Archive for May, 2010

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Strawberry Fields doll quilt finished

Friday, May 28th, 2010

Ta da!!! Strawberry Fields is finished.  It’s a fun doll quilt that Lori of Humble Quilts posted as a quilt along.

She drew her inspiration from an antique quilt, which was full sized.  She downsized the blocks and changed the setting to the fun zig-zag.

Her fabric choices were close to the original and I chose to make mine similar too, by using reproduction fabrics.

I had a lot of fun with this quilt along, but when it came time to quilt my little darling I found it kind of fiddly to quilt.

Soo…I basted the edge to an old towel so I could put it in my quilting hoop.

That helped a lot.  I know a lot of people quilt free handed, but I’m more comfortable using a hoop…and my hoop is big!

I guess it depends on what a person is used to?

With the towel added I could quilt away.

I used a toile fabric I had on hand for my backing.

I enjoy seeing what people use on their backs and wish they’d show us more in the books that document old quilts.

The stitching usually shows up better on the back too.

You may be wondering what that other quilt is?

It’s the second quilt I made from the fun quilt along Lori did last…Cheddar and Crackers.

I enjoyed doing one in  blue and white with cheddar.  Then I wanted to try a second colorway.

I call it:  Cheddar and Crackers with Watermelon.

This colorway is kind of unusual to our modern eyes..but it would have been right at home in an antique quilt.

I’m very happy with my two newest doll quilts!

Thanks Lori!  :)

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Posted in Doll quilts, quilt along | 28 Comments »

Antique Rail Fence

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

Today the quilt top I’m pulling from the quilt top cupboard is a Rail Fence design.  It might also be called a Basket Weave pattern, due to the random color placement.

The top is hand pieced and dates to around the turn of the century (1898 ish).

The top is made from mourning prints, indigos, cadet blue, crimson, and shirting.  It also contains one cheddar gold strip which is made from pieces sewn together, a “poverty patch”.

One might wonder…why did the maker use just one piece of the cheddar gold..especially if she had to piece it to get the right size?  I think it’s in support of McKinley’s push to have our money system backed by the Gold Standard during his Presidential campaign?

Mayleen of “QisforQuilt” posts a pic of a top that Terry Clothier Thompson uses in her quilt history talk, which contains one gold piece. In her talk, she tells that women often voiced their political views through their quilts.  I wonder if the “menfolk” knew the women in their lives had opinions on the political events of the day..and were voicing them through their quilts..or was it like a “secret hand shake”? ;)

Women didn’t have the right to vote until the 19th amendment was passed in August of 1920.  They couldn’t vote, but they did support the candidates they believed in.  Quilts were often used to voice a woman’s political preferences.

It seems to me, this one gold piece is so deliberate, it must be one of the quilts/tops that were made to support the gold standard?

I posted a top when I first started my blog that had one gold piece.  I mused at the reason for it when I posted it.  I have since learned of the gold standard story and it makes sense to me that these quilts are examples of political quilts?

Here I show a couple of additional pics so you can see the fabrics used.

They’re just ordinary fabrics of the era, probably gathered from a scrap bag?

The red, white, and blue color scheme also seems like a political statement to me?

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Posted in The quilt top cupboard | 7 Comments »

Scrappy String Lone Star

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

the quilt top cupboard006 Today the quilt top I’m pulling from the quilt top cupboard is a string pieced Lone Star. Each diamond that makes up the star has been made by sewing scraps together in string quilt style.
I had a hard time getting a good full view pic of the quilt because the wind wasn’t cooperating the day I first took pics. I tried again today, and as soon as I got the quilt hung up the wind picked up. It’s blowing back against the garage a bit, but I got a fair pic.

Some of the scraps used were itty bitty, measuring in at less than 1/4″. Other pieces are larger. The red setting fabric has been pieced together as well. This quilter was determined to make a quilt even though she only had tiny bits of fabrics to work with. I absolutely love her determination!
Of course, the determination our quilter of yesteryear had to piece the top leaves me really wondering why the top never got quilted? If only it could talk!
Scrappy String Lonestar with Red002
The quilt top dates to 1930’s-1940’s. It’s all hand pieced. There is some slight discoloration of the fabrics which makes me feel that the top was stored in a wooden chest or on bare wood shelves, possibly? I think a good soak in Oxyclean might work wonders?
Some of the fabric in the quilt top had deteriorated, so I carefully appliqued vintage fabric over those bad pieces. The red print in the center of the quilt is the repaired portion. The original fabric was very similar, so I was happy to have a good replacement on hand. I was able to preserve the look of the original quilt, which I think is pretty fun.
Scrappy String Lonestar with Red005
There’s one thing I find very interesting in the piecing…where you see orange fabric the piece was made from very small pieces…sewn together like a poverty patch. I thought it was odd that the orange wasn’t just sewn as a thin piece like so many of the other fabrics. The quilter grouped them together so the orange could be seen! This is the only fabric she did that with.
Scrappy String Lonestar with Red006
The quilt top is about 72″ square.
With all of the string piecing, there are a lot of seams. It leaves me wondering how I would quilt it?

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Posted in The quilt top cupboard | 14 Comments »

A New Finish!

Saturday, May 15th, 2010

At long last…the Princess Feather quilt is done! I started basting it for quilting on March 1..here we are 10 weeks later and it’s complete.

This quilt took quite a bit of time. The applique took 474 hours, the marking and basting 14 hours, the hand quilting 496 hours, and the binding 10.5 hours. A grand total of 994.5 hours.  It measures 93″ x 93″.

The quilting was done with quartered feathered wreaths at each corner of the large blocks and diagonal lines .75″ across the rest of the design. In the center where the 4 blocks meet the wreath is complete, and I stitched around all of the appliqued bits.
I couldn’t get the quilting to show up in the pics very well, so I took a pics of the back side in hopes it would show better.

I used a white cotton sateen weave sheet for the back and it quilted like butter. It feels so soft and smooth too. I’m very happy with that decision.
Princess Feather finished013
For the batting I chose Fairfield’s cotton/bamboo blend. It wasn’t cheap, but I thought it sounded like a good choice when I read the package.  It’s a 50/50 blend using organic cotton and bamboo which is naturally antibacterial.
Princess Feather finished001
The package says the blend is luxuriously soft and supple with excellent loft. It says it has great breathe ability, wicks moisture from the body, keeping you cool in the warmer climates while providing an insulation of warmth in cooler climates.
Both cotton and bamboo are renewable resources and green manufacturing processes are used in the batting’s production.
OK..so I’ve devoted quite a bit of space telling about this batting..do I like it?
It was pretty easy to needle so the quilting went smoothly, BUT I kept seeing little fuzz balls on the quilt as I worked.
Princess Feather finished014 I don’t know if you can see it, but there’s a little fuzz on the blue fabrics? I wasn’t overly concerned because I quilt in a hoop. I had quite a bit of batting hanging out at the edges and the quilt got repositioned quite a bit.   I thought it was fuzz being transferred from the edges and once the quilt was finished and bound it would be fine.

Once the quilt was finished I spread it out on the bed and wiped across it with a damp sponge to remove the fuzz and lint. The batting appeared to be bearding. Bearding is when the batting fibers migrate out of the quilt. We don’t want that!

I spent quite a bit of time going over the quilt and it looks OK for now, but it was bearding through the appliques as well as the background fabric.  These are high quality fabrics with a nice weave, so the batting shouldn’t be coming through them.  I don’t think I’ll be using this wonder batting again! It cost quite a bit more than the other batting options and  IMO it ruined my quilt.

Have you used the bamboo batting? What has your experience been with it?

I enjoyed making this quilt. The fabrics were very different from my usual and they were cheerful to work with. Kim’s pattern was fun to do!

EDIT: Several people wanted to know how I keep a record of my hours. Each quilt I make has a sheet of paper on which I record the cost of materials, source of the pattern,type of batting, and hours spent on each aspect of the quilt making process.
When I’m ready to work on the quilt I look at the clock and when I stop I look again and mark down my hours.
I find that my worksheets give me a good idea of how long a similar project might take, and help me place a value on the finished quilt.

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Posted in Applique quilts, Kim McLean's Princess feather | 49 Comments »

Antique Broken Dishes

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

the quilt top cupboard006
The quilt top I’m pulling from the quilt top cupboard today is a Broken Dishes pattern in a zig zag setting.
The quilt top contains chambray, indigos, gingham, plaids, and shirting fabrics, which puts the date it was made at around 1910 or a bit later. These fabrics were very popular at that time.

As you can see, this top has some damage to it. The borders are torn and the bottom left corner is missing.
The top shows some wear. At first I thought maybe the top had been finished as a tied quilt and then at a later date taken apart, but I don’t see evidence of holes from the ties.
Antique Pink and Blue Broken Dishes002
It really makes me wonder what happened to this top? Was it used by children to play with? Was it thrown over a clothes line or table to make a fort? Was it used as a cover on a piece of furniture?
Whatever it’s story is…it’s a shame the top has been damaged. I love the colors, design and setting of this top. In my opinion, every block looks more important when it’s set on point. The quilt seems to be a bit more interesting set in the zig zag setting than the blocks would have been as a straight set?
Antique Pink and Blue Broken Dishes003
The blocks are machine sewn and are finished at 7″. The piecing is very well done in the blocks. At some point I’ll probably edit the top to remove the damaged bits and quilt it? :)

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Posted in Pieced quilts, The quilt top cupboard | 9 Comments »

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