Friday, April 15, 2016

Change of plans.............

I unpicked the 2 side rows that I showed yesterday and put the top up on the design wall sideways.  It's done!  It's a wallhanging instead of a lap quilt now.  I think it should be quilted in diagonal lines with uneven spacing.  It is 60.5" x 48".

I have had lots of new people commenting on my triangle quilt but unfortunately most of you are No Reply commenters so I can't reply to you.  If you enable your email address in your profile, you will hear back from the bloggers where you comment.

My two friends came over yesterday to sew and they helped me put the new rails on my longarm table.  Now finishing quilts will be a little more pleasant.
I only know of one year that Hoffman batiks had a mark like a selvage.  It was 1993 and it was stamped only at the beginning of each bolt.  I need to use these in a quilt this year and stop storing them.








I have been going through my old Quilter's Newsletter magazines and am contemplating tossing them into the recycling.  I have a few issues from 1971, the year it started and around 1973 I started subscribing.  I think I have more than 20 years of issues.  In the beginning all of the photos were printed in black and white.  In the middle of 1974 some covers became 2 tone and in the middle of 1975 just the covers (and the inside of the cover) were full color photos but the contents were black and white with sometimes one color added on a page (but no color photos inside). 
In the September 1975 issue there was a full page color ad for Ely and Walker fabric, the only color ad that year.  I remember how excited I was to find the Ely and Walker quadriga cloth in a quilt store in Wisconsin.  Up to this time I was using dressmaking scraps and old jeans for my quilts.  Now there were "real" quilt fabrics available, reproduction prints from long ago textiles.


 
This was at the time of the Bi-centennial and the revival of quilting.  I began teaching quiltmaking in 1976.  VIP and Peter Pan fabrics started concentrating on fabrics for quilting in the next few years.






 
I have one lonely Jonquil bloom on the south side of my house.







The Lungwort/Pulmonaria gives me some color in the backyard. 


    

20 comments:

Shelina (formerly known as Shasta) said...

This is an ineresting history of quilting as told through quilt magazines. I have a whole bunch of magazines I received from another quilter, and I am slowly scanning the articles I like, and then donating the physical magazine to the thrift store. It takes up too much space, and paper tends to collect dust and bugs.

Sewing Junkie said...

I have over ten years of quilting magazines. I have sorted them and now they sit in boxes in the garage. I tried giving them to a local guild and they don't want them so I have to rethink this whole thing. Libraries here after 2 years of something not checked out they take it out of the library so that isn't a good idea either. Chris

Linda Swanekamp said...

Thanks for the history. I made my first, pretty bad, quilt in 1976 and could not find any classes or fabric because polyester knits were king around her. I gave up in 1984, and did not start again until 2010, so I feel like I am making up lost time.
Love the triangles piece. Did not know Hoffman printed their name in the fabric.
I have a bunch of magazines to give away at our quilt show in October, hope someone takes them.

Cheryl said...

Thanks for the look back. My first piece of quilting fabric was a VIP from a Penney's store in downtown Charleston, WV. There weren't any quilt shops yet. Funny thing is, I bought quite a bit to use for curtains and I still have some of the scraps! I also have a glut of magazines and started weeding through them. I pull out anything I want, put it into a page protector and then into a notebook. I have separate notebooks for quilts, techniques, inspiration....etc.
I enjoy seeing your progress on various quilts and your current triangle quilt is no exception....very cool. Thanks!

Debbie said...

Your solution to the triangles is perfect. all problems solved, a finished top, and parts for another quilt :)
You have a huge stash of magazines then. It is interesting to remember that early ones were in black and white. How far the quil world has come.

Gene Black said...

The first triangle quilt came out perfect as a wall quilt. Sometimes we just have to "listen to the work" and let it become what it needs to be.

Lola Carr said...

Hey Wanda....I made that skirt in the Ely & Walker ad when in HS (and many peasant tops)! I remember it being out of lightweight corduroy and I felt so "in vogue" when wearing it! Your project looks great, much more colorful in person!

Sue

Anonymous said...

I had years of QNM too and enjoyed reading them through the years but they were taking up much space and I never revisited them. So into the recycle they went when no takers in my guild. It's hard not to keep everything but time moves on. Offer them to a quilter and if not...adios. You'll feel more empowered afterwards.

patty a. said...

I ended up with the mish mash of my Mom's quilting magazines when she died. I went thru them, took out what I wanted, and recycled the rest. I haven't subscribed to any in a very long time and don't plan to! Great solution for the triangle quilt #1!

Anonymous said...

Love how the triangle quilt top turned out! I find quite often that I need to do a little bit of adjusting from my sketch to the final result...just part of the creative quilting process!
Spring is beginning to blossom here in Virginia...we keep having really cold nights though, and each morning I am relieved to see that no blooms were zapped by the cold, overnight....
Sandra B.
scb304@juno.com

Vicki W said...

I like it as a wall hanging. It's amazing how different our ideas look on paper and in reality some times!

Robby said...

Funny how quilts reveal themselves sometime. I really like what you've settled on.

I'll be honest, I've been seeing a lot of blogs comment on the "no reply blogger" bit, but I'm not a blogger and so I've been thinking that doesn't apply to me, since you have an option for my Google account. Not complaining, but I find this works some places and not others and I haven't figured out exactly where yet. Sorry, if I'm unreachable to you, but I'm enjoying your work immensely.

Taos Sunflower said...

What a fascinating chunk of quilting history you have in those magazines!

Donna~~ said...

Ah Wanda, you have me beat. I made a dress with patchwork on it in 1975, and started a quilt with the scraps for the Bicentennial (it still is not finished), and have started a million unfinished things since then. Enjoy watching your projects. We share many of the same fabrics--it's nice to see someone using them!

michelle said...

What a difference turning it sideways made. I have enjoyed watching your process as you work through this quilt. I thought it was beautiful but it is absolutely dynamic on it's side. What a great idea! I enjoy your blog every day.

JJM said...

Can you add two hanging sleeves to your Triangle piece ? Such fun to see the differences in the way you display this one. I like both images of this one and would have fun changing it back and forth.

To see your copies of Quilter's Newsletter, sure brings back memories. "The Good Ole Days". The calico two piece dress made me smile. Don't remember either of us in an outfit like that. (*._,*) But cute.

I know you are enjoying some warmer days now, and will have more spring blossoms to share next week. We are getting some nice spring showers, which we, here in the high desert, always need. My violets are nearly at the end of their blooming season already. As we have had an unusual burst of early warm weather.
JJM

Hedy said...

Thrift stores really like the old quilting magazines. I buy them all the time. I used to go to a recycling place to put my stuff in and occasionally I would go dumpster diving for some old quilt magazines, I was in heaven on those days. I really like your triangle quilt when you turned it sideways, it turned out striking.

JustGail said...

I found a bunch of older QNM magazines at a book reseller a couple years ago. It was fascinating to see the plain fabrics so popular then seem to be coming back. Although today they are quilted within an inch of their life today. I'd offer to take those magazines, but, time to look through and space to keep them are sorely lacking these days. I second the suggestion of a thrift store rather than direct to recycle.

Am I the only one who wishes QNM would come out with a digital archive of their past issues like so many other magazines have?

dianneo said...

I hope you donate your old quilt magazines to Goodwill, the Salvation Army, a thrift store or your local quilt guild. I love reading old quilt magazines!

Anonymous said...

So glad we have so many different quilt fabrics of high quality now. Can't imagine quilting back in those days. I can't get enough fabric.