Design Wall Monday - September 30, 2019

My design wall actually has a completed quilt top on it today!!!  Yeah!  I got this quilt out recently as someone had asked what my oldest UFO was.  This is it, and it is now finished.  It will be named "Red Delicious".

The apple cores are 3 inches long from top to bottom (finished), and the quilt top measures about 66 inches square, and has 32 apple cores in each row and column.  To qualify for a "charm quilt", it should have at least 1000 pieces, and this one has 1024.  It was started by my friend Joan Edwards, in New Hampshire, and finished by me, while living in Virginia and Michigan.  

As you can see, I started a doll quilt to match the large one:

Since the large pieces were three inches in length, I made the smaller ones half their size, to finish at 1.5 inches in length.

It is so much fun for me to make doll quilts.  I don't know how big this one will be, but probably about 10 rows by 10 columns, for 100 squares.  I am 1/4 the way finished after just one day and evening of hand sewing while watching football.  

What is on your design wall today?  I so appreciate looking at your quilts.  The pictures are my "pleasure break" on Mondays from laundry and cleaning the house.  Please provide a link somewhere within your blog post that links back to this particular blog post.  Thank you!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Design Wall Monday - September 25, 2017

Final chapter of the story I told last week of four quilts made from the parts of an abandoned Internet mystery quilt:


The 4th quilt looks like this:

I took the green and white parts, removed the black square, and made an Irish chain quilt with them.  Mystery parts:

I had my machine quilter, Joyce Brenner, put MSU logos in the large blank white spaces, and she also added a few footballs.  I think it turned out great!

MSU Logo:

Football:

This week's work is to finish it with white binding.

What's on your design wall this week?  

An InLinkz Link-up

Churn Dashers Quilt for 2015

There is a group of quilters who exchange blocks, called The Churn Dashers, and I am a lucky part of this group of talented quilters.  There are a few of us living in other states, but most live in Virginia, and the group has displayed quilts lately in the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in Hampton, VA.  This show is every spring, and I'm working on a quilt to submit for 2016.  The Churn Dashers latest exchange was nine patch/snowball blocks, and I decided to make a quilt based on this quilt that I saw on the quilt index (Here)

I like it because it has a "star" feel to it, and is a little different than the usual nine patch/snowball quilt layout.  

The information at the Quilt Index includes the name of the quilt maker:  Maw Maw Parker (maiden name Holmes), birth date 1850's.  She was married to Paw Paw Parker who was a farmer, a sharecropper in Franklin Parish, Louisiana.

Also there is some limited information about the quilt:

"A morning workshop at the Franklin Parish Piece Makers was presented by Marjorie Elrod.  Maker says, 'We brought 400 -2.5 squares of different prints or scraps and all the members put them in a big garbage bag.  We then filled a smaller bag of squares and then sewed nine-patches. (As many as we could make that morning).  We had to complete this project at home.  I made a nine-patch with Snowball Blocks.'  She also says, 'To make it, sew 2 7/8" square on corners on the diagonal and press to the corners.  With Jacob's Ladder 3 of 2.5 prints, 2 of 2.5 white, 4 half square triangles.  4 Jacob Ladders, 1 Nine Patch, 4 Snowballs.'  "

I have 3 more rows to complete:

And today I am working on the outside borders:

It shouldn't take me long to make the borders, and then I will get back to making the final three rows, and the fun of laying it all out to complete the quilt.  What are you working on today?

I'm linking up with Design Wall Mondays over at Judy Laquidara's blog. (Here) 

Working on Several Projects This Week

Like many other quilters, I enjoy working on several projects at once.  I don't worry about it, it's just the way I work.  In grade school my report card would have a notation on it...."Judy enjoys working on several things at once"....which was a nice way of saying I was often reading a book when we were doing other work.

These two have been moving along toward the finish line:

The four patches were in my stash, and were actually part of another project, but they are being used here to make this patriotic redwork into a crib sized baby quilt.  I auditioned some red and white hst's, but they seemed to overpower the redwork even more than the four patches do.  Redwork looks best to me when it doesn't have to compete with anything else.  

This next quilt is for a friend who is having some health issues, and when I had the middle finished, through the small hsts part,  I showed it to her and gave her the choice of whether she wanted it finished as a table topper, or finished as a couch quilt to snuggle under.  She chose a quilt, so I am adding consecutive pieced parts around the outside to make it big enough to snuggle under.  The outside border of triangles is not sewn down yet, and I will probably add another row of them.  The four inch square pieced border makes the quilt 36 x 36 inches, and the next round of 3" hsts will make it 42" x 42".  I will keep adding rounds until I feel it is big enough.  

She likes pink, and this quilt is in softer colors than I usually work with - it's delicate blues and pinks with beautiful roses.  It reminds me of some of the beautiful wallpaper in bedrooms years ago.  It has a different feel as I make it, and I think it's because I have sent up so many prayers for Michelle during her illness.  

The Instagram pictures of a quilt from the Spring issue of Quiltmania has caught my attention.  The quilt is "My Small World" and is made up of tiny pieces.  It's designed by Jen Kingwell, an Australian quilter who designs fabric for Moda. 

There is a group doing a quilt-a-long, and I am tempted to join in.  I love tiny pieced blocks, and this quilt is full of them.  Lots of 1" by 1" bits.

The above picture is from the internet, and I am not sure if Jen Kingwell is one of the ladies holding up the quilt.  If you want to see what the buzz is about, google "My Small World Quilt" and you can see several pictures about it.

Here's a close-up from Jen Kingwell's blog:

She has little interesting bits about her world, such as a square with the Sydney Opera House.  It would be fun to put in bits of my "world", that is bits from places that mean a lot to me....the St. Louis Arch instead of France's Eiffel Tower.    Right now, I've cut some sky pieces and have them laid out, ready to sew together.

What are other quilter's working on this week?  I'm going over to Judy Laquidara's blog to find out.  (Here)

Redwork Progress

One of my three girls gave me a bouquet of tulips, and I picked a lilac from her yard.  The flowers are now at home in an old vase that was my Mother's.  It is a very appropriate remembrance of my Mom on Mother's Day.  I miss her-especially our telephone chats.

Last week, I bought a fuchsia hanging plant, and they remind me of my sweet mother-in-law.  She always had one or two fuchsias hanging from her front porch for the hummingbirds.  She treated me just like a daughter, and that is what I try to do with my daughter-in-laws.  They are daughters to me.   Here's my fuchsia:

Here's an update on the Redwork quilt that I am making, with a lot of help from Dee, my best friend.  Here are two newly finished squares.  We have 84 squares planned for the quilt, and are now past the half-way point.  The squares are 11" by 11" right now, but I may cut them a little smaller later.

Needles, Thread, and a Thimble

Thistles

Also, I just finished a Redwork patriotic piece that I am now going to put some patchwork around.  My friend Sharyn Woerz cleaned out her sewing room and gifted the pattern to me, and I plan to make it into a crib-sized quilt with a patchwork border.  The pattern is part of a monthly series and is available on the web.   This one is probably the July design.  Thank you Sharyn, it has been a fun Redwork project, and I got lots of comments from people when I was working on it in public places.

Fourth of July Parade

The Redwork is fairly large, and I cut the white fabric larger,  to give some space around the embroidery.  The fabric is cut 25" by 30" right now, and will make a nice crib sized quilt.   I'm looking forward to adding the patchwork. 

Pinwheels maybe?  Red and white, or red, white and blue?  Four patches? Hmmmmm...I love the planning and thinking part of quilt making too, don't you?

It's Monday, and time to see what's on other quilter's design walls.  (Link)

I'm Just A Simple Girl

Since I am just a simple girl, with simple tastes, I have decided to break down the parts of the latest Bonnie Hunter mystery into three quilts.  The colors I chose for this quilt wouldn't play together nicely, so they got divided into three parts:

Red and black and white into one quilt:

The green and white parts are going to be a triple Irish chain quilt:

And the remaining parts are being changed to take the black out, and are going to become something by themselves.  I'm not sure yet, but this is a possibility:

I love Bonnie Hunter and all she does for the quilting community.  She is so generous of her time and talent.    It has been fun seeing what the quilting community has made with Bonnie's Grand Illusion.  Please know that my division of the mystery parts is no reflection on Bonnie's design of the mystery. I always love to play with the parts, and this year it turned out to be three quilts as the end result.  I like this design as I have seen others make it, but with my blocks, the colors just seemed to be fighting each other.

The original plan was to make this quilt for our son and bride for their bed,  but I hope they will like the green and white triple Irish chain, as it could possibly be quilted with a MSU logo in the quilting of the large white empty area, as they are Michigan State fans.  It could be used in their recreation room.   If they don't like it, we are MSU fans too, and it would be used in our recreation room.

Possible quilting motif for large white squares:

We had a great vacation in Texas with our daughter, and have just arrived back home to the frozen tundra in Michigan.   Brrrr!  We took in the fabulous Cotton Bowl, where MSU snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.  Such an exciting game!

We had fun with our daughter and her family, and we took our time coming back to Michigan.  We stopped in Paducah, Kentucky to visit the quilt museum there, and it was so inspiring!  If you are in the area, do stop in and visit the museum.  It is well worth the trip.

It' Monday so here's the link to Design Wall Mondays at Judy Laquidara's blog to see what other quilters are working on today.  (Here)

Doesn't Anyone Stay in One Place Anymore?

"You're so far away, doesn't anyone stay in one place anymore?"  I am reminded of Carol King's sad song this week as I'm back in Virginia packing up my quilt stash.  I have such mixed emotions about leaving.  I am really going to miss my good friends in Virginia.

We have made a big life decision to move back to Michigan.  We are getting older, and it is difficult to live in Virginia part of the year, and in Michigan part of the year.  We are moving to Grand Rapids, Michigan, which will locate us geographically 2 hours from our cabin so we can enjoy it more, 2 hours from visiting my sister in Flint to care for her, and 1 hour from Lansing, with all that we enjoy there with Michigan State games, children, and grandchildren.  When it is bitter cold in Michigan in the winter, we can go visit our daughter in Texas and visit friends back here in Virginia.

So that is why I haven't posted for a month!  We have started the process to purchase a new home, and I am back in Virginia for a week to turn the quilt room back into a bedroom before we put this house on the market.  Here is my stack of empty boxes that will be filled tomorrow:

I wonder how many boxes I will need to pack up the whole quilt room stash. 

While at the cabin, I finished sewing together the cake stand streak of lightening quilt top.  Here it is:

I am happy with it, and am going to quilt straight lines down the green and pink sashings, following the zig zags, maybe three or four lines wide to emphasize them.  I don't know what I will quilt in the cake stand blocks; any suggestions?  I want to do something that would be in keeping with the civil war era.

It is now 86 inches by 98 inches before binding.  The cake stand blocks are 6 inches square.

I'm looking at everyone's design wall at Judy Laquidara's blog (Design Wall Mondays).  Enjoy your day ladies, and say a little prayer for me, that I will be able to box up everything and label it well, so I can find things when I unpack.

Memorial Day (Decoration Day) Thank you to those who serve.

Happy Decoration Day (Memorial Day) and thank you to all those who serve our country.  These pictures are from a few years ago, of a little girl, Madeline Grace, who helped her mother put flags in a cemetery, in memory of those who died in service.

I have Talkin' Turkey almost assembled - just a few more rows to sew together, and then the middle will be finished.  The border on Bonnie Hunter's pattern involved more flying geese than I wanted to make.  I asked some friends at an applique group what they thought about a border, and they said "Applique a border!".  Of course they did, they are an applique group!  So they got me started thinking about a few feathers in the border, and then I decided on some string pieced turkey feathers, and this is the sketched results:

I am using a nine inch border of red checked fabric, with a few turkey feathers in two corners.  I have only made one feather, so far, but this is the plan.  What do you think?

It's still on the design wall, and I am sewing rows together, and making more string feathers this week.  

Here's a picture of the quilt top, with rows partially sewn together:

Progress on Two Quilts

I have so many projects partially finished, and it is fun to change from one to another.  I finished my 3rd Benjamin Biggs Wedding Quilt block this weekend. It is my favorite of the three blocks I've made so far.  If you want to see this original quilt block, you will find it (Here)  The patterns are free for a month, and are available on the first of each month.




Talkin' Turkey, a Bonnie Hunter pattern, is coming right along.  I made all the parts for one complete row, and part of the second row.  There are six rows, and after I get all the parts made, I still have to sew them to each other.

I have all the string blocks made, all of the big nine patches made, and am now working on flying geese, and small nine patches.  I am liking it so far, and have good memories of the class I took with Bonnie in early April. 

Monday is my time to check out what everyone has on their design wall. Talkin' Turkey is on mine right now, but will come down for assembly very soon.  If you want to see what everyone is doing, check out Patchwork Times Blog 

Quilting With A Best Friend

This week, my best friend is visiting from St. Louis, MO, and she is making a quilt for her brother.  I love the optical illusion of depth in this quilt, and it is so easy to put together.   We worked together on the cutting portion, and I was her assistant on the sewing together part.  Here's a picture of Dee, at work at the sewing machine:

She doesn't like to have me take her picture, so if you know her, don't mention that her picture is here.  hee,hee

Friday, here was our start:

We cut squares 8.5 by 8.5 of focus fabric, and then cut black fabric strips, one at 2.5 by 6.5 and one 2.5 by 8.5.  We added two background squares, each 2.5 by 2.5, to the black rectangles (at 1:00 PM and 7:00 PM position on the focus fabric squares, and each completed block, with it's "shadow" is then 10.5 inches, unfinished, finishing at 10 inches.

Here is the quilt now, as we are adding a scrappy border on the outside:



Doesn't the "shadow" make the focus fabrics pop?  The sashing finishes at 4 inches.

Simplified Celtic Solstice

Almost at the finish line!

Here's where it was yesterday, as I worked on the binding during half times of the basketball games on TV.  Sadly, our beloved Michigan State was eliminated in the first game, and their rival, University of Michigan, was eliminated in the next game.   Ugh!

It has been a fun quilt to play with on the design wall, to put together, and now to finish.  A quilt label is next and then I will bring it to our guild meeting Saturday morning for show-and-tell.  

Here's the quilt draped over the couch:

I just love the quilting pattern Bonnie chose for her quilt, and I asked my machine quilter to do the same.  Linda Miller quilted it for me, and she not only found out the pattern, but also the scale that Bonnie used, and did the same scale on my quilt.  The pantograph is called "Celtic Curlz" by Patricia Ritter.  

Linda did a great job, and I am very happy with it.  Here is a picture of the start of this quilt, when it was on my design wall a few months ago:

What's on your design wall this Monday morning?  As usual, I'm heading over to Patchwork Times to look at design walls. (Here)

Moving On from Celtic Solstice for Now

This week I started the Benjamin Biggs Wedding Quilt, which is a free block of the month for 24 months.  The original quilt was made in 1848, and the patterns are on the internet over the next two years by Gay from Sentimentalstitches.net and Brenda from dearjane.com  There is also a new blog of Benjamin Biggs quilts here:  BenjaminBiggs.Blogspot.com

I made my first block by using freezer paper folded in fourths and cut as I would cut a snowflake pattern:

Each block has a little flower appliqued in each corner, which gives the quilt a light and airy look.  Mine is lacking that element, but it will be added soon.   Here's the complete quilt:

I also am making indigo and shirting blocks in preparation for the monthly Dear Jane meeting here in Williamsburg this coming Tuesday.  Here are four triangle blocks:

Where I am with Celtic Solstice:

Option A uses most of the parts already made

Option B has more of a "floor tile" look

Option C - one of my first layouts

These would look like 4 leaf clovers if the
colors were reversed!

Recently I posted about 18 Ways to Motivate Yourself in Quilting.  (See Post)
and one of the points was "recognize when indecision is causing inertia".  That's where I am with Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice.  I have so many different options that I could make with the pieces, and am still searching for the one that says "this is the one".


So for now, it is tabled.  I would appreciate any thoughts you have on any of the above pictures, and also any Celtic Solstice layouts/colors that you just love.  Thanks!

Remaking an Old Quilt Top

On my Design Wall (the floor) at the cabin:




I found a quilt top at an estate sale recently, and liked the squares and not the sashing, so I removed the sashing this week.  And earlier this summer I found some pretty blue fabric with birds featured on it, that was on sale at a variety store.  They are going to be together in this new arrangement of alternating squares.  Go to Design Wall Mondays to see other quilter's projects:  Patchwork Times

Below is the quilt top as I found it, with indigo blues and shirtings for the squares and what looks like feedsack fabric for the sashing and cornerstones:

The blue fabric I bought was at a variety store where there are stacks and stacks of yardage piled high, with all quality of fabrics mixed together.  This one is a pretty blue, and the selvage reads: Andoverfabrics.com, created by Renee Nanneman of Need'L Love....2010.  Not knowing what I was going to do with it, I bought it because I so loved the fabric.  I researched the fabric on the web, and found a lovely pattern for it, "Farmhouse Retreat Quilt".  The pattern features this fabric and is a free pattern at Andoverfabrics.com. (if you want to see the pattern: Quilt Pattern featuring bird fabric )

But now I am thinking I'm going to use it to redo the old quilt top pictured above. What do you think?

Also, now I have this lovely feedsack looking former sashing that I can now use in some new project.  Any suggestions for it?