Artful Homemade Quilts Have A Way

Oh, and I found a quilt that made me think of [MENTION=31258]BDBoop[/MENTION], who seems to like blue and green, although these are pretty bold:


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This one was found at nhquiltarts at etsy.
 
Actually that's a mauvie pink. It just looks gold because of my bad photography. But you have given me the idea to do one in red and gold. I did one that is a red square and a green square interlaced in Celtic fashion with a gold cross in the center. Here it is. I think this is a pattern someone gave me. Maybe one of the nurses at Vanderbilt. I don't recall it being in either one of my Celtic cross stitch books. It wasn't such a ball buster. Generally those knots are not easy to work out. I started one that was quite complex and realized about 3/4 of the way through that it was wrong. I should have done something to just work around my mistake, but I am pretty sure in a fit of frustration, I threw it away. I may try it again one day. To top it off, the one I was doing last night had a mistake in he pattern. Fortunately, it was a symmetrical design so all I had to do was flip the pattern 180 degrees and it was OK.



I rarely use the size Aida cloth called for and I just thought this one would have more punch if I did it on really large Aida. But I don't recall what the size actually is. It is framed in an 8 x 10 frame. A square would be better, but when I did this one, I was in law school and teaching and wasn't inclined to scour the internet for things. Just found a red frame and brought it home from K Mart or some such.

@freedombecki Now this one is absolutely beautiful. I'm trying to wrap my mind around how you get the design in though. Can you explain a little how you do it? Do you sew it yourself?
Those pictures were posted by Sunshine who does amazing Celtic embroidery in counted cross work, and sometimes she designs them all by herself. I almost fainted for happy last year when she posted several of her works. Sunshine is also working on a white on red tablecloth, and just completed a green one at or around her time of retirement. Seems like it was after. My memory is not perfect, but I love her cross stitch. I hope koshergrls comes back soon. She not only does counted work, her hand embroidered pillowcases are second to none, although she claims her unique color combos aren't. I'm here to tell you if you look back a few dozen pages, you will see how accomplished Sunshine is and how accomplished koshergrl is, each in their own specialty. Koshergrl also posts soft sculptured birds she has made in a thread she started in Arts and Crafts a few months back. She does all this and raises children, too. Girls who do counted work have a lot in common with quilters, and one of my specialties when I'm not doing charity quilts is doing postage stamp quilts, which are my love and heart's desire. :)

Thanks everyone for kind wishes and prayers. I'm feeling a lot better today than yesterday! :)

Oh wow...Sunshine is very talented. It's refreshing to know that there are such innovative ladies who have the patience to create such beautiful art!
 
Actually that's a mauvie pink. It just looks gold because of my bad photography. But you have given me the idea to do one in red and gold. I did one that is a red square and a green square interlaced in Celtic fashion with a gold cross in the center. Here it is. I think this is a pattern someone gave me. Maybe one of the nurses at Vanderbilt. I don't recall it being in either one of my Celtic cross stitch books. It wasn't such a ball buster. Generally those knots are not easy to work out. I started one that was quite complex and realized about 3/4 of the way through that it was wrong. I should have done something to just work around my mistake, but I am pretty sure in a fit of frustration, I threw it away. I may try it again one day. To top it off, the one I was doing last night had a mistake in he pattern. Fortunately, it was a symmetrical design so all I had to do was flip the pattern 180 degrees and it was OK.



I rarely use the size Aida cloth called for and I just thought this one would have more punch if I did it on really large Aida. But I don't recall what the size actually is. It is framed in an 8 x 10 frame. A square would be better, but when I did this one, I was in law school and teaching and wasn't inclined to scour the internet for things. Just found a red frame and brought it home from K Mart or some such.

@freedombecki Now this one is absolutely beautiful. I'm trying to wrap my mind around how you get the design in though. Can you explain a little how you do it? Do you sew it yourself?
Those pictures were posted by Sunshine who does amazing Celtic embroidery in counted cross work, and sometimes she designs them all by herself. I almost fainted for happy last year when she posted several of her works. Sunshine is also working on a white on red tablecloth, and just completed a green one at or around her time of retirement. Seems like it was after. My memory is not perfect, but I love her cross stitch. I hope koshergrls comes back soon. She not only does counted work, her hand embroidered pillowcases are second to none, although she claims her unique color combos aren't. I'm here to tell you if you look back a few dozen pages, you will see how accomplished Sunshine is and how accomplished koshergrl is, each in their own specialty. Koshergrl also posts soft sculptured birds she has made in a thread she started in Arts and Crafts a few months back. She does all this and raises children, too. Girls who do counted work have a lot in common with quilters, and one of my specialties when I'm not doing charity quilts is doing postage stamp quilts, which are my love and heart's desire. :)

Thanks everyone for kind wishes and prayers. I'm feeling a lot better today than yesterday! :)

Becki, you give me too much credit. I just use patterns for my cross stitch. I couldn't design one myself to save my neck. The green cross stitch quilt is still in the plastic bags not sewn together yet. A friend offered to do it for me, but she is an hour away and I haven't gotten there yet. Still contemplating the sewing machine. If I buy a baby grand piano, I will get a lesser machine. Or maybe not, depending on what I ostensibly pay for the piano. Who said having a deadly illness is bad? At least you know you can spend your own money. Yea, I know, black humor!

KG does do great stitching. And she is working on a quilt too.

I look back at how poor we were, and realize what sacrifice it took for my mother to get me piano lessons. I wish I had done more with that. The grandbaby seems to have the 'gift.' When his parents figure out he is better at music than hockey, he may do great things. He will get the baby grand should I buy one. I'm going to look at some on Saturday in Nashville.

Oh, I forgot. Bloodrock, that is just cross stitch on really big Aida cloth. I had a pattern when I did that. You put the stitches on the squares of the cloth. It is like graph paper only it is cloth. I think I chose the colors myself, though. That one is actually one of the easier ones I have done. When I travel I stitch a Celtic knot. It helps me tolerate the flying part. I didn't stitch when I went to China and Egypt. I just slipped myself a nice little mickey fin on those trips! :D
 
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Here is some of my Celtic cross stitch. And that Chinese thing! (Once again, strictly amateur, but being from KY, there is some comfort in stitching for a lot of us.)




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Bloodrock, here are a few of the Celtic crosses, and some other things I have done. They can seriously wig you out. They are deceptively simple. When I travel, I outline one, working out the pattern, then all I have to do on the plane is sit and fill it in. The green and blue one up in the corner I did on a trip to Philly. When the plane took off, I did half a row of backward stitches and it shows. I left it that way as a memory of the trip.
 
My Blue Heaven quilt top is done and is designated for a shelter child in honor of a friend of mine who was a Army Frogman in years gone by, who hosted a forum of the same name that was all about modern music, of which I know so little. :lol:

What can I say but "God bless our troops!"

The quilt measures around 54x70" give or take an inch or two. It's perfect for a child to grow from early childhood to young adulthood, the good Lord willing.
 

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Beckums,

That piece of Aida only has 6 squares to the inch. Not sure what store I got it from, but I know it was in Nashville. There were a couple I used to shop at, one in Harding Place Mall and one in the Hillwood community.
Hmm, 6 to the inch Aida cloth. I guess they had to do something for people who work and would still like to make a cross stitch picture. Even simple shapes are beautiful worked in counted cross stitches and on Aida cloth. I just don't remember that being around the last time I ordered Aida cloth for the shop around 10 years ago. (we still had some left when I retired. lol) Actually, quilters were who came to our store. We always carried around 4 thousand choices on bolts. The newer stores are selling precut charm squares and 10 inch stacks for people who can't afford to buy a half yard of everything in a 40-bolt collection. That really became important to people who loved antebellum, feedsack, and other era reproduction fabrics, plus a few bolts for backgrounds, borders, and sashings. Collections are limited in manufacture, and a quilt made from a collection just 10 years later can be quite valuable if people remember the designer or the look of that specially nice collection. I always liked to keep about 200 bolts of bird fabrics on hand, but sometimes, nobody would print a hummingbird fabric, just not out there, when 3 people walk through the door missing the hummingbirds up on the mountain. *sigh*
 
And this one reminds me of Koshergrl's work, except this one looks like it has been washed ... and isn't a pillowcase... am I grabbing at straws or what? :D

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[MENTION=20545]Mr. H.[/MENTION] was asking what a good antique or older quilt might be worth? Well, this one is a well-cared-for-antique quilt that recently sold for $675.

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Also, this little gem has been "gently used and washed" from West Virginia, and is for sale as well to anyone who wonders what a good-looking baby quilt might be worth. This one is 45 inches square:

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Since it may or may not be for sale still, you can find her price here if you're curious as to what one might be asked of a collector of quilts: Carpenter's Wheel Quilt

The quilter's name rings a bell as a famous teacher, but could be a relative. That could make the value go up (or not). I don't know. Collectors are always interested in people who are good at their craft. This lady is whether she is famous or not. And it could have been made by a friend anyway, but there are some very good quilters in West Virginia who are well-taught by one of the most famous quilters in America, Ms. Jinny Beyer.
 
Ever get disgusted at having to buy napkins to put your snacks and coffee on? This lady solved the throw-away problem with a little quilt mat that's thick enough to absorb spills yet big enough to be a mat underneath both her coffee mug and a burger or burrito:

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Her specialty is using "jelly rolls" and "charm packs" in her quilts (precut fabrics that make piecing a lot quicker than having to cut and figure, figure and cut, ad nauseum...

This is one of the most wonderful production websites I've see to date: TUTORIALS | Wedding Dress Blue

Just on one page, are whopping gorgeous quilts like her hundred hugs quilts:

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And her square-centered (I think) "fading charms" postage stamp work:

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Plus she has made a really cute little girls' skirt (she must be a mommy or grandma) and all sorts of little things one might find at a sidewalk sale--quilted key chains, needles and pin books, etc.
 
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This one is so very simple. It's just stripes and probably took under 3 hours. I piddled around since Saturday, but decided not to work on Sunday, but to rest and review blue quilts (as seen above). It was a great day. I finished Deep Purple Dreams this morning. I'm spending a lot of time trying to encourage my sweetie to do for himself this week. I may be short hours here this week. He needs attention and my time. I know he can still learn by his behaviors, and I think he can sort things out in his cerebellum, as he can still do math. I think I will approach him by encouraging him to relearn good habits such as shaving, brushing teeth, showering, taking out trash, etc. through his cerebellum. Not sure it will work, but I know he appreciates it when I stop and spend time with him while he is executing these tasks. I know I can fight pain of fibromyalgia. Maybe together, we can help him defeat forgetfulness by using other parts of his brain than those that no longer have open pathways to recollection. I know it's eventually a losing battle, but a battle means you fight it and help others on your team win, no matter how bizarro world stuff gets sometimes, and it does. :dunno:

Well, here's #53 for the year: deep purple dreams quilt upper left corner. It's just skinny and fat stripes all the way across with a dark purple upper and lower border:
 

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Looking at blue quilts, I ran across one that reminded me of all Sunshine's work!

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Did you make this one [MENTION=29697]freedombecki[/MENTION] ? It is so beautiful. I am going to visit my cousin soon. She does her own quilts and posts pictures of them on Facebook. She is very talented. Almost as good as yours.
 
Looking at blue quilts, I ran across one that reminded me of all Sunshine's work!

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Did you make this one @freedombecki ? It is so beautiful. I am going to visit my cousin soon. She does her own quilts and posts pictures of them on Facebook. She is very talented. Almost as good as yours.
No, I didn't make that one. It came from the quilting board dot com by one of their members. I do not do hand embroidery any more, Bloodrock, but when I'm not making a charity quilt top, I am keeping up on what others do by surfing the net by Bing. This one was from a kit likely and was done exceptionally well. Also, our friend on this thread, Sunshine, embroiders quilt squares from time to time, and I thought it would inspire her to complete her green one sometime soon, as I'm just dying to see it after she gets it quilted by someone else. She spent the better part of a year when she was working on breaks and after hours working on her beauty and wants to complete it for her children. I'd love to help, but I'm not in good enough health to do the actual hard job of quilting any more, but I can make charity tops and take them to the charity bees closet, where eventually, someone will quilt or tie it with 120 members in their group when I joined a few years back. I know a lot of them have busy lives and their own quilts to do, but occasionally, someone loves to at least tie a quilt in the afternoon or so that it takes if they are able to. So I keep going. All I have is a scanner to work with, so the little thumbnails of parts of the quilts I do are all that can be shown.
 
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My present quilt is from an old start of red and light colors with red or pink in the center form of a willow tree log cabin-like block. It presently measures about 28" square and hopefully soon it will be longer than it is wide. I'd like to finish it fast, but I'm doing an envelope square to extend the top and bottom row, so I'm not sure where this one is going to go yet. It is a lot of work--it took all day yesterday to do the 28 half-square triangles on the top, and all of this morning to doing part of the squares, but they're not even pressed yet to join. Manana!
 

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