It was the last day of school before Fall break. A Tuesday, we were year round at Konnoak. I was in my second grade classroom on the new hall. Someone quietly knocked on my door and when I went to it they whispered in my ear. A plane has hit the World Trade Center. I felt a little shock and sorrow. What a horrible accident. Later another knock, another whisper, another plane has hit the other tower they think we are under attack. We went on lock down. When the students finished testing I went to the library. A group of parent volunteers and staff stood around a TV. They were supposed to be packing up books so the carpet could be changed during intersession. Instead they told me a plane hit the Pentagon and one crashed in PA. I think I was numb. I don't remember finishing the school day. I remember students being picked up early. I remember unnaturally quiet halls and all the staff gathering in the lobby after putting students on buses. I think we all left quickly. I remember calling my mom and dad sometime. My sister was in Greensboro. The first thing I did when I went home that day was turn on my computer. I had been to the towers a decade before, to the very top observation platform.
Good news! As I closed out the giveaway I saw we had 110 comments! That means I have put together extra bundles of 90's fabrics!
So first I want to tell you about my treasure hunting. I blogged here about my trip to Hillsville, VA flea market and the treasures I found. Especially this quilt.
I took most of the ties out to remove the top.
I exposed how part of the back is dyed feed sack, with the writing turned to the inside. I found a cool article on the founding of Royster which had its roots in Tarboro, NC. It was fascinating how many different weights and weaves the fabrics were in this quilt.
You can see the blocks exposed of the inner quilt. This is a very old quilt!
It is also very deteriorated. But look string blocks! I dont know if the old quilt was so deteriorated when it was sandwiched or if washing effected it.
As you can tell in this pic there was a lot of lint in the folds of the binding. I think this quilt was washed a lot.
The surprising things were all of the 'other' things I found sandwiched inside. Let me tell you and show you some of them and then think about why. BTW I think the older quilt is probably from 1860's. I went by looking at the woven fabrics on the back that are fairly strong and the mostly disintegrated piecing on the front.
The outer quilt is probably 30's or 40's. But what in the world is inside? Can anyone tell from this? What is it?
Yes it is someones undergarment. Around the edge of the quilt these were folded to fill in the shortage of length I guess of the older quilt.
Here is the slip. What do you think 30's 40's? I think it is like a kind of organza? It is handmade with lace straps and edging. Im not good with non cotton fabrics. There were other pices of what seemed to be cut up womens bloomers? and mens cotton what?? do you call old fashioned mens underclothes. There were also random pieces of various fabrics from thick wollens to cotton to a dotted swiss printed voile. When I finish taking it apart I will photo all pieces of the quilt better.
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So now for the winners! I created a virtual 10 sided die with the digits 0-9 and rolled it three times. First I got a 0 then a 6 then 8 so 68!
Congrats to Mimi who wins the first bundle left over form my two stretched stars quilt!
Mimi said...
I am a new follower and look forward to your future blog posts!! Thanks for this sweet giveaway! I'd love to make a stretched star quilt!
Now for the bonus bundles!
And the winners are with six more rolls of the virtual dice!
#20 Natasha and #15 Irina!
Congrats to all winners! Please send me your snail mails and I will send out you bundles asap so you can get started on your scrap quilts!
keep dreaming...Colleen
I have cut my Jay Carrol Habitat challenge fabric and the solid gray
into1", 2", 3" strips. More to come...
Today I went to the quaint little Virginia town of Hillsville. Set near the Blue Ridge mountains of Va this little town has rolling green hills and farms close to the towns center. It is also the home of the largest Flea Market ever!!!!
Every Labor Day weekend from Friday to Monday the entire town becomes a flea market selling anything and everything you could think of from those frilly stretchy shirts to bamboo plants to antique furniture and glassware to guns and knives to an R2D2 drink holder.
This is just half of the VFW's fairgounds lower area taken from the upper area. Yes there is an upper level too. Fields, front yards, back yards, parking lots, and shopping centers are filled with booths including yummy fair type food booths!
Its amazing how when you chat up people and ask them how their doing they will give you a deal. So, here is my haul!
These are two vintage table cloths to use in my kitchen. And a couple of old Pyrex dishes and another little dish. I'm going to use them for pin cushions I am making for my booth at Flaunt!
This darling embroidered towel is new! I took a chance on a quilt from a couple of church ladies who also were selling new quilts and these towels. I may have bought a few Christmas presents from them too!
This darling Sun Bonnet Sue was wrapped around a piece of cardboard. I bought her out of a frame I didn't want frame for only a $1! She goes into my collection. I have a great collection of vintage quilt blocks some of which I have framed.
This one great vendor up on the VFW hill(BTW vendors have the same stalls every year so you can find them) had lots of sewing notions including old wooden mill bobbins. I found these great snaps and buttons to cover all for $1 or less. And the old jar of buttons he gave me for $4!
I have wanted one of these Chinese umbrellas and kept seeing them all over the FM. I found this one for $5 and it will be gracing a room soon.
This old quilt I bought for $15, talked it down from 1/2 price of $25. I bought it for the large pieces of fabric making up the pinwheels and as it's tied it will be easy to take it apart to salvage. It was awful heavy and I realized when I looked through the one hole...
That there was another quilt inside! I think I see Alamance plaids?! I cant wait to treasure hunt! I may do it tomorrow!
These vintage beauties were only a few dollars. There were about 15-20 altogether and I picked out the ones with the fabric I love. Don'tcha love the red and white daises? I may sew them together and frame them. I did that with some other vintage blocks when I redid my bathroom and I love the look. I know I have an old frame around here some where.
"Yummy fly!" said the frog.
I try to save my $$ through the year to do things like Hillsville each year. I especially wanted to get another of Brian Mace's garden sculptures for the back yard. I bought a praying mantis last year that is in the front. He gave me a huge discount because I was a repeat customer. I sure had frogs on the brain this year.
I stopped at the giant fabric outlet at the Fancy Gap exit on 77 just down from Hillsville. I wanted to get some of their $0.15 zippers. And go to a clean bathroom. That's 9 zippers including 4 hidden ones for $1.47! They also have TONS of fabric. Check out their website.
Well I am sunburned despite the hat and spf30. My entire body aches from walking for 5+ hours. Luckily I had a rolling bag or I would have never made it back to the car. Did I mention walking back is all up hill-Hillsville remember. So somehow my car turned onto the Blue Ridge Parkway instead of going back down I77. I ended up at the Blue Ridge Music Center on the VA/NC border where the sign said 'Music Today'.
iphone self portrait
This is me sitting on a rocking chair looking at the mountain views, feeling the breeze and listening to some mountain music. Listen a spell.
keep dreaming...Colleen
This is the green bucket which overflowed with pieces for my bow tie leaders and enders.
The middle stack is the 90+ finished blocks( I kept losing count).
On my feaherweight are the block pieces in sets I still need to piece.
I have spent early Saturday morning sewing up some goodness with a finish and a beginning. So let me ask you have you ever had an idea grab you? Something you have never done and never really thought you could do? Machine quilting has been that idea for me in many ways. Especially the dense patterns such as I see Leah Day do on her blog. So how did I get brave enough to do this?
I tried to think of all the ways I could quilt these little houses on my mini quilt swap piece and the stone like pattern just insisted I try it.
Boy was it tiring. Even on such a small quilt. And I had to dig out my elegant gardening gloves that look like evening gloves but have gripper stuff on them. I also went through 2+ bobbins because it is such a dense pattern.
I straight line quilted the borders which seem to set off the center nicely! And then added a happy dot border.
BTW here is the pattern I drew up on the computer to paper piece the little houses. I also free pieced a couple.
I used this wonderful busy Kafe Fassett for the back which went well with the the other fabrics and hid the quilting.
I think it turned out great and cant wait to give it to my secret partner at the TMQG next Sunday!
Keep dreaming...Colleen
I am up to 5 blocks! Veggie Hunter blogged about hers! I cant wait to see the other 5!
And now to show you some swaps I have been working on. First is a mini quilt I have been working on for the Triangle Modern Quilt Guild. We have a secret partner who we stalk and then create a small doll size quilt for.
My partner had no real preferences. Just bright colors. The backing is a bright, colorful, and light Kafe Fasset print. The little houses were inspired by kaitcetera little houses quilt. I am trying to decide whether to machine quilt or to hand quilt with pearl cottons. What do you think?
I received this wonderful mug rug in the Scrappy Mug Rug haiku swap on flickr from snailexpress. We had to make a mug rug and write a haiku. I love she used my favorite Tula Pink fabrics. My Pringce Chaming is hanging in my studio. She also made a cute little coin purse. Awesome!
Here are three of the blocks I have received from my month August for Bee Together. I cut up my DS Quilts Fairground and Picnic(US prints).
I asked everyone to make a wonky star. I included three large squares of the DS Quilts and of some Kona Snow. I told them to use some of all of the fabrics but the white did not have to be the background. I also included a mosaic of some wonky stars.
