Red & White Quilt

This quilt top had been sitting some time up in the attic and once in a while I think about how many things I've left undone (eek!) and decided this one would be an easy enough one to finish so a few weeks back I did. I've had very little time this summer to work on projects but this one was just quilt and bind and it's a strip quilt so really easy.

It's is a lap size and it's stitched in the ditch with a Nani Iro binding which I just love.

star quilt in natural dyed muslin

This week I told myself I would finish a quilt. I've a few sitting around.

I had done the quilting by machine several weeks ago but, regretted it and needed to do some unpicking along the border which is why it was sitting around. I know I am not alone with the regret of not hand quilting. It would have been effective since I found it difficult to keep the lines straight with this one. I think in this case even hand piecing the squares would have been a good idea since the stars did not align for me perfectly. So, it's sort of an oops and sort of not. I still think it's pretty even if it's imperfect. It's not a big quilt and it's just the right size for Scarlet to snuggle with. She likes it so and it was for her.

bright spots in the snow quilt

I am finished with this quilt using the snowball block and all solids. The quilting took some time for me because my machine is not cut out for quilts this size and it was a pain to get it through but I did it and it's bound.

The specifics of this quilt: it measures 60" x 78". The blocks are 10" square and there are 20 of them. The sashing in between and on the border are 4 1/2" wide. The fabric is Robert Kaufman in Snow and the colors pieces are a mix of Purl Soho's Spectrum Bundles

This was a fun quilt to make... choosing the color combinations and seeing it all pop against the white. I think it will be very cheerful on cold days.

durand hedden herb garden and a quilt project

On Tuesdays the children and I water and play over at an herb garden behind a historical home in my town. We like to volunteer here in the summer and it is a special place for them to learn, play in the creek, walk over a tiny bridge and make little bouquets. The beds are really beautiful here and I will be sure to take more photos of it over the coming weeks and perhaps introduce you to some new herbs.

Believe me, I know I owe you a post about my garden this year and I promise to get to it soon.

I am close to finishing this quilt top using the snowball block and all solids. This quilt is more modern and graphic then I normally make and I liked pairing up the colors and seeing how bright it pops against the white.

nani iro double gauze quilt

I once had a boss who would declare when she was happy with my photo edit... " I love it, I love it." She would say this very dramatically and it was one of the things my colleagues would hear throughout the day and giggle about as we made our selects leading up to and during fashion week. This is exactly how I feel about this quilt.

My Nani Iro double gauze quilt top was finished on the morning of July 4th and at the end of the day there were fireworks to celebrate. :) Here are some pictures of the top before it was quilted and bound. I borrowed the idea from Melissa after I was handed a nice pile of Nani Iro fabrics from Jaime over the winter. This stack combined with leftover pieces I had in my stash from other projects made for a beautiful mix of florals and dots. The darker fabrics (black, green and orange) with prints on white and lighter colors made for a striking color combination. I used a lightweight loft batting and two Nani Iro prints on the back. I was debating how to quilt this and decided to just go ahead and machine quilt on the diagonal which worked better then I had thought. For the binding I chose red pre-made. I always machine quilt on one side and hand stitch to the back. This is what I am comfortable with and I do like sitting down with it all on my lap and hand stitching to finish. These days though with the air conditioning on.

It measures 48" x 50" and each square is 4"

I still need to give it a wash and dry and am looking forward to it all fluffed up. It will make for a nice lap blanket someday though not anytime soon- it's about 100 degrees today!

the sky will turn blue and the flowers will bloom

Rain outside and in (the basement) and projects scattered about in the bedroom, in the attic. Tired but, so thankful for the morning alone in the house to putter about.

I finished this quilt top last night which was inspired by this one. It's made from voile, liberty cotton lawn (the prints) and muslin. I hope to finish it soon.

I've been dreaming of the garden a lot and had a really strange one the other night- I went out to start moving the soil around and add compost and there were people in all the raised beds all over my front lawn and everyone was so happy like they were at some sort of music festival all smiling, singing and chatting and like it was all so normal for them to be there. There was a kid who had found a large hallowed out tomato that survived winter and was wearing it around as a hat. I started to become agitated as the people started digging in the dirt like you would do in the sand to make a seat because they were going to upset the bulbs and seeds from the fall. I woke up and wondered what it all meant. Maybe it's because one of the prints in here is of vegetables that appear to be dancing..... Who knows...

beekeeper quilt

I started a new long term project. The Beekeeper Quilt by Tiny Owl Knits. It is made up of knitted hexagons in sock weight yarn. They are quite addictive to make.


I am in need of more sock weight yarn though so if you have any leftovers from projects that you are willing to part with I would be willing to trade for other supplies both fabric and yarn so contact me if you are interested in a swap. Thanks.

whole cloth quilt

A simple quilt which makes a fast gift if you want to do something special and have a 1 1/2 yards of two quilting cottons.

I used two solids green and off white with handmade floral binding because I had them on hand.
I machine quilted this after pinning of course back and forth on the shorter side with no pattern and with wavy or tilted lines.

I first saw this style quilt on Katie Did's blog a few years ago but wasn't sure about machine stitching it like this. I thought for a long time whether I should hand quilt it with straight stitches but, decided I would try this out. It is sort of a freeing concept as you sort of lose a bit of control quilting like this without lines to follow.

In the end, I do like it and am now itching to do whole cloth quilting thing again but, this time hand quilt it in sashiko embroidery thread. I really like the way that looks with a lofty batting but for a thin batting like this one the machine quilting works out.

The size is 40" x 42". I should mention that my bobbin thread was very pale pink and on top I used four different colors- pale pink, blue, green and red picking up colors from the binding.

windows and triangles

I'm working on quilts again. Here are a few I have been inspired to work on lately and hopefully finish especially the cathedral windows which has been lingering a few years now. The other one is one I have wanted to start for a while and is made with embroidered handkerchiefs from my collection and will be a small quilt. The light in the attic is pretty bad which is it's biggest downfall but I am so thankful to have such a big room to spread out in and trust me I do.

shoofly quilt

Here are the blocks I showed previously being hand washed and line dried all pieced together.

I had 26 and I used 25 of them to make this quilt. The fabrics are old and the pieces are faded in some spots but, the colors and patterns are still so rich and look so great together that I just had to put them to use. They were hand pieced but, I used the machine to put them together.

The vintage blocks are from the 30's and 40's and I won them on ebay for $36 in 2008. I knew I saved my emails for a good reason. I backed it in white cotton and tied with red embroidery floss. The binding is the only part I regret. I should have used a wider binding. I wanted brown and I had some brown store bought binding so I went with that but, it was a pain to hand sew to the back because there was only a scant amount to work with.

It measures 45" x 45" and if my research proves correct the pattern is called Shoofly.

city weekend plus quilt

I finished this quilt the other night which means I completed my goal to finish two quilts this Spring.
This quilt was a great experience that taught me a lot and showed me just how much more I need to learn.
With a design such as this one which I made up as I went along but, had lovely help figuring out how to make the blocks you can easily see how important each minute detail from exact cutting to exact sewing works out in the end.
I need to be more precise even when I think I am being diligent there is still room for improvement. That said I think it's really nice and I am proud that I made it.

I quilted along the sewing lines known as 'in the ditch' and used a lightweight batting. This makes a nice blanket and the bright coordinated color scheme of the City Weekend collection makes a fun happy summer quilt.

I talked about the quilt here and here

stacking the odds quilt

I finished binding the Stacking the Odds quilt the other day and am so happy with it. The piecing was finished in April and I sent the quilt off to Tillie Studio where she used a long arm and the design Knotty to quilt it for me. Amy's mom did a wonderful job. I couldn't be happier with the design I chose and the work she did. Since this is a queen size quilt I didn't think I was up for the challenge of hand quilting it though I would really like to do that some time and it's just too big for my sewing machine. I think a intricate quilting stitch is a nice touch with a modern feeling design such as this one. I talked about the fabrics here.
Now it's time to take the velvet and linen quilt off and display this pretty one. I usually am not one for boldness in color and pattern in the home so this is fun and different.

Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts

I just got home from a trip into NYC to see Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts at the Park Avenue Armory which was an absolutely stunning exhibit of 650 red and white quilts loaned to the museum by Joanna S. Rose. The quilts hang in several circular pattern from the ceiling down appearing weightless and frozen in air. It is breathtaking to walk in and see this many quilts and the way in which they are displayed.

I've always loved red and white quilts (red being my favorite color) and redwork embroidery so this was especially exciting for me.

After the exhibit I really enjoyed reading about the origins of the popularity of this color combination and it's relation to the colorfastness of Turkey red dye derived from madder root. This has only furthered my interest in learning more about natural dyeing.

Geometric pieced patterns take up most of the quilts on exhibit though there is also a nice representation of applique designs. I also learned about the "snowflake method" from the brochure and think that would be really fun to try someday. This snowflake method is derived in the same way a paper snowflake is cut by using folded pieces of fabric.

I can not express how much I really loved seeing the variety of designs in one place. There were many that stole my heart. Being able to get so close up and see all the hand quilting work in so many unique and interesting ways was really special.

The exhibit is a birthday present to the owner of the quilts who wanted to give a gift to NYC and see something she has not seen before. She had no idea how many quilts she possessed and had not gone about acquiring them as a collector. She calls herself a treasure hunter. In the brochure it says that they were purchased at flea markets in the 1950's where they sold for five or ten dollars. Can you believe that?

I had only my phone to take pictures with as I forgot my camera when rushing out the door to catch the train but hopefully they will be able to show images of them online for those who could not attend. I really do hope so. And, if you can make it the exhibit is up for a few more days.

I think I have to add a red and white quilt to my ever growing list of quilts to make. Wouldn't you know I just picked up some red and white fabric yesterday at Joann's...