Progress on the Cake Stand Quilt

The entire quilt is now on my design wall, and it fills the whole wall:

  I am using the streak of lightening setting which is used in this old quilt:

From book: New Jersey Quilts 1777 to 1950  

But I'm using the cake stand blocks that I have from a recent exchange.  For this quilt, I needed 110 blocks, and 10 half blocks, and the exchange gave me 72 blocks. Thirty five extra blocks were done factory assembly line style, and I felt like a factory worker.  I prefer to work on two blocks at a time, and complete them, pet them, admire them, and then start the next two.  But the assembly line process is definitely faster.  I took the old Singer 404 with me on the trip to visit my sister, and finished the blocks in the hotel room, a la Bonnie Hunter.

Three blocks in the sawtooth star vintage quilt have a yellow background, and I like the pop of color they give the quilt, so I made three cake stand blocks with yellow background:

Can you find them on my quilt on the design wall?


I had a wonderful time with my sister in Michigan this weekend, and she really likes the quilt I gave her.  It fits her bed perfectly.  

I'm heading over to Design Wall Mondays at Patchwork Times to see what other quilters are doing.  Join me?  (Here)

Nancy's Churn Dash Quilt

Tomorrow I'm traveling to Michigan and will deliver this quilt to my sister: 

I can't wait to show her the surprise.  It's 75 x 88, and should fit on her twin bed in her independent living facility.  It is machine quilted with Baptist fans by Cheryl Tobias of Napinee, IN.  

If you remember, I talked about starting it last September when we sold her home and had a large sale of the contents.  See blog post here:  Remaking an old quilt top

This was the old quilt top that was in with her linens:

I am excited to give it back to her, but I don't think she will remember the old quilt top.  She probably picked it up for a song at a garage sale.

It was a lot of fun remaking it into a usable quilt, and as I was taking pictures of it this morning, it taught me something:

I looked at this block, with a pieced together section and mismatched background pieces.  It's my favorite block, so why am I trying to be so "matchy-matchy" in my quilts?  Note to self:  loosen up a bit!

Thanks for all of your kind and understanding comments on my last post about Sally.  They helped me so much.  I am quilting on a new project, and have immersed myself in your thoughts, which are helping me through the grieving process.  I really appreciate all of you.  Thank you.

Linked this post with Design Wall Mondays:  (Here)  I enjoy seeing what other quilters are working on this week.

To Sally, a Tribute to a Labrador Retriever

To our Sally, the most kind and loving pet I've ever owned:

Born:  May 6, 2000

Died:  June 10, 2014

She was my constant companion:

Helping me with quilt photos:

Comforting Lloyd after a Michigan State loss:

Sally at the lake:  Someone threw a stick into the water!!! Don't worry, I'll go get it for you!!!

I'll have it for you in just a minute!

Come-on Dad.....throw that stick into Lake Michigan for me!

At the Dunes, on Hamlin Lake, enjoying her favorite job, retrieving:

After a walk, she would select one stick to carry back home, for her "collection" of sticks on the porch:

She loved to ride in the boat with us, and would stand at the bow, with her nose into the wind, ears flapping in the breeze.  I couldn't find a picture of that memory, but here is one with Sally and two of our grandsons, Skyler and Hunter, and our granddog, Charlie, with me on the boat.

She was so kind and gentle with babies, here with Anderson:

Granddog Zeke and our Sally, about to enjoy "snowman" pancakes, a treat from grandsons Hunter and Skyler:

Her legacy lives on in seven wonderful beautiful puppies, each one perfect. They made our Christmas card priceless one year:

Red plaid bows on the girls, green plaid bows on the boys

Pictures of some of her puppies:  

Maggie, now a therapy dog, with her owner's daughter Tori

Lexi, with her owner Lisa

Beau with his family

Bruiser, helping his owner George drive

This quilting blog will return to quilting related subjects with the next post.  I am so thankful I have quilting to help me through my grief.  Please pray for me.  Thanks.

A Tisket, A Tasket, A New Quilt With Baskets

Back in April, I showed you these basket blocks that I made for an exchange:

Now that the exchange has been made, I am starting a replica of an old quilt with them.  The directions have been figured out for me thanks to Lori, the blogger at Humble Quilts Here.  Thanks Lori!  The original quilt can be seen in the quilt index Here

The original quilt:

The quilt has been bookmarked in my copy of the book "New Jersey Quilts 1777 to 1950" for a long time.  I love the touch of yellow in a few of the block backgrounds.  I may do that too.  It's on page 109, if you have the book.  I know my quilt has baskets, and this one has stars, but I think it will look great with baskets too.

My pink and green zigzag fabrics are both "Judie's Authentic Miniatures" from Judie Rothermel, Marcus Brothers.

Sally has approved of it, but is not too excited yet because she knows it will take a long time to get to the stage where she can lay on it. 

It's Monday, so I'm going over to Patchwork Times to look at other design walls.  (Here)

Sewing on the Porch

This week has been a week of adjustments in the quilting area.  My sweet dog Sally is unable to climb the stairs to join me in the quilt room, and as she ages, I like to keep an eye on her while I work, so I just bought an old Singer 404 machine, and I can sew downstairs on the porch, with Sally at my side. It's a win, win.  The machine was $40, all refurbished and ready to go.  It was one of the last metal Singers that were sold to high schools for use in Home Ec 101.  Straight stitching is all I need most of the time.

New sewing area on the screened porch:

Another adjustment was a change in the size of the turkey feathers I'm using in the border of Talkin' Turkey.  The feathers didn't look large enough, so I enlarged my pattern, and am making feathers again.  I don't know about you, but I'm tired of talkin' about Talkin' Turkey.  Need to get it off my design wall, but it's still up there.  Here's a picture of the larger turkey feather, and some in the process of being made:

The trip to buy the sewing machine was a serendipity.  The machine was in Petersbury area, and we stopped in City Point, VA, where General Grant had his headquarters during the siege of Petersburg.  Lincoln spent five days there with Grant during the war.  It's a beautiful piece of land jutting out where two rivers join, and was a beautiful place to take a little walk.  Here are a few pictures from our walk:

General Grant's family cabin

Headquarters of Union Soldiers

It was a perfect day!  The sky was so blue and the clouds were cotton puffs.

Crossing a river on the way home

I am linking up with Design wall Monday's at patchwork times today.  (Here)