an all American day in the Tennessee Valley

On July 20, I had the honor to be the guest speaker for the Tennessee Valley Quilters Association. This is a group of some 25 guilds who get together once a year in their region for education, shopping and camaraderie. Lots of camaraderie!!! This year's theme was As American as Red, White and Blue.

I was the keynote speaker and shared the story of my new book "American Cotton: Farm to Quilt." It was an enthusiastic audience of about 350+ passionate quilters.

This year's event was organized by the Friendship Quilt Guild (based in Smyrna) - and let me tell you, they are an enthusiastic bunch. They also did their homework. When I was speaking at QuiltCon in Nashville in Feb. of this year, several of the members attended my lecture to see if my topic was a good fit for their event.

Also shared a trunk show of my antique quilts. This one is made in Nebraska, circa 1910. 

My trunk show quilts are all lined up ready to be shown... this table looks just like a candy store!

Not the best photo of me... haha. I was busy talking... explaining that this quilt - like many antique quilts - is made with tiny little stitches. Tiny stitches were necessary to keep the cotton batting from moving around, (or migrating is the technical term).

The quilt above and the one below are both made in the 1930s from quilt kits put together by Home Arts Studios. This company was run by Hubert Ver Mehren and he designed some fabulous quilts. He is known for these two incredible designs - the Rising Sun and the Giant Dahlia. I love the solid colors.

This one is contemporary. Made by Robin Long - Robin Ruth Designs. She used American Made Brand cotton... and she has some pretty cool templates to make these Mariner Compass points super doable! Check out her website. 

The event was held at a local middle school in Smyrna, just outside of Nashville. I can honestly say, of all the lectures I have done, this might be the most impressive set up ever. Look at that screen! The slide I am displaying is an art quilt made by Patricia Kennedy-Zafred, part of her American Portrait series. You can see more of Patricia's work here. 

Each of her images in this series are American farmers and farm wives and they are hand silk-screened onto old cotton feed sacks. The image is a little washed out in the photo, but the real quilt is just stunning!

By the way... I recently wrote an article on Patricia and her work for Curated Quilts magazine - "Well Said" issue. It turned out to be a very powerful feature story on a truly talented artist. See more here.

The Warm Company donated this beautiful roll of Warm & Natural and I drew the number for the winner. Warm Company also donated packs of queen and twin size. How wonderful! I heard some happy screams when those numbers were called for door prizes. Thank you Warm Company! I love your batting and have used it for 20 years.

This sweet woman below, so cute decked out in the event's patriotic theme, picked me up at the airport, took me to dinner - twice - and even took me back to the airport. Thank you Kim! You are awesome!