New Yahoo Group Growing Fast

As some of you may know I recently started a new Yahoo Group with some other ladies. It is called StitchMAP(MAP). You can see a promote button for it and its sister group Stash Angels and Mentors (SAM) on my sidebar. One reason it has taken me over a month to post this new blog entry is because we have been very busy at MAP. In June we launched our new Basic CQ Course with 16 people taking the course - for free! We don't charge. We also have mentors teaching Hardanger classes right now. There are plans to have a Color Theory Group Class this fall, a Beginner's Hardanger Course in the fall and a Beginner's Tatting course written by the first of the year. We have waiting lists for all of these classes and for Blackwork, Basic Embroidery, Brazilian Embroidery and Silk Ribbon Embroidery.

One of the exciting things we did was start our own Group Blog - K.N.A.S.S. (Keeping Needlearts Alive by Sharing Stitches). It is really worth looking at to see what we have been up to, the contests, the prizes, etc. In fact, we are having a give-away contest for the public there right now. Check it out at the link above and try your hand at the Teaser quiz. There is a sweet little prize for the winner.

Breast Cancer Quilts - Healing Hearts

Today the gods were smiling on me once again! Leslie E., the same friend who had the drawing for the Crocheted & Tatted Edgings Booklet, had yet another drawing today. Les is an extremely generous lady who spends much of her time on artistic endeavors and working on projects that are awesome in scope. This past year a large contingent of the members of the Crazy Quilt International Group spent several months stitching identically sized CQ blocks in the base colors of pink and white with a theme of Hearts. These blocks were to become a quilt which would be auctioned off to benefit Breast Cancer Research. Leslie spearheaded the effort and volunteered to put the blocks together once they were completed. In the end she was able to piece three, count them - THREE!, quilts. I can't begin to imagine the number of hours she spent fitting the blocks together, not an easy task when dealing with the various foundation fabrics, piecing fabrics, awkward embellishment placements and the stitching idiosyncrasies on over 50 blocks, completed by over 40 women. The quilts turned out to be magnificent tributes to their mothers, sisters, daughters and friends who had personal experience with breast cancer.

This week when Leslie posted the final pictures of the quilts on CQI she gave them names. I want to share the pictures with you even though they aren't all that clear. White on white is not easy to photograph. I assure you the workmanship on the individual quilt blocks is gorgeous! And Leslie's work is impeccable.

First there is the beautiful BLUE GRACE, framed in a beautiful blue moire' donated by yet another member of CQI.


Then there is the one Leslie calls THE PROBLEM CHILD. Don't ask why, lol.


The third quilt is white and has some coral tones but she had no name for it. She posted a challenge on the CQI group to name the quilt. Many names, beautiful and appropriate names, were submitted. I submitted several myself. This afternoon she drew the winning name for the quilt.....HEALING HEARTS.....submitted by.....me! Whoopie! I did a happy dance!


For my prize I win my choice of a handcrafted bracelet, brooch or spirit doll, custom made by Leslie in my color choice(s). I made my choice. I let Les know and am keeping it a secret until it arrives. I will post a picture then. Leslie is the one who truly deserves a reward for taking on the responsibility of doing the finishing work on these three beautiful quilts and seeing the project through to the end in a timely manner. As the daughter of a breast cancer survivor I deeply appreciate Leslie's dedication to helping fund the research to find a cure.

Remembering Gram and a Memorphilia Giveaway

If you like vintage paper and memorphilia, you will love this opportunituy! Marie, of Spun By Me, is celebrating her 200th blog with a wonderful giveaway. To enter the drawing just go to her blog between now and noon Thursday, March 12 and leave her a comment. Good Luck!

I spent the day today with my mother at the nursing home. I worked on my crazy quilting embroidery while she worked on her jig saw puzzle. We get together on Sundays almost every week in this fashion. Although she does not share my interest in pushing needle through fabric she does seem to appreciate the work and beauty of it all. Mom is also good with color selections. Alzheimer's has not yet robbed her of the ability to remember when her own mother knit and crocheted for the family. But, she does not remember my grandmother teaching me to do embroidery. This saddens me because my mother had some beautiful linens in her home that my grandmother had embroidered. I would want to remember them and the love in every stitch.

I remember the time my grandmother taught me how to do chicken scratch on gingham checks so I could make an apron and a pillow for the 7th grade home economics display. Boy, did I ever enjoy that, just saying the name was funny to me! That was when she decided to teach me several of what she termed the "farmer's stitches" - turkey stitch, feather stitch (because of the chicken jokes I told) and fly stitch. She never missed an opportunity to expand my repetoire by telling me that certain stitches were connected to certain happenings in our lives. Blanket stitch was taught to me when my aunt was having a new baby and needed a receiving blanket. I learned satin stitch and padded satin stitch making the eyes and nose on a small stuffed animal for that same baby. Yes, I remember sitting on the foot stool, pulled up to the side of her rocker. I would be concentrating on the work in my hand, she would look over my shoulder and watch me struggle with the stitches. Then she would take the cloth from my hands, softly repeat what I SHOULD BE DOING, show me again, and hand it back to me. I did a lot of frog stitching (Rip IT - Rip It) but she never said it was awful, just that she knew I had it in me to do better next time. I hope she is watching me today and approves of the work I am doing.

I remember how she let the girls in my girl scout troop come over to her house and set up a room sized quilting frame in her living room. She then taught us to secure the multicolored quilt, made from alternating light and dark 3" squares of dress cottons, to the frame. Then she allowed us to crawl over and under the quilt while learning to tie the quilt in every 4th corner of the blocks. Afterwards we had sugar cookies decorated like thimbles and thread spools with large glasses of milk.

Grandma never made fancy quilts, hers were made to be used daily. She would spend the spring evenings cutting up old dresses, shirts, and linens given to her by my 6 aunts and friends. Then, in the late summer she would set the two bags of 3" squares of fabric (one dark and one light colored)by the side of her rocker and begin to hand piece them together. She would grab a light piece out of one bag, a dark piece out of the other and stitch them together, and so on. She told me once she timed it this way so that the quilts would warm her own lap in the late fall, when it was colder, while she pieced them. I remember her asking each aunt how many quilts were needed that winter. Somehow they each got just what they needed at Christmas. She didn't use quilt batting, just soft flannel sheets. Most of the times just 1 flannel sheet, but for my aunt and uncle in Nebraska she always put in 2 flannel sheets. Then she backed them with a soft but sturdy cotton that she had pieced from 2 long pieces of fabric. They were always tied, never quilted with a fancy feather or diamond pattern. She didn't have time for that. In between all this she crocheted or knit a baby quilt for each of her 27 greatgrandchildren, crocheted and/or tatted pillow case and doiley edgings for pieces she had embroidered. She taught me and any of my other 19 cousins who were interested how to sew, crochet, tat and embroider. It was during these lessons that she passed on her little "Gramomilies". One of my favorites is Do Your Best, Leave The Rest, Angels Do No More.