A little Update

A little update on my wool projects progress.  I got another row added to the advent calendars and finally did this week's leaf last night!

Speaking of shout outs - a big shout out to my friend Rena who added color to her Sashiko piece (Pictured below).  This turned out amazing!  I love it!  She is definitely one of the most creative people I know 😊

 

Tuesday Afternoons are the BEST

Every Tuesday afternoon my friend Becky hosts a small stitching group at her home.  We call ourselves the Needle Keepers.  I must say, I look forward to this time SO MUCH.  It's a relaxing time just to stitch with friends and be inspired by their work 😊

Check out Rena's beautiful Sashiko table runner above and Nancy's amazing Trinket quilt below, in which she learned to foundation paper piece, hand appliqué AND she machine quilted it herself!! 

Bravo ladies!! 👏❤️

This cute wall hanging was made by Rena for her little grandson 😊

On most Tuesdays we also get to play with our cute "granddog".  She's so well behaved and fun. 🥰

 

Sashiko

More inspiration from my Needle Keepers group!! 👏❤️😊

 

Great Finishes!

A couple of great finishes from my Needle Keepers group!  Nancy's Move the Needle above and Becky's Sashiko pillow below! 👏😊

 

Needle Keepers

My Needle Keepers group has been very busy!  I have several photos to share and catch up on.

These two pieces, the Sashiko wall hanging and the bag below were made by Rena 😊

 

2 Tulips Drawstring Pouch

I actually finished two projects this weekend! The first was this 2 Tulips drawstring pouch kit that I bought from suespargo.com.  I bought it because several of my friends were working on Sashiko projects which I hadn't done for a very long time and it looked fun! 

The kit included everything I needed to make the pouch.  I had fun doing the Sashiko, but had no idea how much I'd love the pouch pattern!  It's super easy and really cute.  I could see making it a little bit bigger and making trick or treat bags for the grandkids or something.  I'll definitely be making more, probably not with Sashiko but with fun fabrics.

Scroll to the end and find a picture and link to the same pouch make by piecing a cute front! 😊

The back of mine

https://www.suespargo.com/shop/kt-tp-05-2-tulips-project-pouch-pattern-59002?search=2+tulips#attr=

 

Sashiko Coasters

A few weeks ago I helped Laura Pedge teach a little Sashiko workshop at the library.

It reminded me how much I enjoy doing Sashiko so I bought the coaster kits for my daughter Michelle and I to work on when she was visiting the following weekend.  We got them all stitched fairly quickly - now I just need to make them into coasters!

I went to my Little Bits meeting shortly after Michelle and I finished stitching ours and Eleanor had made some too - hers are already sewn into coasters!  So you get a sneak preview of what ours will look like - hopefully soon :)

Sashiko

Laura invited me to do a Sashiko program with her at the Mesa County Library last night.  It was great fun and we had a good turn out - 24 people!  We set up this display of her work and some of mine, and she prepared small kits so everyone could try it.  I think everyone who came enjoyed it - they seemed to anyway!

The quilt on the left is Laura's and the one on the right is mine.

The piece above and to the left are both Laura's - beautiful!!

Laura's Mom Val stitched the squares above.  To the right - the one on top is mine and the one on the bottom is Laura's - both from the book Paradise Stitched.





Laura designed the quilt below, which has wool appliqué in it - one of her specialties.  I haven't done any Sashiko for awhile but I'm inspired to now!  After I finish up a few other projects....

Little Bits

Following are some Show and Tell photos from my miniature quilt group meeting last month.  As you can see, our focus is not always miniature quilts! :)

These are some Sashiko blocks made by Leota - we were helping her brainstorm ideas for how to put them together into a quilt.

The blocks above are a new block of the month quilt Kathy is making - pretty batiks!

And the quilt on the left is one she finished.  She did a beautiful job and the quilting is wonderful.

Sherida made these cute wool bags for Kathy and Leota who were two of our recent birthday girls.  Her workmanship is amazing and these little woolly bags are adorable!

Hite Amish Quilt Collection Exhibit

The Henry and Angela Hite Amish Quilt Collection is on display currently at The Art Center in Grand Junction until January 23rd.  My daughter and I went today and I highly recommend going, if you haven't already!  Tuesdays are free, otherwise it's a $3 admission, and well worth it!

They gave me permission to take some photos, so I will share some, but nothing beats seeing them in person :)


Most of the quilts in the first room were made in the early 1900's and the hand quilting on these quilts is exquisite.  They are in great shape too, for as old as they are.

Information on the exhibit stated that the typical queen size bed quilt has between 40,000 and 50,000 stitches.

The exhibit information stated that Amish quilts were strictly utilitarian until about 1970 when Americans noted their beauty and they started to become valuable to collectors.
Producing quilts for the purpose of art collecting was a matter of controversy in the Amish communities, as art making opposes their doctrine of simplicity.  "Eventually the economic pragmatism of selling the quilts won out" and the Amish began producing the quilts for both purposes, "whether to place a quilt on the bed or the wall is the business of the owner."

This Center Diamond quilt was made in Pennsylvania around 1910 out of twill and serge fabrics.










Some of the quilting designs remind me of typical Sashiko designs, such as this one below and in the first photo, above.

This one was made of wool around 1945.


As I said, the quilting is amazing.  You need to go get up close and personal with these quilts!  The information said that once the technique of hand quilting was mastered, it didn't take any longer to quilt the decorative designs than straight lines, so this was considered acceptable even though it's "decorative".

Jacob's Ladder around 1950 - made of cotton.

Sawtooth Diamond made around 1930 in Pennsylvania, out of wool.

Double Irish Chain on Point made in Ohio out of cotton, around 1920.

  Lone Star - made in Ohio around 1925, out of cotton.

Bars made in Pennsylvania around 1930 from wool crepe.

Log Cabin Straight Furrow made in Kansas around 1880 from velveteen, wool, twills and silk blends.

In the next room were more current quilts (aside from the one above and another one near it), mostly made in the 1980's.  I found the workmanship on these newer quilts not quite as nice as the older ones.  I don't know if it is because they started "mass producing" them to sell to collectors and tourists or what....  But the fabrics didn't seem as nice and the piecing and quilting were just not quite as good as the older quilts - in my humble opinion :)



In the following pictures, you will see what I mean.  I also noticed the bindings - no mitered corners!  I went back and looked at the old quilts though and their corners are not mitered either, but they still looked a little neater.  This binding below is from one of the newer quilts.

Here is a binding on one of the older quilts - you can see it's stitched down nicer, not left open like the one above.

This was one of my daughter's favorites, made around 1935 of wool and rayon crepe, in Pennsylvania.


All in all a great exhibit with some fascinating history.  Go see it if you can!

There is a pottery exhibit there as well with some amazing pottery pieces.  I will share some photos of a couple of those tomorrow.  They are for sale too - if you're looking for some cool pottery :)


Have a Happy New Year's Eve!!