When I was at a Dear Jane retreat many years ago, Lolly's had fat quarters from the boat priced at 50 cents apiece! That was a definite shopping experience for all the retreat participants. I don't remember if Lolly's refilled the boat 4 or 5 times but the fat quarter sale was one of the highlight of the retreat.
I also bought some of those fat quarters but I decided to select colors different from what I normally use. I looked for mustard yellows, sage greens, teals, pinks, reds and browns. I didn't have a project in mind at the time but I would have the fabrics whenever the time came.
You can see half of the blocks have brown edges and the half half have red. I wanted the red blocks on the outside of the center so there would be contrast with the brown borders but then the quilt is a square. I don't want a square quilt so I'm going to add a pieced border to the top and bottom of the quilt.
I had figured what the width of my pieced border would be but when I started the piecing, it wasn't turning out like I had imaged in my mind so rethinking and some unsewing happened. The brown border on the top and bottom will be trimmed to a more narrow size since the pieced border is going to be wider than I had originally planned. Hopefully the borders will be finished by next week and ready for display!
Linking to Esther's Wednesday WOW!, Let's Bee Social, Needle & Thread Thursday
18 comments:
You never cease to amaze me with what you sew up. It is beautiful!
It's only taken me 4 years!! I'm going to have this one long armed, the hand quilting list is already long enough. Did you notice? It's not blue!!!!
Impressive! I love this! What a fun shopping experience, too!
Ohhhh this is beautiful Gretchen love love the colours and yes I did notice it was not BLUE but looking forward to seeing those borders you are going to add????? Cheers Glenda PS Love how you display your quilts it gives a magical touch to them?
Wow, this quilt is gorgeous! Love the center
What a lovely quilt ~ thank you for sharing it with us! You also brought back many fond memories for me of Shipshewana. When I lived in Michigan my daughter and I would go to Shipshewana every year, usually the first weekend in November to kick off the holidays. Blue Gate restaurant for soup & homemade pie; Yoder's store for a variety of reasons; JoJo's for pretzels and of course, always Lolly's.......such fabulous memories for a quilter and a mother.
WOW Gretchen... I LOVE LOVE LOVE this quilt! You will enjoy slow stitching it too I bet!!! Hope it makes it to that point soon too I would love to be seeing this one more :) Lovely piecing job! Lovely everything... love the center medallion too.. went to Lolly's and love their row boat as well as their whole website :D Kathi
As of right now, I'm not planning on hand quilting this quilt, there are too many quilt tops in the queue already! I'm thinking having the pieced blocks long armed with the Baptist fan design and having her NOT quilt the applique center. I can do that by hand when it returns home. How does that sound?
I live 25 minutes from Shipshewana, a little longer if I get behind a buggy on the way there. Whenever I need a day away from the farm I go visit Shipshe. I don't have to buy anything, just browsing the fabrics make me happy!
Good Morning Gretchen,
WOW - this quilt is just gorgeous. That center block is all appliquéd? Did you do that by hand? I love how you increased the size with the borders. That sale of fat quarters for only 50 cents sounds wonderful, too! It sure sounds like I need to visit Shipshewana soon. ~smile~ Roseanne
I like quilts with an applique block in the center.
I was to Lolly's once and enjoyed digging through that boat. A unique way to display those fat quarters. How fun to dig through 50 cent ones!
Gorgeous!!
A very beautiful quilt and love the idea you suggest for quilting
Thanks, I enjoy hand quilting but it takes more time. I just see Baptist Fans when I look at the quilt and long arming quilting will be just fine for that, a lot faster too!
I am always amazed at the beautiful quilts that you make. I have one question . Please share with us how your quilting time goes. How long do you quilt each day or how does your quilting schedule work.?
I stand in awe of your quilts!
You have to remember that most of the projects I've been working on this year already have the blocks pieced, I just need to get the top sewn together. During the day, my time is my own. My husband isn't a fussy eater, just as long as there is something to eat, he's happy. Unless I have field work to help with, I can sew. I do watch my local grandsons some but otherwise I'm always sewing in some way or other. I don't do evening activities except for my guild meeting once a month. I used to spend a lot of time reading but it is really hard for me to find books that I enjoy.
I don't have a job away from home, I work here at the farm. I help with chores every morning and evening. We attend church on Sundays but most of their activities are in the evenings and that's during evening chores. The cows need to be milked twice a day, every day. What's a holiday? When my husband is gone for a week at a time to a national cow show, I'm in charge of the farm and normally have over 30,000 steps a day on my fitbit! I do the farm books but that doesn't take hours a day. Most of the check writing happens on a weekly basis. January is my busiest bookwork month, pulling the information to prepare to take to the tax accountant because farm taxes need to be paid by March 1st.
I can hear my washer buzz from my sewing room. When I hear it buzz, I run down the stairs (good for the health!), take that load out and throw in another load. In the summer I like to hang clothes on the line, in inclement weather I use the gas dryer.
I don't have a garden this summer which has been a big time saver for me. My husband has been after me for years to quit gardening. My garden has been on the edge of an alfalfa field which was plowed this spring. I told him to do ahead and plow it under too. Our neighbors have a produce stand and they grow the vegetables on their farm next to our farm. I go to their stand and buy what I need. It was hard at first but now I love it! I do have 2 tomato plants in a flowerbed, got to have my fresh heirloom tomatoes!
I used to bake all the time when the children were home, especially when the boys were teenagers! They're gone and I don't need the treats. My quilting life has taken off since they're gone.
A memory that really gives me an incentive to finish projects is when my mother died, she had a HUGE number of unfinished projects, tons of fabric and hundreds of quilt books. It was extremely overwhelming. Our daughter stood in the midst of that chaos, looked at me and said "Please, don't do this to us kids." It took my siblings and I years to get all of mom's stuff sorted through and repurposed. I don't want to do that to my children.
I hope I answered your inquiry, I've probably given you more information than you wanted. I did finish Wilfred & Cloves, check the post I made yesterday. Happy Stitching!
Thank you so much for your answer. . It has helped inspire me to keep going on daily quilting! I feel like I am not a very productive quilter.. so sometime I just need a little encouragement. I feel better when I quilt daily..
I hear you about your garden. Gave up mine a few years ago. No cows on my Wheaton Illinois little home 🙂
Great post and such a beautiful finish! Your really make your quilts interesting, and as always with a quilter, there is a story to be told! You gave a great short bio of your life! I feel better now knowing that you started in 2014 and finished the flimsy in 2018 - there is hope for me!!!
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