your new quilt is lovely. A pox on whoever stole you first quilt! Can you imagine?

Also, I am on my way to LA today to work on my new book and then will meet friends In Tahoe for painting fun and Red Hut adventures. I hope to teach in Tahoe next year for those of you who live fairly close. Stay tuned! I want to thank those of you who commented on my blog this week. It makes it worth the time away from my applique and embellishing.

COLOR IN A STASH AND THREADS THAT SAY IT ALL!

So, I am a color person and in quilts, a colorist. I love bright stashes of lovely fabrics waiting to be made into something happy and fun-here are a couple of stashes from my class

Above is Pat's lovely bobbin case

On top of the table and below

Oh, I love the glow of plaids and light givers in my work-these are samples I show the class

Samples of Hoochy blocks with great colors-the hoochy book also discusses the 7 styles of fabric and how you should add things to your stash you don't use-every stash can always use some improvement. This is how my workshops begin.

FABULOUS RED HEN QUILT SHOP AND KATHY AND I MAKE NEW FRIENDS AT THE HOTEL

So, I was out getting the car or checking out or something and I come into the lobby and here is Kathy with these cute and very polite kids. They are brothers and sisters and cousins (just like my little Grandkids who all play together weekly.) They were at the hotel for a swim birthday party for one of the little girls. The older brother did not want in the photo,he was at that age, you know. I remember that. Kids are so sweet because you say something nice to one and they all have something sweet to say so you will compliment them too. I felt like I was back home. This was one of the best parts of the trip. Look at Kathy, she is happy too. We are just kids in our minds.
And I want that little girls shoes on the left!

Above are out hosts while we were in Atlanta. We are all drinking Perrier and pretending we are in France (well not them but me). Kathy and Greg are attorneys and Kathy has done award winning quilts that are in books and catalgues. They are great fun!

Here is my friend Mary Ann Henderson. She owns the Red Hen quilt shop in Marietta and she is very talented. She has designed fabric forever and she has won many quilting awards. Plus, her shop is fabulous and BIG. I hope to teach there this fall if we can work it out.

Here we are together after she showed me her latest lines of fabric. YOU will LOVE them. They are vintage dogs and cats and so wonderful. She has a creative mind and I think we could get into alot of trouble together-the two "Mary's".

The quilt above was a prize winner and it is fabulous as you can see. It had like 4000 or more crystals on it and on the back (below). I could have studied that for an hour but the quilt shop was closed and they wanted me out of there. :0) It took three of them to drag me out and lock the door.

Above is another prize winning quilt of Mary Anne's. Pretty wonderful stuff- Note the crystal's on the bottom! Each one put on that separately

Pinks anyone???

Yellows and greens and teals and oh my!

Note the stripes on the right are from Benartex (my old Kray Kat designs)-pretty wonderful for great light giving fabrics-Hey! good news. I will have a new line out this Fall that is light giving plaids, my old dots (little with the squiggles), medium dots, tone on tone stuff that I used for face fabric for Uncle Sam and some other surprises. I can't wait to sew with the stuff. Since I am working on a new book, it should work in very very well!

CLAY'S CORNER-A SLICE OF HEAVEN FOR THOSE WHO HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR

The photo above is of Clay who owns Clay's Corner. It is a real adventure going there for a coke, boiled peanuts, fishing licenses,candy bars, chewing tabacco, and anything possum related. They drop a possom every New years eve and I heard it is THE place to be if you live in Brasstown or thereabouts! I said to Clay, "this is quite the place and fun to come and visit." He said "wanna buy it?"

John C.Campbell is in Beautiful Brasstown North Carolina as is Clay's Corner. So, Sandi wanted me to explain the possum drop on New Year's Eve. I have not been there but people say that in the old days they would tie a rope to the possom and lower it. Then animal rights people said that was not nice so, they have a possom in a cage and as it gets closer to midnight, they lower the cage to the ground. I think it sounds more exciting that that million dollar thing they do in NY. The people who live here are fun, have common sense (no kidding), help their neighbors and are all around great. This would be a wonderful place to live.

Dancing is available in Brasstown too!

I have looked at this many times and I laugh everytime I see it.

I saw this last year and still think it is funny

The first ice chest I have seen like this one

The possom which is Clay's mascot and theme

I looked at these in the kettle and couldn't bring myself to try them

The view of the school property from Clay's corner

If you buy water from Clay's in the case, this is the water you get. There has to be a quilt story in there somehow

THE MAGIC THAT HAPPENS IN A LONGER CLASS-CAN YOU SAY CREATIVITY?

The little bird in the bath is Linzee's to join in with her Hoity Toity House story.

We are missing two students in this photo-we had a great class with nice and creative people! I also wanted to comment that I did not get any single photos of Susan who is in the back row, second to the left. It is her quilt she is standing behind and she owns the "Out of the Box" quilt shop in Alabama and she was a darling girl with alot of pazzaz. I wish her shop was closer to me.

I love showing what you can do if you know how to design without drawing-Eleanor got an A. :0)

The house above is the beginning of Vilma's story-she has an amazing stash!

Above Mary Kay gets creative- she was worried about her elephant strip being crooked-I told her that gave her an A for the day and to add a strip and having something rolling down-doesn't that sound fun?

here is Vilma cutting out her cowgirl

Mary Kay smiles as she cuts-I liked seeing her face-it looked like a child who cuts in gradeschool

Carol on the right is doing a story about her widows and orphans group she meets with for dinner a couple of times a month-her drawing was wonderful and this is going to be great!

Linda did her own drawings of her Grandchildren playing at their lake cabin-I thought this Hoity Toity house was very creative and fun.

Linda has some movement and creativity in this story that is great fun!

This is Jessica (above) who is 29 and a camp host for four months. This was her first attempt at making a quilt. She is hooked on how easy Hoochy Mama blocks are and she did this in two days and then did a back out of hearts to finish it. She is getting married in May and can't wait to start having babies-this is for her first baby. Pretty sweet. She traded me earrings for the Flower Power book which she is going to do next. She is hooked. Yipppeee.

Making friend is what my classes are all about and here are Pat and Linda sharing stories over dinner. They were amazing at getting out of the box and their ideas. Below is Pat's blocks and she remembered the Christmas cactus at her Grandmother's home. So separate from her quilt, she made a wallhanging of a large Christmas cactus with borders and once it is quilted she will embellish it like I do mine. I love an idea that connects us with the past. So nice!

Last year Terry took a class from me and did the hoochy/flower power blocks around the border of my "Sew Spoiled" pattern. It is a great idea and didn't it turn out great?

Terry did some creative things for her house. Note the door top below.

And these hoochy flowers

Linzee brought these blocks and she put them up on the design board. We are going to do this kind of thing in Sept. at the John C. Campbell school only in plaids. I loved her samples here!

Below is Linzee and her handsome husband after they danced for awhile-they have great square dancing at the school at night and it was fun to watch for sure!

Below is Linzee's quilt (Hoity Toity House)-she has lots more to add but I think it is wonderful and I love the use of the great fabrics she did.

Below is "Bun" (her nickname) cutting out an item that one can sew to a quilt

Here is Bun's Hoity Toity House sample-one of the bird's is moon walking she says. Very fun and loved the line of fabric she used.

Below is Terry who is cutting out carefully

Below is Terry's house- happy, creative and interesting!

and look what is in those windows!

Below is Eleanor's quilt. She will be appliquing leaves on her tree to go across the outside border and over part of the house. Love the cheddar fabrics in there.

The photo below shows the beginnings of Eleanor's quilt.

Stay tuned for the ribbon shop we visited in Atlanta. Timothy was a great host and his talent with ribbon is unmatched!

FOR MORE GOOD STUFF AND PHOTOS I DID NOT TAKE AND A GREAT PERSEPCTIVE OF THE SCHOOL I WAS AT LOOK AT THIS LINK! IT IS GREAT.

http://pearlthesquirrel.blogspot.com/