Artful Homemade Quilts Have A Way

[Care4all]

I was watching some videos on tapestry crochet...that's what your basket/bag work looks like. Fascinating.

no, it's not tapestry crochet nor Tunisian crochet...it's just regular ole crochet worked in rounds, not rows....so there is no turning at the end of a row....

basically, make a flat place mat the diameter you want your basket by increasing a few stitches in each round until it's the right size.

Then to bring the sides upwards, on the first round of the sides SC in the back loop only, all the way around...

NOTE! you need an odd number of stitches in the round to do the next round and all rounds afterwards. So what I do is on the last round of the place mat like bottom round.... is leave out an increase stitch to make certain the stitches in that round end up being an odd number.

this next round, the stitch you see on the sides is single crochet (SC) and Long Single crochet (LSC)....

what you do for the LSC is instead of single crocheting in to the next SC loop, you single crochet in to the bottom of the next SC....making it a long stitch....

What this does is make the basket sides much stronger and thicker because it is doubling up over, every other stitch....

Also, I use 3 -4 strands of yarn combined together when crocheting them...

that, with the LSC stitch makes the baskets sturdy and durable and they will last a lifetime!!!

 

[freedombecki]

You have a MAJOR eye for color. Have you ever painted?

Yep. Unfortunately, many years ago, my son got into my oil paints and painted himself all over twice, ruining 2 of his 3 shirts. At that point, young me is given her mother's old sewing machine, and starts making his clothes. It got to be an unappreciated fetish when daughter was born... and as soon as she was old enough to speak, I asked her to come try this new dress on, "little lady." She puts her 18-months-old hands on her hips, scowls and tells her mother, "I ain't no lady!!!!"

Anyway, eventually she and my husband agreed she would spend the duration of her childhood wearing her brother's hand-me-downs! (There is a God!) However, she was dead serious all her life. She grew up and became a really, reallly good cop on the beat and a beauty queen at home--on her own terms, of course. /proud mom

My oils were traded in for a sewing machine, which became my new paintbrush after so many years. (literally) I taught machine embroidery before home embroidery machines came out, and you just used the thread as your paint and did free motion sketches like pen and inks, did portraits on the machine (one of a Wyoming governor), a landscape painting of a view of the Snake River twisting under the shadows of the Grand Tetons, etc. I designed many quilts and self-published applique books for people who liked my work, some of which are shown on my Album page, which includes 44 animal characters for making appliqued baby quilts for children or babies.

The problem quilters have is color choice. I made a business of providing all that an artist who can mix paints--fabric color choices so our remote quilt artists in Wyoing could have their exact shade needed for whatever they were making. Some found it terribly confusing, but the artists in the quilt world locally knew they'd likely find the correct shade that exactly matched what they needed for their interior decorating with quilts. I worked at it for 23 years until my fibromyalgia caused such pain we had to move to a warmer climate. I still have that love for color, but I'm so picky about texture and value, I still have to make runs to local quilt stores for that right piece for whatever I'm doing. I love quilt stores and the different people who start them for their own purposes, none quite like mine, but very, very worthy contributors to the greater good of their communities. I left the store to the care of two very devoted ladies and told them "use the store to serve the Lord and the community, as long as you can have a good time doing it and draw a paycheck."

They're the best.

Do you miss having your own shop?

I own the shop. My pain was so severe I could not serve the public, and fibrofog is a side effect of the disease that destroyed my acuity in math. I hated all the math mistakes. Nobody likes to be cheated nor get home and find out the undercharge cheated their favorite quilt shop. People like accuracy, and I built a reputation on honesty in business. So no, I don't miss my beautiful shop. No matter how good something is, if you aren't up to it, you have to draw a line someday and say, "No more." I had no choice to do anything else due to my heinous disease. You may look and sound like a million, but underneath it all is pain that eats away at all that's good in people, while the actress above pretenses that all is well, and her math bears it out in so many mistakes at the bottom line. It was insidious. I couldn't serve the public and I couldn't live with the shabby service they got from me in my illness. I got some precious notes from people I used to serve who thanked me for leaving the shop open and in the care of my two good helpers. When I was there, they were the people you could count on to help construct a soldier or a hospice quilt, be on the cleanup committee after classes, and invite their friends to pick fabrics at our shop when they were making quilts. Already indebted to these angels, they keep showing their kindness to the community by supporting the shop helpers. The Equality State is rich in caring and compassion, charity and excellence. I have nothing but gratitude for the 23 years I could serve, and the happiness of having such wonderful helpers who've used the shop to serve these dear angels and those who are in need of warm winter quilts or an acknowledgment of someone's caring that the gift of a quilt is.

 

[freedombecki]

I began some more purple windmills today, when I realized no purples were in the stacks of quilts I made for the Charity bees in the last few months. I'm not ready to show the blocks yet, but I found a small online work someone had done to show the kind of windmills I'm doing (like the last one, heh). It has nothing to do with anything except to say while working to get a new computre all set up, I still love to quilt more... Here's the one I found:

The one I'm working on will alternate with a purple/yellow/pink/lime bird print, no blue whatever.

Have a wonderful day, everyone! I'm off to the sewing machine.

 

[freedombecki]

I love blue and green..

But I do like brown, and orange, too.

I dunno, when I'm crocheting, I get pretty sick of whatever color it is I'm using. That's why I have 1500 unfinished afghans laying around, and skeins and skeins and skeins of yarn that at one time I liked, but now thoroughly detest.

like the teal blues?

I love the blues right now too....and I love to crochet...I too have a gazillion unfinished projects....so we actually have something in common!!!!!!!

Very beautiful, Care4all! I love your work. I love your blues!

What an awful time for the forum nanny to tell me I'm all out of rep for the morning. Well, I have a sewing room that is waiting for my entrance anyway. See you all later, I hope.

 

[Delia]

Yep. Unfortunately, many years ago, my son got into my oil paints and painted himself all over twice, ruining 2 of his 3 shirts. At that point, young me is given her mother's old sewing machine, and starts making his clothes. It got to be an unappreciated fetish when daughter was born... and as soon as she was old enough to speak, I asked her to come try this new dress on, "little lady." She puts her 18-months-old hands on her hips, scowls and tells her mother, "I ain't no lady!!!!"

Anyway, eventually she and my husband agreed she would spend the duration of her childhood wearing her brother's hand-me-downs! (There is a God!) However, she was dead serious all her life. She grew up and became a really, reallly good cop on the beat and a beauty queen at home--on her own terms, of course. /proud mom

My oils were traded in for a sewing machine, which became my new paintbrush after so many years. (literally) I taught machine embroidery before home embroidery machines came out, and you just used the thread as your paint and did free motion sketches like pen and inks, did portraits on the machine (one of a Wyoming governor), a landscape painting of a view of the Snake River twisting under the shadows of the Grand Tetons, etc. I designed many quilts and self-published applique books for people who liked my work, some of which are shown on my Album page, which includes 44 animal characters for making appliqued baby quilts for children or babies.

The problem quilters have is color choice. I made a business of providing all that an artist who can mix paints--fabric color choices so our remote quilt artists in Wyoing could have their exact shade needed for whatever they were making. Some found it terribly confusing, but the artists in the quilt world locally knew they'd likely find the correct shade that exactly matched what they needed for their interior decorating with quilts. I worked at it for 23 years until my fibromyalgia caused such pain we had to move to a warmer climate. I still have that love for color, but I'm so picky about texture and value, I still have to make runs to local quilt stores for that right piece for whatever I'm doing. I love quilt stores and the different people who start them for their own purposes, none quite like mine, but very, very worthy contributors to the greater good of their communities. I left the store to the care of two very devoted ladies and told them "use the store to serve the Lord and the community, as long as you can have a good time doing it and draw a paycheck."

They're the best.

Do you miss having your own shop?

I own the shop. My pain was so severe I could not serve the public, and fibrofog is a side effect of the disease that destroyed my acuity in math. I hated all the math mistakes. Nobody likes to be cheated nor get home and find out the undercharge cheated their favorite quilt shop. People like accuracy, and I built a reputation on honesty in business. So no, I don't miss my beautiful shop. No matter how good something is, if you aren't up to it, you have to draw a line someday and say, "No more." I had no choice to do anything else due to my heinous disease. You may look and sound like a million, but underneath it all is pain that eats away at all that's good in people, while the actress above pretenses that all is well, and her math bears it out in so many mistakes at the bottom line. It was insidious. I couldn't serve the public and I couldn't live with the shabby service they got from me in my illness. I got some precious notes from people I used to serve who thanked me for leaving the shop open and in the care of my two good helpers. When I was there, they were the people you could count on to help construct a soldier or a hospice quilt, be on the cleanup committee after classes, and invite their friends to pick fabrics at our shop when they were making quilts. Already indebted to these angels, they keep showing their kindness to the community by supporting the shop helpers. The Equality State is rich in caring and compassion, charity and excellence. I have nothing but gratitude for the 23 years I could serve, and the happiness of having such wonderful helpers who've used the shop to serve these dear angels and those who are in need of warm winter quilts or an acknowledgment of someone's caring that the gift of a quilt is.

Oh, I thought you had a shop, sold it and moved ... etc. Because I have fibro, and the fog is part of why I just work on good days, odd jobs and errands for a few from church who are happy to accommodate my issues.

 

[koshergrl]

I began some more purple windmills today, when I realized no purples were in the stacks of quilts I made for the Charity bees in the last few months. I'm not ready to show the blocks yet, but I found a small online work someone had done to show the kind of windmills I'm doing (like the last one, heh). It has nothing to do with anything except to say while working to get a new computre all set up, I still love to quilt more... Here's the one I found:

The one I'm working on will alternate with a purple/yellow/pink/lime bird print, no blue whatever.

Have a wonderful day, everyone! I'm off to the sewing machine.

hey, the same pattern I used for the eterna-quilt that I haven't finished for my niece!

 

[freedombecki]

I began some more purple windmills today, when I realized no purples were in the stacks of quilts I made for the Charity bees in the last few months. I'm not ready to show the blocks yet, but I found a small online work someone had done to show the kind of windmills I'm doing (like the last one, heh). It has nothing to do with anything except to say while working to get a new computre all set up, I still love to quilt more... Here's the one I found:

The one I'm working on will alternate with a purple/yellow/pink/lime bird print, no blue whatever.

Have a wonderful day, everyone! I'm off to the sewing machine.

hey, the same pattern I used for the eterna-quilt that I haven't finished for my niece!

Oh yes. I think when I started here, I'd already made a couple like that to augment our traditionalist teacher's class on the pattern. Since seeing your neice's quilt, I've made probably around 5 or 6 of the same pattern tops for charity quilts. My blocks are small by comparison, though, because I already had one gazillion paired strips of lights and darks cut 1.75" to make small windmills/propellers that measure windmill/propeller blocks being 5" when finished. The nice thing about your block is it's kind when it comes to sewing it together--the center meets with dark blades (most often) in which it is not totally critical if they don't match up 100% unless you're doing 4 different-prints or colors of blades. Then, you simply make sure all of them are 5.5" unfinished, sew 5.5" sashing stripx between windmills, or set them next to 5.5" squares of fun prints for kids, and it's only about 8 hours of sewing to get a 50x64" child's quilt (give or take a few inches), and you can make it bigger by adding borders with interesting textures or character designs for children. A review of this thread would tell. I recorded them all here in thumbnails. My old computer lost all its marbles last week, and I'm breaking in a new computer now. I love this one. There's no hair-trigger shooting off, it's smaller, etc.

I didn't spend enough time in the quilt room yesterday. My husband's issues required some time, and I couldn't concentrate after that. He's okay, but it rained yesterday, and I couldn't send him out to play.

 

[koshergrl]

How depressing. It is still sitting, unfinished, in my bedroom.

How many years has it been? 4????? I think so, lol. Well when I finish my daughter's pillow, and the sock monkeys at the beginning of Feb, then that is my next project, and I will not stop until it's finished.

I think I will probably take it to one of our local quilt shops to quilt the border. Because the measurements are sort of weird (I think it's sort of long and skinny) the border is quite large and weird...so I want it to be tightly quilted to give it some interest...and i think, just to get it done and out of the way, I will pay someone to use a machine quilter to do it, so i can get it done and send it off.

I think for my next project, I'm going to enroll in a class so I'm forced to actually work on it, and so at least once a week or whatever i can take my project somewhere where there is the surface and tools to get something done. I don't have a work table at my house, or a sewing room, or any place for my sewing maching to stay...I have to clear the kitchen table and use that, then put it all away when I'm done, and it hampers progress when it comes to quilting.

 

[Mr. H.]

Oh becki-o...
We stopped at an antique store yesterday and this was hanging on the wall. Doubt it's "antique" but thought you'd appreciate it.

 

[freedombecki]

Oh becki-o...
We stopped at an antique store yesterday and this was hanging on the wall. Doubt it's "antique" but thought you'd appreciate it.

It's a beautiful barnraising log cabin quilt, Mr. H. Someone used a lot of everything on the top, and it is likely to be valuable someday due to the stunning variety of fabrics that document a certain era of time during the quilter's life. Some of the more comprehensive quilt museums catalog all the fabrics that are printed and sold nationally and internationally. The most recent fabric often nails the time the quilt was completed, unless the quilter signed her work, embroidered a year, and her location. If those inscriptions are there the value of the piece triples or even goes through the roof. Can you imagine finding a quilt at a rummage sale with Martha Washington's name embroidered on it, and historians finding that the latest fabric added was 10 years prior to her demise, and that stitches and thread were from the same spool as one of her known works?

See what I mean?

 

[freedombecki]

How depressing. It is still sitting, unfinished, in my bedroom.

How many years has it been? 4????? I think so, lol. Well when I finish my daughter's pillow, and the sock monkeys at the beginning of Feb, then that is my next project, and I will not stop until it's finished.

I think I will probably take it to one of our local quilt shops to quilt the border. Because the measurements are sort of weird (I think it's sort of long and skinny) the border is quite large and weird...so I want it to be tightly quilted to give it some interest...and i think, just to get it done and out of the way, I will pay someone to use a machine quilter to do it, so i can get it done and send it off.

I think for my next project, I'm going to enroll in a class so I'm forced to actually work on it, and so at least once a week or whatever i can take my project somewhere where there is the surface and tools to get something done. I don't have a work table at my house, or a sewing room, or any place for my sewing maching to stay...I have to clear the kitchen table and use that, then put it all away when I'm done, and it hampers progress when it comes to quilting.

"If you finish the quilt now, it won't have to be her coffin quilt" is the phrase I use to prompt myself to finish a quilt, Koshergrl. Hope that helps.

 

[freedombecki]

Which reminds me...the quilt I didn't finish yesterday didn't get finished today, because I had nothing matching to put in the borders. So I had to make yet another trip to the quilt store. This time I was good. I spent less than $20 and only bought one fabric for something else. That's a huge improvement over my last 4 trips of stash-building. (don't ask, because I'm not telling).

 

[Mr. H.]

Oh becki-o...
We stopped at an antique store yesterday and this was hanging on the wall. Doubt it's "antique" but thought you'd appreciate it.

It's a beautiful barnraising log cabin quilt, Mr. H. Someone used a lot of everything on the top, and it is likely to be valuable someday due to the stunning variety of fabrics that document a certain era of time during the quilter's life. Some of the more comprehensive quilt museums catalog all the fabrics that are printed and sold nationally and internationally. The most recent fabric often nails the time the quilt was completed, unless the quilter signed her work, embroidered a year, and her location. If those inscriptions are there the value of the piece triples or even goes through the roof. Can you imagine finding a quilt at a rummage sale with Martha Washington's name embroidered on it, and historians finding that the latest fabric added was 10 years prior to her demise, and that stitches and thread were from the same spool as one of her known works?

See what I mean?

Hmmm... just looked like a big ol' quilt to me.
Out of curiosity, I'll go back and check the price. Maybe take some close up shots.

 

[freedombecki]

Oh becki-o...
We stopped at an antique store yesterday and this was hanging on the wall. Doubt it's "antique" but thought you'd appreciate it.

​

It's a beautiful barnraising log cabin quilt, Mr. H. Someone used a lot of everything on the top, and it is likely to be valuable someday due to the stunning variety of fabrics that document a certain era of time during the quilter's life. Some of the more comprehensive quilt museums catalog all the fabrics that are printed and sold nationally and internationally. The most recent fabric often nails the time the quilt was completed, unless the quilter signed her work, embroidered a year, and her location. If those inscriptions are there the value of the piece triples or even goes through the roof. Can you imagine finding a quilt at a rummage sale with Martha Washington's name embroidered on it, and historians finding that the latest fabric added was 10 years prior to her demise, and that stitches and thread were from the same spool as one of her known works?

See what I mean?

Hmmm... just looked like a big ol' quilt to me. I
Out of curiosity, I'll go back and check the price. Maybe take some close up shots.

In the upper right corner, one down and one to the left is a square with green strips in the light area. On the dark area is a plaid that looks like the ones Roberta Horton designed and was woven for sale in or around 1994-1998. Also, her use of "that green" and "30s green" here there and everywhere tells me some of her stash dates back to the late 80s and also that she visited not only quillt stores, but outlet stores for bargain fabric. Her tissue-thin fabrics tell me she may have had access to a large collective quilt closet shared by a guild and/or she had a half-dozen tubs of fabric from an estate in her stash. The use of folded quilt squares around the outside borders are also indicative of a huge stash at her access, and I'm (right or wrong) going to put a completion date at or around the mid to late 1990s or up to 10 years later, although she used from a stash that could have gone back to the 60s or even a little earlier, though not much, and I'm seeing almost no retro that started being popular around 2005 and later. Perhaps she started off with some inherited squares or belonged to a coop? These things are not known about the quilt unless there is a name tag and either she or her friends survive and could tell you about her quilt, her habits, etc. Sometimes groups of women will each buy a half yard of 10 fabrics, cut them into fat eighths and passed them around in a group of 4 to have 40 more choices to add to a personal stash. There are a myriad of ways to come up with all her variety, but just based on what I see in that quilt, you had a free-spirited and industrious woman undertaking a huge project and seeing it through until the last prairie point was attached to the quilted work's outside. (the folded fabric outer border is known as a "prairie points" finish and adds to the intrigue of the quilt since it is 9 times more work than a regular double bias-bound border edging.

 

[freedombecki]

The purple quilt was finished last night around 11 pm. It's a happy day.

 

[Sunshine]

How depressing. It is still sitting, unfinished, in my bedroom.

How many years has it been? 4????? I think so, lol. Well when I finish my daughter's pillow, and the sock monkeys at the beginning of Feb, then that is my next project, and I will not stop until it's finished.

I think I will probably take it to one of our local quilt shops to quilt the border. Because the measurements are sort of weird (I think it's sort of long and skinny) the border is quite large and weird...so I want it to be tightly quilted to give it some interest...and i think, just to get it done and out of the way, I will pay someone to use a machine quilter to do it, so i can get it done and send it off.

I think for my next project, I'm going to enroll in a class so I'm forced to actually work on it, and so at least once a week or whatever i can take my project somewhere where there is the surface and tools to get something done. I don't have a work table at my house, or a sewing room, or any place for my sewing maching to stay...I have to clear the kitchen table and use that, then put it all away when I'm done, and it hampers progress when it comes to quilting.

"If you finish the quilt now, it won't have to be her coffin quilt" is the phrase I use to prompt myself to finish a quilt, Koshergrl. Hope that helps.

I have a project that I started over 40 years ago. My grandmother looked at it back then and said, 'they will sell that unfinished at your sale when you die.' I think she may have been right.

 

[koshergrl]

How depressing. It is still sitting, unfinished, in my bedroom.

How many years has it been? 4????? I think so, lol. Well when I finish my daughter's pillow, and the sock monkeys at the beginning of Feb, then that is my next project, and I will not stop until it's finished.

I think I will probably take it to one of our local quilt shops to quilt the border. Because the measurements are sort of weird (I think it's sort of long and skinny) the border is quite large and weird...so I want it to be tightly quilted to give it some interest...and i think, just to get it done and out of the way, I will pay someone to use a machine quilter to do it, so i can get it done and send it off.

I think for my next project, I'm going to enroll in a class so I'm forced to actually work on it, and so at least once a week or whatever i can take my project somewhere where there is the surface and tools to get something done. I don't have a work table at my house, or a sewing room, or any place for my sewing maching to stay...I have to clear the kitchen table and use that, then put it all away when I'm done, and it hampers progress when it comes to quilting.

"If you finish the quilt now, it won't have to be her coffin quilt" is the phrase I use to prompt myself to finish a quilt, Koshergrl. Hope that helps.

I have a project that I started over 40 years ago. My grandmother looked at it back then and said, 'they will sell that unfinished at your sale when you die.' I think she may have been right.

hahahahahahaha...

 

[freedombecki]

"If you finish the quilt now, it won't have to be her coffin quilt" is the phrase I use to prompt myself to finish a quilt, Koshergrl. Hope that helps.

I have a project that I started over 40 years ago. My grandmother looked at it back then and said, 'they will sell that unfinished at your sale when you die.' I think she may have been right.

hahahahahahaha...

Actually, I really do have a project like that somewhere.... *sigh*

 

[koshergrl]

I'm ridiculously excited about this weekend...I'm going to make 3 more sock puppets..one for the church bassinette and 2 more for my own kids...and if I can find them, I'm using NEW RED HEELED WORKSOCKS! Yes, isn't that awesome? This is a logging community, I don't foresee any problem in locating some, somewhere. Probably right next to the suspenders, thermal underwear and flannel shirts.

I also hope to finish up the girl's little pillow....and I intend to start the two little girls (9 and 5) on embroider projects of their own. I think samplers, that we can put in a frame and hang in the bedroom!

Does that sound like a plan, or what?

Notice I'm not mentioning the quilt yet. Well until I did, right there....<<<<

 

[freedombecki]

I'm ridiculously excited about this weekend...I'm going to make 3 more sock puppets..one for the church bassinette and 2 more for my own kids...and if I can find them, I'm using NEW RED HEELED WORKSOCKS! Yes, isn't that awesome? This is a logging community, I don't foresee any problem in locating some, somewhere. Probably right next to the suspenders, thermal underwear and flannel shirts.

I also hope to finish up the girl's little pillow....and I intend to start the two little girls (9 and 5) on embroider projects of their own. I think samplers, that we can put in a frame and hang in the bedroom!

Does that sound like a plan, or what?

Notice I'm not mentioning the quilt yet. Well until I did, right there....<<<<

Hurry, Koshergrl! Gotta see that Lumberjack sock monkey. Will he have the red and black check vest/shirt regional lumberjacks wear? (or was that color just from the Willamette Valley where we lived?) We lived there from 78-83. I loved the place.