Lone Star Tote Bags

 

Lone Star Totes 

Remember those lone stars I was making back in April at a local quilting class?  I finally decided what to do with them!    It's the perfect solution for orphan blocks.

I bought some sturdy blank $3 tote bags from Hobby Lobby. 

  

The faded glory Americana Star, in honor of America 250.

 

Here's a clearer picture of the free-motion (freehand) quilting as seen from the back side.  

  

There were 2 "Green Fire" Stars like this one.  I love that center fabric! 

 

 

Here's the Blue Star version.  

 

 

All 3 stars were quilted with this general design.  

I free-motion stitched the star blocks to some felt I picked up on the FREE table at Quilt Guild one night.

The felt doesn't unravel which means you can leave the edges "free" with no special treatment.  This also makes it easy to sew it to the tote bag.  

 

I left to top edge open so it can act like an extra pocket, too! 

I may donate a few of these to the Boutique for the Fly In Quilt Show in July.  

I'll keep one for myself, too. 

Red Poppy Coverlet [Purchased]

 

I purchased this beautiful Red Poppy Coverlet on eBay recently.  

 

IIt was priced so high, I thought I could make one for less, but soon discovered that the draft was not easy to find [That adventure of discovery will be in a separate post.] 

 

As soon as I gave up the ghost on finding the draft, I was resigned to study it and figure it out myself.  So I made an offer that was much lower that the seller had listed.  I didn't think they would take it -- but they did!

 

At about that moment, the pattern and draft had also been identified on one of the Weaving FB Groups.

Jackpot!

 

I do intend to make one like this -- but maybe in blue since I now have a red one in my collection. 

It looks like one of the Goodwin Guild coverlets from the last century.

The listing says it is 1 whole cloth, so made on a much larger loom than someone would have at home. 

 

 

Scrappy Flying Geese and Pinwheel Borders for the Caledonia Calling Quilt Top

There were so many cut-off triangles from the  Caledonia Calling Quilt that I could not throw them on the scrap pile or toss them, so I decided to use at least some of them in the border ...

 

So I worked up some crumby flying geese blocks.  These can be frustrating and varying sizes.  I finally worked up a paper-piecing template to help make them more uniform.

 

 

Along with that, I also cut some background fabric so that there would be enough to cover those spaces.   The sizes that worked:

• 5 inch square cut on the diagonal   
• 4 x 7 inch rectangle

It seemed like there was still a lot of cut-offs from this technique as well, but it did make the process go much faster, and less frustration piecing bits together to make them fit. 

 

With the remainder, I made up some pinwheel blocks.  No template necessary for these.

 This is how the final quilt top worked out.  Lovely!

Manx Log Cabin Quilt Block by Machine: A New Project

I've been wanting to work on a Manx Log Cabin block and I finally worked up the "test" or sample block. Sample blocks are always useful because 

1. It lets me know if I can stand to work on whatever technique is at hand. 
2. It also give me a sample block to look at while I'm working through the rest of the blocks.

 

 

• For this particular block, there was something about the center that doesn't work.  I chose blue in contrast to the red and cream logs.  But the first log is a dark red and it fights with the blue log of the same shape and size and depth of color.  I should have picked one of the pinkier colors for that spot. Lesson learned! 

 Turning a Hand-Sewn Manx Quilt Block into Machine-Sewn by Timothy Totten.

The Manx quilt block was developed by Celtic people living on the Isle of Man, where they reused every scrap of fabric that they could.   They would use the span of their hands, and the length of their thumb to measure fabric for these blocks--so every quilt was unique to the maker.    Although I love the look of these blocks, I'm not so keen on hand-sewing, so I was happy to see this version for doing it by machine and using 2-1/2 strips from jelly rolls.

The logs are sewn and flipped / folded in such a way as to leave a little tuck (for lack of a better word).  I love the 3D nature of this technique!  You could fiddle with and play with the pockets as you are falling asleep ...

 

Here is the foundation fabric.  You have to press some guidelines into it to keep all the logs straight.  

I have already placed the center block, aligned with the diaganals, ready for the logs.  

Here are the jelly rolls I'm using.  The raspberry strips are from Nanna's Creations on Etsy and the cream is a light batik jelly roll.  I'm going to have to look for something to use for the backing blocks.  For this one, I just used a square cut from an old sheet -- which I guess is in keeping with traditional Manx quilts to reuse whatever they had.  You don't have to be precise about cutting the logs perfectly with this method either, but I wanted to keep it simple by using the 2-1/2 inch width jelly rolls.

There is no batting in these, so they are considered "light" summer quilts. With the folds, they can get kind of heavy.  We'll see if I get going on this sooner than later ...  I'll have to decide if I want to chain piece a project like this or do 1 block at a time.  Yet to be decided!

I also bought jelly rolls to do a purple and gray set as well.  If everything goes well, I may be on a Manx Log Cabin (Jelly) Roll for a while ... 

 

Hunter Star: Quilting Classes at the Senior Center

Hunter's Star

Yes, I already know how to quilt, but there is always more to learn!  And this is a group of more advanced sewers.  I did order Quilter's Academy Book #4 by Harriet Hargrave, which is the text we're using in the class.

This week, I was sewing together the Morningstar as a trial run for the Lonestar.  It took me most of the morning to sew all the pieces together.  We used the Lemoyen Star method which uses a painless way to do Y-seams.  You work from the outside into the middle of the star to finish it -- which seams a little counter intuitive.  It worked, and subsequent stars should go faster.

The points are all nice and sharp--and they match.  Hurray! 

Near the end of the class, Liz showed us the electric AccuCut tool that the Senior Center has, and helped us cut out fabric for a Hunter's Star block.  She wanted us to experience a much easier star than the lone stars we'd been working on this month.

She ran the fabric through the machine over the die cut, and we had our accurate and fully cut fabric pieces in about 3 seconds!  It was remarkably fast!  And the electric version is so much easier than the the manual cranking it through by hand.  

 

Left block is the correct way to sew the quarters of the Hunters Star.  

The right side is the WRONG way to put them together.  

When I got home, I sewed the pieces together ...  If there is a way to do it WRONG, I will do it wrong until I have a model to follow.  It should not have taken all afternoon, but it did!  By the forth quarter, I finally had it figured out!  Put it down to learning something new ...

How to Tie a Quilt on a Not-So-Old Quilt Frame: Blue Resistance Quilt is Compete

I tied this quilt with a big fluffy wool batt from my friend Laura.  I got it done in record time -- I think it only took about 2 hours with the right equipment.  It will be a wonderfully warm comforter this winter!

This is the disappearing hour glass 2 pattern that was so much fun to make. 

Earlier in the summer, I was watching a quilt frame on FB Marketplace selling for about $25.  I was waiting until after July 4th to ask about it ...  But then it completely disappeared, not sold, just removed.  Perhaps the seller had an arbitrary date in mind to sell it, or they put it in a local rummage sale?  Or they trashed it, because no one appeared to be interested.  I'm not sure ...   

 

Then I remembered my friend Nancy had one like this in her basement that she said she would never use again.  It was made by her ex-husband.  She made 2 quilts on it and decided that was enough, so it's been sitting unused ever since.   She was willing to give it to me because she knew I'd actually use it.  ;-)

 

The design is very much like the one I was watching on Marketplace.  So I asked her if I could have it -- since I have about a dozen quilts waiting to be sandwiched and finished.  This will be good for tying quilts with too thick a batt to get under the sewing machine.  It will also help to pin baste other quilts.

I used to tie quilts sitting up in bed, but that was fraught because it was always hard to get the done parts out of the way.  This is a much better set-up for tying a quilt!

 

Bonus that you get to see some of my weaving samples hung up on the wall behind me! 

 

 

I used sturdy T-pins to attach the edges of the quilt to the rails.  Then it can be rolled on the rail as you progress through the quilt.  

 

 

I used wool yarn to tie this quilt.  Apparently, though, you can use just about anything -- acrylic, cotton, whatever you have.

 

I was remembering Oliver's Little Blankie baby quilt made by his Great Aunty Marge.   It had wool ties on it that would felt down ...  He used to work them off and chew on them.  I guess they had a nice mouth feel?  Better to go with natural fibers than plastic in that case!

 

 

Here are the basic tools:  

• Needle with a nice big eye to allow the yarn to be threaded.  Darning needles don't work so well for this as the points are unbelievably dull.  You need a point sharp enough to get through the cotton and wool batting layers.   I broke the eye off of 1 needle (I never even knew that was possible!) and had to run to town to buy some more suitable needles.  
• embroidery scissors
• Shelf liner for gription 
• pliers to pull the needle through when it gets tough 

 

It took me a little while to get started on this one, because I wasn't quite sure where in the pattern of blocks to place the ties, but it just took a little time studying the pattern to figure it out.

In the phot above, I am nearing the end of the quilt.  About 2/3 of it is rolled up on the rail, and still isn't too bulky -- even though it's a puffy wool batt. 

 

Still--as I got closer to the other end, it was easier to flip the rails so that the rail with the finished ties was on the far side from me.  

 

I tied them with a surgeon's knot, which is common in weaving, and famous for not easily coming undone -- until you want it to.  

 

Here's the back side, where you can see the puckers of the ties.

  

How to tie a quilt - I found this old video by Donna Jordan.  I kinda wish I'd done it this way, especially for closing the opening for turning.   The tying is easy enough.

The Double Wedding Ring Quilt Top is Done!

Done in record time!  Step-by-step I did this very challenging quilt top that has been on my bucket list ever since I started quilting in 2004 (or so). 

I used the Cut-Rite Template set and Donna Jordan's tutorial and that made it entirely do-able!

Donna Jordan's Easy Wedding Ring Quilt  

There were over 600 2-1/2 inch squares to make the chips of color.  I used a batik layer cake and still had a few left over.  I got this far using my little Singer Featherweight from 1941.  It worked like a champ!

Now to figure out how to quilt it! 

Will I do it again?  Maybe ...  Will I make a bigger bed-size quilt?  Maybe ... 

 

I love that creamy background batik.  It makes me think it's full of fossils, and sand dollars. ;-) 

Cranberry & Cream Summer Cotton Coverlet

 

I won this auction last week!  The price was just too good on this one to let it slip by.  Plus I am intrigued by the weave pattern.  It looks more like Huck Lace than overshot.  The seller did not mention the fiber content.  I suspect it's all cotton -- a summer coverlet. 

 

I washed it -- Just because I felt it deserved to be clean after all this time.  The water was gray enough to justify a good wash, although the stains didn't come out.  I air-dried it over the bannister, but it was "rough" when it was dry, so I put it in the clothes drier for a bit to soften it up.  It crinkled up nicely -- as you would expect for this type of 3-dimensional weave.  I know some would say I ruined it, but I love this new crinkle!

 

It has a "red" side (above) and a cream side (below): 

  

For some reason, this crinkle weave pattern makes me think of spiders -- but not is a creepy-crawly way. 

 

Someone gave the edges a scalloped treatment -- as in they took a stencil and cut the scallops (as you might do on a quilt), and then zigzagged the finished edges.  I don't think that happened in the 1800s since the first consumer zigzag machines were not available until the 1930s.   It's an interesting edge treatment, and one I have not seen in any other coverlets.

There's no center seam, so it was not pieced in panels as a coverlet woven at home would have been.  Maybe it was industrial/commercially made?  I found a remnant of what might be a tag that had been cut off -- indicating factory made.  And maybe they did have access to the earlier zigzag machines for the edge finish?  Whatever this coverlet's individual history, I am happy with my purchase. 

 

For the record, here are the photos from the eBay listing: 

From the Ebay Listing:

 $24 plus $10 shipping

Antique Mid 1800s COVERLET Woven Geometric Cranberry & Cream Reversible 82”x98”

 Item specifics:

Condition
Pre-owned: An item that has been used or worn previously. See the seller’s listing for full details ... 

Number of Items in Set: 1
Pattern: Geometric
Shape: Rectangular
Size: 82x98
Color: Cranberry And Cream

Material: Woven
Item Length: 93 in
Type: Coverlet
Style: Antique
Features: Reversible
Time Period Manufactured: 1850-1899
Production Technique: Hand Woven loom
Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
Item Width: 73 In
Handmade: Yes

Category:
Linens & Textiles
Bed & Bath Linens
Quilts, Bedspreads & Coverlets

Item description from the seller:

This Antique Mid 1800s Coverlet is a rare and unique piece of bedding, hand-woven on a loom in a geometric pattern of cranberry and cream colors.

This coverlet was packed in a trunk for many years at My Grandmothers cottage.

Measuring 82”x98”, this reversible coverlet showcases the craftsmanship and design of the mid-1800s, making it a valuable addition to any collection of antique linens. Its handmade quality and timeless style make it a standout piece for those seeking vintage charm and character in their home decor. There are some stains as noted in the photos. The Coverlet is as found and has not been washed or stains treated.