Thursday, November 27, 2014

Late but Sincere Wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving





I hope you've had a wonderful
Thanksgiving Day,
rich with blessings
and
with gratitude.

Happy Thanksgiving!


--Nancy.


Monday, November 24, 2014

Searching for a Border

The top is stitched together but I haven't decided about a border / borders.  The top is a little on the smallish side at 54" x 72" so it really needs a border.  I thought narrow red then wider tan then a piano-key string border but it didn't work (and I forgot to take photos).  Then I thought narrow red with piano-key strings, but I didn't think that worked either.  Next I considered strips of red sewn together into a wider border.  (I don't know how I managed it but I have a lot of long red strings.)  My next thought was a dark, medium-width border.  I'll have to fold or cut some fabric to try that out.  Size isn't the only reason it needs a border, though.  As it is, it looks incomplete to me.

I worked hard to get the blocks stitched and ironed before family comes to visit this week.  I'll put it away now but after Thanksgiving I hope to pull it back out and give it more thought.

I'm linking this post to WOW at Esther's Blog.  Thank you, Esther.

I hope you're staying warm!

--Nancy.
.



Friday, November 21, 2014

Work and Lice (& Nothing About Quilting)

I did not have much foresight when I was younger.  As my husband and I were preparing to leave for Peace Corps service, my father said, "What are you two doing?  You should be planning for retirement."  I was 28 at the time and retirement seemed in the long-distant future:  no need to think about it on the verge of a new adventure.  And off we went. 

When we returned home I worked for several organizations, both full-time and part-time for varying lengths of time, but none long enough to obtain enough retirement credits in either the public retirement system or in social security.  I'm now approaching retirement age with the need to earn five quarters (spread over at least two years) to quality for social security, the system with which I have the most amount of time.  Needless to say, I've been seeking employment this year to earn one of those quarters.

While job hunting I've seen some interesting job titles, but the most interesting, or maybe the most unusual or the most surprising, was this:



I did not click the link to learn more about this job.  My imagination went wild and I began scratching my head. 

I'll finish one quarter of work this year and will work next year to earn the other four quarters.  But no matter what other job I have to take, I will not be a head lice removal technician.

--Nancy.
.

Monday, November 17, 2014

"November"

You remember that poem about November by Thomas Hood?  Part of it goes like this:
No sun - no moon!
No morn - no noon -
No dawn - no dusk - no proper time of day.
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member -
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds! -
November! 
Indeed, Thomas Hood got it right.  But I think this November isn't interested in following the pattern of previous Novembers.  This year November 17 has given us snow!

This is what I saw when I looked out our upstairs hallway window this morning.  There are times in winter when the snow-covered roof blends into a white sky.  It's not winter yet, but that's what happened today.

I love the view from this window.  In spring I see cherry blossoms against blue sky; in summer, green leaves, blue sky, and a brick-colored roof; and in autumn, bronze leaves against a blue or grey sky.  But now... snow.  With this early snow and such cold weather I wonder what December, January, and February will be like.  I'm in for quilting!

I hope you are staying warm!

--Nancy.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Beginning to Play

These blocks have been sitting on a cupboard nearly always in view when I'm sewing, cutting, or quilting.  Since I have the strings quilt well underway, I thought I'd put these up and play with possibilities.

No sashing, no corner blocks:
Red Wings with Stars scrap quilt

No sashing, two red corner blocks:
Red Wings with Stars blocks for scrap quilt

Several different sashing possibilities, 1 medium corner block (and a bunch of tape!):
Red Wings with Stars blocks for scrap quilt
I think the color of the sashing on the left makes the quilt look very peaceful and calm.  But maybe it's boring, too.  Below is a red corner block which I like less than the tan, above.

Same sashing as above with red corner block:
Red Wings with Stars blocks for scrap quilt

Other possibilities I might try
  • black, dark brown, dark green sashing with light stars in the corners
  • dark sashing with solid light corner blocks
  • medium sashing with white stars
  • medium sashing with light corner blocks
  • light sashing with red, medium, or dark corner blocks
  • narrow, medium, or wide sashing

On the other hand, maybe no sashing would be perfect.  I just saw photographs here and here of all the blocks together.  Hmmm.  So many possibilities.

I love this part of quilting, the playing with fabrics, patterns, colors.  It takes me a while to make a decision about what I think works for the quilt but for me it's all part of the process.  It has to be since I never use a pattern for a quilt!

I have 41 of the blocks above.  They finish at 9½".  There are 15 with really light backgrounds and 26 with slightly darker backgrounds.  I don't know if I'll put them all together or make some more of the light or the dark ones.  It's all just "let's see what works" right now.

The string quilt looks like this right now:
quilt blocks for Dark Strings scrap quilt
All the corners are sewn.  They are in the process of being trimmed.  Then I'll lay them out, sew them, and decide about a border.  I was thinking a red inner border with an outer border of shorter string blocks, but maybe I'll use an inner border the same color as the corners.

My mind's eye is often fuzzy and inaccurate.  It's better if I actually see things with my real eyes than try to imagine them.

I'm linking this post to
Design Wall at Patchwork Times,
WOW at Esther's Blog, and
WiP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.
Thank you, ladies, for hosting.  I appreciate it.

Best wishes for a great day!
--Nancy.
 .

Monday, November 3, 2014

Auction Lady and the Babies

I saw this lady doll at a recent auction.  She is the most unusual doll I have ever seen.  She was positively plump.  I don't know when she was made but from her appearance I think she represented an older lady wearing a corset in the early 1900s.  The home where she "lived" was that of an older German lady who had many other late-1800s and early 1900s possessions.

The photo below is a little blurry but you can see how the fabric of her head was stitched.  I wish I'd taken more photos.  There was a crowd around that end of the table and it was hard to get close, let alone pick her up and examine her.

There were several boxes of babies, varying in age and style.

I was talking with two collectors and one of them commented that the stiff-body dolls with moveable arms are a dime a dozen. He said, "I have so many of those.  Nobody wants them.  I can't give them away!"  My unusually quick retort was, "You could give one to me."  We both laughed.




I don't know how much any of them sold for.  Had I been close by and had the bidding been low I would have been very tempted to bid.  I love old dolls.

I hope you're having a beautiful autumn if you're in the northern hemisphere, or a beautiful spring if you're in the southern.

--Nancy.
.

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Baptist Fans by Hand

quilt from plaid shirts
The hand quilting is finished.  Hurray!  It took about 5 months to quilt but there were days I didn't stitch and days I stitched very little.  Some days I stitched a fan or two.  I wasn't rushing to get it done.

I've never seen Baptist Fan quilting in person.  I've seen drawings of the pattern in books and online but they never say how far apart the quilting lines in the fans should be.  Or how many lines per fan there should be.  Without a frame of reference I chose to make these between an inch and an inch-and-a-half apart with 5 lines per fan.  I didn't mark the quilting lines, just stitched free-hand. 

I'm pleased with the fans but now I wonder how the quilt would have looked with a different quilting pattern.  If I do another churn dash maybe I'll try a different pattern.

If you've quilted Baptist Fans before, how large were they and how far apart were the lines of the fan?

Happy quilting to you!

--Nancy.
.

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Seen at Auction (But Not Purchased)

In person this quilt looked more red or red/orange than pink.  The yellow and green seem to have photographed more accurately.  I don't have a guess as to its age.
If it had a batting at all it was very thin, maybe a flannel sheet or something even lighter. Definitely a summer quilt.

The back of the quilt was brown and natural striped.

I think the quilting was what people call utility quilting.  The stitches were neither small nor even.  On the back were the quilter's initials in chain stitch.  The little red patch on the lower left of the photo below is a truer to the red on the front.

Auctions these days seem to have several auction circles going at the same time.  It's difficult to hop from one to the other to keep track of what's being sold, especially when they are spread between the back yard, the front yard, and the basement, etc.  I missed the sale of the above quilt but I probably would not have purchased it anyway.

A few other quilts:

Those 1930s, '40s, and '50s prints capture my heart!  Grandmothers' dresses.


 And a few unquilted tops:

Auctions are a bad idea for my husband and me.  We're at the age where we should begin finding homes for some of our own things (or they'll go to auction after we die!) but we enjoy seeing what's being sold at  auctions.  (What is that fascination with other people's possessions?)

This auction was the result of an older lady moving in with one of her children.  We wondered how everything being sold had fit into her home, there were so many things.  There were many old books and photographs without names.  It seems that she was of German descent from Pennsylvania.  Many of her things were from the late 1800s and early 1900s.  (There were several pairs of ladies' hand-stitched cotton "drawers" that I didn't photograph and now wished I had.  I've never seen anything like them, even in books about old clothing.)  I always feel sad to see possessions of older people being sold.  It seems so mercenary when you know that they probably loved and used the very things that are being sold for a pittance.  I guess it's the cycle of life that we buy what we need to live -- to create, to communicate, to entertain -- and when we're done with it, well, it has to go somewhere.  (The family historian in me wishes someone in the family had identified the photographs and that someone else in the family wanted to save and preserve them.)

I bought several boxes of sewing notions and old linens.  There is a set of two beautiful linen sheets and four pillowcases with exquisite lace decoration along the tops of the sheets and sides of the pillowcases.  No one else wanted them!  

I have a few more auction photos which I'll post later.

I hope you're loving and enjoying life, even with whatever challenges you face.

--Nancy.
.



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