Superior Quilts

historic Magma Hotel vintage bar

We made a field trip to Superior for an annual end of summer festival - Prickly Pear Days. 

We found some unique quilt art. But not all of them are actual quilts. See what I mean?

Apologies for the blur - I'm learning new phone/camera settings.
The black and white border is bugle beads in-the-ditch. And the binding is variegated crewel yarn whip-stitch. I like how the quote stitching crosses the background and first border.

There was a series of these mug-rugsized  arts, each with the hound's-tooth check background path. 

Did I mention my new camera issues? Sorry I can't show you the complete series.

These heart triptych fabric boxes are the same mug-rug artist, now with broderie-perse and stuffed hearts. I couldn't tell how they constructed the fabric boxes - sew clever!

This Town Hall quilt is painted blocks of local historic places.

I have to make special mention of the smokestack - it came down (video) 9 months ago. A landmark for 100-ish years, all gone. But commemorated in quilting and plenty more local arts :)

I just really liked this local artist painting of cow-girl with coyotes, so I wanted you to see it tool:0.

Thanks for sharing our trip!

One Block Applique Quilts

applique stitch adds whiskers and eyelashes

 

Darlene quilted bones in the sashing :)

 

Here are some unique one block applique quilts.
Seen at museum quilting bee. I thought you would enjoy these:

....has me looking at everything in the house and wondering, "how would that look with sashing around it?"

 

Bonus:
Here is an unusual album quilt. Instead of just names, everyone embroidered their favorite scripture and illustrated with contemporary applique.

President Sue

Our chapter president is Susie.
This is President's Challenge: 

use the Moda Lipstick and thimble charm.

So......

Yes- it's President Sue :)
These '30's greens cacti were just asking for
a Sunbonnet Sue friend.

Plus, you can see how easy it is to customize

Random Cactus PDF improve pattern.

I'd like to see one with orphan blocks. Or a panel! Hmmm...

Susie won't see this until our show next month.

She's been a great President, and the reason I finally joined Guild.

I hope she will be pleasantly surprised.

 

President Susie really does wear pearls:)





Palo Verde Easter I

Palo Verde always blooms for Easter. I love when the whole town is covered in drifts of yellow blossoms like snow.


Palo Verde Easter

Every year it looks like Palo Verde will forget Easter. But somehow, it never does.
One of my favorite times of year, I wish I could put it in a jar and keep it.



Alex drew the jar for me :)

And so I did :)
I've been thinking of a Palo Verde quilt for a long time. This is not it LOL:)
So I call it PV1, hoping I'll get to the original plan......next Easter?

Except.....
I love the threads I found to match and create every element here.
I love the pieces and fabrics.
Finally got the tension right on the quilting with my old Brother!
....but together they're not working as hoped.

 What's missing????

 

Liberty Angel Quilt

Even in summer, some houses become so cold that you think you can see snow falling, but if you turn off the air conditioning the whole house becomes a sun. Mom's new Flag Day quilt is the perfect size for a lap quilt to keep you warm from your air conditioner. Or maybe it will be a baby quilt for a cute little someone with a summertime birthday. I would like to take this quilt on a trip to a cabin by a lake. Perfect for picnic and watching fireworks! Plus, if you're looking for matching decors, Mom also made a matching mugrugs (check 'em out here). 

If you look closely, you can see stars quilted allover. 

Those quilted stars from the above picture are stitched by following the stars on the backing fabric! Nice pattern, right? 

 See that yellow star? Mom had the best idea of putting yellow and red stars on the inner border, applique style! Hearts are quilted in the red corner blocks. 

She also made round corners with the Dresden patches of the outer border. And there is crappy binding to match the red and blue sequencing.

 Mom found this awesome Liberty Angel fabric which is the main panel in the middle.
More design notes on our Threadbias page.

This quilt stands at the peak of perfection thanks to our models! Lookin' good!

Flag Plate Mug Rug

A quick Summertime project, very easy Flag Plate Mug Rug is made from Dresden Plate Wedges with reverse applique center and bias tape binding. Can be created completely from scraps!

Add an optional verso applique as a guide for quilting interest.  Flag finishes 10.5" diameter.

4" Dresden wedges created with Easy Dresden Ruler, or you can cut wedges 4" long with 1" wide base and 2-1/4" top. Requires 22 total wedges. Cut 7 blue wedges, 7 red, and 8 white. You will also need a 6.5" scrap for center, a 12" scrap of batting and 12" square of backing fabric.
Optional: fussy cut a clever shape and apply ironon interfacing for verso applique.

Stitch blue pieces together along 4" sides. 1" base will be in the center, and wide top edge of edges will be on the outside of "plate" or wreath. Next, starting with white peace, alternate red and white pieces until flag is complete.  [In this example, red stripe fabric are the 7 "red" wedges, and 8 "white" wedge placements are a combination of solid red and white scraps.]

Press in one direction. From the back of your flag, press seam allowances clockwise or counterclockwise. Press center circle under 1/4". Tack center seam allowance in place with glue stick or basting glue.

Choose a scrap about 6.5" square for the center of plate. With right sides up, align plate Flag and center with basting spray or pins. Hold in front of a light or window to check alignment of center piece.

With 12" square scraps of batting and backing fabric, create "Quilt Sandwich":  Layer flag with center scrap over batting and backing.  Hold together with basting spray and/or pins.

Stitch around center circle. Stitch through all layers including the pressed under (glued) seam allowance. Seam allowance will be a scant 1/4" from edge of plate center.

Here is what first stitching looks like from back. Good job! You just finished a reverse applique circle :)

Optional: Add a decorative fusible applique to the backing fabric. Pick something that will create an interesting shape on the top of your quilt when you stitch around it. Next, start stitching in the ditch.  [Stitch on top of the wedge seams.] Be sure NOT to stich through applique shape.

Once you have finished all the stitching, trim the batting and backing to match Flag plate top.

Only one more step to finish! Bind Flag quilt with purchased 1/2" extra wide double fold bias tape. Follow package instructions. [This binding color is Stone Blue, a near denim blue that goes well with red and blue.]

 

Long may she wave!

Flag Day Quilting

Finally dove in the r/w/b stash. I only meant to finish this adorable Debbie Mumm panel.

Instead, I came out with 3 projects!
Decided the panel was so perfect alone that I only need add borders. Inner border has simple corner blocks with Debbie's starts (from panel surround) added in raw edge applique.
The outer border was really fun! I used my favorite Easy Dresden Ruler by Darlene Zimmerman to make 4" wedges for my round corner border; instructions here.

However, this time (because the 4" pieces were smaller and because I wanted lots of blue against the red corner blocks) I used 5 wedges on each corner point and gathered them to fit:

Well, I had so many wedges left over, I was able to make 4 Dresden Plate Flags.

Dresden Plate Flag by Road Home Quilting

So how should I finish these? 11" diameter Dresden plates. Please give me your ideas!

Lastly I salvaged a silk screened flag remnant someone had donated to my stash. But two of the red stripes had been cut off, so I wasn't sure what to do with the poor old thing. Finally decided it could work as two Flag Day Banners.

Finished with simple rolled seam. There are grommets at the top corners for hanging, and Velcro pockets on the bottom - to fill with trinkets (washers, rocks, anything heavy) so Banners will hang straight and not fly around. Will it work? I'll let you know on Flag Day tomorrow :)

This should have been the simplest of my 3 Flag Day projects but, you guessed it, turned out to be tricky splitting the stars. Have you noticed the way stars are tilted on our Flag? Well, thankfully there is enough blue between stars to get full seam allowances for both sides. But one side has single star points, and the other side finishes in double points! And hardest of all to figure out, the stripes only aligned well with the single point side. Here you can see on the double point side how I fudged the red line by growing the seam finish width:

I actually have a reason for ranting like this. The moral of this story is, please tell me, was 1/2 a day entirely too long to spend on a salvage project?

Pearl helps sort Dresden pieces