Falling into Fall

It has been an amazingly busy fall so far.  Today I finally pulled the last of the bean plants out of the ground, and brought in 3 remaining green tomatoes.  If we had any pumpkins, there would be frost on them.  The kale (above) is still going strong, at least for a little while longer.  There were even two raspberries this morning.

I've spent the past 3 Wednesdays documenting quilts at the Hawks Inn Museum in Delafield, Wisconsin.  An amazing group of volunteers from the Mukwonago Crazy Quilters came every week, and have now become pros.  They were a joy to work with, like everyone at this museum.

Here are just a few photos of the amazing quilts I got to see up close:

A signature quilt from Newfield, NY, dated 1853.

An amazing applique quilt.  Every block is slightly different.

A very unusual pattern.

We documented 35 quilts, and plan another date next fall to finish up.  We hope to be entering all of these into the Quilt Index this fall/winter.

You know the summer is over when the Flea Market season ends.  My husband and I went to the last Elkhorn Flea Market in late September, and the pile above is the loot I found.  I got lots of fabric, both vintage and recent, for an average of $3 per yard.  I will take that deal any day.

Here's a closeup of the baby quilt I bought.  It was a kit quilt from the 1930s or 1940s.  Very sweet.  A little worn, not too much.  Not bad for $10.00.

I dug the potatoes a few weeks ago, ahead of the frost.  This is our haul for the year, which isn't bad for two rows of a small garden.  Digging potatoes is like finding buried treasure.

Speaking of treasure, our quilt group had our silent auction at our meeting last week.  I got rid of a big box of rubber stamps and some books and rulers.  This is what I bid on and took home:

It doesn't really look like treasure, does it?  It was a huge bag full of batting scraps, plus a gallon zip lock bag stuffed full of narrow fabric strips.
Batting scraps are great for me, because I do a lot of quilt as you go.  I need squares for quilt blocks and strips for sashing.  

I separated the fabric strips into two piles.  The big pile is strips at least 1 in. wide.  I'll use those for string quilts.  The smaller pile is even narrower strips.  I'm using those to crochet a rug (pictures when done).  There was also a scrap of gray fabric often used to make ironing board covers.  I can use it to back a pot holder.

Here's the first block I made with the strips.  The new ones are the yellow with leaves and the dark green.  They go with the strips I already have pretty well.

The cost of this scrap pile bonanza?  One whole dollar.  And I'll bet the person who brought it is just as happy to be rid of it as I am to have it.

The tomatoes are canned, but there's a bushel of apples in the garage that needs to be put up so we can have apple pies and crisps all winter.  Plus the dog needs a walk, and I need to work up the bread and start the soup.  Not to mention making more quilt blocks!
I wish you the joy of fall this week. 
Happy Quilting!

The Joys and Dangers of Unfinished Objects

I've always been pretty casual about my Unfinished Objects (also known as UFOs).  I'm not one of these people who only work on one project at a time and finish everything they start.  [If you are one of those people, I admire you, but I don't see how you do it.]  My attitude has been this:  Quilting is my hobby, not my job.  I only have deadlines if I set them myself (for example, if a quilt needs to be finished by Christmas or a birthday.  And to be honest I'm ridiculously casual about that, too.)  I am free to work on whatever I want.
There's a lot of joy in that approach.  I can run with an idea when it hits me.  The time I spend working on my quilts is fun.  I do finish quilts (quite a few, in fact) but if something gets set aside, it's no big deal.  I admit it, I'm avoiding the guilt.
There are actual dangers lurking in the unfinished objects bin, as I found out recently.  My youngest daughter moved out, and I took over her room as my sewing room.  (There are windows in this room!  And a closet! Sunlight, fresh air, and a bathroom across the hall!)  In deciding what to move into the room, I did a major clean out of the basement sewing area.  Which led to looking through the UFOs and deciding what to do with them.
The first sort was easy--quilt tops in one pile, partial tops in another.  Then I sorted the tops by priority, from Needs to be Finished Now to Do When You Have Time to Give This One to Charity.  (There was one more category.  I call it Seriously?  OMG)
The partial tops/projects were tougher to sort.  More recent ones were pretty easy, but stuff happens to UFOs just sitting around.  The books with the pattern I was using get used for another quilt, put away or returned to the library.  Fabric (especially large pieces) gets "borrowed" for another project.  Worst case scenario?  I have no idea what I was doing with this quilt.  What pattern were these pieces cut for, anyway?
Here's a case in point:

I cut these 45 degree triangles with the Accuquilt cutter, and started sewing them together as a leaders and enders project.  It was not easy to line them up correctly, but I finally learned.  And then, when I let it sit for several months, I forgot.  I also couldn't remember how I was setting the rows together.  I started working on it again, and it finally dawned on me that it came from a library book.  Once I had that in hand, I could finish, but it doesn't help this little quilt that I had to learn how to sew it TWICE.  (I'll show the full quilt when it's finished.)
This one was a puzzle, too.  It was one we worked on at a charity quilt day.  All I had was the bag with the pieces in it.  Once I started laying them out I remembered we were planning stars, with the snowmen centers.  So I finished the top like this.  I have four wide red strips left over, and no clue what I should have done with them.

Not only do I create stacks of my own UFOs, I actually BUY other people's unfinished projects.  I've been doing this for years, and I've gotten some pretty nice quilts out of them.  It might be a good idea for me to stop sometime, though.
In the picture below, you can see a wonderful pile of stuff I bought at the It's A Stitch Quilt Show last May.  Can you see the small bundle of multicolored fabric wrapped in blue duct tape?  It's in the back, on the left.  It's the one not in a plastic bag.

This was actually a UFO someone donated, which I bought for $2.50.  Below is what it looked like opened out--a long row, a partial row, and a stack of about 50 triangles.

My first thought was to make this into a baby quilt for charity.  The colors are bright and cheerful.  But I didn't like the lack of organization in the original rows.

So I got going with the seam ripper.  I just left the project on the kitchen table, and worked on it a little at a time.

I kept most of the sewn hexagons made up of six triangles, and made more.  I had to cut more triangles, of course.  Some of the fabrics came from the same sale as the UFO.  I sewed white triangles between the hexagons, for contrast.  Every other row ended with a diamond made of two triangles.  White triangles finished off the rows to make a straight edge.

By now it was much bigger than a baby quilt!  That's another danger of UFOs, at least for me--I sometimes get carried away.

I added purple borders, and now the top is done.
This whole quilt is made with one pattern piece, a 60 degree triangle.  For my quilt, I cut 4.5 in. strips, and used a triangle ruler to cut the triangles.  I cut the white side triangles full size, and trimmed them down after they were added to the ends of the rows. 
For me, this is the joy of UFOs--figuring out how to make them into something you like.

[Note to self--remember to add notes to the projects when setting them aside.]

Note to you--Happy Quilting!

We did it again! Quilt Documentation at Strawberry Fest

It's one of our favorite events at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fiber Arts--Quilt Documentation Days!  Quilt owners bring their quilts, we record the information they have about the makers, we do a detailed description, take pictures and sew on labels.  The information is entered online into the Quilt Index, as our volunteers have time.
[If you love old quilts, you will want to check out the Quilt Index, at the address below:
Quilt Index
There are thousands of quilts there, with pictures and stories.  I often find inspiration for my quilts there.]

This funky tulip was one of my favorites this year.  Huge blocks, great colors, sashed with yellow, what's not to love?

This quilt from the 1930s was made for a brother who died.  The other family members didn't want the quilt, and were going to donate it to Goodwill, until the current owner asked to have it.

This is not an easy pattern to make!  It's Brackman #1532, Endless Chain or True Lover's Knot.

This amazing quilt was made from blocks that were saved for 90 years, before being put together and quilted.  The family created a hard cover book with a detailed history of each of the women who worked on it, with photographs.

All of these little berries are stuffed!

We only saw one Grandmother's Flower Garden this time.  It was this sweet baby quilt, made from the leftover pieces of a larger quilt.

Lots of silk quilts this time!  There was this one, with triangles made of colored silk pieces alternating with black,

and this one, also with colored silk triangles alternating with black, but pieced more as a flying geese.  Do you see how she made a "border" with the triangles on the sides?  They look gray here, but they are actually light blue.

And check out all the crazy quilts!

Most of the crazy quilts we saw were made of silk, but there is one made of cotton (see above).  The cotton one is crazy-pieced on the front AND on the back.

Here are some of the amazing details from the crazy quilts:

As if this wasn't enough, we saw wonderful pieced quilts, like this:

We really love it when a maker signs and dates her quilt!


These quilts date from at least a hundred year span.  We document new quilts, as well as old.  It's terrific to be able to talk to the quilt maker herself/himself.

All of these quilts were wonderful.  It is always so exciting to see each quilt as the owner takes it from its bag/pillowcase, etc.  But we were absolutely unprepared for this one:  a Baltimore Bride's Quilt.

As you can see, we decided not to hang it for photography, mainly because it measured 100 in. square, which is too tall for our room.  We photographed it on a table.
Pictures cannot do it justice.  The workmanship was amazing.  Elaborate, graceful appliques, tiny applique stitches, lovely border--I do not know enough superlatives.  How many times in my life will I get to closely examine a quilt like this?  I don't mind admitting, I was absolutely stunned.  And did I mention we measured 13 stitches per inch on the quilting?  (There was no batting in this quilt, however.)
The quilt is still in the family of the maker, and is being lovingly cared for.

As always, our volunteers made this event happen, and we are all grateful to them beyond words.  Thank you to Carol, (our go-to expert), Richard, JoAnn (who was actually a customer and just recently had her knee replaced), Mary, Donna, Karen, and Brenda, and to the museum staff who always support us.

Next documentation day is Nov. 15, at the museum.  Most of our appointments are already filled!