Southern Comfort

It was a charmed and delightful trip to Alabama and Tennessee!  We laughed and laughed, made new "sisters," ate well, walked and sewed until we dropped.  

Victoria, Mary, Bonnie and Kim have posted lots of great photos of the workshop with 

China and Mary Ann Pettway of Gee's Bend, Alabama.  So I'll post other parts of the trip. 

This is the path between our sleeping cabin and the sewing/dining room.

Rocking chairs on porches seem to represent the South.  These were on our back porch.

Bonnie, Tina and I stayed an extra day with Mary in Tennessee.  We went to a couple of antique shops and found some amazing old quilts!  Tina came home with this top.

And this quilt.

I bought this Rocky Road to Kansas top.

And this top.

And this quilt, all made of silky fabrics.  

I worked with some of my old baby clothes that were sewn by my grandmother.  China Pettway helped a lot.  I came home with one rendition, but decided I didn't like it.  So I picked out the blocks and started over.  Here's last night's version.  I'm still not pleased, but will keep going until I like it!  

Alabama or Bust!

Greetings from the kitchen table--my temporary sewing and computer space!  We've got some serious down-sizing going on at our house.  Soon I'll have a room for sewing.

Next week I'll be in Alabama to sew with some dear friends and some Gee's Bend quilt makers.  I've prepared hand work for the journey.

In my cleaning-out-of-all-things-unused, I came across some of my baby clothes.  I'm going to take them to Alabama and make a quilt.  My grandmother, an excellent seamstress made these.  I may shed some tears while cutting them up.  But I decided it's better to put them into a quilt that I can see every day, than to have them sit in the cedar chest for another 50 years.

I actually have a faint memory of this pillow case and a photo of me sleeping on it!

Do they call this a "romper?"  I must have had a few.  There are photos of me in other ones.

How about that skirt in the back?  I wonder if this is where I got my love of red and green plaids.

I suppose this is a nightgown.  Looks like a choking hazard to me.

Red gingham and rickrack!  What could be better?

Little bitty buttons

I can't imagine doing all this handwork, and then letting a toddler run around in this!

Ta-da!

I'd been wanting to make this quilt for a long time.  I thought it might take all winter, and it did!  Hence the name, "Spring Equinox."   87" x 87"

The inspiration came from this 1930's string quilt in Gwen Marston's Liberated String Quilts Book.  

Sarah Fielke made a similar quilt in the book, Material Obsession Two, by she and Kathy Doughty.  I started off by using the instructions in the book, which are great.  But I decided to try making it without foundation piecing.  

Wanda suggested I make the webs with strips, and I tried it.  I found I could get two and a half webs from two sets of four strips.  Half webs go on the edges.  The kaleidoscope ruler was key.  

To get pinwheels in the middles, I sewed the pinwheel fabrics on after the strips were cut.

And cut them again. 

I made the connecting pieces 15 minutes play style and cut them with a template.  I had to figure out a  template size that would fit with the pie shape pieces.  First I tested it with muslin.

Here are the pieces for one block. 

First you sew them into triangles...

Then squares, using lots of pins...

Then rows.  10 rows x 10 blocks each = 100 blocks = 1 queen size quilt!

Any ideas on quilting it?

A Little Progress and a Lot of Fabric

The webs are mostly done.  

And I made 40 more kite shapes, with 40 more to go.
It's a good thing they only take 15 minutes!


Meanwhile, I've been opening the mailbox to find the most wonderful vintage fabrics!

From Brenda in Canada and Marian in Utah

Marian is Em's mom, and also sent this box of squares.

From Bonnie in Michigan and Janet in Yukon Territory

From Theodora in Greece

From Cheryl in Illinois

From Rachel in Australia

From Wanda in Illinois


I am constantly amazed by quilt-makers generosity and support.  Is it all the sewing that makes you so nice?  Or is it that only the nicest people make quilts?

Caught in the Spider Web

Just 8 more webs to go, plus about 100 scrappy kites!  

Meanwhile, I've been receiving the most wonderful vintage fabrics from fellow collectors and blog friends.

These are from Julie.  They were quilt backs and a pin cushion that belonged to her grandmother!

These are from Hilda. 

These came from Cheryl.

These are from Victoria

These are from the Rebels.

These came from Sharon, Patty and Beth--who included some lovely Dresden plates!

                                  Thank you so much!!!
Once the Spider Web lets me go, I look forward to making these into two quilts!