The Legendary Quilt of Sleepy Hollow

I think I mentioned that I have a few Halloween-inspired quilty projects in the works. Here's one that's been in progress for quite some time, inspired by the (probably antique) prop quilt that makes an all-too-brief cameo appearance in Tim Burton's film adaptation of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Although, personally, I prefer the old animated Disney version - which so happens to be narrated by none other than Bing Crosby!

I know I'm not the first to be inspired by the Sleepy Hollow quilt, but so far I'm really happy with my version. Choosing the fabrics was one of the hardest parts - I pulled almost all of the prints from my very humble fabric stash but had to add in a few special fabrics to get just the right look. After a lot of iced coffee, I finally finished the twin-sized quilt top to my satisfaction. Eep! So excited that this is going to be my very first bed-sized quilt!

One thing I do wish I'd done differently is buying an acrylic triangle template! I made my template from a flimsy piece of plastic that ended up getting rather distorted after so many cuts. As a result, I had to do more fiddling than usual to get everything to line up. Oops!

As of today I'm about a third of the way through the process of hand-quilting this baby. So I have plenty of time to mull over possible fabric choices for the binding...

In Like a Lion...

March - what a month it has been!

After a few weeks of nervous anticipation and preparation, I flew to the east coast for a weekend of important interviews. Then spent a few days biting my nails while I waited to hear back. Thankfully, all the news was good. I'll be moving across the country again in July to pursue my master's degree.

In the meantime, I've been wearing some lovely hand-knit wool socks (I highly recommend this book to any would-be sock knitters). Not too many new stickers on the FWSQ or spider web progress charts, but I finished up an old quilt top and have been rapidly stitching up a new one. It's a project I've had in mind since Halloween, and I'm glad to see it turning out very much like I imagined.

Don't you get the feeling that spring is in the air?

So Vintage Pyramid Quilt

Remember my first quilt top? I finished quilting it this fall, so it's about time I shared it here. It's entirely made of vintage fabrics (mostly sheets and pillowcases) with soft cotton batting. My mom claimed it immediately, of course!

Just Another Single Girl

I have about five million projects in progress at any given time. But once I finish up at least one more thing (and I'm very close, so stay tuned!), I'm planning to start the wildly popular Single Girl pattern.

I'm not sure about what background fabric I'll use. Scrappy neutrals maybe? I want the rings to be 100% vintage fabric. Not the pretty pastel floral bedsheets and pillowcases like I used in my triangle quilt, but a real variety of colors and prints.

I know I'll be using up all my vintage scraps on this one. Hopefully I'll have enough in my big bin to make the quilt at least 3 by 3. We'll see!

Quilty Spider Webs

I am so proud of my beautiful Spider Web blocks. This is going to be a wonderful quilt someday but it's very slow going right now! I'm using all my favorite modern scraps and prints - lots of Lizzy House, some of Tula Pink's Birds and Bees, and some of Anna Maria Horner's Field Study. Yum!

But I have to admit, spider webs are a lot of work (and waste quite a bit of fabric - boo!) I suppose it will be worth it in the end - if I ever finish! Hopefully I can finish a block and add a new sticker to my progress chart today...I'm still only at 6 blocks.

A Very Special Valentine

I had been wanting to make a lap quilt for my sweet grandma since I started my first quilt. Since she has a very special Valentine's Day birthday, I just had to use a Valentine theme! I was beginning to think I wouldn't have time to make the quilt at all this year. But when I saw this heart pattern from  V and Co. (you can find the pattern here), I knew it was meant to be. The heart is made with a Simply Color V and Co. ombre solid and the background is Kona Snow, just like in the pattern sample. The backing and binding are just cute seasonal prints from Jo-Ann.

I made this quilt (with help from my mom - it was her first quilty project!) in a whirlwind. The whole thing was finished within a week - but the bulk of the work was squeezed into the two days before Valentine's Day. I spent almost all of Valentine's Day quilting it on my machine, with very close straight lines. I just love the effect, but I'm not sure what I was thinking attempting such dense quilting in such a short period of time - my back was killing me by the end. All worth it though! It's a beautiful quilt for a beautiful lady.

The pink tag on the back was embroidered by my mom with"LUM", which stands for "Love you most! It's something my grandma always says. The perfect finishing touch!

Totally Smitten

Totally smitten, head over heels ... that's how I feel about this honeycomb quilt-in-the-making! I love that it's thoroughly old-fashioned but that the colors and prints keep it fresh and lively. I chose the fabrics very carefully, and I am pleased as punch with the result! Hand-piecing is slow, but I know this quilt will be an heirloom that I'll enjoy forever and some day pass on to my family. I know I'll be hand-quilting this baby eventually. In the meantime, hooray for english paper piecing!

My First Five!

Okay - I am loving making these little blogs for my Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt! They are astonishingly addictive. Mostly because it's so much fun to choose fabric for each new blog. Sampler quilts are brilliant. It's hard to lose motivation on a project when each block feels so brand new.

Today I made block number 9, Mother's Dream. What a funny name! I love this block - it is probably my new fave. But it took me so long to make! And then I realized my block was a teeny bit too small. I couldn't bear to start over. So I added a tiny, tiny border. I really wish I hadn't messed up my measurements because I like it a bit better without the border. But oh well!

Me? A Farmer's Wife?

Yesterday I succumbed to the urge to make a sampler quilt. I've had the Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt (by Laurie Aaron Hird) since December, but I've been debating the whole while about whether or not I would actually give the blocks a go.

The tiny templates (which print ONE to a page) and lack of rotary measurements were a big deterrent, initially. But somehow my frustration only made me more determined to start sewing. So I ended up just figuring out the math and making first one, then two of the itsy bitsy 6.5 inch blocks. And it was so much fun! I made two more today and hope to make at least another before bedtime. I started out with some simple blocks - which tend to be the ones I prefer anyway.

I love 19th century/civil war repro fabrics but, to be honest, the quilt featured in the book wasn't my taste at all. I'm more of a Dear Jane girl! I knew from the start I would be doing something different with my fabric choices. So far I really like the outcome - can't wait to choose a background color.

Amanda is one of my very favorite quilty bloggers (and a founder of the very popular FWSQ group on Flickr), and I was so inspired by all her cute fussy cut blocks that I decided to go in a similar direction with my FWSQ. I just want it to be fun and cheery and spring-like - I'm really in the mood to play with bright jewel-tone colors while I dream of warmer weather! So far that's as defined as the color palette has gotten. As you can see, every block is really different.  But cute, I think!

The Beginnings of a Honey-comb Quilt

I've been at work on a honey-comb quilt since late October. While on a visit to the East Coast, I couldn't stand to be without a patchwork project. So hand-piecing was the only solution, and I began paper-piecing these tiny hexagons with templates measuring 1.25" on each side. The flowers are made from all sorts of calicos and reproduction fabrics, with a few modern prints as well, and the background is a creamy Kona solid. 

Despite associations with the Grandmother's Flower Garden design so ubiquitous of the 1930s, interlocking hexagon patterns are among the oldest of quilt designs. In America, several honey-comb quilts survive from the early 1800s, and many English examples date back even further. In 1835, Godey's Lady's Book - the era's authority on fashion and domesticity - featured a pattern for a honey-comb quilt just like mine. 

Needless to say - my quilt has grown quite a lot since I took these pictures. Many more fabrics and colors have come into play, and it covers my lap as I stitch.

Modern Quilts, Traditional Inspiration

It doesn't seem entirely plausible that Denyse Schmidt planned her latest book, Modern Quilts, Traditional Inspiration, with me in mind. And yet, it appeals exactly to my tastes. I would love to meet Denyse - I feel that she's a kindred spirit.

I've started making blocks for the Tobacco Leaf, Ocean Waves, and Churn Dash quilts in the book. I just want to try everything out at once. Excuse the wrinkly blocks, after being folded up in a cabinet they could all use a good pressing. Tobacco Leaf is a very time consuming and fiddly project, but definitely my favorite pattern in the book. It will take me a long, long time to make, but I'm excited to see how my piecing improves in accuracy over time. I chose a cheddar background for my version that I love paired with the brown leaves.

To be honest, Modern Quilts is the only book of actual quilt patterns I own. Instead I've cultivated a small reference library of books focusing on antique quilts and other textiles that make up various museum and university collections. The projects featured in Modern Quilts successfully capture the  spirited design qualities that make many old, old quilts feel so fresh to me...

Pyramid Quilt

 

I've become something of a quilter lately. I never expected to take up an interest in patchwork. My mom helped me make a doll quilt from a kit when I was very little, one of those oh-so-90s country chic affairs. Oh how I hated that quilt.

I cut out a million triangles and pieced this quilt top over the summer - in late june and throughout july. I expect there will be many more to come.

This quilt is made entirely of vintage fabric - sheets and pillowcases and random scraps from my collection of 1960s and 1970s linens. It's backed and bound with a vintage sheet. I straight line quilted it on my machine - hope to have some pictures of the finished product very soon.