Saturday, January 25, 2014

End of the Weekly Posts and a Label


This journey into the history of Women's Suffrage is coming to an end. Thanks to all of you around the world who accompanied me in the weekly posts.
Below is a free printable label. Click on the picture; save it to a JPG or a Word file and print it on prepared cotton. The file is a little more than 4 inches wide by 6 inches long. 


I've been posting weekly here for a year but I'm going to turn my attention to two new free online projects. I know some of you are working on finishing your tops for Grandmother's Choice and when I find finished tops I'll post them here on an irregular basis. You might want to subscribe to email posts so you get the new posts in your email box.

Special thanks to Becky, Dustin and Georgann who made the model blocks and to all of you who posted your progress on our Flickr page.


The Threads of Memory Block of the Month begins today January 25, 2014 on my Civil War Quilts blog. We'll spend 2014 in tales of slavery and the Underground Railroad with accurate stories of how the road to freedom worked, told through first person accounts.


Jane's Aunt Phila

And because so many of you like the challenge of a Block of the Week I am working on a new 36-week sampler quilt called An Austen Family Album, which will include pieced blocks for Jane Austen's friends, relations and others who shaped her world. I'm reading about the Austen family and late Georgian and Regency England to add historical context. I've always been confused about things like the difference between a guinea and a pound, what an entailment entails and just where Hants is. You British readers will be amused by an American's attempt to explain it all for you.

I plan to start posting the Austen Album blocks in the first week of April, 2014 and will do a weekly post on Sundays throughout the rest of 2014.

Here's the address where I am working on the layout, etc.

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Kathie's Blues

Grandmother's Choice by
Kathie at MagpieMemories

Kathie united the many different blocks by focusing on the blues in a medallion set.



And do notice that she likes to applique so much she put FOUR versions of the Sunbonnet Sue in the corners!

See Kathie's photostream here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/magpiememories/with/9392986372/

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Tops With and Without Sashing

Grandmother's Choice
By Pip at RestisnotIdleness

Two different looks with similar subdued  color schemes: Here the light cornerstones pin the blocks into an orderly whole.


See close-ups of Pip's blocks at her Flickr Photostream here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59182969@N07/sets/72157631025055068/with/11809445493/

Grandmother's Choice
By Carolyn F

Busy blocks---side-by-side---plus an active border print= Energy.


See close-ups off Carolyn's blocks at her Flickr Photostream here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/92835441@N04/9527845929/in/photostream/

Congratulations to all you finishers!

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Gerry's Suffrage Crazy Quilt


Gerry Krueger is making a spectacular crazy quilt on the theme of Women's Suffrage.

It has nothing to do with the Grandmother's Choice Sampler but I thought you'd be impressed.

She's printed some of the many online photos of the fight for the women's rights and embellished them in late- Victorian-style.


See her progress at her OlderRose blog site.
http://olderrose.blogspot.com/


This link should show all her posts on her suffrage quilt:
http://olderrose.blogspot.com/search/label/suffrage%20quilt

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Goodbye to 2013: Dustin's Blocks

Alice's Flag by Dustin Cecil

I chose to do this Block of the Week on Women's Rights in the year 2013 because 1913, a century ago, was such an active period in the fight. That last year before the first World War promised so much.



Goodbye to the Centennial year of Pre-War Life with a gallery of a few of Dustin Cecil's Grandmother's Choice blocks. He made two sets. These blocks are from his Scrappy group.

"My second set is going to be totally blind pulls from my scrap box. Anything goes." sez he.



He often added seams and changed the blocks to fit his scraps

See his Scrappy Blocks photostream here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dustincecil/sets/72157631366390338/with/10789114813/


What a scrap box he must have!

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Quilted Top and a Few in Progress

Patty at A Stitch in Time blog
has posted pictures of her finished
Grandmother's Choice quilt

She's calling it New Jersey where her grandmothers lived. She used 36 blocks.

She's had it quilted in a fan pattern which
looks very Modern/Art Deco (another one of those
old-fashioned/modern paradoxes)
Her color scheme and white set and border
add to that up-to-date feel.
See her blog post here:
http://ncweekendquilter.blogspot.com/2013/11/new-jersey-all-quilted.html

And a few more finished tops and tops on the design wall:

ColvinKiwi's in Kiwi green and suffragette violet

Variations on the red and white quilt

Color by RUTIGT

More color by Valerie the Morgan Girl

MooseBayMuses in setting hers as a medallion.
It is going to be big.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Karen's Top


Grandmother's Choice Sampler
By Karen at Kookaburra Calling

Karen enjoys applique. Her finished top features a stunning appliqued center. 


She has really pulled together a lot of very different blocks with careful color and fabric choices and by adding that strong central focus framed in a dark scallop.
The block is from Mimi's Bloomers at the One Piece At a Time Blog:
http://erinrussek.typepad.com/one-piece-at-a-time/mimis-bloomers/

Pinks and tans and lavenders



The final border is another frame that unifies the whole elegant composition.

Great work!