Monday, October 19, 2020

Decades in the making

 

Today's group of finishes features some wildly different orphan projects donated to Covered in Love. It is so much fun for me to be able to pick and choose colors and styles from the big boxes of pieces and parts that Kat sends!


These beautiful little houses in Caribbean colors came to me as a small top. All the houses, pinwheel palm trees and piano key strips were sewn together side by side, and each pretty piece was sort of lost in the shuffle. It was also too small for a Covered in Love quilt. So I deconstructed it, added borders around each house and golden mustard sashing to let each one shine.


You can see some of the batik bordering fabric here. It was included with the top and features sewing-related words and images. In the mustard outer sashing, I quilted various motifs like stars, leaves and butterflies.


Along the bottom I quilted in some words of comfort, including peace, love, family and home. I got the idea from Sandra of mmmQuilts, who often includes special quilted messages. My handwriting (Jukiwriting??) isn't the best, but I hope the sentiment carries the day.


The back is pieced of big chunks of tie-dye style fabrics in similar tropical colors. A solid purple binding frames and completes the quilt.


Today's second quilt is made from classic orphan blocks. Many are left over from Covered in Love's annual red, white and blue star block drives. A few are lotto blocks made by members of my online guild, Sunshine. A number of the fabrics look like they date from 20-30 years ago, giving the the overall look a nice depth of color and scale.


This block is my favorite. It looks so different on point than square. I used a donated, very high quality mottled navy blue fabric for the skinny sashing and setting triangles. That fabric had a copyright year of 2000 in the selvages. The quilting is hook swirls using a variegated gray thread.


The back is a big swath of r/w/b stripe that was another amazing eBay find. To avoid matching all those skinny stripes, I pieced it with a chunk of red leaf batik.


Finally, here's the real golden oldie of the group! The beautiful center section of stars was donated by Priscilla as a smallish square top. Included was a note that said she made it in 1982 using a pattern from Quiltmaker magazine. Wow! That's almost 40 years ago! It was in perfect shape and meticulously pieced.


I needed to make the quilt a little bit bigger so I started hunting around for something appropriate to add to the top and bottom. The 1982 fabrics are from a distinctly different fabric era and it was quite a challenge to find something that would "go." I finally found this group of donated blocks and I'm pretty certain they were also made by Priscilla. It is so interesting to me to see a shift in fabric design style somewhere after 1990.


I decided to do fairly dense dot-to-dot quilting to honor this venerable piece. Going around and around each "wheel" shape without breaking thread kept me focused!


There were a few pieces of the original 1982 scraps included in the bag, and I was able to use the navy floral as side borders on the front and an accent on the back. I thought this "primitive" style farm animal fabric had the right vibe for the back, too. 

This was a super fun piece to work on. I'm happy to report that it washed up beautifully, too. Older fabrics can have a musty, dusty smell and feel a little stiff. But the finished quilt is soft, cuddly and sweet-smelling! Were you quilting back in 1982? Do these fabrics look familiar to you? Do they make you nostalgic? Or are you glad to have that era behind you and would rather dive into some bright batiks?

20 comments:

  1. Awesome! I especially love what you did with the batik houses.

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  2. Wow Louise, you are certainly the right person for the job. Deconstructing that first quilt gave it life and room to breathe! Such a skill to find the fabrics that will 'go' with something, rather than clash or diminish it. Great work!

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  3. You do an amazing job of pulling together such varied pieces and turning them into a successful whole quilt. I love the idea of quilting words into a top. I've had an idea for a quilt that would include something similar but have no plans to start it anytime soon. Haven't been in my studio in months as I've spent most of my time outside doing yard projects. Now that it's colder I'm ready to return to quilting.

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  4. Wow! You have such a great eye for detail and a definite flair for design. I love the houses best for the yummy bright colors, but I so appreciate the design challenge of the eighties-era quilt. You solved it brilliantly! In the eighties I was sewing maternity clothing, little kids clothes (a lot of ‘stretch-n-sew’) and miscellaneous household things (curtains, pillows, aprons). Didn’t quilt until 2000 (2 tied quilts, using scissors). In 2012 I discovered the rotary cutter and modern fabrics and haven’t looked back!

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  5. Yuo have really been busy! Love what you did with all of them. That sashing really did the trick on the first one. Now, three previously orphaned quilts will now have loving homes.

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  6. Great job on all of these Louise! I love them all but especially the houses..you made that one sing. Yes I was making quilts in the eighties and still have some of those calicos. I have a bunch of 16" blocks given to me that I might tackle next.

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  7. What you do with bits and pieces is brilliant!

    Yes, I made my first quilt back when I was in college (the early 70s) as a Christmas gift for my sister. It was made from scraps left over from making my own clothes. I didn't know back then that people actually bought fabric just to make a quilt. Even though it is falling apart sister tells me she still has that quilt.

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  8. You really made the houses stand out, before they just blended in so much you could hardly see a house! I hope that Priscilla can see how you finished off her flimsy. I got married in 1982 and had not returned to quilting until a few years later. But I sewed clothing and crafty stuff back then.

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  9. As much as you enjoy playing with all those blocks, I enjoy seeing what you create. It's like a little mini quilt show! I attempted my first quilt (placemat) in the late 80s, early 90s, so yes, those fabrics in Priscilla's beautiful quilt bring back memories. They evoke a desire to curl up under the quilt with a good book. Her blocks are just lovely, and I think you constructed the quilt so well. Really fun to see!

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  10. Awesome transformations, Louise! Was I quilting back in 1982? Not a chance! I was a senior in high school, planning to graduate early and head off to college. Quilting wasn't on my radar at the time. Boy, am I ever glad we have today's bright colors and bold prints in our fabric selections!!!

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  11. Well done! I wasn't quilting yet back in 1982 but I was working in apparel and textiles and I remember the fabrics from that era. It seems like quilting print styles tend to change very dramatically every 10-15 years or so. 1970s-early 80s - calico. Late 80s-90s, country and early batiks. 2000s - bright jewel tones a la Laurel Birch and batiks. 2010s - "Modern" clean and bright. My tastes have changed with the times. How about you, have yours?

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  12. No I was not quilting in 1982 but I was certainly sewing whenever I had time which wasn’t often being a brand new first year teacher. I absolutely love what you did (so much work to deconstruct but so worth it) with the Caribbean houses. You totally rock the donation quilt world my friend.

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  13. You do such excellent work as an orphan quilt rescuer. That was a lot of work to reconstruct the house quilt, but what a great result. I made garments from high school on, but in the 80's my kids were young and sewing took a back seat. Got into quilting sometime in the 90's.
    Pat

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  14. Those are so fun to see, Louise! Adding the sashing around the house blocks really made a huge difference in the look. The 80s quilt top was pretty recognizable with those soft colors - reminds me of the movies and clothing from back then! Nice finishes!

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  15. Those quilts have all come up so well with your changes/additions.... they look lovely.... I love hook swirl quilting... it is very forgiving isn't it and looks good too...
    Hugz

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  16. What fun to deconstruct and create a new look. You did a wonderful job sashing and bindings and putting orphan blocks together. I'm amazed at how those older fabrics stand the test of time. I also like that block that is on point!
    I was recovering from surgery in 1982, which was also the year my father died. I was looking for something to distract myself. First I took a stained glass class. I enjoyed it but it hurt my fingers - lol! The second was a hand quilting class. My Granny had been a quilter, and I assumed I would inherit her skill. It was harder than I thought, but I loved it. I did a lot of sewing during the years but didn't really start quilting till 2010.

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  17. What fun, beautiful quilts in this post. I don't think I would have ever come up with the idea to deconstruct a quilt top & make it into something totally different that the original. You are such a genius when it comes to things like that. I finished my first quilt in 1965 & never made another one until 2001. Boy, things sure changed during that time. I did sew all during high school & through my working career & went to a quilt class with a friend to make a colorwash quilt. I've never stopped since then. I'm not a prolific quilter but never stop reading/looking/researching, etc. everything I can find about quilts.

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  18. Three very different quilts in this post Louise! You came up with the perfect idea to deconstruct the first one and made such a difference to the look of the quilt, the colours are beautiful, definitely Caribbean colours! A real mix of blocks in the red, white and blue quilt and I love the very narrow blue sashing. SoInteresting to see that the third quilt was made so long ago, I began quilting around the early 1980's and of course all the fabrics then were very tiny prints and limited colours.The farm animal fabric on the back side is perfect.

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  19. Yes, I recognize some of those old calicos. I started making quilts back in the '70s (from leftover cloth from sewing clothes, plus the few calicos that were available back then). I would never have imagined the explosion of choices now available. I just found some bits of cloth at the local thrift store that match the fabric in one of my mom's quilts. It is a little bittersweet -- where has the time gone?

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