Sailing Ships

I repaired a very, very worn basket quilt made in the 1880s or 90s.  It was so tattered that all I could do was put on a new back and stitch what was left to the new backing for support. 

The background and alternate blocks fabric was wonderful.  It's a conversation print with detailed masted sailing ships and anchors.  The designs are about 3/4" tall.  Here's one of the alternate blocks that was still intact.

Such a fun fabric!  I'm getting more and more into collecting conversation prints.

Button Heaven

For those of you, who are like me, totally addicted to Buttons, the Warther Museum is a must-see.  At the very least, it's an idea for what to do with all the button jars and boxes that I can't help myself from buying!

Here's the intro to the Button House section of the museum from the website:

"Freida Warther spent her life button collecting and amassed over 100,000 while creating a unique display of 73,282 buttons on the walls and ceilings of her button house in Dover, OH.

Freida began button collecting at the age of 10 and collected for the next 83 years. She collected about every type of button including: hand-painted ceramic buttons, Goodyear rubber buttons, pearl buttons, brass military buttons, celluloid buttons, calico buttons and even a button from Mrs. Lincoln's Inaugural Dress.

After her children were grown, Freida started laying her buttons out in her own unique designs and quilt patterns. Once the buttons were laid out, she sewed all the buttons onto the boards by hand."

The actual focus of the museum seems to be wood carving:

"The Warther wood carving musuem is the home to over 64 model trains all carved to exacting detail. Mooney Warther loved the steam engine and at the age of 28 he began carving the history of the steam engine. In addition there are numerous smaller wood carvings including, walking canes, plaques, and "whittlings" on display at the wood carving museum."

These two were certainly a creative and interesting couple!  The gallery has photos of both the carved trains and Frieda with her buttons.  I do love buttons!

Family History

Today marks what would be my mother's 100th birthday.  In honor of her and my dad, whose 100th I missed a few years ago, I'm posting these photos.

These portraits, taken shortly after their marriage in 1946, stood on my mom's dresser.

My mom was born and raised in Chicago.  I love this photo of my infant mom and my grandma, 1916.  Isn't my grandma's hat perfectly huge?

Hugs and Kisses Crib Quilt

One of my best friends just became a Grandma!  I've known her son, the new papa, since before he was born, as the saying goes.  So a crib quilt was in order.

I saw this quilt on Pinterest.  Such a cute idea for a baby quilt, and also fun with lots of scraps, which I have aplenty.  The pattern and instructions can be found at Moda Bake Shop. 

These are 4 16" blocks plus sashing and borders, ending up with a 40" square quilt.

And here's the handsome little fellow at a week and a half old, already knowing exactly what to do with his quilt!

And by the way, if you are interested in following this family saga, the happy parents were the recipients of the wedding quilt I wrote about a few years ago.

Paintings by Ella Gardner

My friend's grandmother Ella Gardner was a prolific painter.  And she also made quilts.  She painted lovely scenes of rural Wisconsin life, her Amish neighbors, and my favorites of course, quilters doing what we do best - making and loving our quilts.

There is an exhibit of Ella Gardner's paintings up now through  March 12 at the Steenbock Gallery in Madison, WI.  The Wisconsin Regional Arts Program has created a lovely page about Ella Gardner and her art. 

Quilting Party

Rescuing a Double 9-Patch

Here's a nice old quilt with two large, dog-chewed holes.  Needless to say, this is never a happy circumstance....

The first step was adding new cotton batting, basting down the raw edges of the holes on both front and back.  After that, I patched the back with a solid blue. 

    

   

Mushrooms!

I found this delightful fabric on the back of a cotton crazy quilt.  The top was probably pieced in the 1950s, but I think this backing was applied a little later.  The color palette says 1970s to me.

It's really silly and happy, isn't it?

The cluster of mushrooms measures 1 1/2" tall.

The quilt was very, very damaged.  The backing and batting were mostly torn and gaping in many places, and lots of the top had barely a single piece of intact fabric.  I did manage to salvage and mend a few corner areas for keepsakes.   And I found enough fabric intact on the back to take a couple of photos for my (and I hope your) enjoyment!