Monday Morning

If you are a transplanted Northerner to a climate in which you cannot have the old-fashioned lilacs and if you miss them like you miss oxygen, then this is what you do, you plant varieties that are supposed to make it in the South and you hope for the best. I have lost two lilacs that just disappeared but this one has lots of fragrant blooms this year. Absolute heaven to drink in that fragrance.

I am surprised and delighted to have been tagged by at least 3 other quilt-bloggers, Elke thank you Elke!, that clever cat Triller ,(and don't forget Chelsea!, and Lucy, who is in Paducah. I thank you all and please please forgive me if I have skipped somebody, I was not able to catch up on blogs this week-end as I had hoped.

Very quickly before I leave late for work (!), here is Corny Quilt Top with its borders and backing makings:

I inserted little drawings at top and bottom. At top is a crow saying greedily "almost ripe" and at bottom a Holmes County circa 1932 lady is saying "corn is king". Here are the makings for the backing:

Oh argh I'm definitely late now. Talk to you all later!

Jo's Little Women and Show n Tell

Here are the Jo Mortons shown at last Little Women Club. There were more than these but I took several photos that were too blurry to share with you. Too much Zinfandel :-) (oh speaking of food [wine is a food group, right?], my latest WW stats: 190.8 / 143.6 /140 ):

Here are the Show and Tells from Jo Night:

These are the quiltmaker's first three blocks from Women of Design, by Barbara Brackman (aren't they darling?):

I love this quilt top. A scrappy Irish Chain (right name? Burgoyne Surrounded?):

The most gorgeous applique. Just look at the bravura quilting:

More of the quilt:

Aha, aren't we all dying to make a quilt using the darling Dick and Jane fabric. This is intended to be a present for the quiltmaker's friend-turning-fifty:

Corny Top

Here's the Depression Era Challenge top. Put the Civil War era corn print on the front as you see; not a single one of my feedsack prints or vintage solids looked right and I like how this one looks with the blocks. My story is that the 30s lady who made this (evidently for her little girl or boy to play with since it measures 17x25" so far) had some 1860s fabric in her scrap bag and figured that after 70-some years it was about time to use it already. Or maybe it was part of an old (old) dress! Any opinions on how it should be completed? Maybe a narrowish string border next or maybe nothing more, just the binding? I'd like to do the string inner border but that might detract from the plant tops. Maybe a muslin border with a simple applique vine but I hesitate even to go there since I have so many things to finish. Oh, maybe an isosceles triangle scrappy inner border but then again this is supposed to be all about strings. I have some small-scale pink gingham that looks pretty with it, maybe that...

Depression Era

Hi, everybody! Thank you for your posts, I love your blogs, and I certainly hope nobody gets caught in these storms that are currently moving in seemingly over the entire eastern U.S. sector.

Here's my Indian Hawthorn in bloom.

Wednesday was the first of a two-part class, Depression Era Challenge. We are supposed to come up with some blocks or a small quilt or whatever that incorporates the thrifty string block that were so popular during the Depression. I started getting so many ideas and wanted to make them all. For instance, wouldn't this design be nice that uses four string blocks with the crosspieces between to make a larger block, then finally the dark sashing:

Or look at this Japanese quilt using Sashiko. You could put string blocks in there and do the Sashiko blocks with suitable Depression Era color and subject, or you could put in a Sunbonnet Baby applique block again with Sashiko/Big Thread quilting:


Here's what I decided to do:

The stem and leaves look just like a corn stalk to me so that's what I'm thinking of them as, despite the shape of the top. I'm making 6 or 9 for a wallhanging size. These are about 7" square. I'm using vintage feedsack for the muslin background pieces and a few vintage pieces among the prints. I have a Civil War era print of corn that I might use for the backing to try to accentuate the Corn idea.

***oh my goodness I see I've been tagged by LUCY, thank you, Lucy, and I must give some thought to my list***

Love Those Acid Colors

We walked up Stone Mountain Easter afternoon, which was very pleasant, lots of people enjoying the day, although I like this photo that makes the mountaintop look a bit isolated:

The rock formations are very cool:

After dinner at Longhorn (salmon and chop steak), it was back to the quilt squares developing for the small Jo Morton quilt Calico Surprise. I yearned for more acid yellow and double pinks:

I looked in the usual places, like the stash collection of traditionals (not much there that I was hunting):

the Jo Morton stash collection (but I was veering away from those as I was likewise veering away from the rest of the quilt design):

Aha, here are a few yellows and pinks, stashed away in a shallow drawer:

...Desperately, she searched...

and emerged with the final result. Gotta get ready for work now and then class is tonight. Thank goodness my quilt homework is far enough along to be presentable :-).

Nature's Handiwork and Humans' Handiwork

After hiking Mt. le Conte in the Smokies with my son last Monday/Tuesday:

we emerged from the Park into Gatlinburg and ate at the Applewood Restaurant at the entrance; this was their entry display:

Took a little photographic journey through an antique mall on the way home. Aren't these little faces adorable??

Wasn't it nice of this rooster to pose in front of the quilt for me? So arty:

I was quite taken with this quilt and in fact wanted to take it home entirely but finally decided to content moi-meme with photos only:

A scrappy made from somebody's stash, eh?

Wow, wonderful unusual colors in this old hooked rug:

Class Last Saturday

The class last Saturday was a fun all-day class complete with lunch: the idea was either to work on something of your own that you wanted to get closer to completion, or to work on a pattern called Blueberry Pie:

in a color scheme of your own choice (and wouldn't this look gorgeous in more multicolor scrappy traditionals from stash). The designer who created it came over to visit with us for awhile and some Little Quilters also popped in to visit with us. I completed a few more star blocks for the Sweet Summer pattern I've been working on gradually via leaders and enders, using blues and grays from stash (which is challenging because as it happens I never have many blues in my collection), and also did two of the three BOM blocks for the next SSS (Second Saturday Sampler) day. The other Working on My Own person was making these pretty snowball blocks:


Here are pictures from various Show and Tells:








and here are the different colorways for the Blueberry Pie'rs:

Spectacular News

Well, here's my son Timothy, who so far has been accepted by Georgia Tech, the Air Force Academy, and West Point! I am just overcome with joy for him. And to think we are still waiting to hear on the Naval Academy. If he can just get one more, because Naval is his first choice.

I have some pretty pictures to post from Saturday's class in a few days.