Flying Geese and the 8 Pointed Star Quilt

1st finished block... 18" square

This is the process of designing the Flying Geese and 8 Pointed Star quilt... from the Start of thinking up the design to making templates, marking the pieces, cutting,  sewing, making the blocks and hoping the whole project would turn out the way I hoped. It was pieced on several vintage and antique sewing machines and hand-quilted and bound.

overall if my figuring is correct I will need 2,088 cut pieces.... all scrappy pieces from my odds and ends of fabric gathered from here and there over the years..

loved using the old 1936 treadle in part of the process. The amazing oil painting on the back wall was created by my talented partner John Ackerson

small and fully packed and stacked sewing room .. tiny but mighty

"Inky" the inspector at work... she must inspect everything I make very closely

the back is always cool to see ... never to be seen again once the layers are put together

into my grandmother's quilt frames goes the backing..

the batting needs trimmed a bit... lots left for another quilt

Ready to begin hand quilting.... I just absolutely love it

the quilt was hand quilted from the outsides to the middle.. the last stitches are being put in here... next it will be ready to remove from the frames... next is the binding phase with mitered corners. machine sewn to the front of the quilt and then it is wrapped around the raw edge to the back and hand-stitched down.

"Baby Girl" kept distracting me as I stitched the binding by digging into a fluffy clean bag of sheep fleece... leave it to kitty to inspect everything and usually make a mess

Done...

I enjoyed every minute of working on this quilt.. it took a good long time to complete but that kept me from thinking about all the covid crap that was and still is taking place at the time.. 

I recommend everyone picking up some scissors and needles and thread and tackling a quilting project... feels so good to make things just the way you want.

Cheerio from the Desideratum studio in Douglas, New Brunswick

 

Making the Hourglass Quilt

Beginning the process... and bringing out fabrics to choose between for the darks and lights

some of the darks

on to the lights... I use the same triangle template to mark both lights and darks. 

 every light has been matched to a dark

...pictorial sequence follows...

 I love using the treadle sewing machine... she is a 1936 Singer and uses a class 15 bobbin .

2 lights and 2 darks combine to make a 5" block. if you were doing one for yourself, you can make them any size you want, depending on the design of the quilt you wish to create.

always pressing the seams to the dark side... pressing the seams at each stage of the process makes it very pleasant to work with the blocks and keeps everything lying flat.

arranging the blocks so there is always a dark touching a light

seamed several lengths of wild bright cotton print for the back, pinned it into the frames, added a layer of batting and then the top was smoothed over and pinned in place

after the blocks were sewn together I felt a dark colour border  all around the outside would frame it in nicely... now it's in the frames and a couple rolls have been done.  it's so pretty, if I do say so myself... the colours just danced in the sunshine

 this quilt is being tied with embroidery floss at each corner ... I make 2 passes thru the fabric and then make a double knot and trim the thread to 3/4"

 my funky quilt stands.. they come apart for easy storage

 almost done tying 

measured and cut out 4" wide fabric strips for the binding... then sewn together, seams pressed and the entire length pressed in half lengthwise

 sewing the binding all around the edge of the quilt. 

 after this I trimmed the excess fabric away and folded the binding to the back and hand hemmed it 

Hourglass Quilt   all Finished... soft, cozy, cheery and bright....  and I love it!!

the process of making a pieced patchwork quilt

...also called a scrap quilt...
Designing and planning in my sketchbook

using all scrap materials that have accumulated over time

lots of pressing all the way along

laying out for colour placement... lots of shifting and moving around of the little blocks

... during the making of the quilt top we were renovating and rebuilding this little old house .. by the time I finished quilting it, we had finished laying the hardwood floors (that was back breaking work that we don't want to do again none too soon)

 the back was pieced

 the batt 

the top ... sandwich is complete... 3 layers... now into the frames

Quilting in progress

 rolled up so it doesn't take up so much room.

end of the first 200 m. spool of quilting thread

unwound and removing from frames

 binding has been cut, sewn into a very long strip, pressed in half and is being sewn onto the quilt

trimming the excess

 hand stitching the binding to the back

just wanted to see what it looked like in the winter light

back

The End ..

 or maybe just the Beginning... 

of enjoying a functional handmade beautiful object.

created at our little old homestead by Gwen Buchanan... with much Love

xo