A classy treasure???

This is from my red hat period.  I made a doll and called her, Lotti Patti Tude.   Seemed to fit her and was a nod to the pattern maker.

I also had a lotta purple and red fabric scraps to use up!  Mind you, I suspect her hot flashes were better at keeping her warm than a quilt!   ;^)

Tuesday's Treasure

Which one is the treasure???

This Magic Tiles quilt was made when our Country Road Quilters group met for a day sometime in the fall of 1997.  Someone had the directions and we all set to work.

I chose a neutral palette of fabrics and black leading.  I have finally figured out that I prefer low contrast in my quilts so  I do quite like it and have managed to not give this one away.

I practiced my machine quilting skills by doing something different for each wee section.  When I had quite run out of ideas I filled the last half dozen that I'd somehow missed with X's.  :)  The border is various pieces from the blocks that I joined on the diagonal and were positioned to flow around the centre.

I like working with this principle of shuffling fabrics as it keeps my interest high.  I have made several without the leading and then used my sewing machines embroidery stitches to make Victorian Crazy quilts.  Since then I discovered the 'shuffle the deck' quilts that  Karla Alexander has made popular.

I am linking this to Throwback Thursday.

A Doll's treasure

I got a sample of fabrics- Moda, I believe.  I was also into my doll making period. So I coordinated a red headed doll with a trip around the world mini quilt.

I didn't think this type of quilt would keep me motivated to finish it so I kept it small.

I also used the smaller quilts to practice my machine quilting on.  Makes a world of difference when you practice!  ;^)

Treasures for Tuesday

It is pretty cold outside.  Even the dolls are wanting their extra covers!  These are representative of the Thirties.

 This little quiltlet has genuine feed sack fabric from the Thirties.

An applique project- Windy Wendy. 

And here she is in a rendering of Redwork.  This was all done on my sewing machine.

Now to find a bigger quilt to snuggle under because the weatherman hasn't mentioned thirty degree weather in at least a week.  BRRRRR!

Tuesday Treasure

Farewell Fall

A Trio of Treasures

This is an eye spy quilt.  I also spy a few cute treasures!

I added lower case letters that I appliqued to the solid coloured fabrics. I added the four extra blocks I need3ed by including shapes.  It was fun to do!

 This is an old wall hanging and I waxed poetical as I did this colour/design exercise.

The sun was shining, the sky was blue, the grass was green, and the birds were singing.  Behind the walls of the secret garden there was laughter and music and fun.  The family that lived there gardened and worked and enjoyed the four seasons.    It was so wonderful that flowers bloomed in their hearts all the time. 

This wee top declares a few of my favourite things.  This quilt exercise shows that one can combine all their favourite fabrics in one glorious expression.

I must admit that quilts and kids and good times are treasures any time!  :)

Chocolate, anyone

I forget how this all came about.  Another challenge.  I think it was to make nine blocks of each sample block.  Luved this quilt and really hated to give it away but I had no good reason to store it.

This might have been the back of the quilt.  I was trying to use of some of my stash!  :O

The Sampler box

I never thought I'd make another after that first sampler class but I didn't count on my new quilting buddies.  They were raring for more.

We began with four of us and as time went on we grew to seven with some coming and going in the middle.

Wouldn't it be a good idea if we all did our houses.  Four colorways so four blocks.  :O  I have to admit we learned so much because we always underestimated what we thought we knew!  LOL

By the time I got around to machine quilting it we had a few more members so I free motioned each ones name in the border.

Of course the new gals wanted to be part of something so we agreed to send a box of our chosen fabric around.  Each one made 3 different blocks! 

 I did  Windy Wendy,  an applique tulip and a pieced windmill.   I sent thirties fabrics around and when they all came back I was stumped on how to put them together. Mine are on the right and of course I contributed to the mish mash of colours!  So I decided to divide them into colourways- pink, green, blue.  I had to add blocks of course.  :(

This is the green one.  I went for a  masculine farm feel. 

 The grand kiddies sent me a picture of the more feminine pink/red one.   

But the blue one is in my UFO pile! .  I know NOW I could have done that a whole lot differently. yikes!

I think next we tackled a round robin.  Where angels fear to tread...

I learned lots about myself from this quilt.  To tie it all together as it had the look of a bulls eye, I appliqued something in every round and actually made our reveal deadline.  I didn't like it much at the time but it has wonderful memories now!  A keeper for sure.

My last sampler was from a virtual red hat group (20) that I joined through Yahoo.  The whole joining was my first attempt participating on line.  I almost missed the join as I wasn't 'getting' all the advice.  lol  But we went for a few years and decided to exchange blocks.  So again I appliqued away.  I was The Keeper of the Teapots!   I added the three blocks at the bottom for design sensibilities.    I LUV this setting and had to really fiddle to get it to work as I only had so much yardage.

I do really need my head examined!  But for the backing I decided to use up all the Red Hat fabric I had 'needed' for this project.  It was almost more labour intensive than the front!!!

Never say never, especially now that I am looking at these after the fact. :{  But I'm still not sure if it is my favourite style.

In the chest

I didn't just strip.  I learned to chop!

I call this one my lemonade quilt and it is a popular summer quilt.  Again I used the cotton quilt batt.

This one is called Couples Only.  ;^)

Another part of the learning curve; and this one included experimenting with straight line quilting.  I really must confess that I am so over the whole heart motif!

When I made this one I had begun to understand that I like low contrast.  And I dared to try a six patch instead of the four patch.  I also learned that presewn patches have their limitations if one is looking for variety in each block.  I began to appreciate the process.

This lap quilt is most often found in the sitting room where it is part of the 'soothing the soul' experience.  :)  

First Kit

One Christmas I persuaded the Rooster to give me a fabric kit.  I'm not sure when that was nor am I sure that it came with a pattern.  The fabrics were all woven, mostly plaids.

I really liked them and actually made a quilt that I machine quilted and used on our bed.  It has faded somewhat over time.

I struggled to find a good layout and learned my first lesson about coordinated fabrics.  There will never be a WOW factor if you only use the kit.  It needs a spark to make it come alive.  The gal who was teaching us the sampler course helped me audition some fabrics and this wild  yellow/orange mottled fabric waved wildly.  I was amazed by what it brought to the quilt table.  This was way before Bali's became popular and probably started my luv affair with orange!

When I joined the Working in a Series project,  I chose the square in a square block. First step is to make a traditional quilt using the block.  Gee, I should have remembered this quilt instead of reinventing the wheel.  :^P  As I've been looking for treasures I was reminded that I'm even using a kit of coordinating fabrics. Sheesh!

But I'm encouraged because I also found a wonky square in a square quilt that I 'designed' myself.  :)

I have the beginning and the future!  Time to get busy on all the middle quilts and see where this all ends!