Tag: Scrap Quilts

Quilting

Just That Kind Of Day…

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Well, it’s just going to be one of those days.  Strong storms and a lot of rain are predicted for my area today.  Bummer, I would really like to stitch outside on the deck today!  I go to the Chiropractor this morning for a little adjustment and then this afternoon (when the weather man predicts strong winds and rain) I have to drive 45 minutes away for my physical therapy.  So my day is kind of going to be broken up here and there where I can actually sit and work.
So, this morning I pulled out some Dear Jane Blocks and got to work!
I just love seeing finished blocks up on my design board!  The goal is to finish this top border for my Dear Jane quilt within a couple weeks.  Then I’ll pick another row of the quilt and work on getting it finished!  Nice plan, we’ll see if I can stick with it!

Last night I was able to do this…..
I cut and placed more pieces on one of the borders for my Stars & Sprigs block.  I guess I’m prepared if this storm knocks out our power for a little while!
And somewhere in between all this “fun” stuff today, I will be working on some new pattern designs and finishing off another project for another one of our books that will be out next spring!
Hope everyone has a wonderful day!
Quilting

Hands All Around Quilt

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 I’ve been slowly working on this quilt for a few months now – I cannot remember for the life of me if I shared this with you already or not!
This is the Hands All Around quilt block and I’m using a pattern from a binder collection of patterns called: Best Loved Quilt Patterns.  I found this collection of patterns on ebay a few years back.  I love this collection of patterns – lots of oldie but goodie style quilts!~  Here’s a picture of the cover on the binder:

So far I have 3 completed quilt blocks and I’m working on a fourth.  They are a nice large finished size block and I’m using a fabric from the Civil War Ladies fabric line by Judie Rothermel for Marcus Brothers!  It works perfect in the center of these blocks – Don’t you think?

Quilting

Sharing Fabric

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Today’s post is about my Aunt Julie’s beautiful scrappy quilts. My Aunt makes quilts for herself and also to sell.  I really want to thank all of my friends that have been cleaning out their own stashes of fabric and giving what they don’t want to me to give to my Aunt.  I’m not going to point fingers and point out who they are – but I just want to thank them again because it really means a lot to me. Fabric is really hard to come by where my aunt lives and my friends have been so generous in their giving.  I’ve shipped her boxes and boxes of fabric and have another one building it’s way up to being full.  This is what my Aunt does for a living – makes and sells quilts.  At least she has a fun job!
Enjoy these pictures of some of her quilts and always remember – don’t throw any fabric away – there is always someone or some organization out there that will use it!
Enjoy the picture show!

Quilting

Daisy Chain Quilt

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A sweet lady that belongs to the same Dear Jane group I’m in gave me the above book and it is so sweet!
I love this cover quilt called Daisy Chain and plan on making it.
In the very back of the book a pattern is provided, but I’m going to make it a little different.  The original quilt is made of 7 1/2″ finished size blocks and I think I’m going to do 9″ finished size blocks. The math is just easier on a 9″ block and I can rotary cut it faster! I’ve started cutting the pieces for it already and after I have a good size scrappy pile of pieces to work with, I’ll get started on the sewing part!  Fun!!!
Have a great day!
Quilting

String Scrappy Quilt Finished

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A couple days ago I told you about finding a bin of string blocks and various fabric strings and really wanting to clear that bin out and use it for something else.
Well, here is the finished quilt top.  It turned out just fine and I think it will make the perfect quilt to go in our camper for those chilly nights or even for picnics!  This quilt top was finished using fabrics from my stash!
And a little close up of the two fabrics from my stash that I used to create this ubberly scrappy quilt!
Quilting

Quilt Market Brain

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I’m still packing orders from Quilt Market.
I’m still running on a “high” from all the energy at Quilt Market.
I just want to dig in and work on something – ever get like that?
So, this morning while digging around for some 1 1/2″ strips to send to a friend, I un-earthed a box of strippy blocks and a bunch of strips I had been saving – really old fabrics, things I don’t typically use, but had been saving for some reason or another.  I’ll probably never do anything much with all this stuff and I really need the plastic bin all this stuff is stored in for the pile of 2 1/2″ strips I’ve been cutting that have no home yet.
So, here is a layout I have so far….
(please do not judge me on this poor photo quality – cell phone picture – not the best in the world, but you get the idea!)
I have just enough blocks for this layout – which will clear out the finished blocks from this bin of goodies – then I’m going to take all the fabric strips and send them to my Great Aunt in West Virginia to play with.  Works for me!
I’m thinking about using a white on white fabric for the setting.  Thought about black fabric but I do not have enough here in my stash of any one certain black that I’m willing to part with for this quilt.
I just want to sew.  I just want to finish something. So this is next on the list.  Should be easy enough and I should not have to use my poor over-filled brain too much to get it done!
Wish me luck!
Quilting

Mary Schafer….. and favorite reads of mine

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Several years back, I discovered this quilting book by accident during my travels to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for International Quilt Market.  I’ll never forget that trip for many reasons – it was a trip there and back of never ending problems and weird experiences! Regardless, I found this book in a very out of the way quilt shop that I search high and low for – drove many miles off the beaten path to get too it – arrived and it was closed (no I did not call first).  As I turned away from the door – a gal from the inside unlocked the door and asked me if I needed something….
My first thought was to be a real smart-aleck and retort with something on the lines of the journey I had come to visit this shop, only to find it closed even thought the nice sign just to the right of this lady claimed they should be open.  Instead, I was pleasant and said, I had came to shop and didn’t realize that you were closed.
Well – long story short – she wasn’t happy and wasn’t very nice, but said I could come in and look around as long as I was “quick” about it.  Holy Moly – I felt like I was in a thrift store.  Much disappointment from that shop – but I came away with one treasure – this book.
Mary Schafer… American Quilt Maker by Gwen Marston. Oh my – I love this book.  It’s great to read all about Mary.  I love seeing all her quilts.  The story of her life is wonderful.
Isn’t this photo of Mary enduring? This is how she quilted – sitting on the floor with no frame.  I’ve read, she pieced that way too because she was most comfortable and had great lightening from that window in her Michigan home.
Here are some other books that feature Mary:
She was in Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine:
Mary is definitely one quilter on my list I would to have loved to have met.  I enjoy reading and re-reading all of the materials I own about her.  I spent the evening last night re-reading and looking at her beautiful quilts in the first book I spoke about.  It was a wonderful evening.
Here are some more links with photos of her exhibits and accomplishments!
Here’s an exhibit with photos of her quilts:
This is one of Mary’s quilts shown on The Quilt Index and the information provided there –
Title: Clamshell
Artist(s): Mary Vida Schafer
Material(s): Cotton, Polyester filling
Technique(s): Hand pieced and hand quilted
Dimensions: 96″ x 81″
Date made: 1966
Place Created: Flushing, Genesee County, Michigan
Collection: Great Lakes Quilt Center/Michigan State University Museum
Photo Credit: KEVA
Interpretative Commentary:
This is Mary Schafer’s most celebrated quilt and was made during Mary’s “Challene Period.” The complexity of piecing the Clamshell pattern, due to the connecting of convex and concave edges, made this historically a quilt with a high level of difficulty. Noted quilt author, Delores Hinson called it “One of Mary’s best!” — Mary Worrall
Additional Commentary:
This quilt won Best Pieced and Viewer’s Choice awards in 1971 at the first National Quilt Association show, Greenbelt, Maryland. It was also exhibited at the Whaley House Museum and the Sloan Museum in Flint, Michigan, and included in the exhibit Mary Schafer Collection: A Legacy of Quilt History from July 29-December 31, 2001 at Michigan State University Museum. It was illustrated in Delores Hinson, A Quilter’s Companion and Gwen Marston and Joe Cunningham, Mary Scafer and Her Quilts (figure 16, page 16). — Beth Donaldson

Information on Mary’s pineapple quilt can be found here:
http://www.quiltindex.org/pineapple.php
Mary’s Whig Rose quilt can be found here:
In fact – here’s a link to a bunch of Mary’s quilts on 
A lot of these quilts are in the first book I mentioned above!
Here’s more information on 
Mary was quite the lady!
Quilting

This is the way I roll………

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This is what I was knee deep in yesterday.  I thought I would show you how I’m going about deciding on fabrics for the outer border for this wool applique project that I’m working on for the retreat sponsored by Pieceful Gatherings Quilt Shop.
I have an image in my head of how I want the outer borders to look. It will be completely scrappy.  Very few rules, but the most important ones for me were: nothing to bright, ubberly scrappy, nothing light or white and the big one – I want quilt shops to be able to kit this design and pull bolts of fabric easily and without delay for the borders.  Anything goes in this border!
Some of you might recognize some of these fabrics that I’ve chosen so far!  Remember about a year and a half ago I hosted a charm square swap when I was “secretly” working on my book?  Well, I still have some of those fabrics and they will be going into this project!  One of my other fun rules I’m following on this project – all fabrics must come from my scrap stash and so far so good on this project! (Well, except for the large background fabric of course!!!)
Hmmmm, I think I need to add more cheddar fabric!
Quilting

2 Finishes This Week!!!!

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I am having sew much fun in my sewing room this week!
I finished this yesterday:
This is Weaving The Rails and is designed by Kathie Holland of Inspired By Antiques Quilts Blog !

Here’s a picture of Bella again – she says to tell you all hello!


Sometimes friends come into your life by surprise.  I’m glad to have a really good internet friend who can make me smile with just a simple text, email or comment on my blog.  We’ve never met in person, have only talked on the phone one time – but we hope to rectify that and meet some day!    What a treasure she is to me,  she has helped me work through some dark and depressing moments, inspired me to sew, created excitement in me when I was feeling low and is just an over all kind and sweet person. This person suggested a little something to add to those blocks in this quilt that I talked about the other day – you know the ones with the same fabric located in the same position in the same row!  Here’s a reminder:


Here’s what she suggest via text and I jumped on the idea!

Words that mean something to me written on each of the strips!

When life gives you scraps…… make a quilt!

Family, Friends, Love and Peace – 4 words that mean a lot to me

New Beginnings 2012.  This one is important to me also, as this year will be a year of many new things for me and also getting back to what I truly love to do – designing and playing with fabrics.

I also started working on this project yesterday:

This project was inspired by Keryn of the blog titled “Quilting Twin”.  She’s working on her scraps and trying to bust them a little.  After working on my scrappy rail fence quilt, I realized I had a bunch of leftovers.  I trimmed all the leftover rail fence bits and pieces to 4″ wide and then cut the other fabric to 6″ wide strips and started going to town after I realized Keryn’s project would be the perfect thing for me to do also to help finish up those extra bits and pieces! This will be a work in progress and might take me a bit to finish as I’ll probably have to piece more 1 1/2″ wide strips together!  Thanks Keryn!

I’m also piecing 2 1/2″ strips together to work on this scrappy project:


Spider Web blocks – this should be a blast to work on and it will really put a dent in all my white, cream and red scraps!

Here’s a sneak peek at an up and coming project I’m working on.  I’ll be teaching in March at a retreat and I’m working on a special wool project just for them!  This weekend I’ll be hand stitching this also!



Yesterday we received a whopper of a storm here.  So after trying to clean up the driveway and sidewalks a bit, we decided it was time for a little fun!


Now granted, after using the snow-blower twice yesterday and realizing that the vibration in the handles was making my hands ache a little – I decided not to play on the quad in the snow.  The vibration from the handles on that Quad machine would have probably aggravated my recovery from carpal tunnel surgeries, so I played photographer instead and baked a few Chocolate Chip Cookies for the riders when they were done playing.  I’ll be back to riding my Quad this summer, now it’s time for me to continue healing so I’m back to 100%!

Here’s a few other snow pictures from this morning:

Picture of the snow on my deck rail.  From my measurements – we received well over the 3″ to 6″ predicted.  More like 8″ if my calculations are correct!

A photo across the fence in our back yard – I love this neighbors shed – I really want one like this!  So old fashioned looking!  Would look great in my yard!

And now I need to get ready for our busy weekend.  We have a birthday party this evening and I am baking the cake!  A triple layer chocolate cake with strawberry filling and cream cheese frosting!  I’ll take pictures to share, if I remember!

Here’s a picture of my Grandma quilting.  This is the only picture that I’m aware of that exists of my Grandma at her quilt frame.  The quilt she is working on is still in my family, my dear Aunt Julie has it and sleeps under it often.


This is my Grandma, Lucille Baisden.  She was my Dad’s Mom.  She left us several years back and we miss her so much. I was thinking about her a lot a couple days ago and decided to scan this photo to share.  I showed it on FaceBook and it brought on a good discussion between family and friends. According to my Aunt, the yellow fabric used in this quilt was from one of her dresses.  She’s drawing out her quilt pattern here.  She used a simple string tied to a pencil.  She held the string and then drew out her baptist fans pattern on many of her quilts.  She also quilted on a quilting frame that my Grandpa made for her.  It was one of those wonderful old quilting frames that could be raised up to the ceiling when not in use and lowered when she took the notion to quilt, which was often.  The frame was stored on the ceiling of the family room when not in use. Thankfully, the quilt frame is also still in the family!