Cassandra's Circle Block #1

I enjoyed Barbara Brackman’s (Civil War Quilts), “Hospital Sketches” so much last year that I have decided to participate again. This year’s applique sew-a-long is called Cassandra’s Circle.

My Hospital Sketches background was a beautiful, albeit unusual, shade of green. I thought perhaps I would go softer with this one and started auditioning fabrics. I narrowed it down to these three. 

And then of course ended up with this one.

You just can’t change a leopard’s spots.   

 

Do visit the Facebook page (here) to see all the variations. I am definitely not the only crazy person out there. There are so many creative people in the world!

C1880 Home and Bound!

My C1880 quilt is back from the quilter. I was going to hand quilt the Baptist Fan using Barb’s (Fun With Barb) fabulous stencil. I contemplated all those tiny little seams and decided my needles (and my fingers) couldn’t take all that pressure. My friend, Kathy the Wonder Quilter found a perfect Baptist Fan for the longarm and worked her magic. I think it has that traditional look I was going for. I used this fabulous print on the back with all my favorite colors.

Kathy's quilting really makes it sing. 

Thanks Pam, Janet, Cyndi and all of you who traveled along on the C1880 journey. I haven’t decided on a name yet. I’m leaning toward, “With a Little Help from My friends” but that seems a little wordy. And, in reality it should be “With a LOT of Help from My Friends”! What do you think?

Thanks again to Pam Buda and my trading friends, Janet (Rogue Quilter) and Cyndi (Busy Thimble) for all the fun. There are all sorts of setting variations popping up on the Facebook page (here). Some people are so creative!!

A New Adventure

back

Last winter Shasta (High Road Quilter) showed us a very unique bed covering (here). Shasta is making one with 30’s reproductions and her yo-yo’s are piling up (here).

I found it fascinating and thought instantly how much fun it would be to make it with colorful vintage feedsacks. Of course, my decision had nothing to do with the fact that I had over 700 feedsack yo yo’s already made up.  

Several years ago, I cut 3” squares from around 800 different feedsacks in my collection and began to make 1” finished yo yo’s. They traveled with me in my Roy Roger’s lunch box and whenever I was at a meeting or lecture or red light (just kidding) I would make a few of them.

Not having seen the original spread in person, it was trial and error with the assembly method. I decided to make the front squares from just one feedsack fabric to give it some sort of unity. The back of each square is a different feedsack fabric (99 in all).

My squares finish approximately (and, I do mean approximate!) 3”. I cut the front and back fabrics at 3 ½”, faced them together and placed a 3 ¼” piece of cotton batting on top.

Then I stitch with ¼” seam allowance around the edge leaving about 1 ½” opening to turn the block inside out. I lop off the corners a bit to reduce bulk.

I press from the front and then top stitch close to the edge so that I do not have to hand stitch the opening.

I’m learning a lot about stitching yo-yo’s together. It is not as easy as I thought it would be. Have any of you made a yo-yo quilt? I’m wondering if you end your thread with each yo-yo or do you travel from one to the next? I am traveling from one to the next, but it has been tricky to make sure you don’t catch the edge of the yo-yo and have your thread show though.

Since it is technically a potholder quilt, it has to have a name with some sort of food reference. I think I am going to call it “Candy Dish”. I have a lot on my plate already so this will be my “pick up” project this year. Whenever I am in between other quilts, I’ll add a few yo-yo’s and hopefully be done by the end of the year. Or, in true Wendy fashion I just may end up making another lap quilt! 

And, I wanted to show you all how lucky I am to have such great friends! The last time Randy (Barrister's Block) visited me here in Maine she gave me this cute little caddy which I use every day for my water and starch sprays. I love it! 

And I was blown away on Saturday when I went to visit Cyndi (Busy Thimble) and she presented me with this little quilt! I had admired one that she made earlier (here) and she made one for me.

Beautifully hand quilted!

How sweet! I am indeed lucky to have great friends!

Monthly mini January

“A Little More Light” - a simple start to the new year’s monthly mini quilts! I had planned on finishing a sweet little applique quilt for this month, but alas, it has turned into my “possible” February mini and this simple little quilt made with vintage feedsacks will have to suffice. It represents our trek toward Spring with later sunsets and just a bit more light each day!

I love some of these novelty prints. 

Feel free to jump in any time during my 2020 mini quilt making venture. Katy (Katy Quilts) is not one of our regular followers on this mini march, but she made many fabulous minis last year that are too good not to share (here). I follow Katy regularly and she is a very prolific quilter. 

I'm not sure how many crazy people will continue this mini madness, but check out January's gems. Thanks for strolling along together! They are all winners this month!

Barbara - (Quilts, Gravestones & Elusive Ancestors)
Cynthia - (Wabi-Sabi Quilts) and be sure to check out Cynthia's posts of the Tokyo International Quilt Show - Fantastic quilts!
Randy (Barrister's Block)
Janet (Rogue Quilter) 
Sandy (My Material Creations)
Kyle (Timeless Reflections)
Cathy (Big Lake Quilter) 
Shasta (High Road Quilter) has a super early finish!
Kathy (Kathy's Quilts) 
Quilting Babcia - Amity Quilter

Beautiful weekend!

I had planned to sequester myself in my sewing room for a full weekend of stitching after a quick visit with Cyndi at my favorite, “Busy Thimble” quilt shop. As it happens (to all of us), the weekend did not go as planned. 

 I was able to put a few baby stars (sewing along with Cecile at Patchwork Inspirations) through my machine before I got a call from a dear friend saying that her husband was feeling pretty good today and this would be a great day for a visit. He has been battling cancer and begins round 3 of chemo this week so we jumped at the chance to visit while he was feeling up to it. We had a fantastic time together!

Sunday morning I got a message from another dear friend’s son saying his mom had broken her hip (she is 95). Off to the hospital for a quick visit. She was so weak we couldn’t really talk but she squeezed my hand and gave me a big smile when I told her again tomorrow.

I ran a few more stars through the machine when my daughter texted and said they were going down to our summer house for a quick walk and asked if we would like to come.

It was a beautiful day and it was our third grandson’s first time (26 days old) at the “Point” so of course we said “sure”. Our 2 year old grandson was disappointed that there was no snow for his loader! We still have 6” of snow at home, but just 12 miles down the river it is all brown! 

So… even though my sewing plans and visit with Cyndi were cut short, it was a beautiful weekend and I am thankful for friends and family and pray all will continue to enjoy good health and much happiness!

Quilting with the Stars!

A few more "Cecile" (Patchwork Inspirations) stars to add to the pile. I am loving these little guys. They are so much fun to make.

We all have our favorite way to make the Flying Geese units for these stars. My favorite way is to piece a square in a square block and trim down to the perfect size.

There is a bit of math involved in the beginning and a tad more waste, but it works for me. I am paying no attention to the direction of fabrics. I want the wonky look (and, yes it makes piecing easier!)

The signup is now closed, but do visit Cecile’s blog (here) or the Facebook page (here) to see all the fabulous stars! 

I also want to share a recent acquisition. This beautiful fraktur was hand painted (including the frame) by a Facebook quilting friend, Mark Lauer.

I adore it and it fits perfectly on my wall of miniatures.

Thanks Mark! You cane see and purchase Mark's work on his Facebook page (here).

Tree blocks for fire victims

Just last year many of us sent quilts and supplies to victims of the California fires. Thanks to Barb (Fun with Barb) I found out where I could send “tree” blocks to help out the victims of the Australian bush fires.

I hand appliqued this simple tree.

These 2 blocks were pieced willy nilly with no template or measurement just whack and stitch, then I added borders to bring them to 12 ½”. They went together very quickly. I thought the Di Ford fabrics would be appropriate (not to mention beautiful!).  

 

As I was working on these blocks, I thought about what it would be like to lose everything in a fire. My father was the baby of a large family in rural Maine. He rarely talked about tough times, but I remember one story that broke my heart. When he was very young (5 or 6) they had a house fire and they had to move. Dad had a pet pig named Inkwink. They could not move all of the livestock to the new house so Inkwink came home by way of the slaughterhouse. Of course when telling the story, my Dad in his own comic way painted a picture of 9 children sitting around the dinner table refusing to eat my Dad's pet pig! So, although I cannot imagine the thought of losing everything, I feel their pain and I wish I could do more to help.

Click (here) to find out how you can help. Thanks Barb for letting us know!