Texas Quilt Museum
I was so fortunate to be going through La Grange Texas on a Thursday when the Texas Quilt Museum is open. I couldn’t have asked for a better choice of displays to be available! Oh, and there was a quilt shop right next to it …
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How wide is your binding?
As I am finishing the November wall hanging, Turkey Tracks, for my mother’s room at the care center I am thinking about the width of binding that I use compared to many instructions that I see for commercial patterns. Many patterns direct quilters to cut …
Turkey Tracks
November block for my mother’s room at the care center is Turkey Tracks, the pieced version. It is another easy block and I used some older Jinny Beyer prints and stripe for a fall-like color scheme. I love mitering borders and it seemed the perfect thing to make this block a little more special. Photos below show the progress for constructing the block. It really helps to have a rectangular template. I used Margaret Miller’s Angle Play templates. Finished wall hanging is 26 inches square, just right for the bulletin board in her room.
Most often the turkey tracks block involves some curved piecing but this angular version is from the Ladies Art Company published in 1897.
Improv Curved Piecing
This post is for those interested in the “Artistic Exploration” session in November. Photos show some examples of improvisational curved piecing. I will share how to do all of the examples but we will concentrate on two on November 7 at Arch Methodist Church from …
Paintbox Spilled
On the design wall (no the other things that are in the process are not finished) right now is a group of blocks that remind of a spilled paintbox or the ones I had as a child where the colors all started running together in …
Old is New Again
Who would guess that what was popular in needlework 90 years ago would be interesting today. Perhaps the slow stitch movement will revive the hand needlework of our ancestors as we slow our movements to contemplate the work of our (and their) hands.
I wanted to get my husband out of the house this weekend as he is getting so bored with limited activity after double knee surgery. We headed for an auction that was selling automobile and petroleum memorabilia. I was able to find some things that interested me, namely some old magazines that had been saved for their automobile ads. They also had lots of old needlework patterns and some interesting old recipes. Among my treasures was an ad from a 1925 Frederick Herrschner catalog, “New Designs in Novelty Sash Curtains for Spring”. Reinforced that quote “old is new again”. I had never heard of sash curtains with hand embroidery from a bygone era but was planning to take some of my hand dyed vintage linens to Texas for hanging at my windows in the sewing room. I have the linen napkins packed but will now rethink the vintage dresser scarves and , who knows, maybe they were intended for the window instead of the dresser anyway.
Pieces of the Past
Pieces of the Past Piece of the past dyed, Radiating swirls and stars, Doilies of old, new. A cyanotype challenge. I used doilies to sun print on the chemically treated fabric and then used some of my damaged hand dyed doilies for accent. A …
A visit to Hickory Stick Quilt Shop
I love visiting the Hickory Stick Quilt Shop in Hannibal where we live. The employees and owner are so friendly, know their merchandise and encourage creative thinking in quiltmaking as well as applaud the traditional. Today I spent a couple of hours there with the …
Mums the Word
A couple of years ago one of the vendors at Hannibal’s Folk LIfe Festival had a marvelous display of mums in every color combination one could imagine. I took several photos thinking I would one day replicate them in some way, shape or form. Today I finished the quilting after using hand embroidery to blanket stitch the blossoms in place. Now to get to the blocking and binding before this year’s festival is history. The blossoms are improvisationally pieced with “leaves” scattered among the petals. It was a fun way for me to divert from a very traditional Dresden Plate that is in the works with the colors of fall.
