Joe the Quilter on the History Blog today

The Beamish foundation in Northern England has constructed Joe the Quilter's cottage from the remains that were excavated. 

Interesting 15 min video here.

Go check it out.
Robin

Unrelated thoughts and projects

I decided I wanted to do something different - instead of the fish weathervane block for the Sweet land of Liberty quilt.  I have the SLOL liberty pattern but have inadvertantly misplaced the fish block (along with the remembrance embroidery block).  I like the fish block.  It has a bit of whimsy that I can identify with.  But, I wanted to add some more words to the song, so this is the block that I came up with.

I found a sheet of Cheri's lettering.  I don't know if I found it on her facebook page with all the free patterns or if it came with the SLOL pattern but I used those letters to stitch this line from the "My Country tis of Thee" song.

I'm pleased with how it turned out.  The tree trunk looks a little like the mast of a ship and the flag is the right shape to be on  a golf course.  But, I'm satisfied and since it's all stitched down. . . it must be finished.

I sewed the two blocks for July together and finished appliquing the tree branches.  Now on to finishing up other projects. . .

Or not!

My quilt group is having a scrap quilt challenge for the next 6 months.   I have my small scraps sorted in these bins from Costco.    So, I thought I would start with them.

I got out the bin with the red fabric in it first.

I've decided to make 179 nine-patches to make this little quilt.  It will be something easy to work on for a few moments at a time.  I have finished 38 red nine patches, 2 green ones, and am working on the blue next.  Those 2 green patches sneaked in because the fabric was in the wrong bin.  This is kind of like a leader-ender project.  I have till December to finish.

I mentioned (in an earlier post) that my friends husband had died unexpectedly.  I've wondered if she will try and make something in his memory when the shock wears off.  Losing someone or a pet can really leave a void in our lives and it's so comforting to spend time making something in their memory while we are grieving.

When our son David died at age 3 1/2 ( he would be 34 if he were still alive) I wanted to keep my hands busy with a significant project.  I wasn't into quilting yet but I was into cross stitch.  This is the project I chose to do.

Maybe some of you remember this pattern from the 80's.  It had a matching little girl with a tea set.

It was a comfort to make and has been a comfort to view and remember our sweet little boy.

I hope my friend can find some solace in working on something to keep her husbands memory alive.

This is a picture of my closet with the tops waiting to be quilted.  I think I counted 17 on the hangers and there are 3 tops on boxes underneath.  Sigh~

I still think they're great (except maybe that green one on the right) and want to finish them.  I guess it's a good dilemma.  I could have nothing to do and no fabric to play with.  That's much more discouraging than having this closet full.

Robin

Stem replacement, new quilt on the frames, and rising sun blocks

Original block with red floral stems

I finished replacing the stems on this unusual block for the Roseville Quilt.  I actually like the look of the brown stems better.  I don't know why I didn't just make them brown to begin with - like all the rest of the blocks.  This took far longer than it needed to because of all the interruptions.  It took me days and days.  Now on to the tree I need to replace.  See here for the full story.

Block with replaced brown stems

I was able to put my "Grandma's Kitchen" quilt on the frames yesterday.  It's made from the "Farm girl Vintage" pattern.  I'm quilting it using a big stitch with crochet cotton #12.  I want to finish it for a Christmas gift.  I should have plenty of time.  Better picture below.

My friend had a quilt retreat at her house for three days last week.  I managed to put together this top with my hand-pieced rising sun blocks. (A LOT OF UNPICKING) I love the fabric for the sashing.  It is an American Jane fabric by Sandy Klop.  Now, on to the border that will have words in it.

I was trying to duplicate this quilt .

I used a line from 2002 by Deb Strain called Saltbox Farm.  The little wooly fabric was used for the cornerstones.

A good quilting friend lost her husband yesterday.  Her whole life will be different from now on.  She won't be able to keep up her big house and the acre of land by herself.  It makes me so sad and also reminds me I need to makes plans so I will be prepared if this happens to me someday.

Robin

Catching up on SAL and fabric bleeding issue

Today is the monthly link up for the Sweet Land of Liberty SAL from Lori at Humble Quilts.  I made the heart, couple, and checkerboard blocks when I first started this quilt (many moons ago) so all I had to sew was the snails trail blocks.  (Which I didn't make until yesterday. . . )

I wanted to progress on this quilt so I chose to do the block that goes underneath the snails trail.  It's not finished but I made some headway.  I didn't put the doves close enough together to get the cherry stems to cross.  But, I wasn't going to do them over.  The original block has victory written on its bowl.  The doves said, "Peace" to me, so that is what I decided to write.  It hasn't been pressed yet.

I've been working on the Roseville quilt too.  Or you could say I've been re-working the Roseville blocks.  When I rinsed out the water-soluble marker from this block the red fabric in the stems bled profusely.

I don't know if you can see the bleeding from the front side on the picture below after I unpicked all the stems

But, you can see the bleeding very well from the back in the next two pictures.

I read somewhere that bleeding isn't necessarily caused by fugitive dyes - sometimes it's caused by over saturation of the dye and if you just continue to wash it - eventually the water will run clear.  So I took the piece of fabric and washed it.  (I had pre-washed it but evidently I wasn't very vigilant.)  It took 7 times before the water ran clear.

I checked out the rest of the quilt to see where I have placed this red Kaffe fabric because I figured I would want to unpick the parts and replace them. 

I unpicked the stems (of course) and replaced them with brown.  I have brown stems in all the other blocks.  I don't know why I suddenly decided to make the stems in that block red.  As it turns out, I like the brown stems better than I did the red.

So, I need to replace the bird bodies on these two little birds and the large red tree in the top panel below.  While I'm not too excited to do this tree over again, I'm grateful that it isn't one of the wavy trees from the bottom border and that there isn't any more red pieces in my blocks that I need to replace.  This is very doable.

I've been sewing at a friend's retreat the last couple of days.  We are going to meet to sew again this morning.  I've been assembling a quilt from the "Rising Sun" blocks I hand -pieced last year.  It's turning out so nicely.  I'll take pictures when it's done.

I am enjoying the lovely (hot) summer weather but am distressed to hear about all the wildfires.
 I pray for the fire fighters.
Robin

A really big sigh of relief

I finally finished the Chintz quilt.  I pieced this quilt in 2011 and started hand quilting it last December.  I've been working on this while also working on the Roseville Quilt and sewing along with the Sweet Land of Liberty Quilt.  I'm afraid this quilt didn't get as much attention as the other two or it would have been completed long ago.  It got a little boring quilting the same shapes over and over.

The bright afternoon sun washed the color out a bit.

It is 87" square.  Here is is upon my long grass.  It makes the borders wave.  Maybe they are waving at you - thanks for coming.

I was going to hand quilt a small cable in the burgundy outer border and I found just exactly the right template but it looks fine and I want to be done.  The coral/peach colored binding matches really well but it looks a little odd in the pictures. It is the same fabric I used for the cornerstones.  I only had two pieces that were big enough to use as binding.  The other one was a light background (you can see it in the flying geese units).  The coral/peach fabric looked best.

The extensive quilting really shows up in the picture above.  I used wool batting.  It was very easy to hand quilt and the quilt itself is a lot lighter than one with polyester or cotton batting.  My only concern at this point is to make sure no moths get to it.  I think I'll store it away with bay leaves or lavender or something. . .

The quilt is only my 2nd finish for the year.   You might think I wasn't doing much but I'm doing hand work constantly.  It all adds up eventually I guess.

Bryce Canyon

We took a trip to Arizona a week or so ago.  It's the first time in 45 years we have taken a vacation without any kids (unless you count the 18 mos. we spent in Wisconsin on our mission).

Grand Canyon

We were at the canyon at mid-day so the pictures are a bit washed out.

Grand Canyon Rapids

We also visited Walnut Canyon and some cliff dwellings.  We were even able to climb through a few.

You can see where the upper part broke off due to water getting in cracks and freezing and thawing.

The rooms were inter-connected.

This picture was taken so you could see how high the ceilings are.  I'm 5' 1".

Then we had our grandchildren from Florida come and stay for a week.  They were so fun but I'm still catching up on my energy level -whew!

Hope you're having a great summer,
Robin

BTW my hike out of Walnut Canyon was not a pretty one.  My legs felt like rubber................

Close to being done

GOOD NEWS!  I only have 4 more flying geese strips and 3 more setting triangles to hand quilt.

It takes an hour to do one strip.  And, as much as I love the fabric in the quilt, I've really disliked the monotonous straight quilting in the squares.  So, I don't quilt on it as often as I should. 

I've been busy prepping the four corner blocks for the Roseville Album quilt.  I need something to stitch in the car.  I finished the upper right block except for the placement of circles.  This block goes really fast compared to the other more complicated basket blocks and panels.

I have one more basket block and the other three corner blocks and then I can have a life again.  I'll still do the border but that won't be as intense.

Barbara Brackman's blog today was about this little book and one specific block with tulips and princess feathers.  I love tulips in anything.  I didn't realize it till this spring.  I've admired things made with tulips for years (tulips are just a happy flower) but, for some reason, it never occurred to me to incorporate them in a quilt.  (Probably because I'm in UFO mode and making something with tulips would mean starting something new. ) 

This book is available at Amazon

I'm sorely tempted by this BOM by Edyta Sitar at fatquatershop.com

I love the colors and LOOK there's tulips!

I've been thinking about what I want to do after the hand quilting and applique are done.  Part of me wants to start a new quilting project and the other part wants to do something different.  

We''ll see - no pressure to decide yet. . .

Robin

Sweet Land of Liberty month 5

I finished the section for month 5 on the Sweet Land of Liberty SAL.  I wanted to do the tin soldier with his big heart but I made the background too dark for the embroidery to show up so I didn't do it.  I made three different skin colors on my rag doll blocks.  Then, for some reason, I sewed the blue star at an angle which made it difficult to put the flag in the hand of the black doll.  So I scooted it to the right and I think it looks okay.  I sure chose a bright red for that red star didn't I. 

This is the 2nd row of blocks for the quilt with the unit I just made.  I had to replace the lower flying geese piece on the left because the other one was the wrong size.  I also had to reverse the row of small blocks under the big star because I had sewn them so that the little black cat in the blue square was upside down.  Silly, I know, but it kept bothering me.

And here are all the units sewn together.  I had to replace the lower red piece on the basket because it was too much like the border around the pineapple.  I also hadn't appliqued AMERICA yet and so I did that yesterday.  The only thing it's lacks is an eye for the eagle in the upper border.

I am so thankful that Lori is hosting this SAL.  I've wanted to make this quilt for a long time and this SAL is just the motivation I needed.    Because I started it 5 yrs. ago, I have (what I think will be) the next unit done already.  It doesn't hurt to be a little ahead in case some summer activities prevent me from keeping up.

I finished another block for the Roseville album quilt (no picture).  It turned out so busy.  But, like every other block I've made, once it mingles with the rest - it seems to fit right in.

Now I only have one more center basket block and the four corner blocks.  The end is in sight and it makes me excited.
Robin