Sacred Threads

Several months ago, I applied to have my Imagine quilt included in the Sacred Threads exhibit in Herndon, Virginia (outside Washington, D.C.) this June. http://www.sacredthreadsquilts.com/
This quilt was inspired by John Lennon's song Imagine and is about people putting aside their prejudices, territories and symbols of "rightness" to live in a world of peace and love.  I have loved this song from the first moment I heard it and knew immediately how I wanted to interpret it in fabric and thread.
The application to Sacred Threads states the following:
Sacred Threads is an exhibition of quilts exploring themes of spirituality, joy, inspiration, peace/brotherhood, grief and healing. This biennial exhibition was established to provide a safe venue for quilters who see their work as a connection to the sacred and/or as an expression of their spiritual journey.

The objective is to create a dignified exhibition of artwork that touches on both spiritual and personal levels all those who view it. We want to share with others the experiences of quilters whose stories may be a source of healing and strength.
I knew as soon as I finished this work that I wanted it to be in the exhibition.  It was sort of a "kismet" feeling as Herndon, Virginia was the town I grew up in and even as a young person I felt a need to search out avenues of spirituality and to seek answers to the unanswerable.  I am, of course, still seeking and that is how Imagine came to be.  The acceptance email I received this morning (how appropriate for it to arrive on Easter morning!) said that there were far more applications this year than ever before so I guess the seeking continues as we try to make sense of our chaotic world.   I am looking forward to being in Herndon the last part of June and experiencing the entire show.  I know that it is going to be powerful.

An Art-Filled Journey

 This past Friday, three friends and I set off for North Carolina--and beyond--in order to visit several of my favorite quilt shops and to see some other things along the way.  Our first stop was in Forest City, the home base of Schoolhouse Quilts.  Many of you have visited their booth at various quilts shows (they're the ones with all the books and notions).  BUT, at their shop (which is located in the lower lever of their home) they also have bolts and bolts of beautiful fabric.  It's well worth the effort to go there.  While we were in there, our friend Diana Pickens arrived and clued us in to a wonderful bead shop just down the road.  Of course, we HAD to go.

 Here is the exterior.  Isn't it wonderful?

 And these interior shots just capture part of the entire space.  There were so many beautiful beads and I'll have to admit that some went home with me.

 After we left the bead shop, we headed on to Spindale where the Rutherfordton Quilt Guild was holding its very first quilt show.  The quilts were nice and there were over 20 vendors.

 This very unusual butterfly quilt was made by Robin Parton.

 And this fabric floral arrangement was made by Amy Moye.  Both of these talented women were in a quilting class that I taught in Rutherfordton last year so I was delighted to see more of their work.

 This next floral quilt was made by Martha McGinnis.

 And this one was by Carol Griffin.  I really liked the
"mountain feeling" that it captured.

 Dorothy Baird-McKinney made this quilt and it was entered in the catagory that was for people who had been quilting for less than two years.  She quilted it herself and I think should be very pleased with the result.

This last quilt has a little story to it.  It was pieced and quilted by my friend Jeanette Auld who lives most of the year at Lake Lure and the rest of the time in Mt. Pleasant.  I gave her the leftover pieces from a quilt I had made and she used them to make the same quilt I did--only bigger.  That's a real "two-fer"!
Well, we covered so much ground on this first day of our trip that we were ready to kick back after we finally got our groceries and arrived at my house in Hendersonville.  We knew we better get some rest because the next day we were heading to Tennessee.  More on that later . . .

Not Just One Block

 While I was in Murrells Inlet this past Fall, I bought a beautiful piece of fabric with Purple and Green Floral Tones.  When I showed it to my friend Corky, she said that it would make a great fabric for a One-Block Wonder Quilt.  I, of course, asked, "What's that?"  Well, you can see from the picture, it is a pretty busy quilt made with hexagonal blocks.  You have to measure how often the design repeats and buy enough fabric that you'll have 6 repeats.  Since my fabric had a 24" repeat, I had to go back to the store and get more.

 This is the fabric that I had chosen.

 And you can see from these sample blocks the very different effect you can get from each block.  Corky and Dotty came over for a day of sewing these blocks and we spent quite a bit of time oohing and aahing over each other's results.  If you're wondering about the pins in the blocks, you don't sew the two halves together until you sew the rows together for ease of construction.  (After all, it IS a little easier to sew a straight line than it is to sew a "Y" seam).

 After I had sewn all my patterned hexagons, I decided to add cubes to add a dimensional element to the quilt.  The first one took an hour to sew (due to a poor choice in a ruler and trying to "make" the cube fit), but after that they just buzzed along.  I then started playing with the placement on the design wall.

A closeup of the cube.

 And then the finished layout.  I was aiming at the light coming downward from the upper left to the lower right.

And here is my finished quilt.  I don't have a sleeve on it yet, so the photo isn't the best in the world.  In my quilting, I decided to try using metallic thread on the main body of the quilt.  I used a Superior Metallic  Thread, a 90 Top Stitch Needle and Superior Bottom Line thread in the bobbin with a tension setting of .5.  Over all, I was very pleased with the result.  And, on top of that, it was a lot of fun.  What more could I want?

A Perfect Afternoon

Our Art Group has been invited to mount an exhibition at Charlestowne Landing this December--with the theme being, of course, Charlerstowne Landing.  Last fall, we spent the afternoon there walking around, taking pictures and generally soaking up the atmosphere for inspiration.  I was very inspired and took lots of pictures.  Just one problem--I had inserted the memory card in the wrong direction and ended up with a huge ZERO in terms of photos by which to call forth the inspiration. (I really got some good shots, too.)
So, anyway, I've been waiting for a nice spring day to head back over there to be inspired once again.  And, as you can see, I didn't have a disagreement with my camera this time.  This first shot just reminded me of how I liked to climb trees when I was a young girl.  Have you noticed that climbing trees are hard to find these days?  It seems they're either cut down for progress or they haven't had enough time to grow into climb-able getaways in newer subdivisions.  I used to climb the maple tree in our yard, hang upside down and swing (Hmm..that may account for some of my off-kilter thought processes now  . . .) and just sit there and dream.  Time well spent, I'd say.  These three girls were having a great time.

 And the formosa azaleas were at their height--and the aroma of their flowers!  Formosa azaleas grow much larger than the average azaleas in our yards today and they look great in park-type situations.  Another wonderful place to see them in Charleston is at Hampton Park (well worth visiting).

And this split rail fence is an example of how fences were constructed back in colonial times.   Without chain saws and log splitters this effort took quite a while, I'm sure.  They have a little demo area set up to show how they sawed logs into boards.  Whew. . .A good muscle builder.

 This wooden Indian sculpture has been at Charlestowne Landing for years but there was a plaque that said it had been restored a few years ago so I guess it had fallen into some hard times.  They have changed the configuration for the park and this statue used to face you as you came to the Animal Forest.  It's still in the same place but you have to walk around a little to see the full frontal view.  Pretty impressive from any view.

 Mrs Waring was the person who owned all of the land that now comprises Charlestowne Landing.  She spent many years developing the gardens and gave the entire property to the state.  This is the view she would have seen from her house.  Almost like a perfect postcard.  One little thing though . . .Can you see the sign by the water?  It says, "Watch Out For Alligators."  I don't think I'd be walking around there much after dark.  There was an 8-foot alligator siteing while we were there yesterday but I'm just as happy that I wasn't the one who saw it.

And Charlestowne Landing has its own Angel Oak potential with some of its very old trees.  This huge limb is propped up with steel to keep it from breaking.  I don't know if they were afraid it could potentially fall on someone or if they just didn't want the limb to break but it was impressive with its size.
So, these are just a few pictures from my afternoon at the Park.  The weather was so gorgeous--just enough breeze to keep away the bugs, flowers all around and, hopefully, enough inspiration for me to make a quilt that will honor this wonderful place in our part of the world.