You might have thought, justifiably, that I had given up on this project, but I have been plugging away at it. I have a few more blocks completed (including a little stocking for Emily), but not quite enough for another row. At the rate I’m going, I might actually finish it by Christmas. I was…
In 1904 The Ladies Home Journal, as part of their promotion of “Quilts as an Art Form,” commissioned 5 famous artists and illustrators to design quilts for their magazine. The Better Homes and Gardens publication, Century of Quilts, contains an interesting article about these designs with black and white photos of three of the quilts…
Although I made this top years ago, I still haven’t decided on a quilting pattern. The idea for this quilt started with a group of vintage triangle swatches purchased on ebay. I was thinking about patterns that had lots of triangles and finally settled on Ocean Waves. Of course, I didn’t bother counting all my…
Thank you everyone for your birthday wishes, and also for the nice comments about this project. Yesterday I managed to finish two more sections of the topper, and I attempted to make the lines in the skeleton a little darker. I am having a lot of fun with this project — here are my next…
This project originated with a Flickr image of a 5″ vintage Halloween paper doily. I loved this image so much and thought it had potential as a table topper. I blew up the image and tile printed it to create the main pattern which is about 36″ in diameter. It took a little thinking and…
Finally, the last of the blocks selected by Ann Champion. The curves are gentle on this block, and depending upon how large you decide to make it (mine is pretty big at 14″), it can be machine pieced. Ann and I have come up with several other blocks from the Ladies Art Catalog — patterns…
This block was a real fiasco — what was I thinking? Finally, it’s done and now I like it very much — it has a lighter feel to it and looks better with the other two finished blocks in the Ann Champion Series. Of the three blocks so far, this one was the most difficult…
This is the third block in the Ann Champion Series, and it was the most time-consuming so far. The large interior pieces can be machine stitched, but all of the smaller curved pieces must be hand stitched. The center circle is appliqued and the muslin outer piece is machine sewn. The outer edge of small…
There must be a name for this pattern, but I’m too lazy to look it up. I wanted to design something that would take advantage of the tiny, rectangular Lord Baltimore pieces. This is a present for the youngest daughter of my friend Ann at Nifty Needle. Ann made a darling doll-sized pillow and pillowslip…
It’s time to share some quilting, but I don’t have much to show today. The third block in the Ann Champion series is drafted and cut, and I hope to put it together this week. I am also making use of the tiny Lord Baltimore quilt pieces to make a doll quilt for a special…
This is the second block in the group of four — affectionately known as the Ann Champion Series. Even though this block has many more pieces than Cog Wheels, it’s actually much easier to piece and most of it can be done on the machine. Here is the drafted block which I re-sized to 14″….
Some quilters like to make their templates the finished size so they can mark the sewing line on their quilt pieces. I don’t do this — after adding a scant 1/4″ around each template, I draw the cutting line on the fabric and then just eyeball the seam allowance when stitching the pieces together. Because…
This quilt pattern is the first of four requested by Ann Champion. Since I still can’t sit for very long, I drafted this on a board while lying on the couch. I’ll tell you what — it’s sort of tricky to use a compass when you’re lying down. I left some of the extra lines…
Yesterday I made this doll quilt for my friend, Barbara, at Oodles and Oodles. Last month she sent me a box of cute vintage scraps which I assigned to several different quilt projects. A little doll quilt seemed like a nice way to thank her, and I was just thinking about the colors when amazingly,…
This is a pattern from Mini Quilts From Traditional Designs, by Corcoran and Wilkinson. The book is out of print, but used copies are available on Amazon. I made this years ago when I first began using vintage fabric. The brown and tan background fabrics are reproduction, and the compass circles are vintage. Several of…