History Day - A Week Away

This time next week, I will be perched at my quilt frame all set up to demonstrate hand quilting at our annual History Day celebration in Greenfield. Because several good family friends are members of the Greenfield Historical Society board and officers, I was asked several years ago (maybe 8?) if I would do this, and I've been doing it ever since.* Other "old time" arts demonstrated are chair caning, wood carving, watercolor painting, apple cider making, and more. I enjoy the day, as I get to see so many folks from around the area. I also love it when an onlooker asks questions about quilting or begins telling a story of a grandmother's quilts or some such. (This post from '16 explains the basics of History Day.)

Today, the question before me is what quilt will I put in the frame to work on? I hate to admit that the quilt I took TWO YEARS ago is still in the frame, untouched (except to move it from one spot to another) since 2016. Shameful! I plan to take that one out, and put something else in.

I have a good excuse for my shameful behavior - a couple, actually. First, to explain that asterisk (*) above, I missed out on participating last year (2017) due to an upper respiratory infection. I hated having to cancel, but I was concerned about being infectious, and I didn't think I could maintain the stamina needed to sit and quilt for 6 hours. (Woe is me!)

2016 quilt - Antique Nine Patches (from book by Sue Abrey)

Second, I marked the quilt with a graphite pencil that smeared terribly, and I had a huge mess on both my quilt and my hand. Talk about being totally bummed out! Now that I am two years removed from the unfortunate mishap, I have finally come to a decision as to correcting the situation. I will remove the stitches - there weren't that many - and then gently scrub the smears off. Problem solved.

All this does not, however, solve the dilemma of what to quilt THIS year.

I don't think I want to take the time to prepare the quilt pictured above for a second go-round. I will just remove it from the frame, fold it and set it aside. I need to select a quilt top to layer with batting and backing. I have many from which to choose.

I pulled this lap quilt out of the closet because of the great fall colors, plus it is not a huge quilt and the chances of finishing are greater. It's a Thimbleberries pattern called Fall Foliage, and it measures 56x65 inches. I think I will do a Baptist Fan quilting design on it.

I also pulled an even smaller quilt - table topper or wall hanging - to put in a portable hoop. I stitched this HST quilt out of Roman Holiday remnants last December. I might do "freehand" quilting on this in the style of Lori Simpson. She uses "big-stitch" techniques along with "eye-balling" a design. I think I can do that.

Hope you are having a super Saturday! DH and I are going to learn to polka dance later this evening, and then we have a big ballgame to watch - Ohio State vs. Penn State. Go BUCKS!!!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Something From Nothing

Maybe you know the difficulty some quilters have with wasting fabric. I probably keep more scraps than I should, and the condition of my quilting room is proof enough. One thing I absolutely cannot allow myself to discard are those cut-away HSTs that result when making flying geese units. I have more than a few sets of these tucked away in various nooks and crannies.

These 0.75-inch HSTs were cluttering up my workspace and have been since back in March when I made Snowbird Stars.

Almost immediately after I finished this quilt top, I sewed together those cut-away triangles; I even trimmed them. Then they just gathered dust for many weeks.

Finally, I have sewn them together and I yielded 11 blocks of 5x5 HSTs. Here is what 9 of them look like.

I do love it, and I am right glad that I saved those bits of oftentimes discarded fabric. They are tiny, but just look how pretty when stitched together!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Purple HSTs

That purple KF quilt that I made left me with quite a nice pile of triangles cut from each block. I decided to get them sewn together immediately, and hope that a great idea might strike me as I did. Well, here's what I've got so far. I'm not sure sure it's a "great" idea, but it sure does make me happy.

More than likely there will be a number of borders added to this, and I can see it growing a good bit more. Who knows where it will stop? I doubt it will become a queen or king size quilt, but it might grow into a handy lap or throw quilt. We shall see.

A couple of days ago, I wrote about Claudia, a beginning quilter. Something she said in her email has been on my mind ever since sharing it here. "Quilt culture" is the reference I've been pondering. You know, I think following blogs is a great way to acquire knowledge of the culture of quilting. Regular readers will learn jargon; they'll learn what considerations quilters make when choosing patterns or fabrics or quilting designs; they'll learn of the tremendous "community" quilters have with one another. There is definitely a quilting culture, and I am happy to be a part of such a group. When I think about how I've grown and changed and evolved as a quilter, it really has been a rewarding journey. Once, I didn't care for anything but traditional patterns and hand-stitched quilts. Show me modern fabrics or machine quilting and I'd turn up my nose. My, look how far I've come. Just look at the pictures above. It couldn't be further from my notion of a quilt 35 years ago. My goodness, I'm grateful for the quilt culture which has exposed me to so many diverse ideas. It's been a fun journey!

Happy Quilting, Friends!