Thirty Year Sampler

What can I say that you don't already know? We've all heard the adage "the longest journey begins with the first step," but starting wasn't the problem. Consistency was.

All are traditional blocks for which I drafted and cut plastic templates. Then I pieced each by hand. In 1989. After that it seemed logical to hand quilt. Elaborate feathers were planned but I took this on a data shoot to work on in the evenings. Since the light was bad I just stippled everywhere. Now that seems like a lost opportunity. And I also lost interest.

I put it away but dragged it from home to home. Two years ago I got it out to work on on the evenings during the news hour. Even that wasn't consistent work. With our quilt show approaching, I decided to hand quilt the inner area and small blocks then switch to machine quilting on the sashing and outer floral. Good choices. Nothing shows on the black sashing. Originally I planned spirals but changed to quarter-inch straight lines. The floral is randomly free-motion quilted. Now that it's been washed, I can't distinguish  it from the hand stippling.

Thirty Year Sampler quilt 

Each of these is a traditional design based on various grids. For example, Dervish Star is a four-patch while Fish is based on eight-pointed star.

Dervish Star and Fish blocks

Once the Alexander Henry floral was chosen, the other fabrics were selected to go with it. Several lights seemed like a good idea then and still do today but I wish I'd used more fabrics for the colors.

Fifty-four Forty or Fight and Wheel of Fortune blocks

I used the blue and pink fabrics in the four blocks to finish the inner diamond.

Devil's Claws, Goose in the Pond,
my variation on Michigan Star,
and David and Goliath blocks

 The purple and green fabrics made the eight blocks around it.

St. Louis Star and World's Fair blocks

I tried to use examples from each type of quilt block: four-, five-, seven- and nine- patches; eight-pointed stars, circular designs.

Little Giant and King David's Crown blocks

The center medallion is a design from an 1858 Godeys Ladies Book.

1858 Godeys Ladies Book medallion

Binding. Can you believe I also saved a bit of the green and black fabrics this long?

Binding and backing
of Thirty Year Sampler

Quilt Details

Size: 84" x 84"

Design: Sampler

Batting: Mountain Mist 100%cotton

Thread: Metler quilting threads, Aurifil 50/2 cotton, DMC embroidery cotton

Quilting: Hand quilting and Machine, walking foot and free motion

Just a note: Happy birthday, Mother.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Kaleidoscope of Butterflies 15, Bees and the Guild Show Prep

Bees and Butterflies

My darling QS sent a butterfly card she made. It's beautifully tinted. So clever of her!

From April 2015 to April 2016 the cultivated honeybee population declined 44%. Bees typically die off in the winter when food sources disappear but for the last two years we've lost as many during the summer as the winter. You understand why this is a problem: bees pollinate 35% of the world's food.

Scientists generally agree that species face extinction due to habitat loss, climate change, and rampant chemical use. We can help by not using pesticides and keeping some "weedy areas" in our yards. Bees like to live in dead/dying plants.

Here's an interesting article about entomologist Robin Thorp's continued search for the Franklin bee. Since this bee doesn't make honey, why should we care? Monoculture creates increased risk for species collapse. When a disease strikes a species, the greater the diversity of related species, the more likely they are to recover. Remember the die off of American chestnut trees and the battle against oak wilt? When one tree becomes the singular street tree it may look "pretty" in a mechanical way but greatly increases the transmission of disease. There is strength in diversity. {Hmm. This hits some political notes today.}


SCVQA Quilt Show in Santa Clara

Our biennial quilt show runs this weekend. I'm part of the the stand take-down crew. We start after the 300+ quilts are down. It's a quick operation and much easier since we recently purchased new rods.

Not only is SCVQA a larger group but we have a wide diversity of quilting - art, traditional, modern, really a bit of everything. Each show highlights one or two noted quilters. This year Mel Beach and Sue Bianchi share their artistry. Both are award-winners. Mel, known for her lively colors and modern style, has several quilts touring with challenge quilts. Meanwhile Sue frequently creates works based on photos and/or heavily embellished with buttons. Both are talented artists with unique visions who enjoy sharing ideas. The show's up through Sunday! {Hint, hint.}

It was worth the effort to get Spiderweb and my old Sampler finished in time for the show. I also entered Boxes {finished in 2016} and hope to share details of these next week.

Here's a portion of the Sampler as it was being blocked.

Block the Sampler before the show

There's still some time to link up with #AHIQChineseCoins.

Although {once again} I haven't made a kaleidoscope or butterfly block, I plan to share a design next month. Tune in and let's see how colorful we can be in May.

Enjoy the day, Ann

InLinkz removed because it was hacked.

Outlining the Stars

 I bordered the stars with straight stitching. Each star has its own stitching. Lots of threads to tie off.

Stars bordered with walking foot stitching

Here's the view from the back.

View of stitching from the back

Next step will be to fill in the spiderwebs and stars. I may use the same method for the spiderwebs as Suhavi's Stars but I'm thinking about different FMQ designs for the stars themselves.

I'm plugging away on the Sampler quilt. Someone suggested I fold and baste the edges to keep them from fraying and the batting from becoming dirty. 

Edges folded and basted to keep them tidy and clean

Given that this quilt is twenty-nine years old and still unfinished, that's the best advice I've ever been given!

Tuesday is our next AHIQ linkup. I have #AHIQChineseCoins to share. Do you?

  

See you then.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Into the Ditch

As many of you know, I quilt on an older domestic Bernina with a fairly small throat plate. With a large quilt, it helps to stitch in the ditch along major seam lines.

I started by stitching the block boundaries vertically and horizontally. Each block contains a "star," not a spiderweb. This stitching starts and stops which also means loads of thread tails to bury. Next I stitched the border seams. Now I'm stitching around each spiderweb by rotating as the needle moves from point to point. With care, you can turn the quilt when reaching the borders. That translates to only two threads to bury. Yay!

These photos may help visualize what I did: Sew across the X where two spiderwebs meet.

Sew across the X where two spiderwebs meet

Turn at the inside of the star.

Turn at the inside of the star.

Fortunately I have two machines so while I quilt on my Bernina, I can still sew Coins on my Featherweight. Not both at once, you understand. But no time wasted changing needles and thread.

Here are some more possible Coin pairs. The yellow floral with brown/yellow/white plaid is not working for me. I don't think I'll use it.

Possible Chinese Coin pairs.

Although I haven't written about this in a while, I'm still working on my old Sampler quilt - usually while listening to the news at night. This is the final block to be hand quilted but it's still a long way from done. Twenty-nine years and counting.

Sampler quilt {still}in the hoop

Of course, if I'd worked on it regularly it would have been finished years ago.

Enjoy the day, Ann