Antique Double Wedding Ring Quilt

Today I got an old quilt that I bought off ebay. The description said "some of the fabrics have deteriorated and the backing shows through." Let first say, I am very happy with my purchase but it is not what I expected.

Here is a picture of part of the quilt.


Most of the print fabrics look like this....

In other words, every piece of the "rings" are worn through. Yet as I was looking at it, I kept thinking something looked odd. Why way I not seeing batting or a thin piece of backing? Wait! I was looking at a quilted piece of material. Finally, I figured it out -- the rings were appliqued onto the large white quilt top! There is still a lot of quilt left, just very little of the applique pieces. It still looks beautiful.

This is a picture of one corner from the back. Can you see the lines of hand quilting?

Teeny, tiny hand stitches about every 1/2 inch. As you can see, many of those rows of stitching overlap. The quilt is about 68 inches by 80 inches. Thousands of tiny hand stitches! Each wedding ring has two rows of stitching inside the prints fabric and then rows of stitching outlining the rings. Here is another shot of the back. I think you can see the circles of stitching.

I should also mention it is very, very soft. Is filled with cotton batting. There is one edge that the binding is hanging off of and in bad shape.

As I was trying to examine the quilt and take pictures, THIS happened......

Queen Bailey decided since it was on "her" bed, that she could inspect it also. Silly cat!

Pink and Floral

I'm on a mission to finish many of my works-in-progress. I pieced this top a few years ago. Last year I machine quilted it along the sashing strips with stitch-in-the-ditch technique. This week I finished it up by machine quilting around the inner blocks. The back is muslin. The quilt measures about 88 x 100 inches.

The floral print has shiny gold colored thread in it. I wish I could get a better picture of it.

The pattern is called Blue Plate Special and was in the February 1998 issue of McCall's Quilting. If I remember correctly, the quilt in the magazine was done in blues and whites.

Here my cat Hunter decided to test it for napping comfort.

Shades of Blue

I finished a quilt! The top is done in 3 shades of blue flannel. I started this top in a mystery class held at a LQS a couple of months ago. I'm afraid I don't know the name of the pattern. It is like a square in a square. Each square has dark triangles in the corners, where they come together creates the dark square on point. Isn't it interesting?



Here is the backing I choose. It is not flannel.



For quilting, I stiched in the ditch around the medium blue squares.

Here the quilt is being tested by Cosmo The Cat

Then Bailey The Cat had to double check Cosmo's work. She is THE Queen and doesn't want the quilt to smell like Cosmo.

Scrap Quilt

Well I finished up the scrap quilt top made of 5-inch squares. It is 20 squares by 20 squares - that's 400 squares! I'm pleased with the results.

My quilt quality inspector seems pleased as well. She said it shows off her eyes very well.

I still have lots of fabric in my stash. Some larger pieces that I no longer like I have put in a box to list on freecycle. I also have a stack of 6-inch squares to make another scrappy quilt from. The cutting of squares did get monotonous but in the end it was worth it.

Patchwork Quilt in Progress

The scrappy quilt made with 5-inch squares is coming along pretty good. It's looking much than I thought it would. I am so tired of cutting and sewing squares at this point! Of course at my house if anything is put on the floor for a few minutes, some furry rear-end will be on top of it pretty quick. This is Trixie.....




Here is part of the quilt without a dog on it.

I got a new quilt book in the mail yesterday. It is called "Prairie Quilts" by Johanna Wilson. It is projects inspired by Laura Ingalls Wilder. This book has 27 projects (wall hangings, table runners and bed quilts). The pictures are nice and the instructions seem to be clearly written.

I've been a huge Laura fan since I first read some of her books when I was about 7 years old. I've read the series numerous times and have other books about her and by her. In a few weeks I'm going to go to Mansfield, Missouri to visit her home and museum. The only odd thing about sewing quilts inspired by her books is that Laura didn't like to sew. It is mentioned in her books that while Mary enjoyed learning to sew Laura was more interested in what was going on outside.

Winter has arrived

It is mid-January and we are finally getting a bit of winter here in Georgia. Yesterday we had sleet and snow. Really there was snow, big white fluffy flakes. Enough to cover the yards and rooftops then it turned to rain. Kids all over the state went to bed dreaming of a day off from school. Only the ones in the northern most counties saw that dream come true. DS was one of the ones that was disappointed this morning as I woke him to get ready for school.

Thanks to the cold weather I can now wear my latest sewing adventure -- a reversible fleece coat. This was made from McCall's pattern 9576. The pattern instructions were easy to follow, quick to make and I love the way it feels. I did not use interfacing like the pattern recommended, I just don't see the need for it in fleece.

It's hard to tell from this picture but that is a navy blue and off-white (think antique white). It comes down about to my knees and has side pockets. I went through my quilting stash to find some fun fabrics for the pockets instead of using "lining fabric" as instructed by McCall's. Here are a couple of close ups, you can see the fleece colors better in these also.

Lat night at the bookstore I picked up the January/February issue of Mark Lipinski's Quilter's Home magazine. I've only one other issue of Quilter's Home. It's a "different" quilting magazine. It's not a lot of patterns. It is like a conversation with a good quilting friend. I went looking online and found Mark has a blog that he apparently updates regularly. WARNING: there are a few pictures that are not for the easily offended. For example, he has pictures of the much-whispered-about fabric with drawings of a certain male body part on it. If that offends you, oh well, you've been warned. http://marklipinskisblog.wordpress.com/

Mark, love your blog and magazine!

I hope to do some major quilting and sewing this weekend since my son will be at his father's house. When I'm alone then I can leave thread and fabric throughout the house and have a sewing frenzy without anyone commenting. The cats like sewing frenzies because it means piles of fabrics and quilts for them to inspect as sleeping pads.

Here is one of those cats....His name is Cosmo, he weighs about 15 pounds, he's a bit "fluffy". He's a funny cat.