AIDS Services Coalition Ribbons of Change Gala

"Butterfly" 20" x 20"--My donation to the Gala auction

 

 The AIDS Services Coalition will hold its annual "Ribbons of Change" Gala November 4 at the  Hattiesburg Historic Train Depot. The event will feature food, music, art, live and silent auctions, with proceeds going to support of 1-2-1 Haven House. ASC has served the Hattiesburg area for 10 years, working working to meet the gaps in services--case management to help keep people housed and in care, HIV testing to make sure those at risk are being tested, food to help keep people healthy, additional housing to help people work toward independence... changing attitudes and lives.

DeSoto Arts Council Exhibit

Desoto Arts Council sponsored an art quilt exhibit at the Historic Banks House in Hernando, MS, from September 8-November 1, 2012.  Two of my art quilts were in the exhibit--Galaxy and Leaf Study. The DeSoto Arts Council serves as the countywide home for the arts with space for exhibitions, classes, meetings, gift shop, and special events.

Galaxy (above)

Leaf Study

Established in 1999, the non-profit organization serves 144,706 residents, including the 29,800 children attending DeSoto County Schools, one of the largest school districts in the state of Mississippi
in one of the 40 fastest growing counties of the United States.

DeSoto County, in northwest Mississippi, includes the cities of Hernando, Horn Lake, Olive Branch, Southaven, and Walls. The Mississippi River is the western boundary and Memphis, Tennessee is the northern border. Here the delta meets the hills. The formerly rural region’s rich culture includes rock and roll legend Jerry Lee Lewis, celebrated blues musicians Memphis Minnie, Big Walter Horton, Gus Cannon, and Kenny Brown, best selling writer John Grisham, and actor James Earl Jones.

Pumpkins!

I love when pumpkins begin appearing in all the stores. This year our church, University Baptist in Hattiesburg, created a pumpkin patch on our front lawn for the two weeks before Halloween. We had about 800 pumpkins of all sizes; all proceeds from sales of pumpkins went to our partnership with Thames Elementary School. People stopped by to buy pumpkins for carving, decorating, and pie baking. The Saturday Fall Festival featured games, races, prizes, and food. I will be sorry to see the pumpkin patch ended in November. But I will enjoy them in my front yard for a couple of months.

Pumpkins and crotons in my front yard

MQA Fall Gathering in Cleveland

The Cotton Row Quilters in Cleveland, Mississippi, hosted the Fall Gathering of Mississippi Quilt Association this past weekend. We have three Gatherings a year, with the Spring and Fall meetings moving about the state, and the June meeting located more centrally in the Jackson area. I had never visited this beautiful Delta region of our state, and we were treated to a warm welcome with lots of music and local culture to make our trip memorable. It is always rewarding to hear people brag about their particular area, and we enjoyed observing the deep pride these residents had in the Delta. Cotton bolls decorated the tables, and we saw fields of cotton ready to be harvested as well as huge bundles--(I don't know the new terminology for cotton bales!) ready to be taken to the gins.

      The bed-turning portion of the program featured a collection of quilts made by the late master quilter Martha Skelton, a collection that will not be seen again. These quilts had been borrowed from their current owners solely for creating one last exhibit of her work. MQA produced a book in 2008 about Martha's life and her quilts, and University Press recently turned over a large number of these books to MQA. They make great gifts, and guilds are buying copies to place in libraries across the state.
     Ethel Wright Mohamed's daughter, Carol Ivy, Curator of the Ethel Wright Mohamed Stitchery Museum, called Mama's Dream World, was at the Gathering to show us pictures and books about her mother's unique stitched pictures.  Mohamed's work is housed in the old home place in Belzoni, Mississippi. Mohamed is often called Mississippi's Grandma Moses of stitchery, and has pieces in the Smithsonian Institution.

ArTEAst Festival 2012

Dean Meador Smith of Simply TeaVine hosted ArTEAst Festival 2012 at the Meador Homestead Cabin today. There were about 30 writers, artists, and crafters set up in the 125-year-old cabin and all about the yard. Gadsby's Good Grub was there with delicious hot dogs, and the weather was a perfect fall day with temperatures measuring from 65 to 85 degrees.

This is the third year Dean has hosted the ArTEAst Festival, and artists and the public enjoyed the charming historical location and learning some of the history of Dean's family. 

Pine Belt Quilters 14th Biennial Show

My international friends enjoyed the show, and they were eager to understand the  differences between machine and hand quilting, machine and hand applique, and the meaning of the different colored ribbons (blue=1st, red=2nd, yellow=3rd, white=honorable mention).

My Red Hibiscus won a blue ribbon in the Theme-Small category (Life on Our Planet).

Red Hibiscus, 29" x 24", adapted from Lenore Crawford's Pink Hibiscus pattern

Find Your True South won a red ribbon and the purchase award in the Challenge category sponsored by the Hattiesburg Convention and Tourist Bureau.

Find Your True South, 24" x 24"

Migration and The Atrium at Ochsner's won honorable mentions. I had four other pieces in the show (not ribbon winners). The show received high praise from attendees. The show judge, Lorraine Covington, from North Carolina, said she was impressed with the talent and skill demonstrated by the quilters as she judged the 390+ quilts in 22 categories. In addition to the three days of the exhibition, we had a large boutique of handmade items, 19 vendors, and hourly demonstrations. Mary Ann Scruggs was the lucky winner of the raffle quilt.

The Atrium at Ocshner's, 19" x 29"

Migration, 36" x 35"

It will be time for our 15th biennial show before we know it!

Quilt Talk with Internationals

On left, Chinese student Helen Jiang; Sirui, graduate teaching assistant; Lisa Fang, master's in communication and wife of student. On the right are Korean visiting professors from Korea, Gab-sun and Eunyre Kim.

I had the privilege of speaking to a group of international students recently about my art quilting. They were interested in traditional quilts as well as fiber art and were eager to learn new words that came up in our meeting. Women from my church, University Baptist, meet with a group each Wednesday for the purpose of helping them with conversation, pronunciation, understanding our culture, and language peculiarities.

Linda Donnell, Martha Ginn, Virginia Butler