Artful Homemade Quilts Have A Way

[Dabs]

The first one is called Sherbert, it's for one of my granddaughters.

The second one is called Ocean....for another granddaughter.

The third photo is called Surprise, it's for one of my sons and his wife.

 

[Dabs]

The first one here is called Pink Camo.....for another granddaughter....and the second one is called Peacock....for a son and his wife.

I have completed 5 so far....something I have never done before!

But I can't do anything fancy in crocheting, like my Mother could. I simply do a double crochet~

 

[freedombecki]

Y tres mas dishrags.

1) Garden bluebells
2) Garden orchids
3) Garden burgundy roses

These are gorgeous!!
Too pretty to use

I finally uploaded some of the pics of the afghans I have crocheted

Aw, thanks, Dabs. I took all 31 of them down to the drop off station for our quilt guild's table in May today, so the chairman will be encouraged and encourage others to do more crafts for their table. They do so much for people in the community. I'm just glad to lend a hand while I still have enough good health to be on the giving side.

 

[freedombecki]

The first one here is called Pink Camo.....for another granddaughter....and the second one is called Peacock....for a son and his wife.

I have completed 5 so far....something I have never done before!

But I can't do anything fancy in crocheting, like my Mother could. I simply do a double crochet~

Dabs, they're beautiful. Hey, my granny square and mesh rectangular dishrags were basically all double crochet except for a couple of outside borders in half-double crochet, and a couple of single crochet to make a stay between the scallops on the border dishrags. You do 3 chains at the corners of your granny squares, the same as your chain you do to double crochet onto your long strips of those beautiful afghans.

Also, finishing an object as large as a bedspread on a big bed? You did ten times the work of doing one quilt, if that's any encouragement.

You go girl! Those are fabulous spreads and those you gave away will always be proud possessions to someone. I love your colors and strip arrangements.

An eye-candy rep coming your way for sharing your artful accomplishment with those of us on the board who are lucky enough to have dropped by.

Thank you so much.

 

[Dabs]

The first one here is called Pink Camo.....for another granddaughter....and the second one is called Peacock....for a son and his wife.

I have completed 5 so far....something I have never done before!

But I can't do anything fancy in crocheting, like my Mother could. I simply do a double crochet~

Dabs, they're beautiful. Hey, my granny square and mesh rectangular dishrags were basically all double crochet except for a couple of outside borders in half-double crochet, and a couple of single crochet to make a stay between the scallops on the border dishrags. You do 3 chains at the corners of your granny squares, the same as your chain you do to double crochet onto your long strips of those beautiful afghans.

Also, finishing an object as large as a bedspread on a big bed? You did ten times the work of doing one quilt, if that's any encouragement.

You go girl! Those are fabulous spreads and those you gave away will always be proud possessions to someone. I love your colors and strip arrangements.

An eye-candy rep coming your way for sharing your artful accomplishment with those of us on the board who are lucky enough to have dropped by.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much Becki!!!
I enjoy doing them...altho they are time consuming.
They cover a queen size bed....so I usually put 12 to 14 skeins of yarn in to each one.
My Mother could do some fancy stuff.....woo........she could make up her own designs.....I have about 7 afghans here, that she made for me.
I do feel a bit proud of the ones I have crocheted so far......but I have a
few more to go

 

[freedombecki]

The first one here is called Pink Camo.....for another granddaughter....and the second one is called Peacock....for a son and his wife.

I have completed 5 so far....something I have never done before!

But I can't do anything fancy in crocheting, like my Mother could. I simply do a double crochet~

Dabs, they're beautiful. Hey, my granny square and mesh rectangular dishrags were basically all double crochet except for a couple of outside borders in half-double crochet, and a couple of single crochet to make a stay between the scallops on the border dishrags. You do 3 chains at the corners of your granny squares, the same as your chain you do to double crochet onto your long strips of those beautiful afghans.

Also, finishing an object as large as a bedspread on a big bed? You did ten times the work of doing one quilt, if that's any encouragement.

You go girl! Those are fabulous spreads and those you gave away will always be proud possessions to someone. I love your colors and strip arrangements.

An eye-candy rep coming your way for sharing your artful accomplishment with those of us on the board who are lucky enough to have dropped by.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much Becki!!!
I enjoy doing them...altho they are time consuming.
They cover a queen size bed....so I usually put 12 to 14 skeins of yarn in to each one.
My Mother could do some fancy stuff.....woo........she could make up her own designs.....I have about 7 afghans here, that she made for me.
I do feel a bit proud of the ones I have crocheted so far......but I have a
few more to go

Your pink and black one reminds me of one of my log cabin quilts in the same colors. I call it "the 56 Chevy quilt" because I was thinking of doing a log cabin in the colors of my dear departed aunt's 56 Chevrolet--pink and dark gray with light gray seat covers (I think)... I had so much fun with it. I made so many blocks, I still have 60 of them to do another charity quilt if I like.

I really like the way your afghan turned out in that particular color group, just because.

 

[freedombecki]

Today, my stack of red, white, and blue windmills grew to almost 9 inches tall. I've been whittling away at the 4-patch pile, too, by making 10x10" squares from 4 each of the 5" squares. I'm really pleased, except for one thing. That is, I need to start putting a plan together to join the squares and make them into a top. I finally settled on a setting for the red, white, and blue 4-patch squares to place light small rows going southwest to northeast, with the larger red and blue squares going northwest to southeast. Hm. I guess I need to go get a square and post a pic. The words accurately state it, I think, but I don't think you can picture it unless you see it unless you've put about 20 double 4-patch quilts together in different ways to make a statement in cloth. *sigh*. BBL.

 

[freedombecki]

There, that didn't take long to go get and scan 3 squares--2 as described above, and 1 that has been bordered and will become a pillow if I will just get around to it soon.

1.a Light diagonals going SW to NE and darks going NW to SE
1.b Same as 1.a, different fabrics
The third picture is one in which the lights border into a diamond, kinda-sorta.

 

[freedombecki]

This morning, I think I failed to put together a single square, because I was still increasing the stacks of squares to do a couple of charity quilts. In the meantime, I noticed my red and white windmill log cabin quilt still only had its first border, I'd stacked it to "do later" so I found this truly median red-and-white checkered stuff I'd bought ONLY because it was on sale for half off. On the way home, I thought now, why did I buy that stupid fabric.

Doh! the fabric was perfect, and I was able to match it at the corners (with a little stretch to the weft, that is. Sometimes "square" checks look square, but when you turn them 90 degrees, the truth is the horizontal measurement is not the same as the vertical measurement. On a weave, I would expect it, because warp and weft threads have a tendency to never be a perfect square when 60 warp threads and 60 weft threads combine to make a rectangle. lol.

The very best weavers (I miss Dan River!) know this and compensate percentage wise to turn out perfectly square gingham checks.

THIS WAS A PRINT CHECK - NO EXCUSES!!!! They flat out made the same kind of rectangle you would expect to find on a tall check where oblivious weavers crank out flat squares or too tall squares, depending on their bent with an "it's only a job" excuse type. Some art prefers a modicum of math skills. I'm done caterwauling this crazy-maker.

Anyway, I did something I've actually taught others never to do--stretched a weft to match a warp. lol Well, the squares were only 3/4 of an inch by 13/16ths of an inch, but in 5 inches, that's several differing rows, and without stretching it would have been over a quarter of an inch off to matching on the other side of the 5". The kicker is, it did not gather, because the cotton fabric was of good enough quality to behave anyway. I actually have quilts made back in the 20s and 30s with gathered squares. Some ladies didn't know how to make squares of different sizes match, so they just gathered the long sides, and taught others to do so as well. And that produced what can only be kiddiingly called plisse quilts.

Now, we have precision rotary cutting blades, special mats with gridded squares marked to 1/8 of an inch. Some of them actually are precise, and others have the same problem the gingham weavers on steroids have. I kid you not. Go through the house. Gather up all your rulers and anything that has one-inch markings. I'll bet you a dime to a doughnut you will find some of them measure each other, and some of them well, have, ahem, an anomaly or two of space....

That's why it's best to buy one kind of rulers, and one kind of mat. Since a good mat is 4 times the price of a good ruler, take your ruler with you on mat-buying day. Make sure all 24 inches on the cutting ruler are precise matches at each point (look at all 24 inch demarcations). If all 24 match, your mat and ruler coordination have passed becki's bs test and should serve you well, once you learn to control the ruler or purchase a ruler with a non-slip grid or etched-in slip guard circles on it.

After you cut out squares, you need to measure a few of them at random to see if their size agrees with the ruler you are using. You just can't make amends for a square that is 1/64th of an inch off. If you have 30 pieces average across the quilt, you have 32 junctures that are hustling error zones, especially if you aren't minding your warp-weft stretch attitudes. The weft is the term given to the stretchier width of the material, and the warp by the same token is the firmer, sterner length, which runs parallel to the selvage of the fabric. You can eliminate the problem entirely if you spray starch the material so that the stretch tendency of the weft sewn against a warp side takes a hike.

Oh, yeah, and if you wisely cut off the selvage to wash and dry it first, and you can't figure out the warp and the weft (some are harder to determine than others, oddly), hold one width with a hand on each side of the width, about 6 inches apart. Relax the fabric by pushing your hands an inch or two in toward each other, then jerk the fabric to make a sound. It will make a little sound. Remember the pitch. then go to the perpendicular grain (which is 90 degrees and shows straight threads also). Do the same trick and listen for the sound when it stretches to its max. One pitch will be just a little higher, and its perpendicular sound will be just a little bit lower (and vice-versa). The high pitch sound is the tell-tale of the warp. The lower pitch sound is the tell-tale of the weft and will stretch more than the warp.

Sheeze. I'm Seinfed today, and this is a story--strike that--soliloquy about absolutely nothing anyone would care to know, except a quilter tearing her hair out, trying to make the squares match, but they refuse and look like naughty children act.

Oh, yeah, when I finished the red and white quilt top, I noticed the windmills looked a lot more like broken dishes (Bing windmill quilt square. Bing broken dishes quilt square. Then you'll know what I'm saying)

It didn't matter. I was grinning like a Cheshire Cat when I cribbed those little squares to matched corners AND I finished the bloody top. I was having MY Kodak moment!

Here's the fabric I have a new respect for. I'm sorry, I don't know how to do photography, or I'd show the quilt, but I can use the scanner to show the fabric came out reasonably okay when it was sewn together (with gentle tugging)

 

[Sunshine]

When I went with my son to enroll at Georgia Tech, I saw they had a degree for Textile Engineering. The courses really looked fascinating, like The Science of Color. If I had another life, I think I would try to be a textile engineer. You have to take a lot of sciences, but those were always good for me.

 

[freedombecki]

You already do very well with color, Sunshine. And your works have a lot of history and appreciation of good design behind them. I've taught a lot of people how to quilt. Some are quick studies, others have to work hard, but with a little repetition become master quilters. The best quilters are the ones who didn't get many quilts growing up and catch the "I want another quilt" virus. Unfortunately the disease is incurable, and the only antidote that works is making and having the luxury of your own hand-made quilt. The lady who allowed her quilts to be shown at NYC Folk MUseum that we brought videos to a few pages back? She had a passion for quilts, and in particular, redwork quilts. I'm glad she shared them and that so many people put their favorite redwork quilt at the show online and at blogs everywhere.

Anyway, FWIW, my bet is you'd be good at quilting if you didn't have to work al the time and deal with certain issues.

Sending bright cheery thoughts your way. did you see Dab's adorable blankets from crochet thread? That pink and black one is a knockout! I thought about that bedcover all day one day. That does it. My next dishrag will be pink and black and gray.

For me, it's good night, all.

<hugs>

freedombecki

Oh, yeah, Ladies of the Sea Baltimore Album Quilt from Quakertown Quilts.

 

[freedombecki]

Sometimes making a decision can change the way you were going. Last week, I was lost in a morass of too many small quilt squares piling up by the machine. Sometime, I made the decision to soon start joining the squares into 10 inch blocks, which will in turn, quickly go into a quilt. So, in addition to the two squares I posted a page or two back, here are 3 more to bring the # of finished ten inch squares to 5. It will take 5x7 = 35 quilt squares to make a 50x70" top, and in adding a border group, that can grow large as desired, and tomorrow is our charity quilt work day, so I can get a feel for the need for larger or smaller quilts in the community.

Below are my 3 for the morning, and I plan on trying really hard to get 5 more done today. I love the feeling of putting that final border on, like the red one yesterday morning. It was especially meaningful to me to finish it on my Lord's Day, and hope it goes, when finished to cheering up someone, keeping someone warm at night, and to let someone know God cares for them when they smile at having a pretty and useful quilt. Of course, that's silly, because it could wind up being given to someone who's color blind. Hahahaha! I know how the system works! Never, never what you expect!

Anyway, I really enjoyed looking at the prints in these 3 squares. I throw in a real leftover once in a while, and sometimes it's the bits and pieces of liberty bells or a patriot's face or a mother's flower garden, or a bit as in life of something we can't quite make out because we only see a part of the picture--that makes me remember why America and our life here is great.

 

[freedombecki]

Among the fabrics I took with me yesterday to Charity Bees quilt day, there were 8 blocks that just didn't work with the other red white and blue squares since instead of being red or blue, the 3" squares were all lights. But the red and blue were true, so I couldn't dump them either. One of the girls was asking for help with pillowcases (I've made a hundred of them), so after having realized my mistake in bringing the nixie blocks with me, instead of left at home, I thought, though paler than the others, a bright red border and sashings between the blocks would make an attractive pillowcase border. So I spent the 4 hours there putting two pillowcases together and handed them over to the friend. She does double duty between sewing for veterans and sewing for senior homes. I truly hate sewing bags, but love doing pillowcases. Don't ask me why, I just hate sewing the bags because they're not complex enough, but complex enough to move you out of your zone... ok, that's why I don't like sewing the #@&!* bags. and have notoriously taken back 4 kits but delivered a passel of quilt tops. However, I love doing the quilts, which reminds me, that'd be a fun way to spend the rest of my day. I cut and sewed about 60 small squares today, which I wasn't going to do, but the blocks are only 10", so you have to sew a lot of small blocks together to make a quilt,and I was short of the small 4-patch nuisance squares. So, I'm off to make them into 5" squares, then into 10" squares. The goal of 5 blocks wasn't met yesterday, because of going to quilting Bees. With my fibro, 4 hours of sewing means I have to take a 2-hour nap and sleep off the pain if I can. So I've been sitting here this afternoon, having a few online issues, so I played a few hands of FreeCell till I could get back online. I don't know why I was bounced off. It happened twice yesterday and once today already. It's never happened before. Off to target practice--the target of getting the little 4-patch squares ironed and ready to be joined to the 3" squares.

I believe what is a mistake in one quilt is a success story in another. My blocks were set in expensive red designer quilt bali cotton, and they were anything but fail in the patriotic pillowcases made for a hospitalized wounded warrior through our quilt guild's outreach.

 

[freedombecki]

The problem with those 8 squares is the small 4-patches had lights and darks running the wrong way, and I was delaying "repairing" them, which takes about two hours, and they were perfectly okay together, just not with blocks of another arrangement. The good thing about the wrongful squares is they're right in another quilt.

Thought I'd make a block this morning to illustrate what is needed as a schema for the next quilt I'm doing in these blocks, except I'm now convinced that I need to increase the size of the blocks to 20" instead of 10", which the pictured one below is in 2 views (the second view is referred to by the quilting community as being "on point." In mathematical terms, "on point" is simply rotating the square 90 degrees to look similar to a diamond, except it has equal sides. The third one is a resemblance of what the next quilt is hoped to look like.

 

[freedombecki]

Finally! I got to the doctor's yesterday, and she gave me a shot of antibiotics for an infection, and I'm almost back today. Just before retiring, I put the last 2 rows on to finish the disrag KIND OF LIKE Dabs beautiful bedspread, except for one thing. The back bedroom, where I have a crochet shop set up along with a comfortable chair, was getting darker and darker as the lights burnt out, one by one. Finally! I was complaining to the disbursement department how I am colorblind in the dark, and can't tell yellow from cream or white in the dark. So I got a couple of lights installed where the old bulbs had run their history out. Unfortunately, I need one more light bulb to have all the colors fully restored. It's a big room, and fan lights just aren't bright enough if all 4 of them are not installed. I so hate being a nag about things the handyman doesn't know, like some of us who are very good at color can't see some colors in twilight settings.

Anyway, my dishrag is not near as pretty as Dabs' bedspread, because in the twilight of the crochet room, the middle pink row is carnival pink, ORANGE and YELLOW! Yuk! Not pretty! But it's just a dishrag, so I put a little scallop lace around the outside like all the others, except for one thing, It sat there for a week until I just decided. Life's too short to sweat the small stuff, and a dishrag is a practical item and usually hangs out after use in a hamper to go into the washing machine promptly, so maybe it won't matter as an unchary husband buys it for his wife's pink kitchen with shiny gray appliances. She won't tell him yellow just doesn't go with her. Instead, she fixes him a meal fit for a king and tells him she loves him. So it all works out for the best, and the rag at least gets used and isn't just an ornament that hangs there with someone scowling at the guest who dares to pick it up and use it--THAT'S NOT FOR USING, IT'S PART OF THE SCENERY--so she will never have to say that about this dishrag. *sigh* I guess hanging around a political forum has made me RATIONALIZE everything, including leaving the obvious flaw in the item I spent hours on fashioning.

A toast to Dabs, a cheery day
May good things ever go her way
May every stitch she's ever sewn
Make all her love for fam'ly known.

 

[Sunshine]

Finally! I got to the doctor's yesterday, and she gave me a shot of antibiotics for an infection, and I'm almost back today. Just before retiring, I put the last 2 rows on to finish the disrag KIND OF LIKE Dabs beautiful bedspread, except for one thing. The back bedroom, where I have a crochet shop set up along with a comfortable chair, was getting darker and darker as the lights burnt out, one by one. Finally! I was complaining to the disbursement department how I am colorblind in the dark, and can't tell yellow from cream or white in the dark. So I got a couple of lights installed where the old bulbs had run their history out. Unfortunately, I need one more light bulb to have all the colors fully restored. It's a big room, and fan lights just aren't bright enough if all 4 of them are not installed. I so hate being a nag about things the handyman doesn't know, like some of us who are very good at color can't see some colors in twilight settings.

Anyway, my dishrag is not near as pretty as Dabs' bedspread, because in the twilight of the crochet room, the middle pink row is carnival pink, ORANGE and YELLOW! Yuk! Not pretty! But it's just a dishrag, so I put a little scallop lace around the outside like all the others, except for one thing, It sat there for a week until I just decided. Life's too short to sweat the small stuff, and a dishrag is a practical item and usually hangs out after use in a hamper to go into the washing machine promptly, so maybe it won't matter as an unchary husband buys it for his wife's pink kitchen with shiny gray appliances. She won't tell him yellow just doesn't go with her. Instead, she fixes him a meal fit for a king and tells him she loves him. So it all works out for the best, and the rag at least gets used and isn't just an ornament that hangs there with someone scowling at the guest who dares to pick it up and use it--THAT'S NOT FOR USING, IT'S PART OF THE SCENERY--so she will never have to say that about this dishrag. *sigh* I guess hanging around a political forum has made me RATIONALIZE everything, including leaving the obvious flaw in the item I spent hours on fashioning.

A toast to Dabs, a cheery day
May good things ever go her way
May every stitch she's ever sewn
Make all her love for fam'ly known.

Try full spectrum lighting. Full spectrum lights do not distort colors like other indoor lights do. And they are good for your mood as well. I've seen some at Home Depot and Wal Mart from time to time. But you can get regular flourescent type bulbs from 1-800-BUY DURO. Just like natural sunlight.

 

[freedombecki]

Finally! I got to the doctor's yesterday, and she gave me a shot of antibiotics for an infection, and I'm almost back today. Just before retiring, I put the last 2 rows on to finish the disrag KIND OF LIKE Dabs beautiful bedspread, except for one thing. The back bedroom, where I have a crochet shop set up along with a comfortable chair, was getting darker and darker as the lights burnt out, one by one. Finally! I was complaining to the disbursement department how I am colorblind in the dark, and can't tell yellow from cream or white in the dark. So I got a couple of lights installed where the old bulbs had run their history out. Unfortunately, I need one more light bulb to have all the colors fully restored. It's a big room, and fan lights just aren't bright enough if all 4 of them are not installed. I so hate being a nag about things the handyman doesn't know, like some of us who are very good at color can't see some colors in twilight settings.

Anyway, my dishrag is not near as pretty as Dabs' bedspread, because in the twilight of the crochet room, the middle pink row is carnival pink, ORANGE and YELLOW! Yuk! Not pretty! But it's just a dishrag, so I put a little scallop lace around the outside like all the others, except for one thing, It sat there for a week until I just decided. Life's too short to sweat the small stuff, and a dishrag is a practical item and usually hangs out after use in a hamper to go into the washing machine promptly, so maybe it won't matter as an unchary husband buys it for his wife's pink kitchen with shiny gray appliances. She won't tell him yellow just doesn't go with her. Instead, she fixes him a meal fit for a king and tells him she loves him. So it all works out for the best, and the rag at least gets used and isn't just an ornament that hangs there with someone scowling at the guest who dares to pick it up and use it--THAT'S NOT FOR USING, IT'S PART OF THE SCENERY--so she will never have to say that about this dishrag. *sigh* I guess hanging around a political forum has made me RATIONALIZE everything, including leaving the obvious flaw in the item I spent hours on fashioning.

A toast to Dabs, a cheery day
May good things ever go her way
May every stitch she's ever sewn
Make all her love for fam'ly known.

Try full spectrum lighting. Full spectrum lights do not distort colors like other indoor lights do. And they are good for your mood as well. I've seen some at Home Depot and Wal Mart from time to time. But you can get regular flourescent type bulbs from 1-800-BUY DURO. Just like natural sunlight.

Thank you, Sunshine. I whined considerably about the lighting, in high decibels, and he went and got bulbs. Then I whined some more, and he finally put in enough of them so I could see a lot better. But I'm going to look into a full spectrum lamp. Thanks. The lights on the fans take special bulbs that cost a lot and don't last very long.

And I'm feeling a lot better after the doctor gave me an antibiotic shot for an infection in my toe that caused edema. The next day, I could stand in front of the ironing board and do quilt work. I was in 7th heaven, so I worked all day 2 days in a row and did a red white and blue coin quilt (below) and umpteen bazillion 4-patch miniature squares.

Feelin' good is great. Sorry I can't show the whole 2 rows I finished. No 2 pieces are alike, it's a charm coin quilt, and I pieced the arabesque red and indigo borders. I'm adding a coin quilt I found someplace also.

 

[freedombecki]

Don't worry, your quilt is good enough to show here.

None of this here:

credits

Just thought you'd like to know.
​

 

[freedombecki]

I happen to like butterfly quilts, found a really pretty one and on the same page found one made by the same maker that is a perfect example of Celtic work in quilting:

credits and other really pretty quilt photos "Busy Hands"​

 

[Sunshine]

I happen to like butterfly quilts, found a really pretty one and on the same page found one made by the same maker that is a perfect example of Celtic work in quilting:

credits and other really pretty quilt photos "Busy Hands"​

WOW! That's cool! I like the Celtic crosses. I did one in cross stitch, but gave it away. When my daughter married I stayed at the groom's parents house. I gave it to his mother as a hostess gift. It was small, but fit in the suitcase on the plane! LOL