From the Vault - Baltimore Album

Welcome to From the Vault.  In this series,  I'll pull out an old quilt from one of my plastic tubs in the basement.  Some of these quilts are no longer my style or color palette.  Some I still like quite a bit, but they've been edged out on the main floor by others I like better.

Baltimore Album falls into the not-my-current color palette category.  I made it in 2002 as part of an applique class at Quilted Creations.  Do you remember that store on University Avenue?  I think there's a nail salon there now.  The teacher was Violet and I think she was from Beloit.

This quilt came to mind for two reasons:

1. I've enjoyed the hand sewing I've been doing lately and plan on doing lots more in the future.
2. I've been watching the series of Thin Man movies with Myrna Loy and William Powell.  More on this later.

For an introductory applique class, she sure had us doing a wide variety of techniques!  The purple flower smack dab in the center is ruched.  I no longer have any idea on how to do that.  The rudbeckia in the upper right is stuffed with batting to give it dimension.  The bright orange poppy bud in the upper left is a yo-yo laid on its side and sewed to the background before adding the green part it comes out of.  I know there's a name for that green part of the plant.  I bet my friend Pat knows what it is; she's an awesome gardener.  

I like the fabric I picked for the pineapple.  I did good on that!  I remember the grape circles were very hard and boring. 

 
This block has lots of floppy parts.  You can stick your fingers behind all the leaves, the three flower buds, and all the petals of the purple flower.   The basket handle is braided.

More floppy leaves and flower buds.  For some reason, I remember the ribbon being a challenge to sew.  Probably because it's made of six parts and I had trouble lining them all up.  I know that I had to scrap one version of the ribbon before I got it right.

This is my favorite block.  The bird's wings and the flower bud are free (floppy).  I love the basket and its braided handle.  But the best part is the book, which opens to reveal...

I guess I've been collecting quotes for longer than I thought!  While writing this post, I learned that the title of her autobiography is "Myrna Loy: Being and Becoming".  I requested it through the library system and will be reading it shortly.  

Myrna Loy had an interesting life, in and out of movies.  I like actors that are real people.

  

Not Just Another Pretty Face

Each Sunday, I'll take a break from the material aspects of this blog and spend a little time looking at the finer points of pigdom.  Most people probably appreciate the ham and bacon side of pigs; little do they know they have a deeper side as well.  We'll start the week with a peek into the favorite quotes of thoughtful pigs and also learn a pig factoid (pigoid?) in a feature called Pigipedia.

PIGIPEDIA 
Pigs live in groups known as sounders.  Members of a sounder usually stick together.  They communicate through bodily smells, by touching snouts, and through over twenty different grunts and squeals.  One of their greatest pleasures is to have their back scratched.

Thursday is Purse Day - Autumn Peacock Purse

Let's mix it up a little - sometimes Thursdays have a theme and sometimes they have purses.  
In the Thursday is Purse Day series, I'll show you purses I made and explain the process/inspiration behind them.

The body of Autumn Peacock purse is 4 x 8 inches.  The inspiration was the feather and the peacock fabric in warm, rich colors.  The outer fabric is faux suede home dec, a base on which I stitched various colored threads and yarn.  I wish I knew what that style of yarn is called that looks like little towels hanging on a clothesline; I bet my friend Debbie knows.  The edge of the flap is a different yarn; I did about six rows of plain knitting to make a skinny strip.

The black/green/rust feathers are one piece; the yellow feathers are extra ones I added.  They are tucked into a large mica-looking bead edged with Swarovski crystals.  I was playing with the purse while writing this post and found out that the other side of the mica beads are green.

Here's a good view of the peacock fabric on the inside of the purse.  The rust-colored triangle is just another decoration, this time knit with chenille yarn.

The back...

and a close-up view of some beading on the handle.

Tea for Tuesday

Each Tuesday I'll be featuring a vignette of tea-related items.  Most of them will have one of my teapots; they all have at least one thing you could use at a tea party.

I love my Art Deco pitcher.  The fans to the right and left are of an unknown (to me) functionality.  They have a hole in the top, like they might be planters.  They look like bookends, but are too lightweight.  At a tea party, you could safely use them as vases or someplace to hold the silverware.

This is the apron that you would wear when serving that pitcher.  I made it with three layers:

1. The bottom layer is a tea towel of plum and green.  I edged it with pastel peach and white lace.  
2. The second layer is a lavender handkerchief.  
3. The third layer consists of three - gosh, I don't know if they are more hankies or if they're napkins.  

The green and lavender layers are from Wendy Richardson. 

I decided they're napkins.

Close-up view of the teapot pin, made of polymer clay.

November Firsts

Jamie Lee Curtis had a lengthy interview in the October 2012 issue of Good Housekeeping.  She talks about a friend's daughter who had a "summer of firsts".  The point is that children have lots of firsts; adults - not so much.  They quit trying new things.

I was surprised to find that I had four firsts in November (usually I don't have any!).  They all happened to be quilt-related, so it wouldn't hurt me to branch out, I guess.  Anyhow, these are my firsts and what I learned:

MY FIRST FIRST: QUILT RETREAT
I learned that I don't know how to pack!!!  I had a very large plastic container on wheels, with a handle.  You'd think I could've fit everything in there, especially since I didn't bring a sewing machine.  You'd be wrong.  I also carried a sewing basket, purse, skinny (but huge) carrier for my cutting mats, and an even huger bag of extension cords and power strips.  I'm pretty sure there was other stuff, too.  I need a new plan for the next retreat in February.

I also learned not to pack water next to handmade name tags that I made with non-permanent ink.  I was lucky that seventeen came out OK, but two were smeared.  Those two women were gracious and wore them anyhow!

 
MY SECOND FIRST: EMBROIDERY

I started this at the retreat, and was I ever glad I did.  I learned to do the smoothest stem stitch in the world from my friend Mary, an excellent crazy quilter.

MY THIRD FIRST: ENGLISH PAPER PIECING

I used fabric from a charm pack to make this coaster, and used Insul-Bright for the batting.  I cut the hexagons from paper.  I learned how time-consuming that is, so in the future I'm going to buy pre-cut paper templates from Connecting Threads.  They're worth the money and will be more accurate.  

After I meticulously sewed the hexies together so you couldn't see any of the stitches, I debated if I should hand applique or machine stitch them to the front.  Did I want to look at machine stitching after all that work?  I decided yes because it would make it more sturdy and do double duty as quilting.

MY FOURTH FIRST: QUILTER'S COMPASS

If you like modern fabric, do yourself a favor and go to Quilter's Compass in Monticello.  My friend Barb took me there this weekend and we had a fantastic day!  It was Small Business Saturday and almost everything in the store was 20% off.  I KNOW!!!!  When did you ever hear of a quilting store doing that?  

I learned that I liked that store and that I like when Barb drives me there.  Here's some of the fabric, along with a few things I got at Patches and Petals in Belleville on the way home.  Nearly everything you see, though, is from Quilter's Compass.

    This fabric was on a rack that was already 20% off.  I got ANOTHER 20% off!!

Art Gallery, Robert Kaufman, Moda.

1930s reproductions.

 Loralie Harris (spools and sewing machines) and Benartex text.

 

I needed reds for a fabric color wheel I'm making.  I don't know what I'll do with the leftovers, since I don't like red!

 A stack of miscellaneous. PLUS there's another dozen and a half fat quarters - I got tired of taking pictures.

I learned that what's even better than firsts, is finding ones that you want seconds and thirds of.  That's what I'm going to do with all of my November firsts.