Ohio Collection Update

I have finished a few more blocks for the Ohio Collection quilt.

First my new eagle block.  I like this one so much more than the previous one.  It just seems to fit in  the quilt better.

The Oak Leaf and Reel block.

Old Tom is not in the Anita Shackelford pattern but it is in one of the original quilts.  Karen drew the pattern and was nice enough to send me a copy.  I still need to embroider his nose and eyes.

The shoe block is just too cute and so unusual.  I think this type of block just adds so much to the quilt.

I think there are five sewing along now.   Karen, Lori, Cathy, LuAnn and Me.

Until next time,

Nancy

Ohio Collection

Ohio Collection has been in my library for a while but I never thought I would actually make the quilt because of the Eagle pattern.  It looked really difficult and I didn’t especially like it or think it looked quite right in this quilt.  After reading  on Karen’s blog Log Cabin Quilter that she and Lori from Humble Quilts were making this quilt I wrote Karen and she said they were going to change the eagle - duh! - Wonder why I never thought of doing this.

I have stitched most of the pieced blocks and am pretty happy with them except for the yellow fabric.  It’s more yellow than it appears in the picture.  I’m thinking more of a cheddar color fabric would have looked better.  It could changed  but I just can’t see myself making another one of those spiked circle blocks.  I was really rather surprised I  could make it the first time and don’t want to push my luck.

Four of the appliqué blocks stitched and now I need to decide what  to do about that eagle block.

I started  going through all of my books on antique quilts and discovered several with eagles.

Funny thing while looking through "The American Quilt" book I found two quilts with eagles that  look like they were made from patterns from my EQ7.

This one is named Eagle, c1850-1875 from northeastern Ohio 

This one is also called Eagles and is dated around 1926 made by Sarah Risser in Pennsylvania.

This block is prepped  from a combination of patterns from EQ7 and I was surprised to see how much it  looks like the eagles in the previous quilt.

I will have to find another use for it because it is just not what I want for this quilt.

I did find a picture of an Eagle in this book I really like and now I  need to figure out a way to get it to the correct size .
Until next time!
Nancy

New to me

I have been sewing and ripping forever and this is something I never knew.  Just turning the ripper tool over makes so much difference.  I don’t have her particular ripper and I don’t mean to be advertising for her.  I am sure she sells a great ripper but the method  works the same with all of mine.

Flags of the American Revolution

I am always happy when I set a goal for myself and actually reach it.  I knew today was to be the final day for posting about the Flags of the American Revolution sew along Lori from Humble Quilts has been hosting on her blog so I really wanted to have my quilt completed.

I sewed the final binding stitches last night and took a few pictures this morning.

I have really enjoyed sewing along with all the other ladies who are making this quilt.  It not only keeps you on track but it was fun to see how each person interpreted the Jan Patek pattern.

There are more great pictures and links to follow to see all the other quilts that were made over on Lori’s blog HumbleQuilts.
Happy Stitching,
Nancy

Blocks, Borders and Decisions

Auntie Green side borders

Noah and Matilda side border

Chester Criswell Mary McDowell Block 28

  

Chester Criswell Maria Criswell Block 29

Block 13 The center Benjamin Biggs block

Benjamin Biggs Block 14 

I have been doing a lot of stitching this month keeping up with all the quilts I have in progress.

Chester Criswell, Auntie Green and Noah and Matilda are almost coming to an end but I have several others in  the beginning stage.

I have also been contemplating getting rid of my long arm machine. I can never seem to get it to work the way I want it to and spend a lot of time taking out stitches.  Maybe hand quilting is the way to go.  I do love hand quilted quilts but they take so long to finish.

Maybe I could be like my Paternal Grandmother an amazing woman pictured here in a newspaper article.  Who at the age of 98 was still quilting away.
We can only hope.

I know I am not able to afford quilting by check as most of my tops are appliquéd and need custom quilting and I have a lot of tops that need to be turned into quilts.  So many decisions.  I think I will just go for a walk.

Hope you find some time to do what makes you happy today.

Nancy 

Harrison Rose

Dawn did a nice post here this morning about her new pattern Harrison Rose.  So I thought I needed to update my progress on this wonderful new quilt pattern.

I have four of the blocks stitched.  

I chose to make my quilt in pinks and greens mainly because I have collected so many bubblegum pinks and second because  I have two red and green quilts in progress at the moment.

I am  glad I did because it is turning out to be so bright and cheerful.  I am sure I won’t have any trouble finding a home for this one.

The blocks are so easy to stitch and I have several more prepped and ready. 

Dawn has hers in the quilting frame and is stitching all the beautiful feather designs that are also included in the pattern.  I wish I was that far along but then I remember it is all about the process to me. I am in no hurry because I must always have something to stitch. When I finish this one I will just being another.
Are you a product or a process person?

Happily stitching,
Nancy

Flags of the American Revolution

Thanks to Lori from Humble Quilts we are just about finished with our Flags of the American Revolution quilt.  I only have the name  block left to stitch.

I have  the top together all except for the last block.  This is such a great quilt and I know without Lori keeping us on track I would never have made it.  

Farmers Wife in Red and White

As I was putting things away from Christmas I realized I did have a finish in 2014 my Red and White Farmers Wife quilt.

It was a cold rainy day but I carried it out onto the porch and managed to get a couple of pictures.

It would be nice to have a fence, a wall or anyplace I could hang my quilts to take pictures of the entire quilt.  It’s really quite a large quilt..
I made most of the blocks using the Marti Michell templates  while participating in a Farmers Wife sew along she held.  Joining in with a group seems to help keep me on track.
Happy Saturday
Nancy

Noah & Matilda Borders

I have spent the last several days working on my Noah and Matilda borders.

So many little pieces to prep. 

This is my work station with most of  the little tools I use.  I especially want you to notice the hi tech holder for my sizing  and brush.  I tend to use what ever works for me.

Warning this next picture may be a little frightening to see even after I touched it up a bit.

If you look under my appliqué pressing sheets ( actually I use a teflon oven sheet) you can see how badly my ironing board cover appears to be  scorched.

Those little irons get really hot so I have folded an old sheet and placed it under my teflon sheet to keep from damaging my actual ironing board cover.

Now that these bits were ready it was time to move on to the grapes. There are 204 little grapes in this border.

 Looking for a way to speed up the process I started going through my go dies and found one with a circle the size I needed.  So I used some heat resistant templar and cut out several circles.

I then began the process of stitching and turning circles.

Aren’t they cute all lined up in their crooked little lines?

With all the prep work completed I am stitching away on the borders now.  

To be honest I find the actual stitching a little boring.  The prep part is what I enjoy the most.  It’s kind of like working on a puzzle and once I have seen the picture I am ready for something else.

Maybe that’s why I have so many blocks and borders ready to stitch. Wink, Wink .

Some of you may have noticed I changed the top flower just a little.  I just couldn’t see me ever stitching so many of the original. They are so much smaller than they appear in this picture.

If you are like me and you don’t have enough projects let me tell you about a couple more.

Ester Aliu has an new free BOM called "Oma’s Blues" seen here and

Pearl P Pereira Designs is offering another free one "Bountiful Baskets" here.  

They are both real beauties.

Happy stitching,

Nancy

Calico Paradise

I bought this pattern from Dawn at Collector With A Needle in 2013 and started the quilt in July of that year.

You can read about my progress here.

My Calico Paradise top all assembled.

It was really a fun journey and I believe this is my all time favorite quilt.  I just loved the colors of the original so I choose to make mine as close as possible to the original makers quilt.

This is the first appliqué quilt I have stitched that wasn’t made up of a lot of different blocks and I was a little intimidated by the size of the center.  I have small hands and just kept wondering how I would ever hold so much fabric in my hands to stitch the pieces.

In the end it wasn’t a problem at all.  The pieces are large and everything went together smoothly.

Happy Stitching,
Nancy