Modified Rail Fence

I started my fourth quilt right after finishing the Streak of Sunshine baby quilt in the fall of 2007. It was inspired by a quilt I'd seen on Craftster, which grabbed my attention because the quilt maker had mixed in some cool vintage fabric from her grandmother. I happened to have some vintage fabric languishing in the stash since I'd bought a box of scraps at a yard sale many years before. Never quite knew what to do with it until I saw that quilt on Craftster. Ding, ding, ding! It was a winner of an idea!

The inspiration quilt had an interesting layout with what looked like a rail fence-type block with a larger center section sandwiched between two narrower strips. There was no tutorial but it looked totally doable without a pattern. I studied the photos and came up with a plan for block dimensions and size. I also wanted to replicate the inspiration quilt in its use of multiple fabrics, not just the usual three or four in a traditional rail fence quilt. I bought a couple additional fabrics that complemented the colors in the vintage pieces I wanted to use. Then away I went!

Once the blocks were done, I fiddled with the layout a bit. With Norm's help--he has a good eye--we finally had one that seemed to work.

Can you tell which fabrics are vintage?

If you guessed the two with gray backgrounds, you would be right. I just loved the green and red guitars and banjos on the one, and the squiggly white squares on the other. I would estimate they're late '50s or early '60s prints. I have used bits of these vintage prints in several other scrap quilts since this one, including the current double pinwheel string quilt.

The machine quilting was done by Sandy. This time, I gladly took my place in her usual work queue, no cutting in line.

I asked for something simple and curvy to balance the overall angularity of the quilt. She did a nice job.

My daughter really liked the look of this quilt as I was piecing it, so when it was finished, I gave it to her for her birthday!

Good Stuff

It was a good day at Goodwill.

I found a set of four vintage Lefton China plates.

These would have been part of a snack set that included matching cups. We didn't find the cups, but I forgot to look in one other spot, so I'll go back tomorrow and double check. Pattern #202. Don't know any more than that.

Love those wildflowers, and that little cutout.

Also found a yard and a half of Moda fabric in a yummy lime green for $2.99. Belize came out in the summer of '07, I believe. Coordinating fabrics in the line were bright parrots and tropical flowers.

Not that I'll be coordinating anything. I'm more the uncoordinated type.

It was also a good day in the garden. We dug the parsnips my dad planted last year.

Do you like parsnips? You peel them like a carrot and slice them lengthwise, saute in a little olive oil or butter, salt and pepper. Oh, my goodness...



Check this out. Norm was watching this and laughing when I got up this morning. Then I had to watch it a couple more times!

Crossroads

I am at the point on the string pinwheel quilt where all the blocks are sewn together, pressed, and laid out on the floor. Hoo doggies, this is a busy quilt! This is just a sneak peak--the final reveal, with any luck, will be next week--but you get the idea. With all those strings and pinwheel motion to the second power, you may need a Dramamine.

So I reckoned (what am I today, Jed Clampett?) that I had better break up the busyness with a narrow sashing between the blocks, which meant a trip to the fabric store on Wednesday. While there, I also bought some Kona Candy Blue for the second border, and Kona Rich Red for the final border. And then! THEN! I found the cutest stripe/dot fabric for the binding, which I'll also show you next week when the whole top is done. I am excited to finish sewing it all together this weekend!

So what else... Oh, I took some pics of a little attic windows quilt top I put together just before I started this blog.

Found the vintage bird fabric at Goodwill last year and didn't know what I was going to do with it, but it needed to be rescued from that tumbled up Domestics table and come home with me.


I eventually came up with the idea to put this wall hanging size thing together so I could (a) use the fabric, and (b) have something to practice free-motion quilting on with the new Juki machine. Now that it's ready to quilt, however, I am not sure I want to free-motion quilt over the birdies. Should I hand quilt it? Ditch quilt it by machine? What? This joins a couple other small projects lingering in the UFO pile in a similar state. Hopefully, once I get one done, I'll have some confidence and momentum to tackle the others and get them finished.

Here's the very first attic windows wall hanging I did sometime in the late '90s:

The pattern was from a book I'd checked out from the library, the title and author of which I remember not, sorry.

I did a little hand quilting on this, and added the silvery moon and stars embellishments.

I had this hanging in my workspace during my days at the law firm, a window in my otherwise windowless cube, as well as a symbol of the creative spark that awaited nurturing.

Hope you have a productive and enjoyable weekend!

Crossroads - John Mayer

Streak of Sunshine

One reason for this blog was to note my progress in quilt making, and part of that means revisiting the past. I've talked about my first and second quilts here and here.

My third quilt, not counting wall hangings, was a baby quilt for my niece Shaina's first son, Brayden, born in October 2007. Since I had waited until September to start it, I needed something that would go together quickly. I discovered the Quiltville site and thought Bonnie's "Streak of Sunshine" quilt would do nicely.

Once I had it pieced together, however, I had no clue how to go about quilting it. Feeling a bit panicked, I took it to a local quilter who had a shop in town at the time. She had a several-month waiting list, she informed me, but said that under the circumstances, she would work it in. I was so grateful! That's how I met Sandy, who has been my go-to longarm quilter since then. She came through in a short time with a nice overall panto on the baby quilt.

A couple weeks later, finished quilt in tow, I was on my way to meet up with Shaina and the new baby at my parents' house about 15 minutes away. As I drove, it started raining. Then a rainbow appeared--a double rainbow, actually. I could see the end of it ahead of me on the road. How often does the rainbow's end appear right in front of you? I fished my camera out of my purse and snapped a couple of pictures as I drove. The colors of that rainbow mirrored those in the baby quilt I was about to deliver.

Just a few miles further, the rain turned to hail. I pulled the car off to the shoulder briefly until it passed. I thought about the weather, and life--how quickly things change. Both beautiful moments and pelting storms, sometimes in rapid succession, come and go as we travel our path.

I don't know if my niece saw the metaphor in the weather that day. As a new mom, she was busy finding her way through one of life's changes.

Really, though, aren't we all?

Random

I'm still ripping paper off the pinwheel string units (yawn), but I'm in the home stretch. Working on this in fits and starts (as usual), it feels like it's taking me too long, but it is getting done. I even convinced my brother-in-law-to-be Terry to help the other day while we were visiting. He did a great job too. Do you think it was wrong of me to put him to work like that while he was recovering from surgery? At any rate, I will be finished removing papers by tomorrow and will then be able to play with the layout on the floor. I have to decide whether it is going to need sashing or not. If it does, that will mean a trip to the fabric store. Oh, darn.

I've been feeling kind of scattered lately. Not sure if it was the holiday or just too many things that I needed to do or wanted to be done. Here are a few bits of random thoughts/observations from this past week, in no particular order:

• We had unexpected visitors first thing yesterday morning--a pair of mallards were enjoying a stroll through the front yard. I did find the zoom this time, but lo, my pictures sucked anyway. There is a setting I need to change on my camera, and I'll do that when I'm not in a big hurry to shoot ducks (via camera) through the window. At least you can tell they're ducks, right? I think they nest along the creek a few blocks east of the house and then spend time in the little pond at the park a few blocks west, so we're in their flight path.
  
  
• I finished reading Craig Ferguson's autobiography, American On Purpose, this week. It's a well-written, humorous, and insightful book by the funniest man on late night TV, in my opinion. Whacky and off the wall is how I like my late night comedy, with a Scottish accent, please. I don't know why I enjoy Scottish accents. Also kilts, not that Craig Ferguson wears one on TV, but he is wearing one on the cover of his book--which did I mention I finished?
  
  
• Mike Rowe was on the cover of this week's American Profile. Another guy who makes me laugh while watching Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel. He's got that ruggedly handsome thing going on and a very nice voice as well. I even pay attention to Ford commercials when he's the spokesperson. And if you want to see a hilarious segment from his pre-Dirty Jobs days, when he worked in the San Francisco TV market, do a youtube search for "Mike Rowe Cooks." Oh, never mind, here is a link. Bon appetit!
• We watched the movie An Education this weekend. Engaging story and fine acting by Carrie Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, and Alfred Molina. The movie is set in 1961, so if you're into the whole mid-century/retro thing, you will really enjoy that aspect as well. I kept seeing wonderful things in the set design and costuming--clocks, vintage glasses, tea sets, the great dress Carrie Mulligan wears in Paris, etc. Norm liked the sportscar. The opening music really sets the mood for that era, Floyd Cramer's "On the Rebound," which I would put a lala.com link to, but it's not cooperating with me this evening.
• Ricky Martin supposedly dropped a bombshell last week and announced he is gay. Well, huh. I have had a crush on Ricky Martin since he first appeared on the Grammys, and he may be the reason I got over Michael Bolton. There was speculation about him already then, but who cares! He's still gorgeous and talented and knows how to move. Sigh...
  
  
      
  Have a great Monday, all!