Southern Girls wear cast iron skirts and channel Mary Ellen Hopkins

Here's one that I designed several years ago for Mary Ellen Hopkins' Quilt Sitter Circle organization and remade a few months ago.  Now that I live in the deep south,  I know that we southern ladies can stand on our heads without displaying the lace on our rigorously ladylike and proper thongs.  We're willful enough to make our skirts defy gravity. This quilt aptly demonstrates proves that hypothesis.

 And is the phrase "rigorously ladylike and proper thongs" a contradiction ? Is it even seemly to group those words together in a sentence?

See if you can find the free spirit.  I named this design "Connecting Up With Your Inner Child". It was inspired by Mary Ellen Hopkins.  If you know her, you love her.  And she's probably a thong kinda grandma.  She's free wheeling like that.

Mischele

I'm the Maverick who married Goose

Here we are on our wedding day.  July 11, 1970.  About 6 weeks later, I would finish nursing school. Don's squadron, RVAH-1,  would deploy for a cruise and he would start flying reconnaissance over north Viet Nam. 

I love him madly! Probably from the moment I first saw him. Definitely forever.

Another top done!

This is my Radiant Wreath design that is published by Animas Quilt Publications.  I'll be teaching a class at Somewhere Sewing in Johnson City, TN in October. 

It's real easy to piece.

Here's a graphic rather than a photo of the quilt.  So far I've made 3 of these.  2 with this traditional color way and one with the Vintage color way.  The fabrics, which are the deal makers with this quilt were designed by Jackie Robinson for Maywood Studios.  Hope you see this pattern and Jackie's fabrics in your local quilt shop!

One Block Art wearable art

Here's a vest made by Darla Beverage of Gray, TN.  Though the vest is lovely, the lady herself is even lovelier.

One Block Art Again

The star quilt was made by Lori Pulaski.  She is in the Air Force and pilots those big tankers that refuel planes in flight.  One of our military heroes.

 

More One Block Art

I have to do something while the iron heats up, so here are a couple more quilts.  Both of these are by Lucy Terry from Johnson City, TN.  Don't you love the way she offsets the design and breaks into the border?  Of course it helps a tad when you have a Ph. D. in textiles.

Lucy, your edumacashun ain't been wasted. (sic to the nth?)

Enjoy!

One Block Art: It's an addiction!

  I finished my One Block Art Cross and it looks amazingly like the Electric Quilt image you see on the right.

I started this idea for a class in the late 90's when a friend gave me some watercolor squares and I was looking for an idea of how to use them that wasn't watercolor, if that makes any sense.

Plus, the squares were already cut, and you know how labor intensive that can be!  And how much we like being able to just jump right into a project.

Oh, and I am too cheap to throw some things away.  But mostly too cheap to throw away fabric because I work scrappy. I've made a bazillion blocks and have been amazed at what others have done in classes.  Here are a few:

The piece with the incorporated black border was made by Ann Moore from Kingsport, TN, the the one with the red border was made by Eloise Kominek of Johnson City, TN.

Aren't these terrific?  More student work to come.  I'm stitching on a Christmas project today.  You can see what it looks like in my very first blog post.

Granny's got a brand new ride

After being married for a zillion years, I finally goofed and learned to do something that I'd avoided for years by professing ignorance (easier done than said). 

I've also practiced wedded faithfulness. 

But that can only work for so long.  

I learned to mow the grass. 

I've fallen in love with Mr. John Deere.

Yessiree.  Green and yellow make me tingly all over.

We've got a very hilly acre or so to mow.  That means, dang it, that there are slopey, hilly dirt things outside in the yard that are just covered with grass.   On a riding mower, you can have more fun with them than you can on the Wild Mouse at the fair, and when you fall off, the hospital is much closer.  And you don't have to fill in an incident report or worry about suing the fairgrounds.   Much less complicated.

I can have all the fun of the outdoors just, well, outdoors.  Even without liquor and guns.

And provide great entertainment for my sweetie as I run laps here and there giggling and screaming.  Giggling when I get up some downhill speed and screaming when I get some tilty action.  That's so much better than, say,  cleaning toilets because my sweetie doesn't find watching me do that demonstrates any entertainment value.  But if he'd watch closer he might get some educational value out of it, if you catch my drift.

A kid on a go cart could have even more fun.  Heywaitaminute, maybe I shouldn't say that because it might give the grandkids some ideas.  

Lemme think about that for a minute.  Excuse me.

Okay.  I'm back.  The go cart idea is a great one and I can write about it because the grandkids aren't old enough to read yet.  Or at least they don't have internet privileges yet.  

Okay, the scent of gasoline is out of my nostrils.  Time to go spritz with some estrogen and Chanel and turn back into a southern lady.  Maybe that Title needs to be in Caps.  

Southern Lady.  

Gracious,  using caps looks so much more genteel and prissy, doncha think?

Mimi

Southern Lady.  Yeah. Right.