Winter Quilt

I had planned to be a sewing whiz this weekend, completing all of my unfinished quilts. Great plan but I got side tracked a bit when I slightly threw my back out, (from lifting up Molasses)... she may be short in height, but she is long in body... and 45 pounds of wiggly Molasses may be good for my soul but not for my back. All I can say is thank goodness for heating pads, pain killers and Mo's sweet face!


I was determined to get something done though and did finish this quilt. It looks very nice against the bare robin's egg blue walls of our dining room, which need a little something, so I plan on hanging it there. I especially like the big F & M , (do you see it?) on one of the feedsack strips. Hubby and I got married in the F & M College chapel, so the quilt has a bit of personal symbolism in it, which makes me happy!


The colors in the quilt remind me of winter, so that's what I am calling it.


Here's the back side. You can better see the various quilting stitches I used all over the piece... zig-zags, wiggles and straight stitches. (Wiggles... now there's a very technical term!) xo

Works in Progress

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend. It is freezing cold here in Pennsylvania, so I stayed holed up indoors... as I have stated before, I am not a fan of cold weather!

Here's what I have been working on this last week... everything pictured below is in one stage or another of its creation, and all are awaiting completion.


I have been playing around decontructing and reconstructing a rather thread bare and worn, but visually intriguing vintage, (crazily pieced) scrap quilt that a friend gave to me. Here, in the picture above, I am using the most salvageable parts, adding ticking fabric for the sashing.


I've done the same thing with this piece above, but have used muslin from a vintage feedsack for the sashing instead of the ticking. Notice in this picture the vintage quilts very worn areas, (click on the pic for a better view.) I have decided to keep them in as a way of honoring the fabrics journey.


The photo above is of a string quilt which I am making from strips of vintage feedsacks. I am basically constructing it the same way that I constructed this other quilt. It's an unorthodox way of quilting, and I am sure some quilting purists would frown upon my method, but it works for me.

I start with a roughly cut piece of batting, in this case apx. 6.5", and sew my strips directly on to the batting, placing one on top of the other. Then I trim the sewn piece of batting to a nice straight square. When I have all of my small squares sewn, I then take two of them, butting there flat edges up against each other, side by side, and join them with a zig-zag stitch.


After the whole top has been put together in this fashion, I then place the backing fabric behind it, pin baste it and machine quilt it, (something I have yet to do on this particular one).

This method might look a bit rough around the edges for some folks, but visually I think it works well with the vintage feedsacks. I applied the same method here to completely different style quilt, but on that quilt I covered up the zig-zag stitching with strips of folded fabric, creating a sashing effect.


Above and below are two more "String Studies" all quilted and waiting to be bound.



Oh and one more thing... My quilt, Study in Blues and Red made Etsy's Front Page the other night as part of this lovely treaury put together by One Canoe Two (One Canoe Two... such a cute name!)


Enjoy your day!!