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CalicoKatie

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I have a Card Tricks quilt top on my frame now and I've gotten a little done on it. This top was made by my sister who passed away a couple of years ago. I have several of her quilt tops that hadn't been finished. It looks rumpled because I have it pin basted and draped over the frame for the picture. Luckily, I had a pale teal TOT fabric that works great for the backing on this. I expect to have this finished by the end of the month. I already have another top pin basted and ready to go after this one. ;)
 

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It's a smallish twin size, about 60 x 82, and my grandsons are all in their 20s and use double beds so right now I don't have anyone specific. I think I'll save it for the first great-grandchild to use when they go from crib to bed. None of the boys are married so that will be a ways off but one does have a serious girlfriend. I've actually been thinking about starting a hope chest for each one - or more like a hope tub since I have plenty of those big plastic tubs with lids. :D I could fill them with quilts, embroidered dish towels, pillowcases and such.
 
I love the colors and the two different blocks she chose in the card trick one. . just beautiful how they work together. It makes those quilts extra special that your sister did the top and you will be able to help her finish them. I also love the idea of giving them to your future grandkids :). Being able to pass on handmade items from a loved one is truly a special gift received.
 
Card Tricks was one of her favorite patterns and she used it a lot. One of her tops that I have has a sister history. Years ago I found some old Broken Dishes blocks at a garage sale and later gave them to her. She made a top from them and it came back to me last year. I didn't even recognize it at first. The last 15 or 20 years of her life, she almost exclusively made children's quilts and donated them. She kept track of the agencies and how many so she could choose different groups to give them to each year. Many were handpieced and all were handquilted. At the end of her life, over 700 children had been given one of her quilts.
 
How do you keep quilts and fabric from getting ruined? What is your best method of storing? Here in TX I haven't seen ruin from millers (moths) or other bugs, but dry rot is a little more common. I keep mine out of hot areas and in plastic storage totes. I have two old blanket chests (circa 1900 made by ancestors). One is cedar, the other is pine. The cedar one is awesome. The pine one (also awesome) I treated for mothball odor and haven't started re-using it yet.
 
I don't do anything special as far as storage but I do think fabric needs to breathe and shouldn't be kept where it gets a lot of light. Up until this last couple of years, my fabric was stored on shelves wherever I had room for them but now it's mostly in tubs. Since I go through it every couple of months looking for what I need, it still gets aired out regularly.

I live in the Panhandle so I don't have the humidity to worry about and I just keep my quilts folded on the shelves of a cabinet. I've heard that it's better to store them in pillowcases than in plastic but I don't even do that since they're out of the light and dust. One quilt I have is a Hidden Wells made in 1990. I've washed it several times over the years and the colors have faded some but the fabrics seems to be in good shape. A couple of quilts I made in the mid to late 80s haven't done as well but they were used a lot more and are beginning to fall apart.

Most of the tips you get on fabric deals with organizing more than care but I think what applies to quilts would apply to the fabric before it becomes a quilt. This is a good video from Mary Fons telling about the main things to watch out for. I do fold and stack my quilts about three high but they never go much more than a year before I'm changing them out. It's very rare for my quilts to get that musty smell and my fabric never. I've always figured that smell was a warning sign that the fabric is beginning to break down.



Oh, yeah, miller bugs. When they show up in my house, they always seem intent on beating themselves to death on the windows. I've never had an issue with quilts or closets.
 
I have an old quilt that looks new. I dont think it has ever been washed. Some of it was handsewn. Probably a full size, not queen.
How do you wash and dry your quilts, anyone?
I have much newer ones that I've always tossed in the washer and dryer. It has worn them out over a period of 20 years. Lol
This particular old quilt I want to be more careful so as not to damage it. It was done to perfection.
 
I've been keeping busy with my quilting this past few months. After I finished the Card Tricks quilt, I pulled out a lap quilt made with some cross stitch blocks. Here's a picture of the top and a close up of one of the blocks. It turned out really pretty.

The blocks are some Jack Dempsey stamped blocks that I bought on sale at Joann's years ago. I got two packages, six blocks to a package, and when I finally get around to making the others, I think I'm going to make them redbirds. The blocks are made of a thin poly cotton but they quilted up real nice. I like to use a similar fabric as the top for my backings and I used some of the economy type muslin from Joann's.
 

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I had mentioned a quilt top my sister made from some blocks I bought at a garage sale. I've been calling it a Broken Dishes quilt but technically it's a pinwheel block. I have it on my frame to start working on and took a picture for you. They were really scrappy blocks and I think there were a few size variations so my sister framed each block and then squared them up. Tip for newbies, if you have a bunch of blocks with a wide variety of colors and prints, framing the blocks like this ties them all together. I love the way it turned out and this will go to one of my grandsons. There are 20 blocks all together and it's a double bed size.
 

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I have an old quilt that looks new. I dont think it has ever been washed. Some of it was handsewn. Probably a full size, not queen.
How do you wash and dry your quilts, anyone? ….

It would depend on how old it is and what kind of batting was used. If it looks good and sturdy with a bonded batt, I'd put it in a gentle cold water rinse cycle. It doesn't sound like it needs a full wash. If your dryer has an air only tumble cycle, that would probably work to get it at least half way dry and then spread it on a sheet outside to finish drying. Don't lay it out in full sun, though, if you can do it in late afternoon after the sun is heading downward it will probably be completely dry before dark.

If it's really old with a loose cotton filling then that's a different story. I found a couple of things on washing antique quilts.
http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2013/08/q-caring-for-old-quilts-textiles.html

This is a good video of a woman showing how she washes her quilt in her bathtub but puts them in her washer for a spin cycle to get as much water out as possible before drying them.
 
I found some more pictures on my cell phone to show you. I took a picture of a quilt block I made and had flopped it on top of the blue bird quilt while it was still on the frame. You can see that I just did a simple cross hatch quilting on the blue birds top. I thought I'd posted pictures of a Duck and Ducklings quilt I did a month or so ago but I don't see it so here they are. It also fits a double size bed and went to a grandson. In the last four months, I've hand quilted three of my bed size tops and one lap size top. I already have a couple of others pin basted and ready to go when I finish the Pinwheel quilt top. Sometimes my hands get to hurting too much and I have to take a few days off, otherwise I'd have gotten them all done a lot sooner.

Okay, I think this finishes my update!
:quilting:
 

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I've been keeping busy with my quilting this past few months. After I finished the Card Tricks quilt, I pulled out a lap quilt made with some cross stitch blocks. Here's a picture of the top and a close up of one of the blocks. It turned out really pretty.

The blocks are some Jack Dempsey stamped blocks that I bought on sale at Joann's years ago. I got two packages, six blocks to a package, and when I finally get around to making the others, I think I'm going to make them redbirds. The blocks are made of a thin poly cotton but they quilted up real nice. I like to use a similar fabric as the top for my backings and I used some of the economy type muslin from Joann's.
My goodness girl, you have been busy!! I always love to see the quilts you have been working on. Got to say I love the one with the cross stitched birds, just gorgeous and the fabric is a perfect match.
 
I stocked up on those cross stitch blocks when they were on sale - I think they were half off. I've finished a whole set of a dozen Umbrella Ladies and a set of a dozen redwork Sunbonnet Sues. If I didn't have so much else to work on, I'd probably move those up on the list because I love the way they look when they're made into a quilt. When I was working, I'd get things like this with the idea that I could make them when I retired. Now I'm retired and I gotta keep busy to finish all these treasures!
:dancing:
 
Katie your doing wonderfully!... I am mostly doing mending, but have been making potholders with matching Placemats ,, I found 6 different fabrics with Rocks so am making several sets for my Rock Club to auction off.. I have started a BOM call "Menagerie" which I'm sewing at a local quilt shop.. It's fun to meet more quilters and see how their blocks turn out.. I'll try to take a picture of a couple of the blocks as I get them sewn.. which I plan on doing today,, Just sew while catching up on laundry!!
 
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I sewed all of these pretty little 9 patch squares but when it came time to start sewing the strips and center squares to join everything together, everything seemed totally messed up. I did measure twice when cutting fabric. Any pointers?
if it was me, I'd make sure my middles lined up, then trim each block to the same size OR which is the one I would think would work best is have a solid block inbetween so that it is not so noticeable. I'm still a newbie at the quilting so you may want to get more replies from experienced quilters. Nice job on the 9 patch blocks. That is one that I have thought about doing. There is one that uses the 9 patch squares along with a diamond within a block to separate called a goose creek patch quilt that I like. This is a link
http://quilterscache.com/G/GooseCreekBlock.html

And a picture to give you an idea on what the finished product looks like
http://quilterscache.com/images15/MLQGgoosecreek.jpg

Good luck with it!!
 
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I sewed all of these pretty little 9 patch squares but when it came time to start sewing the strips and center squares to join everything together, everything seemed totally messed up. I did measure twice when cutting fabric. Any pointers?
The only thing I can think of is if your seams are not all the same width. It's so easy to wander a couple of threads off when you're sewing your seam and even that small amount can change the finished size of your block. Separate the blocks that are the correct size from the others and then compare your seam width on those to the ones that are a little off. Believe me, I have Been There and Done That!

Dani, I really like that Goose Creek quilt, too. It has that old fashioned scrap quilt that I love!
 
I've been working on quite a few projects this year and took some pictures today. A group I'm with had decided to use orphan blocks and I made mine using some Halloween/autumn theme blocks. I tried to get a decent picture and carried it all over my backyard but between too much sun, not enough sun or the wind, it just didn't happen. Finally, since my grandson was here today I just had him hold it up and got the best one I could. I don't know how good the colors look to you in the picture but in real life they're so bright and pretty. My grandson really likes it but then asked if I could make a Christmas one. lol Since he and his brother are both December babies, I guess I'll start planning theirs. My other grandson was born the end of June so he'll end up with firecrackers. :-D This top ended up measuring 48" x 64" and I decided not to put a border on it and just sewed on the black binding. That's really handy because when I finish quilting it, I'll just flip the binding over to the back and sew it down.

When I was looking for the autumn theme blocks to use, I found some orange swap blocks and set them together with a 4" plain white border. It ended up being 44" x 56" and I put a white binding on it so it's ready to quilt, too. Between the two tops, I used 33 blocks that have been stuck back for years. I feel so proud and productive!! :-D I only made the three scarecrows and four little cat blocks to fill out the rows. I had to shave some off the back side of the cats to make them fit.

Here are some of the patterns I used for this.

http://www.azpatch.com/bom/bom2000/bom00oct.htm

http://fvqg.org/02archiv/0210.htm

http://azpatch.com/bom/bom2013/02feb13/bom13feb.htm
 

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