Sunrise Quilt Studio

This is the quilt I used the hand-dyed fabrics in. It is a Melinda Bula pattern from her book "Cutting Garden Quilts." I learned a lot from making this quilt using Melinda's technique and will use this technique in future quilts. Thank you Melinda!

I'm starting a new quilt and after searching through my stash, I realized I didn't have much to choose from. I've never had a large stash of fabric, always buying what I needed for each project. As a result, the majority of my stash is scraps. For this project I decided to dye the fabrics I needed. These are my dyed fabric samples. I have 12 containers that I've numbered, and the numbers correspond to the recipes and the swatches. I've fused the swatches to a page in my sketch book using Wonder Under. I write down my recipes for each color on a piece of notebook paper, then put both pages into a 3 ring binder. I used to just dye the fabric and not keep records, but I want to be able to recreate the colors, so keeping records is vital. I'm dyeing these fabrics over a couple of days, trying to get as close to the colors I need for this quilt as I can, so it's trial and error. I'm happy to say that I managed to dye all the fabric colors...

This vintage Pinwheel quilt was quite the challenge to quilt. The top was far from square, and I couldn't square it up without destroying the half blocks on the sides of the quilts. So I did the best I could and quilted it on my Gammill longarm machine. Now it is a usable quilt.

"Flight at Sunrise" is the 4th UFO Challenge quilt I have completed this year for Missouri River Quilt Guild's challenge. We pre-select 6 UFO quilt projects we want to complete in 2014 and have 2 months to complete the quilt that is drawn for that time period. I pieced "Flight at Sunrise" in 2008 and put it away to quilt at a later date. As with many quilters, life gets in the way and projects don't get completed. This UFO challenge has been good for me, making me dig into my stack of UFO's and get some of them completed. I quilted the "birds" first then the background. This is the first time I started at the bottom of the quilt and worked my way up when quilting the background. I usually roll the quilt back to the top and work my way down. This time, I quilted it from the bottom to the top so that I could see where the colors were changing in the background fabric and be prepared to change thread - and hopefully not quilt the wrong ...

This is a Double Wedding Ring quilt top that I purchased this summer. It isn't that old, but I liked all the different fabrics in it. It is machine pieced and looks like a template was used. The pieces in the rings have rounded edges. There are a wide variety of fabrics in this top. I can identify upholstery fabric, single knit, damask, barkcloth, seersucker, flannel, and cotton, along with a couple of pieces that look like feedsack. I thought it was interesting that a few of the patches were sewn in backwards. I wonder if it was done on purpose?

I purchased 13 of these Goose Track blocks at an antique store/flea market in Arkansas last month. Most of them are hand stitched, but a few are machine stitched. None of them are the same.  Some of the patches are pieced to make the fabric big enough for the patch - and not always with the same fabric as you may be able to see in the block below on the crossbar on the left. The fabric in the background of this block shows 3 of the color variations the pattern came in. I  have been researching these blocks, but haven't determined the time frame for the fabrics. I'm looking for more resources for my research at this point. The conversation print in this block is a child kicking a ball with a running dog. Here is a red ground with the same print as the first photo. A yellow and brown floral print is also included.

I purchased this Lonestar quilt top at an antique store in Mountain Home, Arkansas last month. I have never attempted to piece a Lonestar myself and jumped at the opportunity to own one. I haven't done any research on this top yet, so I don't have an estimated age. The star is hand pieced but the set in squares and triangles are machine pieced. The fabrics are all solid cottons with some chambray and denim. The top measures 83 x79 inches. This top has some issues with fullness in the corner squares. The top had been laundered after piecing as is evidenced in the frayed edges of the border. Also, the denim pieces frayed and came loose from the stitching. I hand stitched the lose pieces back in place. I haven't decided what to do about the frayed border. It will have to be trimmed in order for binding to attach securely, but I don't know if I will be able to keep the curve in the piecing, or if I'll have to cut it flush to make a straight edge. Decisions ye...