A Quilting Focus on Giving Thanks: A Link Up

More Quilts Headed for MCC Relief

Like many quilters, I have a long list of projects I want to do. Some are more complicated blocks to try my piecing skills at, and others are just fun fabric I would love to use. I have my stacks of good stash, and my stacks of scraps, dated or donated fabrics. The frugal quilter says as soon as I use up the less desirable stack I am allowed to touch the good stuff. (I know so many of you think the same way.) But during a quiet quilter bloggers' retreat last weekend, I was roasted for not touching my gorgeous fabrics. My precious pre-cuts had not even been opened from a year ago!

Tell Me About Your Quilt: What Did We Use Before Quilts?

Daniel King Woven Coverlet, 1850

Coverlets Before Quilts

It is interesting how many of us presume that quilts have been the predominate bedding for centuries in America. Do include me when I started this research. But that isn't the truth, and it's time we know the whole story.

When I was asked to document this woven coverlet owned by a local family, I composed very basic timelines of world history and textile history for myself. I needed a place to mentally hang dates and ideas in relation to each other. I wanted to know where coverlets fit into the history of quilting, and specifically in Tuscarawas, Coshocton, Wayne and Holmes Co., Ohio. What I found surprised me. Quilts were not nearly as old (around here) as I thought, and coverlets were one of the more commonly used items for bedding before quilts became commonplace.

This is a very important component in the "Tell Me About Your Quilt" series. It helps to answer questions such as, "If this is such a strong area today for quilting, why aren't the earliest quilts found here?" And, "How many quilts made before 1900 would I expect to find still here today?" "How many were there?"

I hope you enjoy this exploration into the history of German sectarian quilters as much as I do.

Scrappy Quilts, Comforters & Free Pattern

The Scrappy Hurricane Quilt

While hurricane Irma hit the southern U.S., I sewed nine patch blocks from my table scraps. There was so much going on in the scrappy hurricane blocks I felt the quilt needed somewhere calm to rest the eye. I laid this up on the wall during a sewing day here in the studio, but have since rearranged several times. I allow layouts to hang, and switch blocks around over many days until I like the feel of it. If time permits this week, I will make the sashing from 3 strips: white, cerulean blue grunge, and white. I am also considering an outer border, but will be happy to just get the blocks assembled at this point.

Tell Me About Your Quilt: Jemima Mast Miller

Pin Wheel, 81" x 86"
Belonged to Jemima (Mast) Miller,
My Great Grandmother
Born 1876, Holmes Co., Ohio

Over the past several months, I have been researching the history of quilting in Ohio. More specifically, my focus has been the Tuscarawas, Holmes, Wayne and the Coshocton County areas where I have lived my life, and where my father's family settled more than 6 generations ago. Now home to the largest Amish community in the world, it's difficult to map one's genealogical history with so many crossing branches. 

Jenna's Most Glorious Scrap Quilt Finish

A Legacy Quilt Finished

The details about this project can be found at Jenna's Most Glorious Scrap Quilt. I must add that it has been an honor to be involved with it through quilting. This quilt is simply beautiful to behold. It glows with every color of the rainbow. But perhaps it's more because of the nearly century-span of fabric that passed from person to person through decades waiting for the hands that stitched love in to it. It's one of those pieces that makes you stop and take it all in. It's one woman's legacy quilt.

Kennel Comforter Tutorial for Dogs & Cats

The Princess & the Pea

The past many days were packed to the top. By Sunday I felt I just needed to regroup with one quiet day. I went to the studio to get ready for sewing group here on Tuesday, and my hands were once again moving batting scraps. I really hate moving and re-moving unneeded items. We had a cold snap the night before, and a newly adopted barn kitten without a cozy bed to stay warm in her crate. A quick turn of the sewing machine made a pillow cover, and the batting bits turned it into a toasty nest.

Quilt-As-You-Go Chinese Coins

Chinese Coins
A Roman Stripe Variation
Also Reminiscent of Amish Bars

Moving right along with the theme of Roman stripe or Chinese coins, and adding a dash of scrappy goodness in both fabric and batting, I whipped up this delicious, little baby quilt! It took only a few days to complete, and not only did I have a top, but a completed quilt using the Quilt-As-You-Go Method. 

*In full disclosure, I am using the term loosely as I have never read the actual method, but seen a few You Tube videos using a  similar method. I blended everything I saw with my own ideas, and made it up as I went along. It was far easier to do than I had imagined so if you have time to experiment yourself, I highly recommend it. 

Reaching the Summit of Scrap Mountain

The Insomnia Block:

Four Patch Scrappy 

Friendship Star

May I introduce to you my friend, Insomnia. She has been visiting quite often this week, and I am ready for her to go home! I need to sleep. The only good thing about being awake at 3 a.m. is the email flying back and forth with my good friend and prolific quilter in Australia. Check out her great scrap ideas (and incredible paper piecing) on Instagram @sewsurprising

Jenna's Most Glorious Scrap Quilt

Almost Too Pretty to Say Scrap

A very dear friend was making a quilt for her granddaughter patterned after one she had seen hanging in a local restaurant. (Yes, in this part of the country we are surrounded by quilts even in restaurants. Most definitely works of art.) She first studied the quilt, searched for the pattern, then modified parts of it to make it her own. And as the Queen of Scrap, this project would make good use of her vast kingdom of scraps.

Improv Chinese Coins Finish

Ready for a Sleeve...of Some Kind

Almost every picture I use on Pink Doxies is shot with a 5 year old Canon Power Shot Elph 110 HS. It's not a high end camera, and smaller and lighter than my iPhone of the same vintage. It's easy to throw in my purse. But occasionally I like to use iPhone pictures, if only to give an idea of what things look like under less-than-ideal conditions. When we look at our work in real life--in our homes, they are not typically in optimal photo studio lighting. A quilted piece should not be hung in bright daylight especially as textiles are prone to fading. So let's get real and pretend this is going to be something hung in a hallway, which it is. The light will probably be dim most of the time, and look much like above.