Making Progress

wool ''Calico Kitty" by LN, from Porch quilt book

Hi everyone! The high winds have been keeping me indoors all week. I know lots of you have a blizzard right now, too. Not sure which is worse, probably the snow, but I hate high winds. The house is constantly dusty...the fine sand forcing its way inside. And things blow away! The car doors! My grocery cart and later my  groceries themselves.
Good weather to stay inside and sew. I made a few new sewing strawberries for my etsy shop....

This one was a flop!

I was very excited about the idea, I had just a small scrap of the faded rose velvet.

But no...I was gonna throw it away, but it was sad, yes, my creations have feelings!--so I tied it onto my nantucket sewing basket. I won't mind the flaws.

I am working on the Porch Quilt in the evenings. 34 leaves on the border! And six or seven birds. Plus, Note to self: don't leave sections unfinished, they are impossible to reach once the quilt is put together....I am forced to open seams to sew the date and name bits.
Mostly I am sewing on my patriotic sampler quilt:

I am trying to sew on it an hour or two each day, fitting the borders slowly and

...accurately. [I am slow, I know].

I hate the cheddar calico. I  bought it in desperation a few years ago, thinking it was a much smaller finer scale. Typical catalog flub. But there I was....six yards of the only cheddar I could find, and I'd been hunting for two or three years at that point. Maybe once it is all done, quilted, etc, it will look less '70s, more authentic? [no...].

It is longer than it is wide, not an effect I like, but I think this is enough for now. Shown on queen sized bed.

In my mind I call this collection/ sampler quilt America Hurrah! It just suits it, and I hope expresses the patriotic joy I feel for my country despite all the economic and political woes we face.

America Hurrah was an antiques shop here in NYC that specialized in quilts and folk art. I always loved their displays when NYC had the big Americana shows years ago. And I loved their name. I hope it is okay that it stuck in my mind and I since bestowed it on my quilt.

Somewhere I know I have 6 yards of backing for this quilt. I think it is tan with tiny flags...but I cannot find it, sigh. I plan to piece in a set of oddball star patches my mom proudly found for me at the Cape Cod thrift shop.  If I can't find the planned fabric I think Ill get this large scale indigo, from the Indigo Crossings group:

It will create a wonderful whole cloth quilt on the reverse of the gaudy stars and ships quilt.

And here is the Porch kitty, from my Internet friend LN. Isn't he just so adorable! LN follows my blog and was interested enough in this project to order Lynda's book and make  her own wool version. Note her own kitty's paw in the top right of her pix. Her kitty is verrry interested and is almost always somewhere in her photos.

I love the wool crazy quilt style LN has chosen, very different from our group's prim calicos and Lynda's original wool and homespun.


Next we'll have a recipe!? Talk to you soon!

love

     lizzy

      gone to the beach...