a lovely antique

I had the privilege to see this wonderful antique quilt this week at my guild meeting.  Wow, am I ever glad I didn't have to miss guild!  I had only my phone with me for a camera so the pictures aren't that great.  But the quilt... was marvelous!!

 It was very well loved and had a couple holes in it. 

 The red fabric as well as the flower centers were shredding but the beauty of this quilt takes my breath away.  Can you see the corded binding? The covering fabric was pretty much gone leaving the blue cord showing.

 Quilts like this I usually only get to see in books or online.  It was so soft - the texture was wonderful!

 It was very densely quilted. 

 I wasn't able to get a good shot of the full quilt (kicking myself about that)  The border only ran around 3 sides.

I want to make quilts like this!  I simply must finish one of my applique projects so I can start something like this.  I'm feeling very inspired!

 



Happy quilting!!



more circles

It felt like time to get back to my Jen Kingwell Circle Game quilt.  A friend and I are working on it together.  She's been pretty busy so instead of starting a new block without her I put surrounds on 2 blocks I had already made.

 I really like this block with the flying geese going around.  It has such a large center circle so I decided to fussy cut the large paisley to fit in there so it wouldn't look empty.

 This other block is probably my least favorite so far but it fits in there and lets the other blocks be more interesting.  It just needed the surround to take it from a circle to a square block.

Now that I have 9 blocks completely finished I can get a really good idea of how it will look.  (its a 16 block quilt)   I love how all the different Minick and Simpson lines work together.  I have 2 more circles made and I guess that leaves 5 more blocks to start.  I'm more than halfway  :0)  To confess the other 2 circles waiting for surrounds have "issues".  One is a bit too big and the other one a bit too small.  I'm tempted to just trim the too big one down and not worry about cutting points off.  The small one is a different challenge.  Could I add a coping circle around it?  Is there such a thing?  They were ones I made near the beginning.  I guess I could try remaking them in hopes that my piecing has improved...   Generally speaking I'm more of a fudger than a perfectionist.  I'll have to think about it for a few days.

Happy Quilting!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I just finished this cushion cover in the nick of time :0)

 I made it to fit a cushion form that I made years ago for this little cover that was a kit.

 It fits nicely in this chair - a little Valentine to my family.

Wishing you a very Happy Valentine's Day!!

Happy Quilting too :0)



a few hearts

We've been away. We went to Hawaii for 9 days to escape our very long winter for a bit.  It was so lovely!   I had time for some stitching.  I appliqued half of the leaves for panel #11 of my vine quilt.  Unless you're new to this blog, you've seen half appliqued panels before so I'll post about it when its done :0)

 So to escape the doldrums of cold, dark days on our return I started something new.  Something small for Valentine's day, something with curved piecing!  I remembered this project from the Feb issue of American Patchwork and Quilting from last year and I wanted to give it a try. 

It's another Jen Kingwell pattern - like my Circle game quilt.  Like the circle game I am machine piecing these.  It's a bit fiddly but manageable.  I don't want to make such a large pillow as the pattern so I'm still playing around with ideas of how I will put these hearts together.  I have 7 days if I want it done on time.  Maybe...  :0)
A couple of years ago Jan over at Bemused made a little heart quilt with blocks like this.  It is such a little darling - here's the link http://bemused.typepad.com/bemused/2013/02/roses-are-red.html .  I don't think I'll get quite that many hearts made but I sure like hers!

Happy Quilting!