A 16-Patch ~

 The temperature has cooled this week and has me energized.  A 16-patch quilt has been on my to-do list and now I can strike that one off.  It was a good time pulling from my left over fabric scraps to get 35 16-patches completed in just about no time.  That's when it seemed a need to be a bit larger and since there was plenty of fabric, I made more blocks to get a 48" x 64" quilt top.  Without any ado or over-thinking I lined  up all the blocks on the design wall and stitched in rows.  




The beauty is that there were a few blocks that perhaps the purest quiltmaker would have re-placed but I'm loving that green block against green block and the blocks without high contrast. While it was my goal to line up dark corner to light corner, that wasn't always accomplished as in 6th row, blocks 5 and 6.  But who's complaining.  Certainly not I.   My heart is jumping with pure joy at this little 16-patch quilt top.

 Marty 






Haiku Poetry No. 12

 

Body, soul and heart

weave, entwine, interact, touch

the wind blowing grass. 

                         Marty Mason




.....there's always a story ~

 Yes, a story is always in the making and now it's time to share this one.  Those of you who follow my slow down-sizing path know that I've been doing this for more than a year.  THIS being selling books and patterns and quilts and quilt tops and more.  I've tried selling locally and on FB, Instagram, Etsy and Ebay  and with hard work and tenacity have had goodly success. There's still a lot to be done!  




Anyway, I'm making this story longer than it perhaps should be.  There's one book I've tried to sell several times without success....probably because of the high cost of postage and this being heavy with glossy pages and cover.  I've even tried giving it away to our local library, but with the pandemic, they aren't taking books now for their annual fund-raising book sale.  "Quilts From The Indiana Amish" is an 88 page picture book with a story and it is a delight to gaze upon the quilt collection dating 1875-1940.  




....and the story continues.  While doing some research for another hand quilting project, I pulled out the Indiana Amish book and lo and behold, look what I found.  My eyes locked onto this quilt...."Railroad Crossing"  pictured on the left.    The more I looked, the more I liked and in a frenzy began pulling and sewing strings - forgetting about my original project which I'll come back to later.  




Yes, the  book "Quilts from the Indiana Amish" is still for sale as is the quilt top inspired from page 67.  My quilt top was finished yesterday and it measures 55" x 90" -  a generous twin size.  



If the book doesn't sell, I won't worry.  That just  means I'll have a chance to be inspired by another quilt made somewhere in Amish country by a dedicated quilt maker.  I'll also not despair it the quilt top doesn't sell.  I'll just pick it up one day and get it quilted. Oh, yes, there's always a story and my stories are usually inspired by a quilt.

Have a happy ~