A New Old Quilt Top

I love making new quilts.  Sometimes I want them to look old.  At all the shows I go to I spend time with the vendors who sell antique and vintage quilts, tops, and blocks.  There are a few I have gotten to know and I go to them almost exclusively. 

At Quilt Market in Minneapolis earlier this month, I bought this top from  Pique', owned by Julia Kelly-Hodenius.  It is kind of funky, with very rich colors for its' age, full of those quirky things we love about old quilts.  There are several pieces that were pieced to make the patch the size needed.  The sizes of the blocks vary a little, they are about 12" or 11.5" square, more or less.  If she didn't have the same 4 squares to surround with the double pink, she substituted something else.  Quilters today wouldn't do that --they would spend 2 weeks searching the Internet for a fat quarter of that ONE fabric.  It's 62" x 82", more or less.  And LOOK:  on the far left side there is a row of partial blocks.  Isn't that great?!  I would love to have known this woman, and why she made this quilt top.  And why it didn't get finished. 

Here are a few close ups:

Plaids and sashing strips are pieced

The basic block pattern

3 of one blue fabric, add something else, problem solved

 

I will be replicating this top--still deciding on what size to make the blocks.  It is Brackman #1873, Economy or Garden of Eden.  Those patterns have dates in the 1930's and this top is older than that. Any other names for this block? 

In the meantime, I keep working on my Stars in a Time Warp blocks :

 

This week the fabrics are "eccentrics" or "excentrics", those unusual patterns that are so distinctive when used in small amounts.  Love them.  I'm up to 42 finished blocks so far, making 2 most weeks.  Barbara Brackman started this sew-along in January 2015 and it continues.  These are such easy blocks to make. 

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.  Sending prayers and good thoughts for those impacted by floods and other bad weather this week.

Let's quilt!

Barbara

More Stash and Simple WhatNots Club

 

 

I learned about these wonderful fabric bundles recently on Lori's blog, Humble Quilts. They come from Two Thimbles Quilt shop in Bellingham, WA. There is 2 yards in each bundle, 12 strips, 6" wide by WOF, and the cost of $14.95 seems very reasonable to me. So I bought 3 of them.  I could have bought 4 and paid the same on shipping,  something I forgot to check before I placed the order.  The best part is there is only 1 fabric in the 36 pieces I already have so it was a great stash enhancement event! Their service was excellent--I placed the order on Wednesday and the Priority box arrived today, Saturday.  Thanks, Lori!

There was very little Civil War/1800's fabric at Spring Market.  Most lines are bright and clear and a lot of solids.  The new lines are pretty fabrics, but I still love 1800's repros a lot.  So that is how I justify adding to my collection.  I will use several of these in my Stars in a Time Warp quilt. 

Last night was the Simple WhatNots Club by Kim Diehl for Henry Glass Fabrics that I am conducting at my local shop.  Here are 2 quilts completed from last month's pattern:

Michelle did 16 blocks, Anna did 9, both are great

The pattern is called Cloud Nine and those blocks are 3.75" finished.  I love how you get a little bitty Churn Dash/Monkey Wrench were the blocks come together at the corners. 

This is the pattern we are doing for May, called True Blue.  Each block is 6" finished.  I used one background fabric where the pattern uses several.  My tip for these small blocks is to use a small stitch, 2.0 or 12/inch, and press all the seams open.  These 2 blocks will become part of my WhatNots Sampler quilt, where I am combining the parts of many of these small quilts into one large quilt.  See my post about the parts on the design wall here.  There is only one month to go and I am working on that project now. 

Last night I also told the group about Becky Goldsmith's wonderful new book:

The Quilter's Practical Guide to Color, by Becky Goldsmith


 

I botch the title, I'm afraid.  Becky did a blog this morning about this, featuring a short video tutorial on color:  Color Tutorial.  She quoted my email to her about how much I like this book and think it will be so helpful to quilters.  I plan to teach 4 classes from this book and I'm calling it Color College.  We'll have Fall Semester this September, Winter Semester in January, Spring semester in May  and Summer School, in summer 2016.  Each class will be independent of each other.  The plan is to use 4 of the projects in the book to teach skills with color and by the end of the 4 classes, the students will have read the book.  I know many quilters buy great books, flip through them and don't read them.  You will get lots of out this book if you READ it!

May you all have a wonderful Memorial Day holiday and remember:  We are the Home of the Free, thanks to the Brave.

Let's quilt!

Barbara

Stashing the Stash from Market

Somehow, my suitcase gained 20 pounds during its' week in Minneapolis for Quilt Market.  Fortunately, I did not gain that much but it's a whole new day here today--time to get back to eating smart.

And today is when I try to put all this stuff away:

 

Left side of the table...

Right side of the table...

 

 

How many tote bags does one girl need???

Shimmer by Jennifer Sampou for Robert Kaufman

Vintage Made Modern by Amy Barickman for RJR Fabrics

New titles

 

Does he look happy I'm home? 



 

Most of this stuff I bought, the books, thread, fabrics, etc.  Some was a gift, like the tote bags and the Bad Ass Quilter lanyard--thanks, Maddie Kertay of Spool in Chattanooga.

I love working the Market because I get to talk to so many friends in the industry--I've been going to Market since 1996, haven't missed a year.  This time I saw several of the fabric reps I used to work with as the Buyer for Patches & Stitches--they still remember me though it's been more than 10 years since I held that job.  And I love getting excited about new fabric and new ideas. 

Later this week I'll have more to say about the fabric bundles, and the book titles--but just have to say what a fantastic book Becky Goldsmith has written:  The Quilter's Practical Guide to Color, C&T Publishing.  I read every word yesterday as I traveled home on two planes and sat on the tarmac for an hour in ATL as we rode out a late afternoon thunderstorm.  It is full of practical knowledge for quilters.  I have 4 classes planned using this book, I'm calling the series of classes: Color College.

 Fall Semester features this beauty:

Time to put this stuff away and get my exercise in for the day.  I walked a lot at Market but I ate a lot too.  And I wrap up my Quiltmaking 101 class tonight with the 3rd group for this year.  Love teaching those beginners!

Let's Quilt!

Barbara



Quick Shots from Quilt Market

Here are some quick peeks at Spring Quilt Market, Minneapolis:

 New fabrics for a garment maybe, we're going for a breast cancer awareness theme, Moda fabric.

Jelly roll challenge garment, better view of the fabrics below: Shimmer by Jennifer Sampou for Robert Kaufman Fabrics

Sample Spree crowd is huge and eager.

My Sample Spree purchases.

My favorite sight at the end of a long day.

More photos later, time to get to work.

Barbara

Doll Quilt Swap

Lori D of Humble Quilts recently put together her second doll quilt swap for interested people, using Civil War repro fabrics.  As that is right up my alley, I signed up.  It helps that it had a short window for completion and I had an appropriate small quilt almost ready.  Today I received mine:

31" x 24"

 And the quilt came with gifts--an 8 pointed pin cushion stuffed with crushed walnut shells and a sweet little "church doll"--I can just imagine a little girl being still and quiet in church as she plays with her "church" doll.  Thanks, Danice G, of Homespun Hannah.  Even more fun, Danice lives in Florence, AL, about 75 miles from here.

I sent my doll quilt to Lizzy of Gone to the Beach.  She will retrieve it from the post office today:

This was almost done, I only had to add some hand quilting in the perimeter triangles.  I hope it enjoys its' new home on the NY coast--I love the beach too so I'm glad it has a coastal home.  This was fun and easy--thanks, Lori!

My other completion is this String Swap Block quilt:

The 36 larger blocks in the center came from 6 members of the Education Team who come to work the Houston show.  The smaller blocks on the outside borders came from several members of my guild Quilt Show committee.  I practiced free motion quilting, I'm still not very good at all at that, but it's OK and at least I know what speed works best for me, moderately fast.  This will be a sample at Open Studio in Portland, OR in August then it will hang in the Education office in Houston this fall--hopefully, the other 6 people will get theirs done so we can have a good display.  It helps our big office look more inviting with a quilt display.  I've posted about the choices the others made here
and here.

My husband had some surgery last week and is surprised he's not feeling 100% yet.  He intended to go back to work today, but that's not happening.  I leave very early tomorrow morning for Spring Market in Minneapolis.  So our eldest son, Joshua Black Wilkins, came down from Nashville yesterday to stay a few days.  Today he got put to work cleaning the porch cleaning--a hot, dirty, wet job.  Thank goodness for sons who work cheap!  He is a photographer by day and a musician by night and we were just lucky we caught him at a good time, he is out of town a lot. 

Yesterday was Mother's Day and besides having my eldest here I received flowers from my grand girl to be, Stella LeAnne, and her terrific parents, my younger son Andy and his wife Lauren. 

My husband listened when I gushed about this beautiful dish garden at Lowe's last week and it appeared as my gift from him--so pretty!  I hope you all had an enjoyable Mother's Day too.

Off to pack for Market--I hope to blog some from there to show you what's new and exciting.

Let's Quilt!

Barbara