Quilt Exhibit: People Quilts

Hello! Welcome back to the Musee de la Grande Route. You are in for a special treat today. I am showcasing a specially curated selection of quilts of my portrait quilts.  In this time of isolation and social distancing, I thought I would show you some people. 

 

First off, here is Kamaria. She is fairly new as she joined our collection in January. I really like her unplanned chin.

 

Next we have the recently named Rose. I just named her, even though she joined our quilt collection in February of 2020. I like her unplanned jaw line.

 

 Fuschia Fairy joined us July of 2019. 

 

Debi also joined our virtual quilt collection in July 2019. She fits the theme with two pairs of hands and four smiling faces.The physical quilt resides with Debi.

 Eyes joined our collection in June 2019. I find it curious that I made so many people quilts in 2019. 

 

Vintage Holiday was made January 2019. 

 Rey joined our collection in December 2018.

 

 

Winter Scene joined us January 2016.

Thank you for visiting Musee de la Grande Route. Lots of people, some dogs, even some birds, a robot and a snowman. I hope it meets some of your social needs.

 

 

You can see all of our Musee de la Grande Route exhibits or click on the links to see a specific exhibit:

People Quilts Exhibit

Holiday Quilts 

Elephant Quilts 

Scrap Quilts

Tree Quilts 

Red Quilts 

Belated 15 Minutes to Stitch Report

 

Hello! If you are here for my Dust Off an Old Quilt Book post, scroll down to March 1 post or click on the link.

 I didn't get a chance to post my 15 Minutes to Stitch report on Sunday because I was busy finishing up the Oak Leaf and Reel quilt I showed you in my last post.

2021:  Weeks 9 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

 

As I already stated, I spent this week working on the Oak Leaf and Reel Quilt and accompanying blog post,  but since I had the machine running, I also stitched up the edges for the little inchies I've made so far.  The inchies were supposed to be finished in the end of February, but since I enjoy the slow pace of the hand embroidery, I want to take my time and savor each stitch. I've made 11 of the 28 embroideries, which I think is a pretty good pace.

15 minute days this week --7 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 59 out of 59 days

Success rate  = 100%

 

Linked with:

15 Minutes to Stitch

 

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

My Quilting Week

 

 

I've made a lot of progress this week, fifteen minutes at a time. The Dust off An Old Book Blog hop is happening again this year, and I have signed up. This year, I decided to dust off my oldest quilt book The Romance of the Patchwork Quilt in America.  There are plenty of quilts I want to make in this book, but since I have limited time, I want to make a one block quilt, and decided that applique would be easier.

I chose a design, and had to dust off another book to get the pattern. The Folk Art Quilts book has the pattern. Luckily it only took one false attempt to find it. I should get extra credit for dusting off two old books.

The bulk of my time on this quilt has been spent in thinking and rethinking the fabric selection. I am using the oak leaf and reel pattern. I was going to use the yellow/orange for the leaves and use the blue for the background. I then decided to reverse it and make the leaves in blue and use the orange for the background. Then I thought about making it more modern with blue leaves on a white background. Then I saw the blue leaves sitting on the orange background with the sun streaming on it, and right now I am going back to that choice. I can choose my own definition of modern.

I decided not to participate in this week's Project Quilting challenge. I needed to choose between the snails trail challenge and the old book because I don't think I could get both of them done, and chose the old book which isn't due until March.

I don't know if you noticed that the books and fabric were sitting on the shirts quilt. I hand stitched the batting on the quilt and pressed the extra row and the backing piece. Now I am making sure the sandwich is flat. I have been smoothing it, pinning it. Then turning it over to make sure the other side is smooth, fixing anything, and then turning it over again., It is working out fine, but when you work on it 15 minutes at a time, and work on other projects too, it looks like slow progress.

The picture makes it look lumpier than it is, but I do want to do some more smoothing before I start quilting it.

Last but not least, I made some more stitcheries. I just need to trim these, add the backing and stitch around the edges. I find that the outline stitching works best as a group, assembly style, and keeping them together keeps them from getting lost. The hardest part about making these is to remember to transfer the design to the right side of the fabric and not the wrong side.

2021:  Weeks 8 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

 

I was able to find the spot in the fence where the cats were entering my yard and block it, so now I can feed the birds again without endangering them. With all the snow we've had, they were very hungry.

My quilting time has diminished this week, but I did manage to spread it out with three different projects as I showed you already.

15 minute days this week --7 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 52 out of 52 days

Success rate  = 100%

 

Linked with:

15 Minutes to Stitch

 

 

Beautiful World and 15 Minutes a Day Report

 I made these little Beautiful World quilts this week. I still need to finish off the edges for the four on the bottom.

2021:  Weeks 7 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

 

The impeachment trial was this week. Stitching these inchies gave me something I could do that was productive and calming. Newspapers.com is giving free access this weekend, which that also takes up some unexpected time. I also ran some errands ahead of the 6-12 inches of snow we are expecting. Our street hasn't been cleared of snow from the last time it snowed, but the main roads are clear.

15 minute days this week --7 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 45 out of 45 days

Success rate  = 100%

 

Don't be too impressed with my 100%. I was at that rate this time last year too.  When the slide comes, it happens pretty quickly.

Linked with:

15 Minutes to Stitch

 

Beautiful World Daily Inchies

Crabapple Hill Studio is offering a stitch-along on the Facebook page. There are a bunch of small sweet patterns like this one, and in the end, the pattern calls for these to be glued to a canvas. There is a free pattern on their website. Some of them include adding some color to the stitchery. Since they have backing and batting, they are little quilts.

 

I decided to add the lace to this one. If we make one a day, we will be done in February. I started late so I will have to see if I can catch up.

I've only made two so far. I cleaned up my bulletin board so it can serve as my background for conference calls.

Linked with:

Off the Wall Friday

Quilt Reveal: Visit India

This is my third quilt for this year's Project Quilting Challenge. This week's theme is Virtual Vacation.

I have some fun fabrics that I wanted to use, and they would allow me to make the quilt without a lot of embellishment. I found a photo I liked, and since the letters are somewhat small, I decided to use fusible applique. In the last two challenges, I pinned the pieces and sewed them down without using fusible. I liked the surprises that get formed when I don't use a fusible.  I also like not having to spend money on fusible, going upstairs to get the fusible, thinking it through to make sure everything doesn't wind up wrong side up, and taking the time to press it. But it does serve its purpose in keeping things secure.

 

I flipped the photo upside down, and traced it on the fusible, cut it out, and pressed it on the background. This means that this time everything was in the right direction and you could read the word. I made a sandwich, sewed around the edges and turned it right side out. I had put everything in the right order so it looked like a quilt when I turned it out. I then used a fancy embroidery stitch to secure the edges. The only problem I had in making this quilt is that I ran out of bobbin thread along the way, but it is a casual quilt, so I am not worried that the embroidery isn't perfect. I don't know how to properly join embroidery stitches.

 

I then used a zigzag to sew around all the applique.  The green arch is to remind you of the flag colors.

 

I fussy cut the fabric for the elephant; too bad I can't back date it to apply it to last week's "fussy cut" challenge too! The elephant fabric is from the outdoor fabric aisle at Joanns. I think you are supposed to make cushions for your lawn furniture from it. I am planning on making a curtain with it. It is one piece for the entire body. There is no elephant in the fabric, but it looks like it was made specifically for this elephant. I also brought down the red fabric from the name down to the elephant for the eye.  

The banner and eyebrow pieces were cuttings that insisted on being in the quilt. I sewed them on this morning. I woke up in a philosophical mood, and I think this quilt represents the colors of a country. Each country (the red in the name) colors the environment (banner) and also colors the way the people see the world (eye). It isn't like glasses you can take on and off. It persists.

2021:  Weeks 6 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

 My work is going to start again soon. This means I have to get ready. I need to get back to doing tasks on a schedule and increasing my activity level to help me ramp up to working 40+ hours again after no work.

Besides clearing out the desk space, I also clean as much as possible, so that when things slide, they don't go down too far. I double my recipes and freeze half in serving size containers. Catch up on the chores I have been meaning to do. (I made another mask with a 3-D template. It turned out well.)

I also try to finish the (harder, time-consuming) steps I am working on in my quilts since progress will become slower.

Mostly though, I try to double up on my fun.  Watching those movies and quilting up a storm.

My first goal was to get the shirts quilt done.  This is a queen size quilt that seems too short, after it had already been quilted. Last week, I sewed the extra row on it. This week, I pieced and sewed the addition to the backing. That worked out well.

I then pieced the batting and sewed it on with a walking foot, but the new piece came out to be short,  even though I had measured it first. On examination, I can see that the new piece is wavy, like a skirt. I cut it out and pinned it, and it is the right size. I started to sew it again, and it is still wavy. The quilt has been given a time out until it learns to behave.  I have a plan to lay it flat on the floor and tack the batting down by hand.

In the meantime, the new Project Quilting challenge has been announced. I wasn't going to do it this week, but since I have to double up on my fun, I just had to do it. The challenge is Virtual Vacation. It is snowy and cold. The streets are icy, so I can't even go out for walks with Zeus. I need a get away. I also needed another elephant quilt to add to my elephant quilt collection.

15 minute days this week --7 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 38 out of 38 days

Success rate  = 100%

 

Linked with:

15 Minutes to Stitch

Table Scraps

The quilt measures 9 1/2" x 12".