New Orphan Block Acquisitions

I promised that I'd have pics of my most recent orphan blocks......so here they are:

I found the two 1930's double wedding ring blocks at a flea market. I was thinking of just finishing them as table quilts. I have a round table and I think one would look great in the middle (if only I could find the table under all of the newspapers, magazines, and mail.....LOL!). The string blocks and large four patches came from the same place -- one of my quilt friends called and said she had some old quilt pieces she thought I'd be interested. People know me too well, I guess. There are something like 150 string blocks about 8" in size. The fabrics are really fun -- they range from the 1930's to the 1950's. Not sure what I'm doing with them yet, though. As for the big four patches, I think I might take them apart, that way I can reset the four patches into a more interesting setting. The set of Album blocks was truly a very special find. They date from the 1870's-1890's and there are 75 of them in the set! Amazing!!!! The fabrics are incredible and I don't think there are any duplicate fabrics within the blocks. There are even some early purples that haven't faded to brown yet. Sadly, there are no signatures on them. So, what do you think of my new finds? Not bad, eh?

Playing Catch Up / Orphan Quilt Update

Do you know the old saying, "When it rains, it pours?" Well, that pretty much sums up the last week or so for me. After I returned from my quilt vacation at Chautauqua, I made a list of items I wanted to make for people for Christmas. I even made some Pittsburgh Steelers pillow cases for my brother in law and I gathered up additional supplies that I would need for my special one of a kind Christmas gifts for my friends and family.

I was on a roll and getting ready to start my next holiday project when I received an email from Quilter's World magazine -- an acceptance for an article for the June 2012 issue. Super!

Then in the afternoon, I received another acceptance from Quiler's World -- this time for two quilts for an upcoming House of White Birches book! I was ecstatic, but there was a catch -- a deadline of Nov. 8th, which is only about four weeks away. Oh my!

Of course, I found all this out this past Monday and I had to work all day on Tuesday. I called one of my local quilt shops and begged them to stay open a little later so that I could get the fabric for one of the quilt projects so that I could get started that night. And they did! It took me about fiftenn minutes but when I walked out of the shop, I had the perfect fabrics for the first of the quilt projects and the perfect backing to boot! Let's hear it for our local quilt shops -- you wouldn't find that kind of service at a chain store, would you?

By the way, today is Friday and the first quilt top was DONE yesterday. That's three days, not too bad for a throw-sized quilt top, eh?

ORPHAN QUILT UPDATE:

A few blogs ago, I included a photo of Nancy's orphan quilt, which she made from blocks purchased at an antique shop. Well, Nancy emailed me back to say that she won a ribbon at the Fair! Well Done, Nancy!

Valerie sent me this photo of her orphan quilt -- sorry it's taken me so long to get this on the blog. The blocks were hand-pieced by her great grandmother. Great quilt, Val!




Recently, I also reconnected with a very dear quilt friend who moved to Colorado three years ago. She emailed me and then called me shortly thereafter. My friend, Dot told me a little bit about her home in the mountains -- she can see Pike's Pike from the potty in her upstairs bathroom! Anyway, she asked me for my mailing address because she said she had something for me. I figured that she might have come across some old blocks and thought of me.

A large box arrived the other day. Inside the box was a treasure trove of vintage fabrics, old blocks AND newer blocks, a pieced apron, a prairie hat, and even a few quilt tops. I was speechless. Completely. Just thinking about Dot makes me smile. She never was a quiet quilter -- always prefering red and orange and purple with a splash of lime green. It was Dot who taught me how to dye fabrics and got me hooked. I've really missed her a lot in the past several years. I'm so happy to reconnect with her.

Amazon's Top 100

I am so very excited to shout to the world that my book, ORPHAN BLOCK QUILTS, has made the top 100 quilt books in the Kindle category on Amazon. Wahoo!!!!! Yesterday I was #91. So, if you are interested in getting my book as an ebook, go to Amazon and download it for $11.99. Oh, and don't forget to leave a customer review, too!

More Quilt Acquisitions

I can't believe that June is almost over. Where did this month go?????

I finally connected with my design director at Northcott and everything is on track for my first fabric collection to launch in October at Quilt Market. Now I have to get busy designing quilts for the fabric line, not to mention more fabric collections. :)

My friend Leslie and I are planning to go to Quilt Market again this year -- I definitely don't want to miss when my first fabric collection debuts!

Earlier in June, I went to another garage sale and purchased two crazy quilt tops. One had some moth damage to the wools along the edges. The other one was in much better condition and even has some embroidered motifs inside some of the crazy quilt blocks like a fish, snowflake, flower, etc. I think they are both from the circa 1890-1925 era.




Last week I did a program for a guild as a last minute thing and wouldn't you know it, but one of the guild members brought boxes of vintage and retro fabrics/blocks for the taking. OF COURSE I came home with a stack of mid-century blocks and two boxes of precut fabric pieces. My nieces came over on Father's Day last week end and the three of us had a blast digging through the little squares -- even my young cat, Pip, got involved! I gave each niece a plastic sandwich bag and told them to stuff it!




Today I also acquired a really nice grouping of vintage fabrics from a friend of mine who was visiting from SC. If you're familiar with my quilt book or else know the story of how I got started making orphan quilts, tthen you'll recognize the name Louetta. My visitor was none other than Louetta's granddaughter, Nancy. Nancy is the one who had the garage sale that changed my life -- it was the one where I bought the first pieces for my Louetta collection (of blocks, fabrics, tops circa 1840-1960). Five years later, I'm still adding pieces. Thank you, Nancy!

I went to take a photo to show you, but the camera was dead so you will have to wait until my next blog.