Sunday In The South

This quilt block reminds me of the Sundays of my early childhood. Cardboard church fans with colored pictures on one side and the local funeral home info on the other. Hard wooden church pews, no cushions. Dinner on the ground, fried chicken, potato salad, homemade desserts. Everyone wearing their Sunday best with hats and gloves. Porch swinging in the afternoon. A nap under a beautiful quilt.

I've been wanting to make this one for a while. I don't have a Dresden Fan die, so I had to get creative. I used the center section of the Crossed Canoes die for the fan blades. Four of them make a quarter circle. After sewing the blades together, I added a yellow triangle, and trimmed off the excess. I pressed under the curved edge, appliqued the fan to the corner of a 6 ½” square, then carefully cut away under the fan section to eliminate bulk.

Sunday In The South

The blocks set on point seem to float on the green dotted background. Calico prints in pastel colors replicate the vintage feed sack quilts that I remember. I quilted with white thread along the edges of the squares, then added a floral motif on each fan. Backing and binding are a white and green print.

Sunday In The South finished out at 41” x 46” in size. This one took longer to sew, but I thoroughly enjoyed the process. A side benefit is that I cut the whole BOB die, not just the fan blades, so I have leftover pieces at the ready for another quilt.

Accuquilt dies used: Crossed Canoes BOB 55181, 6 ½” square 55000, 6 ½” HST 55001, and 2 ½” HST 55018

Country Spools

A few weeks ago I took advantage of a sale and ordered a new Accuquilt die. The day it arrived, I dropped everything and started cutting. The spool die is really cute and I can see that some of pieces will combine with other dies to create other designs. (As if I need more to do!)

Country Spools is 36” square, made up of sixteen 6” spool blocks plus sashing. I pulled red, black, white and grey prints from my remnant baskets. I liked the small center pieces but decided to switch things up by using squares and quarter squares for some of the centers. Tiny stripes for the sashing with bandana squares frame them beautifully.

I quilted across the sashing with white thread in a loopy decorative stitch. A small serpentine stitch was used across the block sections. Backing is black and white chevrons with binding in a paisley print.

Accuquilt dies used: 55180 Spool BOB, 55006 3 ½” Square, 55018 Value die (2 ½” HST)

Side note: Even though I've been sewing up a storm, I took time off over the weekend to celebrate with my husband...we've been married 46 years! Seems like yesterday that we were starting out in that little four room duplex.

It's been fun and sometimes crazy. We worked hard and learned as we went, always moving ahead together. Now we're retired and pursuing our hobbies. Of course, there's still work to do, like helping him repair fuel lines on the truck the morning of our anniversary. Yeah, I have mechanic skills as well as sewing expertise.

We are a great team and still enjoy each other's company. It's fabulous to have a loving partner to share life's adventures. I am thankful for every single day.

Love is: being Happy Together

Peaceful Stacks

Last week vintage, this week modern! 

I like to switch between styles because it keeps my ideas fresh. Variety stimulates and challenges my creative brain.  At least, that's my best theory...could be that I'm just spastic and can't stay focused.  

Half hexagons fit together easily with two triangles to form rows. Quick to cut and sew, Peaceful Stacks is 34” x 39” finished size. Cool ocean colors of blue-gray batiks and dots are combined with an aqua chambray background.  I quilted with aqua thread in a decorative stitch across the horizontal seams, adding a straight stitch between rows.  

Accuquilt dies used: 55437 half hexagon and 55429 equilateral triangle

Dream

in colors

borrowed

from the sea

Effie's Butterfly Garden

Effie's Butterfly Garden

I've done a series on my husband's grandmother, Granny Rose, her quilts, and my reproductions of those designs. Until now, I only had one of my own grandmother's quilts, a wedding gift. Recently a cousin sent me some old family photos, including a few pics of Granny Hill's quilts.

Effie's Butterfly Garden is my version of one of them. I made my block simpler so that I could use Accuquilt dies and sew it up more quickly. Her quilt and my block are pictured below. I may do another take on the design later using her kite piece.

Effie Hill quilt

Kaye's version

Vintage style 1930's and 1940's small floral prints, like the housedresses she made and wore, are featured with a natural muslin contrast in each block. Backing and binding are a larger floral print. I quilted with beige thread using a walking foot in serpentine lines that intersect to make simple flower petals.

I remember Effie Hill as a strong, independent woman who raised six kids during the depression. She lived and worked hard all her life on a farm in rural middle Tennessee. She grew a garden, cooked and canned, and somehow found time to sew and quilt. I surely must have inherited some of her sewing DNA.

Accuquilt dies used: 55010 5” square, 55735 2 ¼” x 4 ½” chisel, and 55147 2 ¼” half square triangle. I cut the 2 ¼” square from a strip, using the end of the chisel die.

I am thankful 

for the strength 

that lives in my veins. 

~K. Azizian