One Square at a Time

No, not MIA, but definitely been crazy busy!  This is a quick post on my day off just to show a current work in progress.

                                

I've been a bit obsessed about using up a bin full of 1 1/2" strips I had cut, it seems like there were thousands of them.  You know how they tend to multiply?  Originally they were cut for another quilt, which I showed a peek of back in November, my star quilt that I did.  Even though I used up a lot of strips on that one, there are still way too many left over just to put away and forget about.

So I've been sewing here and there when I am not stuck at work (we own our own business, not always a fun thing!) and it sure seems I have been working way more than sewing!  Anyway, one quilt I've always loved and have never made was a true postage stamp, you know, like the antique ones we all drool over?  Just random little dots of color everywhere, no real planning or thinking, just easy sewing, perfect for letting your mind wander and dream.

So here are the results so far, and no, this is NOT strip-pieced.  This is put together the good ole-fashioned way, one little square at a time.  Not at all as tedious as I anticipated and it goes much faster than I expected.  I made 10 x 10 blocks of one-inch (finished) squares on point, then sewed it all together.  This isn't huge at this point, only about 44" x 58", but I am getting ready to lay out borders for it next.  One border will be pieced with more little squares and the other borders will most likely be solid white.  I like a clean vintage look and I think that is what all this busyness needs.  (No pattern available.)

That is some of the barkcloth I have hanging in my studio in the background, one of my obsessions.  I love that stuff!  But unfortunately prices have gotten so high, I can't justify buying it like I used to, not that I really need another piece!  But it inspires a lot of the colors I use in my quilts and in my house in general, I can't get enough of those pretty vintage colors.

And besides dealing with normal work and life stuff and the challenges they present, I've also been hobbling around on this latest footwear the last several weeks. . . . ignore the dog hair that is attached to it!

Isn't it pretty?  The latest in Spring fashion footwear. . . and no, complaining does not get me sympathy!  So I've been sucking it up.  Apparently I fractured a bone in the ball of my foot, not really sure how, but I am now wearing this for a total of eight weeks and trying not to go the surgery route.  At least it is my left foot and not my right sewing/driving foot, so. . .it could be worse, as they say.

On that note, hope you all have survived this horrible cold and snowy winter so far.  I know it must be pretty awful for some of you.  Stay safe and warm and happy sewing!



World Quilt Show at West Palm Beach, FL

I will wish everyone a Happy January since I guess it's too late to say Happy New Year! 

I have recently taken a few weeks hiatus from most forms of media as much as possible to force myself to focus on being more productive with my spare time.  It's difficult enough to make time to create when we work at regular jobs, not to mention the time that ordinary tasks of day to day life consume.  I think that it is too tempting to get distracted by so many outside influences nowadays. I find myself "innocently" wasting a few minutes here and there checking out social media, a favorite tv show, surfing the web, etc. and suddenly realize these few minutes amount to several hours a week.  I wind up spending the little spare time I do have checking out what "others" are doing or creating, instead of spending my time creating for myself.  So my resolution this year was to really try to focus on doing less "time wasting" and more time being productive, being creative and pursuing my interests and personal goals.  It's not easy.  It's like trying to give up sugar or a favorite food!  You want to taste it all!

 A couple of weekends ago I attended the World Quilt Show in West Palm Beach, FL, about three hours south of us.  My quilt above, Color My World, was entered into the competition, which was open to Florida quilters only.  I thought I would show a few of the quilts from the show.  These are in no particular order, just a few quilts I thought were interesting.  And I apologize for poor photo quality, these were taken with my iPhone and the lighting in the convention center was pretty horrible.  But there should be enough here to give you a bit of inspiration.

 "Out of the Loop" by Eyvonne Smith of Jensen Beach, FL.  Won Judge's Choice.

 "Bluebirds" by Laura Ruiz of Malabar, FL.  Won Best Pictorial Quilt.

 "A Taste of Sunshine" by Deb Crine of Marco Island, FL.  Won Best Machine Workmanship.

 "Medallion" by Loretta C. Sylvester of Palm Coast, FL.

The quilts below were part of an exhibit of antique quilt tops that had been quilted recently by various longarm quilters.  Most are from the 1930s, which is one of my favorite periods for antique quilts.  These were some of my favorites for various reasons.  I neglected to get the names of the quilters for these quilts, sorry!

And this quilt below was part of the World Quilt exhibit.  I found it to be very unusual and intriguing.

 "Shattered Face Quilt" by Kathryn Harmer Fox of East London, South Africa was made using a pile of leftover scraps and miscellaneous fibers.  They are embedded on a canvas background with scribble stitch, free-motion embroidery and quilting.  It was really interesting to look at up close.

Hopefully you all are staying warm in whatever part of the country, or world, you live in.  We are having our own share of near freezing temperatures here in central Florida with the low tonight at 33 degrees.  And we are hearing that it's supposed to stay this cold for the next couple of days.  If you ever want to hear people complain about cold weather, this is the place!  Yes, we are spoiled!  I don't mind it for a day here and there but after a couple of days in a row, I am ready for the mild 70s again.  But I'm sure many of you are probably wishing for temperatures in the low 30s, considering so much of the country is below freezing right now.  I guess this is a perfect time to curl up under those warm quilts!  Stay warm everyone!



Copying Antique Quilts

Merry Christmas and Happy Belated Holidays!  Yes, I am slightly late on blogging, so sorry, it's been a stressful month, to say the least.  But now that all of the Christmas decorations have been taken down and packed away in the attic for another year, I am feeling a much needed sense of calm and peace as the holidays are officially behind us.  My goal over the last few years has been to get Christmas put away before New Year's Day and it is such a feeling of accomplishment to do just that!  I am looking forward to starting out the new year with a fresh outlook, finish several projects and begin lots of new ones.  How about you??

I thought I would share a quilt with you that I made a few years ago that I copied from an antique quilt that I own.  This is a really easy quilt to do, a square in a square block, alternating with a solid block in between.  I foundation pieced my square in a square blocks.  It made my piecing much more accurate, I didn't worry about precise cutting, and was able to focus on color and pattern, which is what I love to do best.

Above and below, here are two similar shots, the one above is the newly made quilt and the one below is the antique quilt.  I bought the antique quilt for very little money many years ago.  It is very tattered and worn and I probably thought of it as a cutter quilt at the time.  But there is something about this quilt that I just love, the softness, the faded colors, the fact it is made up of mostly pinks and blues (another one of my favorites!), and the simplicity of it. 

I used to actually have it hanging on my family room wall but I think it finally served its purpose, as worn as it is.  So I decided to make one exactly like it.  How much fun was that!  I had one rule, I could not go out and buy more fabric.  I only allowed myself to use what I already had out of my fabric closet, knowing that I surely had enough reproductions to simulate the antique quilt. 

When I was deciding on the perfect blue for the alternating blocks and borders, I pulled apart the seams very slightly on the antique quilt.  I was shocked to see how much darker the blue was in the seam allowance!  The fading on this quilt was horrible, as you can see from the pictures.  So based on that discovery, I made the decision to go with a tone on tone blue reproduction print to match the original color as close as possible.

Once I had made my decision on the blue fabric, the rest was easy!  I pinned the antique quilt up on my design wall, and beginning with the first block on the first row, I made one block at a time.  My goal was to match the fabrics as closely as possible to the originals.  But on so many of the blocks, the fabrics had completely deteriorated and the batting was all that was showing.

In these photos, the new quilt is the darker blue one, the antique quilt is the faded blue.

One interesting fact I discovered was that there are virtually no floral fabrics in the antique quilt.

In these photos I have folded the new quilt back on top of the antique one so you can compare the two, block for block.

In the blocks that had deteriorated completely, there remained small bits of frayed remnants and threads of the fabrics that had been there.  So based on that information, I did a little detective work and tried to choose fabrics that I thought would have matched those that were missing.  I also read Barbara Brackman's book on dating fabrics, Clues in the Calico, to get a full understanding on what might have been appropriate for the time period when the quilt was made.

Once I got into the quilt, I also learned that it was probably older than I originally had thought.  When I first bought it, I assumed it was made in the 20s or so.  But after studying and comparing fabrics, most of them seemed to date from around 1890 to 1910.   

My blocks are slightly smaller than the original quilt blocks.  I had to keep the size uniform in order keep everything perfectly square.  The original quilt is also a combination of hand and machine piecing.  It seems that the pieced blocks were done mostly by hand but the quilt assembly was put together by machine. 

Choosing the fabrics from what I had available out of my stash and trying to match things as closely as possible to the original was by far the most fun.  It required a little bit of detective work but also forced me to use fabrics and colors in places that I would not have normally used in a quilt.  I am sure many of the original fabrics in the pieced blocks have also faded and turned from their original colors, but I didn't worry about those, I just wanted the reproduction to have the same "feel" and look as the original.

The original quilt is hand-quilted in straight lines and in a grid in the alternating blocks, my favorite type of quilting.  I copied the quilting design but machine-quilted my quilt entirely with a walking foot.

I learned so much about antique fabrics and quilts just from making this quilt.  I also felt a strong connection to the maker of the original quilt.  It was obvious she made this from old clothing and whatever she may have had on hand at the time.  It really gave me a new appreciation for antique quilts and how they were made with whatever the maker could get her hands on.  And considering they didn't have the tools, the quilt shops, the books, or the selection of fabrics like we have, they still found an outlet for their creativity and made beautiful quilts!  It really makes me think twice about "how much more fabric do I really need??," when I have a closet already stuffed to overflowing!

Hopefully this may inspire one or several of you to take out one of your own antique quilts and really study it, look at it, imagine what the conditions and supplies at hand were like for the maker of that quilt.  And if you really get inspired, try to copy it!  It is such a rewarding experience!

Happy New Year to each and every one of you!  May you have a prosperous and healthy 2014!!

Christmas Log Cabin

Since most of us are in the Christmas spirit (or at least trying to be!), I'd thought I'd share one of my favorite antique quilts in my collection that I pull out every year to display for the holidays.

 Years ago a friend of mine's mother was an avid estate sale shopper and eventually helped run estate sales.  She was a fabulous source for antique quilts. . .that is, until she started keeping them for herself!  But I did manage to acquire a few very nice ones from her for very little money, this being one of them.

 An acquaintance of my husband's was married to a quilt appraiser.  So for the fun of it I showed this quilt to her just to get her input on when it was made.  She was so excited when I showed it to her because it contains such a wide variety of scraps from over several decades and it is in such perfect condition as well.

 One of the things that she pointed out was several of the fabrics looked more "modern" than the majority of the others and that led her to believe this quilt was made in the 1920s with a very old scrap collection that dated back to the late 1800s or earlier.  I thought this was so appropriate of a typical quilter, even from today!  We tend to hoard every piece of scrap fabric, no matter how old, "just in case" we need it for that perfect spot in a quilt!  I know I have a very difficult time throwing any size away, no matter how small.

Since I don't have a lot of red in my house, this quilt doesn't stay out year round.  But I always thought it would be so beautiful to hang in a room that was decorated in reds.  It has such a wide appeal with its scrappiness and graphic impact not to mention it is such a classic pattern.  Log Cabin quilts have always been such a favorite with everyone for that reason, I think.