Make-A-List Monday - Winter Is Coming!

Hi, all!

Well, fall has "done fell" here in Middle Tennessee!  We had some vicious winds, rain, and cooler weather today - I actually jumped out of my skin when a large branch came down on the roof and made a heck of a racket as it proceeded to the ground.  When I walked outside I realized that it really was fall - it smells different, have you noticed?  And that reminded me that winter (and Christmas) is just around the corner!  Time to get busy!

Here's how last week went....

1.  Finish the t-shirt quilt and deliver.
Done!  It turned out really nice and she loved it! 

2.  Make another pillow cover - a match for one we sold this weekend (the customer wanted a pair!)
Done!  It took a little creative piecing (I was a little short on the matching backing) but it looks great!

3.  And make one more pillow cover, a special request for a customer!
Done! I had a lot of fun with the quilting on this one - it basically creates the design.

4.  Quilt a vintage quilt top for a customer.
Done!  This top was in pretty good shape - I think it dates from the late 50's, early 60's.  I've got another one for the same customer that is older and will need a good bit of repair work before I can finish it.

5.  Cut out Nathanael's annual quilt.
Done - and not only cut out, but pieced!

 

6.  Keep up with any quilt ministry needs that come up.
It was a quiet week, with no quilt requests.  Gives us a chance to catch up!

Happy happy joy joy! I got everything on the list done!  And I even finished one other thing, but I'll share that on Wednesday...

And here's my list for this week...

1.  Work on Emmy's annual quilt.

2.  Finish up the thank you notes for A Heart For Texas.

3.  Work on hand quilting my Long Time Gone quilt.

4.  Make the next blocks for my Gypsy Wife quilt.

5.  Keep up with any quilt ministry needs that come up.

Short list this week, but I've got a short week - we're going to spend a long weekend in Asheville to celebrate my birthday!  I'm hoping for gorgeous fall color in the mountains and lots of fun and good food.  

So now, the question is - - - what are YOU working on this week?

Hugs!

Sarah

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? Vintage Restored!

Hi, all!

Wow, that week went fast - - - and here it is, Friday again!  And you know what that means - it's time for us to get our whoop whoop on!!!  Let's get started!!

As you read this, I'm headed down south for a lovely week at the beach with my husband - sunshine, sand, and nothing "required" to do!  Of course I'm taking my sewing machine (because a day without sewing is like a day without sunshine!) but spending a lot of time with my toes in the sand will be the number one order of the day.  So I'm DEFINITELY whooping it up!!

But I also had a finish this week.....

This lovely old vintage quilt was in terrible shape when it came into my hands!  It was so bad I didn't dare hang it up to take a picture, as some of the blocks were gaping open, with dangling wadding leaking out.  So trust me when I say it really needed help! But it's such a lovely example, it would have been a shame to junk it.  The gentleman who asked me to repair it said that it had been made by his mother sometime around the turn of the (20th) century.  It's unusual to see such a well-planned quilt of that age - there is some scrappiness to this quilt, but all the background pieces are the same two fabrics, which I don't see too often in really old quilts.

You can see in this picture the state of the underlying block.  I dug pieces out of my stash that would work with the age and coloring of the quilt and hand-stitched patches directly over the badly damaged spots.

Meet my new best friend!  I've had a tailor's ham for many years now, but it hasn't gotten much use until now.  It was very useful for giving me something to pin my patches onto as I repaired the damaged blocks, since most of them were towards the center of the quilt, making them difficult to reach with my hand underneath.  The square directly above the tailor's ham is one I repaired.

Many of the light background pieces, and a few of the bow tie blocks, were showing wear - tiny holes or worn spots that weren't really bad enough to replace, but would only get worse with time.  Those I fixed with an overlay technique, using bridal illusion (the fine netting they use for wedding veils) and stitching it down by machine in the ditch of the patchwork.  Here you can see it pinned to the patch...

After stitching all around the block, I trimmed the excess netting away using my Kai curved blade scissors.  I love those scissors - sharp as can be, and the curve helped prevent cutting the quilt by mistake!

And here's the finished repair.  The bridal illusion mostly fades into the background, but it will protect the patchwork piece from further wear and tear.  When you have many matching pieces in a quilt that need minor repair and it would be difficult to match it for replacement, this is a great way to protect the pieces.  I probably wouldn't recommend washing this quilt (I wouldn't have recommended it before the repair either) but for display purposes, these repairs will protect the quilt and allow it to be handled safely!

So that's what I'm happy dancing about this week!  Can I get a whoop whoop??

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And now it's your turn!

What's got you whooping it up?

What's making you do a little happy dance?

Share!  We want to dance with you -

And it's always more fun to dance with friends!

The party will stay open until Sunday midnight.

Hope to see you there!!

Hugs!

Sarah

Old Quilts New Life!

Hi, all!

Recently, Sarah Fielke was looking for people to help promote her new book, Old Quilts New Life, and of course, I volunteered!  I was all ready to do a book review, but when she sent more information, I found out that it was going to be much more interesting than that - she wants to flood social media with pictures of antique quilts on the day of her book release!  Such a cool idea, and since it meant looking at pictures of antique quilts trying to find just the right one, what fun!  

But I couldn't find just the right quilt to feature - I wanted to show the quilt my great grandmother made for me when I was born, but it wasn't quite old enough to fit Sarah Fielke's criteria.  Then I remembered this quilt which I repaired for a friend....

Based on the signatures on this quilt, I think it's safe to say that it dates from 1938.

This quilt was in really terrible shape when it came into my hands.   

As you can see, the fabric on many of the stars had completely disintegrated...

And there was even a hunk of border missing in one spot.

When I started looking at the possibility of repairing this quilt, I despaired of being able to succeed. The quilt was so old that the star pieces weren't precisely the same size or shape any more.  My original plan to create new stars whole and appliqué them over the shredded stars was not going to work.  

But then I tried sewing the pieces directly onto the quilt, matching the original seam lines and leaving room to turn the outer and inner edges under when it was all sewn down.

After turning the edges under, I topstitched them down, completely covering the original stars.  For the fabric to replace the worn stars, I used feed sack fabric from a truly ugly quilt top I found in an estate sale, which fortunately had large enough blocks of solid feed sack to cut all the pieces needed.  For the missing piece of border, I tea-dyed muslin until I got the color as close as possible, replaced the batting and stitched on the patch.  It isn't invisible, but at least it is usable.

 And now this beautiful old quilt, bearing the signatures of so many women who worked on it, has been restored so it can be loved by many more generations.  My friend gave it to his sister, who loved it as a child and now can enjoy it with her children and grandchildren for many years to come!

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I love the idea behind Sarah Fielke's book, being inspired by old quilts that were made by the generations before us.  I hope you'll check out her book and be inspired too!

And if you have an old quilt you'd like to share and join in the fun of Sarah's book launch, you can post on Instagram using the tag @sfielke and the hashtags #oldquiltsnewlife #newbook2015 #sarahfielke.  On Facebook, tag Sarah Fielke and use the same hashtags.  On either platform, Sarah has asked the following:  

"Please say something along the lines that you are participating in the book launch, this is your favorite/one of your favorites antique quilt, and the hashtags. If you want to go further and say why you like the quilt, how old it is, where it's from, how you feel it is relevant etc. then knock yourself out!  I think people will find it so interesting to see so many old quilts in one place and see why they were chosen, how old they are etc. Please also feel free to add the link to buy the book (http://www.sarahfielke.com/8/my-shop/2-Books) but that is by no means is that a requirement."

I hope you'll join in the fun, or at the very least check out all the beautiful old quilts that are going to be on display!

Hugs!

Sarah

By the way, you can find Sarah Fielke on her blog (The Last Piece) or on her website (Sarah Fielke).