A Blast From the Past Post

I have a variety of things to share with you this week, and the first came to me in an email from a friend. I’ve known Glennes for a long time, but haven’t seen her since a class in 2013. What a joy to receive this email and the photos:

“Hi Chris, I just wanted to share pictures of the three quilt projects I have now finished from your May 18 & 19, 2013 workshop at Ladies Of Lakes Guild in Minocqua. After New Years Day this year, I decided it was time to pull out the bagged beginnings of the projects which I had saved. What a fun way to spend the 2024 winter days, and to get familiar with my new Bernina 790 Plus machine. First: After finishing the top, I opened up the fabric which I planned to use as the backing only to find the parallelism I had made during the workshop…..I now have two completed wall hangings!

Second:  Mariner’s Compass. I always want to make “flying geese” and incorporate them with the compass. I may have gotten carried away but love the results.   

I also made two ‘barn quilts’ using your method which are on display on our barn. Thanks for the  inspiration,   Glennes”

WOW!!! Thanks so much Glennes ~ your quilts are amazing!

Now, the rest of this week’s post came about because of a blog issue. My website and blog were constructed using wordpress.com back in 2010. A while ago I started getting a banner at the top of the “dashboard” on my site saying that I’ve used up a lot of space and I need to clean things up. I guess sharing a blog post a week for 14 years would take up quite a bit of space. So I started going through my posts from the beginning and deleting the ones I no longer think are necessary. It’s been a slow, but entertaining process.

In one of those early posts I linked my readers to a truly mesmerizing video of dancing quilt blocks. I felt it was worth sharing again.

To see it for yourself click here. You won’t be disappointed!

Then I read an ancient post with an idea from my past that I actually had mentioned to my friends while on my last retreat. I didn’t remember the details precisely, but I think its is as good an idea now as it was then. I called it “Post Tripping”, and here it is from 2011:

“It took me most of Monday and Tuesday last week to unpack all the stuff I had taken to Paducah this year, do some laundry and catch up on mail, etc.. At that point I was left with the pile of new stuff I bought at the AQS show. It got me to thinking about quilters and shopping. I’m not sure if this will sound familiar, but there have been many years when I start packing for my annual pilgrimage to Paducah and unearth the complete, and untouched, pile of stuff I had bought there the previous year (a bit embarrassing to admit to, but I bet I’m not alone :-).

This is rather guilt inducing and I truly dislike feeling guilty, so I’ve come up with a plan. Actually, my friend Laura and I brainstormed this idea 2 summers ago when we attended the Milwaukee Bead and Button Show. We walked out embracing our treasures and decided we couldn’t go back the next year unless we did something with at least 3 of our purchases! It ended up being a good challenge and we both were up to it. We used our 3 items in a short amount of time and felt quite virtuous.

So, here’s a photo of my Paducah 2011 “had to haves”:

You might notice a bit of fabric. Who can resist? There’s a few books and a bunch of embellishments, along with 1 tool I’ve already used. I’ll tell you about it in a future post.

I believe this type of personal challenge will help you to not only alleviate the guilt, but inspire you to use that great stuff. One additional recommendation is to assimilate the stuff you don’t use into the stash so you avoid finding those pesky piles next year.

And that’s it. So……………What do you think? It can apply to quilting trips, or shop hops, or???

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And here’s one more idea from the past that many of you might find helpful. A few times each year I have someone contact me to ask me if I know of anyone who’d like an old quilting frame. I usually don’t have much advice for them since old frames are not in demand at this time. Well, a friend of mine shared what she did with hers in a post from 2013.

“I met my friend, Eileen Rozumialski, when she signed up for our Sew We Go trip to Ireland. She was a fairly new quilter at that time and a delight to get to know. She has recently retired and shared a story with me about her new quilting studio. It was a story and an idea I think you will enjoy.

I often run into quilters who have inherited quilting frames from a relative. They usually are not sure what to do with them. I now have a suggestion and here’s Eileen’s tale in her own words and pictures:

“You might remember I mentioned some time ago having my grandmother’s quilting frame.  I would guess it must be 100 years old.  We finally figured out how to mount it on the wall so I could use it for displaying quilts.  3 of the boards are up and currently holding a quilt my great Aunt Ida hand pieced and quilted around 1940 using flour sacks and the maternity tops my mother wore while carrying my brother and myself.  I was actully unaware of them until my Mother passed some years ago and the quilts were found folded up and “stuffed” in pillowcases!  I learned she (my mother) had always been afraid to use the quilts as they were so precious to her.  Am hoping with hanging some of the creases will disappear.  As you can see on the picture the friend who figured out how to hang the frame figured out new pegs so I can raise or lower the horizontal piece.  We then used the 4th board in my new work studio (also in my basement).  I am thrilled beyond measure to be using the frame (and to now have a studio to sew in).

I know the frames were left unused in the rafters of a garage for probably 50 or 60 years before I figured out what to do with them and had a place to do it!  They were a piece of my family history I wasn’t ready to throw out and am so glad now I hadn’t.”

I’m so pleased Eileen cherishes all these pieces of her family history and thank her for allowing me to share them with you. Has anyone else found a new use for an old quilting frame?”

These old posts are new again! I think there are some great ideas covered here. I hope you do too…

and I’ve deleted enough old posts that the problem banner has disappeared from my site, so I can continue blogging for another 14 years 🤣.