The River Flows Again

A reception was held yesterday for The EverChanging River at the Oconee Heritage Museum in Walhalla, SC.

The food was wonderful.

You may recall that three fiber art groups participated in this challenge. Focus, Thread Heads, and Fringe Sisters. This showing is two-thirds of the exhibit. The Fringe Sisters will be showing their section in a show in Columbia later this Summer.

The turn out was good considering it was a beautiful Summer Sunday.

The exhibit will be hanging until July 15.

If you're in the area stop by.

Focus Fiber Art June Meeting

Focus meet at the home of Barbara Tennyson last week. We had the meeting in her den as her studio is a little small for our group. Barb spread a sheet out over her fireplace and it worked quite well for a design wall. We sent Barb upstairs to bring out her wool/tie quilt. When Barb was making more traditional quilts she cut the blocks out for this quilt. If I'm remembering correctly it is about 25 years old.

Diana found these little fabric flowers at a show. She decided she just had to have them for her Mother. Well, they now grace Diana's new RV in a cute little piece of pottery she purchased in NC.

More comfort quilts from Veronica's stash. Diana took on the job of taking all of Veronica's scraps and organizing them into color waves. This must be the four or fifth little quilt to come out of that stash.

Penny Little gave Donna Barnhill a small piece of fabric she brought back from Africa and this is the finished product.

Closeup.

Janet Ginn brought some circles that she's been playing with and wanted our input as to what she should use as a background. These black pieces are some of the idea's thrown around.

I brought the portrait of my grandson that I've been working on. It is the first time they have seen the piece. I'm quilting on it this week and will be showing in my next post.

This is the back of a new piece I've finished titled "Echoes of the Past". I had these photos of our family printed on fabric left over from the 50th Anniversary quilt I made. So I decided to put them on the back of this quilt.

This piece was made by Sybil Radius, one of our new members. Sybil wanted to enter this in a local quilt show and they pin the quilts up. She had to come up with something to use as a hanger that could be pined.

She came up with a really neat and very real looking fabric branch. She took fabric and wrapped around wire, them she took copper wire and wrapped it around the branches to hold it together. I think this looks great. I believe she told us she won a ribbon for this. Sorry Sybil I didn't take notes and can't remember.

Sybil made this piece after seeing postcards that a friend of hers received. Her friends daughter actually took a trip around the world. These postcards came from many of those places. It is titled "Postcards from around the World".

How cute is this? Sabrina Myers brought this "Good Witch". She is made of recycled material and is truly a Green Piece.

Sabrina took a class in Mandella's taught by Gail Blate. This was the result, however, it was not truly round and Sabrina was looking for ideas in how to finish the piece. I think she is using a piping around the outside but hasn't yet decided the orientation of the piece.

Now we come to Miss Over Achiever, I'm only kidding Veronica. Veronica Moriaty works full time and yet she seems to bring more for show and tell than anyone. I kid about this but I am amazed at how much she gets done.

This piece has been quilted but she is interested in adding beads to embellish it somewhat. We discussed some possibilities.

This piece is ready to quilt and Veronica wanted some help with ideas for the quilting.

Another piece finished and ready for a show.

These are corners for a hand appliqued quilt Veronica has been working on for a while. The center piece is truly breath taking and I can hardly wait to see it finished. Veronica was also asking for some suggestions about how to quilt this piece. She usually quilts and all over pattern on her quilts. I feel that she should outline the design and quilt in the solid part and not over the appliqued design. It is so beautifully appliqued that I would hate to see the appliqued quilted over.

Well that's my story and I'm going to stick to it.

Wounded Warriors and Quilts

This lovely lady, Penny Nichol.

And this lovely lady, Marilyn Ingal had the idea to present each Wounded Warrior vising our area a quilt when they left. Hopefully the quilts will be gentle reminders of their visit and our gratitude.

This past week on the Quilt Art Digest, a forum for art quilters, an interesting thread about quilt guilds and comfort quilts has been circulating. I found it very interesting. I have belonged to a guild that did not accept quilters as artist and one who is very supportive. Lake and Mountain Quilt Guild in Seneca, SC is a supportive guild to all its members

It also supports the community by making and giving over 100 quilts a year to local people and charities in need. This year we sent quilts to Japan. Made quilts for our local Hospice and we support a local nursing home by giving money for them to buy items for residents who cannot afford them. We support the local food bank and this year collected many items for the local free medical clinic

I say this not to toot our horn but to say what a group of wonderful caring women and men we have in our guild. I had no idea how giving they were until late last year one of our members, Penny Nichol, put out the call for quilts to be given to men/women in the service who have been wounded.

This area has been hosting, for the third time, 40 Wounded Warriors at Keowee Key and the city of Seneca, SC. This event was initiated by a couple of ex-service men who reside in Keowee Key and who felt there was a need to give the service men/women some well deserved recognition.
The troops come from the Marine Corp Special Operations Command Camp Lejeune, N.C. and from The Marine Corps Wounded Warrior Regiment from Greenville SC

N.C. and from The Marine Corps Wounded Warrior Regiment from Greenville SC.
This event required the partnership with the Greenville Hospital University Medical Center and Roger C. Peace Rehabilitation Hospital. The hospital makes available adaptive ski and golf equipment for those who need such support but more importantly, provides highly qualified therapists who oversee the well being and safety of the participants.

"Honoring their Service" is being chaired this year by Joyce Tarman and Tim Callahan, with help from a loyal corps of volunteers. While they are here, the men/women are offered the opportunity to golf, swim, fish, Skiddoo, water ski etc. The area holds a parade from Easley, SC to Seneca, SC accompanied by motor cyclists. The route is bounded by well wishers on each side of the road.

A dinner was held in their honor in Seneca including music and fireworks and an outdoor bar be que. A formal dinner at the Keowee Key County Club is the next evening, then on the last day, a Breakfast at the club.

Lake and Mountain Quilt Guild members, Penny Nichol and Marilyn Ingalls decided that a great way to thank the men and women for their service would be to present each a handmade quilt upon their departure. Penny, presented this to our guild and 50 members responded making 47 quilts with a patriotic theme. These quilts were presented at our June meeting.

The quilts are meant to be a gentle reminder of how thankful we are for their service. These men/women all volunteered to serve, how wonderful is that!

I would love to say that I was one of those unselfish women who made a quilt for these deserving young people, but I can't. I thought I had to many other things that I had to do. Believe me if the guild does this again next year I will have a quilt made.

I'm sure many of these women have relatives who are now in or have served in the military. I happen to know that Ronette's daughter is one of these. Ronette's quilt is the one with the flags in the center.

One of the threads on Quilter Art Digest has been "Do you do your best when making a comfort quilt or just throw something together". I think you will agree with me that these women did not just throw something together.

I hope you've enjoyed this quilt show and my hat if off to the ladies who participated in this endeavor.

Wounded Warriors and a Bar B Que

Last night the city of Seneca SC threw a Bar B Que to honor the Wounded Warriors and invited the local residents. The gates opened at 6:00 and the WW were scheduled to arrive around 7:00.

Just a little before seven word went around for everyone to make two lines from the gate for the soldiers to walk down.

The Marines lined up outside the gate and marched in. It was so neat to see these young men and women in casual clothes but still proudly displaying the fact that they were soldiers.

The people lined up just inside the gate came on buses with the Marines. It is my assumption that they were host families.

There were two bands playing for entertainment, lots of bar b que, beer and plenty of free water. While we were sitting enjoying the band some movement to my right caught my attention. It was way over on the side of the fiend. I realized it was kids playing football. Upon further investigation I realized there were some big kids playing. The tall ones with gold shirts are WW.

Just a note: at 6:00 PM the temperature was 97 degrees.

I just wanted to add a few more photos. Tomorrow night comes the quilt connection.