Wednesday Progress: Vintage Grandmother's Fan

Lots of works in progress in my sewing studio this week!  

Here's a fun quilt top that a customer asked me to quilt in an authentic style of the 30's era.  This hand pieced quilt top had been passed down through her family and she wanted to have it completed as a wedding gift for a family member.

The maker of this quilt top was so careful with her scraps and pieced them so well that you had to look closely to see which fans were "made do" from pieces of fabrics. 

I felt like I was on a treasure hunt when I examined her work and the lovely old fabrics. Such a joy!   She was an excellent quilter and obviously took pride in her work and was quite thrifty with her fabric scraps!

I used Quilters Dream cotton batting and plain muslin for the back. It measures 88" X 98". I hope to finish this week. I have many more projects to complete before Christmas!

Posting at Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday. 

Just Add More Stitches

I made the one hour trip to my favorite quilt shop, Lola Pink in Lafayette, LA, and fell in love three steps into the shop.  The new fabric line, Persimmon by Moda, just reached out to me and I knew that jelly roll had to come home with me.  Now I'm usually not a jelly roll kind of gal. I don't know if it's the price or the perfectly coordinated formula, but something usually makes me steer clear of them. Anyhow, the colors made me take the leap into jellyrolls and I'm glad I did!  I also selected an unModa step child fabric that I adored for border potential.  I made sixteen patch blocks--sooo easy with jelly rolls. I just separated the strips into darks and lights. I loved interchanging the medium fabrics as they can become either a dark or a light depending upon which fabric it is combined with. 

I planned a loose,comfy feel for the quilt so I assumed that meant loosely spaced quilting design.  I chose a wave quilting line through each block but it didn't seem like enough.  Then I added a simple seed line design at the connection seam of each column of blocks. It still looked awkward.

Even after unstitching and restitching, it didn't look "right enough'".   My excellent quilter friend, Gayle, encouraged me to just add more stitches until it feels right. 

Then in the middle of my quilting mojo, my machine gives me this message. 

What the heck????  I am in free motion mode with feed dogs down so why is my Bernina 750QE doing this crazy talk and locking up?  I finally figured it out and made a blog post for my Loving my bernina series to help other owners of the persnickety Bernina 750QE. 

So I finally reaching the point of enough and it's amazing what the right amount of stitching can do for a quilt. I love the feel and texture of the quilt now. I am selecting binding fabrics now. I'm kinda leaning toward a dark blue binding.

I will be posting this week at Freshly Pieced WIP and Crazy Mom Quilts Finish Up Friday.  

Aqua Star Quilt

I enjoyed making these gigantic aqua stars with my stash of low volume backgrounds to make them shine.  

 

Loving Carolyn Friedlander's Widescreen from Robert Kaufman. I used it to set my stars on point to make them even bigger!   I can't believe I used only 9 blocks to make this Queen size quilt for my daughter. 

Now I'm concentrating on the backside which is pure improv method. Love, love, love putting my stash fabrics together. It's like a private message to my daughter. I can just see her smiling as she looks at it while laying underneath it. 

 

To be continued...

On the road again....with souvenir state glasses

This is a far step away from the usual type of thing that I create in my sewing room, but I couldn't resist posting this fabulous find from our local thrift shop.  I was so lucky to find 10 unblemished frosted state souvenir glasses sitting on the shelf of one of my favorite thrift treasure troves.  I just know that someone has a lifetime of memories in this little collection

I can remember my own childhood travels in the 60s  & 70s and how I loved all the little souvenir items that could be picked up at Stuckey's and all those little shops along the highways.  Now that I look back, I realize how limited our travels were and how limited my parent's pockets were.  But, as a child, I simply enjoyed the views from the back of our  station wagon  and longed for the fun of stopping for a restroom break at one of those little souvenir shops.  My sister and I wanted every little cute thing we saw, but were always thrilled to receive a little word puzzle or mexican jumping beans for entertainment during the rest of the road trip.  Right now, I'm torn between posting these glasses for sale in our Etsy shop or keeping them as a beginning of a new collection for myself.  They could look really great on my kitchen shelf alongside my collection of vintage mixing bowls...

First the fabric, then the project

 So I fell in love with the fabric first then decided I had to make something with it.  That yellow, black and gray just spoke to me and I had to have it.  Since it was half off $9.99 regular price at Hancock's Fabric, I splurged and bought 1/2 yard not knowing exactly what to do with it.  Of course, now I wish I had bought a couple of yards.  I wondered what awesome creation I could come up with but ultimately cycled back to my favorite old pattern, the skirt bag I designed a few years ago.  This time, I tried to make a smaller version of it.  So, instead of being able to tote a small child, it can hold a small watermelon :)

 I called this a skirt bag because the top band reminded me of how my Momma taught us to sew waistbands for skirts.  You made a little gap below the band which allowed the skirt to open up wider to slide over the hip area.  Nifty huh?  Anyhow, I found it's handy for a bag that can go from empty to overflowing in a very short time at the flea market!  

The buttons along the top are pretty but they serve a purpose too.  I can adjust the way the bag closes by moving the buttonhole over to the next button. Voila!   I also tried out a new idea for the handles using a 3" wide black cotton webbing strap.  It sure feels sturdy like I could probably haul 2 watermelons if I wanted to! I will probably make another one to sell in craft fairs or our Etsy shop, Down South Designs.  Check it out!


 I am participating in link parties at Threading My Way, Nifty Thrifty Things,  Chatty Chics , Be Different..Act Normal, Funky Junk Interiors, Craft Envy, Ginger Snap Crafts, Southern Lovely, Not Just A Housewife, The Shabby Creek Cottage Savvy Southern Style and Petals to Picot