Hand Stitching Update

 The Promenading Tulips Quilt is finally 100% finished.  The new yo-yo's blend into the quilt and only you and I will know the truth that I so boldly admitted to in the previous post.  

The yo-yos and inner scallop border are my favorite part of the quilt.  If you're interested in making this quilt or just the scalloped border you can find all the information needed by clicking here.

Now that she’s finished, I think she deserves some cuddling. For the past 12 years, she’s only been displayed as quilt ladder decor for a few months each year. Today, she’s finally going on my bed! Measuring about 85 x 104, she’ll have to be folded in half at the foot of the bed. But at night, I can wrap up with her and give her the love she’s been missing.

When I made this quilt, my stash wasn’t as big as it is now. My quilting style was shifting from Civil War colors to bright, cheerful fabrics, so I used what I had on hand to piece together the quilt back.

The first three fabrics I'm going to show you were all from an estate sale.  They had no dates on them so I can only tell you that I had purchased them in 2011 and the quilter passed in 2010.  My guess would be the first two are from the 1990's.

This one feels different both to the touch and to my eye. It could be a bit older, maybe from the 80s or earlier. Do you think it’s older or newer? Regardless of when they were made, they’re not the perfect backing, but I enjoy the whimsy and little girl vibe they bring to the quilt.

The fabric below I purchased at either Joann's or Walmart back in the early 2000's. 

The last fabric is another estate sale find.  It's thin and has some pilling, you know the little balls of fuzz you often would see on cheap muslin.  The pilling doesn't bother me.  Again, I just see the little imperfections as character and part of the quilts story.  

The last thing I did to make this quilt complete was to add a label. After sewing on the label, I started thinking about the new yo-yo fabric and it's the newest fabric on the quilt.  They say a quilt is only as old as the newest fabric.  Should my quilt survive 100 years, and a quilt historian gets a hold of it, they would say the label is a lie because the yo-yos were made from a fabric made at a later date.  Maybe I should add a handwritten note with archival ink or make a new label to include... "yo-yos added to finished quilt March 2026".  I think I'll sleep on the idea for a few days.  

As most of you know I like to share the good quilting stuff as well as the bad.  I feel it's important to share knowledge.  So here we go with a little more good news and a little bad.  

GOOD NEWS...This is what I use to clean my quilts from time to time.  It's a great product and I've never had any issues.  It's meant to be used on vintage fabrics that have started to turn yellow from age.  

I learned of this product from Kelly Cline Quilting.  She buys old quilt tops and quilts them on her long arm.  But before quilting she likes to clean them.  Here's her video sharing her process for cleaning the quilt tops.  Click image below to watch.

So as mentioned above, I've never had an issue with Restoration or Retro Clean, I've used both products over the years.  But as you might have guessed...there was an issue this time.  In the picture below, the tulip at the bottom WAS pink.

This fabric is old, most likely from the early 70's. It was from my mom's fabric stash.  It's not cotton and in many of my scrappy quilts, like my Bow Tie quilt I finished last year.  Seeing the tulips color washed out was heartbreaking.  But at least it was only one fabric that faded.  There's more than a few older and cheap fabrics in this quilt that could have also faded.  I'm happy it was only one.  The instructions on both products mention testing all fabrics before soaking.  Well, that's impossible with a scrap quilt, all I could do was take the chance.

So, there it is the good and the bad.

Pin It

Silent Stitching

 Ever feel like pulling the plug on the entire planet? Just a few glorious hours without internet, social media, TV, radio, or phone. Back in the day, my quilting setup was pure silence...well, unless you count the soothing purr of the sewing machine, which doubled as my own quirky brand of meditation music. Then the radio snuck in, next was the TV, and most recently podcasts.  After years of non-stop noise, my brain had enough.  The last two days has been almost total silence while sewing.

It’s incredible how much I can get done when there’s no noise. Even more fascinating is seeing where my mind wanders when I’m simply present in the moment. This weekend, while hand stitching yo-yos on the tulip quilt and sewing the binding to the back of my 2 bucks a block quilt, I’m staying unplugged from the world.

See you on Monday morning with an update on my silent hand stitching experiment.

Pin It

Replacing Yo-Yo's On A Quilt

Back in 2014,  I got the opportunity to use this old truck as a quilt prop.  I was super excited and didn't want to wait too long and miss out on the opportunity.  At that time I was in the process of hand sewing the yo-yos on the newly quilted and bound Promenading Tulips quilt.  For fear of missing out on this opportunity the decision was made to glue on the remaining yo-yos and sew them after the photos. 

But I never did. Even when the glued yo-yos began falling off in the wash, I saved them, telling myself “Someday” Well, someday finally arrived, only because last week’s laundry produced 3 more loose yo-yos.  I was about to start sewing them back in place, when I discovered… I’m one short. After searching every nook and cranny, I can only conclude it’s been kidnapped by the notorious gang of missing wash-day socks.

All I can do now is make a whole new batch of yo-yos. The remaining ones were taken off the quilt and tucked into a bag for a future project. A quick dig through the stash and I found a fabric with similar colors.

Before cutting the new fabric, a test yo-yo was made from scrap fabric, just to make sure I cut the good fabric at the right size.   It's a bit smaller but they'll be fine.

I've put the brakes on every other quilt project until this one is finished.  

Well, when I need a break from sitting and sewing, I'm allowing myself to quilt on the frame.

Pin It

The Purple Iris Quilt

After months of waiting in line the gifted Irish quilt top has made it into the rotation.  I'm loving how it's looking so far.  Today I'm going to share with you what it took to get this quit to this point.

 It all started with this very loved and wonky quilt top, not made by me. But someone put many hours into her so she deserves to become a beautiful finished quilt.  I feel it's important to make her shine.  My thoughts are, should I leave unfinished projects behind someday, I would hope someone would take the time to make them shine and give them life to the best of their abilities.

She has her issues but nothing that can't be fixed or overlooked.  The embroidery work isn't the best but it finished and it was still a lot of work.  So the first thing to do to start this makeover is to take the blocks apart in order to fix the wonkiness of the quilt top.

After separating the blocks and giving them a good look I thought maybe the maker tried to "fix" the wonky block issues by adjusting the seam allowance widths.  Notice I used a plural... WIDTHS.  The seam allowance was all over the place.  Too large in some spots, too narrow in other areas.  Maybe the maker had poor eyesight.  We'll never know but I'm sure whatever was going on they did their best.  I might sound like I'm being critical but I'm just trying to build a story that makes sense in my mind.  I too have made some pretty wonky quilts.  So, I'm not judging the quilt just trying to understand. 

At the same time I must give credit where credit is due, the maker backstitched at all stops and starts.  Good for her, bad for me when ripping out seams but it was the right thing to do especially if the plan was no borders.  Anyway, since the quilt blocks were so wonky and had a couple dirty spots why not give them a nice gentle hand washing.  Of course I let them air dry...for about a week. HAHA!

 

I thought the washing might allow the fabrics to naturally go back into a more square shape.  WRONG!   In my opinion, they shouldn't look like this from a gentle hand washing and soaking in warm water for about two hours.  Sigh. 

The only thing I could do is iron the heck out of them.  Hopefully in the end the quilting will help keep the super shrinkage under control or at least not so noticeable.  

The first block was squared up to 16.5" and became the template for the remaining blocks.

The squared block was laid on top of the next block to be squared.

Then pins were place through the embroidery at matching points.  Look closely and you'll see the pin head through the fabric. The pin goes through the embroidery at the same place on both blocks and stuck into the cardboard underneath.

Once the blocks were matched up the pins were secured in place, and I used a light touch to smooth out the fabric of the block on top making sure not distort the fabric or the embroidery. 

These blocks are 16.5", I don't have a square up ruler that large.  That's why I chose to square up the blocks in this manner.  One side at a time using the 6.5" x 24" ruler. 

Once trimmed to size it was time to put them on the design wall and sing a little Sesame Street song....One of these is not like the others, one of these doesn't belong....  Do you see it?

Let's take a closer look.  The one on the left is the oddball.  There's several differences.  Maybe it was a test block, maybe the maker ran out of thread.  We'll never know.  I like the the whimsy it gives to the quilt, just a tad bit of character and something to make you go...hmmm?

 

Once on the wall I could start playing with the fabrics curated over the last two months.  Many hours were spent looking for what I thought was the perfect fabrics. 

  The two fabrics in the middle came from my stash.  The other two are purchases just for this quilt.  The one on the bottom from a quilt shop in Alabama called Coffee Cup Quilting. She used to have a shop here in Indiana. They don't have website but you can find her on on Facebook.  If you can' t find what you need, give Claranna a call, she might have it.   Anyway...When I couldn't find what I needed locally or online I called her and asked if she had anything with purple flowers and white background.  She sent a photo of the fabric to my phone and I too thought it would be my best option for the sashing in my original quilt plan.

A few weeks later a Judy and I went fabric shopping at a couple new to me shops, that are a little farther than I care to drive for fabric. She on the other hand loves the drive and the adventure.  The adorable Georgia fabric by Brenda Riddle was found at Klaiber's Sewing Center, it's on the top of the picture below.  The quilty wheels started turning and I decided to change the layout from solid sashing pieces to striped with nine patch cornerstones and use the fabric from Alabama as the backing.

When it came time to audition my fabrics I was so excited to finally be at the reconstruction phase.

I cut a few lavender pieces to make sure it was the perfect fabric and.... I didn't like it, it just seems sort of BLAH. 

And so the purple fabric dig began again.  Let's see how this purple dot looks.  Nope not this one, the print is too bold and the color is muddy.

A couple more... one is too pastel the other looks too dirty compared to the purple in the Iris. 

I liked the movement and color of this plaid but sadly I didn't have enough.  That was all the purple in my fabric stash that doesn't have other weird colors on it like orange and red.

All that was left for me to do was explore the other colors in the quilt. Yellow and green. Both of which are plentiful in my stash.

I love yellow, so happy yellow was the first stash dig.  And again....a big fat NOPE not for this quilt.  She is screaming at me... "I'm the star of this show, look over here, look at me now!"   But, it's still better than the purples so it could work if it's all I can find in the stash.  

At this point it dawned on me that the problem with the purple fabrics might be all in my head because I don't really care for purple.  In all honesty, most of those purple fabrics would work well with this quilt.   But before throwing in the towel and settling something that doesn't make me happy I have to see all my options.

A few small scraps of green were pulled and placed on the wall.  I like it much better than the yellow and definitely more than the purples.  But the green could be a little lighter even though the green in the blocks are much darker.

So the next problem was could I find the right shade of green yardage in the stash.  And you already know the answer...YES!  A soft green mini gingham,  Perfect!  It plays well with the tiny purple rose buds in the background print and allows the Iris to be the star.  It has all the right things to say.  It's a softer voice... "I'm here to protect my pretty Iris and make her shine". 

Don't tell anyone I said this....I'm loving this purple/green quilt.  It's going to be hard to let her go but I will.   I know just the right person for this quilt, it will be loved more than I could ever love her.

Pin It