I'm sure you've heard the great news....

At Gobbler's Knob his morning, the "seer of seers" and "sage of sages," Punxsutawney Phil,  proclaimed an early spring with winter lasting only six more weeks.  I don't think it was a coincidence that I also heard some kind of song bird outside by bedroom window teasing me with a sweet melody.

Make some banners, let the festivities begin!

It is no secret to my husband in the joy I feel every February 2nd.  Think of it as hump day, or Wednesday, where one half of the work week is done and smooth sailing the rest of the week.  Winters grey days of sharp winds, bitter temperatures and relentless snow will soon pass way to warmer, more colorful skies. Ahhhh...

My banner for celebrating is made from a vintage tablecloth I needed to repurpose.  While the embroidery was beautiful, there were some areas of the tablecloth suffering from previous spills damaging the linen.

The back was as beautiful as the front.

Something was spilled and never removed effectively before putting away in storage.  The result was deterioration of the fibers.  No problem, we'll just cut those areas away!

The hand crocheted trim from the tablecloth edge was also salvaged.  So much time and effort by the this needle worker was not going to be lost!  Good bye snow, you'll soon be a distant memory.

But, back to the top I finished quilting, the Kansas Dust Storm.

This is what the quilt looked like from the listing when I purchased it on Etsy.  Notice the colors.  Notice the top row, 2nd from right.  The star shape looks like it is a light print with white background.  Look below to the top right corner.  It is actually a light green.  You can compare the rest of the blocks using the green block as your guide.

I quilted circles in the center, outlined the star shapes and did swirls in the "apricot" background.

At first I was thinking of backing in purple.  Purple and orange look great together - something I discovered studying 30's feedsack prints.  But on my shelf was this "soleil" print by Annette Tatum for Free Spirit.  The colors matched perfectly.  I couldn't believe the little "suns" emulated the quilt design as well.  That did it - I had to use it!  The solid cotton for the binding is listed as apricot.  Perfect!

 The Etsy seller said this was a chrome orange print.  It wasn't.  I could see there were 30's period prints used in piecing the top so I already knew the possibilities of it being "chrome" orange were slim. Either the photo was taken in direct sunlight or tweaking the photo for a listing caused the color modification.  That was too bad though, because the actual color of the quilt is what makes it "sing."

Go back to the original seller's photo and take a look at the make-do attitude of assembling the blocks together.  Bless that quilter's spirit because those blocks were going to fit together dust bowl or no dust bowl!  It is amazing how patience and lots of quilting can straighten out even the most impossible of seams.


A successful quilting adventure!

So if you couldn't tell, I am washed in a euphoric glee; thank you needle workers who I will never have the pleasure of knowing, and thank you  Phil.  Tonight I will watch the movie, Ground Hog Day, and continue my merriment.

**For those of you in the southern hemisphere....enjoy those summer days and close your eyes and let the sun kiss your face!!!**

For the Bird Lovers

A Temple owl perhaps?

This month I purchased this sweet quilt top from Bridget who owns the Etsy shop, Bridget Bright Arrow. "Sweet" was how Bridget described it.  I felt the same way when I saw it. So much in fact, I moved it from the bottom of the pile of tops for machine quilting to right under the needle.

There are 24 hand embroidered bird blocks representing birds of North America, both domesticated and wild, from warm and cold climates for our feathered friends. The finished size is 43 1/2 inches x 63 inches.

It is quite exciting to take a vintage quilt top and breathe some new life into it.

I knew I wanted to quilt a fiddlehead fern in the green alternating blocks. When I did a google search for a picture of a fern so I could get an idea of how to quilt it unfurling its greenery...I came across this web site with free motion quilting for the fern. Leah, the free motion quilting blogger,  is amazing and there are videos attached on how she quilts.  (Time out for a confession - okay, so I spent a few hours fascinated with her blog.  Sometimes these things happen.  For me, it is machine quilting.)  While my fiddlehead fern looks nothing like Leah's...it is because free motion quilting can be as different and individualized as handwriting.

The embroidery designs are outlined and where I felt the thread was a bit loose, my machine quilting acted as couching.

January is slowly winding down and soon the countdown to spring will begin.   Until then, I'm going to keep locked away in my sewing room and get through some projects I've allocated to the back burner for too long, because more time spent quilting means less time thinking about how cold it is outside!

Quilting Designs

I am often asked how I come up with quilting designs.  I remember when I first started quilting it was something I found the most difficult; just letting go and doing whatever I wanted rather than using conventional all-over designs.

Eventually, I learned to treat my needle as a pencil, my fabric as a piece of paper and imagine I was doodling.  This process set me free (so to speak).

When I am really perplexed, I use the following technique:

I take a piece of vinyl (from the bags used for packaging bedding), and place it over my block.  Then, I take a dry erase pen and practice with doodling a design.  If I don't like the pattern, I take a soft cloth, wipe the vinyl clean and start over.  When I get a design I like, I keep practicing the pattern.  I tried to emulate the iconic Mary Engelbreit flower in this doodle.

Once I have the design down, I go to my sewing machine and quilt the pattern.

A cotton batting will give your quilt an "antiqued" look once it is washed after it is quilted.  PREWASH any red fabrics.  Believe me, many dependable fabric makers still have red dyes that bleed!  I've learned the hard way; you don't need to learn this lesson.  The quilt in this photo was designed by Mary Engelbreit for her Moda fabric, Basket of Flowers.  The quilt pattern was free from the Moda website.

Hope this method let's your imagination take off.

She's back...

...winter that is.  How quickly the winds started blowing from the north and within a day the weather changed to its seasonal normal.  Remember the Witch Hazel Bush?

Here it is with a blanket of snow.  I realize a close-up shot would have given the sweet blooms more justice, but I took it from inside the house where it was warm and I could stay in my slippers. 

In the back yard, I caught a glimpse of this male cardinal (now from the kitchen window)... and still in slippers...

Tonight when I was finishing up a baby quilt I was piecing, I realized how much my environment influences my color palette.

 

 We'll see what happens in the spring when the flowers start to bloom to see if my theory is correct.  For now, back to sewing...

Oh Baby...

I am very partial to sewing baby quilts.  Words aren't even going to do my feelings justice so let me just say, I find great pleasure in evey minute I am at my machine. 

Combine my love of baby quilts with the task of making the quilt for my first grandchild!  Estatic.  Over the top.  Pure fun.  You get the idea. 

EXCEPT, oh and it is minor, but my daughter lives out of state.  So, all the nursery sewing had to be done over the computer.

My daughter had chosen the Animal Tower Print from Petit Collage for the nursery.    This is the image on my computer monitor.  This was the focal point for the baby's room. The playful graphics of the stacked animals are bold and fun.

The fabric stacked next to the computer was designed by Annette Tatum for Little House.  The collection is "soliel".  Also added are some Kona cotton solids.

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 I'm drafting the pattern for the applique on the office library table.  I worked from the image on the computer monitor with my very favorite sewing aid.....freezer paper.            

The animals are coming to life in fabric.  Nothing like some vintage rick rack to add some texture.

And then quilting makes it POP!

You know how quickly these little ones grow.  Any thoughts on a graduation quilt?

Patalier on Etsy

You can find Petit Collage on Etsy and Facebook.