Strawberry Preserves

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

The 1940s-50s embroidery looks right at home with these ripe berry reds, sunny yellows, calicoes, checks, and polkadots, all chosen for their retro charm. 

When I showed the piece to my friend Ruth, she generously offered to finish it. Just look at her beautiful stitches!

She crosshatched through the 2" squares... 

and quilted cables in the daisy-print border. Can you see how the perle cotton catches the light?

There are strawberries on the back too.

 

 

I just love the way this quilt turned out! Thanks again to Vicki Haninger for her inspiration and to Ruth, of course, for bringing the project to fruition. XO

"Strawberry Preserves"

15” x 17”

machine pieced, hand quilted

2019

Scenes of Summer

Hello everyone. How was your summer? Mine was filled with extraordinary moments shared with extraordinary friends! 

Wanda Hanson of Exuberant Color surprised me with one of her signature batik colorwash quilts. Isn't it stunning? Read more about it here. 

Quilt friends stopped by with "show and tell." Here's Sheila with her Sunflowers and me with Wanda's Zig-Zag.

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

Local troubadour, Bill Glaysher, serenaded me one afternoon. Swoon!

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

Several friends offered to read aloud to me. It was sheer bliss!

Jim and I also attended a bridal shower hosted by friends, Mark and Linda. What lured us out on a 97-degree day was the promise of mango mimosas and eight different kinds of cake!

All in all, it was a very memorable summer. Thank you all for making it so special! XO

Spring At Last

What a welcome sight! Crocuses are blanketing the landscape like a colorful patchwork quilt. From the moment they emerge, often while there's still snow on the ground, their hardy blossoms dance with abandon like they're grateful to be leaving winter behind... and aren't we all?

My friend, Debbie, shared this photo from 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

Hello everyone! I had another birthday recently and with it came this gorgeous quilt from Barb. You may recognize the pattern as Midwinter Blues designed by Lori DeJarnatt for her 2014 Humble Quilts sew-along. 

Aren't Barb's fabrics exquisite? I've never seen such deep, saturated blues or sharp cheddars! Double-click photos for more detail.

All those patchwork points and angles make for a "lively" quilt, especially when high contrast fabrics like these are used. By offsetting the piecing with gentle curves of teacup quilting, Barb actually reduced the visual energy.

Another inspired technique was using silk thread for the machine quilting. Unlike cotton thread that draws attention to itself, the silk stitching practically melts into the background leaving nothing but a subtle hint of texture behind! Enlarge photo below.

There's a lovely patriotic print on 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 just how bitterly cold it is here in the Midwest. Our single-digit temperatures and -25° to -40° wind chills are 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?”

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

Here they are looking fresh and new in a jaunty on-point setting. I love how the homespun shows off the blocks and ties the whole quilt together!

With homespun on the back too it's even more inviting! Check out the blustery quilting design.

What a special gift from a special friend! 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.