Estate Sale finds...

I had hoped to go a quilt show in Atlanta with some friends today but MS decided otherwise.  It takes awhile for my body to get used to the summer heat here in Georgia.

So instead my husband brought me to an estate sale.  I am still looking for a few storage pieces for my sewing room and had shown him a great thread cabinet online...

Well as luck would have it we got there coffee in hand (before the doors even opened!) only to find out the thread cabinet had been pulled from the sale.  It happens.

We did however find some fun quilts.  And it is a good thing we were early as only a few minutes behind us was a dealer who took most of what we had left behind!

This first one may be my favorite.  The maker was pretty fast and loose with the block pattern so I would just call it a square in a square framed by half square triangles with double sashings and cornerstones.

It is very scrappy!  Lots of plaids and shirtings.  Reminded me a lot of my friend Bonnie!

The binding is just the backing turned the front.  See that often here in the south.  The quilting is large Baptist fans...also seen often here.  Pieces are fairly small.  The inner block is about 6 inches...

It needs a bath...first there is a small hole in the back that I need to repair.  If there are any loose seams or holes where batting could be lost in the wash or the washing motion could do more damage I always repair first.

Second quilt also reminds me of Bonnie...again, very scrappy and lots of plaids!  I think they are happy quilts...

The star is about 6 inches...

The biding is again back to front and the quilting is Baptist fan.  No documentation that they were made by the same person but my "quilty sense" (yes, a nod to Spiderman in a quilt blog!) certainly suspects a connection!

So bottom line...we went to get something to store my quilts in and instead came home with...wait for it...more quilts!!  (I have two more to share later this week!)

A future daylilly quilt...

Daylillies are in full bloom here in Georgia.  They are my favorite plant for the garden!  So many varieties and colors.

They are generally very hardy however recently some fungus and other issues have become more of an issue.  One of my beds was impacted this year.

I did everything the extension agent recommended and was able to save 75% of the plants...not bad.  It was a lot of work.  This mauve plant seemed to be the most effected.  I was only able to save two out the rive plants.  It was work the work though...love the face and the ruffles on this one!

We are rapidly coming to the end of my spring gardening season.  Saturday the temps are going to be up around 95 degrees!  Too hot for me!

A few years ago I bought Leni Levenson Wiener's book "Photo-inspired Art Quilt - From Composition to Finished Pieces."

 I'd like to try something to merge my quilts and my photos.  Have any of you made quilts using photos as inspiration or in the quilt?

Also in the garden...I've been trying to get photos of all the different Dragonflies.  Just yesterday I saw three (maybe four) different species in my yard.  The down side...I keep capturing photos of the same (slow perhaps) species.  Heck it may even be the same dragonfly!

(a few years ago this would have been fine...now, it is a toss away!)

Funny how expectations change.  First I just wanted a picture of a dragonfly.  Then I wanted a photos close-up and in focus.  Then I wanted multiple dragonflies....say what!

And in more quilt-y news...went to stitching yesterday.  Paula is almost finished her wool project!

And Shannon is making progress on her primitive piece!  Beehives...think there is a theme here!

A late spring clean-up!

The last few days we have been doing some late spring cleaning...

I think the new sewing room used up all my effort this year and we just realized that the garage and garden hadn't gotten as much attention as needed this spring.

a spinning wheel from England...really?!

Amazingly we found a lot of stuff "missing" for years!

Like this Queen vintage hand crank sewing machine that I bought at an auction in England.  That is right...it was in the back of the garage still packed in a moving box!  I'm trying to get this little machine operational...otherwise it is just a big doorstop!

Our goal is to get through all the moving boxes put in storage about 7 years ago.  Making some tough decisions...we packed up my husband's to the ceiling yesterday and made a trip to the charity shop/Goodwill donation stop.

put these aside for a friend...knew I had them just not where!

Three extra irons, a bread-maker only used once, a set of china still in the box...stuff like that!  Our rule is if we don't like it well enough to use it or have it in the house then it has to move on...still lots to do!  My neighbor helped by taking a doll crib, two chairs, and an old frame...why is it other people's "stuff" is always more interesting than what we have in our own garage?!

But I have to move slowly!  Last spring the neurologist made some big changes to my MS meds.  After trying it for a couple months I decided it wasn't working...made me a bit too much of a zombie!  I'd rather clarity and joy with a bit of pain than total numbness!  So last week it was like waking out of a fog and of course I then immediately over-did it!

That is ok though...I have lot of quilts to hand-sew binding on a some BBC mysteries to catch up on!

Watson on guard in the backyard...

and Dobby keeping an eye on Watson...my own version of the "odd couple"

Redcliffe Plantation

A few years ago I helped document a signature quilt from an area of South Carolina called Beech Island.  Since then I've wanted to visit a state park there that had a Plantation House from the same time period as the quilt.

It was a hot humid Carolina day so we went over early!  The house was built by a former Governor of the state of S.C. prior to the civil war.

The trees around the house are really beautiful.  Lots of large oaks and magnolia trees which were in blossom.  These flowers are around 10 inches across!

Lots of patterns in the brickwork

 and tiles (Minton imported from England!) that made me think of quilts.

I can't believe it took me so long to visit this state park!  It is only 20 minutes from my house.  When I lived overseas I made a point of going to at least one historical site a month.

me under one of the large trees!

 I think I need to try doing that in my own area too!

As far as helping with the quilt history documentation...well, I did learn that there was a small booklet published about textiles in this area in the late 1840's.  I am hoping to get to read a copy of it soon and hope that it may give me some clues to the quilt's history as well.

A top finished!

Who says making a list doesn't get you motivated?  Not me!

After thinking long and hard about the quilt show in November and my lack of any finished quilts to enter I made a plan.  And today I have my first result!

I took out the UFO box with my large 1904 applique project.

First I made sure I still had all the "parts."

 Amazing how bits and pieces can go on walk-about when left sitting in a corner of the closet!  This project just needed borders.  Mitered borders.  I think I put it away when got halfway through the pieced border and decided to go with a solid piece of fabric.  Since I was mitering I also took out my go-to book by Onion Mountain.

Helps me to stay organized...even it it is only math!

Also had to do lots of pressing and measuring before any cutting...and made sure to have lots of pins handy.

Then it was simply measure, cut, sew, press and then repeat for a couple hours...boy my shoulders are sore but I have a top ready to go to the long-armer!

So one down and three more to go this month...progress feels good!

why I wash fabric...

I've written before about the donation quilts my guild makes to raise money for a camp that serves children with cancer.

Well we were so close to having the next quilt-top finished when I got the "knock on the door."  The quilter with the last block had used a steam iron on it and the blue batik ran...spreading blue into the pink and then as we tried to fix that the blue ran into the orange.

After checking that there was enough fabric to make another if needed...I said a quick prayer to St. Teresa, patron saint of seamstresses, and dunked the entire block into a sink full of soapy warm water....

and then waited...

good news...

it is blue where it is supposed to be blue...pink where it is supposed to be pink and mottled where it is supposed to be mottled.  Phew...

Now to get this top finished and out of my sewing room!  (and back to working on some quilts for the show!)

oh no...the show!

Oh no...just realized that my guild's quilt show is five months away and I haven't finished one thing to enter!

I have lots of UFO's...so I need a plan!

First I have two that just need bindings...my Miss Muffet Spider web and an Autumn leaves.  So today I pulled fabrics to make the bindings (already have the gray cut for the spiderweb quilt...)

Next I need to select the two "blocks in boxes" that I can finish up in the next couple of weeks.  There is an unnerving number of options in the closet!

Then I want to finish a small quilt for our "How do you take your quilt?' challenge.

My goal is to enter at least 5 quilts.  I would like to finish three tops in June and get the binding on the two that are already quilted.  That should be doable!

The last few month I have been focused on making quilts for the local VA and have totally lost focus of the show.  The quilt above was the last of the patriotic blocks from a guild event last year.  This is on its way to be quilted for a vet...

Also been spending time in the garden...both with a trowel and the camera!

So by the end of today...a plan.  Three UFO's from the box pile and put the challenge back up on the design wall!  phew....