Bonnet Girl Quilt Top Finished

Last week I showed my vintage Bonnet Girl quilt/summer coverlet (I think of it as my Sugar Sack quilt :)...last summer I shared the tracing of the embroidery design and some blocks that I embroidered. Well, I finished the blocks over the winter and here's my interpretation of that vintage quilt.

I stayed with the bar lay out but that's about it. I used Robyn Pandolph fabrics for the bars and wide border. I embroidered with many different color flosses and I added a lot more detail to the dresses. I loved doing it-it was dressing little dolls.
Bonnet Girls have lots of different names...these could also easily be called Umbrella Girls...here are some close-ups.
Check out the pantaloons above...I love doing French knots!
I couldn't resist filling two dresses with lazy daisy flowers.
I think this is one of my favorites...like a delicate dotted Swiss.
I used two different background fabrics for the blocks...they're Kona cotton but I don't remember the exact shades. One is beige and the other pink. Its very subtle.
If you too would like to make a Bonnet Girl (or Umbrella Girl!) quilt, you can download the embroidery pattern here.

I think I'll post cutting and sewing instructions for the quilt and a tutorial on outline embroidery this week-end.

I'm linking to Finished for Friday at Lit and Laundry and Sew and Tell at Amylouwho. Be sure to stop by both and see the wonderful things made and sewn this past week.

Vintage Thursday Thingie: Aunt Martha's quilt patterns

This is my collection of vintage Aunt Martha's patterns (not very big, is it?) It consists of 2 iron-on transfer patterns and one quilting pattern booklet. The small packet is the oldest-the address on the back uses a city postal code so it has to have been printed no earlier than 1943. Aunt Martha's was producing patterns long before that and was already popular in the 1930s.

This pattern set was for days of the week tea towels-I have no idea what the little figure is supposed to be (an elf?, a fairy?, a Martian?) but she sure is cute.

Here she's sewing-my favorite! I have used some of these in an embroidered quilt I made (I'll show pictures on the week-end) and I actually once saw a vintage quilt that used them too!

Aunt Martha also produced larger pattern sets intended for quilts-this is the Old Testament set. I love the 1930's graphics-get a load of David in his very chic Cave Man outfit!

BTW, if you're interested, this pattern and the New Testament pattern set are still available today from Colonial Patterns. You can also get the State Birds and State Flowers-probably the most popular patterns in the 1930-1940s that Aunt Martha produced.

Aren't the Egyptian princess and her maid lovely!

The quilting booklet is the latest Aunt Martha pattern booklet that I own-printed after 1963 by the zip code in the address and the fact that the patterns include seam allowance (most older pattern books did not include seam allowance). On the back of the booklet is a collection of other Aunt Martha pattern booklets - these are also available today here.

For more VTT treasures and to join in the fun, click on the button.

Plaids, plaids, plaids continued again

I finished all the blocks and laid them out on the bed in the guest room.

I played with block placements (I'm not sure this is the absolute final spot for every block but its close) and then decided to check out what went best in the corners: plaid triangles or half blocks.

I didn't cut all the triangles in case I didn't like it -just enough to see what it looked like- and placed them on the left side.

I then did the same thing trying out the half blocks-I had left over blocks so I just folded them in half and laid them out on the left side.

Definitely the half blocks! Wow-they really look good-so its back to the sewing room to cut and sew the half blocks. I will cut these extra blocks and then just sew half blocks for the rest.

I almost never used to take pictures of my quilts finished let alone in progress but this is actually very helpful-there's a distance that helps me see the quilt more objectively. Maybe its because most quilts I look at on a computer screen aren't mine!

Looking forward to your comments...don't forget that orange block, what do you think?

A Fall Garden 9-Patch Quilt

This is another quilt I've finished for Finn's New Year's Eve Challenge. It hasn't been in the closet as long as the earlier ones I completed; I chose it because I want to use it-the nights have turned chilly and I wanted a new quilt for the sofa.

Its machine pieced and machine quilted with diagonal lines through the 9-patch blocks and a swirly, feather-like flower in the green squares.

The flower design is from Pepper Cory's book "Quilting Designs from the Amish" (a great collection of quilting designs, but like her other book of quilting designs from antique quilts -I took the border for the Stacked Bricks quilt from that book- this book too is out of print - if you can get a copy, do.)

I quilted a cable in the border-I have alot of different cable designs, this one is interesting because, like the 9-patch variant in this quilt, all elements are not the same size.

I like the fabric I used on the back of this quilt so much. It is a kind of Colonial Children at Play. See the boys fishing, the girl and boy "playing house"-she's holding her doll, and two boys with a bird.I often use the backs of quilts for displaying favorite fabrics. (I then I have the leftovers for cutting up.)

Vintage Thursday Thingie: Vintage Leaf Quilt

This is a vintage applique quilt from the late 1940s in the Leaf pattern with an unusual center medallion of three "leafy" flowers. I love the variety of fabrics, including feed sacks in the leaves.

It is hand appliqued and hand quilted in an overall diamond pattern and around the applique leaves and stem.


To see more Vintage Thursday Thingies, click on the button

Folk Art Quilt

Time for another quilt from the banner: the Folk Art quilt.

The applique blocks were in the closet for years-I had enlarged the blocks from a Little Quilts design, done the hand applique and then that was it, they sat there. When I decided at the beginning of the year to machine quilt as many of the tops in the closet that I could, I found the blocks. I added the large stars and the checkerboard sashing and border to make the quilt more “youth friendly” and made the quilt twin bed size ( and now I’ve put the completed quilt in the closet :-)

Its machine quilted with a meander including

hearts around the applique blocks, outline quilted stars (by free motion-first time I tried that, fairly successful) with little moons in the stars' centers and a simple grid in the checkerboard.

More stars in my eyes: Star Quilt with Vine Border

I seem to have a lot of Star quilts; its something I hadn't realized before. This is another quilt that I've finished for the New Year's Eve Challenge. I'm so glad I joined this Challenge as its given me the oomph I needed: I've wanted to finish this quilt for a while (I really like it) but I couldn't think how to quilt it. I couldn't even decide if I should hand or machine quilt it. Under the pressure of just telling myself: ok, now's the time, I did it and I'm very happy with my quilting choices. I waffle quilted ( wavy line grid) the center

and I like the effect, then I outlined the machine applique vine very close to the vine (like in- the- ditch quilting) and quilted a cable in the top and bottom borders.

I had filled the centers of vines with my initials and multi-colored flowers, all done in outline embroidery( much like Redwork) so I decided not to quilt the background of the vine borders with a filler design (which I probably would have done if I had hand quilted.) I did once see a photo of a quilt that was machine quilted over outline embroidery designs but I guess I'm just not brave enough.

The machine appliqued vine border is inspired by the vines found in a mosaic floor from a 6th century synagogue at Naro in Tunisia. I used to work as an archaeological restorer, though never on mosaics (pottery, stone and once, Roman glass) . I love designs from ancient mosaics-years ago, we spent almost a week walking around Pompeii (the frescos are also wonderful). Ami Simms wrote a book "Classic Quilts:Patchwork Designs from Ancient Rome" years ago featuring designs from mosaics but she dealt with patchwork not applique designs.

'Til the Cows Come Home Quilt

I finished another quilt for the New Year's Eve Challenge. It too has been in the closet for a long time: I know I finished the top before we moved into this house and we're here since 1999.

This quilt is a case of the fabric driving the design-I found the fabric and of course it just said "Cow". The colors came out truest in this picture. Its simply quilted with meander on the cow fabric and everything else just outlined at 1/4". No cable in the border this time, just straight lines.

This is not a diet quilt- everytime I look at it I want to eat ice cream! Now ice cream is on the grocery list :)

Little Pink Flying Geese quilt

Here are some close ups of the Dancing Star Quilt showing the hand quilted echo quilting around the stars, the cable in the border and the outline quilting in the sashing. I've realized how many of my quilts have cables-I think that cables are my "default" quilting design-I do like the motion that cables have.

When I wanted the little triangles in the corners of the star blocks, I used the easy method of laying a square on the corner and sewing on the diagonal and then trimming. I used the leftover little half square triangles to get a jump start on this little Flying Geese quilt.

Dancing Stars quilt-a vintage quilt reproduction

I'm skipping Vintage Thursday thingies this week but to see lots of vintage goodies, click on the button .



I haven't really written about the quilts shown in the banner above and I thought I'd start to do that today. The pink star quilt "Dancing Stars" is my reproduction of a vintage quilt pictured in Ruth Finley's book "Old Patchwork Quilts", the second book ever devoted to quilts and originally published in 1929. Its a wonderul book and she writes so well that you feel like you are having a conversaiton with her-a conversation spanning decades.
The original quilt is featured in a black and white photo in Plate 22. The caption reads "Evening Star A combination of piecing and applique. Colors brick-pink and liberty blue".

I made a few changes in my reproduction/interpretation: I chose to use two different pink fabrics and I changed the sashing using a striped fabric rather the pieced on-point squares of the original. There were little applique diamonds surrounding the stars which I eliminated and instead used small triangles in the corners of each block.

I hand quilted this quilt very simply-multiple echo quilting around the stars, outline quilting the sashing and dog tooth border and quilting a narrow cable in the white border.

Bow Quilt finished

I finished the first quilt for the New Year’s Eve Challenge: the Bow quilt.

I meander quilted the bows and outlined quilted the background in the blocks.

I quilted a little bow in the sashing

and a wonky cable in the border.

Today I pin-basted two more tops from the pile: I chose them because they were the right size for the two leftover pieces of batting I had… sometimes it pays to have a closet full of tops.

Quilt tops to quilt

Here’s the first top I’ll tackle for Finn’s New Year’s Eve Challenge. It has been in the closet for at least 12 years – look at the fabrics, “smells like the ‘90s” doesn’t it? Amazingly I still have the fabric for the border-I just kept passing it over, saying to myself that it was for the Bow quilt. Now I’m so glad I did.

Here’s the pile I’ll choose the next top from.

Wedding Quilt: A vintage quilt reproduction

Here is the wedding quilt for my son Eli and his bride Tali. It is a reproduction of a vintage quilt, the Poppy by Marie Webster.

I love Marie Webster’s designs and have wanted to make one for a while so I was thrilled when I showed Eli and Tali a picture of Marie Webster’s Poppy and they were as excited as I was.


The quilt is hand appliquéd and hand quilted. The quilting is mainly 1” diagonal lines and around the appliqués, I also added the big, plump feathers that I like in the borders




and a love-bird design in the corners of the


medallion center.





The quilt is about 84” x 96”. I used Mountain Mist Blue Ribbon batting and I was very disappointed that Mountain Mist changed this venerable old batting (and a long time favorite of mine for fine hand quilting). Why do companies do that? If something has been around for 75-100 years, happily used by tons of people; why “improve” it. I have yet to find an “improved” product that was actually improved rather than the reverse.

I’m both happy and a little sad that this quilt is finished. I have worked on it for so long, I almost feel at a loss. Then again, my sewing machine is calling to me after all this hand work.



I just joined the New Year's Challenge hosted by Finn. My plan is to machine quilt five quilts tops by year's end. Believe me, finding 5 tops to quilt in my closet will not be the problem! :)

Scrap Quilt

I am so excited. I took the Wedding Quilt off the frame this week-end! I'm already sewing the binding and then its just washing the quilt. I have worked on this for five months: 3 months on the hand applique and 2 months quilting it. I took a break for a few weeks around the wedding but otherwise I have been working on it steadily. It is very beautiful. I may dislocate my shoulder from patting myself on the back. I'll post pictures this week-end.

Now I can get back in my sewing room :) Well, I have been sneaking off to my sewing machine to work on the scrap quilt I mentioned. It is made of 9-patch and Roman Road blocks, set on point. I love both 9-patch and 4-patch set on point and use them alot. The border was sewn with the blocks into rows-what look like setting triangles around the 9-patch are really half-square triangle squares -half light/half dark blue. This made it a really fast quilt top to sew together. I'm offering it as a class this fall, hope people sign up, I would like to teach this quilt and since I always sew with the class, I'll get a second one. Maybe I'll make it pink!