Celebrating My Country Threads Camraderie

Ever since I began quilting over twenty-five years ago, the Country Threads Quilt Shop (Country Threads) has been part of my quilting life. It started the good old fashioned way before the worldwide web when I received a catalogue around twenty-seven years ago from Quilt Farm, a shop or a mail-order company located in Minnesota and one of the first places I purchased fabric through the mail. Besides offering fabric and notions for sale in their catalog, they wrote tidbits and going-ons and mentioned that they were collecting blocks for a wedding quilt to be made for the then Mary Tindall for her upcoming marriage to Rick Etherington. But our friendship did not start with quilting, so I thought, but after subscribing to the Country Threads Goat Gazette, I was so smitten with Mary’s goat Susannah who was famous for her antics around the shop and most notably being caught inside the UPS truck. Fast forward to more than ten years later during which time, I purchased numerous Country Thread books and patterns, most notably made a Bulls-Eye Quilt, I finally met Mary at the Rosemont Quilt Show in early 2013(?) and did I talk to her about their lovely quilts, No,  it was all about Susannah. It was at that time I decided that I would one day visit her shop in Garner, Iowa which was a Quilters’ Mecca back then.

I finally met Susannah in August, 2013 and brought her many treats which she enjoyed very much. As I was preparing to write this Post and looking through photos, I was surprised to see  that my camraderie with Mary and Connie Tesene is less than ten years old. It seems like I’ve known them forever. The word Camraderie is defined as “mutual trust and friendship among people who spend a lot of time together” which I think includes time spent online. Although I only visited Mary six times during the past ten years, we keep in touch almost every day through her Blog, emails or text messages. 

On several occasions we have exchanged fabric bombs and gifts through the mail or in person. On my recent visit in May, I brought Mary and Connie one of my feedsack mats in a wire basket (which I will write about someday) and I received a lovely pouch made by Connie who also makes the best rhubarb pie.

There is a “business” side to our Camraderie and that is my participation for the past three years in the Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge which I listed twelve UFOs which mostly have been flimsies needed to be quilted. The Challenge starts in July and ends in June of the following year and I have been successful each year in finishing twelve quilts, one for each month and some of them being UFOs for over twenty years. I like to say that by participating in this Challenge, it has made me an honest quilter by making me work on projects I call “have to dos” and giving me some sort of focus. The 2022/23 Challenge was a little different than previous years whereby besides working on an UFO which was determined by the number drawn, you can now work on a project determined by a Color drawn for the month. I added something to the challenge with three more categories which included a Designer, Fabric Stash and Scraps which gave me a choice of sixty projects for the year. I thought I didn’t do to well but if you base it on only ten projects needed to be finished because we were off in January and February and that flimsies counted, I did pretty well because I finished thirteen quilts and made seven flimsies.

While I was on vacation during May/June and remembering that the old Challenge was ending and a new one beginning in July, I came up with my projects which I make a monthly photo collage so I know what was up when the number and color was drawn. I want to mention that I’m not doing a project based on color but am doing a true Bakers Dozen by coming up with thirteen months and five categories which are, Flimsies to be Quilted, UFO- Projects Started or Kits,  Fabric Designer, Fabric Stash and Scraps. This makes 65 projects to choose and it’s going to be a fun year. I’ve added the seven flimsies made from last year to this year’s Challenge. BTW, Mary added something different to this year’s Challenge by including another category called an Extra Credit Challenge which you can read about in this Post.

No. 7 was pulled for July and I am so excited because I have five projects to choose from: the FALLoween # 2 to be quilted, the Wensleydale blocks to be sewn together, the Fat Quarter Shop Razzle Dazzle pattern to be made with Ruby Star Fabrics, the Lucy June fabrics designed by Lila Tueller and scraps from Crazy Mom Good Neighbor fabric line. One of these projects will hopefully be a Post in July.

Now back to the fun part. Mary sent me a very lovely “exchange” several weeks ago which was her “Oh, Susannah” book and I waited to post until  today which is Mary’s birthday and she’s posted about this Book. It might not be unusual now to have a Goat in the House but back then it was and I made a friendship because of this. I love seeing the photos of Susannah and I should mention that I have several photos of her in my studio.The Master Quilt Holder who has been butted by Susannah and still complains about it was wondering why this wasn’t mentioned in the book. Mary said if she had listed everyone who Susannah bestowed this love tap too,  the book would have more pages, maybe the size of  a phone book—that’s a good old fashioned vision, isn’t it. Mary is selling Oh Susannah and you can order one for $20 which includes shipping and tax. You can send a check made out to Mary Etherington, 2345 Palm Ave., Garner, IA 50438 (this is not an affiliate link). I will be reading this book to the darling Granddaugher and I will be protecting it as she has a rather mean hand with a crayon.

Now that I realize that this year is a ten-year anniversary and needs to be celebrated, I’m going to have a Camraderie Chat with Mary. We were already planning on sewing an Ernie Quilt in September but maybe I need to do a two day visit in the Fall with sewing in the Shop, entertainment by the Master Quilt Holder and Mary’s sister Becky Rose who have formed a musical duo and maybe order Pizza from any place other than the last place we ordered. I mentioned earlier in this Post, that our friendship didn’t start with Quilting but maybe in a way it was prophetic because the wallhanging above was purchased for my Family Room at a craft fair in 1997. I did not find out until years later that this was a Country Threads pattern. It is a small world when Quilting is involved.

Throwback Thursday: My 21st Century Bulls-eye Quilt

Sandra of mmm! Quilts is hosting or as she is calling it "babysitting" the Throwback Thursday Linky Party which I am happy to be participating for the very first time. I've only been blogging since October, 2016 and may have come across a few posts while scrolling through Blogland but may not have know what this linky party was all about until I read Sandra's posts (you can read about it here) and (here) and thought that this something I could do. After all, one of the reasons why I started blogging was so I could better explain some of my quilts which I couldn't do on Pinterest nor Facebook.  I've been quilting for over twenty years and some of my quilts were made with stories. The quilt I thought I share my first story on Throwback Thursday is my 21st Century Bulls-eye Quilt.

There's a number of reasons why I thought this quilt would make a good story because it was started at almost the end of the 20th Century (1999) and finished right at the almost beginning of the 21st Century (2000) and was made by three quilting friends and myself which at that time we didn't realize this was a QAL.  We were inspired by the cover quilt on the book Quilts by Aunt Amy written by Mary Etherington and Connie Tesene whom I now know personally and I've done some QALs and fabric exchanges, willing and unwilling with them.

At this time, we're talking traditional quilting being the way norm, the Bulls-Eye quilt was so "radical" (I don't think the word "modern" was used then) with the raw edge appliqué and the wonkiness (and I also think "improv" wasn't used too) of the circles, cut freehand not matching up.  I loved this quilt as soon as I saw it and appealed to me as the failed appliquér and somewhat a rebel because I didn't prewash my fabrics.  So, the four of us came up with some ground rules once we decided we wanted to make this quilt and to the best of my recollection this is what we did:

• we had a fabric exchange party when we swapped squares of light and printed fabrics in a certain size of what we considered "ugly" fabrics which were the calicos, florals, reproductions and the "inexpensive" which also meant no new fabric was suppose to be bought; we had to use stash-- sort of ahead of our quilt time, weren't we?
• the circles were precut and the different sizes were placed in separate bags and you had to use the one pulled and the only time you could put it back was if it was the same color as the previous circle--fun, right?
• we agreed that the circles would be sewn with a running stitch and not a fancy stitch like a zig-zag, etc; after all speed was part of the plan
• we exchanged quarter circle blocks within a certain time frame so the Bulls-eye blocks could be made 

I thought I add a little tidbit about what happened after we exchanged the quarter circle blocks is that the one who complained the most about making this quilt was the first one to complete her top and another one who thought she would be the second one to be done was overtaken by me who rounded the corner and beat her to the finish line.  To this day, these two are still my dearest peeps and we still get together but not very often does it involve quilting.

Here are some close-ups where you can get a better look at the wonderful wonkiness and "ugly" but interesting fabrics used in making the Bulls-eye blocks.  Part of the fun in making this quilt was that the edges of the circles would fray after washing and as you can see, I never washed it because this quilt is a permanent fixture on my quilting rack and doesn't get used.  My quilt was sent to a longarm quilter who was just starting her business and she quilted it with wonderful swirls.  She did mention that the quilting wasn't easy because the edges of the circles would flip over and she would have to pin them down.  I worked with her then at the quilt shop and she may have sent me some daggers with her eyes. I think she may have said she never wanted to quilt another Bulls-eye quilt which may have been hard for her to refuse because these quilts were getting popular to make.

My 21st Century Bulls-eye Quilt is one of the very few quilts I made that I've labeled and the reason for doing this, remember this was made during traditional quilt time and there was a lot of talk about preserving our quilt history,  I envisioned this quilt being one of few of mine which survived in the far future and possibly people wondering what was I thinking when this quilt was made.  I figured I save them some research time and also to let them know I wasn't crazy then when this quilt was made.  Sorry, I blocked out the names of the other quilters in order to protect their sanity.  Looking back now with the modern quilt techniques well into place, this quilt really doesn't need any explanation (modern versions of this quilt are being made) except maybe for the fabrics which are so yesterday, but  I might add, I still love looking at them.

Around ten years after the first Bulls-eye quilt was made, I made a second one with the leftovers from the first one and additional "ugly" fabrics accumulated since then as part of a UFO Challenge which Mary and Connie hosted in 2012 or 2013.  I might mention, making a Bulls-eye quilt is like starter dough for a friendship cake, the circles you cut just keep on going, you'll understand once you know the construction method. The second quilt, laying on the chair, is still not finished and I've been tempted to finished it with simple quilting in the ditch.  It would be too funny if I happened to find the longarm quilter who quilted the first one and jokingly ask her if she would be willing to quilt the second one for me--funny, but not nice.

The 21st Century Bulls-eye Quilt was really a lot of fun to make and it is a great way to use up the stash.  I'm thinking I could make one with "modern" fabrics against gray and low volume fabrics since I've built up quite a stash of these fabrics now.  This definitely would make a great DREAMi project.

To paraphrase a line from the 50's TV Series "Naked City", there are eight million quilt stories out there, this has been one of them.  I'll be linking up with Sandra and hopefully you will join in the Throwback Linky party with one of your stories.

Week Days with Ernie & Friends

I'm back from Garner, IA after just spending over a little over 24 hours with Mary & Connie and Gang for a little bit of sewing, a lot of talking, laughing, eating, fabric exchanging and getting over- stimulated with new ideas and projects.  You can see our activities on Mary's blog here:  Country Threads Chicken Scratch.

 I thought I do a quick post of the photos I took that aren't on Mary's blog.

Here I am with my quilt muse, Ernie Joe Mauer, the inspiration for the Ernie Quilts.  Boy, is he one big, heavy dude!  And yes, he blessed the Ernie II quilt, although I had to bribe him. The visit would not have been complete without feeding Emma and Charlene.

We took a quick visit/tour of Connie's studio.  Both Connie and Mary have studios to die for, a separate space from their house.  Connie lives in the city proper and her studio is above the garage. (BTW, I am not the best photographer when I'm excited, so I apologize for the lighting, shadows, etc., plus I really need a new iPhone.)

This is the stairway leading up to Connie's studio and photos of some of her creations she has in her wonderful space.  I wish I took more photos since her walls were filled like a gallery.

I'm sorry that I didn't take photos of her actual studio because by that time I was over-stimulated with all of the visual yummies and projects she had going.  You have to believe me when I say her space was wonderful; there was even a full bathroom!

Here's the group project which Connie has put together for us: Red Pepper Quilts Pickle Dish Variation Quilt.  On a side note, Mary and I decided that Connie couldn't propose one until she completes one of the projects we did as a group, i.e., Gypsy Wife, rug, etc. but somehow she managed to slip a few in like the Wildflowers.  I was open to doing this because I know I can die-cut the pieces and it is a great pattern for the modern fabrics.

And look at the portfolio/envelope she is making with Kraft-tex, something I never knew about and have to check this out because next to fabric, I like paper and boxes.  I have some little orphan blocks that would work with this idea.  And Kraft-tex comes in different colors too.

In between all of this, we ate out at Matt's and the Pizza Ranch, stayed at the Garner Inn which was very nice, did a quick visit at Farm Chicks Quilts,  I really needed to stay longer. But when you have dogs and a son who could only dog sit for only a day,  Bill and I had to go home.  BTW, while I was sewing, Bill did a bike ride on the Trolley Trail in Clear Lake, drove by the Surf Ballroom which unfortunately was closed, had a guitar sing along with Becky and visited with Rick.

I have to admit I almost changed my mind about coming to visit with what happened this week but decided to Sew Forth.  Even though I have my differences with Connie and Mary, most notably, I like to die-cut and they don't, Connie likes appliqué, paper-piecing and small pieces while I like the big patches and Mary and I do crazy while Connie is the sane one, I am glad for this time we had together.  Sometimes you have to disconnect from the big world and connect with your small circle where differences aren't as bad as they seem. WE bring good things to life.  I know when I resume working on the Marcia Derse Alphabet panel and fabrics, my original thought of just using her fabrics have changed to Mary's & Connie's rule of never using just one designer's fabric but using others to make it your own.

 If I ever run away from home, you know where I will be.  Here's to good sewing friends to make life happy and bright!