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

Easy Street step #2

The step #2 blocks from Bonnie Hunter's mystery are done, and step #3's is expected tomorrow.

My other colors are red and medium blue.  I have no idea where this mystery is going, but I'm really enjoying using up some scraps!

Anything quilt related is a guaranteed cat-magnet!

 On her blog, Bonnie Hunter has been showcasing some of her vintage machines, so I  thought I'd show mine.  I sew on it all the time.

It's a Sewmore, made in Japan in the 1950's  Bonnie calls these kinds of machines "Singer clones".   I've known this one all my life.  It was my mother's and I learned to sew on it.  My mom stuck numbers on it to help me with the threading order and, being sentimental, I just kept them on all this time! 

I'm not in the habit of naming my machines, but with the 2-tone seafoam green, I could call her Marina!

                                       Louise

Easy Street step #1

Step #1 of Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt Easy Street is making little 4-patch units....196 of them!  I'm only making half of the blocks, since I don't want a huge quilt.

I've used gold and lights:

My other colors are black, red and a medium blue. 

Looking forward to Step #2!

                                                          Louise

Hurricane Sandy blocks

While blog surfing, I came across an opportunity to contribute to quilts for Hurricane Sandy victims.  I've made some Disappearing 4-patch blocks and will be mailing them to a young woman who is making the actually quilts.

These have been fun to make and are perfect for using up large scraps.  With just a few cuts and twists, I've turned these large 4-patch blocks............

into these cool blocks..............

 
The method is explained here.  

I've made 10 blocks to mail off, shown here all together.

I really enjoyed making these and plan on using this pattern for local donation quilts.

I've also decided to jump into Bonnie Hunter's new online mystery quilt, Easy Street, which starts next week.   I plan on using black, red, blue, gold (for the constant) and light prints. 

With my vast UFO collection, do I need to add another one?  No...but it's so much fun and will use up scraps! 


                                                                                                     Louise

March lotto blocks, and Stash report

Here are my March blocks for the Sunshine lotto. The color green is so cheerful and alive!




This block is just full of frogs. I had one oddball pink square that was perfect for the center.


I've been busy sorting and culling fabric. Year to date, I've acquired 30.25 yds & de-stashed a whopping 113.25 yds, for a net depletion of 83 yards! I don't expect to de-stash anywhere near that next quarter because I've already gone through almost everything. As motivation, though, I will be counting the estimated fabric contained in any UFOs that I complete. My completed UFO count of ZERO is downright dismal!
Also, the 30.25 that I've acquired was more than I expected, making it clear that the smaller amounts of fabric I bought here and there certainly add up!

Louise

Sunshine Lotto blocks for February

Here are my blocks for Sunshine, mailed out today. The theme, if you couldn't guess, was Red!




This was a fun scrappy block from Quilter's Cache, called Four on the Road.




The designer, Marcia Hohn, is so generous to offer all these free patterns to us quilters!
This pattern would be a great candidate for reproduction fabric.

I've been going through my stash finding yards & yards to donate. It feels so good to pass along fabric that I'll never use, and to declutter!

Louise

January lotto blocks

These are the January lotto blocks that I will be sending to Tammy, to be made into Sunshine quilts.



I tried a new (to me) block, seen above in the top-left and the center.
I'm not sure of the name, but saw the block on the internet. I started with a big 4-patch:


I divided the 4-patch into 9 equal squares, like this:


I rearranged the 4 side-center pieces to make this block:

I love the llama fabric!
This block would be great for scrap quilts & I'm sure I'll be using it again!

Louise

Orca Bay, step 6

Step #6 of Bonnie Hunter's mystery are Ohio Stars --- They are so cute!
They use the hourglasses from step #1, and newly cut red, light & black squares. I have 12 completed so far, with many other blocks partially completed.


The close-up shows fabric from my precious stash of reproduction fabrics, combined with a fair amount of recycled shirts.

There will be 27 blocks with black corners and 27 with light corners, for a total of 54, so I'll be sewing away on it all week. I'm looking forward to seeing how this puzzle will work itself out!

Louise

Orca Bay, steps 4 & 5

I'm almost finished with step #4 of Bonnie's mystery, which are string triangles (produced by cutting string squares in half). I'm happy with how all the reds are working together. With 1900-era being my guide, I used all kinds of reds from double-pinks to light burgundy.



Step #5 is completely done. Wings were added to the HST units from step #3 to make triangle-shaped units, shown below. These took several hours, sewn over a few days. I don't understand how some of the quilters get these steps done in one day!



My cat Tiger found the quilt pieces in no time flat!

Louise

Huswife needlecases

A huswife (or housewife) is a small kit for sewing supplies, made & used by women in the 18th & 19th centuries. Civil War soldiers were given these kits to store mending supplies as they went to war. (source: Remembering Adelia, by Kathleen Tracy)

I just finished making several of these to give to friends, using Kathleen Tracy's pattern from her quilt book Remembering Adelia. It was fun to play in my Civil War repro stash! Below are the huswifes, showing the front and the back (I made them in pairs). I made one pair in 1930 repro fabrics because a few of the women prefer those over Civil War fabrics.




I made them slightly different from Kathleen Tracy's pattern: I blanket-stitched down the wool needle holder, and I used a loop & button as a closure instead of ribbon.

I really enjoyed this project! I learned that I could felt my own wool, and I learned how to do a blanket stitch. And....I finished them in time for Christmas!

Louise

Orca Bay, step #3...and my inspiration!

Step #3 consists of 350 HST (Half square triangle) units, 2" square. These took quite some time to sew. I started out with 2.5" squares, drew a diagonal line on each, and sewed 1/4" on either side of the line. Then, I cut on the diagonal, pressed each open, and squared each down to 2" square.
Next time I have to make lots of these, I should explore another method...there's so many different ways to make these little blocks.

Again, I used 1900 reproduction fabrics, including some recycled shirts that fit right in. I especially love the little conversation prints!

While picking fabric for this quilt, I keep some actual 1900-era fabric close-at-hand to help me choose the right shades and patterns. The photo below shows an old apron and an old quilt piece, along with some of my completed blocks.

Eventually (maybe Friday??) we'll be using the red scraps....lots of red scraps! I'll be using clear reds, clarets, and some darker double-pinks, using these old pieces as a guide.

One reason I love the 1900-era quilts is because the colors are so simple and clear, and the patterns are usually uncomplicated. They just have a certain charm to them.

Orca Bay, step #2

Step #2 consists of 72 string blocks, 3.5 inches square. These were fun to make, and very addictive! I used up lots of blue scraps, and dug into my stash of reproduction 1900 fabrics.

The blocks photographed lighter than in reality. I really tried to use only fabrics that could be from 1900, and this photo doesn't convey that.

Louise

Orca Bay, step #1

I just couldn't resist starting Bonnie Hunter's new mystery quilt "Orca Bay". Step #1 is to make 224 tiny hourglasses, each being 2.5 inches square. I love 1900-era quilts, so I'm mostly using reproduction fabrics which are abundant in my inventory! Most of the hourglasses are done, some pictured below.

I'm also using scraps from recycled shirts, which with their many plaids, stripes & homespun fabrics are perfect for replicating 1900-era quilts. In the photo below, the black fabric with the small boxes inside the bigger boxes (2nd one from the left) came from a shirt....it's perfect! I also love the black mourning prints, which were very common in 1900.

I love mystery quilts and I'm so curious to discover how all these little pieces will eventually go together!

Louise

Challenge blocks

I made some blocks for a challenge over at the Sunshine Yahoo group. Ann sent 2 small pieces of "ugly" fabric to me and I sewed some quilt blocks using those fabrics, which I'll be returning to Ann. She'll be making Sunshine quilts with all the blocks she gets back, which will eventually go to kids who can use a bright & cheerful quilt.

In the top group below, the light fabric was the "ugly" fabric. In the bottom group, the gray was. Personally, I didn't think the fabrics were that ugly!





















The cute bunny above is a Debbie Mumm pattern. I never made it before & wanted to try it out. I'll definitely be making more of those bunnies...they would be perfect in 1930's reproductions!

Louise