Artful Homemade Quilts Have A Way

[Mr. H.]

So, there IS a dry eye in the house!

G'luck with that, b.

 

[freedombecki]

Thanks, Mr. H. They're out of the hamburger category and into the wasp sting arena today. I have about 10 minutes left to post a few pics of finally finishing the turning colors log quilt.

I sewed sashes and sets, joined horizontal rows with them, and added an inner and an outer border and wrote up a slip on them and another

This quilt top is about #38 for the year, hopefully. If my count is strange, sobeit, but that's what I get when I reviewed my quilt log, although something is nagging me about having missed one somewhere a couple of times ago. Well, I get them out of order, so it's confusing sometimes.

Here are the first 3 pictures of the jade green sets between the pink borders (sorry they're cockelmainey, but this quilt was a little larger and hard to keep straight on my copier top.)

1, 2, and 3 scans

 

[freedombecki]

4, 5, and 6

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

Qults have a way of hugging their recipients with the maker's love, whether they are done by little hand stitches or stitched on a home sewing machine. I'm starting this thread so you can enjoy sharing your quilts and see some of mine, some I found on ebay, etc. If you have a traditional pieced quilt and want to know the name of the pattern, post a picture here, and I'll use all my resources to tell you the name of the block or blocks that were used to make your quilt. Just say the word. Here's a Postage Stamp Quilt I made for a beloved friend's grandson:

I love handmade quilts. You did a mangificent job, Becki!

 

[freedombecki]

7, 8, and 9

 

[freedombecki]

Qults have a way of hugging their recipients with the maker's love, whether they are done by little hand stitches or stitched on a home sewing machine. I'm starting this thread so you can enjoy sharing your quilts and see some of mine, some I found on ebay, etc. If you have a traditional pieced quilt and want to know the name of the pattern, post a picture here, and I'll use all my resources to tell you the name of the block or blocks that were used to make your quilt. Just say the word. Here's a Postage Stamp Quilt I made for a beloved friend's grandson:

I love handmade quilts. You did a mangificent job, Becki!

Thanks, Jeri. I was helping myself to my grandmother's fascinating sewing box by the time I was 4 and designing and sewing doll dresses by 8.

 

[freedombecki]

Did credits for this quilt, credits for one done in the middle of May, and if I can find the inspiration for this quilt among my souvenirs, I will post it as well as scan #3. #3 isn't exactly like the one I did, but inspiration is inspiration,

 

[freedombecki]

Last year, I made 100 small windmill squares (5") and set them aside to make quick quilts. Every month or so, that happens. This is this season's crop of easy quilts. I'm calling it Windmill Scrap Quilt Top because it is.

The last square (#15) is left over from a quilt I made last year, because it already had the square-up triangles attached. The squares will all be cut down to 8." I'm plenty generous with size because things can go really whacko when you're sewing on the bias. A couple of the next 15 pictures look puckered due to the sewing, but it will press out when I cut them down to 8 inches. They will finish at 7.5" and I liked the last group of 8" squares so much, I'm going to use 2.5" sashes from three-inch strips. I realize they looked funny above on the last quilt, but overall, I was very pleased with the way things worked out on that one, especially the slightly larger size for children who will grow and still have their toes warm on cold winter nights due to them being long enough for a child.

Scans 1, 2, and 3

 

[freedombecki]

On-point windmill squares 4, 5, and 6

 

[freedombecki]

On-point windmill squares 7, 8, and 9:

 

[freedombecki]

On-point squares 10, 11, and 12:

 

[freedombecki]

On-point windmill squares, 13, 14, and 15.

#15 was a square left over from last year, when I made a similar quilt (but not the same). I have already picked, but need to cut out the larger triangles for squares 16-24, so there are 9 left to complete before the setting and sashing processes begin. I bought so much sea-faring fabric to border more log-cabin tall ships, I ought to pick one of those.

 

[freedombecki]

Still trying to clean the red postage stamps off the cutting table so it will be easier to move in the sewing room!

Here's today's progress on the red stamp project with an updated approach to postage stamp containment going on in the current world of postage-stamp quilters:

On one of the long ends, the second contained area of postage stamps has been added, but not on the other end nor sides (as not shown, of course.) Go figger.

 

[freedombecki]

Four more squares were done today, and one row of red around the side of the red postage stamp quilt was done.

 

[Mr. H.]

On-point windmill squares, 13, 14, and 15.

#15 was a square left over from last year, when I made a similar quilt (but not the same). I have already picked, but need to cut out the larger triangles for squares 16-24, so there are 9 left to complete before the setting and sashing processes begin. I bought so much sea-faring fabric to border more log-cabin tall ships, I ought to pick one of those.

Just my goofy thought process - but these images remind me of the opening credits to that old TV show Combat!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0qQGS4fXSY]COMBAT TV Show Intro - YouTube[/ame]

 

[freedombecki]

Must be all the dots, Mr. H.

My quilts have their fair share of stripes, too.

 

[koshergrl]

Glad you're back, becki!

 

[freedombecki]

This morning I got a couple of more Windmill Squares completed and only need a handful more to begin the final cut-down of squares to 8 inches and the same with cutting out sashes and sets after deciding what color to do. Then I can get back to the kite quilt and a couple of more sailboat quilts for our shelter kids' charity work. Also, I got the last two sides of the quilt finished between a little work last night and a lot of work this morning already. I was drinking coffee and on my way at 4 am today. Thank heaven for melatonin, which helps me sleep at night, and it seems the lutein has finally kicked in for my eyes, too. I've been staying offline a lot more to get the eyes back to normal.

Well, here's to progress:

 

[freedombecki]

Scans 19 and 20 of the Windmill, and another scan of progress on the Red Postage Stamp Quilt. I really love the way the red one is shaping up with postage stamps in controlled areas. It's an awful lot of work.

And whoever is out there praying for my husband's dementia situation, thanks. He isn't improving, but in spite of the heinous things he does that are so out of kilter with who he has been in his life, I am accepting the horror of it a little better. The neurologist thought he may have had some kind of early head trauma. Thinking back, his mother told me he was hit by cars twice when he was in elementary school, and he told me that in high school in Chicago, he and a friend were jumped by some neighborhood bullies when I asked him where he got the lump on his head. Other things could have happened to him, too, as he was roughed up by a crazy union man at work one day when he was a young engineer. It did not completely cure him of being a practical joker, however, and his propensity to crack a dozen different jokes in succession, which made other people absolutely holler with laughter. Now, he just stares into space, and every day, he loses a little more touch with the real world. It's hard to watch a friend slip away like quick silver. He forgot we were married years ago. Now all else is going away, too, and isolation of the caregiver is a hard role to play, although soon, I will have more to do. His medicine is not stopping the free fall in which he is victim, to my sad horrification.

Well, pardon my yakkety yak, :blabla: but I can't work at the same pace with the last couple of weeks changes, and I'm sorry that dividing the work has furthered the slow down, but this red quilt would be impossible to do all at once without a break to look at other colors between fits of sheer boredom that a postage stamp monochromatic work is to my mind.

 

[freedombecki]

Scans 8, 9, and 10. And it's back to the sewing room for me. Hope everyone has a truly wonderful day. Be thankful for your sanity and mental health if you have it. I'm going to try to show a lot of attention that one would give to a dear child. Showing irritation does not have a good effect on one who has dementia. It makes them turn you off and disassociate. What keeps them here a little longer is a soothing word, biting the lower lip when things go downhill for them, and just not speaking of your frustrations if you have them as their caregiver. I've been reading up on dementia care giving and making the changes as I can. This wonderful human being was a titan of goodness and giving when he was himself.

Love and prayers up for those who are confused by misfiring neurons as they age or somehow, acquire that awful disease aka dementia.