It's A Finish!

One year ago I started putting together the twenty remaining churn dash blocks from Barb V's 2018 swap. You can read more here and here. 

Then sometime last fall I sewed Dawn H's fabrics together for the backing. That's an oldie on the right--I had some of that fabric as well. 

In January I took both front and back to another Dawn (Dawn D.) to be longarm quilted. This is the photo she sent when it was ready to go. I must admit I don't know much about pantograph patterns but Dawn found Willow Leaf's Whirligig and it was perfect!

I chose to float the blocks within the finished block. That meant the distance between the points of the churn dash blocks and the sashing varied as much as 1/4" which was fine with me. The finished blocks are 9". 

The striped border was a thrift shop purchase and the sashing stripe was purchased for a different project which didn't work out. But I also used it for the binding.

Another view. All those large triangles were scraps.

And here it is all done. The final size is 53" x 63".   

One last thing. This is a preview of the border fabric I'm using for Call Me Crazy aka The Good, The Bad and The Ugly :)

More to come. . .

 

Copyright 2024 Barbara Schaffer

Fabric Book is Done!

My north country / Adirondack fabric book finally came together along with some unexpected design decisions. My original intention was to sew the blocks to one long strip, fold it accordian-style, and fasten it with something like string, fabric strips, selvages, or ??

But then I came across some printed twill tape at Hobby Lobby and added it to a selvage strip on the left side of each page giving some stability to the book's binding. This is the cover. Here are the rest . . . 

The reverse side of each page (left) is backed with a green plaid which I folded over to the front on three sides and stitched down (see right).

Then I decided to try my hand at stamping on muslin. Some results were really good and others not so good. Last fall I managed to buy a bunch of brand new stamps at the thrift shop for 50-cents a piece. So out they came for this project!

I already had a stamp pad and extra black ink so did my best. 

I tried to match a stamp with the block. Believe it or not this one is a flock of birds. I had purchased a new blue ink pad (for a different project) and discovered the results were so much better :)

There is no needle turn applique anywhere--all edges are raw, anchored with a small running stitch and finished off with big stitches using embroidery floss or pearl cotton. 

The selvage strips are 1/2" wide and I chose ones that did not have fringe along one edge.

The stamped pieces were hand-stitched to the plaid fabric only. 

There are 9 pages altogether.

One final stamp "B" and the year :) All pages are held in place with binding clips that Dawn H. had given me years ago. Ta-da!

In August of '22 I decided to put pics of all the quilts I've made into a small album. You can read about that here. 

Well, I continued working on that project for quite awhile until . . . 

. . . it looked like this and it wouldn't close. Then I lost interest.

But now that it's been resurrected I flipped the original front cover to the back and put this small patchwork flag on the front. It's still fat and bulky but there's only a few pages left to fill before moving on to a new album. I guess you can call that "making progress." 

That's all for now . . . 

Copyright 2024 Barbara Schaffer

Kaffe Fassett: The Power of Pattern

Recently, I received some photographs of Kaffe Fassett's exhibit "The Power of Pattern" at the Millesgarden Gallery in Stockholm that were taken by my DIL's mom. Thank you Anitha! What a treat to see these pieces that were made by talented quilters using the brightly-colored fabrics Kaffe is known for. Check out the YouTube video here. 

A familiar quilt to many of us Lollipop Trees by Kim McLean.

 

What fun!

On another note . . . 

I've put my fabric book together--here's a sneak peak--but still have work to do like add something to the blank plaid pages. Will show more detailed pics when I'm finished.

 

Found a package of brown and white little clothespins at the thrift shop and thought they were perfect but I'm not convinced they'll stay :) 

More to come . . . 

Copyright 2024 Barbara Schaffer

In Memory, Slow Stitch, Pin, Nature

I want to start off this post with a small quilt I made In Memory of Carol Younce who so graciously sent me a box of scraps two years ago. We never met but because of her generosity my creativity went into overdrive and I made five quilts!

At the start, I sorted and bagged all the scraps according to shape and size and decided there was no better way to honor Carol than to make a small quilt in her memory. So that's what I did :)

I love that little car in the upper left :) I had lots of neutrals and cut all squares 2.5" x 2.5". The two inner borders were Carol's fabrics but the outer green was a thrift shop purchase a while ago. I did simple cross hatch machine quilting.

The back with more large strips and a label. The piece is 24" x 24". If you would like to see the other quilts I made from Carol's box of scraps you can see them here. All-in-all, I had a blast!

_________________

Three more slow-stitch blocks are done and now there are 9.  

This wonderful cross-stitch dog was made by my good friend, Wilda, many years ago. She just turned 95 years young in January! This dog reminded me of our Belle, even though she wasn't a Cocker Spaniel :) But she loved going down to the river to sniff out frogs along the shoreline, thus, the fun fabric. 

A collage of nature--trees, a bird, a butterfly, a mammal (not sure what that is), a huge 'shroom and a snake.

The last block in this fabric book series is a flower garden. Wilda and Renee gave me a lovely floral kit for my December birthday and I spent many evenings immersed in embroidery.  

_____________________

Recently, I received this vintage floral pin as a gift and I immediately went to the thrift shop and purchased a pretty frame. Then I added some ribbons :)

Pretty deer in the driveway. She was watching me take this photo :)

Captured this Pileated Woodpecker from the bathroom window. It was very busy! BTW, the noise you hear is the dryer! 

Lastly, moon in the morning. FYI, this area has Eclipse Fever!

Thank you all for stopping by. There's no more snow and it appears spring is on its way. Yay!

Copyright 2024 Barbara Schaffer
 

Slow Stitching Blocks and Needlecase

I'm calling them "slow stitching" blocks and I guess that's what they are but I still have a hard time grasping the concept. I am leaning toward making an accordian-style fabric book with an Adirondack theme. We'll see how that goes . . .  

Here are the next three:

A collage based on our woodsy driveway with glimpses of blue sky peeking through the trees. There are lots of deer and squirrels. 

Four different fabrics along with a single cut-out duck :) I do a small basting stitch along all raw edges then big stitch on top using embroidery floss. I embellished the duck's wing tips to give them some dimension. 

This is what the back looks like. 

Two years ago, I had good intentions of making cross-stitch pillow cases with north country designs. It's no surprise I nixed that idea after completing one deer but what better way than to use it as one of my new blocks. I added a butterfly to remind me of the Bambi Golden Book which I so loved :)

I also spent some time making a little needlebook by hand that I found on Ann Wood Handmade here.  

It was definitely a fun project even though it took longer than I anticipated but isn't that what slow stitching is all about--"slow" but "quick" to finish?? Would love to hear about any slow stitching that you've done :)

I'll leave you with this--"The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly." I'll tell you more about it soon :)

Copyright 2024 Barbara Schaffer