Historic Home and Quilts

Last Sunday was the Livingston Historical Society's Christmas Tea at the Force Homestead Museum. 

 

The original house (center section) was built by Theophilus Ward in 1745 and consisted of one large room both downstairs and upstairs. In 1777 Samuel Force, a French Huguenot, purchased the house for his son, Thomas (b. 1758), who served in the Revolutionary War and was a prisoner of war on the British ship "Jersey." Thomas and his wife, Hannah Smith, moved into the house after the war and had ten children.

Every year the historical society decorates the downstairs with fresh-cut greens and fruit.

My favorite room is the "blue bedroom" with its calimanco (glazed wool) spread.   

My friend, Renee, and I tried taking some detailed pics but it was really difficult to capture the color.   

Most turned out silvery-gray instead. We couldn't figure it out.

In any case the quilting is quite beautiful. The center looks like a pineapple. 

And along the edge is a lovely vine.

There were several other quilts displayed on chairs.
 

 A Friendship Star variation with a thick batting.

A silk Log Cabin. 
 

And a chintz star with toile setting squares. 

On the way out I took this pic in the buttery where many of my milk bottles reside :) 

The most recent project at the house was total reorganization and labeling of all the tools in the barn by a young man who was earning his Eagle Scout badge. He did an outstanding job!

Hope you have a wonderful week!




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Copyright 2017, Barbara Schaffer

This 'n That Again

Not too much going on this week . . . 

. . . but I did manage to applique another leaf and combine it with more stars. The blocks are not sewed together. Still not sure where all this is headed.  

To applique the leaf I put freezer paper on the right side of the fabric, cut it out, then pin using small applique pins for a little extra reinforcement. I leave about 1/8" all around turning under as I sew. The paper stays on until I'm done. The result is a nice "crisp" applique.

I bought some new fabric online from Hancock's :)

Hundreds of birds made a stop in our backyard! I took these pics from inside. 

Cold weather makes me think of two crazy quilts I have that once belonged to my mother-in-law. I believe a friend had given them to her. This is one and it weighs a ton! It's made entirely of velvet scraps and tied with green yarn. 

And I better get crankin' if I want to make and finish this fish pillow for my brother's big birthday the end of December :) Stay tuned.

Have a great week!




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Copyright 2017, Barbara Schaffer
 

All Over the Place

It's that time again when I scramble to squeeze in all the things I want to do before we head up north for the holiday. I've got projects 'all over the place'. Would you like to see them?

First stop: Family Room on the chair where I can see 5 Hexies from all angles. Last week I basted, marked, and started quilting this piece. 

On the sofa I've spread out this beautiful Dutch panel that Rachel gave me 17 years ago and made little hexies for the first border. This is a good spot for me to evaluate color placement. More to come :)

In my lap. I'm sewing the binding on my Fall Quilt.

Second Stop: Sewing Room where I put projects on the floor so I can see them when I enter the room. The December Block of the Month is a  Double Nine Patch in wintery blues and crisp whites. It's 14" unfinished. That's a blue on blue print--not black. 

I just had to take a pic of this 1979 Bucilla Patchwork Fan quilt kit that my sister-in-law sent me. Those fabrics sure are bright! I'm not making this quilt anytime soon :)

This is the start of a new project. Well, actually the leaf is the new part. The stars are leftover from the Stars In A Time Warp SAL so I'm really just playing around with this combo. I appliqued the leaf yesterday just because . . :) 

And on my design wall is the layout for the basket blocks I've been making in Barb V's unofficial SAL. I'm leaning toward a narrow dark inner border and a large floral outer border Edyta Sitar-style.

 

I saw this postcard at the Brownstone Show announcing an exhibit of NJ DAR's historic quilts. You can read more about the Schuyler-Hamilton house here and Morris County's Holly Walk on Dec. 2 & 3 here. 

Check out this interesting NJ quilt on Barbara Brackman's Cloud of Quilt Patterns blog :) HQPNJ documented this quilt at the Hunterdon County Quilt Discovery Day in 1989. Make sure you click on the link under the photo to access the information on The Quilt Index.

See you next week and have a . . .

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Copyright 2017, Barbara Schaffer

Brownstone Quilt Show & GSQ Block

Last Saturday, Rachel, Dawn and I met up at the Brownstone Quilters Guild show in Allendale, NJ, where we spent a delightful couple of hours looking at quilts, seeing friends and enjoying a cup of tea :)  Here are some pics.

Best of Show was awarded to Daryl Ferber for her Classic Christmas Cactus quilt. Beautifully long-arm quilted by another but my photo of the label was out of focus. My apologies for not mentioning her name. 

Industrial Chic was made by Diane Fama who wanted to make a quilt for herself using Tim Holtz's fabrics. It received multiple awards: Best Machine Workmanship, NQA Award of Merit, 1st Place Bed Quilt, Pieced.

It was so much fun to see Barb V's one block wonder Snow Flower and the Secret Fan in person. It won 3rd place in the Large Wall Quilt, Pieced category. Yay, Barb! Wonderfully effective straight line quilting on this piece!

 

I'm really attracted to all things 'selvage' and this quilt didn't disappoint. Rags to Riches was made by Norma Abate and quilted by Mary Diamond. It was an adaptation of a pattern by Tina Craig.  

 

A Tisket,  A Tasket, A Quilt Full of Baskets was made by Sandra Sorge and beautifully hand-quilted by Bellweather Dry Goods. Sandra wrote, "This quilt was made in tandem with a friend of mine who hated applique and learned to love it."

 

Wanderlust was also made by Sandra Sorge and quilted by Bellweather Dry Goods. Both patterns--this one and baskets above--are by P3 Designs. Sandra wrote, "Since I have 'Wanderlust' and have only been to 20 states, this is my journey to the rest one stitch at a time." Great idea, don't you think? P3 Designs calls this series American Album Limited Edition and features a Baltimore Album block for each state. 

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This is the Disappearing Four-Patch block I made for our guild's November Block of the Month. There was an overwhelming response with 50+ blocks turned in--and one lucky winner! 

I'm picking up two quilts from Barbie this afternoon. Now all I have to do is bind both before Christmas!

Have a great week!




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Copyright 2017, Barbara Schaffer

Zig-Zags and Thanking A Vet--or 2 :)

Remember the zig-zag border I wanted to put on my 5 Hexies top? Well, it didn't happen.

This is the effect I was hoping to achieve . . . 

. . . and this is what I ended up doing. So much better!

It took some playing around with lots of 2" hsts but it was well worth the effort. 

The border is Windham's Attic Heirlooms by Pat Speth c. 1845 #24161. Thank you, Susan, for these great fabrics!

I filled in the empty spaces with little hexie flowers.

After I finished making this one I realized I had three (3!) pieces going in the wrong direction so had to rip out and do over. That's not the first time something like this has happened :)

These are two of my favorite books for chintz quilt inspiration. I'm working on another top but I'll show it to you when it's together. 

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This Veteran's Day I'd like to thank my husband, Ben (2nd from L), for his service in the U.S. Army. He went through the ROTC program at the University of Idaho and reported for duty May 1961 as a 2nd Lt. At that time, he was the Leonia (NJ) Community Center director and a substitute teacher at the high school where I was a senior. Someone at the school (not me, lol!) started a petition to delay his call to duty as the kids in town didn't want him to leave but the U.S. Army said he had to report so off he went :) He was stationed at Fort Benning, GA, where he was assigned to the General's Staff and Special Events. He had orders for Vietnam but back surgery prevented him from going. This photo was taken Dec. 10, 1962. 

 

I'd also like to thank his dad, Ben, a career Marine who served in Korea and Vietnam. His final resting place is Holy Sepulcher Cemetery, Orange, CA.

Please remember to thank a Veteran this Saturday :)

Have a great week!




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Copyright 2017, Barbara Schaffer