Collecting Treasures

Recently, Mr. Wonderful and I vacationed, collecting family history information. One of my hobbies is family genealogy and I have hit a brick wall with part of my dad's family. I have had to come to the conclusion that some things just aren't to be found. Especially since they didn't document births and deaths in the early to mid 1800's.

While driving through these small mid-west towns we occasionally stopped to do some antique shopping, hoping I would find a wonderful old quilt.  I didn't find a quilt, but I found a wonderful thread box and three antique irons.

The irons are older then the ones I had already collected for my Studio. One of the irons has "Memphis" on the handle. I would imagine these date back to the 1800's.

The thread box isn't old, but I love the color and the charm. As for the thread box, well I'm sure it will collect all sorts of treasures in my Studio. The size is perfect for my hutch in the Studio.




Before we left on vacation I took a wonderful Shibori - Indigo dye workshop with Suzanne Morgan. What a wonderful day! Here are some of the treasures I dyed. I couldn't wait to get home and dye some more using the methods I learned.

Enjoy your day, your week and your summer. Be sure, especially during this Memorial Weekend, to thank every service person you come across. Without their dedication to serving our country, we wouldn't have the freedoms that we do.

It's Been Slow Around Here Lately....

Well, not really. After I finish a quilt I have been working on for a while, I have to have some down time and catch up on things around the house and family. This past week I've picked up some of the trails I left off several years ago with my genealogy research. I'm working on my family and my husband's family. My dad's family has been hard to research because my great-grandfather ran away from his father at a young age, during the Civil War. This week I have had a break through on this trail and I'm so excited! But I'm putting this research work aside today and going to continue working on the patterns for my next 4 quilts. Three of them will hang together and one will stand alone. The one that stands alone has a lot of detail to it, so it will take me a good part of the day to trace out the pattern.
This past Tuesday the Dallas Area Fiber Artists had their "Meet the Artist" night at The Pointe, (C.C. Young) in Dallas, TX. It was a wonderful evening. The residents of C.C. Young who joined us had lots of questions about art work and were amazed at the variety of techniques used in our art and the Mini-Art Quilts made by the SAQA-Texas members. We even had a couple of DAFA members say they are going to join SAQA! Bonus!
Tomorrow is the first day of the Dallas Quilt Celebration. This show kind of snuck up on me! It's the first time in, gosh, 6 years that I haven't been working at the show in some fashion, either with the Bernina of Dallas store or the Dallas Area Fiber Artists. I'll be going tomorrow, can't wait to see the quilts (and shop)!