Silent Sunday

Detour Around The Yellow Brick Road

I can't remember how many times over the years I had teachers ask me if I read all of the directions before beginning an assignment.  Apparently not much has changed since my school days.  I started a quilt using the Yellow Brick Road pattern and somewhere along the way I missed the part in the instructions that said, "Leftover strips will be used later".  Translated that means, "Don't sub-cut all of the strips just yet", but I didn't figure that out until after I (yep, you guessed it) cut all of the strip sets.  Thankfully, I was able to design enough blocks from the pieces that I had leftover to finish the quilt.  No, it's not really a Yellow Brick Road quilt now, but I think my Detour Around The Yellow Brick Road is just as nice!
And for those who are wondering if I have learned my lesson about reading directions...probably not.     

Flowers Inside And Out

Last week a few of my quilty friends and I traveled to Cornell University in Ithaca, NY to see a display of quilted wall hangings made by Alice Hunt and to tour the gardens at the Cornell Plantation.  There were beautiful flowers everywhere...inside and out!  If you are anywhere near Ithaca before the end of October, I highly recommend that you take the time to visit the Nevin Welcome Center and see "A Tribute to Flora", you won't be disappointed!

Texture Quilts

The Mountain Laurel Quilt Guild begins it's new year at the September meeting with a whole new slate of officers.  For the next two years I'll will be the Outreach Chairperson and will be heading up all of the guild's charity projects.  I'm excited about this new position and I have several new ideas for how our guild can help people in our community through quilting.
Our first project will be making Texture Quilts.  Not only are these quilts needed by our local nursing homes for patients with dementia or those who are vision impaired, but they will be great stash busters for guild members!  Any fabric with texture or bold patterns can be used in these quilts.  Corduroy, fleece, terrycloth, sateen, seersucker, brocade, lace, flannel, chenille...as long as it can be washed and dried it can be used in these quilts! I made this Texture Quilt as a sample and I was surprised to find that I had so many fabrics that aren't found in quilt shops in my stash!  I think with the help of the guild that we will come up with some very interesting quilts for our local nursing homes!

Silent Sunday

Tumbling Blocks

Tumbling Blocks is my Priority: Alzheimer's Quilt for September.  I don't often say this about my work, but I am proud of this little quilt!  I've been trying to figure out what it is about this quilt that makes it so special to me and I think it's the fact that it is so different from the quilts that I usually make.  I don't think I will ever consider myself an art quilter, but making quilts for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative has given me an opportunity to let my inner artist loose and expand my quilting horizons.  The small scale of the Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts is the perfect venue for trying a new style or technique too!  Why not let your inner artist loose on a Priority: Alzheimer's Quilt and see what happens?

Done!

The forecast lows for the end of the week are for the mid 30's, so I guess I timed the finish of Miss One's shrug just about right!

Chinese Block, Broken Dishes Or ???

About a year ago my cousin, Cheryl, was looking for some information about the quilt pattern in this photo.  We did a little research together and found that it was similar to a Chinese Block or Broken Dishes, but there was a slight variation in the center from the examples that we found.  Cheryl played around with drafting templates for the pattern and even made a few blocks, but the project had been set aside until last week when she saw a post on Barbara Brackman's blog entitled Block Mystery.  The post was devoted to the mysterious Chinese Block and the lack of information available about this beautiful quilt block.  Barbara's post did answer a few of our questions and she noted that there are several variations of the block, but we have yet to find a block like the one that Cheryl's great grandmother made.  Did she draft this variation herself?  It's possible.  Needless to say, this new information has renewed our interest in her Great Grandma Ely's quilt!  I used the block pattern that Barbara provided in her post as a starting point and then drafted a center to match Great Grandma Ely's quilt...I think it's a pretty good match and the best part is that there are no templates involved!  I don't think it will be long before Cheryl and I both have our own reproductions of her great grandmother's quilt.

Silent Sunday