Challenge/ Charity quilt

Mom's top

March's guild meeting for the Tellico Quilters Guild mom picked up stuff for their challenge quilt/charity quilt. The main challenge was to use these kids sports fabric and create a quilt out of it. They did give some fabrics that you can use but mom didn't like most of them. She did a cute block pattern alternating in pink and green.

She asked me to do the backing because she likes my backing style. I was asked not last week but the week before that and I told her it would have to wait until the baby quilt was done. Since that was finished yesterday, this was today's project. It surprised me she wanted me to do the backing. She doesn't normally do improve and most of my pieced backs are improve pieced sometimes echoing an element on the front.

back in progress

Fabric selection

Sometimes I spend a lot of time thinking and changing but a lot of the time I just go with what feels right. I do still find times where a color combination will give me trouble. I did have that issue with this one. I was given all the scraps and the extra fabrics that she got from the swap. Some of the fabrics I wished to incorporate but I just couldn't figure out how to add them. It did take longer then I thought it would because I did some small piecing to use up specific scraps.

I am happy with the overall backing.  I created the squares from the front and made the pieced section of the fabrics from the front. I did want to use dark blue or orange but I couldn't make them work and they just didn't match.

Finished backing

My Great Grandmother's quilts

Since my recent trip to the Mountain Quiltfest, I got a chance to sit down and speak to my grandmother about some of our own antique quilts. My grandmother didn't start quilting until she was older and she didn't remember her mother quilting much but she did have some memories of it.

My grandmother was born in the early '40s in Sevierville, TN. The area is known as Little Greenbriar. in the '50s the land was purchased by the government and became what is now known as the Smokey Mountain National Park. The family eventually moved to South Clinton.

My grandmother growing up always remembers a quilt on the bed but only a few times seeing her mother quilting. Her own grandmother quilted some also. It was a necessity at the time to have blankets for the family. She did remember the family stretching a quilt to quilt on the back porch from the rafters.

When my great grandmother passed away, granny got two quilts from her items. One was on her bed as a child and the other granny believes came from her grandmother Mrs. Rayfield. One of the two quilts uses carded cotton and has spots where the batting has shifted. The other uses sackcloth fabric and other clothing scraps. Granny remembers her mother making them clothing out of sackcloths. Both have damage and wear and I hope to get a chance to have them appraised one day.

While I was looking up information about antique quilts I found a few links I wanted to share:

Preserving Antique Quilts
Caring for Antique Quilts
Feed Sack Quilt History
20th Century Antique Quilts

Today's tea is actually a Blood Orange iced tea from Harney & Sons. I got it actually last summer and it is a fruity summer tea. I only have a couple of bags left so I will have to repurchase some when summer rolls around. They suggest serving it with orange slices or apple slices. I sat there and brewed a pitcher up for the week while I sat and talked to granny about her quilts. It is always nice to sit and connect with the family about common interests. and to know that stories like these will not be lost. That's one of the reasons I enjoy tea so much.

Oh Baby Finished!

This is a project I knew would come to an end soon. It was closer to finishing a WIP then starting anything new. The original quilt top had been around for a while and I'm happy to see it finished and finally going to a home. My cousin's baby shower is next weekend so I am thrilled to have this done with time to spare.

With the scraps, I also made two cute decorative pillows to match. Since the way, I created the backing out of the top itself only the top and bottom needed binding. I was able to use scraps from making the pillows to make those. So I am happy to say no new fabric went into this project. I am also surprised my thread held out. I have enough to put on a bobbin for another project now. The stitching across each lava lamp/ distorted hex shape gives it a rather interesting texture and I'm glad about how the thread blends into the majority of the fabrics.

Now I think it's time for bed and I can gear up with my next project in the morning!

Mountain Quiltfest Day 2 Antique Quilts

Friday was a good day for demos and visiting the bed turnings as they call them. They're about 30-minute shows where they go over several antique quilts. They give you the history that is known and who made the quilt. Of course, the sad part is lots of quilts are never labeled so we don't always know who made it.

They also have a display of crafts done at the time that use the same techniques and fabrics like a quilted vest and pillowcases made out of feed sackcloths. If you have antique quilts you can have them appraised at the show for a very reasonable rate.

The presentation was very informative and sparked a bit of interest in antique quilts. I have lots of the quilts shown in both presentations in my Mountain Quiltfest photo album.

Many of the quilts are made out of feed sackcloth and some are made out of scraps of different types of fabrics. The backs of some of the quilts are done from sackcloths.  The history of feed sackcloth in quilting is a very interesting and ingenious use of fabric that could have been thrown away at one time.

Mountain Quiltfest 2019 Pigeon Forge, TN

So this week was the Mountain Quiltfest in Pigeon Forge TN. This is actually my third time coming to this convention. It's been several years and this is actually my first time going to it's the newer location. The convention has been held at this location for the last several years I just hadn't been able to go for one reason or another. I think the last time I went was 2013. It was in two hotels at that time and both hotels were at different ends of the main parkway.  The current location is a large event space called the Leconte Center. It shares a parking lot with a location called the Island which has restaurants, arcades, shops, and a huge Ferris wheel.

The Quilt show this year went for March 20th to March 23rd. They had lots of classes but several of
they filled up fast. Next year's show will be March 4th to the 7th. My original plan was to go one day to the show on Thursday and Friday we were going to Nashville for a concert. I had won tickets to through the local radio station. We left the show Thursday night and were heading home for some sleep and the station I got my tickets from no longer existed. It had been sold and changed hands while I was at the show. I called the venue for the concert and no one had turned in the list for the will call tickets. So my Friday plans fell apart and so we went back to the quilt show.

They had a passport/ scavenger hunt game going on that we didn't notice on Thursday so we did that and went to several of the demos and antique quilt turnings. I will do a separate entry on the antique quilts but I am glad I went back. We got a lot of things on our first day and the second day but I did pick up some thread.

Thread from Friday

Loot from Thursday

I have part of the photos taken on my google photos album. My battery had died halfway through the show and I had given my extra batteries to mom. Once I get a chance I will get a copy of her photos to put in my album also.

The tea for today was a Pomegranate Green Tea. We had stayed at a hotel weds night so we could get to the show early Thursday. Breakfast was left overs from dinner the night before and I grabbed the hot tea in hotel breakfast area. We also ended the night at the Apple Barn for a fired pie and hot cider for dinner. It had gotten cold so that hit the spot.

Oh Baby WIP still

So I had a whole week where I was not feeling good and didn't get anything done. I had no energy and would come home and stare vaguely at my computer. Well, I was trying to read and watch YouTube videos abut I was just not feeling it. So I've not completed the baby quilt but I have gotten pretty far. The top ended up being 5 full rows wide with a partial row on each side when I had it stitched up and turned. It's a good crib sheet size and I have managed to make progress. I have 3 rows and another 2/3rds a row done. I did end up having to buy a second spool of thread to complete it.

There was one day I couldn't resist and took an hour or two to work on the focus freeway project. I just cut out the pieces and put them together. The whole thing is applique so it's ironed down but needs to be stitched up. I put it aside to finish the sewing after I finish my baby quilt. The March 30th date is coming fast and I keep feeling like everyone wants a bit of time I don't have. I know if I hadn't stopped working on anything for a week I'd have finished it but you can't help when you're sick.

I do have the material and the remaining rows ready for when I finish this I can make two matching pillows. Afterwards, it's bag it up and have it ready for a baby shower!

Today's tea is one I got from Teavana a while back. I think I only have enough for one more cup left. It's a summer tea and I'm ready for spring/ summer. It's Strawberry blush. It's a very fruity herbal tea that tastes like strawberry as the name implies. It almost doesn't need sweetening with its natural flavor. I did add some freeze-dried strawberries into my cup. If I had enough I'd make a pitcher of ice tea with it but sadly it's almost gone and I don't think I can get anymore.

Oh Baby! WIP

So my cousin is having a baby. I had been waiting until she let me know to work on her baby quilt. It's due in June but she recently sent a baby shower invitation for March 30th. So I would like to have the quilt done by then. Good thing I planned on using one of the dozen tops I had already had finished. I have a terrible habit of doing a top and putting it aside to be quilted later, but as you guess it later can be years down the road.

In progress from 2014

I decided to put working on my Halloween hanging off to get this project done before the baby shower. My aunt had been wanting to make my other cousin's son a quilt also. I will have to pull out the clothing I gathered for that because I know she's going to work on getting me to doing it faster once I show up with this.

This one is a pattern I got offline and I had to hunt it down to figure out where. It's one of the McCalls Quilting free patterns called Tween Tumbler. I linked a post from 2018 but the original pattern is from 2013. I started this top in 2014. So that makes this a bit of a UFO I've picked up.

I decided to modify the top so it wouldn't be so big. I'm using part of it as its own backing also. I shortened it by three rows. I took off the very top and two bottom rows. I'm going to use the pieces to make a pillow or two to match.

I had this pale green thread that disappears into the greens but will stand out in the pinks and oranges. It's a Gutermann # 700 in Mint Green, To be honest, I didn't want to run out and buy thread and I was trying to match the turquoise. I have so much thread I knew I would have something to match. I think I considered a blue or a beige also. But so far I'm happy with this thread. I love the quality of Guttermann. It one of my favorite threads I can get when I run into Joann's.

Picture from Republic of Tea.

Today's tea is an Acai Berry from The Republic of Tea. They label it their super fruit tea. To be honest I was looking at lots of teas at World Market and there was an employee trying to redo the shelf. I grabbed three and I thought I had actually grabbed a blueberry tea. I didn't look at the container after I grabbed it, just stuffed it in my basket and went on. I did look at the other two I picked up and put them back. I don't mind this is good. It's got a bit of a blueberry flavor to it. When I shared it at work one of them thought it tasted a bit like fig newtons. So that may be due to subconscious suggestions.

Quilt Shop Saturday- Asheville Cotton Co.

I got a chance to go to Asheville, NC Saturday. My trip was meant to go see Biltmore (you can see photos I took here), but I like to stop into fabric shops on my vacations. It gives me some great ideas seeing a new shop and sometimes there are unique finds you wouldn't find in another part of the country. This trip I stopped at the Asheville Cotton Co. shop.

This was my second stop at this shop. Last August I had gone with my mom and my friend Regina. This trip was only me and Regina but I had to go back to the shop. I like this shop. It's a good sized shop and has a great selection. They also had this cute sample quilt done with some whimsical peter pan fabrics. If I was a huge peter pan fan I would have loaded up on these.

Quilt made with peter pan fabrics

I did get a variety of floral fabrics and a couple of fat quarters of this cute tomato fabric I found. Mom had asked me to pick up some floral for her so we're going to get together and divvy out the fabrics this week.

We stopped at the shop early in the morning. So early we were there about 15 minutes before opening. I ran into the nearby Fresh Market and picked up this matcha ginger tea. I thought it was a store brand, but it's by Matcha Love. It was very good and refreshing. I did get two yellow plums for a snack and never got around to eating them. I plan to do that today with some lemon iced tea while I sew and catch up on household stuff.