Quilt Stories

This is my friend's cabin near the Cumberland Gap at the crossroads of Tennessee, Virginia, and Kentucky where I busily dreamed, cut, pieced, and quilted for up to 16 hours per day some days. Alex did target practice with a rifle, got her first fishing license and went fishing, picked and strung beans, went to Bible school at a nearby Baptist church, played with a toddler, rode the neighbor's Mule, and had so much fun she wants to go back. It's one step from Heaven.

Over the next several posts, I'll talk about the quilts I worked on.

Here's a sample--more details later.

I cut, sewed, and applied the binding for Tuscany, so it is now ready to be sent to one of my dear friends. Except for the off-white backgroud of birds, all the Tuscany fabrics are from Moda's Charisma line.

These colors will work beautifully in my friend's living room, although I think she's expecting a quilt that contains robin's egg blue, brown, and cafe au lait.

At last (meaning after probably nine or ten years) I layered and began quilting this Blue and Yellow Hexagon Strip quilt. The fabrics for the triangles were cut from layers of a blue and yellow fabric. I was working on this quilt before Bethany Reynolds published her Stack 'n' Whack quilt books and patterns. (Just shows that sometimes more than one person picks up on some of the wonderful ideas out there floating around in the universe.) The hexagons are surrounded by my own hand-dyed fabrics. This quilt is still only partially quilted because I waited too long to order some blue thread from Tracy at Sew Thankful. (She gives great service; however, the thread was out of stock. She had to back order it, which she did even though she's no longer going to carry that brand of thread, and the thread was waiting for me when I arrived home.)

My friend's cabin is so cute that it should really be featured in Cottages & Cabins magazine.

Then I layered and began quilting this lap size quilt, which I call Mrs. Lebo's kitchen because the Cherry Jubilee fabrics in the four patches remind me of my first grade teacher's kitchen. It was going to be a Victory quilt, but Alexandra loves it and admitted that she really wants it. (There is a second similar quilt that I didn't get layered that will be a Victory Quilt.)

This is a quilt I had no idea I would make. That is, I took the Tom Sawyer fabric and a [very] few coordinates knowing I would piece some stars and make a small quilt. While in Cleveland, TN, we had a very brief visit with a man I've known since we were in first and second grade. While showing me his new home, we saw the now too-worn quilts his mama had made. She died in the 1950's, and I just know that if she were alive, she'd make him another quilt. Since she can't, I did. This is totally unlike any other quilt I have ever made! I've never before understood why people like Civil War reproduction fabrics. Now I do! However, that's because they were just perfect with this Windham Fabric Mark Twain-inspired toile-like fabric. The quilt does include the fabrics I had taken with me that were not reproduction fabrics. I picked up the reproduction fabrics [by Fay Burgos for Marcus Fabrics] at a delightful fabric shop in Tazewell, TN.--The Mark Twin/Tom Sawyer fabric was purchased last summer in Hannibal, MO at a quilt shop across the street from Mark Twain's childhood home.

This is the second quilt I had no idea I would make. These fabrics are from Robin Pandolph's Chateau Rococco line for Free Spirit Fabrics. I took several of them with me, thinking I would make a small quilt. I had so much fun with the feather on the borders of Mrs. Lebo's Kitchen that I knew I had to do a quilt with a red border quilted with gold feathers.

I picked up additional yardage at the shop in Tazewell and pieced the top, got the borders added, and layered and basted it. However, then it was time to leave so that I could see my niece who lives in Oregon and who had returned to Cleveland, TN for her good friend's wedding. I figured the quilt was going to come back to New Mexico to be finished and then be mailed back to Tennessee. My daughter and Miss Bobbie convinced me we should extend our visit so that they could go see the new Harry Potter movie together the day it premiered. They saw the movie, and I completed the quilt in time for us to go outside and take pictures.

By the way, to see any of these photos in a larger format, meaning you'll see more details, you can place your cursor over a picture, right click, and open it in a new tab or a new window.

We began the long drive back to New Mexico early Thursday morning. We had a lovely first day's drive in mostly drizzle from East Tennessee into Oklahoma, where the sun came out. The sun shone brightly the rest of our return trip except for a few drops of rain between Tucumcari and Cline's Corners. But any way you look at it, a trip of 1400+ miles is lllooooonnnnnnng!Obviously, the summer monsoons fizzled early here. NM is very brown except where there is irrigation. We spent Saturday tackling weeds and yard work; I gave in and got out the Round-Up; we had a few more drops of rain last night, probably just enough to wash off the Round-Up; we'll see.

More posts with quilt stories later!

Dora the Quilter

Quilting Retreat

We spent a wonderful few weeks in a mountain cabin at the junction of Tennessee, Virginia, and Kentucky very near Cumberland Gap--which we could see if we climbed to the top of the nearest hill. We had no land line, no e-mail or internet connection, and no cell phone [unless we drove to the nearest town]. I designed, pieced, and quilted two quilts from start to finish. I'll post pictures when I get them transferred to the computer. I took way too many things to work on--quilts take a lot longer than we realize. Spent a lot of time in prayer and was definitely inspired by the landscape and the peace! Felt like we were one step from heaven!

Finished!

I finally just ripped the binding off the Sunny Day Quilt, cut new binding and piping, and sewed that on!
I finished at 10 p.m. last night, took it to church, gave it to another church member, who will pass it on to the mom-to-be. I am so glad it is done, even if it did take me several days to get the binding ripped off. You probably heard the rippet, rippet, rippet. At least I now know what/how to do and what/how not to do!

Baby Quilt

The baby quilt is finished. I'm including some pictures of the back of the quilt so the quilting can be seen. For the backing I used a lovely warm yellow from Debbie Beaves Sunflower collection. It photographed as more of a beige, but it's really a warm, buttery yellow.

The quilt top was made with Blossoms and Birds, a yellow Northcott print that is at least ten years old--came out of my stash. It was originally intended to be something for another child, but that didn't work out.

The lovely lavender/white polka dot had been in my stash even longer.

The pink was a more recent purchase.

For the quilting I used lavender, pink, and light green threads.

Here's a detail of the snowball blocks. These colors are truer to the fabrics.

I used #2 DMC cotton to fill piping next to the binding.

And here is most of the finished quilt. (I couldn't find a location where all three colors would photograph true. The pink and yellow are pretty close, but the lavender is really grayed in this photo.)

One more finish. Now it's back to binding for the blue butterfly quilt.

A Quilt and My Daughter

I finally finished the binding on the baby quilt for Stephanie. I'll have to wait to take a picture because it's in the washer right now.

My daughter is spending the night with a friend. A few minutes ago she called to tell me she loves me, reminded me to put out the garbage for tomorrow's pickup, told me she's staying up for another hour until the Amish bread is done baking, and suggested I might want to go to bed now. I laughed and said, "Yes, mom."
Her response was, "Well, older people need to get their sleep."
I just said it's actually the other way around; the young need to get their sleep, and then I laughed some more.
There's such a fine line between meddling, judging me incompetent, and just trying to be helpful!
It's nice to be loved!

Quilt Tips

The other day someone else who quilts on a domestic sewing machine (not a long arm machine) was telling me how tired her hands and arms were after spending the day quilting. I quilt on a 36 year old Huskvarna/Viking workhorse (unless I quilt on an H/V that's even older). In the past I've tried all kinds of hoops, non-slip gloves, etc., but for the past few years I've been using something much simpler: two pieces of non-slip, rubberized kithchen-shelf protector. Much cooler than gloves; no need to grab and, thereby, distort the quilt-top; makes quilting possible even when it's a hot day; and I can quilt all day if I need to.

Yesterday I needed to draw a circle in the middle of the patches, but the old marker I had found to mark four circles on another quilt was too dried out to mark on this one. I made a run to Alco, my favorite hometown variety store (used to be known as Duckwalls), but they had no blue erasable markers. I cut a circle from a roll of shelf paper with light adhesive and stitched around that, peeled it off, and saved it for the next patch.

I do quilt a lot of feather variations; however, except when I need things like a perfect, or nearly perfect, circle in the center of a block, I don't mark the quilting lines; I just quilt--the payoff from decades of sewing and quilting practice.

It's been a very hectic month since I last posted--which is why I haven't posted. My teaching assignment for next year has changed several times. I'll be at the same school, although I had to move all my teaching "stuff" (probably a couple of tons worth) to a different classroom pod. I'll still be teaching special education students, but it's likely I'll be teaching a different level, most likely students with severe and profound disabilities again. I pointed out to the principal that the district has just spent thousands of dollars on training and new materials, so I'll be allowed to teach a two-hour reading/writing block to students with less severe disabilities. Well, that's how things stood on the last day of my contract; anything and everything could change by August.

Must run now and prepare and sew on some bindings for a couple of gift quilts. I'll show them in another post when they are finished.

Tulips!

We have three tulips in bloom--and another on the way.
We do have other pots of tulips that have not yet bloomed, such as in the pot behind this one.
We have some late-blooming tulips, so we hope to have many more blooms.
The winds have not been kind to the narcissus, despite the fact that they are in a protected place.
This is just one reason why in the past homes have been built with walls.
Rain is predicted for today, but it may dry up before it hits the ground--a fairly common phenomena in NM.
I'm sorely tempted to add some tulip fabric to my collection, either for a quilt for us or for one to give away.

Froggie! Froggie! Ooooops!

This is the top I pieced over a week ago when our group of Victory Quilters met. (If you wish, you may click the photo for a larger copy in order to view the frogs.)

The "oops" is the "pond" in the center. The pond is there because when I was splitting the nine-patches, the ruler, cutter, or both slipped, resulting in a butchered block. I saved those pieces to use in the corners of the border, but I had to insert a pond to replace the butchered block.

Borders have been added and the quilt has been quilted, but it still needs binding. I'll post an updated picture when it is finished.

What would you put in the pond?

More Split Nine-Patch Windmills

These photos offer views of our church's altar rails this week at the dedication of 21 prayer quilts for people challenged by cancer and other serious health issues. Prayer quilts have been flying out of the church office in support of family, colleagues, and friends of members of our congregation.

A dozen of those 21 quilts were created from a variety of designs, but nine were the Split Nine-Patch Windmill pattern that we developed when we realized how fast the quilts were flying away and knew we had to come up with something that would give us a variety of quilts but which could also be pieced and quilted fairly quickly. (By "quickly", I'm referring to the fact that most probably took twenty to fifty hours to sew from start to finish. Only four of us pieced or quilted these quilts, although many more were involved in bindings and prayer.) Shown below are the nine Split Nine-Patch Windmills that were dedicated this week.

It would be lovely if, during the next month, everyone who needs one gets one and we still have some left over. March and April were pretty challenging for many of our members, friends, and colleagues.

Spring! Spring! Spring!

I love this picture because it makes my house look lavender--a color I would never, never paint it--at least, not on the exterior!

At last! The narcissi are in bloom! It is the end of April!

Due to some unseasonably warm weather at the end of February and for a few days in March, my neighbor's daffodils bloomed and were beaten to shreds by the wind. We have been enjoying several early tulips that she planted. We waited and waited and waited for these flowers. They too may well be beaten to shreads by the wind, but today they are just beautiful!

And, promising to bloom soon, are some of the tulips we planted. See this tiny bud hiding in the leaves?

We are thrilled!

Daisy Windmills

See that teeny-tiny little striped fence between the outer border and the pieced quiltop? That is from a little strip of striped fabric my friend Harriet gave me about twenty years ago. I've treasured that fabric all these years, but it was so tiny I could not decide how to use it. I'm glad I had the sense to save it, because it made the perfect tiny border around the center of this quilt!
This is another Victory Quilt--and yet another Split 9-patch Windmill. These all turn out sooooo different, and they are so fast to cut and piece. Truthfully, this one wasn't that fast to cut and piece because Alex chose the daisies and the lavender stripe from my friend Ruth's stash a couple of months ago. She said she'd piece a quilt top. She didn't; but I was in dire need of some springy something or other, so I cut and pieced it. I had to cut each square separately because the fabric was bits and pieces of left-overs, so although it was a bit slower than usual, it was a delightfully sunny quilt to make, especially during our last couple of weather days.

That's the front and the back. Mary C. took the quilt to sew down the backside of the binding.

The last two photos are a couple of detail shots. I used violet metallic thread to quilt the smaller windmill blades in the second picture, but that doesn't show up all that well in the photo. I hope the recipient will find great comfort and reassurance in this quilt.

Weather vs Climate & My Easter Girl

Yesterday we had weather. We most often have climate, but yesterday we had weather of many different sorts. We began the day with rain, sleet, and snow, and they kind of did a dance with many repetitions.
Then we had thunder and lightning and rain followed by thunder and lightning and snow, and to liven things up a bit, that was followed by about two inches of hail and more rain and snow.

All that with intermittent sunshine--so we can keep our record as a place where the sun shines nearly every day of the year, even if just for a few minutes!

The mountains were almost incredibly beautiful when we went to church today, with snow clinging to all the trees, especially the pines, and more snow coming down. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of that!

By the time we got home shortly after noon today, the winds were roaring through. Most of the tumbleweeds were small ones, which makes me wonder if they were once big ones but had been downsized by long-distance tumbles.

At this moment, things are fairly quiet.

Of course, one of the prettiest sights of the day was my daughter. When we purchased her clothes, I didn't realize that they pretty much match the color of our livingroom walls! ('Tis true, I also forgot to have someone at church take our picture together!)

It's been nearly ten years since I've seen the department stores filled with such ugly, ugly clothes that you know they must have sent their buyers to "ugly school" before they let them go order merchandise. We found her beautiful clothes at the Asian store.

We are so grateful that there is no school tomorrow and that the only things we have on our agendas are working on quilts, a flute lesson, and tea with a friend!

We hope all our loved ones have had a wonderful Easter!

A Favorite Quilt

This is one of my all-time favorite quilts. I made it for one of my friends, whose husband went to be with the Lord on Easter weekend two years ago. I forgot to take pictures of it, and this week she took pictures of it and printed them out for me. I asked her to e-mail them to me, and she saved them in a Snapfish album. Since I'm on dial-up, it took 20 minutes to download this one photo, so I'll have to wait until she can e-mail them to me so I can post more. However, you can click on the photo for a larger view with more details of the quilting. This quilt was made from an enlargement of a large block designed by Judy Martin several years ago. Just touching it and looking at it made me happy, so I was hoping it would be a comfort to her as she worked through her grief.

More Victory Quilts

To the left is the International Harvester Quilt--really old International Harvesting equipment, as in horse-drawn and early gas engine tractors.

The detail below shows the quilting in the windmills. The colors shown in the entire quilt are much less green than in the detail photo.

Once again, I needed a strategy to widen a width of fabric and used pieced blocks and strips because I had enough length, just not enough width.

Tomi volunteered to finish the backside of the binding. Thanks, Tomi.

These are final photos of the cowboy quilt I showed last week. I used the same fabric for binding that I had used for the "fences." The fabric used for the backing was a wonderful old polished-cotton shirting print (only 36 inches wide), so once again I pieced blocks to make the backing wider.

I'm grateful to Cathy for taking this quilt to sew down the binding, so that I can get on to making more quilts. Thanks, Cathy.

It's hard to believe that just six weeks ago we had a huge supply of quilts. I'm wondering if other quilt ministries have found the last few weeks to be difficult for a great many of the recipients.

I've cut out a "toad" quilt and a couple of "flowerdee" quilts (as they say in the Appalachians) and would love to find some more farm fabrics--that match some of the tractors and farm equipment I grew up with--but I don't think anyone has licensed J. I. Case or Allis-Chalmers designs for fabric. With so much of our nation's agriculture industry being consumed by huge farms that put the little guys out of business, those would be pretty nostalgic too.

Another of my colleagues told me today that her mom is having cancer surgery next week. Lots of people need our support and prayers.

The Fishing Quilt

Here's the bottom of the fishing quilt.--I thought I had gotten the whole thing, but the bottom will have to do.

This is a detail of the one of the windmills and a detail of the feathered border--I used a variety of variegated threads for the the body of the quilt and a holographic silver for the borders.

The back of the quilt shows how I used blocks and strips to widen and lengthen one width of fabric to make it big enough for the back.

The next photo is a detail of the back of the quilt showing the quilting designs. I used Bottom Line thread in the bottom so there is no pretty or shiny stuff, but you can see the quilting lines. And, if you'd like to see any of these detail even more clearly, you can right-click on any photo in this blog, open in a new tab, and see a much bigger photo.

Mary took this quilt to sew the binding onto the back. She also did all the holding for the photographs.

I was shocked that we have only a handful of quilts left despite having dedicated a couple dozen a couple of weeks ago.

A young woman asked for a quilt for the wife of her husbands co-worker. His wife has just entered hospice. I mentioned to her that while we had begun making quilts and prayed for the person receiving it, we never realized that sometimes the quilts are handed on to others who also experience some form of healing.

She replied, "Yes, I understand. I was given a quilt last year when they told me that within a year I would be almost totally paralyzed. As you can see, I'm not."