Artful Homemade Quilts Have A Way

[freedombecki]

The first two are like the ones above, the third is an 8 inch square right now. They don't show well here when all the rows are added, because then, they measure about 9.25 inches. I have to cut some more different blues. I found 14 more in my old stash, and I haven't even looked in the garage, and somewhere, there are 32 more, not sure where.

 

[Sunshine]

I don't know how you do that Becki. Your spatial reasoning must be off the charts!

 

[freedombecki]

Thanks, Sunshine. Today, I completed the blocks I worked on all week last week (or so it seems). I didn't join them, yet, thought it would be nice to show a few of them off. Sometime today, I'll try and join them into a schema. Oh, where's my little schematics pad when I need it?

Here are some of the large white squares completed:

 

[freedombecki]

Finally, here are some more USAF blue squares and the last corner (light)

 

[freedombecki]

I only photocopied 5 of the 20 dark and light squares. there will be 4 of them arranged as per sawtooth at top and 4 at bottom, sawtooth. There will be 8 of them used as star points (I usually pick the darkest ones, because then the point is set apart from the background in higher contrast than light ones, which can and have disappeared into a dark-dominant "light" background.

The three dark/light points:

 

[freedombecki]

I finished the entire Air Force Blue quilt today. Finishing the quilt is the happiest thing about quilting. I named this one "On Wings of Blue Angels," because the USAF task well done saves thousands of our troops who'd otherwise have a very frightening task to do.

Thumbnail 1: The upper right corner of this quilt, affectionately referred to as "On wings of blue angels" due to the matching butterfly fabric I found, is shown in thumbnail. I'm sorry I can't show more due to my all-thumbs approach to photography.

Thumbnail 2: The center of "On Wings of Blue Angels" is shown in the second thumbnail. If the entire quilt were visible, you'd see top and bottom rows of sawtooth log cabins and a log cabin hero star with a diagonal log diamond in the middle. All told, there are 20 squares.

Thumbnail 3: It's just one of 8 star points around the center diamond.

This quilt is made in honor of Daveman, a veteran of the USAF, and it's all in Air Force blue. It will be given to the local H.E.A.R.T.S. quilting group who does good things for veterans from all military groups and services. They will know the airman who deserves this one the most.

When I bought the butterfly print around the quilt several weeks ago, I just took the rest of the bolt since it was on sale and so beautiful. They seem to be blue angels...

 

[freedombecki]

I have a lot of blue strips cut to continue working on blue quilts, and I started and finished 24 blocks this morning for another quilt. This one has some very bright and beautiful blues. Since Army is green and Navy is dark green, I guess this bright blue one will be for the rmembarnce to marines.

Center shot and two star points.

My eyes are really dry today, and one eye is twitching, sign of a virus. Think I'm gonna head for the showers and go home when this is posted.

Have a lovely day everyone.

And God bless our men and women serving and fighting for freedom and liberty.

 

[freedombecki]

Today, I worked on completing joining the 24 blocks, adding a separating sash between 2 sawtooth borders and the hero star formed at center of the quilt. It's in the neighborhood of 50x 72" give or take an inch due to calculations in my head rather than on paper.

The first border was a beautiful light blue rose that set off the star points and the sawtooth border points. Unfortunately, nothing I could find in my stash set my soul on fire, so I went to the quilt store, and Eureka! For the second time in as many weeks, Fabric Carousel had the absolutely most perfect fabric. It is a small-textured blue, and in vitro, the colors make the light blue roses sing Hallelujah. (In my very humble, subjective opinion).

Only one picture today. I have to say this in color is a quilt that makes me fall in love with blue all over again. Sorry I don't use a camera so well. The pic below was placed on humble scanner, so 8.5x11" is all we get here. Next to the border is one of the sawtooth log cabin "points."

I would like to honor all those who have served America's people as US Marines with this quilt.

 

[freedombecki]

I have to postpone my Special forces quilt because of talking to my friend who was an Army Frogman, who I once made the mistake of calling "swabbie." Big mistake.



For some reason, we continued to talk at a former Worldcrossing website called "American West." And we still stay in touch. Anyway I asked him for some ideas. I was in for a shock. Their colors are basically black wet suits, teal special forces dress uniforms, and camo. Their badges are all a pewter color, and their insignias are gold and black.

I'm working in royal and navy blue right now for the next 3 quilts not including this third quilt I'm working on right now.

Anyhow, I ordered fabrics I hope will work in conjunction with certain pieces in my current stash, and I can't start till all the fabrics are in. I did find a huge piece of camo for $3.00 yard, and it's not bad quality cotton, either, considering quilter's fabrics are up to a low of $10. per yard, many are up to $14, which is where quilters in Great Britain have been for years. Well, we caught up here in America due to factory shut downs and our short staple cottons available for our shorter growing seasons out of vogue. That makes us dependent on foreign countries for just one more commodity we ought to be making for ourselves, especially in the manufacture of materials for the safety and protection of our own troops.

So the spec forces quilt, I'm not gonna start for awhile due to it will be different than what you have seen from the above quilts, and for which I cut enough strips in the past two weeks to make the 6 quilts I set out clear plastic bags to hold.

So nothing to show today, I'm on the last 4 rows (out of 13) as of a couple of hours ago from completing enough blocks to do a quilt for the Navy friends here. I'd like to make it look like waves, but then, I'd have to cut tiny strips, make more and smaller squares, and do time and a half extra work, not to mention design time, because I've already looked online for an appropriate waves quilt for the Navy. Guess I'm going to have to hit the graph paper, if I can find them underneath all the red and blue strips I've cut lately.

If I really got my act together, I could complete the squares tonight and do another hero star quilt for the Navy and have it done by 5 pm tomorrow. lol

 

[freedombecki]

Well, the 16-log square "hero star" center of Quilt 3 honoring members of the U. S. Navy has been completed. I have to find the blue and white boating flags that I found on ebay in quilter's fabric to do the next border, because white separates the dark points. I think the 4th quilt will just be a blue log cabin quilt, something simple, made for the abuse shelter or a handicapped child. The special forces fabric is not here yet, so it's going to bide my time city until it gets here, and I can set out for a long cutting day, then tear into the project. Can't wait. I love our special forces guys. They do scary stuff, and their commanders try to get them all back safely. That reminds me, some Seals got sabotaged in a helicopter crash in the past year and we lost a bunch all on the same day. My heart goes out to their families. Yep. That tells me the Seals will be honored in one of the blue quilts. So they will be next.

 

[freedombecki]

Talk about fabric dictating an outcome! This one possibly caused the quilt to be larger than the others, just because to show enough of the fabric round insignias of the Navy, the fabric had to be cut wider to do the fabric justice. Top and bottom borders generally have a more aesthetic look when taller, but in order to get an outcome that would fit a human body, both side pieces of the blue stripe and the navy seals are wider than the strips at top and bottom. The overall size of the quilt is 55 inches by 70 inches. I think one earlier military services quilts may have been 72 inches, but it may have had 3 borders if memory serves me right. Hopefully it will be a good quilt for a brave man or woman to use when convalescing, or given to a son or daughter. The blue hero star also has log star points at top and bottom to give the quilt too much elongation, thus the effort to compensate for a more standard overall quilt. This time, the points are arranged from the top and bottom centers out, to repeat the idea of star points emanating from a center.

I probably ought to design log cabin stars that with 16 pieces just leave enough to put a small border. I leave that to tomorrow's guru of making thanks to wounded soldiers quilts.

Again, I apologize for not knowing how to take pictures due to past failures, and I'm so grateful to the Kodak printer people for making this nice scanner I could afford to show some of the end product so well.

This quilt was made with love for our dear fellow Americans who served in the Navy (as well as all other branches). This past year we had a big sad. We lost Navy Seals to an enemy that was watching their every move and betraying their liberating efforts to those in such repressive regimes they hate free people. If God made all of them angels, I hope they will be guardians of safe waters, land, and skies, for American servicemen engaged in protecting freedom and human rights.

Love,

freedombecki

 

[freedombecki]

I've been browsing the web rather heavily today, looking for someone else making personal-sized log cabin quilts, and I found something I had never heard before, along with proofs. Here's the scoop:

​

Would you believe…one of the oldest examples of the log cabin pattern was found on cat mummies from Egypt? Other examples of this light and dark purposeful layering can be seen in ancient Roman tile works and 17th Century perfume bags. How this pattern made it to quilts is anyone’s guess. One theory is that the unearthed Egyptian cat mummies were so plentiful they were given to English farmers to scatter in their fields as fertilizer. The farmers’ wives, cloth artists at the ready, copied the interesting pattern for their next quilt project. What’s in a name? Known as the English Roof Pattern, Egyptian, and Mummy Pattern in England, when takento Canada the name became Canadian Logwork. Quilters in Gee’s Bend, Alabama called it Housetop. Regardless of the block name, the design was most popular during the mid to late 1800s. During the Civil War, many log cabin style raffle quilts were made to raise funds for the Union Army. It has been suggested that the Log Cabin square was a tribute to former log cabin resident, Abraham Lincoln. His supporters’ work had been nicknamed The Log Cabin Campaign. Also during this time, the Homestead Act spurred the migration westward where people were actually building lots of log cabins. The layout of the log cabin squares for quilts took on the names of things common to real life, such as Barn Raising, Straight Furrows, Courthouse Steps, Chimneys and Cornerstones, Broken Dishes, Streak of Lightening, and Sunshine & Shadows.

Ellen Lee at Patchwork Chronicles

​

Learn something new every day.
​

​

 

[freedombecki]

Today's goal: I have 50 or 60 small pink and gray squares that would make a nice quilt top for the charity bees closet, and since you're supposed to finish what you start on a Friday (darn, I'm going to miss the flame fest thread), I'm going to see what I can do about putting them into pinwheels and finding a pretty mauve pink fabric to frame them. They may have been finished sometime between 1996-1999, and working with 1 square this morning, I was disappointed to realize I started them prior to my decision to precut strips before using them. That way, if the longest strip is 6.5", the square is likely to be 6.5" on all 4 sides. I took the first two and laid them together, and they're so not square. The best thing you can do is put them into a square setting and try to toss out squares that just don't make it. If I use 48 to make 12 pinwheels (it takes 4 courthouse step squares to make 1 pinwheel), I can do that. The last time I used from the taller pile, the quilt got sent to Indonesia as a baby quilt for a victim of the tsunami, whenever that was. It's time to bite the bullet and get rid of that pile of squares. Hope everyone else has a wonderful day. I hope Sunshine drops by and notices the Egyptian vases. Off to the sewing machine!

 

[Sunshine]

I've been browsing the web rather heavily today, looking for someone else making personal-sized log cabin quilts, and I found something I had never heard before, along with proofs. Here's the scoop:

​

Would you believe…one of the oldest examples of the log cabin pattern was found on cat mummies from Egypt? Other examples of this light and dark purposeful layering can be seen in ancient Roman tile works and 17th Century perfume bags. How this pattern made it to quilts is anyone’s guess. One theory is that the unearthed Egyptian cat mummies were so plentiful they were given to English farmers to scatter in their fields as fertilizer. The farmers’ wives, cloth artists at the ready, copied the interesting pattern for their next quilt project. What’s in a name? Known as the English Roof Pattern, Egyptian, and Mummy Pattern in England, when takento Canada the name became Canadian Logwork. Quilters in Gee’s Bend, Alabama called it Housetop. Regardless of the block name, the design was most popular during the mid to late 1800s. During the Civil War, many log cabin style raffle quilts were made to raise funds for the Union Army. It has been suggested that the Log Cabin square was a tribute to former log cabin resident, Abraham Lincoln. His supporters’ work had been nicknamed The Log Cabin Campaign. Also during this time, the Homestead Act spurred the migration westward where people were actually building lots of log cabins. The layout of the log cabin squares for quilts took on the names of things common to real life, such as Barn Raising, Straight Furrows, Courthouse Steps, Chimneys and Cornerstones, Broken Dishes, Streak of Lightening, and Sunshine & Shadows.

Ellen Lee at Patchwork Chronicles

​

Learn something new every day.
​

​

King Tut's thing sandles would be stylish on the street today.

I've seen cat mummies!~

 

[daveman]

I finished the entire Air Force Blue quilt today. Finishing the quilt is the happiest thing about quilting. I named this one "On Wings of Blue Angels," because the USAF task well done saves thousands of our troops who'd otherwise have a very frightening task to do.

Thumbnail 1: The upper right corner of this quilt, affectionately referred to as "On wings of blue angels" due to the matching butterfly fabric I found, is shown in thumbnail. I'm sorry I can't show more due to my all-thumbs approach to photography.

Thumbnail 2: The center of "On Wings of Blue Angels" is shown in the second thumbnail. If the entire quilt were visible, you'd see top and bottom rows of sawtooth log cabins and a log cabin hero star with a diagonal log diamond in the middle. All told, there are 20 squares.

Thumbnail 3: It's just one of 8 star points around the center diamond.

This quilt is made in honor of Daveman, a veteran of the USAF, and it's all in Air Force blue. It will be given to the local H.E.A.R.T.S. quilting group who does good things for veterans from all military groups and services. They will know the airman who deserves this one the most.

When I bought the butterfly print around the quilt several weeks ago, I just took the rest of the bolt since it was on sale and so beautiful. They seem to be blue angels...

Absolutely lovely, my dear. Thank you so much for your art and the people you help with it.

 

[Sunshine]

I've been browsing the web rather heavily today, looking for someone else making personal-sized log cabin quilts, and I found something I had never heard before, along with proofs. Here's the scoop:

​

Would you believe…one of the oldest examples of the log cabin pattern was found on cat mummies from Egypt? Other examples of this light and dark purposeful layering can be seen in ancient Roman tile works and 17th Century perfume bags. How this pattern made it to quilts is anyone’s guess. One theory is that the unearthed Egyptian cat mummies were so plentiful they were given to English farmers to scatter in their fields as fertilizer. The farmers’ wives, cloth artists at the ready, copied the interesting pattern for their next quilt project. What’s in a name? Known as the English Roof Pattern, Egyptian, and Mummy Pattern in England, when takento Canada the name became Canadian Logwork. Quilters in Gee’s Bend, Alabama called it Housetop. Regardless of the block name, the design was most popular during the mid to late 1800s. During the Civil War, many log cabin style raffle quilts were made to raise funds for the Union Army. It has been suggested that the Log Cabin square was a tribute to former log cabin resident, Abraham Lincoln. His supporters’ work had been nicknamed The Log Cabin Campaign. Also during this time, the Homestead Act spurred the migration westward where people were actually building lots of log cabins. The layout of the log cabin squares for quilts took on the names of things common to real life, such as Barn Raising, Straight Furrows, Courthouse Steps, Chimneys and Cornerstones, Broken Dishes, Streak of Lightening, and Sunshine & Shadows.

Ellen Lee at Patchwork Chronicles

​

Learn something new every day.
​

​

King Tut's thing sandles would be stylish on the street today.

I've seen cat mummies!~

OMG, that was supposed to say 'thong sandles.' LOL

 

[freedombecki]

I've been browsing the web rather heavily today, looking for someone else making personal-sized log cabin quilts, and I found something I had never heard before, along with proofs. Here's the scoop:

​

Would you believe…one of the oldest examples of the log cabin pattern was found on cat mummies from Egypt? Other examples of this light and dark purposeful layering can be seen in ancient Roman tile works and 17th Century perfume bags. How this pattern made it to quilts is anyone’s guess. One theory is that the unearthed Egyptian cat mummies were so plentiful they were given to English farmers to scatter in their fields as fertilizer. The farmers’ wives, cloth artists at the ready, copied the interesting pattern for their next quilt project. What’s in a name? Known as the English Roof Pattern, Egyptian, and Mummy Pattern in England, when takento Canada the name became Canadian Logwork. Quilters in Gee’s Bend, Alabama called it Housetop. Regardless of the block name, the design was most popular during the mid to late 1800s. During the Civil War, many log cabin style raffle quilts were made to raise funds for the Union Army. It has been suggested that the Log Cabin square was a tribute to former log cabin resident, Abraham Lincoln. His supporters’ work had been nicknamed The Log Cabin Campaign. Also during this time, the Homestead Act spurred the migration westward where people were actually building lots of log cabins. The layout of the log cabin squares for quilts took on the names of things common to real life, such as Barn Raising, Straight Furrows, Courthouse Steps, Chimneys and Cornerstones, Broken Dishes, Streak of Lightening, and Sunshine & Shadows.

Ellen Lee at Patchwork Chronicles

​

Learn something new every day.
​

​

King Tut's thing sandles would be stylish on the street today.

I've seen cat mummies!~

Yes, thong sandals have been around a long time. They worry me to death between the toes, though, so I either have to wear huarache woven leather sandals or open toe leather ones. Around here there are so many bugs, spiders, wasps, ants, wingless wasps, and snakes, my preference is a good old fashion pair of S.A.S. leathers.

 

[freedombecki]

Friday, I decided to get the quilts made in April down and I looked through my stuff and found two more quilts I'd done and just forgotten about, always meaning to have quilted them, but never got around to it. So with the 3 blue hero star soldier quilts, an original mustang quilt I designed, and an orange embroidered blackwork maple leaf quilt done 3 or 4 years ago and stashed away, also made some more crocheted dishrags. Boy, they won't ever ask me to do any more dishrags! lol! I think that brings the total to around 50 or 60, I just lost count.

Anyhow, after thinking it over, I had hoped to complete 10 quilts, but all toll, there were only 7 delivered, and 3 of those were for wounded soldiers, not shelter kids. So this month, since things didn't go well on delivery of the teal colors, I think I will just work on finishing up a bunch of old star quilt blocks that turned out a little too big, by adding fancy borders and dolling them up for kids.

Got one done by about one o'clock today:

 

[freedombecki]

Here's the center of the bluebird quilt.

 

[freedombecki]

This morning, I ran across some butterfly fabric I found that only cost $2.00 a yard for reasons unbeknownst to me, since I love the order of Lepidoptera. So, last night, while I was making squares out of twosie postage stamp pieces, I just left a pile high enough to complete another quilt like I did yesterday, only in a lot less time. (yay!) It was a snap for this former swimsuit factory worker of many years ago. Shown are the (1) right side, (2) center and (3) 2 of the 8 star points. I'll show 3 more shots below.