Home, Sweet Home...

"Home Sweet Home" is where I am at last! We spent several enjoyable days at the All-American Quarter Horse Congress in Columbus, Ohio. And the week prior to that, I spent three days at a very productive quilt retreat. So I'm glad to be home once again. Although since arriving home, I've devoted some time being quite befuddled by losing my photos in the web albums. But at last I located them and was successful in adding them to this post. My computer always seems to be several steps ahead of me, and it does the most inexplicable things. This quilt was my entry in our recent guild challenge of making a house quilt. I found the houses design in a Thimbleberries quilt and surrounded them with free-pieced lettering and some quilt blocks made as part of a Modern Quilts Craftsy class. It was one of those quilts that kind of invents itself, and was fun to piece. The orange gives it a bit of a Halloween look, although that's not necessarily what I was going for!

And this is the back. I added bits and pieces to a large piece of fabric that wasn't quite large enough to form a backing. We had more than 16 entries and all of them reflected a lot of creativity. Do you participate in challenges? I find them hard to resist.

Back in the Day...

The quilts came out for an annual airing this past weekend at Dudley Farm State Historic Park near Gainesville, FL. There were clotheslines full of lovely vintage and newer quilts on display at the visitor's center.

A winding footpath led back to the historic farm house complete with many of the original furnishings. The park is a working farm that demonstrates Florida farm life from the mid-1800s to the 1920s. They have a working cane syrup operation and some livestock on the farm.

This is the kitchen outbuilding.

And here's a glimpse into one of the bedrooms with shoes, chamber pots and slingshot at the ready. There was also a "keeping room" or "company room" that had a quilt frame suspended from the ceiling where it could be lowered to work on the quit, or raised out of the way when room was needed for company.



How inviting is this rocker on the porch? You could catch a nice breeze while stitching on a project. 

And when the quilts needed washing, these tubs filled the bill.

I had to get a photo of this quilt because I hadn't seen one in a long time. Do you remember Chicken Scratch designs like this one that were formed by embroidering on gingham-check cotton?

More quilts on display.

I just love the Dresden Plate pattern, and this lively one was enhanced by the Orange Peel hand quilting. Such a lovely day spent in the company of old quilts!