Liberty Class with Ginger Sanchez

On Saturday I took a class with Ginger Sanchez. She is multi-talented. She offers classes in different mediums. My friend took a class from her on Friday; it was an all day Christmas workshop. She left with 6 candy canes done in fabric, 6 gingerbread men that were done in fabric and then put in a fabric stiffener that was mixed with cinnamon so that they smelled really good. After embellishing them they put them in the oven on low to dry. A snowman that was adorable and a wool Christmas tree finished the assortment. Saturday’s class was a wool penny rug on silk. It is so pretty with its purple plums. She did not have the sample finished. It will be finished off with tongues surrounding it. I am anxious to get busy working on it. A kit was supplied with the class and she had it all very organized. The teachers at the Gathering try to outdo one another with the way they package the kits. You don’t ever know how it will come. I have received them in pretty bags and painted paper boxes. That is part of the fun!
It was a great trip! I am already looking forward to next year.

Journaling with Blackbird Designs

I think my journaling class with Blackbird Designs has to rank up there with one of the best classes I have ever taken. I wasn’t quite sure what I was getting into. They were extremely organized. They had various stations set up, a cutting station with different types of scissors and rotary cutters, a glue station, a color copy machine area where you could copy or resize your pictures you had brought with you. An old typewriter was set up and a table that was full of scrapbook pages, ribbons, fabric, metal letters, stickers, cards of different styles, etc. Alma of Blackbird has journaled for years. She showed us many of her journals. She does them almost in altered book form. Adding things on top of each other and also adding her writing. We were to choose a theme and go with it. It should be something we could write about. Class projects, cooking, stitching, etc. I chose my daughter Mariah’s quilts. I have made her a quilt each year of her life and have written in a book each year things about her. I thought it would be fun to dedicate pages for each quilt, thoughts of that year and a picture of her. I got as far as my cover done. I think this will be really fun to play around with. I am including all kinds of pictures of pages and covers from Alma’s journals. I also took pictures of all the class participants journals, I can’t share them since I didn’t get permission but I am going to hang on to these just to get some ideas. Everyone seemed to go in a different direction. It was a very fun class and I left it really inspired. http://www.dashdist.com/blackbird.html
Tomorrow is all about my class with Ginger Sanchez.

More Liberty

My first class was with Ginger Schrader. I love Ginger and have taken classes with her before. I was disappointed to find out that she is retiring and will no longer be teaching the chalkware. Chalkware is made from gypsum or plaster of paris and formed in a mold. Ginger reproduces many of the old chalkware items and has made molds for her own reproductions. She is an expert at painting these and getting the right look. In this class we could choose to reproduce either a pear or a weathered finial. I chose the pear, although the finial was really neat. I like taking classes with Ginger because you always go home with a finished product! Ginger and her husband Ron also put on primitive fairs twice a year at their home and then many times a year at various locations. They put one on at the Gathering each year and the quality of vendors they select is top notch. The quilt book “Home Sweet Home’ by Blackbird Designs and published by Kansas City Star has a nice 3- 4 page spread on Ginger’s saltbox house and her Summer Primitive Fair.
Ginger is the one standing up helping 2 of the girls in the class. Tomorrow, Journaling with the Blackbird girls.

More on Liberty Trip

One of the fun things about the Gathering is that each day they have a make-it take-it project. They are always reasonably priced and fun to do. This year Suzette Krummel of White Pine Folk Art provided the kits. They were all packaged so cute with a pine cone attached. I can’t imagine the time she had invested in this. Each one was a wool item. She had scissor holders, needlecase, bookmark, etc. to name a few. The most expensive item was $7. What a deal for a kit to make a needlecase that also included the pattern and packaged so nicely. They would make great gifts for crafting friends! If you are interested give Suzette an email, whitepinefolkart@aol.com

A group of stores called the Corbin Mill Shops put the Gathering on. Included in this group is the Old Mill Stitchery, Corbin Mill Quilt Shop and American Whatever. I love American Whatever. It sells all kinds of folk art items and has a large variety of redware for sale. I love looking through all of it. Sandy Williams who owns is it is a rug hooker and one room is full of wool and linens with marked patterns. It is definitely a feast for the eyes! One of the classes at the Gathering was held by Sandy. I loved looking at all the different marked linens the girls had picked out to hook. One was being done in Autumn colors and was absolutely gorgeous. Tomorrow I will have pictures and story of my first day’s class!

Liberty Trip

Each day this week I will write about my trip to Liberty, Mo for the Liberty Gathering. I had a great time and was once again inspired by all I saw and did. We left a day early and spent the drive over (8 hours without stops) stopping at some of our favorite quilt shops. I love the Hen House in St. Louis, MO. It is really primitive and has always been one of my favorites. We also spent some time in St. Charles, MO shopping along the riverfront at all the little shops and visiting Patches Quilt Store. We arrived outside of Kansas City around 11pm. The next morning we were up early and headed out for another day of shopping. We had decided to not sign up for classes so we could do some antiquing and visit some of the area quilt and rug hooking shops that we usually miss. We made drove down to the Blue Springs area and visited with Julie Kiffen who owns http://www.Libertyquiltshop.com. She was set up in an area of the Wooly Woolens shop. Here are some pictures of her small area. Going through the door you were transported to Janice Johnson’s wool and rug hooking area. It is so awesome to see the wool lined up along the wall. Janice does gorgeous primitive rugs and we found her wool to be the least expensive of all the shops we visited. We then headed over to Rustic Yearnings another primitive quilt shop and Quilters Station which is a really large quilt shop. Quilters Station was also hosting a primitive gathering and they had some great teacher quilts hanging in a large gallery room. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures. We then headed back to Liberty for a salad supper and auction that we had signed up to attend. The auction had only 35 items but they were works of art that various primitive artists had donated. Hooked Rugs, quilts, penny rugs, chalkware, etc. It was a lot of fun! More tomorrow…

Liberty Gathering

I am trying to get prepared for my trip to Liberty, MO this week. A friend and I are headed over for the Liberty Gathering. They list it as a “primitive happening” of friendship, needlework, beadwork, quilting, rug hooking and knitting, folk art and antiques. We have been going for quite a few years and really enjoy it. I usually take quite a few classes. This year I am only taking 3. We decided to spend some time exploring the back roads of this area and doing some antiquing. One of my favorite stops is Black Sheep Wool, it is just outside Liberty. http://www.blacksheepwooldesigns.com/
It is a wool lover’s paradise! I took the pictures on previous trips to the shop. Just going to the shop inspires you to go home and get busy! We also hope to make a stop at the Wooly Woolens shop this time around.
I am excited about my classes! I am taking a class with the Blackbird Design ladies entitled “Let’s Journal”. You all know how much I love journaling! I have always wanted to take a class with Ginger Sanchez and I was able to get in this time around. We will be making a wool applique tablerunner on a black silk background. Doesn’t it sound wonderful! And last but definitely not least I am taking a class with Ginger Schrader. I have taken classes with her before and they have been great. This time we are doing primitive chalkware painting on either a weathered finial or an over sized pear.

I will get to visit one of my favorite quilt shops on the way over, Helen’s Hen House in St. Louis. It is a great primitive shop! We will also stop at two quilt shops in St. Charles and at Angie’s Nine Patch in Effingham, Il. I hope to have lots of pictures when I get back. See you next week!

Free Style Letters and Wonky Houses

I have been playing with free style letters and wonky houses this past week thanks to our Tonya. I was able to get all my letters done and put on the border of a quilt I just finished up. I will show it a little later down the road. I also finished 4 more wonky dog houses for a doggie quilt I am working on. These are so much fun and you don’t even have to think much while you are doing them. I love just being able to piece and not worry about any perfection happening. That is the primitive girl in me coming out! I have a plan for these, executing it is a different matter. My mind works in mysterious ways sometimes (okay most times!) and usually what I am picturing is a little bit harder to accomplish then I originally thought.
Bullyve is doing better but still not his normal happy self. He is still having problems getting up and down and he is still just doing a lot of lying around. We are headed back to the vet next week. Baseball has been consuming our lives as of late. I am headed this morning to Cincinnati for 4 days of tourney.

Riah graduated!

My daughter just graduated from 6th grade. (She is the one with the pink rosette on her brown shirt) In our area the kids are in grade school through the 6th grade and then go on to our middle school which is housed in the same building as our high school. Her class consisted of 18 students (small school) and they are all really close so it was a fun evening. She has 2 girlfriends that she is inseparable with. I will be anxious to see if they continue this close relationship through the coming years. We started out the evening by gifting her with 3 bracelets that I had found while I was in Paducah. She loves jewelry. She will also get a graduation quilt. Her quilt is based on her talent show performance and will make a nice memory for her.

Now, on to the talent show. In no way am I making fun of my daughter. I am not writing anything down that has not been spoken about in our home. She has been gifted with many talents but singing is not one of them. Now considering one of her goals in life is to be a professional singer this is not a good thing. To compound this problem she has a little problem in recognizing that she does not have natural vocal ability. So we were a little concerned last December when she came home and told us that she was singing solos in both the talent show and the church Christmas program. The church program was to be first. We couldn’t decide if we should sit in the front pews where we couldn’t see the faces of the church members when she belted her solo out (yes, we had heard her practicing and it wasn’t pretty!) or should we sit in the back where we could hide but would have to see there faces. It was decided for us when we arrived late and the back pew was the only one available. We sat in anticipation waiting for the big moment and much to our relief either there really was a microphone malfunction or the preacher after going through rehearsal the night before had decided to help her out, we could not hear her because the microphone was not turned on. One performance down one to go! She wanted to sing a Dixie Chicks song for the talent show. Since the talent show was the 3rd week of December I suggested that she sing Madonna’s Santa Baby. It really wasn’t a song you sing, more one that you talk in a silly voice. She went for it, whew! She practiced and practiced until she had it all memorized and she added some dancing and hand gestures that fit with the song. Guess what, she went up on stage and nailed it! The kids screamed and hollered when she was done, she had the longest ovation. I was so proud of my singing daughter! I know that I have to let this moment live on forever for her and a quilt is the way to do that. I made this quilt using Bonnie’s (http://www.quiltville.com) method of sewing a double seam for a bonus ½ square triangle and having no fabric waste. I made pinwheel blocks using all my leftover bonus squares from a previous quilt. I then surrounded it with lyrics from Santa Baby. Santa Baby Hurry Down My Chimney Tonight Riah Hahn Grade 6. It is still a work in progress, I will show it again when I get the letters all stitched down and the top quilted.

The New Table

This is an update to my table story. For those who didn’t read that story, my husband decided to upgrade our furniture. This meant the loss of a beloved table and other antiques. I now have all my new furniture. It is growing on me. I still miss my table and wish I had my table but this is working for us. I do love my new cabinet. It is worth the sacrifice. My husband has a new desk that he enjoys.
We also have an electric fireplace that I really like. We have had this for a few years. It originally wasn’t on the wall that I wanted it on. The wall that it should have gone on had the cold air return directly in front of it. Since I had sacrificed my table my husband went to the expense of having our duct work moved around and our cold air return moved to an adjacent room. I am really happy to have my fireplace on the bricked wall.

Update on Bullvye. He seems to be doing better this morning. He not only barked at the school bus he also checked the trash cans out. This is more to his normal routine. He pulled himself up this morning. It looked like he struggled but once he was up he moved around good. Thanks for all the nice comments. He means a lot to us!