Tribute to Unknown Quilters

     On National Quilting Day, I pulled out a stack of churn dash blocks found in a bag of donated materials. People give me stuff because they know I make and give comfort quilts. Sometimes, there are some gems of fabric or blocks found among the home dec and cut off curtain pieces. 
     The 29 blocks had some name stickers or names written on the seam allowances. I determined they were made in 1999 (some had dates next to their name) and they came from Illinois, because LLQA was written on a few block backs. I looked up LLQA and it is an association of guilds in Illinois, but I could not find a contact to call or email. I would love to let them know about these. (Cheryl, are you reading?)
    If I placed the blocks 5 by 6, I was short one block. It seemed only fitting that I should make one as it was National Quilting Day. The workmanship in every block is superb. I wish I could thank them all. It was a joy to sew these.
    I decided on sashing them and auditioned a bunch of fabric. I chose a cream and white polka dot because it keeps the nostalgic flavor, but adds a modern twist. For the cornerstones, I went through my 2" scrap drawers and chose a variety of colors and designs that were a similar flavor and value.
    Because I have used the webbing method I learned from Wanda before and just saw Bonnie Hunter's quilt cam where she webbed a small block quilt with sashings and cornerstones, I webbed the whole top and just need to complete the rows. Everything stayed in order. I will chose a fabric for a 4" finished border so this can be a good size comfort quilt, which has already comforted me.
     Thank you to the unknown lovely quilters in Illinois from 1999! I will copy the names off the back of the blocks and post them soon. 

Auditioning sashing

Cornerstones arranged

Blocks set up for webbing

All webbed, rows need to be sewn. Then borders

On a different note, my orphan blocks have been awarded by drawing a name. Lisa Marie- you won. I emailed you and need your mailing address. 
Thank you to all who entered.

    

Happy National Quilting Day!

     Wishing all you quilters and fabriholics a Happy National Quilting Day! Now go stitch something! 
      I couldn't find clothesline or something to string across my yard, so the fence had to do with only two- one vintage and one new.

Orphan Adoption

    Cynthia Brunz of Quilting is more fun than Housework, is sponsoring another Orphan Adoption with links on her blog.
     This is a good time, with cleaning out all my studio, to offer something. In some bags of scraps given to me for my comfort quilts, I found these blocks. They are made from Cherrywood Fabrics and are 6 1/2" unfinished and there are 18 now. It looks to me that someone made intricate blocks along with the 365 quilt block patterns, but petered out. I would have. I love the fabric and the blocks, but I have too much to work on and will not get to these in the near future. The package includes the blocks and some Cherrywood fabric as seen in the photo.
     If you would like these blocks to complete, add to, or otherwise create a finished quilt, make a comment. On Sunday evening, I will have my granddaugher pull a name from the comment requests and I will announce it on Monday on this blog. I will mail them to you if you have proper email info and able to give me a US address. 

Aliens have landed

     The aliens/superhero quilt is finished. All quilted and bound and labeled. When I find out when and where I can mail it, I will wash it, remove it from the dryer with gloves, put it in the tote bag which is also ready, add a card and book, and then plastic zip loc bag it, put it in a box and mail it to New Jersey for the little guy.
     I loved to quilt it and some may think it is over-quilted, but I love the texture. Once it is washed, it will have that lovely texture crinkle. The backing is an ombre dark blue that I have been saving for something. I think it works here- it is not faded, just ombre. And yes, I see the block error in repeating (saw it when I got to it in quilting).

The aliens are coming

     I did figure out a quilt for my cousin's grandson who is three and  facing real nasty surgery to repair a birth defect. Previously I shared some quarter square blocks that did not work. This quilt was inspired by the geometric quilt ideas from Quilted Twins. I fussy cut the squares to showcase the animal or alien or superhero. My idea was that as the little guy was laying in bed, he could "I Spy" all the various characters hopefully distracting him from his recovery. 
    For the shadows, I did not use solid fabric, but a dark blue with black spirals. The lighting does not do the quilt justice. Too wet and icky to photo outside.
    I used some alien green fabric for the outer border and some blue fabric that had some scrubbed character to it- think it is a Lori Holt. I own some in green also. I thought it would make a great border for some quilt when I was fabric shopping in Ohio. 
     The backing is ombre fabric I had for a while, and a friend gave me the cartoon superhero word fabrics used in the center. I think the back goes together well with the front.
     Now it is loaded on the long arm and trying to get it done.

Zig zag all done

     In a scrap quilt workshop presentation for my guild a while back, I did a number of quilt ideas including Zig Zag by The Happy Zombie.
     I finally got around to making the backing. I used some leaf fabric donated by Gwen stretched to fit with some funky dots. It is about 62 x 80. Once again, I used striped fabric for the binding. I had some real wide stripes which worked perfect with this design. The orangeish tone on the white is chalk from marking as I do not wash the quilt until I find out who the recipient is. It is an easy quilt. even though it is on point. I used Glide Celery on top, Linen PremoSoft in the bobbin. Hobbs 80/20 batting. All quilting done freehand on my now fixed Nolting NV longarm.
     I still believe quilting makes the quilt.
    This will be a comfort quilt when I receive a request.

Another one pieced and a sample

     I have a 110 year old Singer 15 treadle in a parlor cabinet. I love the stitches. I needed some relaxation, and not being a big TV watcher, I webbed the gray and color batik rectangle blocks. It was very satisfying. So, another top done and ready for quilting. I got the idea from Sarah's Rockin' Rectangles lessons.

         I got a comfort quilt request for a little boy who is going to undergo some scary surgery. I tried some sample blocks of broken dishes with dark colors and light prints. I put them on the wall and looked at them. I don't think they have the punch I was hoping for. I think I will try another pattern I saw from the Quilted Twins and scare up some super hero, monsters, and dinosaur fabric which are his likes.