A Design Wall and Pining the Quilt

I pushed some stuff out of my studio this weekend and made a small design wall for laying out quilt blocks.  I bought some really nice wool batting , measured my cleared spot and cut.  We have wood walls, so I had no trouble hanging my design wall with just some nails driven in across the top, a couple down the sides and (pulling the batting tight) across the bottom.

Within a matter of minuted I had my mother's unfinished blocks displayed.  Now I can play with the pieces and see how they will look best for a small sampler.  I've gotten one more corner block made and there are 3 more of t he red/green/beige strips to go on the sides and at the bottom.  I'm thinking striping will make it come together much nicer.

 Then I moved to my cutting table (thank goodness for it's extra height...cuts back on the back pains!).  I was determined to get this finished top pined to the batting and bottom layer before going to bed.  10:30 came as I was putting in the last safety pin!  Sally borrowed my quilting hoop, so I'll have to get another one to get started on the quilting of this one.

Framed Quilt Blocks

I've taken a couple of my mother's unfinished quilt blocks and framed them.  I think they turned out really nice.

Weekend Fun & A Mystery Block

I was so excited to be going to my first BOM meeting on Friday...until I got there and no one else showed up and there was no meeting.  So I just talked with the shop owner and collected more stamps to my card so that next time I go in...I get 4 yards free material!

I went home and started laying out all the extra blocks that Mother had kept from her projects.  With a little striping, I'll have enough blocks to do a small, sampler lap quilt.  Here is one of the boarders that I'm working on. She had enough of the dark red/white material that I can use it for my striping.  The block she made using the Square in a Square method (which I had the pattern & ruler and never tried).  The block with the tiny green squares were put together using that method, but had not been cut yet.  I got to finally put the ruler to work and I loved it.  I'm ready to do a Square in a Square pattern now.

Saturday I went to a quilt shop's new location in Franklin, TN and picked up some neat notions and new books....no material this trip....but oh was I tempted.  Then I went clothes shopping with my daughter and had a wonderful time with her.  This is where I waited for her to get off work.  She was so sweet to bring me something to eat while I waited.  I looked at one of my new books and was amazed at the twisted forms of these trees.  I bet this will be a wonderful place to sit in the summer, under their mingled shade.

Then I went to my friend, Cindy's house and helped her with some quilt blocks that she was given by her mother-in-law.  It's the Maple Leaf pattern, but there was something not right about it.  The lower corner block seems to be turned the wrong way.  The only problem...her mother-in-law did this on every block (20 in all).  I couldn't see how she would make the same mistake so many times and not catch it.  So I started playing with the pieces and started to see some other patterns.

How do you like the final outcome?  Has anyone else seen a maple leaf and pin-wheel pattern combined?

Friday Night Sew In (FNSI) & My Frist BOM

I'm learning some new terms..UFO...FNSI....BOM...

A UFO is an Unfinished Object--the remnants of those quilts we start to make but never seem to finish.

But I wasn't sure what a FNSI was...until now...it's a Friday Night Sew In where you link up with other ladies spending their Friday nights sewing too.  The link up is here .

I didn't set out for do this, but since that is what I'll be doing tonight at my first Block of the Month (BOM) class...I figured...why not join in!

I am taking a monthly quilt class at Grannie B's Quilt Shop in Dickson tonight, where I bought the pattern and blocks for January and February a couple of weeks ago.  The pattern is Wildflower Rhapsody from Wing and a Prayer Design.

I'm doing mine by hand and finished the January block last night...paper-piecing the star pattern in the center of the block.  I was suppose to "fussy cut" the center of the star (which means finding a flower design and cutting the block so that the flower is centered within it....I like my flowers to fall where they may!

I've got my materials ironed for tonight, with the long strips already cut.  I have both blocks laid out on a piece of batting and rolled up to carry to work (where I'm going to mark the blocks to be cut tonight during my lunch break) and then to class.  I was trying to get it so that the material would not crease.  As you can see from the pictures, that sort of worked, leaving just a small crease across the bottom.  I may have to invest in a travel case for my blocks (any suggestions?).

But...I have my "handy-dandy" mini iron that I absolutely love.  My mother could finger-press her pieces like nobodies business (that's really good in case that is a term you haven't heard before).  I don't finger press too well, so all my seams would fall every-which-way....but no more!!!

Tonight I also intend to pin a quilt.  Tomorrow I'm heading to Franklin, TN to visit some of their quilt shops and then hitting the mall with my daughter for some wardrobe enhancements!!!  For now...I've got to do some work that I actually get paid for.  Oh....and I'm planning a trip to East Tennessee next month and my dad is going to take me to quilt shops that my mother loved!!! (Holloways and The Cherry Pit)

Idea Books

I love books, patterns, and magazines.  You can tell that very quickly when you walk into my house.  Sometimes my love for these things must be contained and controlled.  Grannie and I used to joke that we promised not to buy another magazine or pattern book until we had done at least one project from it.  Or if we went to quilt shows, we could not go to another show until we did one of the patterns that we had bought from it.

Then we decided that was just too hard a rule to live by!

However, because of limited space, I've had to start going through my bookshelves to make room for newer items.  Grannie started doing the same thing....so she sent her magazines to me!  That of course did not help my situation.  Over the Christmas holidays and snow days when I couldn't or didn't want to get out, I seriously started organizing my bookshelves (books and container) that held nothing but quilting magazines.  Then I did something that causes women all over the quilting world to cringe....

I torn out pages!

Here is a box of magazines that I went through...now ready to go somewhere else.  My aunt has a quilting guild, but she didn't want me to tear out pages.  I figured if I shelled out the money for the magazines....it was okay if I wanted to tear out pages!  There is still some good stuff in them...just not stuff that captured my attention.  (And just so you know....this makes my 3rd trip through these magazines before I finally said "enough!")

The ideas/patterns that caught my eye now have a special place....my idea book.

I cut the pages with all the instructions out and then the patterns.  These I do make copies of because most of the time the patterns are on tear-out sheets along with every other pattern mentioned in the magazine.  I then make a little folder to hold the patterns (taped to the back of insignificant pages, like ads) and then put the entire selection in a clear page protector and add it to a large notebook with all my other captured ideas.  Then when I want to do that project, I simply pull this page from the notebook and go to work.

I really thought this is my own idea (maybe suggested in one of those magazines!) until my daughter was working with me one day.  She started laughing because she told me she does the same thing (a little differently of course).  Then I asked Grannie about the pattern for her Royale Aster and she told me the pattern was in her idea book (which holds patterns of all the projects she had done in the past).

Now I find that my mother also had an idea book with torn out magazine pages.  She also noted on hers if she did the project and when...her book is more like a calendar really because she did something every month.

As I was going through Mother's patterns, this Floating Star pattern looked really familiar.  I grabbed my idea book and there it was....seems we had the same taste.  Only thing...I got my pattern from a magazine...we should have compared idea books before shopping!

Let's not leave Grannie Lewis out of this silliness...because that woman also kept her ideas...just in a different way.  Grannie Lewis did a lot of pattern exchanges.  I have envelopes of all kinds of patterns that she received through the mail (still in the envelopes!)...not a lot of instructions, but one day I intend to figure them out for myself.  I made a notebook with just her patterns and samples that she made.  This is a page where she was doing a sampler quilt and listed what each block would be and what color (I have the patterns for most of these from her too).

Then she had this block that I really loved and I made my own pattern for it and added it to her book (with the block)....another project I want to do one day.

So what do you do with all your ideas or "someday I'll do" projects?

Mother's Unfinished Projects

As we were making room for the hospice bed to be brought to my parents' house, I was putting away my mother's sewing things.  I mentioned to my brother that this was her last project, but he said she would always have had an unfinished project because she kept her hands busy creating all the time.  But this one truly was her last unfinished project....she had her needle ready to sew the last strip to this block, a improved nine-patch.

The funny thing is...I believe that my grandmother was working on this same pattern before she left her house for the nursing home about a year ago.  Mother had 3 completed blocks.  

These were at her recliner where she worked on them as she felt like it.  She just needed something to keep her hands and mind busy at all times.  She did such beautiful work.

From her sewing table, I removed the 4 red (Mother loved red) log cabin pieces.  She was making them as placemats for her January and February table setting.  They were ready to be machine quilted (she made me a green set and gave to me on Christmas Eve 2010).  The other pieces were left over blocks from previous works and the Hunter Star variation which she was making as she had scraps.  All these pieces have a red theme going on through them.  Daddy asked if I could do something with them and put together some kind of sampler quilt.  Thankfully, she already had more strips cut for the log cabin and lots of those colors left over to do something with....what I don't know yet

The only other projects she had left undone were these three quilt tops.  She had them ready to machine quilt, with bindings already cut and backings laid with them.  She just ran out of energy and time.  These three pieces were done while she was taking chemo and radiation (from July - December 2010).  She was trying to get all the grandchildren a quilt done for Christmas.  She did, but at the end, she had to pull a couple that she had finished prior to this year....they didn't mind.

Daddy has asked if I can quilt these, he has something he wants to do with these projects of Mother's.

I guess they are my unfinished projects for a while now.

Treasures Found and Unfinished Projects

 I did some treasure hunting with my Dad yesterday.  He asked me to go through my mother's quilts and pull out all of hers and separate them from my grandmothers' quilts.  I took pictures as I went along.  Most of them I have seen through the years and for those that were not dated, I could tell Daddy approximately when Mother quilted them and a little of the story behind the quilt.

However, this butterfly quilt was a treasure from my Grannie Lewis, that I had never seen before.  I'm taking a picture of the block to my Grannie Carathers tonight to make sure it's not hers, but I don't think it is.    UPDATE:  It was Grannie Lewis' design.

Here is an unfinished project that I want to have finished by this time next year, The Devil's Puzzle (Drunkard's Path).  About 3 years ago, my mother cut out enough material for her, my grandmother and me to make this quilt.  They finished theirs...I got one block done!  Well as of last night, I has 2 blocks!  Only 7 and a few half blocks to go.  I just want to have it finished for Adam's graduation.  I'm doing this one completely by hand, piecing and quilting.

 

This treasure from my mother was found in the attic.  It was one of her first quilts, made more for a light-weight bedspread to go under our top quilts.  There is very little batting in this one.  It was made from scraps except for the blue making the design.  I would love to know the name of this pattern if anyone happens to know.

 I'm doing some blog surfing into quilting blogs now and finding some really neat stuff.  Of course I love the give-a-ways that go on through the blog world, and have been successful in getting a few books.  The reason I like this one is because it is for a book about redwork...which I love to do.  Check it out here.

Beginner's Class - How to Piece a Quilt - The Lessons Begin

Piney's Needle is officially open in Pinewood, Tennessee.  I'm doing what Mother said...."Don't be afraid to dream!"   I'm dreaming and I'm going to "reach for the stars" and make my dreams a reality.

I will be holding quilting classes at my house.  I'm praying this is the first step toward that dream.

My first class will be on March 19th, 9-1 (with a light lunch provided) and we will be doing the 9-Patch block.  For this first class, I am going to limit it to 6 ladies and there will be no class charge (you will be my guinea pigs!).  This will be a 4-class series, meeting every other weekend (March 19, April 2, April 16, April 30).  For those who can't come during those times, I'm also throwing around the idea of doing a week night class, 6-9....no dates set yet.  This will be a learning experience for me and the ladies.

I will be teaching the traditional and contemporary quilt piecing methods.  I truly believe that we must embrace the art of our grandmothers before we can comprehend their gift and appreciate the skill they had.  The 9-Patch is a easy pattern to do that with and it can be used in so many different ways.

Here are two examples that my mother made for my children.  Adam's 9-Patch is set at an angle and added to other patterns.  Sally's 9-Patch is set straight with solid pieces between each block.  This will be the design that we will be starting with.   (FYI....Sally's quilt is one of the last hand quilted pieces that my mother was able to do, then she went to machine quilting.  Adam's was made this past year, hand pieced, machine quilted.)

Supplies to get started:

We will be doing a quilt.  As my grandmother says, she doesn't like to do wall hangings because with just a few more blocks or strips....you've got a quilt....so why not make a quilt?

1.  Since I have already picked out the pattern....the first step is done for you....choosing your pattern.

2.  Next, consider how you are going to use this quilt.  Is it for you or someone else?  Getting that settled first, helps you with the next step.....your color scheme.

3.  I'm going to let you choose your color scheme.  You will need 4 to 6 different medium to dark colors for the blocks, using a white or light colored piece for the other block pieces and the connecting (blank) blocks.  They can be prints or solids....let's not do any plaids or strips right now.  

For the light colored pieces....you can have a design on them, but try to keep it pretty simple, even maybe choosing solid white or beige because we will be practicing your quilting techniques in these blocks.

4.  How much material?  You will be making a quilt that will measure approximately 68 x 88 inches (the size of a standard twin size quilt).  Since this is a learning experience for me too....it may be a little larger!   For this first time....get 2 yards of medium/dark and 2 yards of white/beige material.

Warning!!!!   Quilting is not a cheap hobby!  Material can run anywhere from $2-$4 a yard up to $15 or more a yard....shop around.  On the average, about $8 a yard is what you will be spending for 100% cotton!   So that means right off the bat, you will be spending at least $36 for your basic material....this does not include your borders, binding, backing, or batting.  But those things don't have to be purchased now.

In the Dickson area, Grannie B's Quilt Shop has a large variety of material and supplies. In the Cool Springs/Franklin area, there are several places...JoAnn, Hobby Lobby, The Quilting Squares Quilt Shop, Stitcher's Garden and maybe more...but these will get you started.

5.  Once you have your material....the only other things you will need will be:  good scissors (not paper cutting scissors!), pins, sewing needles, thread (white is fine), a #2 pencil, and a clear ruler.  A thimble is optional...but recommended!

Hopefully this hasn't overwhelmed you...but gotten you excited to start something new.  Here's some pictures of my block I did last night and my supplies.  I have a small cutting board with a padded board on the opposite side....I love it!

So....I'm looking for 6 local ladies to come to my log house on the scenic Piney River in Pinewood, Tenneesse (50 miles west of Nashville, 5 miles off I-40 on HWY 48).  I'm also looking for some ladies who would be interested in taking this class on-line....again  this will be a learning process for all of us....me especially!

Let me know as soon as possible if you are interested.

The Thread Broke a Bit

On January 31, 2011 one of these hands disappeared forever from my sight.  That ring on her hand...is now on mine.

The thread that held us together of 4 generations of quilters/seamstresses broke.

My mother put down her thimble.

Her casket was covered with her quilts, a brown feathered star on top and a blue star sampler wrapping the sides.  Her art was showcased with one of her paintings and one of her stained glass pieces.  So many people didn't know that she was so talented.

I appliqued a wall hanging for her.  It was my flowers to her.  I worked on it while she was home two weeks with hospice.  She got to see it finished.

As we said our final goodbye to her, I laid the small quilt across her bed.  It hung with the flowers during the service and now it hangs on my wall as a constant reminder of how blessed I was to have such a wonderful mother.