Little Monsters...coming soon

Attention Monster Lovers ! ! ! Coming soon to a quilt top near Finn....Little Monsters on Parade. Keep watching this space for updates on their appearance. Safe around small children, but feeding will not be permitted. Feel free to come in costume, bring noise makers and wear party hats. Guaranteed to please children of all ages. Guaranteed color fast, will not bleed, but can't promise no running.

A Tribute to Laura...

There is an old song that has the line..." I love those dear heart and gentle people who live and love in my home town .."they never ever let you down". And in my small corner of the world, there are those kind of people. And I am grateful for them, and for living here. It isn't my "home town", that lies across the hills and byways, some 40 miles east of where I now reside. But that's close enough... to go there if I want to, and far enough away to be comfortable.

And now you are probably wondering what that has to do with this particular quilt. Nothing, actually, and almost everything. I can't remember at time when I wasn't a fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder. She's Wisconsin born, and altho she moved across the mightly river to Minnesota, we claim her as our own. If you think my advancing age has put a halt to re-reading her books, you would be mistaken. Winter seems to bring on a need to reach back and touch daily life in a simpler time. And her books are without violence, sex and for the most part, disaster. There is plenty of that in our daily lives, whether or not we want it there. I'm not turning my back on the problems of society and the world. I have opinions,I pay my taxes, I vote. For the most part, I don't get involved more deeply than that. I value peace in the valley...at many levels. I'm not an activitist, and if I ever was, I now prefer listening to the canadian geese that are beginning to "group up" all around this area,preparing for their migration. It's like the first sounds of autumn for me. The air begins to get crisp, and the canadians group.

In one of L.I. Wilders books, Pa refers to her as his" little brown bird". She all dressed in her brown coat and red mittons and hood. I love that word picture. The 9 patch above is called: A Tribute to Laura..The Laura Ingalls Wilder quilt. It's machine pieced, queen size and professionally machine quilted. I kept the setting blocks and triangles all the same tan print, but the rest is scrappy, which is for me where quilt happiness lives.

Convergence...

Convergence...19"X24"..an experiment with the idea of "floating" fabric on fabric. Had trouble getting a picture that was light enough to see the darkest squares. Still not good but getting better. Machine pieced, hand quilted

The Littlest pieces..

How small is too small????? I'm still chuckling as I think about what I just read over on Bonnie's blog, Quiltville's Q & Q. Bonnie has posted some "crumb creations", and remarked that "smaller than 1.5"?..she tosses. Tonya responded to that, challenging Bonnie..oh my Tonya..are you prepared for what the snail mail could bring you???

But it got me thinking..how small is too small ? I used to think that anything smaller than an inch was pointless because if you took the 2 seam allowances from that you'd have hardly anything. I have made one log cabin from 1" strips. Trust me, by the time I had 16 blocks, I was ready to be DONE. So less than 1" and you'd have almost nothing showing..case settled.

BUT..then I began playing with vintage scraps and old feedsack trimmings..*VBG*. Yup, you guessed it..some of them were smaller than 1". And what I discovered is that if you love the fabric and want to preserve it, have it, see it in a quilt(of sorts) you just take less than the quarter inch seam. And it works. I'm not advocating seams that narrow on quilts that will see frequent use and daily wear and tear. But on small quilts, no reason not to use those "crumbs" and have as much showing as possible. So I taped a few crumbs onto a sheet of paper and measured them..see amounts above. And then there is the little muslin foundation "kitty"..his finished ears will be one fourth inch..so a crumb will work fine for that...hmmmmmm. And how can I throw away ANY tiny piece of vintage polka dots...? I can't..*G*

So Quilters Of The World...how small is too small.....?? Answer please.........................

The Old Stuff...

With all the wonderful and wonderfully expensive fabrics that are available today, I continue to be in love with these scraps of "low end" feedsack prints of yesteryear.

Came across these two in my cleaning and sorting. The sacks are so coarsely woven it amazes me how clear and sharp the printed images are and remain.

My mother in law was a farmer wife. She made nighties for the girls, pajamas bottoms for the boys, aprons, dishtowels, curtains and more from the feedsacks that had contained both calf starter, chicken mash, and cow feed. She would ride along to the feed mill just to pick out what sacks she wanted, often getting several of the same print. That way she had enough of one for a skirt or blouse.

I have old pieces my mother in law had made into curtains I use them now for almost lint free cleaning rags. The burros and serapes on the fabric, altho faded and thin, are clear and sharp. Was it that the quality of cotton was higher..a better grade? Any chemical process they might have used would be so "low tech" compared to todays processing...makes me wonder

A favorite feedsack...

While sorting my vintage fabric this morning, I came across this piece of feedsack. Just had to share it..*S*

A Thinking Bird???

If I were a red bird, sitting on a fence, I'd be thinking....do birds think? Do they wake up and think.."wonder where I can get breakfast?" Or "where are all the other red birds?" Or " I have so much to do today, where do I begin?"Or.."hmmm...very cool and damp in WI this morning, maybe I should plan my trip south?"

Or maybe they are just singing the praises of the morning and glad to be alive. And have no plans for the day.

Mile a minute and moving fast...

Here are some mile a minute blocks. The 1st on is much smaller than the other 5. I've begun to piece crumbs of old feedsacks and vintage fabric together for a small quilt. Those blocks will finish at 3". The one next to it, is reduced in size to 75%. It's a finished square ready to be pieced into a top. It measures 6.5", as do all the ones below. As you can probably see, you just start with any two scraps, and build on that. Anything goes..occasionally, the funnier the better. Making these is a great stress reliever as you don't have to pre-cut anything...it's the ole "lop it off" system.
I chain piece them through the machine.... 10 beginnings at a sitting. Then I seperate them and run 'em through again with another piece added. Really small pieces you can make "double ups" and use them like they were one bigger piece. I've done that in a couple of these. I'm thinking you can do whatever appeals to you. I've used sashing in one or two tops, and just set them side by side in another. I think you certainly could embellish them before, during or after. If you want lace in there, just add it. Or an older hankerchief or bandana. I occasionally slip in a flannel scrap or two. The new owner is almost always surpised to find it. I stuck left over Y2K signature blocks into one, and my silly sister actually uttered these words.."I found a name in there, did you know it was there?" LOL..I"m still laughing over that one..ya right, like I wouldn't KNOW it was there.
I think you could stick odd letters that you've pieced and not used in here (i.e. my Y Not? quilt). Photo transfer..little printed sacks..just whatever you fancy.


It's creative, it's fun, it puts ALL of that $9 a yard fabric to use, and it's a form of self expression. Who cares if no one understands...*VBG* It's good for them to wonder.

Riding the Orphan Train, heading west...

Another session of frustration...having succeeded yesterday with the digital, today I am back to where it'll load the pictures into the computer, but not in a file I can access from blogspot.

Sooooooooooooooooo...Tonya had commented she wished she could get a better look at my Riding the Orphan Train utility quilt. And here it is. I went and cropped the size and did a bit of a zoom in, so you can pretty much tell what is what for blocks.

Not everything was a block. I had begun cutting and piecing a free-in-the-quilt batt pattern, and just didn't like the result. Those became the really odd pieces that you see across the top and over next to the 9 patches. I actually like this quilt but then I know the saga of the Orphan Trains that left New York carrying unwanted children west across America, in hopes of finding them homes.

In 1853 there were over 30,000 immigrant children living in the streets of New York City. A seminarian Charles L. Brace founded the Children's Aid Society, and for the next 70 years transported children west to America's frontiers in hopes of a family for each of them.

Orphan blocks are not generally held in very high regard. But I feel they are another link to our quilting heritage. Not every child is beautiful or wanted, but it doesn't mean they don't have a purpose. I'm not much of a "planner" when it comes to quilts. I work more from figuring out how a particular block is pieced, and then pull fabrics (or often, scraps) and begin making them. Sometimes it becomes a quilt, and sometimes I just don't like it well enough to make alot of them. Sometimes I make waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many...LOL.

I'm able to do a planned quilt..really I am..*VBG*..I just don't find it very much fun. And when I'm done, I'm mostly happy to have stuck to it and finished it. The sticks and stone quilt was like that...all that saved me was the silly poem about witches with stinky boots on the orangish fabric.

OK..now I'm thinking and I'm not sure I have posted any "planned" quilts here. I'll have to go back and look. If I can't make peace with the digital, I may have to show you "planned" quilts...LOL..but not today.

Econony Patch

This quilt isn't the one I was looking for today. I seem to have "put" digital pictures somewhere that I can't find them now...grrrrrrr! So for today, this is Econony Patch, a rather old block, and my interpretation of it. It's a large twin or small double, I did use a higher loft batt in it. It's quilted by hand with perle cotton, and it lives with me.

Frankie....

A work in progress. Frankie is my Halloween quilt for this year. He's pieced, fused and confused. I've basted him down, and he's ready to embellish...BUT...he seems to think he's "in the dark"...LOL. I'm stumped about his eyes. Have tried several things and nothing looks right. He'll be getting shoe laces in his fashionable tennies, and buttons of course, and whatever else appeals to me...but...help!?!? Any one got suggestions for his eyes?????????

A Wild bow tie quilt...

Bow-delicious

This is a couch size bow tie that I pieced using turquoise, purple, magentas and red as a nuetral.
It's done with full bow ties, half bow ties, and a pieced border top and bottom. Border is a double row at top, single row at the bottom.
You get the "dropped" look by putting a half bow tie at the top of the first row, and at the bottom of the second. Also the angle set of the bows alternates. It's machine pieced/ hand quilted using red and blue. I love the stagger and wobbly of it. The blocks are 6" finished.

Breaking the rules..

This is a small wall quilt I did for my daughter's office. As you can see, I finally have the digital camera working (sort of). Don't think I've gotten the complete hang of it yet, but am working on it.

This idea for this quilt was on the cover of a quilt book. It's the one where you start with a 10" square and sew a 8" circle on it, nothing turned under. Then a 6" circle on top of the 8", and a 4" on top of the 6. When they are all completed, you split them into quarters and re-position them. Nothing in this piece was planned but the 4 in the corners. They were slightly "under" size and worked well there. I utility quilted it with perle cotton. It's kind of fun sewing on top with raw edges.

Childhood...

Please send help ! ! ! How on earth did my sewing room get into this state of chaos that I see before me????
All I did was decide to re-organize my stash, shop for fabric (twice), begin cutting up scraps into strips and squares, and start 3 new quilts.

Now I feel like the little dutch girl who stuck her finger in the dyke to try and stop the leak..LOL.
On a positive note, Wisconsin has delivered us a lovely autumn type day this morning. In the mid 60's now, heading into the mid 70's later today. Soooooooooooo if I'm as bright as you would think I am, I'd better get with "the program" and finish at least ONE of the things I've set in motion this week.

For your viewing pleasure, I offer a look back..probably you aren't old enough to have worn the brown cotton stocking with your school dress, but I did. And hated every minute of it. They were about thigh high and held up by a garter belt, which was like trying to get inside a pretzel. But the stocking were the "norm" in the mid 40's, brown for everyday, and a special white pair for Sunday and special occasions. Maybe I'll treat you to a pic of ME wearing them..LOL. The sweet child pictured here graced the cover of a Woman's Day, dated 1942, and cost 2 cents.
I found it on ebay, and couldn't resist. I love everything about her, including the brown stockings. Happy childhood memory of your own today...*S*

Fourth of July...

A wallhanging I finished for daughter #1 just before the 4th of July. I got it back from her to photograph. It's machine pieced/ machine quilted, but all I know how to do is to quilt straight(?) lines. Haven't gotten brave enough as yet to meander..soon I hope..*G*

I did try to make the flag "wave" a bit by dropping the second half block a little lower than the first. It sort of works. Getting scrappy is never a problem.

Scraps

August continues to sizzle here in Wisconsin. Definitely the dog days of summer, pond slime, crunchy brown lawns and the smell of hot black top pavement. All of which tend to make me grateful to be inside, with the AC, and playing in my scraps.

The amount of scraps that accumulates staggers me ! A bit of seaching and poking around revealed that I was up to 4 of the tall popcorn tins full of 1.5" strips and scraps. At one time I did have the 1.5" squares in a seperate container, but must have needed it for something else. They now swim freely with the strips, creating more confusion.

And so I began the task of getting them out of there and into their own little pond. I have been working on a scrappy log cabin again. I only work on it when I feel like it. I'm trying a red corner square, vs. center, and building out from there. A light added above the first red, and then a dark next to the pair. Another light across the top, and then back to a dark one up the side.
I find it goes together faster than when you are doing the balancing act with a traditional log cabin. And I like it better than the side to side way of the courthouse steps. I hadn't know how I was going to set these little guys(6.5") but having seen Bonnie's on her blog page, I'm now committed to putting them into pinwheel blocks of 4.

I also have begun a Railroad Crossing quilt that uses 1.5" X 4.5" strips. Sets of 6 make one unit of the "tracks" part. It's getting some of the shorter strips used and will make a dent in my odd yardages to do the setting blocks and triangles. I'm shooting for about a twin, so I only need 80 of the "tracks" parts. I hit 40, sewn and trimmed this morning. And I'm almost emptied one popcorn tin..hurray for that!

In the mean time, as I hide from the heat and humidity, I have worked my way through red, orange, yellow, pink, peach and turquoise in the process of straightening up my stash. That takes care of one side. I have brown, rust, black, blue, green, lavender and purple to go..plus the kids novelty stuff and then the flannel shelf. What I have done looks sooo good! Oh yes, and the plaids over there in that big box....

I have black fabric lined up on the cutting board and the plaids will soon be there too..almost to where I will jump into the letter making ala Tonya's blog. I only need about a billagion E's. Should be EEEEEEEEEEEEEZ, right?

Quilts and questions...

This small 4 patch variation is one of my earlier attempts in making small quilts. I've never been quite sure what the difference was between a small quilt and a minature quilt. At that time, in the late 1980's it was being hotly debated.

I'm not sure it really matters..at least not to me. I saw this pattern, variation of 4 patch, and used some of my favorite scraps to piece it. The buttons at the intersections were my "homespun" addition, and buttons on quilts weren't yet the "thing" to do. But they're small buttons of advanced age, and suited the piece.

It feels odd to look back at it now, with not all the triangle points in tact, and a couple of odd fabric choices.
Almost 20 years later, I might do a better job of sizing the blocks before I made the pinwheels. But back then it was new to me, the whole rotary cutter bit, and often I just went ahead and "did my thing".
It's been a Sunday of doing my thing....so to speak. Units got made for a Railroad Crossing quilt I am piecing from my 1.5" scrap bin. Don't know what the setting fabric will be as yet, will wait til I see what the blocks look like laid out and then decide. I have lots of fabric to choose from.
Today also was the day I was in the mood to clean my stash..LOL. You know..the day when you pull every thing off the shelves and re-organize and re-order it? Ya..and it's a process and feeling that I like, and often save for rainy days, when I can sit quietly, fondling fabric, creating order, and listening to it rain. But today it was the fan I listened to.

And I washed new fabrics I got on a shopping trip with friend Betsy, on Wednesday. I did some pretty serious plastic damage. But as I open the yardages out and drop them in the washer, I don't really mind what the bill will be next month. I have new greens, and savannah golds and rusts, and I can hear the rustling of creatures moving about in the night in Africa.
I'm collecting fabrics for an African quilt..a coming attraction. Once I decide what pattern I will piece, that's the hard part this time.

The afternoon found me watching Cider House Rules, and realizing I had forgotten what a sad movie it is. But Michael Caine is wonderful as always. I love his voice, and also that of Sir Anthony Hopkins in Shadowlands. And Patrick Steward for that matter...LOL.

Was restless tonight with what tv was offering but too tired to do much, so I began a new Father Christmas in counted cross stitch. I only do counted cs occasionally as my eyes get really tired from counting the holes...but this is a neat small one, so I'll give it a try. I'm quite taken with Father Christmas vs. Santa Claus. But that's a story for another season.
I wonder..probably not as part of the Quilt Mavericks group, but do you other quilters make seasonal quilts? I have both Christmas and Halloween quilts. I really love getting the christmas quilts and wall hangings and table squares out after Thanksgiving each year. I have started making a Christmas quilt for each of my 5 children to have in their homes. Daughter # 1 is lucky enough and a good enough daughter she got a #2 christmas quilt last year, and the Uncle Santa wall hanging the year before. You'd think that would be enough, but regularily my quilts seem to vanish only to appear on her couch or wall. Luckily they know their way home again, altho I have considered the global tracking devices as an emblishment. Hopefully it won't come to that..LOL.

Time Traveler...

Looking back.... an interesting thing to ponder while you quilt. At this particular place in my life..it all seems to be about time. Not the lack of, nor the excess of..and especially not the changing of, as in normal to daylight savings. More about the concept of time. And maybe if things really do or don't exist simulatiously in time and space.
So much is implied in our lives. That we go forward; movement and time. Or we stand still, and not move, but there is movement anyway as time flows around us. And the idea that looking back, or wishing to go back is somehow better than what lies ahead or at hand. There must be such a thing as time. I suppose it is just that we call it "that"...time. The earth turns, the daylight and the seasons change accordingly, and things progress with their growth. That we are here, calling this event time seems optional.

I have such a hard time grasping this thing called time. It has perplexed me endlessly over the years. Being a lover of most things of age, I have wondered "how can this thing exist and yet the hands and eyes and mind that conceived it and made are so long gone"? It seems almost wrong to have the daily life of a person, in the form of a quilt, in our hands and never to have known anything about the person.

My sister, who wanders in and out of my life, has begun the "dig", as it were, for the family lineage. Almost daily now, since she's back, time had been marching to a much louder drummer. She has stirred up the cousins to become drummers. I had rather liked marching to the drummer I was hearing..and trust me, he took alot of coffee breaks. I find the geneology interesting, but always comes the "time" tune. What I most would like to know of the people she seeks, is their story. All their stories. There are so many of us here on this place called earth, in various shapes, sizes and forms. What possible difference does any one of us make? Probably very little, and maybe only to the extent it unfolds satifactorily for us.
And I wonder if maybe what is important, that I can do for you, and that you can do for me, or anyone, is to be a witness to their existance. To hold in time and space the sum and total of their "being". That in the vastness of "time", some one else knew that I had dreams and built castles in the air, and occasionally put foundations under them.

The photograph is of my mother. It was taken about 1948 in WI. She was a young, beautiful woman of 33. She was the only daughter with 3 older brothers. She married my father in 1935 at the age of 20. They had me in 1940, lost a baby boy in 1945, and had my sister in 1947.
I have few memories of my mother looking like this, but sadder still to me is that I don't know very many of her stories. I had little time to get to know her as a woman. She died when I was 27, and she was 52. She was no longer young, she was only beautiful then to people who loved her. Most of her stories didn't get told. There are few witnesses to her life.

So maybe it's not an accident that I make quilts, not a random chance happening. Maybe it started that way, and maybe I am telling my stories, piece by piece, as they unfold. Oh yes, one knows soooo much more at 64 than at 27.

One of Life's Blessings...named Charlie

This is Charlie, my holstein cat. He follows me these days in spirit form. He's a quilt shop cat, with the best place to sleep being on a laid out quilt, or the fabric piles.
Charlie came into our world at Bubbling Springs Farm, an alternative life style community. He was known as Charles Atlas. I had stopped there one day to drop something off for my friend, Dottie.
As we talked, Charles A. positioned himself on my foot, and looked like he was there it stay. I had recently been tested and found to be "massive allergic" to cats..LOL. Dottie encourged me to take him home, but I declined and removed him from my foot..ya right! He walked over and as I opened my car door to leave he jumped in and laid down on the floorboards. Removing him, not once but twice and then having Dottie hold him so I could drive away seemed to be the only way to avoid taking him home with me.
But he had worked his magic on me, and I tentatively asked the hubby what he thought about a new kitten. Of course, the answer was "YES, I was crazy, but if it was what I wanted to go ahead.
And so began my love affair with Charlie. He was a charmer. My foot was always his favorite place to sit. If I was sitting down he simply laid across both feet.

I opened a small quilt shop in 1989, in the house next door to ours. Every morning as I got ready to walk across the yard to Quilts on Main, Charlie accompanied me. Every one in town knew Charlie. He befriended the elderly on their porches, visited the school where my hubby worked, would have gone in, if they had let him. He even visited the neighborhood cats, who were tied outside.
He was found of bringing us presents, often a tiny baby rabbit, held gently in his mouth, and actually managing not to put teethmarks in it's skin. More than once I returned the wild baby to it's woodpile home across the street, only to have Charlie bring me another.

One afternoon he came across the street with something white dangling from his mouth. I was in the porch having afternoon coffee with the hubby, and we figured it was another bunny. So we got up to see what he had this time, rather than just letting him into the porch with his "offering". Lucky we did that. His offering was a live white mink !! There is a mink farm up river from our small village and occasionally they escape. This one got caught..LOL. But with the possibility of rabies hanging over our heads, the mink needed to be terminated. Their bite is terrible, and how Charlie ever managed to catch it, much less not get bitten is a miracle.
Charlie would drop his catch if you told him "let me see it Charlie", and that day was no exception. The DH stepped on it's head, and that was the end of the mink. The only good to come out of this is that the 2nd son, just a so-so student, took the mink to school for science and got extra credit. Apparently it's very unusual for a cat to be able to catch a mink.

There are many, many Charlie stories, most quite as remarkable as he proved to be. He left us in his 4th year, having contracted feline luekemia from one of the tied up cats he paid social visits to. That Siamese had been infected by a passing outside-only cat, and both Charlie and Sparky died that spring. It was a crushing blow, my beautiful holstein Charlie. But he had lessons to teach me, and he did. His spirit is still with me and the lessons I learned from him have made my journey easier. I've had several cats over the years since Charlie, but only he remains my Charlie.