Well, we aren't completely finished because we are still working on the backs of our quilts (which will be revealed in time!), but here are pictures from our Quilt Show where we first displayed them.

It's been such a fun journey!

This is mine.

This is Annie's

Annie's other project.....

Here is what Annie has been working on....her beautiful Patriotic Quilt!  It's been in the works for a couple of years.  There are so many elements to it, so many people who have blessed her with ideas and patterns and fabric.  Now it is basted and she started on the quilting this past weekend.

These are taken at our basting party a few weeks ago!

Getting it stretched on the frame.

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Jeannie, applique artist extraordinaire, who helped design some of the elements.

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Those are presidential portraits in the corners, liberty bells at the top,

Independence Hall and the Mayflower under the wreath

that houses "We the People...." from the Constitution.

"We hold these truths to be self evident......"

from the Declaration of Independence

runs around the sides and top of the quilt.

It is surely destined to be an heirloom.

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Annie and Jeannie, long-time friends.

Spectacular, Annie!

Six Months......

Today I realized it's been six months since I last posted here!  Yikes.

Well, Annie and I have had other things on the burner during this time.  First was Thanksgiving and Christmas, and then it was our quilt show.  All of that is behind us now and we are looking at our blocks again!

But I thought I'd put up some pictures of the things we've accomplished on other fronts.  So here goes.....

Annie completed her "Everlasting" quilt in time for our quilt show.  It is absolutely lovely.  On the label on the back, she has verses that contain the word "everlasting."  It's very cool.  She's working on something else, too, which will be revealed in due time!

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I finished my "Sunbonnet Sue" that has been in the works since 1938.  (No joke.  The story is below.)  And I do love it.

Sunbonnet Sue & Overall Sam

Helen Moe (December 8, 1895 – March, 1948) the maternal aunt of my mother, Winifred Brown Thompson (February 25, 1931 – February 28, 2005) made this quilt as a gift for her when Mom was about 7 years of age. It was treasured for years, both at home and at our family cabin in Pinecrest, California. After the sale of the cabin in the late 1970s, the quilt disappeared for several years, then resurfaced again in 2006 when I found in in my grandfather's barn. As can be imagined, it was in great need of cleaning and restoration.

When I took it apart, I discovered that the batting was a flannel sheet on which old woolen sweaters had been stitched after being taken apart. One of them had been my uncle's, another my mother's – very much a product of the Depression.

I soaked the top and backing in Oxi-Clean to remove dirt and stains, which worked beautifully. The original construction was tied, and had turned in edges with no binding. The tying had left holes in the top which I repaired with small pieces cut from the edges of the top and bottom borders. Some of the appliqued pieces had frayed and the buttonhole stitching had been lost, so I repaired as many of those as I could without replacing any of the original fabrics.

After the repair work was finished and the quilt reassembled, I hand-quilted around each figure and block, and then at the urging of many of my quilt group friends, cross-hatched the blocks and borders and used a twisted rope pattern between and around the outside of the blocks. The only things not original to the quilt are the cotton batting and the binding, which is a reproduction fabric close in color to the original 1930s green.

Truly, this has been a labor of love and will be treasured for years to come.

Top and back pieced and appliqued by

Helen Moe ~ Circa 1938 ~ Berkeley, California

Restored and hand-quilted by

Debbie MacInnis ~ 2011-2014 ~ Chehalis, Washington

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I've also been working on my son's Log Cabin Star quilt and it's about to be basted.  I've used reproduction fabrics for it and I'm so pleased with it.  So is my son!

And I'm doing my first Block of the Month.  The Kansas City Star is publishing this one and each block pattern is free for one week each month at PickleDish.com.  I've downloaded each of them so far, and have completed the first two blocks and am working on the third.  I'm using Civil War reproduction fabrics for them, as well.  It's called Where Poppies Grow: Remembering Almo.  This is my first quilt that includes applique.

So, before long, we hope to have more to show for our work on our Civil War Sampler Quilts!

Missing Blocks!

I just went through the blog and checked to see if there were blocks I had missed sharing.  Lo and behold, there are several!  So, here they are!

Richmond

This was one of the first ones I made.  Not sure why I missed posting it!

Star of the West

Annie made this one.  Love the colors.

True Blue

This one we determined needed to take a "blue" spot, given its name!

Port and Starboard

A "Red & Blue"

Blockade

Another "Red & Blue"

Now that our blocks are almost completely finished, we've filled the design wall with them.  We think we have a pretty good idea of what we want to do for the layout, sashing, borders, etc.  I messed around in Photoshop with pictures of our blocks and tried different background colors, different borders, and so forth. 

My biggest challenge was trying to get the blocks to "pop" and not blend into the sashing and borders.  What seems to work the best is to edge each block with a strip that is lighter than any of our other "lights" which separates it from the dark background and from the colors in each block.

Annie had thought that 4-patches would be a good addition at the corners of each block, and I came to agree with her.  I added them to the Photoshop layout and it really dressed it up.

So, this is where I think I'm going with mine.  Dark blue background, red and taupe 4-patches at the block corners, a red inner border and blue outer border.  I like how it makes the blocks "float."  Annie is thinking of doing something similar, with a lighter blue for the background.

So, there's an update on where we are.  I think things will slow down even more as we coast into fall here.  There is much on our plates with the change in the seasons and the holidays fast approaching.  At least they seem to be to me when I look at the list of things I hope to get made before then!

Happy Stitching!

The Evolution of "Lincoln's Platform"

When we started this quilt, I would never have guessed this block to be one that would cause us problems.  But it has been the one with the most changes!

Here is the progression:

On this one, the blue bothered me.

It just didn't seem to relate well with the rest of the fabrics.

So, we changed the blue to this one.

But then the pink began bothering me.

It just didn't go with the rest of the reds in the other blocks.

So we changed the red to this.

But then there just wasn't enough contrast in the block.

So we changed it up and gave it more contrast.

But it still wasn't enough between the red and brown.

So we did this.

And I think we're going to keep it!

Five versions later!!!

Closing In!!

We have a few more to post here.....we are truly getting close to the final blocks.  We have two more to complete and we'll be finished.  Wow!  Annie has said all along that she hoped we'd get the blocks completed by the beginning of September, and we just may do it.

Last weekend was a rough time for me, and one of the things that helps me in times of difficulty is to create. So, I spent quite a bit of time with browns and golds and reds and blues and came up with these, which thankfully Annie likes, too.   And just a heads-up here.  Annie and I both love a good pinwheel.  :-)

Peace and Plenty

Pinwheel-Square-in-a-Square-in-a-Square

Pretty cool.  At least we think so!

Yankee Puzzle

This is also a "Broken Dishes" pattern.

The header at the top of the page is a

Broken Dishes quilt in Civil War reproduction fabrics,

and you can see the pinwheel-play in it.

Ladies' Aid Album

The original block just didn't do it for us.

It looked smashed together or something.

So this is what we decided would work.

The outer border "light" fabric was replaced with dark blue.

Louisiana

And these two show the remake of "Louisiana."

The original red and blue just weren't working for us.

Original

Remake

And here is the Design Wall in its current state.

The empty spot left of center and just below middle

will be filled by our Log Cabin block which is undergoing a face-lift.

The other two spots will have blue- and red-dominant blocks in residence.

So then, next time I'm going to document the

"Evolution of Lincoln's Platform,"

the most elusive of our blocks to come to completion!

We've been making progress.......

It's been awhile since I've sat down to document our progress.  I'm just going to do a few blocks tonight, and hopefully a few more tomorrow.

We keep thinking we're on our last blocks, and then we decide we need to change some and take away a few, and add in some more.  :-)  As we're "living with" the blocks on the design wall, we're finding we want to refine it a bit more.  So, on we go.

Since my last post, I've put together the ones I showed in their early stages.  We've decided to keep all four the way they are.  That's becoming a rarity, we're finding!

So, here they are.....

Ohio Star

I really liked being able to showcase the cool print in the center block.

Apple Tree

Red and Golden Apples as we head into

apple season here in the Northwest!

Grapes of Wrath

I was pleased with how the basket came out with fussy-cutting the foulard print.

The print wasn't on-grain, so I had to mess with it a bit.

Christmas Star

This enabled us to use quite a few greens we like,

as well as the fun paisley in the outer pieces.

It's a little washed-out in the picture, but it's beautiful.

And Annie has been busy, as well.  Here are some of hers that she finished in the past couple of weeks.

Tea Leaf

The browns are beautiful.  I really like this one.

Union

Look at the  beautiful points she did!

We find ourselves using this background print a lot.

It's from the General's Wives collection by Nancy Gere from Windham Fabrics.

We happened to ask at a wonderful reproduction fabric shop

as to whether she had any of this fabric, and she said,

"Well, I think I may have some in the back.  I've been hoarding it!"

Voila!  She was willing to sell us some and we're so glad she did.

Railroad Crossing

This one was supposed to use two different fabrics in the four outer squares,

but we wanted to use this cool border print instead. 

We like how it came out.  And the red and brown just look so rich!

So, that's it for now.  More to come!  We are hoping to have all of our blocks finished by the 1st of September, and it's looking pretty good from here!