Lattice Quilt, Part Deaux

I got an email from astute blog reader Sandy R. She gave me another source for the Lattice quilt pattern. It can be found in Treasures From Yesteryear: Book Two, Replicating Antique Quilts by Sharon Newman (That Patchwork Place, 1995). Since I had this book (who knew it had the pattern in it!). I looked it up and indeed, it is the Basket Lattice/Reflection of the Past quilt, on page 59. Sharon shows pictures of two quilts, one made in the 1930s with lots of navy and her own reproduction of it. She put the quilt together using partial seams. She also figured out a way to make it in units, so some chain piecing can be done and she has many more diagrams (four pages of instructions to my one). The biggest difference is the size of the units. She cut her's 2"x5" (based on the size of the original quilt) and I cut mine 3"x8". The 3"x8" size will be easier to work with. When you do partial seams, it helps to have room to maneuver. Sharon's quilts also have an interesting diagonal movement of color across the top. I googled the book's title and found many on line for as little as $2.50 (used) or as much as $44 (new).

So there you have it....Two sources for the Lattice Quilt.
Till next time....Happy Quilting.

Lattice Quilt

Donna, a blog reader from Connecticut, sent me a link to a quilt called Scrap Lattice: http://gingerquilts.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/scrap-basket-lattice/ and wanted advice on how to make it. Well I took a look at it and couldn't figure it out, but never one to back down on a drafting challenge, I gave it a shot. I played around on EQ5 and started cutting and piecing. To get the fabrics to weave in and out requires partial piecing of the seams. I wrote it up as a large crib size quilt. Click here for the pattern for the Lattice Quilt.


The quilt I started here to test the pattern will probably be a baby quilt for my next door neighbors. They are having their first baby in June. Mom's a redhead, so I'm hoping for a redheaded baby!


Till next time.... Happy Quilting

A Great Guy

Check out George Trippon, he's a hoot!




Till next time....happy quilting!

Block Exchange

Last weekend I went on a sledding weekend and actually sledded! Wow, it was really fun and I didn't hurt anything!




















Here are my first two blocks for the block exchange.
The first one is for Bonnie, who wanted last year's block only lighter. Working on this reminded me of the avacado and turquoise color combination so popular in the 1960s.






















The second one is for Carol Sc. She wanted it really scrappy.





















Till next time..... Happy Quilting!

Jan and Irene, You Go Girls!

Here are Irene (l) and Jan (r). "The BBB's (Bitchin' Biker Babes)." They have set off to fulfill Jan's dream of a cross country bike ride. Jan is riding from the Atlantic to the Pacific and Irene is driving the sag van. Jan is grateful that Irene signed on, so now she can bring her featherweight, too.

Jan is keeping a journal of her trip at crazyguyonabike. Jan is an excellent and funny writer, so I'm encouraging all my quilting friends in cyberspace to follow Jan and Irene by including links to her posts on this blog. (Just below the Daily Puppy.)

They left yesterday and I can't wait to here more of their adventures, especially revues of quilt shops on the way. Since both are avid quilters, I'm sure this trip is going to produce some cool quilt inspirations!

Till next time...Happy Quilting!

Correction!

A big shout out to Ruth D from Quilts, Books, and Dogs. At block exchange tonight she noticed that I had turned a pattern piece in my illustration for the Ribbon Quilt pattern. I have corrected the situation and am really grateful. I have asked my block exchange friends to each make me 3 blocks. That would make 48 blocks that I would have to take apart and re-sew. Dodged a bullet there! In the next couple of days check out these blogs; Lavender Pie, Quilts, Books, and Dogs, and quilts and kids to see all 16 projects for this year's block exchange. Although this only my second year as a member, the group is in it's 20th year. The projects this year are really fun. Coming home with a bag of goodies, it's like Christmas.

Till next time.... Happy Quilting

New Floors

I moved into my house 15 years ago. Everything in the house was white. White walls, white carpet, white wall paper (grass cloth). The only color was a grayish cast, sort of reminded me of a dentist office. Slowly I've been replacing a lot of the white. Now, I'm not totally against white, I did like the white appliances and white cupboards in the kitchen and I even liked all the white trim. But I hated the white floors and walls. So the kitchen was painted yellow, but the white floor remained and drove me crazy until now. Last Wednesday we had a new vinyl floor installed. It's gray and yellow and it looks great. Even in today's yucky weather, Boomer's paw prints don't show. The gray works with my counter tops. I'm not thrilled with the color, but the counter tops are in great shape and I don't want to spend the money to replace them. The little bit of yellow picks up my walls. Yeah!












The next floor to get a re-do is my stairway and upstairs hall. You can't tell in the photo, but the walls are a warm tan, with white trim. The carpet used to be a grayish white and always looked dirty. So we chose a carpet color I like to call Boomer Brown. I had a rug this color in my living room when I lived on Horton Street and it always looked great.

The next project is replacing the cheap 1960s interior doors with some six-panel ones. I love projects where I just pick stuff out and someone else does all the work!

Till next time... Happy Quilting!

Ribbon Quilt

The name of this block is Ribbon Quilt and I've included a free pattern for a queen size quilt. I've also chosen this block for my block exchange quilt for Ruth D's small group. The blocks were started probably 10 years ago in the Wednesday Group. I was digging through my pile of UFO's and still loved these blocks and decided I needed more blocks to make a queen size quilt. In the box were 48 finished blocks along with 2 1/2" squares and 2 7/8" triangles, so I made blocks to finish off the cut pieces and ended up with about 100 blocks. I'll need 156 for a queen size quilt (each block finishes 6 1/2"). I'm excited for block exchange to start. I love making blocks for everyone in the group. It's fun to play with patterns and colors that I haven't chosen. I'm also happy to continue my quest to finish UFOs and that the blocks are still interesting after all these years.

Till next time.... Happy Quilting

Philena's Friendship Quilt

This book came out last year and to my surprise, my pattern for the quilt was in it! I met Lynda Chenoweth a couple of years ago at the MSU Museum. She was working with Marsha MacDowell on the manuscript for this book and learned I had written quilt patterns. She asked me to write a pattern for Philena's quilt. I wrote the pattern, got paid and never heard another word. Then, last fall the book came out and the museum got a free copy and and sure enough, there was my pattern (with credit given to me), exactly how I wrote it, illustrations and all. I've since got my own copy and found it to be a good read. It's not only the story of Philena's quilt, but of the whole community and a chapter on signature quilts as well. Also included are many photographs of the people involved in the story. You can buy the book on Amazon and lots of other sites.

Today is a beautiful, snow covered, cold day here in Lansing. I'm looking forward to a day of sewing blocks and writing instructions for my block exchange while watching some old movies (right now I'm watching Golden Boy, Barbara Stanwyck, William Holden, Adolph Monjou, 1939, Columbia Pictures). Then 5:30 brings the Spartans vs. Iowa. I went to the Wisconsin game on Wednesday and even though it was low scoring, it was a great defensive battle.

Till next time....Happy Quilting!

Christmas Done! Back to quilting!

I love this ad featuring Joan Crawford and Whitey delivering the always perfect gift, Lucky Strike cigarettes. I found this on the back of a circa 1935 quilt pattern in an old magazine.

Colleen came in on Tuesday from Ypsilanti and Katy arrived from Chicago Wednesday night. We had a lovely Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, just the four of us. Colleen worked Christmas afternoon and Tom, Katy and I saw It's Complicated with Alex Baldwin, Meryl Streep and Steve Martin. I highly recommend it. It's nice to see romance with people my own age.

Saturday, Colleen went home to Ypsi and on Sunday Tom's family came over. I made a pork loin (brined, then dry rubbed, yum), wild rice with cranberries and pecans and roasted asparugus. After the party I drove Katy downtown to East Lansing to hook up with her old college roommates.

This afternoon Tom is going to tie up some loose ends with his Dad's estate and Katy is going shopping.
Could this be my opportunity to get in a little sewing? This year I'm determined to teach myself more free-hand machine quilting. I'll be starting on a wall hanging from a round robin with the small group the Outlaws probably five or six years ago. Colleen wants to hang it in her new apartment. So, I'll quilt the whole then free-hand, and finish another UFO.

Tomorrow, it's on to Chicago where we'll stay overnight with Katy (and possibly ice skate at Wrigley Field), then spend a night in St. Joseph having our New Year's Eve celebration a day early at the Grande Mere restaurant.

So, till next time.... Happy Quilting!

Santa is coming to town

Merry Christmas everyone. If you live in the greater Lansing area make sure and take in some of the exhibits produced by the Michigan State University Museum's very own Santa, Val Berryman. In the YouTube video he talks about his fabulous collection. He has seven different exhibits this year all around the area including these on the MSU campus:
A Merry Dairy Christmas at the Anthony Hall Dairy Store
Christmas Around the Globe at the Student Union
Crackers & Biscuits, An English Christmas at the MSU Museum
Santa Takes a Break at the Spartan Stadium Tower
and these around town:
Signs of Santa (my personal favorite) in the window of the Knapp's building, downtown Lansing
TAKAAN, Christmas from the Phillipines at the Williamston Depot
and
Where's Santa at the MSU Credit Union headquarters of West Road, East Lansing.
Val has one of the world's best collection of Santa Claus and Christmas items!
Learn more about the exhibits here.
I'm lucky to work with Val and I look forward to his displays every year.



Till next time.... Happy Quilting!

Christmas Quilt

I've been keeping up with the blogs in my list and have been inspired to post my Christmas Quilt. I called it Christmas Eve since that has some special memories for me. My Mom's birthday was Christmas Eve and every Christmas Eve when I was a girl, my Uncle Ed would come over. He was a bachelor and was my Dad's best friend, so not really an Uncle. But he would come over with TONS of gifts for me and my older sister and my two older brothers. On top of the gifts he was very funny and did a great impression of Mr. Magoo! At midnight my mother would take all the kids to midnight Mass and my Dad and Uncle Ed would stay home, drink whiskey and watch the Pope serve midnight Mass on TV!

About two weeks ago my daughter Colleen moved out. I've been a bit worried about her transition, but she seems to be doing great. When she left, she took lots of stuff, so I was able to rearrange my sewing room. I'm anxious to get some sewing done and try out the new arrangement.

Today, Tom and I bought a snow blower (we're not getting any younger) and a Christmas Tree. Tomorrow, I'll be decorating and hopefully doing a little sewing, too.

Till next time... Happy Quilting!