ANTIQUE QUILT # 9

 This antique top is pretty humble but has a great variety of late 1800's-early 1900's fabrics:

Pinned on top of my Lifetime quilt in progress--those are the small triangles on the sides

Eventually, I will replicate this, more or less, but will use paper pieced string blocks to do it. That is such an easy process I have written about before:

String Blocks

String Block Swap Tutorial

String Swap Blocks

 This is a great block for swaps--each person trims the ones they receive to their desired size. Great use of leftover scraps too.

Let's quilt.

Barbara

Tidying Up

I did spend a little time clearing away the clutter in my studio and found:

The comfy chair

The rocking chair--and the top of this old table

 Now I will make a few more masks:

And quilt these 3 little quilts I unearthed:

I am still searching for the perfect idea for a Quilt of Valor, using the red, white and blue fabrics from Patriotic Pineapples. It might be a string quilt:

From Pinterest

 It might be Standing Strong, a design created for Quilts of Valor--instructions can be found at shabbyfabrics.com:

Or it might be this string quilt, Blended Scraps Block, in red, white and blue, from She Can Quilt.:

Making this decision is holding me up so I will decide and start before the next blog post. Stay tuned...

Let's quilt.

Barbara

A Few Antiques

While searching in the storage closet for an antique top to take with me on a teaching trip, I came upon one I had forgotten about and two that needed to be photographed.

The most recent purchase is this Flying Geese Strippy quilt top, bought from Cindy Rennels, of Cindy's Antique Quilts.:

She posted photos on Instagram and I bit--the fabrics are quite interesting and I am a fan of Flying Geese quilts. Entirely hand pieced. She sells at all the big shows, and will be at Paducah later this month, check out her booth.

The next is a quilt top I forgot I bought--the tag on it says $10 so I am guessing this String Quilt came from an antique shop. It is also entirely hand pieced, a bit primitive, even humble, but someone put a lot of time into it many years ago:

The backdrop is my Lifetime quilt, still covering the design wall

I enjoy studying all the different fabrics and researching their approximate age.

This third top I bought in 2015 from Julia Hodenius-Kelly of Pique'. She also sells at the big shows and always has interesting quilts, usually quite old and often has wonderful old fabrics which I don't buy buy admire--how did they survive all these years? I believe this one came from Pennsylvania as did I. I began reproducing it and need to get back to it. It, too, is entirely hand pieced:

Several of the fabrics are "patched"

Pretty cool fabrics

On an edge, I think she was running low on fabrics

Far right is the "border"--a half row--perhaps she got tired and just stopped

You never know what you'll find in my closets. Oh, here was the one I was searching for and found:

I have written about this quilt top and its' interesting story before--check it out here.

Let's quilt!

Barbara

Strings--Save Our Scraps!

Recently. I taught a stings class at a local quilt shop. There were piles of strings to play with and lots of fun was had as small amounts of our precious stash was turned into something useful. The class sample was a suggestion:

I have written about Strings several times before, String Blocks and String Block Swap Tutorial are just a few posts about this fast and fun method. When you just want to sew and you don't want to think too hard, this is perfect. AND you can use a FREE QUILT NOTION you probably already have:  telephone books, the paper is perfect for this.

First I showed the students lots of design ideas for how to use scrap strings. Most of them decided to go with the class sample for their project.

One of the employees brought a huge bag of her strings to donate--the students could have whatever they wanted from the pile:

After lunch I put those away and dumped the large tote bag full of my strings I brought to share:

Since this bag is not nearly as heaped full as when I brought it, looks like they got some good stuff. Why are other people's scraps more exciting than our own?

A few class photos:

Marje working with Christmas fabrics

Donna making a pillow to match her bedroom

Anne also worked in Christmas fabrics

Pam had fun playing with cheerful fabrics

Marje's Christmas Star is coming together

Donna--Center Option 1?

Or Center Option 2?

 I had a pile of blocks I received in a swap years ago. This seemed a good time to sew them together. Here it is quilted and bound and washed, I will donate it to our guild's "Comfy Quilt" program. It's only 30" x 50" but that's OK, good for a small child as a floor quilt:

 Detail of the simple quilting, great for practice:

Sewing strings is also a great way to sew with a child--they can easily sew strings you cut for them, and if you have a Featherweight or other small, fairly simple machine, they will quickly get into this and have fun.

Let's quilt.

Barbara

String Stars--A Local Event

For my local friends, you all know what a treasure we have in Burritt on the Mountain. Did you know they offer Folk Art Workshops too?

Saturday, July 14, 2018 I will be teaching String Stars--Save Our Scraps from 9-4. All the info you need to sign up can be found here. You can even order a boxed lunch:

Burritt on the Mountain Folk School

 Easy or more challenging, you decide:

There is info on their Facebook page as well:

Burritt on the Mountain Facebook

The deadline to register is July 7 so don't delay. Why not grab a friend and spend a day making star blocks from your scraps?

I hope you can join us.

Let's Quilt.

Barbara

Illinois Quilters Inc--Stars All Over

I recently spent time with the Illinois Quilters Inc.in Northbrook, IL. Their program person, Sue, saw me in action at Spring Festival in Chicago as I gave Open Studio presentations the last 3 years and booked me to come teach for them.

A great hostess, who took care of everything, Sue:

Flying into O'Hare with very minor time delays, I was met by two great hostesses, Sue and Martha. They  have the airport run down pat--Sue came into baggage claim to help with the bags, while Martha circled or went to the cell phone lot--no parking permitted at the arrivals area unless you are loading your car. They keep you moving. As soon as my bags arrived, Sue texted Martha and she pulled up to the curb as we exited the building--very smooth.

After dropping off my personal luggage at the hotel, we headed out for a lovely meal and conversation at a Market/Deli. Quilters always feel like they've known each other forever--these women quickly felt like old friends.

Then we headed to the church were the meeting was held to get the technical stuff done--connecting my Ipad to their projector worked perfectly--we felt so smart but were probably just lucky. The lecture was "How to Make an Award-Winning Quilt" and it was well-received.

The next day we gathered back at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, for our first class:  Feathered Stars Precisely Paper Pieced. This is usually a 9-12 hour class but the guild asked if I could do it in one day. As long as everyone had all their pieces cut out before class, we could give it a good try. It was pedal to the  metal all day and they got pretty far along. One amazing student, Nona, worked really hard and got 2/3 of her star pieces made: 

This was helpful for the rest of the students to see--it's like a jigsaw puzzle.  Here is some of the student's class work:

Vickie, I think

Bill, the lone gentleman in the class

Martha, I think

Lynne--don't you love the orange against that blue?

All in all, they did great and most figured out why it's usually a longer class. But they all know how to finish their stars once all the "parts" are pieced.

Day Two was a new class with a few students staying on and a some new ones joining the fun. We made String Stars--Save Our Scraps, here are a few:

Barbara, with a Christmas theme

Diana, with plans to make an "exploding" star

Vickie, very scrappy and happy

Mary with a beautiful scrappy red, white and blue star

Lynne, determined to use up lots of bright kids fabrics

This time we remembered to get a class shot

Everyone got their block assembled, or very close--a successful day.

Nona, from the Feathered Star class, was the class "hostess" for the second day but did not take the string star class. Instead, she worked hard to complete her Feathered Star, in between taking lunch orders and going to get lunch.

It is helpful for students to see how all those paper pattern pieces come together--the jigsaw puzzle. Here is Nona's before she assembled it:

And, ta da! Nona and  her beautiful block--thanks for keeping at it for most of two days, Nona:

I had a great time with these good folks. They fed me well, showed me around and did their best in class. Too soon it was back to O'Hare the 4th day to head for home.

A few days later, Bill posted his completed block on Instagram--beautiful block, Bill:

I hope to see more Feathered Star and String Star blocks from this group in the future.

Let's Quilt!

Barbara