Strawberry Preserves

Hi everyone. Hope you had a great summer! I used the time to pull out an old project and get help finishing it up. It's a small quilt that features a vintage embroidered strawberry.

Motifs like this are typical of the 1930s-40s when they embellished household linens such as tea towels and dresser scarves. This embroidered strawberry, for instance, came from a vintage napkin. When it came to choosing fabricswith calico, polkadot and gingham check prints also popular at that time?

I set the project aside years ago when I gave up doing handwork, but . Fortunately, my friend Ruth offered to hand quilt and bind it.

seems the weakness and lack of dexterity in m. A sweet quilt like this deserved better, so I showed it to my friend, Ruth, who's an , she offered to finish the project for me!

Just look at her beautiful stitches. When the perle cotton catches the light, it adds a subtle sheen to the overall design.

 

As it turns out, making a doll quilt was the perfect way to preserve that vintage strawberry! Thank you to Vicki Haninger for the inspiration and to Ruth, of course. for seeing the project to fruition.

Strawberry Patch Preserves

15” x 17”

machine pieced, hand quilted

2019

Scenes of Summer

Hi everyone! How was your summer? Mine was filled with extraordinary moments shared with extraordinary friends, like Wanda Hanson of Exuberant Color, who surprised me with one of her signature batik colorwash quilts. Isn't it stunning? Read more about it here. 

Of course, visits from quilters are always welcome, especially when they bring "show and tell." Here's Sheila with her Sunflower quilt and me with Wanda's Zig-Zags.

Jenny graced us with fresh-picked cherry tomatoes and basil from her garden. Meanwhile, Jean shared delicious peach cobbler (made with real Georgia peaches) and the best blueberry pie I've ever tasted!

Local troubadour Bill Glaysher stopped by to serenade me one afternoon. Swoon!

Which enabling friend helped make this online purchase? I couldn't resist a few new American Jane fabrics in summer hues.

Bev, a veteran English teacher, volunteered to read aloud to me. Listening to her soothing voice was absolute bliss!

Jim and I even attended a bridal shower hosted by friends, Mark and  Linda, for their daughter and son-in-law to be. What lured us out on a 97-degree day was the promise of mango mimosas and eight different kinds of cake.

It was a wonderful summer. Thanks for all the memories we made!

Spring At Last

Earlier this spring, my friend, Debbie, shared this photo of crocuses blanketing the landscape like a colorful patchwork quilt. The moment they emerge, often while there's still snow on the ground, their hardy blooms seem to dance with abandon like they're grateful to be leaving winter behind... and aren't we all?

 she took at Flowers on Fargo, a private garden in Geneva, Illinois. Each spring, it bursts into color  with crocuses, tulips, and other flowering perennials. Check out the link above!  

Perhaps it's the colors that drew me to this vintage Dutchman's Puzzle quilt. Do you suppose the maker had crocuses in mind when she pieced those purple triangles or was this just a popular color scheme in the 1940s?

All those triangles

poking through a bed of white

to dance their way across a quilt

sure look like crocuses to me!

Wishing you all a happy spring & summer!

Midwinter Blues

I had a birthday recently and with it came this marvelous quilt from Barb. You may recognize it as Midwinter Blues, a pattern designed by Lori DeJarnatt for her 2014 Humble Quilts sew-along. 

Aren't these fabrics exquisite? I've never seen such deep, saturated blues or bold cheddar prints. Double-click photos for more detail.

With all those points and angles, the quilt looks rather busy, especially when high-contrast fabrics like these are used. Barb managed to reduce the visual energy with a couple clever tricks.

First, she chose an all-over quilting design with gentle, flowing curves of teacup quilting create , whilehelp balance all that 

By substituting silk thread for cotton, her machine quilting practically melts into the background leaving just a hint of texture behind.

Barb always chose this lovely patriotic print for the back--"E pluribus unum" or "Out of many, one." 

As you can see, the quilt was originally made for Barb's dear friend, Mary B. After Mary passed away, Barb thought I might enjoy having it. Thanks, Barb. You bet I will! XO

 

If you'd like to make your own Midwinter Blues quilt, instructions can be found on Lori DeJarnatt's  Humble Quilts blog: 

Part 1   Part 2   Part 3   Finale.

Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful!

Hello, everyone! If you live outside the purple zone on the weather map, you may be unaware how bitterly cold it is here in the Midwest. With single-digit temperatures and -25° to -40° wind chills, it's breath-taking cold! Bone-chilling cold! FROSTBITE COLD! Needless to say, we're hunkered down for the duration.

My husband keeps his "expeditions" to a minimum in weather like this, braving the elements only to trek down the driveway for mail or to shovel us out (not that we're going anywhere). Each time he opens the storm door it whines in icy protest as if to ask, “Are you sure you want to venture out today?”

I'm keeping warm with a cozy new quilt made by my friend, Mary Conley. "The blocks might look familiar," she whispered as she placed it in my lap. Indeed they did... they were red and green nine patches I'd abandoned almost twenty years earlier! 

The blocks look fresh and new in this jaunty on-point setting offset with homespun plaid!

The homespun on the back too, it's even more inviting. 

Thank you, Mary. XO

Happy New Year and best wishes to you all!

Will Strip for Fabric!

Hi everyone. Hope you're keeping cool this summer. I get so lethargic and irksome in this heat that it’s hard to do more than nap! 

My Piecemaker friends shared photos of quilts they made from our Spider Web fabric exchange. It’s fun to see each quilter's interpretation of this classic string-pieced design. Enjoy! 

And here’s our friend, Patt, dressed as a stripper. How else would you dress for a "strip" swap?

Hey, Macarena!

Hello all! It’s been awhile since I posted a bona fide, start to finish, made with my own two hands kind of quilt. I made this Spider Web, aka Kaleidoscope, in a fabric swap with my "Piecemakers" quilt friends. 

The theme was “pastels” so each of us contributed six yards worth of assorted strips to exchange with the group.

By the day of the swap, three banquet tables overflowed with strips of every color and hue. We paraded around the room to the festive rhythm of “Macarena,” snatching a strip from each table we passed. Between the music, laughter and fabric flying, we looked like a crazy conga line or raucous game of musical chairs. "Hey, Macarena!" 

Some chose their strips at random while others had a particular color scheme in mind. I selected 1930s-style colors and prints for my quilt. 

After sorting and sewing our strips into strata (6 strip sets), we used this 45 Degree Kaleidoscope Wedge Ruler to cut the eight segments required for each block. 

Coordinating the colors within each block was lots of fun... 

but, I liked the scrappiness of mixing random strips almost as much.

Nothing went to waste. My leftover strips found their way into the scrappy border.

I chose a 1930s-style print for the back too and bound the quilt in pink.

Kaleidoscope or Spider Web 

84" x 100"

Machine quilted by Stover Quality Quilting.