My Favorite Quilt

Have you been reading the "My Favorite Quilt" posts in blogland lately? Me, too, and since I don't have anything new on the design wall -- here is my own favorite quilt!

This Triple  Irish Chain quilt was made by my Great-Grandmother in the late 1890s.

I received the quilt in 2002 from my Aunt Frances, my mother's older sister. Based on family history, I believe the quilt was made in Paonia, Colorado, where my grandmother owned a boarding house.

The quilt is entirely hand-pieced and heavily hand-quilted. Here is a close-up of some of the quilting:

It's difficult to seen in a photograph, but the last squares in each background block are hand-applique'd.

The fabric is a variety of indigo blues on a white muslin background.
 

My aunt also gave me a photocopy of a photo of her grandmother, Emma Giddings Carson. I love that she is doing needlework in this photo -- it looks like embroidery.

Bobbie Aug, an AQS certified quilt appraiser, appraised the quilt for me in 2002. At that time, she set the insurance value at $2600! The quilt is carefully stored in an archival-quality box with paper rolled along the folds to save the fabric from breaking.

Linking up to "My Favorite Quilt" at Sew Mama Sew.

Tomorrow is the 90th day of Spring -- I am binding my Quilt Block a Day (BaD) quilt so I can share the finished product on Friday!

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Sunday Stash and De-Stash

Today's Sunday Stash isn't fabric. Surprise!

Stash

It's dishtowels! I love dishtowels. In fact, each year I buy a new set of "day of the week" dishtowels at the high school craft fair. My friends must know me well, because I've received some really cute dishtowels recently.

First, this cutie-patootie from Christine:

It was a thank-you for quilting her mini spools quilt. I really should have given her a thank-you gift, because she let me experiment with serpentine stitch quilting on her her quilt!

Next, these funny embroidered towels were brought to me from Seattle by my friend, Mary. She was lucky enough to go on an Alaskan cruise this month -- she said when she saw these towels at the airport gift shop, she just knew she had to get them for me!  Hmm, I wonder why?

De-Stash

I spent the better part of an afternoon last week searching for a particular fabric needed by a friend to finish her quilt.While digging, I found several quilt "kits" that I realize I will never, never, never use.  So I'm going to offer one each week to 52 Quilts readers.

Here's the deal: I'll give away the fabric, free. The recipient just has to pay postage. Anywhere in the world, just pre-pay the postage via PayPal, and the featured quilt kit is yours!

I'm pretty sure I bought this fabric in 2006, because there was an ad from a quilt shop dated that long ago!

There are 3.75 yards of the floral print, 4 yards of the blue and 1.5 yards of the ivory background.

The "bouquet" is about 10" high. It's "Garden Botanica" by Bonnie Benn Stratton for Hi-Fashion Fabrics, Inc. Quilt for a Cure. The blue is "Fundamentals" by Hoffman International Fabrics. The ivory has no printing on the selvedge.

This de-stash batch will fit easily into a medium flat-rate box, which costs $12.35 to send anywhere in the U.S. Of course, international postage would be more.

If you'd like to add this to your own stash, just comment with your PayPal email address and I'll send you an invoice for the postage. 

The Summer Solstice is coming up soon -- I can't wait to show you the Summer "Block a Day" block!

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Friday Finish: June UFO Project

So last year, I determined I was going to finish up all my BOM projects. yeah. Didn't quite make it!

However, I have finished another one! It's my "Toes in the Sand" BOM from Quilt Asylum. The fabric is Tula Pink's "Saltwater." And I love it!

Sorry this isn't a very good photo. It's been windy and stormy all day, so I couldn't take the flimsy outside for a photo. As soon as things dry out, I'll try to take a better one!

Linking up to Thank Goodness its' Finally Finished Friday.


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Tuesday Tool

When Jacquie Gering visited the Front Range Modern Quilt Guild last summer, I fell in love with her "serpentine stitch" quilting.

With my first attempt at this technique, I realized I would need a much larger surface to hold my  project. So, I bought an "extra large" Sew Steady table.  Plenty big, but I found the quilt tended to "stick" to the extension table. It's really hard to make even lines of quilting when the fabric hangs up on the sewing table!

I had seen the Sew Steady Polish Kit on their web page, but the description didn't say anything about making the sew steady table more "slick." I thought it was to repair scratches on the table surface.

I asked about the polish kit at Ruth's Stitchery and found out it costs less than $10. So I decided it was worth a try!

The polish is applied much like shoe polish, with a small sponge. 

After it dries for 5 minutes, buff the table top with the provided cloth. Kind of reminds me of shining uniform brass.

The table top is immediately more shiny and even feels more smooth. But will the fabric feed through more easily?

Yes! I could feel the difference immediately. How about stitching two pieces of cotton batting together? Batting is notoriously "sticky."

Yep! It even makes batting slide along the table surface like a greased pig!

I made a mini "quilt sandwich" out of an odd block and tested the serpentine stitch quilting.

Wow. Just. Wow.  It really works! Totally worth the $10 -- if I'd known that was what this product is for, I would have bought it months ago! My only question is, "why doesn't Sew Steady advertise their polish kit for this purpose?"

I imagine if you use your domestic machine for free-motion quilting, the Sew Steady polish would make moving your quilt around a lot easier, too.

Now, if I'm going to have a finish for Friday, I'd better get back to piecing my Toes in the Sand quilt!

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Design Wall Monday and Destash Report

This morning it's 41 degrees (that's Fahrenheit) and windy windy windy. I am SO not going for a walk this morning, looks like I'll have to dust off the elliptical machine!

Design Wall

There's a new kid in town today. OK, not really new. And not really a kid. But there's something new on the design wall:

It's 24 blocks for my "Toes in the Sand." I started it last year with the BOM from Quilt Asylum. The fabric is Tula Pink's "Saltwater." I love this fabric so much, I accidentally bought the fat quarter bundle also. In a few years, it might make its way to my De-Stash offer!

Here are the blocks with the background fabrics. It's impossible to photograph this fabric, but it's a very pale lemon-green.

Even Tula Pink's website doesn't really show the true color, but you can see the design in this photo from her website, ihearattulapink.

I was lucky to be able to cut all the background pieces from this same fabric, even though the kit included a different fabric for the outside half-triangle setting pieces. I think it looks like the blocks are floating on the sand!

If the stars align and My Little Sailor comes home on leave in September, and if my friend's beach house is available, and if it doesn't snow (hey, that's a real possibility in September!): this quilt will be a hostess gift for the beach house!

Linking up to "Anything goes Monday" at Stitch by Stitch. 

Destash Report

I was amazed and pleased that more than one person was interested in my Vin du Jour destash! It will be on its way to the first taker as soon as the wind dies down.

And vaf, I'm sorry but I can't take a check. Not that I worry your check isn't good, it's just that I don't do the bank thing!

I have more, so I'm thinking each Sunday until I empty the "this needs to go" bin, I'll offer another destash bundle.

Since the wind is blowing and it's cold, I'm going to hide out in the upstairs sewing room and work on A Quilt Block a Day. As of Saturday, we should have 80 blocks finished. Oh, I have them finished, all right. And they're scattered all over the sewing room! That's what happens when the window is left open and a severe thunderstorm blows through Colorado!

I have a new product to test for the Sew Steady extension table. Come back tomorrow to see if it's worth the purchase price!

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Sunday Stash and De-Stash

Looking through my "new stash" basket, I see I've mostly bought books this summer.

I have one new little bundle of fat quarters: it's "Letter Writing for Sewists" from Sew Me a Song. It's all fabric with postcards or text on them. A great addition to my "low volume" stash.

Two of my book purchases are by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr of Modern Quilt Studio. Weeks and Bill will be among the faculty at Quilt Colorado this July. The last I heard, there is still room in their classes. If you're in the Mountain West and like modern quilts, this is a rare chance to take a class with some icons of modern quilting.

My plan is to make their "Share and Share Alike" transparency quilt from pink and berry Peppered Cottons. Details to follow!

Kathy Doughty of Material Obsession is one of my favorite modern designers. One day I am determined to visit her shop in Sydney, Australia!

Pam and Nicky Lintott of The Quilt Room in Surrey, England design some of my favorite "strip club" quilts. Here's their newest book, not just for 2.5" strips. They've designed a new ruler for Creative Grids and this book features some great quilts using that ruler.

Quilting with a Modern Slant is chock-full of eye candy. It's a compendium of quilts by 70 modern quilt artists. If your "quilting mojo" is fading, this one is guaranteed to get you excited.

Remember "Stack the Desk" quilts? Karla Alexander has a new book:

Stack, Shuffle, and Slide looks to be a great use of my extensive "solids" stash.

A Colorado quilter, Pat Syta, has a new "sampler" quilt book, Red at Night. I promised a grey-and-yellow quilt to my daughter, Vanessa, maybe this will be the pattern?

I spent the better part of an afternoon this week searching for a particular fabric needed by a friend to finish her quilt. I soon realized I had never actually bought that fabric, it was blogged as part of a "virtual fat quarter stack" contest. But while digging, I found several quilt "kits" that I realize I will never, never, never use.  So I'm going to offer one each week to 52 Quilts readers.

Here's the deal: I'll give away the fabric, free. The recipient just has to pay postage. Anywhere in the world, just pre-pay the postage via PayPal, and the featured quilt kit is yours!

This week's kit is an almost-full jelly roll of Vin du Jour by Moda. I cut away part of two strips to finish my Jelly Roll Quilt for January:

It also includes 4+ yards of background fabric and 1+ yard of the dark purple print. Plus a Cozy Quilts pattern, "Yin Yang."

If you'd like to have this "kit," just comment with your PayPal address and zip code. I'll respond with an invoice for the postage, and Vin du Jour will be on its way to you!

I've a new BOM on the design wall -- come back tomorrow to see "Toes in the Sand!"


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A Fresh-Squeezed Winner

My favorite giveaway prize, a $50 to certificate to my favorite etsy shop, Fresh-Squeezed Fabrics.

The Random Number Generator chose:

Which turns out to be Vicki, at "A Quilter's Mission," who said:

I know Vicki is a long-time follower, so I'm pleased you won. Congratulations!

I have some great "stash" photos to share tomorrow -- hope you'll come back to see them!


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