Wherein We Encounter the 60s and Do The Math

Monday, Monday, so good to me;
Monday morning, it was all I hoped it would be.

Now there’s some enthusiastic people! Now if they’d written Friday, Friday, I would be more on board with it!
So, do you remember the Mamas and the Papas? And if you do, you’re from my generation! For the rest of you, the Mamas and the Papas were a singing group from the 60s.

I always wish I had more time in the week to quilt…which I think is a common theme on my blog and the same probably for many of you. I really don’t know how bloggers with children manage to quilt, much less write a blog. I didn’t start quilting until after my kiddos had left the nest! It seems impossible to quilt and blog and have kids! But forget my moaning and groaning. Really, isn’t some quilting better than none?

I did manage to work more on my Log Cabin quilt. It’s all looking good and I think I see the finish line ahead! I need to call the quilting lady and reserve time to get this behemoth done.

It’s gotten to the point that it’s difficult to sew on it because of its bulk. I think my king size quilt is actually working against me trying to maneuver it through my machine! I can just see it grabbing onto the edge of the table and saying, “No! No! Not through that tiny opening again!”

For those who haven’t been on this loooong journey with me, here is a post about the beauteous beast.

I sewed some more on the spool quilt. I also encountered a little hiccup.

The start line:

 















Advancing through my sewing machine:

Starting the next step, adding white strips:
















The progress as of late:



Doing the math:
56 1-sided spool blocks
+5  0-sided blocks
= 66 white strips needed
-22 white strips available
=44 white strips, that I don’t have, that are needed

And now Murphy’s Law raises his head. I have no more white fabric. I started this quilt a long time ago. Ergo, no matching fabric.

Enter the hero: My Aunt Marie, scrap quilter extraordinaire! In her scrap quilt she would often substitute  similar colored pieces when she ran out of the first color.

And there you have it (Thank you Aunt Marie). I must go down to the quilt store. Back to the quilt store and find a WOW fabric where the backside looks similar to the one it has.

You know what? I actually think it’s kinda cool…pulling a “Aunt Marie”!

The Little Log Cabin That Couldn't

But first, a word from our sponsor: Me!

Terri, a quilter extraordinary, (PR to sell more copies) has released exciting news today via her website, Quilting Nonnie. We are thrilled to hear that this adventurous and intrepid quilter (now stop it! I'm blushing) is going to be sharing the history of her past quilts and that of her beloved Aunt Marie, who is her muse, with the blogosphere (translation: whoever visits). The news was greeted with wild anticipation by many.

TGS says, "I am looking forward with great joy to seeing the background of how Terri has become such a marvel in the quilt world!" SWH was heard to say, "Did you hear the marvelous news about Terri, that amazing quilter, is finally to break the silence and tell about her aunt, Marvelous Marie's, quilts. In another excited utterance, Hubby said, "I wish she'd just get on with it; the reporters constantly calling us and hanging around our house is a terrible nuisance!"

Terri was reached at home in her quilting studio and told us, "I am breathless. Simply breathless. And agog. Yes, agog. This is a project I've been wanting to do for years. Years. And finally I said to myself, "Self, when are you going to honor my public's request to hear more about Marvelous Marie and myself, Quilting Nonnie.

Quilting Nonnie, as she calls herself, and her blog, has revealed that these no-holds-barred narratives will appear on Saturdays in her blog. She will alternate weeks with her memoirs of her beloved aunt and her own quilts.

Previously Quilting Nonnie has published very few essays on either herself or her aunt. Previous entries about her aunt can be found here and here. Posts about Quilting Nonnie's superb quilts are here and here.

Pop Quiz! What quilt did I work on last week?

Wow! You're right! Yes, it was the Log Cabin quilt for my son and his "new" wife. (They've been married 18 months)

I think I've now figured out what I was doing last week. I was sewing seams so I could rip them out. Yes, my seam ripper and I love each other. At least what the seam ripper keeps telling me.

I was ripping out too short logs, logs put on the wrong side of the square, logs put on wrong side out, a whole set of blocks where I had put two yellows of the same fabric. And then finished the block. I had to rip out 6 rows! Times 5. Do the math. Now imagine how much I actually accomplished this week.

It's luck today is a holiday, because I actually want to make progress; defined as moving forward not backward.

At least my L/E progressed. Here are some of my favorites from last week:

Glorious Saturday! and Quilts from My Sewing Machine #2: 42 Stars & NH quilt

Things are going swell in my neck of the woods. TGS & OSLW here. Gardening happening.

Hubby putting in shower in 2nd bathroom. Finished a great read and started another. It's just like laying in a hammock under a canopy of trees.

We're having a little down time here. OSLW is reading, TGS & Hubby are working on his car. I've been reading blogs and now am writing mine.

I thought I'd start sharing quilts I have made every once in a while. I don't want to tie myself down with an uncompromising schedule. It'll happen. Sometime or other.

TGS holding quilt I made in 1977

I'll start with one of my earliest quilts. A little back story. My Aunt Marie (read about her here) was a quilter extraordinaire. I grew up with her quilts on my bed. I was taught what it took to make a quilt. Aunt Marie was born in 1905, learned to quilt at eight, so everything part of making the quilt was done by hand. Lamentably, I didn't learn to quilt from her. However I always felt a part of quilting because of her.

A Quilt I Made for Noel Heart in 1979

I made "quilts" when I was in college and when I had babies. They were single fabric front and back and tied. My first real quilt rolled around when I had my first grandchild. Four years later, Nancy Drew got married and I started on a wedding quilt for her. It took me two years to make and it arrived on her doorstep on her first anniversary.

In August 2005, Nancy Drew and SWH became engaged to be married March 10, 2007. Of course I planned to make them a wedding quilt...but what timing! I was working on Nancy Drew's Christmas present: the Kimono quilt and then when it was finished it was three months to their wedding.

I had a time finding a quilt pattern, as Andrea does not like flower fabric or overtly feminine fabrics. I chose a beautiful quilt from an Australian Quilting Magazine and chose the fabrics with as little flowers and emphasis on green, yellow and cream colors.

While I visited Nancy Drew and future SWH in Germany during the summer of 2006, we happened to find one quilt store. I paid attention to what fabrics Andrea liked. I realized my first choice wasn't going to do it. I decided to do a quilt with Amish colors because I felt it would fit with Andrea's taste.

I found a pretty block on Quilter's Cache called Amish Star. It is a variation on a Sawtooth Star. Unwittingly I had chosen a time intensive block for a beginner. In fact I have avoided quilts with flying geese or half square triangles until just the past year!


I worked fiendishly through the Fall and into the Winter until I realized it wouldn't be done in time for their wedding. Nancy Drew, who had seen the first few blocks at Christmas, was understanding.

During Spring Break 2007, I spent every single day sewing blocks and got all the 72 blocks finished. I also got burnt out and it lay around until the end of summer. I got it together and a local FMQ quilter and friend quilted it. She did a wonderful job quilting it loosely and with curving pattern as I had asked.

I finished the binding at the end of February 2008 with time to show it to my guild on the March 5th meeting. Right before I packaged it for mailing, I realized I had no pictures of it. Being made for a California King bed, it was indeed substantial.

I decided to lay it out on the lawn and take a picture of it by standing on a ladder. On the right you can see the sheets I laid down to protect the quilt from the grass. If you peer closely you can see the cat-helper Daytona.

Once I shooed Daytona off the sheets, I laid the quilt down. Daytona immediately saw that I needed her immeasurable help and quickly came. Daytona to the rescue!

  
As I started to put the binding on, I had noticed one defective star. (Manufacturer's fault). It was the corner block. Now that the quilt was quilted, finished and bound it was a done deal. But not for enterprising me. I embroidered the block to look like a house. Put in some flowers, some curtains and embroidered on the roof: House of Bleak (pronounced like the ea in steak) and their wedding date. SWH refers to his daughter as a princess from the House of Bleak. Worked well for me.

Left to right: Redesigned star to house block, House block zoom out, close-up of an anonymous block and quilt detail.

42 Stars Statistics
Started: November 2006
Finished: March 2008
Size: 122" x 98" (King)
Pieced by myself
Quilted by JP

Marie's Marvelous Makings #1 Gallatin Quilt

Boy howdy, are you in for a treat today!!!!!

Saturday is going to be a special day to share my Aunt Marie's quilts with you. You are one lucky person! Aunt Marie is my Quilting Muse.

This is a picture of my Aunt Marie when she was in her 30s.
Leona Marie Noah was born in Gallatin, Missouri on July 25, 1905.

Her father, Lee Noah, and mother, Ella Donaldson were married on December 4, 1898. Marie had a younger brother born in 1914. She attended Madison School. What was life like in 1905? Laundry was washed in a tub. Water was drawn from a well with a pump. Papa Lee Noah had cows, pigs, geese, sheep, and chickens. Butter was churned by hand. Light was provided by kerosene lamp, food was cooked on a wood stove. Land was plowed by a horse-drawn tiller. In the fall, pumpkins, radishes, and other vegetables were harvested. Fruit, like watermelons, pears, apples, cherries and strawberries, were part of the garden. Both fruit and vegetables were preserved in canning jars. Young boys still went fishing in rivers. In the winter there was snow for snowmen and sleds. In the summer, besides all the work, there was square dancing, Express Wagons for kids, and kites to fly. The state bird of Gallatin? The bluebird. The state tree? Flowering Dogwood.

Now you might wonder if I also lived in Gallatin? Did I read a book about Gallatin or Google Missouri in the early 1900's. My aunt talked a lot, but she never talked about her early life.

The answer to my knowledge of things Gallatin-ish and Missouri is a quilt my Aunt Marie made when she was 81.

I'm starting with the quilt that is the hallmark of her quilts: Gallatin, My Hometown. I named it. Aunt Marie never named or dated her quilts. NEVER make that mistake! Here I was in 2004 trying to figure out when and why she made her quilts. It's a shame that I only came up with questions after she died. NEVER make that mistake!

On this fantastic quilt, Marie embroidered her name and the year she made the quilt. I would never have guessed she made it when she was 81.

If you look closely, you can see sampler quilt blocks. There are 30 of them. I have used these blocks as guidelines on how to quilt blocks on my quilts.

Isn't that amazing? I had the quilt appraised a few years ago. When I laid it out, Jeananne Wright, the appraiser, was speechless. I started crying. I said to myself, "See, Aunt Marie, your quilts are treasures. You did truly amazing work."

The quilt has images of her early life. All the appliques were her designs. She used feed sacks and diverse cotton prints.

These are close-ups of two portions of the quilt.

Aunt Marie began quilting when she was eight. In the early 1900's quilting was done by hand, templates made on cardboard or linoleum, blocks cut by hand, stitched together by hand and hand-quilted. If you can believe it, Marie made three or more quilts a year. Granted she didn't have children and didn't work outside the house. I have nine weeks in the summer where I can quilt to my hearts content, and I can't produce even one quilt during that time.

The appraiser wrote, the quilt is "very detailed--Outstanding artwork and design."

Marie's mother died when she was nine, after the birth of her brother. Marie became the "woman of the house." She raised her brother, kept the house, cooked and continued quilting. Her family information is written on the block shown in this close-up.

My Aunt Marie predeceased my Uncle by five years. Upon his death, all twelve of her remaining quilts were bequeathed to me.

I grew up getting a quilt from Aunt Marie on Christmases, when I was sixteen, when I was wed, and various other times. I am truly blessed for the legacy she gave me.