doll quilt exchange

Lori over at Humble Quilts has organized a doll quilt exchange. I finished up one of the little quilts I made with Temecula Quilt Company's "12 Days of Christmas" sew-a-long with both machine and hand quilting on it.
For the back I used a piece of wonderful Jeff Gutcheon fabric I have hoarded for 30 years.
On its way tomorrow to its new owner!
Thanks, Lori, for this fun exchange.

bar quilt

I finally got the binding on this one. Andy wants it for his office.
Made with re-purposed shirts.
The pieced bars are made with the "serendipity snakes" method described earlier, from 2 inch cut strips. The red is Kona Rich Red. The larger plaid bars and borders are from 6 1/2 cut inch strips.

Quilted by Suzette Fisher.
The neighbor's growing tree is messing with my photography!

thirty years

1984
St Patrick's Day is a fine day for a wedding!

Good Night, Irene--March progress

The top is complete!
I used 2 inch cut scraps and Kona Punch for the constant.
Thank you, Terry for the sew-a-long at Terry's Treasures.
Now, off to the quilter.

Yes, it is snowing again! I love winter, and am feeling a bit guilty for this pleasure when I know so many are hating it.

doll quilt

For our church auction. 18 by 20 1/2 inches.

Made from leftovers of several projects--including a binding scrap from a quilt made over 10 years ago!
I store leftover binding pieces on spent spools--ready to go for small projects, or to put together for scrappy bindings for larger projects.

sew-a-long with Lori, MidWinter Blues

Lori over at Humble Quilts has another wonderful sew-a-long where she adapts an antique quilt to design a doll quilt.
Because I had hauled out my 30's repros for another project, I decided to use them.
Is it perfect? No.
Is is adorable? Why, yes it is!
Thanks Lori!

split 9-patch

I joined in on Bonnie Hunter's split 9-patch project of 2013. It is made with 2 1/2 inch cut squares and half-square triangles. I used up many of my pre-cut squares, but there are many more in the bin.

The block finishes 6 inches. The border is 9-patches with just dark fabrics.
I love streak of lightning sets and it works well for this quilt.
Machine quilted by Suzette Fisher.

The back uses up large blue pieces, many with special meanings to me.

tip #28, using sew-and-flip triangles and making hatchet units

Sew-and-flip triangles techniques are good to use in some units, but they are more complicated than they look. (There is some waste in making them, but the cut-aways can be saved for another use when making larger units than I am making here. With these, I threw away the cuttings.)
The ones I am showing use a 3 1/2 inch cut large square and a 2 inch cut top square that becomes a triangle.
There are several methods and I think I've tried them all--drawing the diagonal, using a plastic sole plate guide, drawing a line on my machine. That last method I used for many years. I put a piece of clear tape over the line to prevent it from wearing off.

My newest method seems to be more accurate for me. I press the smaller squares in half.
Place it carefully on the base fabric, then, sewing about a needle's width away to the right of the pressed line.
My #37 foot on my Bernina has an edge right by the needle that if I line it up with the fold, gives me just the distance I need.

I then press to the smaller squares, assess for accuracy, resew if needed, and clip out the bottom two layers.
This method has been very accurate. I had to re-sew only about 8 of the 200 dark squares on my latest project.

Such accuracy isn't necessary with many layouts and uses of the sew-and-flip method, but is needed when the hatchet units need to meet.
I re-press seams to allow them to nest together.

Goodnight, Irene--February progress

 Progressing with my Goodnight, Irene from the sew-along organized by Terry's Treasures. I am following Julie's lead in scaling the block down and using scraps from my 2 inches cut bin. The solid is Kona Punch. Like Julie, I am making 50 16-patch blocks and 49 X blocks.
Thanks, Terry, for this encouragement and Julie for the inspiration!

Chinese Coins, process

 Chinese Coins
78 by 90 inches.
3510 pieces--1755 prints/plaids, 1755 solid blue.

 I have been enjoying the process of making this quilt.
It was inspired by Lori's Juniper Flats quilt on her Humble Quilts blog.

My pieces are cut 1 1/2 by 2 1/2 inches, like hers. I decided to use a constant, Kona's Candy Blue between the coins.
The fabrics are from my bin of scraps cut this size, plus pieces I cut from my mother's scraps which include fabrics from both of my grandmothers. I also added some recent purchases and dug out  favorites and cut pieces to add.

My fabric use plan was to include lots of shirt plaids--both to use up these scraps, and to give a saturated punch of color mixed in with the chaos of the print scraps. Helps calm things down visually. I used lights, mediums, and darks.  I made sure to use several with a close shade to the blue. I let the pieces fall where they did by serendipity.

I decided not make it in rows of coins, thinking that making 9-patch units would help keep the piecing square. Also, because I get really, really irritable when I have long rows of many seam matches to make. Which is exactly what this quilt would be. Hundreds and hundreds of long seam matches...

Because I didn't know how big I was going to make it, I bought what was left on a bolt and tore off pieces about 20 inches at a time to cut my constant rectangles, sewing til they were used up, then tore off another piece.
(This way I also bypassed the other thing that makes me irritable, having to cut hundreds and hundreds of pieces all at once.)

Come to think of it, there is a lot about quilting that irritates me, but somehow I keep working around those things to keep it enjoyable!

The two types of 9 patches are joined, then another such block is added, making four 9-patches in a row. It is joined to another, making a larger block of four across by two down.

I love that Jane Austin print! Mom used it for a pillow case for us when we were little.

These large blocks are then brought to the design board.  I added half blocks to the top and one side to make it the dimensions I wanted. Put together in sections, being methodical about pressing so that it lays really flat. One last long seam to put together.
No borders. Will bind with the blue.
Now, off to the quilter!

Chinese Coins--coming together

Goodnight, Irene--Goodnight, Pete

The news this morning of Pete Seeger's death yesterday had me set aside my current project and instead join Terry's Treasures sew-along Goodnight, Irene.
I am using a smaller grid, using my 2 inch scrap bin to yield a 6 inch finished block.
My constant is Kona Cotton Punch, cut into 3 1/2 inch squares.
Thanks, Terry, for the inspiration!

2014 Sew-Along

Chinese Coins

Working on a Chinese Coins quilt, using much of my 1 1/2 by 2 1/2 inch rectangle bin, and lots of my mother's scraps. Solid is Kona Cotton Candy Blue

Christmas 1959

Christmas in the Little House, Henny, Lynn, Janna, Leroy.
Farm north of Hull, Iowa, 1959.
Note the most wonderful curtains ever, this time in color!
We still have the tin barn.

Janna, Lynn, and Beth, 1962

Mom made the hounds tooth skirts and vests--they were reversible to solid grey wool.
Note the most wonderful curtains ever.

neighbor gifts

One delight of living on LeClaire are the neighbor gifts--little somethings special we treat each other to for Christmas. This year we are giving these cute jars of Inglehoffer mustard.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Attempt 3 for a holiday photo. This is the best of 4. Why do I even try?
Happy Thanksgiving.

spools and bowties--detail

Bowties and Spools at the Chicago Botanic Garden

I submitted two quilts to the Fine Art of Fiber exhibit at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
They were hung together at my request, because they are both made with scraps from my own and my mother's fabric collections.
There are fabrics of well over 80 years of sewing for 6 generations of our family.

Each quilt has 672 three inch blocks. Spools uses Kona Rich Red for the constant. Bowties uses Moda Bella Gold.
They were quilted by Sue DiVarco using wool batts.

There is planning in each quilt. Units for each were pieced into blocks of 4; the Spools had a pink spool in each block and the Bowties had a red bowtie in each block.

Both quilts were made in response to scrap challenges on Bonnie Hunter's blog.

Henrietta was a hipster

That is my mother on the left. She rocked red lipstick.
About 1947.

from the archives--Great Aunt Hattie and her daughter Jennie

Hendrika Scholten and Jennie about 1920.

I'm in Iowa with my mother. Watch for more from the archives.