I enjoy making quilts that start with a what if.

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A friend gave me two big boxes of quilting magazines.  While looking through them, I saw a beautiful log cabin quilt and wanted to make it.  The quilt is called Flower Garden Cabins.  It was designed by Doris Heitman for her daughter Leslie Schmidt.  The pattern was in a 1997 issue of Homes and Gardens Quilts.  It finished at 49 1/2″ square.

One of the pages had little log cabin blocks showing the colors for the blocks and how many to make of each coloration.  What if   I copied the blocks and paper pieced the little blocks for a mini quilt?

In one of my stash drawers there are several bunches of coordinated fabric samples that I won at a quilt shop open house.  What if I use  one of these batches of fabric to make the quilt?  I found one bunch that was muted reds.  There were no green bunches of sample fabrics, so I pulled from the green scrap drawer.

It does take longer to make a mini quilt that one would think.  There are as many seams, but they are shorter,  The quilt finished at 22″ square.  There are thirty six 2″ log cabins with two borders.  I sewed a sleeve on the back in case I want to hang it on the wall,  It’s also a perfect table topper.

While I was sewing this mini quilt, another what if  quilt popped into my head.  This one will wait a while until I finish another quilt that is in process.

Miss Molly and I have been sitting on the porch swing, enjoying the good weather.  It is the greatest place to read and do hand quilting.   I tried to applique more flowers for the flower wall hanging, but the breeze kept blowing the fabric across the porch.   I’ll have to do that on rainy days inside the house. The August gardens are still colorful in spots.  The Cosmos is blooming.  Also the Allium and Maximillian Sunflowers.  The Hollyhocks are shorter than usual this year, but still beautiful. Maybe, they need a little food.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

 

 

 

This has been an interesting two weeks.  First, I went to New Hampshire for a week.  I had a list of everything that I had to do,  When I returned to Maine, only half of the list had been finished.

I had an e-mail telling me of a quilt show and did I want to go.  Of course, everything else took a back seat.  We had a wonderful day.  The show was one of the best that I had been to for a while. It was held in a church and the quilts were over the backs of the pews. Some quilts were hung.  Every quilt was beautiful.

There was a room full of quilts and other things for sale on another floor.  It was like another whole quilt show.  I found some 18″ doll dresses and bought two for Annie Louise.  They are short dresses so I will have to use them as a top and make an under skirt.  All my doll dress fabric, etc. are in New Hampshire, so I haven’t made new dresses for Annie Louise this summer.

This little dress has eyelet around the neck, so I think that I will make an eyelet skirt to go under the dress.

This dress will make a top for a long sleeve plain dress.

It was so much fun being with my quilting friends. The weeds in the flower gardens will go away when it snows.  Green is a natural color.  Maybe I can clean out the gardens when I go down the next time.

The produce at the farmers’ market is wonderful.  I enjoy the variety of colors in the beans and the carrots,  Somehow, they taste much better.

After I came back to Maine, my computer cooling fan broke.  The cost of repair was a good down payment on a new computer.  I worked for three days to find another computer on line.  Finally, after finding a very nice customer service person on the phone, I ordered what I wanted.  Two days later, the computer showed up on my porch.  I downloaded everything that was necessary, but I couldn’t connect to my e-mail.   I finally rebooted the computer and shut it down for the night.  This morning, it works perfectly.   The portable cd reader/writer should come this week and everything will be in order. When I go back to New Hampshire the next time, I’ll take the computer to the Geek Squad and make sure that I did everything properly.

Today is a good day for quilting.  The Page 30 challenge is on my sewing machine.  I started free motion quilting yesterday.  The reveal is next month.  Hopefully, I will finish it by then.  I’m also finishing some applique on a little log cabin piece that I made to try out the new free motion rulers that I bought at the Maine Quilt Show.  It would be quicker to try the rulers on 10″ squares and then put them together in the quilt as you go method, but I saw this quilt in a magazine and had to make a mini version of it.   It’s taking much longer than I thought.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

 

I have been looking through two big boxes of quilting magazines.  There are so many tips and interesting items to read.  I will be the rest of the summer reading and enjoying all the articles  There are a few interesting quilt patterns that I have set aside to make at a later date.

Fons and Porter Love of Quilting magazine has articles that are written by Gerald Roy.  He is a quilt collector and appraiser.  He is also a quilter, quilt judge, painter and antique dealer.  His articles are called “This Old Quilt”.  He shows pictures and talks about antique quilts that are in his collection.

In the May/June 2008 issue, he talks about split nine patch quilts.  They are fascinating.  It was a “what if” moment.  I have a bin of 2 1/2″ squares  What if I made half square triangles from light and dark fabric and duplicated these quilts.

 

 

 

I wanted a variety of colors, so decided to make accordion sewn half square triangles. This is a method that I learned from Beth Helfter.  Every half square triangle can be a different color.  She gave a talk at our quilt banquet and I bought her book that is called Oompah.  Her company is called EvaPaige Quilt designs.  You can find several you tube videos on the Internet that show this method.  It’s an easy method. Just take one step at a time.  I needed a lot of half square triangles so I chain stitched ten units and then sewed several together when they became long.

    

I have the ruler that Beth recommends, but it is in N. H.  The Tucker Trimmer is here, so I used it.  The half square triangles trimmed out to 2″  There was just a little waste. I did have to cut the plain squares down to 2″.

While the quilt looks as if the color was random, the center light design of the quilt consists of carefully chosen fabrics.  When they are put together, there is an orderly arrangement.   I decided to make the center first.  Now, I can make the other nine patches and not think about color choices.  When they are all made, I can put them together.  The quilt is 10 by 10 blocks, so I have 96 more to make.  I can make a few at a time when I feel like some easy sewing.  I have enough split blocks and it is just a matter of trimming all the pieces down and sewing them together.

The original quilt was 80″ x 80″.  It was made in Pennsylvania in the 1920’s.  This one will be a bit smaller.  The center is 60″ x 60″, with borders of 2″ and either 3″ or 4″.It’s still a good-sized quilt.

The “what if” quilts are a lot of fun to make.    

Have a great day and happy quilting.