Reproducing doll quilts and a survey

If you follow my blog you have seen that I have had fun reproducing doll quilts from the book Childhood Treasures.  (Kathie has also reproduced and shown several on her blog).  Now it is time for me to turn to reproducing some antique doll quilts from my own collection.  Here is the first, which I may have shown you previously.  What I didn't show you before was the original antique doll quilt, which I was able to recently acquire.   The original measures 11.5" x 10"; mine is 11" x 11".  How did I do? I love the way it turned out, although I could have made the border a little wider to be more in proportion to the original.

 A close-up of the antique quilt shows that it has a lot of wear perhaps it was well loved and used by a little girl.  I would date this to ca. 1870.  Also notice that the antique quilt is machine quilted.  Whenever I see a machine quilted antique doll quilt I feel that it supports my use of machine quilting as legitimate, and not a crime against quilt history.

SURVEY TIME  I am thinking about doing a book which will present some of my antique doll quilts and patterns to reproduce them.  I would appreciate if you would answer a few questions about this in your comments.  Please give me your gut response, negative or positive.

1.  Would you be interested in a book that presents 8-12 antique doll quilts and patterns to reproduce them?

2.  Would you prefer if I did my version of the quilt using new reproduction fabrics or would my use of antique fabrics be ok?

3.  Would you prefer a series of indivial patterns to a book?

4.  What else would you want to see in such a book?  Color options?  Size options? 

5.  Additional comments?

Thanks in advance; your feedback is really appreciated!

This and that

The quilt lab has a new cutting mat.  It is soooo beautiful and soooo big--a whopping 24" x 36". And it was on sale at Joanne Fabrics for 40% off.

I've been playing around with more half square triangles.

Chaos

 Order

I hung up a pretty fall quilt in the quilt lab.  This is a crib quilt, dating to around 1860-1870.  The brown and cheddar fabrics are solids, the green is a calico print.  One of my favorites.

fall decor

 A gift from my sister-in-law.

Five little pumpkins just for me.

Craft Show Pix

I had a nice time this weekend participating in the PA Guild of Craftsmen show.  It was quite windy which caused me problems with my display, because evern though I was in a big tent, the wind found my booth.  After a trip to Lowe's for 4 heavy paving stones and implementation of plan B set up, things went smoothly.

 My son (tall one)handing out programs in the morning.  It takes a lot of volunteers to make this show happen.

A nice setting

I was in the big tent; my back door

 My booth

 I love those vintage hangers.

 Pumpkins were popular.

I'm beat; it's time to watch the Phillies.  They lost last night, so here's looking forward to a better performance tonight.

Pumpkin Panic of 2010

After positive feedback from my pumpkin-buying friend, I made 18 more pumpkins.  Brought them into work to show another gal, who brought another gal with her, and now I am left with 6 pumpkins for my show two days from now.  I stitched up more last night, but they need to be stuffed and finished.  I also ran out of ceratin fabrics (it's not like I can run to the local quilt shop for more antique fabric) and had to pull out some alternates.  I know how the banks must have felt in 1929.

Finishing Touches

Labels need to be sewn on the back of a few more quilts.

A few pumpkins need to be sewn up.

Boxes need to be packed.

 Displays need to be readied.

I think I might keep this little pumpkin.  It looks so perfect on my tiny green chair.

I've been bad

I went to a big antique show yesterday in Oaks, PA, at the same venue as the recent quilt show.  Only the antique show was 3 times bigger than the quilt show--advertisements said 500 dealers, and that's what it felt like.  I was searching for vintage hangers for my little quilts, and found exactly zero.  I probably need to hit the more flea-markety sales out at Adamstown. By the way on the drive out to Oaks, I passed a huge bill board (on of those new fangled electronic ones but still the size of a tradtional billboard) advertising the craft show I am going to be in next Saturday and Sunday.  I've got to hand it the the Guild, they really advertise--hope that translates into lots of customers!!

I didn't come home empty handed--this is where the being bad comes in.  I happened across some pillowcases.  I did have the courage to pass them by the first time, but on my way out I just had to stop again.  The dealer gave me such a great price on the pair, that I had to buy the singleton, too.

Do I need a pc-hoarding intervention?

I think the single case might be a little earlier, ca. 1870, while the pair is probably 1880. 

Playing around with primitive pumpkins

Besides quilts and ornaments, I thought I needed a few fall items for my show.  Inspired by many blogs, especially Lori's HomeSpunPrims, I came up with these little primitive pumpkins.  They are made from antique calicos and antique white linen.  The largest one is about 4.5 inches tall, not including the stem.  They are stuffed, but need to lean--they don't stand up by themselves.  I brought these three to show a friend at work to get her opinion and she bought them immediately.  Now that's positive feedback.  Guess I will make some more.

Big Stack of Little Quilts

I finished the last two quilts for Oct 16/17 show.  Yay!

I follow Temecula Quilt Company's blog.  In a recent post, Sheryl showed lots of photos around her house.  I loved her idea of using vintage wooden clothes hangers as quilt hangers, so I tried it out.

 I love the look.

Making progress

I am quilting my last two quilts today.  This one is ready to start quilting.

This one is almost done.  My new favorite way to quilt certain quilts is to divide it into 4 sections via diagaonal lines from corner to corner.  Then I fill in each quadrant with chevrons, in this case, 3/4 inch apart.  I use 1/4 inch quilters tape t mark my lines, then stitch right along the tape edge.

 My box of ornaments and hand sewing supplies that I take into the living to sew while watching TV, lately baseball games.

 Here is an antique PA pillowcase that I just hung up for the fall.  With this type of wooden compression hanger makes it easy to change what's on display.  This pillowcase dates to ca. 1870.