Starting the New Year off Right

The sewing room at home is still neat and tidy.  I have resolved to try harder to keep it that way, with just one project, in progress, out on the cutting, ironing and/or sewing machine table at a time.  I can always see a stack of things waiting to have their turn out on a table.  It's so much nicer to walk in and resume instead of having to pick up first, then get cutting or sewing again.  So I will see how long I can keep this neatness going.

The first thing I wanted to sew in 2011 was another block for the Patriots in Petticoats, so I got going on it while finishing my second cup of coffee yesterday.

Block 5 Patriots in Petticoats

About the time I was doing a little un-sewing on it, I saw a little bit of thread peeking out at me from under the feed-dogs of the machine.  Hmmmmm, what is that doing there?

Well that led to a general cleaning of the machine - the dust bunny under the extended table, the bits of lint around the bobbin case, under the needle plate and up above the needle-holding thingy.  And then I proceeded to actually oil the machine and changed the needle.  I recommend this as a great way to start the new year off.  I seem to procrastinate about this maintenance, but the machine is so much happier now.

Next project to get working on is the Log Cabin Home block of the month which is supposed to start this month.  What I really need is to make my 'bucket list' visible on the sidebar of this blog...........

Just Before Christmas

Just before Christmas I made the next two blocks for the Patriots in Petticoats 2011 quilt. I'm really enjoying these fabrics. The blocks are pretty interesting too - they look somewhat challenging but are turning out quite well.

I decorated the shop a little bit for Christmas too. This charming little feather tree is next to my desk. Nothing like a little bit of the past to enrich my modern life - love those historic reproductions, all kinds!
While we were all anticipating Christmas, it seems our dog/mascot just couldn't wait. One day while I was in the sewing room I heard a crunching of paper. Knowing that Andy is a prankster I grabbed my camera and headed for the living room. There he was, opening a present from under the tree! Of all the ones he could have chosen, he got the one with socks in it! How did he know? All in fun, no harm done, he has always loved tug of war with socks. I won this round....



My DH gave me two more books for my collection of the State Heritage Quilt Documentation projects - Mississippi and Washington State. So I'm up to 33 books on the subject. I'm really glad that Kentucky got this whole thing rolling - it's a wonderful tribute to the quilters of our past.

A new Block of The Month project

At my little quilt shop I am awaiting the arrival of the new Patriots in Petticoats block of the month fabrics from Windham Fabrics. I'm very excited about this beautiful new quilt project for
2011. They sent me a kit to make the sample quilt so I have been having a great time sewing up the first blocks. This is the best part of my job as a shop owner - I get to work with the newest fabrics on the newest projects!! So, here are the first two sample blocks that will go out as a kit in January.



They were fun to make since the patterns are well written and illustrated. All easy going - I can hardly wait to have time to get to the next ones. Here are the fabrics that will be used in the first six blocks. They are just wonderful 1840's reproductions.

Did you know you can click on the photos and you'll get a larger view? Pretty cool! I just love
this blogging opportunity. There's a lot going on in my sewing room and at the shop that I
want to share here in the months to come. Uh oh - might be a New Year's resolution to sew and blog. I can live with that!

Using Wonderful Early Reproduction Prints

For many years I have been intrigued by the hexagon and mosaic quilts from the early 19th century. The first ones to catch my eye were in the wonderful book 'Calico and Chintz' from the Smithsonian exhibition. While beautiful, they looked intimidating to construct. I checked into how to make Grandmother's Flower Garden quilts and found the whole hexagon idea a bit too time consuming. English Paper Piecing was very interesting, just not the method for me. But luckily I recently discovered an excellent hexagon template made from a durable, reusable plastic that was very easy to use. Yes, I finally found Quilt Patis! Now they're in the shop!

So at last I could use the most amazing collection of historic prints to re-create an early hexagon quilt! In 2002 Timeless Treasures produced a collection of fabrics reproduced from one of the honeycomb style quilts in the Smithsonian collection. I happened to discover it and ordered it for my quilt shop. I have kept a little of the fabric all this time in the hopes that one day I could make that quilt. As it grows, I'll post . It sure makes a wonderful hand work project for evening.

Below is another project from a wonderful reproduction collection of the 1820's. The fabrics came out from Windham a couple of years ago. This pattern is from Betty Neff's little pattern company, Pennsylvania Quilter, and really shows off the amazing border stripe print. I'm having a great time making this sample of the pattern, and have enough fabric to put together a couple of kits for the shop.


First I used the paper foundation piecing pattern for the corners of the star blocks, choosing colors from the border print fabric. It took a while since I had to make 15 star blocks. The next step was to make the quarter-square triangle patches for the points of the star - my technique is better but still needs work to get them to come out right every time.

Next step was choosing the gold setting triangles for each star block. Can hardly wait to get these together and set with the horizontal sashing stripe - it is really beautiful.

So I'm back in blogging mode with high hopes to stay with it. Next up is the Jack's Chain project with historical notes and step by step construction details. What a fun 30's quilt!

A New Old Log Cabin quilt project

A few months ago a quilter from the San Francisco Bay Area offered to give me several old
issues of Quilters Newsletter magazine. She dropped them off at the shop one day while I was away. What a great surprise it was! Several binders with magazines from the early 1970's on up into the 1990's! It was so cool to see first hand the changes that the magazine, and quilting in general, has gone through. I found a lot of great articles and wonderful quilt projects. I was
particularly drawn to this log cabin variation, in all of it's Brown glory!

It was offered as a series quilt in six issues of the magazine. The designer was Ruth Meyer
from Kansas. The issue I found it in was February of 1988 - the last one of the series! Just my luck! The previous issues were all missing from this donated collection. Rats. So I tracked them down on good old eBay until I had the whole series.

I had this idea of offering it as a Block of the Month for 2011 at my shop. They gave Ms. Meyer's contact info in the back of the magazine so even though it was 22 years old I gave it a try & I found her! Yay! I was actually able to order several copies of her original pattern. I've been involved in some discussions recently about copyright so I was really happy to honor her as the original designer and purchase directly from her. You are actually not supposed to copy patterns from old magazines without getting permission from the designers, especially for the purpose I had in mind.

While I happen to really like brown, I decided to make my sample of the quilt in blues for the Log Cabins and scrappy colors for the Sampler Blocks. This should be more to the taste of contemporary quilters and still have the very traditional look that I love.

So here are the first two Sampler Blocks surrounded by their Log Cabin settings. It's a work in progress on the design wall, so just ignore the 1930s patchwork off to the left. I actually did the Bear's Paw while I was at work - it's a pretty easy one. All the pieced sampler blocks are just floating around next to the log cabins for now.

I had never done a Nosegay block before. I researched it a little and found that it was very popular in the 30s! It is a bit of a challenge to make, but there it is. Ruth Meyer's templates
are quite accurate (remember it was 1987 - pre-rotary popularity) so the pieces did go together.
As I work on the blocks I am writing rotary cutting directions & sewing directions, and have figured out that some of these blocks will have a class or demonstration for the program I offer.

And that was before I tackled the next block, Crown of Thorns. Yikes! It wasn't that it was particularly difficult. I just made a little error when adding seam allowances & making measurements for rotary cutting. So it took a few tries over several hours to get it right.

I have given myself a goal of having a few blocks together to display at a quilt show in my town this weekend. So I'm working along at it, having fun with it and trying not to stress. It sure helps when the blocks turn out nicely. I can hardly wait to actually stitch the log cabins to the blocks. What I'm waiting for is: I wanted to have a variety of the blue outside logs to choose from so they look good when they touch the next set of blocks.

After I had three I just had to go on to one more because the next one looked a little easier. Ruth calls it the Twisted Star. I've actually found all the blocks in Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia
of Pieced Quilt Patterns. They are wonderfully traditional and were popular in the 30s - an area of interest to me recently. More on that topic in another blog.

And here all all four together, so far, ready to be stitched together for the show Saturday. It's pretty exciting for me to have several local quilters jazzed about this and signed up to start in January. That means that I can keep working on it for fun and for work - best thing about my job!
Some of the next blocks will have greens, yellow, brown and whatever looks good! I'll keep putting them up as they get done. In my usual impatient way I'll be trying out a few of those cute small cabins for the border. Might as well get going on them - there's a bunch to do.

What happened to the Summer, where have I Been?

My goodness how time flies! It seems like just last week that I took a fantastic 2 day class with Sally Collins. But it was clear back on July 13 & 14. If you ever get a chance to have a class with Sally, be sure to grab it. She is wonderful. Whatever projects I've worked on since the class I find myself remembering a tip or technique or a story that she told.

The project we did was the Circle of Stars. I did a couple of tiny nine-patch quilts a few years ago but they are pale compared to the pretty little stars that Sally taught us. Maybe I have a photo to share here if I can remember how to do this. OK, that is it above. In the upper left corner you can see my layout of one quarter of the block, but with those Magic Mirrors you get the whole preview. That Was Fun!

My project is still under construction but it is coming along, a little at a time. Like many other quilters I know, there are several projects under way at the same time in my sewing room. And then there are the ones down at the shop! So I have lots to write about here, and obviously need to get back in practice, especially with putting in photos.

I can hardly wait to share the progress of my Jack's Chain and a new/old log cabin variation project that I found in an old magazine.

The Ricky Tims Super Seminar Really Was Super

It has been about ten days since the seminar in Rocklin, CA ended. (the photo is from TheQuiltShow.com) Have any of the effects worn off already? No Way! WooHoo! is still echoing through my mind while images from the lectures are still floating around in my head. Several of the principles and approaches to quilting that were presented by Ricky Tims, Alex Anderson and Libby Lehman have not been forgotten. OK I do have the colorful syllabus for reference, to refresh the information, but it is surprising just how much I have retained. Surprising because So Much information was given from incredibly talented contemporary quilt artists to me, the gal steeped in tradition and the colors of the civil war.





So why did I go to this event? To shake myself up, observe these high-caliber teachers in action and get some fresh perspective. And boy did that happen, plus so much more.

I first met Ricky Tims and Justin Schultz in person when they came with Alex Anderson to tape episode 212 of The Quilt Show. That was back in the day of Fancy Dry Goods when I used to wear prairie dresses to work. I chose not to wear the costume that day, but you can see who stepped out of their modern world to try on the old traditional world. So I figured I could step into the contemporary world of quilting and have a look.


I went to the seminar with Kathy, the owner of Sew Country Quilts. Both of the quilts behind us were made by Ricky Tims.



This is a Convergence Quilt that was very perplexing to me on Day One of the seminar. By the end of Day Two I was ready to go try it myself. Where have I been while the Convergence technique was surging through quilting world? I was tucked safely away in traditional civil war era colors and blocks. Sort of like an ostrich..........


How did he do this? The artful techniques were revealed so I have given myself permission to do some exploring of my own. I love the whimsical feeling, the cheeriness of this quilt.



A heart-wrenching story goes with this fascinating piece done in neutrals. I had to go back several times during the seminar breaks to study this one. Can you see the little house in the center of the quilting swirl? (You can click on these photos to enlarge them a bit)


This is a very small example of some of Ricky's truly awe-inspiring machine applique. Not only does he work out design and color, he masters the machine techniques to make things happen. And told us that we can do it too, if we just give it a try. Sounds so sensible.


Kathy and I ran into another shop owner, Linda from High Sierra Quilt shop. We are all in a shop hop together in September, for which Alex most graciously agreed to give a day sewing
to our lucky Grand Prize winner, and two friends. So don't miss it!
We were thrilled to have this photo opportunity with Alex at her book signing table during a break at the Super Seminar.

Thank Goodness for Alex Anderson being there. She was my bridge from traditional to contemporary with her beautiful quilts. Just like the breaks for stretching and lunch, I needed to give my eyes a place to rest from all the stimulation and color of Ricky & Libby.

Her exquisite Pomegranate Quilt was hanging in the Seminar quilt show. It is featured Alex's series of applique classes on The Quilt Show. I just love to look at applique, and combined with the hand quilting, this is really a beauty.


This is a very cheery and colorful pinwheel quilt by Alex Anderson which drew me in and then took my breath away with the beautifully hand quilted feathers. Wow!


I have heard about Kaleidoscope quilts for a while, but never saw one that really got me. l didn't think that I would ever make one. But, better late than never. I loved the Kool Kaleidoscope approach by Ricky, and have already chosen a few Reproduction prints to try out.

It was important for me to get some stimulation, enthusiasm, color and top notch teachers to get me revved up and thinking about my quilting direction. I'm in a new shop with the world wide open to me. So I plan to keep on with my first love of traditional quilts and the colors of the civil war era while stepping out into new arenas from time to time. It could get really interesting!