Scrap Bag: CBS spotlights heavy metal quilter, valuing a quilters work, quilts come home, and more | Inside Quilters Newsletter
And just like that, it’s December! Scrap Bag took last week off due to Thanksgiving, which means this week’s post is bursting with quilt-related news.
This has been a year of tremendous growth for Cathy Wiggins and her passion for making art quilts from leather. In addition to being featured in Quilters Newsletter’s August/September 2016 issue, Cathy has received other press coverage and shows for her quilts, not to mention sales of her pieces. In her recent blog post “Stop Selling Yourself Short!”, Cathy addressed the all-too-prevalent issue among quilters and the quilt industry of properly valuing the work they do from a monetary standpoint.
gypsywoodmusings.com
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In its Thanksgiving weekend episode, CBS’s “Sunday Morning” show included a segment on quilter Ben Venom and his heavy-metal-t-shirt quilts. (The video is no longer available for free viewing, but the link will take you to a full transcript with more images.)
www.cbsnews.com
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One of Canada’s most famous quilts recently underwent conservation efforts and was returned to its home at the Kings County Museum in Hampton, New Brunswick. The crazy quilt was made from scraps of gowns worn by women who attended galas during the 1864 Charlottetown Conference, at which representatives from the colonies of British North America met to discuss Canadian Confederation.* Four years after the museum sent the quilt to the Canadian Conservation Institute to be restored, the quilt came back in a custom crate that was too large to fit through the museum’s doors. But it’s now back in the museum and being readied for display in time for Canada’s 150th anniversary celebrations in 2017.
www.cbc.ca
*I have to confess I didn’t know anything about this until reading about it to write this blurb. I clearly have much to learn about Canadian history.
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A woman in Garland, Texas, put Facebook to work to track down the owners of a photo memory quilt she found alongside a busy highway. Without knowing anything about the owners and having no names to go by, Amanda Hanes posted photos of the quilt on Facebook and encouraged people to share them in the hopes that someone would recognize the people in the photo-transfer patches. Within a few days her Facebook post had been shared enough for a woman in California to contact Amanda with information on the owners so the quilt could be returned.
cw33.com
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In yet another story of a quilt coming home thanks to someone from the Lone Star State, a signature quilt made in 1945 by members of the Busy Bee club in Fairview, Montana, was recently returned by a woman from Kemp, Texas. The woman has no ties to Fairview nor did she recount why she had the quilt. She just called the Chamber of Commerce president to ask if they’d like it and then sent it to City Hall, where it arrived the day before Thanksgiving. A permanent home for the quilt is now being sought.
www.sidneyherald.com
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The tragic school bus crash in Chattanooga, Tennessee, that killed six children and injured other students shocked and saddened many of us all around the country. Local quilters quickly launched a project to make quilts for the survivors of the crash, and have already received contributions from nearby and other states such as Colorado and Illinois “so that they know that there are strangers out there that love them, that care for them,” one quilter said.
newschannel9.com
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The protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota inspired well-known longarmer Karen McTavish and her mother, quilter Janet McTavish, to collaborate on a quilt that expresses solidarity with the #NoDAPL movement. The quilt is being displayed as part of a benefit on December 9 in Duluth, Minnesota, that will include an art exhibit and performances to raise funds to purchase food for protesters at the camp.
www.duluthnewstribune.com
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Quilt Alliance has released its 2016 annual report in video form. QN and Quilt Alliance have enjoyed a long collegial relationship and we wish them continued success in their work to preserve and document quilt history (or as I like to call it, the “why” of quilting).
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International Quilt Study Center & Museum has named Jean Ray Laury’s Seven Camels Heading West (1984) as its December Quilt of the Month.
www.quiltstudy.org
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This week saw ceremonies around the world in recognition of World AIDS Day, many of which included exhibits of panels from the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. One such ceremony took place in Monaco where Princess Stéphanie, who has been a longtime AIDS awareness leader, and her daughter Camille handed out eight AIDS Memorial quilts containing the names of 72 people who died from the disease.
royalcentral.co.uk
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You didn’t hear it from me, but the word on the street is that a few holiday-themed quilt kits from Quilt and Sew Shop that are still officially considered “new arrivals” have been marked down up to 30% off.
This includes kits such as Cookie Swap Party, which we featured in our Best Christmas Quilts 2016 special issue. The kit includes 20 fat quarters for the blocks plus fabric for the background and binding, all from the Cookie Exchange collection by Sweetwater for Moda Fabrics. Originally $99.99, it’s marked down to $69.99, which is a terrific deal considering the kit comes with 7.5 yards of fabric in addition to the pattern. Click here to learn more about the Cookie Swap Party quilt kit.
Meanwhile, the coordinating backing fabric (which you could use as a focus print in your own holiday quilt — just sayin’) has been marked down 38% to $39.99, another great price for almost 5 yards of fabric. Click here to see the Cookie Swap Party backing fabric.
That’s just one of the quick, seasonal projects from Quilt and Sew Shop currently marked down to help you make the most of your holiday spirit. Click here to see all current clearance items, and be sure to use discount code TINSEL through December 2, 2016, to receive 20% off quilting tools and notions.
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