Going to Guild - Ann Hazelwood

Last night at guild our speaker was Ann Hazelwood, a woman of many talents.  In addition to being a quilt appraiser, author, speaker, and something of an expert on red and white quilts, Ann will have her first novel out this summer. 

Ann came to teach a redwork class and then share her amazing collection of red and white antique quilts with us.  She explained why red and white quilts came into fashion after the previously popular red and green quilts revealed their fleeting beauty.

The Turkey red stays vibrant while the green fades away.

This originally featured green pine trees.  Now it features batting poking through the fabric.

These are just a few of the gorgeous quilts, mostly c1900, in Ann's collection.  She says she was attracted to them because of their simplicity and graphic impact. 

The quilts were mementos of people, animals, and everyday life.  This stunning flower quilt was given to the pastor of a church to commemorate his 20th anniversary. 

Each petal has a signature inside.  Absolutely priceless!

At the end of the lecture, Ann also shared with us something I had never heard of.  They're called "splashers" - pieces of embroidered linen that were hung behind a basin to protect the wall. 

The workmanship in these is amazing, especially considering their purpose!  Most are not in English, and translations are iffy.  We had fun making up our own text.

Have you ever heard of splashers?



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Going to Guild - April

It's that time of the month again - guild night, that is!

This month was another one of those rare occasions when Gracie didn't have school the next day so she could join Mom and me for three generations of bonding. Unfortunately the topic was a little dry for an 8-year-old, but at least there was lots of chocolate.

First, last year's president, Sharon Bessom, showed off her finished President's Quilt. It is gorgeous and HUGE!

True confession: I am green with envy. Mine is unquilted in the UFO pile.For our program, Holly Anderson visited. Holly is an AQS certified judge and appraiser, the only one in Georgia. We are so lucky to have her just up the road. While Gracie wasn't exactly entranced, the rest of us were hanging on Holly's every word as she described how quilt show judges examine quilts, hold and release them, and what she does to keep her binding "full." She even generously answered questions about appraising quilts, although that was a topic for another night.
Below, Holly compares two quilts in the game "You Be the Judge." Does the quilt on the right look familiar? Yep. I fell in love with it and took a picture at the Bulloch Hall Show. Love those blues! Holly says the one on the left would win because the triangles are a higher level of difficulty. Just goes to show that I wouldn't make a good judge. In my opinion the blue wins hands down just for WOW factor.
Remind me to show you the great quilt from Show and Tell later. I started to put up a picture and tell you all about it before I remembered that it is a gift and a surprise. It is amazing, and I would hate for the recipient to accidentally stumble across it just because I showed it to you! I don't think that could happen, but I would feel awful if it did after hearing the lengths this person has gone to to keep it a secret. Trust me, it is breathtaking. I hope the quilter will create a class or pattern for it after the gift is given.

As always, guild night is incredibly inspirational and gets me in the mood to create all manner of new things. Holly's program also made me resolve to raise my standards. If I'm going to buy quality fabric and a fabulous new machine, put my time and effort and creativity into a piece, then I might as well do it right.

I hope you all have a great week!