FLYING GEESE

 I was in the mood to quilt something traditional ----

my all-time favorite strippy-style quilt ---- Flying Geese.  It seemed appropriate during this Autumn season.

Machine Pieced, Machine Quilted, 24" x 24"

Fabrics:  "Graditude" by Jo Morton, Moda

"Silver Linings" by Laundry Basket Quilts, Moda

Sashing, borders, backing, and binding from my scraps/stash.

This is not my first go-around with the geese, as I've made several variations of them over the years.  This was the very first one in 1983:

 Machine pieced, hand quilted, 82" x 103"

Still at the top of my list of favorite traditional strippy-style quilts!

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DRAG ME INTO THE 21ST CENTURY

I guess I am a creature of habit, and slow to embrace change.

I just now purchased my first pre-cuts.
The appeal has been there for awhile --- all of those different fabrics, in little pieces, for an outlay of a few dollars.

 I've been hesitant as I'm a "prewash all fabrics" type of quilter.  Everyone has told me that you shouldn't prewash pre-cuts as you would just have a big mess.  But, I worry about fading, shrinking, and the smell and feel of unwashed fabrics.
I did a little experiment; I took a red fabric from the packet and soaked it in hot water.  There was no noticeable fading; but after ironing there was about 1/8" shrinkage in the cross-width of the 5" piece.  No shrinkage was noted lengthwise, however.

I debated about if I should prewash all of the fabrics, as I didn't find it to be tedious or a mess.  However, I decided whatever -- I would just jump into it and cut and sew right out of the packet.

Occasionally, I get a whiff of the smell of the unwashed fabric and I'll sneeze.  Is that the sizing?
One thing I have enjoyed is the lack of large amounts of fabrics strewn all over my sewing room.  Pre-cuts are very efficient.  This is all I have left after cutting out pieces for 60 flying geese units.

Any suggestions or ideas on using pre-cuts would be appreciated.

Stay tuned for the resulting small quilt.  I'm especially loving the Jo Morton fabric designs.

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THROWBACK THURSDAY - PARK LANE VISTA

I had been to the Houston Quilt Festival a couple of times in the 1980s, and knew what to expect.  In October 1991, a friend and I decided to go again; but money was scarce in our household (college-age kids!).  I managed to get the money together from teaching gigs and a yard sale to pay expenses, but only had $50 spending money.

Back then, 100% cotton fabric was about $5 a yard; so I knew by buying 1/4 yard pieces, I could come home with a variety of new fabric.  

 I also wanted 3 yards of a stripe fabric to coordinate with 113 scrappy, saw-tooth stars that I had made.  I knew I would find something in Houston. 

Immediately, as I was walking down the first aisle of vendors; I spied in a stack of bolts --- the perfect stripe. 

  Oh my!  Checking the price --- it was from Japan and was $15 a yard -- unheard of in 1991!  I gasped, stood there a minute and decided to go for it.
Even though I spent my entire budget on one piece of fabric in my first moments of shopping, I've never regretted the purchase.

It was a great fabric to pull all of the scrappy stars together.

And, has become one of my all-time favorite quilts!

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IT'S ALMOST HALLOWEEN!

Since I'm still in the table runner mode, I thought I would make my 20-year-old granddaughter a Halloween runner for her birthday.  

With an October birthday, she has always considered Halloween her own personal holiday!

“I take my hat off to you — or I would, if I were not afraid of showering you in spiders.” 
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

(Inspiration for table runner from various projects on Pinterest)

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Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday

A CHALLENGE

I decided to revisit some of the patchwork techniques I've enjoyed from the past ----- all in a small table runner.

Challenges:

Medallions, fussy cutting, Y-seams, machine piecing using hand piecing techniques, templates, paper piecing, odd shapes requiring some geometry, and bias binding for non-45-degree angles.

In the process, my frugality gene popped up using only fabric scraps from previous quilts.  This proved to be the biggest challenge of all -- finding pieces of fabric large enough to fussy-cut the number of pieces required.

In the end, the idea was to have a small top on which to practice more machine quilting.   After miles of hand quilting in the past, will I ever be satisfied with my machine quilting?

No pattern available -- this was definitely a design-as-you-go project!

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THE DEMISE OF QUILTERS NEWSLETTER MAGAZINE AND A QUILT FROM MY PAST

  I'm sadden by the demise of "Quilter's Newsletter Magazine" in print form --- the last issue is the current Oct./Nov. magazine.

I've had a subscription since the 1970s, and have eagerly looked forward to receiving my issue every month for years. They have always stressed the importance of the tradition of quiltmaking; but still pushing us into the modern movement of the art/craft. 

 In addition; the editors, including Bonnie Leman, were so kind and encouraging to me over the years.  I've been honored to have been published in 14 issues of the magazine and in 7 issues of their sister publication, "Quiltmaker". I was further honored with a one-woman show, "Quilts in Print" in 2002 in the gallery at their offices.

Our quilting community has lost a true class act, and their expertise and excellence will be missed.

- - - - - - - - - - 

From my archives, here is a quilt called Sunday Drive that was published in Quilters Newsletter Magazine Issue #294.

When I was a child, one our family activities was to go for a car ride on Sunday afternoons.  Actually, it was so my father could check out the headgate for the arrival of the irrigation water for our farm.  The headgate was located about 20 miles from home, and I hated this trip looking at nothing but farm land and then prairie and sunflowers!

My mother would often appease me by buying me a pinwheel to hold out the car window for entertainment.

As a quiltmaker, I always knew I wanted to make a pinwheel quilt.  Thus, in 1995, I made this quilt using the stripe fabric to simulate the dusty country crossroads as an alternate block with the pinwheel block.

The quilt measures 65" x 65", and is machine pieced and hand quilted.  

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CRAZY QUILT TABLE RUNNER

This was fun --- something different for me --- crazy quilting on the machine.  

 My machine is two years old, but nothing fancy with just a few embroidery stitches built in.  I had never fully experimented with the embroidery function.  It gave me some fits along the way, but I think I finally proved that I was the boss!

My original purpose in doing table runners was to practice some simple machine quilting skills.  And with this runner, I think I've finally mastered quilting-in-the-ditch.

 My inspiration for the Fall colors was my great-grandmother's punch bowl.

Nothing better than Fall in Colorado -- I'm ready with my first table arrangement for the season.

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TABLE RUNNERS CONTINUED

After almost a month absence from my sewing room, it has been fun to have time to sew again.  

I'm still in the table runner mode in an effort to practice my machine quilting skills.  I quickly made up this pink and brown runner as I have in mind to practice quilting it with cross-hatching.

However, it remains unquilted. 

  I have had a project bubbling in my brain for awhile; and couldn't wait to start it.  For the quilters out there, you know what I mean!

Here are some hints ---

l.  A table runner to use this Fall.

2.  Colors inspired by my great-grandmother's punch bowl.

3. Design inspired by crazy quilts, but done on the machine.

4.  Using fabrics only from my stash/scraps.

Pickard Punch Bowl

Here are some of the fabrics I pulled --

And, a couple sections in progress ---

It may take me awhile, but it is always exhilarating to do something different.

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QUILTING ONLY IN MY DREAMS

I've been absent from the blog world and my sewing room for two weeks due to a 3000 mile road trip to California.

And, now I have a class reunion with a brunch at our house next weekend.  That means some serious cleaning and cooking this week -- another week without any sewing!

I couldn't stand it any longer so this afternoon I spent 40 minutes pulling out fabric for another table runner.  I was using my Mother's 1940s Franciscan Desert Rose dishes for inspiration.

 Hopefully, the drought in the sewing room will end week after next.

See you soon!

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FRIENDLY VILLAGE TABLE RUNNER

I'm retired from quilt making, but I still make quilts.

Does that make sense?

I'm retired from the BUSINESS of quilt making -- I no longer travel, teach, publish, do shows, etc.

But that doesn't mean I don't still like to make quilts.  Only now, they are smaller and their only purpose is to satisfy my creative urges.

I still try to set some goals occasionally to keep learning, be inspired, and try something different.

My current goals are to:

  1. Practice simple machine-quilting techniques.

2. Use up some of my stash/scraps.

3.  Be inspired by one of my other passions -- collecting antique and vintage dishes.

So now, I'm into making table runners that are easy to machine quilt, use up fabric, and are inspired either in color or design by my collections of dishes.  (See my previous table runner inspired by my 19th Century transferware  - click here.)

This week I finished my Friendly Village runner.

 This is the platter from my set of Friendly Village dishes by Johnson Bros.  For the runner, I pulled out the grays, red, green, and black from the dishes.

I'm still just practicing straight-line, in-the-ditch, and wavy-line quilting with my walking foot.  Still room for improvement!

Next, I think I'll pull out my pink, green, and brown fabrics for a more traditional runner inspired by my mother's Franciscan Desert Rose dishes.

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STRIP PIECING, ANYTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN?

In the 19th century, the Seminole Indians began using long strips of fabric out of necessity to make their clothing.  I'm no expert on the Seminole Indians, and there are many images on Pinterest and Google Images of the patchwork clothing they made.  An internet search will bring up lots of inspiration if you are interested.
I was first made aware of this type of patchwork in the early 1980s when Cheryl Greider Bradkin published this book.

 At the time, I didn't even have a rotary cutter, but I tried several of the techniques with my basic tools.  After this it seemed that new ideas were exploding in the strip piecing arena.  

Oh my, this is scarry!!  This is me in 1982 at some quilting event.  At the time, you didn't dare show up at a quilt show or symposium without a quilted, stripped-pieced vest.  This particular one I did some Seminole patchwork on the back!

 

 Cheryl issued another book, "Basic Seminole Patchwork" in 1996. 

And, we all know how in the 2000s we have learned all kinds of speed piecing techniques; many are just like the examples from the Seminoles in the 1800s.

And, now I'm exploring a few of those old Seminole piecing methods again.  I'm working on another table runner.  It contains several 6" blocks with some Seminole ideas incorporated.

I was working at night, and the light for photos was bad.  But check out my 1980s rotary cutter.  It is the only one I have ever had, and I use it constantly.

More later on my table runner.

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Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday

DA GAMA TABLE RUNNER

A couple of weeks ago, I posted (click here) about my Da Gama textiles from South Africa; and that I had decided to make a table runner after holding the fabrics in my stash for 15 years.

The piecing all went as planned keeping it simple to showcase the fabrics.

Because my favorite hand-quilting method has become laborious from old age, bad eyesight, and arthritis, I decided I really needed to practice some machine quilting on this piece.  I've long admired     http://quarterinchfromtheedge.blogspot.com/'s  method of curvy lines done with a walking foot.  I decided that this was something I could possibly manage on my domestic machine.

With the use of a variegated thread; I, more or less, let my machine do what it wanted.  I'm pleased with the result and found it fun to do, but I have a long way to go to match Jenn's expertise.

 And then, flush with success from the machine-quilting part, I decided to try doing an all-machine binding.  I watched several tutorials, and decided to cut my binding 2" as opposed to my usual 2 1/2 inches.  I sewed the binding onto the back of the quilt to enable bringing it to the front to machine sew it down.

After sewing it down on the front for about 6 inches, I could tell I wasn't going to be happy with my skill at this point.  Ripped that out, tried again, still not happy, ripped it out, and knew I better just hand sew it down.  It is now passable, but I'm still not totally pleased with the hand sewing edge on the front.  Next time, I'll probably revert back to the methods I have used for 40 years -- a 2 1/2" folded double, stuffed with extra batting, and hand-sewn to the back.  
You never know until you try!

 The minute I discovered these fabrics in my stash I knew I had to make a table runner to go with my collection of 19th-century brown transferware.

Nothing like a little sunlight to show the quilting pattern (and my rather wonky binding).

I've added a new page title under the header photo for Table Runners.  I hope to make some more runners in the future as I practice machine-quilting.

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JULY'S THROWBACK THURSDAY

Flying Geese quilts have always been among my favorites.  After making a couple quilts using the usual vertical FG design, in 1989 I tried one on the diagonal.
Flight I

1989, Machine pieced, hand quilted, 38"x 38"

 

And, then another for a quick wedding gift in 2012.
Flight II

2012, Machine pieced, machine quilted, 28" x 28"

Owned by Katie Masimer-Ramirez

My first try at machine quilting -- just simple in the ditch with my walking foot.  Not very happy with my results!  I haven't tried much machine quilting since then; but I'm working on something right now.

Every quilt is a learning experience!

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AN AUSPICIOUS BEGINNING

About 15 years ago, I bought these twelve different brown and white fabrics at some quilting event -- possibly at the International Quilt Festival in Houston.  As I recall they weren't that expensive, but I guess I've been saving them for THAT perfect quilt project.

I learned years ago that there is not a perfect quilt, so I decided today not to wait any longer.  I figure an imperfect quilt is better than no quilt at all!

 I discovered the pieces were mostly stamped on the back with interesting information about being designed in England for the Da Gama Textile Co. in South Africa.

After all of those years in a box, the process has begun.  I washed and pressed the fabric; began thinking about a possible simple design; and searched for a companionable fabric to help showcase these unusual fabric designs.  And, I decided to make a table runner.

I'm ready to go.

Sometimes, a start is as momentous as a finish.

I'm joining the following:
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