Artful Homemade Quilts Have A Way

[freedombecki]

Sometimes, plan b is much more beautiful than plan a, but for some reason, it just never works out. The two plan B colors just sat there for days. I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

plan b

No doubt, plan b is a beautiful quilt. No doubts whatever.
But it just isn't right. Plan a was right for my simple 5" squares, and not plan b, which looks magnificent with 16-patch soft colors.
​

plan a

'Tis a gift to be simple. Sounds like a good name for the quiltette, too. Plan a it is.​

​

 

[Sunshine]

Sometimes, plan b is much more beautiful than plan a, but for some reason, it just never works out. The two plan B colors just sat there for days. I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

plan b

No doubt, plan b is a beautiful quilt. No doubts whatever.
But it just isn't right. Plan a was right for my simple 5" squares, and not plan b, which looks magnificent with 16-patch soft colors.
​

plan a

'Tis a gift to be simple. Sounds like a good name for the quiltette, too. Plan a it is.​

​

Wow. You are making me want to buy frames and quilt my cross stitched quilt myself by hand. I think if this disease were farther along with regard to my having to be on oxygen and curtail physical activity I would. But I know how fast you can quilt a quilt if you work on it every day.

 

[freedombecki]

Uh oh! Some say quilting is a true addiction, with no known cure. Others just say "oh, but quilting is a positive dependency!"

There are medicines for quilting addiction though--shopping for quilt fabric, building a stash, going to a quilt show, collecting a few quilt books, making a pictorial quilt album of past quilts. But you don't have to worry until you're at the stage of making "future quilts," and you have 1000 pictures or more in your collection.

Unfortunately, medicines seem to exacerbate and not reduce the symptoms of quilt addiction.

 

[freedombecki]

This is kind of a monochromatic version of the "Sea, America" quilt top I just made that measures ~42x54, give or take a couple of inches.

There are 12 scans, which will take 4 messages. The colors are very bright and true. Hope they come out well below:

 

[freedombecki]

Thanks for the service of all you USMB sailor guys!

 

[freedombecki]

More scans of the 42x54" quilt top being donated to Charity Bees, and it's the #35th one of 2013 for this girl who presently has a case of cabin fever. Fortunately, nice hot weather is ahead:

 

[freedombecki]

And scans 10, 11, and 12 of Sea, America!

 

[freedombecki]

Woo hoo! I'm free!!! Time to go mow my little 14 acres of weeds!!!

 

[freedombecki]

This morning, another quick quilt idea came that I've done before: a checkerboard quilt. I found a yard of this and a yard of that, which I joined as the width of a checkerboard crib-sized quilt, plus mulled some border choices that I'm laying out in no particular order.

Checkerboard quilt and potential border fabrics of which one, all , or none may appear:

 

[Mr. H.]

Hey, beckers. I finally got around to revisiting that antique store. Took some close-up pix of a quilt for sale. Anyhow they're asking $125. Probably would take $100. Am considering it, but would appreciate your input.

And here's the stand-off shot I posted earlier:

 

[freedombecki]

Hey, beckers. I finally got around to revisiting that antique store. Took some close-up pix of a quilt for sale. Anyhow they're asking $125. Probably would take $100. Am considering it, but would appreciate your input.

And here's the stand-off shot I posted earlier:

You don't want my input, Mr. H. Once in my business, I hired a gal to quilt for a a lady who refused to pay $1200 for the labor as agreed, after she piled on one after another after another quality expectations into the work for which we complied. It took my hiree 12 months of skilled labor working in shop to complete it, $5400 of which went to her wages for the time she spent on that quilt. That taught me to write labor contracts and never do something for nothing at my own expense again. It's not much fun to go to sleep at night and think about stuff like that. I only asked her for the agreed amount, not my loss. That wasn't good enough, and I wondered how I was going to get through the next 6 months with that kind of a loss against a 3-year-old business....

I think the fabulous work is a steal at $125, unless it smells perfectly horrible. I'd know more if I saw the back of the quilt stitches, in which no secrets are hidden if it is on a solid color back.

Thanks for sharing the gorgeous picture, Mr. H. Your quilt rocks. I hope it's still there when you go back.

 

[Mr. H.]

I think the fabulous work is a steal at $125, unless it smells perfectly horrible. I'd know more if I saw the back of the quilt stitches, in which no secrets are hidden if it is on a solid color back.

Thanks for sharing the gorgeous picture, Mr. H. Your quilt rocks. I hope it's still there when you go back.

Thanks, b. The third picture above is actually of the quilt back. 'Cause I knew you'd bring that up.

I'm surprised I didn't take a big nose hit, because I usually smell everything LOL.
But thanks for your input, I appreciate it.

Oh and that story is a nightmare. Yeah I learned the hard way too regarding some business deals. Oofah.

 

[freedombecki]

Today, work produced an extension of the checkerboard to 11 rows, plus most of the long strips got sewn to finish tomorrow, and hopefully, some will be done tonight. The work is a little boring, so please pass the smelling salt for times when Morpheus creeps up as yawning increases.

The funny part is, all the squares look alike... but here are the latest rows anyway...



Oh yes. One of the border fabrics was lighter, which caused it to look faded when the piece got larger and the bright rust came through. A quickie trip to the quilt store produced 3 new choices, which will be used up with the 10 yards of the rusty color on a bolt in ye stash.

Our local shop rocks.

 

[freedombecki]

I think the fabulous work is a steal at $125, unless it smells perfectly horrible. I'd know more if I saw the back of the quilt stitches, in which no secrets are hidden if it is on a solid color back.

Thanks for sharing the gorgeous picture, Mr. H. Your quilt rocks. I hope it's still there when you go back.

Thanks, b. The third picture above is actually of the quilt back. 'Cause I knew you'd bring that up.

I'm surprised I didn't take a big nose hit, because I usually smell everything LOL.
But thanks for your input, I appreciate it.

Oh and that story is a nightmare. Yeah I learned the hard way too regarding some business deals. Oofah.

The third picture above is actually of the quilt back.​

Thanks, Mr. H. I'm not surprised I missed it since I'm seeing checkerboards in my sleep, and I must have been sleeping through the frames although my impression of the quilt you liked is a very favorable one. Now that I noticed, the quilt stitches are even on the back and quite wonderful. If you can find out who made the quilt and the state in which it was made, that would be a hole in one, but don't tell the dealer. Just try to get accurate information if possible. If it was part of an estate, find out whose estate, and whether the person made, inherited, or was given the quilt. It is beneficial when collecting quilts to know the person who made it and where they're from, and if there is a quilt registration service in your state, a picture sent to them could come up with the name of the maker if it was somehow registered. My guess is it may not have been, but then, you never know until you research the quilt.

 

[freedombecki]

As of last night, the 23-squares wide checkerboard (35") has 6 more rows down, bringing the current length to 17-squares. If I posted "proof", it would just look like the last one.

Maybe this morning, I can get back to it. I have a nice bright red sunburn from not wearing a hat on mowing part of the front field all day long. The field grass is 30" high in some places. The flood plain out back had a look I've not seen since we've lived her (4 years). The tall grass was all on its side from where the seasonal creeks communicated after our three-day monsoon. (well, it rained pretty hard, but 160 miles inland is not generally considered monsoon country)

 

[freedombecki]

I'm blaming the sun and my burned face and forearms. Yesterday, I jumped in front of the sewing machine and sewed 4 rows before discovering the stitchline was off 2 mm. Across the row of 23 postage stamp squares, that netted the error exactly one square short, and of course none of the smaller results matched any of the larger results. It took all day to get off the orbit such a blatant error (23x4= 92) of seamlines that had to be ripped out. The squares could have been sewn into something else that accommodated rectangles, but alas, the red berry print was in such short supply, the only recourse was to rip all 92 seams and sew them back together with the needle set at 4 and not at 3 which caused the misfit 4 rows.

For some reason, this morning, I faced my demons and did in what time it takes to do a quarter of a fine quilt to take all that apart and fix it.

Note to self: Buy huge red fat marker and make huge placard saying "set machine straight stitch at 4 for a quarter inch allowance." Place in front of machine at night to warn oneself to wake up and do right every day!

Well, spent the rest of the day making up for lost time. Now, there's just one more small border to add, and #36 is done. Will bbl to post a picture. of the borderlands.

Wow, anger sure had its positive effect today! Getting mad must raise the level of adrenalin for getting-up-and-going around here.

 

[koshergrl]

I have to shorten and hem my son's suit pants tonight, or he's going to outgrow the jacket before he ever wears it!

And it's so spiffy!

 

[freedombecki]

Good luck with the haberdashery, Koshergrl.

 

[koshergrl]

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

Oh wow, I accidentally went to page one and saw this.....I was wondering where I had stashed those pics.

 

[freedombecki]

Its been a long day, but it's finished. There are 23 horizontal rows (width) of solid rusty red postage stamp squares alternating with an off-white rusty red berry print by 31 squares in length, which means there are 713 total postage stamps. Each one is 1.25" square.

I really love this little quilt. It was a lot of ripping today, but a good lesson learned.

My mama told me there'd be days like this!