Small Quilts and Redwork Quilts

I fell in love with this little quilt when I saw it on someone's pinterest site.  It is an old doll quilt that is owned by Jane Weaver (website)  She has several old small quilts, and I love all of them.  She calls this one Triangles Variation Doll Quilt.

I love to study old quilts and their fabrics.  When I try to duplicate them, it helps me learn about colors and what makes a part of the block recede, or come forward.   Sometimes I love a quilt, but don't know why, and after I try to make one like it, I understand why I love the original quilt so much.   And I usually love my attempt to make it too!  It has been fun to work on this one.

Original quilt, circa 1895, 17.5 in. by 21.75 in.

Here's the bottom row of this quilt, original version (a little blurry, sorry):

And my attempt to copy it:

Here's how far I am, as it is pinned on my design wall:

As you can see, I did most of the four patches before I attempted the hourglass blocks.  The hourglass blocks will finish at 1 inch, but aren't really that bad to make because I make them a little bigger, and then make the final cut at 1.5 inches square.

The original maker would probably think I'm batty for making a duplicate of her random fabric selections, but I love the total look, and it is so much fun to dissect it and study the old fabrics.

I may add more red somewhere in the upper left area, so there are three spots of red, what do you think?  I love the red hourglasses in it.

I'm also multitasking on several other projects.  Here's a redwork square that I finished recently.  My friend Dee and I are making squares to replicate an old quilt from a pattern I bought in Paducah at the AQS Quilt Show from a vendor.  I liked the pattern, and when I got home I realized I had taken pictures of a quilt made from the same pattern when I was at the Hampton Road Mid-Atlantic quilt show!  The quilt has a redwork border, and I hadn't seen one with a border before.   Here's one square that I embroidered:

And here's one of the pictures I took at the quilt show, showing what the border looks like.  I'm sorry I didn't snap a photo of the info tag to tell you who made it.

Now that I am doing the embroidery, I am thinking I may make a different border - It's not that I'm fond of this particular border, I just like the idea of a border on a redwork quilt. 

I'm checking out Judy L.'s blog (Patchwork Times) to see what is on everyone's design wall this Monday.  What are you working on today?

Quilting and Gardening - I love it!

This week has been filled with quilting and gardening - two of my favorite things.  I was gone most of April, and the garden grew like weeds, and the weeds grew like, well, weeds.  So I've been outside for at least an hour a day, sorting my stash of flowers and pitching my stash of weeds.

I finished binding my copy of a nine patch from the book Childhood Treasures.  It now belongs to my doll Hitty, and here is a picture of her with her new quilt, and the book's picture.  Childhood Treasures - Doll Quilts By and For Children, by Merikay Waldvogel, is one of my favorite books.

The little quilt finished at 14 inches square, and the nine patch pieces are 1.25 inches square.

I've been working on Birds of a Feather and here's my progress:

I liked the orange bird I inherited with this UFO from my friend Sharyn, and added  leaves in fall colors.  There is going to be a bright berry in the mouth of the bird.

We have wrens building a nest in a birdhouse on our front porch, and the chimney swifts are nesting in our chimney, so I feel blessed by birds inside and outside.

I finished sewing the red print flowers on this one, so one block is complete!  I am finding that the more applique that I do, the more I like it.

I'm posting a link to Design Wall Mondays at this blog.
(Patchwork Times Blog)

I like to see what everyone else is working on each Monday, and looking there reminds me to post to you what I've been working on.  

Go Oft To The House of Thy Dear Friend.....For Weeds Choke Up An Unused Path

Today, my dear friend Dee brought out two old projects that I had made for her years ago, and I thought I'd share them with you.  I love the old fashioned feeling they both have.

Both patterns are from an old needlework magazine that she bought in England while traveling.  The first is a needle case made from four cardboard hearts.  I had such fun making it, and she has treasured it ever since I gave it to her.  The saying embroidered around the edge is:  "Go oft to the house of thy dear friend....for weeds choke up an unused path."  So true!

 

 

Two of the hearts are cut into halves so they fold, and the two whole hearts are padded with batting on the inside, to hold needles and pins. The four hearts are whip stitched together.

 

I braided strands of pearl cotton in a lavender color to make the ties that you use to tie a bow to close the hearts.

The second project is a travel laundry bag that she takes on trips.  It was hanging on a peg in the closet when I visited her, and she says she uses it all the time.

 

It's made of muslin on the front, and yellow gingham on the back and lining.  I changed the pattern to write "Ocean City" on the towel on the clothesline, since we had vacationed there together.  Here's a closeup of the embroidery.

I'm flying back home tomorrow, and will miss Dee very much.  

Here's a picture of one of her quilts that we worked on together this week.  It's now a completed quilt top, and I just love it.  We have very different styles in quilts, but it really inspires me to visit her quilt room, and see all of her projects.

The circle making the "coffee" in the cups is the cup fabric, but the wrong side of the fabric!  So clever.  She machine buttonhole stitched around each cup.
I think it's so cute!  

I will be flying home tomorrow, and am going to be working on redwork in the airports.