Artful Homemade Quilts Have A Way

[beautress]

Sewed for hours last night, made 4 master strip groups which took 4 hours and quilted 2 blocks. Sometimes you just don't see much progress, sometimes you do. Quilting takes the longest of everything else--finding an inspiration, finding fabrics to put together, endless sewing of strips together, cutting the groups into 6.5" squares, Sewing 4 of them in trailing square, backing, batting pinning, then quilting beyond when the sun goes down, and all you get is one or two little 12-inch squares. lol I'm not sure whether to do 6 or 12 squares, but think the 12 squares would be best. The good part is finishing the last inch of the double bias binding and celebrating the end of a long long quilt experience. It's a moment of joy..

 

[beautress]

Been adding to the home collection ideas from every great quilter and needlewoman, which reminds me, Wherever is our dear friend koshergrl? I miss her so.
Well, here goes:

 

[beautress]

One day a month or two ago, I assembled together a file of award-winning quilts. Just thought I would share them this morning. Remember to tap on the smaller images below the pictured award-winner, and a nice sized picture pops up. I think I love this software at USMB. Nice feature after basically having been gone from here 3 or 4 years. It's so good to be back. Enjoy.

 

[beautress]

Pastel scrap quilts are truly fun to work with and a good way to use light colored prints that are pleasing to the eye when done. (Speaking from recent experience. I've made at least a dozen pastel string and log quilts since September of last year. They're so pretty, it gets addictive. Even so, I'd like to share some pastels from other quilt artists who did a fine job.

This quilt was made by Quilter Mary from Florida
It must really light up a baby's room somewhere,
and notice that folded border. What a beautiful work!

 

[beautress]

Other Pastel quilts

 

[beautress]

More pastels

 

[beautress]

Some more lovely ones in the pastel range:

 

[beautress]

I love this quilt!

Its maker is listed here: The Signature of Jesus quilt series | debby quilts

I love it because it reverses the color of the cross to the outside world, and replaces the woodeness of the cross with the bright colors of the joy in the Holy Spirit, and the light rows around, the refracted light of that burning joy and happiness of living the way the Master wants us to, with the reminder that sometimes we err, fall short, but God is always there in his perfection to be our Father who forgives his children and loves them their whole life.. That special man of the spirit blessed us, teaching us the courage to love our enemies, even unto death, saying as they launched sword and spear to lance his side, "Father forgive them, for they know what they do." We have a hard time doing that, but even so, we know it is the right thing. Forgive them and move onward and upward to the principles of heaven that we know about and the humility to be sorry when we fall. This quilt top is precious to me, and it's so beautiful, too.​

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[beautress]

Isaih 51 - Patchworks that Praise!
This awesome quilt comes from here: Patchworks that Praise!​

 

[beautress]

This, too comes from debby quilts:

Credits: The Signature of Jesus quilt series | debby quilts
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[beautress]

Hi ho, Hi ho, it's off to work I go! (but not without a little reminder of how beautiful pastels can be in a quilt...

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[beautress]

After taking 5 quilt tops I'd already promised in prayer to donate locally, I have made 2 more tops for giving, and received requests from 2 groups who read my lament above. I hope to make as many as I can, but my health has deteriorated in the last week, so I hope my new medicine will make the swelling ankles go down. My feet look like grotesque little water balloons, but when I work on piecing a top, I don't think about the discomfort or pain, it's just happy time. Finished the outer border of the 9-patch and completed a log cabin with butterflies at either end, all encased in red microdots, similar to one I found online and placed it on my computer opening screen. Only the butterfly border made it a piecer's best. Well, as best as I could do. I had to take 3 naps a day while making the last one. Swollen ankles extract a price, and feet must be elevated.

Thanks to the two women who responded. I'm waiting for an address on one. It really gives me pleasure to serve people who serve God and make quilts for those who'd never get a homemade quilt if it weren't for their charity.

And I have to do one for a family birth, but if I sew like I've been sewing this week, I can knock it out in 2 days, and get back to my charity tops. Getting tired of these swollen feet, though.

Goodnight, everyone. Dreams are sweeter under a homemade quilt. ​

Do you have a stool for your feet? Or some sort of riser under your table? Do you stand or sit to sew?

You really know a lot about human health, koshergrl. I've been trying to use a little riser under the computer. It really helps.

 

[koshergrl]

After taking 5 quilt tops I'd already promised in prayer to donate locally, I have made 2 more tops for giving, and received requests from 2 groups who read my lament above. I hope to make as many as I can, but my health has deteriorated in the last week, so I hope my new medicine will make the swelling ankles go down. My feet look like grotesque little water balloons, but when I work on piecing a top, I don't think about the discomfort or pain, it's just happy time. Finished the outer border of the 9-patch and completed a log cabin with butterflies at either end, all encased in red microdots, similar to one I found online and placed it on my computer opening screen. Only the butterfly border made it a piecer's best. Well, as best as I could do. I had to take 3 naps a day while making the last one. Swollen ankles extract a price, and feet must be elevated.

Thanks to the two women who responded. I'm waiting for an address on one. It really gives me pleasure to serve people who serve God and make quilts for those who'd never get a homemade quilt if it weren't for their charity.

And I have to do one for a family birth, but if I sew like I've been sewing this week, I can knock it out in 2 days, and get back to my charity tops. Getting tired of these swollen feet, though.

Goodnight, everyone. Dreams are sweeter under a homemade quilt. ​

Do you have a stool for your feet? Or some sort of riser under your table? Do you stand or sit to sew?

You really know a lot about human health, koshergrl. I've been trying to use a little riser under the computer. It really helps.

It really does! It helps when you're sitting anywhere. I don't know why, but it just is.

 

[beautress]

Well, I'm having less leg cramps by using that hint, plus I stacked a box of fabrics under several pillows at the foot of the bed, so if I do get these little leg cramps, that helps at night. It disappears by the afternoon, though, if I forget to use the foldup riser/footstool I found at a dollar store one day, but sat around the house behind a piece of furniture for a couple of years. lol

Thanks again. Hope you pulled out one of your UFOs since I was gone for several years it seems and got it done. Which reminds me, I delivered a little bunch of scraps sewn into strips to the grandma of the cutest little 2-year old imaginable. It was about 37x 50" long when all was said and done, but will probably be more like 35x45 after it is washed good. I use all kinds of cotton fabrics, some shrink more than others, but onto a cotton flannel base, it could be worse. I have 9 more to go to take care of this family of grandkids I have adopted due to my dying-or-being-cured-of-lung-cancer acquaintance who has helped me with auto, riding mowers, tractor, and tiller issues for the last 2 years in summers around my acres of wasted land.

At least my small lake houses a couple of families of great white egrets and herons that are fun to watch in better weather. I noticed some smaller egrets are already back about 10 miles from my place on another country road. I greatly miss the great whites during the colest months, although oddly, this winter saw a couple of sightings back there when I pulled out of the driveway and saw them fleeing (a couple of hundred yards away is too close for great whites.) *sigh* And they did not return. Seems like this close to Lake Livingston, there aer multiple tiny lakes scattered throughout the Tall Pines region. And while Livingston township is 35 miles away, the Lake Livingston area must host several hundred smaller bodies of water that multiply by a huge factor in the rains that accompany cold weather here. The expression "House on a hill" was probably made popular in a 100-mile radius all along the Trinity River that runs a course of several hundred miles of Texas' north to south route. I'm just complaining because it's been particularly wet and cold this year.

 

[beautress]

I finished a UFO that was started in or around 1995-2008. It's colors are rosewood, spruce, and a touch of rust. It's a courthouse step quilt measuring 1 yard by 2 yards, the perfect size for a child's cot. I found the quilt below, which is so not the same as the quilt I did. The one below has stars between the square courthouse strips, and the top I made has absolutely no tan on it either. The stars do give this quilt a special touch, but the beige makes this one a beautiful feeling of country quilts. Mine is more like the pink and green thing that first-time quilters tend to like. The only thing that makes my top different from that of other artists is well, I don't know how to say it, but it looks like one I made because I try to use a fabric sparingly which gives my quilts that charm quilt look. The one below looks more like sky jewels. It is a very wonderful use of 2 types of squares put together that makes each a more beautiful rendition than it was before. Oh, if I only had time to do a quilt like this one, it'd sure be fun.

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[beautress]

This is a courthouse step block:

This is a Log Cabin block:

The quilt below is just building onto a log cabin quilt, one strip as time permits:

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[beautress]

Delivered a very pastel baby quilt that measured 36x42" night before last.

 

[beautress]

Spent part of yesterday working on 60 log cabin blocks, totally random lights and totally random darks. Today, I'd like to get them closer to completion. How lovely that would be.

Here's the order of working on a block, from 1 to 13.

Sometimes, when you have 60 blocks started, you can go out 4 or 8 more rows (here's the larger) and make 2 quilts instead of one. And you can also use sashing to enlarge it further from 1 to 20 or, you can classify the logs in the block in another way:

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I haven't made up my mind exactly what to do with this group of squars.

Here are some blocks started, but not quite yet complete:

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Oh, yes, and while my bunch uses darker colors, there are enough brights, hopefully, to make it an interesting quilt, so you can arrange squares variously:

.................Pyramids..........................................................zig-zag......................................

Traditionalists might call the "straight setting" below by other names, "dirty windows" "light and dark" etc.

More contemporarily, I call this one "Hero Star" after our veterans:

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[beautress]

Last night, a couple more logs (60x2=120) were added. I got in bed by 9:30 and slept like a rock for a change. Can't wait to get started again this morning.
Am so far working this block, and the two rows were 8 and 9 (4 1/2" and 5 1/2", respectively). Now, I have to do logs 10 and ll in lights, or 5 1/2" and 6 1/2" logs:

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Mine may not be as pretty as the ones pictured above, because I added some blacks and browns to the mix, also navy on dark logs 8 and 9. I always like to do the last two darks really dark, so I have my rotary cutter handy to do all that today or tomorrow, depending on how much time I can spend on them providing I can control the swelling. My friendly certified homeopathic advisers said I might need to elevate my legs twice a day from now on, which means 2 short power naps, one in the am and one after noon. Darn it, I hate to nap all the time. The light at the end of the tunnel is that this time, If I do take my meds 4 times a day, the adrenal issue will disappear after a couple of weeks. I didn't know that, and had only been taking the adrenal support tablets once a day here to fore. It sure beats surgery to the arteries if it works, and I think it likely will. I just went about doing it all wrong for several months. Doh! Better late than never, though. I've been elevating at night for several weeks and that really helps the morning be clear for working at my sewing desk. Old age is not for sissies! (And I seem to be quite a sissy! lol)

Have some blocks almost like these, which could be the NEXT log cabin (or courthouse steps)

(I love all the possibilities from others who are kind enough to show their stuff online)
This quilt was said to be a hundred years old. If that is accurate, you can bet it is all cotton.
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[beautress]

Oh, my goodness. I woke up thinking today was Friday. It's really Thursday! I get a free day this week! lolol Maybe there is an upside to old age I had not considered.