2019 Humble Quilts Doll Quilt Swap, Received

I just received my adorable doll quilt from Shannon Ward.  It is very cute and she even hand quilted it.  Every year I think about doing the same, but I know it is just not a gift of mine... I hand quilted a small wall quilt years ago, and that was enough.  I actually attempted doing it in the quilt I sent out this year, but it was terrible and I pulled it out and did machine quilting instead.

The fabrics are a wine-red....




I love it.  Thank you again Shannon!


Again, the quilt I sent out... http://melissadevin.blogspot.com/2019/04/2019-humble-quilts-doll-quilt-swap.html


Check out the other swap quilts here: https://humblequilts.blogspot.com/2019/05/humble-quilt-exchange-show-me-your.html

2019 Humble Quilts Doll Quilt Swap

I love Pinterest.  The ability to visually find items is a favorite way to search for me.  In finding pinsperation for this year's Humble Quilts Doll Quilt swap I came across one very humble quilt that really caught my eye.  I wish the image was pinned from the page and not simply from an uploaded portion because I would have loved to know more about it.

Isn't it cute?  Economy Patch aka Square in a Square.


My creation:


This year I wanted to stick with mainly browns.  I did add some fabrics to my civil war stash, but honestly I think it is getting a little harder today to find true reproduction fabrics--or I haven't found a source that I believe is true to the prints.  20yrs ago it seemed easier as many fabrics were being created using prints from the 1800's, today it seems like many of the prints are "inspired".



I had fun with the back.  I also decided to use up some authentic cadet blue scraps that I had kept moving around my quilt room for years.  The prints are so cute!  I know fabric historians would frown against it, but it is a doll quilt and they are in strong/perfect condition.  Better in a quilt than simply being shifted from my desk to drafting table to who knows where.  I don't have a book started for fabric swatches, nor do I want to start one... so that's why they were placed into the fun scrappy backing.



Aren't the riding helmets and oak leaves lovely?

The lacy leaves below are cute too!  Clicking through the photos to the flickr page, you can then zoom in to really get a good look at them.


This year my quilt flew to New Zealand.  Wow on the shipping costs.  This makes a few years in a row that I have mailed outside of the US and the spike in costs is really something, even at 10 ounces.  I haven't investigated alternative mailing options, I am guessing they are all similar.  The person I sent to went to the Australasian Quilt Convention and was out of town when the doll quilt did arrive.  She'll be picking it up today so I wanted to wait in posting just in case she saw my blog.  I know people like to post their created quilts for the swap (usually on the facebook page) before mailing, but I wanted it to be more of a surprise for when she opened the package.

Another fun exchange for 2019!  I haven't received my quilt yet, I am not sure where it will be flying in from.  I was an early mailer this year because my heart fell in love with that first quilt above.  Unlike this year, I tend to mail closer to the April 30 mailing deadline :)

2016 Humble Quilts Doll Quilt Swap

Since my last post I have done a little sewing catch-up with my Splendid Sampler blocks (which will be a different blog post),  I am just two behind now so I am nearly current!  I am also about halfway finished with my fifth row of my flower garden quilt.  I can't believe it is growing after all these years--it's nearly a quilt!

Today I received a quilt as a part of the Humble Quilts Doll Quilt Swap; Small Squares Done Simple from Jessica Vaughn.  Cheddars and yellows are my favorite colors in quilts and I was so excited to see Jessica chose those colors.  So much fun!


And then she added in some extra goodies--totally unnecessary, but so much fun!


A refresher since I am adding this to the linky party at Humble Quilts Blog... this is the quilt I made and sent to Debbie Dodge:



go check out the other quilts from the swap here: http://humblequilts.blogspot.com/2016/05/celebrate-little-quilt-swap-linky-party.html
Ideas are formulating for next year if the swap happens again! :)

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!

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.

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.

A New Exchange

I came across a blog post for a doll quilt swap and I decided to go ahead and join.  It's been (I think!) YEARS! since my last exchange, I have been burnt out by them and I have a lot of blocks that need to be put together.  I don't recall ever being a part of a finished quilt swap however, and the small scale of 24" or less was appealing to me.

The likelihood that anyone that I am matched with actually reads my blog (except Mary... do you think we'll be partners? :) is slim, so I am going to go ahead and post my progress and thoughts on what I'm doing.

The first thing I thought about doing was something with hexagons.  Judy D, guess what?  I am using your cute little 3/4" hexies.   I know that top diamond has a hexie that wasn't placed exactly right, but they are small enough that I wasn't concerned about changing it:


I had an idea in mind which uses 13 diamonds. I actually sewed these fairly quickly, but I don't know if I can give it up after it's finished! I am going to keep on working on this and decide if this will be the doll quilt for the exchange (I have until the end of May to mail off).

But then... I came across this quilt:
http://www.stellarubinantiques.com/items/1222179/item1222179sra.html
Description: Double Pyramids pattern crib quilt (aka Old Maid's Puzzle)that is ever so Pennsylvania. The rust and yellow calico color combination is typical of Lancaster County where this was made. The blocks are nicely scaled to make a child size quilt. Excellent condition; circa 1880. Measures 37 1/2" x 39". Backing is a beautiful brown plaid.

I fell in love with it.  I don't have a red/yellow print, but I do have a lot of pinks to use in place of the red, and I used up my cheddar fabric for the yellow.  The center is a different pink print--slightly darker than the final border, I ended up using up both of those pink fabrics as well.  The repro fabrics came from my stash which I had been collecting to complete my Jane Stipple quilt, and since that quilt is all done, it was nice to come across an exchange that called for them.  They aren't my typical fabrics that I am drawn to, but sometimes I love the rich browns and other prints from the 1800's.  I was thinking about using up some shirting fabrics for this exchange, but that just didn't happen.  This quilt top is approx 21", the cute blocks are 3".


So which quilt will be exchanged--or will I make a third??  I really wish I had more madder prints to play with!