Quilt Transition...

The quilt I started here in November as a Halloween idea, turned into a Christmas gift when I finished quilting it just before Christmas...I kind of like "sending them off" when the quilting is done...





on to the next...

Baby Book Quilt...

LeeAnn is right...the stuff we see as children DOES influence us. Last summer I found my son's first book...a cloth baby book that had been much washed and was shredding a bit. I took out the binding seam and discovered it was one long piece of fabric with the images printed on it. I just cut them up and made some blocks not worrying about the goose's lost head or the stain on the dog block. It will be my New Year's at the beach quilting project!

Polyester Double Knit Quilt

Today was half-off-everything day at Goodwill. Couldn't pass that up, could I? I found this quilt, made entirely of polyester double knit. The price for this relic was a whopping $12.50.




I was trying to remember exactly when these fabrics were so popular. Then I found the 74 embroidered in the corner. I love those avocado yarn ties. The backing and binding are a polyester drapery fabric, in tasteful avocado also.

My grandmother used to teach "Sewing with Knits" at our local community college in Oregon. The class was very popular. She made all sorts of garments for the whole family. I remember a pink suit for my grandfather! I got swimsuits and bell-bottoms in every color of the rainbow.



Looks like Malti approves!

Holly Block, 10"x12"

From the JUNIPER AND MISTLETOE, by Menaugh and Brackman, Kansas City Star Quilts. Previously published as "Festival of Trees" by Sunflower Pattern Cooperative.

This is a tough pattern to do in machine applique. All of my friends have done it needle-turn. It has been very popular in Western Washington, a land of lots of trees.

Pinecone Garland for Winter Solstice

Top: Pinecone Garland for Winter Solstice, 2005, 56"x 80"

Middle:Pinecone Plaid, 2010, 22"x 22"

Bottom: Pinecone wreath I made for the garden, 2009

A sale fabric from P&B printed in 1999 called Pinecone Garland was the starting point for this quilt. I've long been fascinated by the curving cones of the Eastern White Pine and strung them together as garlands in my 1888 Victorian house when I lived in Kansas City, MO. Finding this image printed on fabric stimulated me to buy 1 1/2 yards of the sale fabric. Two years later, inspired by the Jan Krentz book The New Lone Star, I pulled fabric together to compliment the colors in the border print of the garland fabric. I was severely challenged to create this 56"x 80"quilt with the fabric on hand. Machine quilted on my 1971 Bernina #830 from Sally LeBeouf.

In fact, the second 22"x 22" piece is formed from the remnants of the first quilt. I hand quilted it this June, adding the vintage mother of pearl buttons to brighten it up and to mark fall and winter equinox and winter and sunner solstice. No more of this favorite fabric remains. If you ever see it anywhere, please buy it for me!

To make this pinecone wreath, I wired the cones to a purchased wire wreath base. It will last several years even exposed to the elements year round.

Confetti... Before and After

  

 A wall hanging made out of scraps of solids.

Hand quilted with Perle Cotton.

Finished quilt measures 22" X 32"

Zhivago Medallion

My favorite Christmas quilt. Started with Alexander Henry Zhivago Collection fabrics and grew from there. Quilted by Karen Kielmyer of Bella Vista, AR. Wool batting creates trapunto look, Made about 2005.

First this, then that!

Shared scraps... two great quilts

inspirational

So many things inspired me at the rebel visit...

Sally's First Quilt

 A backing fit for a front...

 Gorgeous cultural fabrics

 

 Nifty scrap tulips

And a walk down tobacco road.

I took a lot more pictures...

if you don't mind me showing them.

What is a Scrapbook Quilt?

Top: Richmond,1898 61"x 76"

Bottom: Union Made, 48"x 50"

Scrapbook quilts are full of memories and mementoes of our lives. Scrapbook quilts include signature quilts, memory quilts, timespan quilts, photo quilts and more. One of mine is a Lone Star quilt I did in reproduction fabrics imagining it was a quilt my Grandmother Coghill could have made with her sisters. I called it Richmond, 1898 because Richmond, VA was their home town. My scrapbook quilts include memory quilts in honor of my mother (two posted earlier), timespan quilts using vintage feedsacks and vintage blocks as well as signature quilts.

Probably the most obvious example of a scrapbook quilt is my quilt "Union Made." I cut apart the jacket of my 1980s TWA flight attendant uniform, added photos and quilt blocks to create a scrapbook without pages. Another quilt features palm trees reminiscent of my childhood in Miami Springs, FL. From doll quilts to full size quilts you can create with your own photos and scraps and leftover blocks and, of course, your memories.

To make your own scrapbook quilt, gather your possibilities. Choose a focus or starting point and use a design-as-you-go process. I strongly recommend using a design wall to lay things out and move them around. It is an adventure in possibilities! Scrapbook quilts record our stories using fabric, lace, buttons and other embellishments. Perhaps you'll be inspired to pull together unused blocks or family blocks to combine with photographs (on fabric) and other treasures to make a scrapbook quilt. Once completed you can call yourself a "visual historian".

Scrapbook Quilts

"Creativity is usually regarded as an individual attribute, but it depends on opportunities for expression and a receptive audience," observes Margaret Cruickshank in her amazing book Learning To Be Old. The quilting world has offered me both opportunity and a receptive audience! For this I am thankful! This photo shows part of my display when I did a program on Scrapbook Quilts in Ft. Smith, AR last spring. I am preparing to present that program on Thursday, December 2 at my home guild in northwest Arkansas and I've pieced three new tops in the last week--wish my quilting self could quilt that fast. Inspiration creates more inspiration! Ill send you more pictures soon.

Fragment 1, 15"x16"

Scraps from quilt made in Jean Wells workshop on Intuitive Landscape Quilts, 9/2010. Quilt still in progress. Center ditch quilted with Madeira monopoly, and border quilted with Invisifil. Wool batting.

Victoria's Visit

Our Rebels member from NYC, Victoria, visited yesterday! Here she is, showing us her grandmother's quilt. We loved hearing the story about how her grandmother hand-sewed scraps onto a bed sheet.



Every piece was so intriguing. Lots of good contrast and polyester double knit. We also got to see some of V's new projects. What a generous bunch of inspiration Victoria brought to Seattle.
Thank you, Victoria!!

Lisa: Plant Life

Color Inspiration for Corduroy Quilt

Thrift market sweater ($4.99) found 3 days before workshop on using solid fabrics with Gwen Marston in Sisters, OR. It is hand knit of a soft wool, in my size! The design feels South American to me.

Buffy's Beautiful Quilt

I noticed Buffy forgot to mention that she won a ribbon for her BEAUTIFUL quilt at the quilt show in Seattle.


...And I think she'll get mad at me for posting this, but here is the beautiful woman herself showing us the terrific back of this quilt.


Her quilts are gorgeous...and beautifully made....

Mostly Corduroy, 58" x 60"

Deb Rowden (debrowden.blogspot.com) suggests we get ready to celebrate National Corduroy Day on 11/11/11. This is made from mostly thrift market fabric. The garment corduroy was a better quality than I could buy at local fabric stores in 2008, when I made this quilt.

Four Block Grocery Sack Quilt, 18"x21"

The last of the workshop on the Grocery Bag Scrap quilts. There were 4 blocks left over, too tidy to put in previous quilt. See post 11/9/10.

In Memory of Lorene Chaffee and Nora Cope

After I retired in 2000, I went to Lorene's small farm house in Little Flock, AR, every week for 5 years. She mentored me in the fine art of combining fabrics. Despite very different styles, she was a romantic and loved florals; we worked together well. These are all beautiful. The blended quilt is especially remarkable. If you have tried this, you know how hard it is to do well. These pictures were taken in Nora's Quilt Shop in Tulsa, OK. Lorene died this year, and Nora was very frail, when I last saw her; but their teaching and mentoring continue to support the tradition in NW Arkansas, and Tulsa, as well as Western Washington.

self portrait revisited

This is a quilt I finished recently... 

incorporating a self portrait drawing I did 15 years ago...

It's based on feelings and emotions from an intense & difficult time...  

how we deal with what life hands us...and that,

 Sometimes you just want to be wrapped up in a quilt until you recover....

(heavy i know)

Tasty leftovers 2

  A very nice beginning from a very good ending! 

   

  

 

I see a pattern!

October Rebels, Dawn's practicing machine quilting

Drama Queen

Drama Queen
In preparing for a special exhibit I put together in 2009 called The Drama of Two-Color Quilts, I was inspired to create this black and white version of a favorite block usually called Ohio Star. This block is a basic nine patch block with four of the nine patches subdivided into quarters. I continue to discover the endless options of this single block. This variation sudivides the four corner patches into quarters. The block is set on point with no sashing. As you can see, I have not yet quilted my black and white “Drama Queen”.

My favorite antique quilt is on the right--I discovered this beauty in Paducah. The vendor's only knowledge about the quilt was that it was from Bardstown, Kentucky. I love the color combinations and believe the cloth was hand-dyed because several of the pieces in one block are corduroy dyed exactly the same color as the cotton fabric of the other blocks. The pattern is one offered decades ago by the batting company Mountain Mist on their paper wrappers. The quilter's initials are embroidered in yellow floss. When exploring all the elements of this quilt, I located a single cotton seed buried in the batting, so I've come to believe the cotton batting was carded by the maker. Did she plant it and cultivate it too? The quilt is in excellent condition showing few signs of wear. I call this quilt Bardstown Beauty.

My Mother's 1942 Vacation

My Mother’s 1942 Vacation
This memory quilt draws on my vintage fabric collection and features the green handkerchief appliqued in the center and the chenille flowers—both recall the 1940s for me. The flowers in the border fabric appear to be oleander flowers that thrived in south Florida and are part of my childhood memories.

My mother, Marie Virginia Donovan Neilson, was in her early 20’s when she and girlfriends made this trip to the beach. I’m guessing the cottage is located in south Florida because of the landscape and architecture. She lived on Miami Beach and had attended high school there, graduating in the late 30’s. In high school she was an athlete who participated in the track, swimming, softball, volleyball and basketball teams. She was an athlete despite being born with a clubfoot. Her mother, Marie Coghill Donovan, massaged and manipulated her foot and leg several times a day in her infancy to minimize the effects of this disability. I believe she also wore a metal brace for many years. Mother’s disability was unknown to me until one of my Girl Scout friends noticed that mother’s leg turned slightly and she bluntly asked her about it. Because Mother died in 1979, I have no direct information about this vacation trip, only these pictures. Marie appears in the black bathing suit with the skirt.

On the back of this memory quilt, as part of the label, I included a photo of me about the same age as my mom in these pictures. That photo of me was taken circa 1973 in Kansas City, MO. size: 31”x 31”

Elegant Simplicity

Elegant Simplicity, 2000
This memory quilt contains pictures of my mother, Marie Virginia Donovan Neilson, as a child, Marie and Paul at their wedding, Marie with the firstborn child (me), as well as pictures of me with my three siblings, Karl, Marsha and Lea. The variety of doilies on the batik fabric squares reminds me of Mother’s appreciation for fine textiles.

The single black glove is tribute to her simple elegance. The diagonal line of the glove helps to recreate a new rhythm for the viewer’s eye. I drew heavily on my vintage textile collection for the doily and the crocheted lace trim on Elegant Simplicity. All the photos are carefully documented on the back of the quilt.

Elegant Simplicity was pieced on my 1946 Singer Featherweight and I hand quilted and then machine quilted some sections on my 1971 White Sewing Machine. The fabric mostly came from Quilt Your Heart Out. Not for sale. 38”x 43”