2015 Doll Quilt Swap

What a weekend we had!  First I delivered the Desert Stars quilt to our oldest and his fiance (which it makes my year that they love it so much!), today I got the backlog of mail we had on hold and I received the quilt from my partner, Carmel Lewis, for the Doll Quilt Swap.  I absolutely adore it!  I got a little teary even (strange response, but it just hit me).



I love everything about it.  I am also an orange lover, so it's perfect.  Carmel handquilted it along with the embroidery.  Isn't it sweet?  I might have gotten teary eyed because I always sing "You are my Sunshine" to the kids (and hubby), so the phrase Carmel chose was wonderful.  Such a great day!

The Amelie Purse

Over a year ago I purchased a couple of purse patterns from Geta Grama.  Today I finally got around to making one.  I was thinking about having a new purse for our trip, but really I have come to prefer the cross-body purses.  We'll see if I decide to use this on our trip.



The pattern was fairly straight forward.  The only issue I had was in regard to the straps.  There aren't any measurements that I could find as to what width to cut them.  I guessed wrong, and being almost out of fabric I made do.  I also made the handles longer than what the pattern shows, we'll see if I like that.  I don't like short handles, but now it seems more of a tote.  It is a large purse, two outside pockets in the front, a zippered one in the back.  I made one inside pocket instead of two because I was just done with the pattern (or sewing in general as the kids were home early today).  Take a look at the link for what the insides look like.

http://www.romanianquiltstudio.com/english/bag-patterns.htm

Desert Stars, Finished!

It seems more nordic to me than desert, mainly in design. The colors that were preferred were teal and browns (as in desert tones) and the Stonehenge line did fill that need.  Kind of nice to have the quilt turn out nearly exactly like my EQ6 plan.



I first attempted to take a picture on the living room floor, but this guy saw what I was doing and decided he needed to inspect the quilt. Such a stinker.


Now I am going to have to see if I can fit the quilt in someone's carry-on for our trip on Friday.  I really didn't think I would be finished with the binding before Thursday, but little by little it got done with a little help from Amazon Prime and watching the first two seasons of Vikings... I got hooked this year during season 3.  I've decided that I don't think we've ever stopped living in barbaric times (considering current events).  I think about my ancestors living in the rain, cold, and constant struggles and have to say that I much prefer today's time.  Sure, I live in the PNW, but it isn't on a rocky fjord.  Plus I really like having hot water at the ready :)

I think I need to quilt up my Orca Bay now.  I think that will be my fair entry for this year.

Finished is Better Than Perfect

I decided that I needed to stop marinating ideas for the engagement quilt I started last year.  I had plans to perhaps applique something on a corner area, but I couldn't get it right in my head what that was.  I was also considering a strip border, but decided to do a stay stitch instead and get quilting.  This quilt is 8 rows x 7 (56  12" blocks), and at this point I only have 21 more blocks left to go--I am 2/3rds done!  Hopefully by next week I will be starting on the binding.  It would be great to have this quilt finished before we head to Nevada next Friday (to hand deliver), but I don't see that happening because of the size (and a lot of hand stitching on the binding).  I think I have settled on a name for this quilt: Desert Stars.





So far I have gone through 13 bobbins of thread! For the final three rows, I am guessing 7 more.

Doll Quilt Exchange

Here is my quilt that I sent out for the Doll Quilt Exchange:


Old Maid's Puzzle.  This was the copy of the crib quilt from the 1800's.  I need to do a light rinse to remove some markings, but other than that the quilt is finished.  I don't recall the size, I want to say it is about 21-24" square.

All washed to remove pencil markings:


The pinks and cheddar were hard to photograph, the true colors are somewhere between the two pictures.

1000 Pyramids

Last week one of my dearest friends asked me what I thought about helping her with a baby quilt.  She doesn't quilt, or sew.  Now, this would have been a great learning opportunity but she was thinking about the quilt being a gift for a baby shower over Memorial Day weekend.  I wasn't really sure, my May calendar is very packed and we are getting ready to head to Nevada that same weekend to visit kids and grandkids.

We talked a bit about fabrics, I knew she wanted something that felt Hawaiian (she and the nephew who is about to become a dad are Hawaiian)... all I could think about was how it takes me forever to decide a pattern much less pick the fabrics and actually get busy.

I started browsing patterns and then it hit me that a week prior I had received a fat quarter packet of Kaffe Fassett fabrics in reds (well, it said reds but to me the 2015 reds lean more fuchsia IMO).  The large flowers seemed like they could work as a tropical feel so I took a quick pic to see what she thought--She loved them, success!  I ended up running with the project and decided on 1000 Pyramids (4" tall triangles) to show off the fabrics.  I've always wanted to make this quilt, so this was my chance.  I'm glad my friend didn't mind that I just worked on it without her, we need to plan some time when we aren't running from place to place with our kids.

and the back which is like a Minkee, but a Joanns brand.  If I had the time I would have ordered Minkee, but time crunch!:


There is a bit of wave at the bottom, and squaring it was not fun.  But it turned out decent and I feel ok about letting it out of the house for a new baby :)  A happy ending to this quilt-in-a-week!

Typical

Toss a quilt on the floor to get a quick picture and a cat will come out of hiding to check it out.  Quilts and boxes, perfect cat traps.



I can't figure out the red eye filter... oh well.

Now the little Ohio Star quilt is all finished and square again (though in the picture it doesn't look like it on the long edge, but it is :)

Painful

It's bad enough having to rip blocks, or quilting...  but when it was hand stitched, ouch.  After Julie and Mary both suggested removing the binding and getting that border squared and quilted, I decided to just do it.  I'll never be happy with this little quilt until it is fixed.

Ohio Stars--Image Heavy

I have an antique quilt that I love that is a scrappy Ohio Star.It has a mix of some great 1880's fabrics, and they alternate with a great purple fabric. The purples of that era can be difficult to find because they are a refuge color. I have some parts of the purples where it looks brown, but the majority is intact. I took some quick pics of it attached to the bottom of this post.

I worked on a doll quilt using the idea of my 1800's Ohio Star, but I used blue as the alternating block since it was what I had in nearly a yard. My error? Not quilting in the strip border. I tossed it in the wash with a few other quilts for a quick wash and I ended up being very unhappy with how it came out. I pressed it and attempted to re-square it (it was totally squared up when I applied the binding), but I cannot send that out to someone for the doll quilt exchange. Though the stars are wonderful 3" blocks, that dang border ruined what I hoped for in the quilt. I'm not really sure what I'll do with it next.




And now some pictures of my purple Ohio Star quilt. A friend handquilted it for me, I absolutely love this quilt!  From what I can tell, there are 56 different fabrics used for the stars.


Some madders:






Other gorgeous fabrics:












The star on the left was a purple, but now the purple is gone:


I bought the quilt top back when they were pretty inexpensive to come by on Ebay.  I don't know if prices have come down or not, it's been a long time since I have bid on anything there.  My winning bid for this top was $79.  A friend of mine handquilted it for me, I included a reproduction fabric for the back, but the binding is a black mourning print from the 1880s.  I wish I had a huge place to display this quilt in its entirety, but I do display it once a year in my rotation.

Clicking through the pictures, you can make them larger at flickr if you would like to see more detail in the prints.