A Little More On The Wedding Quilt!

Next challenge is to scavenge as much yardage as possible from the gown. 

 The tape measure indicates seams.

Here I have added the dimensions of the sections that make up the skirt. I decided to forgo pressing until I launder the fabric to remove discoloration, fearing that heat may set the unwelcome stains.

I do not have EQ so I am wondering if there might be some other program that would show me how to divide up this fabric into the most useable blocks given that I need everything I can get to make a full size quilt.

That's where I am right now, I knew this would be the most difficult part of the project and once I figure that out it should go smoothly. Any ideas or suggestions are most welcome!

On a more productive note, I went looking for binding for the "Jacks" quilt and found more than half of what I needed already made, left from other quilt projects. 

I added a few more bits from my scrap collection and ended up with a nicely scrappy finish. It's always a good feeling to have another quilt "done, done".

The Wedding Gown Quilt

I promised to post about this project, and I thought to show all the steps along the way! There are unknowns going into such a process, sometimes there are challenges that make changes unavoidable.

Here is the vintage gown, circa 1960……… 

It was beautiful, silk, with tiny covered buttons in back and on the sleeves and lace down the front of the bodice and skirt with a built in train. Andrea's Mother must have been a petite lady judging by the gown, very small sleeves and a 22" waist.

The first step was to remove the skirt from the bodice so I could get an idea of how much useable fabric we could harvest. The gown was not cleaned before storing, so I will need to clean the fabric before attempting construction, but it may in the long run have been better not to have dry cleaning fluid in those delicate fibers all these years. Contrary to popular understanding dry cleaning is extremely harsh and much too severe for many fabrics especially vintage and antique items. I took a small piece and laundered it gently in a Biz solution, that's the product my professional quilt appraiser Karen Housner recommends. Karen is a quilt historian, lecturer and teacher and collector of vintage and antique quilts so I trust her advice implicitly.

This is the piece after laundering and pressing, it came out very well so I will need to treat the remainder of the gown fabric the same way. After deliberating over whether to launder before or after cutting the blocks I think it may be easier to handle and press smaller pieces if I cut it up first.

 Along with the gown I received almost five dozen vintage handkerchiefs passed down from Andrea's Mother and Grandmother. Many of them had yellowed in storage so I soaked them in the Biz solution and they came out pristine, all the stains gone!

 You can see how the water turned yellow as it pulled the stains out of the hankies. After rinsing multiple times I rolled them in a clean towel to squeeze out excess water…...

 then pressed them on medium heat using a pressing cloth.…...

and the result is very satisfactory. These are to be appliqued to the squares cut from the gown and then joined all together to make a full size quilt that will fit a futon.

The amount of yardage available is limited so some of the squares will have a seam through them, but the hankies will mostly disguise that and the quilting will also distract from any seams.

Next step, cut up the skirt into squares, stay tuned!

In The Garden

The Boy and I spent some time in the yard Friday afternoon, Grandnanna planting and tidying up and The Boy "making a mess" in the dirt!
My herbals needed some beefing up, basil and chives are coming along and thyme has held over through winter and taken a new lease on life, cilantro sort of working. However, oregano and flat leaf parsley were absent and the spearmint died when the watering system was turned off! You know how mint loves water, in Aussie my Mum always had a thriving patch by the tap to the tank stand, our main fresh water supply and it grew lush and fragrant.
I went by Home Depot after the gym today and their herbs were half price a great time to buy so I replenished my supply. I much prefer to use fresh herbs in food prep, the flavor is so much better than dried herbs and the fragrance is divine!

 I like these new biodegradable "pots", remove the label and place it in the ground and it will incorporate into the soil - nice!  I hope the flat leaf parsley does well, I use it frequently along with basil and rosemary.

 Here is where I keep several herbs, in the pot with the little Mexican lime tree.

 The Thyme is growing like it loves this weather, but cilantro is struggling. I put the sage and oregano in there too, that should fill the tub as it all grows in. It gets morning sun only and has worked well for my herbs, they would fry in Phoenix in full sun - I have much more success keeping herbs in pots.

 Mint and parsley are in a hanging basket, they are always in shade.

My fresh greens are enjoying the Spring, kale that has held over from Fall and also arugula, and I think the cress is coming back too. 

The herb I probably use most often is rosemary which grows like a weed in Phoenix, I have a small bush that gets clipped regularly to prevent it from taking over the entire yard!

Something else that came back from almost nothing, a hydrangea with a delicate flower head not the kind traditionally seen on hydrangeas. The other two, a pink and a blue hydrangea did not revive from winter in spite of being sheltered on the patio.

This is a new gardenia I bought today also. The two gardenias in pots on the edge of the patio been flourishing for years, but this winter, a very mild one, they died back to bare stalks.

 I was afraid they might be gone for good, but they are now showing a few tiny leaves at the base and one even has a single bud forming though it looks pretty sad doesn't it?

Still, it's unlikely they will produce the usual abundance of blooms before it's just too hot so I decided to add another, can't have too many fragrant flowers.
It was too warm for any further labors so the rest of the clean up will wait till tomorrow.

The Selvedge Cup………..

It's spring here in Phoenix Arizona and that means the temperatures can range from 60's to triple digits! It is warm enough that we all need to make sure we are hydrating our bodies so I took out this cup my friend Gale gave me for my birthday back in January.

Quilt In A Cup is by Dianne Springer Designs, if you check out her website you will see that she also has other designs for chairs, clipboards etc. The cup comes apart so you can insert your own quilt piece between the inner and outer sections. Here is mine.

Because I collect selvedges that is what I used for my cup quilt, I think it's cute and very unique and I am happy to have reduced my stash just a tiny bit more!

It's a no-brainer process, you could even get away without any sewing using a single piece of fabric or other item cut to size, you just need a little glue! Simply cut the fabric [or whatever!] according to the template included with the cup, add a little glue and you're done!

Bonnie's Blog……..

I am so excited, Bonnie Hunter is featuring some of my BH quilts on her blog today. You can check it out here. She has a global fan club of quilters from around the world, her self proclaimed #1 Fan Angela, lives in Phoenix too!

Photo courtesy of Bonnie K Hunter  quiltvilleblogspot

Bonnie took this photo at her Tucson classes in February. A group of her devoted followers made the road trip for the event. and this is "Smith Mountain Morning" one of  the BH designed quilts that I still had in my possession for Show And Tell. You can see a complete gallery of my BH quilts by clicking on the Bonnie Hunter tab at the top of the page.
I have provided lots of links in today's posts, I find it really disappointing when I read a post that doesn't give me links to referenced material and linking makes it so fast and easy to check out the sites.

Playing With Jacks

Linking with Needlework Tuesday

Quilted with "Swirls". I think the binding will be pieced/scrappy.

Pieced backing, using left over fabrics, gets them gone from the stash and saves purchasing a back and I think it makes an interesting contemporary alternative to the front. Yes, I am a fan of pieced backs! 

Close up showing more detail. The batting used in this quilt is Dream Green, a product from Quilter's Dream made from recycled materials. It quilts nicely and stands up to a lot of abuse, appropriate for a boy's bunk bed! I also use this Dream Green batting for the Wounded Warrior quilts, many of them get a lot of laundering when the soldier is still in a hospital setting.

The Week In Review

This week my biggest hurdle turned out to be painting - my bedroom! It was a dark indescribable color, somewhere between brown and OD! Trying to decorate around it the past few years, I finally decided that it had to go, too dark and depressing by far!

So when DH left Monday for a couple of weeks in Colorado, I went to the paint store and after experimenting with half a dozen trial colors settled on "Warm Muffin" and that turned out to be the easiest part!

Moving the furniture, removing everything from the walls, taping all around the woodwork, windows, electrical outlets and covering everything is time consuming - and hard on the body before the actual painting ever gets started. I have decided that this will be the last major painting I will do, next time I will hire someone else to do it as I struggle with accepting that what my mind can conceive my body may no longer always be able to achieve, at least not without pain and strain. Falling off the step stool did not improve my well being especially when I landed on the back of the wooden antique commode chair, ouch!

 Now isn't that a vast improvement? I think so! Painting is by far the fastest and least expensive way to redecorate, it's the biggest bang for the buck!
I completed everything all alone and in one day, although Button was still impatiently waiting at midnight on Thursday for me to clear off "her " bed so she could jump up and go to sleep! She spends a lot of time there on our bed keeping watch, standing guard, she can see everyone who passes down below. Button, by the way, is nine today and gets a nice big marrow bone to celebrate - no candles.

 The only sewing was finishing up the latest QOV, now bound and off my list- the binding is this great diagonal stripe I found at "Bob's Variety Store" in Sun City when Meredith took me there.

Some new software from Lindee Goodall for my little embroidery machine has allowed me to make smaller, neat cursive fonts for labels and the idea going forward is to embroider my labels directly onto the backing before quilting, as you can see in the pic below.
 I like that it is there, "Made by Roslyn Atwood Southern Cross Quilting 2014", but subtle.
This method has a twofold purpose-it saves time and effort sewing on a label afterwards and pretty much guarantees record of provenance making theft/loss much less likely since removing the evidence would damage the quilt.
Now I can move onto the next "to do" item which I will call "The Wedding Gown Quilt"!
I am rather excited to get going on this, it's a little different from the usual commission involving a vintage wedding gown and a collection of vintage handkerchiefs.
My client has asked me to construct a full size quilt using these materials as a kind of "memory quilt" of  her mother and I think it's a lovely way to re-purpose things that really have no other current use.
Watch for the next few posts as I begin working on this quilt.

Quilt Of Valor

Linking to Wordless Wednesday

For a Wounded Warrior

He Is Risen!

ALLELUIA!

The tomb is empty!

Weekly Report

Having not posted any quilting progress all week I wanted to show that I haven't been totally indolent!
Most quilters are not the most fond of the final process of binding application

Belated Birthday…...

Today we celebrated the Boy's birthday a little late and threw in an Easter egg hunt for good measure.
The yummy ice cream cake came from Baskin Robbins, the "Cars 2 world Grand Prix" design and he chose Mickey Mouse banner, plates and napkins.

Wordless Wednesday-Quiltaholic

A New QOV

Thanks to Loretta's gift of the blue fabric, this QOV is ready for the longarm. I did add an extra red border to enlarge it to be more man-sized, now it's 60" x 76". I haven't chosen a backing yet, may need to purchase one tomorrow so I can get this finished……….

Truncating Your Blog

After reading about all the nasty places a blog post can show up after being trolled by one of the computer generated thieves, I decided to look into truncating my posts in future. After all, I do not want one of my posts to end up on a porno site or some other despicable website!
It's pretty simple and since I plan to begin doing this I hope that my fellow bloggers who visit my site will not find it an issue. I have encountered truncating, did not realize what it was but I had no issue with it and do not think it should turn off any readers but it does prevent the robot from copying the post.
It simply means that only the first paragraph of a new post will show on the home page and readers click at the end of the paragraph to see the remainder of the post.
Truncating is super simple for bloggers to do- place the cursor where you want to truncate the post then click on the "torn page" icon in the Blogger toolbar at the top of the page. A grey line break will appear on your working space and only the words above the line break will show on the home page with a "read more" in red below. Readers click on that [but the robots can't] and presto the rest of the post shows up. Like this……...

Fabric Found!

Woohoo, look what came in the mail today……...

Re:Theft of Personal Website Content!

I got a "heads up" this morning from Heather over at Books and Quilts that another website had stolen the full content of my last blog post without my permission and without linking back. It has happened to countless others so I contacted abuse@godaddy to report the violation and I also plan to notify Wordpress of the issue.
It is not uncommon on the web but this site is flagrantly reposting the entire content and doing so habitually.
A little further investigation revealed outraged comments from many of the offended bloggers, one of whom Alison, at Little Bunny Quilts, posted a copy of the complaint she sent to GoDaddy and has invited other "victims" to use the letter.
When I tried to return to the site it had already been removed, thanks GoDaddy for a lightning fast response!
So you see it does pay sometimes to report copyright infringements, especially when working with a top notch company like GoDaddy.

Gentle Reminder: it is courteous always to link back to the site whenever one references any material from another person, and posting content from another site should always be prefaced by a request to the site owner for permission….just sayin'!
Most bloggers love to have their posts recognized and referenced by another blogger, it is a compliment, but it is simply respectful to give credit to the originator.

Two Yellow Brick Roads

These adorable quilts are for two great grandsons [not mine, I don't have any LOL]…….

World Autism Awareness Day

I am linking this post to the official Autism website where you can find information about this disease that can so disastrously limit the lives of wonderfully gifted people.
Autism now affects one in 42 boys, one in 68 children……..shocking statistics our family knows well. Our youngest grandson has autism, a beautiful, intelligent and captivating child, he is a delight----and a challenge!
This is the face of autism…………...

Fearless…….

fun loving……...

little clown……….

the serious side……….

water baby………….

snow lover…………..

school enthusiast……...

 adventurous………..

imaginative………...

dirt loving…………..

thoughtful…. 

and so many other faces too numerous to name!

http://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/world-autism-awareness-day