Civil War Block Swap Quilt!

 
Just before Superstorm (aka Hurricane) Sandy hit our area, I was madly trying to finish up my Civil War quilt for a big party at my LQS, Pieceful Quilting.  Got all the sashing and cornerstones done before the power went out, but the border was (and remains) unfinished.  Sadly, the party is not to be -- the store was flooded out during the storm and is in the process of relocating.  Good news is that it's reopening next week!

The blocks that I got where just wonderful!  Here they are, waiting to become a quilt.  Aren't they gorgeous?!  The blocks came from PQ's sister store about an hour's drive from here.  They had some fabrics (including the green) that we didn't have.

I decided to make the quilt on-point with sashing and 9-patch cornerstones.  I was a little dubious about my color choices, but I really like it now that it's together.

The border will be the same dark blue as the sashing.  I haven't decided whether to trim off the outside cornerstones and add a straight border, or to cut the border in pieces and keep the cornerstones whole.  I'm thinking the latter.  I also need to think about whether to add an additional border or two.  If the top were just a little bigger, it would fit nicely on a double bed.  Any ideas?  It's a square quilt as-is.  The photos have it laid out across a double bed.  The suggested pattern that I was using would have a 4" border that trimmed off the outer cornerstones:

Another option would be to have a narrower border just to the edge of the outer cornerstones:

Or there could be a full 4" border that includes the cornerstones.  I'm not quite sure how to make this, though...

Whatever, the Civil War quilt will be added to my pile of UFOs.  When I got my new sewing table last summer, I ordered the acrylic insert for my machine.  The machine came with a slide-on quilting table, but I wanted to have the perfect fit.  Unfortunately, when the insert finally came (after several months!), it was the wrong size.  I sent it back, but who knows when the new one will finally arrive?  Meanwhile, layering up the quilts and quilting the remains in the future.

So meanwhile, I'm behind two months on the Barrister's Blocks (that would be 12!) and on the blue/while/yellow blocks for the BOM at my LQS.  I also plan to make several small Christmas gifts.  So of course I've jumped into something new!  More about that in the next post.

Heart of the Pines, Part 2

The power came back on Sunday, a week after Superstorm Sandy hit our area, so I'm already back at the sewing machine.

Unfortunately, my LQS, Pieceful Quilting in Riverhead, NY, was terribly flooded during the hurricane (photos on their website).  The store is closed for an indefinite time while Angie and her staff sort out the inventory and clean up the mess.  All of us are very sad, and wish them the best.  Meanwhile, more pics from the Heart of the Pines quilt show.  

Moose butts!

Here's one to cheer us up!   How many quilts (or anything else) have you seen that feature moose butts!  This is a rag quilt, a northern Michigan exclusive!

 
Hand-Pieced 

It's My Very Own Quilt
Shari Bukowski

Cathedral Windows makes a beautiful quilt no matter how it's made.  The simplest version looks like stained glass.  This one mixed solids, color-on-color fabrics and prints with all kinds of fussy-cut pieces.  It was entirely hand-sewn and hand-quilted, the first for this quilter and the first quilt that she's ever made for herself.  It took her 7 months to complete.  I guess she's not a UFO-type girl!

This is the first quilt that Shari made for herself, but it isn't her first quilt.  She has worked on over 800 quilts for an organization called "It's My Very Own -- Bags of Love."  You can read more about this wonderful charity at their website, Bags of Luv 4 Kids.

The detail is just exquisite!

The 90" x 80" quilt took 25 yards of muslin and 360 4.5"squares to create 682 full windows, each with a different piece of fabric from the "Bags of Love" quilt scraps.

Awww....

Get busy quilting!

Postage-Stamp Quilt

Postage-stamp quilts are so interesting -- tiny scraps of fabric (the size of postage stamps) randomly sewn to create the quilt.  I've been saving every strip that's at least an inch wide to try one of these someday. 

Detail of the border

Machine-Pieced

Log Cabin

The Log Cabin quilt block is such a classic, and easy to sew, as well. 

What I love about this particular quilt is the use of the different color placement of the logs in the blocks in the center and along the border.  They give movement to an otherwise somewhat rigid design.

Trees
Linda West

This quilt is the result of a half-square triangle exchange at a local quilt store.  What a fun idea for collecting lots of different fabrics in a quilt.  And what a great quilt!

Dresden Star
Janet Moll

Janet made this when her quilt guild offered a class by Edyta Sidar, who designed this block.

Lady in Red
Rosemarie Gotowicki

Bargello quilts aren't my favorite, but this one is gorgeous.  The pattern is called Ribbon in Motion, designed by Pat Lee.

Forest Floor
Janet Gracyzck

Near the far end of the show floor from where I started I found this.  The name, the colors, the pattern and the ease of construction -- large squares and nine-patches -- all really appealed to me.  The quilter used batiks in her stash.  I am so going to make this quilt for the cabin!

 

  

 Detail of Forest Floor

Quilt shows are both inspiring (like Forest Floor) and awesome (like It's My Very Own Quilt).  But every now and then you find something that reminds you that quilts aren't perfect and that what you as a quilter make for someone is as good as the love that goes into it.  This quilter made her quilt "to reflect my love of flowers and to demonstrate my ability to quilt at the craft shows."  It made me smile, because her free-motion quilting looks just like mine!  Thank you, quilter Madeline!

 

Heart of the Pines

A friend and fellow-blogger gently reminded me last week that this blog has been verrrry quiet.  Just as I got started, Hurricane Sandy blew through.   So we have some catching up to do!

The Heart of the Pines Quilt Guild in Gaylord, Michigan had their 2012 quilt show just before I left the lake.  (In fact, I'd scheduled my trip to be sure to be there!).

Quilt Show!

Antique Quilts

Surprise!
The quilt police must have missed this circa 1930's quilt -- thank goodness!  This quilter must have been stash-busting -- lots of different fabrics in the "black-and-white" blocks but most of the blocks have just one main fabric and one background fabric.  But every now and then there's a happy little surprise.

Do you see the pink center strip and one gray triangle in one of the blocks above?  Just below it is  mix of black and brown.   But my favorite is way over on one edge, where two cheery gold triangles light up the block!

There's a story behind this quilt, too.  It fell in the mud at an auction and they were getting ready to throw it away.  A quilter found it, and although she couldn't see the condition or design of the quilt, they let her take it home -- for free!  :-D   It took some serious cleaning, but now it's traveling the quilt show circuit.  The red reminds me of the red fabric in many of the quilts I saw at the Drummond Island museum.


Trapunto
This yellow quilt is so pretty!  It only uses three fabrics and two blocks, so the trapunto flowers really stand out -- literally and figuratively.  The detail is wonderful.

Grandmother's Flower Garden

Many quilters find hand-stitching little hexagons to be relaxing.  Personally, making anything bigger than a coaster would drive me nuts!  Just imagine the work that went into this quilt.  The fabrics are probably from worn-out shirts and dresses.  Each hexie is less than an inch across!  (Sorry it's so blurry; I still haven't mastered my iPhone).

 Just For Fun!

I love county fairs.  This quilt is called "County Fair."  The quilter must have had fun designing and making it. 

Every "picture" block is 3-dimensional.  My friend Beth would like the eyelet on the canning jars!

The ticket booth for the Ferris wheel looks like a cupcake!

Little mini-quilts are flapping on a clothesline at the Quilt Show.  Wonder which one got the blue ribbon?

Who wants a cow bell when she can wear pearls?

Applique

West of Baltimore
Pat Deitering

The colors in this floral quilt are gorgeous.  Some of the flowers are made with folded fabric to give them a 3-dimensional look.  The four corners are identical baskets; the rest of the blocks are unique.

"Took no time at all"?!?  This woman is amazing.  I guess working on a quilt like this would help make the Michigan winter fly by.

Here's one of the corners:

Mother-of-Pearl

I don't remember the name of this quilt, but the colors of the flowers remind me of mother-of-pearl.  The applique is stitched on with the edges of the fabric exposed, like a rag quilt, but with only a very narrow edge.

Paper Piecing

Amazon Star
Terry Gravila

This stunning star quilt called to me from the far end of the room.  I love blue and brown together, and the aqua near the center makes it look as if the star were exploding -- supernova!  Have you done any paper piecing?  I haven't, but may add it to my 2013 quilting goals.  At least the quilter admits that this was the most challenging project she ever undertook!

Detail of the Amazon star, machine pieced and long-arm quilted.

Christmas Star
Sylvia Zamoyski

Another star quilt, also machine paper-pieced.  I like how she also used the background fabric in the stars, so the points look as if they were floating.

Mixed Media

Cherry-Chocolate
Janet Bonarski

Not too sure why this quilt went into the "mixed media" category, but it is different!  It took the quilter two years to make at a block a month.  She designed it herself.  It uses only two fabrics, brown and red,  with solid squares and pieced blocks in seeming random order.

Each block is quilted separately.  What is really nice is that the red squares were quilted in brown, and the brown squares in red.

Machine-Pieced

The Pieced-Tie Quilt
Terry Gravila

The pieces for this field of flying geese were meticulously cut and prepared by Joanne Harris, but she passed away in 2003 before sewing the quilt.  Terry Gravila received the "kit" and completed it in 2012.  The quilting is a Baptist Fan design.

 

I hope you're enjoying these lovely quilts!  I'm still without power 5 days after Hurricane Sandy blew threw, so my computer time is limited.  I'll be back with more photos from the quilt show in a few days.