Thursday, October 31, 2013

AAQI!! Hooray!!


Ami Simms started Alzheimer's Art Quilt initiative when her mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. It was a complete grass roots organization run by volunteers and 2013 will be the final year. With Ami's vision and many, many volunteers, quilt maker & quilt buyers AAQI has reached their financial goal of raising $1,000,000 before the end of 2013.

Hip! Hip! Hooray!

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Hand Quilting

 I showed this quilt a few weeks ago and finally finished the hand quilting. I wanted to go back and go around the applique pieces with my machine. My conundrum? What color thread? Hand quilting and machine quilting is so different. I used the pumpkin colored for the hand quilting. I ended up using the golden wheat colored thread on the machine. Now for a sleeve and binding! I'm calling it Basket of Blessings.
 My hand quilting is all warmed up ready to get right back to my Cherry Tree quilting. I've got all the motifs marked, ready to quilt.
 I had some marked with my frixion pen and decided I better iron the marks away. (If you aren't familiar with these pens click on the link to see my unscientific test)

 It is so fun to see the quilt come alive with these wonderful motifs that were on the original quilt. Several gals decided not to include them, but I certainly thought they were charming enough to add,
Here's a pile of scraps for the "Faithful" giveaway. The linky will be open until November 4, so you have time to add your mini quilt.

I love them all! Thank you to those who participated.

Monday, October 28, 2013

Faithful Quiltalong- Show Me Yours

I am so excited to see everyone's version of "Faithful" Please add the link to your blog post, not your blog.  If you do not have a blog, please send me a photo so I can post it.

Since this was made from scraps, how about a drawing for everyone who enters for a large bag of my scraps? I don't know about you, but I always think other people's scraps are better than mine.  If you'd rather not have scraps, let me know and I'll send you something else.

You do not have to have your top quilted. Several of you are making the whole quilt so please show me what you have.  Thank you all for sewing along. It makes this so much fun.

Friday, October 25, 2013

My Favorites from the Aurora Colony

I hope I've kept this interesting enough to show one more group of antique quilts. If I have to choose, I'd say these were my favorites.
For those of you that haven't read the About Me section at the top of my blog, now would be a good time to do that, before looking at more antique quilts. It explains a little about my love affair with antique quilts.
What a fun quilt that has great color, zingy border and amazingly pieced blocks! My number one pick this year. I like to think she made the top border and decided the zig zag was easier so did the other three that way.
What an amazing block!

No need to line up the backing precisely. Really people, there are no quilt police. For me personally,  these little quirks add so much charm. They are in my quilts, but mostly by accident. I enjoy piecing and quilting too much to get bogged down in perfection!
I'm thinking a green quilt is on my horizon! These stars were 6" finished. The fabric is terrific.
No need to spread out the blues, greens, pinks throughout the quilt. It looks like the maker lined them up in rows.....sort of.
The fabric steals the show in this one.

I gasped when I saw this one. I could tell it was very old, but it was still so vibrant.
It was found  inside a settee!  It was stunning!


Thanks for coming along with me to the Colony Quilt Show!

Next Monday will be show and share our little Faithful quilts. Have a lovely weekend!

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Quilting of Aurora Colony Quilts

There was something fun about seeing the Aurora Colony collection together. You start seeing many similarities, which makes sense because they were a tight knit community and I imagine, like now, we see a quilt/quilting pattern we like than we duplicate it, or parts of it; I'm sure they did the same thing.
Look at the humble quilting in this alternate block.  Pretty simple, really.
Hmmmm, here it is again.
You can't see it as well in this green, but it is the same quilting.
This whole quilt is rather fun and funky and that same circular quilting is there as well.
This rather simple pieced pattern takes on a lot of movement with this quilting. I can't wait to try it!!
I noticed different colored thread used in the quilting of this one.  A light and dark thread with seemingly no consistently as to when it was used.
My favorite! An interesting cable with an improvised way to widen the cable! Don't you love it?!

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Quilt as Desired- Faithful Quilalong

Those three little words that come at the end of making a simple or difficult quilt top. You've appliqued, you've pieced and now you are told to "quilt as desired!" I admit to dislike that a lot!  That was one thing I appreciated about American Patchwork & Quilting magazine is that they gave you ideas for quilting.
I for one, never want to leave you hanging with .......quilt as desired! ugh! I'm not an expert and I've seen so many of you come up with much better quilting ideas than mine on these little quilalongs, but I at least want to show you what I've done so you can use it or not.

I did hanging diamonds again! This is the first little quiltalong I've machine quilted, but I am working on 2 hand quilted projects and didn't have time for even this little one. Also, there are quite a few seams in here and my hand quilting would have not looked good at all.
I used my hera marker to mark diagonal lines 1  1/2" apart (I could have made them closer, but this is supposed to be a humble doll quilt) then I marked vertical lines 1 1/2" apart.
 You can see the marks here. A hera tool makes an indent and good lighting while quilting is important.
I used clear thread in the top (I've tried the poly from superior and I get nothing but breakage from it!) and a 50 weight applique thread in the bobbin in a matching color.
You can see the quilting on the back better than the front. I'll be back next Monday with a linky party so we can see all the different versions. A drawing, with a giveaway,  will be held!! At least get the top done. It doesn't have to be quilted.
I was outside yesterday and Porter needed a tiny bit of quilt...

Monday, October 21, 2013

Aurora Colony (Oregon) Quilts

I made it to my favorite quilt show this past weekend- Aurora Colony Quilt show. It is put on by the historical society and I'm such a sucker for old quilts and wonderful settings to see them.  What is wonderful that the show lasts about 10 days and gives so many people a chance to see the show.

Celebrating Our Golden Memories” was the theme for the 41st Annual Quilt Show at the Old Aurora Colony Museum. To celebrate the Aurora Colony Historical Society’s 50th Anniversary “Preserving the Past for the Future 1963-2013” the Museum and Kraus House will be filled with many of the famous Aurora Colony quilts!
ALL but two were old quilts from the colony collection! Here are a few beauties. (And these were not even my favorites!)



What I love most about this quilt is that it is not symmetrical!
Prairie Points- precious!
I love that the blocks are not all facing the same direction. Accident? Or on purpose?

Friday, October 18, 2013

Faithful Final Border

One final easy border and you can layer and quilt "Faithful"!!
Cut 2 strips 1 3/4" x 15 1/2" and add to two sides of the mini quilt. Cut 2 strips 1 3/4" x 17 3/4" and add to the opposite sides.

Iron, stand back and admire your work! Isn't it adorable? Here mine is layered but not quilted yet. I hope to get some quilted this weekend and I'll be back next week to show you my choice of quilting. The original antique quilt was only a top so we don't have one to refer to... Quilt as desired. (Anybody else fear hearing those words?!)

IF you are wanting to make the entire 9 block quilt you would now need to make HST for the sashing. You would make 7 HST that finish at 2 1/2" and attach to one side. 7 more for the opposite side and 9 for the two opposing sides. You wouldn't do that on every block because there is only one strip of sashing hst between blocks.  Look at the header quilt to see what I mean. Enjoy!!

Have an awesome weekend!

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Sally Post Blocks

 Here's my next big push to get finished.

 My Sally Post blocks are prepped and ready to machine applique. Karen and I are starting a new project together and both of us would like to finish these before moving on. (Karen is super amazing and fast so hers are probably done!)
Maybe you'd like to join in on our new project? It's not for the faint of heart...... 
Tiptoe through the Tulips by Wendy Whellum, Legends and Lace blog. You can see the photo at the link, but I think you have to purchase the pattern on ebay.  It is based on the Knappenburger quilt at the Folk Art Museum in NYC.

   These three quilts are at the quilters- early Christmas present, I guess.  Under the Big top I just sent to Mary of Quilt Hollow.

My friend and quilter Kathy, A Thread Runs Through It,  has this one and she let me know it would be ready before Christmas. (I also noticed that the top two have the same border)
I just dropped this one off this weekend at Quiltworks in Bend. This is my first quilt being done by Kim, but I have no fear about her ability. I should get some binding prepped and ready to sew on. I'm looking forward to new quilts to display this holiday season.

Have a happy day!

Monday, October 14, 2013

Featured Quilter for October

I missed the open reception on first Friday but made my way to Quiltworks to see the quilts this weekend. As usual I was blown away with such terrific local talent! The featured quilter is Jan Tetzlaff from Bend. What a fun variety of quilts from one person. The more artsy of the quilts are her later work.












The few quilts below were from the group section which quilts were made based on the book, The Language of Flowers.




I hope you enjoyed seeing these as much as I did.