Blogger's Quilt Festival - Spring 2014 edition

It's time for another Blogger's Quilt Festival!  If you've joined me through the link on the Festival, Welcome!  I'm so glad you came to visit!  If you're a regular reader, well, you're just as warmly welcomed!  And a huge Thank You to Amy for hosting this fun Festival again.  It is so fun to see all the wonderful quilts, get some inspiration, and meet new-to-me bloggers.

11-11-11 - The Corduroy Quilt

Regular readers may recognize this, although it's been awhile since it's made an appearance on the blog.  But, I'm happy to report, this is finally a FINISH!  Yay!  This quilt/comforter has been a loooong time in the making.  

I made the quilt top in 2011.  This quilt is made from corduroy, and it was made to celebrate National Quilting Day on November 11, 2011.  In other words, 11-11-11.  The Date That Most Closely Resembles Corduroy.  Hee hee!  That date just happens to be my birthday too, so it was my present to myself!

Unfortunately, then this quilt languished.  I got it layered and pin basted and started to tie the quilt . . . and very quickly got bored with it.  I've worked on it sporadically ever since.  This past winter I pulled it out to work on it again, and was determined that this was the year it would be finished.  So, I still had a few fits and starts, but I persevered!  

Detail 1

This quilt almost never happened.  In 2011, I read on some of the blogs I regularly visit about making a corduroy quilt and thought it sounded like fun.  But I didn't have any corduroy and I didn't want to go buy corduroy either.  But someone in my quilt guild was giving away fabric - and I received 2 2-yard pieces of corduroy from her!  Then I mentioned making a cord quilt and another guild member gave me her corduroy scraps!  So, I took that as a message from the Universe that I really should make a corduroy quilt!  Who am I to argue with the universe?

Surprisingly, most of the colors worked well together, but I ended up over-dyeing the green.  It was just too bright.  I used a blue/turquoise dye, and that toned down the green nicely.  In Real Life, you can see some variations in the green, but I don't think it shows up well in the photos.  I used up every bit of the yellow, the green and the purple, and most of the burgundy and the black fabrics.

Detail 2

I've entered this quilt in the 'Original Design' category of the Festival.  It is my original design.  My inspiration for this quilt was the quilts made by the Gee's Bend quilters.  (If you don't know about the Gee's Bend quilters and their quilts, you can read about them here and see some of their quilts here.)  In other words, I worked in an improvisational manner.  

I decided at the very beginning that I would only use scissors, NO rotary cutting!  After a while, especially for the longer pieces and borders, I just tore the fabric.  (I found out what a mess corduroy can make when you do that! Fuzz everywhere!)  It made a disaster of my quilt studio, but I worked quickly.  Just cutting and putting bits up on the design wall, then sewing without agonizing.  It was so much fun!  I ended up with big borders on the top and bottom edges just to make the quilt be long enough so that my toes won't stick out the end.  *grin*  The quilt ended up being about 50 inches wide by about 70 inches long.  I say "about" because, just like the Gee's Bend quilts, it's not quite straight or square.  I purposely left it "wonky" - because I love how it looks!

I used a poly batting (Quilters Dream Request polyester) because I wanted warmth without weight.  I knew the corduroy would be heavy enough.  And I used brushed cotton on the back of the quilt, which is so soft and cuddly.  In the manner of the Gee's Bend quilts, the brushed cotton doesn't match or even quite "go with" the top, but it was in the stash and it was the right size.  I used regular quilting cotton for the binding.  I chose to go with black, but added a few touches of yellow in places too.

a glimpse of the backing fabric

I was afraid that quilting this would be difficult, so I tied it with black Perle cotton.  But it turns out that the needle goes through the corduroy and light batting like a knife through warm butter!  I will quilt the next corduroy quilt I make.

I love the way the corduroy almost looks like velvet.  It is so soft and snuggly.  And I really like how the fabrics change color depending on the direction that the nap of the corduroy is running.  I love running my hand over this quilt, not to mention snuggling up with it!  It will be my quilt to cover up with this next winter when I watch TV in the evening.

on the couch

I don't think this will be my last corduroy quilt!  I still have a few bits left, another 2-yard piece in tan, and friends are still giving me their corduroy scraps!  And I've discovered how much I love working in the Improvisational style.

Playing with Flowers and Fabric

Rhododendron

The weather here has been just beautiful this week . . . up to 84*, sunny and so beautiful.  All the rhododendrons and azaleas are blooming and are so gorgeous.  So, instead of doing much sewing, I went and got seduced by the pretty plants at Home Depot!  I've gotten half of the plants in the ground, and the rest are sitting out on the deck, waiting for me to do something with them.  I'm so easily swayed into buying the flowers, and am not really good at the planting part.  Most of them will go in the pots on the deck, which won't involve me getting on my sore knees. 

I'm discovering that many of the plants that I've put in in previous years aren't doing very well because we have too much shade and not enough sun for them.  So, now I'm rethinking what I'm getting AND where I'm putting it.  

Tonight the weather is starting to change, and we're supposed to have rain and highs only in the 60's by Saturday.  So hopefully tomorrow I can get some of those pots planted.  I've got a guild workshop tomorrow afternoon, so I'm not sure how many I can actually get done.  On second thought, I guess some rain won't hurt them.  hee hee!  

I made seven of the Bars blocks that Block Lotto is doing this month.  I found them difficult to do accurately, but I prevailed.  I'm going to be donating these this month.

This is where I am at now with my Cherrywoods project that I showed here.  I've got blocks for another project on the design wall, and so these were on the floor of the quilt studio.  I got tired of walking on or around them, so I finally got them sewn together.  Now I'm stalled until I go get some more of the brown fabric that I'm using for the sashing.  I only had 1/2 yard to start with, and I don't have enough left to finish those two edges that don't have the brown.  Not a problem (I LOVE buying fabric!), but it involves a trip back to the store where I bought it and that is about an hour's drive from here! I know I could put another brown on those two sides, but I want the entire outside to be the same fabric to "float" the blocks.  

Here is Shade inspecting my work.  This should give you an idea of the size of the piece.  Shade seems to approve!

Sally's Vintage Quilt

My sister Sally received this lovely quilt from a friend in Boston recently.  She brought it to show to me when she visited in March.  I thought you might like to see it too!

We couldn't get all of it on the design wall for the photo!

The Boston friend (I don't know her name) is a collector of quilts, but not a quilt maker, who's decided she wants to specialize in floral applique quilts.  So, my sister was gifted this quilt.  Lucky duck!

A closer view

The quilt is a large quilt, close to a queen size.  Sally and I thought it might be from the 1950's, although some of the fabrics look to be from the 40's and even the 30's.  It is in very good condition.

Even closer

Those big white diamonds are actually 4 diamonds that are the same size as the print diamonds.

Look at these wonderful old fabrics!  This is a true scrap quilt - lots of different prints and colors.

We have no idea what the name of this pattern might be.  Any ideas?  We'd welcome input.  I've been calling it the Diamond Quilt.  

I love looking at these old prints, don't you?  

p.s. Also, if you have a better idea of the age of this quilt, please leave me a comment!

Plugging Along

Happy Friday!

After a couple of very busy weeks, I've got little to actually show you.  No photos yet, but the corduroy quilt is all tied (finally!) and is now waiting on me getting to the hand-stitching of the binding.  Very slow progress, but still progress.

I had an idea the other day for a project that I started a while back, then lost my vision of what I was doing.  I've never shown it here, so here's a photo of where I started:

just blocks laid on a background

I had decided to work with what was left of two Scrap Bags from Cherrywood Fabrics.  I already used most of the blues, greens and purples in my "Snuggle" quilt. (You can see it here)  I just love these suede-look fabrics, and they had languished in the cupboard for far too long.  None of these pieces are bigger than 5 inch by 7 inch, so it can be challenging to come up with a project that they will work in.  I made these approximately 5 inch blocks of strata.  I also threw in some bits of hand-painted fabric from Barb's Elegant Designs for a little sparkle.  After I got this far, the project got set aside.

Then, the other day, I ran across a picture of a quilt by Odette Tolksdorf on Pinterest that reminded me of these blocks, and so I had to go do something with the idea that this sparked.  I've been working for a few days now, and finally am getting somewhere with these.

approx. 10 inch square blocks now

I need one or two more blocks (extra blocks are always good when undecided about what I'm doing) and then I'll start trying to put this together.  It doesn't look like much in the photo - it's hard to capture the true color and variations in the fabrics - but I'm excited and happy about how it's coming along. 

pin basted and ready to quilt

I've also pin basted the other baby quilt that I showed back in January. You can see it here.  (Really?  January?? Yikes! Time flies.)  I'm hoping to get it quilted this weekend, so that I have next week to do the binding.  I'd like to have it done to turn it at the guild meeting in a week.  I just need to finalize what/how I'm going to machine quilt.  I printed out some photos of the quilt in black and white and am sketching quilting designs on the photos to help me decide. Because that is much easier than ripping out something I don't like!  hee hee!

We're having a beautiful sunny spring day here, after a couple of days of lots of rain.  I finally got a chance to get out in the yard and get some photos of what's blooming.  The tulip at the top of this post is the ONLY tulip I got this year.  That darn squirrel dug up and ate all the rest of my bulbs.  I got one daffodil too (same reason), and it is disappearing a little bit every day.  I think the slugs are eating it.  Oh well, one is better than none.  They are both where I can see them every day and I'm making a point of enjoying them.  Next year I need to try something different, I think.  I'm open to suggestions!

Azalea

Forget Me Not

unfurling Hostas

Sweet Violets

Have a great weekend and I hope you have time to do some stitching this weekend!

One Done, Three Begun

Done!  
18.5 x 25 inches

I finally got this little preemie quilt quilted and done.  It's now ready to give away.  Yay!  Even a small finish is still a finish.

I did a very simple straight-line quilting job on it, and used some soft, sweet baby flannel on the back. 

#1 Begun

I've gotten more baskets done since I got home from my class with Gwen.  Still have at least another 4 to do, then I need to figure out what I want to do with them.  I'm not sure which part of that will be more fun.  *grin*

As I promised in my last post, here are my goodies I got at the Quilted Strait in Port Gamble.  An 8 inch square frame for some needlework I did, a purple with cats fat quarter (by Laurel Burch), some great labels fabric and some cute fabric to trim kitchen towels with.

Look at the cute selvage on the flower fabric!  It's ladybugs!

Here are two fat quarters that I received from the owner of the Quilted Strait.  These are the new made-in-America solids.  She gave everyone in the class two fat quarters, as she had just gotten the fabrics in stock.  They seem very nice, from what I can tell without undoing the cool folding job.

#2 Begun

A few weeks ago, I taught some of the ladies in my guild how to do Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Trips pattern.  The class was very successful - everyone got at least one block done and they all looked great!  But, it involved starting a new quilt!  I decided to use some of my polka dot fabrics.  Wow, I had a lot more than I had realized!  So, these were some samples to show the various layouts you can do.  Since I have a LOT of dots, I'm not sure how big this quilt will be.  As big as it needs to be to include as many dots as possible, I guess.  *laughs*

A few weeks ago, I found these blocks.  Can you guess what decade they're from??*  My friends in my very first quilting bee made these blocks for me.  Since I was the baby of the group, most of these ladies have now passed away.  I don't really care much for these colors anymore, but I do care that my friends made these for me.  I decided to keep them and see what I could do with them.  But I think they're kind of boring.  *yawn*

So, I tossed them up on the design wall to see what I could do.

#3 Begun

So, I've made 3 more blocks to bring the count up to 12.  And I tried to incorporate a little more contrast in the blocks I've made.  I know the block in the bottom left is a "humility" block.  I "fixed" that boo-boo THREE times, and it's still wrong, so it's staying!  Even though it bugs me.  Resisting. . . .

Now, I'm trying to decide what I want to do next.  These are 14 inch blocks, so I don't want to add much more size to this.  The Thinking Cap has gone on and I'm cogitating now.  Hopefully something will occur to me soon!   I don't know if it's a good thing or not, but I don't have many fabrics in these dusty blue colors anymore, and I want to up the contrast on the whole thing as well.  I'd like to have this one done for the quilt show in October, so I know I can't dawdle too long.  And I also don't want this to be boring and predictable.  So, that's the challenge I've given myself.  *gulp*  I hope that's not biting off more than I can chew.  I'll be keeping you posted as I hopefully make progress.

* These are the dusty blues from the 1980's.  Waaay out of style and favor!

Makin' Baskets with Gwen

Candy and I had a fun trip over to Poulsbo and Port Gamble, and discovered that Quilted Strait in the little historic district of Port Gamble is a wonderful quilt store, full of all kinds of beautiful fabrics, patterns, threads and samples.  We had to bring some of the store's goodies home with us.  More on that later.  And the facility for Gwen's class was just delightful!  Windows all around, letting in lots of light, a great view of the Hood Canal, lots of room for each person, and goodies to snack on as well.

Gwen taught about 20 quilters how to do her free-pieced baskets.  Some of the ladies there were brand-new quilters (one young woman had never touched a rotary cutter before that day!) and many were old friends of Gwen.  Gwen gently encouraged everyone to be creative in her inimitable way.  She is so patient and kind and so willing to help whomever needs some one-on-one instruction.  She is so generous with her knowledge and tips.  She's just a joy of a teacher, plus she is funny!  She made us all laugh.

Gwen's basket handle demo

Everyone had fun making baskets, and I think everyone was successful as well.  There was lots of laughter, plenty of helpful suggestions, and much exclaiming over fabric, as well as encouragement of each other.  And all the baskets were super!

Joan brought her basket quilt to share with everyone.  She used Gwen's technique for the basket handles.

Another lady brought her gorgeous basket quilt that is still in progress.  She used many African fabrics in the baskets, plus other types too.  She was stumped on what to do for a border and wanted Gwen's input.

Love the snake basket!

Another lady brought a finished basket top to show.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that Stephanie of the fun blog Quiltz by Stephanie and her friend Dorothy were a table mates of mine and Candy's.  Stephanie has more to say and show about Gwen's class - go take a look! 

There were lots of great baskets being made.  Here's some shots of the various design walls around the room:

made with vintage fabrics

Love these sand pails and the shovel!

Candy's first baskets

And for my baskets I used some vintage 60's fabrics that I've been saving for just the right project.

I used all polka dots for my backgrounds and rick rack for some of the handles.  Fun!  Since I've gotten home, I've made some more baskets.  They are so fun to make!  

I've got a rough plan on what I want to do with my baskets.  I'll be sure and show you how it all goes.  Hopefully soon!