What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

It was a big push to finish before I start Teacher Work Days.  Once school starts intense projects are much harder.

This quilt was made for JoAnne by her mother Florence about 1976.  You can tell that Florence was resourceful.  She used the fabric she had.

Every block needed some repair, and that was how I approached it:  One block at a time.  You can read more about some specific repair techniques HERE and HERE.

Since the one-block-at-a-time system seemed to be working so well, I quilted it the same way–A meander-stipple around the birds in each block.  My ...

The entire quilt was a bit of doozy…30 of 30 blocks needing help.

For insight on how I fixed blocks with ruined backgrounds, see HERE.

Today I am sharing one way to fix a damaged applique.  I am not pretending this is a great way, but this block needed two different techniques. So it seemed a good example.

A previous repair had stitched netting over the damaged fabric.  I suspect much of the damage on this block, and a number of other places on the quilt, was due to a combination of different shrinkage after washing and very light ...

The quilt has 30 blocks, and not a single one didn’t need something.  Some were fairly simple, just restitching the ric-rack or mending a small hole, but a few were much more involved.

There is no batting, exactly, in the quilt.  Rather, a recycled, lightweight fleece served as both batting and backing.  There was also essentially no quilting.  Just some stitch-in-the-ditch at the sashing and between the blocks.  The blocks themselves are roughly 13″ x 14″. You can guess some of the problems that causes.

This block, and two similar to it, had ruined backgrounds.  The birds were in ...

This might be out of my league, but I was asked to do it by a long-time neighbor and friend of my parents.

Her mother made her this quilt when she was a young child.  It is much loved and is full of memories…

Each block and each bird have their own personality.

I am tentatively starting to work on it, making repairs one block and a time and hoping for a grand revelation on a finish.  It is mostly not-quilted and there is no batting…

Suggestions?  Ideas?  Encouragements?

The original quilter tried, she really did.  The pattern is interesting, the fabric is high quality, the colors are beautiful.  But, she struggled with the piecing and assembly and eventually gave up.

Sparkle Jane saw potential. She fixed what she could of the piecing, while honoring the effort of the original maker. And assembled the top.

There was plenty of fabric, so she added a triple border–a narrow inner border, a lovely piano key center, and a wider outer border.

Extra fabric was used to make more “piano key” style pieces to stretch the back.

I am certain the ...

I found this interesting object in a thrift store for 69-cents.  Too darling to leave behind.

So it came home with me.  To become a pincushion.

First try went…badly.  What was I thinking?!  Wrong shape.  Wrong size.

Second try, however, turned into this!

YAY!

I am pretty sure I could make a pincushion every week for a year and not get tired of it.  Which is funny, because I really don’t use pincushions much.  I have a metal magnetic tray.

On a Saturday Sparkle Jane said, “Mom, I want to make him a quilt.”

“Well,” I said, “There are these Pendleton shirts…”

The quilt was planned, sorted, cut, piecing started…

Tuesday night, Sparkle Jane was assembling.  There was no fabric suitable for a back here and the quilt shops were all closed.  While she kept stitching, I left for Joanns, two towns away.  The store closes at 9pm.  I got there about 8:15pm.  She was going to have to trust me.

Find the fabric. Get the fabric.  Head home.

The backing was pronounced, not just acceptable, but perfect!  WHEW ...

Those damaged Pendleton shirts are finally turning into something.

Sparkle Jane wanted to make him a quilt.  We designed.  I cut.  She stitched.  Top finished last night.  Whew!

More details and pictures coming.