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Alex told you how she was going to quilt her Kaffe Mystery Quilt. Now see her actually quilting it. It's one thing to say what you are going to do, and another to actually do it. She is a big fan of straight line quilting right now. Get some popcorn and watch (but keep your oily fingers off of the quilt).

Alex will be LIVE on Friday August 28, 2020 at 10am PST, 1pm EST, and 6pm London time. All classes are recorded.

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How to quilt a busy quilt? Tough question. Alex shares what her thoughts are and how she is approaching it. Join in and let us know what your thoughts are.

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Sometimes in quilting you just need to let your ideas flow free. If you want your music notes to be three times the size, let them be. That's exactly what Sharon Casey did in her machine pieced quilt, Boogie Wonderland"where the laws of physics are joyfully ignored."

Boogie Wonderland by Sharon Casey of Bakersfield, California was featured in the Fantasy / Whimsy category at Houston 2019.

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Not all Carolina Lily Quilts Were made in Carolinas

By Marian Ann J. Montgomery, Ph.D.,
Curator of Clothing and Textiles, the Museum of Texas Tech University

The Carolina Lily Pieced quilt block pattern is one that has been made since the 19th century. Many variations of the basic three blossom pieced block exist. Barbara Brackman’s An Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns records drawings of about four dozen variations, most with different names.   

For this block, the way the flowers are joined together vary as do the execution of the stems and whether or not the flowers are in a bowl.  Additionally, there is a decision to be made by the maker about how the blocks will be arranged so that the pattern reads properly on the bed. 


Carolina Lily variation quilt, with a family history of being made by Caroline Elizabeth Reeves Bean before her death in 1854 in Grayson County, Texas, Gift of Eppie Edsall Barrier, TTU-H1971-039-002.  Image courtesy of Museum of Texas Tech University.

This particular quilt came into the collection of the Museum of Texas Tech University in 1971 with an attribution of being made by the donor’s great-grandmother, Caroline Elizabeth Reeves Bean, before 1854. Caroline Elizabeth Reeves Bean was born in 1817 to a mother from North Carolina and a father from South Carolina. Perhaps Caroline, the oldest of their seven children, chose the Carolina Lily pattern in their honor or perhaps she was born in one of the Carolinas. At some point Caroline and her parents were in Pottsboro, Grayson County, Texas which is along the Oklahoma/Texas border north of Dallas, as all are buried there.

 

This particular variation has an interesting arrangement of the leaves and base. It does not have a bowl or vase as some Carolina Lily patterns do. In looking for a variation of the name in Brackman’s Encyclopedia, it most closely matches pattern number 765.31, which lists it as the Pennsylvania Tulip and is attributed to Mountain Mist. The Mountain Mist Blue Book of Quilts, published in the 1930s  shows this to be pattern 27 and illustrated an example. The pattern explanation is as follows:

The arrangement of the leaves and base are very similar.  Although this pattern was published in the 1930s it doesn’t preclude a variation of it being made earlier.  Mountain Mist developed patterns based on what was popular and often made slight variations to patterns developed by others.  What is interesting is the use of a printed fabric in this Mountain Mist example. The head of Mountain Mist thought all quilts were more elegant in solid colors.

An interesting comparison is a variation of the Carolina Lily, called the Pennsylvania Tulip documented in the Quilts of Tennessee Documentation that can be viewed on The Quilt Index.

Carolina Lily has been a favorite quilt pattern of quilters over the years and continues to be made in the classic arrangement with red flowers and green stems.

 

Learn more about the Museum of Texas Tech University Textile Collections.

Click here for related articles from the Museum of Texas Tech University Textile Collections.

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As we know…Freddy Moran (Show 2705) turned 90 on July 13, 2020. Well, apparently she looked up what famous events happened on that day...and what she found out...was the iconic Hollywood sign, then known as the Hollywoodland sign, was dedicated over the Hollywood Hills on July 13, 1923. Freddy was born on the same day just seven years after the first sign was erected. Another STAR was born.
 
So because Freddy is such a "STAR" to us… Shelly, our show producer, made up this fun version of the sign for Freddy. (Check out the article below the picture for history of the sign.) 
 
Our STAR members can watch Freddy, and Sujata Shah, in Show 2705.
 
 
 

July 13 1923: The 1st Dedicated Hollywood Sign

IT WAS on this date, July 13 1923, that perhaps the most famous sign in the movie industry was officially dedicated over the Hollywood Hills on Mount Lee, Los Angeles, California. The 50-foot letters originally spelled Hollywoodland but in 1949 the ‘land’ part was removed.

It was erected as a local real estate subdivision by Woodruff and Shoults advertising a new housing development and was only meant to stay up for a year. It was left untouched during the rise of the movie era and is now an iconic site visited by tourists and movie fans flocking to Griffin Park to savour some of that cinematic glory.

In 1978 Playboy founder Hugh Hefner led a campaign to have the extensively damaged sign permanently replaced by a more durable structure. Rock singer Alice Cooper and crooner Andy Williams were amongst the donors who paid for the $250,000 replacement.

Today, 50 touring companies try to cope with the great demand to hike up the Santa Monica Mountains and see this famous sign. The Hollywood Sign Trust recommends using viewing platforms at the Hollywood and Highland Center and the Griffin Observatory.

Dreaming of Hollywood glory? Don’t forget What’s Hot London? Magazine’s Hot Shorts Film Festival. Details about submissions to follow within the next few weeks.

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How do you finish a quilt? You have to back it, baste it, quilt it, and bind it. Alex has some tips and encouragement for backing and basting your quilt. Alex uses Free Fuse Basting Powder from Quilters Select and shows how this works.

Alex is LIVE on Monday August 24, 2020 @ 10am PDT, 1pm EDT, and 6pm London.

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From Jenny's Website about Arabesque:

"Every day an old man sets up his tools in a bare and muddy cobblestoned street in the old city of Damascus. He has done this all his life. He mends stools. He is for me, the epitome of Syria. It is a country where people work with their hands, where socks are still darned, and shoes and brooms repaired.

The tiles (based on an old Ottoman design) are hand appliquéd. I tweaked the edge pieces out of line and altered colours from tile to tile so that they would have the slightly random look of hand painted tiles, done by different artists. I sewed them onto grouting.

The border is a reminder of Damascus' main attraction and the reason it stayed on the major route of camel trains across desert areas. All water in the city was free to travellers. Small drinking fountains - a silver tap with a metal cup attached - are framed in mosaic and stonework in walls all around the city, and are still in use. I took the border from the mosaic around a fountain.

The archway in the quilt is almost life size as I wanted the viewer to feel that they could step through the doorway, feel the chill, and smell the mud and coffee and spices."

Star Members can watch Jenny in Show 1804: Quilting Outside the Blocks.

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Kazuko Noto used multiple log cabin blocks in her quilt, Dream - Soaring in the Sky, "to express the soaring from the dark ground to bright sky." There are so many different variations of the same block, it's a wonder she could find more.

Dream - Soaring in the Sky by Kazuko Noto of Akita, Japan was featured in the Pieced, Large category at Houston 2019.

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Using a photo he took in New Orleans of vines overhanging a balcony, Kevin Womack expressed his love for the city by creating a two yard piece of fabric from that photo and cut it up and restructured it into his own abstract design. Enjoy Vines.

Learn from Kevin in Show 2704: Kevin Womack - Create Fabric / Cheryl Phillips - A Braided Twist.

Original Photo: Mary Kay Davis

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TQS continues its feature of quilts from the exhibit Log Cabin Today! Presented by Brigitte Morgenroth, a series of log cabin quilts created by Brigitte Morgenroth that were featured at the Houston International Quilt Festival in 2015. The exhibit is described as:

"Twenty-five years ago, Brigitte Morgenroth discovered quilting when she lived in Bophuthatswana (a former homeland in South Africa) and Libya. She creates modern and interesting Log Cabin quilts, with her choice of expressive colors and material, combined in different variations and arrangements: Log Cabin with a twist, triangular, undulating, or pineapple. Silk and polyester satin are her favorite materials, sometimes combined with patterned cotton. Mainly, she sews large quilts and sometimes smaller, more sophisticated ones. All of her quilts are hand-quilted. She gives this old pattern a modern, interesting character."

Please enjoy Brigitte's eighth quilt from the exhibition.

Title of Quilt: Pineapple Blue

Quilter's Name: Brigitte Morgenroth

 

Photos by John Anderson