Postcard from Pax

 I got caught in the snarled air travel from Pax.  My weekly commute includes two legs - I travel thru Charlotte to catch a prop plane to a small airport in eastern North Carolina.  I knew I wouldn't make it from the small airport to Charlotte, so I rented a car and drove five hours to increase my chances of getting home for the weekend.  My Indiana winter driving skills got me there safely.  I waited in line for two hours to get booked on a flight the next morning.  Unfortunately, there were no hotel rooms available - my only option was to spend the night at the airport. Amazingly, I had a quilt packed in my luggage!  I finished hand stitching the binding earlier in the week and the quilt was packed to bring home. 

Airports get pretty cold in the middle of the night.  I wrapped up and covered my head to get a bit of privacy.  I've only traveled with a quilt twice - someone was looking out for me!  Here's a peek at the back -

Random Thoughts

Pulling together random thoughts for this post.  The first is a finish!  This quilt was started at Beaver Island Quilt Retreat - strippy theme.  The quilt doesn't look like a vertical strip quilt, but that's how the quilt was constructed (corner close-up at left).  After much debate on quilting, we decided stippling would be best - machine quilted by Anne Spiotta from Blue House Quilting.  I'm really happy with the result.  The pics of the front and back are a little blurry and not true to color (quilt is much darker), but wearing out my welcome with the holder.

(edit) The quilt has been complaining that the pic above 'adds ten pounds', so I'm including a better image. 

                                     

                                                       

Jan and I visited the LaPorte Co. Historical Society quilt exhibit in June.  There were a number of nice quilts displayed - some well loved.  This Lone Star greeted you as you walked in the door.

One of our favorites was the folded cradle quilt .  The coverlet on the bed was very nice, too.

The museum had a large collection of 'invalid' cups.  I haven't run across these before.  The cups were used before drinking straws to feed soft foods and liquids to infants and patients.  They were offered as an accessory piece to many china sets.  There is an elongated spout opposite the handle topped by a lip to contain the liquid when the cup is tipped.

I had to be in San Francisco for two consecutive weeks for work, so I stayed thru the week-end.  This was my first opportunity to sight see in San Fran.  I did alot of walking and took lots of pictures of beautiful old homes.  I visited two yarn shops, but no quilt shops.  I'm including two of my favorite pics - the famous Painted Ladies and Lombard St.

Last pic is from my flower garden - swallowtail butterfly on the flowering Bethany.

Where's the Willpower?

I caved!  I resisted Lucy's Jacok when she first posted.  Then, last weekend I was catching up on my blog list, and saw Keryn's completed top.  Too much for me - I caved!  Each block finishes at 9" which adds to the quilt's visual draw.  I thought about downscaling (cause I like little blocks), but decided against it.  Bonus for me - the 4 patch strip size matches the 9 patch for the Martz quilt I posted about recently, so I'm getting double duty from the dark strips.



The fabric the 9 patch blocks are laying on is from Blue Hill Fabrics - Sara's Stash.  I picked it up at Whittle's on the trip to Florida.  They aren't far off I-65 in Kentucky.  I also stopped at the Speed Art Museum's exhibit of the Bingham-Miller collection in Louisville (sidebar).  Great diversion for a day in the car.

If you're following my Featherweight drama, no resolution yet.  I'm using my mom's 1951 Singer 15-91 portable machine - beautiful stitch, but the thing weighs a ton.  Portable? - I don't think so!  

I just pulled my bed quilt from the dryer, so a good time to post pics.  Shadow, my old black cat, lays on the quilt every night, so I don't want to change out my bed quilt for something that suits me better.  This quilt was made for an on-line Labor Day quilt retreat years ago.  I wasn't fond of the top until it was machine quilted by Fat Quarter Quilt Farm - Susan's stitching art made me love the quilt.  The border picture is the closest to actual color. 

center section

border

back (flipped over)

The last thing I have to share is a recently inherited (unfortunately, but not my Grandma - she's been gone for years) needlepoint picture made by my Grandma Flo.  I remember visiting with her in the backyard while she worked on this piece.  The yarns were so close in shade, she worked in natural sunlight to follow the color chart.  The camera won't render a sharp image due to the needlepoint texture.  It will find a spot of honor to remind me of my Grandma every day.                              

                               

Woo Hoo!

Another bed quilt in the 'finished' pile!  At left is a close-up of the back.  The quilting was done by Anne Spiotta of Blue House Quilting, Wheaton, IL.  I couldn't be happier with the results - I love the heavy quilting in the quilt top alternate block.  I don't have a nice place to hang quilts for picture taking, so hubby stepped in.  Pictures are a little fuzzy (sorry), but the hired help wasn't interested in 'Take 2'.  The picture on the left is the top - picture on the right is the back.  You're probably tired of seeing this one, but it's finally finished!

           A couple close-up shots of the top -

Jan and I had a great retreat weekend - my personal accomplishments:

binding attached to two bed quilts

six pinwheel blocks

four log cabin blocks

small start on Lori's Midnight Stars

Doll Quilt Finish & Fessing Up!

This little triangle doll quilt was pieced of leftovers at our group's retreat last January. Just some simple hand quilting along the seam lines, but it's enough, I think. The purple trip-around-the-world quilt that I posted a couple of weeks ago came from this book:

You can see that I completely copied the colors. The fabrics for this were cut out back in the early 90's, and when the retreat rolled around I was in the mood to complete a UFO. This was one of the oldest, and as time passed, I liked it again. By then, two or three fabrics didn't cut the mustard so Vicki and I shopped at Yoder's for substitutions.

Check out some of the older fabrics that made the cut! How do you like those duckies and bunnies on the medium rose fabric? There wasn't a good fabric to swap it out with value-wise, so it stayed, and I think it's kind of funny that it's in there. The fabrics still all play together nicely. For some reason, when I make a reproduction quilt(which is most of the time), it's sometimes fun to throw in something that just doesn't belong. I really like to do this when there are lots of little pieces, and you would really have to search for it. Maybe I just find it hard to play by the rules? Yes, I think that's it!

The backing fabric was being saved so there would be lots of it visible. It practically makes the quilt reversible. The binding is truly one of my favorite fabrics. My daughter says that I say that a lot, but this one really is. It is from one of the early Smithsonian repro lines, and I still have a yard or so left. It's just a great brown.

Thank you to everyone who left comments on my posts, especially the one about the flannel quilt for my niece. I was really touched at all of the nice things that were written. Quilters are the best!

Paired Four Patch

This top has been completed for awhile (probably five years).  I originally thought I'd add a pieced border, but the quilt is fairly large already.  I've decided to run the pieced blocks to the quilt edge.   This quilt was fun to sew.  Four 4 Patch blocks per pieced unit (two sets of two) - I strip pieced the alternate block.  I love scrappy quilts!   

The inspiration for this quilt is a Double Irish Chain circa 1875 (pg 41) from 'The Ultimate Quilting Book' by Maggi McCormick Gordon (great book!).  If you have this book, look it up.  What a beauty - yummy red background fabric - subtle stripe with uniform circles - I love fabric with dots!  I named the top 'Freda's Girls' because my sister-in-law was gifted the book for Christmas from her daughters and she let me drool over it while we visited over the holiday. 

Time to get it quilted! 

Shipshe Retreat

Well, I have many works in progress, but when it came time to decide what to take with me on the Shipshewana retreat, none of my "starts" were in a good state to take along. So, I decided to start a couple of quilts that have been on my very lengthy to do list for some time. First up is a Miss Rosie pattern called Just Ask, and here is a sample of the partial block. I actually got a pretty good start on this one, so it now qualifies as a UFO.

There was quite a pile of half-square triangle trimmings stacking up, so it just had to become a little doll quilt. It's really pretty tiny (1-1/4" hst), so I'm thinking of a few borders, maybe courthouse steps style.
The other project I brought along was my shoebox full of 5" squares to make the Paducah Nine Patch from Pat Speth's first Nickel Quilts book. It is the quilt on the cover. I completed these four blocks to get an idea of where it was headed. If you ever decide to make this, don't follow the pressing directions, or you'll have lumpy seams. I plan to press them open. And, frankly, this would have been much easier to sew with strips, but I've already cut scads of 5" squares! The book has lots of great quilts to look at, and think about making, though.

I rarely make quilts from patterns even though I buy plenty of them! I do think that Miss Rosie patterns are great - clear instructions and illustrations. Plus, they are gorgeous!

Radio Flyer

A finish!!! The pattern is Radio Flyer by Miss Rosie. I improvised my own border. This was quilted by Sandy Rice - she did an awesome job. I finished the binding this morning and ran it thru the washer (no soap) and dryer. It feels so good to get something crossed off the longggg list!

Below is a close-up of the corner - front and back.

Another Top

This is a finished top from one of Gwen's retreats - the topic was strip quilts (as in bars). I merrily cut/assembled pieces in the most unconventional way, but things went together better than I expected. I seem to make things harder than they need to be. It's taught me to take more time in visually dissecting the layout before beginning. I assembled the borders when I was without my fabric stash, so things grew from necessity. I'm thinking it was serendipitous because I'm happy with the way it turned out.

Below is a picture of my Halloween mantle - Halloween is my favorite holiday. The picture on the right is of my Mom and Aunt trick-or-treating at their grandparents. This must be from the early 1930's. I treasure this picture and look forward to displaying it every year!

Antique Quilt Copy

I saw this quilt at an antique exhibit. It was in terrible shape, but I loved the composition. The booth owner let me sit and take notes - I didn't have my camera with me. To answer a question from comments, my camera is an old Gateway digital (DC-T50 5.25 megapixels). My reproduction of the quilt came totally from stash - I love when that happens! The quilt went together fairly quickly due to the deep sashing/cornerstones.

Status on current project - the Colorado center is complete. I'm working on the rick-rack border. I scratched the QST and am using the flying geese method. I made a small sample last night and decided I needed to increase the scale. Hope to have one side done soon to show you.

Hand Quilting Primer

I pieced this quilt while going thru a kitchen remodel. I wanted to sew to escape the turmoil, but didn't want to make any more decisions. So, I joined an internet mystery quilt. This quilt has been waiting quite a few years (maybe 6) to become my hand quilting primer. I hand quilted years ago using a style all my own (which was detrimental to my thumb). So, I'm learning all over again. Last November I decided the time was right. I had quilted about an hour the first day when my son called asking me to join them ice-skating at the pond. Within half an hour I had a broken right wrist and the quilt was back on the shelf. Hand quilting is a slowww process!

The Quilt on My Bed

Even though I've been a quilter for nearly 20 years, we usually have a comforter on our bed. Without air conditioning (even though it has been a cool summer), I took that off and put on this quilt. As I looked at the label, (yes, this one actually got one) I noticed that the date was 9/1/96. So, this one is approaching it's birthday. Wow, I just can't believe that I made this so long ago. At that time, we lived in the All-American two story with a front porch. I wanted something summery looking, and since the rail fence was a favorite, I made this. While I probably wouldn't sew this quilt today, I still have a soft spot for the little florals in it.

The colors in the detail shot are most accurate, but I wanted to include a nearly full view. The green triangles and border are made of an early Judie Rothermel thirties print. It has faded quite a bit, especially on the two opposite sides. This quilt didn't have much direct sun, but you wouldn't know it. Doesn't it seem as if the old quilts hold their color better? I look at the vintage quilts every chance that I get, and very few have faded. Still, this one is soft and snuggly, and just the right weight for summer sleeping.

Making Do

This is my most recent finished top. The 3" 9 patch blocks were the first exchange our quilt group did. The setting is from this book ('A Treasury of Mennonite Quilts', pg 78). I found the outer border in my stash, but had less than one yard. I don't like seams in my borders, so Jan and I went to our local quilt shop to find something. Once I had this in mind, nothing else worked - even with the whole shop to choose from.

So, I improvised. Here's a close-up of the border length. I had another fabric that was very similar in color/value, so inserted strips to lengthen the border without seam lines in the large scale print. I think that's what draws us to the old quilts - the querkiness that comes from making due with what's on hand. I added 9 patches in the outer corners 'just because'.