Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Hawks and a Plaid

I've been quilting and quilting on Orphan Train. I started in the lower right corner with my fans and I'm not only quilting to the right, but going upwards as well. I just need two completed fan sets to serve as a base for the one above them.

Hovering Hawks block is finished.

As are some of the flying geese above them. Ooh, and the year '05. I've definitely been working on this quilt a long time. My whole quilting life if you count when I started the blocks.

I can't even remember what I was planning on doing with the geese, but I made a few of them and then never put them together until I made this quilt. I didn't worry about points on these guys. If you look closely you'll notice some of them have been sliced off. Doesn't matter one bit, but I know lots of quilters really stress out about something like that.

See that wild fabric on the goose in the middle? That's a Jinny Beyer fabric that I LOVED when I bought it (in the early 1990's?) and never used very much of because I hated to cut into it. And now I hate the rough texture of the fabric and the colors look too washed out. Use the fabric that you love, while you love it. Don't save it for the perfect quilt.

On the same topic, here is a fabric that I loved when I bought and still do to this day. Wish I had loads more of it. I bought this plaid when I went to Quilt Expo Europa in The Hague, Netherlands, back in 1994. I think it's actually Dutch fabric since I bought it from the Irma's Sampler booth. I think. That was a few years ago... Anyway, it's a thick woven fabric, not one of those gauzy plaids you can find sometimes.

Pokey, utterly wiped out:

We've had sunshine here, which is welcome. Just with the temperature wasn't hovering barely above freezing.

11 comments:

Clare said...

It's funny how tastes change over the years. Even though I haven't been quilting that long, I wonder why I ever purchased some of the fabrics. Bit to flowery for my liking now.

Definitely cats curling up on jumpers weather!

Tazzie said...

Your quilting is just stunning Tonya, beautiful work.
*hugs*
Tazzie
:-)

dutchcomfort said...

I love your flying geeze and the sleeping beauty!

Joyce said...

You can never tell which fabrics will be easy to match up with others. Some I bought thinking I'd never use them and they just look good with everything. Others I still like but find them hard to make work with the other fabrics I have for some reason. I definitely agree that we should use the ones we love and not save them for some perfect day that never comes.

Unknown said...

I've got TONS of fabric that isn't quite to my taste anymore. I'm working some of it into quilt backs but the fact remains that when I'm dead, my kids will have one heck of a mess to clear out.

Susan said...

I like that plaid, too. It's interesting how well all these blocks go together. =)

Sandy's Quilter's Block said...

I think we all buy beautiful fabrics thinking we'll love it forever, but the day comes when the shelves won't hold anymore and you end up boxing most of it up to give to charity. That's what I do anyway. However, I always go buy more and dream about the wonderful quilts to come out of it.
:o)
Love the picture of Pokey, she looks like she's sucking on the tip of her tail....so cute!

Finn said...

Hey Ton, great minds running in the same channels...LOL. I just added a daily link to you as I was talking about how much I love hand quilting..*VBS* Didn't know you were posting about it, as I've been missing in action in blogland!
Hurray for getting the Orphan Train quilt basted!!! Love what you are doing. The fans never seem to get old...keepin' the faith baby!
Hugs for you and the furrie ones! Finn

Magpie Sue said...

I want to curl up with Pokey :- )
It would be even better with your quilt on top of me!

sewprimitive karen said...

Oh, what a tired kitty. Merry Christmas, Tonya!

Patti said...

I had a bunch of that Jinny Beyer print also. Her designs were so different than everything else being produced at that time. I bought lots an dlots of it. Luckily I think I did use up most all of it, because it's not something I'd get now. And you are so right - the quality of the fabrics we have today is so superior to those from that era.