One Flower Wednesday

Finally getting my photos posted for One Flower Wednesday.

I discovered some plaid fabric in my stash that I thought would

add interest to my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt.

Yep. I'm liking it:)

I was able to complete two more flowers this week,

and am still on the lookout for fabric to use for the pathway.

This is block 3 for the Civil War quilt-along.

The pattern showed five point stars, but I felt that six point stars look better

and came up with a plan to create my own.

This is my first applique project,

so it will be interesting to see how it turns out.
Keep your fingers crossed!

May you always Sew in Peace:)

Sandra

Grandmother's Flower Garden - Literally!

In the past, quilters gathered in churches accross this nation to raise support those on the mission field.

I was fortunate enough to grow up in such a church. In fact, the above photo was taken for an article which appeared in our county newspaper back in the 1960's. The lady in the center was my great-grandmother.

She had a loving personality and devoted herself to caring for her family and those around her. If you look closely, you can see a white handkerchief laying on her lap under the quilt. I cannot ever remember seeing her without one of those handkerchiefs. However, I'm not sure what is up with that large white collar on her dress...lol. Being the thrifty person that she was, she was probably covering a hole or a stain on her dress.

The lady on the far right is her daughter, my grandmother. It is hard for me to express how deeply I love this woman, for she is in many ways my inspiration. She was smiling in this photo which was characteristic of her personality, and always looked at the drinking glass as being half-full. She was also my neighbor and I credit much of my early skills in sewing to the patience she extended toward teaching me. You may be interested to know that I was also present when the above photo was taken. I was pretty young at the time and spending the day with my grandmother. When the photo was taken I was on the floor under the quilt!

Recently, I had the opportunity at auction to purchase several quilts from my great-grandparents estate.

This Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt top was among the collection. I'm not certain when it was made, but my guess is that my grandmother and her sisters pieced it together during the 1930's when they were young girls. I can picture the three girls toting around these blocks to local sewing bees and proudly adding their blocks to the quilt. Some of the fabrics are most certainly original 1930's fabrics and my mother believes feed sack fabrics were used as well.

Here is a close up a few of the blocks.

Some are nicely pieced...

...and others not.

Sadly, at one time this top was washed and the edges are frayed.

It looks as if muslin was used for the pathway and it is pretty thin.

I guess I should fill in one more piece of information and tell you that this is one of 13 quilts I was able to acquire from my great-grandmother's collection.

The the awesome thing is...I didn't pay much for them, but that is a story in itself for another day.

So given the condition of this quilt top and the sentimental value to me personally, what would you do? Would you quilt it? Would you open up some of those ugly seams and correct them?

I'd love to gain some insight from others! 

                         Oh and I almost forgot! Here are my flowers for One Flower Wednesday.

I was able to finish two this week.

May you always Sew in Peace:)

Sandra

Civil War Blocks

Back in January quilt historian Barbara Brackman started a Civil War quilt-along.

Each week a true story is shared from the diaries and letters of those who lived during the Civil War

along with the pattern for a new 8 " quilt block.
By making one block per week
participants learn about the Civil War and at the end of the year
will have a quilt of their own as a keepsake.

Even though I am a few blocks behind,
I've decided this looks like a worthwhile learning experience.
Here are my first two blocks.

Block 1 - Catch Me If You Can

Block 2 - North Star

There is also a Civil War Quilts flickr group
where you can view blocks and piecing tips that are posted by other partcipants.
Best of all there is no fee to join the quilt-along
and you can begin at any time your schedule allows.

May you always Sew in Peace:)
Sandra

Winner!

Recently, Margaret's Hope Chest hosted an

Anniversary Giveaway and...I can't believe it, but I am a winner!

The prize included:


twin size Hobbs Heirloom Cotton Batting,


a beautiful assortment of fabric,

Essential Thread's Garden Set,

a package of quilters pins,

a roll of Heat Press,

"In a Twinkle Youthful Quilt Designs"  quilting book by Kay Mackenzie,

AND... a cute little hand-made pin cushion!

All I can say Carin, is "Thank you so very much!"

I look forward to getting a project started to test out these new products.

For those who are not familiar, Margaret's Hope Chest is a non-profit ministry that

makes and distributes quilts to those in need of hope.

To date, they have given away over a thousand quilts!

Visit their website for ways that you can help bring comfort to the hurting one quilt at a time.

In closing, Friday, May 20th is the monthly Friday Night Sew In,

so gather up an unfinished project and make plans to join us!

May you always Sew in Peace:)

Sandra

One Flower Wednesday

For this week's One Flower Wednesday

I was able to finish three flowers for my

Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt.

Finally, I'm getting back in the groove of making these flowers

and here's the biggy...

I'm enjoying it!

I was also able to finish several blocks for the Quilting Bee at Margaret's Hope Chest.

A quilt will be made for Jordon with these blocks combining animal or car fabric

and yellow, red, orange, or blue solids.

These blocks were made with the Cluck Cluck Sew's Stack and Wack Block Tutorial.

If you decide to make this block, be warned that the instructions are somewhat off.

After several attempts, I believe the center block needs to be larger in order

to make the 7 1/2" block turn out correctly.

A quilt will be made for N'Tari with these blocks

using basketball or football fabric and white, black, or blue for the cross fabric.

These blocks were made with the That Girl That Quilts Cross Block Tutorial.

I really liked making this block, perhaps because the directions were easy to follow.

 May you always Sew in Peace:)

Sandra

Swap Day!

Swap Day has arrived!

Time to wrap up all the final details and get the fabric shipped out.

So first things first...

Where did all the fabric come from?

You may be interested to know it came from...

Pensacola, Florida

Champaign, Illinois

University Place, Washington

Lehi, Utah

Evanston, Wyoming

Loveland, Colorado

Sidney, Ohio

Mountain Home, Idaho

Grafton, Wisconsin

Modesto, California

Santa Rosa Valley, California

Colorado Springs, Colorado

Cheyenne, Wyoming

Enterprise, Utah

Lilburn, Georgia

Lexington, Ohio

Parma, Idaho

Lyman, Wyoming

Bay City, Texas

Findlay, Ohio

Lunenburg, Massachusetts

Orem, Utah

Lees Summit, Missouri

Gilliam, Missouri

Lewiston, New York

Chillwack, British Columbia / Canada

Vernon, British Columbia / Canada

and

Stellarton, Nova Scotia / Canada.

All the fabric piles were carefully laid out to prepare for swapping.

This is when it really pays to have extra tables in the house.

It also pays to have friends that love quilting:)

                                                     

After several hours of swapping

all the piles were swapped and ready to be shipped out.

And now to annouce our winners!

 The Cutest Fabric Award goes to Cindy!

Cindy entered this adorable Retro Car fabric

and will receive a Barnyard Buddies charm pack by Amy Bradley!

Congratulations Cindy and thank you everyone for taking the time to vote.

And now for the drawing of the kitty!

All participants who submitted their fabrics with a postmark of April 15th

or earlier qualified for the drawing of 120 additional 5 inch I Spy squares.

                           A list was formed and the winner chosen using Random Number Generator,

    and the winner is

  Sharon of Camp Gramma!

Congratulations Sharon!

We will expect to see some awesome quilts coming from your neck of the woods:)

     Sent and Received

The final part of the swap is a return trip to the post office, and here is the update.

               All I Spy packages within the USA (except for New York) were mailed Saturday, May 7th.

     All I Spy packages to Canada and the New York package were mailed Monday, May 9th.
Would all swappers kindly reply to this post or by e-mail when your fabrics arrive?

Also, as you begin making projects with your squares

 please feel free to post your photos on the group flickr site

so we can all stay connected in our I Spy journey.

Thank you everyone for an awesome swap!

May you always Sew in Peace:)

Sandra

I Spy Top 10 Fabrics

Sorry friends for the delay in posting.

 We made an unexpected trip out of town last week, then I came down with a flu bug

and so it goes...Sigh.

Just a few final details to wrap up on the I Spy Swap.

It has been so much fun seeing all the different fabrics that have been submitted to the swap.

Now it is time to decide on a winner for the

With imput from several of my friends and grandchildren,

 the list has been narrowed down to ten fabrics and although I know it is difficult....

would you kindly vote for one of the following 10 fabrics?

                         1.                           Colorful Crayons

Submitted by Babette.

                      2.                               Cupcakes                                                                 Submitted by Sharon at Camp Gramma.

                          3.                         Dalmation Dogs

Submitted by Amy at Lexington Quilter.

                         4.                           Wide-eyed Pigs
                                                               Submitted by Vickie.

                         5.                          Retro Car

Submitted by Cindy.

                         6.                  Which one is Nemo?

                                                Submitted by Patty.

                         7.                    Gardening items
                                                     submitted by Cassie at Birdo Love Moo

                         8.                           Snoozing Owls

                                                       Submitted by Cheri at jovaliquilts.

                         9.                    Primative zoo animals
                                               Submitted by Amy at Little Country Bumpkins.



                       10.                                 Apples

Submitted by Crystal at Henrixville.



One of the ten participants listed above will be the winner of the

Cutest Fabric Award

 and will receive a Barnyard Buddies charm pack by Amy Bradley

to add to their I Spy collection!

So here's the scoop on how to vote:

1.  Voting is open to all followers of this blog and/or members of the I Spy Swap.

                     2.   Please vote for only one fabric.

                     3.   Voting will remain open until midnight Friday, May 6th (EST)

So which fabric gets your vote?

May you always Sew in Peace:)

Sandra