Drive-By Quiltings

January 31, 2016

We've had dry spell, but on our trip to the Ricky Tims Super Quilt Seminar in Fort Lauderdale, FL, Stacy Sundgren saw the FB post and we were able to manage to cross paths in Dayton, TX. 

Stacy Says: I saw Ricky's post today on Facebook that he and Justinwould be heading to Florida tomorrow morning on I-10. I don't live far from their route so I responded and asked when they expected to be passing a location that's near my home. After a few messages back and forth, it was agreed that it might still be too dark in the morning when they go by the place I had in mind. Instead, Ricky suggested that they could make a slight change in their route today and do not only a drive by, but a quick stop by, too, in Dayton, Texas. Dayton is only a few miles away from where I live.  I grabbed one of my favorite quilt tops, my husband, and off we went. The timing for everything worked out perfectly. This week has been a rough one, and having an opportunity to catch one of Ricky and Justin's Drive By Quiltings was great fun and a much needed pick-me-up. We really appreciate their efforts to make it work.

About The Quilt

This little quilt was the project for the Greater Houston Area Shop Hop from 2011 (I think that's the right year). I loved the Texas-inspired blocks - yellow roses, a lone star, bluebonnet, prickly pear cactus, Texas Rangers and the Alamo, to name a few. I'm not an experienced seamstress at all, so I was a little intimidated by the small piecing and applique  some of the blocks required and hesitated a long time before even beginning the project. But I really wanted to prove to myself I could learn to do something besides sew straight stitches. I finally started making the blocks in late 2011 and finished the top before the next shop hop started in March 2012. I was very happy with the way it turned out and proud of myself for getting it done.

Stacy Laird Sundgren

Successful Drive-by Quilting #24 goes to Kathyl Jogerst. Kathyl is the first person to get two drive-by quiltings! And they were not in the same town. We were on our Route 66 tour, and I had just finished getting being part of the Cadillac Ranch painted car attraction. I got painted too! After the drive-by, Kathy managed to make it to Quilted Bliss, the quilt shop where our group dropped a few $$.

Kathyl says:

I saw on Facebook that Ricky and his Route 66 tour group were going to be coming through Amarillo.  Although I live in Coralville, Iowa, I was in Amarillo for a few weeks assisting my mother who was recovering from a broken pelvis after a fall. I thought it would be fun (and a break in my routine) to participate in another drive-by. Mother and I scouted out a great spot, though she was a bit perplexed by it all ;-) and I contacted Ricky to see if the timing would work. So after a few messages and phone calls.......I was standing on the overpass and waving a quilt as the bus driver honked and flashed the headlights! Success!! I was in such a hurry to get to the over pass in time that I ignored the beeps my car was giving me as I closed the doors. I'm certainly glad Amarillo is flat because in my haste and excitement, I had neglected to put my car in "park"!  So that's what those beeps were!!  

About the quilt:

The quilt has an interesting back story.  My mother was an avid garage saler and collects owls (if I told you how many, we would have the producers of "Hoarders" calling.) She found this poor owl quilt at a garage sale and brought it home. She spent an entire winter taking the blocks out of the setting and picking out the quilting (I use that term loosely.) The blocks are a very cute and nicely done embroidery with crayon? or perhaps a fabric paint pen to fill in the colors. However the poor woman either had no idea of how to sew or had a machine that needed to be thrown in the nearest dumpster.

None of the blocks were the same size, her machine stitches chewed holes in the fabric, and she made tubes for the sashing and then stuffed those with fiberfill! (I so wish I had a picture of the quilt before my mother tore it apart.)  She then sent ME the blocks....hint hint. Out of 24 blocks, I found 16 that could be trimmed to a decent size to put together. The owls are machine trapunto and I did a satin stitch around the leaf designs she had "quilted" in the background.  The satin stitch covered many holes. I gave the quilt back to my mother for Christmas one year and she has probably shown it to everyone who has stepped over her threshold since then. She even entered it in a local show, I suspect to show it off to even more people!   

This drive-by resulted during my Route 66 trip on a bus filled with quilters and quilt enthusiasts. It was our first drive-by quilting on a bus where an entire group could witness it. When I got connected to Holly Fletcher, we were already close - two hours out! It is challenging to make this work so two hours is not as long of a lead time as you might think. The good thing is that we had turned off of the interstate and it made it easier for her to get on the shoulder of the road rather than on an overpass. They represent Merrily We Quilt Along quilt shop in Springfield, MO. Yay gang!

Holly says:

We saw that Ricky was doing a Route 66 tour and heard Branson, MO was on his route. We got connected with him only a couple of hours prior to him driving by our quilting/BERNINA shop, Merrily We Quilt Along, in Springfield, MO! After making arrangements with "where" we could hold up quilts, we hastily took down two quilts from the wall and ran out the shop door!  We drove to a spot on 65 HWY and got out of the car, risking life and limb!!  I (Holly) was extremely terrified and thought we might die!  Ricky called and said, "Two minutes!" Micky was almost blown off the hill when she held her quilt up like a sail! 
 
When we saw a HUGE tour bus coming down the road, we knew it had to be Ricky's bus!  The bus only slowed a tiny bit but gave a friendly toot! It was so much FUN and an experience neither one of us will forgot anytime soon!!!
 
I recommend everyone have fun with Ricky on his travels to catch the next "Drive By Quilting" experience!
 

About the Quilts:

Holly was holding the black quilt with bright colors, called "CrossWise".  It measures 63"x79" and you can purchase the kit for $99 at Merrily
We Quilt Along.

 
Micky was holding the yellow and grey quilt called "Gray Matters".  It measures 71" x 86" and you can purchase the kit for $85 at Merrily We Quilt Along.

I was driving on the back streets of Shipshewana, Indiana when suddenly I was ambushed by a surprise drive-by quilting. Thank goodness had my iPhone and could snap a pic. Lois Dunten has attended my retreats in Colorado and has a quilt featured on my Kool Kaleidescope DVD. Linda Maether is a big fan and is an enthusiastic member of The Quilt Show.com. She recently told me that she enjoys my music, quilt patterns, and especially my hand dyed fabrics. Linda is on the left, Lois is on the right.

Linda says:

Ricky was the featured speaker for the Shipshewana Quilt Festival and was with a fellow employee sight- seeing between engagements.  We had heard of drive by quiltings that Ricky had enjoyed and wanted to create a surprise for him. We only planned this the evening before, so had to think fast!

We stood in the drive behind Yoder Department Store going up to the Elementary school. We knew he had to got hat way and would be driving slow so he would be able to see us and our quilts.  It was a surprise and hopefully a good memory of his visit to Shipshewana, Indiana in June 2012.  Whoo Hoo!!

About the quilts:

Lois was holding 2 quilts, the first was a patriotic table runner from a “Pieces from My Heart” pattern by Sandy Grevais #335, “Pride and Glory”  made in 2006, it measures 20 ¾” x 40 ¾”.

Lois's second quilt is a fall wallhanging that she made as a possible quilt for Joen Wolfrom’s latest book “Adventures in Design.” However it was not included in this book.  Joen has written Lois that she wants to include it in the revision of her color book instead.  The two block quilt was made using public domain blocks-Fifty-four Forty or Fight and four patch blocks within a nine patch block.  It measures 37” square and was made in 2011.

Linda was holding a “Kool Kaleidescope“ quilt top using Ricky Tims’ fabric “Oodles of Doodles” by Red Rooster .  The kit was purchased at Spring Market, 2010.  It measures 25” square.  Linda had Ricky autograph it and will machine quilt it. It was made in 2012.

The second quilt that Linda displayed was a variation of “Tuscan Moons” pattern by Kelly Cobridge and hand dyed fabrics by Cherrywood.  Linda also added Prairie Points to the border using Susan Cleveland ‘s techniques.  Susan was a guest on The Quilt Show.  Linda used the circular attachment on her Bernina to do decorative stitches around the circles and it was also machine quilted.  It measures 39”square.  It was made in 2012.

This is a drive-by quilting captured during a ride on the London Underground. 

Ferret says: Ricky was in London over the Christmas period, and I thought we should make the most of the opportunity and do a drive-by quilting. The problem was that Ricky wasn't going to be driving anywhere convenient for me to get to. I was going to be having dinner with Ricky, Justin and their friend Susan, so I arranged for Tet to bring one of my quilts in case we could work out a way to sort something out. We couldn't do a drive-by, but a "tube-by" on the London Underground seemed like the next best thing.

Tet says: I was bringing one of Ferret's quilts, and that afternoon I'd 99% finished a top that I'd been making as a Christmas present for my parents, so I decided to bring that along as well.

About the quilts:

Ferret says: A friend of mine had seen some of my other nude quilts, and had told me she wanted to model for me. She's a lawyer by day, but has been ballet dancing since childhood. She sent me a selection of photos, I chose one and this was the resulting quilt. After soliciting opinions via my blog, it was named "Quiet moment" by committee (the model, Tet and me collectively) from a shortlist of the suggestions. As with all of my quilts, it's made entirely from fabric and thread, with no painting?involved.

Tet says: I never intended to become a quilter. But I'd been proofreading and typesetting Ferret's patterns, and the only way to do that properly is to follow the instructions, which by default made me a quilter. Or at least a piecer. Although I'd made several of Ferret's patterns, this was the first quilt I'd designed myself. It was a very late decision to make a quilt as a Christmas present. I started on 19th December and finished it just in time. The central panels are from some stained glass door panels by Leadbitter Glass, in the style of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, my mother's favourite designer. I added the borders, again in the style of Mackintosh.