Artful Homemade Quilts Have A Way

[beautress]

On Monday, I delivered 10 quilts and 2 senior bibs. I was hanging on to two beautiful quilts for family, but decided to make 2 more for my family and do what my goal was for the charity bees. Darn, they were cute. One was the third ship I was saving to look at next time I did a quit of a ship like the log ones I make, but I still have my original picture from a few years back when I did the first one. I ought to have worked just a little bit harder, and spent the last couple of days making futile posts after the President Trump was acquitted of impeachment charges, and I just wasted time. It's late Friday, I'm still under the weather, but I started another quilt because I haven't done a log quilt since the first 2 weeks in January? Is that right? I think it is.

Well, I haven't made a green quilt in a while, and thought I'd try and get some blarney going for St. Patrick's day quilt fest of the charity bees. I started with three inch squares in the center and have already laid down the first two lights which are chartreuse to lime lights, and plan on pulling out some dark green strips for the next 2 dark sides. I found nothing like this, as usual, but just for the heck of it here are some close but no cigar green quilts of logs/strips and whatever.

 

[beautress]

Got that green quilt done. It doesn't look like anything above, and it's tiny enough to be a hugs quilt, probably about 28x40". It's just real simple, with a large bright green-green center and cute everything-but-the-kitchen-sink diverse prints in a green thema, surrounded by the same green-green on the first border and a beautiful pastel cheerful circular florals that would blend right in with a pastel nursery. It's kind of dispersively patterned, but the differences in visual texture of the samo-samo squares seem conversational without the speech, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, it was fun and it's forming the base of the stack for the next 9 small hugs quilts for charity.

This is as close as I could come--big centers, 12 blocks 3x4, but mine is all greens, no blue. The quilt below, which I just found online uses 5 prints only, but the inner border is the same as the center, but no print outside the center is used more than once in the squares. I used 49 different fabrics, the one below 5. Even so, the total greens were fun to use and place here and there, and while I would love to use the one below, I have 2 objectives this month--to use some of the cheater quilt fabric I have accumulated, and in particular the animal life ones--birds, butterflies, cats, etc. One other similarity in this quilt and mine is the fields and furrows alignment of the 12 squares (diagonal row appearance). She used darker blues and in-your-face beautiful limes. I used light limes with diversity here and there, and very dark greens, alternating with some loden greens and deep dark shadowy sprucy greens to contrast with the green-green centers. I can't believe, however that I found a quilt with that many similarities to the one I actually finished that looks so different due to a closer to anachromatic, whereas the one below is quite bicolor.

I have a weird discipline. If I started another series of log cabin quilts, I'd make more quilts, but I'd spend a year making 100 quilts, which would contribute to my already atrocious housekeeping due to focusing on charity to the small babies in our community who are born into poverty of fatherless families, quite often, or student parents who have to scrimp, save, miss a semester here and there to fund each other, with only minimum wage jobs most likely. Bless the ones who keep carrying babies and having them. They're our nation's future, and they will have a life of hard work in the 20 years ahead until their little ones can fend for themselves as adults. That's why I pray over each and every quilt and for its recipient. Their parents need devotion to their children, determination to be parents to that or those children they make, and loyalty to each other for life. Lucky me, in spite of hardships, my parents were true to each other for life. And I was the second born and will likely outlive all the others in spite of my allergy issues, which I now control with diet and supplements that help that cause, based on studies of that particular nutrient that prove true to fight ordinary life-enders--such as cancer, COPD, RA (arthritis that is near unbearable) and tummy troubles that can be checked by an ordinary age-appropriate vitamin taken daily at the start of each day. Oh, that's so irrelevant to quilting, except to hope I can use up all that fabric in my house, of which I have enough to last for 30 years if I make 10 quilts a month which is 30x10x12 = whatever. Ok, I'll do the math: 3,600 quilts. (huff, puff, huff puff!) That means I have to take care of the eyes for vision, exercise to keep able, and vitamins that support immunity and life itself. Sewing quilts is very sedentery, so you have to take a walk and stretch for about a half hour a day at least. And I have to stay healthy past the age of 100 to do this. Plus, I won't have a boyfriend, because who would put up with a wife with a messy house, determination to spend 4 or 5 hours a day in front of the cutting table, sewing machine, etc? lol
Here's a toast to green quilts and not thinking about how nice it would be to have a caring man around the house who'd put up with my jazz:

 

[beautress]

Got the inner border done on the lime and blue quilt. I can't seem to locate that piece of bluebonnets fabric I was going to use on the border... another day, another day.

Oh, I found the cutest quilt this morning. I'm making a new file on quilts I see on the web, and this is the most creative fan quilt I've ever had the joy of running across.

I went to her website and she had instructions on this unique fan quilt: Twirling Fans QAL – Color Girl Quilts by Sharon McConnell

I just think it's an amazing work, look at that quilting!

 

[beautress]

I kept running into these amazing fan quilts this morning. I'll share some of them:

 

[beautress]

But I ran into another quilt in which the maker used the Stack n Whack method. I just couldn't figure it out until I ran into one calling it "Stack and Whack". I just never thought of using the stack and whack method on a fan quilt. Be blessed when you see them:

 

[beautress]

This fan quilt looks too easy, kind of like a paper fan, so I'm calling it the paper fan quilt:

It's made by a special ruler, and the above quilt is all out of Moda's fabrics. They're a quilt company in Texas, and I used to have the best choices from the Moda representative who visited my shop in Wyoming years ago. And that print tells me Moda is still putting out prettier fabrics this year than last year, when you didn't think anything could possibly be more beautiful. Those were the days! *sigh*
There's not only a picture of the ruler they used to make these "paper fans" but there's pictures of this and other quilts you can do with the dresden ruler. I've had a similar piece of equipment among my souvenirs, but never realized you could work such a cute and simple baby quilt out of just 3 pieces! How delightful!
Easy Dresden Ruler​

 

[beautress]

Sometimes you run into a quilting video that is just flat-out fun. This one qualifies. It has nothing to do with anything I have ever done with the exception of "back art" which I used to do with the small amount of fabrics I had leftover from any given project, and since I owned and operated my own store, I never had much left over since if I needed a 2x12" piece for 6 squares, I cut a 2" strip, which would leave about a 2x30" strip here and there from a few fabrics, and that usually would stretch into one diagonal 6" wide strip with backing cut on the diagonal to accommodate the backing needed. That often resulted in miscalculation and more leftovers! lol. So my scrap pile grew, but at least the scraps were 45" widths, most of the time, which were easy to cut into my log cabin stash of 1.5" strips and my "postage stamp" strips, which were generally 1.75" strips. Unfortunately, I have too many straps to coordinate and people who have "helped" me organize the strips cannot readily tell the difference between a one-and-a-half inch strip and a one-and-three-quarters-inch strip. lol. So, one "helper wound up with a bushel of mixed strips that I still haven't sorted out yet, and I can only blame myself for not writing out a pictorial diagram to show a 1.5" length and a 1.75" length which would have resulted in 2 piles rather than a bushel of unmatched strips.

Here's the delightful video, and she said something significant: "Done is better than perfect." Oh, how true that is! If you've never made a quilt before and are not aware that some "kits" have more leftovers than others, this inspirational video of a dream-come-true experienced quilter might leave you not getting it about the leftover issue from too many projects.

​

 

[beautress]

Wow, you get quilts no matter what you put in the search engine! Couldn't think of anything better, so I loaded "Wednesday Homemade Quilts" into Bing! and here's just a few of the different things pulled up. (Wednesday must be a pretty good day for quilting.)

 

[beautress]

More Wednesday homemade quilts...

 

[beautress]

Wow. This was like going to the Tall Pines quilt guild meeting and seeing all the lovely quilts at show and tell! Whoa!

 

[beautress]

Made some more bibs for the friend's church spring sale that's next month, I think, but am not sure... and got to thinking about older children and how they often become enchanted by one area or another of the zoo. So I looked up "zoo quilts" today, and the quilts are so precious, because I love the animals a lot for some strange reason, and always have since zoos became a place the kids liked when they were young.
So here's what some other people have done with quilts. (I wrote an ABC Animals book in or around 1988-89.) It has 44 animals in it, and I felt it never got quite finished since there are so many animals that are so different from any other creature in the world. Oh, well, it was what it was once upon a time.

"Zoo quilts"

 

[beautress]

zoo quilts from bing!

 

[beautress]

Almost St. Paddy's day--just 5 more days...

And other projects...

 

[beautress]

Oh, haven't been here for awhile. I am currently working on a red strip quilt, and my fiance has requested a new building to hold my massive supply of fabrics. It's going to be 24x30' and is scheduled to go up the week of 10/19/20. Half of my fabrics have been placed in clear bins, so I need to get the rest of them stored and ready to be put in my fabric barn. The next few weeks are going to be a challenge. But at least the downstairs is now well, nice.

 

[daveman]

Oh, haven't been here for awhile. I am currently working on a red strip quilt, and my fiance has requested a new building to hold my massive supply of fabrics. It's going to be 24x30' and is scheduled to go up the week of 10/19/20. Half of my fabrics have been placed in clear bins, so I need to get the rest of them stored and ready to be put in my fabric barn. The next few weeks are going to be a challenge. But at least the downstairs is now well, nice.

A fabric barn. A barn. For fabric.

You, my dear, are hard core.

 

[beautress]

Oh, haven't been here for awhile. I am currently working on a red strip quilt, and my fiance has requested a new building to hold my massive supply of fabrics. It's going to be 24x30' and is scheduled to go up the week of 10/19/20. Half of my fabrics have been placed in clear bins, so I need to get the rest of them stored and ready to be put in my fabric barn. The next few weeks are going to be a challenge. But at least the downstairs is now well, nice.

A fabric barn. A barn. For fabric.

You, my dear, are hard core.

Well, I confess that I own a quilt store in Wyoming, and left it in the care of a trusted employee with the hope it would keep people in a small town with a unique store that would advantage local quilters with art fabrics and choices. It never made much and still doesn't, but it was my gift to loving friends who deserved a quilt store with a broad range of colors hues, shades pastels, and dusty atmospheric colors of mountain and western feelings that make a quilt a celebration for its recipient.

I was weary of 15 + years of painful fibromyalgia exacerbated by below zero chill factors in the Rockies, and wanted to retire in my home state where all my brothers and sisters lived. My husband succumbed to issues of dementia 4.5 years ago, and our warm weather and a surgery took away fibro extreme pain. Yes, I have a lot of fabric, but have made several hundred quilt tops that my quilt sisters quilted for the care center that serves aids babies, children of single moms, and the more artistic ones are frequently sold for quilt educational for members in our 120 member Tall Pines Quilt Guild. Its a happy pastime, and with much of my supplies in storage, it is hard to get anything done, so there sit 5 rows of intricate red strip work to put together in vertical rows whenever I can find my rotary cutter and cutting mat simultaneously. <giggle>

 

[Erinwltr]

Got the inner border done on the lime and blue quilt. I can't seem to locate that piece of bluebonnets fabric I was going to use on the border... another day, another day.

Oh, I found the cutest quilt this morning. I'm making a new file on quilts I see on the web, and this is the most creative fan quilt I've ever had the joy of running across.

I went to her website and she had instructions on this unique fan quilt: Twirling Fans QAL – Color Girl Quilts by Sharon McConnell

I just think it's an amazing work, look at that quilting!

View attachment 308659​

This really gets my attention. I love the overlap of circles. You get the color dancing, and the white stitched background pulls it all in. Yes, this is amazing. Thank you.

 

[beautress]

Finished the "Red Rain" quilt with a charming new floral red white and blue print that hopefully will cheer up a baby crib somewhere if I ever get it done.

My goal today is to fill 2 boxes from the room I sleep in since my husband died 4 and a half years ago on the 13th of this December. I can picture him in heaven cheering up the angels with his sense of humor in these times of what appears to be a stolen election all over the map. I need to quit thinking about it and get back to making a joyful series of child quilts from designs I made and published of 42 or 43 naive cartoons for people who wanted to make an animal quilt for a child. Except I have a few log cabin strips, enough to make at least a dozen quilts. So see ya later..

 

[miketx]

Finished the "Red Rain" quilt with a charming new floral red white and blue print that hopefully will cheer up a baby crib somewhere if I ever get it done.

My goal today is to fill 2 boxes from the room I sleep in since my husband died 4 and a half years ago on the 13th of this December. I can picture him in heaven cheering up the angels with his sense of humor in these times of what appears to be a stolen election all over the map. I need to quit thinking about it and get back to making a joyful series of child quilts from designs I made and published of 42 or 43 naive cartoons for people who wanted to make an animal quilt for a child. Except I have a few log cabin strips, enough to make at least a dozen quilts. So see ya later..

My wife made me a really nice one that I use when I can. When I can is when the cat doesn't have it.

 

[Erinwltr]

Hi beautress,

Hope you are doing well. What's the next quilt project?