Good Fortune, parts #3 and #4

I've been steadily sewing on Bonnie Hunter's mystery, trying to keep up, and just finished Part #4 today!  I'm struggling to fit sewing into my day...it's my "reward" for doing other boring, but essential, chores.

Part #3 involved making half-chevrons, and stitching the bonus triangle in such a way to get a 2" square.  This left a very small seam, a bit over 1/8" wide!  Bonnie wrote that it's sufficient, though, and she lugs her quilts all over and they seem to stay together!

Here are the resulting half-chevron and bonus triangle.  I'm using purple instead of Bonnie's green.

Part #4 are 96 of these little strip-pieced rectangles.  I used gold instead of Bonnie's orange.  I got to use up tiny scraps with these cuties!

Here are all my parts put together randomly, just to see how they play together. So far, I like it!

 Now, I get to peek at Part #5 which came out today!        Louise

Good Fortune mystery quilt, parts #1 and #2

A new mystery...and a new start.

It's been quite some time (years!) since I posted here, but I intend to use this blog to document my projects, and my progress.  It's mainly for my own benefit, but if someone randomly stumbles across my posts, welcome to my world!

I'm keeping up on Bonnie Hunter's newest mystery, Good Fortune.  You can check out this free quilt pattern here.  Bonnie's colors are light neutral, red, orange, green and blue.  I'm replacing her orange with gold, her green with purple, and her blue with green.  I hope these translate into Christmas colors.

I'm trying to use up the tiniest scraps, then expand to larger scraps and yardage. The cutting takes some time, but I'm enjoying the process!

Part #1 are small four-patches, 2.5 inches square.  There are 240 of these.

Part #2 are squares made up of triangles. These are 2.5 inches, and there are 252 of these.  I'm using green instead of Bonnie's blue.

This is Part #1 and #2 together.  Of course, this probably isn't the way it will eventually be put together. It's still a mystery, after all!

Next post...Part #3, which I'm well into.       Louise

Aqua green dream machine

In a December blog post I had a photo of my 1950's sewing machine, which I learned to sew on: 





Today I saw this email ad from Craftsy and the sewing machine in their photo just jumped right out at me:

Yes...it's the identical machine!  The only difference is the brand.  Mine is called "Sew Mor" and theirs looks like "Viscount".  These machines were made in Japan and they would sometimes put different "brands" on the same machine.

My old sewing machine is trendy now!  I've always loved her, though.

Louise

Lotto blocks - February & March

These blocks were mailed to Tammy today, for Sunshine blocks.

The red ones are for February and the green ones are for March.

 

These blocks will eventually be made into donation quilts for children.

It's always fun to play with bright, colorful fabric and to use up some stash!

Louise

Quilt inspiration

I was reading an article about barns in an older Smithsonian magazine.  The article featured a photographer, David Plowden, who was taking pictures of old barns to preserve their images. As the number of farms decrease, old barns are being torn down or abandoned.

The photographs were beautiful, but I found this one especially appealing:

 

Someone took the trouble to either paint or arrange the roof shingles in the shape of a cow -  What creativity!  The article didn't give any details about the photo, but I suspect this was on a dairy farm.



As a quilter, I envisioned a quilt made in this design:

 

It would simply be squares, arranged and set on point.  I imagine a blue sky, green grass, and a black and white cow.  To be more interesting, I'd make is controlled-scrappy, using squares of the same general color but of different patterns and prints.

There's inspiration everywhere!


Louise

Source of photograph:  A Lofty Tribute to Barns: photographs by David Plowden  by Jim Doherty, Smithsonian Magazine, October 2000  p. 117

Easy Street - Top finished!

My Easy Street top, designed by Bonnie Hunter, is finished!  I only made half the blocks, then added a few to even it out.  I used different colors, and am happy with the way it turned out.
 

Even making it smaller, it is still a large quilt (about 79" x 79").  I'm overwhelmed with the prospect of quilting it, so will put it away for awhile and work on other UFOs. 

Antique eye candy

I love antique quilts, and this one was donated to the thrift store that I volunteer at. I just had to take some 

photos!  (They let me take it home for a few days!)  It's a striking quilt....whoever made this quilt loved color!  

There is a bit of everything here:  clarets, mourning prints, indigo, poison green, purple. The newest fabrics are from 1900-1910. I believe there are some older fabrics in there...maybe some madder.  What's missing are the light shirtings that you usually see in 1900-1910 quilts. 

 The backing, shown above, is a pretty rusty-red floral, which may be madder.  It's hand-quilted in a Baptist Fan pattern.

No...I didn't buy it!  It was sold for $65, which I think is an above-average Thrift Store price.  I'm thankful it will go to someone who will appreciate it!

Louise