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