Illustrator

Dear Readers,

In the Spring my former niece, Jennifer, remarried a man with two children.  So since I have made all the other nieces and nephews quilts I decided to make those two children a quilt. 

So in the Spring, I signed up to take a class from Dorinda Evans at the June MQA meeting on using the Stripology rulers to make a pattern by Gudrun Erla out of her Stripology Mixology 3 book called Kimberly.  BTW Gudrun names most of her patterns with girls name.  

I chose to make this one out of various Tula Pink fabrics as Tula is at her core an illustrator.  So I found out Julie, the new step-daughter, loves to draw and do crafts.  So I thought Tula's fabrics would make the best quilt for her.  For the background I found a wide back in Tennessee that I thought look like doodles.  I thought that would be perfect for a girl who likes to draw.  

It should arrive New York tomorrow.  I hope that she will love it.  Welcome to the family Julie!

Sew on,

Terry

 

Summer Dreams

 Dear Readers,  

Had a long time finish last week, but had not had time to write it up.  I finished a Bonnie Hunter quilt that I had started in 2018.  Bonnie's pattern was called Winston Ways, but I renamed it Summer Dreams.

This quilt has a somewhat weird story.  I took a class from Bonnie Hunter that Mississippi Quilt Association had sponsored for their annual Summer Gathering.  This pattern takes a lot of red and white four patches, I won't give the number as it would violate copy rights.  So after the class I made lots and lots of 4 patches.  Within a short period of time I had the four patches done.  I then I kitted up the other the other parts, putting the parts for each block in a ziplock bag.  Then it sat for a long time.  It was sidelined for other projects took priority.  Then last Spring I took the position of temporary librarian at Winona High School.  The librarian monitored 4 classes of on line learning, but that left 3 free periods a day.  After two days, I knew I had to bring a project up to work on when I just had to keep the library open, but not in charge of students except if someone came to turn in or check out a book.  So I went home and packed up the project a travel iron, featherweight and other sewing supplies.  I decided this was the time to work on this Bonnie project.  This quilt is in her book, More Adventures With Leaders and Enders.  That means it is designed to be done in-between other quilts, but I decided to do it in-between the other classes. So I would try to finish 2 blocks a day, so that I could be done by the end of school.  So I did it.  I finished by the end of school, but I had a couple of trips planned and didn't get to quilt it till July.  

The Back

More Cowbells - Updated!

 Hi Readers.  

I don't usually write tutorials but I am going to attempt to write out a tutorial on how I made the cowbell handles.   I used the Missouri Star small tumbler template to make this quilt on both the bell fabric and the handles.   I had seen a quilt made by Robbie Wise at the Fall Gathering in Starkville a few years ago, and my friend Lauren and I both thought we would like to make it.  I looked at this quilt, and realized she had hand appliquéd all the handles.  I don't do hand work,  if I can avoid it, so I decided I would figure out how to machine piece the handles.  This is a picture of her quilt.

Robbie Wise's Cowbell Quilt

The Fabrics:

I used all the different Mississippi State fabrics I could find and added grays, maroons, light maroons, white with maroon prints, blacks with bones and anything with a bulldog or paw print.  Since I had some of that in my stash it is hard to say exactly how much you should buy, but I wish I had thought to add some pirate fabric in honor of Mike Leach, but I didn't think of that.  Lauren suggested that a khaki for the background would make the white bells stand out.  I have also thought about using a black as a background, but then the dog bone fabrics would blend in. I used about 3 yards of background, but a throw would take less.

My Quilt

The Bells:

The Missouri Star template is designed so that it can be used on charm squares.  It is 5 inches tall and almost 5 inches wide at the bottom.  So I cut 5 inch strips of the various bell fabrics and if the fabric was not directional I would cut bells, flipping the tumbler upside down on every other cut.  That way there would be very little waste.   On the State fabrics, it was directional so it could not be flipped and there would be a bit more waste, but it wasn't too bad.  I had a thought later that a charm packet might give greater variations but I haven't seen one that is primarily maroon.  

The Tumber Handles:

I cut 1.5 inch strips of black and 2 inch strips of background and and used the strips to make a width of fabric strip set of background, black, background ironing toward the black. 

 I then cut these strip sets into 3.75 inch sub cuts.  I could get 11 pieces out of one strip set.  I then cut a bright piece of scrap fabric into 2 x 5/8 inch piece.  I used a bright piece so I would not lose it in my sewing area.  This was to be used as a spacer (not to be sewn in) so I would not line the handle block either too close or too far apart on the top of the tumbler strip.  So I took another 2 inch strip of background and put one of the handle on it right sides together and sewed it down.  Then when I got to the end of the handle part, I put my spacer down then another handle part.  I picked up the spacer and sewed my quarter inch seam across the top part and onto the next handle. 

(These are not actual handle pieces, they are end of strip sets that were a bit short or uneven.  I am just showing how I laid them out.)

I repeated this across the whole strip.  I ironed this to what would be the top of the tumbler.  I could fit 8 handle piece on one strip of fabric.  I then used my template to cut the handle tumbler.  Click here to go to MSQC

Layout:

I wanted my cowbells to float so I put tumblers cut out of background (without handles) on the each end of each row and between the handles on the top row.  I also put one background tumbler between each of the bells on the bottom row.   I also put a two inch strip on the bottom the give the bells some space from the borders.  I trimmed the sides two inches out from the side of the last bell.  I did 16 rows of tumblers.  I kind of wish I had done an odd number of rows and alternated rows of 9 and then 8, beginning and ending with 9, but hind sight is twenty-twenty.  In my layout I did 144 handles and 144 bells and 50 background tumblers.  To cut the background tumblers I cut a 5 inch strip and then cut one up and one down on each strip.  I forgot to count but I think you can get 10 or 11 per strip.  I sewed two 2 inch strip pieces end to end and put it under the cowbells, trimming to width of quilt.  I cut strips 5 inches x 15 inches out of the left over bell fabrics and put them around the edges so I could use most of the left over fabrics and not have too much more in the stash.  Here is a quick sketch of a smaller version, if you made the same number of bells in the top row as the bottom row.  

Finishing:

I used a gray and maroon plaid on the back.  Thought it looked like a man's shirt.  I put a piece of MSU fabric across it where I had to seam it together to make it big enough.

Back

label

I created a worksheet to help you plan your quilt...Cowbell Quilt Worksheet

Options:

This technique could be used to make Christmas Bells or as my friend Naomi suggested that they could be chimneys of houses or if you turned them upside down you could make popsicles.  So rethink how you use your tumbler templates!  The options are endless!

Sew on, 

Terry

Update:  Jim loved the quilt!!  His praise was over the top!  

The Picnic Quilt

Dear Readers,

One of the summer challenges of the Mississippi Quilt Association was to finish a UFO.  I, like many quilters, have many UFO's.  I was looking through some of them and found this one based on a block called the Massachusetts block.  If you like the block, click here to see the instructions.  This UFO stemmed from a program that we did one year at Possum Town Quilters in Columbus, MS.  These had sat around for at least 7 or 8 years.  They were gifted to me the year before I moved over here to Winona.   The program was you could pick a block and ask every one that would like to to make you one in your chosen colors and pattern.  I chose to ask for one in creams or whites with 30's fabric or mock 30's fabrics.

One of the nice thing about this design web site, is that they have figured out all the sizes for you for common sized blocks.  I asked the guild members for the 12 inch finished size.  Like all group sewing  projects, some did not work out, as the colors were so light that the block disappeared or they came out too small.  A few were too big, but I trimmed them down and lost some points, but went with it anyway.  I made about 4 or 5 more blocks to fill out the collection and then put them together.  One of the things I love about this block is it is an asymmetrical block.  That means there are lots of different arrangements.  I chose to do a barn raising style setting.  The other exciting thing about this quilt is it is the first one I did on my new long arm.

It isn't great, but I am excited.  Here in Winona, I have been hanging my quilts on my fence to photograph.  Well, I was never happy about photographing quilting large quilts, as they would hang into the garden!  This quilt is 84 x 84, so it is definitely taller than my fence.  About that time Fred's was closing and I saw a curtain rod for 80% off and I bought it and put the curtain supports up on my porch.  When I was at the Innova dealer near Nashville, I noticed that they had quilts hung from pipes with bulldog clips zip tied to the pipe.  I was talking to them about it and they suggested keeping them a little loose so they could slide up and down the pipe.  So here is what is looks like at the top.

I know it would not do for a show quilt, but, most of my quilts are not show quilts.  I want the recipient to use and enjoy the quilts.

Sew long,

Terry