Quilt Gift

A sweet little quilt from a special friend.

My quilting time has greatly reduced over the past few years with living on a farmette and making a new life in a small town. But things slow down in the winter so now I'm spending more time in the sewing room. Current effort is basting this ocean waves quilt.

A New Quilt - Ocean Waves - and Levi's Quilt

The Ocean Waves pattern has been on my bucket list for a long time. This is the beginning of a quilt I'm making for my guest room. I'm using fabrics from my stash. It's also a test for a quilt I'm making for my sister. She requested greens and purples and let me choose the pattern. I'm using directions from  Quilts! Quilts!! Quilts!!! by Diana McClun and Laura Nownes. It's a good thing I'm testing the pattern first because I found an error in the directions. I'm kind of surprised since I have the second edition of the book. On page 35 under Construction direction 1. It says to cut the squares into quarters diagonally. It should say to cut them in half diagonally. Both quilts will be full size - 84" square.

I see my last post was in February. That doesn't surprise my since I spent much of March through June in the garden - mostly weeding! However, I did find time to finish this quilt for my nieces baby and was able to give it to her at the family reunion in June.

Of note on the farm - Three of our hens hatched eggs for a total of 18 chicks. Above Bonnie is with the biggest hatch of 8 chicks.

Piper's Quilt

This was sent off to my great niece, Piper, in Minnesota soon after her first birthday.

This is my head start on a quilt for a great nephew due to be born in March. The hourglass blocks are 5".

Last week I visited the Virginia Quilt Museum with some friends. I especially enjoyed seeing Dawn's quilt in the American Quilt Study Group's quilt study of civil war era quilts. Her quilt is gorgeous! I'm going to try to get back to Harrisonburg for another look before the exhibit is gone.

Stars In A Time Warp

This top has been done for over a week. I just wasn't feeling up to posting. Trying to stay away from the computer as I was finding I was spending way too much time in front of it. This top is about 94" long (about 1/3 of it is on the other side of the stair rail) and 83" wide. I wish I had made the side borders about 3" wider to allow for shrinkage. I may add a strip of the dark fabric I was auditioning for the setting triangles (see previous post) to each side border. 

A friend invited me over to hand quilt in front of the fire this past Wednesday so I pulled out my hand quilting project. I've been doing a little each day. So glad she got me going on this again. I'm not sure I can finish it up this winter but I hope to make some real progress.

It snowed hard the last two days. I shoveled a path to the barn so we can check in on the chickens and then another path down to the creek so the ducks had an easy way of it. This is a shot of our little potting shed under the cottage stairs. I've ordered my seeds and will soon be in the shed planting those that need an early start.

Happy New Year!

Spent a little time in the sewing room yesterday and today. I love the new year. It always gives me the feeling of a new beginning and I love the quieter time after the hustle and bustle of the holidays. 

I first auditioned the light setting triangles for my Stars in a Time Warp project. I loved it and was sure I wouldn't like the darker fabric.  However, once I got this green up on the design wall I loved it too. I decided I better take photos so I could compare side by side. Though I still love the dark setting triangles I love the light better because I think it shows off the variety of star colors and placement of dark, medium and light within the stars. What do you think?

I had made 41 stars. Given the length of the border print I figured I could make each star strip with 11 star blocks. I wanted 4 star strips so I made 3 more blocks. To make this wide enough for my bed I'm going to add two borders from a large floral print on the sides. The floral print, border print and much of the light setting triangles will use fabrics from the Matter of the Heart line from Kaye England. The green that I auditioned for the setting triangles is also from that line and I'll probably use it for the binding. I have a couple cuts of yardage from that line that I'll use for the backing. I must have really loved that line. I didn't buy it all at once and it took me a while to realize it was one line of fabric. Thanks, Kaye England! This quilt will go on our queen size bed. Well, I'm off to sew together another strip of stars. Hope the new year brings you lots of happy stitching!

Merry Christmas and Some Vintage Treasures

I love vintage Christmas tree ornaments.  I found most of these at The Factory Antique Mall in nearby Verona Virginia. They claim to be the largest antique mall in America. This could be dangerous for my wallet! The tree is not vintage - got it on sale in a local gift shop after last Christmas. Found the red scarf wrapped around the base of the tree at the local SPCA thrift store.

This is our half bath. When we moved in last year the washer and dryer were in this spot. DH added the bead board and painted. The high chair was my grandmothers. I made the quilt a couple years ago for a quilt show committee challenge. I wondered what I would do with it.

A good friend visited for a couple days last week and brought me this cute crocheted bowl. I have it in my sewing room and I'm sure it will be used to catch all kinds of things. It sits on top of a potholder runner I found at the antique mall. I just couldn't pass this up. I think it has wonderful character. I think maybe it was meant to be a floor runner but it a good size for a table runner. I haven't measure it - would guess about 1 1/2 feet by 3 feet.

It's a rainy, droopy day here today. A good day for some hand stitching. I took this vintage pillow apart several years ago. It's a pillow from my childhood. I don't remember what was inside - maybe old panty hose or stockings. It desperately needed a wash. Each year I pulled it out in December thinking inspiration would strike. A couple days ago I decided to just stitch it back together instead of trying to incorporate it into a quilt. This is my idea of what Santa looks like - it's the mid-20th century Santa.

Such a jolly old elf!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours!

Friendship Quilt

Dawn of Collector with a Needle and I exchanged little quilts this year. I am thrilled with what she made for me.

Click on the photo to admire the variety of fabrics she used.

Before I started decorating for Christmas I had it on this sideboard in the dining room where I could see it often. I expect it will return there in January unless I find another perfect spot for it. I like moving things around!

This vintage flannel backing is so soft.

A very special quilt. Dawn and I met last June when she was presenting a program in Warrenton Virginia. I hope we can meet up again soon.

Here are a few more Stars in a Time Warp blocks.

Week 39 Claret Red

Week 24 Blotch Ground Chintzes - I think

not sure which week I was thinking with this one

Week 44 Early Roller Print Clouds and Storms

Week 42 Sprigged Muslins and Indiennes

Week 43 Provincial Prints

Week 40 Cadet Blue and Celestials

Week 41 Neon Novelties

I hope to to put these stars into a quilt top this winter. I have lots of plans for time spent in my sewing room. Right now I'm finishing a scrappy Jacob's Ladder quilt top for a great niece. I hope to have the quilt finished by the end of the month. Also, on the sewing agenda for the winter is a small quilt to display in my dining room - Paula Golden says wall hanging sounds too violent! - using my collection of dutch fabrics. Lastly, I hope to make roman shades for my kitchen and powder room. I've had the fabric for months now and it's time to get that done.

Thanksgiving week was a fun family affair. We played board games every evening.

Yesterday, DH and I collected greenery and pinecones to decorate the church hall for the Advent Lessons and Carols reception. I couldn't resist taking this photo of Frida. She's an outdoor cat who came with our property. She is always trying to get in our house. I relent too often and let her in even though I'm allergic to cats. She is good though and knows to go to the one chair I've covered with a towel. Admittedly, she picked the chair but it's okay because it's in the foyer and no one ever sits on it.

Hope to be back soon with a finished Jacob's Ladder quilt.