More Pix from the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles

Here are some more pix from that wonderful show at the museum of Quilts and Textiles.  I lean toward the vintage examples but I've tried to include some of the more contemporary as well.

I hope the Holiday crazies are keeping from your door but all the Joy is with you!

cheers, Claire W.

San Jose Quilt's and Textiles Museum latest show

I actually got a couple of quilty gift type items finished this past week. One tree skirt that was particularly cute, but I was in such a sweat to get the durn thing off in the mail I forgot to take pix.  Well no matter.  It's times like these I take the opportunity to dig into my archives and share some of my vintage quilts.

Well no matter,  I went to the SJ Quilt Quilts and textiles Museum yesterday and was totally wowed by the new show!

Here for your viewing pleasure "Expressions of  Identity:  40th Anniversary Exhibition" 

I will post more pix from the show in my next post.

Have a great week!

cheers, CW

Last week ...

Last week was a marathon not a sprint!
- Monday - I got up early to beat the traffic to Sacramento to arrive by 9:00 to teach my Scrap Strategies class.     The class was attended by a really enthusiastic group of quilters and we all had lot of fun!!!

-Tuesday-  I walked along part of the Sacramento river to see some sights and get some exercise and then Tues. night I presented my Trunk Show for the River City Quilt Guild.  The whole guild was very welcoming and we all had a whole lot of fun!!

-Wednesday- I got up early again to beat the traffic to Berkeley where I met my sister to help do some chores at my parent's house and then race back to Santa Cruz so's I could get ready for Thanksgiving at my house.

-Thursday and Friday are kind of a blur but there was a lot of cooking, eating, cleaning, playing games, laughing and just generally having a whole heck of a lot of fun!

-Saturday- was putting a lot of stuff away and Sunday I actually got to do some sewing, Yeah!

Here are a couple of pix...

Got this flannel baby quilt top put together.  I think I started this about 3 years ago!  38"x 38"

'got this lap quilt 58"x68" quilted the week before and finished sewing on the binding!

This one was made with a charm packet of Dr.Seuss prints.

I would show you pix of our feast but I guess we were so intent on enjoying it nobody took any?!

I hope you all had wonderful Holidays!

cheers, CW

Rescue Project

Sometimes in the making of a quilt top a certain kind of mistake becomes compounded compelling the maker to abandon the project altogether.  This top was one such project.  I found this top in the guild flea market and though it definitely had problems I thought with a little patience it could be rescued.

This quilt top had great colors, cute basket blocks, nice layout but the floral panels between the basket panels were so heavily steam a' seamed they were almost as stiff as cardboard. (reverse view)

 And  in the course of cutting and pasting I think the floral design got lost so the visual impact just was not working.
Seemed to me the remedy was pretty simple: the floral panels could be replaced with something more complimentary (and less stiff) and all would be well!

Compare the left to the right of center.  One more panel to replace and a renewed Top done!

And since Our Flea Market charges $4.00 / pound for all fabric the financial risk was a whopping $5.00!  This will make a great charitable quilt in no time!

Happy Weekend!

cheers, CW

Other Halloween stuff

I found these pumpkin theme orphan blocks in the Guild Flea Market.  I think they might have been the leftovers from a BOM from a few years ago.  

I figured they might make some quick Halloween gifts.

I used 3 blocks to make this table runner for my daughter-in-law. She really enjoys decorating for all the seasons.  I almost always send her some kind of squishy package for Halloween

I used this fun Halloween fabric for the backing.

I showed the table runner to my daughter and she said she liked the blocks, tho' she did not want a table runner so I trimmed 2 of them down to potholder size and quick turned them for a Halloween surprise for her. 

I still have two left.  Maybe I will make some potholders for myself?!

I love working with orphan blocks,  It feels a little like cheating,  but hey,  I only have so many hours in the day for serious sewing why not get help where you can?  And these blocks were really so cute!

Happy Halloween!

Cheers, Claire W.

Taking pictures can help with balance of value...

I had to laugh when I looked at this photo.  How did I put both of those darker valued four patches in the upper left and not notice?!

Something so clear in the photo completely escaped me while sewing this top together.

This top was made from a collection of orphan blocks some of which were pretty old.  I guess I was to focused on just getting them all to fit together.

I have a large amount of various shades of chocolate / tan / brown calico orphan blocks.  I guess this was a popular color back in the 70"s?!

Well I'm always looking for more masculine color schemes for my vet quilts so I dredged these out of the brown stash of Orphan blocks and I think it's OK but the upper left corner did give me a moment of pause!  LOL

On to other orphan blocks...a little more contemporaneous.

I think these maple leave blocks (about 12" square) are maybe from the 90's?!

They made a nice quick thank you gift (table runner) for a friend who hosted us recently. 

It's funny how styles change.  Big 12" blocks like these use to be the standard size,  now it seems like blocks are smaller.  Is that a Dear Jane / Farmers Wife influence, I wonder? 

Orphan blocks are a great way to whip up a quick top or gift without going to too much effort and you can smile because squishy gifts are always appreciated and you repurposed something that might otherwise have been thrown away!

May all your orphan blocks find homes!

Happy weekend!

Cheers, CW

Borders Straightened Out

I really loath back stitching.  I have on occasion spent more time trying to figure out how to correct a sewing boo boo without back stitching than just sitting down and picking the darn seam out!  Sound familiar?
Well on this occasion after about a week of grumbling to myself I finally sat down and picked the offending border out and realized my pattern wasn't as far off as I'd thought.  All I needed to do was reverse one section from the top to the bottom and all was set right!
And while I was grumbling to myself about that I did manage to get the border on the right sewn.  So that's a long way of saying... I am still working on my Halloween quilt and I have made some progress. 
It's clear I'm not going to be powering through to the finish any time soon but I'm OK with that and now that it's had a good start I'm pretty sure I can finish it by next Halloween. LOLOLOL!

And in my defense... while I've been dithering around about my Halloween quilt I have not been idle. I managed to finish a couple of charitable quilts! 

The center of this quilt was a flea market find.  All I needed to do was slap some borders on, quilt and bind.  I'll take advantage of free labor any day! 

 It's another 36" x 48" for Wheel Chair Bound Vets.  I have a hard time sticking to subdued color schemes so finding a brown and tan color scheme ready-made was a good start for me.

I quilted it very simply; loops and swirls all over.  It's fast and easy and lays down so's the fabric can do the talking! 

And I found this wonderful flannel for the back.  So soft!

I also finished this quilt.  I think I finished quilting it in Sept.  But being a rather  it large quilt (58" x 68') the urge to finish the binding had to wait awhile.  But you know how frustration with one project helps to motivate finishing another project... 

I quilted this one completely with random width parallel lines using my channel lock.  Very Modern!  This quilt will go to Camp Aaron which is a camp program here in Santa Cruz for kids who have / had family members who have/ are suffering from cancer.  Each kid who comes to camp gets to pick a quilt for their bunk when they arrive and then take it when they go home.  It's a great program.

Well enough rambling from me.  I hope you all have great weeks!

Cheers, Claire W.