Decision made!

Well, I decided on Monday morning to do the 45 degree diagonal lines thru my leaf vines all in one direction.  In my gut I just felt that since this a traditional pattern that the consistant slant would be more appropriate.  The vines are not symmetrical, so having the consistant angle makes sense to me.
I made a little progress this week on my leaf strip, but we are heading out of town for the Thanksgiving and packing and preparing has interferred with my quilting time.  So here is a peak at what I have accomplished.  I will be taking a blog break till after Christmas. Happy stitching until then!

Decisions Decisions!

 The third strip of my trailing vines quilt was finished this morning!  I am thrilled with how the cables play off the curves of the vines.  The heavy quilting takes time, but I feel it will be well worth it. Since it's my favorite part of making a quilt, it seems fitting to enjoy all the slow stitches that I can.   Afterall, it's not how fast but how pleased I am with the results that counts.   I do need to decide whether to slant all the 45 degree lines thru the leaf strips one direction or to alternate them?????  So I would love hearing your opinion and maybe why you feel that way!  A fellow quilter said a poll will probably not help with your decision, she most likely is right, but I would love to  hear your opinion anyway.

November Cheddarback Quilt Blocks

It was a busy week at my house.  We tore into the laundry room and Tom built drawers to go under the front loader and dryer.  It will be so nice to not have to bend over to get the clothes at the back of the washer.   They turned out really nice and now I have two drawers to store supplies.  He finished them this week, and was wondering what was next.  So I suggested building in some shelves in the laundry room. I had some plastic shelving units that were not very stable and were beginning to sag in places.  He thought that was a good idea and we were able to finish them up yesterday.  I keep a lot of my kitchen appliances in there and it was so nice to have the open shelves that were a couple of inches wider with no supporting rods in the way and constraining how I used the them.

In between helping him in the garage I was able to stitch my November Cheddarback quilt blocks.  I decided for November, I would save the 5.5 inch blocks for use in the next section of the quilt instead of the letter blocks in that section. So for November's 5.5 inch blocks I drafted some number blocks for the year instead.  They aren't hard to do but just take a bit of thought and I just measured the pieces out from my drawings.  I think they turned out pretty good.

The block above the number blocks is the November 12.5 inch block. It was a fun block to stitch too!  So between the laundry room and the piecing I didn't get as many hand quilted stitches completed.  I was able to finish the two panels I almost finished last week and I started a third pink panel and stitched two sections of cable.  It's nice to look back at the week, I ususally find I did more than I thought.  Tonight, the Cowboys play the Vikings.  Alexa says the Cowboys are favored to win by 3 points so it should be a very close game.  I will try and enjoy a few more slow stitches but we will see how it all unfolds.

Susan Mc Cord

I received so many wonderful comments last week on my trailing vines quilt.  I felt I needed to do a tribute to the original maker of the quilt Susan Mc Cord, afterall it was her vision!

She was an Indiana farm wife who had 7 children and created breath taking quilts out of bits of fabric.  I was watching tv and stitching Saturday morning and to my amazement CBS was doing a show on innovators.  People like Henty Ford and Thomas Edison and yes a quilter Susan Mc Cord.  They did mention in the piece that these quilts were made for warmth.  I really don't think this was her reason for making them. Afterall, you could patch big squares of fabric together to make a warm blanket.  I really feel she had a need to create something. She apparently had great skills and visions and needed to see them come to life.  Her attention to detail is amazing!

So fun to see how she quilted her Trailing Vines!

Oh the bits of fabric in this one!

She definitely had needle skillls

More leaves!

 Her work is amazing and to think she made these quilts back in the late 1800s before all the modern tools we use today to make quilts.   I love how organic her work is, she truely must have been inspired by nature. She used her now famous pieced leaves a lot and after making this quilt I can understand why. So this morning I laid out my version out to see the progress. I finish quilting to one edge and then started the cable the other direction and I have completed that panel.  This week I plan on completing the leaf panel and moving on to start the  next set of two panels.