Sujata's Wheels

Sujata asked me:
I am currently working on a wheel quilt that appears as a spiderweb block but it is not. I looked through the books I have in my book case but did not find any thing that is constructed quite like this. I am hoping if you can help me.

I can't find it any where so she must have invented it. I looked in my Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns and BlockBase and I I found several kaleidsocope or spider web blocks with 8 arms but hers has 12.

Mystic Maze from Nancy Cabot 1933

Cobweb in a Robert Bishop Book

New Discoveries in American Quilts

There is a wheel design with twelve spokes but they don't extend to the edge of the block.

Wheel of Fortune, Oklahoma Farmer Stockman about 1930

Poinsettia, Rural New Yorker 1935

It also made me think of the odd construction above---It's a hexagonal block divided into 12 slices. The one I have is from the 1960s but the pattern was in print in the 30s.

I found this block with 8 spokes on this blog
http://elaineadairpieces.blogspot.com/2009/09/bright-kaleidoscope-quilt.html  

and this terrific 1940-50s version on an online auction, I think.

So Sujata can name it and claim it as her own invention, don't you think.

Bricks Baby Quilt with Kaffe Fassett applique center

Easy idea. Made strips of 7"x3" rectangles, and pieced together with half block drop, more or less, it doesn't matter. The rectangles were cut by my friend and mentor, Lorene Chaffee. She didn't feel they were working and gave them to me. Her parting shot was to to put a little applique in the center. I put the rectangles up, and removed a few high contrast ones, and put it together. Lorene is a romantic is style. She uses and loves florals. Hence it doesn't look like, and really is not my work. Made in 2006. Applique pattern from Kaffe's Museum Quilts book.

My Famous Scrappy Wheels

I just had to smile when I saw your email!

So, here it is!

I just noticed that it's missing the red centers. But this is a better picture than the one on the other blog!

Thinking solids...

Love that madras plaid Buffy--what a nice quilt with the florals and plaids...still in love with that pink madras plaid that was part of our ugly challenge a few years ago. And the pinwheels Sujata--don't they become sort of dimensional? They kind of begin to look like little "tuffets" (??)

Well I'm gearing up for the trip to Sisters Sunday and two days of solids--ugh. Not ugh the trip--too much fun to hang out with a bunch of quilters--but ugh the solids. I'm thinking of banishing all the colors and going for the white and muted stuff and maybe one color only. Advice???? Oh a quilt without plaids???

On the design wall

I can't stop making these circles! After making my super scrappy quilt I want more! So here I go again! Only this time, I am cutting the patches from the yardage.

I must admit that it is not as fun as string blocks because the element of surprise is gone! When you string piece it is so rough around the edges and when you cut your templates you are left with so many beautiful surprises! I miss that here.

Also, we all know that when we start selecting fabrics from the yardage, we start over thinking. 
I am not sure if I will continue to do this or sit down make strings to piece them!

This is what's on the design wall today!

Roberta Horton Workshop, on Yukata cloth, 2006

Some of you have asked to see some of my older quilts. So I'll use them to fill in now and again. This was great workshop on using single shape and value placement. It has male(geometric) and female(floral) yukata cloth, plus Roberta Horton plaids (remember those, light weight hand, but work very well visually), and a touch of Madras plaid. I used Sulky 12 wt. Blendable thread for the embroidery. That must have been the beginning of my downfall into becoming a thread junkie. I'm fond of that Madras plaid. I bought it at the Guild Store (a feature of the guild show) for $2/yd. It was on a Walmart bolt marked $1/yd.

Kay Again...

A few weeks ago I posted about Kay's first quilt ("Ripples..."). Today I visited her to see the SIX quilts she's made since then!!! Gad the woman is obsessed. They're all really nice but this one particularly so...


I like the details of the water and sky and bricks...

Seattle World's Fair Vintage Panel Quilt

Patty found this at a garage sale and bought it from the maker. Looks like the blocks and border were added much later, as that red/pink background looks newer.

Another view of my "treasures"

Buffy & Nifty Quilts go to Sew Expo 2/28/2010

We stopped across the street from the fair grounds at the Trains. Fabrics, etc. tent. This is a good source of vintage fabrics. I got the planes and sailboat fat quarter, and 3 3/4 yds of the ugly Alexander Henry Hawaiian. They are shown here with some of my Hawaiian stash. The large piece is outrageous, but I love the orange-red.

Reynola Pakusich Quilt, QA workshop, January 2010

Would you have guessed this was by Reynola?

Patty H. Show & Tell, Rebels, February 24, 2010

Front and back of Patty's quilt. Pattern by Cara Gulati for Doodle Press. Patty has the largest stash of African fabrics yet seen (by me). She put it to good use with this 2 sided quilt. The Sun motifs show better in the photo and in the distance, than they do in up close. Lisa pointed out the the fabrics on the back all contain people images, except for the strip with animals. I'm wondering what other genres of fabrics would work with this pattern, which is pieced. Maybe large floral prints, or Hawaiian shirts, or plaids, stripes, and polka dots???

Reynola pointed out that she had a hard time making this quilt. It was way out of her soft-blended-peaceful-comfort zone. That wasn't how she said it, but my translation. All of the Rebels felt they liked her quilt with this pattern best, of course.

Cindy's Rebel Show & Tell, February 24, 2010

Cindy G. with Judy Robertson fabrics. (To put in an endorsement for Judy, she has a club that sends you one yard of her beautiful and special hand dyed fabric every month, and to which Cindy belongs) We did our QA Guild Raffle quilt with Judy's fabric this year. I was happy to meet such a talented and famous person in our neighborhood. I guess the art quilters have known her for years. Cindy did a great job of piecing and showing off this fabric.

OHMIGOSH...

I miss one day and look what you guys have been up to!! I just spent 10 minutes trying to comment on your posts, but it won't let me, so here goes. Loved Sujata's flower power and the B&W view, Sally's precision continues to amaze me (me--a sloppy seamstress at best.) Applique is gorgeous (and so I'm a little thinking of trying the wonky version...??) Nifty honestly, working so hard and creating so hard--phew. (I loved the cards and am delighted to know there is a reason I saved the tiniest of scraps!) That huge garish floral just knocks me totally out--where did you ever get it?? Well you're spurring me on. Just finished quilting the tablecloth quilt inspired by some Indian quilts I saw in an English decorating magazine.



I've come to believe EVERYTHING must be used and since I had leftover squares from the shirt quilt




and a Hawaiian shirt that's been around awhile I decided to make another shirt quilt with a different look--think this will use almost all of the little squares. Haven't sewn it together yet--no borders to crowd it--comments?

A Daring Scrap Rescue

What about this! LeeAnn in Seattle sent this:

I'm one of your blog followers--"Nifty Quilts."  I wanted you to know that your latest post sent me straight to my trash bin to salvage the goods and sew up some greeting cards.  Fun project!  I just sewed directly onto the card stock.

Thank you for an enjoyable evening!

Tessellating Batiks II

Barbara spent 8 hours picking blocks apart. The stitch length was very short, because it was paper pieced. She then rearranged them on her design wall for a week, before resetting them.

I love the transparency, which is more obvious in this version, than the first.

Tessellating Batiks I

"No scrap too small" greeting cards

Spring Baskets 35 x 35

Butterfly, 20"x20"

Machine applique done in 2006. Sent to AR guild for small quilt auction in 2007. Pattern by friend of Ellie Sienkiewicz, and published in her book: Spoken Without a Word. The original block was 12". My first experience with appliqueing silk. See the dots.

Flower Power

I just realized how nice it is to have this blog for us! It is helpful to be able to post things when I am not ready to go public but still have questions and want feedback from friends!

So, Here is that quilt once again! Blocks, I mean! I finished appliqueing the centers. I was going to piece it together but decided to take the picture first. After all the talk we had about borders, now I am wondering on this one... border or not! The top is 64"x64" I would love to see more of that plaid shirt in this quilt!

I also learned something very valuable today. By taking the picture and turning that into black and white, I realized that I might need to move my plaid block around just a bit! A great tool when you go to assemble your blocks. I was reading the bumble bean blog about the value. She talked about the value selection by taking a black and white picture.

I think it is also very helpful in arranging a quilt blocks when they are scrappy! It gives a whole another perspective on textures and makes it so easy to spot the unwanted boo boos..  After looking at this black and white picture, I decided to switch the plaid block to it's upper right corner.

I intend to cut away the backs of the applique. There are too many seams in the center and I would like some really nice pearl cotton hand stitching with contrasting colors.
Would really love to hear back from you!

Porcella Workshop, August 08

Yvonne Porcella Workshop, August 08, APNQ

Last day of APNQ, and I was very tired, as was instructor, who had also judged the show, and done multiple workshops. I took bag of old scraps. There is a philosophy of not taking your best fabrics to workshops, and messing them up. Especially, if you are one of those who don't do that great in the noisy workshop environment. Everyone else had beautiful fabrics, and attractive photos of what they intended to do. Looks like I didn't feel piece was worth finishing. Must get it out, for practice stitching.

Yvonne Porcella Quilt, about 20"x26"

Frogs Smile for the Camera

... the frog quilt was made for Judy VanderHam who helped me learn how to use my digital camera last August when I got it. The frog image is from a favorite calendar photo and the quilt includes eight different frog fabrics. I hand quilted and beaded the center. The pink cornerstones are suggestive of lily pads for the frog to leap onto in the next moment. I named this quilt "Frogs Smile for the Camera! I had fun doing it and can't wait to give it to Judy.

Another Ripple in the quilting pool....

I love how it works...LeeAnn encourages me, Sally shows me her beautiful quilts, LeeAnn shows me Sujata's beautiful quilts, Kay sees my quilts and--voila! Here's Kay's first quilt, hand quilted. She's nicely obsessed and has one about to be quilted, one all ready to put together, and three more in a basket to think about. Fascinating.

My new string quilt in the early stages!

 

Finally I am starting a string project! You all got me really excited about this! So far I am enjoying  'making of the fabric' process! Only scraps from the bin are being used.. I am sure I will cheat at some point.

 

Quilted at last!

Quilted with the Walking Foot

Used inspiration from Mary Mashuta's book, Foolproof Quilting, which is all about quilting with the walking foot. Just can't get myself to sit down and practice free-motion work.

Buffy's Biases

Ruth B McDowell in her book, FABRIC JOURNEY: I don't want a border that traps my quilt in a tight box. The design must be accessible and it must be able to breath.

I like areas of bright white in a quilt... to keep the design from becoming too dense and to add a feeling of airiness; in fact, I make an effort to search out fabrics with a fair amount of bright white.

One reason to accumulate a stash is to acquire fabrics from other eras... You give your quilt a richer surface.

Rose and Wheel

My daughter's 8 year old bulldog, Rose, trying her paw at quilting. That is my wheel block looking for a setting fabric. Still undecided. Stuck between busy and quiet. Kaffe used big florals to set the antique blocks he found in Houston. See PASSIONATE PATCHWORK for inspiration, page 6.

Stash management...

You rebels have gotten me sewing more these days, but the sewing room-gad what a mess. This weekend I folded and labeled all the fabric bins (except for red) and put all the scraps in a big basket which is making me just want to sit down and sew them all togther a la Rosie Lee Tompkins!

More of Barbara Olson's demo quilts

These are lighter and easier to read.

Barbara Olson's Wild Child, workshop, QA, 2/11/10

Background is all threadwork! A great way to use those huge florals we have been collecting for years. Fun to do, and an exciting workshop. I wasn't too keen on the repositional glue, she uses. It gums up the machine. Back to old fashioned paste for me. The paste is like starch. It relaxes the fabric and makes it easier to turn the edges. The repositional stuff is like plastic and doesn't do that. Also not sure I like the Sulky Totally Stable interfacing (fusible like freezer paper with iron), any better than freezer paper. She removes it at the end of the stitching.

The Ugly Fabric Quilt, chapter 2

So a couple of years ago LeeAnn, Sally, Cynthia and I had an "ugly fabric moment." Sally and I divided the fabric and each did our own thing. LeeAnn and Cynthia collaborated on 6 squares, sewed them in two rows of three and then LA brought them to my house and left them anonymously in the sewing room. In my quest to finish all half-completed projects I got them out recently. I discovered one of the squares was just too ugly for me so I replaced it, and made 6 more. Now I have a wild jumble, but felt like a Gee's Bend quilter while it was underway. I felt China Pettway standing at my back exhorting me to just sew stuff together. Total fun. I have plans for a little more edging which might calm things slightly...

Reynola Pakusich Workshop, January 2010

All I have to show from workshop. I have picture and am posting it to remind me to get back to project. I plan to use the theme fabric for color inspiration, and maybe do the rest in solids. The fabric was a gift from my mentor, Lorene Chaffee. She also gifted me with a whole pile of Japanese scraps. Oh my!!