Women's Right to Vote - Block of the Week

I've caught up with the blocks for Barbara Brackman's block of the week with the historic theme of women's right to vote.  Interesting history story each week (Here)

Week 23: Girl's Joy:  An Ounce of Persuasion

Week 24:  True Blue:  Too Smart

Week 25:  The Carrie Nation Quilt

Week 26:  Ladies' Wreath:  Mourning for Mother

I have really enjoyed using cheddar and black on these squares, and learning more history about the women's right to vote journey.

Today is the last day in February, and it really flew by.  In March, I plan to finish some doll quilts and show them to you.

Two Charming Quilts from the Quilt Show

More eye candy from the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival, held in Hampton, VA!

First is this beautiful quilt owned by Nancy Mahoney, and hand quilted by Laura Lipski:

Here are some closeups of the quilt:

The blues are more vibrant as they get nearer the edge of the quilt, and are lighter, and cooler toward the center.  I love the plaids and stripes on the edges of the quilt!



Next is a quilt top that was called "Wonky Nine Patch" by it's owner, Nancy L. Losee.  

Closeups of some of the beautiful fabrics used in this quilt top:

The colors are so beautiful and I could see several fabrics that have been reproduced for our use today.  I hope you are enjoying these little snippets of what I saw last Saturday at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival.  

Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show in Hampton, Virginia

Here are two quilts that I liked from my Saturday trip to the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show in Hampton, Virginia, both made by the nationally known quilter, Mary Chalmers.  The first one won a ribbon for the best use of embellishments on a traditional quilt.

 

It's a fan quilt, made of wool, and wool blend scraps, and the embroidery on it is so beautiful.  I stood and admired it for a long time.  I took some closeups of some of the centers of the fans, shown below.

The embroidery is a different design around the outside edge of the fan shapes, and each circle center is a different design.  Just beautiful!

Next is another striking quilt called Summer Wedding, also made by Mary Chalmers, and it was inspired by a 1930's quilt:

I hope you enjoy today's pictures from the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show.  There will be more pictures tomorrow.

Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival Pictures

Yesterday I visited the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival, and saw some beautiful quilts.   Sue Garman has designed a beautiful quilt, named "Stars For a New Day".  There were two quilts in the show made from her pattern.

First, here's Sue Garman's version:

Isn't it beautiful?

The first one in the show was made by Linda James, and the following pictures are of her quilt, named "Ascent to the Stars":

The second one was made by Shawn Priggel, and he named his version "Stars For a New Day - My Way":

Both quilts have beautiful workmanship and beautiful machine quilting.  I thought it was interesting to see the same pattern done in different color schemes - and I enjoyed seeing both quilts.  Hope you enjoy seeing them too!

My Button Quilt

This has been a very full two weeks, very full of everything but quilting!  But I'm back home now, and am happy to report that my sister is doing much better!

There have been questions in the past about my header quilt, and today I will share more about it:

The quilt measures 22 x 35 inches and the squares are one inch.  It is a memory of the fun I had as a child, sifting through the buttons in my Mom's button box, and was made the year after my Mom died, in 2007.  I had seen one in a button shop in St. Charles, MO, years ago, and this is a copy of that quilt.  I found this picture below on the web, and it may be of the quilt from the shop in St. Charles, MO.  I don't know for sure.

It is quite heavy, so I haven't hung it on the wall, but I usually put it over a table top, for display.  I had fun picking out old buttons from Mom's button box to sew onto this quilt.  Hope you enjoy reading about it today.

Very snowing conditions yesterday for my drive to the airport, and then the de-icing procedure and other delays caused me to miss my connecting flight, yada, yada, yada, everyone on the plane was in the same situation, so we all made the best of it....I was very grateful that I was flying away from the winter weather.  Here's a picture I took from the plane:


Here's a picture of my labrador retriever, Sally, who is very glad I'm back home.  

Hubby is very happy to have me back home too!  Today I dashed off to Hampton Roads to take in the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show, and before I left, he asked me if I was going to buy anything.

I said I wasn't sure, but I did ask him just how much he had spent this past week on his latest golf putter....you know, as just a ballpark figure to give me some idea of how much I could spend at the quilt show.  hehehe

Life Without Quilting this Week

Happy Valentines Day!  I am away from my home for a week, as my sister is in the hospital, and I am visiting her.  

No quilting going on but I pulled up

pictures of red and white quilts to 

help us celebrate Valentines Day.

I hope to be back to my quilting soon.  Until then, enjoy you scraps without me.  I am making time today for a little quilt shop therapy before heading to the hospital to see my sister.

Valentine's Day is Coming Soon!

I love Valentine's Day - I am such a romantic! 

     Here's a little quilt I just made, and it's hanging on the wall in my sewing room.  It started out as the backing for another quilt, but when I finished it, I liked it so much that I decided to add a heart and make it the front of a little quilt.  
     I was a CPA in a former life, and I like to match things, and line up things by nature.  These little patches are made with a stripe and a one way print, and that made me put all the little dots under the circles going the same way, and alternate the stripes with each row.  What can I say?  These quirks make me happy.
The little button covered heart was an Ebay purchase, and the bear is a handmade bear I bought years ago.

The three napkins are new though.  We use cloth napkins and I like to make them for different seasons.  There will be 16 of these when I'm finished.  Easy to make, and I usually choose a fabric that looks good on the back too, because you can see both sides.  In this case, it's a woven fabric, and I can use them at Christmas time too.  Using cloth napkins is so much nicer than paper ones, and my guests always compliment me on them.

After sorting things in the sewing room yesterday, I came across this block which was a start on the "Just Takes 2" project last year.  After starting the project, I decided I didn't want to keep it up, and only did the first few blocks.  Now this block is the start of another little Valentine's Day doll quilt.  I'm sure Sophia Grace and Rosie are happier now that I'm working on doll quilts.  hee hee

Here's the "Just Takes 2" heart block on some red hearts small print background:  

I think it will be a square quilt, with a large border.   What are you making for Valentine's Day?  Check out Judy L.'s blog to see what is on everyone's design wall today.  (here)

34th Street - What about borders?

Top is sewn together - last seam finished today!  Yeah!

What do you think about borders?  I have tentatively added a white and red border to finish it off - closer look is below:



I am happy with it, but want to know what you think.  Opinions, please and thank you.  The white border is using up all of the white that I have - and will have to be pieced a little to make it work.  

What I learned while making this quilt:

 (1)  I will not use white on white (wow) fabric again.  I was constantly holding it under a light to look closely to see if I had the right side of the fabric up, and wasn't sewing it wrong side up.  Good news is this quilt uses up most of the wow fabric that I have, and I won't be buying any more.  I'm too old for this trouble.

(2)  It was so much fun making the parts, and then veering off in another direction when it came time to combine them.  I will do this again.  

If you are making Bonnie's mystery quilt, what did you learn while you were making it?

A big thank you to Bonnie Hunter for providing all the fun to us.  She's a gem!  (her website)