Pastel IX

I started sewing Sun Bonnet Sue's out of the scraps from dresses I made for darling daughter.  They were a lot of fun to sew both the dresses and the Sues, then printing photos on fabric became possible.  I pull this out every few years and think of ways to put it together but still have not put any action with the thoughts.  I have 25 photos and as many 5.5 inch Sues to work into it. And I still have a box of fabrics from the 1990's good thing.  Right now I like grouping all the photos together and putting the Sun Bonnets in a border since the challenge is to keep it small.  But for now they are going back in the box.  Happy Memories.  --Ann--

Pastel VIII

 The pattern for this was in Linda Brannock's book Miss Jump's Quilt Album,  she called it Summer Garden aka Summer Pizza.  I think summer pizza is fitting.  I organized the background fabrics into diagonal groupings because there was just too much going on for them to be scattered randomly.  I need to add a border of checkerboards or maybe half square triangles  like the pin wheel quilt,  previous post.  It is a small queen size quilt.

The majority of these quilts were sewn in the 1990's specifically in 1999.  I must have challenged myself to use as much of this stash as I could before the new millennium.   I made a dent but I didn't come close to using all of the 1980's/90's pile. I could still make a couple more queen size quilts or 4 or 5 twin size.   One more 1990's fabric post to go. --Ann--

Pastel VII

My 1990's pinwheel quilt. This is a queen size quilt.  I think I made it before the twin size quilts for my daughter.  This is what was available and popular when I started quilting two and a half decades ago. I still love the prints and the colors.  It has never been used so the colors are still bright but enhancing the colors with the photo setting made them too bright.  The background fabric is ivory and it was quilted by a professional long arm quilter.  --Ann--

Pastel Series VI

I call this Starry Stairs.  I saw it in an advertisement in a quilt magazine many years ago so I drafted the block and sewed it together.  It is two 4 patches and 2 partial log cabin blocks sewn as a four patch then it is sashed with light fabrics and a friendship star at the intersection.  I have used this on my dining room table for years.  A quilt on the table muffles a lot of sound and I can pick it up after a meal and shake out all the crumbs.  I cut extra fabric into squares for napkins.  My kids friends didn't know what to think of these people who had a quilt on the table and always used cloth napkins. It has been through the washer so many times and it just gets softer and softer both visually and to the touch.  This was a low volume quilt before those words were ever put together. --Ann--

Pastel Series V

I'm of the generation that likes to pierce my garments not my flesh with jewelry.  I made this small wallhanging to pin my pins, I sewed on a few buttons  to hang necklaces.  The 4 patches were left overs from the Candy Stripe quilt. This little quilt was too wide to hang in my closet after another move so all pins were removed for another narrower pin quilt.  I finally got brave and tried machine quilting beyond puzzle piece stippling a decade or so ago.  The background of each basket is different and I free motion quilted a leaf and vine in the border.   --Ann--

Pastel Series IV

Another move and it was decided to put the second twin bed in DD's room so another pastel quilt was needed. This is pink lemonade and I cannot remember the magazine that published this pattern.  It is just shoe fly blocks, each with a border and set side by side. I arranged many of the border fabrics on the diagonal. These prints have faded but that just makes them softer and more delicious.  DD's best friend  had a little sister who used to come over to play and she told me one day that she didn't have a quilt on her bed so I made her one just like this when they moved away.  Sometimes I use this for a tablecloth. --Ann--

Pastel Series III

I made this quilt for darling daughter after a move and I wanted to decorate her room in pastels. I was sewing a new quilt for her so she was excited. I rag painted the walls either a pink and yellow or a cream and yellow then I cut a wide border stripe fabric and used laundry starch to stick it to the walls and hung an antique pink satin pull curtain on the window. Sadly I do not have a good photo of her room.  The quilt pattern is Candy Stripe by Cleo Snuggerud and was published in the February 1996 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine.  It is just 4 patches with setting triangles and strips of stripes in between.  I made a bed ruffle for her bed from the pink stripe fabric with a battenburg lace on the hem.  I even made a pillowcase to match, the fabric was so soft that it was loved to shreds.  Her best friend moved away when she was in 3rd grade so I made her a quilt just like this for a going away gift.  --Ann--

Pastel Series II

I love the softness of these prints and the colors are so much brighter with a white background. This is a doll quilt I made for darling daughter in 1992 or 1993. I used the tri rec tools, the first border  is a strip that I folded in half and pressed before sewing, the folded inset is always straight compared to seaming a narrow strip on both sides that shows any little deviation in seam allowance.  I used a piece of flannel for batting and quilted it with free motion stippling.  --Ann--

On the needles

The heel is turned. I'm using the heel from the Bunny Hop Pattern.  It has five segments of short rows.   I'm going to knit until I am out of yarn,  they may be short socks they may be tall.

I knit a girlfriend market bag for my very dearest girlfriend for her birthday then I wrapped it and taped the package shut and on the way to the post office I thought oh darn I didn't take a picture. She sent me a pic with fresh peaches.  I ran out of yarn shortly after I started the handle so had to make due. I knit it with cotton yarn so it is washable. --Ann--

out of the cupboard Pastel Series I

Another very small quilt out of the cupboard.  This is frequently mistaken for 1930's fabric but it is not.  All of these fabrics are from the late 1980's and early 1990's. I think that when quilt designers took over the fabric industry we lost "the feel of the era" with fabrics.  We can't glance at a quilt anymore and know from which decade the prints and colors came. Some of these  scraps are from dresses I made for my daughter. The pin wheels were sewn with some goofy technique using rectangles, I think it involved marking a line, sewing on either side of the line then cutting. I much prefer the easy angle for half square triangles.  It is 16 inches square, the pin wheels are 1 3/4 inches square so the HSTs are 7/8 inches. This begins a month long series of pastel quilts from fabrics of the late 1980's to 1990's on the "T" days.  --Ann--

What is the fluffy white stuff?

I haven't made these for a couple years but since we are going to the lake I did.  They are so much more tasty than grocery store marshmallows.   They are very easy to make, the recipe is from the Joy of Cooking cookbook. Very important to dust the pan better yet dust parchment paper with cornstarch or powdered sugar so they don't stick and stick they will.  Let them dry for at least 12 hours 24 is better.  I used my nylon pizza cutter to cut them into squares, I have tried various knives and a couple different scissors, the pizza cutter works the best. Do not put in the safe spot in the oven so curious individuals don't stick their fingers in the goo. I did that then forgot I made marshmallows and turned to oven on and oops what is that heavenly aroma? a whole pan of toasted marshmallows.  

Hoping your 4th of July celebration is sweet! --Ann--