Opportunities to Contribute

 This is a signature block (before sig) I made last night and it is on its way to Australia. Linda of Quilts in the Barn asked for blocks for a raffle quilt to benefit breast cancer research.  The quilt will be raffled off at Quilts in the Barn Exhibit in early September. Last year Linda and her friends raised $10,000 for this cause.  Check out her instructions and see if you can make a block by May 18^th.

I haven’t made my patriotic pillowcases yet, but Carol of Brown Quilts has put the call out to help a friend in need. These pillowcases will go to service men and woman.

Thanks to Sue and Lori for letting me know about these opportunities.

Humbug Bags

These little bags were my weekend sewing project. I learned about these triangular “humbug bags” about a year ago and picked up the pattern at my local quilt shop. Finally got around to making one and once I got the hang of it, easily made two more.

I have to confess – I am pattern challenged. Don’t listen to me when I complain about a pattern. I was almost done with the large humbug bag late Friday evening and realized I put the zipper in upside down. There was no fudging it and had to rip out and start over. I was actually crying and laughing at the same time. Crying at my stupidity and laughing because I knew I needed to ‘fess up in blogland. I think this is why I tend to look at the pictures in quilt books and magazines, getting ideas here and there and then just doing my own thing. It seems I always make mistakes when trying to follow directions. In this instance, I read and reread the instructions, examined and reexamined the pictures and still didn’t do it right. Urrrgggh!! Oh, well. The other two went together pretty quickly – spent as much time quilting the fabric as making the bag. I strayed from the directions (intentionally) in two ways. I used fusible fleece for the batting and I made the handles with batting and fabric rather than ribbon. I didn’t think the ribbon would be very sturdy.

I was glad to use a recycled zipper on the yellow bag. I have several I picked up at a yard sale years ago.

The pattern I used is a product of quiltwoman.com. Their description says the shape is based on a traditional 19^th century English candy, from which the bag takes its name. I had wondered.

It was a beautiful day here on Sunday. Instead of traveling away from Washington, D.C. to take the dogs on a walking trail, we went toward it to Theodore Roosevelt Island.

The bridge to the island

 A view of Washington, D.C. from the bridge

It took about an hour to walk the trail. There were other walkers, but not too many. Planes taking off from National Airport were fairly frequent reminders we were near the city.

This is what the National Park Service pamphlet says about the island. “Memorial dedicated to the 26^th U.S. president and conservation advocate preserves 88 acres of swamp, marshland, and forest. A formal plaza has a statue of Roosevelt with quotations from his writings carved in stone”.

Pretty yellow irises grew in the swampy area. I don't know if they are native to the area.

A view of Rosslyn, Virginia

Here are crumb blocks stitched on my featherweight. The featherweight is sitting on my dining room table with my container of scraps. It is very convenient to sit down and sew a few seams when I’m waiting for the water to boil for tea or dinner is on the stove.

Yes, I had to pry Len’s mouth open to retrieve that little block in the lower left corner. No harm done – just a little doggie slobber ;o)

Shooflies from France

A couple weeks ago Bea started a Contemporary Jane quilt and mentioned on her blog that she needed more Kaffe Fassett fabrics. I have a few and I told her I'd share with her. She asked me what I wanted in return and I said a few shoofly blocks. I fell in love with this block while making the quilt for Japan and thought it would be fun to include in my sampler quilt. Look what she sent me! Such delights! They are 3 1/2" and such perfect piecing! I said a few and she sent me 15! And she says there is another envelope coming. What a sweetie!  She also sent some beautiful Sophie Campbell fabric. In her note, Bea introduced me to  Sophie Campbell, an american quilter and pioneer for french quilting. She taught quilting in France, wrote a book and designed fabric. You can read more about quilting in France here. I googled Sophie Campbell and didn't find much, but check out this sampler quilt on the home page of France Patchwork.

What a treat! Thank you so much Bea!

Hope you all have a wonderful mother's day, whether it is celebrating as a mother, with your mother or commemorating your mother, I hope it is a special one.

Farmers Market and Linen Closet Finds

I went to the farmers market today. This is one of my favorite things to do from May to October. We have several in the county during these months and there are 3 that are fairly close to me - 2 in Annandale and 1 in Burke.  My purchases today included organic salad mix and strawberries from Hanover, Virginia. The farmer said his strawberries were ready 3 weeks earlier than last year. I don't remember where the apples and onions came from. I know the apples were stored over the winter, but they have only a few blemishes and the samples were still crisp and juicy. The wildflower honey came from Providence Forge, Virginia.

Today I visited the market in Mason District Park in Annandale.

I tend to over purchase, but I did well today. I kept reminding myself I will visit the Burke market on Saturday morning.

I found the quilt in the first photo in my linen close several years ago. I asked my mom about it and all we could figure was that I got it from cleaning a rental house in the early 1980's. My dad was a real estate agent and managed rental houses as a second career and I would sometimes do some cleaning to earn extra cash.

Then, last winter I found another quilt in my linen closet! They must be breeding in there! I really don't know what the deal is. I can see forgetting about where I got one quilt, but two?

Here are some details of the individual fabrics in the second quilt. Even though it has some serious fading issues it is in better shape than the first quilt.

 Love the geometrics

 great red and yellow paisley

 center patch is some sort of scroll and crown - click on any photo for a better view

 not sure what happened here, some of these patches aren't square

 this blue fabric reminds me of skyscrapers, not sure if that was the intent

 same fabric - one faded, the other not so much

 love the checks, plaids and dots

 too bad Dumbo is on the faded end

If you are like me and tend to have a bad memory I recommend you clean out your linen closet!

Winners!

#1 RJR fat quarters  – Bea

#2 Discovery 1492 by Jinny Beyer – mwhite – no blog

#3 Penny Rug Wool – Kathie

Congratulations ladies!

I don’t want to have a post without a photo. Will tell you about it in a future post! I must get to work on instructions for my Quilters Unlimited Quilt Show volunteers. Hope you all have a great week and thanks for all your friendly comments. They are so appreciated.

Don’t forget to leave a comment on my previous post to be entered in the drawings for my three giveaways.

Here is the completed Shoofly quilt. I’ll send it and the child’s quilt off to Japan sometime this week. I found the address I need to send them to on OZ Comfort Quilts via Merilyn’s blog. Quilters do some amazing things! I’m glad to do my little part.

52"x75"

Here are some fabrics I pulled for a quilt for my DS#1. He asked me to make a quilt for him when he moved back home in February. The first big quilt I made was for DS. It was a triple rail fence made with 3 fabrics and tied. He used that quilt for over 15 years. It was already in pretty bad shape when he got the beagle puppy, Len, and Len chewed it up. I made DS another quilt a few years ago, but he told me he doesn’t like it because it is too stiff – it is pretty heavily machine quilted. I wondered why he never used it. I thought maybe he just didn’t like the design. But no, it seems DS is texturally sensitive! There is no way I’m hand quilting a quilt for him and I told him I don’t do tied quilts anymore. He said he would tie it! Deal. When he asked for a quilt 6 weeks ago I asked what his favorite colors were. He didn’t know. I asked my DH and DS#2 about theirs… apparently none of the men in my family have favorite colors. DS#2 said he just didn’t like orange. The other day I asked DS#1 if blue and brown were okay because for some reason I have an abundance of those fabrics and he said yeah, and he liked teal with brown, too! Okay, we are getting somewhere! Now I just need to settle on a pattern – it will be a simple one. This one from an American Patchwork and Quilting magazine is a possibility.

You might be wondering why I’m even considering making a quilt for DS when the beagle is still around. Well, we had to make some changes. Len steals Penny’s food and one morning when I pulled him back he growled at me. It really caught me off guard. I should have held him down right then, but didn’t. Anyway, I thought about it throughout the day and told my son Len couldn’t sleep with him anymore. He needs to learn he is a dog and not top dog at that. Len now sleeps in his crate at night. I noticed a difference right away. He is coming when called now and no more growling. Also, I don’t expect to get this quilt done quickly. Hopefully, he will be a well trained dog by the time it is finished.

Has blog reading affected your book reading? It sure has mine. I used to read a lot – well, I guess I still do, but it is mostly blogs! I miss reading books. I shelve books at a library for a little paycheck. I keep bringing books home and taking them back without reading them. Electronic books don’t work for me. If I don’t listen through headphones I get distracted and if I do I can’t hear the jangling of a certain dogs movements. The following books are in my home and waiting for me to drag myself away from stitching and blogging-

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (my sister said this is really good)

A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley (fell asleep after a couple pages yesterday afternoon – a reflection on me, not the book)

Passages in Caregiving by Gail Sheehy (half way through this one – very good)

Quiltmaking by Hand by Jinny Beyer (I’m stuck on chapter 2 – a primer on pattern drafting)

 

Here are a few photos of my garden. I’m a fair weather gardener. In the hot, sticky months of July and August I tend to just take care of my porch plants. In the spring and fall, I do like to get out every once in a while to dig around. My husband does most of the work. It is amazing how something that would take me all day to do, he can do in less than an hour! 

Just a couple more photos from this past week...

As soon as I laid the shoofly quilt down on the floor to position the binding so no seams ended up at the corners, Penny made herself comfortable. She is looking a little untidy here. This photo was taken before she and Duke were groomed on Thursday.

Duke after grooming - don't think he's is too happy about this arrangement.

Three Giveaways

#1 – 12 RJR fat quarters

#2 – "Discovery 1492" by Jinny Beyer for RJR fabrics (border fabric is over 1 yard, toile fabric is a fat quarter and 10 fat eighths)

#3 Wool and instructions for pumpkin penny rug

Leave a comment, letting me know which drawings you want to be included in, on this post by 9:00AM Monday, May 2. You can be in 1, 2 or all 3 drawings.

Featherweight Update –

The featherweight’s back and running and all I paid for was a regular service charge. Yippee!!! I know I would be curious so I want to tell you I paid $300 for it at the antique shop (originally priced $395). The woman acted like I was stealing it from her, which I didn’t quite understand. I guess I don’t know the business She initially said $325 when I asked about the discount (remember she is having a going out of business sale) and then when I was running the machine she said $300 in a huff and walked away. At the time I was thinking – I’m willing to pay $300, but should I offer her less in hopes of meeting at $300. She saved me the trouble. When I checked out she practically threw the receipt at me! Guess she was having a bad day. So all in all, I ended up paying $375 for the featherweight. I think that is a good deal around here. I see featherweights selling on a local quilters e-newsletter every once in a while and they are usually going for about $500. I’m sure condition has a lot to do with the price and mine has a few dings. That’s okay with me- I won’t be too upset if I add a few more ;o)

Last night I started stitching some crumb blocks.

Happy Stitching!