Baby Quilt goes to the Animals

This week between peeling mangoes, I was busy sewing a baby quilt using Bunny Hill Designs free pattern, My Sweet Baby.  I wanted to give the quilt an old fashioned look because I'm using 3o's fabrics, so I decided to add embroidery animal corner blocks.  I found some great animal pattern blocks in this book.I can't read Japanese so I'm guessing the title of this book is Really Cute Baby Quilts.  The great thing is you can trace a pattern to use without knowing any Japanese.  Outline embroidery like this is so easy.  It's just like coloring with crayons.

My favorite is this chipmunk. 

Here's the blocks all together waiting for their new home in the baby quilt. 

I will post a picture of the finished quilt as soon as those darn ripe mangoes quit dropping from the trees.  

Dreaming of a Special Sort of Friend

A sort of Pooh like day today, it's hot and I'm lazy. I need to finish basting a quilt.  But first a visit to the hundred acre wood and a Pooh like quilt. I found these Winnie the Pooh quilt blocks thrifting and I tried to fit them together best I can (as Pooh would say) and this is the result. The Eeyore block I couldn't fit on the front went on the back.  I felt bad there was a leftover piece, but my special sort of friend was glad for the something to take to the beach to lay on.  

Quilt Show & Fabric Bingo

The quilt show this last weekend was full of fun and educational too. Thursday night, Carolyn Gregory gave a lecture about the Prince Albert Quilt Collection that comprises the antique quilts purchased for decorating the Princeville hotel when it originally opened.  The hotel has now given them to the Prince Albert Foundation to care for them.  It was great to see such a wonderful quilt collection up close.

This breadfruit (ulu) quilt was made for the Presidential Suite of the hotel.  It was made in 1985.This quilt is two-color quilt is from the early 1800's.  A traditional Hawaiian quilt unknown pattern with exquisite quilting.  Show & tell and buying door prize tickets were both popular activities at the show. This is a group quilt the No Nene Quilters made for one of our quilt sisters. My favorite night was fabric bingo night.  We played for prizes donated by local sponsors using Hawaiian themed quilt bingo cards.  For example, grandmother's flower garden was tutu's garden and friendship star was ohana (family) star.  Each square marker was a hand pieced origami fabric square with a bead in the center.  So fancy!

With this image of a early Hawaiian flag quilt from the Prince Albert Collection I'll say "a hui ho" until next year from the North Shore Quilt Show.

Book Sale Discovery

We have a great library in our area the Princeville Library. The Friends of the Library hold a book sale every 6 months to raise funds to buy new books.  I thought the last thing I needed was another book, but thinking there might be some home improvement books to help with our cottage restoration we went to the book sale.  My husband found a The Home Depot Home Improvement Book and we needed that.This book caught his eye, and I said that was more my style than the Orange Home Depot book, so I purchased it. When I got home and started reading the book, I noticed an inscription in the front of book, it read " To Mr. C.H. Porter with all good wishes E.T. Meredith" Des Moines, Iowa December 1926. Just some old gentlemen gifting another, I thought. Then I reached the back of the book with this Christmas Greetings from E.T. Meredith.  For anyone that doesn't know who this is, he is founder of Better Homes and Gardens and his company Meredith Corporation still publishes this magazine and many more like Ladies Home Journal.Can you tell I'm a fan of the PBS show "History Detectives"? Before his untimely death at 51 in 1928 Mr. Meredith was being considered as a Presidential candidate.  The author of the book Chelsa C. Sherlock was also first editor of Better Homes & Gardens.  The book has nice descriptions of historic houses with pictures like this one of Harriet Beecher Stowe' s house.  I contacted the Meredith Corporation and I got a nice e-mail from Mell Meredith's assistant that they would like me to donate this to their archival library.  Her assistant said they got a chuckle the book made a trip to Hawaii.  I feel like a real official history detective with this library book sale find.

Hawaiian Dis 'n Dat

Last weekend I came across an old quilt top I hadn't finished made from vintage scraps a tutu or "grandmother" had pieced already in strips for me.  I finished it for the quilt show this weekend at the Church of the Pacific in Princeville.  Since all quilts good enough to hang in show must have a name, I had to come up with one. The tapa cloth reminded me of party platters and the fabric of bright pupus or appetizers at a luau. This cookbook had a special chapter called "Dis 'n Dat" with little bits of everything contained in its' pages.I should explain "dis 'n dat" is Hawaiian pidgin for "this and that".  This is a perfect name for a quilt with a little bit of everything in it including some poi colored fabric. The "Dis 'n Dat"  quilt will be on display at the quilt show this weekend come by for a closer look.  I'll even share some recipes from the Pupu Party Planner cookbook!

Historic Cottage & Mangoes

Back to work for at least 2 more weeks on the cottage and this is the result.  The inside still needs some professional help.  

Here's our historic plaque from the city of Cheney it is brass and very heavy so we still have to figure out what wall can hold it.Over the mountains back to Seattle.  It was a bright and sunny day.  Sorry for the buggy windshield it is summer after all. Back in Seattle we spent a day at Pike Place Market shopping. 

The quilt store Undercover Quilts is there. Even though it is small, the store has lots of variety and many finished quilts on display. 

Mary Downes' Bark Park quilt was displayed in the window.   This store is a must stop for me whenever I'm is Seattle.   

Flowers everywhere was the theme of the day at Pike Place Market.

After an activity filled vacation we are back on Kauai just in time for mango season.  The Kauai quilt show is next week I'm going to be demonstrating Hawaiian quilting there.  I looking forward to a busy, fun summer.

Break Day from Restoring Cottage

Today we took a break from painting and explored around the towns of Post Falls & Coeur d 'Alene. First stop was Caife Cistin.To enjoy some Chinese green tea and Mexican spice mocha while enjoying the trendy atmosphere of Post Falls.

This  small coffee shop in Post Falls even has dandelion jelly!  We also explored the local thrift shops in both towns. This was such a colorful mural I had to get a picture of it. I bought this German thimble at Wiggetts the antique mall in Coeur d 'Alene. I have found that good thimbles are cheaper at thrift stores and even antique malls than than at regular sewing shops. This antique thimble cost $8.00 and is sterling silver.  

The thimble is sitting on wallpaper from the Cheney cottage.

The paper was backed with muslin on the wall. I can't believe the wallpaper still is vibrant after all these years. 

  I arrived at Bear Paw Quilting before they opened to get a good parking space.  You can tell I'm still not use to the cold weather yet. I purchased this block of the month pattern for $2.00  (the umbrella material was included) and made this three dimensional pin wheel block. I mailed this quilt block back to the store to enter the drawing for pin wheel blocks other quilters have made. I  hope I win.