Artful Homemade Quilts Have A Way

[Sunshine]

Beckums, have you ever made a 'crazy quilt?' I always liked them, but my mother never did.

 

[freedombecki]

Last night saw the completion of a scrap quilt from leftover strips, scraps, and twosies piling up on the cutting table by the sewing machine. A dent was made in the 40x20x12" pile that has accumulated in the last few weeks of sewing quilts for one reason or another. The goal is to find ground zero for the purpose of replacing the cutting mat, which is so full of long lines cut out of it, it's nearly useless at this time, and it is needed every single day quilts are made, measured, and worked on.

The question is, will the surface of the present tattered mat ever bee seen again? Keep in mind, the strip is not permanently off the table until it is used up in a charity bees quilt top.



Yeah. Kidding aside, here are a few scans in the next 3 or 4 posts of this morning's completion:

What sort/brand mat do you use?

I didn't have much choice when I got mine, and I don't like it much. It's useable...but I just don't like it.

Olfa is the best. Your blades stay sharp longer. The olfa mat I've destroyed in the last 3 years is pathetic. A hundred thousand cuts will do it, and I did it. Most people use their mats to make 3 or 4 quilts, 10 if they're a maven. I have a mat I don't use too often in the dining room. It got buried under fabrics which protected it from my wiles!

 

[freedombecki]

Beckums, have you ever made a 'crazy quilt?' I always liked them, but my mother never did.

Yes, but not by hand. Since I was in charge of teaching locals how to get the full use out of their 500+ embroidery stitches on their Pfaffs back when, I made sure they could use them to make their work look like hand work. Some of my friends here ask me if my latest crazy quilt was by hand. I did 3 years of handwork in 3 days on my Pfaff. Which reminds me, I probably ought to put my new Bernina through its paces. Unfortunately, it's still waiting to be repaired. In the 2 years I've owned it, it produced over 150 quilts tops, maybe more. If it has issues, the repairman will never have seen a stitch count like mine on any machine he ever worked on that wasn't 30 years old, I'm sure. He will probably wonder why he isn't tapped every 2 months for fixing. That's because I clean and oil my machine every day. On my desk at the shop was a little sign I made that said: "She who has a clean machine usually has one that works."

 

[Mr. H.]

Why is the P in Pfaff silent?

It has puzzled me for years.

 

[freedombecki]

Why is the P in Pfaff silent?

It has puzzled me for years.

It's silent in Germany. Over here, it sometimes depends on European exposure.

 

[freedombecki]

Today was spent sorting strips from the cutting table. The 20" stack is now at about 14". It is no fun city to sort stupid strips. *sigh*

 

[koshergrl]

I went home and made a potholder on my lunch!

I have some old linen or muslin material from one of my very first sewing projects, a few sun suits for my daughter...I cut 8-1/2" squares and an old bathtowel, sandwiched them and voila. I'm always looking for potholders, and the ones I have just aren't cutting it.

So i'm going to have my daughter quilt them on the machine, I think. And I'll have my son quilt one, too. That will give them something to do.

And I think I have enough of that material to make some fancy guest towels! You know, hemmed and with a pretty border...

Right now I'm working on this border:

<<the one on the left

I'm working it in green for a set of pillowcases. But I'm going to work it for the towels and the color and scheme should be pretty much exactly what is shown in that image.

I haven't done small crochet in a really, really long time. Boy it's intense, too. I can't do it for very long at a time or I seriously get sore and start spasming and my eyes hurt and everything, lol. I have to work furiously in little short bursts.

Fun stuff!

 

[Sunshine]

Stitch Like an Egyptian Headlining Event at AQS QuiltWeek? ? Paducah

Stitch Like an Egyptian: The tentmakers of Cairo! Don't know if I will go to the last day of it or not. Thinking about it.

 

[freedombecki]

koshergrl, your example is beautiful.

Sunshine, thanks for the link. I followed it and the show looks totally inviting. I hope you get to go to it.

 

[freedombecki]

And my 20" pile is half what it was. I put all my time yesterday into controlling it. Now, if only I could see the top of the table and all 4 corners, too. This month has almost gone, and I only have 2 quilts to show after taking the pile of 10 down in the middle of the month.

I'm longing to get back to the production line. Hope everyone has a lovely weekend.

I'm outta here to go inna that darn quilt room studio that's upside-down with stuff. When I get done with the table, I have another 15" pile on the first ironing board and fabrics that need to be stored in the other bedrooms that also need shelving.

becki

 

[Sunshine]

koshergrl, your example is beautiful.

Sunshine, thanks for the link. I followed it and the show looks totally inviting. I hope you get to go to it.

Since a cold rain has set in, I doubt I will go. But may change my mind before day is over.

 

[freedombecki]

Well, sorry to hear of rain, sunshine. We had some last night, and the grass is growing like crazy. I sewed 2 rows of a little yellow quilt. I have to do yellow, it's a sunny color and was once thought to be gender-neutral. It's all bricks, but not a road. It's more like a yellow brick wall. Two rows isn't much, but it's better than I've done in a few days. The handful of scraps I picked up after leaving here this morning all had to be ironed. That takes so much time to do 100 tiny little strips that aren't 2 inches high in a small area of the pile, but that's what I found that got covered up by the next quilt scraps. With all the procrastination done in the last six months, I can't even brag that I have standards.

 

[Sunshine]

Well, by the time I got gussied up for the grocery the rain had slacked off, so I kept driving and went to the quilt show. I did manage to find a close parking place, but I was amazed at the number of tour buses, trams, cars, etc there. I left at 3:30 and people were still coming in.

The Egyptian tent makers were in the free section with the vendors, the woman at the door said the main show wasn't worth fourteen dollars, so then I was curious so I paid the fourteen dollars, and I agree with her it wasn't. LOL. But I took several pics, got most of the winners I think. I took pics of the Egyptian guys and the Egyptian quilts. I ate a funnel cake that gave me indigestion and paid 2 dollars for the worst cup of coffee I've ever had. But on the way home I stopped at Bob's and got a festa burger. Decided I didn't want to buy groceries, but by the time I got back to Murray, decided I didn't want to haul my butt back out to town tomorrow so I stopped at the grocery.

So now, I'm just eating some celery and jalapeno pomento cheese.

I will get the pics down loaded and post them for you tomorrow or next week.

 

[Sunshine]

Something I learned today: The AQS is going to have shows in Chattanooga, Phoenix, and Charleston. They are changing the categories. Things like stitching a photo will be in a different category than things like log cabin quilts. Makes sense, I guess.

 

[freedombecki]

Well, by the time I got gussied up for the grocery the rain had slacked off, so I kept driving and went to the quilt show. I did manage to find a close parking place, but I was amazed at the number of tour buses, trams, cars, etc there. I left at 3:30 and people were still coming in.

The Egyptian tent makers were in the free section with the vendors, the woman at the door said the main show wasn't worth fourteen dollars, so then I was curious so I paid the fourteen dollars, and I agree with her it wasn't. LOL. But I took several pics, got most of the winners I think. I took pics of the Egyptian guys and the Egyptian quilts. I ate a funnel cake that gave me indigestion and paid 2 dollars for the worst cup of coffee I've ever had. But on the way home I stopped at Bob's and got a festa burger. Decided I didn't want to buy groceries, but by the time I got back to Murray, decided I didn't want to haul my butt back out to town tomorrow so I stopped at the grocery.

So now, I'm just eating some celery and jalapeno pomento cheese.

I will get the pics down loaded and post them for you tomorrow or next week.

That would be most appreciated, Sunshine. Sorry your empty calorie funnel cake was disagreeable. I can't stand them. I'm so glad you got to go on to the quilt show, even if it wasn't all you'd like for it to have been.

I loved Paducah, KY. Seems there was a park there we visited that had a river, and a really pleasant restaurant nearby where we lunched the day we got to see the museum 5 or 6 years ago. It was like visiting a treasure house with some of the prettiest, most intricate works I've seen. It's a world class quilt museum if ever there was one, although the New England Quilt Museum we visited was a lot of fun, too. The one in Paducah is so modern. The curator is a genius, I think.

 

[freedombecki]

Something I learned today: The AQS is going to have shows in Chattanooga, Phoenix, and Charleston. They are changing the categories. Things like stitching a photo will be in a different category than things like log cabin quilts. Makes sense, I guess.

I loved stitching photographs on my computer machine back when I was making samples, and did one of both children and husband. The stitchouts take at least an hour with thousands of digitized stitch locations.

 

[Sunshine]

Well, by the time I got gussied up for the grocery the rain had slacked off, so I kept driving and went to the quilt show. I did manage to find a close parking place, but I was amazed at the number of tour buses, trams, cars, etc there. I left at 3:30 and people were still coming in.

The Egyptian tent makers were in the free section with the vendors, the woman at the door said the main show wasn't worth fourteen dollars, so then I was curious so I paid the fourteen dollars, and I agree with her it wasn't. LOL. But I took several pics, got most of the winners I think. I took pics of the Egyptian guys and the Egyptian quilts. I ate a funnel cake that gave me indigestion and paid 2 dollars for the worst cup of coffee I've ever had. But on the way home I stopped at Bob's and got a festa burger. Decided I didn't want to buy groceries, but by the time I got back to Murray, decided I didn't want to haul my butt back out to town tomorrow so I stopped at the grocery.

So now, I'm just eating some celery and jalapeno pomento cheese.

I will get the pics down loaded and post them for you tomorrow or next week.

That would be most appreciated, Sunshine. Sorry your empty calorie funnel cake was disagreeable. I can't stand them. I'm so glad you got to go on to the quilt show, even if it wasn't all you'd like for it to have been.

I loved Paducah, KY. Seems there was a park there we visited that had a river, and a really pleasant restaurant nearby where we lunched the day we got to see the museum 5 or 6 years ago. It was like visiting a treasure house with some of the prettiest, most intricate works I've seen. It's a world class quilt museum if ever there was one, although the New England Quilt Museum we visited was a lot of fun, too. The one in Paducah is so modern. The curator is a genius, I think.

A lot of folks around here make fun of the big quilt show. But there really were people from all over the world there. I think it closed at 5, but when I left at 3:30 people were still streaming in. At least I have been, which is more than I could say before!

 

[Sunshine]

OK, Beckums, I think I have most of the middle eastern ones that I took pictures of uploaded. I'll get you some of those, and will have to take a second hitch to get the others I took. I didn't get them all, but did try to get the ones that had ribbons on them.

First, here are the Tentmakers of Old Cairo:

 

[Sunshine]

Here is a row of the middle eastern quilts:

 

[Sunshine]

This was my favorite. It is a caligraphy. No idea what it says, but it makes me think of a round caligraphy I did a few years back on parchment that said, 'Love Makes the World Go 'Round.' I thought about asking, but they were very busy the whole time. It is likely something religious. When I was there, I bought a wall hanging made of copper and leather that was the 99 names of God. I might go in a bit and see if any of the things on my wall hanging look like this.