Machine Quilting & Seaweed Stars

The good news is that I finished the blue and white Bowtie. The not-so-good news is that I felt like I was a novice all over again!  

It all started when I thought I'd be ahead of the game by marking the quilting lines the evening before so I could start machine quilting the next morning. I used the Disappearing Ink Marking Pen by Loops & Threads and relied on their instructions which said the ink normally disappears in 48-72 hours. That sounded good to me until I looked at the quilt in the morning and was shocked to find the lines were mostly gone! Time to start over. 

My plan was to machine quilt the diagonals first corner-to-corner then the outer edges. I thought that would anchor the piece which it did. Then I filled in with a large cross-hatch allover. I was pleased to see no puckers by the time I had finished. This was the first time using Hobbs Fusible Batting and I must admit it was nice--no shifting, no separating. 

But I really didn't want to spend a whole lot of time on this piece other than to practice machine quilting so I decided to bind it by bringing the back to the front and top-stitching it down. As a result the edges are a bit wavy and I thought this just doesn't look like something I'd be proud of! So what did I do? I donated it to the Historical Society to sell at a Christmas Fair :) 

As for last week's stars I really had to dig deep to find some Seaweed-like prints . . .  

. . . this also came in a blue/green colorway. 

  

 

Do you remember these fabrics from The Sara Johnson Collection? 
 

 

Lucky me! I now have two more stars to add to my growing collection. Thank you Barb for the Neon print and Vivian for the Provincial :) I appreciate your thoughtfulness and sharing these fabrics with me!  

Happy Sewing!

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Copyright 2015, Barbara Schaffer

Patriots Path, Cloud & Storm Stars, Patchwork Aprons

I think I'm in Hexie Heaven!

I started making Patriots Path in Barb V's Hex Vex workshop last month. I used all patriotic fabrics including the navy/white border with the words "America the Beautiful." I'm not sure yet how I'm going to quilt it. 

After several attempts at making the "perfect hexie" for the center, I finally decided on a combination of presidential portraits and Lady Liberty surrounded by stars.  

Clouds & Storms stars and 3 have the same fabric only different colors. Don't you love it when some days star blocks go together easily; other days nothing seems to go right? That was my Monday. Constantly ripping out!

I love this fabric. You can see a photo of the original on Barbara B.'s blog.

 

I've been hanging on to some fabric samples for about 20 years and now I think they may fall into "cloud and storm-like prints." They came in five colorways--blue, green, pink, lavender and beige. To me the colors always seemed "off" so I avoided using them in my repro quilts. This is the green version. 

 

I put a French General fabric in the center of this star but it has a different look. Must be the gray.

 

Would you like to see a few more aprons? This one may have done by a child. Even though the stitches are extra large, the pieces different sizes and the seams uneven, I find it appealing!

 

A cheater cloth print right off the bolt--36" wide. The selvages are on both sides and it's pleated at the waistband. 

Paisleys and birds and butterflies are combined with a large gold and white plaid for an interesting effect. The bottom edge is finished with green rickrack. Stitched by machine. 

 

Here's a detail.  

 

 

A patchwork apron with an assortment of fabrics and white rickrack.

I use this like-new apron as a curtain in the laundry room. The waistband and ties are made of small squares pieced together. Someone spent a lot of time making this one :)


Happy Sewing! 

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Copyright 2015, Barbara Schaffer

Provincial Stars, Quilt Show & Misc.

Oh, I wish I had a yellow and red Provincial print for just one star! 

Instead I had large florals and the Wm. Penn fabric I'm using in my Stars quilt.

A floral stripe by Andover Fabrics . . .

. . . and one by Faye Burgos for Marcus Brothers. 

Nice primary colors.

Windham's Wm. Penn's Vision c. 1820 by Patty Harants. 


Last Friday I met Rachel at the Brownstone Quilters Show in Allendale, NJ. It's one of our favorites with lots of beautiful quilts. 

Best In Show was Kaleidoscope by Daryl Ferber quilted by Barbara Tibus. It also won 1st Place in the Bed Quilt Professionally Quilted category. The origin of the pattern was "Blessings" from Quiltmania.

Hexagon Star by Meryl Liss won Best Hand Workmanship in the Bed Quilt Pieced category. 

Barb V.s Jubilee Quilt won 1st Place in the Bed Quilt Appliqued category. There was a 2nd ribbon, too--Quilt Show Chair! Just look at those perfectly round stuffed berries! Congrats, Barb!

And yet another prizewinner! Barb's Hot Flash took an Honorable Mention. Hop on over to her blog to see more.

Ohio - My Birth State was made by Diane Zettler. The pattern was from Fons & Porter magazine. There are 123 stars!

Over Time by Ellen Van Howling won 3rd place in the Bed Quilt Pieced category. It's an interesting mix of techniques, fabrics, and fancy machine quilting.

Look at all these Bowties--82 of them from Barb's Civil War Bowtie swap and no two are alike :)

And guess what was tucked in with the Bowties? This charming assortment of Conversation Prints from Nancy R. Thank you so much!

Remember when I purchased this Bowtie top at a church sale? I decided I'm going to use it to practice machine quilting. I added borders and fused all three layers together using Hobbs Fusible Batting. We'll see how it goes. 

I spotted one of the pillowcase dresses I made for Dresses for Bolivia on Lori's Humble Quilts Blog here. The 11th pic down shows a little girl wearing it over a blue tee :)  Thanks, Lori, for the opportunity!   

Woo-Hoo! Phase I of the  Woodlawn Cemetery Project (Bronx, NY) is complete and I was one of the top six volunteers with 48,762 data entries! Is that crazy?? This was over a period of 7 months--January to August. Stay tuned . . .    

 

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Copyright 2015, Barbara Schaffer

Honoring Women Veterans

On this Veterans Day let's remember some of the women who served our country during World War II. 

Hanover Cemetery, E. Hanover, Morris, NJ

 

 GRACE J DUSENBURY

CPL US ARMY

WORLD WAR II

MAR 20 1901  SEP 30 1979

ENLISTED 17 APR 1943

RELEASED 22 JUNE 1945 

Divorced / No Dependents

Branch: Chaplain

Mrs. Grace J. Dusenbury, 78, a Livingston resident for 55 years, died Sunday, September 30, in Saint Barnabas Medical Center. She was a descendant of Newark founder Robert Treat and Jasper Crane, and also of Thomas Budd, pioneer settler in Western New Jersey.

Born in Brooklyn Mrs. Dusenbury was a secretary to Judge Harold Lindeman of the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court in Newark for 22 years before retiring. She also was the first president of the Livingston Women's Club and vice chairman of the Livingston Republican Committee from 1930 to 1941.

A member of the Livingston Methodist Church, Mrs. Dusenbury lived in the old Crane homestead in Livingston which her family had owned since 1740.

A Women's Army Corps veteran of World War II, Mrs. Dusenbury was a member of the East Orange American Legion Post 406 and the Disabled American Veterans Association. She also belonged to the Historical Societies of New Jersey, Livingston and Florham Park, and was a member of the Antique Club of New Jersey, the Twin Brook Kennel Club, the Sussex Hill Kennel Club and the Borzoi Club of New Jersey.

Services were held Wednesday in the Hopping Funeral Home. Survivors include a son, George of Livingston; one sister, Mrs. Jason Cooper of Madison, two grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. [West Essex Tribune, Oct 4, 1979]

Many years ago I was at a local garage sale and purchased Grace's wedding veil. She was married in 1920, had a son the following year and was divorced by 1930. This year I finally donated the veil to the Historical Society where it will be preserved for future generations :)  

 Hanover Cemetery, E. Hanover, Morris, NJ

 RUTH N DUSENBURY

NEW JERSEY

Y3 USNR

WORLD WAR II

FEB 20 1921  JUNE 23 1964

I couldn't find any information about Ruth's military service. No relation that I know of to Grace Dusenbury (above). 

Hanover Cemetery, E. Hanover, Morris, NJ

F EILEENE BRUECHE

1ST LT US ARMY

WORLD WAR II

1912  1977

ENLISTED 16 FEB 1942

RELEASED 8 DEC 1945

Hanover Cemetery, E. Hanover, Morris, NJ

 

 KATHERINE D FIALA

CPL US ARMY

WORLD WAR II

1920  1985

ENLISTED 22 FEB 1944

RELEASED 7 DEC 1945

Katherine Delores Roeder was born August 6, 1920 in Indiana where she enlisted in the Women's Army Corps at the age of 24. She died April 18, 1985 in Green Village, Morris, NJ.   

 Haselton Cemetery, Wilmington, Essex, NY

VIRGINIA E CONDIFF

MAJ US ARMY

WORLD WAR II

JUNE 13 1914 MAY 16 1994

Select Military Registers 1862-1985

News of her funeral service was reported on May 20, 1994 in the Press-Republican, Plattsburgh, NY: "A funeral service for Virginia Cundiff, 79, who died Monday, May 16, 1994, at the Albany V.A. Hospital, was held Thursday, at the Church of the Nazarene in Wilmington . . . American Legion Post 504 conducted military services."

 The Veterans Memorial in Wilmington, NY. 

 ERECTED BY

TOWN OF WILMINGTON, N.Y.

IN HONOR OF

THE VETERANS OF OUR TOWN

WHO HAVE SERVED IN THE

ARMED FORCES OF THEIR COUNTRY

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SERVICE!

I'll be back tomorrow with my regularly scheduled post :) 

__________

Copyright 2015, Barbara Schaffer

Embroidered Coverlet, Sprigged Muslin Stars, and Etc.

Our local historical society recently acquired an embroidered coverlet dated 1937. It contains 97 signatures of members of the Ella Pruden Club of Livingston, NJ.
 

Ella Pruden was born in 1886 in Iowa but was a resident of NJ from 1920-1940 She was the State Warden of Eola Council #103 in 1935 and Associate Junior Past State Councillor in 1939. Her husband, Edward, worked for the DeCamp Bus Lines in town. She had two children: Lois and Walter whose names also appear on the coverlet. 

The Ella Pruden Club was a local chapter of Daughters of America (not Daughters of the American Revolution) which was the women's counterpart of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics. It was organized in 1925 as a secret patriotic order composed of American-born citizens. The center of the coverlet contains the names of the State Council Officers in 1937.

The Livingston Eola Council was instituted by Nat'l Representative Sadie Linkletter in 1930 but there were other councils in the area as well: Star of Caldwell, Pride of Bottle Hill, Pride of Eagle Rock, Star of James T. Boyd, Colonel Roosevelt, Martha Washington, Good Intent, Old Glory, and Uncle Sam. 

Quite a few of the names on the coverlet were of women who were born between 1859-1899 and their daughters born 1895-1933. 

You know I am a big fan of FindAGrave.com so was pleasantly surprised to discover I had taken gravestone photos of some of those ladies whose names were on the coverlet. I had even added the obituary for member Emily Mildred Vinson. 

Here are my Sprigged Muslins & Indiennes from last week.

Maybe a Sprigged Muslin background?

A small leaf print as the points.

 Another as the background. 

An allover pattern for the star.

I finally got a pic of the hawk that terrorizes the little birds at my feeder. Poor things. They are frantic when he comes around.

 
I thought I saw three soccer balls in my garden, LOL! But they are Giant Puffball mushrooms :)

The NY Mets may have lost the series but back on Oct. 26, 1882 the NY Metropolitans and Philadelphia played the last of their series of 12 games for a silver punch bowl :) My gr-grandfather Frank Hankinson (back row 2nd from right) played 3rd base for the NY team. He was 26 years old. 

Have a great week!




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Copyright 2015, Barbara Schaffer