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...

Porch Quilt : Winter

A Little Porch Time quilt

Hi! Oh my gosh, it is windy!

I hope to show you this very cool video at the end here. Despite the days' sunshine, I just want to stay indoors and hide.

Yep, the kitty has it right! I feel like I don't get much done but Oh I am tired.
It's the wind! That's my excuse.
And I need an excuse because I feel like a little kid who did not finish her homework. Today is the  day to show our progress on Lori's "A Little Porch Time" quilt along.
Actually we---I ---was supposed to get this baby finished, but no.

Lori said she'd love to see our quilts anyway, so here goes:

 

  

I did the stems on the borders. Partially. That is it. I figured out that dark brown birds will work on my mud border....and I patched together the ''remember me'' block ground for the backing, using my NYC fabrics. Pink beach combed template.
That's it...not a good show and tell :-(

I had estimated that the borders were about 25% of the total labor here...so doing the applique in one month, or even two was a [failed] challenge. I had hoped this would be a good January project but now I realize I rarely sit quietly and hand sew. Only on the beach, in the summer, where there are no chores, no calls, no post office runs.  I can't do fine hand sewing and watch TV, so it's senseless to think I'll sew during my favorite shows, the only time I sit and do nothing, usually.  For a few discouraged days I seriously planned to put the quilt top away, folded up with the un-stored as yet beach chairs [H. Sandy?] by the back door. I'd save the darn borders for next June, when I could knock them out happily in a couple sunny afternoons.

But I do love working on it and so I have been trying to pick it up some evenings when one of my kids is home, eating their supper...we sit in companionable, or so I believe, silence....he watches golf. I sew on my Porch quilt...for half an hour. Maybe we both think about hot carefree summer days?

 January is  a big month for me on Ebay and etsy, as I make and list many hearts and Valentine-y things. And you know how I love make-it-do  inspirations.

These hearts have little pockets on their reverse sides---a friend who wears gorgeous bespoke suits gave me a tattered suit jacket, for the fine wool. [oh his shirts!].....

But what I loved were all his fancy little hidden pockets in the ombre grey-rose silk lining.

A secret message to one's Valentine.....

And this was from a thrifting expedition that I haven't shown you guys yet. A souvenir shell box, once marked Miami Beach. 

I removed the writing...added a felted wool pad inside, for a pincushion. An old photo, a silk rosette [remember these, that awful vest?]...and we have a Sailor's Valentine of sorts.

Last make-do... an almost new but discarded bolster/ bed pillow. The child wanted memory foam, not primaloft. Instead of throwing it out, I took some unused batik  cotton , sewed a tube.

Squished in the bolster and tied the ends with linen twine.

A draft guard for my damaged deck door!

Good thing because here is the scene outside that door and window---

crazy guy on a sail surfboard, 50-60 mph gusting wind



love

           lizzy

    gone to the beach ................

 

 Lori's Blog:  Humble Quilts Lori's quiltalong/ porch quilt

 

there is a linky at the end so you all can see other quilters' versions of The Porch

 

 

Project Update

Hi! Oh it's a hot chocolate night, brrr.

November is almost over, it went too fast! Darkness comes so early now...I am having my beach hike at 2pm. And the sun is setting by the time I head home. The beach was very chilly today...and look how peaceful it seems....

11.28.12

I want to stand out there and yell "How could you!!??" uselessly at the gentle blameless waves. So silly to feel betrayed, isn't it...

Anyway!

Some quilting updates [all links at end of post]: I couldn't post my October Porch section for Lori's quilt along, because the photos got left behind in the storm. Here it is.

I made changes...I wanted to do a stoneware crock [just like my NYC find! [sort of?]....and probably no butterflies, they seem kinda clunky/ boxy to me.

The start points were killer, so hard to do. I believe the original quilt was raw edge wool applique, no turned points!

Then November....The group assignment was to do a block with an enormous watering can. Um, no. So I used other ideas from Lynda's book [Primitive Places : "A Little Porch Time"], including the long skinny black kitty, my wild Kitty, and her hollyhocks.

Her husband Stripey will have his picture on the far left, up near my blah / boring house block.
Parts of this section I've shown you before, I worked on it all summer..and doing this / freestyling it, really gave me a deep respect for a designer like Lynda whose wildly unrelated blocks all work great in the end.  I juggled a LOT of hollyhocks here. The unfinished stems and flowers will, if they look right, trail onto other blocks/ borders.

This is another November section, it is a filler strip for the far left side. I love the pieced blocks, in this case Flying Geese.

And here are my two completed quilts. I did the handsewn bindings [one side] during the storm. You should have seen me as Sandy approached, madly machine sewing on bindings to be finished by hand in the event of No Power. Boy, I had a lot of time! Too bad it was so freakin' dark. But I lugged them off to NYC and here they are. I often leave bindings half finished on my quilts, some mindless handwork to have in the project bank. I am always terrified I will have nothing to do...no handwork, I mean, in this case. And yes I do knit, but it just isn't the same, in my case.

For the Baskets I hurriedly chose the blue in the end. It was the most traditional choice, for a traditional antique/ recycled top.

I still love this quilt with its tiny baskets. I am pleased  that my subbed blocks are not noticeable.
And I especially love this all white block, below. You can just barely see the handle....the color of the original is so totally gone.

 ''Baskets'' was a top from an antiques show. It was very damaged, had once been a tied quilt, well used, well washed. Someone ''rescued'' it, resold it. I sewed the replacement blocks by hand, patched the holes in the white ground..using only antique fabrics for all the repairs.

And my Halloween quilt!

 I think it came out so cute! Below is the actual colors

Here is the back, made with old feedsacks....

There's a saying about ''quilting makes the quilt"" and that is so true. Beautifully machine quilted by Lori Cangemi at Quilters Imagination [not the same Lori s Humble Quilts Lori!]. The quilting, binding and subsequent washing and drying add so much texture and dimension, I think.

I have yet another quilt quilted by Lori C., but I'll save that for another day.

love

         lizzy

gone to the beach...



what a find!
It looks just like I pictured, with the dried chinese lanterns
from Olde Farmouse Simples!



Links:

Quiltalong:  Lori's blog "Humble Quilts" here

Primitive Pieces by Lynda Hall here

Machine quilting by Lori Cangemi Quilters Imagination, here

Drieds, and inspiration always, Michelle at Olde Farmouse Simples here

both Lori C. and Michelle have shops on eBay and do beautiful work.