Just a Note

I wanted to drop a note and thank all those who have stopped by and left a comment and those who just stopped to take a peek at what I'm doing. I'm not sure how it works when you want to answer to a comment. So I'll do it here. Someone asked if the Rico Tablecloth was cross stitch. Yes it is. That was fun to do and finally something I kept for myself.

About the Memorial quilt. I am keeping a journal of all the motifs noting the threads and colors and any comments,such as: where the motif came from and how I decided to use that particular one. I now need to do some smaller blocks to incorporate into the main piece of muslin. I think it will be easier to do the embellisments etc. on the smaller blocks.

The photo above is of the series I am reading now. Jennifer has written 10 novels so far. I have read the first three twice now and have treated myself to the rest, so I will have a nice summer reading program going on.
These stories are about a woman who inherited her family home "Elm Creek Manor" and was going to sell it, but then found a wonderful group of women who talked her into making it into a quilt camp. The stories are about the women who come the camp for a week each year and about the history of the family that lived at Elm Creek. It goes back into the civil war times and how quilts were used in the under ground railroad to aid the slaves who escaped from the plantations.

These stories of the quilts did not surface until recently so I don't know how true they are, but they make for interesting reading. She goes into the different sane quilt patterns and the meaning behind some of them. It's great to read how these woment come together a group and help each other. I would love to attend one of the stitchery retreats. Maybe one day. Something to look forward to. I did attend a Wooly retreat a couple of years ago. It was put on by "Bird Brain Designs." That was great fun.

Well, enough babeling. Hope you all have a wonderful day.

Another Patch

As I was working on this patch, I've learned several things which I will tell you about in a minute. First I want to tell you about this patch. In my Mother's house there was always a vase with silk flower red poppies, wheat and blue cornflowers. One day she told me that they reminded her of the fields where she used to live in Germany. And when we were on a trip up the Rhine river I saw such a field. I could see why they had made such and inpression on her. So in memory of my Mother I stitched this patch and decided that I would call this a Memorial quilt rather than a whole quilt. Didn't know exactly what to call it before, but memorial seems to fit it rather nicely.

Some things I've learned while working this patch.

1. This has always confused me as to what you call this little piece of fabric. So now I have it straight. The whole piece is called a block and the small pieces in it are a patch.

2. I think that when working the satin stitch as a filler, silk floss lies better than cotton floss to fill in the area.

3. Perle cotton looks better when doing the leaf stitch than cotton floss.

One thing for sure I will be learning a lot of things while doing this. I'm going to make up some 8" blocks to work on and then attach them to the foundation muslin. I think that will be easier then trying to hold on to all this fabric while stitching. So here is a picture of my latest patch. I hope you like it.

More on the whole quilt

Ok Here goes, I hope these pictures will be in the right order. I've spent the last 4 days working on this. The ideas just seem to keep coming. I was in a slump there for awhile. Anyway, This first picture with the paisley is from Martha Stewart Living latest issue. I just loved the design and it was easy to stitch. It's amazing where you can find inspiration.

The second picture has a couple of new seam embellishments. The picture that is pinned on the black patch is something I'm playing with. I'll tell more about that when I get it finished.

And the last is a motif from "Motifs for Crazy Quilting by J. Marsha Michler.

So there are my accomplishments for this week.

I hope you like them

Repairing an antique CQ

I was telling Pam Kellogg about the batting in my Antique Quilt and she asked if I would post a picture. The second picture is of a patch where the fabric has completly disintigrated.

I had mentioned that I thought it looked like fur. It was all over my navy slacks the other day and it looked like fur. It's probably just cotton though. As I was looking more closely at the quilt I found out that the stitcher had probably pieced the top together and then did the embellishing through the batting and muslin. I don't know if I mentioned this before or not, but quite of few of the patches are ribbon. You can tell by the finished edges on the ribbon. This is quite exciting to be doing this and especially following along as Pam does 2 quilts. She gave me the inspiration to really work on this.

If you'd like to see the entire quilt, scroll down to March 22.