“Just like my friend Ruth, I search out yarn shops when I travel, hoping to find local yarn.
I’m visiting my daughter in Iowa this week and made a quick visit to theHome Ec. Workshop.
Located in a lovely old red Victorian-style home, the shop offers supplies and inspiration for quilting, crafting, sewing, and a full selection of mostly natural-fiber yarns for knitting and crochet.
It was fun to visit and chat with the owner Codi Josephson, who shared that the shop was recently featured in Better Homes & Gardens Quilt Sampler magazine (Spring/Summer 2022 issue). I came away with a few treasures …. a fabric project bag and some fabric to make a few more. And I found a locally dyed yarn called Ewe & Lea. I loved all the colors, so ended up with five skeins …. wonder what projects I’ll be knitting up!” —Joanne
P.S. You can shop online, if you aren’t headed to Iowa City anytime soon. I bought some sock yarn (on sale) for a friend. -Ruth
The fabric- teacups, teabags and colorful buttons The yarn by Ewe & LeaJen Hewett Project Bag holding the Punkin Head hat Joanne is knitting for her grandson (click for Tara Thomsen’s free pattern)
Mary Alta Kerr Hendricks, my paternal grandmother, was born 130 years ago. She went by the name Alta. When my father was born they lived in Farmersville, Illinois. One summer my brother and I stayed with our grandparents and she taught me to knit. I was four years old.
This is just from the time she resided in a Nursing Care Center in Taylorville, Illinois. My grandmother kept a list of the afghans and shawls she knit for others during this period of her life. Written inside the cover of her copy of The Book of Common Prayer.
Heritage from a post. May 2017. Ben H at WordPress says “This week, share a photo of something that says “heritage” to you. It can be from your own family or culture — a library, a work of public art, a place of worship, an object passed down to you from previous generations.”
I held the quilt to the window so the light could show how beautifully it is pieced and stitched.
She knit the blue Afghan and handstitched the quilt. She could tat and crochet, too. Made egg noodles and hung to dry on a broom stick.
My father Roy J. Hendricks (b. 1912) is the boy standing on the left. Uncle Alan Ray Hendricks(b.1916) is the baby on my grandmother’s lap. My grandfather is standing, Floyd Merle Hendricks.Mary Alta on the left , Sarah and Will Kerr in Illinois
Here’s another post for Throwback Thursday
My paternal grandmother, Mary Alta Kerr, born February 7, 1892 and her brother and sister. I need to do more research, dig around in a box, to get info on her siblings details. I know she called her sister “Sis”.
This is the grandmother who taught me to knit when I was little. No date on the photo. She looks to be 5 or 6? Maybe 1900-1901?
Mary Alta Kerr Hendricks passed March 13,1979 and is buried in Morrisonville, Illinois.
This is a photo of my grandmothers recipe box. This is a poem about bread, glued in the lid given to my grandmother by Ella Beyer. She was my godmother and I was given Ella as my middle name.My grandmother on the right, the one who taught me to knit. 1973 photograph of me in the middle, my grandmother on the right and Aunt Vesta Kent on the left. Morrisonville, Illinois.
Great grandson Shawn Hendricks posted a photo of this tag found on his father’s (John)Afghan
Morrisonville City Cemetery Morrisonville, Illinois
Colleen’s Kawandi (definition below) she is working on now, lots of hand stitching, nearing completion.
Also Photos below of two quilts Colleen completed in Fall 2021
Colleen writes from Nova Scotia –
The bright colours help when things can get a bit grey and dreary – a nice escape.
Handstitched Kawandi by Colleen
The Kawandi are all hand sewn from bits and pieces so it’s relaxing. I took a Zoom class Sujata Shah to learn how they’re made. Margaret Fabrizio is the kawandi maker who inspired me most. She is in her early 90s now and does amazing work. She used to be a world class harpsichord player (played Carnegie Hall) and I believe a professor in California among other things. She is on YouTube and has very colourful stories to tell including one about her friendship with MFK Fisher.” Colleen
Kawandi is a style of quilt created by the Siddi people of India, traditionally sewn by hand with scraps and are improvisational and frequently made of saris snd used clothing.”
Recent Quilt stitched by Colleen Fall 2021 Quilt stitched by Colleen
If you’ve been following the blog, Colleen made me a quilted mug rug in 2011 and here’s the blog post
Parking sign in front of Miller’s Dry Goods Store. Millersburg, Ohio
Seen Saturday afternoon, after purchasing quilting cotton fabric at Miller’s Dry Goods. I’d done mail order from the store this past year during the Pandemic and wanted to go in person. I changed my route home to Pittsburgh from Columbus Ohio after visiting my family last Week. More quilts in mind.
Thanks to FedEx, the Pittsburgh themed T-shirt quilt arrived this afternoon. Right in time to celebrate my son Mark’s birthday on the 26th. Happy Birthday Mark.
I knew you’d love it! I was excited when you FaceTimed me as you opened it up. And of course your second call, showing me how Henry the Airedale was sniffing the quilt, looking for grandma.
My granddaughter Maura took the photo of her Dad with his birthday gift. Thanks for sending it Maura.
I took the shirts Mark gave to me and added a few so it was a row longer, scouting a thrift-shop, the closet here in my home, and ebay for the vintage Gateway Clipper T-shirt, where Mark worked when he was in high school.
Henry getting a scent from the new quilt. Airedale approved.
I learned how to back the shirts with interfacing so they were flat and stable when they were sewed together. Thanks to Lisa S of Storm Sew for her tutorial and for her professional long-arm quilting services. Lisa can create a t-shirt quilt from start to finish, or complete your own sewing efforts like she did for mine. The quilting pattern was called Broken Glass. As soon as I finished handstitching the binding, I boxed it and drove to the main FedEx shipping center. He received it less than 24 hours later.
It looks gray in the light but it’s actually black flannel 108” wide backing with gold stitching
Colleen sent a few photos of what she is doing at her home in Nova Scotia. Our friend Joanne in Florida thought it would be interesting to see what people are doing as they “shelter in place.” if you’ve followed this blog for six years you might remember Colleen’s cookbook collection post. Thanks Colleen what a colorful and beautiful quilt.
This is a collaborative guest post by two wonderfully creative women who have been friends since forever.
Colleen and Joanne hail from Nova Scotia. Joanne, living in Florida, collected the photos and good information about Colleen and her love of colorful quilting.
Colleen says “I have a huge stash of fabric that I like to look at for inspiration. Some I have had for many years and almost everything was purchased in the US. I order online occasionally but it gets expensive with taxes, customs and shipping and delivery to Canada can take a long time – so much for instant gratification! Currently Florida is my “go to” shopping locale because I’m there at least once a year. Found a great quilt shop in St. Augustine” http://www.beesquiltshop.com
Here is Colleen, looking to the sun.
Colleen’s cookbook shelves were featured on the blog about five years ago
We lived in Clarion PA in 1981 and I created this State Capitals Quilt for my 5 year old son Mark ( he’ll turn 43 next month). Bicentennial baby. My grandmother actually knit a red white and blue Afghan to match. Anyway, Mark learned all the capitals of the states at an early age thanks to my dad. It’s fun to hear a two year old say “Sacramento.”
I’ve seen the quilt in grandson Michael’s and also in Jack’s room but today it was hanging over the banister here in Ohio so thought I’d post it.
I used a National Geographic map as the template for the states, machine appliquéing them onto the squares in the order they entered the union. Delaware and Maryland State the First square. I embroidered the capital on each. Texas and Alaska are on a different Scale so they’d fit onto the their square. I wish I knew how many miles to the inch The last square I embroidered a bit of the Nation’s Capital.
Then my Aunt Rhea and my cousin Beth (both whom have passed) took it to their church quilting group in Illinois and the group hand quilted it, completing in 1984. We were living in Germany that year. I can’t remember having it there but must have been reunited with it in 1986 when we moved stateside to Kentucky.
