Quilts from the Past! 05-24-24

I was looking for a particular image from long ago and came across some photos of quilts I have made in the past.   Some I still have, but most have been sold or gifted to others.  Several were made specifically for Surfside Monthly Minis, but most were made just because I had the idea and wanted to make them.

This is a  group quilt with blocks made by friends of Judy House, who I met at Empty Spools/ Asilomar in the 1990s.  The blocks came from all over the USA and I was tasked to put them together.  I do not remember why we chose chickens as the theme, or why we didn't have a size restriction; like divisible by two inches.  So, the  blocks were every size and very difficult to put together.  One lady did the "Chicken/Egg strip in the top right corner, which I split to  make a corner, so I use her lettering to add a few more words.  And I made a few very small blocks and strips to fill in.  This was the first time I put together a quilt like this, it was very difficult, but I am extremely proud of the way it turned out. 

Judy submitted it to this quilt show and I was extra proud!

Judy died of cancer and the quilt was donated to a children's hospital in Virginia (I think).  

"Cactus Flower"  Del Thomas 2004

This quilt orginated in Ruth B. McDowell's class at Empty Spools.  I did the design in class, but selected the fabrics and sewed it together at home.  FMQ with my "original" flower design.  It is unique because I used puff paint to make the dots in the center - the  only time I have used paint on a quilt.  This picture was taken at Back Porch Fabrics in Pacific Grove when I had a one person exhibit there.   

"Jack" 2013  A Monthly Mini quilt

"Summer Garden" 2013  A Monthly Mini quilt

"Sunset Strip: South Pacific  2013

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Quilts by Del Thomas 03-16-24

Just looking through my photos for a picture of something else, I noticed these images that I am sure I have never posted.  They are all original designs, machine pieced, machine quilted.  In 2007 I belonged to a fiber postcard exchange group and was really into doing these little jewels.   I may have a couple in my storage somewhere, but most were exchanged or sold.  

Exhibit at Back Porch Fabrics  2007

"Hanging Ring"  2005   24"square  Pieced

Postcard  2007

"Mahjong in the Garden"  2005

"Late Autumn II"  2006  24"L X 18"W

"Making Friends"  2007  11"L  X 15"W

"Nipsy, the Cat"  Postcard 2007

Postcard  2010

                 "Parrot Percussion" Del Thomas - Placentia, CA 1996 30"W x 85"L 

"Cactus Flower"  2000  48"L X 61.5W All pieced using Ruth B. McDowell's methods. 

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Tree Quilts by Del 01-04-24

When I was looking through my photos yesterday for leaves I kept seeing trees quilts, some  of which I have made.  I have always been a tree hugger and enjoy making quilts showing them. 

I think of Saguaros as trees.  This is done with Ruth B. MdDowell's technique - cut pieces, sew right sides together, open, press, add another piece, etc. 

"Winter in the City" -  pieced and fused.

An autumn tree - fusible applied and design cut in one piece.

"The Pink Tree"  12X12 for SAQA  online auction .It sold!

"Put a Roof Over Our Heads"

For the Alliance for American Quilts challenge 2007.

Voted 2nd place!   16"L X  13"W  Fused

Done for a demonstration - fused strip background with fused tree motif.

"Three Palms"  2007   8.5"X11"  pieced and fused

Part of the Quilt Journal Project  2002-2007

"Welcome Home"  2021  Pieced and fused 36"W X 48"L

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Surfside QGuild meeting 01-11-23

Surfside Quilters Guild meeting in San Clemente yesterday.  I enjoy being with my quilting friends and seeing the quilts they have produced.  This month we were asked to bring the first quilt we made; a bit of a stretch for me, but I do have a wedding ring quilt from about 1948 when I was helping my maternal grandmother and her quilt group at the Grange in Clackamas, Oregon.   I was only ten, but they were teaching me how to hand quilt on a frame and allowing me to thread their needles.  I wish it was so easy for me now-a-days.  Anyway, the quilt is completely scrap with a pale yellow background and depression green backing.  One fabric has completely deteriorated so I can no longer launder the quilt unless I mend all those pieces.   But I have cuddled in it all my life as it is one of the first quilts I worked on.  The very first quilt I made when I was about seven and sat on grandmother's front porch hand-sewing together about three inch squares to make a quilt for my dolly - it is long gone.  

Back is Depression Green - very faded now.

Del wins the refreshment table decoration from Jaine Culbertson, Hospitality Chair.  One must remember to put one's name in the basket when they provide refreshments, usually I forget.  But I had the box of Dewar's taffy that the financial people send every year.  It is delicious, but much more than I can enjoy.   One member kindly took home the leftovers.  

I was wearing the beautiful hand-dyed rayon indigo scarf that friend Deb McKay gave me Saturday.  She did a workday with some friends to learn about indigo and experiment with the technique.  I think she made a beautiful piece.  Thanks, Deb. 

Our speaker this month was Tina Curran  who told us about her Design Process.

www.tinacurran.com   She is a local quilt designer with a line of patterns using her method for freezer paper piecing.  Her presentation was professional and interesting.  

SCalifornia had a huge rain event yesterday and I had a hard time driving in it,  Fortunately many drivers listened to the warnings and stayed off the roads.  so even at reduced speed I was there in an hour.

Missed the usual view of I-5 and the ocean beyond.  My car on the right, the drop off about five feet beyond the fence.  Slow drive home, but the rain wasn't as heavy.  The soil is saturated now and more storms coming, but how can we complain after so many years of draught.  

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Bindings 02-08-22

I have been doing some bindings on small quilts I made years ago.  These two are only 5-1/2" X9" and originated in a Sue Benner class.    They could be "mug rugs", but everey edge of the fused applique is not stitched, so I don't think they would last long.  They are all cotton fabrics and threads with cotton batting.  

"Lummi Island, WA" 

Not happy about the threatening thunder cloud - it looks a bit like a submarine!  However, I was working with the fabric I had with me and this was the best of it.  

The binding is blended overcast, so the thread used for the overcasting is the same as the fabric - or as close as I could find in my thread library.  

"Autumn Leaves"

For this one I used a supposedly random hand-dyed thread, which wasn't very random, on the darkest part and blended on the other sides.  Each leaf is stitched through the center, orange thread on green and green thread on orange.  I'm not seeing the acid green leaves - they look more gold in this picture. 

 I'll keep working on bindings.  Someday maybe I will have every finished quilt bound - no matter what the size! 

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Bindings 02-03-22

 I am working at binding some pieces made a long time ago.  This one is 5 1/2" X 9" and from a Sue Benner class on landscapes, maybe six years ago. 

 

The scene is from an island in Puget Sound, Washington.  So calm, showing Mt. Baker with a clear sky until a large black cloud rolls in.  I am not happy with the cloud, it looks a little like a submarine, but that is what I could find in the fabrics on hand.  I have tried to lighten it with some white pencil.

Anyway, the finish on the edge is what I think of as blended, overcast binding.  Using the widest zigzag on my machine and changing the thread color to match the color of the fabric.  It is a time consuming process with all the thread ends to bury.  But I do like the look.

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Grasses 01-27-22

Grasses can be so graceful and colorful.  I frequently take pictures of them, as you saw in yesterday's blog.  This is a quilt I made for the SAQA 12X12 auction in 2007.  I almost wished I didn't have to give it to them, but it did sell and made a few hundred dollars for the organization.  

"The Grasses Return"  Del Thomas - California  2007  12" X 12"
Cotton and silk fabrics, cotton thread, metallic thread, Wonder Under

Fused, machine quilted.

DETAIL  Upper left.

Back with sleeve and label.  Facing instead of binding. 

Label.  This is where the bird is. 

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Challenge quilt, Canyon Quilters fund raiser. 11-17-21

Monday evening was the Challenge reveal at the Canyon Quilters meeting in San Diego.  I did not drive down for the meeting, but watched on ZOOM.  There were 33 Challenge quilts with the theme of "Color Me Festive" requiring the use of the challenge fabric in either black background or white background.  I had chosen the black and decided that a wreath is festive, especially at this time of year.   I quilted the background first doing a plaid pattern.  Then I cut out the flowers and some solid red 'berries' and outlined each of them with black fabric marker.  I couldn't make the wreath look round so i fused on a circle using two layers of black nylon netting and arranged the flowers, leaves, and berries, fusing them down.  You can hardly see the circle but it helps create the round shape.  One problem is that the front of the quilt can never be ironed lest the nylon netting melt!  Then I straight stitched around each applique with mono-filament thread.  

                      

"Festive"  Del Thomas 2021  14" X 14"

"Festive" Back  I found this coordinate fabric at Back Porch Fabric in Pacific Grove and was originally going to use it for binding, but that didn't look right and I just used the green.

The quilt did sell at the guild meeting, but I don't know who bought it or the final bid. 

Since I was not there to bid I asked a friend to bid for me and she was successful with a bid of $200 for this piece "You Too-Can" by Judy Peters.  A nice addition to the bird section of TCQC.  Judy used mostly the green foliage of the challenge fabric with one red flower in the lower right corner.  

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Scraps - continuing 11-16-21

A long post.... In the 40s and 50s quilts were mostly made from scraps, so I am rather addicted to them and cut various squares and triangles to store for when I need them. When my late husband was undergoing treatment for a brain tumor I could not seem to concentrate on anything else but his illness and needs. I started sewing 1 1/2" scraps into squares - 100 scraps equals a ten inch block and continue. It was mindless. A box of dark and a box of light, pull one from each box and sew them together into a string of ten sets, then add another light or dark to each row. 

Like I said, mindless, but something to occupy my hands.  The only choice I made was to include red in every ten inch block.

Ultimately the blocks were sashed with red and made into quilts for philanthropy. In the past 30+ years I have continued to make my scraps into squares and triangles  and I have learned to use Wonder Under and other fusibles. I wondered what I could do with the squares and the fusible, so as part of my SAQA 100 day project I started a panel. 

Choosing a backing of plaid  to try to keep the rows even and ironing a layer of fusible to the wrong side to provide a neutral background in case any showed through, I just started laying out colors. It is rather addicting so that whenever I walked past the table I would stop and try to put in few more pieces; like having a jigsaw puzzle on the dining room table.

I didn't start this until August 31st and the 100 days ended last week, but I haven't finished the panel. I rediscovered my propensity for using fabrics that appear as one or two colors and I don't seem to use much blue and almost no pink. It is an eye opener. It has been a 100 days of trying to corral my thoughts and get back to being creative and I would like to be part of the next 100 day project starting in January. I think I have learned how to make use of the opportunity and the time.  Some participants even finished an original design quilt, something to aspire to!

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A little more Halloween 11-02-21

 Missed a couple Halloween pictures on Sunday. 

This is pretty silly, but makes me laugh when i see it - twice a day!  It actually glows in the dark so if we walk late we still see it.  There are quite a few of these free standing basketball hoops around and this one is the only one I have ever seen anyone throwing balls.  So they do put it to good use.  

Great jack-o-lantern, eh?  Those scraggily teeth are toothpicks.  Very original.  Should I ever carve a jack it will have these teeth! 

And a look back....

This is a quilt I made for the monthly mini at Surfside Quilters Guild in 2013.  At that time I was still doing one monthly mini a year and this one was fun to make.  I haven't been asked to do minis lately, guess those days are over.  It is a pretty good fund raiser for the guild.  Tickets are six for $5 and one ticket is drawn for the winner.  

"Jack"  Del Thomas 2013  Approx 30" W x 24"L

I know I have posted this several times previously, but I do really like it!

https://delquilts.blogspot.com/2020/10/halloween-quilt-in-past-10-31-20.html

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A Whisper Quilt Project 09-20-21

A Whisper Quilt project is like the childhood game of "Whisper" where the 1st child sitting in a circle whispers something to the second child.  She then repeats the whisper to child number three, who in turn whispers it to number four and so on around the circle.  It was great fun to see how much the whisper had changed when it came back to the first child.  With quilters the first person in the privacy of her sewing space makes a small quilt and then shows it to the second person, letting them keep it until the second person has made a quilt based on the first.  She then returns the first quilt to the maker and shows her own quilt to person number three who will base her quilt on that inspiration.  Nobody else will see the quilts except the maker and the next person on the list.  Our art quilt group in San Diego started our project over two years ago, but the pandemic rather slowed us down.  Instead of passing our quilts to the next person we started e-mailing pictures to the next person.  Only seven of the members participated and we all took an inordinate amount of time to make such small quilts.  However, we finally had our "reveal" at the in-person September meeting.  It was interesting to hear the explanations of why each quilt developed.  

The only “rule” is that it should be approximately 18” X 24”, either portrait or landscape orientation.  Any fabric or technique is acceptable.  The quilt must be quilted and have finished edges.

       

Andrea Bacal started us off with this view of cone flowers based on a picture she had taken.  

This is my quilt, based on Andrea's coneflowers.  Butterflies love coneflowers.  I had intended to add the white dots they display using white puff paint, but I forgot!  This is all fused with the orange/yellow of the wings one piece with the cutout black veins fused on top.  

Michalee Sloan was next.  She based her hidden tiger on the colors in my quilt with lots of green as in the background.  The leaves are made individually and tacked to make a 3-D jungle.  

Ellen Spellman followed with her delicate embroidery inspired by the intricacy of the hidden tiger and foliage.  She accented the blue in the tiger. 

Carol Sebastian-Nealy picked up on the geometric, but used squares instead of rectangles, repeating the vertical quilting.  Now called "matchstick", but was called "channel" quilting in the 70s. 

Deb McKay printed her own fish, repeating the five images and included the horizontal line from Carol's quilt. 

Nelda McComb started with a blue background as in Deb's quilt and created a whimsical view of her recently retired husband catching a fish.  

Here are the quilts pinned up in order at our meeting. 

It was an interesting project, but might have gone better without the complication of the pandemic and not being able to pass the actual quilts to the next person.  

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