Country Fest 2022

During my blogging break, the farmer and I drove to Pennsylvania to visit the grandchildren and their parents. The children are growing so fast!

On the last day of our visit, we attended Country Fest. Every year I donate at least 1 quilt top, sometimes more, to be hand quilted then auctioned in the quilt auction. This year three of my quilts were sold.

Here is a link to quilts sold in this year's auction. I took pictures of my quilts since they're quilted now and I've link to the last post about these quilts.

The first quilt to show you is Stars Around the Garden.  She sold for $1700. The name is listed incorrectly in the sale catalog. I put my own twist on this quilt so she finishes at a larger size than the original pattern. Stars is 93" by 106".

I had suggested using diamonds for the background of this applique, which was a good choice. Of course they stitched in the ditch around the applique.

When no one was looking, I snuck under the rope and took a close up picture of the backside of the quilt. The feather swag is the outside border, the cross hatching the checkerboard border and then the narrow border around the pieced stars. I didn't crawl in far enough to get the backside of the stars or applique.

Here's a link to the Stars Around the Garden pattern. 

Antique Stars variation was another of my quilts and sold for $900. I love how this quilt looks! Antique Stars variation measures 91" by 99".

I had sent the stencils along with the quilt top for this feather cable design. I thought it would be perfect for the outside border. I would have liked to have had a wider outside black border but I ran out of fabric and didn't want to go buy more. The black I had been using was many years old and I knew there was no way I'd find the same fabric. Besides, I'm trying to use the fabric I have on hand, not buy more!

I was disappointed in the quilting on the corners of this star. The small star was a good idea but just didn't fill the space like it should have. I guess I should have sent a stencil to use in the corners but it never occurred to me they would use such a tiny design. 

And a closeup of the Ohio Stars.

I called the quilt Antique Stars but it's based on the Ancient Stars pattern by Sue Garman. I originally had planned to make the whole quilt but ran out of steam piecing all those Ohio Star blocks.

The final quilt was Puss in the Corner and she sold for $875. I didn't get a full picture of this quilt, there was a comforter hanging on the bottom half of the rack. This quilt measures 90" by 103.5".

I wasn't sure how this quilt would sell, not everyone likes red. I was afraid this would be the quilt that no one would want but I was wrong.

Here's a close up of the quilting on the back.

And a closeup of quilting on the side.

Puss in the corner is a traditional pattern and very simple to make. You can make your blocks whatever size you want to make them.

Nancy J. Yoder quilted all 3 of my quilt tops.

We didn't stay for the entire auction, we left after my quilts were sold then headed for Holmes County, Ohio to spend the night at my sister Karen's home. 

The bedroom we slept in had this lovely grandmother's flower garden on the bed. When I asked her where it came from, she told me the pieces were in a box deep in the closet of mom's sewing room. She found it while we were cleaning out mom's stuff after she died.

She didn't know if mother cut the pieces or if it was a kit or where it came from. This quilt isn't the type of handwork our mother normally made. Karen had another quilter finish the piecing and the hand quilting. Isn't this a beautiful quilt!

After a delicious breakfast, we headed for home. The mountains of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and southeastern Ohio are very picturesque. We looked in amazement at the fields in those mountains and wondered how farmers were able to drive a tractor in those steeps fields!

Soon we were in the flatlands of north central Ohio and headed straight west on US 30 towards Fort Wayne. Even though we had several hundred miles and many hours to travel, we felt at home amongst all the corn and soybeans fields. Mountains are beautiful, the flatlands are home.

I checked the mileage after we arrived home, 1300 miles! Our own bed sure felt good that night.

Linking to Put Your Foot Down, Needle & Thread Thursday, Peacock Party, TGIFF!, Finished Or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Patchwork & Quilts

Puss in the Corner, the Flimsy

Puss in the Corner was started with blocks left from my Wilfred & Cloves quilt. All the fabrics from the original quilt have been used and I pulled more from the stash. Yes, it has made a dent, a small dent but still it has reduced the stash a little. 

Isn't this a busy quilt?

With side triangles you get a 3 patch block. Those little squares finish at 1" each, the quilt block itself finishes at 5-1/2".

A 2" finished border has been added to the sides of the quilt and she measures 90" by 104". The binding will be the same fabric.

I had originally planned to sew blocks for puss in the corner at the April Jane Stickle retreat. Plan B was to sew them at the November retreat which was also cancelled 😢. I wasn't going to wait until spring 2021 so I pulled the box and got going. Now I can cross this project off the list.

This quilt will never be among my favorite quilts, I'm a blue fan, but I do like this quilt. It was fun to make a quilt using a color combination I don't normally use.

Some people have mentioned I sewed this quilt fast. Strip piecing and chain stitching are a quilter's friend. If you remember, I pressed the teal/red blocks differently then the pink/brown blocks. The blocks locked together perfectly right. Here is a picture of the back.

For now the flimsy is going into the waiting to be quilted closet. I know I won't be hand quilting it, I'll wait until I need a quilt for someone then have it longarmed.

Of course there were 1-1/2" strips and small pieces left from piecing. I could place those strips and pieces neatly, tidy and orderly in the 1-1/2" strip box then close the lid until another day . . . but hey, where's the fun in that?

So what did I do? Started a new quilt of course, the Lost in the Crowd quilt. But the name of my quilt is going to be the Forever quilt because it's going to take forever to make! Forever definitely won't be a fast quilt and that's ok.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down

Still Sewing Rows

 

Another section of the puss in the corner quilt has been sewn together, just the 3 center rows to go.

I stacked some of the blocks in the bottom corner so I could use my chair again. Also a grandson wanted to play with the Lego's.

Almost finished!

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss

Puss in the Corner, Sewing the Rows

I've started sewing the rows together, I always forget how time consuming it can be to sew diagonal rows! Almost half the rows are sewn together. The top left corner is completed with the first 10 diagonal rows.

The blocks on the right are partial rows needing to be sewn.

A full layout with the rest of the blocks. I'll begin sewing more rows starting with the bottom right corner and working toward the center, leaving the 3 center rows for last.

The blocks take up the entire floor, I can't even sit in my chair at the quilt, I'm standing and leaning over the keyboard.

Here's a close up of the 4 patch the blocks make.

Linking to Peacock Party, Put Your Foot  Down, Whoop Whoop Party, TGIFF!, Finished Or Not Friday, Brag About Your Beauties, UFO Busting

Puss in the Corner Progress

The alternate pink/brown blocks are pieced for puss in the corner. I've started arranging the blocks on the display floor but I don't have room to distribute all the blocks at one time. 

There are enough blocks arranged to sew 9 diagonal rows and I'm starting that process but I won't sew those rows into a section yet. I need to add brown setting triangles. I think I have enough brown fabric left from the border of scrappy barn quilt, if not, I'll pick up more the next time I go to the grocery store.

I had pulled the first two blocks of three diagonal rows on the top left side and took them to the sewing machine. Then I remembered I didn't take a picture, so I did. I didn't lay those blocks back down. 

I've used all the original fabrics leftover from Wilfred & Cloves. I've pulled fabrics from the stash that will look good, not necessarily exact match but close enough. Some of these fabrics were in the ugly class (to me anyway!) but look much better when cut in small squares and sashed.

The Wilfred & Cloves pattern is found in Creating Heirlooms One Stitch at a Time by Carolyn Konig.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Jo's Junction, Midweek Makers, Clever Chameleon, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday

Puss in the Corner

For my next project, I'm making a Puss in the Corner quilt utilizing blocks left from the Wilfred & Cloves quilt made several years ago. That pattern is from Creating Heirlooms One Stitch at a Time by Carolyn Konig. I made my quilt larger than Carolyn's pattern called for, I wasn't very good at figuring how many blocks I needed so there were leftover blocks.

When my daughter saw the quilt, she thought the blocks would make a pretty quilt by themselves without the center applique, so I put all the fabrics, blocks and partials blocks in a bag for someday. Someday is now here.

The above blocks were left from the original quilt.

I press the pink/brown blocks differently from the aqua-teal/red blocks so they lock together when sewing.

The blocks alternate so you have a 4 patch in the corners of each block.

I need a total of 263 blocks, the teal/red blocks have been pieced and I'm working on the pink/brown blocks.

I'm not planning to add a pieced border to the top and bottom of the quilt like I did for Wilfred & Cloves, I'm also not adding the applique either. 

I love the technique of strip piecing and strip piece all I can. The center strip is cut 4" and the side strips are 1-1/2". 

Half of the strips are cut into 4" widths and the other half are 1-1/2" widths. I have added fabrics to the fabric left from the original quilt. 

I don't have an AccuQuilt cutter, I use the poor man's cutter, a June Tailor Speed Cut mat. 

The pictures aren't placed where I want them but I'm not in the mood to argue with Blogger.

Linking to Peacock Party, Put Your Foot  Down, Whoop Whoop Party, TGIFF!, Finished Or Not Friday, Brag About Your Beauties, UFO Busting