Quilt Reveal: Get Well Wishes for the World

 I almost didn't make this quilt. 

This quilt started as a block for the Postage Stamp quilt. I had cut some pink squares. I thought it would be interesting to make a rogue block for the Postage Stamp quilt - one that had patterned fabric instead of a solid as a constant. So I started making it, but soon realized that I hadn't counted how many squares I had cut and didn't have nearly enough. I knew I could find another pink and make it a rogue rogue block. One with two constants as well as a patterned fabric.

But I didn't like my choices of an additional pink. One of the things I really like about the Postage Stamp quilt is that I can work on it after work when I have decision fatigue. Easy chain piecing a constant to another fabric.

 

So instead of throwing this in the orphan block box, I thought I could make a mini quilt out of it. It is already started so I would have a good head start.

 

I found fabrics I liked with it for a mini quilt, but it really wasn't inspiring me. I thought about throwing it in the orphan block box. I had already added it to my spreadsheet and announced it on my blog, but I thought I could get a quiet annulment without anyone noticing.

 

Then I remembered that Cheri Payne had made a quilt with a block on one side and a vase on the other side.  I liked that plan.

 

I cut out some shapes for the vase and the minute I set it down, it looked like a bed on the left, and some get well flowers you would send or take to someone who wasn't feeling well. The news was on and they were telling us how the whole country is red in terms of infections, and the COVID infections is higher now than it has ever been.

 

This quilt is dedicated to the whole world - all the people who have passed away, all the people who are mourning them, all the people who are sick, all the people who are doing their best to avoid getting sick, and all the people who are taking care of others.

The quilt is 11" x 8".

I want to thank Wendy at The Constant Quilter for all of her support and encouragement in making a small quilt each month.

 

Quilt Reveal: Oak Leaf and Reel

 

 

Hello and welcome to my blog! Today, I am participating in the Dust Off an Old Quilt Book blog hop hosted by Beaquilter.  This is my third year participating in this blog hop, and I have enjoyed it each year.

In 2019, I dusted off a fairly new book, Cultural Fusion, and added a border to an existing quilt. I haven't quilted that quilt yet.

Last year, 2020, I made a Patchwork Envelope. I still haven't added the embellishments I am planning for that quilt. In that post, I showed you my oldest book, The Romance of the Patchwork Quilt in America, from 1935, but I didn't use it.

This year, I decided to dust off that old book and see what  I could make from that book. There lots of great choices. My favorites were pieced, but I don't have a lot of time, and thought a quick one block applique quilt would be a good choice. It could double as my small quilt of the month. I looked for a block with a relatively small number of pieces and chose the oak leaf and reel block.

The book doesn't have patterns, so I had to dust off another book, Folk Art Quilts, to get the pattern. You can see that book at the top of the post. I am expecting to get extra credit for dusting off two books for one quilt.

 

My fabric choices are shown in the first picture of this blog post. Even though it is winter and there was lots of snow on the ground, I chose an orange for the oak leaves. I chose the blues for the background to give it a modern twist. Then when I was cutting the fabric, I decided to give it another twist, and use the orange as the background and a blue for the leaves. Then I thought of using white as a background with the blue leaves. That would be the ultimate minimal modern quilt. Although I like them, I have a hard time making minimal quilts. I keep wanting to add more. So I decided against the white, and to leave the blue leaves on the orange background.

Well, it is nice, but boring.  I initially thought about adding a border. But adding a border would involve piecing, since I'd already cut the applique pieces so they would fit the fat quarter background.  It wouldn't be just four pieces to add to the border. I would have to piece the pieces to make them long enough and I'd already decided that this quilt would be applique instead of piecing.

I went to the Cave of Wonders to see what would help, and the genie threw some pieces at me that had been in the Maximum Minimal quilt. That woke up the Maximalist in me, and every day, as I walked by the table, I would add, remove, or move pieces on this piece. I didn't take pictures on this part of the process. This process took about two weeks and I have a lot of little bits that can be used on another quilt.

Then I looked at the calendar and decided I had to be done, so I used a glue stick to hold all of the pieces down.

With all these little curvy pieces, I knew that I had to free motion quilt this. The quilting holds down the applique. I haven't done any free motion quilting since my machine broke. I think it was the darning foot that broke it. It came in a kit with lots of different sewing feet and it was sturdily made but didn't have any give.  I have one that does have give and used it.  Free motion quilting is my favorite part of quilting. The only reason I have quilts that need to be quilted is that basting is my least favorite part of quilting and it has to be done first. 

I chose the dark teal for the binding and cut the pieces and sewed them together. But before I added them to the quilt, I changed my mind and decided to use the fabric that was used for the center flower.

I knew that it would be dark by the time I hand stitched this down, so I took a quick photo to prove that I had stitched the binding on the quilt.

And here is proof that I am hand stitching the binding down. I am scheduling this posting for early Monday morning, which means I can't show you a good reveal photo.

I took this photo before binding because I knew it would be the best lighting I would be able to get today.  I will replace this one with one of the bound quilt when I get a chance to get an image, so you may want to come back to see a grand reveal. This is my third year for the Dust Off An Old Book Blog Hop and my first year having a finished quilt. 

[Edited to add] Here is a quick shot I got before the wind blew the quilt away. I was able to catch it while it was still on the porch, but I will try for a better photo later. Maybe in the summer. This photo shows the colors pretty well. I've made several quilts lately with a yellow background. Each quilt has a different background and each one moved closer and closer to orange. This one definitely hopped the line to orange.

 

Thank you for visiting me during the Dust Off An Old Book Blog Hop. Thank you to Beaquilter for hosting this. Be sure to visit the other bloggers who are also participating in this hop.

Monday 3/1

Words and Stitches  

 Samelia’s Mum

High Road Quilter (that's me)

Tuesday 3/2

  Karin’s Crazy World

Lemon Tree Snippets  

 Anjaquilts

Wednesday 3/3

Beaquilter

   Cynthia’s Creating Ark

  A Quilting Readers Garden

Thursday 3/4

Kathy’s Kwilts and More       

Quilting Patchwork Applique

 The Darling Dogwood

 Creatin' in the Sticks

Friday 3/5

Beaquilter (the hostess)

Quilting at the farm  

 Kathleen McMusing

 

Also linked with:

Monday Making

Maximalist Revisited

Once put my Maximalist quilt on my bulletin board, I knew it was missing something. A quilt named Maximalist needs to be, well Maximal. So I decided to add some gray on the other side. I decided to make a big yo-yo and pinch in the sides to make some dimension, like flower petals. I had some trim for the inspirational crazy quilt, and thought that would be a good center for the flower.

Here's what it looks like now. I guess it is done for now.

For the inspirational quote crazy quilt, I focused on this quote.  The ink uses a fine tip marker, and it is probably okay, but I was worried that it may not hold up.  My fine tip fabric marker is out of ink, so I decided to outline it using one strand of floss. It is a long quote so it took all week to do one quote. I will be buying another marker so I can reinforce the other quotes quicker.  By the way, the shadow under the quote is not a stain, it is the maximalist quilt.

2020:  Week 8 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

I worked on the inspirational quote crazy quilt this week. I also added a flower to the Maximalist quilt. I took my Opal sewing machine to be repaired, and bought some embellishments for the crazy quilt.  I have found some motifs I want to add to the crazy quilt and chose where I want to put them.

15 minute days this week -- 7 out of 7 days
15 minute days this year -- 7 out of 54 days
Success rate  = 100%

Linked with:
Life in Pieces: 15 Minutes to Stitch

Quilt Reveal: Color It Red

Welcome to the Color It Red blog hop!

 I really like red and white quilts so for my Blog Hop day, I was originally going to finish an old project that had red in it, but decided to make a brand new red and white quilt. Starting new quilts are so much fun, and since I have an excuse, I may as well take advantage of it!

My quilt started with some red yo-yos I made for my yo-yo coverlet. I decided that the red yo-yos were too bright for my coverlet.

If you are new to my blog, as way of background, I am making a yo-yo coverlet to replicate an antique one I saw when I was in New Orleans. Welcome, and feel free to look around once you are finished with this post. I make lots of different types of quilting and other craft projects. If you are a regular visitor, I am sorry for bringing up the coverlet yet again. Consider this post to be a vacation from that coverlet. I promise I won't mention it again in this post.
 

Instead of sewing the the yo-yos together to form a rectangle, I decided to use them to surround a red and white quilt. I thought a silhouette would make for a simple applique, and a profile portrait would make for a more interesting portrait. I looked up some silhouettes on the internet and found a silhouette profile with flowers in the hair. I thought that was a great concept for my quilt.

I used dots fabric to resemble the dots portraits in old newspaper articles and books before photography. It's a little reference to my genealogy addiction.

I traced it, but made lots of changes in it to make it my own. I put fusible on the back of the fabric and cut out the shape and fused it to the background. I then free motion quilted and bound the quilt. I threw away the rest of the fusible so I don't ever accidentally use it again.  It gummed up the needle and made it very difficult to quilt.

I think it looks great as it is without the yo-yos. Some of the dark splotches in the photo above are due to my lazy job washing the washable marker out. Some of it is winter lighting.  I am sure it will be fine after a second wash.

When I quilted it, the face received dimension on its own so her jaw line is pronounced and her eyes are set in.  I really like that. I added a layer of batting behind the hair so it would also stand out. It made a small difference. I used permanent fabric markers to make the eyes, nostril and lips. The  shadow under the eye is a mistake but I think it makes the face more interesting.

Since the point of the quilt is to use the yo-yos, I added them around the quilt as planned. I think it is good practice for future use. You know, in case I ever need to know how to join yo-yos.

The inside quilt is about 6" x 8" and with the 2 inch yo-yos, it is about 10" x 12".  By the way, did you notice that the portrait uses a different fabric than the yo-yos? I was happy to find that I had two different dot fabrics in the same shade of red.

Thanks for visiting me. I hope you enjoyed your stay. You're welcome back anytime. Feel free to look around and see what else I've been up to over the last couple decades. There are links in the sidebar to help guide you to whatever interests you. When you are done here, visit the other participants on the blog hop.

February 17^th

Creatin' in the Sticks

Websterquilt

Vroomans Quilts

Hill Valley Quilter

Selina Quilts

Kathy's Kwilts and More

Samelia's Mum

February 18^th

Ms P Designs USA

Podunk Pretties

DayBrook Designs

Cynthia's Creating Ark

Bumbleberry Stitches

Sew Many Yarns

Karen's Korner

Stitchin At Home

February 19^th

MooseStash Quilting

Quilted Delights

Everyone Deserves a Quilt

Storied Quilts

Just Sew Quilter

Kathy’s Quilts

Just Because Quilts

Words & Stitches

Scrapdash

February 20^th

Life in the Scrapatch

Songbird Designs

High Road Quilter (you are here!)

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Patchwork Breeze

Lynn's Blog

DesertSky Quilting

Seams To Be Sew

February 21^st

Just Let Me Quilt (our hostess)

Quilt Fabrication

Beaquilter

All Thingz Sewn

Karrin’s Crazy World

Den syende himmel

Daughters of Dorinda

Quilt to the Edge

Becky’s Adventures in Quilting and Travel

Also linked with: Beauties Pageant

July Mini of the Month Quilt Reveal: Fuschia Fairy

  Can you handle two quilt reveals in a row?

Initially, I was going to skip making a mini quilt this month.  After all, I have a huge backlog of  quilts I started earlier this year (not to mention previous years), and a huge list of quilts I want to start (alphabet quilt, postage stamp, circa 1880).  But I realized that I would feel bad about not making one this month, and I didn't want to rush through making one just to say that I did. I started this quilt last week.

I started looking for ideas of a mini quilt, and realized that I didn't need to look for ideas because I already had plenty of ideas from previous projects. I thought it would be best if I took an orphan block and made a quilt out of that. That way, it isn't technically a new project, and there is some progress in the overall quilt lineup.

I was thinking about pretty fabrics in general and I remembered that I had received a panel a long time ago. So long ago that I think it was before I moved to this blog in 2008. I got it from a blog friend who said something to the effect of "I look forward to seeing what you do with it." Sorry, friend, for making you wait so long.  This panel is just so pretty, and I wanted to do it justice.  Over time, I saved pieces of leftover fabrics that I thought would go well with the quilt. They were my favorite pieces then and they still are! The panel came with three small squares, so I just cut the other scraps to the same size and added them around the quilt.

 I realized I had everything I needed to finish off this panel.  The fabrics I have with the panel were ones I especially liked for one reason or another, and went well with the panel, but they were on the small side, so they didn't lend to themselves to much piecing. Which is good, because I wanted to keep the piecing simple and let the focus stay on the panel.

I added in some other current favorite bits, and made this quilt, like some sweet 30s fabrics and two kinds of lace. I also added embroidery stitches in the form of wavy vines in the borders. If you deliberately make it wavy, it doesn't have to be straight! The picture above shows the truest color.

The darker pictures were taken earlier in the day when the sun was out.  I left them here because they show the texture.

Linked with:
RSC19
Slow Stitching Sunday I hand stitched the binding, and took the time to add embroidery stitches and lace.
Monday Making 
Friday Foto Fun

Quilt Reveal: Love and Happiness

I made a commission quilt and have delivered it, so now I can share it with you!

I told you that I was showing my mini book of quilts to everyone in the office who might be willing to look at it and my friend and coworker asked me to make her one. I bet you can figure out her name!  I normally don't do commission quilts, but she wanted one that I enjoyed making (The Earth Laughs in Flowers), so I said yes.

She then decided that she wanted one that was more customized and fit better with her available funds. I thought it was a little easier than the one she originally wanted, so it would be a little bit less time consuming. It has some repeat blocks, but not too many.

I wasn't keeping track of my time since I was charging her a flat price, but it took me a lot longer to make than I estimated. This quilt was fun to make, because it has the bright happy fabrics that I enjoy working with, and there is a variety of blocks that keep it from getting boring.

It uses batik and regular cotton fabrics. The blocks are all made with raw edge applique. I used some embroidery stitches around some of the hearts.

 I like the wording on the plaque to go with this quilt.

My family asked me if I wanted to go for a walk in this park. I had already been there earlier that day to deliver the quilt (I didn't get Debi's message that she wanted to postpone).  I came with the quilt and roped them into being the quilt holders and turned their innocent walk into a photo shoot.

Linked to:
UFO Busting
Off the Wall Friday 
Finished (or not) Friday

Family Flower

It is quilt reveal day, so of course it is dark and dreary outside that do not provide for photogenic pictures. But I am finished with this quilt, and am excited to show it to you so here it is.

I like to combine my passions for quilting and genealogy from time to time, and often thought about making a family tree quilt with names of the family members.  One day, maybe when I was working on Life of Plenty, I realized that our family was small enough to make good leaves on a flower.  I've covered up the names in order to protect everyone's privacy, which is a shame because I really like the font I used.  Besides the backstitches, a lot of the letters are accented with french knots.

I used fusible applique and stitched around the shapes twice. The needle kept gumming up with the fusible so the stitches aren't as smooth as they could be. The names are hand-stitched and chain stitches help show the family relationships.

Here it is on the bulletin board to show its relative size.  It is 12" x 12".    I wanted to keep the quilting stitches minimal, as I had seen that look on other quilts. Even my other two flower quilts shown here have minimal quilting.  But since there is so much space between the quilted motifs and the binding, the fabric did not stay as smooth as it should have been.  It looks worse in these pictures than it does in real life, but I may add more quilting stitches (and maybe some ribbon if there is a lot of excess) to smooth it out.

The fabric choice for this quilt comes from the one and only Glitter block I have made (so far). The original plan was to use the dark fabric for the binding, but at the end, I decided I liked the lighter fabric better.

Linked to:
Oh Scrap!

A Quilt for Lily

I've made a quilt and been frustrated about my inability to show it to you, since I lost the cord that attaches the camera to the computer.  I thought there was a way to use the card reader on my computer, but the card didn't fit in the slots.  This morning, I tried again, and there is a card reader that works, it just looks like it is bigger than the card.

So, at long last, I can show you a quilt for Lily.

First the background story.  Last year, the first weekend in June, 2011, I went to the National Quilt Society quilt show in Columbus, Ohio and took a photograph of a small quilt that looked very intriguing to me. Well, I actually took lots and lots of photographs, but this story is about this photo.

I showed it to a friend of mine who has a granddaughter named Lily, and she said "make that for me."  Well, there was no way I could even make anything exactly like that, and I wouldn't want to break any copyright laws legally or morally, but I figured I could make something inspired by it.  Unfortunately, this request happened during our busy time at work and somehow this little quilt took a year and a month to make.


I liked the original technique of cutting through layers for the background, but decided to keep it simple for my quilt.  I took a jelly roll and put the strips together for a background.  Then I traced the flower from this photograph and cut out some fabric with fusible attached to it.  Then I zig zagged it down.  Yes, I know that even after tracing, my lily doesn't look like the original.  Even when I try, I am not good at copying.

I chose a different font and a different location for the name.

This little bud is such a wonderful feature.

I didn't take the stem all the way to the binding so the flower is floating on the surface.  I used Timtex as a batting because this is a wall hanging and I wanted it to hang straight on the wall. This made it difficult to free motion quilt, but I had fun choosing different straight line quilting designs.  The backing fabric is folded to the front.  I did stitch it down. This quilt seemed too formal to just use fusible web, and I didn't want to use up any more fusible web.  I added a false back to hide my stitches, so I wound up having to use extra fusible anyway.

I added an extra layer of batting for the flower to give it more interest.  I gave it to my friend and they loved it.  It matches the room since it is purple and yellow.  I only today realized I don't have a photo of the whole quilt showing all the binding, but the binding is right underneath the photo so you aren't missing much.

Overall, I am really happy with it. The flower itself isn't as good as the original quilt, but I really like the rest of it, so it balances out. The quilt is 12" x 12", and was finished the end of July 2012.

I haven't stopped quilting, so there are more pictures to show on another post.