Frances

I've posted about Frances before, but this is a better photo. This quilt has replaced the ruffly bordered double wedding ring on the wall.

The original blocks were purchased at a garage sale and given to me by a friend. I can't remember how many there were but they were the sorriest looking blocks I've ever seen. They measured approximately (loosely) 12" and were fans that were curved pieced to the background reminiscent of a drunkard's path block with it's quarter circle. These blocks were fraying and misshapen and couldn't be used in their current state. I hand washed them and then took them apart. Why? Because the fabric was all feedsacks! I cut the wedges down, remade the fans and then appliquéd them onto a muslin background. The setting for 'Frances' is the snake in the hollow setting. The newest fabric in this quilt is the brown used in the corner of the fans. That fabric is an early 1980's fabric. I had enough of the fabric left over to make the piano key border.

Ruffly Borders

Way back in 1992, I finished this quilt. It was the second quilt I ever made. I was ambitious. My step-grandmother, Vera, made the football shapes including the muslin. But that was all there was. I drafted and redrafted the centers where the posies are painted before I got one that fit right. The medallion portion of this quilt was all hand pieced and I painted the posies and leaves. Not knowing any better, I measured for the borders on the sides and not through the center. And I STILL didn't notice the ruffly borders before hand quilting this 83"x83" quilt using the same posy as I painted on the medallion.

And so, this quilt is what it is, because I am not removing the hand quilting (through a polyester batting no less) to take the wave out of the borders. Nope, not going to happen.

I had to explain about the quilt itself before I could tell you that I finally got the quilt hanging system installed so I can put quilts up on the wall that reaches from the basement to the cathedral ceiling. I still need to fiddle with the pulleys a bit, but all-in-all I love the way it works and looks. This quilt is actually the only one in the house with a hanging sleeve and so it was the first one to go onto the wall. I hope by hanging it for a while some of the creases and ruffling will subside.

Update

Calmer heads have prevailed and I am listening to them. The quilt top in the previous post has been gently folded up and put away. Now, back to my knitting. I've been hired to do a bit of knitting of hats and fingerless mitts so I've been knitting and knitting and knitting ...

Is this a crazy idea?

Recently this vintage quilt top was gifted to me. It has it's problems.

The squares were hand stitched in black thread with a scant 1/8" seam. See those deep red/burgundy squares? There are other colors that are falling apart at the seams like these.

Am I nuts to even consider this? Think of the work involved.

Goodies in the Mail

The lovely Finn of Pieces from my Scrapbag, sent me these wonderful vintage 30/40s fabrics. When I opened the box they just sproiged out! She included some beautiful yardage too, see it there on the bottom? I found several MAM blocks and a Dresden plate -- I was in heaven. Thank you, Finn, I ♥ this gift!

Faithful Circle Redux

In 2008, I attended a small quilt show in Gunnison Colorado at the Arts Center while CarGuy attended a car show. The majority of the quilts in the show were vintage quilts from the 1930s and 1940s with a sprinkling of contemporary art quilts. I snapped a photo of this sweet quilt at that show as it was quite unusual and caught my eye.

Fast forward to 2010. I acquired a booklet of old patterns during the summer and this pattern caught my eye. It was the only pattern in the booklet that I liked so I scanned it and gave the booklet to my quilt guild’s garage sale. Then in December I did a post about the pattern and a stack of fabrics I was using to make the quilt.

I decided that the best way for me to make this quilt is using the English Paper Piecing method. So to that end, I have all the ‘papers’ cut or purchased for this quilt. Because of the size of the equilateral triangle papers purchased, I had to redraft the hexagon and my squares are now rectangles. BTW, knowing how to draft your own shapes is a handy skill to own. The pieces and parts are in their ‘to-go’ container waiting for Saturday which will be the first time I will work on it other than all the prep work. The white has not been chosen and I am waffling on fabric: plain white (like in the first photo) or a white-on-white that will work with the reproduction fabrics that will be used. Any suggestions?

I never even connected the fact that I had a photo of a completed quilt plus the pattern! That is until I was mucking around in my Flickr account and spied the first photo. Serendipity? I think so.

Another find in Velma's stash

Remember in the last post there was a third gift of fabric? That was Velma's stash. Wonderful name for a quilt, but I digress. This was also in one of the boxes. It doesn't look like much does it? But when I started to flatten it all out, I found paper templates cut from letters and flyers from the 1920s. The fabric is from the late 1800s, I think, but I am not positive. More research is required.

But look. Do you see it? The frugality block? The original piece maker of this block sewed such a fine seam you can't really even see where the seam is, can you? And just look at how thick that pin is.

Anyway. Remember in my last post I mentioned books and magazines? One of them had the pattern for this block. I also found it online here. In case you want to know, it is called Christmas Star.

This link, BTW, is to a site with a star BOM. Enjoy.