Red Cross Quilt

 Hey there! I finished this quilt yesterday evening. I was really excited to quilt this one. There were so many ways I could have done it, but I wanted to keep it quite simple. In the end I think it was just the right amount of quilting. If time were not a factor (and 3 busy little kids) I would have hand quilted it. I did consider if for about a second each time I looked at it. For such a modern looking quilt, this is actually a very old quilt. A very old quilt with crazy inset Y seams.

 I studied this quilt while I had it on the long arm. Each block is a pieced hexagon segment that has been sewn to the blue squares. I am pretty sure there were at least 2 people who pieced this top. The hand stitching was quite different on the 2 different colored sections. Oh, and those reds are totally different shades, NOT fading. Funny, isn't it?  There are a couple discolored spots, but I really think they add to the charm of this quilt. It is old old old after all. I am curious to wash it. Actually I may not wash it at all since I am afraid of all the reds running, but then again what is the point of having a quilt if I am afraid to use it?

 Here is a shot of the back. It is simple and quite pretty, I think. Almost like a little decorated tea cake.

This is what it looked like when I bought it from eBay. Something about this quilt called to me over the Internet. I have a suspicion that this may have been a quilt intended for the red cross during one of the World Wars.  Maybe names would have been added to the blue blocks? I do wish I knew more of it's story. At any rate I am thrilled with how it turned out and now I need to figure out what to do with it (after I bind it of course).

Have a happy day!
Tia

something old

 Hey there! How are you doing? I hope you are good. Here is something you may or may not know about me. I love old quit tops and blocks. I love looking at how they were constructed I love looking at their fabric variety I love thinking about what was going on in the quilters life and wondering why she was not able to finish her project. I also really love to complete the quilts. Lately my hunting has gotten a bit out of control and I am going to need to figure out just exactly what I am going to actually do with all these old quilts. Besides use them....My house is full to bursting with quilts that I have made. But maybe a home can't have too many quilts, right?

 So, let's take a peek at this one. It arrived today from Ebay. $20 including shipping. Not a bad top. It is quite old, but what really excited me about this one is the way the quilter constructed the blocks. This would have been a really quick and easy quilt to piece today. Heck I think I could go into my sewing room and whip this top up in about 4 hours with strip piecing and rotary cutting. I think she found the most difficult way possible to to this pattern.

 Look at that! It is all inset seams. Amazing, isn't it? This lady did not do things the easy way did she?

 I also love how over here on the side she used a totally different color red. It is not faded...just a different shade all together. It makes me think of all these questions that I would love to ask her.

 I bought these blocks from Etsy. Aren't they pretty? These are really old and smell a bit like something used them as a latrine at some point in history. Some blocks are ok, others aren't. But for $12 I really wanted them. I think they would make a really pretty piece of art if they were just mounted in a 2 sided glass frame, don't you? Maybe in my forever home I will do that.

 Isn't this a fun block?

I know I have enough fabric of my own to sew with for the rest of my life, but there is always room in my studio for other quilter's orphans. I have a quilt orphanage! There is always room for inspiration and space to learn something from the fingers that took the time to stitch out these blocks.

Sewing Tuesday at my House

 On Tuesday some of my wonderful friends came over to sew with me. I am always having such a great time that I forget to take pictures until everyone is packing up to go home or go pick up kids from school. My friend Martha is a fine Vegan cook. She introduced me to home grown sprouts. I will be growing them in my kitchen window as soon as I get them from the Sprout People. She had this fabulous blend of French garden sprouts.

This is Sharon's quilt top. She and I are working on another Welsh quilt. I just can't get enough of them right now.

 Sharon's quilt is grey, teal and red and white pin dots. It is pretty fabulous

 My quilt is more somber...but I plan to liven it up with some fabulous Welsh Quilting. I will be quilting this on the long arm...or maybe the Bernina 820 when it comes home again. I am beginning to get a back long with my long arm quilitng. It makes me so happy to go in and see all the pretty quilts to be quilted.

 This is an old hand pieced and hand quilted quilt. I picked it up at a local antique shop. I have plans for this puppy. I do wish the original quilter would have gone with another color sashing. The purple is a bit off for this quilt. I do love the blocks though. Well, I have some plans for this quilt.

 

I am making sewing bags, or quilted quilting kits. I think they are fabulous!

And finally this is what is happening in the quilting studio. I have LauraJ's quilt on the frame. This one is so very fun to quilt!

Have a great day and I will talk to you again later!
xo,
Tia

Old Spiderweb quilt

 This is another old quilt top that I quilted for my mom. We found it at the same antique shop that I bought my Orange peel quilt.  This top is filled with bits of clothing and a wild mismash of fabric. Everything from corduroy to silk is in it. It was not really square (not that that matters to me in the slightest, but it does make it easier to load evenly onto the quilt frame) and the spiderwebs kinda bulgded up in the centers (I wish I would have clipped them before I started quilting.)

 My mom wanted me to quilt it with spiderwebs. She has always loved the spiderweb quilt I made myself a couple years ago and she liked the web quilting I did on it. I think spiderwebs are really fun and so very quick. So, I quilted spiderwebs in all the blocks and made Welsh leaves in the sashing.
 I love Welsh quilting right now and I want to put it on everything.

 The back is just Moda Muslin. Not the 200 Thread count, just their regular muslin. It quilted up like a dream. I used some of my Quilters Dream Cotton batting so the drape will be fabulous.

All in all it was a great quilting day. I hope your day was wonderful as well!

xo,
Tia

Orange peel quilt

 Hey there! I hope you are doing well. My parents are here in town visiting us for a bit. It has been very nice to have them here. My mom and I like to go wonder around antique stores. There is one in town that has a wonderful selection of old quilts and quilt tops. In the past I loved to go through them and admire all the tiny hand stitches and marvel at the patience of the lady (or maybe fella) who made the tops, but didn't get around to quilting them. Well, now that I have my long arm it is so easy to quilt these orphan quilt tops. My mom and I bought several of them. This is one of the tops. I paid $25 for it. I believe the pattern is named Orange peel. Isn't is fabulous? It is almost entirely old feed sacks and most of the white background parts are flour sacks. I think it is wonderful and I am so happy I found it.

 I quilted it pretty simply because I really wanted all that fabric to shine. The white backgrounds are quilt with a heavy echo.

 Each little piece was hand stitched to the next one. There is so much work in this top. I wonder what was happening in this persons life? Did she have a bunch of different projects going on at once like I tend to do? Or was she super organized and fought her way through it. It was a really clean old top, but I can't wait to wash it!

 I used the thinnest cotton batting (quilters Dream Cotton Batting in request weight) The back is a 200 thread count muslin.

As you can see it has a scallop edge. I made bias binding and was in the process of binding it by hand, but when my mom offered to do the binding if I would quilt one of her quilts, I said no problem!  What a treasure this quilt is. Thank you unknown piecer! I love this quilt.