Show and Tell continued

While I was taking pictures I thought I would take a picture of this quilt. This bench is in my entryway. I made this quilt after seeing a similar one at a show. I really liked the colours -- red, brown, green, black, and ivory. After I took this I decided that I would open up that little green cabinet (thrifted, natch) and stack small quilts and wall hangings in it. So far it is not very full, but I haven't really started pulling from around the house. When it is more complete I will take another pic.

This is the first of the circle quilts I made from Country Threads "Quilts from Aunt Amy". I have actually made this quilt 3 times. I first saw this quilt in this harvest colour way at the Utah Quilting Guild show a couple of September's ago. There was a shop at the merchant mall there called Whimsy Cottage, from whom I could happily have bought 1 each of everything they were displaying. I did buy the book. And on a shop hop down into Utah a year or so later with friends purposely drove all the way to Heber to go to the shop. Since that time it has closed but I understand it has now reopened in SLC. Have to put it on the list for the next Utah trip.

Anyway, this quilt hangs in my entryway. I have a kind of rake thing that is a good quilt hanger. I do change the quilt out sort of seasonally but I like this one so much it hangs there for more than fall. I have also made this quilt in bright, bright colours for my granddaughter. It's at her house in South Carolina so I can't show it, but I can show you this one, the last quilt I brought home from my office.

It has the green wheaty backing. Everyone who came into my office loved this one. They usually sidled up to it and tried to sneak touching it. It has alot of blue so it needed to come home as I get strong sun in my office especially this time of year and I worry about the blue fading. Unfortunately that has happened to some of my other quilts that hung there in the past.

Before I go, at last I have finished the top of the scrappy quilt. I like it alot. I will show it again at some point when it is quilted and bound. I was going to say that I don't usually show tops, but I have before, so I guess I do. This is a LARGE quilt so basting and quilting will be a challenge! Oh, well, it will probably be awhile before I get to it as there is a long waiting list of tops to be completed!

And now for some fronts

We finally had some sunny days so I was able to take some pictures of the fronts of the quilts I brought home from my office. This, obviously, is a scrappy quilt. It is the one with the blue floral backing. That blue floral is from when I lived in Tulsa -- that makes it about 1980 -1981 or so. The little orange flowers made it go perfectly with the monster blue and orange couch and this floral appeared in a number of pillows. It's fitting since some of the fabrics in this quilt are pretty old, too. I like to use up my really old fabrics as backings. That way I can feel vindicated that I held on to them all these years (and moved them all those times) for a good reason! This one is the original Saturday Sampler that my LQS did a few years ago. The block fabrics were provided. I added the sashing, corner posts, and borders. I remember hunting and hunting for the right border fabrics. I think the choices looked pretty good considering not all the block fabrics were what I would have chosen nor did they all "go" together. This is the one with the brown, orange and blue kind of paisley backing. Also from the era of the blue and orange couch. It was a kettlecloth. Do you remember kettlecloth? I made tons of clothing from kettlecloth back in the day. I don't even know if it exists anymore.

Now this one is relatively recent. I had a relatively small piece of the sunflower fabric which I loved. Then I found the batik that is the outer border. I usually do not go for batiks but this one appealed to me. I guess because it looked rusty! Everything else came from stash based on those two fabrics. This one has the almost white background with really pale green flowers. Bought especially to back this quilt. It is not a fabric I would ever buy and I even wonder why I chose it for the backing. But then, this quilt is a bit of a departure from my normal thing anyway.

Now this one was lots of fun to make. I was experimenting with deeper brighter colours. Certainly not much contrast on this quilt, now is there? It has the blue checked homespun backing. I had never used homespun for a backing but had alot of this because it was supposed to be curtains in the flag room in my last house. It never quite became curtains. I thought the depth of colour backing complemented the front of the quilt really well.

Well, that's the end of show and tell for tonight.

Trying to Modernize

I see so many super fabrics on other blogs that are nothing like what I have in my stash. Of course that is probably because the blogs show lots of contemporary styles and I do mostly primitive. But I thought it was time to expand my horizons a bit and have gathered a few new things. The first two just seemed kind of fun. The bottom one could become an article of clothing. I have been thinking about making some tops again. I used to sew most of my clothes, especially tops, and it might be time to give it another try.

I also keep seeing so many cute, cute bags and I thought these fabrics would make a cute one. I love the great big dots. I have always liked dots ever since way back in the '70's and early '80's when we could only get pin dots. And I still have some of those in my stash!

I am in love with this traffic fabric. And it even goes with this blue dot fabric. Can you believe it -- from my limited blue stash came the perfect shade of blue. This seems like such an urban scene. I guess because of the double decker bus.

Blue and brown are also just everywhere. I am not too fond of it. Could be because of all the years I spent with orange and blue dominating my life. But this I like. Probably because there are dots and larger dots with pink and green -- doesn't that white fabric make you think '50's? And the brown checks are reminiscent of gingham, a country and primitive standby.

Of course once I make something with this new look it will look strange alongside all my primitive things.

A really phenomenal local quilter has recently changed the LQS she works at. She does incredibly complex work and has a great colour sense. This is a FQ bundle she put together. I even love the ribbon that came around it. This will make a great table topper. I have been thinking of lightening up a bit for spring and summer and this will be perfect. Of course, first I have to make the table topper. And then I have to do the lightening up. Hmmm....good luck with that.

I am still working on the scrap quilt. I told you it had lots of pieces. Just two more rows to sew together and then another scrappy border to make and add. Lately I don't seem to be able to stick to working on one thing. Maybe soon I will manage to concentrate on something and get a finish. Or maybe not.

Not a Very Productive April

that's for sure. Only one little slice of watermelon completed! Usually I do so much better than that. Time sure is going by quickly -- that's my excuse -- and I'm sticking to it. So many things are in various stages of completion I need to have a better showing in May.



So I have decided to bring all my quilts that have been hanging in my office home. All but one has now made the trip. So far I have just been tossing them on my guest room bed. Here they are, and I think it is interesting to look at their backs. I like to use up old yardage when making backs. Some of it is quite old. See the one that is blue with little orange flowers? A VIP print left over from the very first quilt I ever made. That one dates from the late '70's. And the brown, blue, and orange one -- about the same time period. See, if you age something long enough, it turns out to be just right for something.

So, probably the backs are only this interesting to me. I will show the fronts in another post, once the sun starts shining again and I can get good pictures.

Meanwhile, Kim from Kim's Big Quilting Adventure, asked the other day about what we have found lately while thrifting. She had just found some books and so have I. She's right, thrift stores are a great place to find crafting and quilting books. It's hard for me to leave any of them there. And then it's even harder to find space to shelve them. I love to make things for Christmas, and the series "Christmas From the Heart" has some great items.

I recently saw a picture in a magazine of a wall full of little red and white samplers, mostly ABC style and hearts. This cross stitch sampler book will be perfect to find some motifs to create my own version of some of those samplers and then that wall. Of course, it will probably be a looooooooong time before I will be able to show you that...

The Thing About Scrap Quilts

Is that by definition they involve lots of scraps -- or pieces. That is the good thing about them of course. But it does have it's down side. Lots and lots of sewing and sorting until you get to the good part -- seeing what the blocks, and then the quilt, looks like. And for a scrap quilt that is really, really the best part I think. Especially on this one since I decided to use lots of my older and just flat ugly fabrics.

You know I wonder how I got these ugly fabrics. I am not a frequent buyer of kits or bundles, although I recognize some of these as being parts of bundles from Connecting Threads long ago. I used to buy some of their fat quarter bundles that came with instructions on making small quilts and table toppers. Since they started making and promoting only their own fabrics I have just not seen anything I like well enough to buy.

I also recognize a few of these as coming from a pound of strips I bought one time from The Cotton Club. They are located in my city and used to be open once a month for First Thursday and since I could look at what the pound contained I bought one from time to time. I liked to buy things there because most of their fabrics were out of my comfort zone. So it makes sense that some of the "ounces" would not be to my liking.

And then again, I recognize some as being left overs from making quilts as gifts. But none of these explanations seems to be adequate to the quantity of ugly fabrics I seem to have acquired.

It's just a mystery, I guess!
I started in on this quilt because, 1) I fell in love with the picture on the cover of the magazine, and 2) because I was tired of making a bazillion half square triangles on the Miss Rosie's quilt I had been working on. BUT... this Miss Rosie's quilt requires -- wait for it -- a bazillion half square triangles. Just look at this stack ready to be pressed! Oh, well, these are bigger. And they are finished, too. Once sorted out and matched to 4 square blocks the quilt will start to take shape.

Yes, I said matched. Not just because this quilt calls for the lights in the 4 squares to be matched to the lights in the half square triangles, but because no matter how scrappy, I cannot resist doing at least some coordinating. I have tried the paper bag technique to stop myself from doing this but with little success. Cannot deal with totally random -- must have controlled random. That's just the way it is.

To change the subject, as promised, here is the watermelon display. I think the new watermelon table topper looks nice with it but am not so pleased with the entire thing. I think I am ready for something simpler and less cluttered. So this will not stay up for long.

Here a couple of favoured items in the display. I love the watermelon basket picture in its red frame. And the round watermelon bowl. The crow is painted both front and back. All came from the thrift store and I really wonder why someone made the crow reversible. That too will remain a mystery.

Distractions

Since I sew mostly on the weekends, and it takes a while to get my sewing machine serviced I ended up with a sewing machine-less weekend. Recently I joined Ravelry after seeing so many links on blogs of beautiful things others have made. I used to knit and crochet alot but it has been awhile so I thought I would break in gently. So, ta-da, here is a cotton dishcloth. Came out okay I think.

Even though I have lots of things already cut out and in progress, when I saw the new American Patchwork & Quilting I knew I had to make the cover quilt. I just love scrappy quilts (I know you already know that) and I also love Carrie Nelson patterns. So immediately (even though the machine is back now) I had to start pulling and cutting to make this quilt.

I decided to use alot of fabrics I usually pass by in my stash. You know the ones -- colours or styles that you liked once upon a time but now, not so much. So every time you pull fabric you pass them right by. Most of these pieces are bigger than scraps, and they will look just fine in a scrappy quilt. And some of them will get used up -- at last.

And now that Easter is over it's time to put the bunnies away and move on to something new. Over the last few months I have been collecting watermelons during our thrifting outings. So here are the makings of the next display. Doesn't look like much now but it is a nice collection, don't you think? I will show it again once it is all set up.

And since I guess I am just not really into all the half square triangles I need for the quilt I am supposed to be working on, I decided to make this little table runner from the BH&G web site. I am really, really happy with it. It will look great with the rest of the watermelons. I have a couple of other watermelon quilt patterns so it is likely I will get distracted by them soon now, too.

But before I go, here is the newest box lid. Since there is not quite a season going on right now and there is not a watermelon lid, I thought this more generic house lid would be good for a while. And I do like houses, and, of course hearts, so it will be nice to look at it for awhile.

And another thing-- I was asked in comments what I am going to do with the chain. I guess I forgot to mention that it goes on my Christmas tree. When we moved to this tall house we got a new 9 foot tree and the old chain just didn't go very far on that tree. This is probably still not enough but I won't really know that for another few months.

Gone missing

Well, it seems that way now, doesn't it? It's always nice when a work trip can turn into a vacation and that's exactly what happened. While I was gone I took my sewing machine to be oiled and tuned so I have been working on things that do not require sewing.



See what's in that box? That is a fabric chain I made many many years ago. For almost as many years I have been intending to make more of it. And now I have.

These were alot easier to make than the originals because now I own a pinking rotary cutter. I bought it a few years ago thinking of this particular project. Anyway, these are easy to make. Just fuse two layers of Christmas-sy fabric together with no sew fusible web and use the rotary cutter to make strips.

It does make a bit of a mess though. I have little triangular bits all over the sewing room now. And since they are seem to have a static charge they got all over the rest of the house too.

Anyway, look at this nice selection of assorted colours of pinked strips. Last step is to staple them together just like making a construction paper chain. The original was stapled together with a Little Tot stapler. Don't know where that little thing got to so I had to use regular size staples. That makes for a bit more overlap than the original so I should have cut these a bit longer than the originals. But no one will notice that these are a bit rounder and less oval than the original, will they?

So here is the original one next to the new one. The original is very green. That's because it was made in the '70's and there was not alot of cotton fabric, Christmas or otherwise, available. Remember the bad old days when you had to hunt and hunt for 100% small print fabrics? So next Christmas I will see if I have enough now or if making more will still be on my list of things to do. Oh, and this was a March finish, too, barely, but it was.