I won - I am absolutely thrilled!

A few weeks ago I saw this post on the Andover blog.  I quickly took a picture of my newly organized "Jo Fabrics" and emailed it to them.  Then I crossed my fingers and hoped.

Last Monday the first winner was announced.  Her stash of Andover fabrics was WAY more impressive than mine.  My heart sank a little, but I still hoped.

Well,  this morning I received an email from Liz Coonan of Andover Fabrics saying I was this week's winner.  I can hardly believe how lucky I am!  You've seen my "Jo's Stash" before, but not since it was organized by color.  I can't post the picture as I don't have it any longer, but you can see it on their blog here. 

 I can hardly wait to see what I've won!

I finished it!

Yesterday I finished hand quilting "Emma's Quilt" designed by Jo Morton.  I started this in a class with Jo in 2002!.  I'm not sure when I finished the top and started the quilting but it has been a LONG time.  The batting is "Cotton Classic" by Fairfield, which I split in half for this quilt.  It's been years and years since Fairfield made that batting - or at least since I've seen anyone sell it.

(Quick pause for research - I see they still make it!  I've not seen any Fairfield batting around here for a LONG time.)

I think this has been in my quilting hoop for 10 years or so.  There were quite a few years when arthritis pain prevented me from hand quilting at all.  Right now that doesn't seem to be a problem - knock on wood! - so I'm looking forward to choosing another top to hand quilt.  Many of the fabrics in this quilt are REALLY old - I think the pin dot (border) is from the 80's.  So is the burgundy with tiny rosebuds used in the pinwheels and some of the applique.  The light background is from one of Jo's earliest lines (if I remember correctly).

It feels SO good to have this finished!

After two very rainy, cold springs - March weather lasted almost through June - we are now having an amazing spring.  Flowers have been blooming everywhere for some time.  Our fruit trees are already dropping their blossoms.  When I was outside photographing the quilt I had to take a couple other pictures to share.

A new little quilt

It felt so good to be doing REAL sewing again.  I can't believe it's been 16 days since I cut out the pieces for this quilt.  The detour I took before getting here took much longer than I thought it would!

26 1/2" x 30 1/8"

This is the small double 4-patch quilt from this year's Little Women's Club, designed by Jo Morton.  All the fabrics are Jo's, except for the border, which is a 3 Sisters print.  I didn't have a single Jo Morton piece I liked for the border, so I made do.  The alternate squares are a beautiful light print by Jo that I'd not seen before.  I bought it at the first quilt shop we visited on our way home from Death Valley.  I've always wanted to make a pink and brown quilt, and this seemed to be the appropriate time.  I love how it turned out! 

Now I think it is time I got back to some Civil War Diary blocks, as I didn't finish any last month.

My work in the sewing room . . . .

has come to a screeching halt as I've been under the weather the last couple days.  I went to bed at 4:00 p.m. yesterday and got up at 10:00 this morning.   I hope this bug doesn't last long!

So . . . new plans for today.  I'm going to be on the couch in front of the fire, reading quilt history books and hand quilting.  I'm making good progress on "Emma's Quilt" - maybe I can finish it in the next few days.

It's been a long time since I pieced a little quilt

Update:  A huge thank you to Dorothy who suggested "Butterscotch Stars".  My father's favorite flavor was butterscotch.  So, Dad, I'm thinking of you and naming this quilt "Butterscotch Stars".

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Why have I waited so long?  This was like eating peanut butter chocolate cheesecake - every moment pure pleasure.  I'm going to focus on little quilts in between working on my WISP's.  This was so much fun to do.

13 1/2" X 17 7/8"

Regan commented that she wouldn't have thought to use this background fabric.  Jo designed "Bittersweet Stars" to be a Christmas quilt.  When I saw that holly fabric in my Jo stash, which I don't remember ever seeing before, it told me it was the perfect choice.

This one needs hand quilting for sure.  I need to shift a bunch of my fiber stash to get to my Blue Ribbon quilt batting so I can begin.  I guess I'll be shifting fiber this afternoon.

I need a name for this quilt - any suggestions?  It is speaking to me but is keeping its name a secret for now.

The blocks are finished

I had time to sew more after I got home from spinning, so was able to finish the blocks.  I'm fine with the setting fabric now - I've learned to reserve my judgement until most if not all the blocks are finished.

I'm going to play with the block arrangement for a bit before I sew it all together.  Jo Morton didn't put a border on her Bittersweet Stars, but I might decide to put one on mine.

A little progress . . . .

I've had very little time to sew today.  Tonight is our monthly Vancouver Handspinners meeting.  I need to find fiber, bobbin, etc. and get my wheel ready so it is time to stop sewing.  I do like the way this little quilt is developing.

  

Gratitudes:

1.  An evening to spend with amazing, inspirational spinning friends

2.  Gluten-free buns at Burgerville

3.  Wonderfully fresh vegetables to roast

I got to sew today!

It seems like so long since I sat at the machine to sew.  It felt so good to accomplish something today, other than finishing ironing my fabric purchases, even if it didn't amount to very much.

I cut dozens of 2" x 6 1/2" strips from the Civil War Diary sashing I bought on Friday, and then sewed the first row together.  I love the way it looks spread across the top of the design wall.  ( I should have cropped the picture, but I was eager to get today's post written.)  If you enlarge the picture you can see the blocks much better.

  The close-up shows the first two blocks of the second row.  I need to decide on fabrics for the corner stones next so I can sew the between-rows sashing.  I still have lots of blocks to make, but this makes me feel that a quilt top can't be THAT far away.

After dinner I gave myself permission to start a new project - a small one - as a reward for all the UFO work I did the last 6 weeks.  The quilt I chose is called "Bittersweet Stars", and is from year 9 of Jo Morton's "Little Women's Club".  The quilt finishes at 13 1/4" x 17 1/2".  The tiny blocks, which are set on point with alternate plain squares, finish at 3".  They are lots of fun to do, but make the CWD blocks seem huge by comparison!

All the pieces are cut out, and I'm working on the "hourglass" star points.  I had to finish one block, however, so I could see what the quilt will look like.  I think I like it but I'm not sure. Do you think the alternate squares are too dark?  Maybe I need to finish more blocks before decide.  What do you think?  Do you think they are too dark?

It's 11:13 pm - I wish I could sew more blocks instead of going to bed!

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 Gratitudes:

1.  Leftovers for dinner give me more sewing time.
2.  A perfect spring day - warm, blue sky with clouds, and flowers blooming everywhere
3.  Hot cocoa with whipped cream on top.

Holiday Inn top is finished

The quilt measures 43" square.  Designed by Jo Morton, it was part of "Jo's Little Women #8".  It feels so good to cross another project off my list and move it to the "tops to be quilted" list.

Now I need to do a bunch of cleaning and organizing before starting to sew again.  I'm moving on to Civil War Diaries, so I need to print the foundations for all the blocks I've not yet done.  Normally I would never do paper piecing, but the measurements on these blocks are all so wonky (4" divided into 5 or 7 or more equal sections) that foundation piecing is the best way to go.

I also have five quilts ready to bind that returned home from the longarmer over two years ago.  I'm going to work on those also.

I found another one

I knew I had more UFO's than those listed in the sidebar.  Here is another one I found this evening.

This is "Holiday Inn" from Jo Morton's "Little Women" series #8, started in 2008.  All that is missing is a flying geese border and a final outside border.  All the fabric for the flying geese border was folded with this piece . . . 

(The fabric on the far left is also green - not sure why it looks so dark.)

but the fabric for the outside border and cornerstones was not.  I thought I remembered what it looked like, but I guess not since I can't find it.  I searched my entire Jo Morton stash and came up with these two fabrics . . .

The stripe will be the border and the green the cornerstones.  This should be a quick one to finish, so I'll probably do it next.

Here is what I'm going to use for the doll clothes.  These are two pieces left over from Miss Emily's quilt.  The polka dot for her dress, and the plaid for her apron.  These colors fit our current decorating scheme, which isn't harvest gold, avocado green and rust (thank goodness!)

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Just checking in to wish everyone a happy day filled with love and caring.

Tonight my little Tangled Threads quilt group is holding it's third annual "Valentine's Bunco Party" for our spouses. I need to come up with an appetizer. This is a group filled with gourmet cooks so we eat really, really well. I'm not at all creative in that department, and since I must work all day I think I'm going to fall back on spinach dip and chips. I'll let the others bring the baked brie in fillo dough, the roasted elephant garlic, and the lobster dip. See what I mean by eating well?

Still ironing fabrics. I need to get all the new Jo Morton fabrics ready for making the Little Women's Club quilts, as I got the first club installment in the mail on Saturday. It's a cute little flying geese doll-sized quilt with starts in the corner. And my Jane Austen fabrics need to be ready for the 19th century medallion class I'm staring on February 23. I'll say one thing - this has certainly cured me of buying fabrics for awhile!

Just a nice day

I had a nice productive Saturday quilt-wise, even though I didn't do any sewing.

Meet Gandalf, my Proto Stitch Wizard.

After getting my hair cut I drove about 80 miles north on I-5 to the SW Washington longarm group meeting in Centralia. Due to my schedule I'd not been to a meeting since early August. I spent part of August, all of September and most of October quilting a king size customer quilt that was giving me fits. I was tired of quilting when I finally got that monster done, as I spent more time ripping out my errors than actually quilting (I'm still new at this and constantly learning). I did a couple charity quilts but hadn't touched the machine since early December. It needed some maintenance done, and I'm still not at all comfortable with the mechanical demands of a longarm. I needed something to get me excited about quilting again, and hoped the meeting would do that. I'm happy to say "mission accomplished". I came back with renewed enthusiasm. The maintenance that needed doing turned out to be very easy to do. Now I'm all ready to tackle the customer quilt that's been half pinned on the machine since early December (thank goodness my friend Sue is in no hurry at all to get that quilt back).

After dinner I went back to pressing more of the fabrics I pretreated Friday night. This is always a very sobering experience - it makes it VERY easy to swear off shopping for awhile - especially when I'm trying to find room on the shelves for the new additions. Unfortunately the feeling never lasts nearly long enough! I told my husband the next time I tell him I'm ordering fabrics for him to give me for my birthday or Christmas he needs to tell me "No!"

I'm trying to keep some of them separate this time, with the new Jo Morton fabrics in one stack and the Jane Austen fabrics in another. I'll share why in another post.
I shook out all the fabrics still waiting for washing - they were still in neat piles (more or less) from the shops - and separated them by color. When spread over the floor of the hall it looks like they've been multiplying when we were asleep. I couldn't possibly have this many new fabrics, could I? While I was pressing them my husband said "someone has made a nest here". I turned around and there was Shadow, nestled in the middle of the stack. It's impossible to be mad at him when he's so darn cute!

Still more

There have been so many positive comments about Jo's little quilts that I thought you'd like to see more.

Kathie, Jo's already recreated that little star quilt you want to do with the poison green background. Isn't it great?Four patch on point - so very simple yet so very effective.

We saw many of Jo's log cabins - here is one of them. I like the way she did the border on this one.

Just a simple nine patch on point, but doesn't it look terrific with that star block in the middle? What a great way to use an "orphan" block!

Another four patch, but it looks so different with the strippy setting. And I LOVE the cheddar background!

I'm having a love affair with cheddars, poison greens and chrome yellows right now. Used like this they can make a new quilt look really old.

More by Jo Morton

Kathie, I can see you drooling all over your screen! So I'll just taunt you some more and post more pictures of Jo's quilts.

Just in case I wasn't clear about this yesterday - these are all Jo Morton's quilts. She does a wonderful lecture on decorating a home with little quilts that is illustrated by many slides of her home. Then she shows all her wonderful little quilts. I think I took a picture of every single one of them.

This is Emma's Quilt. This was the other class I took from Jo. Her new quilt Emma's Courtyard is based on this design.

I just love little basket quilts, and this one is no exception. I think this block is actually called "Cake Stand", and is one of the simplest basket blocks to do.

Birds in the Air. Another great one for using up extra half square triangle squares.

The humble nine patch is still one of my favorites - especially when set in the double nine patch setting.Album Cross, another fabulous little scrappy quilt.

At the shop I went to on Sunday they had at least 20 or more little 16" x 20" quilts hanging. They were all Lori Smith patterns - she's come out with several more patterns with 12 little quilts in each one. I'm so eager to do some of these. Even with the arthritis in my hands I can still handquilt something this small.

One of these days - in the meantime it's "back to the salt mines" for me!

Little Quilts

I was chatting with Lucy about her little quilts, and told her that I'd been lucky enough to take two days of classes with Jo Morton. Jo gets her inspiration from small antique quilts - doll and baby size - and reproduces them in today's fabrics. She is a wonderful teacher, and I spent two wonderful days with her. Lucy made me promise to post a few pictures of Jo's quilts. I tried last Friday but blogger kept eating the pictures, so I saved the post as a draft to post to on Saturday, and blogger ate the draft also.

This is "Rebecca's Baskets" - one of the classes I took from Jo. This one is all hand pieced, appliqued and quilted.

I loved this little postage stamp quilt. The border fabric gives such wonderful movement to the quilt.

This Eagle Medallion was one of my favorites. The border does go all the way around - I just managed to cut it off in my picture. Broken dishes is a scrap pattern than I will definitely do one of these days. I figure it is a great way to use up left over half square triangle squares. Another wonderful eagle medallion.

She showed at least 40 marvelous little quilts in her lecture. I'll post more pictures tomorrow. Lucy, these are especially for you!