Way back in 1974, when I was 20 and my Grandma Ikey was 90, I was getting married.  Grandma Ikey had two Nine-Patch quilt tops that she had made several years before and tucked away.  One was supposed to be for my brother when he got married, and the other for my cousin Jim when he got married–her two grandsons.  However, I was the first to get married, so Grandma gave one to me as a wedding gift.

This quilt became very special to me, because my other grandma, my Grandma Kennedy, and the members of her Ladies Aid Society, did the quilting on it.  I slept under this quilt for years, had it dry cleaned a few time–I didn’t know any better–and have always treasured it.  My brother did get the other one, also finished by the Ladies Aid, and his is in pristine condition.

I always said that someday I’d be a quilter.  About 1993, I got a free quilt pattern in the mail.  It was from Oxmoor House and was for a Grandmother’s Flower Garden.  I thought, “I should make this.  And I should make it king sized so it will fit my bed!”  Ah, ignorance was bliss!  I also remembered that my mom had given me some old fabric and blocks from my Grandma Ikey after she passed away, and that among them were some Flower Garden blocks.  Amazingly, I opened a drawer in my storage room, and there they were–16 Flower Garden blocks, or at least the components to make them.  I knew I wanted to use them in my first quilt!  It took me 2-1/2 years, but I finished that king sized top.

As I was working with the blocks that Grandma Ikey had made (I had to take them apart and re-cut them as they were a different size than my pattern) I began to think that some of the fabrics looked familiar.  I was pretty sure they were the same as some in my Nine-Patch.  So, I got it out and started to compare.  Sure enough, there were some duplicates!  Like this yellow and green flower print.

There was also this cute little blue flower.

You can see it’s more faded in the Nine-Patch.

Sometimes there were only enough hexagons for a half block, but that worked great for the edges of the Flower Garden.

Well yesterday, Bob and I and my parents visited our cousin Betty, whom we rarely see.

She had two quilts that our Grandma Ikey had made!  This star quilt.

And this fan quilt!

I was thrilled to see them, but even more excited when I started recognizing some old friends among the prints!  The white daisies on this pink background really speaks to me–I’ve always loved daisies.  Here it is in Betty’s star quilt….

…and in my Nine-Patch quilt…..

…and in my Flower Garden quilt!

This very abstract blue print was in one of the stars…

…and in my Nine-Patch.

The other print in this star was also familiar.

It’s not only in my Nine-Patch….

…Grandma Ikey made my baby doll a dress from this print!

And here it appears with a blue paisley…

…which is also in my Nine-Patch.

This fan blade had lots of matches to my quilts.  The center blade with the little Lemoyne Stars print….

…made its way into my Nine-Patch, although it’s much more faded here.

And the dark brown with the aqua flowers….

…is REALLY faded in my quilt.

Did you notice the little tulip print in the above block?  It turns out Dolly has a dress made from that print, too!  I love her rick rack!

INSERTED 8/3  My sister emailed me last night.  She had gotten her dolls out to check out their dresses, and here’s what she found–and said.

Here are Chatty Baby and Chatty Cathy all decked out in their tulip dresses.  Please note that my dolls can stand up by themselves, because they are not missing any legs.  Chatty Baby is upset, because she can’t find her scarf.  (I suspect the reason Chatty Cathy is looking away from Baby is because Cathy lost her own scarf and stole Baby’s.)

Then this morning Sally emailed me this….Chatty Cathy has a headache this morning from wearing the scarf too tight. Serves her right, I think.

How do you like the blue gingham sundresses?

I love the pink gingham — wide rick-rack for Cathy and narrow rick-rack for Baby.

Does the white fabric with yellow roses look familiar, SW?

As a matter of fact, it does.  It’s in my Flower Garden quilt!  Thanks, Sally, for sharing!

The dainty blue flowers, next to the bottom blade…

…make an appearance in the Flower Garden quilt.

And the last blade, with it’s wild pink, red and black combination…

…shows up in the Flower Garden quilt.  I think Dolly had a dress from this, too, but I don’t seem to have it.  Maybe my sister does.

And one of my favorite prints, which I remember is in my brother’s quilt too, is the gray and red one.

It’s in both of my quilts….

…and Betty’s fan quilt.

It’s amazing the connections among these four quilts–five if you count my brother’s.

Yesterday my mom told me that Grandma Ikey once said that when she and her niece, Elsie (who was two years older, but that’s another story) would buy fabric for a project, before they even cut into it, they were planning what they’d make from the scraps!  Spoken like a true quilter.

And I have one more quilt to show you that’s from Grandma Ikey.  This is the crib quilt she made when my brother was born, and that Mom used on all three of us kids.

Wow, I’m in the new Fons and Porter magazine–and I didn’t even know it.

I got suspicious last week when I started getting lots of orders for the Sweet Pea bundles and dress panel.  Then my friend Loretta came for our Redwork Christmas Party, and she had a copy of the magazine!  Jean Nolte designed the quilt, and all the little dresses are embellished with ribbon or rickrack or lace or aprons or pinafores.  It’s just adorable!

I always have fun making samples with my own fabric lines, but it’s so exciting to see what other people do with it.  Thank you, Jean.

Take a deep breath, grab a cup of coffee and sit easy–this is going to be a long post!

I got home at midnight last night from Quilt Market in Houston.  I had a fabulous time!  Here’s a recap of my days there.

I presented two talks at Schoolhouse.  One was one my new Redwork line and the other on a new Quilt Shop Program called Stash Pot Pie II

Karen Montgomery did a couple of Schoolhouses, too.  Here’s she’s showing her new fabric with Timeless Treasures.

Debbie Welsh (one of my two roomies) did two–Beginning Quilting by Machine and one on numbers–i.e. business stuff (eye’s glazing over here!)

Saturday morning, everyone was anxious to get in and see what was new!

Here’s my other roomie, Kris, hard at work ordering fabric.

Having fun at the Me and My Sister booth.

After a tough day on the Market floor!

Here’s how my quilts looked in the Timeless Treasures booth.

One year Houston had painted cows.  Now it’s painted globes.

Fun except for the 90 degrees and 90 percent humidity!

Amy at Park City Girl is having another online quilt show.  I LOVE these.  I love going to all the links and seeing all the quilts.  And I want to play along, too.

Click here to see all the quilts in the show.

This is my Lollipop quilt.  I made it from the fabrics in my Sweet Pea collection.  I just love the bright colors and all the balloons.

Just now, when I went to my photo files to retrieve the photos, I realize I took pictures to do a tutorial about how to make the blocks, but had never posted it, so here goes!

First, I traced the pattern onto paper with a Sharpie pen.  That way, I could see it through the fabric and didn’t have to mark the fabric at all.  I used the iron on bias tape, and pressed it into place.  Once it was secure, I did a serpentine stitch down the length of each one.

I wasn’t looking forward to preparing a gazillion circles for applique, but it wasn’t bad at all.  My method is to cut a circle out of a manilla folder.  Then, I cut the fabric circle about a half inch bigger.  An acrylic template and a 28mm rotary cutter makes it easy.

I just did a running stitch around the outer edge of the fabric circle, placed the paper circle in the middle and pulled the thread.  Voila!  a perfect circle.

It was just a manner of pressing it to get a nice, crisp edge and popping out the paper.

Then I put the block back on the pattern to find the placement of the balloons.

I machine buttonholed around the circles on my Elna 7300.

When doing embroidery of applique, I always start with my background a little larger than needed, so I had to square up when done.

It wasn’t long before I was cranking out the blocks!

Here’s a link to the free download of this pattern.  If you make one, please send me a picture!

Not only do I have new Redwork Panels out at Market this week, I also have Bluework!  I’ve designed a panel with twelve flower basket blocks.

I only had one strike-off panel to work with and no time to get it embroidered as I was still stitching the At Play Panel.  Thanks to the ladies in my Redwork Club!  They came to my rescue.  Connie, Marla, Cortne` and Robin each took two blocks and stitched them for me.  And let me tell you, they do beautiful work!

There are six coordinating toiles to go with the baskets.  Just like the panel, we didn’t have yardage yet, just strike-offs–the little pieces we get from the mill to approve or deny.  I had less than a half yard of each.  In fact, I had to scrounge to find enough for the 3″ squares I needed so I could take this photo!

At first I thought I’d only be able to make a sample with four basket blocks, but in the end, I was able to squeeze out enough fabric for sashings and borders for six blocks.  It was rather interesting designing with such a limited amount of fabric.  I had to go scrappier than I normally would have, but I like the result.  It’s good to have to stretch once in awhile!

I stippled the sashings and borders and quilted a spider web in each basket block.  I was afraid it might detract from the embroidery stitching, but when it was finished I was pleased with the result.

I’m off to Quilt Market.  Yeah!  A time to catch up with old friends and see what’s new in the world of quilting.  Does it get any better than this?  I don’t think so!

I’m very excited about my new Redwork Panel called At Play.  Once again, I was inspired by a vintage quilt.

These kids just looked like they were having so much fun!  We added to it to make twelve blocks in the panel.  I wanted to get the blocks as large as possible, so instead of a 24″ repeat, I designed the panel to use the whole 26″ repeat.  Then, in order to get the blocks square, there was this odd bit of space left along the side.  I decided to make little blocks in the space and filled them with pinwheels!

I got busy and embroidered the sample panel I got, and made this quilt.  It will be hanging in the Timeless Treasures booth at Market.  It was so fun using the pinwheels as corner stones and centers for the nine-patches.  Here it is on my design wall before I quilted it.

I put it together with my toile fabrics.

Here’s a close-up of a block after quilting.  It’s always so hard to know how to quilt the embroidered blocks, especially when machine quilting.  As you can see, I opted for a simple diagonal line.  I stipples in the sashings and borders.

But wait–there’s more.  I also have a second, brand new Redwork Panel – Flower Baskets!  This fabric hasn’t arrived in the warehouse, but it will be here soon.

Recently I posted about a guild program we had on block exchanges.  After that great program our guild decided to do some, too.  Robin, you inspired us!  

Of course it was my idea, so I was put in charge.  I decided since this was new to all of us, we’d start out simple.  The rules were to make twenty-four 6″ nine-patch blocks from red and white fabrics.  Here are mine.  Of course I used fabric from my red and white toile line, Through My Window.

I put them up on my design wall like an Irish Chain.  I must admit that for years I didn’t know an Irish Chain was just nine-patch blocks and plain setting squares!  I actually think the Irish Chain is a very impressive quilt made from a very simple block.  (Yes, I know that there are more than 24 blocks here, but there were extra segments left from my strip sets, so I sewed them all up!)

I don’t know yet how I will put my final blocks together.  I’m excited to see the different reds and whites that everyone used.

I have a great book called 101 Nine-Patch Quilts by Marti Michell.  I’m sure I’ll find some inspiration in there.

We interrupt this Ohio adventure for a quilt kit give-away!

 

This Red and White Delight quilt is featured on the cover of Quilts and More–and it uses my fabric!  The quilt was designed by Maebeth Oxenreider, and the folks at Q&M were nice enough to let me offer kits for the quilt on my web site.  One cool thing that Q&M does is show fabric requirements and cutting instructions for lap, twin, queen and king sizes.  There’s even a pillowcase kit!  Here’s the queen size – photo courtesy of Meredith Corp.

So, I thought it would be fun to give away a kit for a lap sized quilt.  It finishes 42″ x 52.”  I’ll include the magazine, of course, so you’ll have the pattern.  This give away is worth $46.98.  All you have to do is leave a comment and on June 8, I’ll use a random number generator to pick a winner.  Oh, and if you want a bigger size, you can apply the $$ toward a bigger one.  Hope you win!

It’s wonderful to have talented friends!

 

For more than ten years now I have belonged to a Redwork Club.  It started when I had the shop, and we continue to meet each month.  It’s really become more than a Redwork Club.  We do all kinds of embroidery and while we often have a projects, we love to share show-and-tell of anything needlework that we’re doing.  This is some of what was shared at our meeting.

Linda W. has taken the Through My Window panel and added her own special touches to it!  Not only is she embroidering the whole design, for each month she is adding a little something extra–black eyes on the snowmen, satin stitched hearts for February, a green shamrock for St Paddy’s Day and a purple Easter egg.  Don’t you just love them!

Ethel K. has completed our last years project–Playmates.  She made it for her great-granddaughter, Ellie.  

I’ll share more next month!