April Finishes!

Three finishes for the month of April!  To read more detail about each project, click on the name of each quilt and it will take you to my original blogpost.

Lozenges - 345 individual lozenge blocks at the beginning of the month have now become a 15x23 block setting with 2 borders.  Panto quilted and finished with a solid black binding.

Ye Olde Schoolhouse - At the beginning of the month, this project was just a [blue] fabric pull and pattern.  I changed my mind about the color wanting to go traditional "Little Red Schoolhouse" and kept the candy stripe border all red to avoid a candy cane look.  Panto quilted with dark red binding.

A Quilt for Charity - This project began the month as a few pinwheel and broken dishes blocks.  After tearing them apart and reassembling with sashing and cornerstones, this simple little table topper was complete. 

Q2 (Apr-Jun 15) List:

1.  Lozenges

2.  Silent Auction Table Project (for mom)

3.  4-Patch Revisited

4.  Crumb Along

5.  Wounded Warrior Quilt

6.  Thai Ostrich Quilt

7.  Rustic Stars

8.  Soldier Baby Quilt

9.  A Prairie Women project

10.  Collaboration Celebration

11.  Pinwheel

12.  Labor Day Madness

13.  Fan Baby

14.  Ye Olde Schoolhouse (PWSC j4g1)

15.  Orange Crush

Linking up to A Lovely Year of Finishes, Creative Goodness and the UFO Challenge!

Ye Olde Schoolhouse

I just finished another Prairie Women's project and this one was biggie sized compared to all of the others.  Finally, one that can almost be used as a lap quilt...

This was a neat project incorporating both traditional piecing of the little schoolhouses and paper piecing the tiny quatrefoil stars.  And what's not to love about a candy striped border???

I really wanted to get this project done this month so that I could enter it into the TNT guild's President's Challenge:  A Night at the Museum.  Participants were to come up with their own take on a historical-type project and write a brief history.  And...I'm proud to say, I won 2 awards last Tuesday night:  3rd place-Simply Traditional and President's Choice!  This is the first time I was ever recognized for my work (though I generally don't enter my quilts into anything either).

  

Ye Olde Schoolhouse

Size:  49x58"

Pattern:  "Ye Olde Schoolhouse" (PWSC J4 G1, by Pam Buda)

Quilting Design (Panto):  Twirly Feathers (Hermione Agee)

Awarded:  3rd place Simply Traditional & President's Choice,   2015 President's Challenge:

"A Night at the Museum" Ties, Needles & Threads Crafter's Guild, Glen Carbon, IL

"Historically, women, having no voice in government matters, often made statements about their beliefs in the design of their quilts.  A variation of the traditional house or church pattern, the schoolhouse block, appeared late in the 19th century when concerns about compulsory education and child labor laws made it mandatory for all children to attend school.

This was also around the time when "Turkey Red" fabrics became all the rage.  Contrary to popular belief, "Turkey Red" does not refer to a particular shade, but rather the dying process used to produce the rich and incredibly colorfast red color.  It didn't fade or bleed and could cost up to 10x more than other fabrics.  Whereas generally textile printers used the madder (rubia) plant root and a water-based dye process to produce colors ranging from orange to brownish-black, "Turkey Red" fabrics were produced by a specialist using a Middle Eastern (traditionally Turkish) oil-boiling technique, thus the name.

Previously referred to as "Old Kentucky Home," "Old Folks at Home," or "Lincoln's Log Cabin," Ruth Finley finally named the block "Little Red Schoolhouse" in 1929 incorporating both the political climate and the popularity of "Turkey Red" fabrics!"

Resources:

National Park Service www.nps.gov

folkwaysnotebook.blogspot.com

Clues in the Calico by Barbara Brackman

The History of America in Quilts by Charles Hillinger

Lozenges

It's finished!  This is Lozenges, my 2014-15 leader & ender quilt!  Each year, Bonnie Hunter offers a great leader/ender quilt along & free pattern.  Lozenges was really fun to do and used up TONS of my larger scraps (the lozenge rectangles are initially cut  at 3.5x5").

While Bonnie is still working on hers, she has pretty much decided that her Lozenges will not have borders, but go straight to binding.  I thought mine needed borders, so I added a thin red inner border and a 3.5" outer border of a black floral fabric given to me by my friend Vicki!

Actually, there are tons of fabrics in this quilt given to me by my friends.  It was funny when I showed the quilt to my sew day group, Debbie, Vicki, & Kathi could each pick out several fabrics that were used in their own quilts, so it's likely that many of those blocks came from their scraps!  And even better, I can remember some of those quilts, too!

The backing of my Lozenges is an adorable typewriter and type print by Michael Miller called "Typewriters"...it's an older one, I wonder when it was last printed!  Would the kids even know what they are?  Hmmm...oh well, the colors (black/white/red/beige) were really just a perfect match!

Lozenges

81x101"

Pattern:  "Lozenges" (free pattern by Bonnie Hunter)

Quilting Design (Panto):  Fantasy Flames (Jessica Schick)

Wool Applique BOM

Is anyone following along with this year's BOM from Buttermilk Basin?  It's a freebie that Stacy has designed and posts via her Facebook page and blog each month.  These little wool applique blocks are just so cute!  Here are my first 3 blocks...

Buttermilk Basin BOM - Heather

...and Debbie is stitching along with me too...

Buttermilk Basin BOM - Debbie

Linking up with BOMs Away today!

A Quilt for Charity

I just finished up hand stitching the binding for this little table topper quilt.  It's being sent off to my mom for a silent auction for charity.  All of the little pinwheel pieces, cornerstones and gold border came out of my scrap basket (some of the units were even already pieced)!

 I quilted it up with a little feathery panto and a taupe thread...sweet even though it's quite dark (and pretty masculine, I guess, because my husband said he'd keep it)!

Linking up to Scrap Basket & Slow Stitching Sunday!

Another Quilt for a Wounded Warrior

Since I've moved to IL, I have been meeting with a "ladies who lunch" quilting group now officially named the "Pedal Pushers."  The organizer of the group told me that she always had a vision that the group would "do something," but so far they hadn't really done much but talk about quilting and embroidery.  She knew that I made quilts to donate and asked me to speak to the ladies about my projects in hopes that they would like to help and so far...they seem receptive.

WW Quilt #3 (Ellie - front)

I tried to set the parameters that each month, one lady would choose a pattern and direct the others to make a set number of blocks in whatever size/color would be needed.  That person would also be in charge of setting the blocks, backing fabric and batting.  Then I volunteered to do all of the quilting.  Sometimes I do the binding unless the person who began the project wants to finish it up.

WW Quilt #3 (Ellie - back)

For this quilt #3, we each made 1 or 2 - 12" blocks.  Ellie set them, I quilted it and sent it back to Ellie for binding.  I just love a sampler!Quilts #1&2 began as one quilt; we each made one of each block.   The ladies decided that they didn't like the blocks set alternating, so Janice took home one set of blocks and Susan took home the other.

WW Quilt #1 (Susan)

Quilts #1&2 began as one quilt design, but the ladies didn't like the alternating block setting.  Janice took home one set of block and Susan took home the other to create these quilts earlier this year.

WW Quilt #2 (Janice)

To date, this group has donated 3 quilts to the FLW Wounded Warriors and one of the ladies even made a baby quilt to donate to the GLWACH Soldier Babies.

Soldier Baby Quilt (Susan)

We're currently working on one more WW quilt and one baby quilt.

Linking up to Creative Goodness, Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop? & Link-A-Finish Friday!

April UFO Goals

For the month of April, I've decided to try to accomplish these 2 projects, Ye Olde Schoolhouse (another Prairie Women's project) and Lozenges (Bonnie Hunter's 2014 leader/ender challenge).

Currently, Ye Olde Schoolhouse is just a pattern and fabric pull.  I'll need to start this one from scratch, really, and check to see if I have enough background fabric to complete it...if not, well, fabric shopping's not so bad, right?

Ye Olde Schoolhouse

All of the Lozenges blocks are made and up on the design wall.  Next, I'll need to begin assembling rows.  I can't wait??!?!?  There are 345 Lozenge blocks up there (and across the floor, as the last 3 rows wouldn't fit on the design wall).  I'm thinking I'm going to border this quilt with a small floral print with black background.  The binding will probably be a very similar coordinating fabric gifted to me by my friend, Vicki!

Lozenges

Well, there they are, my goals for April...wish me luck!
Linking up with ALYoF!

Q2 2015 Goals

This is my first year participating in the Finish-a-long and so far it's been fun!  I find these blog sew-alongs quite the push I need to finish up projects that have long been in the UFO pile or on the to-do list!  And...it gives me something more to blog about!

So, for last quarter, here's how I did...6/10...not bad, an average of 2 projects checked off the list each month.  I can live with that!

Q1 (Jan-Mar 15) List:

1.  RWB Charming Stars

2.  RWB Irish Chain

3.  4-Patch Revisited

4.  Suki Dog Quilt

5.  Baylee Dog Quilt

6.  Easter Basket Wall Hanging

7.  Rustic Stars

8.  Kayla's Basket Weave Quilt

9.  Grand Illusion

10. A Prairie Women project

Ye Olde Schoolhouse (April goal)

Here are my new goals for this quarter...4 of which were shifted from the Q1 list since I didn't end up working on them.  Yikes, 15, but 2 are charity quilts and I haven't done any of those on my own this year...just quilting for our group donations.

Q2 (Apr-Jun 15) List:

1.  Lozenges

2.  Silent Auction Table Project (for mom)

3.  4-Patch Revisited

4.  Crumb Along

5.  Wounded Warrior Quilt

6.  Thai Ostrich Quilt

7.  Rustic Stars

8.  Soldier Baby Quilt

9.  A Prairie Women project

10.  Collaboration Celebration

11.  Pinwheel

12.  Labor Day Madness

13.  Fan Baby

14.  Ye Olde Schoolhouse (PWSC j4g1)

15.  Orange Crush

Lozenges (April goal)

Ok, wish me luck!  First up are my Lozenge and Ye Olde Schoolhouse quilts.  They will be my primary April goals!

Linking up to the 2015 Finish-Along!