Big News on the Leiner homefront and a new quilt, this time for me. Posted by Virginia "Ginnie" Leiner on August 31, 2015 at 11:37pm View Blog

Things have been happening around here and they have kept me so busy that I have not had time to either blog or quilt so this weekend, I decided it was time to change that and started this delightful flower quilt for me. It is really rare when I make a quilt for myself but I think I am gonna keep this one. Here's the story. Back in 1996, I decided to remodel and update my home in East Moline, Illinois. I was not looking to sell or anything. Things were just in need of repair and sprucing up so I redid the kitchen, living room, and bedrooms with new flooring, new woodwork (a beautiful oak rail and staircase, hidden under carpeting for years!) and new living room furniture, bought on Labor Day sale at Montgomery Wards, remember them? Anyway, I also redid all the bedding and the decorative pillows in all the rooms. I bought six flower pillows at JC Penneys and found a matching one later at some yard sale or thrift shop. I was lookin' good! Fast forward almost 20 years, I now live in Pennsylvania, I still have the chair from the living room furniture and its matching ottoman and most of the bedroom furniture, all the bedding and YES! the flower pillows but they were starting to show some wear on the back side. So I ripped them apart and found an eighth one on ebay, added a sunflower tapestry runner and some very colorful fabric and voila! a quilt top. On the back side of the quilt, I decided to use one of a set of curtains I had with tulips on them and for batting, a not so old but no longer being used mattress pad/cover. So since the majority of the fabrics were something else in a previous life, I decided to name this one, "My Recycled Garden, Summer 2015." I am almost done with the quilting, will probably finish it this week, just in time for the quilt appraiser to arrive on Sunday and appraise all my quilts. Why, you ask, is she having all her quilts appraised? Well, first off, it is a good idea for insurance purposes. But secondly (and this is the Big News), I need to have them appraised for the quilt show I have been asked to mount come November 2015 thru May 2016. Yep. This amateur hour quilt momma has been given a show, a solo show, a real life gallery show in a real life gallery. Gulp. Deep breath. I will post the official announcement postcard when it is printed and if any of you would like one, please let me know and I will send one off. It is such a long show that we are mounting 20 of myholiday quilts, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas from November 12, 2015 - January 22, 2016 then we will go dark for a week while we mount 20 of my non-holiday quilts February 1 - May 22, 2016. Little did I know how much paperwork is involved in this: permission slips, pre-appraisal questionaires, descriptions for the gallery. Words, words, words. I was sick of talking about quilts and desperate to make one. Off to bed now. Rest up you all and we will talk soon! Happy Quilting! Ginnie