Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Vintage Treasures - Installment #5

If you remember in my last installment I mentioned that I would be showing the quilt that began my journey as a quilter. Well here it is, along with a quilting book that I got through a book club. As you can see, I've looked at it a bunch!!! The quilt was one that Mike's paternal grandmother made, and it was on his bed in her house. He lived with her for several months after his grandfather passed away. So not only is it special to him, I fell in love with it. Simple, frugal, warm, cozy, family - there are not really enough adjectives for me to aptly describe it!!







 The quilt shown on the open pages - it is another of the WISPs that I am hand piecing. I have the stars all pieced (169 - all different fabrics - some of the centers might duplicate, but no star is the same)



 The following blocks are some that I bought on ebay. The fabric looks like the 50's and also some shirting fabrics. I know they were in an estate sale. I'm not sure what the block is called - IF SOMEONE KNOWS please let me know. Also, any feed back on layouts would be cherished. As you can see some of the big triangles are dark and some are light, so I've separated them accordingly. The blocks measure 4.75 inches. I'm planning on making two small quilts / table toppers / doll quilts out of them.


Blessings!!!!

Monday, June 27, 2011

Christmas Greetings BOM progress

Spent most of the weekend working border collies with friends - it was such a good time!!! Didn't take any pictures, but all the dogs did very well. Looking forward to the fall trial circuit!!!

But last night I did sit and finish the center of the Advent Wreath - I'm pleased. I'm a little rusty sewing such small pieces, but it has been really rewarding!! I'm getting my "feel" back - keeps my fingers nimble! And my conversion worked - the block is right at 6".


Then this morning, I finished cutting the pieces (52) for the Star of the Magi block! I put them on my new "design board" (Thanks Janet) and it's ready for me when I finish the Advent Wreath!!


I'm a little behind on the BOM, as I signed up late, but hope to be caught up by July. It's my first Elm Creek Quilts quilt (my favorite novel series by Jennifer Chiaverini) so I'm pretty excited to finally do one.

Have a great day!!!  Blessings

Friday, June 24, 2011

Christmas Greetings BOM / Design Board

Okay, I usually consider myself pretty self sufficient and ingenuous but Janet O. http://roguequilter.blogspot.com/ pretty much made my day!!!! I'm sure a lot of you knew about small design boards, and I've been admiring everyone's design walls which I didn't have room for, but Janet's post today was so timely!!! I'm working on Elm Creek Christmas Greetings BOM, and I was just putting my pieces on my cutting mat. I've down sized the blocks to 6", and since the pieces are very small I'm hand piecing to get the points just perfect. I'm enjoying it, but it is a slower process and the pieces have kinda been "in the way" when I need to use the space for my cutting mat for other things. So, voila - a handy design board! I'm going to definitely make me some more!!!

Blessings!!!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

RAIN!!!!!

We had 0.9" rain last night!!!!!!

Quick question - is anyone else having trouble uploading pictures for their post? I can't upload today, and couldn't find anything on blogger issues saying there was a problem.

Have a blessed day!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Anniversary Meal

Today is our anniversary - 31 blessed years! My honey had to work, so I made a special dinner (noon time meal) - one of his favorites! Anne Ida ( http://quiltoholiker.blogspot.com/2011/06/something-yummy-for-rainy-sunday.html) and I have been sharing food pics, so I wanted to share this one too! This is a classic cowboy meal!

Steak fingers, corn, mashed potatoes, cream gravy on light bread, garden salad with ranch dressing and fresh milk (yes, I said "fresh" - I milk a cow!).




For dessert: Chocolate meringue pie!

Is your mouth watering yet!!!

Blessings

Rygh's Wilderness Quilt

A few weeks ago, when I first started my blog, my blogging friend Janet O http://roguequilter.blogspot.com/
asked me about the bear quilt. So here's the story. I bought the center bear panel

at our local Wal-Mart store. Our son is such an outdoorsman - loves all kinds of hunting and fishing, so I thought I would do something with this for him. I thought and thought and thought (really I was busy doing other things, but I bet even when ya'll are doing something else, you're planning your next quilt project!!). I really like pine tree blocks, but have never made any, but went through my scraps and put together blues, greens and browns for the trees - I had to shop for some more greens to have a variety. So as I was piecing the tree blocks, I began imagining a twin size bed quilt and trying to figure out how to make it fit. So I designed the bears paws walking across the forest floor
Then I needed something on the top, so took some deer blocks and pieced them in the center of Ohio Star blocks on point (Ohio Stars are my absolutely favorite block!)

Then to make it all fit, I added the gold and brown narrow sashings, but still need something to get all the tree blocks around the border, so I added the flying geese at the top "of the forest".  For the backing I found a wildlife scene with mountains and moose in blues, greens and browns.

I had extra of this fabric and made pillow cases and backing for throw pillows to match.

For the border, I used a brown fabric with oak leaves and acorns, and the binding was the same fabric in forest green.

I outline quilted the medallion, the bear paws, and deer star blocks. The sashings, borders and triangle blocks were zig zag to represent mountains. On the forest floor, I quilted acorns and oak leaves in the midst of cross hatching (my favorite quilting design). I won't tell you how long it took me, but Rygh loves it!!

Blessings!

P.S. It turned out to be a full-sized quilt! Much better!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

A Quilting Father's Day Tribute


Today was a poignant sweet day for me. Two of our children and their husband and girlfriend come to spend the weekend with Mike and I. We had a great weekend and a very special time after brunch this morning. But it did bring up memories of my own dad. He passed away 19+ years ago at the young age of 61. I was the only daughter and very close to my dad. One of the things about my dad was that he wore plaid wool shirts year round. So there was a bunch of them. I had just begun an interest in making quilts, so I asked for all the shirts. So this is my tribute to my dad.






A tied quilt that I made for my brother and his wife for their wedding gift.




A quilt top - I have high hopes of getting my girls to help quilt it!





This is my favorite quilt top that I've made from Dad's shirts. I'm going to hand quilt it, so it has gotten put aside for other time sensitive projects!! If you look - the flower is the same fabric as the shirt that Dad has on in the picture!


Thursday, June 16, 2011

Addendum to Vintage Treasures - Installment #4

Just a quick add to my last post. I was looking for some other family information and came across a photo of my great-great grandmother, which I had forgotten I had. I believe she is the one that made the crazy quilt pillow sham shown in my header picture. Crazy quilts usually have items that tell about the times or the maker or something that leaves a note of history, and this pillow sham has "Mrs. Via" (my gggrandmother) and "1896" embroidered on it. 



Again, thanks for letting me share some of my "quilting" history. Stayed tune for the next installment where I show the quilt that really got me into quilting!! Til then!

Blessings!!

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Vintage Treasure - Installment #4

If you look at the caption of my header picture, you will note that I mentioned that the thimble in the picture was my great grandmother's (I know - you can't see it very well, right!) Well, here's a close up. 
It is a Ketchum & MacDougall 14K yellow gold probably made around 1900. It has her name "Kate" engraved on the side. I know nothing else, just that I was the only one in the family that sewed, so I got it. It fits me perfectly, so I do use it for hand quilting or piecing. 


This is a picture of my great grandmother taken around 1903 - I believe she is holding my grandmother's older sister who was born in 1901. They lived in an area in southern Wyoming called Red Desert - a very arid, hard country. My great grandfather was a sheep rancher. I always thought that it was "special" that my great-grandmother had such pretty things living in such a barren setting.


My great grandmother also had a J & C Fischer upright piano that I also inherited. I was always told that the piano was bought in 1911, but my research shows that it was in family photos that would date about 1907. But which ever date, it is one of my "Vintage Treasures". Note the "scarf" on the top of the piano - it is original with the piano.
 Thanks for letting me share my history with you! I would love to hear about yours.

Blessings

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Vintage Treasure - Installment #3

Changing themes a little - still vintage, just not a quilt. My daughters and I were shopping (okay, we don't really shop, but we do browse junk/resale/antique shops and we were sure not shopping for a wedding dress, but it found us!! It was pretty "yellowed", but when my daughter tried it on - it was so her!! So we bought it for a song!! It was hand made, probably in the 1960's. When it came time for the wedding (when we bought it - she wasn't even engaged!!), I did take it in, fixed some small tears in the lace and shortened it (just FYI - it was 8 yards around the hem!!). Then I used quilt soak and voila - the finished product - and I think she was lovely!



Friday, June 10, 2011

Vintage Treasure - Installment #2

Okay, ebay shopaholic syndrome produces lots of fun things. I really like to buy quilt blocks. I usually don't know the story about the blocks, but I feel like I want to finish the "story"! Several months ago I bought a mixed lot of vintage blocks. I've played around with them and laid them out in lots of ways. The following is one of those finished projects. 



This is one my first attempts at quilting a stencil pattern. I really like how it turned out! This small quilt is about 18" X 18".

Blessings!!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Vintage Treasures

Okay, I'll admit, I love to shop - but really only on-line especially ebay!!! So, also being a quilt nut, of course I shop for quilt stuff on-line!!! When, I take a break from whatever I'm doing I'll take a quick 10 minute shopping trip (hey, I'm not spending any gas money!!!) and see what I can find! Thought I share a couple of my Vintage Treasures. Don't worry, I have more. I'm just rationing them to ya'll so ya'll will "come on back"!



 

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

HELP!!

I'm still having trouble leaving comments on blogs with embedded comments. Does anyone know if maybe I have some setting set wrong? Also, I've checked blogger issues and they've mentioned a problem about posting comments, but I was wondering if there is a way to contact blogger and post a problem. Any input would be appreciated!

Can't make a post without adding something about quilting, so I've added a picture of a crazy quilt that my paternal grandmother made for our wedding gift 31 years ago. It is made with cotton fabrics attached to muslin. She didn't use any batting but backed it with flannel. It has been "well-loved" through the years. It is a favorite to curl up and watch TV!! The kids use to fight over it!!!

Monday, June 6, 2011

Crazy Quilt Construction

The Crazy Quilt Craze started in the 1880's and these quilts were embellished with embroidery and applique. A Crazy Quilt is not traditionally "quilted", and really is more like a coverlet. Traditionally Crazy Quilts were made with silk, brocades and other fancy fabrics. Note the crazy quilt pillow sham in my header. This pillow sham was made by my great-great grandmother in 1896. As far as I know it is the only piece of "quilt" work that came from my mother's side of the family.
Usually crazy quilts are constructed with blocks as illustrated below. The maker cut desired size squares of some fabric, usually muslin, and then began attaching random fabric pieces by using a variety of embroidery stitches. Then the blocks were attached together much like a traditional pieced quilt. Sometimes batting was used and of course backing fabric, but these were bound together by tying from the back side and only going through the backing, batting and foundation of the blocks.


I'm constructing this one a little different because I wanted a big quilt without the block look,(much like the one pictured below). I first embroidered designs on lots and lots (over 100) wool scraps (some were old suit coats, skirt and slacks and others were fat quarters from our local rug/yarn shop). Then I pinned the "blocks" onto a large piece of muslin and put it in the frame. I'm featherstitching the blocks together and to the foundation muslin. It has been challenging keeping out puckers etc and I've had to adjust placements as I've gone along, but it has been fun to do, but not sure I would make another! LOL The quilt is about 90" X 90". I plan on using a thin needle punched all cotton batting to help hold the ties together and give some substance for the heavier wool fabrics. I'm using #3 cotton perle to do all the featherstitching because it is sturdier and doesn't "catch".

 

Blessings and Happy Quilting!!!!

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Meet Bess!!!


Bess!!!
Our newest addition. We're pretty excited!!
It's always fun to have a new puppy - brings new hope to all that I do!

WIP - Finally Resumes!

Wool crazy quilt back out and in progress again!! I had put it up for a couple of weeks as I was busy with other things, but now I'm ready to get back at it and get it done. 


Blessings to all for the week ahead!!

Thursday, June 2, 2011

There is always Hope!

Okay, I'm usually a very optimistic person, but lately I've been kinda "brown" - we have had no rain, 100 degree days and 40 mph winds - reminds me of the Dust Bowl Days!! But as I was doing my outside chores this morning I saw this little yellow flower (not sure what it is) just beaming "hope" in the midst of the brown!

                                                  
...He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and He will strengthen your frame....Is 58:11

Blessings!!!!