turkey feathers

Quilts In Progress

True Blue is heading into the homestretch.  Yesterday the remaining basting pins were removed and that means I am heading for the border.  Three straight rows of stitching should do it.  And at this point, I'm ready for straight rows of stitching.  And a new shiny straight needle.

In the meantime, something new flew up onto the design wall.  I'm using up scraps I have on hand and before I knew it I had the making of a new quilt.  I selected colors that were a bit reminiscent of an old rose garden I strolled through recently.  Not so much a literal translation, but rather a focus on the earthy parts, like moss and bark, shady nooks, sunny spots, iron and wood structures, soil and sky, water and stone.  Like this . . . 

Well, that's the path I started down. But the addition of plaid tends to point toward fall.  And once I introduced the red apple print (because it needed a cornerstone accent), it was all over.  The whole thing just zoomed right past summer and went straight into autumn.  Like this. . .

It happens.  I'm not entirely disappointed with it though.  I'm just not mentally ready to stitch up "Autumn" before summer has arrived.  So I'll be putting this away for awhile and might make another attempt at the old rose garden theme after I finish other projects I've started.  Yes, there are others poking out of baskets.  Along with more hexies.  Can't stop.  They're like candy.  

Bars and Stripes

This lovely old thing was a quilt rescue.  I picked it up at a flea market, eons ago, and paid practically nothing for it, because at the time it was just a big wadded-up mess.  Someone had apparently thrown it into a washing machine and the cotton batting shrunk, clumping into large balls between the ties, since it had not been quilted down.  So sad and pitiful it was.  Obviously just a scrap quilt, but I loved the colors, the feedsack prints, the simple design.  So I paid the dealer five bucks and brought it home to deconstruct.  Once I got the quilt top removed, gently cleaned and repaired, it was given fresh batting and backed with plain muslin.  I hand-quilted simple lines in the border strips and in the ditch.  I remember it was an absolute dream to quilt, with the fabrics being so time-worn and buttery soft that my needle just glided through them.  I imagined the unknown quilt-maker, happy to know that her humble efforts had been preserved.   

We've treated this quilt gently and its held up amazingly well over time, though after years of use I've had to retire it because the fabrics are getting fragile.  Some of the patches have disintegrated.  Which all too often happens.  That being the case, I decided it was time to fashion a new one. 

So, out came the jelly roll scraps and I got stitching.  

Everything came together very quickly.  I sewed four 18" strips (half a jelly-roll length) together, and then cut them into 6" sections which were randomly placed so that no two of the same print would be next to each other. 

I must admit, I was tempted to use purple strips between the bars.  But I had a lot of scraps I needed to use up that coordinated much better so used them instead.  One of these days though, I WILL do a purple version like the original.  Have to.  It's just SO good. 

After I got the top pieced, I machine quilted the whole thing, in the same way as before. 

And ya know...  I think it turned out pretty awesome.  Even without that beloved purple.  

Iris on Parade

 

Not far from here, in a lush valley, lies an Iris farm that began as a backyard garden . . .

 . . . and grew.  Dreams can do that.