Artful Homemade Quilts Have A Way

[freedombecki]

Oh those are beautiful...
I'm still working on the rocking stitch and getting a little better, but I'm still not good with the thimble, I end up doing it horizontally, without a thimble, so far. I can do about 3-4 stitches at a time, it looks pretty good...my quilting has lots of curves and I'm not good on the curves or with changes of direction.

I honestly don't understand how the rockers can get through all the layers and back up with so little movement, I have to really move my needle.

I have a picture somewhere of a quilt the ladies in my sister's husband's family did by hand many, many years ago..it's gorgeous.

My grandma used to make immense tied quilts..she had a big frame, and she and her in laws and relatives would meet up a couple of times a year to throw them together. She used wool scraps and cotton ticking backing, and cotton batting (the old buff colored type with specs in it). We had about 3 of those quilts growing up; they were heavy and tough. Mom wouldn't wash them and they got fairly gross over time, but the wool and ticking meant they held up well anyway. When I was young but grown I washed mine and it did ruin it the wool shrank, pulled, and came unsewn in places and at that time I had no clue how to make it better. I wish I had them now!

I'll see if I can find my pic...

Allie, I spent all afternoon looking up arthritis. About all I can come up with is people raving about krill oil and a bevy of herbals from the natural cures world and NSAIDs from the medical world. One thing I heard consistently and even carried in my shop years ago were these wrist-and-hand-supportive gloves afflicted quilters use to ease some of the rough days. The only other consistent thing I read about was consistent exercise. You probably already do that by walking your dogs. You are on my prayer list with love while you try to get that quilt completed. I hope you space your timing with not too many hours invested all at once without a little hand-limbering exercise or a brisk walk interspersing at hourly intervals. I recommend using a timer and paying close attention to when things don't feel exactly right with your quilting hand. Put a soothing powder in your thimble, and go to leather if itching is caused by any metal or plastic thimble device you may need to use to ameliorate any pain your needle could cause your skin.

Also, if it becomes clear you cannot make the goal of completing by the wedding on account of this issue, get a set of affordable towels in colors the bride likes, and save the quilt for a first or even fifth anniversary.

Quilts are, after all, a process, not a destination. The more power to you, though, if you are able to persevere.

I love what you would have your neice to have by her wedding. You're a very special aunt, just for wanting her to have something you made yourself. I'm a machine quilter, it's true, but I have nothing but respect for hand quilters and needleworkers.

It's just that I use a home sewingmachine as a paintbrush and strongarm quilter after making 600 quilts for other people and probably half again as many machine embroidered items for my home and those of my loved ones. Most were quilted on my longarm at work, but my first quilt was hand quilted, and yep, I started out not knowing how big to make my stitches. My grandmother was still alive at the time, and I asked her what size the stitches should be. She put her head to the side and her finger on her jaw, then she said slowly (she was 95 years old at the time) "Well, you should be sure the stitches are small enough so that toenails can't get under them and rip them out."

I really valued her words. She knew everything.

 

[freedombecki]

Found the pics!
On the back they have written who worked on the quilt "prior to 1920"

Wow, AllieBaba. Your grandma's red and white pineapple quilt rocks!!! The last quilt I made in Wyoming of interest was a pineapple quilt top with a tiny 9-patch in the middle square. It gave it a chained look I'd never seen in any pineapple quilt before, nor could I find anything like it anyone else had done after searching online for 6-8 weeks. I like to improve old master works. I hate to sound so smug, but I was totally pleased with the outcome.

 

[AllieBaba]

My arthritis is very mild so far...I have twinges and my thumbs have the psoriatic thing going but it's nothing compared to what other people have to live with. My discomfort the other night was quite possibly nothing more than muscle pain...it's not bothering me now.

I love the red & white quilt...it wasn't one that my gramma did though, it's one that my sister's husband's family made, and was all hand quilted. And DENSELY quilted, every inch is quilted to the nines. My granny did the big wool tied quilts. I imagine the image I have of them in my mind will be one that will flash before my eyes when I die, it's that strong an image and feeling...which is aok since we have no pics and I ruined mine (and the others are long gone as well).

I'm working on my niece's quilt...

 

[AllieBaba]

When I'm finished with this quilt, I'm starting the next for my oldest son and his family...I think it's called Blue Willow. I bought the material a year ago (for a pretty penny) and I have the pattern...and it will be machine quilted. We have a lady here in town who heads up a quilting club and she has a machine quilter and she quilts everybody's quilts for them and does a beautiful job. This next quilt is challenging enough I doubt I'll be up for hand quilting it after I get it put together.

I'll see if I can find an image of it online...

 

[AllieBaba]

Here it is, I think.

 

[AllieBaba]

I'm working on a charity quilt that more or less resembles a top won on ebay the other day. (Edit) Think I got a bigger pic now:

Finally got it!

This may require an edit because right now, the image is in png, and it needs to be in a compatible with this board's stuff. So I'm not expecting much in the way of image to start with. Patience, please. Well, first go round, the attached thumbnail worked anyway, after I clicked "jpeg" except nothing seemed to happen (no bells, whistles or clicks). It just accepted it, but did not accept the direct link which should have shown up above.

The quilt I'm working on is from scraps given me by a community person who knew I made charity quilts and brought them to my shop some time back. I put some navy hearts around the 16-patch squares, which yielded a 16 1/2 inch block, so then I cut 8 more 16.5-inch squares from some old 36" material that you know was printed before 1960, but again, I made a bid on and won a 40-pound moving box full of quilter's fabrics from an estate, which I then spent a week washing and folding and putting away. *sigh* such is a quilter's life... The butterflies I designed are like one I made years ago and sold for $300. that fit a big bed and was red and white (some collectors just love red and white quilts). They have roundish upper and lower wings and only resemble nature's masterwork butterflies in a cartoonish kind of way. I'm using hues from the rainbow, and so far have completed red, pink, and yellow squares. The next one will be a lime green color, if I can remember where my box of lime green scraps is. Otherwise, I have to go to town... I waste more time getting the colors right than anybody else I know. I know the greens are around someplace. Then it's on to purple, blue, turquoise, and maybe another green--like the one you see on cheap St. Patrick's day green wigs, t-shirts, and shamrocks, aka bright green. I love making quilts kids might just take a cotton to...

Lol..

Is that green called Kelly green??

 

[freedombecki]

I'm working on a charity quilt that more or less resembles a top won on ebay the other day. (Edit) Think I got a bigger pic now:

Finally got it!

This may require an edit because right now, the image is in png, and it needs to be in a compatible with this board's stuff. So I'm not expecting much in the way of image to start with. Patience, please. Well, first go round, the attached thumbnail worked anyway, after I clicked "jpeg" except nothing seemed to happen (no bells, whistles or clicks). It just accepted it, but did not accept the direct link which should have shown up above.

The quilt I'm working on is from scraps given me by a community person who knew I made charity quilts and brought them to my shop some time back. I put some navy hearts around the 16-patch squares, which yielded a 16 1/2 inch block, so then I cut 8 more 16.5-inch squares from some old 36" material that you know was printed before 1960, but again, I made a bid on and won a 40-pound moving box full of quilter's fabrics from an estate, which I then spent a week washing and folding and putting away. *sigh* such is a quilter's life... The butterflies I designed are like one I made years ago and sold for $300. that fit a big bed and was red and white (some collectors just love red and white quilts). They have roundish upper and lower wings and only resemble nature's masterwork butterflies in a cartoonish kind of way. I'm using hues from the rainbow, and so far have completed red, pink, and yellow squares. The next one will be a lime green color, if I can remember where my box of lime green scraps is. Otherwise, I have to go to town... I waste more time getting the colors right than anybody else I know. I know the greens are around someplace. Then it's on to purple, blue, turquoise, and maybe another green--like the one you see on cheap St. Patrick's day green wigs, t-shirts, and shamrocks, aka bright green. I love making quilts kids might just take a cotton to...

Lol..

Is that green called Kelly green??

'']

Ya got me!!!

 

[freedombecki]

Here it is, I think.

That's really pretty, Allie. It's really good that you're getting it professionally quilted. Do you machine or hand piece your tops?

 

[freedombecki]

Attention, AlliBaba! Here's the KELLY GREEN butterfly and one of the rag squares, thanks to my Quilt Guild sister JM sending it to me over her iphone. I finished it about an hour and a half ago. To see the full quilt, go here. The 16" blocks made the whole quilt into a twin-sized quilt. If only I were more of a geek, I could use the digital camera I got a few months back, and the printer/scanner I got a month ago. *fizzle* It's hard...

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[AllieBaba]

Gorgeous!

I use a machine to piece, I can't imagine hand sewing all THAT...I would have to be shut up away from the world with zero distractions for a really long time to ever, ever accomplish it...

 

[freedombecki]

Well, the butterfly quilt came about in two ways--first, the piecing was easy. Several years ago, a lady brought a box of fabric into the store and asked if we'd like to use it in any community quilts (we had done quilts for hospice, quilts for the College Day Care, quilts for Squad Cars, quilts for the Fire Department to distribute to people whose houses had burned down and had to start over, and of course, quilts for wounded soldiers.) I said yes and thanked her, wondering how we'd get through sorting through someone's sewing leftovers for 10 years, put it in the back room and since the quilt kits I made for participants were usually from new bolts, didn't use them.

Then when I retired, I started looking through donations. Most of them were not conventionally usable for traditional quilters who use cotton woven broadcloth and percales. However, she'd cut a lot of 3 1/2" squares and placed them in a baggie and tossed them in with her other leftovers (some usable for quilts). I separated them, woven from knits, and quilt-weight wovens from sailcloths and heavy wovens. There weren't enough for a quilt, but I figured I could do some squares and combine them with an easy applique in between the 16-patch squares. The 16-patch squares were not the same size, because I added some 3 1/2 inch squares from my stash to add a little color to the quilt. After starting the Lepidoptera thread, I had gotten so inspired by the pretty butterflies USMB members added in so many, many beautiful colors, I decided to make the squares between simple "lepidoptera" family members--each a different color in the rainbow. I figured some kid living at the family shelter for abused family members might like it, so I got busy.

The machine pieced squares took a day or so (I have a lot of other things to do every day), and the butterflies took a day to design and make a couple of squares, I fit one butterfly construction into a day I was sure there would be no time to work on it, and then the last 5 butterflies, I cut out fabrics, then basted them onto 16.5" background squares this morning before our quilt guild "Friday Cut Ups" started. From 10 to 4 today, I appliqued the remaining butterflies with a satin stitch in dark blue to pick up the dark blue around the 16-patch squares. Actually, those squares were different sizes, because the donor lady used the trace method around a cereal-box template, and mine were cut to a precise 3.5" on a mat with a rotary cutter. For whatever reason (it could be getting used to a new sewing machine), the squares didn't all measure exactly 12.5" but were sized from 12.25-12.7". To even everything out, I cut the dark blue fabric three inches, cutting enough to surround all those pieced squares. Then, I took my 16.5" quilt square and squared them to the same size as the 16.5" butterfly background light blue fabric.

It took as much time to design as it did to sew the butterflies. Huge roundish shapes are simple simon to baste down and satin stitch around. A half hour apiece, tops, some of the last ones only took 15 minutes, because by then, I sorta knew what I was doing. Of course the first one took a couple of hours of hemming and hawing around, which is common for someone doing a quilt they haven't done before.

So from the inspiration of a scrap donor and several USMB posters who found my "Lepidoptera lovers--butterfly kisses" thread, this quilt top is a done deal for a needful family or child sometime during the upcoming year. A few ladies have quilt machines and donate their time and skill, so hopefully it will be a quilt soon.

I love the inspiration of other people.

I'm especially grateful to you, AllieBaba, for sharing your wonderful gift for your niece that you are quilting under the duress of pain from arthritis, another of those mean autoimmune issues that seem to just randomly show up. I have a family member who's "always mad" and I had to deal with her today as gracefully and as carefully as I could, and my heart was a little weary. Your post reminded me of all the good people there are out there, so here I am smiling again, knowing that my family member may someday come around when she figures out that happiness is not won on the misery of others, and that she can be a positive influence when she resolves that riddle that has chased her through her life, it seems. *sigh*

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[AllieBaba]

I have put aside just a few items of clothing that I mean to cut and use....a vest of my son's, the dress my daughter wore for her first day of school...I think I would like to make a vest out of knit sweater fabric some day. But to make that work I really need my machine set up all the time, so I can cut and piece as I go.

I quilted 4 hoops of my quilt yesterday, I hope to have it done in no time at all. Then I have to quilt the border...and that is going to take some time. I think I'm going to waffle quilt it....and I think I'm going to do it by hand after all. I wasn't going to, but what I'm doing is going so quickly, and I do want to master the rocking stitch. I'm getting better but still inconsistent. I'm wearing my thimble now but because I don't rely heavily on it to make the stitch (just to push the needle through at the end) my thumb is getting sore. Sooo...I'm going a little more slowly and trying to get used to using my thimble to move the needle, not just push it though. But it's slow going and I get impatient and revert to my old way...I need a thimble for my thumb!

 

[freedombecki]

I have put aside just a few items of clothing that I mean to cut and use....a vest of my son's, the dress my daughter wore for her first day of school...I think I would like to make a vest out of knit sweater fabric some day. But to make that work I really need my machine set up all the time, so I can cut and piece as I go.

I quilted 4 hoops of my quilt yesterday, I hope to have it done in no time at all. Then I have to quilt the border...and that is going to take some time. I think I'm going to waffle quilt it....and I think I'm going to do it by hand after all. I wasn't going to, but what I'm doing is going so quickly, and I do want to master the rocking stitch. I'm getting better but still inconsistent. I'm wearing my thimble now but because I don't rely heavily on it to make the stitch (just to push the needle through at the end) my thumb is getting sore. Sooo...I'm going a little more slowly and trying to get used to using my thimble to move the needle, not just push it though. But it's slow going and I get impatient and revert to my old way...I need a thimble for my thumb!

Google "Thumble," AllieBaba. I used to sell them in my store, don't know if they're still around, but one sounds perfect for you.

Also, if you have a local quilt store in your area that carries Moda Fabrics, they can order you a pair of quilter's gloves that people really love. they come in 2 sizes--small/medium, and medium/large. The cost of the gloves used to be around eight dollars, but now, they're probably ten to twelve, considering how expensive stuff has gotten lately. Take care of those dear hands that do so much for others.

 

[freedombecki]

AllieBaba, I "Bing'd" thumbles and found a

Leather Thumble here

Ted's Thumb Thimble in brass or silver here

Jelly Thimbles for fingers or thumb here

Some thimbles are more comfortable than others, but I always liked the metal ones because they absolutely guaranteed no puncture wounds ever.

I have a good story about someone who decided she would never ever use a thimble because they were uncomfortable. After a week of quilting her first quilt, the tip of her finger went numb. After two weeks of quilting, her whole finger and thumb went numb. Still, she persisted in eschewing the thimble. After a month of quilting, she lost all feeling up to her elbows. That's when....


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I bought my first doggone thimble. The numbness was gone in 3 days. I've been using thimbles for handwork ever since. I won't even hem a pair of pants without one or handstitch a tape to a miniature quilt that measures 8x11" for that matter.

 

[freedombecki]

Missing a check in from AllieBaba about progress on her niece's quilt... *sigh*

Though I know that quilting is a long, drawn-out process and not a destination so very, very well....

 

[AllieBaba]

The thimble story is hilarious...

I haven't had much energy over the last couple of weeks. I've done a little work on the quilt but not much...but I HAVE improved my rocking stitch! I picked it up for a little bit yesterday, and was booking right along!

I feel better today; my energy level usually goes hand in hand with how much I hate my work, lol. Work has been a pain over the last few weeks and when I go home, I don't want to do anything (and haven't been to my kids' chagrin).

I'm thinking hard about how I'm going to quilt the border....I'm really leaning toward waffle quilting, but I haven't made a decision yet. I still have a little time as I complete the quilting on the blocks...

 

[freedombecki]

A waffle border? Allie, you've been around internet wafflers toooooooo long!!! hehehe

But it would enhance either 90 and 180-degree angles of the squarish windmills if you position your waffles at 45 degrees to the interior of the quilt. 45 degree waffles would also enhance feathers in the interiors of your windmill motifs, or if you used any kind of curves in either the cogs or background space around the windmills.

When I think about it, "Cog Wheel" would be a good name for that motif. I made half a dozen cog wheel quilts last year, but our camera was out, so I didn't get a photo of any of them. They've already been distributed to charity. I did quilt one for use at the church on the 4th of July--with the "windmills" fashioned into a cross in the center. I used blue sky, a red cross, and a touch of white around the border with a larger blue cogged border. Unfortunately, they took it down after the 4th of July, and it will rest a year before it's up again. People are truly tired of politics nowadays, and I don't blame them for getting patriotic colors out for a while as everyone clears their heads and moves toward a more loving future in our nation.

On that note, I'm going to add a pic of my not-red-white-n-blue Purple Heart Quilt that was designed and done my my group of Purple Heart Quilters before I left Wyoming to come to a warmer climate:

I Designed, long-arm quilted, bound, provided materials, and embroidered credits on the back of this quilt, but senior citizens, Judy, Jo, Ruth, and Kelly, did the sewing work to join and applique the blocks. Without their love, this quilt never would have been, and it was distributed to a wounded soldier at then-Walter Reed Hospital, by our local Senator-physician, JB. The Purple Heart was the child of General-and-later-President George Washington who had little money but wanted the Continental Congress to recognize his barefoot band of patriots who suffered harsh conditions that cold winter at Valley Forge to win freedom for all Americans with medals fashioned into hearts and painted purple for their Christian values (purple is the color of the Christian church) not to mention their earnest valor in the face of untenable physical conditions of weather and often punitive, military readiness of King George's far better-dressed Redcoat troops.
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[AllieBaba]

A waffle border? Allie, you've been around internet wafflers toooooooo long!!! hehehe

But it would enhance either 90 and 180-degree angles of the squarish windmills if you position your waffles at 45 degrees to the interior of the quilt. 45 degree waffles would also enhance feathers in the interiors of your windmill motifs, or if you used any kind of curves in either the cogs or background space around the windmills.

When I think about it, "Cog Wheel" would be a good name for that motif. I made half a dozen cog wheel quilts last year, but our camera was out, so I didn't get a photo of any of them. They've already been distributed to charity. I did quilt one for use at the church on the 4th of July--with the "windmills" fashioned into a cross in the center. I used blue sky, a red cross, and a touch of white around the border with a larger blue cogged border. Unfortunately, they took it down after the 4th of July, and it will rest a year before it's up again. People are truly tired of politics nowadays, and I don't blame them for getting patriotic colors out for a while as everyone clears their heads and moves toward a more loving future in our nation.

On that note, I'm going to add a pic of my not-red-white-n-blue Purple Heart Quilt that was designed and done my my group of Purple Heart Quilters before I left Wyoming to come to a warmer climate:

I Designed, long-arm quilted, bound, provided materials, and embroidered credits on the back of this quilt, but senior citizens, Judy, Jo, Ruth, and Kelly, did the sewing work to join and applique the blocks. Without their love, this quilt never would have been, and it was distributed to a wounded soldier at then-Walter Reed Hospital, by our local Senator-physician, JB. The Purple Heart was the child of General-and-later-President George Washington who had little money but wanted the Continental Congress to recognize his barefoot band of patriots who suffered harsh conditions that cold winter at Valley Forge to win freedom for all Americans with medals fashioned into hearts and painted purple for their Christian values (purple is the color of the Christian church) not to mention their earnest valor in the face of untenable physical conditions of weather and often punitive, military readiness of King George's far better-dressed Redcoat troops.​

Beautiful!

 

[freedombecki]

The beautiful-est part is any wounded soldier who served his/or her country with such valor as to put life and limb on the line for his or her fellow Americans, not to mention those who were set free on account of our kids' willingness to give it all up for freedom. Faithful military service is beauty, and though you can't see it, you know it's there by the gift that was sacrificed for their fellow men. As far as I'm concerned, from the time they enter their first line waiting to sign up for boot camp until they walk in the front door of their home following an honorable discharge, all that rot they went through is the fire that forged beauty into their souls of willingness to die to save many others grief.

Thanks for the kind words, though.

Before all was said and done, we'd distributed more than 30 quilts over a 3 year time. I'll never know how I mustered the strength to quilt all of them except 2 that one of the gals donated already finished by her. With fibromyalgia, I'd gone from almost zero quilting to quilting and binding all those quilts. Sometimes I'd have to wait for 2 weeks or more to do another one. Once during that time, I had a cold that went on and on and on (fibromyalgia conveniently removes your immune system to enhance its pain effect and teach you who's boss, grrrrrrrrr), and I was forced into a winter's hiatus of over 6 months in which nothing at all was quilted, but I did create more tops. Long-arm quilting is a total fitness issue because it's long, uses many muscles, and unlike a home sewing machine that moves the work forward through its feed dog system to quilt, your arms and all your upper body muscles have to move the heavy long arm machine gracefully and fluidly over the top layer surface of the quilt while you either free motion the machine by its horns or you guide a needle along a path designated by long sheets of continuous-line curves and corners in a designated pattern, i.e. clamshell or vine. I think the prayers of my church friends carried me. I bless them.

 

[freedombecki]

This sewing day was wonderful. I finished one charity quilt in brick and mortar format a couple of months ago and started a second before realizing I might not have enough "mortar" fabric because I was working with 30s reproduction prints and selected a white-grounded, pale tan leaf pattern. So I ran back to the store and got another yard, or so I thought. When I got home, it was a little to the gold of ecru instead of 30s white, and the leaf was a bolder golden tan than the first. So it was back to the store, where things had been replaced pell mell as though the store were looking to rearrange fabrics. I found three of the same print in different shades of pale. I bought another yard of the one I'd just purchased (sample in hand of both fabrics), and enough of the first fabric to combine with leftovers to get 2 yards, which was ample to do one quilt. Then I promptly put them somewhere, who knows where, I don't know where.... although, fortunately, I cut enough mortar strips from the palest fabric that matched the first quilt to complete the quilt, or so I thought.

Today, I had to substitute yet another light print for the one that sprouted legs and walked away from my notice. Of that one, I bought it a week later and bought 5 yards all the same thing. this one had stars, not leaves, so I can make a light grounded patriotic quilt if I like (I love working with flag colors. I think of President George Washington the entire time, as he and Martha Washington are my favorite couple of all time.) A few years back, I went on an ebay buying binge and bought Martha Washington patterns, Martha Washington cups, Martha Washington's cookbook, etc., etc. I even made a Martha Washington charity quilt, and it brought me total joy just making it. I love those two people, never met them, I just feel love for them in my heart.

Anyway, I finished the second top before high noon today. I don't have my new camera working yet, 6 months later, hedge, hedge, hedge... but I'll try to find a 30s brick quilt if one is pictured somewhere online that allows sharing images.

Didn't find it. I did find a couple of examples of other types of quilts with mortar, but most people don't want to fool with the mortar, yet I think it truly defines the quilt and makes it have that very, very special look.

*sigh* wouldn't you know, my 30s repro quilt doesn't look anywhere near one of these. I guess I'll have to find the camera and instruction booklet and get busy.
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