Category Archives: Enfield Quilters

TREASURES from Lost Acres

Crazy Quilt, Enfield Quilters, Lecture, Quilt Event, Shows vending

 

not so crazy – Crazy Quilt – made of ties and vest/jacket linings

A couple weekends ago I went with my Mom, my Grandmother, my Aunt and my Aunt’s Aunt to the Quilt Happening at Lost Acres (3 generations yeah!). Ginny, the owner of Lost Acres, gave a wonderful talk on the different aspects of quilt donations throughout history.  She covered everything from the donations of quilts to support the Sanitary Commission during the Civil War to charities supported by quilters today.  How great to recognize the generous hearts of quilters and see how quilts had been used as fund raisers and direct donations over the last approximately 160 years.

Her group, Ladies of the Comfort, compromised of many helpers, in 2016 distributed: 24 baby quilts and 98 bed size quilts to: fire victims in Tennessee and Canada, and My Sister’s Place and Salvation Army Transition House (both are in Hartford, CT). Her goal for the group this year is increase donations to 250 quilts.

6″ squares ready to be kitted into bags

My Mom and Aunt and I went home with a large container of pre-cut 6-1/2” squares to package up for members of the Enfield Quilt guild to assemble into tops over the summer. The 6″ squares will be assemble in 10 columns  x 15 rows (125 lights & 125 darks in each bag).  We were excited to work on the project as we drove home but the actual making of the quilt top square kits took a bit longer than we anticipated.  We’re all good though, great conversation about quilting and charities while making kits that will be donated to directly to those in need (no sitting in trailers for distribution for these quilts!! – Ginny’s number 1 rule).

orphan – red star quilt top – in need of LOTS of LOVE

Ginny also sells fabric, orphan blocks, quilt tops and other quilted items at the event. Here are a few of the treasures I brought home with me.  The red star top is in sad shape, hanging piece is part of a missing row.   I’m going to trim the sashing so each block is framed in red then add a red & white print to replace the sashing and use the left over original red sashing to cut corner stones (sometimes my plans change as the project progresses – we’ll see).  We think this other cutie is made from ties and vest linings, kind of a not so crazy Crazy Quilt.  It’s on the fragile side so quilting it up will help the quilt survive (see 1st picture).

Hope to see you at the Danbury show this weekend, I’ll be in the SewCraft booth with my fabric and other goodies!!

Painted Blocks Galore!! – thanks Jennifer

Enfield Quilters, Lecture, Paint
Enfield Quilter painting blocks
Enfield Quilter painting blocks

Jennifer O’Brien of SewCraft provided a great presentation on fabric paints last night at Enfield Quilters!  She explained the qualities of the paints and provided a small trunk show demonstrating a few of the ways to use the paints.  She quickly progressed to the fun stuff – hands on, brushes flying, PAINTING!

Enfield Quilters painting
Enfield Quilters painting

With a table piled with Jennifer’s stencils for members to choose from – she dished out the paint (literally on a dishes at each table), loaded her own brush with paint, explained and demonstrated smooshing the paint, then everyone one was on their way to creating beautiful hand painted blocks.  We all got a first-hand experience to see how great the 404 spray on the back of the stencils worked in keeping the paint from running beyond the stencil edges, and how it also worked great for checking your progress in one area of the stencil and sticking the stencil back down without the it slipping to a different location.

Jennifer teaching us to paint on fabric
Jennifer teaching us to paint on fabric

Members provided a lot of positive feedback for the night.  Many people took home their painted blocks and some already had plans how they were going to use them.  The blocks that people didn’t take home will be incorporated into our donation quilts and with any luck be part of our binding bee in January 2016.

Thanks to Jennifer for coming and providing such an entertaining night!!

Oh, and although some of us went home with funny colored hands, no paint wars broke out, and no clothes were harmed in the painting of these blocks –  so all in all – a very successful night!! 🙂

Finger Painting at Enfield Quilters 11/18/15

Enfield Quilters, Paint
Painted Cat Quilt
Painted Cat Quilt, Jennifer O’Brien

Well actually various forms of fabric painting with Jennifer O’Brien of SewCraft http://sew-craft.com .  Jennifer has her own line of paints from primary colors to metallics and stencils (a multitude of them).  She’ll be going over a couple different painting techniques, just like art class in school – woohoo!!!

Did I mention our meetings are open to the public?  You too could be playing with paints and conversing with a great bunch of quilters!  No Paint Fights or you have to mop the floors and wash the walls  😜 .  It should be a great night of kindergarten fun for all!!!

Jennifer O'Brien's Twinkle Star ruler hand painted Cat quilt
Jennifer O’Brien’s Twinkle Star ruler hand painted Cat quilt

Here’s one of Jennifer’s painted quilts that I was lucky enough to get to quilt, it includes her new cat stencil.