European Patchwork (Julie there's a barn in here!)

 Katherine Roumanoff was there working on another one of her creations while she talked to people.  She spoke French and I don't so I only could watch as she made choices and cut out pieces of fabric to place on her composition.  She glues them into place with that brush she is using.  I really didn't see where she had used any stitches to hold them on.

I was thinking that she just needed a lot of pieces for this show and would get to that later.  But maybe this is the way she leaves them.

They were supposed to be members of her family from 1998 to 2043.....which I didn't understand enough French to know how she could tell the future.

Here are two barns, I believe they were located in the village of Liepvre France.  Liepvre began as a monastery in the 8th Century by a monk called Bobolinus.  King Charlemagne talked about it in 774.  Imagine that?  

Another monk called Fulrad decide to build a building for the monks.  Fulrad's parents were very rich and provided the money for the monastery.  The original name was Fulradochella.  After the monastery was completed, Charlemange donated the money for a convent in 769.  Charlemange had acquired the land from the mayor of the area who was skimming money from the King's tithes. Wufloald was condemned to death for high treason but Fulrad interceded.  His possessions were taken and later given for the Convent.

After Fulrad's death there was a scuffle for property ownership and at one time Charles the Bald and then Lothair were in charge.  Interesting that they were really concerned with hair or lack thereof.  Like much of the area, this went back and forth in ownership and allegiance over hundreds of years. 

In  990, the monks were having a problem holding on to their possessions and everyone who came through with knights or an army would take their stuff.  The Armagnacs were armed gangs of mercenaries living on plunder.  They were Spanish, French and English under the control of Dauphine Louis XI.  That is how the Duke of Lorraine ended up owning the lands in 1384.  

The Dukes decided to defend the monks but used the power to  take the profits of the lead and silver mines in the area, Val d'Argent or Valley of Silver.

Once the reliquary that contained St. Alexander's bones was broken in 1602 the priory was falling out of favor with the Lorraine Dukes.  The church was destroyed when the English came through the area but the Dukes would not defend the Monks because of their debts to the Lorraines.

A new church was built in 1752 and that is the one where the quilts we see are displayed in the Exhibit.  The church's bell came from the old Convent from 1542.  It was hidden in a meadow during the Thirty Years War and dug up a century later.  

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In this new church there was a display of cat hangings (not cat hanging) done by an online group of about 50 people.   They were all the same size, about 20 inches by 30 inches high.  All types of techniques were used so it was interesting to see the different interpretations of the prominent cat figures.  

Below here is the Best In Show quilt.  I took a picture of it, thinking what an ordinary quilt.  But what you see in the photo is not what you see when you look at the quilt in person.  On the bus that night heading back to the hotel, someone said, there were 5 elephants in that quilt.  No way! everyone else said.

So we got out the cameras and sure enough, elephants!

In the same building there was Angela Walters.  Yes, our Angela Walters.  Angela is President of the European Patchwork group. Imagine that!!!

When I was taking the photos she was busy judging the Best in Show in another area.

 I tried to take the photos of English on the cards, but I guess I missed the mark on this one.

This was Erick Wolfmeyer from Idaho USA. He only brought 4 quilts but they were 10 feet by 20 feet long.  All hand pieced and all hand quilted.  It was striking how huge these quilts were!  

 Here is Frank in front of the quilt called Poppy Field.

That shows you how huge these quilts are.

Published, again

Well, Julie has redeemed herself.  I got the word from her yesterday about our barns being published.

Yes, it has happened!  AQ Magazine published the SSOBB Barns in their Sept 2017 issue.....and I am in there!

Be on the lookout for the September issue of American Quilter Magazine.  The Secret Society of Barn Builders is featured in this issue.  It is on pages 80-83.

If you are a member of AQ you can log on and see the issue now.

I am so grateful to Julie Sefton and all the ladies involved in this amazing project and the resulting book, Build-A-Barn.  It has been a journey.  And the friends who have touched my life since are ones who will be in my life for a long time.

You can see the book on the right side of my blog, and I am sure if  you want one, Julie can get one to you!  And believe me, you DO want one!

Two People I Do Not Know - But Who Are Now My Best Friends!

.

The Free Pieced Barn Project 

will continue this fall 

with three public exhibitions of 

the SSOBB gallery of quilts --

first as a Special Exhibit at AQS Chattanooga,

(September 14-15-16-17, 2016)

next as a Special Exhibit at AQS Des Moines,

(October  5-6-7-8, 2016)

and finally at the annual Davies Manor Quilt Show in Memphis.

(November 4-5-6, 2016)

Links and more event details will be shared

just as soon as they are available

* * *

I am so sorry to see my Blog Hop Week end!  I have never felt more important than I have this week.  And I know all that fabric and dog bone bribes that arrived at my door did not influence me in the least!  LOL.  Hey, that is how we do things in Louisiana, right Cher?




I compiled the names for all the days and days and days of the Build A Barn Blog Hop I conducted
  

For the book, I pulled up a random generator and plugged in my  numbers (in Louisiana politics you would have brought your heavy eqipment over and worked on my property) and I pulled:

NUMBER 5 - Alice Turcotte  (are you related to Ron Turcotte - Jockey of the famous Secretariat?)

But then I said, so many people aren't going to get anything.  So I went outside and found Frank (Mr. Quilts and Dogs) or (Mr. QuiltSwissy, which ever way you look at it), and asked him for a number and he came up with 17, the age at which he met and started dating me.  It changed his life, today he says for the better, but yesterday it was not as positive.

So that number belongs to Mary Ann!

Remember that last Cajun  Camp?  NOOOO, you don't get my camp!  But you will get a FQ of that fabulous Fir tree background to add to your barns!

So what do we  do now?

The winners need to send me their emails and mailing addresses to:

 obed101(at)cox(dot)net

Got that?

And the rest of you, in true Louisiana Body Politic, can begin to insert your influence using whatever bribery you can think of to make deals with the winners.

On Monday, go see Belinda's barn story.  And don't forget to continue to play on the rest of the Blog Hops where you can have other chances to win Julie's Book --- and maybe some other stuff!

Monday May 30 – Belinda from Texas

Monday June 6 – Cherie Moore

Monday June 13 – Valerie Levy

Monday June 20 – Cathy Labath  

and 

Lynn Carson Harris 

Monday June 27 – Kathy French

Monday July 4 – Heidi Burkhardt

Monday July 11 – Hilda Bakke

Monday July 18 – Chris Ballard

Monday July 25 – Debbie Voigt 

Monday August 1 - Julie Sefton

Quilting Yesterday

Well, I didn't actually quilt.  I went to a quilt meeting then read the first few chapters in the Build A Barn book.

Don't laugh, that is more than I have done in two weeks.

And the book is pretty interesting, Julie talks about why barns look like they do and some historical aspects of the See Rock City signs.   Quite interesting actually.  I went to Rock City as a kid.  I remember the gnomes everywhere!  And Headache Rock!  My dad hit his head on it, metaphorically.  but we thought it was hysterical.

But I digress.......

At the meeting last night the program was 54-40 or Fight.  Historical as well as constructional.  If that is a word.  Interesting.

Now i want to do another one.   But of course there is no time and space for another project.  I did both of these in 2006.  there was another but I gifted it to  my dog friend Molly.

I actually cleaned up something.  It was a corner of my den/living room.  Small, but it is now free of all the stuff that lived there for a while.  Mostly books, quilt projects and a pencil sharpener that has  been there since Carrie started using pencils.

I guess that  most people move and thusly clean out, move things, cull stuff and renew.  We have been here for all of Carrie's life and it just stays here.

But, Gentle Reader.

I found out I am not a hoarder,  I threw most of it out!  Except for the cookbooks,  I need the cookbooks.  And the Fabric stuff, I need that too.  And the pens, one  can never have too many pens...............

Barn Quilts, Stash Reports and Things I Need To Get Done

I heard from Julie Sefton about the Barn Quilts we made as part of the process testing for her book Build A Barn.  Gallery quilts will be displayed at Chattanooga (SEPT) and Des Moines (OCT)  then Memphis (early NOV) before they head home to each of you.

If you get a chance to see any of the show, take some photos for me! 

I did nothing again this week, so stash report remains the same.  But on the good side, I didn't buy anything either!  LOL.  "Even" is a good thing.

I went to the CFAL (Contemporary Fiber Artists of Louisiana) meeting this afternoon.  So much is happening.  there are so many classes coming up, remember the metals class I took last year?  Mary Hettsmansperger is coming again in July!  I am over the top  about that. 

Now I know I need a blow torch.  It is a sign from the gods. 

We also have several fiber classes, a Photoshop workshop and a beading class coming up.

And there are two shows.  One in Sulphur La, but I don't think I will enter anything in that one.  The other will be in February 2017 at the Old State Capitol.  I am all over that one.  So expect great things from that one.

I have a fiber group meeting this Wednesday I have nothing made for, I need to finish upteen bindings, I have a bazillion to be quilted and finished and I have a Cotton and a Modern Robin to keep up with.  

But it is exciting, all this work to do.  

Considering didn't even step into my Quilt Room in two weeks, I really need to work this week to catch up.

Oh, and we bought a new fountain.  The old one had a leak in the pan.  It will be installed on Monday.  I will put goldfish in it to keep the mosquito larvae out of it.

I have to do some research on that to make sure the fish don't get sucked into the fountain and their little fishy guts don't get spewed into the air on a stream of water.............

Build A Barn - No Pattern Consruction by Julie Sefton

The books are finally here!!!  And it is a beautiful book!!!!!

Perfect, we all know I love buildings, industrial sites, and yes, even barns.  hen I saw the quilt blocks Julie was making a few years ago, I began following her blog story at Me And My Quilts.

As a child we had taken only one vacation.  We went to Washington DC and stopped in Rock City.  I vividly remember all the barns we passed along the way with See Rock City painted on their roofs.  (Yes, I actually looked up the plural of roof and it said rooves was accepted but was the "old" way of doing it.)

Julie created block by block and I would always comment, you need to write a book!  Well, she did.

Really, I do take full credit for that.

Really.


I can't keep track of how many awards See Rock City has won, but it is a lot.  So many others loved it too.

When Julie decided to take my advice and put together a book, she asked a bunch of her friends to form a Secret Society of Barn Builders or the SSOBB as we were affectionately called.  We used her process notes to test the pages making Barns of our own.  Those Barns grew into individual small quilts and now are traveling into some of the show circuits.

Could not get photo flipped!  Later will fix it

I know Julie will be in Paducah at the Author's Showcase.  She probably told me what time but since I can't remember, you will need to look her up there.  And I want you to tell her you know me.  She thinks I might be normal, but you need to assure her I am just as crazy as she is.

So we do have a blog hop.  Mine will be in May and I will have a give away of one of her beautiful books.  you will want to follow the progress of all the blog hops and get more chances to win.

Check out the blog Julie set up for the book.

Free Pieced  Barn Project

If you go there you can see the individual quilts made from the process notes.  they are pretty spectactular!

And mine can be found at:   Glenda Parks

And I have a project in the works, I am tweaking Julie's Barns a bit and making it quite my own.  But that is what this book is all about.

Go get it, you will love it.  ( I get no royalties or kickbacks, but maybe the Bad Basset Boyz will get a bone if  my followers buy a lot of them.)

Secrets

I really have a hard time keeping secrets.  I just love to talk about stuff.  I get that from my mother's father.  My grandfather told "Shaggy Dog Stories".    According to TV Tropes those are detailed stories that have a huge build up and complicated twists only to be resolved with a anti-climax that makes the story part useless!

That said, Papa's stories were more like long, long humorous stories.  And I take after that part.  If you have read any of my "situations" you would be familiar with them.  And this is not a Shaggy Dog Story, by the way.

But I digress........

Secrets.

For the last year I have been a part of the Secret Society of Barn Builders.  SSOB.  Wait, there is another letter in there somewhere....

OK...SSOBB.

You can see what the book cover looks like on the top of my blog sidebar.  Fifteen of us were invited by Julie Sefton to participate in testing her process notes.  For years I have told her she needed to write a book about her amazing quilt See Rock City.  And now she has!  (click there to see the whole story about her amazing quilt.)

She has won a ton of awards on this quilt, by the way.  Quite impressive.  And click on You Did WHAT With Your Quilt to see it with Julie on a John Deere!

The exciting thing, for me anyway, is that our little barn quilts will be hung in three quilt shows and featured two international magazines after the book comes out! 

I was so excited about being a part of this amazing group, and so lucky to be included.  I will be doing a post about my two barns some time after the book comes out in April.  Actually May.  There will be a blog hop.

So that kind of went into a Shaggy Dog Story, right?  Started out with meaningless chatter that was not on point?  Yep, Papa would be proud!