Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Dear Jane Slide Show

For those who want to see all the nitty gritty - here are all the photos of the Dear Jane quilt.  For the quick recap, see the post below.


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Dear Jane

My good friend, Sue Schwegler, pieced this Dear Jane over several years.  She said some of the piecing challenged her.  Over time, her quilting skills and techniques improved while putting it together.  What a great accomplishment!  Here are a couple photos to wet your appetite!

 
The idea was to keep the quilting simple, to accent the intricate piecing.  I SID inside every block and around all the piecing.  Each block was then quilted with a line or arc.  A straight line was quilted in the tiny sashing.
Some of the piecing is SO tiny!  It was really interesting to see all the different civil war reproduction fabrics and try to figure out how the blocks were put together.  She used many techniques - including applique and paper piecing.

 
 Triangle border.
 
 
Edges and Corners.  The edges were quilted with a shallow swag - it will be a scalloped edge.
 
 
A view from the back.  This quilt is large, 90 x 90, and heavy.
The solid backing shows all the quilting and SID that you may not see from the front. 

Dear Sue - When you get tired of looking at this one, send it back.  I'll be happy to visit it again. 

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving Day to all my quilty friends!  
I am thankful for all the Lord has given me - my five senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell, all my abilities, my creativity, my relationships, the friends he surrounds me with, my health and a sound mind, a warm house, abundant food and so much more.  Oh how He loves us!  Yes, we are blessed.   

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Baby Quilts

Here are a couple sweet baby quilts made by Marge M.  So simple, but very charming.  She found the Beatrix Potter fabric five years ago and saved it to use for her first grandchild.  Some things never go out of fashion!  Patterns are from the book Sweet & Simple Baby Quilts, by Mary Hickey.   

 Quilted edge to edge with Paisley Playtime pattern.


 Quilted edge to edge with Popcorn pattern.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Retreat

October is my get-away month.  I go to Homestead Cabin Retreat for a couple days and work on some piecing.  This year I brought a basket block exchange that I had participated in earlier this year.  I had 9 basket blocks and added a couple more, setting them in an on-point setting, using Sharyn Craig's book Great Sets.

Okay, this was my experiment quilt.  The book states that all colors go together.  I originally picked a soft pastel blue and brown to tie in all the blocks.  My basket blocks are a variety of colors including soft pastels.  Then, in a quilt shop on the way up to the retreat, I found more fabric (smile) and changed to a more vibrant blue and brown combo.  I liked the colors together and thought it added some zip to the quilt.     

Well, I made all the blocks and put them together but it's not my favorite quilt.  I should have kept to my original color scheme.  It will have to do.  I'll get it finished for our quilt show in March 2012.  It was good practice to figure out the math on the side triangle and corner blocks! 

I also finished a wall hanging that I had started in a Kim Diehl class.  I just had to finish the border.   So nice to finish those projects.  I used the design wall the choose which way I wanted the border blocks to go.  
Option A

Option B
Here is our workspace.  There were 17 quilters there that weekend.  So much fun.

Outside the front door.  Her chickens and roosters roam the property. 



Halloween Weekend


Even the window in the bathroom is decorated for Halloween. 

A fall quilt on display.  I love this scrappy quilt!

A couple deer head keep you company in the cabin.  I took this picture from the loft.
Patsy's quilt top. 
 
Chris Daly made this top from her hand-dyed fabrics.  Love the colors!

This is the back of the quilt.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Snowball Blocks

This is such a warm quilt!  All the colors go together so nicely.  Pieced by Roberta C., the body of the quilt is made from simple snowball blocks.  The vine and flowers were appliqued. 

I stitched-in-the ditch around the vine and flowers.  Small background stippling makes them pop.
 The "flowers" are made out of yo-yo's.  So they have a rounded dimension to them.