Greetings dear readers! My reproduction style quarter log cabin crib quilt is finally complete! I made the top in 2022 and it languished in the “to be quilted” pile for over a year. I finally had it long arm quilted by Sue Foster, who did a lovely job with mostly simple straight lines:
This was inspired by a very similar antique quilt, but that one was larger and without a vine and leaf border. Mine is 52 x 41 inches. I love how mine turned out! The blocks are foundation paper pieced and the appliqué is by hand.
Choosing the fabrics was so much fun. I pieced the back with chunks of black and brown repro fabrics:
I think this will go on the wall in my downstairs hallway (when I get a sleeve on it!) replacing a quilt that’s been there for several years. I need a name for the quilt and a label too.
The first 5 diagonal rows in the upper left corner of the basket quilt are sewn together and I think you can see how much better it looks with the sashing and cornerstones (not a great photo to show color because of early AM dim lighting):
With these latest 20 nine patch blocks, I have 300!! 😊. The goal is 480 and I think the next step will be to sew some more rows together:
I dropped my sewing machine off on Saturday for its annual routine servicing. Turn around time is 2 -3 weeks. Long time readers may remember that I’m one of the few serious quilters who has only one machine! This time not having a machine won’t matter because Al and I are taking a vacation! We’re flying tomorrow to the southwestern US. We’ll be doing a 12 day driving trip including Zion NP, Grand Canyon NP, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, and Sante Fe and environs. This is our 3rd visit to most of these areas, but it’s been awhile so we’re very much looking forward to taking in the beauty and culture of the region! Of course I’ll bring some hand appliqué (the Winterberries project) to work on if there’s any down time 😊. Watch for photos in upcoming blog posts!
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Long time readers may also remember that in addition to quilting, walking, and reading, I have yet another hobby – playing the accordion in a small band, Tutto Bene! 6 days after returning from our trip Al (he plays piano) and I both have to be ready to play in a benefit concert so that will be a busy week!
As a result of traveling I’ll be taking a short break from blogging – hoping to be back in a little over 2 weeks. Meanwhile, I’ll probably be posting some travel photos on Instagram if you’re interested. Hope everyone is enjoying the change of seasons!
Greetings dear readers! Today’s post is photo heavy because I attended the New England Quilt Expo in Manchester, NH last week. We used to regularly get national/international level shows at this venue – MQX (Machine Quilting Expo) and Mancuso shows – but that all disappeared during the pandemic. Last year a local organization stepped up to try to fill in the gap and put on a regional show. I didn’t get to that show, but heard it was marginally OK. The organizers learned from the experience and I heard this year’s was quite a bit better. I thought it was good! No jurying, judging, or quilts from out of the region, but there was some good local talent on display! My own “Sweet Journeys” was there 🙂. The vendors were decent, but, of course, not what you’d get at a larger show. Martelli was there and I treated myself to a badly needed new cutting mat – I love their mats and my old one was over 15 years old! They are relatively expensive, but very sturdy and last a long time. Here we go with photos of some of my favorites- Enjoy!
Indigo Birds by Ramona Bateman – love the fabrics and the quilting!
2 quilts by Donna Viau: Under the Snow and Star of Fire:
2 quilts by Barbara Bergantz: Fade to Purple and Cottage Clover- Night Fancy (the second one is a Victoria Finley Wolf pattern that I love):
I really love this next one – the colors were gorgeous! Fire, Water, Earth by Donna Paxton:
It’s All About the Background by Jacqueline Soper – some day I’d like to make something like this because I love appliquéing circles!
This next one was a really unique color interpretation of this popular pattern by Edyta Sitar: “Spontaneous Alaska Sew Fun” by Nicole Merriam and Adam Rateliff:
I love the subtle colors in this next quilt and the piecing and quilting are amazing! Coral Reef by Norma Otero:
I have a few more to share in a future post, but that’s enough to absorb for now because I want to share photos from 2 recent lovely walks. We’ve had a lot of wet weather so the 2 nearby rivers are high and rushing. This one is the Oyster River:
The moss covering this stump looks like a tablecloth!🙂:
Tree down on the path to the river – from the recent snow storm:
On this walk to another section of the Lamprey River, my friend and I saw about 30 turtles sunning on trees that had fallen into the water! Hard to get good photos because the turtles slide into the water if they hear you coming:
Can you find them in the above photo?🙂. And here’s a typical forest “monument” – decay always coexisting with growth:
Have a great weekend! Hope you find time for stitching or whatever you like to do creatively.
Greetings dear readers! The nasty spring storm that pummeled the northeast last week and dropped heavy wet snow, like concrete, that clung to everything, brought down all kinds of trees and branches and left us without power for 2 1/2 days and without internet for 3 days. Luckily our generator gave us heat downstairs, water, refrigeration, and some light so we were able to stay home relatively comfortably.
Disruptions of one’s normal routines can make one feel restless and discombobulated! My sewing room didn’t get heat so I didn’t spend time there doing any cutting, pressing, or piecing and, instead, managed to stay calm and focused by doing a lot of hand sewing and reading. Then, 48 hours after the storm was over and power restored, it was weather whiplash – 65 degrees and sunny! – and Al and I watched the eclipse with friends!
My area saw 96% totality and it wasn’t in the cards for us to drive 2 hours north to totality. We walked to our wide open town park and joined about 200 other members of the community. At max, the light dimmed to “early dusk” level and temps dropped noticeably. It’s amazing how much light still comes from the sun when it’s 96% obscured!! It was interesting and was fun to share the experience with friends – good enough!
In spite of the storm, I did get some sewing accomplished since last posting! Since one “long journey” – Hexagon Stars – ended, I allowed myself to start a new one, having just purchased the background fabric:
First question- to prewash the background fabric or not? Long ago I decided not to automatically prewash all fabric I buy – way too much time for fabric I might never use! I decide whether to do so as pieces are chosen for projects and only if I’m specifically concerned about shrinkage and/or bleeding. This fabric is dark blue so I definitely needed to check for bleeding. It is also 55% linen which I read can be a looser weave and perhaps more likely to shrink so I definitely needed to prewash. I don’t use a washer; instead, I soak in warm to very warm water, usually in the sink. But, this was 5 yards so I used the bathtub! Guess what – NO bleeding and NO noticeable shrinkage!
Next challenge, after cutting a background square (cut 18 inches, finishes 16 inches) – how to mark the appliqué lines on this dark fabric? My light box or windows did not work at all. I’ve never had this issue before. I thought about tracing the design on a vinyl overlay, but didn’t have any vinyl on hand. I did, however, find this “transfer paper” I’d purchased years ago and never used:
It’s actually a “MistyFuse” product, still available, and worked quite well!
I don’t have a lot of it – definitely not enough for this entire project – and it’s relatively expensive so I would love to hear recommendations or comments from any readers who have used this or other brands of transfer paper for fabric. I finished hand appliquéing the first block during the power outage!:
I plan to add some hand embroidery embellishments. Who knows how long it will take, but this project is underway!! This may eventually be a gift for new granddaughter Ophelia 🙂. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you may remember this project that I just brought out of hibernation – Ursula’s Spring Baskets!:
It’s the perfect time of year to bring it out and have fun working with these lovely spring colors. I’d like to get the top completed. I just cut all the setting and corner triangles – a mix of low volume fabrics, just like the block backgrounds. I decided to go with a narrow half inch sashing and there will be cornerstones, though haven’t chosen that fabric yet.
By next post I hope to have several rows sewn together.
I’m still making 20 nine-patch blocks per week and have 2 weeks worth of new ones – 40 blocks – to share:
I haven’t sewn any more rows of these together – will try to find time for that, soon.
Quilting has been completed on 2 more “Time of Plenty” blocks – another activity that kept me busy during the storm!
Earthly Delights: It’s been very wet the past couple months and the Lamprey river has overflowed, though not enough to block my walking path:
These trees are normally not under water:
I enjoyed the “abstract painting- like” vision of the reflection:
One little living pine stem pushed its way out through moss covering a supposedly “dead” log:
Greetings dear readers! The hexagon stars EPP project has been my intermittent companion for 6 1/2 years and I finally took the last stitch in the top – the last appliqued border diamond – 2 days ago. I put it back on the design wall for some final photos and to take a little time to savor my accomplishment! I did not count hours spent, but it was a significant amount of time and effort. Every stitch by hand. No pattern; just figuring it out as I went along.
I’m happy with how it has turned out! Now it goes into the “to be quilted” pile. Given that I have several months to go on my current 2 hand quilting projects and 2 more in the “to be hand quilted” pile already, I think this is destined for long arm quilting, but we’ll see…
Here’s my latest batch of 9-patches, looking great on a black background:
I now have 240 patches – exactly half of the 480 needed for the center of the quilt! I’m still enjoying making these and not bored at all. The antique quilt the sew-along is based on has a lot of brown in it; I don’t believe I’ve shown it here before so here’s most of it:
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Some makers in the sew-along are trying to match the colors of the original, but clearly I’m not. In a recent Instagram post Taryn (@reproquiltlover) talked about the beauty of the color brown and asked participants to share some of their quilts featuring brown. I love brown and use it a lot! My stash includes a drawer of contemporary browns and a drawer of reproduction browns and blacks:
I use these frequently!! Especially in my fall themed quilts. Maple Leaf Rag – which is one of those quilts waiting in the “to be hand quilted” pile – is a good example:
Rather than show other quilts of mine with brown, today I’d like to share a beautiful brown quilt that caught my eye as I was looking online at winners in recent AQS shows. Isn’t this winner by Ruth Ohol gorgeous?!
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I’m always on the lookout for earthly delights to share. The weather has been a hindrance recently, but I slip out in between the storms. After no snow for weeks on end and not a flake on the ground in mid March in the first time in memory, it snowed last weekend and then rained and everything iced over – the trees sparkled!
Then the rains persisted and washed all the snow away again but left everything wet and streams and rivers overflowing. I’ve never seen the bog so full of water and creeping over the path through it:
The clouds were lovely that day:
The green mosses and lichens were vibrant with color:
Do you ever question why you make quilts? Or create anything? I’ve mentioned before how much I enjoy reading the blog of textile artist Judith Martin. There was a quote in a recent post from an interview with artist Vija Celmins that I loved and am sharing: “Why do it? The older I get, the more mysterious that seems. It’s some kind of impulse inside you, and when you are working well there is a feeling of connectedness to the world, and occasional feelings of bliss.” I identify!🙂
With that lovely thought, wishing all readers a lovely week ahead as we move into April!
Greetings dear readers! Last week Al and I celebrated my 75th birthday with a 2 day getaway to the “Downeast” coast of Maine on western Penobscot Bay. We stayed in picturesque Camden and what really made it special was that our dear friends, Paul and Lee, were there from Nova Scotia with us! Highlights included a visit to the Farnsworth Museum next door in Rockland, which specializes in art by the Wyeths, and exploring both Camden and Belfast, which is up the coast a short way. I didn’t get a photo of all 4 of us together, but here are 2 photos from my very special birthday dinner. Lee and I look rather sedate, but the one of Al and Paul is much more representative of our happy time together!😊
I’m always inspired by art of almost any kind so it was a treat to spend some of my birthday at a good museum. On exhibit were some of Andrew Wyeth’s botanical paintings, an exhibit of prints and lithographs from the American Art Association, and some works from other collections including some by N.C. Wyeth. Some highlights:
I’m a big fan of etchings and lithographs; an example:
There was only one piece of textile art on view – cloth mounted on canvas, but it reminds me of a modern quilt:
I love the many shades, tones, and hues of blue in this N.C. Wyeth painting:
Another of his:
There was a room of interesting work by Marsden Hartley:
When we were walking around in Belfast, of course I had to go into one of my favorite quilt shops, Fiddlehead Artisans! I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, but I’ve been keeping my eye open for a background fabric for my next big appliqué project and found something! I bought this Kim McLean pattern last summer:
My plan was to use mostly Tilda fabrics on a yellow background, but after prepping some pieces for one of the blocks, I decided I didn’t want to use yellow 🙁. I found a dark blue in my stash but only had 1/2 yard and couldn’t find any more anywhere. So nothing has happened for months. At Fiddlehead I found a beautiful “peacock” color fabric for the background that I’m really happy with!
It’s a cotton/linen combo by Kauffman and slightly thicker than 100% quilting cotton so I will eventually likely use very thin batting – but that decision is a LONG WAY off! This is going to be one of those “long journey” projects 😊. I might not even get it started for a few more weeks. Just before leaving for our little getaway, I picked up my library donation quilt from the long-armer (Sue Foster) and after returning I finished putting on the binding. So happy to have this done on time! It’s such a cheery, happy quilt – perfect for spring!
Here is my week’s set of 9 patches:
I also put my “leader/ender” quarter square triangle blocks (easy to make these with all the chain piecing for the 9-patches) on the design wall to assess where the project is; I like this setting:
The blocks are 3 inches square and will finish at 2 1/2 inches. 12 blocks across would be 30 inches. I think I will add a few rows to make it a rectangle and then keep it small – a crib quilt. I plan to add a border. However, this looks so much like autumn and I want to be working with brighter colors right now, so I think this will go into the “time out” pile for a while 😊.
I love “woods” walks, but sometimes I stick to the road and enjoy some open spaces and skies; those, too, are earthly delights:
I enjoyed all the “lines” created by the branches, trunks, and reflections in this view:
Happy spring to all my northern hemisphere readers! I’m truly looking forward to the return of light and color! Be kind, be grateful, and cherish each day, Gladi
Greetings dear readers. Decision made! I’m putting a grouping of diamonds on each of the corners of the Hexagon Star quilt and leaving open space in the middle of each border which can then be filled with quilting. Here’s how it’s going to look (the diamonds are not basted or sewn yet in the photo):
One corner pinned:
Each corner has 14 diamonds which will be hand appliqued. I think they form a nice frame for this traditional style quilt and don’t take attention away from the busy center. It shouldn’t take too long! This is another quilt that I dearly wish I had time to hand quilt – so far every stitch is by hand. Alas, if I went that route, I wouldn’t get to it for at least another couple years at the earliest as there are 2 quilts in front of it in the “hand quilting” pile plus the 2 I’m already working on now! So…most likely off to a long arm quilter some time this year.
Another decision made! Last post I was worried that the 9 patches would be too small (at 1.5 inches, finished), so decided to sew some of the pieces and rows together to get an accurate look:
I needn’t have worried 🙂. I really do love them this small and will continue with the full project – 480 tiny 9 patches, probably set 20 across and 24 down, plus a border. Here’s a closeup:
Since I last posted, I’ve made 2 more sets of 20 blocks each. Even though I’m definitely using the double pink for the alternate blocks in the actual quilt, I still enjoy setting them out on different backgrounds for photos and might even eventually make a couple of doll quilts with these blocks and different backgrounds. Here are the latest 2 batches:
I’m still slowly, but surely, going through my books and adding to the discard pile. It’s getting really high 😊:
One of the books I’m discarding is this one of the winners in the very first 3 AQS Paducah shows in the mid 1980’s.
I looked at all the winners and reread some of the stories about the quilts and their makers. Here are the Best of Show winners from those first 3 shows. 1985:
1986:
1987:
All were hand quilted, of course. All are traditional bed quilts. The vast majority of the winners were traditional, with a few art quilts sprinkled in. At the very same time I was going through this book, I was looking at online photos of quilts in this year’s QuiltCon. What an incredible difference! I do like the “big tent” that the quilting community has become and the diversity of styles- traditional, art, modern – that are accepted as legitimate means of expression for us. My heart is with the traditionalists, but kudos to all makers and artists! Go to quiltcon.com and look under the “quilt show” link to see the 2024 winners. Also, check out Aurifil’s blog, auribuzz, to see a selection of 38 quilts from the show. One thing that struck me as being truly different from those show winning traditional quilts from the past, was the frequency of modern quilts with MESSAGES. The QuiltCon Best of Show was about gun violence in schools. I saw quilt statements that referenced survival, femininity, depression, death, social justice, therapy, self acceptance, processing emotions, and life changes. Of course, there were also many quilts purely exploring color, design, pattern, and attempting to express beauty too. It was just interesting to ponder the evolution of quilting over the past 40-50 years and the diversity it now embraces.
I did manage to squeeze in some appliqué since last posting – 2 more blocks for “Winterberries”:
In my neck of the woods, northern New England, some days we can feel hints of spring in the air, but it will probably be weeks before we see much change in the flora. Here are some earthly delights from my walks:
I’m appreciating the beauty now, but looking forward to the changes in these woods over the next 3 months!!!
Greetings dear readers! I’m a bit late getting a post out this week because I had Covid🤧. Luckily it was a mild case – more like a routine cold – and, though I didn’t feel great and properly isolated for 5 days, I wasn’t bed ridden or unable to sew 🙂. I was back to normal after 5 days. My major accomplishment was getting the Hexagon Star quilt top appliqued to its 4 borders. It wasn’t difficult – I cut the 4 border strips then pinned and basted on the 2 side borders and then hand appliqued them on. Then I did the same for the top and bottom borders. Natural 45 degree miters were easy to create and I did those by hand stitching as well:
I am making individual, turned edge diamonds to appliqué to the border:
These are not sewn down yet; just looking at possibilities:
I could have the above end as is with the same design in the lower right corner with no designs on rest of the border; or it could be in all 4 corners with breaks in the center of each border; or I could have the rows of diamonds enclose the entire quilt. If the latter, it could require a bit of fudging to make them all touch. Still thinking….🙂.
I made several of the pieced blocks for the Winterberries project and it now is starting to look a bit more like it’s projected final appearance:
Unfortunately this photo doesn’t show off the different pretty reds and greens ; I’m using a variety of lovely tone on tone reds.
I’m galloping along with Taryn’s (Repro Quilt Lover) Tiny Nine Patch Challenge. The idea was to make 10 blocks per week through the year to a total of 480. I’ve been going at twice that pace, 20 per week, and now have 140. Here’s the latest batch:
Closeups:
Even though I’m showing these on blue, I’m still planning to go with the pink background. I washed and ironed the pink fabric, hung it on the design wall and pinned up several rows to study how this is looking, especially to see if my color choices for the blocks were working well. They are, however, it was fascinating to look at this from a distance and see just how small these blocks are:
What’s really amazing, though, is that these blocks, when sewn and the seam allowances disappear, will look significantly smaller!!! I’m starting to wonder if I should have chosen to make slightly larger blocks – the ones with squares that finish at 3/4 inch, blocks that finish 2 1/4 inches, instead of 1 1/2 inch. I’m definitely going to cut some pink squares and start piecing blocks together to see if I like the look enough to make a larger size quilt. I may decide I prefer this to be a crib size quilt, in which case, I may start making some of the larger size blocks for another project. More decisions to make 😊….
Active projects #4 and #5 are ones I’m hand quilting. I’ve completed more than half of the center of Time of Plenty:
Every once in a while I sneak in some stitches on the Red and White Crib Quilt:
On my last day of “isolation”, it was a gorgeous day about 50 degrees and I was lucky to be able to go for a woods walk with a friend who had had Covid a few weeks before me and was immune. We walked in a place where we didn’t meet another soul, so no danger of passing on the virus. I love the wild, unmanicured woods available around me, some strewn with huge boulders:
the irregularly shaped rocks with moss and lichens:
the sculptural shapes of decaying trees:
the frozen marshes:
and, always, the interesting ice formations:
We finished off our walk greeting these sheep!
2024 – 2 months gone already! Wishing you peace and happy stitching!
Greetings dear readers! One of my goals this year is to get the border on my Hexagon Stars quilt. I last shared this quilt in my 11/7/23 post and, at the time, was pleased with my idea for the border:
My plan was to get back to it after the holidays, so it’s past time to get it out! I remembered, however, that I had some reservations about the black reproduction fabric. It has tiny pink diamonds scattered throughout and I wasn’t sure it was right for this quilt. I didn’t have enough of any other black reproduction print and prefer not to shop for another. So… yesterday I put the quilt top on the design wall with the black to take another look:
Now the black seemed a bit harsh to me and still not quite right with those pink diamonds! Nevertheless, I proceeded to recreate the look from the photo at the beginning of this post and this time didn’t like it that much! I tried a tan border alone next to the quilt top, but the edges disappeared and I didn’t like that effect. I finally put the red fabric I’d originally picked for the border up by itself and studied it for awhile. It occurred to me I could add a row of diamonds, echoing the diamonds in the top, to break up the expanse of just the red:
I think this will work! As up on the design wall, the width of the border is not quite right, but I can take care of that. Now the challenge is to figure out how best to construct this. I need to cut the border strips of red fabric and appliqué them to the quilt top (actually, the top to them🙂) and figure out how to best sew the corners together. After the borders are on, I will appliqué the diamonds to the borders. I’ll need to make around 100 “prepared edge” diamonds. I think I have a workable plan. Would love to hear from any readers who have appliqued irregular shaped quilt top edges – especially EPP ones – to border strips and how you handled sewing the borders together at the corners!
My culling of quilt books continues and the discard pile grows! One category of books I’m mostly letting go of is those focused on just pictures of quilts, e.g. catalogs of shows. I have a dozen catalogs of quilts juried into AQS shows in Paducah and 4 volumes of winners from 8 early AQS shows from 1986 x 1994:
I’ve looked through these many times for inspiration, often while relaxing in a tub of hot water 😊!
Now, with all that’s on the internet, it’s time to let them go. But, for now, I’ll keep the 3 catalogs with quilts of mine that were juried into AQS shows! 🙂 Look what I found in this book:
An original design by me from at least 20 years ago for a quilt using the Thistle block!
It looks like it would be a lovely quilt, but my desire to make it has long since disappeared. I’m not sad about it because I’ve subsequently made many beautiful quilts, but it does make me think about “the things not done”, the “paths not taken”, not just in quilting, but in life. Downsizing does this to my mind! 🙂 Life is made up of constant choices, many hugely consequential. We tend to think of our choices in the positive, i.e. as the ones we go with, but what one chooses not to do is as important as what one chooses to do…. Anyway, I’m certainly glad I chose to make that first quilt back in 1994 – 30 years ago! Such a big and wonderful part of my life since then!
This week I have 30 more teeny, tiny 9-patches to add to the collection and I am close to deciding to go with the pink background. It’s a Margo Kreger design from 2015 and I have 3 yards of it, enough for the center of the quilt, but probably not enough for borders. I’ll have to get creative when I get to that part 😊. Here are the latest, the first photo with 20, next with 10:
I set out about half of the previously made blocks on the pink to get a broader look at them on that background:
I like them on the pink! I also noticed I’m using a lot of yellow and gold – no surprise, really – and think that looks good. Onward! – at 120 blocks, I’m 1/4 of the way there!🙂
I just finished reading this interesting book:
It takes place in the 7th century and is about 3 Irish monks, leaving their monastery to found a new one on a remote island off the coast. They face significant survival challenges. This probably isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s interesting, well written, and I liked it. I’m such a “time traveler” in my reading tastes. My favorite read is literary fiction and I especially love it when it is set in a different time period – past especially, rather than science fiction futures. Other recent reads: “Absolution” by Alice McDermott takes place in Saigon in 1963, “The Piano Tuner” by Daniel Mason takes place in Burma in 1889; “The Vaster Wilds” by Lauren Groff in 1610 in the Jamestown colony; “Jane Eyre” in early 19th century England. “Matrix” by Lauren Groff, which takes place in the 13th century is one of the next books on my list 🙂.
My latest walk in the woods on the Maine coast revealed these Earthly Delights:
Marsh bordering the Atlantic:
An old cemetery with absolutely nothing but woods around it:
Cracked ice formations:
And scattered spots of beautiful green moss covered wood, glowing in the sunlight:
Greetings dear readers! On the Winterberries project, I decided to try to catch up with making at least a few of the pieced blocks. Although I love hand appliqué, there are times I just thoroughly enjoy the piecing process – the tactile pleasures of cutting and ironing, sitting at and working the machine, etc. That type of manual labor – play! – can feel so soothing and purposeful! I’m using mostly tone-on-tone reds, rather than red print reproduction fabrics, for these pieced blocks:
Here are the newer appliqué blocks:
I finally made appointments to meet with 2 local long armers later this month so the pressure was on to get backings made for 2 of my tops. The delivery date for my donation to my library’s silent auction is beginning of April. For a lap size quilt, I use my design wall to help make sure the back fits the top and in this photo, you can see it behind the top, which ends at the vine borders:
For the backing on this one, I pieced 3 fabrics horizontally because all three of the them are directional, the blue one representing a water surface. I’m also having this quilter quilt my quarter square log cabin crib quilt and look forward to sharing it when it’s done. Already had the backing made for that one!
I finally am committing to having “Stormy Weather: Shine A Light” long arm machine quilted, 15 months after the top was completed!
This quilt is very large at 96 inches square and requires a backing around 108 inches square. The easy solution would have been 3 yards of a 108 inch wide backing fabric. BUT…I already had 2 three yard pieces of a Tilda fabric from her Windy Weather collection – perfect for a “StormyWeather “ quilt!😊. I proceeded to wash and iron those. I set up an ironing board when ironing pieces that big:
But these 2 pieces, side by side, add up to only about 86 inches, so I need at least another 20 inches to make it wide enough. I thought about using various fabrics to piece a strip to go down the middle, but nothing in my stash looked right. That “dusty” pinkish red is a hard color to match. So I went shopping!! I would have purchased more of the same fabric, but it was gone. I didn’t want to order on line. The shop had a bolt of fabric from that same collection, in the same color-way, but a different pattern and I think it works well!:
Everything is now washed and ironed and I will piece it today! The long armer tells me it will be on her schedule for April. I’m excited!
I’m continuing to gallop ahead of pace on the Tiny 9 Patch project – 20 more blocks this week, so am up to 90. 480 needed by the end of the year – at this rate I’ll be done by summer 🙂. Taryn says a few participants are done already!!! I’m continuing to look at different backgrounds. Here are 10 new ones on a pink repro fabric:
I like it. One strong thing going for it is that I have enough of the pink and wouldn’t need to buy anything. Unfortunately, I have only a half yard of the red fabric I’ve been showing with previous blocks. So… when I shopped recently, I looked for more of the red – I think it’s Kona, though there’s nothing on the selvage. After looking in 2 shops, the best I could find is something slightly lighter and brighter (on the right):
Here are the other 10 new blocks, some on each background:
Amazingly, the slight change in color makes a difference to me – I prefer the darker, original one. Still plenty of time to continue exploring before deciding.
I’m making excellent progress on culling books! Since the photo below, the discard pile is several inches taller. I’m half way to my goal of emptying at least 2 shelves. I’m also reorganizing the ones I’m keeping – something that has needed to be done for a long time!
Here’s an example of a book I’m finally letting go of:
In 2004 we vacationed in Italy and spent 3 fabulous days in Venice. I was enamored of the gorgeous mosaic tile designs and snapped up this book when it came out in 2005. These are two postcards I bought in Venice:
You can see that I even started filling in a possible color scheme for making one of the quilts. And then it sat….and sat….and sat…. while I made many other beautiful quilts over the next 19 years. And now, while I admire these designs immensely, I no longer have a desire to make one myself. Hopefully I can get this book – and so many others suffering the same fate – to someone who’s interested.
I spent a part of last Saturday celebrating Chinese New Year – the year of the dragon – with daughter and grandkids at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA. There was storytelling and craft activities for the kids, but the best part was a Chinese dance and storytelling performance which 5yo Ursula really enjoyed:
On request, I am holding back on posting images of the grandkids. I’ve been reading about how a lot of parents/families are doing this because of how online images, esp. of children, can be usurped and used in nefarious ways, especially with AI. As always, I try to get outside and into the woods whenever I can!
The cattails around the pond are fun to watch as they evolve into looking like cotton candy 🙂:
I watched a woodpecker from my kitchen window:
The days are getting noticeably longer and I’m loving it! Spring is on the horizon….
Greetings dear readers! The “Winterberries” project is moving along. 8 of 16 appliqué blocks and 1 of 25 pieced blocks are done:
There are also 16 setting triangles with appliquéd leaves to make so still a lot to do. I had a challenge this week. The background fabric is a special sueded, hand dyed fabric from Liberty Homestead in Missouri. I purchased a 2 yard piece at a major AQS show 7 years ago. The pattern calls for 2 7/8 yards. I cut pieces for the appliqué blocks and started making them, thinking I’d order more soon as they have an online business. This week I discovered that they seem to be out of business! Their site is still up but there’s no checkout cart, no Instagram or Facebook posts since October, and no return phone calls. What to do? I searched my stash and found a large piece of muslin very close in color, but not exact. Probably not noticeable without looking closely in good light. I made a block using it so I could compare:
The muslin is on top and the hand dyed fabric I’m using for the appliqué blocks is on the bottom. You can see there is a bit of texture in the latter (on the left below):
I’m in a “make do” frame of mind, so decided I’d go ahead and use the muslin if I had to, though not ideal. Different background fabrics are not infrequently seen in antique quilts and some find that charming! Rather than mix up the 2 fabrics in the same blocks, I decided I’d make as many blocks with the hand dyed fabric as I could first. Guess what? With extremely careful planning, I was able to cut enough pieces out of the special fabric to make ALL the blocks!
Turns out I needn’t have worried! Makes me think that it’s likely the fabric requirements given with patterns are very generous.
Week 4 of the tiny 9 patch challenge begins today, meaning our task this week is to make blocks # 31 – 40. Well….I am up to 70 and posting blocks 51 – 70 this week. Just for fun I’m showing one of the groups with a green instead of red background – pretty sure I’m sticking with red when I start sewing these together, but can’t hurt to look at other options:
Here’s how they look on the design wall – keep in mind these are 2 inches square:
I’m trying to quilt Time of Plenty for at least 30 – 60 minutes a day:
As I sew my 9 patches, I’m working on a leader/ender project and have just over 100 quarter square triangle blocks so far:
After almost a full week of very gloomy, cloudy weather, the sun has been out the past 2 days with brilliant blue skies. I walked along the river:
Along with the blue and white in the landscape, there are peeks of amber beech leaves glowing in the sunlight:
And green lichens clinging to logs in the snow:
Once again, I enjoyed seeing and photographing the ice formations at water’s edge:
And some a bit further out; this was sticking out and I’m not sure what’s under that “glob” of snow:
Hovering over the water on a hanging branch:
Hope you are all finding some delight in your every day. Hope some of that delight is in making and creating.
gladiquilts 