Amish Quilt

This is a queen sized quilt in a diamond pattern, with a small star appliqued to the center. My mom wanted a quilt in these colors, and we took the pattern from a book about Amish quilts. The fabric is a polyester blend, and the batting is cotton. I did the piecing, and drew up the quilting designs.



I did the quilting of the wreath in the center, but I did not do the rest of it; we found a church group in the Chicago area who did the quilting (for a very reasonable price) following the designs I had drawn out. I have decided that quilting is not my forte, specially when I am working by myself.

The center portion has feathered wreaths, the pink bands have a grapevine motif (including the grapes) and the blue triangles have a plant design. It turned out very pretty, but it is quite heavy, which is why it is hanging on the wall and is not on the bed.

We are back home from Michigan, but we have another week of vacation. Any suggestions of things to do?

Turquoise Necklace and First Sampler

I'm finding all kinds of treasures here in Michigan. I will still be posting things I found here even after I get back home. This is my mom's turquoise necklace that I made for her. She picked up the nuggets in Arizona, enough for 2 necklaces. It took me a long time to make them because it was a new technique for me, and I wasn't sure how to finish the clasp. I finally just did it. This one says "mom" on the sterling hoop. The one I made for myself has brown silk and the hoop says "survivor."



This one has turquoise and silver beads, and mine has turquoise and bronze beads.

This is a picture of the first sampler I made in floss. It was a stamped kit. I didn't know at the time that you were supposed to cross all your stitches in the same direction, but I only found one crossed different, but they are the opposite direction from the way I stitch now.



I drew up the saying and just stitched it in outline stitch. The date on it is March of 1978; I had just been married a couple of years. The scene at the bottom is mostly done in packed outline stitch, and I really like it. There is some satin stitch, and one of the plants has chain stitch branches.

I took this piece to a regular framing shop and asked for a 1/4 to 1/2 inch reveal around the stitching, but they framed it right next to the stitching, and I was very disappointed. That was my first experience with framing, and I have been very careful with who I let frame my pieces now. Most of the time I try to frame them myself.

Brick Stitch "amulet bag"

I made this bag as one of the assignments in an EGA correspondence course. I designed the color changes myself, mostly by buying 5 shades of matching colors and then changing them gradually as I worked the piece. The triangle was worked into the regular stitching, but it did not show up enough so I outlined it with an additional row of beads. Most of the fringe is just a plain row of beads, but several of the fringes have beads on the ends, and several have small fish swimming among the branches.

The triangles at the top echo the triangle edging, and there were enough beads left over to make the necklace.



My mom asked me to make her a turquoise necklace, and picked up the materials for it. It was taking me a long time so she kept this bag hostage until I finished it. When I got the necklace finished mom was getting ready to give it back to me, but I could tell from her face she wanted to keep it. So it's on permanent loan to her.

I will post a picture of the necklace tomorrow.

"Virtuous Woman" sampler

I'm on vacation this week, in Michigan, at my mom and dad's house. I thought I would take this opportunity to post a couple of my treasures that live here.

This is a sampler based on Proverbs 31, a poem to a virtuous woman. I stitched this one for my mother, because I thought it was very appropriate. The fabric is an antique linen fabric that came from my grandmother's household. It was originally hemmed to be a scarf for the top of a piano. I used the same linen for a couple of "botanical print" flowers and I still have some of the linen left. It is more or less a 36 count. The floss is DMC.


The most interesting thing about the fabric is that in some of the slubs there was some fibrous plant material, my guess is from the flax plant. At the bottom right there is a small hole, and there is another one that I darned and stitched over. I did date this one when I made it (Always sign and date your work!). I finished it in 1991.

Our stay here so far has been very traumatic. We brought our dog with us on vacation (as we have for the past 8 years) and he attacked my sister. We had to "send him to the farm." We are very sad and still reeling from the suddenness of it.