New Projects

My quilter's ADD has taken over once again and I have started a couple of new projects.  I am so excited that I finally have my first Stars & Sprigs block done!  There are many, many still to make - I think 48 applique and 49 pieced blocks and a very busy appliqued border, but it's great to finally start it after collecting fabrics for over a year!  I picked up a lot of the fabrics at Houston last year.

I've also made a start on my house blocks.  They don't photograph all that well, but I really like how they are turning out so far.  There are only 12 of these blocks, but plenty of applique to add once the quilt is pieced.



I plan to spend a lot of time in the sewing room this weekend. My goal is to get the binding on my Runaway Mystery quilt, prep another Stars & Sprigs block, and piece the rest of my houses. We'll see how it goes!



Calhoun County Quilt Tour

I've heard about the Calhoun County Quilt Tour for a number of years but until last Friday have never had a chance to check it out.  The weather was beautiful and the leaves are slowly getting their fall colors - it was a perfect day for a drive! The tour consists of quilt displays with vendors at four churches in four different towns. There are 38 "barn" quilts in the county, many of which we were able to view along our route. Quite a few of the "barns" are really business buildings, and sadly many of the actual barns are in pretty sad shape and not that great for pitcures, but they were fun to look for just the same.  We found it particularly interesting that a couple of the antique quilts on display had been used as the source for the owner's barn quilt blocks. How cool is that?!?

This barn quilt was hanging on the side of a country produce market.  The painting was incredible - it actually looked like printed fabrics!

The quilts, a combination of old and new, were displayed draped over the pews at each of the churches.

There were some very unique antique quilts. I've never seen anything like the grape quilt below.  I think it was 60+ years old.

The last church we visited (below) is now privately owned.  Over half of the quilts displayed in the church were made by the church's owner.  Her work was beautiful and there was certainly a lot of it! We didn't get a chance to meet her but did get to see her current project - a beautiful applique quilt she is hand quilting.

I really loved this antique hexagon quilt. I've been wanting to start a hand-piecing project for a while now. 

I think a hexagon quilt would be tons of fun - and I know I've got a bunch of those die-cut hexagons around here somewhere!

If Only...

I had BIG plans for hooking down at the lake this weekend. I'm not entirely sure that I was being realistic, but I really thought that I could spend all day Saturday hooking and might come close to finishing the Crazy Horse rug.  I am still working on the borders - I decided to finish those before trying to figure out what to do with the motifs.  Anyway, I pulled out my rug and frame on Friday night and was all ready to get started when I realized that my hook and wool were still in the closet at home.  It's really tough to make progress without wool!  Here's where I am at as of last night:

 















I have a couple of nights' work left to do on the last side border and then need to figure out the corners before moving back to the flowers. It's hard to see in the photo, but I am thinking about the medium blue for the corners. I'm not sure that I am loving it, though.  I may need to do something different...

More on the Baltimore

As I mentioned in my previous post, there were quite a few unusual techniques used in the Baltimore Album quilt we viewed at the IQSC.  A couple of them were included in this block:

They are easier to see in the close-up below.  First, there is some sort of crocheted edge around the monument.  I believe it is emboidered directly on the quilt rather than couched, but it was difficult to tell.  The second thing we thought was interesting in this block was the piece of fabric with the spiral on it (I'm not sure exactly what to call it!).  It looked like the maker created this fabric herself, either by dyeing using a resist or bleaching in some manner.  I don't know too much about quilt history, but I don't think either technique was all that common in the mid-1800s.

There were also several blocks with flowers that were created from a single stuffed piece of fabric with embroidery used to form petals.  Here's one:

Notice also how the maker embroidered around the flowers and leaves.  Here's another example:

It was such a beautiful quilt!  I am looking forward to reproducing a couple of the blocks one of these days...

Baltimore on the Prairie

I just returned from a wonderful few days in Nebraska attending the Baltimore on the Prairie applique conference.  The adventure began with a trip to the International Quilt Study Center in Lincoln where we were treated to a close-up look at one of the Baltimore album quilts in the museum's collection. 
















The curator told us that the quilt is believed to have been made for a Major Ringgold based on an inscription on one of the monuments in the quilt, and is dated 1847.  The quilt was obviously the work of several different people and includes several different names inked on various blocks. Apparently there is a large gap in provenance - very little is known about the quilt prior to the museum's acquisition.

There were some interesting and unusual tecniques used in some of the blocks.  A few were embroidered with very heavy threads, and there were some really unique dimensional flowers. Some were just simple but bold patterns - I particularly liked this block:

After our visit with the curator, we toured the museum's exhibits, which included some of the most interesting and intricate geometric designs I have ever seen!  There was one quilt that was a mosaic of a horse and rider that was composed of tiny squares - probably about 1/2" finished - and was nearly bed-sized!  I can't even imagine how the maker was able to get all of those pieces into their proper places!

After we left the museum, we visited Baker's Candies, an outlet store full of tasty chocolate meltaways in lots of different flavors.  We filled up on free samples (yum!) and purchased plenty of chocolaty souvenirs.  The milk chocolate mints were my favorite...

We stopped at The Quilted Moose on our way back to the lodge.  I found quite a few really nice batik FQs that I had to add to my collection.  I was so excited about shopping that I forgot to get a picture!

One of my favorite things about the conference venue is the wildlife.  We saw deer a couple of times during the week, and enjoyed watching a steady stream of hummingbirds at the feeders throughout our visit. I really loved seeing the turkeys at the seed feeders - they make a mess and waste a lot of food, but they are fun to watch!

My teacher for the conference class was Rita Verroca.  She was fantastic!  I will post more detail about the class and my project later.  One of the interesting ideas Rita shared with us was to laminate paper patterns to create templates. The laminated patterns are great for tracing around, and we experimented with the iron and found that they would hold up to the starch method for those that like a prepped edge.

I was particularly imnpressed by Rita's demonstration of inking. I don't know that I would ever be able to work up the nerve to use a permanent marker on my finished applique, but I loved the effect:    

Hmmm...writing about Baker's makes me hungry for chocolate! I think it's time for a snack!

Strip Exchanges

I am completely in love with Edyta Sitar's latest book, "Friendship Strips and Scraps".

The first quilt I fell for was the spools.  A few of my guild friends were also hooked, so we organized a strip exchange.  We're each cutting 40 1" strips and will mix them all up and return them to participants in November.

When we were up at Kinderhook a few weeks back, we saw another quilt from this book at The Hickory Stick in Hannibal, MO.  Of course we decided we needed to do that one, too...



We have a group of 13 people that are going to exchange smaller strips for this one.  We are combining batiks and prints for this exhange.  The quilt in the photo has Civil War reproductions, batiks, and miscellaneous other fabrics and is absolutely gorgeous.  We're going to trade these strips a bit sooner.  I can't wait to get started on this project!

New & Old

I was lucky to have the opportunity to spend a few hours here and there sewing at a friend's house last week.  Although I wasn't able to devote a lot of time to "retreating", I did make a bit of progress on a couple of blocks.  I tried my hand at back-basting on one of the Applique Affair blocks:

While I am happy with how the block turned out, I have pretty much convinced myself that back-basting is not for me!  It took far longer to trace the pattern onto the back of the fabric and baste everything than it would have to just trace freeer paper templates and trace the patterns onto my fabric.  And I didn't find that I could follow the thread holes (I had to "connect the dots" with a pencil), and I also didn't find that the fabric turned any better.  I'm glad that I gave it a serious try, but I think I will go back to my old way.

I also had a chance to finish up block one and prep block two of this year's BOW. It's a lot more involved than the little blocks were last year, but I am very happy with how it is turning out:

I also had a chance to spend time in the sewing room over the weekend, and even hooked with a friend on Saturday night.  More on that progress later...