January's Gone!

The way time flies so doggone fast just amazes me. It seems absolutely impossible that one whole month of 2011 is behind us already. How does that happen??  In looking back at the month, I surely wish I'd gotten more accomplished, but instead of dwelling on what didn't get done, I prefer to celebrate what I did manage to accomplish!! Always the optimist - that's me!  *grin*

All weekend, whenever I had a few moments to spend in the sewing room, I was working on cutting out these:

That's a ginormous stack of 1 1/2-inch strips of lights and darks for the log cabin blocks that are to border my Dressmaker's Quilt. If you recall, a few weeks back I was having an absolutely terrible time getting the blocks to lay flat and come out square. It was quite discouraging, and when I get that way about a project, I just drop it like a hot potato. (Consequently, we could number several UFOs in my sewing room that have never been finished for this reason!)

But I digress! I questioned some quilter friends, read some quilting books, and did some quilting searches to arm myself with potential remedies. I need 36 of these blocks, and I began with making 6, so those are the ones that were my "tester" blocks. I went ahead and finished those, and have made 2 more this morning, and I am happy to report that they are turning out just fine. My diagnosis: I was pulling too much when pressing, for one thing. The second was my piecing method. Instead of cutting pieces to the exact size and then sewing them together, I am using a chain piecing method (one long strip of fabric, add the centers onto it, one after another,then cut). Does that make sense? I think the seasoned quilters will follow. If not, I will take a pic of what I'm attempting to describe.

In my last post, I shared my finished doll quilt top, Midnight Stars. I mentioned that I had some other doll quilts that I'd never blogged about. Let's take a quick tour, shall we?

Here are 3 doll quilts that I made for my girls back in the late '80s or early '90s. Erin was born in 1985; Emma was born in 1992. I suppose I made them for Erin, and Emma got to play with them as she grew up. They wrapped up lots of dollies over the years.

If memory serves, I think Erin made this. A typical scenario was my finding something to keep her occupied while I got in a little bit of sewing time. The 8  hearts are appliqued with big chunky stitches and raw edges. The binding, too, has big chunky stitches. It's tied, but only in about 4 places. I am so glad I saved this creation. I will have to question the girls to see if indeed, Erin is the maker. I will update with any interesting tidbits I am able to gather.

My grandmother was quite a prolific quilter in her day. She quilted out of necessity for a lot of years, but enjoyed it and continued to quilt up to age 91. She is now 94, and hasn't quilted in 2 or 3 years. She made this little Sunbonnet Sue 2-block doll quilt. Again, I am uncertain if it was given to me for Erin or for Emma. There is some damage on the lower block - no idea what caused it. Grandma made hundreds of quilts and never owned a rotary cutter or mat. She hand-traced and  hand-cut her pieces. Isn't that incredible?!

A quick sidebar, this little wall hanging was in the same bin as the doll quilts. Grandma made each of her great-grandkids either a Sunbonnet Sue or Overall Bill pillow or wall hanging. This is my son's. Grandma made lots of Sues and Bills over the years.

Getting back to doll quilts, this is the one I treasure the most:

 

My mother made this for me and my sisters when we were girls back in the 60s. It's a whole-cloth, machine quilted treasure, much-loved as you can see from the worn and tattered binding. It hangs in my sewing room.

That concludes my doll quilt history tour.

Have a great February!!!!

And Just Like That...

 . . . we have a doll quilt top finished. And I must say, I totally love it and am so glad to have started off my 2011 with a sweet little project like this. I give you Midnight Stars - A Doll Quilt:

I certainly had no plan to make it - I just happened across it when I was browsing the blogs. What a happy accident!


The background consists of 2 dark blues; I was using scraps. The outer triangles are of one navy; the central squares are of another. The picture makes the difference seem more pronounced than they really are, I think. The flash must have enhanced the differences. No biggie. I am pleased with it, and will decide about quilting it now.
 
Thanks, Lori!! This has been fun!

Bit by Bit Things Get Finished

Sometimes a quilter doesn't get a whole lot of time in the sewing room. Sometimes a quilter finds a project that doesn't require a lot of time in the sewing room. Blessings.  I've finished step 5 of Midnight Stars.

Love, love, love it, don't you? *sigh*

Midnight Stars - Step 4 Complete

This will be a brief post today. I've finished off the stars for the Midnight Stars doll quilt.

I'm just loving how this is coming together. As I've been sewing, I've been thinking about Lori, the blogger at Humble Quilts, who is hosting this quilt-along. How does one's brain have to be wired to be able to come up with the measurements for quilts this small??? My brain is certainly wired some other which way, that's for sure. There's probably a reason that I excelled in the language arts areas, and not in the mathematical areas.

My hat's off to you, Lori, for making the complex so easily understandable for this math-challenged quilter!!

Obsessions, Anyone?

I've been rather preoccupied lately with something other than quilting and piecing.

It's driven me crazy, so I just gave in and worked the daggone thing until I finished it. Took me about 2 weeks, I'm guessing. I was even having dreams of this thing!

Here's a real problem. . .

The pen is pointing to a missing piece. I don't remember leaving a piece on the floor - I tried to be really careful! But if one got away from me, then I'm blaming Gracie, our cat, with pouncing on it - if that's the case, then I will need to start pulling furniture out because she could have batted it into countless places. Maybe it wasn't in the package, but I really think it's in this house somewhere.

DD Erin gave me this puzzle as a Christmas gift. I nearly didn't open it; the very thought of tackling it was daunting. But, it was a gift from my little girl! (in her 20s, but still...) So I did it, not knowing how obsessed it would make me!

Do a little research on Jackson Pollock. I'm no art critic, but I think we have drop cloths in the garage that look just as artistic as this.

So, now it's done, and I can get back to what will result in something a bit more substantial - quilts!! Here is my step 3 for Lori's/Humble Quilts doll quilt-along called Midnight Stars. I am prepared to do step 4 tonight or tomorrow.

My entire efforts on this doll quilt, steps 1, 2, and 3. I cannot believe I am working with such tiny pieces. Thankfully, it's a doll quilt; I'd be just as obsessed as that puzzle made me if it were any bigger!

Have a great Monday, quilters!!

Birthdays and Stash Enhancement

Here's an invitation for you! Come on in and fondle the fabric I have acquired lately.

Saturday was my birthday, and like true quilting friends, one ingenious girlfriend, Kay, gave me a gift wrapped in fabric, and tied with a bias strip bow. Now how cool is that? (Inside the package was a really cool serving dish made out of a melted-down wine bottle, complete with the cork!)

Another friend, Sherrie, gave me an assortment of supplies.



Yesterday was Terry's birthday. She and Sheryll and I took the day to go quilt shop shopping in Columbus. One shop, Quilt Beginnings, gives a discount off fabric cut from the bolt to shoppers who come in within 7 days of their birthday. I bought two fabrics:

This is a 3-yard cut of a Jennifer Paganelli line called Queen Street. I  have no plan for this, but it seemed to want to come home with me . . .

. . . as did this 1-yard cut from a company I've never heard of before-Riley Blake Designs.

Another shop we visited was Red Rooster, where I held a very valuable coupon--20 FQs for $40. They're regularly priced at $2.79, so I saved a tidy little sum. Here's my take:

A lovely assortment of Civil War fabrics--some Joe Morton, some Nancy Gere, some Judie Rothermel, some others that I can't remember.

Now, don't think for a moment that we're done! I have also done some online shopping . . .

I just could not resist getting a few yards of La Petite Ecole by French General.

I should have rotated the pic, but it's still the same fabric...Barbara Brackman's Morris Tapestry.

And since I can't seem to get enough Civil War reproduction fabric, I increased my stash with some Embers, Reds and Evergreens by Jo Morton.

Can you feel the lusciousness?? I've petted and fondled it quite a bit. I hope you've enjoyed the party!

Bits and Pieces

At the moment, I don't seem to have the mental capacity to handle a huge, involved project, so I have been working on smaller, less taxing ones. Is it a mood thing? Is it partly due to an extremely cluttered workspace that prohibits major jobs? Is it knowing that a few UFOs ought to be finished before starting something new? Yes. Yes. And yes.

Here is my progress on the Midnight Stars doll quilt I'm doing with Lori's Humble Quilts quilt-along.

Here is a long-buried UFO that I worked on at the quilting get-together this moring at Terry's. (Gosh, I love our bi-weekly sessions. We can gab away 3 hours faster than anything!)

This is a project I've hand-pieced entirely out of my stash. I wish I could say with certainty how long ago I began making these blocks - 4 years ago? 5? more? Anyway, I have 54 blocks, and I think I'm gonna stop. I will lay them out on the bed and if they come anywhere close to looking okay, I will stitch them together and begin adding borders until I get it to an acceptable size. It's been on my UFO list for far too long!!

I will be getting back to those darned log cabin blocks in the next day or so. I've got a few commitments over the long MLK weekend, though. So it might be Tuesday before I'm back!