Choo Choo Quilters: Kicking off the new year

More Cuddle Quilts turned in at the January meeting.

The Choo Choo Quilters started off 2015 with a big pile of completed Cuddle Quilts! This is the community service project for our guild. The quilts will be dropped off at the Chambliss Center for Children in February.

The January guild meeting was a planning session for the new teams. Team members put their thinking caps on and made plans for this year's monthly programs.

The Choo Choo quilters were busy over the holidays as there were lots of quilts for Show and Tell. Betty showed a framed antique quilt piece. What a great way to preserve a quilter's handiwork that can no longer be used as a functional quilt.

 Several cuddle quilts were turned in.

 

Ginny continues to use up her stash and scraps in this charming one-patch quilt.

Pam was tasked with hand quilting a runner for a friend.

Here is a closeup.

Another hand quilted quilt by Pam.

Sissy showed a pieced and appliqué quilt. The dark background really shows off the colorful appliqué flowers.

And we had another "finish" from the 2013 Brown Bag Challenge. This is Cristy's scrappy string quilt that she made with and for her father-in-law.

Watch for Veronica's quilt, "Pi E², Exponentially Embellished" in advertisements for AQS [American Quilters Society] shows.

Embroidery's rich cultural heritage carries on

Sherry shows embroidery samples from her textile collection.

Whether or not we learned to sew, embroider or quilt at a young age, many of us grew up surrounded by needlework of some kind—embroidered dish towels, cross stitched pillowcases, crewelwork pillows, dresser scarves, armchair doilies, or pieced and appliqued patchwork made from clothing, feed sacks or even men's old silk ties. Needlework pieces such as these can evoke memories of our family, our youth or our culture.

The program at the April Choo Choo Quilters guild meeting entitled "Embroidery on Quilts" featured time-honored embroidery techniques used throughout history and offered ideas and examples of how hand stitching can add detail and dimension to projects we're creating today.

A seminole pieced and crazy patch vest
that escaped donation to a charity.

Sherry Baldwin, the evening's presenter, grew up surrounded by needlework. Her presentation was peppered with beautiful and heartwarming examples from her extensive textile collection. Pieces included those made by and handed down from family members, pieces she created during various times of her stitch-filled life, or samples she collected during her travels. The evening's presentation was interwoven with guild members' Show and Tell—treasured embroidered examples that emerged from cedar chests, dresser drawers and closets—that added to the visual feast of hand stitched embellishment.

Sherry took the audience back into embroidery history, explaining how different cultures used the same core selection of embroidery stitches—chain, buttonhole, running, satin and cross stitches—and transformed them into beautiful and unique needle art reflective of that culture. She discussed the differences in yarns, threads and base fabrics that were used for different techniques. "Geography often played a part in the choice of materials people used [for embroidery]," she said. People used threads, yarn and fabrics made from the plants and animals that were indigenous and readily available in their part of the world.

References for various needlework techniques from different cultures.
Scandinavian and Hmong embroidery books.

Examples representing embroidery from various eras and cultures included:

Sashiko cloth and small bag.

Crazy patch made with silk ties.

Appliqued crazy patch.

Blue birds embroidered on a summer spread.
Can you find the "mis-pieced" blocks?

Bluework and Redwork.

Embroidery and hand coloring on a pillowcase.

Hand stitching on a painted quilt.

Stitch samplers come in a variety of styles and forms.

Stitch sampler detail.

Cross stitched flowers on a pillowcase.

Cross stitched feather wreath quilt. Hand quilted.

Cross stitched quilt top. 

Embroidery embellishes a Dresden Plate appliquéd quilt.

Hand embroidery adds texture and detail to a contemporary quilt.

Folk art style of embroidery combined with patchwork.
Hand coloring done with crayons.

Small hand stitched piece by Susan Shie.

Quilt embroidered with the long stitch.

Candlewicking on a tree skirt.

Crewel embroidery.

Wool applique embellished with embroidery stitches.

Attendees were treated to a machine stitched piece by Carol Bryer Fallert.
Left: front of work. Right: back, showing the label.

For centuries—dating as far back as 475 BC—people have embroidered cloth for religious and cultural reasons, as a symbol of status or wealth, as art, and as expressions of beauty for their households. Our female ancestors embellished linens, quilts and garments with hand stitching using laborious and time consuming techniques. They enhanced the functional beauty of the objects that clothed and protected their families and adorned their homes. The beauty of the embroidered stitch continues to inspire us today.

Show and Tell

Progress continues to be made on the 2013 Brown Bag Challenge quilts.

Betty made a companion quilt for her other grandson.

Cristy worked with her father-in-law to complete this scrappy string quilt.

Guild members finished quilt tops using the 4-patch kaleidoscope technique.

Dawn's fabric had a beach theme.

Pam's kaliedoscope quilt features a swatch from the original fabric.

Joanna's quilt uses the same fabric as Pam's (previous picture above).
Twin quilts by different mothers?

A hexagon embellished shirt was inspired by the guild's program on Hexagons.

Becky made this patchwork stole (left) and embellished a denim shirt
with hexagons.

A Brown Bag Extravaganza

What an exciting Choo Choo Quilters guild meeting we had in October. The anticipation for the 2013 Guild Challenge finale was high, refreshments were tasty and plentiful, and what came out of 11 modest brown bags was glorious! Let the pictures speak for themselves.

Brown Bag 1: Becky's bag started with a patriotic panel. Challenge participants created a top that Becky intends to be a Quilt of Valor.

Becky's patriotic quilt top.

The last participant even included a label.

The label for the patriotic quilt.

Brown Bag 2: Solids and batiks were the basis of Vista's brown bag Challenge. She requested quilt blocks in the flavor of Gee's Bend using free-form and string piecing techniques. She has quite a few interesting patchwork pieces to start her composition.

Vista's improvisationally pieced blocks with a Gee's Bend flavor.

Brown Bag 3: Orphan star blocks in red, white and blue were inside Juanita's brown bag. The scrappy piano key border unifies the composition and the alternate snow ball blocks are a blank canvas just waiting to show off hand or machine quilting.

Juanita's star blocks found their way into this red-white-and-blue quilt top.

Brown Bag 4: Betty was gifted a stack of vintage (circa 1950s) shoe fly blocks. They were magnificently transformed into this bed size quilt top. Some of the vintage blocks were cut and reassembled into new blocks [see the inner and outer borders] to give this top a fresh, contemporary look. We'll see if this quilt actually goes to a grandson or if Betty decides to keep it for herself.

Betty's vintage-turned-modern quilt top.

Brown Bag 5: A blue and white quilt block was the inspiration piece in Dawn's brown bag. Look at the beautiful additions she received. The graceful florals and small-scale prints are a sweet combination and there are so many layout possibilities for these blue and white lovelies.

Dawn's pretty blue and white blocks.

Brown Bag 6: The sky fabric and a pattern inspiration was provided by Ginny in her brown bag. These colorful hot air balloons are the result and look ready to take flight. The variety of block sizes will require a little creative assembly but the end result will a happy and fun quilt.

Colorful hot air balloons floated out of Ginny's brown bag.

Brown Bag 7: Kim chose earthly, fall colors for her garden and nature-themed brown bag quilt. The variety of fabrics—batiks, wools, felt, and satin—will make this a beautiful, as well as tactile, quilt.

Kim's bag bloomed with a variety of flowers.

Brown Bag 8: Veronica's Monet-inspired brown bag included a fabric panel of paintings by Claude Monet and other painterly fabrics with an Impressionist style. Contributors used improvisational, free-form piecing to make blocks with asymmetrical layouts. Bits of the panel can be seen peeking out from some of the blocks.

Veronica's brown bag in the style of the Impressionists.

Brown Bag 9: Trying to remember what she did with the stabilizer she bought for a string quilt, Cristy was surprised to see this fully assembled top emerge from her brown bag. The black fabrics in the centers of these string-pieced blocks provide a striking contrast to the variety of prints and colors that came from Cristy's and the other participants' fabric stashes. A great de-stashing project.

Cristy's string quilt.

Brown Bag 10: Two packages of charm squares and a handful of solids in Janet's brown bag prompted these blocks. The slivers of the dark brown fabric unify these blocks yet the playfulness and lightness of the prints and sherbet-colored solids still take center stage. These and the additional blocks (not shown here) included in the bag will give Janet unlimited layout possibilities.

A charm square collection and coordinating solids were in Janet's bag.

Brown Bag 11: Delores included asian-inspired fabrics in her brown bag along with a panel with oriental ladies, "that are actually sewing," she said. Several of the blocks made by the contributors are paper pieced. Delores plans to make a small wall hanging with her brown bag blocks.

Asian inspired quilt blocks for Delores.

The 2013 Brown Bag Challenge was a huge success! The participants are very pleased with what they found "inside the Brown Bag."