I had a chance to visit  the Morris Museum in NJ and was wandering around their extensive collection of vintage music boxes and automatons when I discovered these two musical sewing boxes. You can see the gorgeous sewing tools in the open one, but the information on the closed one said that it contained scissors, a thimble, a needle, and an EAR SPOON for collecting earwax to rub on the thread to make it go through the eye of the needle easier! (There was also a quilt exhibit, but, honestly, this trumped that in my mind.)

I love the beautiful golden tools.  Wonder what the bottle is for.  Medicinal spirits??

 

I so wanted to be able to open this to see the earwax spoon!

The Christmas house mini is finally finished.  I think it's cheerful and hope that lots of people try to win it in the upcoming raffle at our guild quilt show.  Since I just finished it, I am very aware of its imperfections.  Looking at the photo, I see that it isn't square.  How can that be??  I squared it just before I added the binding, and carefully stitched the binding on with a quarter inch seam.  I think I'll have to fool with it a bit more.  Darn!

I've been doing some planning and sample-making for a quilt workshop at the Bethlehem (PA) Area Public Library on November 1.  The program coordinator asked for a gift-making workshop for adults.  She has a few others for other Saturdays in November, including jewelry making.  I needed something that could be made completely by hand in two hours and given as a gift.  I may have participants who've never sewed before.  I decided on a mat for a candle or mug.  Here are my two samples.

 

The first uses Christmasy fabrics.  It is quilted simply with a button sewn in the center.  This serves two purposes: 1) To make a quick finish for those who have had enough and want to take home a finished product; and 2) To have a quick fix for covering wonky matches at the center point.  The second can be used year-round and includes hand quilting.  If anyone is having fun with the stitching and wants to do some decorative stitching at home.  I'll give a mini-lesson on hand quilting and send them home with a needle and thread.

I chose the half-square triangles because they allow for some design work.  I'll precut dozens of triangles, and each participant can use anywhere from two to eight fabrics.  I've made these cardboard pieces to show the different ways that the four squares can be placed.

How this goes will very much depend on who signs up.  We will take up to fifteen participants.  The program coordinator is a lapsed quilter and will stay to help.  I've also lined up two young women who are new to quilting to help with knots, both making them and untangling them, as well as answering questions and helping participants to use the rotary cutter to make the backing squares.

I'll take some photos of the event and post them here in November.  It's my first time teaching quilting to adults.  I've done a bit with kids, who are either very precise or wildly wonky and either stick with it or wander off.  Adults may be more easily frustrated or unhappy with their work.  I'll let you know.

Last weekend I went to Quilt Odyssey in Hershey, PA.  I couldn't believe the number of hand-quilted pieces in the show!  It's a small show, very juried, so each quilt is quite wonderful.  I spent an afternoon looking at the quilts and then went back for a few hours two days later to see them all again.

This mini (12"x12") won a blue ribbon.  Even standing in front of it, I couldn't get my head around the size of the work.  I left a little piece of the sign in the picture to give some size perspective.

My favorite quilt there was this gorgeous flower medallion - all hand appliqued and hand quilted.  There was some dimensional work on it, and I especially loved the lily of the valley.  I know that I will use this technique someday.

I took two classes: one called Happy Villages with Karen Eckmeier.  It was very freeing.  She is a clear teacher who also allows tremendous freedom.  Here are all of the things that I NEVER do that I'm doing in this quilt - not planning ahead, gluing, adding whimsical touches, using tulle, having raw edges.  Fun!  You can see that it is just halfway finished, but it will have to sit on the pile for a while, since I have work to do for the show in October.

The other class was in longarm quilting.  It was way over my head.  There were few students, and they were all quite experienced.  For a while, I tried to fake it, but then I decided to see what I could learn on my actual level.  It was a class on filling small spaces, and the two simple techniques I improved were echoing and making the same design to the right and left.  It turned out to be very useful.

Can you believe that I agreed to teach a little workshop at a local library in November?  It will be a two-hour Saturday program as part of their Homemade Holiday Gifts series.  I'm working on some samples that can be made by beginners, by hand, in two hours.  Don't know if this is possible.  I'll post my samples next time.

My quilt studio has become a bag factory.  I've been churning them out.  I now have fourteen completed for my guild's boutique and for gifts.  I can't say that it was boring, since each was made with different fabric, or at least different linings.  I'm quite pleased with them all.  They're about ten inches tall, a useful size.

 

I did like that I was able to use a lot of fabrics that I've bought because they had wonderfully bold patterns and then wondered how on earth I would use a fat quarter of the fabric in a quilt.  

On the other hand, making these bags has kept me from the work of making quilts.  AND now I'm heading for Quilt Odyssey at Hershey, where I have signed up for yet another class to make a wall hanging that will be someone else's design, not my own.  

I took a very pleasant scrap quilt class at my guild a couple of weeks ago and didn't even make the first block.  I enjoyed the color theory information but recognized that I would not be making that particular quilt.  I don't want to stop learning, but I need to make my own quilts.  Sooner, rather than later.

I've been doing a lot of clean-up/catch-up work this week.  I finally got the binding on the Anita's Arrows quilt, now known as "Dewey's Quilt."  It's on the white sofa ready for Dewey to nap on when the cold weather comes.  In the summertime, he sleeps outside, often on the patio chairs or table.  I've never had a cat before that could sleep soundly outside.  He's a pretty self-confident guy.

I've also put labels on a couple of quilts.  I've been typing them in Pages (the Apple version of Word) and printing them out on fabric pressed to freezer paper sheets.  Some people make really lovely labels, and I'm not too happy with the look of these.  They have a technology-produced look that runs counter to the look of the quilts.  I'll have to post a few of my efforts so that I can look at them and think about what to do.

I've also been working on some little bags.  My guild asks everyone to donate at least three handmade items to sell in the boutique at our show.  I found the pattern and tutorial for these by the Gourmet Quilter.  I just love her!  She lives on a houseboat that makes tantalizing creaking sounds during her YouTube videos.  She is unassuming and absolutely clear in her instructions.  Her taste in fabric is totally different from mine, and sometimes I scratch my head at her choices, but I love her ideas and techniques.  Here's a link to the bag tutorial:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcKMLG75cb0 .

I went to the quilt auction at the Kutztown Folk Fair today.  It is THE place to see traditional quilts, especially those made by the Mennonite community.  There are about 2400 quilts selected for sale in the quilt barn during the 10 days of the fair.  On the final Saturday, 24 of those quilts, those judged to be the best, are sold at auction.  Of the 24 this year, 21 were hand-quilted.

Here is a photo of the audience waiting for the auction to begin.

The quilts that sold at auction went for $1000 to $5000, with most in the lower range.  The bidders here love hand quilting and traditional designs.  Three of the quilts received no bids and were returned to the farm.  I can't begin to imagine how I would feel if that happened to me.

Here is a gorgeous cheddar, red, and green hand-quilted Whig Rose quilt. 

This beauty with the traditional Amish distlefinks was a favorite with the crowd and sold for about $3000.  Personally, I'm not fond of the stars in the corners.  I think that they detract from the lighter look of the hand applique.  (Just my opinion.)  In case you're not sure what a distlefink is, it's a dove-like bird that is always looking back over its shoulder toward Germany from Pennsylvania.

When the auctioneer described this quilt has having "yoyo flowers," he set up a howl in the audience, which gave him a quick and chaotic lesson on ruched flowers.  It was quite funny!

I've learned that it really pays to stand in the line for the ladies' room.  The woman in front of me was the successful bidder on the quilt with ruched flowers and shocked her husband by telling him that the dogs would no longer be permitted to sleep on the bed.  The woman behind me was a tiny Mennonite woman who explained to me how she hand-quilts away from her body on a frame.  (I have to use a hoop, because I can quilt only toward myself.)

It was a glorious day here in PA, and we even bought a beautiful hand-made rocking chair.  No quilts: those I have to make myself.

I've been away, cruising on the Danube River.  What a beautiful trip!  It's funny how I see everything through a quiltmaker's eye now.  I kept snapping pictures of patterns for applique or quilting.  I'm not much of a photographer, but these are really just for reference.

This one was a plaster ceiling in the abbey at Melk, Austria.  Another one below.

The next one is the tile roof on the Matthias Cathedral in Budapest.

And here is a doorway in the Parliament building in Budapest.

And these two small bags were irresistible.  They are Hungarian and hand-beaded.  I can see them translated into applique.  They are stunning on black, but I'm not sure I want a black background.  I'm starting to imagine a medallion quilt with a pale yellow background and some of the flower designs in reds and pinks.  Not at all sure about that, though.

When I travel, I take along a project that will probably last me for years.  I make small Sawtooth Stars, cut from templates and pieced by hand from my scraps.  (I thought that these were called Evening Stars, but maybe not.  I think that they are also called Variable Stars.)  I try to make each one pretty within itself, but I don't try to make them match each other in any way.

Meet Dewey.  Look at that arrogant face!  "You want to take a photo of a star?  Well, here I am."