Quilters Madder

Hello and welcome! As the months turn, October to November, it becomes time for quilt related  posts here at the beach. I hope you don't feel inundated---or bored! Next week we'll go out, I promise.
Today begins the Linky  party of Lori/ Humble Quilts' small quilt sewalong called Quilters Madder. Pun intended, I assume. This was a mystery sewalong, with clues each week, based on an unseen antique doll quilt piece. This is my Step one.

Lori's sewalongs go fast [and / or I am very slow], no time to dilly dally or lose focus. Or---finish! Both of my little quilts are unfinished, unquilted. Here is my first quilt, made with repro madder prints as Lori instructed.

[Madder = rusty red or browns],

 shirtings [tiny light ground figural prints]

 and a touch of Double Pink [pink on pink, a popular mid-19th century choice for children's clothing.

Quilt Index Fabric dating reference. A brief explanation of the colors and prints styles I mention here.

I had only one or two madders, so I put together a nice grouping from Fat Quarter Shop. I used their excellent color search function and was pleased with the results.

Lori had mentioned the secret mystery quilt had a border, so I ordered and ultimately used this stripe. Had I had more time I'd have like to make the original sawtooth border instead.

As always I dithered over the backing. I hand dyed this sweet rustic toile in what I imagined would be madder, mixed red and brown dye; if I were quilting this myself I d have used It, but it's too small for my quilter, who needs large backings.

I went with a nondescript brown floral, pieced with an authentic madder Evening Star block, c.1850-80? I'll add my name in the center when it is finsihed. The binding will be the dull purple mourning print.

.....

"Indigo Loves Cheddar" ~ QM version 2

The sewalong started easy and I was lulled, tempted, couldn't resist---cutting a second version.

I used very ugly cheddar and indigo fabric I had erroneously ordered thinking the scale would be small and sprig-like. Too bad. You can see that I ran out of the cheddar and subbed some tiny prints and vintage cheddar solid.

It started out pretty fun.

But with a mystery project, it was hard to judge design and value. In this case the values are too similar and the fabrics dreadfully busy, in my opinion. But cute.

Here are both quilts in grey scale. I was interested to read on FB that many quilters nowadays did not think value [light and dark / contrast] is an issue to be considered, yet I find it necessary for the success of a quilt. It is also one of my biggest challenges or fails as I tend to choose by color instead. Wrong, wrong, wrong! See how the hourglass-like pattern goes lost in both?

on both.

The pattern is called Old Maid's Puzzle, or maybe Hen and Chicks.

The back of Indigo Loves Cheddar will either be a double pink or the white ground cheddar and indigo ugly from the original batch. (I buy 90 % of my fabric online. [2% vintage from the flea, 2 % thrifted, 6% Joann's] Colors are usually okay but motif scale can be a disaster. And I'm stuck with expensive unattractive fabric.)

No border on this guy. I'll do a simple machine quilting when I get my other sewing machine set up next rainy day. Double pink binding.

This was a very fun and interesting challenge. I got to try a classic late 19th century piecework pattern; I added a new color range to my quilting palette; I practiced my mitered corners skills. And best I learned a new fast way to make half square/ sawtooth triangles.

Many thanks to Lori for her projects. When these little pretties are entirely done, I'll show them again. Quilts look so wonderful once they're quilted and washed.

Have a great weekend!

love

lizzy

gone to the beach...

Today is glorious, I couldn't just sit there typing! How can anyone ''hate'' November on a day like today? 60*, light breeze, fairly dry.

 See all the small quilts on Humble Quilts blog HERE

See the original 19th century inspiration quilt HERE

Dotty 365 Project ~ October -November: The End!

Hi! Can you imagine?! A whole year has passed since I---many of us---began Audrey's Quilty 365 Dots Project. My 366 Dots are finished.

The quote at the end of my go-along-with diary: "The days go so slow, but the years---they go too fast." This really sums up how I feel about the chronicled year, and about life in general. I suppose there is good and bad in everything.

For October I decided to use many of my Fall and Halloween fabrics.

I switched out the text squares for text prints that referred to Halloween or autumn.

As always within those parameters I chose each day's Dot to represent my experience of that day.
A trip to the dog park, a section of P2 finished.

A birthday.

Buying mums, and a trip to the pumpkin patch.

My tame feral kitties.

A magical full moon.

sewing, decorating...

migrating birds and butterflies, Halloween costume planning.

Halloween , of course.

And yes, I snuck ahead 5 days and finished where I began, on November 5. [so this block actually will be set side.]

I finally sat down and drew out the plan for the Dotties. There will be 19 rows of 20 Dots, beginning as I did last November. The sketch is wrong, I can't read my own writing, lol. But the premise should work out, with 14 extra spaces to fill in addition to the 366 Dots. [Leap Year.]

There will be a blank square between each month, with the extra blanks set at New Year's maybe. I had thought the spacer squares should be bold, tried these dots,

but I don't like the look and prefer to just use a subtle un-polka dotty text instead. Otherwise we'll be looking at those stupid squares instaed of all the Dotties.

There will be a narrow border. I hoarded this text in my fave dusty turquoise, only to find I don't like that either.

The border will be these pencils [as in writing a diary/ keeping a diary];

 or maybe this ink spot Dot.

I bought two backings last summer. The seashell-beachy journal one was to go with with the aqua border, the very large text w/ the other choices. [2" + size words here.] Again, as I laid the choices out and also looking at the photos, I am 99% sure the large graphic text print will be the backing.

All of these text images and seasonal Dots will  someday be clues that this quilt is a diary of my year.

I began the project with some goals---improve my needle turn applique skills. Focus on mindfulness daily. And I wanted to have a successful written diary or journal of my year. I love the idea of journaling but except for sketch journals, travel diaries, nature journals and years of shared journals with my mom, I have never managed to keep a journal going more than a few weeks.

Until now.

I wrote in my little pink journal pretty much every single evening, if only to say it had been a difficult and painful day. Or, hahaha, that it had rained or snowed, or Mo had a bath at the groomer van. My life is small, but it's mine.

As with years of nature journaling, in the end I preferred drawing to writing, much as I love to write and ramble on.

Will I hand quilt or have it machine quilted? That I do not know yet.

What do I wish I'd done differently?: I wish I'd been more careful cutting the backing squares, some are not square or wrong size, how did that happen? I wish I'd begun sewing the squares together each month. And I wish I had begun the project on the more logical January 1st slot.

Which brings me t my last thought, for now anyway: Will I miss the Dotties, would I do this again? Yes and yes. My current thought is to begin anew in January 2017, if after a lull I am still inspired. The 2017 quilt will be shades of blue/ black/ turquoise, utilizing my scraps of antique Japanese and American indigo fabrics if I can find them, plus batiks. And if indeed it is a quilt at all.

To see the other Dotty 365 projects, please visit our very generous and kind host's blog: Audrey at Quilty FolkAudrey has taken the time to set up Linkys each month for an entire year for our project. Thank you, Audrey!

I hope you enjoyed sharing my year.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach....