Antique Quilt Blocks

What a beautiful day today!! Spring is in the air.

As I said a few posts ago, I finally got the Antique Quilts out this afternoon. They are all packed away and you kind of forget what you have. So after the "oh I forgot I had that" moment it was to dark to take them outside to photograph the treasures.

So instead I took some photo's of some blocks that I have.

This is a small Log Cabin that is hand peiced onto a foundation of fabric.

(not sure why the photo's look so yellow??)

Can you see this block has been stamped on the background?????

These are very cool blocks. All hand peiced but not sure of the era sorry.

Love the prints in some of these blocks. Thats why we love todays reproduction fabric, I'm too scared to use these blocks in a quilt. Some are quiet fragile.

My quilts could probably do with a wash, do any of you wash your Antique Quilts??

If so how do you do it?

I also have a collection of blocks that have stitched initals in the centres that I'll post seperate.

So as soon as the sun comes out again I promise to take the quilts out for photo's so I can post them. Like I said they are not perfect....but I love them!!

Lisa & Lou

Quilts in the Barn Show & Dear Jane Show

Two great shows coming up.....

Mark the dates in your diaries now!

We are planning on having morning tea on Sunday at Quilts in the Barn.

We would love to see you there....

Whether or not our Dear Janes are finished, we are going to this show too.

 

Australian Quilters Association

There is always lots of inspiration to be had at quilt shows.  Hope to see you at both.

Lisa & Lou

Lilly's Sampler Class

Last night was our Lilly's Sampler Class at Lilly Patches.

We always have a lot of fun and laughs.

Here's what the ladies are up to:

Liz is working on a round robin with one of her friendship groups.  Can't show you Liz's part yet as it's a surprise for the recipient but needless to say, that with Liz and applique, it will be beautiful.  The original owner of this quilt has done some lovely embroidery over her fussy cut applique to great effect. 

 


 Maureen has embroidered the cutest little mice for her latest project. They are soooo sweet. She is putting them into the panels of an old fashioned sewing caddy.  The blocks on the left are from the "Choose Your Block Sampler" that we have been teaching. I just love her colours. Knowing Maureen, as our very productive "pupil", she may have finished pieces to show us next month!

Pat's sampler is also coming along.  Her colours are like a gelati, good enough to eat!  She is actually enjoying the process and at this stage is hand piecing her blocks. 

Robyn had more of her 18th Century Star quilt with her this week.  Her autumn tonings are lovely.  She is machine blanket stitching the applique with stem stitch for her stitchery blocks (our original quilt has stars).  Robyn made the stars in the same beautiful tonings but I think they may end up being in her backing.

Unfortunately I didn't take pictures of Lorraine and Divna's work.  Sorry....
  

Until next time

                   Lou & Lisa 

SPRING FLING UPDATE

June at Lilly Patches has hung some projects for Spring Fling up.

She has three Sashiko projects on show:

I quilted my little hexagon quilt....

June has two of our finished projects hanging up in store now.

We have two more mini quilts to finish and then we will be ready for Spring Fling on Saturday October 13.

Enjoy your sewing

                                                                                    Lisa & Lou

Baby Janes at Lilly Patches

Last Friday was our Baby Jane's friendship group at Lilly Patches.  When we started sewing together (too many years ago to remember) we were making our "Dear Jane" quilts.  We weren't all making them but quite a few of us were.  And how many have finished Dear Jane???  NOT ONE!!  That's not to say we aren't a productive bunch of women.  We have all made many quilts in our time together.  Dear Jane is unfortunately one of the many PHD's (thanks Linda - love this).
This is what everyone was working on:

Kaye is hand quilting the Drunkard's Path Quilt 

 

And her back is pieced (I love an interesting back!)



 Karen is working on this bright quilt (I think its her 2nd quilt ever)!

And her kids are fighting over it...

  

 Elissa is crocheting a baby blanket for a friend...gorgeous colours..

Divna was working on a block from our sampler quilt.  Love your determination Divna!

 Divna has also been doing some crochet...

(that's two blankets not one by the way!)

Robyn is putting her spin on our 18th Century Stars quilt but taking out the stars and making stitchery blocks instead.  Can't call it 18th Century Stars now though!

We also had sewing with our Sandlyn House group on Saturday.  It's always a great night but somehow we forgot to take photos.  Many of the ladies in this group have made red & white quilts for the Quilts In The Barn exhibition in October.  It is definitely going to be a wonderful show.

Enjoy your sewing

                           Lou & Lisa



Don't you just love books!!!

Most of us are avid book collectors in the quilting world. They are a great source of inspiration.

You look at these the old quilts and samplers, with photo's of their creators and your idea's run wild! I often wonder if we are inspired by them what were they inspired by????

When we own antique quilts and samplers I wonder who made it? was it a gift quilt? why did they use that fabric with that, or like us realised a block was upside down or pieced wrong when we finished quilting it!!

Here is a book that if you love Samplers....... you'll love.

This book is from the V&A Mueseum.

It's by Clare Browne and Jennifer Wearden.

It's filled with beautiful color pictures of samplers proudly owned by the museum with information on each sampler where known. This includes dates, origins and their makers if known, type of threads and fabrics used and stitches.

There is a histroy of the samplers at the start of the book and information on stitches and techniques at the end with diagrams.

This is a gorgous book.

Note the little tags marking the favorite spots!!!!

Ask your local patchwork shop about ordering the "Samplers" book.

You won't be disapointed.

Will do some more "Book Looks" maybe one every week or so. There are so many out there it's nice to see whats available.

Have been meaning to get the Antique Quilts out to take some photo's. Of course they are in the tub at the bottom of the stack. So will get them out and hope for a lovely day to take photo's soon.

We also had Friday night and Saturday night sewing groups this week so will let you know what all the girls are working on. Have a great day!!

Lisa & Lou

Spring Fling Hexagons

Don't you just love weekends? 

Sleeping in (sometimes!), routines out the window, catching up with family and friends and time for sewing.....

Oops, I cut a little off in the photo but you get the idea (I hope!).

This is one of the four mini quilts we are teaching at Spring Fling with Lilly Patches

on Saturday October 13th.

Now to quilt and bind it and I'm actually ahead of schedule.  We have discovered that we work very well under pressure but occasionally it's nice not to be under the hammer!

My applique is blanket stitch which I haven't done since making

 McKenna Ryan's Storybook Farm quilt. 

I'd forgotten how quick and easy it is. 

I think that's one of the things I love about quilting, the options.

Today I'll do some applique....needleturn, raw edge, blanket stitch.... or maybe some piecing.....machine, hand, foundation, English paper ...... or how about stitchery, candlewicking, embroidery..... 

With so many options available to us, it's no wonder we have so many UFO's WIP's! 

Enjoy your sewing, whatever your working on!

Lisa & Lou



Friendship Quilts

Have you heard of "Block in a Box"?

We have 2 friendship groups we go to monthly. ( we say monthly but life somtimes makes them a little longer between!) In these groups we made quilts called block in a box.

You start by purchasing a very cool box because you never have spare one at home.

Next you choose a background fabric, the amount depends on how many people will be in your group.

You also choose your print fabrics and add as much as you like to the box.

Take your box along to your group, and everyone that would like to join the fun puts their name on a list.

The first month someone picks a theme. This could be anything from applique to a pieced block.

You make your own block for the first month. This sets the color theme for your quilt.

Next month we all bring our box to group and we pass it on to the next name on the list.

This person then chooses the next theme. Maybe star!

And so on, passing the box until it comes back to you full of lovely blocks.

It is a great challenge to think outside the "box" haha if others are using fabrics you don;t normally work with or choose a block you have never made before.

We did 2 box swaps. They start out like this.........

And then you get this.......

These are blocks from the Sandlyn House Group.

And........

These are from the Lilly Patches Group

( Yes is did say you get quilts but good things take time)

This is Liz's quilt. She put her's together, quilted it and put it in the recent Melbourne Quilt Show.

These are the blocks we made for her,

It's great fun. You also can have show and tell each month, like we did or you can wait till the end. Anyone that's that good at surprises well done!!!

Lisa & Lou

Why The Unknown Quilt?????

The name for the "Unknown Quilt" is really a very simple story. 

Today with the wonderful world of the internet, being a visual  resource for quilts, antique and modern, it can be a good thing and sometimes a bad thing.

With all the different ways to view photo's with very little written information, we can easily become inspired by all the quilts we see, but really not know anything important about them. 

The Unknown quilt came about from a photo with no information that Lou had found quiet some time ago.

It was a chintz quilt, made up of circles and hexagons with  broderie perse applique.

She loved it from the moment she saw it.

We then "googled" ourselves silly trying to find the source of these saved photo's to no avail.

When we decided  to make a new quilt these photo's were our inspiration. We also loved the Cactus Rose framed quilt from the American Folk Art Musuem by an unknown maker.

So initally we had two quilts both by "Unknown Makers" that we made into one!

The quilt was complete.

It was then discovered much to our delight that the Chintz Quilt was owned by Janet O'Dell. The quilt lives only an hour away from us and not on the other side of the world!

So with Janets kind permission the "Unknown Quilt" has become a more "known" quilt.

The world of quilting should be one of fun. We quilt because we enjoy it. We have like minded quilting friends we meet with to chat, stitch and enjoy each others company. We create our individual quilts we love always adding our own unique little touches.

We hope you enjoy quilts as much as we do, after all if it's not fun then why would we do it?

And there is nothing wrong with having lots of UFO'S. It gives us choices!!!!!

Please just have fun.

Lisa & Lou

Antique Dolls Quilt

Quiet a few years ago I was lucky enough to purchase a few Antique Quilts. While the collection is only small, and certanly they are not perfect,  I love them all. When we had the bush fires a few years ago the Quilts were some of many treasures that were packed in the car. We were evacuated and the football oval became a temporary home. That night while getting the kids organised to try and get some sleep one of my boys claimed one of these quilts for sleeping! At first I was "oh no not that quilt" but then figured it had survived this long so go for it. Just don't put it on the ground! Each week we will post a different quilt. I don't really have any history of these quilts, I just brought them because I liked them and could "afford" them. 

So hope you enjoy the photo's.

The first one is a Little Dolls Quilt.

I have no idea on the age of this quilt sorry.

This little one is hand pieced but machine quilted in the ditch with a stitch so small you would not want to unpick!!!

It has very cute fabrics in it, we are lucky that so many fabrics are being reproduced for us today.

And a very cute backing too. Not sure if you can zoom in on those tiny stitches. The binding is an odd colour also.

Hope you enjoyed this weeks Antique Quilt show and tell.

Lisa & Lou

GETTING OUR "SPRING FLING" PROJECTS MADE

We are teaching at "Spring Fling" on Saturday October 13. 

This great day organised by June at Lilly Patches in Boronia is sure to be loads of fun. It is being held a short stroll from the shop and of course Lilly Patches will be open for the day.  With 4 teachers, Elaine, Liz Willing and us and some gorgeous projects being put together, it's sure to be a great day. 

Participants will receive all patterns taught on the day, as well as 10% off at the shop and a little thank you gift from June.

  For bookings and more information give June at call on 03 9761-2088.

We are making four projects for Spring Fling. 

So we have been busy doing what we love, cutting up fabrics and putting it back together!

We started with this:

Then lots of cutting....

and playing....

and sewing...

and some gluing (thanks to our apprentices for helping here)....

 

and then playing again.

Just loving how Lisa's little clamshell quilt is coming together.

  This method used is fantastic, but you'll have to come to "Spring Fling" to find out how.... 

YoYo quilt nearly done and MiMi decides its perfect for her!

Why do our cats always want to walk all over and sleep on my projects?

Still working on our two mini applique quilts.  One has apple cores and the other, hexagons.

I hope you enjoyed our sneak peak into Spring Fling.

 

Lisa & Lou