Ohio Star - Historic Concepts

This is a replication of an Ohio Star quilt found in a magazine. This teaches the easy way to make quarter square triangles.
The hand quilting on this quilt covers the entire surface with no accommodation to the pieced blocks.
This quilting design can be called Baptist fans, Methodist fans or many other names.

On this Peach and green version I decided to do some intricate hand quilting. The pieced blocks are simply quilted near the seams.
The peach print areas have an intricate quilting motif. The border has a beautiful feather design.

You are probably saying "But I don't see the quilting."
The reason you are not seeing it is not poor photography. It is the busy peach print I used as the background. If you're a quilter I hope you will learn from my experience.



This photo shows the back of the quilt. You can see the quilting here. But who would hang this quilt on the wall backwards?

Let's do an easy puzzle with the Pink and Blue version.

Tree of Life - Historic Concepts

This Tree of Life quilt was not a replication of a particular quilt. It was an combined example of various Tree of Life antique quilts.

This example has a khaki background and it is a perfect fall quilt. I also made kits with a muslin background and all the same fabrics for the rest of the quilt.

I spent a lot of time coming up with the quilting pattern which I included in the kit.

With all the Historic Concepts kits I used contemporary efficient techniques in the directions. This was one of the last quilts in the series.

I hope you'll enjoy this Tree puzzle.

Annie's Choice - Historic Concepts

The quilts in my Historic Concepts series are replications of antique quilts. They are not bed size quilts. They are all meant to hang on a wall.

These were done before the manufacturers started making reproduction fabrics. I collected fabrics that would have the effect of the fabrics in the original quilts for years before I started this series.
Had I done these with reproduction fabrics they would not have had the same effect.
People would have looked at them and said "Oh, Suzie's Feedsack line, 1998".

When I showed someone this blue Annie's Choice quilt he thought my quilt was the original one in the picture that had inspired it. I considered this a big success.


Although the original in the magazine was blue, this quilt also lent itself to being made in brown and burgundy. I haven't finished the burgundy version yet, although many others have.

Since the blue version is the original I chose that for tonight's puzzle.

Amish Pathways

Amish Pathways is another quilt from the class Quick Kids Quilts.
The piecing on this was done in a very short afternoon.
I used a very unique group of colors and did not make it for any special place.

The thing that makes this quilt work so well is the original motif I designed and used in various configurations on both the squares and the border.
It is hand quilted. PLEASE CLICK ON THIS PHOTO AS YOU WILL BE ABLE TO SEE THE QUILTING.
When it was done it worked perfectly in our kitchen.
The kitchen is open to the sun room and at the time I made it the furniture was covered with the same fabric you see used as a tablecloth.

Both the sun room furniture and the dinnerware and table linens are now at home in Florida. The furniture is now mint green and resides on our lanai!

Ofcourse Amish Pathways is tonight's puzzle.

How long does it take to make a quilt?

The answer to the question can be a day or years.
This quilt took several years as I couldn't decide what to do with the simple irregular curved pieced center square. I made that square as an exercise in a David Walker workshop. It was not interesting work without a lot of additions. It was only a base to use as a starting point for something that would work.
I added yarn, applique leaves and spirals to add interest. The entire center section was done with fabrics I had painted with the exception of the spirals.

At this point it was put on hold for a few more years while I decided what to do next.
The next addition was 2 more squares behind the original square. Fast forward another year. The orange square was added at that time and it was all appliqued onto the background. Almost finished? NO.

It also took quite some time to decide on the quilting pattern. Grids in central squares and curved lines on the background created the quilting. It was finished with facings rather than binding. Whew!! That sure took a long time.

I don't know if you suffer puzzle withdrawal when I miss posting for a day or more but I do. So here is Contemplating Sea Leaves as tonight's puzzle.

Rerun Part 5- I smile when I see these!

Somebody said they would like to see my Moo cards.
They are so neat. They're half the size of a business card. You can put up to 6 lines of information on the back of them.
I scanned this selection of them.

You can use up to 100 different images on them. After you choose and download the images then you move the selection window around to get the part of the quilt you choose. I chose 55 images so I did get duplicates of some.
I have no connection with the company but I sure love what they do. They are in London and it only took me about a week to receive my order.
I'm ready to order more as mine have all been given away or used as hang tags on my quilts.
NEW INFORMATION:
Since I last posted about Moo cards they have opened up a United States facility.
If you would like to order your own Moo Cards or Business cards and get free shipping just give them my personal code I am sharing with you:
Z3RKG5
You can have them made with pictures of your art, your family, your pets or anything you want.

Of course I want to share my Moocards as tonights puzzle.

How do I store my quilts?

I have spent several days reorganizing my quilts and where I am storing them. This is a three quarter Eastlake bed I bought for a pittance at an auction many years ago.
When I designed my studio the one thing I didn't take into consideration was how I was going to store my quilts. One day I had a visitor in my studio and she said you need a bed - quilts belong on beds. It took me a while to figure out how to do this.
We refinished the bed, added a mattress and I had a place for my larger quilts.
My husband built the two trolleys that slide under the bed and that is where I store my smaller pieces.
The top quilt is an antique quilt that I had a friend hand quilt for me.

As I put the quilts on the bed this time I took photos in the order they were placed on the bed. This will make it so much easier when I want to locate a specific quilt.


Jubilation is the top quilt on the bed as it is the largest. It reaches all the way to the floor on both sides. I have low E glass in my windows so I don't have a problems with fading. I also have tubes to screen out the UV rays on all my flourescent lights.

In addition to all the finished quilts on the bed I had been storing many works in progress on one of those folding wooden clothes drying racks. It was large and unattractive so I found other storage space for them. I also have two quilt racks that I put at the end of the bed to store some of the works in progress.

Of course I have a lot of quilts hanging through out the house and in the lower level where I have created a gallery of quilts.



My studio assitant, Quilting Granny, is surrounded by some of my miniature quilts. She is currently residing on top of my antique thread cabinet. She likes to vary her surroundings and has also spent time in my living room.

I'm sure Quilting Granny is happy I chose her for tonight's puzzle.

Is there really a Pot of Gold at the end of the rainbow?

Some Kind Of Rainbow is a quilt I created for a class I taught called "Quick Kids Quilts"
The navy fabric is fine quality piece of Cotton Sateen. The rainbow colors are all plain unpolished cotton. This creates a texture variation making it a much more interesting quilt.
The cutting and piecing was something I accomplished in an afternoon.
Deciding how to quilt this took a little longer. The quilting is really just 4 simple arcs but the way they twist and turn is what makes this special.


You may or may not be able to see the quilting stitches when you click on this to enlarge it. That is because each section is quilted with matching thread. At the time I made this you just didn't quilt a quilt with more than one color of thread. I guess I've always been somewhat of a maverick in my sewing and quilting.

Some Kind Of Rainbow is your puzzle tonight.

Meet me at the fair!

This is one of my favorite quilts. I made it for a contest sponsored by Better Homes and Gardens Quilting. I can't remember if I was a finalist but it was not a winner.
To me it was a winner because this quilt is so much fun and so meaningful.

ALL THE PHOTOS ARE CLICKABLE SO YOU CAN SEE A CLOSE UP.

I had the fabric that said Blue Ribbon on it. My pattern company is called BLue Ribbon Patterns so when I saw the apron panels with Blue Ribbon on it I bought all they had.


I also had a panel print with the words "Meet me at the fair" and the 4 scenes.
The contest theme had something to do with county and state fairs and they were very specific as to what blocks you could chose from.


For the center of this pinwheel block I used part of the ferris wheel and the pinwheel suggests movement.


I had a lot of fun acquiring fabrics that were related to things about a fair.

As usual I was working to meet a deadline. I brought the quilt to Minnesota while we took care of our 4 grandchildren while their parents went on a trip. My grandson Jared was 2 1/2 and to keep him busy I let him help me machine quilt this quilt. He held the corner while I did the machine quilting. Some day this quilt will belong to him.

Do you attend a fair in your area during the summer? I hope the quilt will remind you of the fun you have at your fair.

Enjoy some more details of this quilt.

Everything old is new again - or is it?

Quilting is a journey.
I almost hesitate to show you some of these quilts as they are so common and elementary. Without these stops on the journey I would never have reached today's destination.


This quilt is from my Historic Concepts series. These are replications of antique quilts. As simple as this is it is very graphic and each corner matches perfectly so you are not distracted by mismatched corners.



This School House quilt was made from a design in an Eleanor Burns booklet. I made it for my husband's office. He spent 38 years in education. I chose the masculine homespun plaids as I felt those were appropriate for a man.



When I first became connected to the internet I heard about a swap making cat blocks from homespun fabrics. I decided to participate and these were the blocks I received. My granddaughter Heidi worked with me designing the quilt. She was probably no more than 8 at the time. She drew up the letters and I pieced the letters, the quilt and borders, quilted and bound it. SOLD


What precipitated this post? I was vaccuuming my studio today (chasing around my Roomba so it didn't get lost under something) and decided I needed to do some rearranging of my quilt storage. While I had the quilts out I photographed some that I did not have photos of on the computer.

I know many quilters and others love cat's so tonight's puzzle is for you.

Rerun - Part 5 "WOW"!

Everyone who looked at this quilt said "WOW"!
So that's what I named it. It is about 98 x 50 inches in size.
I used decorator fabrics for this quilt. They won't fade as easily as quilt fabrics. It hangs in the sunroom directly across from the 12 feet of glass. I wasn't about to take a chance putting so much work into something that might fade quickly if I used quilt fabric.
It was designed for this wall. It was a real challenge to hang. It has a double thickness second back put on after quilting. That is open at the center to slide 2 pieces of foam core in. Slats are taped to the foam core to hold it rigid.
There are buttonholes in the backing fabric and holes in the foam core in the same location. Getting the holes in both to line up with the hooks on the wall was a major challenge for my husband and myself. I would compare it to a husband and wife trying to wall paper a small bathroom together!

Originally this wall was off white. When I did some redecorating I had it painted this high gloss green which really makes the quilt pop. After the wall was painted it was the painters job to rehang it.

In this post you see another variation of the color scheme from the last 2 blog posts. I have mentioned that I've carried these colors throughout the house with slight variations so it doesn't get boring.
I also can do some partial redecorating as the spirit moves me and still retain this color inspiration. As we move through the house the colors change a little and we go from one end to the other. It you were to look at the first and last rooms you would see it almost has come full circle and there are some major differences from the original rug colors.

I hope you enjoy doing the WOW puzzle today.

Reruns - Part 4

My fall colors are inside!
Our yard doesn't have a lot of trees and bushes that change color. So if I want to see color I look inside!


This is the quilt I made for our master bedroom. It is 118 inches square.

When Quilter's Newsletter (March 1994) came to photograph our house it was featured on the bed but it wasn't obvious in their photo it wasn't quilted yet.

I finally finished it on September 16, 2005 for my husband's birthday.

He was so busy he didn't even notice it until I pointed it out.


To make this quilt I started with the colors in this rug that set the color scheme for our addition. I then added enough others colors so that I could change my decorating scheme and still use the quilt.
Although it is the perfect quilt now that it is fall it is the perfect quilt for this room all year long.

Here's another challenging one of my favorite puzzle cuts.

Which came first - the quilt or color scheme?

I made this quilt well over 20 years ago. I did a triangular fold and dipped each corner in a different color dye that I had mixed myself by eye. I used left over dyes to dye additional fabrics for the border. It went with nothing in our house at the time.

Fast forward 10 years when we put an addition on our home and redecorated in the new color scheme inspired by this rug from Peru.

This inspired all the colors throughout the addition and into the original house.
The quilt was the perfect color and size to hang on the powder room wall. I painted the walls in the colors I had selected and the quilt fit perfectly. Painting the graphic on the wall was a real challenge. It is my original design. Rather than cut a stencil I chose to use masking tape to layout the design. The width of the painted design is not the same horizontally as it is diagonally so that was the first challenge. As I painted in the area where it had been newly plastered to cover the former window opening the plster came off the wall when we removed the tape. Add to that that my husband and I were working together in a room barely 4 x 6 feet and I think you get the picture.
We did make it work and it was ready for the magazine shoot for Quilters Newsletter a few days after we finished. Although they photographed it for the magazine there were so many other photos they didn't use this quilt.


In the first photo you see the overall effect. Without the quilting it was nothing special. The quilting elevated it to something special. I still enjoy looking at this quilt.

Enjoy putting this together!

First Run - Mystic Movement

Mystic Movement 18.5"W x 15.5"H $400

This is the quilt I just finished. I started it some time ago and was frustrated with the problems it was creating.
I started by just piecing some strata in color combinations I liked. Next step was to create the units composed of 2 half square triangles (or rectangles).
I ended up with more than one size and that's when I put it on the shelf to age for a "few years".
I recently put it on the design wall and saw how I could make it work. I originally designed it in portrait orientation. I photographed it before I sewed the units together and realized it worked so much better in landscape orientation.
I added some strips of the colored strata to make everything fit and I knew it worked.
The quilting is simple zig zag lines and I really enjoyed doing the quilting. I love machine quilting - something I never thought I would say!
I finished it with facings to match the back of the quilt and a casing. It is ready to hang on the wall.

It's also ready to be tonight's puzzle.

Reruns Part 3

I'm selecting only the very best posts from the past for reruns.

When Jinny Beyer first came out with her palette fabrics I bought some 5" squares of each of the 100 colors. They got me so excited I had to make something with them right away.
I drew up squares divided into either 12 or 13 wedges so I could use all 100 colors.
I pieced the section of colored squares closest to the middle.
But - I had a problem.
Since the fabric squares were only 5 inches I was left with a hole at one corner of each square. To fill in this section I fussy cut pieces from a black paisley print and appliqued them over the holes.
I had no overall design in mind when I started making this. Each round was designed as I was ready to do it. I made design decisions to enhance and relate to the work already created.
The next step was designing something for the star in the center. I chose to use a gray to black gradations design. Each diamond was hand appliqued.
The third round was similar to the center but I only used 2 fabrics in each diamond.
Round four was more of the palette fabric with either 12 or 13 in each unit.
The last round was another black to gray gradation.
I hand quilted this quilt.
It won First Place Professional in RJR's Palette Fabric competition.
It was pictured in McCalls Quilting Magazine.
I was also appeared on Simply Quilts with this quilt.

Tonight's puzzle is my favorite cut - lizards In Living Color!


Stay tuned as I will be doing more First Run posts again.

Why did Vicki Welsh laugh at my blog last night?

Because she also used the same fabric I used in the last star quilt I showed on a star quilt she made.

http://vickiwelsh.typepad.com/


Vicki's Quilt


This is a closeup of the border on Vicki's quilt showing how she used the fabric.


This is the closeup of my quilt using the fabric for the background.

With the thousands of fabrics out there, what are the odds 2 quilters would use the same fabric in the a lone star style quilt? Does this mean great mind's think alike?

Vicki's quilt is tonight's puzzle.