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.

Quilt "Finds"

Hi! I wanted to show you! Last week when I was hunting for the hollyhock mini quilts I found a few other fun quilts to share....

I have a big blue Shaker 2-drawer blanket chest in my bedroom. My daddy made it for me....it's supposed to hold my clothes but you know, I'm much more into my junk and quilts than clothes---so the drawers actually hold things like my large  antique Staffordshire turkey platters, layered under winter nightgowns and quilt tops etc. Multitasking!

Anyway the hollyhock quilts were in the bottom drawer, under the sepia tureens, lol. And under them I found...

Another of my old small quilts! This one I designed myself. My friend "B" at that time yearned for an Early American cross-stitched school girl's sampler and got me interested too. I'm not great at cross-stitch so I made a little quilt!

Later, I realized both of us really wanted a true antique, a big bucks early 1800s sampler. That never fit my budget but my mom gave me this version, made by a great grandma...



Swiss or German sampler "Berlinwork"?


Note the doggy! [above left]. And a bird...roses, maybe hollyhocks? It is wool, not silk, and more like needlepoint in style. But I still treasure it. The family story is that it was embroidered on the ship on the way to America. But no one came at that time, that we know of...a mystery.

So I stuck this little quilt away with the other little quilts. It's kinda cute, huh?  It has my trademark scrappy binding and the tiny sawtooths I love...all those years ago. Stuffed work ladybug and bumblebee too. (Mr Sunshine/ flag/ watermelon/ heart / sunflower...still favorite motifs)....

And underneath everything was a neat old muslin and gingham apron [for etsy?]...and this interesting quilt top:

I bought it maybe ten years ago from my quilt dealer friend. He was so happy to find a Hearts pattern for me.

I pulled out ( or he gave me) the tiny blue calico to add a border.

 Black and white check binding?

But I never quilted it or had it quilted. It got set aside, lost in the hectic pace of life at that time. And now I  like either simpler quilts or deep-toned, odd colored quilts [cheddar and/or faded blues].

Now that I again have a wonderful machine quilter I took this out to think about. Should I quilt it? Sell it? Or just fold it away again for someday...?

PS Those hollyhocks would make a great full sized quilt, wouldn't they!?



traditional Mountain Mist "Hollyhocks"
I *love* the chrome yellow ground!
And the blue and black sashing and borders

More vintage hollyhock patterns: here and  Mountain Mist Hollyhocks c. 1934 here


love
            lizzy

gone to the beach.....

Freestyling "The Porch"

Hi! It's been a busy week! I decided that my blog friend here Kit has the right idea, she says she enjoys and savors every hot August day. Yes!

So I've been cooking and pickling in the evenings [more foodie stuff soon!] and just getting right on out to the beach every afternoon. Otherwise chores, errands and to-do lists will eat up the entire summer.
You ever feel that way?
 One great thing about the beach is that once you pack all your projects, and books, and cooler, hat, sunglasses, and beach chair..and trudge across the white Sahara of summer sand, you're away from it ALL. You can't jump up to turn on the oven, or put the clothes in the dryer, or take someone somewhere you don't really want to go.

I've really been having fun with The Porch quilt. Here it is all set up and ready to head to the beach.

All my threads picked out...

I've been working ahead on this panel. I knew I did not want the very large watering can that the original has.

I wanted to redesign this section now while I have it in my head.  And while I have the time to work on it. A tiny idea sketch...and photos for placement of more flowers....

I wanted Kitty in the hollyhocks.

And we must have a flag, all my large quilts have a flag!

We've had fun all summer watching a black feral kitty like this raise her four babies,. There's even a dad-cat! Known as Stripey. The babies are three black and one striped like daddy. So this will always remind me of this special summer, 2012.

The cats' nursery was in a fenced area where wild or ''volunteer'' hollyhocks grow.

My idea for the panel was to use the pattern flower shapes but add stems and grass. I was inspired by this small quilt I made many years ago.  We weren't as cognisant of crediting designers and I have no idea whose design it was. I added trapunto ladybugs, bumble bees and flower centers.

I loved it so much I then made a table runner, machine appliqued...You can see how I was moving away from my bright Fiesta colors, and bringing in blues and more subtle shades. I never used this runner, sadly, and had forgotten it til I hunted for the little holly hock quilt.

For awhile I made a number of small quilts, until some kind person pointed out how ''twee''and tacky and useless they were! Oh my. The person said I could have sewn and hand quilted an entire large quilt instead, why did I waste my time? I had no answer and actually quit quilting for awhile, only repairing and repurposing antique quilts for my online shops.

I credit Lori of Humble Quilts with renewing my love of minis and doll quilts, and now I enthusiastically await her annual quilt-along. Who knows, maybe years from now someone will actually like my tiny quilts...

But back to The Porch! Fun, fun! Prim applique is great. Relaxing, no perfection or symmetry required. Or even desired.

Here's the partially sewn panel....

I plan to only pin-baste the leaves for now. And I see I forgot the bird on the kitty's tail!

Something to sew tomorrow....

How about you guys? Do you let naysayers and critics ruin your pleasure in your crafts? I hope not! It's all about the process, the "doing" , I now believe....


original post and links here
Porch quilt designed by Lynda Hall www.primitivepiecesbylynda.com
quiltalong with Lori at HumbleQuilts  www.humblequilts.blogspot.com


love

     lizzy

gone to the beach....

photo art from One Kings Lane,
this pic only