Charm Quilts #4, New Book. New Fabric

More charm quilts from New England Quilt Museum exhibit that ends July 6.  Next up will be Rhode Island Quilts which I expect will have some early quilts!  This is  beautifully planned concentric diamonds.  Quilt contains a variety of light 19th century and very early fabrics.

This is the center

What a variety of shirtings!  At first glance, it looks like two triangles are the same blue stripe.....but a closer look and they Are Different!  Love that shade of blue on the white!  I think I have more closeups of this quilt taken on an earlier visit....will look for them.

Another Octagon!  Lots of red, popular in the late 19th century!  And, quite a few "Neons" as we call them today, but maybe called Illuminaries back in the day.

"Neon" closeups....bright grren and purple on black.  Barbara Brackman did a fabric line of "Neons" a few years back called "Ragtime".

Lots of Triangles in the Pennsylvania quilts.....more than one had a center of solids as does this one.

I remember this pattern being used as a project handout for some quilt fabric line many years ago......might even have been "Colorworks" by VIP/Cranston in 1990 that was my first whole collection purchase.......let me know if you think my memory needs help!!!

See the two red checks....nearly the same but one smaller than the other. We observed that these two red checks were in several of the PA quilts......results of swapping among friends and just something popular at the store?

From a distance, these two fabrics looked the same, but they are not!

Lots of handquilting in the border...............

New Fabrics in the shop!  "Through the Winter Woods" by Holly Taylor for Moda.  Love her nature designs and will always buy fabric with pine cones, pine needles, berries because they "speak" to me!

While I specialize in antique reproduction fabrics, customers seem to really like the eyecatching panels by Holly Taylor.....nice to make a quick gift!

Now some reproductions!A Civil War reproduction collection, Shenandoah Valley ca. 1850-1870 by Nancy Gere, features all of the classic mid-nineteenth century motifs, including a large floral, coordinating calicos and foulards, waving wheatgrasses and a serpentine stripe. The deep colors of navy, burgundy and purple are lightened with picotage and tan grounds. Mining a library of vintage scraps, Nancy Gere has delivered a collection of stunning beauty for the reproduction enthusiast. 

Serpentines are always a favorite whether used for sashing, randomly placed in quilt blocks or fussy-cut for Hexagons.........

The large floral is wonderful for backgrounds, alternating blocks in a quilt top, sashing, or borders for an antique look.

 And this is my new book!  Had been perusing online.....have a laptop in my shop now and it is probably a bad move as I spend a lot of time online.....this book comes from NinePatchStudio.com.  Kathie Ratcliffe makes the most gorgeous miniature quilts!  Amazing and meticulous design, construction and color!  You can visit her website here.   

Last but not least, strawberries are now in season!  This was actually taken June 15 and we are still in full swing!  I make Biscuits and then top with crushed berries and whipped cream......good thing I only do this once in a while!!  I have a new favorite recipe that makes Light, Delicious and Quick Biscuits....found the recipe in one of those little papers that come with the daily newspaper.  Uses only 2 ingredients:  2 cups self-rising flour and 1 cup all-purpose cream.   That's it!  Make and bake as with any biscuit recipe.

More charm quilts and More new fabrics next time and maybe I will finally get photos of some of those WIP's and the patriotic Tablerunner I made today for one of my granddaughters.  Wish I could finish it today but it is too Hot to sew!

Charm Quilt post #3 and a WINNER

Will get right to it!  The Winner of my scrap box is Jill who posted a comment on June 8!  Please contact me, Jill, and I will mail the box tomorrow!

Thank you to all who posted comments..........will start a new scrap box this coming week!  

Now more charm quilts from the New England Quilt Museum exhibit.......

Here we have an Octagon......I've seen this shape less frequently than hexagons!

Omigosh!  I just discovered something!  I wondered if I could make the notecards larger so could be read easier.  Never paid much attention to the little bar that pops up when one clicks on the photo.....just used it to remove photos....Now I see that photos can be ENlarged!  This is great and I can't believe it took me four years of posting to pay attention to it......makes me wonder what else I am missing because I don't look for it!

After viewing posted blog, I found that the cards in their enlarged state cut off some of the information so it will be back to Medium.......hope you can read them!

This photo below appears to me to be in the best focus and enlarged well.  The above photos are not as well focused and I found that enlarging made it worse.
Learn something everyday, whether I want to or not!  Am I the last one to learn about the enlarging option?

This one uses diamond shapes horizontally, creating a nice zig-zag......well, actually would be vertical if hung differently!  Lots of unique shirtings were used in this one and unfortunately I lost some because I got to close and did not use the Macro setting! 

Photo below is changed from Medium to x-large.

This photo is the default Medium size.....quite a difference!  I found that I could also use "Original" size that is larger than x-large but they did not seem as clear.

A beautiful day here in Maine today (after two days of rain) and I have found some time to work in my sewing room......after I force myself to do some of the abundance of paperwork for the shop and the farm!  Will post photos on Works in Progress next time, along with more charm quilts................

Charm Quilt #2

This is charm quilt #2..........a Tumbler.....not sure why it is hung sideways but it sure contains many interesting fabrics!!  Look for the block with the Date!

Every type of fabric imaginable from paisleys to checks to blues....and a little "Centennial Green" peeking on the left side and with the circles also.  First time we saw this color show up in a 4th quarter 19th century quilt, we were astonished.  After viewing charm quilts for several years in our state documentation project, we began to look for it and usually found it.......sometimes in more than one fabric.....and oftentimes in various width stripes.  

Wish I could have photographed every fabric in this quilt!  Wouldn't it be great if Pat published a book of her collection!  And even better, created a reproduction line of fabric!!

Greek Key is an often-seen design, both above and below.  Love the shaded blue leaves...........have seen a similar reproduction of it.  And what about the wheat in the lower left!

Centennial fabrics.................and I love that shade of blue in the little floral on white.

Second sighting of a red/black check but this one appears to be smaller checks!  Circles and/or dots and stripes were popular!

We call this center fabric "printed lace".

Shaded blue ombre is an earlier fabric..........

Love this blue on brown!  Both the print and the colors!

Will be back with more next time!  Thanks so much for all the comments for the scrap box drawing!  Forgot to set a date for the drawing.....so I will say that I will do it by the weekend!!

NEQM Charm Quilt Exhibit and Giveaway

Went to to  New Quilt Museum on Tuesday with my friend, Wendy, to see the Charm Quilts of Pat Nickols'.....it was a glorious day for the 2-1/2 hour trip (one way!).  In fact, we had glorious weather most of the week......glorious weather, to me, means temps no higher than 70 or so, Low Humidity, and a Breeze.......great for drying laundry on the clothesline, but I digress from my topic...................I took so many photos that I think I will show one or two quilts in a post.....love the detail shots of the fabrics for study and comparison.  I took a photo of each descriptive placard....hope they are readable!  This first Hexagon Charm had little slips of paper pinned to various fabrics in the center noting where each was formerly used.....most interesting!  Will need to return for the Next Exhibit which is Rhode Island Quilts!!

I think this center does contain a couple hexagons cut from the same fabric.....

The following 5 quilts were made by Wendy who loves Charm quilts as much as I do.........not to even mention Scrappy!  Love the second one with the Eagle Wreath in the center.....perfect size for a little quilt!

This quilt is made in the so-called "Potholder Style".....each block is a mini quilt in itself which are whipstitched together to form the whole quilt......a New England attributed technique frequently used in Signature/Album Quilts and written about by Pam Weeks in her book, "Civil War Quilts".

This may have been Wendy's first charm quilt.....she is considered the Feedsack Queen of Maine!!

And here is the latest full scrap box ready to find a new home!  It is a USPS Medium Flat Rate box filled to the brim!  Just leave a comment and your name will go in the drawing.  If you comment Anonymously, be sure to leave contact info in your comment or I will have to draw another name!!