Monthly Archives: June 2012

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Wards Catalog paper piecing

wards-paper piecing

Yet another vintage quilt top arrived today.  This one is fun because all the catalog pages used for the paper piecing are still attached (brittle and falling apart but still there).

I love thee fabrics!

I am usually drawn to very old (100+) tops but lately I am beginning to appreciate the mid-century as well.

Its not a very big top  62″ x 74″ but I will add borders to make a bigger quilt.

Take a look at the fabrics and the catalog pages (click to enlarge) and let me know what you think about the age.  I want to say 1960?  but I can’t remember the era very well (I was born in 1965).

Happy Quilting

Tim

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Vegetables are beautiful

vegetable floral design

Vegetables are just as beautiful as flowers.  Why don’t we use them more for design?

DON’T MISS ALL THE EXCITEMENT OF GARDEN DAY 2012!
FRIDAY, AUGUST 3, 2012
MSU Gardens – Plant & Soil Sciences

Join us for this exciting event that includes nationally known keynote speakers, your choice of twelve engaging workshops, book signings and much more! Our Garden Day Marketplace will feature many vendors offering great deals on a wide variety of plant material and garden accessories. Enjoy a delicious lunch and tour various plant displays that will be showcased within the MSU Horticulture Gardens!

the workshop that I will be teaching is:

 Floral Design From the Vegetable Garden
Flowers are not the only thing of beauty in the garden! Certified Florist, Tim Latimer, will demonstrate how to transform the beautiful produce from your vegetable garden into unique centerpieces. With the addition of a few garden flowers, you can create designs to be proud of!

for registration and more information  click here http://www.hrt.msu.edu/garden-day-2012/

It should be a fun day

I hope yo see you there

Tim

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Updates

14 blocks to go

I managed to get some more done on the hosues quilt.  14 blocks to go.

It has been so hot and dry that the garden has needed a lot of water!  forecast is for 89 today and 98 tomorrow…no rain in sight :(

even with the heat and drought the garden continues to grow

click pictures to enlarge

Happy Summer

Tim

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AQS accepted my quilt

pineapple-aqs-detail

I was sitting at the table eating dinner Monday Night.  MY vicious attack dog started barking and ran for the door, ready to protect and defend the front porch.

grrrrrrrrrrrr

It was the postman at the door, and it was funny to see him jump!  Teddy really scared him!

He brought me a big envelope from Paducah KY, and I was afraid to open it, but it was a really big envelope so it must be good news.   It was! My pineapple quilt was accepted for the AQS Show in Grand Rapids MI this summer, August 22 – 25.

It is in the Hand quilting category.

This is the first time I submitted a quilt to an AQs show and I am pretty excited about it being accepted.

Here are a few pictures of the quilt. (click to enlarge) and here is the post all about making it.

If you go to the AQS show in Grand Rapids be sure to visit my quilt..I will likely be there standing next to it the whole time trying to overhear what people have to say about it.

Happy Quilting

Tim

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Antique Fabric

antique quilt top

A few days ago I posted a picture of this antique quilt top.  I took a look at it again today and took some pictures of the fabrics.  They are so beautiful.  I am not an expert but I think they are from about the 1880′s .  The thing that is different about this one is that the maker pressed open the seams (see picture below).  I rarely see that done in a quilt top.  It is a big top (86″ x 97″)  The border is a different pink than the fabric used in the main part of the top and I think may have been added later. There are a few different indigos used and a variety of browns (some look gray but they are brown), all the reds are the same.

click the pictures to enlarge.

Happy quilting

Tim

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More gardening

purple prince lily (first year ..next year it will be 2x as large)

Not a lot of quilting this weekend but I did get to spend some time in the garden….here are a few pictures

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Happy Summer

Tim

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Now for something different

antique quilt top

Are you sick of seeing my house quilt yet?  I thought perhaps something different would be better so this is one of the antique quilt tops from my collection.  I love the fabrics and the simplicity of the pattern shows them off.   Sometimes simple is better.  I don’t know how I will quilt it yet but I know that it won’t be anything complex, I don’t want to compete with the fabric.

Today is a day to work in the garden so this morning I took a few pictures.  Click to enlarge.

Happy Quilting/gardening

Tim

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HOUSE UPDATE and some flowers

house quilt hand quilting

The hand quilting continues on the house quilt.  I now have 20 blocks done….22 to go.  (click pictures to enlarge)

Wednesday Night in Floral Design Class I taught vertical designs… and I remembered to bring a camera so I got pictures of the students work

 

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Fearless use of color

color, color, color

I recently purchased yet another vintage quilt top. It arrived today.  The use of color amazes me.  I don’t think I would have been able to so fearlessly put together all those colors.

Sometimes ignoring the rules works!

But not the rules of construction.

The top was machine pieced and the fabrics are a mix of cotton and poly blend solids.  Once the quilt is laid out it is obvious why it was never quilted. Poor construction.

The top is just not flat enough to quilt as it is. A lack of measurement caused the problem.

I suspect that the maker did measure the strips (they are all 1.5″ wide and finish at a bit over an inch) but the length of the strips was not measured. They were sewn on and cut off at the assumed correct length and row after row the slight differences add up and you can see the result.

I love the top!   I love the use of color!  so how do I fix it?

I used thumb tacks to pin it to the floor (using the floor boards as straight edges) this squares up the outside edges and lets me see how big it is(73″x87″).  Now I will gather the extra toward the center and cut it out along the folds.  The picture below shows the top in a preliminary pinned position.

I will do the cutting along the corners and try not to change the overall look of the top.  the difference being that there will be mitered corners.

when I am ready to do the work on it I will pin it to the floor again but wrong side up, do the folding and gathering very carefully to match all the corners and pin it…then sew along the pinned line and then cut off the extra.  It might take a bit of work but it will be worth it.

Remember to use all the crayons!

Happy Quilting

Tim

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house quilts for sale (but not mine)

Great time span quilt, from the collection of Bill Volckening. Made in upstate New York. See bill's website http://willywonkyquilts.blogspot.com/ and contact him for more details.

I have become obsessed with the little red schoolhouse quilt  pattern lately (see the previous post for picture of the progress on hand quilting mine). My friend Kristen sent me a link to one for sale on eBay so  I decided to see what else was out there on eBay.  I typed in “house quilt” on the search line and I got quit a few examples!  Here a just a few of the many I found.( click pictures to enlarge )

The quilts can be found on eBay by using the item numbers in the search line.

So what do you think of these? Lots of different takes on the theme and there are so many more.

Happy Quilting

Tim