What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

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About a week ago, our local guild sent out an email to members stating a seamstress in town was retiring and having a sale. She wanted to clear out her fabric and supplies as she planned to downsize to a smaller home. I am sure you knew I would be sure to go check it out. The woman was both a garment maker as well as a quilter. Her shop was large and there was tons and tons of fabric.

By the time I got there much of the quilt fabric had been sold. But I was not really interested ...

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My grandmother (Mary Emma–father’s mother) made these curtains sometime in the 60s or 70s.  I can still vaguely remember them hanging in a bedroom window at her house.

They are in quite good condition.

She foundation pieced before it was popular.

Each curtain is about 40″ square.  I could make 4 baby quilts, but they will not probably get used that way.

My thought is to combine them somehow into a larger quilt.

1. Just square them up and stitch them together.
2. Cut into smaller blocks and sort of mix and match.
3. Put narrow sashing between the smaller blocks ...

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All but the label:  Jeweled Windows is quilted and bound! The blocks are 7 x 12 finished.   They were made by my fellow ALA Biblioquilters. This will be in the silent auction at the ALA Annual Conference in June.



The bright backing fabric was an estate-sale purchase.















I stopped at Salvation Army on Monday.  I could not resist these bargains -- 32 yards, $28 (including the all-cotton queen-sized sheet on the bottom right).


The African-style prints are regular cotton. I think they were used for a Black History Month display or program because the top (brighter) pieces were edged in store-bought ...

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This idea was my first plan for the Shine On quilt, but I decided I wanted different sizes of stars.  Plus, there wasn’t enough of this color combination to make the size quilt I needed for Shine On. This idea was worth completing, though.

It started as a bag of vintage (late 60s?  early 70s?) fabric squares that a friend bought at a yard sale.  They were not well cut and not all the fabric was usable, but there was a cheeriness to them that appealed.

Adding the bright white stars and some solids squares scattered throughout seems to ...

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The photo doesn't look much different from the one I posted yesterday, but if you look closely you can see the blue binding. 




I used leftover bow ties on the back.

I am low on big pieces of 30's fabric. The green/pink print on the left and the blue/black print on the right are genuine vintage pieces--36" wide.




















My 30's stash is down to one shelf.












I have two boxes of genuine vintage fabric . . . but if they haven't been sewn for 50+ years, what's the rush? 

Linking up today with Connie and friends ...

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Last week, I showed off a triangular bipyramid ornament, made from a wildly freemotion-quilted, felt-backed scrap. Here's another triangular bipyramid - but it's more of a wristlet/purse than an ornament. The 6 triangles were joined into 3 diamonds; there's a zipper on top; a bangle bracelet; and it was constructed using the stiff interfacing and English Paper Piecing techniques described in too-loving detail in my new polyhedron book. 

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If you're a quilter, I bet we have a happy problem in common: People bring us fabric. On the one hand, I love it. On the other, I already have too much - if I stuff their offering into my stash, it may never come out!

This problem gets even better when people bring me interesting vintage textiles. So here's one solution: Enjoy processing it immediately, then give it right back, in a form they can use.

That's what a happened a couple of months ago when my friend Marian went to a store closing sale, where she ...

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How is that we are more than half way through October? Our leaves have hardly even changed yet. I better not get gyped out of some pretty fall colors.
As you can see I did get a new camera, now I need to figure out how to get rid of the date......
Doesn't this fabric feel like circa 1970? Something about it appealed to me. Who knows where it will wind up!

 Some more vintage fabric that will find it's way into a scrap quilt. I need to do one with just plain squares.
For bookclub this month ...

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The Northern Lake County Quilters Guild monthly meeting was Wednesday evening.  Four members provided demonstrations of techniques (fast folded hexagons, quilt as you go, paper piecing, and quilting with rulers -- the latter really appeals to me and I'll look for the Westalee templates at the Quilt Festival next week).




This year's guild BOM is a skill-builder. The coordinator posts a different Missouri Star block each month and participants make it in their choices of colorway and genre.  Those who bring completed blocks to the following meeting are entered into a drawing.  At Wednesday's meeting I was the ...

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I've always enjoyed looking at other peoples' Sunbonnet Sue quilts, yet was never tempted to make my own - the motif, which dates back to the 1800s, is too sweet for my style. But when the #MeToo movement swept through the US, I couldn't get her out of my head.

I have experienced a few, very minor episodes of molestation. But when #MeToo exploded, I was astounded to discover that virtually all my female friends and acquaintances have also been molested - many experiencing far worse than I did - regardless of how strong, confident, and ...

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Jade Snow Wong's autobiography, Fifth Chinese Daughter, relates a first generation girl's struggle to find her identity in both her family and American society. Published in 1950, it has never been out of print and still resonates with women worldwide.

This is my fifth Chinese Coins quilt for #AHIQChineseCoins. Who'd have thought there would be a series of this basic design? Not me. However, the simple structure has given me freedom to explore other ideas. I've found quite a bit to say.

It amuses me that Coins was one of my go-to plans for philanthropy quilts ...

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Pillows
The small group met and I finished my two improv pillows. Just as planned. They're small and portable, an excellent project when there's not a lot of room to spread out.

Thanks again to Chris English who posted many exciting pillows on Instagram. He inspired me to try my hand at this delightful technique. They look great in the living room and actually coordinate with the bow pillow I made a couple of years ago. {This one was my first sample. Mailed the second one after all the kinks were worked out. AND it looks so much ...

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Cathy and I have decided this will be the last linkup for Kaleidoscope of Butterflies for a while. We've enjoyed the quilts, butterfly photos, and ideas for creating butterfly-friendly gardens. We hope you have too.

A few weeks ago QS captured some wonderful images of milkweed in her yard: a pod bursting with seeds...

Milkweed seeds with fluff

and blowing in the wind.

Milkweed seeds ready to float away

No live butterflies around here but I beaded one for the second Christmas stocking. Of course, the original idea was to bead a monarch but there's no need to ...

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Doubling Down on Backs

All summer long {Beach Boys version here} I've been giddily making quilt tops with no thought to the rest of the work involved. Now reality sets in. Seven quilts in the queue and five were sewn this summer.  Fortunately I picked up several quilt batts on sale.

The next step is to make some backs. The easiest way is to lay the top on the floor and cover it with fabric. Here's a glimpse of the newest five.

Quilt backs ready to pin baste

I have very low standards for backs. As long as ...

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