It's October...bring on the PUMPKINS!

It's October on the farm, so I decided to turn the watermelons into pumpkins with a wave of my magic wand...bippity boppity BOO!  This is block nine of "All Around the Town" (by Sue Garman).

Three more blocks (wedges, really) to go.  I had so much fun with the pumpkins and quilts, I think I need to go back and put a few more things in front yards.  Then I can start thinking about the cars and two borders.

(Here's the pattern front.)

Despite my protestations, my friend Mary Jones recently "paid" me for some hand quilting with the following goodies...

GORGEOUS new Jo Morton fat quarters, some Halloween coasters (to protect our furniture from mugs of steaming, hot, witches brew, straight from the smoking cauldron...), and a funky little big-headed Halloween ornament.  And do you see the kitty card in the left back corner?  THAT is going to be drafted into a future applique block...I LOVE that caffeine cat, just trying to get his morning fix, with his paws wrapped around his cup of java, foam on his latte-smacking mouth!  Me-OW!!

I love using greeting cards to get ideas for applique blocks.  My quilting friends are kind enough to save the fronts of their recycled greetings for me to make Christmas ornaments from.  Every now and then, there are some that get my applique needle quivering...just look at this doggie with the bird friends...

In addition to working on my barn block, I've been appliqueing the house that will go on the quilt I am making for my sister, Laurie.  I am using a variation of the "Chelsea Cottage" pattern from Blackbird Designs for her quilt.

I can't wait to get it on a piece of background so that I can surround it with my prepared log cabin blocks.  I've also been prepping more cranberry birds for little Christmas projects.

And getting the odd basket appliqued.  With all the painting I've been doing, it has been nice to relax with little obtainable goals in the evening, even if only for 15 minutes (thanks Victoria of Bumble Beans, Inc.).  Those 15 minute sessions can really add up! 

Have a beautiful fall day (or spring one, if you are "down under").

In stitches,

Teresa  :o)

What came first, the chickens or the collection?

Chicken fever, chicken pox...call it what you like, but I might have quilt guilt by association.  Country Threads published "On Behalf of Chickens" in 1991, and I fell in love with the log cabin chickens, among other cool projects in the books.  Apparently that was when I sealed my fate as being obsessed with anything "chicken."  Even though I had been quilting for years at that point, this was my first "rotary cut" project, finished in early 1992.

I lived in Galveston, Texas back then, and had a kitchen with a lot of wall space.  So after making the first chicken quilt, I decided to make a second one from the same book, and a decorating theme was started.  This one shows why I love hand applique...I really suck at machine applique...

When I went to garage sales, I started seeing little baskets and such in the shape of chickens on the $0.25 table...this added to the nonsense in my kitchen.  These two quilts appealed to my love of scrappy and worked with my homespun and calico fabrics collected in the 80's, along with 2-3 garage sale men's shirts. 

After moving back to Michigan in 1995, I moved into a house with no wall space in the kitchen.  That is when the "chicken bathroom" was born (we'll get to those pictures in a moment...). 

In 2004, I joined a year long "around the block" challenge with 10 other quilters in my group of talented quilting friends.  We each chose a theme, color range, made a couple of blocks to establish the theme, basted them to a piece of gridded Pellon interfacing, and put everything in a new pizza box to be passed around the group, swapping boxes on a monthly basis.  We were all asked to make blocks in units of 4 inches...4 x 4,

8 x 8, 4 x 8, 8 x 12, 12 x 12, 4 x 12...well, you get the picture.  Even though we basted our offerings to each person's piece of interfacing every month, once we got our own box back, we could take the blocks off and come up with an arrangement, add blocks, etc.

Well...I chose chickens.  I had a lot of chicken fabric I REALLY wanted to get rid of.  My friends in Texas, mistaking me for a "chicken lover," would bring me fat quarters or larger pieces of chicken fabric, and this continued in Michigan after I showed my two chicken quilts at "show and tell" one time.  I mean, they are cute.  I figured choosing chickens as my theme would allow me to use up my chicken stash as I worked out the setting, borders, and backing.  HA!  Now I have TWICE as much...they are multiplying!  Here is the twin sized "Foul Play," completed in 2005.

My buddy Jo Watson made the following three,,,

Deb Cadwallender made this one...

 

Judy Endres thought that all those chickens needed a rooster to keep them in line...

Kathy French made the next two... 

 

Margit McPhee pieced this feathery friend...

Jean Wood made one chick and eleven eggs.

 

Roma Fogelsong made the mother chicken with her 4 chicks...

 

Sherry Peterson made this one...

The following are goofy things I made to fill in spaces.  Judy Tomer and Rose Barbre also made blocks.

I made the word banners as well, one day when in a silly mood.  When I hand quilted this, I quilted chicken phrases and words in the blue stop border...stuff like "KENTUCKY FRIED" and "CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN" and "POT PIE," etc.

I'm working on something strippy and scrappy now with the remaining chicken fabrics...it's called "Poultry in Motion."  After that top, a pieced back and binding, that is IT!!  No more chickens...I'll show that project another day...and perhaps announce a give-away of the remaining chicken fabrics...I'm sure there will be some left...

Now, here is the chicken bathroom, recently painted and chicken stuff put back on the walls and ledges.  A stupidly designed room, it is taller than it is big.  Lots of room for chickens...

Sorry for the long post...that's a lot of chicken to "eat" in one sitting...

In stitches,

Teresa  :o)

Hmmm...how do I get into THIS!  I wish I had opposable thumbs...

Ahem...still need a little help here...

Ha, Mr. Weasley!  It's for ME this time, kitty boy.  Look what came in the mail from Belinda of Dirt Brown Cottage...lots of nice goodies!  A beautiful handmade hot mat for my tea pot (how did Belinda know of my hot tea habit?), some lovely fat quarters, something for liquid refreshment (yum!), and a lovely card.  This sure made my day...I've been doing a lot of painting in the house lately, and believe me, MY DAY NEEDED MAKING!  Thank you Belinda for the burst of sunshine!

And Weasley thanks you for the rafia ribbon...he grabbed it and TOOK OFF!  (you made his day, too!)

In stitches,

Teresa  :o)

The third and final doll quilt...

The third reproduction doll quilt is done!  (see my last post for the first two...)  Mary Jones pieced these little beauties and I got to hand quilt them and give them back to her for binding (to me, that's like getting to play with the baby, then hand it back to mama to change the diaper!).

They are store samples to help sell reproduction fabrics and this great book, out of which all three little quilts came, at one of our LQS.

All of these quilt patterns are so nice and finish up quickly with scraps and a little time.  There is also some interesting historical reading in this book.  Just lovely.

Stay tuned...the chickens are coming in the next post...

Does anyone know a good online source for Moda Bella solids??

In stitches,

Teresa  :o)

Cute little doll quilts...DONE!!

I have finished hand quilting all three of Mary Jones' reproduction doll quilts and she has bound the first two.

Her piecing work is absolutely perfect and color choices amazing.  My crappy photography doesn't show it, but everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is square, straight and perfectly true in every way.  (Any pointers out there on how to make a perfectly rectangular quilt look like a perfect rectangle in a picture??)  No marking required for the first little quilt.  I quilted through the center squares on every diagonal and did a chevron design in the outer border, outlining part of the flying geese blocks.

This second one, a "broken dishes" pattern, has little hearts quilted to soften the blocks and a swag around the outside border with more hearts in the outer corners.  The inner blocks are also quilted on the diagonal.

I will photograph the third one when I see Mary again...I'm sure she has it bound by now, as, in addition to being so gosh darn precise, she is SPEEDY!!

If you have never checked out Fun With Barb and Mary, you really need to!  Barb has a great sense of humor, interesting posts, and does beautiful work.  In her latest post, she shows apple core shapes of Halloween fabrics for a project she laid out on at a retreat.  She would LOVE some tips on machine piecing them.  It will be a stunning project.  If you have some valuable experience with this kind of project, please help her out and leave a comment.  I would love to see her finish this project so that I can copy it, LOL!  After all, imitation IS the highest form of flattery!  (with all credit given, where credit is due, of course...)

Barb is also working on a selvage project that is really cool!  As I told Barb, I wish I had a dime for every selvage I've ever discarded, then I would have more money to buy fabric (and more selvages, more dimes, more fabric, and more selvages.....).  It seems like I was telling someone in the class I was teaching yesterday about all the cool things you could do with those selvages...(hey Laura, click on the link above!).

Well, I suppose I've procrastinated enough at this point.  I am supposed to be cutting in and painting two bathroom ceilings.  Doesn't that sound exciting?!?  I will be dreaming about quilting while I am working. 

One of the bathrooms is my infamous "chicken bathroom," which houses chicken quilts and related artifacts that used to occupy my "chicken kitchen" in my previous house.  I had to take everything down to paint, so I should take and post pictures.  These two quilts started some vicious rumor a few years back that I collect chicken related fabrics.  As a result of this overstated rumor, I have an overflowing tub of chicken fabrics.  The result of this tub was using a "chicken theme" on an "around the block" round robin quilt with 10 other very talented quilters (I thought picking this theme and piecing the back for the resulting quilt would get rid of all the chicken fabric).  HA!

Now I have a tub of chicken fabrics that is twice as big.

How does this happen??

I will post the chicken quilts and discuss the ever exploding chicken fabric bin next time.

Have you ever been falsely labeled the collector of a certain kind of fabric...like chickens, Elvis, mushrooms, owls, witchcraft/wizardry?  Do tell!

In stitches,

Teresa   :o)

The third one is the charm...

Ahhhh.  I've been in hand quilting Heaven while doing a little stitching on three lovely reproduction doll quilts that my friend Mary Jones pieced as store samples for one of our LQS.  Her fabric choices and piecing are amazing...and just look at her basting!  She could sell them basted like that and call it hand quilted!!  LOL

I've already done the hand quilting on two others, which I returned to Mary yesterday so that she could bind them.. This is the third one.  I will post more pictures of all three of them when they are all finished.

Hand quilting is my favorite part of the quilt making process.  It is my therapy.  I love the repetitive motion of the "rocking" when making the stitches and the feel of the 2-dimensional pieced top becoming softly 3-dimensional in my hands.  I enjoy getting to examine all the fabrics "up close and personal" as I take my stitches.  Coming up with quilting patterns feeds my creativity and, sometimes, my sense of humor.

I knew life had been stressful lately, but taking some time to calmly do some quilting has been fabulous!  And each of Mary's lovely doll tops is so small that I can quilt them quickly and get the rush of a "finish."  I got them from her on Tuesday late morning, and I finished the second one yesterday (Wednesday) - they do go quickly!!

On an unrelated, but exciting topic...Jane at Jane's Fabrics and Quilts is giving away an AccuQuilt GO! on October 1, so check that out.  It has been fun watching people blog about the GO!

In stitches,

Teresa  :o)

"Local" Quilt Show Today!

There is a "local" Quilt Show today in my neighborhood!  The location?  Block #8 of "All Around the Town" (pattern by Sue Garman).  The block measures 18 x 13 inches and will be the bottom, left-hand corner of the quilt.  Here's the picture of the pattern front:

Four more blocks to go, then I can add the "road" (a skinny stop border), the cars, and the wider outer border. 

I am also going to add a few more things in the front yards of some of the houses...this quilt needs some dogs, cats, perhaps some "lawn art" (maybe a tiny garden gnome??), and a cart with either watermelons or pumpkins for sale - maybe BOTH!

Have a great day in YOUR neighborhood and thanks for attending the Quilt Show in mine!

In stitches,

Teresa  :o)

Two REALLY BIG finished BLOCKS...

I'm so proud of these two BIG finishes!  Above is my Baltimore Album and below you will find my Schoolhouse quilt:

And now the truth...they are really very TINY finishes...for my next "All Around the Town" block (#8).  LOL! 

Here they are in proper perspective (don't you just love the scissoroo scissors from Natima of NotJustNat?!?).

Every time I find a tiny scale "cheater cloth" fabric, I snatch a little up and stash it like a late summer squirrel with a big, juicy nut!  I never know when I'll need a tiny quilt in an applique project.  I hope to be back with the finished block soon.  I used one of these fabulous, fakie, quilty fabrics in one of my original blocks from my Civil War Bride Quilt as well, finished last spring.  This was my "family portrait" block (that's my daughter behind the book).

I thought about making the tiny quilts actual 3-D quilts, complete with batting, backing and quilting, but this is an unusual quilt and I'm not sure if it will be on a large table or hung on the wall, most likely hung on a wall.

Thanks for letting me pull your leg!

In stitches,

Teresa  :o)