Friday, April 30, 2010

Oregon Quilt Documentation

Oregon has finally started documenting quilts!! I volunteered yesterday at Sisters to help. I had no idea how wonderful and fun it would be. This is a two year project and plan on helping again somewhere in the future. You can read more info at the Oregon Quilt Project.

This was one of the first quilts to enter the room!!! We about all fell over!! It was a family quilt dated to 1851. The Oak and Reel larger block is called Heroes Crown. I thought that was an awesome block name.
Need I say more about this photo? Several motifs tightly quilted all over. The flowers are reversed applique in the center.

AMAZING!!


Here was some of the group getting the fine info....with a lot of volunteers trying not to drool!!
The woman with the brown sweater is Mary Bywater Cross the author of Quilts of the Oregon Trail.

Here was a volunteers quilt that she had won in a raffle!! The quilting was amazing. Not all quilts being documented have to be old.

This was one of the more beautiful double wedding rings I've seen. The woman who brought it in found it in a bag after a death of a family member.

Here are two signature quilts. The woman who brought this on in also found in a plastic bag in an attic of her MIL who had died.

I don't remember what the story was on this one. I loved the border and how accurately it meets at the top!! hahaha
This was a beauty too!!
What a fantastic day being with fun people who also have a love of quilts and especially old quilts.
Have a great weekend!!

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Strawberry Fields- Part 1 Revisited

That doesn't look like Strawberry Fields!! Well, I really didn't want the back of a small block to be what you see first so I added this striking quilt. It was at the bed turning.

I made all of the square in a square sections first, but I see many of you making the whole block, which is great. For those who want to move forward I thought I'd let you know what I did as far as pressing. There didn't seem to be any good way to press the seam of the center square.
So I clipped my seam, and practiced, either ironing it open or to the plain square. Clipping and ironing to the plain square was what I found to be the best for a nice flat block.
I have a suggestion for the half blocks so you may want to wait before assembling them.


I'm going to leave you with a few photos of my road trip. More antique quilt photos to come in a couple of days.



Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Quilt show

My road trip last weekend also included 2 guild quilt shows. The photos I'm showing are a mix from both shows. The first one I went to was was the one I liked the best put on by the Pioneer Quilters in Eugene. It was held at the Lane County Historical Museum so it had a wonderful setting. There was a lot of hand quilting and by the looks of it a more traditional quilt group. They had a little booklet printed up with a short paragraph of all the quilts. From reading this the guild hand quilts each member a quilt on a rotating basis. I thought that was very cool! Do any of your guilds do that?
If you are interested in the pattern the designer of this quilt is Sachiko Yasuda. It is called Buds in A Basket
I've seen this quilt around a few times. I love how the quiltmaker left one basket empty.


A fun whimsical quilt by Bunny Hill.



This one was so simple but really brought a smile to my face.
This was for an elementary teacher to hang in her classroom. Adorable!!


Too stinkin' cute!!!


This quilt was made for the quiltmakers granddaughter.






Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Something to Crow About

The Stitchin' Post and the bed turning was my first stop on a short road trip. My second stop was a quilt shop in Springfield, Oregon called Something to Crow About. This was definitely my kind of store!!


My first stop was a quick potty break so I could concentrate on taking in the whole store. Look at this adorable stitched towel! What a simple little thing to liven up the bathroom.

And check out this stool pad. I'm not sure it would be comfy for a long time, but what a terrific and relatively easy way to cover up a boring stool top

I would have loved to close this little suitcase and ran out the door with it full of these lovely 1/2 yard cuts of Jo Morton fabrics.

There were samples hanging everywhere. Here is a looonnngggg runner designed by a local artist.

Did somebody say wool? There was no shortage at this shop!!




A lovely variety of Civil War repros with lots of little samples.

I hit 5 other quilt shops while I was away and none were worthy of photos. They weren't bad, just not necessarily my cuppa joe.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Old Fashioned Bed Turning

I did a bit of a road trip Friday and Saturday and have a lot of great quilts to show you this week.
The Stitchin' Post was having their customer appreciation weekend and the highlight for me was the Old Fashioned Bed Turning put on by the Latimer Textile Museum in Tillamook, Oregon.


This was an unquilted summer coverlet. I love these quilts that have big pieces and not perfectly symmetrical.


I thought that was an interesting looking basket on the border. So fun and whimsical!

What a beauty!! The quilting was amazing. What made this one interesting is the quiltmaker appliqued the date in all 4 corners.


An amazing graphic quilt with such tiny points!!!


See how they have the bed stacked with quilts? One by one they showed them and told a little story or history then turned them back to reveal the next.


Feathered stars are one of my favorite blocks.....not to make...just to look at.



A wonderful Grandmother's Flower Garden. Notice how the colors are placed in an around-the-world- fashion?
This hexagon quilt had 17,000+ pieces and was tiny!!!
Hope you enjoyed the bed turning! I know I sure did.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Under the Big Top

I showed one of these blocks awhile ago....now there's two!! Because there are so many triangles in this reproduction I am swapping with a couple of online quilters and it's working out wonderful to have a wide variety of colors and prints. These blocks look a tad lopsided right now because I haven't sewn any HST sashings to the right side or the bottom. These things take time ya know?! LOL
One of the ladies mentioned the stripe fabric in the original reminded them of a circus tent, hence the name "Under the Big Top". I won't be striking it rich anytime soon naming quilts, wine or beer!


Sue at I Sew Quilts was so generous to mail me the lovely commemorative panel from the Victoria and Albert Museum which she was able to visit. It's wonderful and I tell you it feels like silk! Thank you Sue!!

For those of you that may be interested the "Tall Red House" in my last post, it is for sale and you can see the inside here. If that doesn't bring you directly to it, it is located in Goldendale, WA and is $215,000. My favorite room looks like it is way up and has stain glass windows and a crazy quilt on the bed.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

House Party

Because we were in the car for a few hours I was able to prep a couple of house blocks to work on. The bluebird house on the left is new and the bottom right "Retro Metro" is almost done. Just a couple more purple flowers....or are they branches??? These have been a joy to work on!!


We were in a little town and this house was rising above all the others. It was cool and kind of reminded me of my house blocks.

Speaking of purple flowers...we saw this wonderful field on our way home. I'm pretty sure they are weeds but it looked too nice not to snap a photo.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Wool Crazy- Block One DONE!!

Here is my first block of Wool Crazy. When I got the book it looked to me like JoAnn did two blocks spring and summer and two blocks winter and fall. I liked that idea and started with the spring/summer.
This is probably the plainest block of them all and may have to add a few ladybugs or bees down the line.

I saw another bunny chasing a clover and thought that was so cute. I hope the maker doesn't mind I copied her idea.


I still need to add some buttons to the little patchwork quilt








I'm hoping to get the next block foundation prepped within the next couple of weeks. This is so much fun to work on. It seems like I'm figuring the stitches out OK and overall it doesn't seem to matter too much anyway.
I'm off for a work weekend at my dad and stepmoms. They are trying to get their house ready to sell so they can be closer to family. I hope the weather holds!!
Have a wonderful weekend.