Shawshank!

Weddings are a lot of work! One of my daughters wedding was less than two weeks ago and we are still worn out from the planning, setting up, visiting with family and friends and just plain old having a great time. With Thanksgiving preparations so quickly following the big event, whew............I'm still in a tizzy. Sandwiched
in between all this was our 37th wedding anniversary. I had not had a needle in my hand for a week and a half; feels good to needle fabric again!

Dear daughter's reception was at the old reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio. Movie
buffs may know that this is the prison Shawshank Redemption was filmed at. Some of the prison has been demolished since the movie but a good part has been preserved for tours and ghost hunts that have been featured on a few tv shows of this type. The central guard room is available for rent for wedding receptions. It's a great
place. While we were setting up for the reception, a tour of the prison was going on and we could see visitors walking thru the old cells. There is memorabilia
from the movie around to see, also. Air Force One was also filmed here

This is the tunnel Andy Dufresne crawled thru in his escape from Shawshank in the movie. The prison is a good tourist destination............something made good from what was a terrible place. My job on set up day was to make salads down in the kitchen area of the prison. While making the salad cups to put in the walk in cooler for the next day's party, I was down there by myself a good part of the time. I did not see any ghosties, but when my mind would wander it was kinda eerie thinking I was sitting all alone in a haunted prison. Yikes! Anyone can look up the reformatory on the internet for more history. It is a beautiful piece of architecture and am glad some of it has been preserved. Here is a view of the back where we were bringing in wedding decorations.

Wishing everyone in blogland and beyond a happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

Simple Goods and schoolhouse blocks

What is not to like about schoolhouse quilt blocks? They are a top favorite of mine. I have made numerous ones and don't get tired of the look or of the piecing. Thru the years I have sold a couple but still own two larger ones I made and a recent mini one. These blocks were started over the summer and set aside for working on the heart/star flag quilt. Last week I finished setting them into this large wall hanging or throw size top. Have been considering doing a quilting pattern on this I have never done before..........baptist fan. Still thinking on that one and will decide soon. Will need to ask help from a friend on that since I never attempted doing this.
If you are a lover of very primitive antiques and grungy crafting, you missed a wondeful show of this type this past Saturday. The Simple Goods show is held in the spring and summer in Mt. Vernon, Ohio and features the best primitives imaginable. Like in the old issues (not these last couple of years, ugh) of Country Living magazine. Candy Looker and Max Squires put on the most wonderful shows. I haven't missed one yet and each show tops the previous one. Please
google Simple Goods show for information for future shows and pictures of past ones. They are on facebook and have fabulous show pictures posted.
I found a great............but very brittle, shredded and worn to death..............vintage doll quilt at the show from the vendor Tinkers Wagon. My loves in antique fabrics are the old blues, navy and brown along with centennial fabrics. Ooooo! Years ago I won a tiny square of a centennial cheater cloth on ebay and get it out now and then to admire it all the while wishing some fabric company would reproduce it now for our new "old" quilts. Folded up on a table I found this distressed doll quilt of the same cheater cloth in just awful condition, but a wonderful find for me all the same. Here you can see my worn little ebay piece with the newly acquired very tired out piece. Both treasures to me!

Primitive stars and stripes quilt top

For some years I have admired a certain patriotic quilt in quilt history books and on the Smithsonian website. You may have seen it, too...........a center medallion of appliqued stars applied to a red and white striped ground with a border of the same appliqued stars. There has even been a smaller size in some books where the word "baby" is also stitched over the center stars. My only reason for holding back on making a similar one for me is that I applique a lot of stars on my projects and I was dreading doing that many more star points.

This summer I was spending a couple mornings with a quilt friend, Sharon Pinka, who showed me photos of a quilt she was writing a paper on for the publication Blanket Statements for the American Quilt Study Group. She said this quilt was in a museum in Norwalk, Ohio, not all that far away. When I saw her pictures............o my...............I was doomed.

One look at those primitive stars on this quilt sealed my fate. I was making one for my personal enjoyment. Look at those stars...........rounded little edges............no pointy points..........an upside down narrow little heart with a triangle on top. Prim for sure! I guessed by the photo and looked up the similar more polished quilt like this one and went for it.
I practiced making one star. It was fun and pleasing to my eyes. In my fabric cupboard I had a solid old red, a tea dyed looking aged piece and a "I hope I have enough left" dark blue that would be perfect for this reproduction civil war quilt.

After a couple weeks of handwork, I was ready to make the striped background. O no! I put the center on it and it scared me..........all I could see was a big circus tent. Yikes! But when I attatched the borders, it contained those stripes and all was fine. I now have my version of the quilt and am waiting for winter to baste it and decide how to hand quilt it. I have a few ideas.

Here is my folky primitive repro of an Ohio civil war quilt. Thanks to Sharon for showing me her photo and sharing it with me, otherwise, I would still be dreaming of making all those pointy points and never getting around to making them.

spellbound with hexies

I have been hexed with hexies. A spell has been cast on me by the quilting gods. Ooooo, it isn't that bad. Years ago I did not like these little six sided shapes. I think I saw way too many
grandmother's flower garden quilts at flea markets and garage sales. Nothing inspiring; they were everywhere and they mostly looked all the same. One night long ago at a quilt meeting the nice speaker brought samples of hexagon quilts...........hoo hum to me and I was resigned to suffer thru.........it was quilting, afterall.....do it for the cause. At the end, she showed us how to baste a hexie to old card stock and how to join them and she called it English paper piecing.

Was I an idiot to prejudge.

I liked doing them! I went home and started doing hexies from scraps. No granny's gardens for me but a little hodge podge project to put on a table or such. I had fun. I liked it. I really liked it. Mindless hand quilting.........fun..........oh I could dream dreams and think thoughts while stitching my hexies.
I hand appliqued my little hexie scrappy maze to a background and use this little quilt often. Here I have it for fall with some buckeyes.

Good memories to remind me not to just jump to conclusions of not liking something in the quilting world before I know more about it. At least try not to!

So I do have a little bag of scraps that I cart around and stitch on when I have nothing to work on and after a little time, progress can be seen. I will make these until I get a good idea of what to do with them. They are fun and good for a take along. Thought has crossed my mind to taking them to church and piece thru the sermon at Mass. Rethink that one; I don't want to be made the sermon subject. But it has crossed my mind since I do think and listen better during handwork...............hhhmmmmm..........

Boo!

Isn't he cute? He is battery operated. Mary at Quilt Hollow blog posted a photo of the little guys she found at Lowe's for $5. I was at our local store yesterday and look who found his way into my cart. Thanks, Mary, for the idea. He will do double duty come Thanksgiving when his light will turn off and he can face a wall and just be punkin-y then.

He is sitting on another blogger pattern creation. I made this up from Kathleen Tracy's book The Civil War Sewing Circle. It is the scrap squares doll quilt on page 25. I was going to make it scrappy like in the book but that can wait for another day.........thought it would look good in some deep browns and a chedda' for the fall season. It's very seasonal when you see it in person. My camera makes the whole picture too bright. This would be a great easy and fast
pattern to make in any fabric to match any holiday for your decorating. I'm seeing Christmas fabrics........and Valentine's...........Easter............patriotic holidays...................it doesn't end! Fun!

Lovin' those pillars............

What is not to love about pillar fabric? For sometime I have been noticing them and decided to purchase a few reproductions slowly over the summer. There has been talk about them in blogland, too, so I will share some photos of my purchases. I understand Barbara Brackman/Moda have a new pillar out in a couple colorways but I have not been able to see it yet in the few shops around my area. I will be on the lookout!

Here is a pillar print repro by Blue Hill in brown tones. What could make a pillar print even better? Add eagles. Ooooooooooo! This is from their American Independence line.
Then there are these two beauties from Andover from their Winterthur Toile line. One appears to be black on a darker tea-dyed background. The other is a brown on a lighter tea-dyed
background. Both are wonderful and hard to pick the better of the two I like most.


Here is my most recent purchase. This lovely blue/brown beauty is by Windham and from their line The Presidents Collection.
There is a backstory to this piece. In the recent quilt book STARS! A Study of 19th Centry Star Quilts by the American Quilt Study Group, published by Kansas City Star Quilts, a quilt on page 79 caught my eye. A pillar print! This quilt was reproduced from a larger quilt by Florence McConnell. I was able to make contact with Florence and she graciously shared the maker of the pillar print with me. Although I could not find it in the red colorway she used for her quilt, I did find it in the blue which is just as pretty to me. Thank you, Florence! As a side note, this
is a great book if you like to reproduce antique quilts..........a keeper for sure.

If pillar prints appeal to you, here is a good start for you to google away or to look closely thru the inventory at your local quilt shops. Right now I am happy to only look at my small
pillar collection but I'm sure it won't be long before the scissors and rotary cutter come out to make some great projects with them.

Tumbler

The large tumbler top is finished and will be added to the "needs to be quilted" pile. It will make a nice long lap quilt for recliner naps when finished.