Tapestry Quilt

 Go read this. It's beautiful.

And do subscribe to their blog. You will not be disappointed

(this is about sewing and only needing one quilt)

https://spitalfieldslife.com/2021/08/29/my-quilt-x/

Shark Quilt

 This is a project I've pondered forever, but it wasn't until a trip to Joanns awhile ago that it bore fruit.

Cause we all know how much I love novelty prints.

Fleece 

Quilting cottons (pretty rough quality)

Of course, when I went back all they had was the fleece, so I had to go online and search for them. It amuses me that I can buy something on their website from the very same store I was just in, something that wasn't on the floor and the staff swore they had never seen.

Okay, I know, working at Joanns can suck the fun out of you. But really? You had all this.

Anyway, online works. Ebay helped. I got a few other pieces, for five prints altogether.

And to break down the whole thing into a simple motif, I went looking for the original poster and instead found this:

Calm the Ham

Not available on their website anymore, but all visible on their Pinterest

sketched it up a little, redid proportions

reduced it to black and white, put a grid on it in Paint (then did a screenshot to capture grid)

From there, it's just enlarging using the grid system, just like I learned in high school.

Mostly I just sketched it while staring at the grid.  

made a big template

traced it

assembled the base 'waves'

Oh good god it's crooked. Well, it's crooked for good.

You can see where this is going.

I am going to edge and back it with the fleece and my niece will finally get that Jaws lap quilt I threatened promised her. Should be done this week.

I am working on a longer post about one piece pants, but it needs more photos and more thinking. 

And things are going to slow down sewing wise because I have a big cat to feed at work.

Where every day is Caturday

Quilting Someone Else's Family Treasure

I am not a quilter. This long post will be the only quilting post I do this year. Possibly ever, but I hate to be so self-limiting.

This is not my quilt.

This isn't even a quilt top from anyone I'm related to.

Not quite squares, 7 by 6. A mathematically pleasant rectangle.

It is going to be a wall hanging for my friend Michelle's therapy office. It's bright and aimless enough to be soothing without being distracting. And it's definitely homemade.

Yes, those are airships. Yes, I love them. This is from 1977.

I've only made one quilt. Because I only needed one, to go to college with.

I used a sheet set that lent itself to the theme, and machine appliqued the shapes.

This was done by my dad's mom. Yes, they lived in Wyoming. Yes, that says "Round Up Time"

Bless the cowgirl, she's not riding sidesaddle

All the kids were blonds

But what the devil is J.E.F. Ranch? Those initials don't match anyone.

Mystery!

It wouldn't be a family heirloom for 1930s white Wyoming people without some racial stereotypes. No offense meant, that's just what they did.

My father said he never met a Native American until he moved to Seattle and met our neighbors, who were Navaho and Cherokee, and introduced us to the local fight for tribal fishing rights. He did not use the term "Native American" at that point,  but he soon would. I have my doubts about the truth of that statement, but he was a city boy in a very white world of 1930s Wyoming. 

Is this where I say that my grandfather was a labor lawyer, and not a rancher? And that all the kids went to college? In the 30s and 40s? In Wyoming. Even the girls? And graduated? 

This quilt is made out of "Auntie" Jeanette's dad's ties.

She's the auntie of my friend Michelle, and she lived and sewed and sent me fabric from North Carolina, back when it was the textile capitol of this country. I never met her, but I heard plenty about her from Michelle. And I heard about this quilt top.

And over Christmas, it came to me.

Yes, she did a hand feather stitch in embroidery floss around all the pieces after they were machine stitched together (stitched to a white cotton square). And machine stitched the resulting squares and feather stitched over those seams.

This is the backing material. It will get edged with dark green velvet from someone's curtains. A shade lighter than Scarlett/Bob Mackie's curtain dress.

Yes, I love the Clover needle threader and we're engaged to be married. Bpfffffff!

There's going to be a lot of handstitching this to another sheet, then hemming that to the backing and the edging (making long pockets for rods on the sides).

I got two long fabric tubes from my pals at Pacific Fabrics (if you spend that much money somewhere, it does pay off in favors) to roll the quilt up on.

The idea being that I can put the rolls on the arms of the skaterondack and work in that flat gap inbetween.

Or that's the plan for the Skaterondack chair

And as soon as I get that part of the house dug out again, I will.