Just what the doctor ordered to light up your week—a half dozen Morning Star quilts documented in The Quilt Index spanning two centuries and six states. Enjoy! You can Browse more Morning Start quilts in The Quilt Index here. Watch a video tutorial on using the Browse by Pattern feature in The Quilt Index here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7mN9DaW6UQ Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
Tonight is the seventh night of Hanukkah, and Christmas is only three days away–we’re right in the middle of a season of giving. Whether it’s new gadgets and gifts to friends, quilts for family, or a donation to an organization near and dear, there will be a whole lot of giving going on this week! Today’s Q.S.O.S. features 4 quiltmakers on giving. What do you plan on giving this year? Violette Denney, interviewed in Carollton, Georgia: In all I have made about 189 quilts. I do keep a log of my quilts and I probably have less than 100 still, so those others I’ve given away. So I’ve given lots of quilts away. And that doesn’t count the quilt tops that I’ve made, I did five for the DAR that were quilted by someone else and used as fund-raisers. We’ve made many, many for the children’s home, we’ve made them for Kosovo and troops and I did one for Merrill Gardens, the assisted Living Facility here in town. I did one for the Historical Society to be given to the city during the anniversary celebration and it’s hanging in City Hall [Carrollton, Georgia.] now. My daughter-in-law works for Home Depot and I did a quilt for her and it actually ended up in the Home Depot Museum. So, anyway I’ve done lots and given lots away, but I guess my favorite is giving them to the children. I gave 8 to hospice last year for the children patients at Heartland Hospice and made pillowcases with animal prints and all for them too. So I like to do things like that. Judy Whitson of Tuscaloosa, Alabama: I love to give. It is a sign that you really care for somebody when you give them a handmade item like a little baby quilt or a quilt for their bed or something, and it is more or less a memory quilt. I always put a signature block on there saying who it is for, the date, and who designed it and who made it, quilted. Judy Kriehn, at the International Quilt Festival in Houston said: I don’t have kids. I’m not married and I don’t have kids. All I have is fabric. [laughs.] I have three sewing machines and fabric. I had a lot of cousins who were having babies so I made baby quilts for them. I make a lot things that I give away and people are like, ‘How can you give that stuff away?’ Well because it’s personal even when it’s a baby quilt. It’s coming from my heart and I’d rather give it to somebody who is going to appreciate it than try to sell it and be unhappy no one wanted to buy it. And I just love the way Sue Stinner in Elkton, Maryland talks about her grandchildren: Most of the quilts I’ve made though, I’ve given away. But know that I’m building up a stash of grandkids along with a stash of fabric; I’ll probably be making more for family than I will for friends. You can read more quilt stories on the Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories page on the Quilt Alliance site. Posted by Emma Parker Project Manager, Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories…
Today’s Q.S.O.S. Spotlight is shining on a 2002 interview with Rosemary Zaugg, in Fort Worth, Texas. In her interview, Rosemary shared about the 30 year gap between her first quilt and her second, how she came to quilt-making (again), and her advice to new quilters. Read on for more words of wisdom from Rosemary: My first quilt was when I was 18 and right out of high school. When I was 15 or 16, I made a list of things that I was going to accomplish in my life and one of the things on there was ‘piece a quilt.’ And so I took a cardboard shoe box and took some cardboard templates, I first went to see my dad’s cousin who had tons of quilt tops that she had made all her life. People brought her scraps and people in the town had given her scraps to make quilt tops and they’d come and she would sell the quilt tops and she had hundreds of them. So I went to visit her and I picked out a pattern and she gave me her templates and I had cardboard templates and I cut out all these triangles with the scissors. The pattern was supposed to be “Hope of Hartford but I got the pinwheels turned around, half of them, so I called it “Hope of Rosemary.” And I got the quilt finished, my mother put it on the frame, and she had her friends come and quilt it. And I was going to learn to hand quilt and I pricked my finger and it bled on the quilt and my mother said, ‘Honey, you can serve the lemonade.’ So I never learned to hand quilt because I was serving the lemonade. So I checked off on the list that I had made my quilt and it was quilted. And that was in 1964, and I never did a quilt again until 1994. […] In 1992, I had a liver transplant and I could not go back to work as an accountant because I couldn’t–I wouldn’t have the stamina to take that many hours. I had done our daughters’ wedding–we had two daughters get married and a liver transplant in eight months and when that all was over with, I got bored. I couldn’t go back to work and I said, ‘I think I’ll piece a quilt.’ My husband said, ‘Well, why don’t you write a book?’ and I said, ‘No, I think I’ll piece a quilt.’ I got a quilt book and by the first time I had–by the first quilt I got done, I had three more cut out. And it was just my thing and I just got into it and I made thirty-two full-size or queen-size bed quilts. I’ve made over 180 quilts. I have paper-pieced 1500 blocks in wall hangings, jackets, and quilts and I’ve got a few unfinished projects […] Edie Jones (interviewer): What advice, in parting words, would you give to new quilters? Rosemary Zaugg: The first couple of years, I said, ‘There are quilters who talk about it and quilters who do it.’ I said, ‘Get out there and do it. Don’t just go to meetings and learn about it. Don’t go to classes and never make a quilt. Get out there and do it.’ And the vender booth Pastime Fabrics has this display and she’s got these quilter’s quotes out there, and as I walked past it yesterday, I pointed to the one and I said, ‘It says, She who dies with the most fabric wins.’ I said, ‘That’s not really true. She who dies with the most fabric is still dead, so get out there and use the fabric, make the quilts, don’t just collect the fabric.’ You can read more quilt stories on the Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories page on the Quilt Alliance site. Posted by Emma Parker Project Manager, Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories…
Quilts are one of the things we leave behind, and it is the Quilt Alliance’s mission to make SURE those quiltmakers are remembered. Help us further that mission as you pay tribute to someone special to you. Click here to make your own Thank You Thursday Tribute through December 31, 2014. Today’s Thank You Thursday Tributes is in honor of two industry visionaries, made by a third. The Quilt Alliance would like to say thank you to Alex Veronelli for this week’s tribute, and to all of our donors for sharing their stories and for helping us continue to share the stories of all quilters. Read previously shared Thank You Thursday Tributes here. A Tribute to Janet-Lee Santeusanio and Mary Schilke by Alex Veronelli I would like to extend an enormous thank you to Janet-Lee Santeusanio & Mary Schilke as they, in early 2009 insisted and persuaded me to take a flight from Italy to USA in order to visit MQX show in Manchester NH. That had been my first time attending at a retail show and gave me the opportunity to meet with people face to face and begin relationships with personalities in the quilt industry that have blossomed into friendships. This was the first time I ever made an appearance in person at a quilt related show in USA, so I will never forget MQX 2009 as I consider it a fundamental life event for my business career. Alex Veronelli is Product Manager and Brand Jedi for Aurifil. Make your own donation to the Quilt Alliance in honor of someone who has given you the gift of quilting. Complete information…
This year do twice the good with one donation. Remember the Quilt Alliance this giving season with a donation of any amount and each dollar you give will be matched by a generous family foundation (up to $15,000 total in matching funds). Please consider joining, renewing your membership or making a one-time gift by December 31. All donors are invited to honor someone special with all gifts over $25–see the details of our Thank You Thursday Tributes here. Why you should Donations of any amount advance our mission and allow us to continue the work that you value–documenting, preserving and sharing the rich stories of quilts and quiltmakers from all over our community. Please consider joining, renewing your membership or making a one-time gift by December 31. 1. Support the Alliance because you care deeply about the documentation and preservation of the rich history of quilts and their makers. Our members and donors provide significant support for our core projects like Q.S.O.S. and Go Tell It at the Quilt Show! and allow us to partner on projects like The Quilt Index. We document, record and share, even when you can’t be there! Over 100 Go Tell It at the Quilt Show! interviews were collected at the International Quilt Festival in Houston this year! Here’s Sandra Branjord talking about the quilt that healed her: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI67UtNZuYQ 2. You will receive Story Quarters, a new members-only e-newsletter with “Behind the Seams” stories about quilts and their makers from our staff, board, volunteers, and partners. 3. You will receive discounts on ticketed events like Quilters Take Manhattan (Save the Date: September 25-27, 2015 in NYC!), and our second Quilts & Oral history Conference (July 17-18, 2015, Herndon, VA). 4. You can enter our annual contest for only $5/entry. Handi Quilter Sweet Sixteen Grand Prize! Entries due May 1. 2015 contest theme: Animals We Love. 5. You’ll receive our new membership lapel pin, and if you join or renew your membership (or make a donation of at least $25) by December 31 you’ll be automatically entered to win one of these great prizes provided by members of our stellar board of…