Modern Siggy Block quilt

Last night, I finished binding my Modern Siggy Block quilt.

I was aiming for that "gradually changing color" effect.

There were 97 of us who participated. I chose an 8 x 12 layout. I put my own block on the back as a label.

Anna Maria Horner afficionados will recognize the border and backing as Garden Party fabrics.

Like this guy, I JUST made it!

I wanted to be able to put 2010 on the label; I did.

Gift wrap

What does a quilter use for wrapping gifts?

Why, fabric, of course! And the zanier, the better!

I particularly like the flamingo fabric, and the easter egg fabric!


All of the fabric being used as gift wrap can simply be folded and put back in the stash. If I keep the purple fabric (we don't celebrate Kwanzaa; it was a fabric donation), I'll use it as "muslin" for foundation piecing.


These homemade cinnamon rolls made by the girls (via The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl) are to. die. for. They are worth a mention here.

Merry Christmas to you and yours this holiday season.

What was I thinking?!!

'Twas the night before Christmas, and...

I'm finishing up a quilt top that I started this week? I had a TON of stuff to do; how'd I crank this out?!!

It's a little windy, as you can see...

Our charity sewing circle had been gifted a lot of fabric recently, as I've mentioned before. Part of the stash included some great ethnic prints. I had an idea in my head, kind of Beyond the Block style.

UPDATE: I'd gotten some questions about the book that inspired this, so I wanted to give you a picture of it. This really is the best price I've seen for this book:

There are elements of this that I really like. There are also elements that I will definitely do differently next time. Because there WILL be a next time. In fact, I'm thinking of creating a series, and naming it "Origins." This may become a "potato-chip quilt" kind of style for me (you know, once you do one, you can't stop). I'm thinking very seriously of donating this one, or keeping this on hand as a last-minute gift or donation. I've always wanted a reserve of quilts to use like that...

In this photo, it's been rotated 180 degrees. Hmm...

I'll keep trying... :)

Three more

I was able to finish three more charity blankets in the past week.

They'll be mentioned over here:

I have more of these I'll be sewing this week (as well as crib sheets), but at least 3 are done for today. :)

FNSI December 10, 2010

So, I sewed.

But first, I washed several yards (maybe two or three dozen?) of cottons and cotton blends that our charity sewing circle had been given as a donation. This was in order to sew crib sheets for portable playpens for a local women's shelter. DD#2 helped with ironing. I cut out 14, and sewed 4 last night. Also, we are giving the same shelter warm, heavy blankets, most of which are made of wool. I made three of those. The fabric for these also came from the same donation.

Some of you knew about the sheets and blankets; I have mentioned them recently. But what I haven't mentioned yet is the source of the donated fabric. The donation was from a retired home ec teacher, who could no longer sew. We estimate that we received over 50 large trash bags of fabric from her! (Question: What does YOUR stash look like?)

You probably want to see pictures. Um...maybe tomorrow. Or the next day. Or on the off chance that I can get pictures taken tonight, I'll post them soon.

Look what I won!

This just arrived in the mail; look at what I won!

I won four cuts of fabric from Tula Pink's Neptune line by Moda!

And I also won three cuts of fabric from Sanae's Arcadia line, also by Moda!

I actually had a honey bun and a piece of yardage from this line from about a year ago, when I participated in the Friendship Bag Swap (I blogged about it here and here). This is what remains:

So, along with the new acquisition, I think I have enough for at least a small quilt!

Now, where will I find the time?!!

Thanks again, AllieKatMom, for such a lovely gift. :)

Slacking off

Sigh; I'm such a slacker.

I only finished two blankets for this week. :)

In my own defense, last week was incredibly busy. Also, the women's shelter for which we are sewing these is in need of crib sheets more desperately than these blankets. So, we've trying to get those cut and sewn. I've sewn two of those. I hope to have more sheets and blankets sewn for next week's Monday report.

Sewing for the World Surgical Foundation

Even during those times when I am not actively blogging or even quilting per se, I am still sewing...

Here is a picture that is very dear to me. My charity sewing group, since May 2006, has sewn over 18,000 items! I still can't believe it. In the picture above, you can see an example of the sheets that we sewed for the World Surgical Foundation. Pop over to our charity sewing group's blog to read more about it.

A picture of the charity blankets--and a cause

I am now at least able to share a picture of last weekend's blankets. These will go to a local women's shelter. The director has specifically asked for sturdy, heavy, warm blankets; quilts do not seem to be warm and heavy enough, and do not withstand wear and tear as well, at least for this shelter's needs. So, here are the ones I did last weekend. I did 15 (one is not shown here). I think I'll mention them here:

You are of course welcome to check out this link, and to see if you can possibly get a quilt or blanket sewn for someone in need, and donate it locally. After all, don't we all have plenty of extra fabric on our shelves? And if you don't, I dare you to let it be known that you sew, and that you will accept donations. You'll eventually be swamped with more fabric than you can handle. Ask me how I know. :)

Friday Night Sew In: Count

I sewed 15 blankets and 1 crib sheet for charity; I was incredibly productive! (Granted, I began a little earlier than Friday night...) I was even able to complete a significant portion of my signature block quilt! I hope to post pix soon...

November Friday Night Sew In

I'll be participating in the Friday Night Sew In (FNSI) this month. I have been trying to wait for an opportune time to do this again since I last did it (back in June), but the ideal time never came. I've been doing some sewing, but it is not pre-planned, and my set-up has not really been the best. But Friday, I am going to just sew anyway tomorrow.

Part 3: String quilt top

To call this Part 3 of the series of posts I have put here is a bit misleading, yet it is not entirely inaccurate; here's why. And make sure you read the first two parts so that this post will make sense.


The weekend of the USCT Grand Review, I was finishing up a quilt. It wasn't just any quilt; it was a first for me on several counts.

This is obviously a string quilt; this beautiful string quilt was my inspiration. You may have recognized a trend in my quilting; I typically use large blocks, and do not really do true piecing. Thus, this string quilt is the first time I have really "pieced" a quilt and worked with smaller pieces to create pieced blocks.


But, it's not just any string quilt. It's also a charm quilt. So, that means that every single piece of fabric in this quilt is unique; no two pieces are the same. (Note to self: Do not EVER do that again!)


And here's the really neat part...it's an I Spy quilt! I'll show you each of the six panels, and then you can see if you can find everything. My younger daughter and I wrote an I Spy poem for it!

I spy bunny ears, a butterfly, a tree,

Dogs, a pepper, and some broccoli.

I spy a giraffe, a horse, some French fries,

An eggplant, an orange, and owls so wise.

I spy a fortune cookie, a stack of dishes,

A peacock, a black motorcycle, a cat, and fishes.

I spy a pumpkin, a duck, a snake,

A guitar, yellow sunflowers, and a slice of cake.

The reason why this quilt is part of the series is this. I was not quite finished with it by the time Thursday came. But, after working with Tina in the schools, and I thought about the fact that we'd be a part of her lecture/educational sessions on Saturday, I knew it would be good to have a quilt like this as part of the exhibit. So, I rushed to finish the last few blocks of this quilt, and added the wildly colorful tie dye border that you see, having been inspired by Tina's generous use of colorful tie dye fabrics in her quilts.

I really enjoyed making this quilt; string quilts are a lot of fun to make, although I will not put myself thru the torture again of making sure that every single string is different.

A final, windy day picture.

USCT Grand Review Part 2: Quilt Artist Tina Williams Brewer

This is part 2 of a series of posts about the US Colored Troops (USCT) Grand Review weekend; it is best to start with part 1 for an understanding of the weekend as a whole.

As part of the festivities last weekend of the USCT Grand Review, quilt artist (or art quilter?) Tina Williams Brewer came to the event to show her art quilts at a couple of educational sessions on Saturday. But, on the Thursday and Friday prior to the event, she traveled to some of the local elementary schools to introduce children to the idea of storytelling, history, and cultural expression thru art quilts.

My quilting group (not to be confused with my charity sewing group), since one of our members knows Tina very well, had the opportunity to work with her in the schools. You might be able to see my daughters in the pictures below, standing/bending in the background and helping the students with the hands-on project of log cabin block construction.

Tina takes the blocks that the children have created with glue on a muslin foundation, and then somehow sews them together. She visited three schools; she will create three quilts, one for each school.

I was in awe of the event. First, I found it amazing that a quilter--and an art quilter, to boot--would be interested in teaching children about art quilts. I truly admire her desire to instill in the next generation an appreciation for an art form that has revivals from time to time, but never really seems to be thriving anymore. Second, I was shocked that she travels with her museum quality quilts, and allows children to handle them! But her belief is that, as they are insured, they are meant to be experienced and enjoyed, and a quilt--and the quilting process--should not be inaccessible. That gave me pause. As much as I am adamant about creating utilitarian quilts, I do still believe that not every quilt should be used frequently. Well, Tina's perspective has given me pause, and caused me to begin to evaluate even more my way of thinking about quilts.

She was also incredibly gracious. On Saturday afternoon, she held two educational sessions about her quilts. Not only had she given us, our quilting group, opportunities to instruct right alongside her in the schools on Thursday and Friday, but on Saturday, she even gave us the opportunity to display some of our quilts along with hers. We are quilters, but she is an artist. Below is one of her exhibits of quilts, with some of my quilts. You might recognize what is probably my best known quilt (see the white one with the square, folded and lying on the table?). Under it is my picnic quilt top, and to the right on another table is my Yellow Brick Road quilt:

I do not have permission to share photos of my quilt group (except for one or two members), so I'll only show some of the pictures of the room where we were stationed. In the photo below is my High Light quilt:

See the woman in the foreground on the right with the hat and red dress? She was one of the re-enactors (see the Part 1 post); she was on break from her own session, and stopped thru our room:

Here I am seated at my sewing machine, sewing some of the setting blocks that Tina will use when she assembles the childrens' quilts; I am positioned in front of the quilt that I will present to you in Part 3 of this series!

USCT Grand Review Part 1

(On this day, Veteran's Day, it is most appropriate to talk about one particular group of veterans...)

We had a very interesting weekend this past weekend. In order to fully explain it, I'll need to give you a bit of history over the course of three blog entries, which will help lay the groundwork for making the connection to quilting. Here's the first one.

At the end of the Civil War, Washington wanted to honor its troops for their service in the war with a grand review. However, they made a grave oversight and decided not to extend the invitation to the US Colored Troops (USCT). Yes; in this, our brand new United States, some of us were still not welcome.

(Now, Pennsylvania at least decided to hold a grand review, and they did invite colored troops to the affair, but the governor did not attend.)

So, here we are, at the sesquicentennial (150 year) mark. Pennsylvania decides to hold a sesquicentennial celebration of the grand review, and makes a point to extend to the colored troops the honor that Washington should have extended them a century and a half ago. I will not consider the injustice, irony, etc. of it all; I will simply be grateful for this past weekend. And for the governor's presence this time around. Below, you can see him posing with some of the troops.

And the mayor, too; here she is, being escorted to the podium.

To celebrate the event, on Saturday there was a procession of troops on the streets of the state's capital. There are companies of men across the country who participate in re-enactment events, and were more than happy to travel to Harrisburg in their Union Army garb to honor the men who fought many years ago for the cause of freedom.

Some of the companies consisted of very young men. :) These drummers are in their early teens.

There were also men and women dressed in "civilian" attire of the time, who represented certain characters in history. For example, one woman was Harriet Jacobs. If you walked up to any of the actors, they would, in character, explain who they were, and what part they played in history.

It was hard not to be moved by the events of the weekend. It was amazing.

Next:
Part 2--an art quilter (or quilt artist?)