Quilting

I’m a little behind on posting because our 1930’s group has been busy working this summer, even with all the interruptions. I will try to get caught up with posts soon. Early in the summer we did these two blocks. Block #10 is called Flying Birds & Flowers and is a 9″x9″ block. The birds are the pieced triangle blocks and the flowers are obviously the applique flowers. We kept the pieced color scheme the same as the pattern but chose different flowers. The pattern called for a light and dark pink but we went for a bold violet and orange for more contrast with the backgrounds. We each have different preferences for the applique blanket stitch colors so our top stitching varies between each of us between lots of contrast and less contrast. [Read more…] about Ode to the 1930’s-blocks #10 & #11

[Read more…] about A spaceship quilt

Block #8 Pieced Flowers 12×12

This is a combo applique and pieced block. With those flying geese pieced with the bias triangles like this designer loves, it was hard to get the pieced flowers straight, but the applique came out cute. Our blocks came out a little different sized and we are starting to get concerned about what will happen when we try to put this sampler together at the end. We’ll see how that works out, but that’s a long way down the road. [Read more…] about Ode to the 1930’s-block #8 & #9

After a long hiatus including grandkid birthdays, brief vacations, and illness, the 1930’s quilt group is back on track and making blocks. We are continuing in numerical order and still making the biggest blocks.

Block #6 Godey’s Lady’s Book 12×12

This block looks deceptively simple to piece, but as mentioned previously, this pattern uses no “easy” piecing techniques so all the triangles are pieced on the bias causing stretching and irritation. We worked over those yellow star points to keep them from undue stretching and warping. Grr. We strayed from the recommended color way by bringing in all those brights and we love them! We are tired of the pale pink, yellow, green theme and want some diversity so are slowly bringing in other colors. Our 1930’s quilt will definitely be more vibrant than the pattern. [Read more…] about Ode to the 1930’s-blocks #6 & 7

I started the hand-quilting on the spaceship quilt and managed two finishes last week. The first is a Schoolhouse tabletopper. It was the first project of 2015 with my quilting partner, ShaRee. She has a book with a zillion table topper patterns and keeps talking about wanting to make some. Our local quilt shop had kits of this one so I gave her one for Christmas and got one for me so we could work on it together in January and February. She is a retired kindergarten teacher so it’s apropos. The piecing was SMALL so we learned some stuff. I hand-quilted in the ditch around all squares and most elements.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also finally finished hand-quilting and binding on the Candy Shop quilt. The pattern came from “American Patchwork & Quilting” Issue 79 April 2006 p. 70. This quilt has quite the provenance. I began purchasing fabric in 2008 after my first quilt. Not knowing that 100% cotton fabric isn’t all made the same, it has a variety of fabrics from many manufactures, some of which are of dubious quality, causing stretching and wonkiness. I slowly cut and pieced the blocks here and there until finally last year I decided to get it off my plate. I hand-quilted it with an all-over random swirly no-pattern free-form thing I usually do. I trimmed the sides harshly to make it come out straight and unpicked and re-sewed parts of the binding four times to make it look mostly straight and finally decided it was as good as it was going to get. I’m not thrilled but it’s not too bad and still a fun quilt. Maybe someday I’ll make it again with quality fabrics. Sounds like a good scrap quilt.

Now for the accident portion of the post. After thirty years of sewing I put the sewing machine needle into my index finger on Friday afternoon. Are you kidding me? I was piecing a quilt top and pushing the fabric through and somehow, although I’m not sure exactly how, I pushed my left index finger up under the foot. The needle went into my fingernail and sliced through the end of my fingertip. I managed to save the quilt top and the carpet from the spurting blood. Yay! Got the bleeding stopped and had my nurse friend look at it and help me with how to care for it.