An Ode to Quilters Past

It's a wonder what a little shoe box can hold.  Especially when the box's contents are scraps of fabrics saved long ago by the quilting grandmother of a friend.  (Thanks Lenna & Kevin!)  I received this box one morning a few months ago and opened it up later that afternoon in the short while before I was to start cooking dinner.  That was a mistake.  We ate quite late that night.

Inside were the most terrific bits of fabrics which appeared (to my untrained eye) to be from the 40's, 50's & 60's.  The tiny little box in the foreground held pre-cut pieces that were either 2 1/8" or 1 7/8".  I began fiddling and arranging them on my design wall and decided to make a little ditty with them.  I cut down all the larger squares to 1 /78" and made little four patches with them.  Oh, the choices and groovy prints were such fun!

I paired them with some Kona solid white sashing and set them on cornerstones and borders cut from an old black fabric I inherited from someone, somewhere.  I don't remember its history, but it's of the same vintage.

Realizing that I'm fooling no one that this would be an old quilt, plus the fact that it's just a small wall hanging size, I decided to give it some modern quilting flair.  I hadn't machine quilted in a while and was eager to let my meandering fingers fly.  It was fun and now hangs at the top of the stairs.  (It's rather dark there, sorry the photo quality ain't so grand.)  Hopefully Kevin's grandmother would be pleased that some of her fabrics now have a home.  :-)

Cheers,
Donna

Calendar Block of the Month (BOM) Exchange

I belong to a lovely online group of quilters (Hi Lally girls!) They are more like a circle of friends from all over the world than hard-core quilters, and that's a good thing.  I realize that some would laugh at the term "hard-core quilter", but trust me, there are some out there.  ;-)  *shiver*

We are currently having a calendar BOM exchange.  There are 12 of us participating.  Each month, we make a 12" block representative of that month and mail it to our assigned person for that month.  Every month we send a block to a different person, one month we keep our own block.  It's fun to get something every month for somebody new!

Here are the blocks I've made so far for this exchange:

January

February

  March

April

Simple, but fun.

What I really like about this exchange is the opportunity to make something fresh and new in a small amount of time.  No big commitment, just make it and mail it.  I've completed most blocks in under an hour.  And that usually includes deciding what to do!  It's a fun little pick-me-up. 

At the end, I'll have enough blocks for a lap quilt.  Some of the girls are making their individual blocks into wall hangings to display monthly.

A nice idea when you only want to be a little creative for a little while.

Cheers,

Donna

Homespun Exchange Quilt

I belong to this great group of online quilter friends from all over the world (hi LQ!) and we exchange quilt blocks every now and then. We exchanged Nine Patch blocks made of homespun fabric and I've just finished my quilt. Here 'tis.

I bordered each block in a simple gray tiny check, sashed it all in a buttery twill stripe, then bordered it all around in the gray check. I machine embroidered each quilter's name and location in the bottom left corner of the border around their block.

I meander quilted it with Warm & Natural batting. How fun on my new Janome 6600 sewing machine. I love to FMQ! This quilt is very soft and drapey and has become my new best friend in my chair in the evenings.

Cheers,

Donna