May Mini with Wendy

 This month's Mini Quilt with Wendy is one that has been in the works for a Long Time, so I just decided to Finish It!  Looking at it now, other fabrics I own come to mind that might have been closer to the original.  Do you Second-Guess your choices as much as I do? I handquilted with the big stitch as it seemed appropriate for this piece.

Here's the original AND I found extra photos in another File!  I enjoy studying the old fabrics.  This was said to be from PA, looks like it might have been done by a child.  Some of the fabrics look pretty early!

This was said to be the back, but it looks too small!

   

Already know what I want to do for next month!  Another reproduction of an antique doll quilt!  Involves poison green.

April Mini with Wendy

This was actually my March Mini that did not make it!  So I am sliding in under the wire for April!  Felt good to get back into handquilting again!  Finished binding last evening!

The basket props are a reminder that in another life I was a basketmaker.....liked mini baskets too!  Now to go see what everyone else has made on Wendy's blog!  Hope to see you next month with another Finish!

February Mini Quilt with Wendy

 

Joining Wendy's Monthly Minis at Constant Quilter blog.

Well, not really That Mini because it is 18" square.  Thought about stopping at four blocks but didn't!  Might revisit that tho!  My quilt is based on a Pinterest photo I found a year or so ago and just loved.    Their 4-patches look to be about 2" but mine are 1"......love using the tiniest bits instead of throwing them away!  Someone else loved this quilt, too, and made her version of it.....Lori D of HumbleQuilts blog     Check it out!  Was not able to create links.....sorry.  

My quilt is machine-quilted hidden in the ditch as I am not a good machine quilter.  I may use the quilting as basting and handquilt........found a sweet little feather wreath that would work in the four squares!

And just this morning I found a quilt pattern I'd like to try for next month!  Love this not working business but will open the shop again in April IF the covid numbers stay down!

January Mini Quilt with Wendy

 When I noticed that Wendy (The Constant Quilter) had added me to her mini quilt list, I thought I had better produce!!  Long story on this one is that as you can see, Jo Morton's pattern is dated 1995 and I believe that is when I made the two stars.  Well, I either lost them or put them away (you know how that is....can't remember much any more!).  Every once in a while they would resurface and I would tell myself to finish the quilt......but didn't!  Well, now it is finished and here it is a day late.....finished the binding at 10pm last night!  

I have lots of tops that need finishing and with my so-called free time due to Covid, I should be sewing!  However, I now find lots of time to read that I haven't had since I was raising kids (when they were in school!)  AND, I have a new favorite saying ........"Maybe I'll do that tomorrow".  Anyway, I am enjoying a slower life than I have had since I opened my shop 30 years ago!  Next time I go out to the shop (after pending snowstorm!), I'll find the first little quilt of Jo's that I made and add it to this post!

If the link to Wendy does not work, you'll find her on my sidebar.  Blogger has changed the way links are made from when I posted regularly and I am not sure I did it right!

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!

Still here!

Though I've been inactive for several months, I am still here!  Still doing what I always do!  Not much changes and that's how I like it (highly resistant to change!) Running the shop, Starting new quilts, Finishing a few!    Working on several (actually Many!) projects at one time so it is a long time between "finishes"!  And, I will admit that I have found Instagram and have made a few postings there which I find quick and easy!  BUT, if you count the time I spend perusing everyone's postings, I've lost the time I thought I had found!

Long Time Gone in Repros...this is the upper left corner.....made my own mini version of the Jacob's Ladder section.  Plan to make a few other changes too.....smaller Bow Tie blocks, postage stamp block instead of Trip Around the World, center chimney Log Cabin blocks instead of "off-center log cabin blocks".......you know how it is, we are inspired by patterns written by others but change them according to our own likes and preferences!

Stack of  eighty 6" log cabin blocks that need one more round of logs!   For an 84" x 84" quilt,  I will need 196 so have started a stack of 116!  Rather enjoy "mindless"  chain - piecing while listening to audiobooks......currently it is "Before We Were Yours" by Lisa Wingate, based on the true story of a notorious woman named Georgia Tann who ran an orphanage in Memphis for about 30 years ending in 1950.  Other books I've recently listened to are "Where the Crawdads Sing", "The Tatooist of Auschwitz", "Cilka's Journey", "Auschwitz Lullaby","The Clockmaker's Daughter" by Kate Morton, "The Great Alone"and "Winter Garden" both by Kristin Hannah......slow start to "Winter Garden" but glad I hung in there for the Real Story in the second half of the book!  

Using 1" strips as "Leaders and Enders" I have made 3-1/2" Railfence blocks.... 607 made and need 177 more for an 84" x 84" quilt.  Pictured above is a quarter section of my planned quilt.  I think I will find it easier to handquilt if I do it in sections and then join together.  This Quarter section is 14 rows by 14 rows, which means 196 blocks and 1176 log strips!  And guess what!  There is a Duplication in two blocks that are close to each other!  Happens every time!  Don't care!!

Made the darling Diamonds quilt all by hand this summer  (well, except for borders/binding!).  Quite enjoyable to sit and piece by hand during quiet times in the shop and then quilting by hand.  Pattern is from Betsy Chutchian's book "Quilts For All Seasons".  The "change" that I made in this quilt is that I made 2" diamonds as I had an Ardco window-template for that size.....Betsy's were 1-1/2".  

Glad to see these horses, bunnies and keys!

Chesapeake by Di Ford

New fabric arrivals this week from Andover Fabrics....."Watts Valley" wonderful shirtings by Australian duo Max and Louise......Conversationals even!  And the always wonderful offerings from Di Ford (another Aussie!) with her "Chesapeake" line!  Her blue is the closest we've seen to Prussian Blue for a long time!  Even better in person!  Next to arrive will be Sarah's Story byBetsy Chutchian.

Will end today's post with a bit about our 19-year-old Maine coon cat, Sally.  She was dropped off here as a very tiny kitten (too small to be away from her mother!) in the fall of 2000.  My husband found her lying on the back of a resting cow.....we then knew she would be resourceful, and even opportunistic!  She's had a great life!  Roamed and did as she pleased for many years!  Still does in the summer months, but now her favorite spot is right beside the woodstove and vocalizes if it runs out of heat!  She disappeared a couple times.....the last time for about 5 days......when she dragged herself home (wish I could know where she had been!), she was thin and scruffy-looking and had a single deep wound in her neck.  My husband (farmer who has nursed many animals over the years for many maladies) pulled her through.  Though I thought she was goner, she is not.....has gained weight, appears healthy and has returned to her mostly ornery and aloof self!