Doll Quilt Swap ~ Tiny Stars, Tiny Baskets

Hello from the cold rainswept beach! Time to show everyone our adorable doll quilts made/ sent/ received for Lori of Humble Quilts second doll quilt swap. So much fun! But nerve-wracking too...will she [unknown recipient] like this? Or this? Will my sewing be nice enough? Can I finish on time? I'm not a worrier but I do like to please people, so I put a lot of thought into my quilt.

First I have to show you the wonderful quilt I received from Barbara Black.

Isn't it beautiful, such a perfect miniature.

Love the fabrics. The center squares are 2" so you can imagine how small the pieces are. Barbara said the pattern is from Temecula Quilt Company.

And Barbara's beautiful hand quilting. Such a smart idea, she used a subtle stripe for the setting triangles and followed the lines for her quilting. Her quilting is so amazingly straight and even, I had to look closely to be sure it done by hand.

Love the little stars and how the colors go so perfectly with my prim things...

For my quilt to send to Becky, in Iowa, I designed and made a Cheddar Tiny Baskets quilt. This was inspired by a conversation with Lori during last year's doll swap, where I mentioned I wanted to make itty bitty Baskets.

 In this year's Rules Lori mentioned that the quilt should look as if it had travelled through time. That guided me to make a little quilt that would look like a mother made it for a child over a hundred years ago.

Colors from ''her'' scrap bag--the little girl's pink pinafore, the brown of mama's long apron; Papa's dark blue workshirt; red that was treasured for a quilt back, and sadly, dark lavender half mourning, for those who lost their lives on America's battlefields.
I always wash my doll quilts for that pucker-y rumpled look.

The Baskets are  a 4" finished block. I made the pattern, it was easier than looking for one to copy aaaand I didn't want to do the baskets on point, the most common way.
I made this Evening Stars first, using antique madder blocks and antique turkey red cotton solid. But no.

I used a favorite calico on the back and---hard to part with!---indigo shuttlecocks print, a scrap from my friend BJ for the binding.

Here is BJ's quilt below. I don't know who it went to but lucky BJ got her quilt from our Lori. Note the cool backing she used.

Some doll quilt thoughts--- I've collected doll quilts for years though I sold all but two of my antique doll quilts. DQs fall into a few rather specific categories: Heirlooms with applique, silk, chintz, English piecing, fringe for a cherished doll, usually very old; perfect miniatures with scaled down version of larger blocks;  make-dos from single orphan blocks or cut from a larger worn out quilt and rebound by Mama; and sweet small quilts, not perfect in scale but made with care for a loved child or grandchild. This last style is the type of quilt that speaks to me and that I try to reproduce when challenged. (Rarely do we find a beginner's quilt, the myth that the little girls sewed their doll quilts is perhaps just that, a myth?)

Lastly, maybe you'll share your opinion. These are two antique doll quilts from my Pinterest board. When the challenge / swap began I had hoped to make one of these favorites, I've been gathering the fabrics for a long time. BUT are they right for Civil War to 1900 style? Or they look too 1930-40? If you got a little quilt like this---would you have been displeased, considering the swap's parameters?

antique from Pinterest

antique from Pinterest

What's your own favorite type of mini quilt? Or do you love them all?

Thank you, Lori, for the fun swap! Thank you, Barbara [and Dorothy last year] for sharing your tiny treasures with me. I'll love them always

love 

lizzy 

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

Weather note: It's June. It was 46* last nite. Today it is 51* with constant rain. I'm a bit sorry I took the flannel sheets off the beds. But sunny day tomorrow.

Poor Mr Sunshine Quilt

click photos to enlarge

pattern photo/ original quilt

Poor Mr. Sunshine: He is killing me with tedium. Too bad. Funny how you look at a design and think Oh how cool, how awesome. But THEN. The reality is in the details. Minuscule stars, the large ones here are less than 1".

 

 

 Valium sized dots....look at this! 45 dots to sew on, in this segment in pix!

 

 

I shudder for my future, almost gave up.
But....I am sewing slowly on the Tree of Life block. Plotting ways to get those leaves and all those greens just right.

 hers

 

 

mine, so far

 

 I figured if I left this block til last, when all the more fun blocks are done, I'd never finish the quilt top. And I may not. Eensy weensy twigs and branches, dozens of boring green ovoid leaves. I think I counted 70 leaves, some as amall as a 1/4"

Minute black stars that I decided I must have because the design doesn't ''pop'' without them.

Subbed  the black fabric motif instead...will I regret this someday? How close must you follow  a design and still do credit to its original beauty and artistry? How many shortcuts will make it just not worth your time.

I've promised myself I can do the four moon/ sun/ planet blocks next, as my reward. Big and simple.

I've been driven to consider knitting a sweater instead. "Oshima" by Brooklyn Tweed's Jarod Flood, here    

Though again, how a designer can take such a simple design and make it complex to the point of rocket science is beyond me! What the heck is a...tubular?? cast on? [yes, yes, YouTube here I come.] There was entire page just about the cast-on.
And if we double the yarn as directed, will 12 skeins be enough? I never have knitted a sweater with just 6 skeins of yarn, have you?
Or note this market bag scroll to bottom of yarn page : utterly incomprehensible to me. Too bad because it is neat and I bought the hank of linen thread to make it.

All these modern designs also requite the purchase of many multiple sizes and lengths of circular needles, six sets? eight? at about 16.00 each. The sweater requires 10 different sets of needles, if I counted right.  Not good.

Now I am back mulling over the wonderful sweater, hoping brioche stitch is my my knitting pattern book---and I am making a pair of simple open mittens here with my yarn from the NYC Greenmarket. [so far so good, thank goodness I had the right needles!]
Okay---what shall I not whine about? America Hurrah quilt is back and I am appliqueing the year and my initials to add to its folkiness.  I could have enlarged and downloaded the characters of a simple font, but I wanted the letters to be a bit prim so I drew them myself.

I finished handquilting the two doll quilts from Lori  at Humble Quilts winter 2013 quiltalongs. They are each about 16. 5 " square.

 

Loved this backing, kitties, birds...

...and enjoyed seeing again and up close, the tiny fragments of 1800s fabrics from my antique calico collection. (mixed with modern and vintage repros too.)

 

 

I even have had a few days of sewing down at the beach! Yay. Me and my little friend, and a warm but howling gale today! 

love

   lizzy

gone to the beach....

 

 

photos from patterns of original Celestial Dreams quilt are used with permission.

Harmony

'Harmony"- a doll quilt

Hi! Happy Friday...[beach pix at the end! I promise!]

Oh it is chilly here, with dense fog.
I almost drove wrong way down a one way street while running errands in town. The fog was so dense I couldn't see the signs. [That's my story and I am sticking to it!] I hastily backed out and carefully took me and this week's white tulips home....

A fun little project this week! Lori at Humble Quilts showed the sweetest little prim doll quilt a week or so ago.  I think all her readers loved it, and so she did a quiltalong so we could all make our versions.
Perfect timing since I have recently finished two large projects and am still dithering about what's on deck next. This is the original 19th century quilt:

The little quilt probably dates from  the mid 1800s. It features madder prints and is adorably poorly constructed. I love the crookedness and unrepentantly reversed sawtooths, so charming.

Madder is a natural dye that was prized by 19th century seamtresses because it is  colorfast and can produce reds, browns, and purples, often with a coppery or brick red cast.

Here is quilt historian Barbara Brackman's post with a detailed explanation of the dye and fabrics of the Civil War era. Lori also suggests googling ''madder prints"...

So now I had to dig in my stash!
I love Lori's doll quilt projects because they give me a chance to use  my collection of antique quilting fabrics. Some of these very old, yet sometimes brand new; and many are tiny scraps, so a doll quilt is a perfect showcase.
On the other hand madder prints are not exactly my ''thing''..for years I loathed brown quilts and so in my modern stash I was dubious that I'd have anything useful at all
 But I found things! Had to sub the center bock, that print was hopeless. And I made the sawtooth squares larger than Lori's intructions because I wanted to show off the old calicos I used.

What I do is:  I print out a full page color photo of the doll quilt. I study each block to find a match, first sorting through my antiques then filling in with modern or vintage fabric.

I have no Prussian blue at all,

 so I tried to capture the shade by dying a small toile. Others I tea dyed to get the needed brown cast.

Isn't it cute!

My main disappointment was that I couldn't figure out how to reproduce the very charming wonky crookedness of the original. Maybe another time, when I can do more intensive study.

I also now see that my version needs a tea bath dunking to tone it down! Too bright!

I chose this pretty brown rosebud print for the back. I like the larger scale for contrast. The rusty red will be the binding.

I thought about using this House block on the back...I love the pink. But maybe it should be a doll quilt on its own?

And I think it is the wrong period, perhaps is late 1800s-1930?

And now so those of you who read my blog for the beach! The doctor has said I may resume walking on the beach if it does not make me cough or wheeze! And so these pictures are from the only sunny day of this week. Maybe....Wednesday?

 

 

  

 

Ahhhh. April showers, April fog. See the fog bank rolling in?

At least sand doesn't get muddy so I shouldn't complain..

Have a good weekend! Flea market Sunday! Yay!

love

   lizzy


 gone to the beach.....

PS Lori's blog today shows her version and has a Linky thing at the end, so you all can see the other version. enjoy! here