Let’s just call this Smithsonian week..

image of Giveaway fabrics

I’ve chosen the other four fabrics as part of my anniversary giveaway…

image of Giveaway fabrics

Left to Right: Rising Sun Quilt 'Oak Leaf'; Little Sister's Quilt 'Maze'; Groom's Quilt 'Queen Anne's Lace' and The Copp Quilt 'Harvest Stripe'

This time I have chosen fabrics which are directly reproduced from the quilts whose name they bear.

Oak Leaf #2210-1 in Black/Sage appears in the pieced diamonds of Betsy Totten’s Rising Sun Quilt.

Maze #2304-1 in Green Grass is taken from the leaf and stem forms found in the Little Sister’s Quilt

Queen Anne’s Lace #2402-2 in Crimson appears in applique blocks in The Groom’s Quilt

Harvest Stripe #2507–2 in Muslin Ground appears in some of the unpieced blocks in The Copp Quilt.

So the four American fat 1/4s make up the second prize as explained in the previous post and that’s where you should leave your comments to be in the running.

Ok that’s that, now on to normal blogging.

I’ve been wanting to introduce you to a fantastic quilt designer and teacher for weeks but things kept getting in the way of this intended blog post.

Her name is Margaret McDonald and I’ve had the pleasure of knowing her (and learning from her) for many years.

A month of Sundays ago she invited me round to her place to look at her stash,

I’d hinted I’d like to come because whilst I was quilting one of Margaret’s quilts I had spotted a tiny scrap of …Smithsonian Fabric.

We had a lot of fun playing in her studio-pulling out fabrics/going through selvages/she showed me WIPs and UFOs.

She has recently got her website up and running and is worth a look.

www.margaretmcdonald.com.au

She kindly loaned me a table runner she had on the table, while we were having a cup of tea I spotted several Smithsonian pieces in it and she was happy for me to put it up here to show you.

This was an exercise in showing students what a terrific and diverse colour Brown is.

image of Margaret's one patch

I hope you get the chance to pop over to her website and have a look, her work is stunning and varied.

I thought while on the theme I would grab another quilt of my own which uses a fair bit of  Smithsonian.

This one was finished back in Sept. 1998, but hand quilted so started a year or two before then I think.

image of Allbrook quilt 1998

I named it Allbrook after the birthplace of my maternal Grandmother.

It reminds me of a faded English eiderdown.

Allbrook was once a village but the city of Eastleigh in Hampshire has grown around it.

It still has its own sign though and as my mother always wanted to see where her mother came from, we visited it in 2006.

image of Allbrook

Maybe I should make another quilt and call it Otterbourne which is where Nana went to school.

I only had to grab the quilt off the back of the armchair, it always makes me think of Nana so I like to have it around where I can see it.

image of detail of Allbrook quilt

The Smithosnian fabric is from the Copp Quilt range released in 1996 (I suspect that is when I started Allbrook)

It’s the lighter print, Sweetpea #2504-2 in Muslin/Chestnut.

Interestingly, the tone on tone pink, which came in a couple of similar designs/colourways, was reproduced about a year ago.

I picked up a piece locally. I’ll probably never use it, I just recognised the pattern and had to have a piece out of interest.

image of same but different

This one is marginally larger in scale than my original piece. Mine did have a blue colourway back in 1996 but it was softer looking than this.

Til soon…

I can’t believe it’s been a year…

image of Smithsonian fabric giveaway

…since I started on this new blogging venture.  The friends I’ve made this last year has demonstrated to me that blogging certainly is the 21st century equivalent of a quilting bee, we really don’t need to be in the same room to connect, encourage and enjoy each others company. And enjoy ogling at each others quilts ~ finished or otherwise.

Some new friends I have even managed to meet in person and that’s been a real pleasure too.

And the computer skills I’ve learnt (all thanks to Jennifer’s patience) I wouldn’t have thought possible a year ago.

So of course an anniversary means a give away…

…but I’ll tell you about that later.

First I want to tell you about a much anticipated parcel that arrived a couple of weeks ago.

image of additions to the stash

Yes, that is all Smithsonian Fabric.

Judy in Ohio (another new friend, we plan to meet up at the Cincinnati Quilt show next year) wrote to me to say she had an excess of Smithsonian fabric and was wanting to sell it.

Between me emailing images of every smithsonian fabric with its range & pattern name and Judy spreading out and sorting what turned out to be 50 yards of fabric all over her dining table (and getting it cleaned off again before hosting a large family gathering) we were able to ascertain what she had and how much of it.

It took the best part of a weekend for both of us!

She also had all the Quilters Newsletter magazines from 1996 which had an 8 part quilt project using RJR Smithsonian ‘Rising Sun’ fabrics. The quilt is Heritage Medallion and was designed and made by Cynthia Dale.

image of Heritage Medallion project

All eight issues should I ever want to make the quilt but regardless there is still some very interesting (and relevant) reading in these magazines.

And a bit of a UFO.

image of Judy's UFO

I love looking at what other quilters have started, this one I may do something with one day, it will be fun to see how I interpret Judy’s quilt ideas and what the result is.

And there were other Smithsonian treasures like original fabric pack labels and photo’s of quilts from an American quilt exhibition featuring quilts inspired by RJR’s Smithsonian quilt fabrics.

Jennifer and I know we really need to do some work on the What Fabric is That? website…we have no excuse now that we have virtually complete Smithsonian ranges.  Full ranges are what we’ve been steadily working towards for ages.

Okay, now for the good part

I have these four Fat 1/4s (American size) to give away.

I’ve selected one fabric each from the four Smithsonian ranges.

image of Smithsonian fabric giveaway

left to right: Rising Sun Quilt 'Floral Scroll' ; Little Sister's Quilt 'Perennial Garden; The Groom's Quilt 'Cretonne' and The Copp Quilt 'Sweetpea'

‘Floral Scroll’ # 2208-1 in Madder/Cream is a small scale print and is almost identical to a fabric found in Betsy Totten’s Rising Sun quilt from the 1800s. The fabric was released in Nov 1994.

‘Perennial Garden’ #2308-2 in Dusty Blue is a medium scale floral with a picotage background.  Even though it is part of The Little Sister’s Quilt range, the fabric is copied from another 19th century quilt in the Smithsonian’s collection. The fabric was released in June 1995.

‘Cretonne’ #2407-3 in Asparagus also was not taken from the quilt which bears the name of the fabric range ~ Benoni Pearce’s Groom’s Quilt ~ but was taken from a pieced quilt made around 1850 using alternating blocks. Released in Oct 1995.

‘Sweetpea’ #2504 -1 Pale Blue is a small scale floral on a trailing vine. It’s not from the Copp Quilt but the fabric is taken from an early 19th century English counterpane. Released in 1996.

So all you have to do is leave a comment on this post by next Saturday to go in the running.

During the week (sorry I just ran out of time tonight) I will sort through and choose another 4 fabrics so there will be a second prize

~ and gee this time I might try harder to choose fabrics that really are taken from the quilt whose name they bear or at least a quilt we can identify  LOL~

I don’t think I have one of those random number generator things (or if I do I don’t know how to use it) so I will put the names in a hat and get Jennifer to draw two out.

I’ll upload a pic of the other four fabrics when I’ve chosen them.

Good luck :-) and I’ll post anywhere in the world.

An Ohio Star Strippy, more Maltaville …and something modern, eeeek.

image of Ohio Star Quilt

Friday was bleak here in Central Victoria and moving my sewing stuff out of the studio and in to the living room in front of the fire seemed a very inviting proposition.

I cut and sewed like a woman posessed and finished this….

image of Ohio Star Quilt

I am really pleased to get this finished (well the top)

You may remember it in progress from here

Just to re-cap this quilt came in to being because I needed to make a quilt based on the Ohio Star block for the Vic. Quilters Showcase in July this year where my local quilt group is being featured.

Originally I had planned it to be a straight set quilt ~ maybe with a narrow sashing in the plain white ~ but it has morphed in to a strippy.

image of repro reds

Forty blocks, some of the really fave reds have two blocks and some just one.

On Friday (when I moved in to the living room) I had all the blocks already made,

it was the 400 half square triangles that have taken the time.

I thought it might be quicker than making more blocks.

Jury’s out on that one.

image of Maltaville Centre

Now that the Ohio Star is as good as done I can get back to concentrating on the Maltaville Quilt centre block.

The vine is all sewn and I will prepare more of the applique pieces this week.

A friend and I are going to the Phillip Island Quilt-in this Saturday and I want to take this with me to work on.

I have chosen the next four blocks for the Maltaville mailout this month…

image of block A8

Block A8

Image of Block A2

Block A2

image of Block C1

Block C1

image of Block C5

Block C5

In this bottom one (C5) I have sewn it like the original with its little mishap… I like it this way but have no idea if it was indeed a mishap for the original maker or if this is how she intended it to be.

Last week Jennifer kept me company on a trip to one of my suppliers.

It was her job to find a couple of quilt shops we could visit on the way and she found shops specialising in more contemporary fabrics.

I bought these…

image of Contemporary and Snazzy fabrics

Contemporary and Snazzy

…had to get a Paisley in there didn’t I?

When I was in NZ last month, good friends gave me (and DH) an unexpected and fabulous gift so a quilt idea has been buzzing around in my head in the last few weeks.

A traditional, antique style quilt is just not going to be their ‘thing’ but I think they will like these fabrics and I will have fun working with these.

Not at all what I usually buy, but I really like them.

Some vintage stuff…

image of Vintage Lace

The things I unearth when I start moving things…

image of Vintage Lace

I was given these vintage laces a year or so ago by one of my Book Club companions, Alison.

“you *sew* don’t you…could you use these”

These belonged to her husband’s grandmother and Alison had been looking after them for years,

still all bundled up in their own handsewn bag. So she kindly thought of me when she and hopefully her husband decided ‘enough’…

…these need to go to someone who’ll maybe do something with them.

Personally I don’t think anything necessarily *needs* to be done with them.

image of Vintage Black

But having got them down off the shelf it reminded me I was always going to frame a couple of these

black pieces and give it back to Alison and her husband.

Grandmother had good taste…I imagine her a very stylish young lady (and older too)

image of Vintage Cream

The cream pieces are just as exquisite but not so delicate.

A couple of pieces are really long, they were probably sheet edging so I will do something around the house with them

…nothing fussy though.

image of beaded overlay

There’s enough of this to indicate it went around very slim hips, no doubt decorating a very stylish ensemble.

My daughter does some costume making as she is a dancer and I must show her this piece when she comes later today…

And a cream piece is earmarked for a friend in the States who might be able to use it…or just enjoy it.

I think Alison (and Grandmother) would approve