On the Bed - Summer Romance I

I realized I never got around to photographing the completed Summer Romance I quilt.  I finished quilting it last summer, but didn't get the binding on until two or three weeks ago.  Here it is on the bed:

 This quilt was begun Memorial Day weekend of 2015 and made it to my Nolting long arm a year later.  I used white yardage (probably Kona cotton), and Eleanor Burns jelly roll (Benartex) and some yardage from the same line.  This is a great way to make a quilt since it has only five blocks.  These are Blackford's Beauty, a block that caught my eye in the early 1980s.  A lot of people have called this block a lot of other things, including Snowflake.  Someone told me Bonnie Hunter has a quilt made from this block in one of her books or on her Quiltville website.

 I love these fabrics and their lovely shades of violet and wanted to create some great places for quilting.  You can see the stripe I used for binding at the left edge of the above photo--as well as what can happen after quilting for too many hours in a day.  But that's all behind me now.  It looks great on the bed.

 The additional four patches in the layout were easy to do and add interest and movement.

 Most of the quilting was done freehand with minimal marking.  The local quilt shop was out of blue marking pens, so one of the employees convinced me to use a Frixion pen and assured there would be no problems with it reappearing.  Not quite true.  The quilt has been laundered and dried because I love the "crinkly" quilt look--but I noticed one morning that there were some tiny black dots and dash lines apparent; my thermostat is set on 60 degrees F. at night, and some of them had reappeared.  I didn't notice any when I took photos just now, but the thermostat is set at 68 during the day.

 I loved, loved, loved having the large areas for quilting some favorite designs.  If I had a do-over, I would have used a lighter shade in the outer border.

 It's not a competition quilt, so its imperfections are fine with me.

 It was fun to quilt different designs in similar areas, although I'd be surprised if anyone ever notices them.

It's not my last finish of the year, just the last one to have its photo taken in 2016!  I can confirm that it's lovely to have on my bed during these cold winter nights. I'll show some more as 2017 gets underway.

Happy New Year's Eve and Happy 2017.  I'm going to stay off the roads (and away from the inebriated drivers) and work on the checkered Dresden  plate, read, relax, eat some leftovers, and maybe do some knitting.

Happy quiltmaking, knitting, and so on,...

Ruth's Star & the Corn Quilt

Two quilts to share with you today...

This is Ruth's wonderful violet star quilt; she first asked me to mark feathers on it so she could practice; when she saw me marking another quilt, she said, "You could almost quilt that as fast as you could mark it, couldn't you?"  So she sent it home for me to quilt.

 My goals was to have it done for last Sunday's quilt blessing, but I didn't manage it.  This morning I finished it and added the binding; it's ready to be passed on to another member to blind stitch the binding to the back.

I thought you might like to see some of the variety of feathers that adorn this quilt.  I do not pre-mark; I just stitch as I go.  I used Fil-Tec Glide thread on top and in the bobbin.

 I used a variety of colors both on the top and on the back.

 My sewing machines love Glide, and the stitches [tension] are so evenly balanced that I can use contrasting colors in the bobbins.

 I do try to add variety and some surprises to add interest for the recipients.

 Every corner is slightly different--just as in life!

The second quilt has been languishing for months--layered but not basted.  I love this old traditional pattern and think I need to make more.  The design yields wonderful quilting spaces.

 One of my friends just purchased a Handi Quilter Sweet 16 sit-down model.  Last week she invited me over, and I shared some quilty knowledge with her.  Then she invited me back to quilt while she pieced.

 Prior to the layered quilt languishing, the corn fabric, a gift from my friend Mary, languished for, quite literally, years--because I couldn't find any additional fabrics with that wonderful green. Finally I decided to pair it with the fabric for a sunflower dress that never got made years ago for my daughter.

 Somewhere along the line, the duck fabric came to visit (more of that in another post), so the three sing a happy song together.  Come to think of it, the duck fabric may also have been a gift from Mary.

 I thought I might put feathers in the half square triangles...

 But then I decided to go along with the corn theme.

When I carried the quilt into my friend's house, I hadn't really given any thought to how I would quilt it, so I'm happy, and just a little surprised, about how it's turning out.

I suspected I was consuming a lot of time wrestling quilts through my vintage treadle machines--which have twice the space of most "modern" machines.  I thought I'd be doing well if I could baste the layers every four inches or so and do some stabilizing stitching. Basted, and all this quilting done in just a couple of hours. I did discover that without having to wrestle the quilts, I need much, much less stabilizing stitching. I quilted until the bobbin ran out--a couple of hours, total--and came home.  Amazing how much faster even a sit-down 16-inch machine is. (I really think a couple of the other quilters in our prayer quilt ministry need one of these machines too.) It does have a stitch length control; I didn't use that.  I did make good use of the needle-up-needle-down control. I don't know that I'd actually enjoy wrestling full size quilts with this sit-down machine, but it's perfect for our prayer quilts.

She invited me back to quilt while she pieces some quilt-tops for the prayer quilt ministry. How fun!

I am also knitting, but forgot to take pictures.

I'll link to Judy Laquidera's Design Wall linky party--because adding the quilting is part of the design process too!

Happy quiltmaking.....

Merry Christmas, God Jul, Joyeux Noel

Aside from some small gifts, I've never done much Christmas quilting.  This year I did--even if it's just a good sized wall hanging [for our front door].

If I were to do it over, I would have just appliqued the script--except for the Gloria in Excelsis Deo--It was stitched four or five times with Fil-Tec Glide thread, and I like how it turned out.  But the other phrases would probably have been better if they were appliqued.

I combined some very traditional feather borders with more modern fills.  All the work was done on my vintage treadled Necchi.

I hope all who read this are enjoying a happy, blessed Christmas season.

Happy quiltmaking....

Candyshop Completed, etc.

Yes, I finished Sweet Teen's college quilt.

 I did not, however, manage to get a photo of it completed.  The glorious meandering feather in the outer border is sort of visible.  We repeatedly said we'd get a photo of it in her dorm room, but didn't do it.  She took this photo with her new phone.  (I'm trying to learn to use her old one!)

I also made a sleeve for her computer.  We used bits and pieces left over from her quilt.  My friend Claudia graciously agreed to make the panel with her initials, since she has an embroidery machine and I don't.

I neglected to take a picture of that too, so she sent me this one, but forgot to photograph the other side.

It feels very strange to know I'm now living here without her--despite the fact that she will be home for Labor Day weekend.  Just as growing old isn't for sissies, neither is leaving your child at college (although I admit I've shed tears at every transition).

Happy quiltmaking,..

June 2013 Prayer Quilt Dedication

 Today was not only Father's Day but also Prayer Quilt Dedication day.

 Our Victory Quilters group was formed in 2007 as a ministry of our church in order to provide prayer quilts to people who were diagnosed with cancer.  A short while later we realized that many members and friends of our church were dealing with diagnoses which were just as life-altering, and we expanded our ministry to include them.

 Because we pray for the recipients while we are making the quilts, each quilt carries hours of prayer from those who make them as well as the prayers of the congregation as we lay hands on the quilts during the dedication.

We dedicated about 50 quilts today, although I did not get photos of all of them. While I managed to photograph only a few of the quilts, I'm hopeful others were able to get more.  We had about five finished quilts come in with barely enough time to document them and attach the letters to recipients before the service began.  (I see that as a good thing.)

 I even failed to get good photos of what it looks like when one enters on prayer quilt dedication day.  It is always breathtaking--both from a visual standpoint and from the knowledge of all the hours of prayer those quilts represent.

 In addition to covering the railings surrounding the altar and podium, the sound booth was covered.

 These quilts are made by four to six women of our church, although sometimes we are blessed with gifts of blocks and fabric. At first we each made quilts from start to finish; as time went on, I've been able to quilt the quilts made by others, sometimes just adding more quilting after they layer them or do the stabilizing stitching.  Of course, the quilting part is still my favorite part.

A couple of things we noted as we were talking about the quilts after the service is that not only are we as blessed as the recipients, but also we've stretched our skills and tried things we would have been unlikely to attempt if it were not for the need to create these quilts for others.

I am sure there are countless prayer quilt groups across the country, and that many have varying criteria for who receives the quilts.  Our quilts go to members and friends of our church and to our members' friends, families, and colleagues. Our challenge is to create enough quilts to meet the needs of those among us and to do it with such a small group.  Yesterday a "new" person came to our meeting, so we hope our numbers will grow.  We were also blessed today with a sewing machine we will be able to keep at church; I have been blessed with another machine to donate.  That should make it easier for some people to come and quilt with us without having to transport a machine from home.  (None of us are as young as we used to be.)

One of the things weighing on my heart is that we need to make some prayer quilts for older members of our congregation who are not facing health challenges--just because they have so blessed us for so many years/decades [and we certainly don't want them to have to face a health crisis in order to be blessed by a quilt].

Sweet Teen played for offertory today, and then after church she took off to visit a friend's grandfather for Father's Day.

We captured this picture of her and one of her best friends in front of the fountain at New Mexico Tech in Socorro following the concert they gave at the end of their 3.5 days at New Mexico Youth Harmony Camp.

Happy quiltmaking.....

What Was On the Bed

Time for a different quilt on the bed, so before I removed it, I took a couple pictures.....

This quilt was published (minus the borders) in a Better Homes & Gardens craft magazine of some kind in the late 70's.  Quite possibly it was one of their issues of gifts to make for Christmas.  At the time, I was teaching in an inner city school in Peoria, Illinois and having to search diligently to find fabrics that were 100% cotton.

This quilt was completely hand pieced (the old fashioned way) from 60-degree diamonds with two-inch sides. I don't think I had any knowledge of English paper piecing at the time. And, let's face it, traditional piecing was much easier for diamonds this size.

Within a couple of years I had moved to Tennessee, and while I had the templates [made from Shrinky Dink plastic], patches and some fabrics close to me, the pattern/magazine was hidden in a box somewhere.  I remember going to the library at Lee College and looking the magazine up on microfiche to see how the quilt was bordered. It turned out none of the photos showed the borders; neither were they included in the instructions.

I decided this would be my "millennium quilt,"  meaning I'd be happy to finish it by the year 2000.  When sometime in the 1980's, a group of us had founded the Cherokee Blossom Quilt Guild and affiliated ourselves with the Tennessee Valley Quilt Association, the state organization brought Ginny Beyer to Knoxville to conduct a series of workshops.  She invited us to bring quilts for which we needed borders.  Another Cherokee Blossom member and I were lucky enough to attend her workshop.

She helped me come up with a way to finish the edge of the layout with half-stars and helped me design the border that contains the triangles.  I remember working to piece this border section onto the quilt when I was sitting in the Albuquerque airport waiting for a friend to get off work when I came to interview for jobs in New Mexico.

 I quilted it on my hand quilting frame sitting in front of a bay window in the house we rented in Gallup and was quite happy when I finished it twelve years early!

Many of these fabrics were gathered from a wide variety of merchants, including Calfee's Grocery on Spring Place Road on the south side of Cleveland, TN, which had a fairly large fabric department because Mrs. Calfee liked to sew and make quilts.  (At least, that's what I was told.)  So much of the fabric has faded because the fabric companies saw no need for more than a few hours of light-fastness.  Obviously, they were clueless about how many yards of fabric could be sold to quiltmakers for stash enhancement.

I also taught classes at Chandler Fabrics, and remember when Bill Chandler came back from a large industry show remarking how so many fabric merchants were all doom and gloom and that the only happy people there were the people who owned quilt shops.  Compared to the huge numbers of fabric lines today, we were in a fabric desert back then!

Lots of memories in this quilt.

Happy quiltmaking.....