Sister's Choice Quilts

Quilting is My Passion

Stop what you are doing, don't pass "Go", and click on this link to Patti's blog Quilting is My Passion.  http://www.quiltingisstillmypassion.blogspot.com/  Just look what she has done with her Two Color Quilt Challenge.  Go tell her how amazing she is!

Her quilt is awesome, inspiring, gorgeous, and meticulously executed.  Oh my goodness.  What a quilt.  I am so impressed with her work I just don't know what to say.

Since I feel like I need to include a photo with my post, here is a picture of a three color quilt I did using brown, cream, and red.  My version has a similar Barn Raising effect that Patti's does, but hers looks so much more complex.

Some Big Helper You Are

I am determined to get some sewing done around here.  Ozzie, who just yesterday indicated his willingness to help me in any way he can, has completely reneged on his promise.  I swear, as God is my witness, this dog has gotten on my last nerve.   First he got into my purse and stole my brand new Christian Dior Lip Gloss.

I guess I won't be carrying that in my purse any more.  Now the gloss comes out of both ends.  How convenient.

When he hopped up on the bed next to my sewing machine, I thought all was well and that he could behave for a while.  No such luck.  Look out!  He has my brand new bundle of Dandelion Girl!

He looks like he is saying "Oh for crying out loud.  WHAT?"

The final straw came when I heard the phone ring in the next room.  I took the call and when I looked out the kitchen window, there in the yard was Ozzie with the project I am working on.  I actually picked three straight pins out of his beard once I caught him.

Lucky for me, just as I took this picture, he spied a quail family on the hill and sped off in hot pursuit.  Thank goodness he didn't take my quilt top with him.

Well, I do have the rows sewn together at least.  Now for the corners and borders.  This is Candle in the Wind using a Kansas Troubles group called Snow Blooms.

Two hours later!  A finished quilt top!  No thanks to my canine companion.

Maria (Shallow Thoughts From Iowa) had a great idea for folks to post something they finished each Friday.  My goal for the summer has been to finish my UFO's, so I think I will play along with her in June, July and August and strive to post a Friday Finish each week.

This Time, I Really Mean It

Seriously, I should just come up with a new category called Unfinished Quilts.  Or maybe I need to add a new side bar that is entitled Gallery Of Shame, and show pictures of all my unfinished projects.  The Rigid Quilter has moved to my house from Florida, where she was previously living with Karen Dianne, and just look at what she made me do.  She had me pull out just some of the quilts I have in progress that are finished up through the block construction phase.  She wanted me to absorb just how many projects I really need to finish before I start cutting into my new Dandelion Girl bundle.

Two Color Quilt and Web Sampler quilt blocks, you know I will get together in the next couple of months, because I have deadlines that involve other people.  And Posh Baskets is all laid out and ready to stitch together as soon as my extra fabric arrives. 

Meadowbrook Farm is all most done---just need to do one more block and the borders.

But what about these?  A trip back through my Quilting Memory Lane:

Madeira.

Rhubarb and Ginger, which actually coordinates beautifully with Madeira (same designers, Blackbird Designs).

Remember Raise the Roof, in those neat Buggy Barn fabrics?

For goodness sake, look at this huge stack of beautiful fall colored Log Cabin blocks!  How could I have lost track of these?

How about this cute little Christmas lap quilt, that is just waiting for its piano key border?

Here is a stunning kit called Candle in the Window that I actually have all sewn into rows, and yet set aside!

This time I really mean it.  The Rigid Quilter has told me I may not leave the house for the next two days.  I am to spend that time in my sewing room, completing these quilt tops.   Starting things and abandoning them as soon as a new fabric line or pattern strikes my fancy has got to stop.  At least until I catch up a little! 

My little man Ozzie is being such a champ.  Look at him.  He is saying plain as day, "Tell me what to do Nicole.  I will help you.  No request is too extreme."  We will return when we have something FINISHED to show you.

Posh Baskets Nears the Finish Line

It sounds like a horse race doesn't it?  My thoroughbred Posh Baskets is performing well now that I resolved the problem of the triangle pieces that are below the base of each basket.  For some reason, when I was constructing the blocks, the seam allowance kept getting cut off and the basket bases had blunted corners instead of sharp ones.  I fiddled and fiddled and they came out mostly ok.  I experimented with making the bottom triangles bigger and then trimming the block down, but it didn't seem to matter.  I just had to fudge with tugging the bias edge to fit and allow a quarter inch seam allowance.  Not very scientific is it?  Sometimes you just have to fudge.  (I can see my more anal fussy friends out there, cringing.  You know who you are).  At any rate, the blocks all came out to be a perfect 10 1/2 inches.

Since I am not really using a pattrern, I am winging it with this setting.  I like the idea that the baskets "float" a bit.  I didn't want to have a large open space that an alternate square would make, so this little extra bit of the white is something that works for me.  Speaking of white:  Do you have a favorite white fabric that you buy over and over?  My favorite white is Kona Snow.  I just discovered it on sale for $3.97 a yard at my local Beverly's and bought six more yards.

I also am having fun with the tiny multi-colored corner posts.  I am out of aqua though, and ordered some on the internet, so things may be put on hold until the fabric comes.  I just could not bring myself to leave the aqua out. 

To finish things, I will add some setting triangles in a lacy/swirly mocha and white paisley, then a narrow containment border.  I am feeling the pink at the moment.   The border will be the large brown multicolored print.  The quilt should be large enough to cover a queen size bed.  You see it above spread out on my "design bed".  For some reason, I can't seem to fit a design wall into my sewing room.  I am doomed if my kids phone to say they are coming home any time in the next week!

You kind of get the idea I am going with below.  I had to order more of the brown and white lacy/swirly fabric for the setting squares.  It might be too much once I get the setting triangles cut out, but if so, I have plenty more Kona Snow I could use instead!

Love love love this border fabric!

Quilt in a Weekend

This quilt top took just over six hours to make.  Seriously, you could do it in a weekend, with no great effort at all!  The quilt is made with a jelly roll (I used two), so the cutting is just about done for you before you even get started.  You do have to cut the strips into smaller segments for the blocks, but that takes no time at all.  The blocks are gigantic and go together fast. 

The pattern I used is in the book Strip Happy by Donna Kinsey.  I used two jelly rolls of a Kansas Troubles (for Moda) fabric group called Autumn Journey.  A jelly roll in any fabric group would work for this quilt, but you know me, I always go for some contrast in my quilts, so I like more choices than I normally get with just one jelly roll.  Wouldn't this be an adorable child's quilt made out of one of the Mary Englebreit or American Jane (Sandy Klop) fabric groups?  Oooh, or that Fresh Squeezed group in the citrusy prints?

This is a photo of the quilt shown in the book.

Since I had two jelly rolls, rather than the one that was called for, I chose to make my quilt larger.  I added an extra row of blocks, and expanded the border to two scrappy strips instead of just one.  I worked on the project for three hours one day and a bit less than three hours the second day.  The quilt ended up just over 60 inches and is almost square. 

Usually I find the jelly roll patterns just a tad too simple for my taste.   However, if you want to knock out a quilt quickly, for a gift, or as a break between more difficult projects, you may love to try them.  I've decided to have this one quilted with an all over design of acorns and give it the grandparents as a Christmas gift.  Sorry, I am sorry to have mentioned the C holiday so far in advance.

Happy Memorial Day

I hope that wherever you are, you are enjoying a beautiful Memorial Day.  Wouldn't you know, after I got the notion last week to recover all the patio furniture cushions, we have had nothing but cool, overcast weather.  There was even a hint that it could rain!  So all my lovely new cushions are languishing in the low 60 something degree weather and nobody feels like sitting outside.

So, come on over.  I am ready for summer even if my weather won't cooperate!  We can sip iced tea and sit under the heat lamps in our heaviest sweaters.

Have you gotten out your red white and blue quilts girls?   At the end of this chilly day, this is what I am crawling under!

I made this about seven years ago using Civil War reproduction fabrics I purchased at J.J. Stitches in Sun Prairie, Wiconsin.

Antique Quilt Show Continued

Are you up for seeing some more antique quilts?  This one began as six antique quilt blocks found in a corner of a thrift store.  They were never made into a quilt probably because they were all wonky sizes.  The wise woman who discovered this find at the thrift shop brought the blocks home and evened them all up with wonderful half square triangles to surround each block.  I think this makes the blocks seem like so much More.  They began as rather humble looking and have been transformed into something more complex, but still retaining their basic simplicity.  She then added some pieced patriotic alternate blocks and some patriotic setting triangles.  The quilt is finished off with a patriotic print border.  Isn't it incredible how something old can be made into something so current and fresh?  Yet, to my eye it still resonates with that "from the past" vibe.  The gorgeous hand quilting adds to the antique effect.

This unfinished quilt top is from the 30's and is in a pattern called "Broken Star".   Trust me, no special cutting tools or piecing papers were used to construct this.  It is all hand pieced.

This quilt may be from Maryland.  Why?  Because the Black Eyed Susan is the State Flower of Maryland!  No one in our group had ever seen this pattern before.  

Another Lone Star quilt.  These were just the rage in the 30's and 40's.  It seems like everyone was making them.  A bit higher level of difficulty than our popular Turning 20, wouldn't you say?

Check out the tiny stitches in the hand quilting.

I should mention that most of these quilts were damaged in some way.  Either they were unfinished, stored poorly, stained, faded, or worn just about to death.  To me, a few stains or spots just add to the charm of a well used and loved object from the past.  However, if one intends to continue to use or display these old treasures, some new owners are inclined to tackle some repairs, particularly if an area is damaged seriously.  This could be rather risky business if you don't know what you are doing. 

The quilt below had quite a bit of wear, mainly on the top and on the edges.  Some owner along the way had also decided to expand the width of the quilt by adding on an additional border, and it was recommended that this be removed and the quilt rebound.  The quilt historian is pointing out how a small hole in the patchwork can be repaired without damaging the integrity of the quilt.  She also explained that if you are replacing a piece of fabric with a modern one, you should try to achieve the faded bleached out effect of the original quilt.  To do this, you take a modern 30's reproduction print and swozzle it in a basin of Cloroxy water.  This will fade the color a bit so the patch will blend in better with the worn fabrics in the quilt.

 

Isn't the border on this quilt tricky looking?  All those diamonds!  The quilting isn't too shabby either.

Another hand pieced beauty below.  Isn't the hexagon shaped lattice work dear?  The women in the group were excited to be able to pick out several prints that have been copied and reissued by current fabric houses.  The historian had a pet peeve that many people who are selling old quilts assume that any little calico print is a "feed sack".  She was quite adamant that feed sack prints are very unique and that there is much confusion as to what constitutes one.  I wish she had had the time to give us a lecture on how to tell! 

This next one is my favorite.  It was used just about to pieces.  It was very faded from use and many washings and hanging out in the sunshine on someone's clothes line.  The tiny squares were about an inch in size.  It came from Kansas.  Very Little House on the Prairie.

This entire experience was so interesting and made me really want to learn more about old quilts.  I hope you enjoyed seeing them too.

Two Color Antique Quilts

Yesterday while I was at the UFO with my friends, two exciting things happened.  One, I finished the blocks for my Two Color Challenge!  Here you see my finished Union Square blocks.  Keep in mind, that the completed quilt top will have alternate blocks of the red and white toile and a border made up of a gazillion half square triangles.

The other thing that happened was truly quite amazing.  Our little group was sitting quietly stitching away, when three women came into the nearly empty classroom.  One of the women used to teach at Eddie's and was a quilt historian.  She evidently had agreed to meet two friends at the shop for an antique quilt show and tell.  Eddie must have directed them upstairs where we were so they would have room to hold up their quilts.  They were all three of them quilt collectors and excitedly shared with us how they had acquired their amazing antique quilt collections.  EBay was the hands down winner if you want to get your hands on an old quilt.  Other than that, antique shops, thrift stores and garage sales had all yielded good results. 

I had just finished telling my friends about our Two Color Quilt Challenge, so the timing was pretty incredible when these gals pulled out a number of gorgeous two color antique quilts.  The stars must have all been in alignment, because I had my camera with me and the women enthusiastically gave me permission to snap away.  Here are some of the things they brought--

 

How sweet is this simple nine patch?  As you see, it is done in two fabrics (not scrappy) and set on the diagonal.  The unquilted top had been sitting in someone's attic since the late 1800's, was discovered 100 years later by the quiltmaker's decendant.  She then had the top beautifully hand quilted in 1999.  Doesn't this just make you have goose bumps?

Here is another blue and white, again not only two color, but just using two fabrics.  I do not know what the block is.  They may have said, but I was so excited taking pictures I missed it.

This next quilt just took my breath away.  It is a redwork quilt, which I guess qualifies as a two color quilt, even though only one fabric is used.  I took several photos of this, but it was hard to get the entire quilt in the picture because the women were just kind of tossing the quilts over a table.

These blocks were discovered in an antique shop I believe.  The quilt historian managed to buy them and sewed them into a magnificent quilt top.  You may recognize the lattice fabric as a modern one.  The emboridery work done here is just----adjectives are failing  me...... If you look close, you can see the top is lightly pencil marked for quilting in a shell design.

Notice how the embroiderer put her initials and the year she completed the blocks on this center block?  Don't you wonder what life event happened that would cause her to put this masterpiece away unfinished?

Check back with me tomorrow, as I have lots of other amazing photos of the antique quilts to share!

Lots of Sewing Going On

As Ozzie may have mentioned, there has been a lot of sewing going on around here.  As a matter of fact, I have barely had a minute when I wasn't either sewing or cooking over the past four or five days.  I will share some of my projects with you.

My two color blocks are nearly assembled, and after I attend tomorrow's UFO I expect to have them completely pieced.  Then the border construction, which looks to be all triangles.  Ugh.

For some reason (I guess I wanted a break from the two color project), I dug out my project box for an applique quilt I had begun some time back, using the Buttercream and Figs fabric.  Some wise advice:  If you are new to machine applique, do not ever stop mid-way through a project and put it away for a year.  You have to learn everything all over again to get up to speed.

Here are all four blocks, finished.  They will be surrounded by pieced blocks that are made up mainly of triangles.  Ugh again.

Next, since I had company coming this past weekend, I decided I needed to redo the covers for all my patio furniture and make new seat covers for my kitchen chairs.  I won't even try to describe the sweat shop my sewing room turned into last Friday and Saturday.  Here is a photo of one of the kitchen chairs.  Notice the fabric matches my new dishes..... I will share the patio furniture with you all in a later post.

Now, I am off to visit my father for today and tomorrow, but will be back soon with more sewing news!

Enough With The Sewing, Already

Hello?  Remember me?  It's Ozzie, your best pal.  I am pretty sure you must have forgotten all about me.  All you do lately is sit at this stupid sewing machine.  Sew, sew, sew.  Who cares about all this sewing?  Not me.  I don't get it.  Here I am, the most irresistable of all pets, and you just ignore me.  It's gone on long enough, I tell you.

I bring you my favorite squeaky alligator toy, I paw at your leg, I do all sorts of naughty tricks to get your attention, and through it all you ignore me.  This has GOT to stop, or I will be forced to find a new best friend.  What do I have to do to get you to play with me?

This situation is making me quite cross.