Panel #9

My blog has been quiet because we were away.  We escaped winter to beautiful Mexico for 10 days.  What a delightful and relaxing holiday!  I finished up panel #9 of my Susan McCord trailing vine quilt stitching by the pool and on the plane.  I am still thrilled to sew on each finished panel.  Only 4 more to go :0)

 Still lov'in this project!!

 We've been home for a few days and more of these blocks have been made.  I'm still having fun with them but perhaps I'll stop at 16.

 Then I made this Panda bear block to contribute to my guild's Zoo quilt that we are assembling tonight.  It went together fairly easily but then the face had to be done by hand.

 The eyes were no problem but the mouth and nose had to be embroidered - yikes!  It didn't go very well and now I'm even more worried about the future of my Bird of Paradise blocks.  I want them to have embroidery but I don't like doing it and I'm not very good at it.  I may have to sew them together and keep going with the borders without embroidery.  At least then I will get to a finished quilt.

The kids wanted to paint pottery at the resort where we stayed in Mexico so I did a piece too.  It's so bright and happy :0)  We painted it as we wanted and then a resort staff person "fixed" it up to look like Mexican pottery.  I should have asked him if he did embroidery...

Happy Quilting!!

not something new

I haven't yet decided what new project to start.  I did however, want to play with my scraps and sew something.  I had watched the Barrister's Block sewalong last year and loved some of the blocks.  I had printed out the instructions for a few of them and they had been hanging around tempting me for months :0)

 Last week I had a few minutes to play and so grabbed some scraps out of my ziplock bag of extra 2 inch squares and made this first block.  Now technically its not a new project because the fabric was already cut!  It was fun to make the block and I enjoyed looking at it in all its small scrappiness.  Now I also have ziplock bags with extra 1 1/2 inch squares, and 2 1/2 inch squares... etc.  Can you guess where this is going?

 3 more blocks appeared over the weekend.  There are endless possibilities for these little 6 inch blocks.  I am not going to start a Nearly Insane or Farmer's Wife sampler quilt - I am not even going to make all the Barrister's Block blocks.  I have no intentions of starting a big project like that.

I  have no idea how many I will make.  They practically make themselves so there could be quite a few before I get this out of my system... and then I'll start a new project - lol! 

Happy Quilting!!

 

Antique quilts - an informal show

A friend of mine from my guild has a lovely collection of old and antique quilts.  She brought a couple of laundry baskets full to our last guild meeting to show them to us.  What a night!! I just loved them and it was marvelous to see them up close and hands on :0)



 This one is just gorgeous!  Red and green applique with cheddar accents - my favorite! It was soft, faded, well loved and beautifully quilted!

 So there is a little mystery here.  What has happened to the fabric dye in these centre block squares? Any ideas??

 This next one is faded and soft too.  I love the fan quilting and the alternate flowers with no stems :0)

 There were lovely blue prints in this one.

 Love, love the cheddar in this one.  I also really liked the quilting design in the open spaces.

 I hadn't seen this quilting design before.

 The next quilt was SO interesting.  When my friend bought it it was tied with black yarn and she was sure there was another quilt inside.

 I was at her house and helped her cut the ties and this T quilt emerged from in between the above top and the backing. I love this humble, well worn,old quilt.  I like the rows of T's with the random ones thrown in. I really like the row of quarter square triangles on one edge that I didn't manage to get a good picture of.  If this quilt could talk...

 I also love this one T print.  This quilt was very worn but someone knew you could stay warm under it if it just got resurfaced :0)

 The next quilt was a birthday gift I think. I should have taken a picture of the embroidery in the upper left block - the label so to speak.

 I thought the embroidered names were so interesting.  So many old fashioned names and some done with exuberant flamboyance.  Gertrude's was my favorite (probably helps that her handleless basket is red :0)  The one in the center made her name the basket handle.  There were a number of names that were embroidered Mrs followed by the husband's name.  It reminded me of my grandma :0)  What a birthday gift!

 This next one has large blocks.  I like how the star backgrounds are playfully arranged.

 This one was very bright!  You would have a cheerful room with this on the bed.

 This quilt was very finely quilted with tiny stitches.

 Such a classic pattern in a classic color combination.

 This last one is my friend's favorite.  The quilting on it is exquisite.

Of course some close ups are necessary. 



 I love the triple lines of quilting.  I wish I had the patience to quilt this densely. 

I hope you enjoyed these as much as I did.  My friend says she has more and we'll do it again in the fall - Yipee!!
Happy Quilting!!