Artful Homemade Quilts Have A Way

[freedombecki]

I know what it is. I went stir crazy today winding another bunch of bobbins for my embroidery box. All that's left to do on this box are 5 yellows, 5 oranges, 5 Delft blues, 5 turquoises/aqua and 5 reds. Oh, yes, and 5 more lime greens, since I did the medium greens already. I'm putting a little bit different color groups in each box, but I want enough colors that if I grab and go, there will be enough colors to do whatever is to be embroidered. One box is going to be just southwest colors. That's truly a fun palette, because you pick colors that look like they have to be dusted off a little to be hues. But when you put them together on a beige or neutral ground, their appearance is that of hues if you do not break down and put a hue in the mix, just staying with the dusties. It's a trick I learned when I wrote my Southwest Album Quilt Book. I thought it through and determined that mixed in with the sand is a lot of dust, which the wind picks up and throws around into the air, yielding a very atmospheric schema on the horizon of the wide open spaces in the southwest, from Mexico to the mountains of Wyoming. The colors also correspond in a way with the dyes native Americans made woven rugs, mats, and serapes. When I started writing my book, I did so because I T-totally hated the "southwestern" samples the salesmen were bringing around for quilters. A-r-r-g-h!!! Everything had devil red, horrid orange, angry ochre, and this gaudy tealy turquoise, outlined in pitch black. It was nothing like I recollected from the trip my family took to Nueva Laredo, nothing like the bright and beautiful market place there back in the early 60s, nothing like the desert, and nothing at all like the atmospheric mountains. I decided my quilt would be atmospheric and softly southwestern, but also with the dusted colors one would see at day's end, just before twilight as the cool for the evening set in, and it was time to light the campfire to tell sibling rugrats scary stories. <giggle>

*sigh*

Oh, anyway, the quilt won the best of show at the Wyoming State Fair in 1993, and when I went to pick it up, the superintendent said for the first time in forever, the cowboys actually came in from their rodeo to see the quilt one of their buds was so excited about, and that it looked exactly like a western quilt, and he'd never seen anyone do that before. So my hunch hit a cord with the guys who hit the dusty trail, feel the lone prairie, see and hear coyotes, cacti, and all the things my little quilt had on it. They saw the same thing I saw is all, and they liked it. Wow, my head is still swollen from that experience and honor of 20 years ago.

This was supposed to be about embroidery, too. Oh, well, the campfire has potluck on it sometimes.

 

[koshergrl]

Ok I have finally got my embroidery straightened out and have started stitching on the pillow cases. I think I have enough around to gift all the family, whew. I can't believe Christmas is almost here.

Next step is to wind bobbins for piecing a quilt top. My daughter finished up her volleyball last week, and now it gets dark so early we just might be able to get a little accomplished. Here's to hoping.

 

[freedombecki]

Good to hear, koshergrl. Hope you get some good stuff done. You are going to be a busy girl.

I've been up since a little before twilight winding bobbins for embroidery floss so that I can pick and choose projects without having to do it again. I still have 4 more boxes to go, and I can't find my DMC embroidery floss chart anywhere. Now, I'm not sure where it is. It's really helpful to me to see the colors, and that makes me able to pick the colors I want to use on certain projects, say for example, if I should take my Southwestern Album Applique Quilt book written sometime around 1992-1995 when I revised it to include a dozen more patterns for king sized southwestern quilts. They'd make pretty good embroidery patterns, I think.

Anyhow, here is the product of my last several days winding through the bottom of the boxes placed on the scanner.

DMC Color Chart: http://www.yarntree.com/075dmcolors.jpg

 

[freedombecki]

Filled another one today. The project was started at 4:30 am and done by around 7:30 pm. <huff, puff, huff, puff> The winding may be boring, but it gives me time to think, which is refreshing. Here's #3 box, full:

 

[Bloodrock44]

Good to hear, koshergrl. Hope you get some good stuff done. You are going to be a busy girl.

I've been up since a little before twilight winding bobbins for embroidery floss so that I can pick and choose projects without having to do it again. I still have 4 more boxes to go, and I can't find my DMC embroidery floss chart anywhere. Now, I'm not sure where it is. It's really helpful to me to see the colors, and that makes me able to pick the colors I want to use on certain projects, say for example, if I should take my Southwestern Album Applique Quilt book written sometime around 1992-1995 when I revised it to include a dozen more patterns for king sized southwestern quilts. They'd make pretty good embroidery patterns, I think.

Anyhow, here is the product of my last several days winding through the bottom of the boxes placed on the scanner.

DMC Color Chart: http://www.yarntree.com/075dmcolors.jpg

Wow! Just wow!

 

[BDBoop]

Filled another one today. The project was started at 4:30 am and done by around 7:30 pm. <huff, puff, huff, puff> The winding may be boring, but it gives me time to think, which is refreshing. Here's #3 box, full:

I'd be all kinds of sore, I think!

 

[freedombecki]

Thanks, BDB.

 

[freedombecki]

With several groups of embroidered blocks purchased for less than pattern, fabric, and thread, I've been thinking about putting them together with all those itsy bitsy postage stamp squares that are ready to go into anything! Somebody else had the same idea at "Q is for quilter" blog:

Wow, she even uses stripes like I used to do on her quilt binding! Well, there's nothing new under the sun, I guess.

I also have a passel of propeller/windmill squares left over from a quilt top I brought here from Wyoming and was thinking how fun it would be to use with some of the squares purchased for the purpose of making more charity quilts. Same dear person has also done that, and here's proof it makes a stunning sashing for an embroidered top:

Of course, here's a farm lady who was doing beautiful embroidered squares in the past century, showing her 48-state quilt:

So many ideas, so little time!

 

[freedombecki]

Oh, my there are more!

The possibilities are endless!

Even a wedding ring quilt is a good place to put embroidery as did this example on ebay from Down Under:

 

[BDBoop]

So much beauty, it's hard to pick a favorite!

 

[freedombecki]

I love them all, but I think my favorites were posted by koshergrl a few months back when she was doing a lot of embroidery with her girls on vacation. Her colors were top notch. Her stuff is eye candy, imho.

 

[freedombecki]

Finished another box today. It took almost a week. Will post pics tomorrow. I'm sleepy now.

Hope everyone is doing well these days.

 

[freedombecki]

Pictures:

(1) Box finished late yesterday sometime

(2) EBay purchase, a partly-finished block showing lack of details, but pretty colors

(3) Flag sewn at lower side of square to accommodate small hoop to complete cross stitch embroidery at corner, with cut side showing from where flag piece was taken to assure a similar weight, hand stitched by me with long basting/running stitch to accommodate quick removal when done. The little flag and another will be necessary on the opposite corners. Just sayin'...

This square may have been someone's learner project in which flowers were given no centers, and some of the "leaves" got sewn into the blue iris in the center. I'm not fixing that! Also, the x's go everywhichaway except on the rose pink ribbon. I'm finishing the corners the same was as the ribbon goes. This was probably a kit of 6 blocks, the instructions probably got lost or tossed. I bought it because the center size seemed good enough to build a baby quilt around each square, which will yield 4 medallion baby quilts with the 4 that were sold as was for a song. With no chart, the next 3 will all be guesswork.

In the completion/restorations of other people's work, the cardinal rule is to not change the first person's errors. Just finish it with love and patience, and let her expression be heard. Her colors sing in spite of the floral anomalies, it's a pretty little thing and shows much labor in spite of a lack of attention to details. The person who did this could have been under 5 years old, you never know, or older than 80 with poor vision on interpreting chart instruction motifs. She definitely was better than me about staying on the pattern right. Who cares if it's not perfect? The colors are way too cute!

And babies just burp on baby quilts anyhow. So why get into perfection to have bodily fluids regularly seeping out onto the finished product! Not going there! And when they get a little older, they just drag it around, their security blankie sweeping the floor haphazardly and getting soiled anyways.

Three of the squares, which are mainly cross stitches, have not one stitch on them. If I want perfection, I can strive for it using different colors in an experimental way for a variety of different centers, and I may just tea dye one when it is done anyway, just to see what happens to a blend. I'm guessing it's a 50-50 blend of polyester and cotton, or even 65% poly-35 cotton. There were absolutely no instructions, not even a pattern name given on the 4 squares. LOL Well, when you shop at ebay and fail to read the fine print, you have to get a little creative to make things right. It will be fun to see if I can do half a good of a job on selecting a pretty arrangement of postage stamps around someone else's pretty color schema.

 

[freedombecki]

(1) hoop fitting over flag sewn to edge

(2) finished corner with flag portion removed.

 

[freedombecki]

Wasn't someone wanting to see a cathedral window quilt? The one I just looked at at ebay was what the quilt would look like in a few years, but it's a look... Was it [MENTION=21954]Sunshine[/MENTION] ? Think it was, but not too sure.

Cathedral Window Quilt

 

[Sunshine]

Wasn't someone wanting to see a cathedral window quilt? The one I just looked at at ebay was what the quilt would look like in a few years, but it's a look... Was it [MENTION=21954]Sunshine[/MENTION] ? Think it was, but not too sure.

Cathedral Window Quilt

Yes, it was me. I have a pillow made of purple and white that my grandmother made me when I had that lavender room. But I never knew what it was called./

 

[koshergrl]

Beautiful as usual becki...I'm plugging away at my little embroidery projects. Got some blocks for the new baby that's coming in February...little boy..the embroidery quilt blocks are little boys with straw hat/fishing..very cute.

 

[freedombecki]

Well, this is make-work day again. Additions to corners below. A child's quilt should have lots and lots and lots of color!

Scan 1, Quilt stitches turned into heart border similar color to bow around corner 1 buds

Scan 2, Same as Scan 1 on corner 2 buds

Scan 3, removed and resewed the 2 flags made from border excess fabric no longer needed.

 

[freedombecki]

Beautiful as usual becki...I'm plugging away at my little embroidery projects. Got some blocks for the new baby that's coming in February...little boy..the embroidery quilt blocks are little boys with straw hat/fishing..very cute.

Oh, gotta see one, koshergrl!

I love fisherman sam quilts. The one I made in years past was appliqued and machine stitched, though.

 

[freedombecki]

Wasn't someone wanting to see a cathedral window quilt? The one I just looked at at ebay was what the quilt would look like in a few years, but it's a look... Was it @Sunshine ? Think it was, but not too sure.

Cathedral Window Quilt

Yes, it was me. I have a pillow made of purple and white that my grandmother made me when I had that lavender room. But I never knew what it was called./

Wow, your grandmother was quite a refined artisan in the gentle needle arts! I posted a link to the above quilt because it had a couple of other pictures that showed what the back looks like. It is only up for another couple of days, but that one will get sold and already has people bidding on it. It was clever to take a picture to show the textural shadows that show the work done by the artist who made it.

Hope you put a bit of that pillow on the scanner so we can oo and ah over it.