Doll Quilt Swap

Recently participated in a Doll Quilt Swap on Instagram.  Requirements were to make a quilt you will find hard to give away, handquilted and size minimums/maximums.  I had already started the center star for my quilt when I learned of the swap and was accepted so I decided this would be my swap quilt.  (My previous idea will wait until the next swap!)   Originally, I was planning to join Pam Buda's Heartspun Quilts  Blog SAL for this antique quilt block replica.....both pictured below.  Check it out for yourself!  Couldn't figure out the new way to create a link but you can easily Google it!

This is my backing....a darling Beatrix Potter toile.

Original block Pam was using for her SAL.  This is a single block in an antique quilt....great idea for a small quilt, don't you think?  I once enlarged a quilt block "Massachusetts" for a small wallhanging.....Look for more blocks to use!

Pam made her quilt in patriotic colors. 

And, last But Not Least, is the swap quilt I received from Jeanne Lex!  This is a perfectly made Pineapple quilt and looks Beautiful on my dining room table.  On days when the shop is open, I take it there to be sure my customers see it!  

Life Goes On......................

No excuse for not writing on blog.......just didn't happen.  

It's hot/humid here today so I needed to find something to do that didn't require much moving around!!  No A/C in upstairs sewing room so will need to work on the laptop downstairs.............hope tomorrow is cooler! 

Life is slower, for sure, these days and I find I am enjoying it immensely!  So much so that I am calling myself "semi-retired".  On Feb 1st, I started my Retirement Sale and then was sidelined for 4 months.  Life has changed for the forseeable future and it's not too hard for me to cope with that as I am a Homebody at heart!  Am sure that there have been many Good Things come out of this situation, especially for quilters and others with hobbies.  In fact, I read somewhere that the Shutdown was what Quilters had been waiting for!  On June 19th I re-opened the shop for Fridays and Saturdays only by appointment only for one or two people at a time......Retirement Sale will continue in this manner until I decide it is over!  Probably won't be for a year, maybe more, now that 4 months have been lost.  Even then I am sure all the fabric won't be depleted!!

My first Shutdown project was, and continues to be, the quilt on the cover of Quiltmania #132.....no idea why the quilt appeals to me so much, other than being Scrappy, Scrappy!  Well, yes, there is another reason.....I found two other quilts on a MA antique dealer website that had that unique red hourglass center and were from Eliot, Maine.  Probable that the QM #132 quilt has a connection even tho no info about the quilt was known......no owner, no location mentioned in the magazine.  Anyway, it's been enjoyable to work on the quilt.......picking up scraps around the sewing room and looking for old favorites that come to mind.  AND, here and there, there are tiny quilt blocks interspersed throughout the borders.  Maybe that was the appeal!  Anyway, I've made a few tiny blocks.

One thing that hasn't changed is my penchant for having Many Projects on the go at any given time!  No willpower to resist starting something new that interests me!  Didn't someone once say that Variety is the Spice of Life?

This is the Quiltmania cover quilt. Original quilt finished size is about 49" x 70", so I will just not add the rows that elongate the top and bottom.  Only about 3" from being a square quilt which is what I prefer if planning to use on my own bed.

                  

         

Close-up showing the odd bits and tiny blocks inserted here and there....the maker made mostly 4-patches and hourglass blocks......

Small crib sized quilt made only with the Hourglass blocks.

This was my beginning

3 borders added

 

 A few more borders added...sorry for the dappled sunshine!

Some 1-1/2" blocks

Tiny Ohio Star block that I made about 20 years ago from antique fabric !

There!  That's it for now....hope to be back again soon to tell you about a quilt swap in which I participated this summer!