Camp Margaret

My family gathered earlier this month to celebrate my parents' 60th anniversary. We had a wonderful time and I enjoyed playing in the surf with my brother's grandson and my niece. Toward the end of the week, brother-in-law Bob, niece Diane and I went to Mare's Bears, a quilt shop in Lewes, Delaware. Bob wanted a simple quilt for their guest bed and was thinking about getting some red fabric. After exploring all of the fabric (and there's loads of fabric there), he selected some blue fabric.
Diane came home with me for a week at Camp Margaret full of sewing, quilting and other fun things. We started with the blue fabric as all Bob wanted was one fabric on top and one on the bottom. I loaded a practice piece of fabric on the longarm so Diane could get the feel of the machine. Once she was comfortable (or at least not quite so nervous), we loaded the blue fabrics and she was ready to quilt. Diane is nestled in the blue quilt after completing the quilting. The most difficult thing was hand sewing the binding as the backing fabric is so dark it was hard to see the thread.

The next quilt we worked on was a 25th Anniversary Quilt for her parents. I've been meaning to try the Strip Tubing process all summer and this seemed like a perfect opportunity. I also thought it would be relatively quick and easy since you start out sewing strips of fabric. Well...that part was quick and easy. Then came the cutting into squares and sewing those squares back together. In the photo above, Diane is working on the layout. She got all of the blocks laid out to her satisfaction and then began sewing the blocks together.

This was really her first time working with quilt blocks. She has made a quillow, pillowcases, and tote bags before but this was her first pieced quilt. I was the chief in charge of pressing and she did all of the sewing on this quilt. I'm just so impressed with her work. Look at the block below - the points are wonderful and not cut off! I have trouble with points but she got the hang of it and did beautiful work.

Once the quilt was together, she selected a pantograph and proceeded to quilt it. She managed to get this quilted in an afternoon - pretty good for a queen sized quilt. Good thing, too, as we still had to bind it before she headed home.

We shared the binding, sitting in two chairs next to each other. Finally, the binding complete, Diane relaxes with both of the quilts she completed. We're already planning for next year's Camp Margaret.

Here's a final look at the completed quilt. Fits my bed beautifully. I just couldn't talk her out of taking it home with her.

In the midst of the sewing, we found time to do some other things - like spending a day at Conner Prairie and visiting the Farmer's Market on Saturday. We also managed to eat at Zaharako's twice, including an ice cream dessert both times. It was a wonderful week and I'm looking forward to having her with me next summer for another week of quilting.

Cheers!

Margaret

Quilts at the Indiana State Fair

On the urging of my friend, June, who has entered items in the State Fair for many years, I entered two quilts in this year's State Fair. Never having entered before (and never having even gone to the State Fair), I had no idea what to expect.

On August 10th, June, Tom and I rode the State Fair Train - another interesting experience. It was a nice ride and avoided the parking hassles at the fairgrounds. We headed for the Family Arts Building and located the quilts immediately. Cambrian Moon was the ribbon winner but it was just as exciting to see my other quilt displayed. Okay - it's actually Jeanie's quilt but I borrowed it for the occasion.

The had the quilts in locked display cases and Cambrian Moon was on the lowest rung of the display case. Not my best side but you can at least get a glimpse of the fractured effect.

There was also a display of a variety of antiques. Look at this bobbin and needle selector. There was quite a wide variety of sizes and types listed.

In one of the Pioneer Village exhibits, they had a raffle quilt hanging as well as some women working on needlecrafts. It was somewhat cooler the day we went - high temperatures were only in the low 90's.

After lunching on grilled corn and other goodies, we toured some other exhibits before heading back for the train. What a fun experience it was for us.

And what a shock to learn of the tragic accident at the fairgrounds and deaths the following Saturday. My heart goes out to the families and friends of those who were injured or killed.

Margaret

Shipshewana - Round 2

I bumped into a friend from the past a few weeks ago at a bicycle ride coordinated through church. Dennis and I used to belong to the Driftwood Valley Wheelmen, a bicycle riding club here in Columbus. As we were catching up on the past 30 years of our lives, he mentioned the Amishland and Lakes Ride sponsored by the Michiana Bicycle Association and asked if I'd like to go. After dithering around, I decided it would be fun. I've recently resumed riding my bicycle so despite my inexperience, I thought I'd be able to complete the ride as the area is relatively flat with gently rolling hills.

We loaded up Friday morning and headed north for Howe, Indiana, headquarters for the ride. Also along on the ride were Patti (I knew her from working at Hospice) and her husband Rick, Dennis' brother David, Dan - another friend of Dennis' from St. Louis - and Don, another Columbus resident that I knew from the Driftwood Valley Wheelmen days.

David and Patti relaxing in preparation for Saturday's ride.

Dan, Rick Dennis and Don (behind Dennis' knee) with their beverage of choice.

We arrived in Howe, set up our campsites and headed out for a Friday evening ride. It was slightly cooler in northern Indiana but very humid so the 14 mile ride was quite enough. We found a restaurant in Howe and had a pleasant dinner.

Saturday morning arrived and we were ready to roll. The above photo was taken at a SAG stop ( I think) and David was ahead of us. From left to right: me, Dan, Rick Dennis, Don, Patti.

This SAG stop was at the LaGrange City Park. The SAGs had wonderful cookies, lots of fruit - blueberries, cantaloupe, watermelon, peaches and plums - along with peanut butter & jelly, gorp, gatorade and water. The SAG stops were well organized and placed frequently enough to allow adequate energy refueling.

Dennis getting ready to ride after lunch.

Saturday's route went through Shipshewana. We had lunch at the Garden Gate Cafe - a real treat. The food was excellent and the service was even better. But, I can't tell you how much it pained me to not even walk into Yoder's Department Store and look at the fabric. I didn't even make it to Lolly's! Oh, the withdrawal symptoms!!

The enticement of the day was the homemade ice cream at the end of the ride. This Amish couple had the one stroke engine churning the ice cream - raspberry and vanilla. Inside the dining hall was a quartet, the Goldmine Pickers, for entertainment. It was a wonderful way to end the day. Sunday morning found us back in the saddle, riding up towards Michigan and the lovely lakes that dot the countryside. We took a slightly shorter route and found more hills on the route than on Saturday. But the overcast skies and morning mists were a blessing.There were several picturesque churches on the ride but I found this one particularly appealing. It's actually the only photo I took on Sunday.

We completed the ride with just enough time to strike camp and pack the vehicles before the rains came. It rained most of the way back home; stopping somewhere around Indy. The fields in Bartholomew County looked even worse than when we left and the heat was oppressive.

It was a wonderful weekend of riding, friends and fun. Thanks, Dennis, for inviting me to join the group.

Cheers!

Margaret

Summer UFO Roundup

After our late June trip to Shipshewana, Deb, Kathy and I agreed to get together in early August to see our collective progress on projects new and old. Today was the day for our gathering.



Kathy has taken up knitting to fill the vacant hours of her life. (With a husband and two teenage sons, how much idle time does she have?) She's taken a class at Cottage Knits to learn how to knit socks. While at Shipshewana, she was working on the ribbing and here's a completed sock.

Beautiful colors in the sock and I'm sure the pair will be wonderfully warm when she gets the second one completed!

Kathy then went on to show us the quilts she had completed. For many of them, she had the blocks already completed and just needed to put them together. She's also getting adventurous and is quilting the smaller quilts, doing a lovely job. She even used a decorative stitch to do the diagonal quilting on the blue and white quilt (if my memory is right). We oohed and aahed over the the quilt with the bold colors and black and white mixed in - you can see a touch of the black and white border peeking up on the left hand side of the couch. Notice, too, the wonderful baby sweater. While not technically a quilting UFO, we counted it as a completed project. It is gorgeous.

I showed my quilts next - having completed the quilting on the quilt I made while in Cambria this year. But...I'm saving the picture for later as it has some Christmas and housewarming presents in the picture as well.

Deb finished out the show with her quilts. The Irish Chain is for son John as he heads to college. The stunning quilt in purples with lime green accents was a kit from Shiisa earlier this year. If she lets me quilt it, it may get "lost" in my house! I should have taken a close up picture of the orange and blue quilt. The borders are lots of eyeballs - silly goblin eyes, funny monster eyes - just lots of fun. And we're waiting for completion of the plaid quilt in white, pinks and greens. This was fabric purchased at Calico Point during our Shipshewana foray and she has one block completed thus far.

Kathy completed the most projects - no contest with a total of 9 completed projects. We're talking about setting another date a few months in the future to measure our progress at that point. Any bets on who has the most done next time?

Cheers!

Margaret

New Albany Field Trip

The Carnegie Center for Art & History has long been one of Carol's favorite area museums. Housed in a former Carnegie Library (Indiana is home to more of the Carnegie Libraries than any other state!), their exhibit space is small but they have a great variety of excellent exhibits.
As our quilt guild doesn't meet in August, we thought it would be a good time to take a field trip to see the current exhibit titled Heartbeats: Art Quilts by Penny Sisto. So Carol, Vickie and I headed south for the day.

It is an interesting collection of her quilts and other creations including the tipi shown below. Carol is resting on a bench made by her son-in-law with some of his wooden bowls inside the tipi.
The collection of quilts is quite interesting. They even have recordings of Penny Sisto talking about her inspiration for several of the quilts. I think my favorite is of Crazy Horse. The strip of fabric running down the left hand side of the quilt was unique to this quilt. More often the quilts are composed of fabric scraps, utilizing hand dyed fabrics, silks, leather, foil, feathers, paint and other materials.

Another of her unique creations was this sculpture titled Trail of Tears. This was one of the pieces that she talked about creating - her thoughts behind the depiction of the uprooting of the Indians and their forced move to Oklahoma - as well as the materials and techniques she used to create this sculpture. It is even set up so that tears fall from both the man and woman into a pond at their feet.

Moonwalker, the quilt below, interested me because of how perfect the halo is around the head of the Indian. It is even more noticeable as the remainder of the fabrics in the quilt are bits and pieces, sewn together or appliqued or held down with netting. Also interesting are the hangers that are used to hold the quilts - walking staffs and pieces of driftwood.

Although not quilt related, another interesting exhibit are theThe Yenawine Dioramas. Merle Yenawine was born and reared in Georgetown and carved the scenes. He created each tableau based on his childhood memories of Floyd County, Indiana. In addition to the exquisite detail work of the carvings, portions of each diorama are motorized. In the picture below, the ferris wheel goes around. The bird in the shooting gallery flies back and forth as the man attempts to shoot it. Several other areas of the diorama are motorized as well and there were several dioramas - fun for kids of all ages.

This was definitely a wonderful museum for a daytime excursion. In addition to the wonderful displays, DeLicia (I hope I'm spelling her name correctly) was a wonderful museum hostess. She was excited about all of the exhibits, knew lots of details about Penny Sisto's other exhibits that had been at the museum in the past 5 years, and had great suggestions for a Cuban restaurant just a block away...Habana Blues Tapas Restaurant. Their food was DELICIOUS, reasonably priced and very attractively displayed. The mahi mahi was wonderful. Check it out!

Cheers!

Margaret