Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful!

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. Current temperatures are in the single-digits with wind chills of -25° to -40°. That's breathtaking cold! Bone-chilling cold! FROSTBITE COLD! Needless to say, we're hunkered down for the time being.

In weather like this, my husband keeps his expeditions to a minimum, braving the elements only to trek down the driveway for mail or to shovel us out... not that we're going anywhere. Every 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 that my friend, Mary Conley, surprised me with. "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 years ago! 

They look fresh and new in this jaunty on-point setting. Don't you love how the homespun plaid sets them off?

Red homespun on the back makes it even more inviting!

Thanks again Mary. Whatever plans I once had for these blocks, your beautiful quilt far exceeded them!

Happy New Year everyone and best wishes to you all!

Will Strip for Fabric!

Hi everyone. I hope you're keeping cool this summer! Temperatures like these (90 degrees plus with high humidity) wreak havoc with my MS. In other words, it's not the best day for blogging, but I can certainly cobble a few photos together.

In my previous post, I described our quilt group's fabric exchange and the making of my own Spider Web quilt. This time, I thought you'd enjoy seeing other quilts resulting from the swap. It’s fun to compare each quilter's interpretation of this classic string-pieced design. Enjoy! Most photos will enlarge.

And here’s our friend Patt who came dressed as a stripper... because how else would you dress for a "strip" swap?

Hey, Macarena!

Hello all! It’s been a while 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 exchange with my Elmhurst "Piecemakers" quilt group. 

Our theme was “pastels,” and each participant contributed six yards worth of assorted strips, precut into ( ) widths.

On the day of the swap, three banquet tables overflowed with pastel strips in every 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 more like a drunken conga line than our usual sedate selves. "Hey, Macarena!" 

Some quilters chose 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 sets, we used this handy 45 Degree Kaleidoscope Wedge Ruler to cut the eight segments needed for each block. 

Coordinating the colors within each block was fun... 

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

Nothing went to waste. Even leftover strips found their way into my scrappy border.

I used a 1930s-style floral print on the back and bound the quilt in pink. Isn't it sweet?

Kaleidoscope or Spider Web 

84" x 100"

Machine quilted by Stover Quality Quilting.

Another Year Older

                                         23 February 2017

Dear Barb,

My birthday quilt arrived and I wish you could see the ear to ear grin on my face. What a happy piece of patchwork to open on a gray February day!

I just love these scrumptious pinks and blues sitting side by side like this.

The elegant bird toile on the back is a perfect foil for those quirky conversation prints on the front of the quilt. Baseball players and baby faces--So much fun! 

    

Thanks for your beautiful birthday quilts, Barb. They always take the edge off turning another year older. 💕

Scrappy Birthday

I'ii never forget a visit to my friend Barb's sewing room where she shared the secret behind many of her quiltand discovering a drawer full of miscellaneous quilt blocks. What fun it would be, I thought, to arrange them like puzzle pieces into various quilt designs.

That's precisely what Barb did when she made this year's birthday gift for me! All the elements came from her stash of "pieces and parts" leftover from previous quilt projects. Blocks of various sizes were made to fit by adding on or trimming as need be.

I’m guessing Barb started with the vintage Shoo Fly block, then added Broken Dishes to continue the classic blue and brown color scheme. When the strip of Flying Geese was too long to fit, Barb simply lopped it off leaving a quirky little partial block behind.

Adding to its "make do" charm is a backing pieced from three strips of chintz. It takes a keen eye to spot the seams. Can you find them? Barb also varied her binding just as a frugal seamstress might had she run out of her intended fabric.

Lastly, a gentle tea bath gives the quilt its aged appearance. Don’t you love that detail?

Weeks before my birthday, I spotted a vintage bowl on Etsy. "That's just what I need," I told myself. "Wouldn't it look great filled with old buttons, sitting atop a scrappy quilt?"

When just such a quilt arrived, I raced right back to Etsy and bought the bowl. Happy birthday to me!

By the way, here are photos of Barb's actual "miscellaneous block" drawers. Do you see the allure? Wouldn't you love to reach in there and rummage around? 

Thanks for another great birthday quilt, Barb. You always manage to surprise and delight me! XO

Sweet Hearts

Happy Valentines Day!

At Times Like These

Hello everyone. Where were we when I last posted? Oh yeah, smack dab in the middle of the worst year ever! Twenty-sixteen brought an unrelenting onslaught of disasters--everything from wildfires, hurricanes and floods to mass shootings, civil unrest and unprecedented political farce. In the midst of it all, a sudden death in the family left me paralyzed with grief.

It's only been nine months, but I'm ready to start dealing with things instead of just wallowing in sadness. Creative endeavors have helped in the past (here and here), and to that end, we did a deep dive in my sewing room. 

ooking for something to pique my interest. Well, something finally did--an assortment of homespun plaids all cut and ready to sew. Kathie Holland, do you remember sending this kit to me years ago?

Blocks are pieced using Mary Ellen Hopkins' “connector corners” technique. Stars cleverly appear as the blocks are sewn together. Wanda Hanson assembled the quilt and added plaids of her own to make it a more functional table runner size.

Wanda chose a lovely striped backing and binding in my favorite colors. I like how her diagonal machine quilting echoes the linear theme.

Plaid Fancy

18" x 27"

Some of the comfort a quilt provides comes from the soul of its maker. This one's imbued with the love and kindness of compassionate friends, who in bringing it to life, restored a bit of my own!