Tag Archives: quilts of Mendota

The New Normal, April10, 2020.

People…I do not know the day of the week. If I do not look at my iPhone or ask Alexa, one day might as well be the next. It’s crazy. I’m just drifting. I saw a little thing somewhere that says..

#coronavirus has turned us all into dogs. We roam the house all day looking for food. We are told “no” if we get too close to strangers. And we get really excited about car rides.

I’ve been working on a quilt top, and I have several other quilt/sewing projects to start and finish; and since it is so easy to have numerous unfinished projects, I wanted to finish this before I took on anything else. Here’s my completed quilt top. It’s comprised for four-quarter blocks of reproduction vintage 30’s fabrics. Many of the fabrics are from a designer named Lori Holt and her Farmgirl Vintage series.

Tippy Jo helps me every step of the way. She thinks she knows a lot about everything, and she’s right, I somehow got my machine stuck in reverse. It’s fine now, but there was a moment….

I just make the quilt top. I don’t even try to quilt my quilts. Someone else can do these on the long arm quilter far better than me. I don’t hand piece them either. I have arthritis in my right hand that would make this difficult. However, I do enjoy putting the color combinations together. This is a scrap quilt so there really isn’t a pattern.

The backing of the fabric is a large print with the same colors. It has a nod to the 30’s as well, but instead of the tiny 30’s patterns, it’s a large pattern. I like the contrast from one side to the other. I am binding the quilt in red. Even though I use good fabrics, I washed and tested the red to ensure it does not run and fade onto the fabric.

This quilting and working with fabrics reminded me what a mess my sewing notions were in. I have several sewing notion storage containers, but this is my favorite. In this picture, it’s all tidied and ready to be closed. Isn’t this amazing?

And look how small it gets. This is important as, like many, my dining room is also my sewing room!

Have a wonderful day.

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The Quilt Top

My sweet little rescue dog died last night.  She captivated everyone, and now she is gone.  I can’t even think about this so I am trying to stay busy.

I put the border on my quilt top and it is ready to go.   I talked about the quilt last week here.   The colors are so pretty and I love the designs on the fabrics .    All of the fabric came from fat quarters — most purchased at the Virginia Highlands Quilt Shop.  Kim, the owner, is wonderful.  In the picture below, there are lots of flowers, but I also see some red shoes, lemon slices and sheet music.   There’s also a cat sleeping by the quilt.

Let’s see what is on this side of the quilt top…the bright blue has beach flip flops, there are orange cats, and there is some Alice in Wonderland fabric.

Here’s another…lots of flowers, some cursive writing, more flip flops…this time on white…and peppermint candy.

And finally…there’s that sheet music again, some gold and black butterflies and lots of flowers.  Everything is bound by by the back and white border.  I believe that the fabric did not repeat more than once.   That was my goal.  Some fabric did not repeat at all.

I’ve pressed the quilt and folded it along with the backing (paw prints) and the black and white stripe which will bind the quilt.  It is ready to go to the quilter.  This will be machined quilted by a long-arm quilter.

This was on my list of something I wanted to do.   I’ve checked it off.  It will be January/February 2019 when I get the completed quilt back.

I will put this in the RiverCliff Cottage AirB&B.   It will be durable and I think guests might enjoy looking at the different fabrics.  I hope so anyway.

I’ve been looking at blogs that are for retirees.  Most are centered on the finances of retiring.  So few are centered on the living of being retired.  As I am retired, I want to be productive and I want to see the results of my efforts.  This quilt is a good example of something I did not have the time for when I was working.   Now, I do.  And I’ll have a pretty quilt!!

 

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