July Free Motion Quilt Challange and Album Applique Updates

 

The July Free Motion Quilt Challenge (Sew Cal Gal blog) instructor is Angela Walters. She is a long arm quilter but her background fill design called Tiles translates to the home sewing machine very nicely.  This is a great little blank space fill design that can still be used with simple stippling or other background fill designs.  It shows better on a plain fabric and is much more difficult to see on a printed fabric but that is the case with many quilting designs. The tile effect can be done with box type tiling or with angled lines giving a more jagged appearance (see the right upper corner of my sample)  There is a picture of a quilt quilted with the angled line tiles on the tutorial, it looks very good with modern fabrics.

In between other summer activities I have continued working on my two album quilts.  Two more Ladies of the Sea (pattern by Sue Garman) completed, the USS Constitution, aka "old ironsides".   The second is a viking ship, the Osberg, circa 875, a long ship moved by oarsman

                                         

The block count on Ladies of the Sea is 14, only 2 more ships to go and I am on the borders!

I also have finished four more blocks for the red and green applique album.

  I had originally planned to do 42  blocks and have an applique border, but I am leaning toward adding blocks -maybe 63 - a 7 X 9 set- and then the sashing around each block and no border.  

 I keep looking at the picture of the antique quilt I saw at the International Quilt Study Center & Museum in Lincoln, NE. that inspired this quilt and I like its simplicity of just applique blocks and sashing. 

I am getting the patterns for the red and green block from all my favorite applique books.  These last four blocks were from the Kay MacKenzie book Inspired By Tradition. There are a couple more in that book I really like and I need to spend some time today prepping some more blocks to work on.  I enjoy the Olympics and I know it will be a great opportunity to get a lot of  hand work completed while watching television.

Happy Stitching All,

Cheri

Triplets!

Meet Teagyn, Raelynn, and Korryn.  They are the 12 week old triplets of a friend of my daughter.  I do not usually do to much garment sewing, but it was my absolute pleasure to alter their little baptism dresses to fit these little 8 pounders.

 I was thrilled they brought the girls over for a little visit along with their 10 week old cousin Carson whose mom is another friend of my daughter.

  Four little babies under 3 months old, there was lots of "rock a byeing" and catching up with my daughter's friends, a perfect afternoon.

Quilt Magazines on Ipad/Iphone

I have found a few quilt magazines starting to be available on my Ipad and Iphone.  Lori over at HumbleQuilts had a huge discussion back in early June asking the question how many quilters were still subscribing to quilt magazines. I let my subscriptions go a couple years ago.  Last week I was looking for something quick to read in the newsstand section of the Ibook store and came across these quilt magazines.  The apps for the different magazines are free and there usually  is one older issue of the magazine available for a free download to see how you like reading on your Ipad or Iphone.

 You can preview the first 10 or so pages of the latest magazines (which includes the contents page) and then download the magazine for $1.99.  You can get single issues or have a recurring subscription.

 The pattern pull out pages were converted  to  8 1/2 X 11 inch pages so you can send them to your printer in the Quiltmaker issue I previewed.  

I still occasionally pick up a quilt magazine at the store and really like this option of getting to preview the table of contents and then decide if I want  to read it on my Ipad, and the discounted price for the online versions is nice. 

Just thought I would share,  Happy Stitching,
Cheri

Sunbonnet Sue Revisited.

She is one of the most recognized quilt blocks in the world. she has a love/hate relationship with quilters (google "the demise of Sunbonnet Sue), and she was the first quilt my mother made.

  This is a true 1960's quilt, my mom hand appliqued - with a black embroidery floss running stitch - and hand quilted this quilt in about 1967-68.  This was the first quilt in a series of four that my mom did for her daughters.  I am the oldest and this quilt became mine.

  I remember my mom coming in the house one spring afternoon and enlisting my help for a project.  She had spotted a Sunbonnet Sue quilt hanging on an elderly neighbor's cloths line.  We went with a sheet of notebook paper, pencil, and clipboard and while I held the clipboard behind the quilt she traced this Sunbonnet Sue pattern while the quilt was hanging on the clothesline. 
Mom only purchased the white fabric for the backgrounds and the light blue for the borders.  With four daughters she sewed most of our clothing and these Sue's were made out of the scraps from our sundresses, shorts, and shirts.

 It is interesting to me because looking closely at the fabrics some of the them look very current with today's fabrics.

 I can not remember any of us girls wearing the leopard print, but it was the 60s :)


I was taking a closer look at this quilt because I recently made a  little Sunbonnet Sue quilt for a friend.  She wanted a dolly blanket/quilt for her granddaughter.

 These little Sues are 5 inch blocks and made with Aunt Gracie reproduction fabrics.  I machine appliqued the blocks with a black blanket stitch.  The back is minkie fabric, I did very little quilting on it and  did not use any batting so it is nice and "drapey" and hug able.  Easy to wrap a baby doll in.  

Happy Stitching!
Cheri