Piles of binding...

Every two years my guild has a show and even though I know it is coming I am always scrambling at the last minute to finish us some quilts. The show is October 14-15 so the scramble has begun!

The past couple of days I have made miles of binding. This is my least favorite part of quilting so my binding pile is dangerously tall at the moment!
My economy block quilt quilt is getting a plain brown binding.
While my Jacob's Ladder above is getting a multi-fabric pink binding. (though now that I look at it I'm thinking of remaking the brown...duh, this is why I never finish things!) Once I get the bindings sewn down on machine I turn them to the back by hand...good for watching movies or baseball games!

I also put away some things I picked up at an estate sale while up in New England earlier this month. A vintage tin sewing box...

Some fabrics from the 1930's
Along with many envelopes with patterns from the 30's and 40's that were purchased through the Boston Globe...

Inspiration

My trip to New England this month has me sketching lots of quilts

Scituate Lighthouse, Scituate, Massachusetts

based on lighthouses,

beaches,

Hyannis, Massachusetts Hydrangea

gardens and

My niece taking photos at the Sandwich Glass museum

even Sandwich glass....don't you just love those colors! Now back to the sewing room to play in fabrics....

Back but not unpacked....

New York Wedding Cake

You know your vacation is over when you spend the day doing laundry, cleaning out the refrigerator, and disassembling the empty pizza box monument you husband built in the garage....So this will be a short post...the weddings were wonderful, the weather cool, and the food, well, I will not be posting any photos of me anytime soon! (However I am going to try and make some "savory lasagna cupcakes" that we had at one of the receptions - they were wonderful!)

"Cape Cod" Wedding Cake...

After checking into the hotel in Hyannis for the first wedding I went in search of a quilt shop a blogger had put me on to...of course I left the name right next to my computer back in Georgia but that was no problem. The shop ended up being right across the parking lot from the hotel!
It is a really nice shop. Lots of fabrics, nice samples, and a great stock of notions. The only down side was the four bolts of Halloween fabric that I fell in love with that were already sold...sigh....not that I needed more Halloween fabric but just the same...

Wordless Wednesday

Summer break....

Vacation....

Cape Cod Star, circa 1920

I am off to New England to see family and to attend weddings. Not sure with all the events I will have time to post! Be back mid-month....
And from the random files...here is a close up of a pinecone quilt seen at a local documentation day several years ago...there were 16 blocks about 20 inches across. This quilt weighed a ton! I did love the colors though....

clean up on cutting board five...

I know I have written about how my projects wander and have been known to migrate into every room in the house and periodically I have to do a roundup...today is one of those days.

Rose of Sharon bush...about the only thing thriving in this summer's heat

I've been so focused on a getting a few projects finished for my guild show in October I have let the gate on the fabric room open and those fat-quarters, spools of thread, packets of needles, and pincushions (not to mention notes, photos and magazines) sure do like to roam.

Since I am going up to New England this week for a couple of weddings I thought it would be nice of me to get all my "stuff" out my DH's way for the week. So I've boxed and bagged ongoing projects. Packed some handwork to do during downtime, and even put some fabric (like the pink and the green from the Jacob's Ladder) back on the shelf.

Some of the fabric pieces are small enough that they get cut into building blocks, quilt seeds or what ever you want to call the pre-cut part of your stash! I do have a couple of active leaders and ender projects...the red, white and blue crumb blocks in the photo above finish at 6 inches.

I have some 1-1/2 inch strips that I am sewing into these 5 inch finished blocks. This project was on the cover of a recent magazine but as I've tidied up the living room I have no idea which one it was...(New edit thanks to several more organized blogger - the pattern is from the August 2011 edition of American Patchwork and Quilting. The quilt is on the cover and was made by Kathy Holland! A name many of you bloggers should recognize!)And I have made about 20 bowties...yes, another Bonnie Hunter "let's play" call...I am using a variety of cheddar through dark gold to yellow for the backgrounds. These finish at 3 inches. To keep the little bits organized I am cutting the bowtie pieces then slipping five sets on each safety pin. I have about a dozen safety pins loaded and ready to go....sounds like a lot but at 3 inches these would only make 18 by 30 inch table-runner! So still lots of cutting to do!Are you wondering where all the brights and modern scraps go? I have these crumb-pieced setting blocks for a spiderweb quilt that is in the ongoing pile....

I plan to get back to work on that one after the quilt show in October.

Jacob has a ladder!

I really like how my Jacob's ladder top turned out...unfortunately it was finished while listening/watching marathon house and senate "debates" so I will always remember the debt crisis when I see this quilt. Too bad since otherwise it is such a happy quilt. Oh well, that is what I get for being a new addict...This started as a "let's play" comment/challenge from Bonnie Hunter after she found a yellow and floral Jacob's ladder at an antique mall. I don't have a lot of floral in my stash but found an amazing amount of red, pink and green. There is a lot of Moda, some Kaffe Fasset, some modern, and a bit of repro from the late 1800's and 1930's. A good exercise in stash-mashing.

I even pulled fabric for a backing. This plaid is very soft and will make a comfy back. And added bonus - it came from stash! I have a large basket that I keep pieces I buy on sale specifically for backings. I found a great blue fabric in there for the M.O. quilt I am working on too...Took a break early this morning to sit on the deck with the pets. We had to retreat after being buzzed by a particularly aggressive hummingbird! It was getting too hot anyways....

Quiet days...

Thanks for all the input on my border option post...I'm putting together my Jacob's Ladder quilttop today and will post photos this weekend. The other quilt may wait a bit longer. I am giving it as a gift and decided to let them have the final decision on the border (I like both borders so.....)

While I was making up my mind I changed out a few small quilts on the wall...(my friend rachel made the button flowers!)

and pulled some reds for a new quilt....

and folded lots of fabrics to clear a walking path through the sewing-room....when I am pulling fabrics it is like bride dress sale day in the old Filene's basement, fabric is flying!

Goldie, Brownie and Dobby...

And here is a rare photo of all three of my cats together! I was outside trying to get a photo of the woodpecker who lives in the hollow tree in my backyard. I was in the kitchen when I saw him for the first time this summer (we hear him all the time!) The cats obviously thought something exciting was going to happen so they all followed...

Bordering on a decision...

The shoulder was feeling good this morning so I decided to put aside the Halloween quilt for a day and get back to putting borders on a couple of quilt-tops that were soooo close to being finished.
Now I don't know about you but borders are a huge decision point for me...and for decision point read "repeatedly pull fabric from the stash, audition in various rooms, go get coffee, take a photo, drink more coffee, email a friend, drink coffee, call friend who hasn't responded to email, when call goes to messaging get more coffee and decide to move onto next quilttop." Oh dear is right!
I think Borders are major design elements of a quilt. Unfortunately the decision I make when the quilt is in the planning stage and what I end up doing are usually two very different things. I have put some "I just want this quilt to be finished" borders on before and regretted it so now I take it seriously...even if it means right now there is a "almost" quilt top on the dining-room table, the kitchen table, the ironing board and the couch. Ya, I have a lot of decisions to make....
Quilt number one is from a Material Obsession book (I've loaned them to a friend so I don't know which one, sorry!) Anyway, I've put on the red paisley and a blue stripe (stripe not in photo above!) Like it so far...
Originally I was going to use this green, blue and pink large floral. Now I'm not so sure. (This whole quilt has been way outside my comfort zone! good for me but lots of coffee and chocolate and fingernails....)
I've auditioned lots from the fabric stash and am now leaning towards this blue...am I coping out and going back to my comfortable place?

The second almost quilt-top is my Jacob's Ladder. (BTW last time I worked on this the History Channel ran a story on the history of Jacob's Ladder! And who says you can't learn anything from TV!) Back to this quilt....I pieced some triangles for the boarder and picked out a fabric with roses for the outer border. Good so far. For this I am now struggling with four options...

#1 Green inner-border with green to red triangles
#2 Green inner-border with red to green triangles

#3 Cream inner border with green to red triangles.
#4 Cream inner border, red and green triangles.

This is all becoming a bit tiring...maybe I'll get in touch with my inner Southern lady and "think about it tomorrow..."

Herding HST's

I've been working steadily on my Halloween quilt...must be dreaming of cooler weather! There is something about passing the halfway point that just spurs me on to finish a quilt-top. There is also something about wrestling piles of fabric on the cutting table and herding HST's from * the cutting board to the sewing machine to the ironing board and then repeat from * that spurs me on as well!This is a fun quilt though. The pattern is from Blackbird Designs. I'm following about 80% of the layout...mainly I am changing up fabric choices, some of the applique and the border.

Today however I need to put the borders on this quilt. I've had the fabrics out for months and need to finally put them away. (Imagine what my cutting table looks like with all the Kaffe, 1930's and Halloween colors...scarey no?!) For both of these quilts I have an amazing number of leftover squares, triangles and other "pieces." One disadvantage of sporadic piecing is I don't follow directions or even my own plans very well....
On another topic...last week the tickets for the Atlanta Antiques Roadshow came. A couple of my quilting buddies also put in for tickets but didn't get them. I also put in for them, got them, but then realized it is the same weekend as my nephew's weeding up in Boston. Oh well, at least folks that really want to go will get them!

Lost Quilts

First a public service announcement. Check out the posting at sewcalgal.blogspot.com on Missing quilts. Three quilts went missing at Spring Market and they are trying to spread the word. One of those quilts is in the photo below.
I saw a couple of her quilts at Paducha and they are really beautiful. Hopefully this one will find its way back to her.

If you are going to ship or show your quilt you should get an appraisal. If you don't want to do that at a minimum make sure you have a label on the quilt with enough information that if is is found they can find you. Finally, take a good quality photo of the quilt...even better keep the photo with samples of the fabric and measurements of the quilt.
When I lived in Baltimore my house was broken into. They took a quilt..most likely to help carry some of the other things they stole. Anyway, I had a photo of the quilt along with sample of the fabric and all the measurements. The police officer looked at me like I was a bit crazy...I wanted him to take the photo and all he wanted to do was list "quilt" on the sheet. Anyway it must have made an impression because late that evening I got a phone call from one of the crime scene techs who had overheard the conversation - he was in a bar not far from my house and there had just been a man there trying to sell some CD's and inside the bag the tech noticed a quilt! The tech offered him $5 for it. I was so happy to get my quilt back! (Later they did arrest the man who broke in my house but that is a long story.....)

So morale of the story...document, document, document. (And if you ever are broken into make sure and be nice to the crime scene folks...he also remembered I gave them chocolate chip cookies and coffee!)

Some other quilt-y stuff...yesterday I went out to a quilt bee off the backroads of South Carolina. Really nice quilters, really nice quilts, and a really, really hot church. The first convenience store I stopped and bought a T-shirt so I could get out of the soaking wet one I was shivering in! The purpose of the trip was to find vintage quilts made from scraps from the local textile mills or "salesman samples."

Of course since this was the first time they met me they all brought their best quilts (for that read several wedding rings, a couple of sunbonnet sues, several around the world and a poppy kit quilts)...now that we have talked about the old mills and drank lots of very sweet tea I hope they will show me the others....I think of these old scrap or utility quilts as a type of lost quilt too - people only want to show their "best."

I did learn a new southern phrase the other day..."moonshine kin." It is someone you are related to by marriage. The photo below is from a cell phone so not that clear but it is a great old quilt. It has wool bat and lots of woven plaids. There are at least 6-8 different double-pinks in the corners. The maker may not have had fancy fabrics to work with but she pieced perfectly!

Scrap Attack

I know I've vowed off starting any new quilts this summer but yesterday I had no choice...I was attacked by scraps in the quilt cave.

I had only entered their territory to find some fabric to back a quilt with. Within moments a box of blue and white shirt fabrics leaps from the bookcase hitting me on the shoulder (yes, the bad shoulder!)

Piecing finished - now for some applique....

Since I was slightly injured I retreated dragging the vicious box of strips with me...they must be tamed. So, a couple of hours at the sewing machine and I have a domesticated quilt top...maybe I'll name it "when good scraps go bad..."
Also at the machine...I finished one more civil war block...since it is an Irish Chain I thought I had to use some green!

Quilt Cave Report

In the heat of the summer I find myself hiding in my quilt cave or in the family room doing lots of sewing. It was a bit of a mis-mash this weekend - some hand-quilting, lots of piecing, and even hemming pants (but we're not going to talk about that!)First, I finished quilting a little alphabet doll quilt. It is based on a small quilt shown in the photo below that I bought in Paducha a couple years ago. The letters are quilted not embroidered...I thought that was interesting so tried it myself. I quickly learned that it was easier if I quilted from the top down so I could slip the embroidery floss under the quilttop...it was way too difficult to bury an embroidery floss knot through the quilt top. I used a larger quilt stitch to match up with the stitches in the letters.I need to block the quilt before I bind it. This should also wash out the marker I used for the letters. I think it is fun how they placed the letters to include the entire alphabet - the Q is in a cornerstone and the I and J are combined in one block!

Hopefully today I will catch up on my Civil War block of the week project. This is this weeks block - Railroad Crossing. I love using indigo and cheddar together in blocks. I think this block would make up a really nice scrap quilt...like I need another project!