Artful Homemade Quilts Have A Way

[Sunshine]

The Sunshine Steps to the White House quilt is now in only 6 parts. It is coming together nicely, and I love it.

All I can show is one of the 6 junctions of four squares. They're all alike this one:

WOW! That's sensational. Yellow makes me happy!

I'm so glad, sunshine. I showed the antique quilt to my fellow moderator at another forum, and he noticed the antique quilt had a touch of red in the gold. I looked again, and he was right, it did, but it was too late. I'd already cut the light and dark yellow and gold strips. I did, however slightly remedy it by adding a definite schoolbus bright red-gold print as the inner border and a sunflower border with its own propensity toward a redder sun yellow (although not red in the true sense, but leaning that way just ever so slightly) I'm not sure the scanner did it justice, but for what it's worth, I am dedicating the quilt to you, Sunshine, for a child in our rural county whose lot it was to land with at least one parent in the local shelter for abused families. It's to honor your long career in patient care and fighting disease with all your might and helping people like me who are fighting mere pain and lethargy from fibromyalgia (and other autoimmune type diseases) to keep fighting and beating back our diseases, one symptom at a time, and winning against the odds.

Maybe the best cure is just that--lick the symptom and feel your heart saying "hip hip hooray" for the joy of victory over physical pain and other annoyances.

WOW! I'm truly honored~!

The red just makes it 'feel' warmer! I like it.

(My old high school friends don't understand why I like it out here in the boonies all alone except for my cat and visits to the kids. I just tell them, 'I've seen a lot.')

 

[freedombecki]

Living out in the sticks has been heaven for me, too, Sunshine. I love the solitude, the twittering birds, the awesome great white egrets on our own lake, as well as the herons, and the green all year around, being around one hundred miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico and enjoying more rain in the Great Piney Woods than they have west of here. It was a little dry, but for the last 2 days, we've had a little rain to maintain the fish in the pond for the dear fisherman birds who occasionally visit for the rewards, if the egrets are elsewhere for a bit. Great egrets are not great sharers of their "finds." I saw a pair of great egrets banish 5 much larger Flamingos a couple of years back. While it looked comical, I loved seeing the beautiful pink color of the flamingos around here. The egrets let them alone a day or so, but they must have gotten into the wrong food source, as soon, they let them have it with their well-equipped stiletto beaks.

You have to let the wild birds duke it out, but the egrets won handily, after a long day of in-your-face wordless discussions as to which pair of monarchs would rule the lake for the duration of the summer.

 

[freedombecki]

I was looking around to see if anyone else was doing a green White House quilt. since mine went so quickly once I got going, I'd like a repeat experience only all in one day, thank you. I did find one at Marcia's Sewing Blogspot, and she too was making a charity quilt for someone along with the assistance of her mother. Hers is very scrappy, and I have some of the same fabric she and her mom have in my stash, at least, I used to.

Here's her beautiful layout:

​

My green stash is getting out of control lately, and I do like what she did in textures and types of fabrics. I'd prefer doing two colors, naturally, like I did on the Sunshine Steps to the Whitehouse quilt, but it takes a minimum of 2 yards each of two colors. All you need for the above quilt is her measurement, which she has shared at her link, which I advise you to visit for her cheerful statement and many more pictures of her work and amazing system of operations. Her squares come out 10" square, whereas mine will be 9" again. It's much easier to repeat than change course mid stream into someone else's amazing world, a world that is super-organized, though, and most admirable.​

Well, it's off to the resource room to look for 2 greens.
And if none are found, you know what that means
A trip to the quilt store for way too much fabric
To hopefully work for a poor child some magic.​

​

 

[freedombecki]

This was shown at the Law building at the University of Wyoming in 2009. They call it "Courthouse Steps Star," which it well may be, but it also has the shared center of White House Steps. I agree with its maker and namer, too, however, as technically, White House Steps can be courthouse steps if it is arranged in opposite likes, size-wise. It also, however, can be arranged log cabin style to look like concentric squares. I'm fascinated.

 

[freedombecki]

Found two very sturdy green cottons among my souvenirs. One came from an estate purchase, the other from somewhere that had a bolt of green camouflage fabric from years gone by.

I am naming this quilt, "You're In the Army Now!" for all our dear men and women who served in Viet Nam as well as at other times.

I am not designating an assignment, which means either the H.E.A.R.T.S. Museum quilters will nab it or an Army mom for her soldier boy who worries her months at a stretch while he is serving his tour overseas.

Not what I expected to come up with after finding the above GORGEOUS green scrap quilt someone made for charitable purposes, but okay, I guess. It all goes to a good cause for our service men who gave us every freedom in the Bill of Rights that we ever had and has freed people across the globe who would otherwise be ruled by tyrants.

I have cut most of the strips, not all, but have completed all 24 blocks to the 5-piece stage (small blocks, scan 3) and two mockups of the full blocks and two mockups of the 9-piece stage. So tomorrow, I will have my busy hands working if all goes well.

I know this is no holiday in particular, but I would like to end tonight with a prayer for all our servicemen to be alert, serve safely, and come home to bless our nation with wisdom and peace that comes from knowing war is bad, but not so bad we accept the garbage of societies who threaten us by any means they can. Bless our troops, oh Lord I pray. Bring each one of them home in honor and victory. Amen.

Also, please add one of our members' sister to your prayer list. She is battling liver cancer and needs help from on high. Thank you.

Love,

becki

 

[freedombecki]

Time to wish everyone a great week. Hope Sunshine takes a couple of days to enjoy life after completing some painting tasks, and when refreshed gets back to the next one in the warm yellow colors described.

I have a camo quilt to get back to, so again, will post little green tidbits when the time rolls around and some squares are finished. I did 3/4 of the work on the yellow quilt the last day. Sometimes, after a long fight, it seems I can fly right through the work. Here's hoping I can do one White HOuse Steps quilts for every color in the rainbow in a week. I already have the yellow one out of the way and the hard part of the green quilt top out of the way (though it's not completely true to the true hue rainbow color, it's a shade!

A coffee toast to all who work hard to make life good for others! So many here do just that too.

 

[Sunshine]

Time to wish everyone a great week. Hope Sunshine takes a couple of days to enjoy life after completing some painting tasks, and when refreshed gets back to the next one in the warm yellow colors described.

I have a camo quilt to get back to, so again, will post little green tidbits when the time rolls around and some squares are finished. I did 3/4 of the work on the yellow quilt the last day. Sometimes, after a long fight, it seems I can fly right through the work. Here's hoping I can do one White HOuse Steps quilts for every color in the rainbow in a week. I already have the yellow one out of the way and the hard part of the green quilt top out of the way (though it's not completely true to the true hue rainbow color, it's a shade!

A coffee toast to all who work hard to make life good for others! So many here do just that too.

I have pushed this week's start off until Wednesday. I have to go to the eye doctor for glasses Tuesday. The front BR is a large BR, but much smaller and only about half as tedious as the first area I covered.

 

[freedombecki]

Good luck at the eye doctor's tomorrow, Sunshine. I posted a little but not much today. I had foot cramps all day today. Sitting in front of the sewing machine, there is a button on my little Bernina 380, near the reverse key that allows you to straight sew constantly by pushing the button. That eased my uptight foot cramps nicely, and I was able to keep on for a while.

Finished all 24 squares, and they're in two piles, one with the army green percale, and one with the jungle camouflage at the outside. I thought "this quilt is a little confusing." And then I realized, that's the point of camo fabric. it blends in with the jungle or landscaping and is intended to confuse whoever is looking out for troops who for one reason or another are right there.

Well, hopefully, all the drab, confusing stuff will soon be behind me, and I can work on two pieces of the glorious blue forget-me-not flowers I have on hand.

Well, I'm falling asleep on the keyboard. 'niters.

Prayers up for all our loved ones and friends.

Love,

becki

 

[freedombecki]

Truly got carried away with the London Stairs bit. The one row has grown to a 256-piece work of 40 inches wide and 20 inches long. A sampling is below.

Yes, the 24 camouflage squares are waiting in the same pile, and I'd planned on getting them together this afternoon. I was only going to do one square of the London Stairs...

 

[Sunshine]

Yesterday, I noticed my quilt files had one on red and a file on blue. No file on yellow, so I went searching. At first, it wasn't much fun because not everyone ever makes a yellow quilt. In some households, yellow is banned because if a person is called "yellow" in our culture, it means he is a coward. That's hardly fitting for the color of sunshine, the color of butter which makes cookies taste like nothing else on this planet, and just as people believe in living on the sunny side of life, which means happiness and laughter. I love yellow! It's gorgeous if you let it do its thing in a quilt, yet there is a whole group of quilters who a couple of decades ago were complaining how one little piece of yellow could make people's attention turn to that..... one little piece of yellow.

WELL, YEA-AH!
​

So I'm putting some yellow quilts here for everyone's perusal into how much fun this color can be.​

I found someone's start on a mosaic quilt when I placed "yellow" into the search engine. I fell in love with just a glimpse of it. It has other colors than yellow, but the maker cleverly disguised them in the style of mosaic and distributed them randomly even throughout, and it's such an engaging piece, I just have to share it:​

And more from my little vicarious tour of blogger's cheerful sewing room displays and museums:

1. Hearts o' Gold

2. Here comes the sun

3. Lemoyne Stars with zigzag gold sashing

Here's the mosaic enlarged. I just want to see it so I can refer back to it when I want some sunshine in my life.

Speaking of Sunshine, I found some particularly fun quilt depictions of suns on my quest for making a file in my pictures of yellow quilts that I love so and want to make charity quilts of. I have a couple of barrels of yellow fabric around here, and they are overflowing with textures and types from the forties (or earlier) on up through the recent months of printing and fabric distribution in the United States.

In honor of [MENTION=21954]Sunshine[/MENTION]:

Here's the mosaic enlarged. I just want to see it so I can refer back to it when I want some sunshine in my life.

Speaking of Sunshine, I found some particularly fun quilt depictions of suns on my quest for making a file in my pictures of yellow quilts that I love so and want to make charity quilts of. I have a couple of barrels of yellow fabric around here, and they are overflowing with textures and types from the forties (or earlier) on up through the recent months of printing and fabric distribution in the United States.

In honor of @Sunshine:

Those are fantastic!

Thanks, Sunshine. There were a lot more, but they were not allowed to be transferred as some quilters make very beautiful things that get published somewhere else, which makes them copyrighted. So in our little USMB gallery of gorgeous quilts, we just work with quilt artists whose main goal is making a loved one a pretty quilt, or has some fabric she thought she could put to good use in the house, like the cigar ribbon quilt above. You can't tell much about it anyway, as it sits in a museum somewhere likely, so I'll show the larger version if I can:

I won't have the "commercial mfg. markings," but the color schema is not one I've ever seen in anyone elses' except maybe one of mine back when I was making quilts for one show a year where my quilt shop was in central Wyoming. *sigh* Those were the days! I could just run over to where the yellow fabrics were upright on bolts, grab a couple I liked, put them to the cutting table and back on the shelves in less than an hour. I'd take them home and sew like a wild woman for 3 or 4 evenings, then show up to work with a new display for the front window. I tried to change them every couple of weeks to keep people from getting bored. Once in a while someone would come in and ask to see the ones we just took down, because someone called and told her about a quilt she should look at if she was going to make one for them. Small towns are like that.​

Those are fabulous Beckums.

 

[BDBoop]

The Sunshine Steps to the White House quilt is now in only 6 parts. It is coming together nicely, and I love it.

All I can show is one of the 6 junctions of four squares. They're all alike this one:

WOW! That's sensational. Yellow makes me happy!

I'm so glad, sunshine. I showed the antique quilt to my fellow moderator at another forum, and he noticed the antique quilt had a touch of red in the gold. I looked again, and he was right, it did, but it was too late. I'd already cut the light and dark yellow and gold strips. I did, however slightly remedy it by adding a definite schoolbus bright red-gold print as the inner border and a sunflower border with its own propensity toward a redder sun yellow (although not red in the true sense, but leaning that way just ever so slightly) I'm not sure the scanner did it justice, but for what it's worth, I am dedicating the quilt to you, Sunshine, for a child in our rural county whose lot it was to land with at least one parent in the local shelter for abused families. It's to honor your long career in patient care and fighting disease with all your might and helping people like me who are fighting mere pain and lethargy from fibromyalgia (and other autoimmune type diseases) to keep fighting and beating back our diseases, one symptom at a time, and winning against the odds.

Maybe the best cure is just that--lick the symptom and feel your heart saying "hip hip hooray" for the joy of victory over physical pain and other annoyances.

Okay, why am I crying? just ... So much beauty, you touched my heart.

Bless you.

/hugs

 

[koshergrl]

Yellow is a beautiful color for a quilt, in any of it's shades. Looks wonderful. My best friend loves yellow, that quilt would make her sing!

 

[koshergrl]

Becki who quilts your quilts? Do you quilt them?

 

[freedombecki]

Becki who quilts your quilts? Do you quilt them?

Koshergrl, thanks for asking. I'd love to quilt my quilts, but to tell the truth, my disease keeps me from doing things I used to do with ease. Sometimes, I do not leave the house for two weeks at a time, and when I do, I risk having full body cramps just from the stress of noise, lights, and too much chatter, which triggers pain, cramps, and a myriad of symptoms from any of the 11 syndromes I know I have. I'd die a thousand deaths if I screamed in public. I went out to meetings 3 times in the past calendar year, and the result is always the same--1 hour at church, screaming pain before the sermon was complete. 2 hours at charity bees sewing meeting, screaming pain by noon along with a head spinning from well-wishers and people thanking me for making the 110 quilt tops last year. I spent one useless hour at the special charity bees quilting event in which 35 ladies showed up to quilt or tie 1 of the charity quilt tops I made. I quilted the smallest one I had made. The price tag was a 5 hour nap when I got home, a full night of sleep, and 4 naps the next day of 2 hours each before I finally got back to normal.

Sorry to share a day in my boring little life, but I'm so grateful to a merciful God I'm not in too much pain during most days, but being 2 hours late on the muscle relaxant can result in a full-body cramp if the air conditioner is one degree too cool, complete with screaming out loud.

The stomach problems were reduced to nothing when I faced the demon: I'm allergic or have an instant bad reaction to any muncie or country water that runs through pipes, except for distilled water, which runs through either stainless steel or glass pipes before it goes in its container. That includes eating anything that is cooked in municipal water--rice, pasta, veggies, everything except for 1 item. Pinto beans have something in them that allows them to be cooked in regular tap water and doesn't upset my system, but only one serving. (1/2 c. cooked). If I have those items, I have to cook it in distilled water. Period.

So much for my bubble-girl life. The country suits me because it's quiet. On coyote-wild dog howling nights, I just turn on the fan to drown them out. For some reason, fan noise and car trips are soothing.

I beg your forgiveness for my confession. If it weren't for my good doctor, I'd have constant screaming pain with or without medication. She skillfully diagnosed the worst of all my problems by noticing a too-much-calcium in bloodstream, and scanning parathyroids for bad cells. Two of the 4 were taken out in surgery 2 years ago and restored my feet after a few months to where I can walk unaided by canes, and in that way, I walk when I can. The pain didn't disappear immediately, but was half in a couple of months and almost all gone after 6 months. Pressing on the rib cage tells me I still have the fibromyalgia. It just isn't eruptive in solitude that I will enjoy until the tax people evict me from my little bubble. I have enough savings to fight them off for 10 years more, if nothing goes seriously wrong in the meantime and we can avoid country solicitors.

 

[freedombecki]

WOW! That's sensational. Yellow makes me happy!

I'm so glad, sunshine. I showed the antique quilt to my fellow moderator at another forum, and he noticed the antique quilt had a touch of red in the gold. I looked again, and he was right, it did, but it was too late. I'd already cut the light and dark yellow and gold strips. I did, however slightly remedy it by adding a definite schoolbus bright red-gold print as the inner border and a sunflower border with its own propensity toward a redder sun yellow (although not red in the true sense, but leaning that way just ever so slightly) I'm not sure the scanner did it justice, but for what it's worth, I am dedicating the quilt to you, Sunshine, for a child in our rural county whose lot it was to land with at least one parent in the local shelter for abused families. It's to honor your long career in patient care and fighting disease with all your might and helping people like me who are fighting mere pain and lethargy from fibromyalgia (and other autoimmune type diseases) to keep fighting and beating back our diseases, one symptom at a time, and winning against the odds.

Maybe the best cure is just that--lick the symptom and feel your heart saying "hip hip hooray" for the joy of victory over physical pain and other annoyances.

Okay, why am I crying? just ... So much beauty, you touched my heart.

Bless you.

/hugs

Thanks, BDBoop. Quilting has always drawn women together, and one of my favorite quilt designers calls her designer business "Heart to Heart" because quilts just do that to people. We're also seeing quite a few men--whether artists or engineers taking up the needle either to help their wife with designs, who just got hooked on quilting, and we even have a couple of guys who mention to me they've been around and liked the quilting thread as a sanctuary from some of the other areas of the boards.

I had just learned to use my sewing machine as a free-motion pen-and-ink sort of artistic media and had always liked quilts, though I only had one since my mother's quilt she made for me, she requested I leave it for my sister's only warmth when I got married, so I did, and now, no telling what happened to it. She made me a friendship star quilt, because we had an truly different relationship of being best of friends (although she did the majority of the giving!) Because my terminally shell-shocked dad had a habit of beating the children for no reason that was known to anyone, that we had to have a friend in our mother to keep from getting whacked into the next world. Just kidding. But she really was the diplomat in the family and kept communication channels open with him and others while she was alive. That was her lifelong task, and she did it well.

Grandma and my mother's sisters, however, were the dedicated quilters in the family and saw to it I got my own quilt in the late 70s. They made from their polyester pantsuit and dresses a four-patch quilt attached to some red and green men's cotton pajama fabric, a warm quilt for Wyoming winters. I was so happy to have it.

if you ever get the yen to make a quilt or do handwork, you're cordially invited to scan or take a picture of it and bring it here. I can't believe the beautiful things people have shared here that a mother or grandmother did and gifted to them, things they saw in a store, exquisite celtic work, and to-die-for tea towels used as a tutorial for the family girls. If you backtrack, you'll find out who did what and who brought what. I actually love their projects as much as if not more than my own.

 

[Mr. H.]

Hey- I'M drawn to this thread.

I don't quilt, of course, but some men do...

ManQuilters - An Online Community for Man Quilters

 

[Mr. H.]

...or maybe that's a link to women making quilts of men?

 

[Mr. H.]

I better quilt while I'm behind LOL.

 

[freedombecki]

Hey- I'M drawn to this thread.

I don't quilt, of course, but some men do...

ManQuilters - An Online Community for Man Quilters

Don't know when I've enjoyed a quilt link more, Mr. H. I'm going to spend more time in there when I'm not doing so much work on quilts.

In the meantime, I got some blocks joined on the army quilt. Since they're all so similar, I'm just going to post one.

Also, I had to visit the quilt shop. I only have one bazillion greens in my stash, but I decided to do the first border in a match to the lightest green on the camouflage fabric, and guess which color I couldn't match. Yep. The light green. I now have a match, but haven't gotten to the outside border yet. I'm too busy dreading the boredom of only 2 fabrics. If they were red or blue, though... well, who knows. You never know what's going to put you to sleep until you get there. I'm there, but it may have nothing to do with the colors. I usually charge right through greens.

Here is the junction, like all the others that will appear on the 24-block quilt top:

 

[Sunshine]

Hey- I'M drawn to this thread.

I don't quilt, of course, but some men do...

ManQuilters - An Online Community for Man Quilters

Don't know when I've enjoyed a quilt link more, Mr. H. I'm going to spend more time in there when I'm not doing so much work on quilts.

In the meantime, I got some blocks joined on the army quilt. Since they're all so similar, I'm just going to post one.

Also, I had to visit the quilt shop. I only have one bazillion greens in my stash, but I decided to do the first border in a match to the lightest green on the camouflage fabric, and guess which color I couldn't match. Yep. The light green. I now have a match, but haven't gotten to the outside border yet. I'm too busy dreading the boredom of only 2 fabrics. If they were red or blue, though... well, who knows. You never know what's going to put you to sleep until you get there. I'm there, but it may have nothing to do with the colors. I usually charge right through greens.

Here is the junction, like all the others that will appear on the 24-block quilt top:

The Egyptian quilters are men. They started as tent makers. I posted their pic a while back.