Please join me in welcoming a Guest Blogger to the Quilting Gallery. Find out how you can be a Guest Blogger.

Thanks Michele for allowing me to share my love of quilts especially antique quilts and quilt history. If this sounds like a dry topic — think again.

Did you know that at one time it was illegal to export the red dye insect and fabric printing methods and illegal to import Indian chintz fabrics?

Who knew that Germany had to turn over secret fabric dyeing recipes as part of the resolution of World War I.

The history of fabric, dyes and quilting is full of life and death intrigue and what better way to learn than by looking at beautiful quilts?

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Below is one quilter’s appeal to helping the victims of the Bushfires in Australia. Also check out this web site for other efforts: Handmade Help.

Hello,

A few days ago, I sat down in my favourite chair, reached out and picked up my current patchwork project and began to sew. I suddenly realised that for many of the fire victims their “stash” has gone – along with their quilts, embroideries, cross stitches and tapestries, not to mention all of the other crafts and hobbies that they may have been interested in. If they are insured, their machine may be replaced, even the sewing table, but the cupboard will still be bare…. and it is hard to bring yourself to spend on a ‘luxury’ when you are still struggling for the basics.

For those who do not craft, I am trying to get together a ‘home sewing kit’ containing the basics that every home needs – including an assortment of buttons, threads, needles, tape measure, scissors etc. Quilting threads in basic colours – black, grey, white, navy and cream.

For quilters and needle crafters I am seeking decorative buttons that may be used as embellishments on a small quilt or wall hanging.

For quilters, I am trying to gather the basics of their craft, a fat quarter, some pencils, white, yellow, grey lead for marking, maybe even a spare quilter’s ruler, or your old rotary cutter, or even a blade, some wadding to back a wall hanging, a larger piece of fabric for a back. Do you know a small business owner who would donate needles, quilting threads, pins, buttons or a tape measure or thimble. Maybe even some extra craft magazines for inspiration. Anything that you think they may be able to use to begin to reravel the frayed threads.

My aim is to collect as much as possible and to ‘kit it up’ and then to liaise with the various area co-ordinators to come and distribute them to anyone who is, or wants to learn the skills of a hand needle crafter.

My aim is not to present a completed item, this is being done by the VQA, but to give the tools and fabrics of their craft back, so that they can begin to create a new series of memories and rebuild community groups, and friendships. We all know how lost we are if our craft is not at hand.

I hope you can help me. I can be contacted on the email below, or by phone on 0421 607 561. Thank you for your consideration of this most urgent need.

Pieces of Love
c/o Denise Evans
38 Carroll Road
South Oakleigh VIC 3167
Australia
Email: piecesoflove@cavads.com

In case you’ve missed any, here’s a list of all the fabulous guest bloggers for the second half of Guest Blogger Month. Here’s the wrap up for the first half of the month.

1. Shawn Bailey
2. Shannon Menninger
3. Annie Unrein of Patterns by Annie
4. Pam Holland
5. Deborah (Stout) Brine
6. Susie Monday
7. Kimberly Wulfert
8. Kathleen Murphy
9. rachel griffith
10. Cathy McKillip
11. Ginny Hildreth and her Daughter, Torrie
12. Julia C. Wood
13. Ralitza Boneva from Bulgaria
14. The Many Blogs of Me
15. Heidi Kaisand
16. Grace Lambie
17. Jackie Kunkel
18. Linda M. Poole
19. Terri Thayer, Author and Quilter
20. Fabric Storage Thoughts from Benita Skinner of Victoriana Quilt Designs
21. Cary Kornegay
22. Debbie MacLeod
23. Holly Elam
24. Shirley Paterson
25. Lesley Riley
26. Sue Hauser, Alderwood Quilts
27. Elizabeth Hawkins, Lizzie B Cre8ive
28. Debbie Maddy
29. Phyllis Dobbs

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that participated in Guest Blogger Month. Not just the blog post authors but also those that left hundreds of comments on the various posts. It has been an exciting month, and I hope everyone has enjoyed this special feature.

If you would like to be a Guest Blogger, I allow up to two a week (at my discretion). Please read the guidelines and then drop me an email to discuss.

My daily life is filled with quilts and fabrics as a designer of both. But my love of quilts and fabrics began many years ago. It seems like I have always been drawn to needlecraft. My earliest memories are filled with sewing of some kind – including a shoebox of small doll clothes that I designed (and most of those were evening gowns) to 5″ scrap squares that I cut out to make my first quilt.

Various forms of needlework were instilled in me from my earliest years. My grandmother (as well as her ancestors) quilted. I have several quilts passed down from my great grandparents along with the “wedding” quilts for my grandmother and grandfather. My grandmother had a quilting frame attached to her ceiling that she dropped down to quilt. My mother sewed and knitted. She knitted matching sweaters for us when I was a toddler (and I still have both of them). My aunt cross stitched, needlepointed, embroidered and crocheted. So from these fabulous women in my life, I learned the same skills as soon as I became old enough to hold a needle and I’m still holding that needle.

I’ve also tried many other crafts along the way, but always come back to that needle. I was very adept at macramé and made several pieces of my own design. I did lots of crewel because I loved the needle. I tried decoupage. I took batik classes and stained glass classes. I have to admit that I was a drop out on the stained glass – I didn’t like to see the spots of blood on my hands from the glass cuts. You have to draw the line somewhere and that was the one for me.

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Hello everyone,

My name is Debbie Maddy and I live in a small town in north Texas with my husband of 38 years. We have two grown sons.

Probably like many of you, I learned to sew as a young girl. I did all kinds of needlework and was a garment sewer until 1982 when I learned to quilt. My first quilt was a king-sized sampler cut with paper templates and hand stitched. When I discovered the rotary cutter I felt like I had been riding a horse and had bought a new car. I took every class I could and tried to soak up the knowledge of every teacher.

I soon discovered that no matter what class you are attending or what teacher is teaching, you can always learn something. I soon learned how much I enjoyed sharing my knowledge. I have been teaching quilting now for about 16 years and love every part of it.

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How fun to be part of all the guest bloggers this month! But oh my goodness, what to write? Beth and I are partners of the pattern company Lizzie B Cre8ive. We’ve been in the pattern biz for 3 years, but have been quilters, of course, for much much longer than that. The fun part about our partnership is that we are actually related!

Now when we’re together at shows people stop and look quizzically at our nametags, scratching their heads in puzzlement. Because both name tags say the exact same thing. Elizabeth Hawkins. What the nametags DON’T say is that even the middle names “Ann” are the same. Then they try to figure out how this could be. “Are you twins?” We’ve been asked. Which is always a question that was never quite thought out….seriously, what mother would name TWO kids the exact same name?

No, not twins, we explain. Sisters-in-law. Then comes the…”Do your husbands have the same name too?” question. Ummm…the same LAST names we reply! It may sound a bit complicated, but here’s what it boils down to….we’re married to brothers and we happened to bring with us into marriage the same first and middle names.

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