I'm a lucky winner!

The other day I was happy to learn I was the winner of a new quilting book when my name was drawn by Kimber over at www.heirloomsbyashtonhouse.blogspot.com. My win just arrived and wow, it is amazing. Here is a photo of the book History Repeated by Betsy Chutchian and Carol Staehle. Kimber edited the book as you can read on her great blog. I can't thank you enough for this copy. The pictures are lovely and enticing for future quilts. The color of the quilts and the photography are beautiful. Of course I had to show the book on my version of the quilt in Gone To Texas by Betsy Chutchian. I am a happy, happy quilter today...........

Two UFOs finished

I kept telling myself I was not to start anything new until I finished the three UFOs I have had since last year. For once I listened to myself and here are the first two finished. Even #3 is in the works as I started hand quilting on it last week. Here is the little quilt from the class with Jo Morton last June in Columbus. In order to get mine finished, I did leave off the border of triangles all around it. My decision was to finish it faster by putting a plain border on and I am glad I did it this way. I like the framing on it better with the plain borders. #2 finish was the signature quilt from last year that I passed around for quilt buddies to sign. It is also a Jo Morton pattern. But I'm not a purist. I like to mix her fabrics with others and not limit a pattern to just her fabrics only. Altho, project #1 is all her fabrics since I took the class with her. Her repro prints go so well
with other fabric companies lines as you can tell by looking at any quilt magazine where quilters use many of her repros in their projects. Now it is going to be catch up time on the Barbara Brackman civil war blocks of the week, more tracing templates on some schoolhouse blocks and maybe getting to those blue and brown tumblers I have been wanting to stitch together. Better be getting off this 'puter and get to stichin'!

Salvedges...nothings into somethings

I have been amazed at salvedge quilts for some time after seeing some amazing creations on various blogs. At first when I heard of these quilts, I thought: wow, some quilters are really anal.......I mean, I save tiny scraps all the time for future applique projects, but come on, saving salvedges was just a bit too much.
While working on the Civil War Tribute quilt, where the fabrics had salvedges on both
fabrics ends, I thought I would save a few to use on the back label showcasing
Judie Rothermel fabrics for enternity on my quilt.

Then I saved a few more. And a few more. And soon I had a large ziplock bag full. Then I was thinking of going thru my whole fabric cupboard and tearing all the salvedges off. Then I slapped myself out of that last thought remembering sometimes I need the story those ends tell in case I needed to search for more of a certain fabric.

You can see where it can get to be obsessive, tho, can't you?

So one day I stitched some diagonal salvedges on a piece of backing fabric and liked how it looked. Very much. And I was really having fun picking colors and the names and titles on these scrap pieces. O my. Now it was ME who was anal about it all.


Here is my little quilt. I suggest if you would like a mindless little project to give this a try. And then maybe you would want to go bigger and better with larger patterns. Google these kinds of quilts for a new look into the quilt world.

The joke was on me. Something I took as a little weird turned out to be a lot of fun. I don't dare throw out a salvedge edge now because those little words could be
important in a future little quilt. And there are great memories in those little fabric morsels showing the line and a little bit of the print. A veritable scrap book of scraps!!!!

Has anyone else made one?

A quilt or two for Tuesday

Before I tackle my laundry piles, I thought to post a quilt just because it Tuesday. I know that doesn't make any sense but I'm just killing time before I turn that washer and dryer on. Here is one for today that I made a few years ago.

This is an older Jan Patek pattern and I think it was from a booklet of hers about Fat Quarter Quilts, but I'm not totally sure. It features a blackish/brown print with shirtings, reds, olives, blues and tans. And my favorite stars and moons theme.
It was a challenge at the time because the triangle arcs were paper pieced and I'm not much of a fan of paperpiecing. A little, like this, is ok and worked out well.

Here's one more to add. I made this top last year. It was on the wish list to make for a long time so finally it got made. Not quilted yet. Want to save it for this winter as it's pretty large and I am going to hand quilt it. This is also an older Jan Patek pattern from The Winter Book. More stars and moons. More blue and brown. The striped blue indigo is a favorite piece of fabric. I bought tons of that print and never get tired of it. Still have some left; I'll be a sad quilter whenever the last of it gets used up.



That laundry mountain is calling at me...............

I love old blues and browns

These are my favorites..........add in an old red and some tea dyed tans and beiges and I am in quilt heaven. Needed a little project in between ufo's recently and decided to just cut some simple squares of blues and browns, whack them in pieces and stitch back into squares for a simple little doll quilt or table topper. Ooo, I love the rich deep shades. Once I get some projects finished up from hand quilting, me thinks I will draw out a template for a large tumbler block and maybe use these same colors into a lap size or bigger tumbler. I think a bigger quilt in these deep tones will be a beauty mixed in with my other quilts. It's a plan. Now
to just get 3 good sized wall quilts finished and hand quilted sometime and the plan can go into motion! I'm trying my best not to start anything new until my ufo pile gets slimmed down. But starting new is soooo much fun..........

What if a fabric company used your swatches and then you never heard back from them after the fabric was printed????

For many years I have collected old indigo pieces of fabric from the late 1800's or early 1900's. My favorites being the stars and especially moons. Many times over the last 15-20 years I have dreamed of having new fabrics made from them. In March 2010 I sent antique swatches to Blue Hill asking if these could be made into new fabric as I have
wanted repros of them for years to buy. That April I got a call from Blue Hill Fabrics saying they were using some of my swatches and they would be in a small line called the Moon and Stars Collection. How fun! The line came out early in 2011 and I have been buying up the ones I liked in the navy, burgundy and browns and have used some in my projects. They didn't use every swatch I sent in but did use my favorite ones. There are some striped ones in the line I did not send in and also a cheater piece they combined the pieces in. The line is credited to their house designer, Sara Morgan, who is an imagined name used by the Blue Hill
people. They did send me the ordering flyer to see the samples from.

Would it not have been nice to get some free fabric????? Yes! I didn't get any free fabric but am happy to see it in print and able to buy what I have lusted for these many years. I think my quilt friends will get very tired of seeing moons and stars in my future projects. So fun!

While I was so happy to see my antique swatches made into new fabrics, I was disappointed that Blue Hill never contacted me when they were due to be in stores. Bummer, I had
to find out on my own.

When I told hometown quilt friends and mentioned it to the online Yahoo group I am on, so many quilters asked if I received any complimentary fabrics from Blue Hill from the swatches of mine they used. Hhhhmmmm, no I did not receive any complimentary fabrics. It was suggested to me a number of times that I write to Blue Hill and request the mentioned complimentary fabric so I did. It kind of felt like begging to me for something that would have been a nice guesture on their part. Then I did write to RR, the man who put the production of my swatches into gear and I never heard anything back from him.
So while I was happy at the fabric being printed, my experience with the process was
not that great. Seems once my swatches were used, I was left hanging to be a consumer (which I was happy to be) and only left with a copy of the swatch ordering leaflet.

Quilters, I would be interested in your opinions on this matter..................

needing to finish some UFOs

Last summer I passed around small blocks for special quilt friends to sign as a memory/signature quilt using a Jo Morton pattern. This summer I want to get some UFO's finished to the basting stage where at any future time they will be able to be picked up and hand quilted. Have a number of these to get to that stage but this one
is a beginning. It is now basted and ready for stitching when the time permits. Now to get a few more to this stage. I don't like too many ufo's around so hopefully they look more finished basted. Friends from my applique group, a local quilt guild and the ladies from Good Wives signed memory blocks. This was a good project. Where
I didn't have names for the size of quilt I wanted, I wrote in little quirky quilt sayings like: dull women have clean sewing rooms. Ha! I know my sewing room is in a constant mess.............