Craft of the week - Clothes pin bag

I have always enjoyed hanging my laundry outside to dry.  After my last clothespin bag could no longer be used,  I couldn't find a sturdy one locally.  

I made this one with a plate mounted rope hook, 4 recycled buttons, a heavy cotton/linen dish towel and some quilting thread.

Vintage Amish Wool Wall Hanging

Adding quilting lines

Vintage Unfinished Project

When I received this project, it was sandwiched with a lovely vintage beige cotton backing, soft batting  and the heart quilting lines marked with one third quilted.  The rest of the project was not marked for quilting. 

Deciding on the type of additional quilting to add.

I added feathered scrolls to the large open spaces and cross hatching to the black inside border.  I repeated that design element into the empty pink area.  One inch cross hatching inside the feathered heart and two inch cross hatching outside the heart.

Quilting and finishing

Hand quilting done with black thread throughout.  This is traditional for Amish projects of this time.

Binding done with black wool.  Front of double binding sewn by machine with the back sewed by hand.  

A sleeve was made from the excess vintage cotton backing.  One edge sewn into the top of binding and bottom hand sewn in place.

Wool

Don't let wool intimidate!  This was my first wool project and it was a joy to work.  It was soft and quite easy to manipulate.  I would welcome another wool project!

Off to its home

This project is back to its owner in Scarborough, Maine.

Completed with black wool binding and sleeve

Wall hanging with echo quilting

 Wall hanging in process

One of my favorite customers mailed me this small top to quilt.  She often requests that 'I do my thing' with the quilting design.  Both of us love echo quilting so I include echo quilting lines in most of her projects.

As with all my projects, I start quilting in the center of the piece.  I outlined the women and their dresses in matching colored thread.  The square surrounding them is quilted with matching gold, black and tan thread using the fabric designs to determine the quilting lines.   

The echo quilting was done in the beige crescents. using beige thread and in the rust and black fabrics next to the crescents.

Using thread to match the fabrics gives the illusion of movement in the piece without the distraction of another color in the thread.

This project was sent back to its owner for binding.

Navy blue traditional quilt

Even after 34 years of hand quilting, there are more techniques, colors and patterns to try.  This navy blue and off white traditional piece is hand quilted with off white thread.  I typically match the thread color with the fabric so this was a leap for me.  

As I began quilting, I wasn't convinced there would be a great outcome.  As I worked along, I was pleasantly surprised with the off white thread on navy.  The effect is striking.  The hand quilting becomes a more dominate feature of the quilt. 

This customer quilt will reside in NH with a couple of the nicest people I have met through my quilting work. 

Tumblers - a modern version of a 1920's classic

 I first saw a modern tumbler quilt at the Ivy Thimble in NY during a trip to visit my daughter a couple years ago.  We bought some fabric at the shop to go along with her living room color scheme. 

To make the tumblers I started with an 8" square and  cut from the corner 1"  in  on two parallel sides.

Hand quilting included 1/4" on each side of the vertical seams.  I marked each of the borders with a simple wave pattern template and a sliver of soap.

I completed the quilt in time for her 28th birthday. 

Squeaky

 Thirteen years ago I offered my daughter a cat for her 15th birthday.  We went to the local animal shelter to check out what they had for adult cats.  I had never seen so many cats in one place.  Quickly we narrowed our choice down to Pepper, a petite young adult.  Betsy named her Ferris. 

This little cat talked constantly.  She talked in  a high pitched squeak.  Soon she was Squeaky to me.  She followed me around the house doing laundry, dishes, chores  (no chore was too boring for Squeaky) and she became my little pal.

Squeaky loved quilting.  When she was young, she would sit next to me and watch every quilting stitch.  She would sit next to the sewing machine as I sewed bindings.  Unlike many cats, she didn't try to grab the thread  or fabric.  She just watched.  She loved  a freshly ironed quilt top.

As she grew older, she slept during much of our quilting time.  The top picture was taken two weeks ago.

 She died last Wednesday, April 24.  On Thursday she was buried in my side perennial garden  near a lilac shrub. 

Purple and Gold Wall hanging

This customer wall hanging before being shipped to the owner for binding.  The gold fabric and batik were very tightly woven and it was challenging to echo quilt. 

The batting was wool.  I've worked on two or three projects with wool batting this year.  It is soft and easy to needle.  The only drawback has been the batting beards through the fabric.

The project may be shown at a NH quilt show this autumn.