Vacation Cabin Sewing Area

Here's a picture of the sewing machine wall.   I hung the little quilts with straight pins in the corners. I brought lots of quilts with me to show to some friends who are visiting us at the cabin. 


My view to the right out the window is of the lake, so it is a double pleasure.



I haven't been doing any quilting for two weeks, as I've had grandchildren here and have been busy with them.  We are near Lake Michigan, and I'll leave you with pictures taken two different nights of beautiful Lake Michigan.

Life is good on vacation.  Hope you are enjoying your summer too.

Story of 2 Dresden Plate Quilts

When I was a kid, my brother and I would try to find an ear of corn with an odd number of rows.  We never did - always even rows on every ear of corn we ate.


It's the same with Dresden plate "blades" or "spokes" - always an even number.   Well, almost always.  Here's the story of my Two Dresden Plate Quilts.


The Bed Quilt; 73 inches by 90.5 inches quilt top, just completed

The thirties Dresden Plate circles of fabric, all 20 of them, were given to me by a friend, and I noticed right away that they didn't lay flat.   What to do.....what to do.......redo all the seams in each circle......or......maybe take out one "blade" or "spoke".  It was easier to take out one piece of fabric, and sew the rest together, and they were then as flat as pancakes!  I fixed all 20 of the circles, and then decided to applique them onto muslin background.  I thought yellow would  be a good choice for the center circles and the sashing, so I appliqued yellow circles over the center of the now 21 plates.  (I made an extra one with all the "blades" I removed from the other circles).

Midway through this project, I saw a little kit on Etsy to make a doll quilt with Dresden Plates and yellow sashing, just like the one I had in progress.  I thought, wouldn't that be cute to have matching big and little Dresden Plate quilts?


So, I bought the little kit and went to work.  I sewed 10 blades together as per the instructions and the little circles didn't quite close.......what to do.....I know!  Add another blade!  So the little quilt has 11 blades in each plate, and they lay very flat.  

This little doll quilt top is 16.5 by 21 inches.


I think it's fitting that the two matching quilts both have an odd number of "blades" or "spokes".  Odd, or actually, not odd, but rather symbiotic, or synchronous, or some other word that describes "in balance".


I also feel that some quilter from the past is smiling down on me with pleasure because her Dresden Plate project is getting closer to being a finished quilt.

I love all the fabrics that she chose.  Have you ever seen a Dresden Plate with an odd number of blades?


I'm going over to piecefullife-elizabeth.blogspot.com to report in with her Little Quilt Mondays, to see what everyone else is doing.  What are you working on?

AAQI Charity Donation and Gonk

Here's a picture of my charity quilt with a Gonk.  I thought they matched with their plaid character!


My Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) charity quilt has now been given a number, and is in their internet listing of quilts for sale at the website:


www.altzquilts.org


There are lots of beautiful quilts for sale there, all for a great cause.  This one is named "Homespun Triangles" and is #10405.  I see several quilts there that I want to buy.  They put a price of $40 on this one.


Do you know what a Gonk is?   Gonks are egg-shaped toys from the 1960's.


I visited my friend Dee recently, and her brother had brought his Gonk over to her for eye repairs.  Her older brother Harry, used to cruise around his neighborhood in the 60's with this Gonk strapped in the back seat of his ultra cool 1957 silver Chevy convertible!


Now he keeps his Gonk on his houseboat, where his children and grandchildren can enjoy him.  Anyone else have a Gonk about 50 years ago?


I'm posting this small quilt on the pieceful life blog with the other posts for Little Quilt Monday.  I like to see what other little projects people are working on there.


http://piecefullife-elizabeth.blogspot.com


I'm in Michigan in the middle of a forest, so I have to go to the nearest town to get internet service, so please forgive me if I don't respond to your posts very quickly.  I am on vacation from internet service, and it is showing me how much I miss it.

Fourth of July Quilt

This quilt idea was from a quilt shown in the magazine Miniature Quilts, Issue 61.  As it's pictured in the magazine, it has 260 yo-yos and was made by Michaele Daramus.  The yo-yos are 1 and 1/4 inch in diameter.

After making a lot of yo-yos, and looking at the size of the quilt as per the instructions, I decided I wanted a smaller flag, and made my yo-yos into two flags.  I gave one away to a friend as a gift, and kept the one you see below.  It has 126 yo-yos, and measures 9.5" by 15."

The small log home is in the living room of our cabin in Michigan.  The grandchildren are getting too old to play with it, but I love it because it looks very similar to the outside of the real cabin.  There are several animals (deer, bear, elk, etc.) who live inside this toy cabin.  Sometime I will show the back of the toy cabin, and all the animals who live there.

I hope you have a fun filled week!  We Americans are celebrating our freedom with lots of American flags flying.  We are at our cabin for the summer, chilling out in the cool breezes from the lake.  Life is Good!