Design Wall

I have encouraged our Little Women group to begin this multi-month project called Yankee Doodle. The first month they are to make the center star block (above) using any number of methods. I chose to hand sew 3/8" and 1/2" buttons for my center block. Then they are to complete six of the applique star/circle blocks and sew the center panel sections together. I used a fusible interfacing (Heat 'n Bond Lite is my favorite) and a machine straight stitch to make my appliqued blocks.

For the upcoming June meeting, my demo quilt needs to be at this stage:  I finished the tiny flying geese and sewed them to the center star. I also completed all the star/circle blocks in the top section of the quilt--12 more--and connected them to the setting squares. Then the top section is connected to the center section. Very doable..and it's really starting to take shape. I'm enjoying this Yankee Doodle project more than I had thought I would!

I also finished putting the binding on Raspberry Swirl (above). It is the demo quilt for our June Little Women meeting. I machine quilted it exactly as Jo recommended. I don't usually have the exact fabrics Jo's uses for the sashing and borders of a quilt, but this time I did, so I went ahead and used them. The block pattern is commonly known as "Turkey Tracks" and is an old block pattern. It was not an easy one to do correctly, it's very easy to lose some of those points. I love a good red and white quilt, don't you?--even more so since the wonderful red and white quilt exposition in New York city last year.

I hope you all are having a good week, and till next time, keep stitchin'.
Mary

Memorial Day

Thank you--such small words--but I truly am grateful to those who fought for the freedoms we enjoy today. To those in the military--all gave some, but some gave all. Both my parents served in WW2--my dad was an army cook, in charge of an entire mess hall kitchen, my mom was a navy nurse, my uncle was in the navy, my husband was in the army--a Vietnam era vet, and one of our sons was in the navy. Our time in the military really helped us appreciate what we have in this country.

And now, how about a little patriotic quilt show?

I love how my friend Pam fussy cut the design for this quilt.

These two quilts are actually the same design, I think it's called "Calico Patch" by Jo Morton.

This is another Jo Morton design--Rally 'Round the Flag.

Turkey tracks.

Joy made log cabin table runners for each month. This is her July tablerunner. These are a few patriotic quilts my friends and I have made. I love a good red, white and blue quilt, don't you!

Till next time, keep stitchin!
Mary

Little Garden by Thimbleberries

 I'm working on the Thimbleberries quarterly quilt called "Little Garden." I decided to change out the light background fabric featured in the pinwheels. The kit fabric had tiny pink and green rosebuds on it, and I found a background fabric with blue and green flowers in it that I liked better. As this will be a summer wallhanging I didn't want pink in mine.

Before our next meeting we are supposed to have the dark blue inner border and the white picket fence border sewn on. I have my assignment for the month!

This is a picture of the completed quilt. I do enjoy a good Thimbleberries pattern, the directions are very well done and they tell you at each step what size your project should measure. And on a bright note, I took my spring Thimbleberries project--"Love Me Tender" to Joyce, my quilter, Saturday. She quilted the shop sample with a beautiful swirled heart pattern, and I asked her to do the same to mine. Hopefully I will have that in a few weeks. When I dropped off my top she had a quilt in the machine with horses on it. Very interesting! She was quilting a lasso pattern onto the quilt. Joyce is very creative and does such a nice job.

Here is the baby quilt I picked up from the quilters yesterday. It is a "bow-twist" block. You can attach baby rattles or toys to the little twisty parts as they are only tacked down at the corners. Joyce quilted a frog on a lilly pad design. Isn't it cute! My little great-nephew will be 6 months old if I don't get this in the mail soon. (That's what happens when mom delivers early, and the sew-er and the quilter have life get in the way!) This color-way is a real change for me, as I prefer to sew with Civil War reproduction fabrics. It was quite fun to make!

Design wall tomorrow...I have 2 different things on the design wall, so will show you both projects. Until then, keep stitchin'! 

Mary

Rudy Day - May 25

Celebrating Christmas is one of my favorite things to do, and so I enjoy making a little progress each month towards my Christmas goals. I was delighted to find the group over at http://magicalholidayhome.com/ that celebrates all things Christmas all year round! We try and set aside some time on the 25th of each month to do something Christmasy!

This month I am working on my Christmas notebook that I will keep recipes, menu plans, and pictures of tablescapes that I'd like to keep.  Please come visit my other blog and see what's happening there:  http://rudydaynews.blogspot.com/.

And join us in the forums at http://magicalholidayhome.com/ anytime you need a Christmas fix! And till next time, keep stitchin'.
Mary

Generals Wives Block

We're making progress on our Generals Wives Block-of-the-Month. This month we learned a little about Flora Cooke Stuart, the wife of Condfederate General J.E.B. Stuart.

Flora Cooke was born in Missouri, the daughter of a Virginia career Army officer. Educated at a private boarding school in Detroit, Flora met the dashing James Ewell Brown Stuart while her father was commanding the 2nd U.S. Dragoons at Fort Leavenworth. Stuart recently graduated from West Point and was stationed on the Kansas frontier. As befitted the daughter of a colonel of cavalry, Flora was a skilled horsewoman, and she soon began going on long evening rides with Stuart. The young officer was as taken with Flora as she was with him, and it didn't take him long to propose. They became engaged less than two months after meeting. Stuart humorously wrote of his rapid courtship in Latin, "Veni, Vidi, Victus sum" (I came, I saw, I was conquered).

JEB Stuart was promoted to Colonel early in the Civil War and led a Calvary brigrade. In May 1864, Gen. Stuart received a mortal wound to the abdomen and died the next day. The battle was fought at Yellow Tavern, just north of Richmond (Virginia), which is not too far from where I live. Hubby and I want to visit the site and tour the battleground and National Park that has been established there. Both Gen. Stuart and his wife Flora are buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, another site we would like to visit and photograph for you.

(Hubby and I are Yankees transplanted to the south only 7 years ago in order to be near our sons, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren. I've found this quilt project so interesting and am learning so much about Virginia and the role she played in the Civil War.)

Back to Flora--She was 28, with 2 small children, when her husband died. She honored her husband's wishes by educating her children in the South. She wore black clothing the rest of her life, and lived another 59 years beyond her husband. She supported herself and her family as a teacher, eventually becoming headmistress of the Virginia Female Institute in Staunton – Virginia's oldest college preparatory school for girls. She served as its principal from 1880 until 1899. In 1907, the school was renamed Stuart Hall in her honor. The school is currently a school for deaf children.

I have fabric to make the toile and dark blue pieced border. I'm excited about being able to sew this top together...it's very hard waiting for the next month's block!

Have you made a block-of-the-month project? Or have you just collected block-of-the-month project! Time to get it out and start stitchin'.

Till next time, keep stitchin!

Mary

Even More Little Women

As I promised yesterday, here are more of the quilts from our show and tell at our May Little Women meeting.

And again, I love how they put their own twist on the pattern. Others have been working hard at finishing up some projects they started in previous groups.

Our next project due in June is "Transferware", the quilt with the tiny flying geese in it. I'm excited to see what they will do with that pattern as well.

I'm off to the quilt shop for our "Generals Wives" meeting and hopefully will be able to post that block soon.

till then, keep stitchin'
Mary

More Little Women

Here is more of the show and tell from our Little Women meeting at JoJos Quilt Shop. In April we were given the pattern to make "Just Rosie" and here are some of the quilts that resulted from that pattern.

I love the different color schemes they chose!

Some of the ladies even made 2 projects. I have a few more photos and will get them posted tomorrow, so stop back and check them out!

till then, keep stitchin'
Mary

Little Women for May

We had some great show and tell at our May Little Women meeting! Our assignment last month was "Just Rosie", the first quilt in Group 11. I was delighted with the many different personal interpretations of the pattern we had. I think the simpler the pattern, the more different variations we have.

This is Pam's "Blue Ridge Beauty" a pattern from the book "Leaders and Enders." We renamed it "Ruby Ridge." Gorgeous! Our Scrap Therapy group had a strip exchange awhile back, and one of the members gave Pam her red strips. It's made with 2.5 inch and 5 inch strips.

Carol's Professional Tote bag. Love the colors, don't you!

Vicki's Just Rosie quilt.

A quilt from our "Charm School" days.

Charlotee's very personal version of Just Rosie. It's turned the other way to show off the sewing theme prints. Very very clever!

I'll post more photos later, but till then, keep stitchin!

Mary

Happy Mother's Day

I hope you all are having a good Mother's Day. I spent the day with my hubby, our two sons, two daughters-in-law and two grandchildren! It doesn't get any better than that!  And we went out for a fabulous brunch so no one had to cook. 

What do you get for the woman who has everything? When my 90-year old mother had a birthday recently, I gave her this:

A little family tree!  The tree itself stands about 10 inches high. I went through her photo albums and found some great photos that I cropped and printed and then cut to fit in the small frames. I purchased the last two trees that Joann's had on the shelf.  The photo on the lower right was taken on their wedding day, August 1945.  In the photo above the wedding photo, I'm the little girl in the middle! I don't know why my charm square tote bag is in the photo, I guess I finished it about the same time I finished the little family tree.

And yes, I was able to talk with my mom in Florida and wish her a happy other's day!

I've been stitching more log cabins and am up to 57 of them. I don't really have anything to show you since the last time I showed you the log cabins in my design wall. You see, the design wall only holds so many of them and I can't get any more up there!

Have a great day, and till next time, keep stitchin!

Mary



My Design Wall holds Yankee Doodle!

I really love having a design wall!

It's encouraging to see a big project grow from its baby steps to a full-grown project. This is the beginning of "Yankee Doodle", a design by Jo Morton that is part of Little Women Group 11. I will be encouraging our group to start the project this month, and lay out the steps they can take each month to move the project along.

Another thing that a design wall does is to help you see where some changes could improve the design. See the star/circle block in the lower left corner? I decided that it didn't have enough contrast, so I have replaced those blocks with a different choice of fabrics.

 

I'm going to offer 3 or 4 choices for the center block. Jo's design has a star made of small (3/8") buttons or yo-yos. They could use a fabric star (like I show here) or even insert a pieced star--as long as it is 6" finished. 

I'll keep you updated on my progress, in the meantime, what's on your design wall? I'd love to see!

Till next time, keep stitchin'
Mary

The Wayward Girls

This photo is my 1st Edition Merry Mayhem (January 1, 2012) mystery quilt. It's a lap-sized quilt with little camping motifs on it, that will be a Christmas gift for my grandson. I've been wanting to make lap quilts for my two grandchildren to use when they go camping in their pop-up camper. They're supposed to be Christmas gifts--let's see if I can wait that long to give them to the kids!

The Wayward Girls had another sewing day Saturday, and as usual we had a great time. Our lunch tradition at Mexico restaurant was especially fun since it was Cinco de Mayo. Pam and I worked on our 2nd Merry Mayhem mystery quilt. And Carol worked on the fall Thimbleberries table runner. As the teacher of that group, she has to work far ahead of the rest of us! Here's Carol at work:

And here is the center section of Carol's "Twin Peaks" Thimblerries project.

And this is a picture of what it will look like when finished.

Pam is hard at work on her Merry Mayhem, 2nd edition. It's made using fabrics from Kansas Troubles. It will be a Christmas lap quilt that she'll put out on her sofa. The colors are so rich and warm, don't you think! By the way, do visit Pam's blog at http://pamsquiltspot.blogspot.com

And here I am working on my Merry Mayhem, 2nd edition. This will be a quilt for my soon-to-be 7 yr. old granddaughter. Pink is her favorite color and I thought the pink would work for the inner border. But I'm afraid there wouldn't be enough contrast with the outer border, so I'm going to the quilt shop to buy more of the teal fabric. The fabric line is "Fanciful Flight" from Hoffman.

And here are the two Merry Mayhem quilts side by side.
As always, we had a great sewing day, and we look forward to getting together again in another month or so. Today I'm working on a Jo Morton quilt "Yankee Doodle." Come back tomorrow and I'll have a sneak peek  of my design wall to show you.


Till then, keep stitchin'
Mary