Cheddar Baskets

My newest quilt, Make Mine Cheddar, made for the American Quilt Study Group's 2016 19th Century Basket Quilt Study. Every 2 years, the AQSG has a quilt study on a specific topic and one finds an antique inspiration quilt to reproduce in a small size (42" or smaller). I picked a cheddar orange Mennonite basket quilt from the late 1800s (see below). I chose to recreate it in 1/2 scale - 1/2 sized blocks (5") and 1/2 the number of blocks.

Make Mine Cheddar
31" x 31"
Sandra Starley

The original had only 3 fabrics but I'm a scrappy gal and so I used a different set of fabrics for each basket and then used all of those in the border. So I went from 3 fabrics to 27.

I paperpieced the baskets and sawtooth border and hand appliqued the handles. I machine quilted in the ditch to stabilize and then hand quilted the heck out of it with hearts, lines, and feathers.

1890 Mennonite Baskets
Southeastern PA
Starley Antique Collection

Day 13 Modern Cheddar Stars

 Post 26 of the month between the 2 blogs - wowza!

Today is another cheddar stars quilt made for the Riley Blake Challenge charity fundraiser with the 2010 Home Machine Quilting Show. It is also inspired by the same antique cheddar star quilt that inspired my cheddar repro shared on day 9. This version is modern and larger scale with 5 inch stars instead of 3 inches. It is a quick and fun pattern and work in all types of fabrics.  The pattern is available in my etsy shop.

The Riley Blake fabric was pretty wild with large polka dots, stripes, paisleys and pink, orange, red, green, etc. One day the fabric was sitting next to some solid cheddar fabric for another project and VOILA!!

Not sure why or how but the cheddar actually calmed down the busy fabrics. It still looks a bit wild but wait until you see it with my inspiration- an antique quilt in my collection. Here is a bit of the challenge quilt and the inspiration quilt together: I love how they are so different and similar at the same time.

Another detail-

The full Riley Blake Quilt 

2010  Sandra Starley
 29" x 29"

day 12 Folk Art

I still get a kick out of this little folk art scene! My original Design. Hand appliqued and hand quilted.

If you'd like to try you hand at this one, the pattern is available at my etsy shop.

Folk art -art made by us folks- doesn't have to follow stuffy rules like size or scale. It is okay to make a giant sunflower and a cat as big as a purple house. Sewn with a running/gather top stitch that adds a decorative detail to the appliques. It is relaxing to not worry about hiding stitches.

Full quilt is 16" x 16"

I echo quilted around the appliques and added in a sun in the corner. I used variegated thread to add interest.

day 11 - Q is for Quilt

Another one of my favorite quilts is this miniature made for the Quilt Alliance Crazy Quilt Challenge. It won an Honorable Mention in the challenge.

Q is for Quilt. I still remember how long it took to stitch each of those little * in the swag - yes, it was by machine but still slow and yet FUN!!! These are like before/after pics.

Here's what the paperpieced letters look like before they get the decorative stitching/quilting. I use 2

 layers of batting and embroider and quilt at the same time.

Love creating word play quilts and you can see I took the "Crazy Quilt" challenge quite literally!

The full quilt is only 16" x 16" with 120 different fabrics - YES'm you read that right. I squeezed in a lot of fabrics in a small quilt. It is a easy quilt to make and there is a pattern available. Email me for details or wait a few days for me to get it on my etsy shop.

day 10 - Swingin' Bird

This little bird still makes me smile. My original design. Made for the Beatles Challenge, it illustrates one of their earlier songs: "And Your Bird Can Sing". It is touring the country. It was shown last year at the Houston quilt show.

The song says the bird is green and swings so I put her on a swing and made lots of notes. Fusible/machine applique and machine quilting. My sister did the applique (my plan of doing hand applique was derailed by an accident) and I did the quilting. She also donated some cool rainbow shoelaces which I used for the swing - they were the perfect touch, Another great detail is the appliqued frog in the bottom right - my Mom cut into her favorite frog fabric :) I also like the eye cut from a dotted fabric and the rickrack legs and the flower buttons too.

"And Your Bird Can Sing"
Sandra Starley 2013

The backing is awesome 1970s vintage floral gingham fabric. Back in the day, my Mom made me a canopy bed cover and quilt from this fabric. It was fun to use some of the leftover fabric many years later.

You can see my Bird and 149 of its friends in the Beatles Book from Schiffer publishing.

Day 9 Antique Makeover

On of my favorite antique updates is this Cheddar Star quilt: "Cheddar Stars Over Moab". The quilt was juried into the big quilt show, AQS Paducah, KY in the miniature category and was patterned in the American Quilt Study Group's 19th Century Stars Book.  Want to try your hand at this fun pattern?  It is available at my etsy shop.

Miniature repro 20  x 24 

Machine pieced and hand quilted

my hand quilted repro with 3 inch blocks

Here's the full size antique inspiration from my antique collection

Ohio Stars from Ohio c. 1890

74" x 87"

auditioning fabrics is an essential step in creating an accurate reproduction

Day 7 - Arrows Redone

I've Got the Blues But Things are Looking Up - reproduction of antique arrow quilt in my collection. Made for the Quilt Alliance (Alliance for American Quilts challenge).

Old and New

16" x 16"

Yes, those little arrows are tiny 1" squares

Day 6ish - Eagle Challenge

Day 6 (ish) or close enough

Thought I'd share my reproduction eagle quilt. Made for the Eagle Quilts by Decades Project and featured on the cover of the Eagle Quilt book!

Detail of reproduction eagle pillar print.

The full quilt.

The antique inspiration. Bird toile (blue and white) from 1790! English fabric.

Day 3 - Art and Old Lace

Day 3 - here is one of my favorite word play quilts.

Literally Challenging
18" x 18"

To read more about this quilt, 

day 2 Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks

Sew excited to have my block published in the newest edition of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks magazine, Volume 12.

It was fun to create this Echoing Churn Dash block and play with repeating the churn through the block. It was hard to keep it under wraps for most of the year but happy to finally be able to share it.
Enjoy.

Echoing Churn Dash 12 1/2" (unfinished)
Sandra Starley 2015

It was also fun to participate in the official blog tour on my 2nd blog.

Quilty Blogathon

Here we go on the journey of a month of blogging -- or in my case, more like 2 months, since I have 2 blogs :)
I've accepted the challenge issued by my friend Muppin, aka Cheryl Sleboda to write/post/blog every day in December.
To join in or to visit other quilty bloggers, here's the challenge link
http://muppin.com/wordpress/index.php/the-31-day-blog-writing-challenge/

And to see my other December blogathon, visit my antique quilt page.

For your daily smile:

Detail of my Beatles Challenge quilt
"And Your Bird Can Sing"

And Your Bird Can Sing
2013, Sandra Starley

Bloggers Quilt Festival - Art Quilts

Literally Challenging
Original Design
18" x 18"
Wools, Cottons, Lace

 This quilt recently came home after traveling for several years to national quilt shows with the Arts and Old Lace Challenge sponsored by Artistic Artifacts in VA.  I love Bloggers Quilt Festival time which is a great reminder to make and share ART

Here is what was included in the challenge packet: 2 sets of salesman's samples. Greys and black suitings and then summery stripes and woven checks, as well as laces and buttons.

I really enjoy paper piecing and making "word play" quilts using my own patterns.  I used more than 105 different fabrics from the packet and a lace for the ampersand. I only added 2 vintage laces and a woven tape binding (thanks Mom, for all 3).

OKAY, now time to see the rest of the Bloggers Quilt Festival quilts - enjoy. If you like my quilt you can vote this week at the viewers choice link or check back in a week and vote for it at the Art Quilts page.

Spring 2015 Bloggers Quilt Festival Page is HERE.

Art Quilts Page is HERE

Vote for Viewer's Choice HERE Nominations- May 15-21

VOTE for your Favorites in each category May 22-29
Winners Announced May 30, 2015

Travels with Cheddar

In case, you are wondering what you've missed if you couldn't come see me at my various quilt appraising and teaching events, I thought I'd share a few pictures from my booth at the Home Machine Machine Quilting Show.

More of the booth with the c. 1885 Variable Star quilt along with my reproduction Mod Cheddar Stars and the c. 1870 Four Eagle Quilt from Pennsylvania.  By the way the pattern for the Star quilt is available at my Etsy Store 

And here's the full booth shot with even more cheddar fun.  Remember me when you need a guild speaker, trunk show or quilt class.  Hope to see you soon

Quilt Alliance - Twenty Contest- Voting open for 2 days

Voting for the 2013 Quilt Alliance Contest is now open (formerly the Alliance for American Quilts).  But only until Midnight Eastern, Saturday June 29th.  My entry is quilt #88, It's All About the Dots.  It is machine paper pieced from my own patterns and machine quilted/embroidered in crazy quilt fashion.  Yet another in my series of Word Play/Literally Challenging Quilts.  I hope you will consider voting for me.

You must be a member to vote but you may be able to still join in time (on line).  The Alliance is an excellent organization that does much to preserve the history of American Quilts.  You can join the Alliance via credit card or paypal, it is only $25.00 (tax deductible) and it a good cause.

It was fun to make even though the 2 inch blocks were a bit challenging

It was fun finding the perfect novelty fabrics to fit in the teeny blocks, like the dog above and the cat below.

                                                              And here is the full quilt

                                                   "It's All About the Dots"  20" x 20"

Creating

This spring's project: a quilt for the Arts and Old Lace Challenge

"Literally Challenging"  Another one of my 'wordy' quilts.

18" x 18", machine foundation pieced (my own patterns)

Arts and Old Lace Challenge

I used lots of decorative stitches on my machine to add decoration and quilting at the same time.  The suiting fabrics esp. had such a crazy quilt feel that at my Mom's suggestion I added crazy quilt fans to the corners. 

An original design.  Obviously inspired by the challenge title.  Part of my series of "word play" quilts -- quilts that have something to say.  The name also notes the very challenging nature of the fabrics - much more difficult to sew than my beloved cotton.s

I used fabric ONLY from the 2 salesman sample books:  one with formal Italian suitings, the other with light summery woven (more than 105 different fabrics were used in the 18 inch quilt).  I used the challenge packet lace for the "&" but added 2 vintage laces from my Mom's stash.  She also found the woven coat binding - the perfect finishing touch.

   

Here's the challenge packet:

And here's a detail of the quilting:

The exhibit opened on July 21st at Artistic Artifacts, Alexandria, Virginia and the 87 quilts from 80 artists will be on display there until the end of September.  The exhibit will then travel to various locations.
Contact Cyndi Souder for information on how to get the quilts shown at your quilt show, museum, art gallery, etc.