Another Fan Quilt

Thrifting has been mentioned in this blog in the past so you shouldn't be surprised at what I found at Goodwill the other day: a diamond in the rough. I spied the 1930-1940s fabric first and then the fan pattern. No visible quilting could be seen on the front only on the back. It looked like someone just took a finished top and slapped it onto a cheap imported quilt. There was a very sloppy binding using pre-made bias binding in a wine color and the pink backing was the cheap imported quilt. But the top! O my! absolutely beautiful.

That awful binding and backing have now been removed. This quilt top is stunning! Totally hand pieced with two different sizes of fans in the snake-in-the-hollow setting. The top was serged to the backing on one and half sides resulting in the pink border being cut off on those sides. There is plenty of fabric in the border to be able to even it up all around. The quilt, btw, measures about 75x85, a good sized quilt.

I do believe this one deserves to be hand quilted.

All this for $9.95.

Bubblegum Pink and Nile Green

I spent some time yesterday picking apart the pink and green border strips that I received for my labor in this post. Then last night the pink was put to soak in a weak solution of Oxyclean. The same will happen for the green today. I pondered how to use this fabric as the hand stitching was removed. The quilt pictured in this post just using these two fabrics plus muslin is a very good solution. Why? Because the pink and green fabrics are very loosely woven and will need a foundation. The diamond blocks in the photo in this post are made on a foundation. Pink and green -- Bubblegum Pink and Nile Green. What a combo!

Scrap Quilting

Over at With Heart and Hands, Michele is showcasing the concept of the simple Scrap Quilt. I love scrap quilts. Scrap quilting eases my soul and is a very green thing to do. Our fore-mothers made scrap quilts because of the readily available source of fabric in left overs. So, for me, even when a quilt is a planned commission quilt all the scraps go into the bucket for later use.

The first quilt shown was made for TheKid. Through the years of making flannel boxer shorts for him and flannel shirts for his dad, a large collection of flannel scraps was amassed. This is the resulting quilt. Then the flannel log cabin quilt for CarGuy was made. Notice that it is tied; he kept popping the quilting stitches so the quilting was picked out and it was tied instead. This worked better as the tied spots allowed the flannel to stretch. The final flannel quilt is a nine patch and snowball quilt for myself that was later given away. New flannel needed to be purchased for the snowballs and borders. Guess where the scraps went? Each of these quilts is a utility quilt, not meant for show but to be used. And used they have been -- the log cabin quilt is practically worn out. But that is why they were made.

I encourage you to go over to Michele's blog and following the links in the comment section and read how they deal with scraps.

Schlep Bag

At the Monday night meeting of the Material Girls this month we made Schlep Bags. One of our members just returned from Atlanta and apparently this bag is all the trend there.

Using the pattern found on Sentimental Stitches, called So Sew Easy Schlep Bag, we all created our bags and they were as different as the women who made them. I used some odds and ends of decorating fabric for my bag. Even the lining is leftover deco fabric from the bedroom window shade project.

Since I did not make it to the April meeting and was not able to see the completed bag, it was a mystery to me. Wish I'd thought through my fabric placement and swapped the stripe and the solid gold fabrics.

But done is done. And I had a good time sewing and talking.

Quiet time

It has been pretty quiet around La Casa del Quilter. Still plugging away on the barter quilt. The applique quilt has been set aside for the moment.

The big thing is that I can not start on the window shades until CarGuy remeasures the windows for me. I don't DO ladders and these windows are 18 feet up. Nope, no way am I going to get on a ladder. So I can't start the shades until I get confirmation of the measurements.

In other news, I found the book for the pattern in the previous post and added the link to that post, in case you are interested.

No big plans for the weekend. We have been having hot July weather and it is forecasted to go back to the normal May pattern. That means cooler weather and showers.

*photo courtesy of Microsoft.com Clipart.

Oops -- hit that button too fast.

I hit 'Publish' before I linked to the pattern* that MagicLady is going to use to remake the quilt. Pretty kewl isn't it?
*from the book Spectacular String-Pieced Quilts by the editors of Traditional Quiltworks and Quilting Today magazines

Working for Fabric

Saturday was spent in a fabric kind of way.

MagicLady rescued this quilt top from an uncertain future. This poor quilt top was made sometime in the first quarter of the 20th century. We think it was made by two different quilters: the diamonds by an experienced quilter and the rest of the top by another, less experienced quilter. The top did not have a chance as a quilt because there was no way it was EVER going to lay flat: all 9 blocks looked like this one. It was not going to 'quilt out'.

It is interesting that the black thread used to piece the sashing and borders and was as thick as modern day carpet thread, did not show through on the top. This thread is one of the items that helped us date the top. Like many scrap quilts the fabric spanned decades. Some of the fabrics in the stars were from the 19th century, some were flannels, some were shirting fabrics. The pink and green were probably from the 20th century around 1930 and both are a very loose weave.

MagicLady knew that it needed to be totally taken apart to be able to use the 45 degree diamonds. A formidable task for one person so I volunteered to help. Saturday we sat on her living room floor unstitching. Sort of a reverse sewing bee. After seeing this pattern, she wanted to put the diamond portions of the stars from the quilt top into that setting. In keeping with the spirit of the quilt, she is going to do it piecing and quilting by hand.

We had a little extra help. Elvis Sweetie Pie, our official inspector, did not care for the star that was tossed onto him.

O! and the title of this post? I received ALL the pink and green fabric as a thank you for my help. Psst, all photos were taken with my cell phone. Not bad, huh?

Status

I have lost interest in the barter quilt which is a very bad thing. It is, after all, a barter -- you know, an exchange of items. Of course, the way he is bringing the firewood, it could be next summer before I need to get this quilt done. But having things like this hanging over my head makes for a very large quilty guilt trip so progress must happen. It all stemmed from having to take the blocks apart and re-cut to a smaller size. As you can see, 60 blocks have been made -- out of 400. A friend in a recently joined small quilt group (The Finishing Club) gifted the charm pack to add to the borders. Yay for quilting friends! Update: Since the photo was taken, work has started on this quilt again and has actually progressed -- all 400 rail blocks have been trimmed to size!

This is the status of the applique quilt. As you can see, there is a lot of prep work. All the pale yellow pieces and all the burgundy pieces are glued. But this deep purple is giving me fits! There must be some kind of finish on this fabric that wasn't apparent on the others because I can glue the turned under edges and press them down with the manicure stick, let them dry and they have all popped up when I return. A grand total of three is done. Arggh! it is so frustrating. I am about to baste the stupid things down with water soluble thread. By hand. Another update: although the hand basting is more time consuming it is working. It is a good thing there is no time limit on this quilt.

MagicLady and I attended the Denver National Quilt Festival IV and were totally inspired and challenged each other to do a small quilt (24"x24") using a vintage block. It was the Vintage Revisited Exhibit that inspired us. The blocks are on the design wall along with some fabric pulled from the stash just waiting for me to have the time to work on it.

The fabric for CarGuy's new blankie has arrived and a pattern chosen. Stay tuned. I can not start on this until the barter quilt is done and the Roman Shades for the clerestory windows are made. Gotta block that hot summer sun, ya know. Plus there is the added problem of the sun streaming through the windows and then through the overhead fan blades; when the fan is on this causes a strobe-light effect on the back splash of the sink. Very disorienting!

I Found Them

I am so much happier now! I found them!!! Yipee.

I looked out at the ranch. Nope.
I looked in the trunk of my car. Nope.
When I got home from work, I looked in my bucket. In fact, I took out the liner and everything else from the bucket. I found them under the liner. Huh? how did that happen. I almost kissed them, but I didn't because there were men there watching me. The Felcos went into the house for cleaning and disinfecting and are now ready to rock 'n roll.

Felcos #2

have been misplaced, wah! If you do any type of hand pruning in the yarden these are the top of the line and so easy to use! Last time I had them was out at my employer's ranch. I volunteered (to get me out from behind that desk) to go plant flowers and do a bit of flowerbed cleanup. That was on Thursday. Friday, my day off, was crappy weather, so I spent it sewing. Saturday was a meeting of Quilty Friends and afterward I got out into my yarden to do some of my own cleanup and planting and no Felcos!! Called my boss and he went and looked but came up empty handed.

I am so mad at myself! These pruners were a present from CarGuy, my sweetie, many years ago and I have taken such good care of them until now. Sob! I want my Felcos!

Did you notice the price to replace them? Gulp.

For Libby

Song and Dance

I SOOOOOO can't resist this. It makes me smile every time I see it. Does every Belgian know this dance, because it seems some of the bystanders joined in.

Denver Quilt Festival

I went to the Denver Quilt Festival on a rainy Saturday. For those cat lover's out there, go check out one of the winning quilts -- Siamese cats with beautiful blue eyes.

The quilt shown is "Ribbitt" by Leigh Cabell, which won an honorable mention. Do you see what this it? This is a huge (90"x106") cathedral window quilt with beads at every intersection. The planning that went into this quilt, o my! At the bottom of the eye on the right side of the quilt, when she needed that blue+black, she pieced a little corner triangle of black onto the blue so that when the 'window' was peeled back it revealed the very bottom of the pupil.

My GF and I thoroughly enjoyed our day out that included breakfast and linner *smile*.

More on one of the exhibits in a later a post. I promise.

Wake Up Call

CarGuy and I participated in a community health fair and picked up our blood work results on Saturday. Suffice to say, it wasn't pretty. Total lifestyle changes are needed on both of our parts.

Along with changing my diet, I've been spending time with these ladies.

The DVD on the left is good if you like a bit more choreography (as in dance moves) and each of the 3 levels is only 30 minutes. The DVD on the right is movement, mainly walking. The 2 mile walk runs about 45 minutes. I have never made it to the 4 mile. Yet.

Did you know there is a fat-free half and half? What an oxymoron.