All Over the Place!

During my quilting downtime, I slow-stitched this linen vintage towel using indigo scraps and buttons. At the time I thought it was a great idea and spent lots of time working on it.  

I even added a rubber stamped "B" in blue ink. I'm not really excited about the end result but it served its purpose and kept me focused.  

I couldn't resist buying a nicely pieced and embroidered friendship top with four ladies in the center. It was dated 2000. After pondering how to quilt it I ended up doing diagonal lines straight through the center. 

The ladies are tiny buttonhole-stitched all the way around, the hats and shoes are made of felt. The whole piece makes me smile. 

Yikes! Can you believe I bought these bright blocks that were made with fabrics from the 40s-60s?? Certainly not my style but wanted something different to peak my interest.  

I purchased a pieced quilt top on Ebay for $20 for the sole purpose of using it for the backing. I didn't have to make any adjustments. Of course neither the fabrics (above) nor the other colors--aqua and gray--had anything to do with the front of the quilt. But it worked! It was longarm quilted. 

 

With collage in mind, I was at another local thrift shop when a framed calendar picture of a cute little girl singing and playing the piano caught my eye. I ended up cutting out a portion and combining it with "The Old Piano Roll Blues" sheet music. Added lots of flowers, bride & groom punch outs and some stickers. I've since made a few collages incorporating sheet music. It's something new and different.    

A gorgeous sunrise where the top of the mountain range is literally glowing. 

I received a new Smart AI Happy Birdy feeder for Christmas. What fun it's been to watch the birds up close and take pictures. Isn't this the cutest little Chickadee with a sunflower seed in its beak?

Till next time . . . . 

 

Copyright 2026 Barbara Schaffer 

 

 

Another Catch-up and Collage

I must admit I hadn't done much quilting over the past year and a half but my interest never waned. I found myself immersed in scouring Ebay and Etsy for interesting quilt tops/blocks to satisfy my urge of not spending time making a quilt from the start.

This lovely yo-yo quilt caught my eye. The soft hues reminded me of an early patchwork quilt. It needed some repairs which I was willing to spend time doing. And I'm still finding a few areas that I missed. This quilt is huge. 

I always wanted to make a totally haphazard random-strippy quilt and took my chances when I purchased this on Ebay. It was a quilt top all right but it had been foundation pieced on newspaper. Most of the paper had been removed except for what was left in the seams. Ugh! Would you believe I spent hours removing all those little bits with a tweezer but ultimately ended up taking the entire top apart. I had sixty-eight 10-1/2" blocks to sew back together but so far I've only used 5. 

I squared up all the blocks and used 4 to make this little quilt. The fabrics are mixed--shirtings, seersuckers, flocked flowers, some poly-cottons, etc. 

Then I made this one for a friend. Poor photo on my part! 

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Lately, I've been into collage using lots of different papers. I also joined Margarete Miller's The Vintage & Collage Club where members share their work. 

This was my first attempt. The assignment had to include something that represented: Fire or smoke (Smokey the Bear), Something with a spine (person), Anything that starts with a B (bird), Something royal (postage stamps), A famous city (Cape May NJ), Bonus: A chevron or zig zag pattern (recycled packaging paper).  

Here's another: Bells (wedding bells), Something imaginary (walking jingle bell), Dictionary page, A leaf or leaves (puppies playing in the leaves), Something that turns or spins (wheels), Bonus: A date (1956 car)

It's been a fun journey!

Till next time . . . 

 

Copyright Barbara Schaffer 2026 

 

 

 

Only One Photo

 I decided to fill a wall with lots of small quilts and this was the result.

Happy Holidays! I will be back with another post in the New Year. 

 

 

Copyright Barbara Schaffer 2025 

 

 

 

Christmas Journal and Ebay Quilt Top

 Last month I left off showing you a little Christmas journal that I made with index card dividers. For quite some time I'd been following Margarete Miller's YouTube videos trying to learn how to collage. So when I found the index dividers at the thrift shop I figured it was time to jump in.

Margarete shows you how to make a journal with these dividers using masking tape to connect the pages and add a fabric spine for that finished look. The elastic gold cord was recycled from a box of handmade candies purchased at a local store. 

I'd been keeping Christmas cards for a couple of years so I had all I needed at my fingertips. 

I had so much fun cutting out bits and pieces and arranging them on these small 3" x 5" pages". The Letters on the dividers have nothing to do with the pictures.

I used post-it notes, wrapping paper, stickers, Christmas cards, and patterned papers. 

Even included parts of hand-written notes from family and friends. When it was finished it wouldn't close. I really got carried away!

I have since moved on to making journals out of Junk mail, decorating index cards focused on Books I've Read, and another with pages of flowers. I'll show you more another time.

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Last year I started purchasing quilts/tops on Ebay or Etsy. For some reason I thought it would be faster to work on a few unfinished pieces than to start from scratch.

So I purchased this red and white St. Louis Cardinals top with "historic" World Series patches stitched in a diamond layout. I removed two rows on each side, added the fabric border and machine quilted it diagonally. 
 

Love the 1944 patch! So what am I going to do with this quilt?? I had intended to sell it but opportunities slipped by more than once. Now I think I'll put pics in the local community news hoping there will be a Cardinals fan who would love to have it for Christmas. 

Wishing you all a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Copyright 2025 Barbara Schaffer  

 

Quilt Show and Sale

In August I entered a few quilts in a show/sale in a neighboring town. I was told people come to the show specifically to buy quilts. There were both contemporary and antique quilts on the walls and draped over the pews in a quaint little church. I'll start with the antiques which were not priced.  

Well, I just about melted when I saw this 1840 Oak Leaf and Reel with a Prussian blue border! 

There was some damage in the border with batting poking through in more than a few places.
 

How about this Album Block signature quilt with poison green sashing and turkey red fabrics?

Ohio Stars and 9-Patch blocks in an interesting layout. 

My Call Me Crazy quilt was displayed on the altar--and it sold!

A wonderful quilt made from shirtings--all recycled.

A ladder display of smaller quilts three of which were mine--2nd and 3rd from top and the one on the bottom. 

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On another note . . . 

I started making some small journals. Here is the cover of my Christmas journal made with index card dividers. 

Will show you more next time . . .  

 

 

Copyright Barbara Schaffer 2025 

  

Binding Bits and Thrift

 In my last post I showed you a photo of a quilt I started working on a year ago. I don't remember where or when I discovered the book Sunday Morning Quilts by Amanda Jean Nyberg and Cheryl Arkison but it looked like a good one with with simple patterns using loads of scraps. I chose to make their quilt called Up, Up, and Away.  

Through the years, I had saved the triangle cuttings when piecing binding strips along with white/off-white scraps and that was all I needed to dig in and make these 2-1/2" blocks. 

Starting in the upper right corner I began sewing diagonal rows until I reached the center point. Look what's still up on my wall--the Ella Maria Deacon quilt. Some day I'll get that top assembled.

Binding Bits is 42.5" x 45.5". Dawn D. longarm quilted it and I am so pleased with the result! 

I really like the swirls on top of the triangles :)

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Onto something different . . . 

One of my favorite things to do is go to the thrift shop. There are two in the area and I found myself being a frequent visitor to either one or both.

On one trip, I was looking through a drawer of fabrics and came across a beautifully-worked crewel bell-pull that was unfinished. I knew I wasn't going to complete the embroidery, so used a portion of it for the center of a small quilt. 

Here's a detail. A small unfinished portion is at the top where the embroidery lines are still visible. I slow-stitched the center and machine quilted the borders.

The label :)

Another unfinished piece I found was done in cross stitch with a poem in the center which was never completed. I cut out a floral circle from a damaged vintage hand towel and appliqued it on top to cover the words. 

I did minimal hand and machine quilting to finish it off. Voila!

The last of the series, if you want to call it that, is this small hand-stenciled piece that my DIL gave me along with a bagful of vintage pillow cases, curtains, and Swedish fabrics.  

I cut out a circle from an embroidered linen napkin and appliqued it in the center. Then went crazy with quilted circles throughout. 

The back with another piece of vintage embroidery for the label. 

Well, that's it for now.

It's a beautiful warm sunny day here in the Adirondacks. I'm preparing a strip along the driveway to plant wildflower seeds. Always wanted to do that :)

 

Copyright Barbara Schaffer 2025  
 

Catching Up #3 Fabric Book 2

Last fall (yes! Oct '24) I made another fabric book. You can read about the first one here. 

I'll take you through the pages . . . 

Bits and pieces from Natalie's little baggie of her favorite fabrics. Each page is slow-stitched. 

The back of the cover on the left and my favorite blues on the right. I added buttons from my large collection. 

The back of the prior page on the left and Snow Ball block with label written by Dawn H. "Snow Ball was filthy quilt with paisley backing with whole cloth quilt inside. Bought 2004 Woodbridge NJ. Dawn Hayes Montclair NJ". 

On the left--a combo of Dawn's Snow Ball blocks and Natalie's black and shirting fabrics. On the right--a focus on yellows with a bird cut and fused. More buttons and a selvage strip stitched to twill tape for the binding edge. 

More yellow on the left and Natalie's scraps on the right. Note the fun floral vase button in the middle. 

Oak leaf stripe on the left and more unfinished Snow Balls on the right. I left them just they way they were. 

Neutral Snow Balls on the left and an assortment of greens on the right.  I added that large flower which I've had since the 60s. 

On the left--the back of the previous page. On the right--an assortment of turkey reds. 

 

Ta-da! The back and a finish! There's a total of 8 pages held together with little binding clips :)

 

 

At about this same time I started making 2" blocks with triangle scraps. More coming soon  . . . 

 

Hope you're staying C-O-O-L! 

 

 

 

Copyright Barbara Schaffer 2025