"Faithful" Doll Quilt

Today is the linkup at Lori's blog (Humble Quilts)  (Here) for a little doll quilt called "Faithful". 

My version is very humble.  I used the Gwen Marston method, and made hst's of a size that I liked, and then cut off the end of the strip when adding it to the center square - no worries if I cut off half of a hst.  It makes it so much easier, and since Gwen's quilts are all so fabulous, I decided I could do it too. The doll quilt ended up being 14 inches square.

A little kitten is snuggled under the quilt in bed.  

When Lori said "quilt as desired", I chose to quilt it with concentric squares to keep the quilting from taking away from the pattern of the quilt.  It was easy to make, and I thank Lori for all of her little quilt-a-longs.  I love them, as I they are so much fun to make.  Here's a picture of the back, showing the quilting; and the triangle hanging corners.  Triangles are added because I may want to hang it on a wall sometime.

I'm linking up with Design-Wall-Mondays, to see what everyone else is working on.  (Here)

Back Home in Virginia Again.

Hi friends,

I have been away again - caring for my sister in Michigan for the last week.  I'm back home again as of today, and am happy to be back by my sewing machine.  No sewing was done for the past week, but a lot was accomplished, and progress was made in my sister's care.  

While gone, I took a big ball of yarn with me, and here is how far I got with it:  It's to be a baby blanket for an infant - a donation project.

I made a mistake in the pattern about two inches into the blanket, before I memorized the repeats and the pattern changes.  I left it there, as I don't think the baby will notice it.  I asked the little dolls, Sophia Grace and Rosie, and they said it looked fine to them.  I am starting the second ball of yarn, and it is going quite fast.  Knitting is a great calming project when I am dealing with stressful things.

The trip back took me two days, and for the second day, I drove across lower Ohio and West Virginia, and across Virginia.  Much better plan than the boring PA turnpike route.   I picked out four quilt stores to visit, and here is my rating on them:

(1) Sew Many Blessings Quilt Shop
     1925 Adams Avenue, Huntington, WV
Wonderful shop, with helpful staff, and I found several things I wanted there.  They asked if they could help me, and when I said I was just looking, they let me wander around and look at my pace.  The store was very nice, with beautiful displays.  I bought several things on sale.  I gave it an A!

(2) Textile Mills Cloth Shop Inc.
     5303 MacCorkle Ave. SW, South Charleston, WV
I should have researched this one better on the web before I drove there.  When I saw the sign outside "Custom Draperies and Bedspreads", I knew it was not going to give me what I wanted in civil war repros and shirtings.  I looked around a little bit, but didn't find anything that wanted to come home with me.  I gave myself a D- for choosing something that wasn't a quilt store.

(3) Nancy's Fabrics
     218 W. Edgar Avenue, Ronceverte, WV
When I arrived at this quaint little town, the storefront had a "for rent" sign, and was closed and empty.  I have looked at their website now that I'm home and see that they have closed the store and plan a "quilt store on wheels" in a school bus. My disappointment was not too great, as I thought the most promising quilt store was yet to come.  I gave this store an incomplete grade.

(4) Old Trinity Schoolhouse
     3200 Trinity Road, Troutville, VA  
The shop owner was very helpful and the shop was full of all the kind of fabric that I love.  I could have stayed there browsing for hours, but since I arrived at 4:30, I was the last customer out the door at 5:00.  I will come back to this store.  Several shirtings, and reproductions of civil war era fabrics came home with me.  I also bought a beautiful 108" wide quilt backing fabric.  
Grade A+
Here's a picture of the Old Trinity Schoolhouse quilt store:

It was a great way to break up the long trip, as I was traveling alone, but I am happy to be back home and am looking forward to sewing on my sewing machine later today.

I am frustrated with Blogger in that I no longer get emails when someone comments on my blog.  I don't know how to find your email to reply to you.  I used to get an email when someone commented, and I could then just hit "reply" and answer any questions, or thank you for a comment.  But I do not get emails of comments now.  If anyone can help me fix this problem, I would be very grateful.

If I reply to your comment right at the blog, do you get the reply?  There is so much I do not know about Blogger, and Blogger+, whatever that is.

Humble Quilts - Quilt-A-Long Time

Whenever Lori, from Humble Quilts, starts a small quilt with instructions, I have fun making it.  This is the start of her current project, named "Faithful".  I used scraps from a recent doll quilt, and a center from a Dear Jane block for my start.  Check out Lori's blog, if you'd like to participate.  (Here)

The two new quilting groups that I enjoyed yesterday were 

(1) The Churn Dashers, a group of ladies in the Tidewater Virginia area, who enjoy making civil war era repro quilts, and have a block exchange each year.  It is going to be so much fun to be a part of this group.

(2) A Dear Jane group, that is just starting making blocks for the Jane Stickle quilt.  It is a 13 month project, and they intend to make 13 blocks each month, as there are 169 (13x13) blocks in the main part of the quilt.  I love this quilt, and have decided to join in the fun.


Here are pictures of my first 13 blocks.  

 

Making Dear Jane blocks is so much fun.  I hope to learn how to make the edge triangles while I am in this group.  

I did start the middle mariner's compass for Esther Aliu's Love Entwined.  I will share that with you in my next post.  In the meantime, I am going to go to Esther's blog on Wednesday to see what work is in progress in other people's sewing rooms.  Link: (Work in Progress Wednesdays)

 

First Weekend in October

On my design wall this Monday morning:

This is a little paper pieced doll quilt top that I'm going to work on this week, to add backing and quilt it.  The paper pieced little maple leaves are 2"x2".  I bought the instructions and the papers in Grand Rapids, Michigan last year.

I'm looking at Judy L's Design Wall Mondays (here) to see what others are working on this week. Lot's of pretty projects. 

Also, I'm working on some nine patches for a bed-sized quilt.  Here are the ones I finished this last week:

It's been such beautiful weather and there have been so many football games to watch, and baseball playoff games going on (Go Detroit Tigers!!) that my quilting time has not progressed very much.  The Tigers are back home in Detroit tonight, so I will be watching baseball, and finishing binding on a donation quilt later.

I will leave you with a picture of my "Third Weekend in October" quilt that I'm enjoying when I snuggle on the couch.  It looks like an intimidating pattern when you first pull the instructions out, but a friend and I each made one at the same time, and worked on small sections at a time.  How do you eat an elephant sort of thing.

Tomorrow, I'm joining two new-to-me quilt groups.  One meeting in the morning, and one in the afternoon.  I'd better go lie down and rest in preparation.  I'll post about them after the meetings.

A Fall Doll Quilt

Sophia Grace and Rosie are happy that today I am posting about a doll quilt! 

I started this little fall quilt last year in Shipshewana, at the Dear Jane Retreat, but it was just a quilt top until today, when I added a flannel batting and backing.  It is quilted in a grid, following the lines of the patches, and has hanging triangles on the back.  The little dollies love it.

The nine patches have little pieces that are only 3/4 inch finished size, so the nine patches finish at 2 and 1/4 inch square.  With binding added, it's 11.5 by 16.5 inches.



I had a little trouble with the binding, but after a correction, it is finished. I had cut the binding for single fold, but forgot when I sewed it on, and doubled it over, as if it was double fold binding.....and it was way too small to fold to the back and sew down.  So Mr. Seam Ripper and I took it off, and sewed it on as originally planned, and everything was fine. I don't mind being a senior, but I could live without the senior moments.  

Here is a picture of the girls with their new quilt under a bouquet of Goldenrod.  I had to wait until the bees were off the blossoms before I cut them.  Some think they are weeds, but I think they are beautiful, and they do not cause allergies, as people believe.

Here is the little quilt on display by my kitchen counter, on the little ironing board.  

Even though it's Tuesday evening here in Virginia, it's Wednesday on the other side of the world, and Esther Aliu has her linky page up.   If you want to see all the WIP's:    (Go Here)