Vintage Reimagined

This month the Island Batik Challenge was "Vintage Reimagined".  When you hear that, what do you think of?  For me it was this quilt--

 This picture was in this book--

I've long admired this quilt and vowed that "someday" I would recreate it. 

There is nothing more vintage than scrappy 9 patches!  My quilt finishes at 44x51".  Its quilted with the Jody Beamish pantograph called Clematis--lovely frilly flowers paired with a light yellow thread.  Tiny blocks look best with solid or tiny print fabrics, Island Batiks were a perfect choice.  The props in this picture are my Island Batik scarf, spools of Aurifil thread, and a very necessary quilting tool---Chocolate Easter Eggs in a wine glass!  A dark background would have set off the quilt better but I didn't have one.  I will watch for a dark solid sheet at thrift stores. 

~Lori1R in South Dakota~

PS--Island Batik gave me these fabrics to play with.

RSC Week 12 Wonderful GREEN

14 More Green blocks--

Some blocks only have a TINY TINY sprig of green, but that's good enough for me!   Changed my photo prop, an OLD green pottery pitcher stuffed with a piece of green fabric and some greenery stuck behind it.  The Duck tape is underneath the pitcher and a long bluetooth speaker is behind the two blocks at the bottom.  There's fabric stuffed in the pitcher because it has a big chip out of the edge.  

I'm linking with SoScrappy.  I love green so much I'm going to make green blocks in April too!  

~Lori1R in South Dakota~

I Have A Finish

Otter Village is finished--

Its a free pattern at Paint Brush Studio.  Gray fabric is a new background fabric for me, I paired it with juvenile fabrics and a black.  The backing is a white flannel with tiny blue/yellow polka dots.  Its quilted allover with the pantograph Clematis by Jody Beamish.  This panto is 13.5" but I enlarged it to 16", at 13.5" it was a bit too dense for me. 

The Gray quilt is hard to photograph.  If there were grass for contrast it would photograph better.  But its March in South Dakota, there wasn't much wind so I'll take what I can get!  But I will show you a few photo tips--

There is a pergola above our deck.  At the top I nailed up a vinyl covered clothesline.  A string holds it up in the middle to a stringer, otherwise it would sag when a quilt is hung from it.  Our deck is about 4 four above the ground, I can hang a 100" quilt from the line without touching the ground.  Metal clothespins are much stronger than wooden ones,  these were ordered off the internet--

They do not come apart like the wooden ones.  How many of you struggle with the wind flapping your quilts?  A completely still day seldom happens here.  But you can defeat a breeze with these--

Its hard to see, but its just a brick, a piece of lightweight nylon rope, and a metal clothespin.  Depending on the size of the quilt, just wrap the rope around the brick to shorten the rope.  This location relies on late afternoon sun.  Here is what it looked like earlier today--

There is a shadow across the top of the quilt.  I waited about 2 hours before almost all of the shadow was gone. (If I had waited longer the sun drops below the large trees to the west and its all shadowed).  The angle was not perfect, the final picture is better and I used the "perspective" tool to help.  The top clips hold so well the quilt hung there even though the breeze from the south would pull the bottom loose from bricks/clips.  This is on the west side of our house.  I have another line on the east side of the garden shed/garage which can be used for morning pictures or if the wind is from the west.  But the line is lower which means I have to take pictures with quilts hung sideways. 

I used 10.50yds to make the gray quilt.  It was also my OMG for March. I'm linking with Elm Street Quilts.

~Lori1R in South Dakota~ 
 
 
 

Design Wall Monday and Weekly Goals

I've been working on the Blue Ohio Stars again--

There are 36 of these blocks now, need to decide if I want 42 blocks (I like rectangular quilts) and how I will set them. Side by Side?  Sashings?  Cornerstones?  Any suggestions?  They are 12" blocks made with multiple whites and blues.

The prop in the picture is our daughter's cheerleading pompoms from high school.  A camera takes a "flat" picture.  The bottom three blocks have something behind them to tilt them so they show on the picture, a box, a roll of tv cable, and the roll of duck tape all hidden by the blue fabric.  The picture was taken with a slight downward angle.  Snapseed has a tool called "perspective" which you can use to change angles or "pull" the picture in different directions.  Its like blocking a quilt block--you can tweak it!  You can fudge small imperfections.  Here is an unedited photo taken from straight on angle--

Not near as eye appealing!

Weekly Goals

Quilt the 9 patch top

Bind 9 patch top

More Green RSC blocks

That's it for this week.  There are other life errands to do.  

Ken's mother has been using a walker so I made a walker bag--

Walker Bag

A few "tweaks".  Make sure the opening to turn the bag is on a section you know folds up for top stitching.  Its a bit too deep, I used a 60" piece of fabric.   Check the walker to see where the cross bars fall--mine has bars in a straight line so the velcro was perfect. MIL's walker has angled braces so the velcro could be a bit lower.  But I used wide velcro and I doubt she's be hauling bricks in it!  A very narrow pocket to hold a pen/pencil would be handy and easy to add.  I thought it would be handy for my MIL's wallet, water bottle, phone.  Thank you Candra for sending me this link--its exactly what I wanted.  

I'm linking with Oh Scrap, Moving It Forward, and Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.  

~Lori1R in South Dakota~

RSC Green Saturday 11

I LOVE GREEN!  Its so much fun making green blocks--

9 more green Garlic Knot blocks.   And Liz mailed me a box with more green scraps and chunks!  WOOHOOO!!!  

I have a few more days to work on my goals.  The blue/brown quilt needs two more passes on it.  No decision on backing yet for the 9 patch quilt.  

I'm linking with SoScrappy.

~Lori1R in South Dakota~

Design Wall Monday and Weekly Goals

These are the last project I worked on--

They are great for mindless sewing opportunities!

Weekly Goals--

Finish quilting the blue/brown quilt

Borders on the 9 patch project

Sew more binding

Find backing for the 9 patch quilt

Enough to keep me busy.  Last night on Stashbusters my goal was to quilt two passes on the blue/brown quilt each day.  I'm almost half way now.  

I'm linking with Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Moving it Forward, and Small Quilts and Doll Quilts. 

 

~Lori1R in South Dakota~

RSC Saturday 10 -- GREEN!!

More GREEN blocks--

Still using the blue background--blue sky, grass, and gravel all make balanced background colors.  But there's no grass, and the gravel is either under snow or water right now.  Different photo props for St. Patrick's Day, green garland from the Dollar Tree and 3 spools of green thread.  Easy peasy!

Time to check this week's goals--

Finish 9 patch to a flimsy--needs one last border
Sew binding to small projects--yes
Hand sew some binding--yes
More green blocks--yes
Quilt??--tomorrow maybe??

I'm struggling this week.  My right hand/arm is not strong enough to rotary cut accurately, I get wibbles.  So progress on projects needing parts cut is slow. 

We live where its been flooding.  We are mostly dry, the basement oozed a little water until Ken and the neighbor put sump pumps in the backyard that had turned into a pond and pumped the water to the storm drain.  Snowbanks/ice had made a dike to prevent the water from draining.  We are going to have warm days but cold nights--thawing will slow significantly.  Our basement has no carpeting, only tile and concrete so other than a wet floor it was not bad.  

I'm linking with SoScrappy--Green is a great month!  

~Lori1R in South Dakota~ 

Design Wall Monday and Weekly Goals

Still playing with the brown Churn Dash blocks--

A good picture takes a little work.  You see blocks, blue background and a few props.  The view from the chair--

Different backgrounds are layered over a quilt on the wall.  The blue is a piece of leftover backing I dyed.  A treadle cabinet has my printer on it, its under the fabric.  The coffee tin is perched on a roll of duct tape hidden under the fabric.  Discarded props are scattered about.  This room gets good light from about 1-3pm each day.  There are four lamps and the overhead light turned on.  My camera is my phone, and I edit photos with a free app called Snapseed.  I use the free version, its very user friendly.   A few small changes I didn't make--move the coffee tin so the light edge was over the brown part behind it--better contrast.  There is a slight tilt to the photo--the duct tape sloped to the right a little.  Perhaps better greenery.  Small changes.  This year I will put more effort into my pictures.

Weekly Goals--

Finish 9 patch to a flimsy
Sew binding to small projects
Hand sew some binding
More green blocks
Quilt??

Variety in my goals--gotta have variety.  These are dependent on my arm and life cooperating!   I'm linking with Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Moving it Forward and Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.

~Lori1R in South Dakota~

RSC Saturday 9 GREEN

Green!  Lovely lovely Green!  8 more blocks made this week--

There are lots more parts cut for green blocks.  Green is my favorite color!

Tuesday I had a "Grandma" phone call.  Max's daycare lady's family had the flu, the intestinal kind.  Nick and Laura Beth tag teamed each other on Tuesday, but there are only so many sick/personal days two working parents have.  Tuesday night I got there and spent Wednesday and Thursday with Max.  He's pretty easy to babysit--

A tablet and he's happy for a LONG time.  We ate out for lunch and on the way home we stopped at Fly Boy Donuts.  It was 12:30pm and they close at 2:00pm.  We ordered a dozen donuts and they gave us another dozen--FREE! 

They were enjoyed by the whole family!  And of course he hit Grandma up for something else--

Strawberry flavored "Monkey Milk".  Max drank it, I took his word that it was good.   Nick had Friday off so I was able to beat the bad weather home.  The next couple weeks only has sewing on the calendar!  I'm linking with SoScrappy.

Its been two weeks since arm surgery.  Its slowly getting better.  I hope to be able to rotary cut tomorrow.  

~Lori1R in South Dakota~

RSC March Green

Oh I'm so happy!  Rushed to the She Shed immediately to make two GREEN blocks--

If you look carefully my favorite cartoon character is on them--Woodstock wearing a Park Ranger uniform roasting marshmallows!  March won't be long enough for all the green blocks I want to make. 

I'm linking with SoScrappy for RSC 8 Saturday posts!

~Lori1R in South Dakota!

A Magnificent Mini

February's project for Island Batik Ambassadors was "Magnificent Minis".  I've never made a mini quilt, so I took my cue from the suggested size of the project--24"x24" or smaller.  

A Pineapple Wall Hanging!  It finishes 13"x20".  Simple outline and diagonal quilting.   I used a pattern called "Pineapples" from Quilt Country in Lewisville TX for my inspiration.  The pattern is no longer available, I've seen it as a free pattern recently but can't find the link anymore.  An assortment of luscious batiks were used in this wall hanging and a neutral batik for background.  

Pineapples are symbols of many things, I chose it to welcome you to my blog and Island Batiks.  Hobbs Thermore batting made a nice flat finish.  Thank you Island Batik and Hobbs for the opportunity to create with your products!

~Lori1R in South Dakota~

PS--I was given these items by Island Batik and Hobbs

OMG--March

Time to check my OMG.  Quilt the Bricks and SS quilt.  Yes, I got it quilted!

Sorry for the glare, but its quilted and the binding is on, ready for hand sewing the binding.  What shall my March OMG be?  How about binding the Gray Baby quilt??

I especially like the quilting, its called Clematis by Jodi Beamish--

I edited the photo to show the quilting better, the backing is a white flannel with tiny blue and yellow polka dots. 

My blog has been silent, I've been busy--

Had surgery on my elbow and hand.  RIGHT elbow and hand, and I'm right handed!  (Its a mirror image photo).  Its been a week and feels much better.  I can sew simple seams, press, do anything that doesn't require hand strength or reaching.  But can't use a rotary cutter--yet!  Glad I had plenty of precut projects--

I'm linking with Elm Street Quilts.  Did you have a OMG?  How did you do?  

~Lori1R in South Dakota~