Grandma's Box of Crayons

Things have been quiet here in The Magpie's Nest for the last couple of weeks. Conditions around here seem to be either feast or famine. What're ya gonna do? That's life.

I still don't have good pictures of the big quilts I finished recently. What I can show you is Grandma's Box of Crayons:

Since it's been a while since I started this project (January of this year as I recall) let me refresh your memory. Inspired by the Rainbow Scrap Challenge I thought I would make one or two Scrappy Trip blocks each month. It didn't work out that way of course. There were months I didn't make any blocks and other times when I couldn't stop making blocks. Mine are 15 inches finished and there are 20 of them.

When it came time to decide on a layout the first challenge was to arrange the colors in a pleasing configuration. That took some doing, let me tell you! Then there was the detail of whether to let the diagonal line of the strongest values in each block fall all the same way...

Or whether to alternate the directions:

The first was too static for my taste so I chose the second option.

My talented son quilted the top for me. We struggled with that decision too. I knew I wanted something curvilinear to contrast with all the straight lines in the piecing but I also wanted something more than just a meander. I love these hearts!

Of course I had to find just the right binding print too.

I've had this one in my stash forever. I think it's an old Hoffman print. After I told her the name of the quilt my daughter said the binding looked like melted crayons. Perfect! I couldn't be happier with this one - which could be why I'm having trouble getting interested in beginning a new quilt project. ;- )

A Little Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

After a rough weekend (from which I have not entirely recovered) I'm here to share with you another finish. Yippee! I'm delighted with how it turned out too.

Here's "Monkeyshines" in the process of being quilted. (Thanks to Michele for the inspiration for the quilt name!)


This is the stitch I used for the quilting. It seemed appropriate. Used up a lot of thread though!


There was enough of this bright green I'd bought on spec, on sale, to use for backing and binding.

Ta daa! The completed quilt on my kitchen floor:

It's now in a box, ready to be shipped off to its' final destination. My poor DS will be one of the many standing in line at the Post Office this week. We have quite a stack of packages to send off. Of course they aren't all ready to go just yet. Getting them ready is the order of the day. Before we do that we have to take Mr. Reilly over to the groomer. Busy, busy, busy!

Happy Camper

I got the pictures in reverse order (again) so to keep it possible for you to click on them to look at bigger images I will start at the end of my story...

The temperatures have returned to something approaching normal for this time of year so I was able to sleep under my Flower Garden quilt last night - hurray! I also have an extra pair of hands around the house for a short time so we went out in the backyard to take pictures of the big quilts I've been making recently. Here's a full shot of the Flower Garden quilt:

In case you're new to my blog, the block is a 12" Shoo Fly (the white patches) and the blocks are all set right up against each other. This quilt ended up about 78" x 88".

Even better, my friendship blocks are all set together into a top. Woohoo!

I thought this was going to be a rectangular nearly-twin size quilt when I first laid out the blocks but it has turned out almost square. Without double checking the measurements I'd say it's roughly 68" x 70". It's going to have borders so I guess it could end up being legitimately bed size when I finally declare it done.

What I am intrigued by is the fact that I'm making so many large quilts these days. In the past it was a rare event for me to make a quilt that would fit even a twin bed. Lately that seems to be all I'm doing! I'm sure part of the reason for this is that I am home practically all day, every day. I also have dedicated work space. I have the time now to dig out those old projects and leave them out while I wrestle with them. I have more experience too. I am usually able to solve the problems that caused some of those projects to become UFO's in the first place. I have enough self-knowledge to recognize what I can realistically finish and what is beyond my abilities or interests. I have freed myself from the Quilt Police to the point that I can combine orphan blocks and bits to create serviceable quilts out of things other folks might discard or think unworthy. I have made the conscious decision to make quilts for my own pleasure and amusement, not to achieve technical perfection. In the end, I'm a pretty happy camper these days, in spite of the restrictions imposed by my chemical issues.
:- )

It's HOT!

Which is unusual for this area at this time of the year. Some places broke long-standing heat records today. Not sure whether we did or not. All I know is I've had the windows closed and covered, did most of my "heavy work" early this morning, and will be sleeping with the fan running all night again. I'm happy to put up with the discomfort because I know it won't last long. All too soon it will be wet and chilly once more ;- )

There has been minimal progress on the friendship quilt. It's too hot to have the iron on for any amount of time, and I don't sew without the iron on and ready to use. However, my Flower Garden quilt is back from the quilter. Yippee!!!

If you recall, these are the two blocks that didn't get along together:


This is the correction I made:

I chose this quilting pattern in part because I think it looks like a breeze blowing through the flowers. It's sort of a loose feather.

I wasn't planning to put a border on this quilt but in the end I wanted it just a bit wider to cover the bed more completely. That solved the problem of what to use for binding too. It will be the same fabric as the border :- ) I splurged on this quilt and just bought extra wide backing fabric instead of trying to create a back from remnants or something. All in all this is going to make a very nice birthday present for myself!

Floral Shoo Fly

Here are eleven of the blocks I made to add to the 31 I already had for my floral Shoo Fly quilt top:


My blocks tended to be brighter and darker than those I started with. Which made it a real challenge to distribute values and colors evenly across the surface of the quilt. This didn't help either:

I did finally come up with a layout I could live with. There are places where I would make slight changes if I could but I'm more committed to including as many of the original blocks as possible. As it was I left three out of the top, and they were all made by someone else.

Once I had the blocks sewn together I discovered an issue I could not live with. Even as I was sewing the blocks together I thought I must have turned a couple the wrong way around. Did I really intend to put this yellow and this peach block side by side? Yuck! It hurts my eyes!

When I downloaded the pictures I'd taken I discovered what had happened. I was laying the blocks out on my bed, and even on that surface I was running out of room. To compensate I had overlapped the last couple of rows of blocks. The peachy block was barely visible amongst its' neighbors.

I let it rest overnight. Come morning I knew I would have to do something to correct the situation. The peach block had been made by someone else so I chose to remove the yellow block. I felt very fortunate to find a softer yellow floral print in my stash that was absolutely perfect. I don't have a lot of floral prints to begin with, and finding the right color to slide into that hole quadrupled the challenge. You'll have to wait to see the change because I don't have access to the camera at the moment. Trust me, it's a big improvement. :- )

Blogger's Quilt Festival

I can't believe I haven't posted since Tuesday! It's not like I've been all that busy. sheesh

Cruising Blogland I've discovered the Blogger's Quilt Festival hosted by Amy at Park City Girl. I've been debating about which quilt to post as my favorite. It's not an easy decision! Finally I've chosen this quilt because it has been one of my favorites for a long time.

I wish I had a better quality photo of it. At least there are a couple of detail shots...

What I love about this quilt is the liberated or maverick quality of the piecing. It's a free-wheeling quilt that has obviously been used and repaired and used some more. It's slightly less than twin size.

The top was machine pieced but the quilt is hand quilted. I bought it from an antique shop when we were living in Texas. I can detect debris in the carded cotton through the muslin backing. This quilt just speaks to me of home-grown and make-do with a sparkling result.

*Edited to add: There are now over 300 quilters participating in this Bloggers Quilt Festival! If you click on the link in this post or on the badge in my sidebar you will be taken to the master list of links to everyone's quilts. This event officially runs for a full week but the links will be up forever, I imagine, so you can peruse the wide variety of styles anytime you want :- )

More Snow! and Another Christmas Quilt

Yup, we've had even more snow since my last post. And the first batch didn't even have a chance to melt away. Puts me in mind of my childhood in Michigan. Except we had snow tires on our cars back then. We've never needed them here ~ until now! I'm afraid I may not have stocked up on enough foodstuffs the last time I went out ;- )

My poor jack o'lantern is up to his chinny-chin-chin in snow!

I have made some progress tying my flannel Courthouse Steps quilt (see previous post) but it's not ready to bind yet. Which may be a good thing since I can't for the life of me find a binding fabric I like with the quilt top. You'd think anything would work with that wide blue border. So far that hasn't been the case.

I've also made myself a new pillowcase, and made another for a gift. I don't want to show them yet because of the whole keeping-surprises-for-Christmas thing. I've also been thinking more about possible challenges for myself for next year. What a convoluted process that is turning out to be! A challenge in and of itself. As of this morning I have committed to participating in this workshop (sort of a workshop) in the hopes that it will help me establish a solid foundation for this year and the future. (There may still be room in the group if you think you would benefit from coaching in this area too.)

And now for another of the heirloom quilts in my collection... This is a Single Irish Chain made by my great-great grandmother, Abigail Stillwell Smith (bet she never used a three letter monogram on anything!).

I currently have it on the bed under my Christmas Round Robin quilt. Having inherited this quilt earlier this year I feel like I'm sleeping under a Christmas gift every night. It would certainly be appropriate as a Christmas quilt since it's all red and white. Because of it's age - and good condition, which I want to maintain - I don't dare leave it on top of the bed. That room gets full afternoon sun (well, when the sun shines) and my dog spends part of his day on the bed. Talk about a disaster waiting to happen!

It would appear Abigail ran out of her primary print and had to find something else to fill in with to get enough blocks for her quilt.There are four blocks in the quilt top that are not identical to the others. Two like this one:

And two like this one:

Hopefully you can click on the pictures to make them bigger.

Overall the quilt measures about 67" x 84." There are no borders, and it is bound with the same muslin she used for the alternate blocks and the back. I didn't measure the blocks themselves; there are 8 across and 10 down. I have no idea whether it was hand or machine pieced, but it is hand quilted. I also don't know exactly when the quilt was made. Since Abigail was born in 1835 and died in 1911 I think it's safe to say it was made between the Civil War and the turn of the last century. I feel a real sense of responsibility to have ownership of this heirloom. I may have to begin grooming one of my children to inherit it from me one day...!

Days of Whine and Comfort

If I were a braver woman (or more shameless perhaps) I would show you a picture of my working surfaces at the moment. Let me instead simply tell you that even if I were to take that picture you wouldn't be able to see my work surfaces. They have somehow become buried under studio journals, piles of fabric scraps, piles of paper, including pictures ripped out of magazines, and a whole bunch of embroidery threads.

I filled up the journal I was using during the Studio Journal class. Before that class began I had two other sketchbooks going. Since the class I've been trying to use them up, and I've been referring back to my class journal while doing so. Not being able to pass up a sale, I just picked up a new sketchbook too, to use when I have finally filled the others. Too many books!

The magazine clippings will eventually end up in one or more studio journals. I've run out of scotch tape (I thought I had at least one more refill in my drawer) and can't use glue or glue sticks so they have to wait until someone runs to the store for me. The rest of the papers need to be filed in the appropriate places. What I wouldn't give for a secretary who dusts.

The fabric scraps are the leftovers from my Fungly quilt. How insane is that?! I wanted to use them up, not just put them away, but that hasn't happened. So there they sit. And now I have ideas for new quilts I want to make that don't call for those kinds of prints. Of course.

The embroidery threads are for my current project, the monochromatic postcard I'm stitching as part of the Sumptuous Surfaces class. I want to get my band sampler set up so I can practice stitches I once knew and try out others. That would be much easier to accomplish if I had a little more room in which to work! But I'm just not feeling all that well today. Some days I can work in spite of how I feel, other days it's better to simply give in and be a vegetable. I think I may need to be a vegetable for a day or two.

To tide you over I thought I would share a little quilt I made back when I first read Gwen Marston's Liberated Quiltmaking. I don't think I've shown it before. I call it "Comfort" because it's made of what I think of as comfort fibers: soft wools and flannel. They were all scraps given to me by a dollmaker friend. I carried out the comfort theme (in my mind at least) by tying it with a red crochet thread and adding a few buttons I had inherited from my mother's button tin. It's about 14" x 18".

And now I'm going to go comfort myself under a slightly larger quilt... ;- )

And Speaking of Baby Quilts...

Here's an orphan I found in the thrift shop the other day. It's about 34" x 37" and looks to be bound with commercially made binding tape. I'm guessing the maker just sewed up a bunch of four-patch blocks and set them together however it felt right. She has two patches of the same red gingham butted up against each other in one spot but the rest is amazingly well balanced.

I'm surprised at how easy it is for me to date fabrics from a hundred years ago but how difficult it is for me to pin a date on this quilt. 1960's - 70's? I see a few patches that could have been from the 50's. Let's just call it late 20th century :- ) There are a variety of fabric types in it too: seersuckers and other textured weaves, heavier cotton prints that may have been curtain or upholstery fabrics, and at least one patch that is pieced.

It is not heavily worn but was dirty when I first brought it home. It washed up beautifully. I can't decide whether that blotch in the blue and white stripe patch was a flaw in the fabric from the beginning or whether it is a stain acquired along the way somehow. The quilting was done by machine, in a salmon-y pink color, and on the diagonal in one direction only. Oh, as I look at it more closely I see that there are some quilting stitches that have come out. Guess I'll have to do a bit of repair work there.

This backing fabric looks familiar to me but I can't place why. I may have owned some at one point; I may have seen it used in something an aunt made. It looks very 1980's to me. I suppose this could have been a rescued top, made into a quilt some years after the blocks were made. For four bucks ($4!) I couldn't leave it in the thrift shop. My granddaughters can play with it, sleep under it... whatever. It's simple but charming. Just the sort of thing I love!

Back to Everyday Life

Our regional weather guy keeps saying there's been sunshine in the area but I sure haven't seen any lately. The sky outside my studio window always seems to be one shade of gray or another. Which is probably why I need these sunshine-yellow flowers on the back deck where I can seem them at meal times!


The temperatures are a little closer to what they're supposed to be for this time of year but the sunshine has a greater impact for me. I am grateful, however, that we have not suffered any tornadoes or cyclones or other natural (or man-made) disasters.

My friend C~ was over here the other day to show me a quilt she'd recently acquired, I think at an antique shop. Except that it's obviously not an antique. The 'boxes' are all made from a fabric I recognize but can't give you any details about because I don't remember where or when I've seen it before. The seller thought the centers of the boxes looked like prints from the 1970's.

It's quilted in a simple undulating line. There are a few small holes in the backing, through which C~ has determined that the batting may be an 80-20 poly-cotton blend. I think she said she paid all of $35 for the quilt. Pretty good deal, I'd say!

I finished my journal quilt for March but haven't photographed it yet. That leaves three more journal quilts to complete for the Bead Journal Project this year. February's quilt needs to be embellished, April and May have to be pieced and embellished. I have an idea for my Take It Further postcard quilt for this month's challenge. We'll see whether that actually gets made or not. And that swap quilt I had to make a second one of? The blogger I was going to swap with has disappeared from the 'net! She hasn't updated her blog in over a month, nor has she responded to my emails to her. I'm a little worried. I hope nothing horrible has happened in her world. I'd sure like to show you what I made though!

Catching Up

So, now that I feel like I have a little breathing room (having finished that swap quilt yesterday) let me show you a few things I've been blessed with recently.


Carol of Giraffe Dreams made this happy little basket quilt last year. She put it in her guild's silent auction this year but it didn't get any bids {gasp!}. I admired it when she showed it on her blog and expressed an interest in acquiring it. The quilt was returned to her after the show so she let me know it was still available. We made a deal whereby I would make a quilt or a cash donation to Wrap Them in Love and she would send me the quilt. Yippee! Now all I have to do is hold up my end of the bargain ;- )

The other goodie I received recently came from my sister. Some time ago she was in a thrift store, looking for a basket to hold miscellaneous small items in her bathroom. She didn't find any baskets she liked but was delighted to find clothes that fit. Then she learned that everything in the store was 50% off that day! By that time she was on auto-pilot, cruising the store for anything else she didn't know she needed but couldn't resist. (You know how that happens, right?) She ended up bringing home a dozen silk ties along with her other purchases. First one caught her eye, and then another one that had the same colors in it, and before she knew it her arms were full of ties! She toyed with the idea of doing something with them herself but she doesn't sew much. So I got this box in the mail a few weeks ago:

Woohoo! Playtime! Except that I haven't washed them yet. I have removed the labels and interfacings, but then I had a swap quilt to make...

These are a few of my more favorite ties of the batch. Of course the colors in the photograph aren't exactly true. They are much prettier in person. A couple of them have that iridescent thing going on where you can see more than one color, depending on how the light hits the fabric. I especially like the tie with the cowboy motifs. Apparently that was the one that started the whole tie-buying spree. I can hardly wait to see what it ends up in!

Can You Say Avoidance?

So after that burst of energy at the end of the quilt retreat I haven't really done anything creative. I put a sleeve on a swap quilt (hi Angela!) and put away leftover fabrics and abandonded projects that had accumulated since oh, last fall or so. This is what my work area looked like before I tidied up:

Now keep in mind that this picture was taken while I am between projects. It usually looks much worse! And since the picture was taken I've managed to clutter up the cutting mat with papers and other non-sewing related stuff.

As you look at the picture, there are three piles of assorted fabrics and projects beyond the cutting mat on the left side, before your eyes get to the ironing board and then the closet. Also notice the two smaller piles of fabric on the right side of the picture. The three piles are now more like one and a half and the two little piles are gone altogether. Most of the rest of that stuff lives there permanently (or semi-permanently).

Yesterday was also one of those gray days when it looks for all the world like there was no sky at all. Today we've had a couple of sunbreaks. This little quilt was inspired by days like today. I call it "Ray of Sunshine." It was intuitively pieced and measures about 10" wide by 8" high.

Here's a little closer look:

That bit of shine in the lower right corner is a triangular abalone button and a few abalone chips. The background around the birdbath and yellow bird is all seed stitched in ivory embroidery floss. I had to rework the bead and button embellishments to the left of the birdbath base a couple of times before I could live with it. There's a pewter rabbit running off to the left too but he's pretty hard to see in these pictures.

Today I have a headache again for some reason. {sigh} I have made a list of all the projects I either have in the works or want to start. It's not as long or as intimidating a list as I feared it might be. In spite of that I still can't seem to generate the energy necessary to start working on any of them. Maybe if I do some laundry...

Let's Go Down to Kokomo

I've had it with the constant cloud cover and rain. Let's go to the tropics!

(I still wish I could take better pictures!)

This wall hanging was made as a result of one of the last challenges I was able to participate in with my local quilt guild. It was a mystery challenge, but a little different from any other I'd been a part of. Those of you who have been involved in online groups may recognize the steps; I think our organizer said she got it off the internet.

Instead of a theme or a fabric that had to be used, once a month we'd be given a new directive to follow. I won't be able to remember all the steps involved but the first month we were given a strip of a blue cotton that faded from dark to light and told to use it to make at least one block. I made the wonky 9 Patch blocks. Others used it as the background for what would be an applique piece. One month we were given a cheddar yellow that ended up in the corners of the background of my star block.

Another time we drew blindly from a paper sack to get a baggie of ribbon or rickrack or other similar trim to use on our quilt. (The ribbon "rays" on my sun.) We had to do some handstitching somewhere, somehow. (I sort of went overboard with that one!) The last challenge was to add a three dimensional element to our creation. (No problem!)

It was a totally fun challenge and I got one of my favorite wall hangings out of it. It hangs in my bathroom, the room without windows where I can close the door and turn up the heat and pretend I'm on the beach in the tropics with my cabana boy instead of mildewing away in the damp...

My Tote Bag is Done!

Woohoo!!! And it turned out pretty much the way I envisioned it too. Color me happy :- )

Apparently I misunderstood the weather forecast on Monday or the weather guys didn't see the break in the cloud cover coming. The sun shone all day yesterday. Yippee! Of course it's back to light gray again today. But it's not raining. I'll take every little blessing I can get!

Since you've been so patient I have photographed a little quilt I made in 1994, shortly after we moved up here from Texas. It's possible that this is the first completely intuitive quilt I ever made. I was suffering from homesickness at the time of its' construction, therefore the name "Blue Monday."

It measures 14" x 16.5". There are scraps from at least one maternity dress I'd made for myself in it. My favorite element is the pink button featuring the mother mouse and her baby. They remind me of Beatrix Potter's drawings (for all I know it could be a licensed image from one of her books).

We read several of Beatrix's books to our children when they were little. The tales of Jemima Puddle-Duck and Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle were a couple of our favorites. Now the movie "Miss Potter" is one of my favorite things to watch on a quiet Sunday afternoon.

Okay. I have two more challenges to work on. Onward!

Not George Clooney!

I didn't track down the source, but apparently the question is floating around in blogland, "What's on your bed?" My answer is, "Not George Clooney!" Or Johnny Depp or Matthew McConaughey or anyone else exciting ;- )

No, Helen Roll is on my bed at the moment. At least that's what it says on the back of this quilt:



This is my $10 thrift shop treasure which apparently belonged to Helen Roll before she passed away earlier this year. It's a lovely warm quilt but it's only the top layer. Underneath it we have the pinwheel quilt which will go to Miss Margaret when she gets a little older:




I'm not sure whether I've blogged about this quilt yet or not. The Double Pinwheels were made when DD was in elementary school. She picked out some of the fabrics that were used in the blocks. That project was put on the back burner at some point, to be lost in the mists of time. Last year (?) I unearthed the blocks and decided to make a quilt for DD's darling daughter out of them. Of course there were half a dozen or so of the big pinwheel blocks that were too small or otherwise unusable so I went back into my block stash and found some regular Pinwheel blocks exactly half the size of the Double Pinwheels. At that point I decided to put the pinwheels on point (this is turning out to be a very pointy story!). I needed a few more of the smaller ones to fill in the blanks and made sure to make them out of fabric from the same time period. Some of them were made out of scraps from the dresses my mother had made for DD. The center of the quilt needed to be a bit longer before I added the border so I created the primitive hearts. There's a row of them along the top and along the bottom (which you can't see in this picture). They include fabrics from Margaret's other great grandmother. The border fabric also came from that great grandmother. You probably can't tell from the photo, but I machine quilted around each pinwheel. Because DD is such a fan of tied quilts, and Miss M likes to twiddle them, I included ties of embroidery floss in the setting triangles around the perimeter of the quilt. It's not fancy but it's serviceable and that seems to be what I do.

I was really pleased to be able to include all of the women on this side of the family in Miss Margaret's quilt. Hopefully I haven't set the bar too high for future quilts for the other grandchildren!