New Old Treasure

I recently acquired this beauty from a lady who is downsizing her collections of Stuff.  She was told it was a doll quilt when she bought it, and is circa 1890.  I can certainly imagine a young lady making this as a sampler of sorts.  It is mostly velvets, but has been worn away with time and use.  It is still a beautiful example of crazy quilting.

What Victorian era quilt is complete without a fan?  There is, of course, the requisite seam work on each blade of the fan.  I am enjoying copying these designs on my own quilts.  The real thing is so much better than copying from a book.  Of course, I do have way more books than any sane person should have.

This motif looks like a sunflower to me.  The fabric to the left is a threadbare rose colored velvet and the one below was a gold and orange striped velvet. 

And what girl of Scottish descent can resist the thistle?  One of them has apparently blown away in time, but you can still see where it was.  The background was orange and to the right looks to be an olive green.

Possibly forget-me-nots?  The purple above is still very vibrant.

This is the back.  It is mostly the fabric on top, with a smaller band of the other.  Both were black, now faded to grey.  I think the backing on a quilt can be just as interesting as the top.

May Crazy Quilt Journal Project Block

I love May.  Besides being my birth month, it's not too hot, not too cold, the flowers are blooming, and the garden has new things to discover every day.
Have you ever found that with a crazy quilt you made?  Whenever I look back at a block, I "discover" something new.
This is my 5th block for the 2013 CQJP:

The little girl is my grandmother, circa 1918. As you can see, I tatted a tiny flower for her and embroidered a duck pull toy.  The frame was pinked with my awesome vintage pinking machine and embroidered in an aesthetic style. 

I also tatted the cross from a pattern in Tatting Collage by Lindsay Rogers.  I had originally planned to put it below the picture, but it was too dark.  The lace that it landed on is from my stash of antiques, as is the flower and leaf surrounded by silk ribbon french knots.  Check my etsy page for an awesome holder for your tatting needles, hand made out of Texas mesquite.

The mixing bowl and rolling pin are my own design.  And yes, I do use a vintage wooden rolling pin with green handles.  I think old things should also have a function.  The mixing bowl reminds me of some of the Pyrex bowls that have been passed down to me.

 

Last but not least, my little tractor.  We do not use John Deere, but love International Harvester.  The design is from an Aunt Martha.  I had to shrink it quite a bit to fit, but it was a lot easier than trying to draw one.

Market Bound

This week I've been getting ready for the Rockport (Texas) Market Day on Saturday.  I've made a casserole tote to showcase that pattern and am working on two of the Bohemian Tile table runners.  The tops are done and I am hoping to get the backing put on them tonight, if I can find something in my stash to use. 
I designed this runner after reading Tile Quilt Revival by Carol Gilham Jones and Bobbi Finley.  If you haven't read the book, I recommend it.  They give the history of the tile quilt, tell you how to design your own pattern, and include patterns. 
The tile quilt is perfect for showcasing the big, modern prints that catch our eye, but leave us stumped.  Smaller prints work just as well and let you see the design of the applique pieces.  Speaking of applique, it is not my forte.  But the simplicity of the tile quilt makes applique much less scary.  For Bohemian Tile, I used the light Heat & Bond or Wonder Under and then used a straight stitch inside the perimeter of each shape.  No tucking under or satin stitch.  For a larger quilt, or one that will get a lot of wear, I would probably not use this raw edge technique.  This runner uses 6 fat quarters.

 For these lighter (I think of saltwater taffy) blocks, I used a dark brown thread for my straight stitch. 

On the other runner (orange slice candy?) I used black thread.  These will all be tyed when finished, but could easily be quilted.

Little Bits of Everything

Block #17 showcases Grandma.  Actually my husband's grandmother, but she feels like mine.  She was always interested in my latest project and was also very religious.  When we were finally forced to put her in a nursing home for her last few months, she would bunch up her sheet and use it to pray the rosary.  No, we were not so mean as to not give her a rosary.  We just couldn't find one that she didn't break before she was forced into bedrest, and afterwards she kept losing them in the bed and resorting to the blanket or sheet.  When she passed, it was about 2:30 in the afternoon on Good Friday.  Still gives me goose bumps. 

This is the oldest picture we had of Grandma, in keeping with the other old photographs I've been using.  It had some issues and I had to cut someone else out, but I finally got it just the way I wanted it.  This is what the first try looked like, but it was awful and I ripped up the block: 

I finally printed her picture again in an oval with a printed background around it and I think it looks much better.  The flowers are mostly hand dyed silk ribbon, with a few simple flowers I tatted to give some more dimension. 

The fan next to Grandma's picture is my adaptation of one that appears on many of the older crazy quilts. 

The little black doo-dad is an engraved design I copied from my son's shotgun.  I think on the block it looks kind of like a bat off of a Scooby Doo cartoon or something.  The lace applique was also hand dyed. 
Check out the detail of the large piece of lace. It broke my heart to cut into that piece, so I just cut off one end and kept the width. I try not to use patches that big, but I love, love, love that lace!

This odd looking thing is a mockingbird nest.  There was no way I could embroider a mockingbird (the state bird of Texas, for those of you not from the Great State).  But a few years ago I took a picture of a nest and eggs in a tree in our yard and decided that was the perfect compromise.  The eggs are satin stitched in a light blue.  I then tried dropping brown dye on them, but it turned into lines instead of speckles.  I will probably try to fix that later on.  The nest is made of couched yarns from Roxann and leftover bits of brown velvet and silk ribbons.  The whole thing is super soft.

The Log Cabin

Once again, the newest block is my favorite.  This is my take on a log cabin block, albeit a tad off, in greens and cream/brown.  You can't really see the cream and brown for the lace, but you get the idea.  I tried to keep the seam embellishments simple on this one.  I know, that's not the Victorian way, but the colors of the log cabin were just too pretty to cover.

Where to start...the purple geometric design on the solid green satin to the right is from the design on my aesthetic bedside table.  I think it started life as a plant stand and was painted black, but I stripped and refinished it and use it for my lamp and stuff.  Ok, it mostly has needles, thread, scissors, and ribbon.  But when I clean it off it's really pretty, and I try to clean it every time I finish a block. 
The yellow thistle-like embroidery on the green velvet is taken from my great-great grandmother's amber Madrid depression glass that I inherited.  I traced it onto water soluble stabilizer, but this time I used the paper kind and it's really, really hard to soak off.  You can still see traces.  I will get them off during a really patient moment.  It may be a while.

The flower basket took a while, but was so much fun!  All of the ribbon and lace motifs are hand dyed, including the brown velvet that makes up the basket.  I really tried to layer things when I put them on, but they were all so pretty that I didn't want to cover anything up.  I cut the yellow flowers, leaves, and butterfly from different larger Venetian lace pieces.  I hope they all show well. 

I bought the peacock last year at the Victoria, Texas quilt show from the same lady that I bought my dyes from.  I have been afraid to dye it all this time because I was afraid to mess it up.  I think it turned out pretty well.  I used blue satin DMC floss to make french knots as "eyes" in the feathers, which made a nice accent.  After I have sewn this to another block, I will tack his head down and add an eyeball. The yellow velvet ribbon that the peacock has roosted on and the turquoise lace were also hand dyed. 

My Little Man

Have you ever noticed that your favorite project is the one you are working on now?  That's how I feel with my blocks.  My favorite is always the most recent.  This one showcases a picture of my son from 10+ years ago.

The pink medallion in the upper left corner is one that I tatted.  The shamrock is the national flower of Ireland.  The spiderweb is just because you have to have one on a crazy quilt, the orange and green lace medallion is one that I bought and dyed, and the lace is from my stash of vintage lace.  I can't get enough of that stuff. 

This pink silk is from an old kimono.  I picked up a grab bag of large squares of vintage kimono fabric at the 2011 San Antonio quilt show.  A friend mentioned that my block was looking a little sad, so I embellished this piece by stitching over the basket and making little tulle flowers with melted edges.  The flowers are about 3/4" each.

This is my big melty flower, about 4" across.  The tutorial for these flowers is on the Calamity Kim site.  I've only made the one large and 4 tiny, but it is so much fun!  I hope to make lots more soon.