Artful Homemade Quilts Have A Way

[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"​

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

I hope you got a picture of it before you gave your lovely work away!

 

[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"​

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

I hope you got a picture of it before you gave your lovely work away!

 

[freedombecki]

There is a quilt show going on nearby entitled "Deep Spaces" showing 50 quilts at the Sam Houston Museum, Huntsville, TX, through March 12, which will then be taken to the LaConner Quilt and Textile Museum in La Conner, Washington from March 28-June 24, 2012. It was shown from Sept. 5- November 6, 2011 at Latimer Textile Center in Tillamook, Oregon and then was shown at Edmonds Conference Center in Edmonds, Washington before coming to Huntsville. There is a lovely catalog offered showing all the pieces that were part of the show. It is provided by Larkin Jean Van Horn, Curator of the exhibit. here are a cover of the catalog and though I liked all of them, I'm just showing the green one by Lisa Flowers Ross of Boise Idaho because I know that Sunshine is partial to green lately. All of the quilts juried into the Huntsville show are masterworks by skilled fiber artists. So many of them deserved a "best of show" award. Well done!

As an edit, I forgot the exhibit has a website. deep spaces

 

[freedombecki]

Finally got the child's quilt I made in the past week upstairs to the printer and took some scans. I love the quilt.

 

[freedombecki]

It'd sure be nice if I worked on and completed the one with a blue border today. Only, I haven't cut a border for it yet. But the every-other-windmill-is-red-or-blue strips are laying on the ironing board, waiting to be pressed before proceding. Well, better log off and do the do.

Quilting is procedure, procedure, procedure.

 

[freedombecki]

Finally! Something to show! But I had to work into the wee hours last night and get up this morning and put in another 3. This one I call the boy quilt, because it's bordered in a more masculine fabric than the red white and blue quilt with red ladybug fabric two posts above. ^ ^ ^ ^

I love the blue stripes. They just came in the mail yesterday from a truly great vendor. The stripes are made by Timeless Treasures (registered trademark) and I really can't believe nobody outbid me. Thanks to ebay, I was able to make the boy quilt 6" longer and 4" wider than the girl's quilt. No matter how politically correct one is, human boys are still taller and have bigger frames than most girls. So, why should they suffer? I try to make a good quilt for youngsters whose families may be on hard times. They may need one to last through their teen years. Then, when they're old enough, they can find a job and buy their own blankets and quilts. The boy's quilt is an inch taller than me, and the girl's quilt is about 5 inches shorter than me.

If you make them too much bigger, my concern is the kids won't get to use the quilts. I really should have probably used a Bucky Beaver print or something... but I don't think people know who Bucky Beaver was anymore.

 

[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

I hope you got a picture of it before you gave your lovely work away!

No, I didn't. But thought I would just make another. Haven't gotten to it yet!

 

[freedombecki]

Hope you get to do another for yourself. It will be nice.
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I'm doing one more windmill-style quilt with a bit different arrangement of blocks this time. The last two had every other red and blue windmills/propellers. It was a lot of work. First I spent the better part of 2 weeks doing countless windmills. Each quilt had 63 blocks on it. I have a lot left.

If red = 0 and blue = X, this is what the quilt will be arranged as:

XXXXXXXXX
XO00O00OX
XOXXXXXOX
XOX0O0XOX
XOXOXOXOX
XOXOXOXOX
XOXOXOXOX
XOXOXOXOX
XOX0O0XOX
XOXXXXXOX
XO00O00OX
XXXXXXXXX

Kinda Sorta. I know it looks funny, but it will be 9 wide by about 12 long. It's already on the second blue row, They're pressed and ready to sew the two long blue sides on, and the quilt will look a lot more proportional than the above schema, which will not square up as I alternated using capital "O" and zero (0) to try to make it come out evenly. Didn't happen.

Well, have to go back to the hockey game in Minnesota.
​

 

[freedombecki]

The quilt went reasonably well for today being a Sunday, and I'm inclined to just rest. Even so, some things aren't clear until you actually get in there and work up to a point. For example, the enlongate barrel above, does not come out that way. It looks like a well-proportioned quilt, and with 5 rows done and I'm in the middle of the sixth row, which is red around the outside, it's becoming clear to me that 7 5" squares is going to be ample, and 9 will be too large for a child. Also, the 10x5" squares length is also okay, considering that instead of being 35 x 50", when a light and then a dark border all around, it will be more like 50x64" which will do just fine. I find when the squares are under three inches, a border isn't a requirement, it's best for the quilt because small pieces can split and be a repair problem after just a few washes. With a long warp-edged border all around, the quilt has a firm outside, and the multiple pieces are much likelier to stay intact for many, many years. Others have made quilts like this, and I found one early this morning I'd like to find again and share here. The first quilt is similar to, except would have been a lot easier to construct than the one Im working on in which all the patches have windmills on them.

And who hasn't seen one like the one below?
It reminds me of latice boards people use in their gardens and around house foundations or in place of a fence.

This one is but a four-patch encased in log cabin borders:

There is a metric ton or two of ideas of ways to join four patch blocks. When I get over my current love affair with red-white-and-blue windmills, I am halfway home and then some on the original double four-patch quilt with little white squares going one way and red and blue squares going the opposite with a net effect of a scotch plaid, kind of. Everything's kind of like this or that with scrap quilting, and red white and blue are so fascinating when you get down to the brass tacks of sorting and cutting fabrics for that one-of-a-kind look on a quilt. When I get the border on the trips around the field windmill quilt, I'll post it. I could have it done in two hours if I put my nose to the grindstone, but I probably won't since this is Sunday.

Photo Credits for Four-Patch Frolic
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[freedombecki]

Pinning - Two more rows pinned to the never-ending windmills around the rectangle with rounds of red windmills and rounds of blue ones. Why I haven't sewn them beats me.

Oh, yeah, I got this idea for doing an Americana-style patriotic flag using a white windmill for a single star surrounded by 2.5" squares of different blues. It was just so addictive. I indulged in a shameless love-affair with blue calicoes and worked all morning getting it done. Then, of course, I had to cut more red squares and a lot of the lights I had left over from all the other double four-patch squares and windmills for the stripes.

Here are two shots of the center of what I am calling "flag, child quilt" I just scanned from this morning's labor:

 

[freedombecki]

The stripes are not pressed yet, because there was a little 3-hour wait for prescriptions at CVS today. They bumbled around, and finally called the doctor as I waited for 2.5 hours. Then they said the doctor was not responding and told me they just would have to wait, and that it was time for me to leave. I did, I went to the doctor's and her computer system showed only 1 request for my medicine around the time I was told I should go. We drove back to the pharmacy, and waited some more while they bumbled around after I told them the doctor responded before I left. They told me to sit down, and I said, no thanks, I'd had enough sitting around for one day, and I stood right there and hogged the service aisle.

Anyhow, here is this morning's dubious progress, but at least, I'll have a very pleasant task ahead of completing and assembling the 13 stripes I need to make a quilt that is 42 x 63" for a child or wheelchair soldier, whatever the Bees decide. The stripes show a cat and some ladybugs. It's a kid quilt, but I guess a soldier could have it if the need is there. My hope is they get well and back on their feet, and give the quilts to a child they love when it goes to a soldier. That is why I work so hard on quilts. I just love doing for people when I can push and shove and be the boss of fabrics, working in my clandestine style of ignoring some rules and clinging to others, depending on my mood... the star blue area is surrounded by charm squares (no two alike--I hope no two alike!) The stripes--eh! I just used a pile of them that I didn't care about since they've been stashed forever, and cut a whole lot more, some of which I just found at a fabric shop or on ebay. Sometimes ebay has the perfect patriotic fabric. It comes in and you think hmmm.. and the wheels start turning, and the fabric eventually becomes a part of your quilt.

Here are my strips, such as they are, one is still pinned:

 

[Dabs]

I have a million....(a whole bunch)...of circles of fabric I have cut into the right perfect circle, for I have been trying for the past 10 years to start a yo-yo quilt.
I think they are awesome....and so I have literally been collecting fabrics for the past 10 years, and I have them all cut into the circles, ready to start....I just can't seem....to....get started *sigh*

 

[freedombecki]

Put some of your favorite color in a paper bag with sturdy thread, a needle and clippers. Con someone else into driving. You can knot (or not) and pull thread through seam allowances while they are driving. Or you can put a little jar by your stitching area at night. Give yourself a dollar from your wallet every time you finish one.

The reward system works.

 

[freedombecki]

Finally! Not only did the outer red rows of windmills get sewn on the unfinished child quilt, the two outer borders got attached as well. I'm free!

Two pictures are below--one of the schema that is a little more clear than the XXXOOO one above that looks like an enlongate barrel. It's so good to finish things.

The outer border is the only way I can represent the quilt, showing just a couple of blocks and the light and dark blue borders. One of the borders came in from an ebay seller who'd separated all the blues into a group, set her price, and sold it to me. Doing the math, I saved a considerable amount, considering that there were 22 yards of good usable quilter's fabric in the stash, and the current going price for fabrics printed overseas now is about $11 dollars a yard. I was very pleased, because if nothing else, you can always take less glamorous fabrics, and piece them together for a back. I think I will be getting nice borders from a lot of these pieces. The dark blue is a batik purchased yesterday at the closest quilt store to my house from an angel who owns the shop.

The completed block had 7 x 10 5" windmills or 70 windmills, joined according to the small graph below. The light blue stripey fabric finished measurement is 1 1/4'. The outer border shows 3 1/4" because I cut the strips 3 1/2" and the quilt is neither quilted nor bound yet. When it is bound properly, it will show 3" or slightly less if the binding laps extra. On my quilts it usually does, because I double bias bind them. I'm not sure what the Charity Bees do, but I come from the old school that shows a bias binding has more give and will outlast a straight grain binding by ten times if the quilt is used heavily.

Each of the 70 squares has 8 pieces, so there are 560 pieces just in the windmill part of this small quilt and ten pieces on the 2 borders, bringing this quilt to having 570 pieces that had to be sewn together first before saying it is a finished top. However, the truth about a quilt? "It's not a quilt until it's quilted."

 

[freedombecki]

For those who don't know what a yo-yo quilt is that Dab has worked so hard in cutting out, here's an example:

Great page on yoyos, credits, and more yo yo pictures

Good luck, dabs!
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[Dabs]

For those who don't know what a yo-yo quilt is that Dab has worked so hard in cutting out, here's an example:

Great page on yoyos, credits, and more yo yo pictures

Good luck, dabs!
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Thank you Becki!!!!
Isn't it pretty??
All of my fabric colors tho are in pinks and mauves and rose colors.....some with flower patterns, some with stripes, some with swirl designs......they will make a pretty quilt someday..........one of these days ~LoL~

 

[freedombecki]

For those who don't know what a yo-yo quilt is that Dab has worked so hard in cutting out, here's an example:

Great page on yoyos, credits, and more yo yo pictures

Good luck, dabs!
​

Thank you Becki!!!!
Isn't it pretty??
All of my fabric colors tho are in pinks and mauves and rose colors.....some with flower patterns, some with stripes, some with swirl designs......they will make a pretty quilt someday..........one of these days ~LoL~

Tell me! I've done just enough yo-yo projects to know how much work they are. I've done miniature yo-yos and a vest, plus somewhere in a box somewhere, I have a few yo-yos cut out in Deep dark green batik and ruby tones. I was just going to do a small sampler for the Christmas window, and it got to be about 12" before I decided to move on to other things. When you work full-time and have to make all the displays plus run the store, your 80 hour week doesn't give you much time to think about last month's demos that had to be set aside while you helped a lady learn how to use her sewing machine because her stroke caused her a disability from learning in a classroom situation. Stuff comes up in business, and you just do what has to be done, and my precious little work may never get finished by me in this life, because I am determined to see how many kid quilts I can make every month. If I get a dollar for every one for March, my pile after today has 6 child or wheelchair sized quilts in it.

Dabs. put a couple of finished yo yos on your scanner and pick them up in "managed attachments" from your "my pictures" or "download" folder, as you do them, can you please? I love to see work in progress!

And it could give the maker an incentive to stitch a couple of yo-yos every night. In 365 days, if you stay with the program, you'll have well over 700 yo yos. If they're two inches across, that's a 52 inch square or better. If you did 5 a night 300 days of the year, you'd have 1500. The square root of 1500 (plus a few extra) would then be about 39 times 2 inches = 78 inch square of work. That's wide enough to be a queen sized coverlet.

If you are making bigger or smaller yo-yos, your work situation to cover a particular bed would change. Some like their yo-yos to the floor for a bedspread, and they can be stunning. Others realize they're only willing to spend x amount of their lives making yo-yos, stitching them on 4 sides, etc, so they settle for a coverlet that over a white or black sheet is total eye candy.

I even saw one pattern in a magazine recently that makes a 4 inch square by modifying the circle to look something like a Maltese cross that is sewn together in such a fashion you put a 4" piece of batting covered with a slice of muslin on top and pull the center together to look like a yo-yo, except it is completely stitched on 4 straight sides to make a rather toasty quilt. It may have even had sewing machine instructions, which might help a person who has arthritic hands and can no longer pull threads hard enough to close the yo-yo circle.

I can't wait to see a couple of your yo-yos, Dabs.

 

[freedombecki]

I've been hobnobbing the net, and found some really fun ideas for yo-yos that could be translated into quilts using quilt fabrics and standard quilt procedures (not circles):

This yo-yo quilt came when its maker decided
her child would benefit by learning colors with this quilt

​

 

[freedombecki]

My visit to the doctor went semi-well yesterday, but I wasn't feeling my best, so some of the quilts I wanted to share with Dabs to get her fires burning on picking up that first circle and stabbing little stitches, then bunching them around might get going. Dabs, just tell me to shush, but I've long been and admirer of well-done traditional and innovative yo-yo quilts, and they really add charm if you set them around linen under a favorite lamp in pretty colors. I found a plethora of beautiful works with yo-yos, and will start out with some traditional favorites like the basket quilt, diamond sets, and grandmother's flower garden...

Credits to the University of Michigan and their Quilt Index

The Flower Basket Quilt was constructed by one woman, who is estimated to have made it between 1950 and 1975. I'm sure she started with graph paper or something. I love this beauty.
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[freedombecki]

Seems I always go for the charted works...

But here's a Yo-yo quilt from the Shelburne Museum in which the maker managed many colors into schoolbus orange diamonds, and it is quite a collage of fun:

Credits at Shelburne Museum Quilts
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