Branching Out

I just started my own blog - Evanston Quilter - and want to invite everyone to check it out. I'll be posting pictures and stories of the many quilts I've done over the past 16 years.

Here's a picture of the first one.

I call it "The Grandmother's Quilt." Three generations of women in our family worked on it.

http://evanstonquilts.blogspot.com

See you there!
Box Mom - aka. Ladyquilter - aka. Donna

Box House - Another View

The seven-year-old son of a friend recently finished a project in school. Using burlap, felt and glue, he was told to do a picture of a house he knew. He did ours. Not having a piece of felt big enough, he used several for the attached porch. The small square in the lower right corner is the garage. He even included my red van parked in front. Not wanting the burlap to unravel, I stitched his picture to a quilted block. It's hanging in the back porch for all to see.

Here's a picture of the house to compare with his.

Pretty good job!

Other Two Quilts

Thought I would add pictures of the other two quilts I just finished.

The first is one I did for my sister in law, Marsha. The focal fabric is 1940s bathing beauties, then surrounded by tropical flowers and ferns. It's a duplicate of a quilt I did for a friend of my father's who was living in a veterans home in Western Illinois. Marsha will put hers in the family room that has a tropical theme.

The second quilt is Harry Potter, which I did for my nephew, Tyler. He loves the books and when I saw the fabric it called to me. (Click to enlarge image, and then zoom in to see all the Harry Potter prints.)

It's big enough for a twin bed. The center is a purchased panel with 12" blocks all around. Joanne is helping me set up a blog page for quilting. I'll post there, in future, as soon as I can figure out what I'm doing. :)


Moots (Box House Mom)

Pillowcases 101

Joanne has on several occasions mentioned that I quilt. Having been bored a short time ago, I tried my hand at making pillowcases, a real easy project. I used fabric printed with Mexican Fortune Telling Cards, adding black for the bands.




If anyone is interested in trying this yourself I've included instructions.


For one standard case, cut fabric 27" by width of the fabric. It's usually 42" or 44" wide. Cut off the selvages, this is the factory edge. The fabric is woven tighter on the edge and will most likely shrink more when washed. Fold the accent band (11" X 44" piece) in half lengthwise - right side out. Stitch to one long edge of the case. Press open

Fold in half, right sides together, matching ends of band. Stitch long side and bottom. Turn right side out. This final step can be done with a zig zag stitch or on a Serger sewing machine.

If doing a queen size pillowcase start with the larger piece 33" X 44" instead of the 27"

If anyone wants to duplicate the cases I did, you can still find the fabric on eBay; it's from a 2007 collection no longer in production. Search for Alexander Henry Loteria Fabric or Mexican Tarot Cards

Box Mom (Donna)

Goodbye To Our Tenants

Like Joanne mentioned a few days ago, our tenants upstairs moved out. It was nice having them here, so quiet we hardly knew when they were home. Of course, before they left I had to make them a quilt...it was a housewarming for their new place.

So goodbye Geoff, Jennifer, and Jonas. (And thanks for letting us post the picture!)

Some of the blocks for this quilt came from a block swap--sort of like a Christmas Cookie Swap--I did with one of my online quilting groups a few years ago. I added more blocks to finish the quilt to the size I wanted. It has a gingham backing and was machine quilted on my long-arm in an allover meander pattern.

Many years ago, when I worked at JoAnn Fabrics, one of my customers, an elderly quilter, told me "You must add a label to every quilt you make, so future generations know it was you who made it!" So, bowing to a sweet woman who helped inspire my path to quilting, I added this label.

So long Geoff, Jen...and Jonas. Keep in touch and do let us know how you're coming along with your "new" 120-year-old house.

BoxMom

Chicago Quilt Festival 2009

As promised I'm back with a few pictures and commentary on the recent quilt show in Chicago. The first day crowd was tremendous, a half hour drive there took two hours. The last two miles alone took almost an hour to cover. Seemed everyone was going to the show. I was so busy looking at the quilt exhibit that I forgot to take pictures of my own but did purchase a CD of the quilts that were up for judging.

One of my favorites was "The Summer Before Christmas" by Maria Bayarena. Did you ever wonder what the characters, in the 12 days of Christmas, did during the summer? This quilt shows us. The detail is outstanding, the picture doesn't do it justice. Everything is hand appliqued right down to the tiny 1/2 long shoes!


A $2,500 winner was "Houston I Think We Have A Quilter" by Martha DeLeonardis.


Another winner was "Threshers" by Ingi Mardal & Steen Hougs, this one won $2,500 too.


Like I said there were a lot of people, most carrying cameras to record as much of the detail work as they could. Always a nice way to get ideas for the quilts we want to try ourselves. From what I know, all the quilts in the contest area were original designs and copyrighted, this is why no picture taking. BUT there were always the people who can't read signs or didn't care. I myself took one of a remarkable quilt with the Virgin of Guadalupe as well as other religious figures from many different religions. I was stopped, reminded "no pictures," and deleted from my camera. Wish I still had that pic, the quilt was covered in all sorts of embellishments - pearls, laces, beads, charms, anything and everything. Unfortunately this one wasn't on the CD.

Spent a good two hours looking over the quilts, then on to the best part of the show . . .the dealers booths!!! Must have been over 100 of them. Like dying and going to quilter's heaven. Everything you ever wanted to find, for quilting and sewing, was there! Pins, needles, threads, fabric, patterns, machines, sewing and embroidery and the best of the best, as far as I'm concerned, the Long Arm Quilters!! Those all-wonderful machines that make it possible to get your work quilted in a matter of hours instead of weeks! I fell in love with the new one in the Tin Lizzie line - show price 10,000 - after the show 14,000. Priced way out of my range but I did get to play with and test it. WOW! Where can I find 14,000?

Lunch was to be found but quite pricey. A hotdog, chips and coke came close to 8.00. There was other food, more like dinner, salads, pasta, beef sandwiches, etc for around 13.00 plus. Next time we take out lunch, a lot of people did although there are, again, signs, telling you this wasn't allowed.

Like I said, last time I met some friends. Chris Booth and her friend Mel from Winnebago west of Chicago on Friday. The quilt behind Chris and Mell is made up of hundreds of tiny octagon pieces stitched together! A version of a Grandmother's Garden pattern.


Then Saturday I met Linda Meyer from Washington and Barb Linares from Florida. These gals are from the online group I belong to—Quilters Who Care. This was the first time I met them, up to now all our talking was on our group's message board.

Here's a picture of the three of us.

That's me on the left, in purple, Barb in the middle then Linda.

Although I was quite conservative in my spending on Friday I more than made up for it on Saturday. But after all, this show only comes once a year and where else can I find anything and everything in one place? :)

That's it for now, I'll post more pictures later.

Box Mom

Chicago Quilt Show 2009

Box house mom here. This is my first blog post, Joanne is turning me loose for the first time. Yeah!! Went to Chicago Quilt Show a week ago. Have lots of pictures to post in the next day or so. But here's a teaser for now.

Cats were appliqued after the background was machine pieced.

Applique Quilt of Birds and Birdhouses

Mom just finished a quilt-for-hire project, and I'm really sad to see this one go. It's probably her best work yet. But at least it's going to my Aunt Marsha, and I'll get to visit it every once in a while.

This quilt was done entirely by applique, which means she cuts out teeny-tiny pieces of fabric and appliques them onto the quilt block.

Then she hand-stitches embellishments...

...like the flowers 'round a birdhouse...

...the needles of a pine bough...

...the creepers from a grape vine...

...or the delicate stamens of a flower.

My favorite block may be this one, but I've always had a fondness for blue jays.

Although this sunny yellow guy definitely makes me smile.

Go ahead and click on any of the images...

...it's the only way to see all the detail.


The time and effort Mom puts into her quilts is amazing, and she is able to get the work done despite her furry "helpers."

The end result is an heirloom that will get passed down through the generations.

We are definitely quilt crazy in our family! We have projects scattered throughout the house. This one that Bella is lounging on is a pillow made from a quilt square given to us by my grandfather's friend Ruby. She was quilting all the way into her nineties.

Garfield Applique Quilt

Mom's been very busy the last month or two wrapping up some of her quilt projects. Here's the Garfield Applique Quilt she is finishing up for my cousin Steffie (who I don't think reads this blog, but if you see her, shhh!)

For this type of quilt, she "fussy cuts" images from an existing fabric, in this case one that had large pictures of Garfield and Odie, and then hand appliques them into the center of the quilt block. You can click on any of the images for a better view.




Two out of two Maine Coon cats approve of this quilt.

Mom's Latest Quilt, a Farewell to Our Lawn Care Guy, and a Shout Out to My Very Talented Man

I love showing off Mom's quilts.

This one is her latest, which she's giving to her lawn care guy for Christmas. He's cut the grass and shoveled the snow at her other house for more than a decade. They have a better-than-average contractor-client relationship; she's been invited to his family's house for dinner, and he knows all about our family and our new adventures at The Box House. But now that we found a tenant for the house who is willing and eager to take on the outdoor chores himself, we can't see fit to continue with professional lawn care, even though we really, really like the guy. We'll definitely miss him! (If you're out in the Bloomingdale/Roselle area and need a recommendation for lawn care, let me know.)

On the kitten news front, the furry babies seem to be making themselves at home. Here's Seamus just hanging out with Mom while she works at the computer...

Maggie was having a difficult time accepting the kittens at first. We call her the Omega Dog, because she is the most submissive creature we've ever seen. For the first few days after the kittens arrived, she would try to avoid them. If one looked at her directly, she would turn away, refusing to make eye contact. She'd hug the wall, eyes averted, if she needed to get past, or whine for one of us to get her. She stuck to me like glue, constantly craving reassurance. Usually she'll nap next to me, this weekend she napped on top of me. All of her behavior indicated she was making herself submissive to the kittens. And she seemed to have lost her spark.

But today there was a noticeable shift. She sat next to the kittens on the floor; she even went into downward dog position once. I found all three animals alone together in our bedroom. They weren't interacting, but they were all sitting on the bed in a row. And now Maggie wags her tail like crazy when they're around. Okay, not every time, but there was a definite lack of whining today and more tail wagging and I could walk through the house without a shadow. I think she's trying to make friends now and it helps that the babies are so laid back. It would be cute to see all three critters snuggling together. The kittens themselves are very curious about her as well, especially her tail, but she's so big compared to them that I think they're holding back a bit.

And finally, I just have to publicly proclaim that I'm a lucky, lucky girl to have a guy like Ted around. The heat in the tenants' unit went out, so we went to check the pilot on the boiler. We tried relighting it twice, but it wouldn't stay lit. My first thought was "let's call the heating guy" because really, I have no clue about these things. But Ted somehow figured out it was a faulty thermocouple, went to Home Depot for a new one, and popped it into our ancient boiler, saving us a service call. I think I'll bake him a pie tonight!

Double Wedding Ring Quilt

As long as I'm showing off Mom's quilts today (and working from her computer where these pics are stored), here's the one that she made for me and Ted. I actually bought the fabric with her when I was fresh out of college and still living in Iowa City; we went to a quilt fabric store outside the Amish community of Kalona, where Mom nearly swooned at the variety on sale (this was pretty much before the Internet, so quilters were usually stuck with their local sources only, such as JoAnn Fabrics).

The Double Wedding Ring pattern was popular from the twenties through the forties. A long history of this particular pattern can be found here, but in summary, the motif of interlocking rings is quite old, stretching back at least to Roman times.

At present, we have this one packed away because Ted and I are basically still sleeping on a mattress on the floor. We'll assemble the bed one of these days, before the crick in my neck becomes permanent. Hard to believe I used to be able to sleep sitting upright on overnight trains across Europe back in my younger days.

Mom's Dresden Plate Quilt, with Pattern History

Mom recently finished a baby quilt for Ted's new niece, Anaiah Christine. If you click on the images, you can enlarge them to see the hand stitches. It took her ages to finish.

The pattern is known as Dresden Plate. According to Judy Ann Breneman of Quilt Patterns from History, the Dresden Plate quilt pattern was very popular in the 1920s and 1930s. It came under a variety of names, including Grandmother's Sunburst, Friendship Ring, Aster, Dahlia, and Sunflower.

Breneman goes on to say: "The popular name for this quilt, Dresden Plate, reflects the romance of the Victorian Era with its love of elaborate decoration on household items and décor. Dresden, Germany was a center of 19th century romanticism movement in art, one that included the fine decoration of porcelain. The plates were embellished with elaborate design using flowers, fruits and foliage. The beautiful plates would surely have been admired by women of the early 20th century."

Here's Ted's dad, Bob, with little Anaiah.

Soldier at BAMC Receives One of Mom's Quilts

A few weeks ago, I posted an update on Mom's sewing room /quilt room progress with a photo of her working on a lap quilt. The quilt was sent to the Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) in Texas to be given to one of our soldiers who is receiving treatment. This morning, the woman who coordinates this particular quilts-for-soldiers program sent us a photo of Mom's quilt with the soldier who received it. (My guess is that the woman in the photo is his mom.)