Finished: My 1st Gee's Bend Quilt!

Over the years, I've written about how much I've come to admire the Amazing Quilters of Gee's Bend, Alabama who began teaching at Fiber College of Maine in 2014. If you don't know their story, you may want to click here before you continue reading this post.

Three years later, at Fiber College in  2017, I was lucky enough to take a quilting class with "Miss China" and "Miss Stella". What a thrill it was to meet them and learn from them, in some cases hand over hand.

We began by choosing fabrics and colors we liked from a big pile that had been donated. In addition, I brought some of my favorite old camping t-shirts to consider adding to my quilt. You see, Gee's Bend quilting is free-form and relies on the concept of creating beauty with what you have.

This is a craft passed down from mother to daughter since slave times at Gee's Bend, People needed these quilts to simply survive the winter; now they are created as works of fiber art and exhibited in most of the major Art museums in America.

When quilting Gee's Bend Style, fabric is torn rather than cut (slaves did not have scissors and fancy quilting rulers) and designs are created by laying out the fabric on the grass and moving the pieces around until they please the eye.

You begin in the center and keep adding pieces until you have finished the quilt top.

Here is Miss Stella holding up my first completed quilt section. She really helped me to "let go" and let the fabric speak to me as I went along.

Two weeks ago, almost two years after I started quilting with Miss Stella, I felt compelled to finish my quilt. I do well with deadlines and decided I want to use it to keep us warm on our first camping trip of 2019, which begins March 9th. (It's still COLD here in March!) I think  the new Gee's Bend quilt will be a colorful addition to our little Casita, even though it will mean sewing new camper curtains to go with it!

Since Fiber College takes places at Searsport Shores Oceanfront Campground in Searsport,Maine . . .  

I added a square from one of my Searsport t-shirts.

And here's a square (Note: none of these are literally "square") from another campground we enjoy, South Arm, in a remote part of Maine's Rangeley Lakes region.

And a square (Dia de los Muertos) from Arizona as well as a very special one signed by Miss China.

 I have a signed block from Miss Stella too!

Most of the fabrics for this quilt came from clothing I got at Salvation Army and cut up (Gee's Bend style; no expensive quilt shop involved here), especially jeans. I decided to keep some of the pockets . . .

they'll be handy for cell phones and tissues at night!

These squares came from t-shirts I made for the very first camping trip we ever took to Searsport Shores.  I had a t@b camper back then and it was the first time I'd taken it out without DH; my sister Nancy and I went by ourselves (with plenty of steak for her and wine for me!) on a "Girls' Weekend".

These old t-shirts mean the world to me now as Nancy passed away from ovarian cancer in 2010.

Here's a link to her story . . .

I lined the current quilt in fleece for warmth - camper motif, of course!

And then embroidered and tied the layers of the "quilt sandwich" together.

I enjoy this part!

The turquoise "camper" fabric in this square will be the fabric for the new Casita curtains.

We leave on our trip on Saturday and the quilt is DONE, just in time. We'll be headed to Virginia, Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee, hoping to catch up with friends and chase the Spring weather.
The laptop and Jetpack are already packed so that I can blog our adventures from the road.

 Can't wait!

A Happy Camper (and Quilter!),

This post is linked to:
Link Party #129 at Chas' Crazy Creations
Vintage Charm #172 at My Thrift Store Addiction
Talk of the Town #164 at Knick of Time
Wednesday Aim Link Party 32 at Grammy's Grid
Homestyle Gathering #8 at My Wee Abode
Thursday Favorite Things at The Yellow Brick Home
Flaunt It Friday #438 at Chic on a Shoestring
Farmhouse Friday Link Party #96 at The Painted Hinge

Two Sisters On the Road

Do I have a story to tell you!

Back in 2007, my sister, Nancy and I took our first "Sisters' Road Trip" to Searsport, Maine.

We didn't know then that it would be our last road trip together.

The memories of our time together at the Shores are special ones and I reminisced about them often on my previous blogs, It's Always Something and  My Sister's Cottage.

Imagine my surprise when I heard that two sisters I never met had booked five days at Searsport Shores (where my sister Nancy and I first camped) after reading about it on my blog!

I often wonder if anyone is really reading my posts so this news was definitely blog-affirming. DH and I made plans to be in Searsport to meet these adventurous sisters, who had  trusted my blog posts enough to drive all the way from Texas and Ohio to be here!

The sisters, Lori and Becky, really wanted to look for sea glass so I took them to my "secret " sea glass beach. 

It was a "good tide" and there was more glass on the beach that day than I've ever seen at one time. Sisters' Karma? Lori even found a sand dollar!

Sometimes spotting the sea glass among the rocks is the challenging part.

Can you see the pice in the photo below?

The blog sisters did well and each returned to camp with a bucket of sea glass. I loved sharing their excitement!

The next day at the same beach, I saw a jellyfish . . .

And chatted with a local fisherman who was out digging clams.

Both this and sea glassing are done when the tide is low.

On Tuesday eveniing, while I was in the Casita in my  old t-shirt and borrowed boxer shorts  pajamas, there was a knock on the camper door. It was Lori and Becky stopping by to say "Goodbye". They were leaving Maine early the following morning. Long ride back to Ohio and Texas!

They surprised me with a pot of bright red Gerbera daisies . . . 

And a very special note.

Meeting two sisters who were following in the footsteps (tire tracks?) of Nancy and I meant the world to me. I watched them explore the Maine Coast and relived my "sister time" in Searsport. I saw them sitting shoulder to shoulder on their deck and could easily imagine the kinds of conversations they were having; the kind that only sisters can share.

Thanks to Lori and Becky. I remembered why I started blogging in the first place. 

This post is linked to:

Dwellings: Amaze Me Monday

I'm BACK!

Welcome Back to Applegate Lane! I've missed you!

I really thought that no one was reading this little blog, so, two years ago I just . . .

Stopped. Writing. 

I was shocked but really flattered surprised when, on a road trip to Searsport over the weekend, two different friends mentioned my abandoned blog. One (Yes, it's you, Kendra!) said how much she misses reading it. (Wow!) And another, who happens to own our favorite campground, Searsport Shores, told me about some sisters who have booked a visit in June because they read about the campground on my blog! That meant a lot because I discovered Searsport Shores on a special road trip with my own sister back in 2007.

Ever since the weekend, the blog gods seem to be calling to me. 

I really do love to write. And I love to take photos. I love to meet new people. I love to make things. 

I love to travel. I love to blog. So . . .

 22 Applegate Lane is back!

I'm so excited!

I hope you'll follow along . . .

Strawberry Fields Forever!

Faces of Fiber College, Part 2

There were so many amazing people at Fiber College that I couldn't include all of their faces in one post. So here's Part 2 . . .

Steve is a chainmail artist! He designs clothing and jewelry, link by painstaking little link. When he's not making suits of armor and whatever, he is "Santa" to hundreds of children and a few dozen elves. In his "real life", Steve does biochemistry or astrophysics or something incredible like that at Johns Hopkins. We recently discovered that Steve and I were undergrads at UMass Amherst at the same time, as was . . . 



Steve "Santa" Schreurs

His wife, Susan.  Susan loves to knit, sew, and play with fiber. She modeled this shawl she made at the "Wear Your Art" cocktail reception.

 

And then there's Larry. Larry and his wife just moved to Maine from Florida after spending many summers working at Searsport Shores, where Fiber College takes place. Larry loves to cook. He "rescured" an old (1930's?) industrial-size potato chip machine and tried it out for us on Friday night.

 

Yummy!

Faces of Fiber College, Part 1

I've been away from the blog enjoying camping on Penobscot Bay at beautiful Searsport Shores, the home of Fiber College of Maine. One of the best things about Fiber College is the chance to make new friends from different backgrounds and cultures. Here are some of their faces . . .


Waiting patiently while Mom & Grandma cook our Somali feast

"Fiber College of Maine is an annual fiber festival whose sole reason for being is to celebrate the fiber arts in all forms. Maine is particularly blessed with artistic energy and inspiration from the flow of the tides, the rolling hills of the blueberry fields and the stars in the night sky."
 ~Fiber College website


Phoenix making a ceramic button

At the beach bonfire, I met three very funny women who had come to Fiber College together from Massachusetts. Somehow we started talking about the book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and our tendencies to hoard materials for whatever our fiber passion is. (Somehow, that seemed hilarious at the time.) After we parted, I worried that I never find my new friends again. . . we'd been talking and laughing in the dark!


Hula Hoops on the Beach

But, the next day, they found me. 

And here they are, the self-proclaimed "Three Hoarders"!

 

Sewing Scarves for Cancer Patients

This is the story of two amazing women who I met on the last day of Fiber College and a random act of kindness that has touched my life...and will soon touch the lives of many women with cancer.

For years, while my sister Nancy dealt with the side effects of ovarian cancer treatment, I sewed her scarves. Lots of scarves. It became my therapy as I supported her.  I wrote about Nancy's scarves on my blog at My Sister's Scarves. I hope you'll take a minute to click on the link and read her story.

The short version is that I made so many scarves Nancy couldn't possibly wear them all so we began making them to donate to the Maine Medical Cancer Center in Scarborough, where Nancy went for chemo, and the Cancer Community Center in South Portland. After Nancy passed away in 2010, I was left with bins of cut out scarves to sew. It became more than I had time to keep up with so I brought a bin of the scarves-to-be to Fiber College with me last week, hoping that some of the quilters there might be able to use the fabric. The bin sat on the quilting table for four days, and, at the Farewell Get-together on the last day, a woman named Kendra introduced herself. Let's call her  "Amazingingly Kind Woman #1".

Nancy's scarves

Kendra explained that she and a group of her friends from the Searsport area would like to complete the pile of scarves left in the bin and donate them to the Augusta Cancer Center. In the time it took me to finish my bread pudding (yummy!), Kendra had surrounded herself with interested sewers and was showing them the scarves. She actually had one on! I felt myself tearing up and had to walk outside for a minute. Thanks to Kendra, "My Sister's Scarves" would go on . . . and help other women like Nancy.

And it doesn't end there...

Nancy 2006

Another woman, Beverly from Medford, Maine, introduced herself and asked if she might have a cut-out scarf to use as a pattern so that she could make some to donate to women with cancer in the Dover-Foxcroft area. (Again with the tears and the dash outside to compose myself). To me, Beverly will always be "Amazingly Kind Woman #2".

Now I'm wondering if this might go viral . . . more and more of us sewing these simple reversible scarves for cancer patients.

Nancy's New England Patriots Scarf, Side #1

 

and Side #2   Go Pats!

A few days after I returned from Fiber College, Kendra forwarded this to me . . . her invitation to her friends to join her to sew scarves. (And check out the reference to moose hunting...this is Maine after all!)

Good Evening Ladies~~~

 

I am back and ready to do something!!! Bruce will be away moose hunting so I think it is time for a get together.

 

So on Wednesday September 24th  at 2:00 you are invited to our house.  We will be making kerchiefs for chemo patients.  I was given a box ~already cut out ~ so we need to sew them~turn them~hand stitch the opening ~press them~ and then top stitch them.  We need lots of hands~~it doesn't require any sewing skills.

 

I will have wine and appetizers.
Hope to see you all~~it will be a good time!!!

 

~Kendra

So this post is a great big THANK YOU to Kendra and Beverly, two very kind women who I was so fortunate to meet.
 

"Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you."
~Princess Diana

 

  

 This post is linked to:
Sew Darn Crafty at Sew Many Ways

 

In loving memory of my sister, Nancy Smith Tufts

1952 - 2010



 

Relay for Life 2010

Nancy at Searsport Shores, Site #22, Aug. 2007