A Little Late to the Party

A while back I posted about a quilt I'm working on--Losing My Marbles-- and indeed, it is causing me to do just that!  I've finally found a way to make fabric circles and am becoming more proficient at sewing them down neatly.

I started looking at blogs and discovered Quilty365 which is making one circle block a day for an entire year.  While that would result in more blocks than I would need for a quilt, I liked the idea.  The project began two years ago which is why the title of this post is "a little late to the party". 

I've seen some of the quilts which were not done entirely with neutral backgrounds but with great variations in colors and prints and I like those.  So that is what I'm going to do as I continue working on the Losing My Marbles quilt.   I've also seen other shapes instead of circles, including hearts, stars, crosses, and small nine-patches.  I'm still mulling over about just what I want to do, but the basics--making one block per day--will remain. 

Losing My Marbles

This is the quilt I've decided to make to start off the new year!  It's Losing My Marbles
by Kaffe Fassett.  The pattern is in his book, Quilts in Italy.  I bought a kit from
Glorious Color and am now awaiting receiving it.  This will be fun!

I've decided to applique the circles using used dryer sheets and have several friends
saving theirs for me as I don't really do that much laundry.  This is how it works:

1. Trace the pattern you want to applique on the dryer sheet.  I place the sheet
on a piece of sandpaper which helps stabilize it.
2. Place is on the right side of the fabric and stitch all the way around.
3. Trim the dryer sheet/fabric.
4. Slit the dryer sheet.
5. Turn it inside out.
6. Applique

It's a little more time consuming but it's worth it.  The quilt has 115 circles and I
expect it will take me a while to finish it.

December's Monthly Goal Finish

I have assembled all 48 blocks into 6 rows of 8 blocks each for my Jacob's Ladder quilt. Because some of my grand-children were ill on Christmas Day, we've extended our Christmas celebrations into next week.   I still need to assemble all the rows to have a completed quilt top and, if I'm lucky, I'll have it done by the end of the first week of 2019. I love the colors in this quilt as well as the scrappy pattern and look forward to hand-quilting it. See Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal- December.

Getting Ready for 2019

I'm going to clean up my blogs a bit and try to post more often. Even though I keep track of the books I read on Goodreads, I thought it would be fun to also list them here monthly.  I'd like to see how many and what books I've read each month.  My goal is still reading at least 150 books a year, although I generally read quite a few more.  But as we never know what the year will bring, 150 books seems like a reasonable goal to aim for.

Knitting has taken a back seat to quilting the past few months.  I do hope to join a knitting circle in January which meets several times a week at The Stitching Parlour in Brownsville.  I'll probably only go once a week which should be enough to get me started knitting again.  I'll start with knit baby/preemie hats and maybe some simple socks, perhaps with self-striping yarn.

Now, quilting is something else.  I hadn't quilted in a long time when I started again last August and I have a lot of quilts I want to make.  I'll continue to make doll and small quilts and talk about those on that blogpage but I'll write about the larger quilts I'm making on this blog.  I've signed up for some online quilt-alongs, some free ones on Facebook and some from Temecula Quilts.

Perhaps I'll add some weekly or daily features on some of the blogs to help keep me on track.  I'll have to think more about that.  

December's Monthly Goal

I actually have a number of monthly quilting/knitting goals this month even though it is a busy month because of Christmas.  And my birthday (the 16th).  And my wedding anniversary (39 years on the 21st).  But I have chosen one monthly goal (see: See One Monthly Goal for details)  and that is to finishing assembling my Jacob's Ladder quilt top.  Here is a photo of one block.

I need to make 47 more. Well, we'll see how far I get!
See One Monthly Goal for details.

New Focus!

This blog has been dormant for a while so I'm going to turn it into my quilt blog.  I have a blog for knitting socks, one for charity knitting, and one for doll quilts but none for just general quilting, but now I do!  I hope you enjoy it!

Books Read - February, 2016

1. Even Dogs in the Wild by Ian Rankin

Books Read - January, 2016

1. Wilful Behavior by Donna Leon
2. The Longevity Project: Surprising Discoveries for Health and Long Life from the Landmark Eight-Decades Study by Howard Friedman (NF)
3. Old Quilts, New Life by Sarah Fielke (NF)
4. Forty Thieves by Thomas Perry
5. No Greater Love by Mother Theresa (NF)
6. A Year at Thrush Green by Miss Read

Books Read - December, 2015

1. Cruising in Your Eighties is Murder by Mike Befler
2. A Christmas Escape by Anne Perry
3.  Home by Nightfall by Charles Finch
4. The Crossing by Michael Connelly
5. The Sundown Speech by Loren Estelman
6. Away in a Manger by Rhys Bowen
7. Trap by Robert Tanenbaum
8. Forensics by Val McDermid (NF)
9. Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris (NF)
10. I Was a Child by Bruce Kaplan (NF)
11. Once Upon a Time: A Short History of the Fairy Tale by Marina Warner (NF)
12. Invisible: The Dangerous Allure of the Unseen by Phillip Ball (NF)
13. A Shadowed Evil by Alys Claire
14. Tricky Twenty-Two by Janet Evanovich
15. Ordinary Days: Family Life in a Farmhouse by Dorcas Smucker (NF)
16. In War Time: A Study of Civil War Era Quilts by American Quilt Study Group (NF)
17. Suddenly Sixty and Other Shocks of Later Life by Judith Viorst  (NF)
18. Itty-bitty Quilts by Mari Martin (NF)

Books Read - November, 2015

1. French Kids Eat Everything by Karen Le Billon (NF)
2. Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter
3.  9 Months of Knitting: Exquisite Knits for Baby and Family by Alexa Ludeman (NF)
4. Shark Detective! by Jessica Olien
5. Aqua Alta by Donna Leon
6. The Golden Egg by Donna Leon
7. Death in Brittany by Jean-Luc Bannelec
8. The Witch's Grave by Phillip Depoy
9. Sleep Like a Tiger by Mary Logue
10. The Day the Crayons Came Home by Drew Daywalt
11. Living with your Kids is Murder by Mike Befeler
12. Retirement Homes are Murder by Mike Befeler
13. The Art of Travel with a Sketchbook by Mari Le Glatin Keis (NF)
14. The Big Book of Scrappy Quilts by That Patchwork Place (NF)
15. The Company She Kept by Archer Mayor

Books Read - October, 2015

1. Murder Comes Calling by C.S. Challinor
2. Suffer the Little Children by Donna Leon
3. A Pattern of Lies by Charles Todd
4. Death in a Strange Country by Donna Leon
5.  The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century by Ian Mortimer (NF)
6. A Sea of Troubles by Donna Leon
7. The Drowning by Camilla Lackberg
8. Robert B. Parker's The Devil Wins by Reed Farrell Coleman
9. The Drowned Boy Karin Fosum
10. Speaking in Bones by Kathy Reich
11. The Murderer's Daughter by Jonathan Kellerman
12.  The Beat Goes On by Ian Rankin

Books Read - September, 2015

1. The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny
2. Dressed for Death by Donna Leon
3. In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware
4.  Best Served Cold by Sally Spencer
5. Long Upon the Land by Margaret Maron
6. Better than Before: Mastering the Habits of our Everyday Lives by Gretchn Rubin (NF)
7. The Devil's Hearth by Phillip DePoy
8. Malice in the Palace by Rhys Bowen
9. X by Sue Grafton 
10. Lost in Translation: An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words from Around the World by Ella Frances Sanders (NF)
 

Books Read - August, 2015

1. Faces of the Gone by Brad Parks
2. The Player by Brad Parks
3. Liberated Medallion Quilts by Gwen Marston (NF)
4. Mom and Me Knits by Stefanie Japel (NF)
5. That Perfect Stitch: The Secrets of Fine Hand Quilting by Dierdra McElroy (NF)
6. Painting Nature in Pen and Ink with Watercolor by Claudia Nice (NF)
7. Hand-appliqued Quilts: Whimsical Designs and Simple Techniques by Tonye Belinda Phillips (NF)
8. American Folk Art Quilts by Maggie McCormick Gordon (NF)
9. Lively Little Folk Art Quilts by Gwen Marston (NF)
10. Vintage Quilts by Bobbie Aug (NF)
11. Quietly in Their Sleep by Donna Leon
12. Brush Back  by Sara Paretsky

Log Cabin Variation Quilt

A few years after I married, my husband's grandmother gave me many quilt tops, fabrics, and quilt patterns which had belonged to her sister, Clara Bentley Wooster.  This quilt top was one of them.  The edges were frayed and there were a few loose seams, but it was otherwise in excellent condition  I hand quilted it.  It is 45" x 54" and the blocks are 3".

There are a wide variety of fabrics in this quilt, some much older than others, which makes it a challenge to date.  It's one reason I brought it to be appraised when I went to the Antiques Road Show.  The textile expert told me what I'd suspected--that it is circa 1920.  Yes, there are some much older fabrics mixed in but scrap quilts are dated by the oldest fabrics and the ones in this quilt are 1910-1920.  I suspect she may have traded fabrics with others (the papers I have indicate she did just that in the 1930s and 1940s) and my husband claims he can recognize some of his great-aunt Clara's apron fabrics and some of her husband's shirt fabrics in this quilt.

Not long ago I posted a photo of this quilt on Quilts--Vintage and Antique which has among their members appraisers and antique quilt dealers including many names I recognize and respect.  The consensus was that circa 1920 was a good estimate.

A few years ago someone, seeing a photo of this quilt and intrigued by its construction, made her own version of it.  That can be found here. 

Books Read - July, 2015

1. About Face by Donna Leon
2. The Stranger by Camilla Lackberg
3. The Stonecutter by Camilla Lackberg
4.  A Minister's Ghost by Phillip DePoy
5. The Good Cop by Brad Parks
6. Little Black Lies by Sharon Bolton
7. The Girl Next Door by Brad Parks
8. The Girl of His Dreams by Donna Leon
9. Through a Glass Darkly by Donna Leon
10. Don't Go Home by Carolyn Hart
11. A Widow's Curse by Phillip DePoy
12. Wholecloth Linen Quilts: Patterns and Designs by Cindy Needham (NF)
13. The Drifter's Wheel by Phillip DePoy
14. Wicked Charms by Janet Evanovich
15. Eyes of the Innocent by Brad Parks
16. Faces of the Gone by Brad Parks