Blogger's Quilt Festival 2018

After reading Wendy's and Barb's posts about the quilts they entered in Blogger's Quilt Festival 2018, I decided to join in the fun! Make sure you hop on over to AmysCreativeSide.com to see all the quilts and think about entering one of your own :)

I'm sharing the Morris Hexathon quilt that I made in 2016-17. I was participating in Barbara Brackman's SAL making blocks inspired by English textile designer, William Morris.

 

The top is pieced entirely by hand.

There was lots of fussy-cutting :)

I hand quilted each pieced block following the design . . . 

. . . and quilted three concentric hexies in the setting blocks.

I added a little 'something extra' to the label.




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Copyright 2018, Barbara Schaffer

Antebellum #8, Alice King, and Triangles

Southern Cross was a quick and easy block to make. 

Does that fabric look at all familiar? It was actually from 1996 and I'll tell you more in just a minute . . . 

I chose one of Susan McKelvey's classic inked designs in memory of my 2nd gr-grandmother, Alice King, who was born in 1826 in Preston, Lancashire, England.  

She married John Hankinson (last month's block) on October 10, 1838 at St. Michael's Church in the Parish of Liverpool. He was a bachelor and brick layer and she was a spinster both residing at 16 Kent Street.

They had six children: four born in England and two in NYC but only three survived to adulthood. One was my gr-grandfather, Frank Hankinson.

Alice died on Jan. 22, 1904 in NYC and in her will she left $100 to her grand-daughter Maud (my grandmother). The rest of her estate was divided equally between sons Charles and Frank and grandson John Charles.

Getting back to the fabric I used in this month's block . . . 

In 1996 I was in charge of GSQ's friendship quilt (more about it here) when Rachel was president and Natalie had provided some of the red fabrics . . .

. . . including this one. Note the same leaf design in her inked block :)

On another note . . . 

Yesterday I added a 4" border and corner blocks to Triangles :)

Enjoy your week!




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Copyright 2018, Barbara Schaffer
 
 

Triple Play 3

I guess I've made enough r/w/b quilts to last the year, lol! 

Triple Play3 reminds me of windowpanes. I used the rest of the light-colored prints and added red and blue borders. I did simple quilting in the ditch and 1/4" straight lines in the borders. I had lots of threads to bury!

2" squares and 1/2" strips and corner blocks worked well together. 

This time I did a 1/2" binding. I think it's my favorite. I used 1/4" masking tape as a guide for quilting the straight lines--that was a first. It worked fine.

The back.  

 

Here are 1, 2, and 3. I forgot to mention sizes: #1 is 20" x 20", #2 is 17" x 17" and #3 is 18-1/2" x 21."



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On another note . . . 

Do you follow Barbara Brackman's Material Culture blog? Every so often she will post a picture of a quilt that was published in HQPNJ's book, New Jersey Quilts. Here is a link to an 1860 medallion. The quilt is 3rd from the bottom and appears on p. 104 in our book :) The leaves were actual tracings of ones from the family farm in Scotland and the fabrics were stripes and plaids. The quilt was sent to the maker's daughter who immigrated in the 1840s and lived in Scotch Plains, NJ.




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Copyright 2018, Barbara Schaffer

Triple Play 2

So this is what I do at 4:30 a.m.--the blues just keep on going, lol!

This time I actually eye-balled the quilting lines. No marking.

The last of the blue squares.

And to switch things up a little I did a single fold 3/8" binding rather than a double. I attached the binding strip to the quilt's edges and then trimmed the seam allowance. Would you believe I actually slit the fold at one of the corners by mistake?? That was a real surprise! But I was able to repair it without removing and inserting a new piece :) Whew!

Another fat quarter came in handy for the back.

I added a little "thread flower" to fill in the empty space on the label :)

The first two.
 
Next week I'll show you #3 :) 




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Copyright 2018, Barbara Schaffer 



 

August Mini aka Triple Play 1

I was actually going to wait until next week to post my mini for August but the pressure is on, haha! Wendy and Kyle have already posted their delightful quilts here and here. Don't you just love them?

My August mini was the result of leftover squares and triangles that just kept re-surfacing in my sewing room. It finally seemed like the right time to do something with them, besides, I always loved these blue fabrics. 

This is Triple Play 1. The blue/white/red floral border fabric was part of Keepsake Quilting's Americana collection that I purchased at our guild meeting in June.

Simple cross-hatch quilting.

The inner and outer borders are 1/2" and the binding is 3/8" double fold. I cut the binding strip 2-1/4" but next time around I'll cut it a little wider. 

Two nautical-themed fabrics on the back :)

Triple Play 2 is also finished but I will post that next week before we go away for the holiday weekend. Hint: More of the same leftover squares :)

Enjoy your week!




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Copyright 2018, Barbara Schaffer

Triangles

Last December I saw this Birds In Air Variation quilt at the Schuyler Hamilton House in Morristown, NJ. See my blog post here.

I loved everything about it--the way the blocks rotated and the brown/pink/blue color combination. There were some pretty fantastic fabrics, too!

Shortly after, I made this sample 8" block. I realized the look I was after was so dependent on the right 'blue' but had a difficult time finding one that I thought would work. So this project was pushed aside.

Then I came across the same pattern on Barbara B's blog A Cloud of Quilt Patterns where she referred to it as A Scrappy Chintz Quilt: Odd Pattern but renamed it A Ride in the Cars. 
 

I changed my mind about what fabrics to use and pulled out some "early" browns instead. Barbara provided the cutting instructions for a 12" block so that's what I decided to make.

 
In fact, four seemed to be the magic number for me.

Now I'm thinking of using this floral fabric as the border and adding corner blocks to keep it simple. 

Maybe next week I will have made up my mind and the top will be finished :) 

Enjoy your week!




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Copyright 2018, Barbara Schaffer
 

 

Little Applique Blocks

I'm hooked on these sweet 8" Dear Daughter blocks that are being offered by Gaye at Sentimental Stitches.

I started this project a few months ago concentrating on blocks that were attributed to NJ--specifically, the one on the top left and the three on the right. The originals were signed by members of the Dunham and Clawson families in Piscataway and Marlboro in the central part of the state. 

After I made the first three I couldn't wait for the next set to become available so decided to recreate the center of this block that I made a while ago also from a NJ quilt.

For some reason I'm focused on using green with touches of red and am liking the way it looks.

 
I added the red dot to this one.

I think these small blocks are charming and they're so easy to work on during hot summer days.

I've prepped the next one but reversed the colors as shown in the original above. I traced the pattern onto my background square using a blue Frixion pen and will outline the appliques with an 01 black Pigma pen. Any blue lines that show when I'm done will disappear with an iron.  

Check out Barbara B's post this week to see some new ideas for setting the Antebellum blocks including a NJ quilt and my small Chimney Sweep. Thanks, Barbara!

Happy August!




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Copyright 2018, Barbara Schaffer