Artful Homemade Quilts Have A Way

[beautress]

And omigosh, a stuff that dreams are made of embroidered ship quilt:

Holy cow, the maker even named them!​

 

[beautress]

This week, it's the ordinary 9-patch quilt. Such a square looks like these two, one having 5 of dark at corner and center with 4 lights in between the corners:

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This is the first square many quilters find easy enough to make their first quilt top. I loved the one my mother made for my bed. It was pink and green with a back print of pink and green roses. But in families with several children like ours, quilts are domains of the same home, so when I left home to get married, my baby sister inherited the quilt I used and practically wore out. I didn't mind. I loved my pita sister in spite of her uncountable foibles! By the time I left home to marry, she was about twelve years old going on twenty. lol

Oh, and I have to complete my nine-patch charity quilt that was started about a week ago. It will be about 48 inches by about 60 inches to cover a baby mattress with a little room to tuck in the sides and foot and keep a baby warm at night after leaving the bassinet. The quilt below is like but different from the one I'm working on which has darks in the 4 corners and center, but all of my squares are prints. The lovely one below is a very appealing quilt in mostly solid colors. mine only uses one or two solid fabrics, if any at all. I made blocks for two crib-sized quilts before adding the sashes. This quilt has sets between the sashes which gives it an appeal all its own, not to mention a fantastic border in small squares. The maker of this quilt below makes her work come alive with rainbow colors and traditional white backgrounds. My quilt does not repeat the same fabric until it was time to sash and complete the work. Even so, it will keep a small child warm at night. Wish I had a picture. My late husband used to be so wonderful to take pictures of the hundreds of charity quilts made before we retired back home to Texas in 2009. This quilt, though, is the closest one to the bright colors of the one I'm putting the last two rows on today, even if the one below likely will fit a full sized bed for adults:

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[beautress]

View attachment 54772

I really love this one, koshergrl. It shows truly wonderful workmanship, and I'm glad you shared it. I'm sorry I was gone for such a long time. Keeping track of a wandering man with dementia got to be a 24-7 kind of an ordeal, and being on the computer resulted in him finding keys and leaving the house without my knowledge, and an hour later, I got a come-get-your-husband-and-get-gas call from the sheriff in a nearby county, where he was on the side of the road, where he had turned in when the car had run out of gasoline. I'm sorry my departure from here was so abrupt. He died, and I was plumb lost for a year, and little by little started the ordeal of getting over the death of the dearest man in the world after 44 years of marriage. I had sorrow with both adult children who had left home thinking us fossils for our beliefs and loyalty to our faith and felt a lot of grief for his death and their refusal of moral support after they realized he left everything to me. His mother's nest egg was eaten up after she had lived in a nursing home 20 years. That's why our little nest egg got left to the survivor. We didn't want to be a burden on them if one should pass before the other. The last envelope I mailed to either one of them got sent back unopened with some choice words scribbled on the front.

 

[beautress]

Well, one more nine-patch before I hit the road for church:

People make large 9-patch blocks and cut to put back together in fun ways, here's just one of the ways:
REGULAR NINE PATCH BLOCK ………………………………………..…CREATIVE SYMMETRIC CUT OF NINE PATCH BLOCK

After the cutting is done, there are a myriad of ways to join the asymmetric result to each other or same-sized blocks of different colors or solid squares. It can be a challenge!
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[koshergrl]

View attachment 54772

I really love this one, koshergrl. It shows truly wonderful workmanship, and I'm glad you shared it. I'm sorry I was gone for such a long time. Keeping track of a wandering man with dementia got to be a 24-7 kind of an ordeal, and being on the computer resulted in him finding keys and leaving the house without my knowledge, and an hour later, I got a come-get-your-husband-and-get-gas call from the sheriff in a nearby county, where he was on the side of the road, where he had turned in when the car had run out of gasoline. I'm sorry my departure from here was so abrupt. He died, and I was plumb lost for a year, and little by little started the ordeal of getting over the death of the dearest man in the world after 44 years of marriage. I had sorrow with both adult children who had left home thinking us fossils for our beliefs and loyalty to our faith and felt a lot of grief for his death and their refusal of moral support after they realized he left everything to me. His mother's nest egg was eaten up after she had lived in a nursing home 20 years. That's why our little nest egg got left to the survivor. We didn't want to be a burden on them if one should pass before the other. The last envelope I mailed to either one of them got sent back unopened with some choice words scribbled on the front.

I'm so glad you are back, I've missed you terribly!
I now have two quilts unfinished lolol. I'm so bad. My two remaining kids had left to attend school in Idaho, and I set up a sewing room out of one of the spare rooms. Then they came back and everything was put away and I haven't had a chance to do any sewing since.
I'm sorry about the loss of your husband and separation from the children, that is difficult...you aren't alone.

But I'm still so happy to see you again! I think of you often!

And I'm so ticked off..I started sewing that blue quilt together and forgot to put white or blue strips between the blocks, I'm so ticked.

 

[beautress]

View attachment 54772

I really love this one, koshergrl. It shows truly wonderful workmanship, and I'm glad you shared it. I'm sorry I was gone for such a long time. Keeping track of a wandering man with dementia got to be a 24-7 kind of an ordeal, and being on the computer resulted in him finding keys and leaving the house without my knowledge, and an hour later, I got a come-get-your-husband-and-get-gas call from the sheriff in a nearby county, where he was on the side of the road, where he had turned in when the car had run out of gasoline. I'm sorry my departure from here was so abrupt. He died, and I was plumb lost for a year, and little by little started the ordeal of getting over the death of the dearest man in the world after 44 years of marriage. I had sorrow with both adult children who had left home thinking us fossils for our beliefs and loyalty to our faith and felt a lot of grief for his death and their refusal of moral support after they realized he left everything to me. His mother's nest egg was eaten up after she had lived in a nursing home 20 years. That's why our little nest egg got left to the survivor. We didn't want to be a burden on them if one should pass before the other. The last envelope I mailed to either one of them got sent back unopened with some choice words scribbled on the front.

I'm so glad you are back, I've missed you terribly!
I now have two quilts unfinished lolol. I'm so bad. My two remaining kids had left to attend school in Idaho, and I set up a sewing room out of one of the spare rooms. Then they came back and everything was put away and I haven't had a chance to do any sewing since.
I'm sorry about the loss of your husband and separation from the children, that is difficult...you aren't alone.

But I'm still so happy to see you again! I think of you often!

You have no idea how mutual that is, koshergrl. Thanks for dropping by!

And I'm so ticked off..I started sewing that blue quilt together and forgot to put white or blue strips between the blocks, I'm so ticked.

You've no idea how mutual that is, my friend.

Smaller quilts are (1) faster to tie or quilt (2) good baby presents (3) good cot quilts if they're not long enough for a twin bed (4) great wheelchair quilts for someone in a nursing care facility or undergoing home care with motility limited to a wheelchair (5) terrific couch potato covers (6) good charity quilt for victims of a home fire, (7)a shock victim quilt to be placed by the first aid kit in an automobile or highway patrol car (8) good Christmas quilt for a soldier who can fit it into his or her duffel bag. OR you can (9) spend a couple of evenings un-sewing it, cut sashing and sets, and stitch with the ol' "I'll never make this mistake again" attitude for future quiltmaking and use it for the intended purpose you had for the bed you planned to use the quilt on, since the walls will still be the same color that enhances the quilt.

See an old quilter has a use for even big mistakes she makes. Hope any of the suggestions above will ease you into finishing the thing and getting it out of your hair. We won't even go into my set aside projects, although I develop instant myopia and proceed to quilt and bind a truly distasteful work from time to time. Most of the time I just pick it up a few weeks later and after half a dozen "oh, yeah," this and "oh, yeah," that, figure out a different modus operandi that's better than if I had done something more conventional with it. I had a win today, though. I put one more row on the nine patch quilt, and all I have to do is sash 5 more blocks, and then can put a couple of borders on the quilt to complete the work. Then headed out the door and sang in the choir at church this morning.

 

[miketx]

My wife is making me one.

 

[beautress]

My wife is making me one.

Yea, mike! She loves ya!

 

[koshergrl]

My wife is making me one.

Yea, mike! She loves ya!

How could she not?!

 

[beautress]

A Thanksgiving recipe showed up on my computer first thing this morning, and I thought about how beautiful wild turkeys are, and the cute turkey quilts people make...so, from bing:

 

[beautress]

The good news: Finished a top night before last. It has multicolor dots in the sashing area, blue butterfly border, and every 9-patch is different.
The bad news: No camera, no photographic talent, and consequently, not even a bad picture of a reasonably good quilt that took quite a lot of time. People do such
cute things with turkeys. I did one, too, but forgot who I gave it to, might have been the church, I'm just not sure.

 

[beautress]

Worked a week on this one. It's light squares with red sashing from some Waverly red and white print from Wally World. I have so much fabric, I'm determined to work harder on completing future quilts of all kinds, whether personal or charitable. I have 3 or 4 tops sitting around the house, undelivered. One of them is going to my son's family sooner or later. The Post Office opens Monday, and I really need to be there when they open to deliver. I don't know how to make my copier work yet. It's wireless, and I have this huge mental block about electronics. <giggle> (Although it's not very funny.) I buried the instructions, probably. Before this computer, all you had to do was take the plug in, put it where it fit, push a couple of buttons, done. All these waves in the air, I don't know what to do. I hope they don't have deleterious effects on bone marrow or something. What I can't see worries me, like germs, for example.

 

[beautress]

Worked on 40 blocks today. I think I will try to make 2 tiny blankets and quilt them, just for fun. I really love the way the light squares worked out, though. I may just have to start over and work on light squares. Today's were a mixture of light and dark. That takes a different approach altogether than monochromatic solid log cabin squares (which are totally fun) and totally chromatic light squares highlighted with a really pretty color wheel shade like the red color wheel sashed one above. The red centers just added a special touch to the red frames, and the multiple-colored light strips placed randomly was challenging and fun. The work included visualizing large and small textures, an occasional solid light color, and shades from pure white along a continuum of shades from white to almost medium lights. It's fun to use a light woven plaid now and then or piece of gingham that comes across as pale, but a subtle contrast in texture to a large, albeit pale, floral, small or large. Some of the pieces are geometric or striped, others can be fur, leaves, grass, 30's lights (most are on a white background or very pale shade of almost any color, too numerous to mention in a page here. We have star prints, paw prints, small and large butterflies, pointilist's pallet, dots of every size and type, field flowers or dainty quatrefoil geometric flowers that can form garlands, wreaths, used as dots, attached to plants going one-way, two-way, scattered, intervals, in lines, diagonally, tossed and even more ways to arrange flowers on a two dimensional surface. Some can be divided showing petals or furry centers, arranged in shapes such as clamshells, windowpanes, on vines. Just whatever thousands of artists can come up with, that's what shows up in our quilter's stashes from time to time, until the last bit of it is used up as appliques, pieced works, crazy quilts, changed by heat-applied Crayola wax, fabric pens or paints, threadpainting as embroidery applied by hand or machine in every imaginable way.

Too much lecture, too little time in front of the sewing machine. The joy of quilting is in the diversity, planning or serendipity of an idea that takes shape in so many ways. Someday I'll find that how-to on the printer and start showing blocks again like I used to. I probably ought to go to the local college and see what is offered in computer training for artists, seniors, etc. Any suggestions from some who stumbles past this thread are welcome. I'll try and show diversity as practiced by various techniques shared online.

 

[beautress]

Here's an idea you could use to just play with quilt fabrics (or similar weight) for ornaments:

Follow tab by pressing "you tube" and in a separate tab.
video is about 24-25 minutes.


This folded fabric art uses an egg-shaped styro and forms a pinecone:
Video takes about 15 minutes
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[beautress]

Alison's bag by a UK artist: Alison's bag



How to make the hexagon at you tube):

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[beautress]

Robin's mini thread catcher instructions: gift for favorite quilter
Follow to youtube.
:

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[beautress]

Pin cushion thread catcher (good gift)


Follow video below to you tube.
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[beautress]

Too Cute Tabletop Christmas tree
From Christmas fabrics (leftovers will do) Make Christmas tree!
Just need a styro cone.

This no sew quilted fabric christmas tree is easy and is made for beginners. It makes the perfect christmas decor project. I'm sure you will love this DIY craft as much as I did. Homemade christmas gifts are the perfect give to give this holiday season!

Sizing / Finished Measurements:
12 inch X 5 inch

Materials:
scissors
rotary cutter
2.5 inch X 2.5 inch squares of fabric (127 total squares)
7.5 inch X 2.5 inch squares of fabric (3 total strips)
flat head straight pins (270 total)
Styrofoam cone (12 inch X 5 inch)

You Will Also Need:
ribbion or buttons or any type of garnish you would like to add for a topper to your tree.

~ Or use ribbons ~
She even tells you how to make the cone underneath from cardboard, etc.

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[beautress]

Folded Star hot pads, Amish (solid fabric) style:


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[beautress]

New attitude Folded Stars
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