Blogger's Quilt Festival 2018

I’m participating in “Amy’s Creative Side” Blogger's Quilt Festival. Check it out (here) and join in the fun! Amy makes it easy to enter. The hardest part will be choosing what quilt to feature! 

I chose my “Thanks Judie” quilt. I made this as a tribute to Judie Rothermel for her 25^th anniversary with Marcus Fabrics. There are over 600 different Judie Rothermel prints in this one. It will be in Houston this year as part of the Primitive Quilts and Projects magazine contest. If you are at the show this year stop by and say hello to it for me!

Do visit Amy's blog and see all the great quilts!

Noah and Matilda - Prickly Business

I think it is pretty rare to see a cactus on a mid 19^th century quilt and this one has two. The research that Dawn has done so far, finds Noah and Matilda (and family) in Kansas, Illinois and Indiana, hardly cactus territory. One of Dawn’s theories (here) is that the inspiration may have been from botanical prints such as this one. Sounds plausible to me. She is a super sleuth! 

I had a lot of fun with this one! I used this fabulous fabric that I bought in St. Bart’s (in 1993!) to fussy cut the flowers. I had to really be fussy with the neon fabric in this one. I had just enough of the green portion of this print to fit.

As for the greens, I thought these two fabrics looked “prickly”. 

A Sprig of Cherries

My latest Noah and Matilda block reminds me of the chokecherry jam my mother used to make. One year the pectin she used must have been bad because it never jelled. With 5 hungry children to feed you just don’t throw it out, so we enjoyed chokecherry syrup for the entire winter. In the spring when my mother poured fresh maple syrup on my little brother’s pancakes, he cried “No, I want the red syrup! Fun memory! 

I’m trying to get a wiggle on with dear sweet, Noah and Matilda. We had our one year anniversary last month, so it is time to finish up and move on to Mary Witherwax and another applique project that has been roaming around my head. More hours please!!

Trunk Show

Last night I gave a trunk show at the Boothbay Harbor Historical Society. It was very well received despite the fact that there were only two quilters in the room. It is always a challenge to portray what I feel about my work to non quilters. I’m sure the fact that I am also very passionate about quilt and quiltmaker history helped to keep people from falling asleep. 

 It is a lovely historical society and if you are ever in the area I recommend a visit.

As those of you who do this kind of thing know, it is not an easy task to pack up 50 plus quilts and replace them all in their appropriate living quarters when they return home. Something has to suffer and it is usually my sewing room!  

Guess I will be doing a bit of straightening this weekend!!

Meet & Greet

I’ve been invited to join the 2018 Online Quilters Meet & Greet hosted by Benita Skinner's Creative Space. This post is to tell people a little about myself. My name is Wendy, I live in Maine and I work in the marine industry. I have a wonderful, loving family who understands and accepts (and often benefits from) my passion for quilting.

I am a very traditional quilter, but I love seeing all types of quilting and textile art. I prefer hand work to machine and quilt almost every day. My favorite technique of late is the historic "potholder" method, whereby each block is individually quilted and bound and then stitched together to form the quilt. I like to inspire others to give it a try.

Although I have been quilting for over 50 years, I am fairly new to blogging. I lurked around the internet for years reading other people’s blogs until finally (in 2014) my friend Cyndi (BusyThimble) convinced me to give it a try.

Quilting is a major part of my life. Sharing bits and pieces of my quilting journey with others helps to keep me moving forward. I truly enjoy the time I spend reading and conversing with my fellow bloggers. They help to keep my creative juices flowing! 

To enter for the prize – through your site – you need to link to this one:

https://www.victorianaquiltdesigns.com/fabric/

I did it for you!

As much as I have enjoyed working on my Noah and Matilda sew-a-long, I realize my readers must be getting tired of watching my snail’s pace progress. I just know that you are all longing for me to start something. Because I care about all my blogging friends, I have decided to take your advice and start a new applique sew-a-long!

Once again, I will be making my journey with the amazingly talented (and productive), Dawn of Collector witha Needle. She reeled me in with her amazing reproduction of her Mary Witherwax quilt. I waited 3 whole days before caving in. I highly recommend any of their patterns but, Dawn’s daughter has outdone herself this time. These little gems are beautifully done and, they come with history too!

I’d like to invite all of you to join in the fun! You can order your patterns (here). Before you say “I can’t possibly take on one more project”, think about taking it one bite at a time. I may even do a number of smaller quilts to begin with. Dawn has an excellent example (here). And, there is even more inspiration on the Facebook page.

When you order the patterns, you will be invited to join the Facebook group. Facebook is often frustrating for me, but Dawn makes it easy to follow and very welcoming! Hope to see you there! 

Oh yes, here are my latest Noah and Matilda blocks: 

I love how this one came out even though I cheated changed the shape of the flowers to circles. I just let the fabric do the work for me!

Thanks for sticking with me!!

 

Update - August Mini

My childhood neighbor, Arzetta Poole, instilled in me a love of quilting and fabrics. She had piles of brightly colored feedsacks and vintage novelty scraps mounded in her sewing room. But she also had a small box of treasured pieces she said were too old to use. I remember peering into the box and seeing tiny little pieces of white fabrics with animals and bugs doing strange things like playing baseball or catching fish. I was mesmerized and I have loved these special conversational (c1890) prints ever since.

So here is my August mini with 60 different reproduction conversational prints. I was going to call it "Just Making Conversation", but I think "Small Talk" seems more appropriate for its size (16" x 20").

My favorite fabric is the cricket playing pool!

I was going to use a soft Cadet blue as an alternate color, but my May mini was blue and white so I chose my favorite Mary Koval red print instead.

I used a bamboo batting (from Busy Thimble) for the first time as an experiment. It has much the same feeling as Warm and Natural cotton which is really a bit heavy for such a small quilt, but I like how it came out anyway. I really wanted to hand quilt it, but… well, you know! 

Kyle's (Timeless Reflections) August mini is gorgeous and really picks up the colors of summer (here). 

Barbara's (Quilts, Gravestones and Elusive Ancestors) August mini is perfect for this summer month (here). 

Barb (Fun With Barb) has been working on a fabulous summer spread and made this little adorable mini to match (here). Barb and I have worked independently on similar things more than once - spooky or just kismet?!

 All I can say about Janet's (Rogue Quilter) is wow! She has done it again with her mini magic! 

And Randy's (Barrister's Block) touch of wool is magnificent! What talented quilters we have! 

Happy end of August!