Estate Sale

Copper enameling was a home craft of some popularity in the 1950's. I remember my dad heating up the little electric kiln  and placing enamel powder on precut copper forms. I still have a little pin in the shape of a butterfly that I put the color on. (And I still wear it!) That's why I had to buy this at the estate sale I went to today.

The estate sale price: $3.75!

There are the instructions, some copper shapes, and powders. Anything liquid is all dried up.  I don't know if the kiln even works, but for $3.75 it's worth trying.

I couldn't pass up a piece of red glazed cotton -- 36" wide, 4-1/3 yards -- for .75.  Also .75 each:  a few pieces of Ultrasuede (of which I have a modest stash), three lengths of pattern transfer web, and a pretty piece of painted silk. 

Never-used linens: two pillowcases edged with cutwork, bedsheets, and a box of 4 men's handkerchiefs (initial W; their last name was Wool).

152 thimbles ($12.50).  Many are tarnished (or were cheap metal that is discolored; I haven't tested them yet).   

Some are very tiny.  Are they intented to be functional or just miniatures? 

A couple had translucent tops. 

148 swizzle sticks!

Estate sales are better than garage sales because the entire house is open. The contents of people's lives are on display (with price tags!).  I speculate about the people who lived there and what the house was like with all the furniture in place, before cupboards and closets were emptied. 
This house was traditional on the outside but 1960's-modern inside and quite spacious. The owners, Dr. W and his wife, have moved to assisted living. They'd lived in the house for more than 40 years.  One bedroom had been turned into a veritable boutique with Mrs. W's clothing and accessories -- a dozen pairs of white gloves; scarves; belts -- and many, many high-heeled shoes -- size 3-1/2!  She was a very petite woman, and probably bought  shoes whenever she could find them.  

Estate sale: pina cloth

An AAUW friend moved to a nursing home earlier this year.  Bunny lived in a big, late 19th-century Italianate house on the north side of Waukegan for years.  She was a nurse who served in the Navy (Korean War, I think). She was also a pilot.  She had accumulated so much stuff that the estate sale was held for two weekends. 

Among the things I bought was this never-used hankie.  Tucked in side were these care instructions.  Pina cloth is made from pineapple fiber


The back of the instructions -- all the souvenirs a tourist would want!



DWM: garden, Memorial Day, and "disappearing" samples

We have two rose bushes.
The one in the front had hybrid flowers until DH trimmed it so aggressively that he cut below the graft --now it's "natural." The one in the back yard is a rambler that, if not trimmed, will shoot out long stems. 
Our U.S. flag was a wedding gift. It flew over the U.S. Capitol. (Here's how to get one: http://www.capitolflags.gov/) A couple of years ago I heard an NPR story about the guys whose job it is to hoist flags up and down over the Capitol all day. 

The peonies
are
grand
this year!!


At the NLCQG  meeting next month I'll give a demonstration on "disappearing" blocks.  Here are my samples for disappearing 9-patch and disappearing 4-patch.  D9P designs abound, and after I finished these samples I got a message that the Block Swappers   are doing a "double D9P" swap.   I don't know if I'll have time to work up a sample of that one. 

D9P:  upper left -- started with 3.5" mini-9p. The others are all from the same block: I used 3" squares to make black-centered blocks. (7.5" fin.)   I love the way the mini- 9's turned out--the skinny strips are just 1/4". 
D4P: left -- 5" squares.  Top: 2.5" squares.
Bottom: 4" squares.  (BTW, that Nile Green is genuine vintage cotton sateen. There's a little label pinned to it that says "5 yds $4.25.")

See what other quiltmakers are doing this holiday weekend at Judy's Patchwork Times

Another 'volunteer' iris!

DWM: another bookshelf

We got vegetable sets and seeds this weekend. The seeds are planted and the sets are hardening off. We've learned that there is usually a cold snap just before Memorial Day and it's best to wait to plant that weekend.

Neither one of us planted this iris. It just appeared this year!





I wrote earlier this month that I had two quilts that I had to make. I finished one of them last week (see the DWM post).  Here is the second.  It's for Karen Schneider, who stepped down last year as co-moderator of PubLib, the public librarians' listserv. I volunteered to make the quilt as a thank-you and finally it's finished!  I will present it to her at the ALA Annual Conference next month. 

The back uses a dandelion print that I've had for at least five years.  Dandelions are a symbol of PubLib, for reasons that I have forgotten.  Some of the more than 10,000 PubLib subscribers contributed signature squares that I pieced into the back.

The quilt is 27 x 32 and used approximately 1-1/4 yards of fabric. 

See what other quiltmakers are working on at
Judy's Patchwork Times.

An evening with Bonnie

Bonnie Hunter is in Illinois this week!  She spoke at the Village Quilters meeting in Lake Bluff last evening.  That's not my guild but I happily paid the guest fee to attend. (As it turned out, I knew at least a dozen of the women there:  from AAUW, P.E.O., and libraries, as well as quilting.) 



Bonnie was great!  She's a good speaker, adding good humor in her presentation.  She showed us how she dissects a shirt to get the maximum usable fabric. She did it in six minutes with dull scissors.  (She assured us that she'd cut faster with sharp ones.)

She showed many of her quilts. "Night Flight" is a new design and we were the first to see it. Her travel handwork is a hexagon project she's been working on for years.  She's nearly done...with the piecing. Quilting to come.

DWM: Bag Lady Swap for May, and progress

My big accomplishment this week was to clean the bookshelves in the living room. It had been years since I had taken the books off and moved the bookcases to vacuum and dust. In the process I culled two boxes of books that I haven't gotten around to reading or won't read again.  I'll take some books to the library sale and others to the silent auction at the AAUW luncheon next month. 

Here is the May installment of the Bag Lady swap.  Lynne's starter block is the dahlia, top row center.  Her focus fabrics are a pale print that has old-fashioned postcards and a peacock-feather print.  Carla's and Janet's blocks are on either side.  I made the Corner Star in the lower row and four 6" Ohio Stars. 

I mentioned two projects that I had to work on. Once I finished Diamond Stamps (see previous post) I tackled them. 

Several weeks ago a co-worker's mother asked if I could finish a comforter. I said I'd be glad to take a look at it. Her 85-year-old father made the Broken Dishes blocks and assembled them. He started to make them into a comforter -- with batting and a bedsheet for backing -- but wasn't able to finish the project.   The bedsheet wasn't large enough; it wasn't basted; the edges were pinned with straight pins.  I took the sheet and batting off and pressed the top well.  I had 6 yards of an aqua leaf print, just right for the backing.  I used new batting, layered, basted, and quilted with diagonal lines.  The variety of fabrics in the blocks is so cheerful! They're not all quilting cottons -- some shirtings, a couple of piques, and probably some polyester.  It's 72 x 86.

The second "deadline" project is well underway....I hope to be able to post a finished photo next week. 

See what other quiltmakers are working on at Judy's Patchwork Times.

Diamond Stamps

I decided on a piano key border.  I cut strips 1.5 x 7.5, sewed them into 6's, trimmed to 6.5 x 6.5, and sewed those blocks together.  "Diamond Stamps" used 8-3/8 yards, all from my stash.  It's approx. 72 x 82.

This looks very cozy-fall. That's just how it turned out. And now I *have* to get to work on the projects that have definite deadlines, which were sidetracked by this one. 

DWM: Postage stamps, again!

I have two quilts I *have* to work on. Rather than getting started on them I came across a couple of experimental blocks:  16-patch blocks with triangle corners (sort of "squares in a square").  The 16-patches are made from 1.5" postage stamp squares and I had a big stack of them on hand.  I added triangles until I had 81 blocks, but ended up using 80.  Each block is 6" *unfinished* (5.5" finished) -- the unusual measurement is because of the on-point 16-patch.

Lately I've been intrigued by low-contrast designs, inpired by Kaffe Fassett whose quilts have simple shapes and coordinated, busy fabrics.  That was the effect I wanted for this quilt.  I used several different dark golds and several different dark blues for the triangles. The primary sashing is a soft red and the secondary sashing is a blue/gold print. The cornerstones are scrappy.  I will add an outer border but so far I haven't found anything in my stash that will work (and that I have in sufficient yardage).  Maybe I'll try a pieced border. Hmmm.....

Take a look at what other quiltmakers are working on at Judy's Patchwork Times this Monday.

Tote bag power

A friend of mine won one of the transformed totes that ZBPL contributed to a charity auction.  She told me that this past weekend she was walking in one of the forest preserves and had that tote with her.  A woman who was a complete stranger struck up a conversation and they chatted for more than half an hour. The stranger said she knew my friend was okay to talk to because she of the quilty tote bag!

The version pictured here will go to the Zion Township Volunteer Appreciation Dinner, along with this quilt (scroll down to the end of the linked post to see the quilt).

DWM: two finishes and a flimsy (again!)

 My Design Wall Monday posts are usually composed just before bedtime on Sunday evening when I've come upstairs after watching Mad Men (or, earlier in the year, Downton Abbey).  Today I'm writing Sunday morning before church because the rest of my day will be taken up with 'homework.'
I pieced A Little Bit Liberated in 2010. I quilted it on Thursday evening and Friday.  I stitched straight lines and a random 'bubbles.'

The back used up an apple print with a selvedge date of 1998.





Vic christened this for me: Lavender's Blue

  This is the final 48-block Heartstrings quilt made from the 366 blocks that I made in 2008.  It took just 2-1/2 hours to quilt with a medium-sized
meander.

I've quilted 23 flimsies (see the "Flimsy Completion" page) since December.  I can tell that my free motion quilting is more confident and a lot faster as a result of all this practice.

Here's what became of the triangles left over from Rachel's Kaleidoscope .  I decided to make a Friendship Star variation.  I ought to have pulled the sashing and border fabrics at the same time, but I didn't.  The pink-with-purple flower sashing, (which I bought years ago when Hobby Lobby had bins of clearance fabric) practically leapt from the shelf to the cutting table. I cut the sashes and sewed them on. Then I looked for border fabric.   Nothing seemed right.  It was late and I was tired, so I came upstairs and slept on it. This  morning the turquoise-purple (looks like homespun but it's a print) and the grape-violet came to the top of the stack and were perfect.  This flimsy is 52 x 62 and used 3-1/4 yards.

See what other quiltmakers have been working on at Judy's Patchwork Times .

DWM: triangles, a finish, and bargains

A stack of triangles resulted from trimming the paper-pieced Kaleidoscope blocks.  This weekend I sewed them into HSTs.  I've trimmed them to 3" (unfinished). I turned to Spectacular Scraps, one of my go-to books, for setting possibilities.  SS uses Douat's permutations   -- 64 different ways to arrange four triangles (or, for quiltmakers, four HSTs).
(The lower block is just a Friendship Star, not a Douat pattern.)
 

More triangles to trim....

I pieced Crabapples (a Bonnie Hunter pattern) last year. It was perfect for a wedding gift for my sister and her fiance. At 70 x 70 it can be a two-person sofa quilt.    The backing fabric, a Red Tag bargain, shows that very few fabrics are unredeemable -- this was ideal for this quilt. I finished quilting it last evening. I used a variety of patterns, no marking, and it turned out well.  (Backing + binding = 3-5/8 yards from stash.)

Crabapples back

Personalization!

 The wedding is April 29 so I am right on time.

At a garage sale on Friday I scored a half dozen boxes of books for the library, all free. After that generosity I had to buy something!  Seven one-yard pieces of fabric (six quilting cottons and one corduroy) for $7.00. 

See what other quiltmakers are working on at Patchwork Times!

Bag Lady Swap, April

Here is the next installment of the Bag Lady Swap .   Janet specified 12" black-and-white blocks. She said that teal, red, and forest green could be added.  She made the Four T block in the bottom row.  Carla made the two cross blocks that flank the T's.  I added color for three blocks. From left to right they are Pinwheel Star, Weathervane, and Corner Star.  (I discovered Corner Star for the 2012 Birthday Block exchange .) 

Tomorrow I will mail the box to Katie.  (The sequence is Janet-Carla-Nann-Katie-Debs-Lynne, so next month Carla will send me the blocks that Lynne began.)  

The quilt on the bed

"Double Delight" is the quilt on my bed.  I Of all of Bonnie's mystery quilts, this is my favorite. (Thus far.)  I made  the top  at the end of 2008 but didn't get it quilted until this year. 

See what quilts are on other quiltmakers' beds on the Quiltville blog!  

DWM: two finishes, one flimsy, and Easter

Happy Easter!  The men of the church provided Easter breakfast.  DH co-celebrated at morning worship.  At home we had lamb, asparagus, wild rice pilaf, and cheesecake.  (The pilaf was a departure from the new potatoes we usually have.) This bouquet from our garden graced our table today. (Note the dicentra -- bleeding heart -- about two weeks earlier than usual due to the warm weather.)




Finish #1:  Four years ago I made 366 Heartstrings blocks
-- that's one a day in a Leap Year. 
It's one thing to make all those blocks. It's another to make them into quilts -- seven 48-block and one 30-block.  I thought I'd finished them all but at the bottom of the box of flimsies were two more 48-blockers. Here is one of the two, quilted and bound. 



Finish #2:  I used up a stack of 2.5" red and pink squares when I made this flimsy a year ago. It's 60 x 60.  I quilted loopy flowers in the 16-patches, an undulating line in the sashes, and a vine in the border.







The new flimsy:   Bonnie Hunter calls this block "Grandpa's Star" in her "Addicted to Scraps" feature in the March/April issue of Quiltmaker.    I wrote last week that I'd make blocks until I ran out of red sashing fabric.  I had enough for 25 blocks.  Bonnie's block has 1.5" half-square triangles. Mine are 2.5", with 1.5" sashes and cornerstones.  I contemplated making a pieced border but I found a red print (it has little yellow ovals) in my stash and there was just enough to cut 6" borders.  Total stash busted: 4-7/8 yds.

See what other quiltmakers are working on this Design Wall Monday at Judy's Patchwork Times

I remembered!

In June, most years, when I mow around and over the sprawling peonies I tell myself, "Next year, stake them!" The record-breaking warmth this spring means that the garden has come along weeks ahead of usual.  I was surprised to see how big the peonies are already. But today I staked 'em!

The daffodils are a bit faded but still so cheerful!

DWM: finishes and starts (no fooling!)

Simply Scrappy is finished! I used variegated thread and just meandered. The binding is made from leftover binding strips (2.25").  It didn't even make it to UFO status! 

However, this was a UFO dating back to 2010. The photo shows it unquilted, but I have now finished, bound, and labeled it.  (I quilted loopy flowers in the 9-patches, continuous curves in the hourglasses, and parallel horizontal lines in the border.)  This will be donated to the Zion Township Senior Fair later this month.

And I've made another bookshelf quilt for a coworker who is retiring in April.  

I'm still making HSTs as leaders-and-enders. The block is called "Grandpa's Star." It's Bonnie Hunter's "Addicted to Scraps" block in the March/April issue of Quiltmaker. She used 1.5" HSTs for a 7" block. Mine are 2.5" for a 10" block.  I'll make blocks until I run out of the red sashing fabric.

Check out what other quiltmakers are working on at Judy's  Patchwork Times