So Many Quilts for Sale

It's probably a very First World + Rural Area problem to have, but my quilt shelves have been overflowing for quite some time. I have therefore stocked my etsy shop with TEN QUILTS. Folks, these are part of quilting history here at the Schoolhouse. Get them while you can, and I promise I will give the proceeds away where I think they will do the most good. 

Bless you all!

What I've Been Enjoying

The library's sale shelves. I've gotten some great stuff for very little, and I enjoy supporting the library. I try to stop and check at least once a week.

My orchids are all blooming at once.

We spent a few hours in Indianapolis, and I truly enjoyed fabric shopping at the French Seam fine fabric store. I got several stunning pieces to make summer things for Daisy. If you're in the midwest, go there.

I'm finishing up my poetry collection and turning it in tomorrow. 

I've been working at the Sisyphyean task of using up my scraps of jersey by piecing a string quilt. You cut your scraps into strips and sew them to a fabric base. I'm using 10-inch muslin squares and I need to make 81 of them. I do about two a day. I'm not racing through this project, but it is so satisfying to see the scrap heap diminish.

Kale from the garden!!

Modern Crib Quilts (for Twins) (or Not)

I am not joking when I say I am cranking through my stash. These two are the first of many quilting projects that will go in the shop. I've been busy the last couple of months! 

All linen tops, hand-quilted with lots and lots of quilting.

Log Cabin Quilt Top: The Meadows*

Usually Clara helps me with my piecing projects--we do assembly line stitching, pressing, and cutting to knock these log cabins out. Last week, however, she had mid-terms and multiple outside engagements and just didn't have time for me. No matter, I thought, charging ahead! I can do this on my own. I'll just lay out thirty-six block starts and get to work.

Three days later I started putting my beautiful, Meadows-inspired blocks together. Oh yes, I was short by a count of TEN.

So, change of plans--twin size quilt coming up.

* The Meadows is the name by which Felix and Molly's charming house and extensive gardens are known around here.

Strippy!

Another one pieced and waiting for a cozy winter of hand-quilting. 

All In

 I'm serious about using up all my scraps. It might not be this week, but it's happening. This is a gigantic quilt top to get things started. I pieced it using these instructions which of course I could not follow properly. I cut four strips, sewed them together, then cut them in half, then cut them into triangles. At that point, Clara looked over my shoulder and said, "You needed to sew these two squares together first. That's why it shows the fabric in the sewing machine. "

Who knew? Well, I know now. I'm probably about to make another one of these, not quite so big, and then take stock. Scraps, your days are numbered.

SaveSave

Scraping Out the Scrap Bin

My goal was to use up every single three-inch square that had been hanging around in my bin for ages. I used to cut huge quantities of these for my scrap quilts, but then I switched to strips, and was left with the less-desirable leftover squares.

I threw them ALL together and kind of like what came out. It's a large crib size (one day soon all these little quilts will go in my shop, with measurements).

Now I'm working on using up all my cut *strips*. And wouldn't you know it, there were a few squares lurking around in that bin. I'll make a hotpad with them.

A Dainty Little Quilt

This is a crib-size quilt, just nine blocks of the tiny dainty prints you see here.

 Some of the fabrics are vintage, some are Japanese.

I did a second version of this quilt that's a little larger, but it's not quilted yet. I'm in the middle of a compulsion to use up ALL my scraps.

It's making for a lot of quilts.

Log Cabin Quilt: Rose Window

Clara and I created this quilt for a friend of hers who is getting married next week. We hurried to get it done, then we ran out of perle cotton thread and had to wait for more to arrive. Still, we are getting much faster altogether.

 "I will open for you the windows of heaven and poor out for you a blessing until it overflows."

I Got All Boho in the Sewing Room

I started with a little 70s-style needlepoint of a fruit basket. It went from there.

The back has got a pocket from a dress.

Shop here!

A Consistent August Palette

Today Clara's embroidery project exactly matched the flowers on the dining table.

Laying Out the Squares

I got my fabric cut into strips, and all the blocks sewn up, and here they are laid out on the floor to be sewn together.

Clara and I got the top pieced on Saturday, and now the ball is in her court to add some embroidery--this will be a wedding gift for a friend of hers.

It's going to be Rose Window.

A New Quilt Stirs in the Sewing Room

The first thing we do is pull out all the pieces that are looking pretty today, and put them in a stack.

A Baby Quilt in Almost Black and White

If Emma and Eliot want it, this little quilt will be for the Stone House baby in November. It's very neutral, although the centers are actually dark charcoal gray and then very dark green.

Then there are some pale grays and some neutral linen.

The Stone House baby is going to have a sophisticated palette, everyone knows that!

Log Cabin Quilt: Dakota Sandstone

Clara and I made this quilt as a wedding gift for her geologist friend who was getting married . . . to another geologist.

He's from the Black Hills of South Dakota, so we drew our color inspiration from images of the layers of sandstone there.

Tans, faded purples, rusty pinks.

"And that house did not fall, for it had been founded upon the rock."

Dresden Plate Crib Quilt

 There were five of these Dresden plate quilt blocks in my stash--not six. So I just embroidered the outline of the last one. I like it!

Available in my etsy shop.

Versicolor Quilt

I forgot I even made this crazy striped quilt top--I had sent it to my mother and she quilted it beautifully. It's really, really intense. Versicolor! That's Latin for multi-colored.

I love the back she put on it. Just to calm things down a little.

I will be listing this in etsy in the next few days--or if you're interested, please email. It will be $200 plus shipping. It's a bit of an odd size--plenty wide for a twin bed but a tiny bit short--although I'd just cover the top with pillows. Bright ones.

Log Cabin Quilt Top: Quercus Alba

 . . . or, A Forest of White Oak Trees.

Log Cabin Quilt: Cloud Shadows

This time I was disciplined and sorted those dark and light scraps! Then put them together in diagonal rows. We think it gives the effect of cloud shadows going up and down hillsides.

Also, I inaugurated the use of the 1/4 inch seam. It added an astonishing amount of square footage to the quilt--so this is one of my biggest efforts!

Proceeds from this quilt will go to  our dear young friends who are the first married couple of our kids' group to have a baby--they just found out last week. They're still on the church-mouse student budget, so I'd like to help purchase a nice stash of quality cloth diapers for them. Here's the shop link.

Log Cabin Quilt: Red Coral Red