Another Little Project...

I have been working on this in between quilts. It was in a bag of donated fabrics I received several years ago. Just one lonely block, hand stitched, stained and in bad shape.

 I soaked it in the sink with Oxyclean and it cleaned up nicely.

Then, I trimmed off the worst of the edges...

...trying to preserve as much of the points as I could.

I drew a 9.5 inch square on a piece of muslin and ironed it nice and flat and square on my ironing board.  While the quilt block was still wet, I stretched, nudged and pinned it to fit.  Here it is pinned to my ironing board to dry.

After it was dry, and before I took the pins out, I starched and steamed it with my iron to coax it into shape. The perimeter is nice and square, but the center will always be skewed a bit.

Quilted it to a piece of muslin with a scrap of Hobbs 80/20.

I had a hard time finding a 9 inch square frame.  I ordered this from Amazon and I didn't have much choice of color or style in this size. I am framing a few more old quilt blocks and will then decide if I keep it black or paint them and give them a rustic finish.

I think the tilted center gives it a bit of charm.

For now, I stuck it in this little vignette. But, I have other plans for this and other's like in the near future.  I will share when I get that project done this spring.

   

More Vintage Blocks Finished!

Well, it's a quilt now and I am excited to see how it worked out.

I had several goals with this quilt:

1) To preserve this lady's 6 surviving blocks from vintage fabrics and make sure the blocks themselves were not altered from her original work.  

2) Somehow use up her collection of 4 patch blocks (that didn't match anything) in the same quilt.

3) To make this really simple quilt rock with some interesting quilting...nothing traditional.

4) This is for her grandson for his wedding...he and his fiance are ranch kids.

4) To only use what was in my stash.

Goal #1

Goal #2 The back

Goal #3 & 4

Goal #5  Everything but her blocks were from my stash of fabric and thread.

Would I have ever picked out all this for a quilt?  Not in a million years.

But...I think it's a great save for this lady's blocks to be passed on to her grandson.

More Vintage Blocks #3

I went back up and finished the top. 

Simple lines and only an outline on the appliqued blocks.

I didn't want to take away or add to the original work this lady did.

I finished the center panel. 

I like how this is turning out. 

I stabilized the quilt all the way to the bottom and will start marking the reverse design (the diamonds and sun) for the bottom of the quilt.

More Vintage Blocks #2

Ok here is where this quilt is going...

I have stabilized the applique blocks, but will do them last after I change to white thread.

This is a case of cutting the fabric and stitching it to fit the quilting design I wanted to do. ..it came out pretty dang good!

More Vintage Blocks

I started this project way back in March....Here

Remember these?

...and these? 

Well, I just finished piecing the back for this quilt.  It's going to be interesting...

I am going to take this...

...put this on the back...

...quilt it using these tools...

....and it's going to rock!

....I hope.

Vintage Blocks Have a Home!

Whoot!  It's quilted and I am thrilled with the back....the front's not bad either.

I started to quilt a separate design in the borders but after looking on the back, I decided it detracted from the back....I love the back.

So, I did a freehand overall. 

You will find it interesting that I used "Grizzly Bear" So Fine thread by Superior.

Look how it magically blends with different colors.  Here is looks rose colored:

Here is looks blue 

It blends nicely with the yellow. 

It actually takes on a bluish/green tone in the yellow. 

I will bind it in the morning.  I need to decide what color I will use.

I think I will sleep on it....

Vintage Fun progress....

Ok here's the first 2 borders.  The skinny pink border is made from the backing fabric.

The top is finished with a 5 inch yellow print.

The dark swirls are blue like the inner sashing.

Here are the blocks I am using in the backing.

They were different sizes, so I made 2 columns and outlined them in the blue from the top sashing fabric.

Here is the backing done and ready to load. 

Can't wait to get it on the frame and start quilting!

Vintage Fun!

Do you remember these?

This photo is a very true color.

  I posted a while back about using these vintage blocks here.

In my search for the perfect sashing fabric, I came across the holy grail of vintage fabrics--right in my own stash!!

Selvage to selvage

Whoot! 

...and the most perfect color too...

This helped to organize the chaos of the patchwork. I have to have organized scrappy. 

I didn't want to put cornerstones in the sashing because that would throw another scrap into the mix I had just tamed.  Here is what I do when you have to add a length of sashing between rows of blocks.

I press a mark at each intersection as if I had a cornerstone.

Then I pin the mark to the seam on the opposing row I am attaching, just like you would if were matching seams.

This makes a nice even grid without corner stones.

Ok, I am done for tonight. Tomorrow, I will put another blue/green (I wonder what they called that color?) border around this 12 block section and then think about what I will do next.

I have to come up with a plan to use some of these other blocks on the back.

I'm sure it will come to me in the middle of the night!

WIP Vintage Blocks #2

Here is my progress on the appliqued blocks.

I put a 1 inch border around each one and then pieced them into my lighter fabric. 

I will do the same with the other 3.  This will be the top and bottom of the quilt.

The white fabric is a nice quality. The edges were torn, making me appreciate my rotary cutter. I starched, pressed and squared up these blocks before adding an assortment of different browns for the borders. 

...back when selvages were only 1/4 inch (and fabric was only 36 inches wide)

I will bet she made these blocks when she got her first zig-zag machine.

I didn't get a machine that did a zig-zag stitch until 1980.

I love this black and tan fabric!