Christmas Quilts

To make things more festive and colorful for Christmas, I brought quilts out of storage.  Depending on the time of year and holiday, my quilts rotate in and out of rooms.  When they are not on display, they are comfortably resting on a (guest) bed, no folds and out of direct sunlight.  The bow tie quilt is on the back of the sofa.  The Harry Tyler's lion print is the backing of this bow tie quilt.  It added some nice color.

Jo Morton Christmas log cabin from the book Jo's Little Favorites (Book I).  I feel in love with this little quilt the minute I saw it pictured in her book.  The fabrics used in this quilt are mostly traditional greens and reds, I added gold/yellow for interest.  If you look closely, the black center of each log cabin has a holly print.  Carol Ann, my long armed quilter did a great job with the Baptist fan on this quilt.  

The HST quilt is one of the first Christmas quilts I made.  The red and green fabric add that special Christmas look using traditional fabric.

Tumbling Blocks was a birthday gift from a college boyfriend.  He gave me the pieced top, I had it hand quilted.  The quilt had a happier ending than the relationship.

When it comes to fabric, I think I am like Will Rogers: never met a fabric, I did not like.  Being a traditional quilter, the historic prints are chosen before the Christmas print fabric with Santa, reindeer and snowflakes.  Don't let me misrepresent myself, if I find a snowflake print or holly which will blend in with any quilt any time of the year, I will choose it.  Let's don't even talk about fabric panels.  Those panels can sure make for an interesting focal point or nice additions to backings.

On cold winter nights, when the wind is howling and the left over leaves are blowing, there is noting like snuggling under a quilt with visions of sugar plums dancing in my head.  

Upper Cumberland Quilt Show Part II

The Needham Family had agreed to share their family quilts for the quilt show.  I did not count the exact number but estimate there were more than thirty quilts on exhibit.  The quilts had been made by predominately one member of the family.  

Tiny pieces sewn together with perfect points.

Cathedral Windows

Stars

English Paper Piecing

What a legacy!

Upper Cumberland Quilt Show Part I

This quilt was made by one of the ladies at the Algood Senior Citizen Center.  All the Sunbonnet Sue's were different and purple. The appliqué on the outside border added a nice touch.

This quilt had such an interesting story.  According to its owner, Joe Cameron he won the quilt at the U C Q F in 2014, he wanted to win a shotgun.  Nancy, his wife only had tickets for this quilt.  Joe says his wife is happy with the beautiful quilt, Joe says if he can sell the quilt he can get his shotgun.

The maker of this quilt called the design diamond ring--it was beautifully pieced and quilted.

Burgoyne Surrounded--I have been collecting fabrics to make this quilt

There was a nice display of patriotic quilts:  The addition of the elephant and donkey under Miss Liberty was a nice touch

Unusual color selection--the quilting was perfection.

There were dozens of quilts and I took many photos will share more in next post.

Come Together

North and South

From Primitive Quilts Magazine

Summer 2013

My projects all seem to start the same way:   There is an article or a piece in a magazine which catches my eye or I see something on a blog or pinterest.  I start reading the article and studying the instructions and say to myself "that doesn't seem so difficult, I think I can do that."  

And that is where the trouble begins:  my ambition and imagination overloads my skill level.

The design for this quilt is in the Primitive Quilts Magazine Summer 2013.  The finished quilt in the magazine is 37 1/2" x 46"  the fabrics are from a Civil War charm pack.  My finished quilt is 54" x 71."  Looking through my stash I had several charm packs and thought it would be interesting to make it a true North and South quilt with Yankee blue on one side of the quilt and Johnny Rebel on the other side surrounded by gray.  Me and my big ideas!  

I was sweating bullets with the gray fabric.  Frugal cutting was the theme of the day as I began cutting the setting triangles and sashing.  Setting blocks on point always forces me to put on my quilting thinking cap and remember to sew the rows on the diagonal rather than across.

I have spent most of Labor Day laboring over this quilt keeping the sewing machine and iron hot while I tried to complete all the sashing and get all the blocks joined together.  Backing fabric?  Time to check the sash.  

Blackberry Winter

Cathedral Windows from the Shaker Museum

We are having Blackberry Winter in Tennessee.  Blackberry Winter is a cold snap which happens in the late spring when the blackberries are blooming.

The nighttime temps are quite low and AppleJack sends me searching for an extra quilt to throw on the bed.

There is nothing like sleeping under a quilt

Sometimes when I am matching designs in fabric for the backing I ask myself if it is worth the extra time and effort and then I look at Harry Tyler's lion.

I ask myself the same question when I am making HST's

Tumbler quilts 

Today, another day of Blackberry Winter, I will keep warm by sewing together the many blocks of my North and South quilt.

Yellow Creek Quilt Designs

One of the vendors I met while I was in Paducah for quilt week was Yellow Creek Quilt Designs.  WOW!  These ladies are amazing!  I first learned about sisters, Vicki Olsen and Jill Shaulis through the Primitive Quilts magazine specifically the Spring  2013 issue.   Yellow Creek Quilt brick and motor shop was a former bank turned post office turned quilt shop--looks like a fun place to visit.  Hmm, might be a long road trip, they are in IL and me in TN, but oh the fun places I could find in between the two stops




Photos do not do this quilt justice--the hexies are tiny-- 3/8" tiny!  Seeing their beautiful star hexie quilt was motivation for me to begin working on mine again.

My hexes are 1" finished--they seem giant sized compared to the 3/8" size.  Sewing the hexies  is addicting.  They make a great portable project to carry in the car and work on during lunch or while waiting for appts.

The Kindred Spirits book is Yellow Creek Designs first published book by Kansas City Star and yes this book was one of my first purchases.  They also have some beautiful fabric and are getting ready to release a second book.  If you like making miniature quilts, check them out.

Paducah

Yes, this is a quilt.  Isn't it amazing?

This is the center medallion from a quilt.  Can't believe it was not a prize winner

Absolutely beautiful and quilted to perfection.

Does anyone else ever look at a quilt and ask themselves "Why can't I quilt like this?"

Please excuse the horrible photo, one of the miniatures.  I'm guessing the total size of this quilt to be approx 12 inches.

Talk about color

I didn't know you could do these things with fabric

or this 

So many beautiful quilts

Creativity and skill all working together

Jo's Little Favorites and Organization

Santa did find his way to my house during Christmas.  He didn't come the usual way "eight tiny reindeer pulling a sleigh."  Santa came with hip boots and driving an outboard motor boat because we had rain, rain and more rain and it stopped raining  long enough to rain some more.  Santa was kind enough to leave some cabbage (money) in my stocking.  Santa being the intelligent guy that he is knew one of the items on my Christmas list was Jo Morton's new book called Jo's Little Favorites and Santa knew this book was being released in January. 


While waiting for my delivery, I did some more shopping with my Christmas cabbage (money) and found these.



They are fabric boards from Primitive Gatherings.  In Lisa's words to help me organize my "collection" of fabric.  The fabric boards will help me to clean up my sewing room and it will be so enjoyable when I am auditioning fabric.

So what does a girl do while she is waiting for Amazon to deliver her new book and USPS to deliver fabric boards?  She goes fabric shopping!    I found a new to me fabric shop called Whittle's Fabrics.  Whittle's is located just outside Smith's Grove, KY which is about a 70 mile drive from Nashville.  They carry some of favorite designer fabric:  Judie Rothermel, Jo Morton, Buggy Barn, Marcus, Primitive Gatherings, and Windham.  The price per yard of fabric is very affordable and fat quarters are even more affordable.  I left Whittle's with a big smile on my face and an arm load of fabric!  They have a web site and if you are looking for fabric at discounted prices they are worth a look.







Time to break in my new book and get started on a new quilt

CVQA (Cumberland Valley Quilters Association)

Historic Franklin Quilt Show

St Philip Catholic Church

2nd and Main

Saturday was the perfect day for some girl time and there is nothing like a quilt show to sing to this girls heart.  Civil War Reproduction quilts, antique quilts, challenge quilts, vendors, tools, kits, fabrics and books--something for everyone.

Star of Bethlehem 

The colors in this quilt are bold and worked beautifully with each other.  There were tiny stitches in the hand quilting.

Applique album quilt.  Difficult to see in the photo but a beautiful hand quilted feather running down the outside border.

Bold use of color is this very challenging Judy Neimeyer design

A two color Burgoyne Surrounded--am gathering fabrics are reading construction direction for one of my own.

Sunbonnet Sue grows up and selects her formal for the dance.

Signature quilt

Irish Chain--the squares in this quilt were tiny

More beautiful appliqué and hand quilting

My favorite quilt in the entire show!  An antique quilt on loan from Carnton.  The maker of the quilt had signed and dated 1865.  It was exquisite and fragile and showing signs of wear.  Thousands of tiny stitches in the hand quilting.

Thank you CVQA for a wonderful show.  You made an overcast Saturday bright and beautiful with your quilts.  Motivation to get me off my hiney and finish up those half dozen quilts I have started!

I almost forgot to share one of my favorite star quilts.  This one is made from men's ties purchased from the Salvation Army, washed and fussy cut into stars.  Can't tell from the quality of my very poor photo, there is some really fancy hand quilting between those stars.