Veterans Day

A day to honor and remember

all of our Veterans.

 And also

  Military Doctors, Nurses, Medic's,
Corpsman - who saved their lives and limbs

 The Veterans Memorial at Eisenhower Park, Nassau County, NY

Eco Dyeing with Pyracantha ‘Orange Glow’ Part II

Eco Dyeing with Pyracantha ‘Orange Glow’ Part II 

If you're interested in eco-dyeing

you can read about this experiment

here (on my new dyeing blog)

http://materialisticvisions.blogspot.com/2014/11/eco-dyeing-with-pyracantha-orange-glow.html 

Bloggers Quilt Festival

It's Bloggers Quilt Festival time again thanks to Amy's Creative Side!

I'm entering my quilt into the Applique Quilts category.

http://amyscreativeside.com/2014/10/24/bloggers-quilt-festival-fall-2014-edition/

Several years ago; I took a class to learn a new applique technique called "Back Basting". We started with Baltimore Album blocks. I took me over one year to do nine blocks. When it came time to put the borders on
I realized that I didn't buy enough white on white fabric and by that time the fabric was out of print. And so the quilt top sat in my closet for a long time.




Until the beginning of 2014 I decided to complete some of my WIP. I decided to take part of the Baltimore blocks apart and make individual Wall Hangings out of three of them. I have other plans for the rest of the blocks.

The "Rose Wreath with Red Birds" is one of my
favorites. A truly Traditional Block dated 1854, it can be found in  "Baltimore Beauties  and Beyond" Volume One by Elly Sienkiewicz.

I used needle turned applique along with the back basting method for all of the pieces. I find that using YLI silk threads are best for
needle turn applique - it seems to make your stitches almost invisible.


(If you're interested in learning the back basting method there is a very good easy to follow tutorial By Sentimental Stitches)

After taking this block apart from the others; I thought that it could use ...something. so I decided to  hand embroidered around the turquoise flowers and center hearts using a simple blanket stitch. I think it gives it a little more texture and interest.

To keep with tradition this quilt is hand quilted with straight line quilting on the diagonal. Also, some echo quilting around the leaves and flowers.

The binding is done the Sharon Schamber way. You can find her video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2hWQ5-ZccE  HERE

After the binding was done I needed to add a sleeve. There are many tutorials on the internet but my favorite
is Susan Brubaker Knapp's
http://wwwbluemoonriver.blogspot.com/2007/07/how-to-make-quilt-sleeve.html

I am very happy with the way this wallhanging came out - it measures 20' x 20' and would certainly brighten up any space.

Many Many beautiful quilts in this
festival - Hope that you'll go and 
take a look!

Wordless Wednesday

Echo Dyeing with Cleome Flowers

An Eco Dyeing experiment with

 Cleome Flowers.

If you're interested you can read

about it HERE -  On my new dye blog.

 

Vintage Quilt Top

Can This Quilt Be Saved?

 

I bought this vintage quilt top

last year on the internet. I had

stored it away until I had the time

to work on it.

I'm a member of a Quilt History Study 

Group here in Lancaster; so when I 

saw this piece for sale I was so excited!

I recognized some of the fabrics from

about 1890 - 1900. But I wanted to bring

it to the Study to make sure.

Now when I say a "piece" for sale I mean

that the seller called it a "cutter quilt".

I clicked on "buy" and bought the piece.

Later I went back to view the piece again

and I noticed that there were SIX OTHER

PIECES for sale! So I e-mailed the seller

and asked if they were cutting as they 

sold or if the rest of the quilt was

still whole. 

To my relief; they said it was still whole

and asked if they should cut another 

piece for me....NO!!  I will buy the 

remainder of the quilt "UNCUT"!

When I received it in the mail I was

so excited! Granted it does have some

torn spots but it's Queen size!

Just look at these old fabrics!

This is just one piece of the corner

of the quilt that was cut. The quilt

was not quilted but tied.

You can see where some of the pieces

are torn. 

Here's the back....

All hand stitched with small stitches

and straight lines. That's a lot of

work for all these pieces and queen 

size! 

That's one of the reasons that I would

like to salvage what I can. 

I noticed that one of the blocks were

repaired.

Front view of repair

Back view of repair

What I did so far to this piece is

I removed the back and the batting.

The quilt did have a funny odor sort

of like a chemical smell. I had to

put it outside in the shade to air

it out for a couple of days. Taking

it inside at night. 

Here I just removed one block that

was in shreds. I will continue to

remove all of the damaged blocks on

this piece before I work on the rest

of the quilt.

It will take me a long time but I 

believe it will be worth it.

I will post the other part of the 

quilt very soon.

Happy Quilting!

Eco Dyeing with Pyracantha Orange Glow Part I

I have a blog called Materialistic 

Visions that I started and neglected.

It's about my dyed fabrics and now

I'm going to use it also for my

echo dye experiments.

Here's what on the blog today---

Experimenting with Pyracantha ‘Orange Glow’

berries.

If you're interested here's the link
Berry experiment

 Have a great week!