Butterfly Flutterby

I love the heading Kim gives to my posts,.So usually don't change them.

This is about my very first quilt started in the mid 50's before my DD was born. We lived in an apartment and I needed something more to do and also wanted a quilt.
But what pattern to make?

My husband said to make a butterfly quilt. I hadn't seen a pattern like that. He said his grandmother had made one. She lived with them in his teen years, before she died.

My Mother-in-law said she thought there was a box on the attic with some of Grandma's quilting stuff so up we went. Aren't attic's wonderful? This was sure was. Always cleaned once a year and everything in it's place.

Sure enough we found the box and the butterfly pattern, Even the original newspaper clipping where she got it. I think my DD has the box now.

So I proceeded to make a block. Now I started sewing when I was about 13 and my Mother had made quilts off and on all her life but I never paid any attention to what she did.

I knew how to follow a pattern. I think I had gotten a couple books out of the library but you know the quilting books of 1950's was nothing like today's.

No body told me this was a difficult pattern to make but when putting it together it is not easy. You have to make the two sides and then sew the body in while sewing the whole block together.

My Mother visited while I was pieciing these blocks and made one block. Said it was to difficult for her. That block is in the quilt but she got the odd shaped background pieces on the top of the butterfly backwards. I just left it.


It was all hand pieced and hand quilted. Not fancy by any means. As you can see the wing tips and center are the same in all the blocks, Half with gold outside and half with brown chambray. The body was scraps left over from a circular skirt I made for myself. Had yellow roses.
The three pieces in the wings are all scraps from things I made or some I brought back with me from my Mother's She had a huge box of scraps.

I figured that there are 82 complete blocks and then one the one row there is a half block to fill in and at the ends there are just pieces. This is the way the pattern had it.

This is taken from the side so you can see the half blocks.

Another closeup to see the fabrics and my terrific quilting. LOL

The whole quilt. This was completed in 1960. In the apartment we had a long narrow living room and at the end was a big unfinished storage area and I found an old quilting frame there. Ask the owner if I could use it. So set it up and was able to quilt this much easier with a little one under foot. My daughter was born in 1959.

She used this on her bed until she left for college and so the top is very worn. Should have done like my Mother used to do, Put a protective piece of muslin over the top to keep from wearing the binding. Course this was before we learned to double the binding to wear better.

Thought maybe some of you would be interested in some of my old quilts. Next one I made was a double wedding ring using the templates in cardboard that my Mother had made and used.

It is very scrappy. More later. Thanks for stopping by

Snow Days

Ah, yes we had a snow day. Thursday , it started about 1 AM and snowed all day and ended with sleet and rain. . Having gotten warmer. We got about 3-4 inches

This was taken out of my window. Notice the birds waiting their turn to get the seeds. There are a couple of small dogwood trees there that they love to land on before going over to the feeder.

This I took across the front of the house. The road is on the other side of the rail fence. The snow plow hadn't been through yet. Later in the evening when it had turned to a light rain. My neighbor right behind came up with his tractor and cleaned my driveway completely. This is the kind of neighbors to have.

I finished up the next project for the month. The picture is down below but I wanted to get something ready for hand work. Our quilters Hollow group is having a retreat in conjunction with the shop hop around the Kansas City area. We have 4 members that live around there and wanted us to come. So I am going to be able to get away for a long weekend. More about that later ., but I was thinking of having some hand work to take with me to work on. So looking in some patterns and kits that had been given to me I found this one kit. Weren't we talking about starting for Christmas early

The date on this pattern is 1995 by Rachel's of Greenfield. Isn't she cute?
All the fabrics are there. So I have pieced the backing and made the pieces to be appliqued and will put it all in a baggie and there is one project to take

Now here is the Jingle Joly Runner I showed about a week ago. All quilted and bound. The stars stand out a little bit more. I don't know if you can see how I quilted it but it was fun and didn't take very long.

I have another one to be finished and it was an old one from over a year ago. Just need to finish quilting the border and then the binding.

So more later. It's been very nice out today but is getting colder. I don't have to go out tomorrow at all. 2 football games to watch and my hubby wanted oysters again so dinner will be at noon and I can sit and quilt on my feed sack quilt as long as I want.

Time to get supper. Thanks for dropping by.

Around Town

Yesterday, I had to go down to the Post Office and the Library so decided to take my camera and get an update on the Hotel which is being renovated. I had shown you pictures in an earlier blog and told the history about this old hotel

So they have that one side which is half stone and half brick, all wrapped in this blue plastic and I believe they are cleaning the stone and brick. They did that on the front last week. Probably will replace the rotted window frames also.

From there I went about 2 blocks towards Keedysville to see the new Library

This was taken from the road. It is on land that was a farm that the city bought to increase the size of the park, which is behind the building or will be when this part is developed.
Isn't this a gorgeous building. ? Been sitting there like this since Christmas when they were suppose to move in. Someone really goofed. They had the carpet laid before the inside was finished and when they went to finish it , the carpet was in the wrong places. Soo. They have had to wait for the factory to run this pattern again. They are saying February. Sure looks like you could go right in.

I drove up around it , Should have gotten a closer view. See all the parking signs are up trees planted, grass growing looks great and stands empty.

This will be a great place for this little town.

Now we are on a snow watch for tomorrow. I have been waiting for a big one that I could get some good snow pictures to show.

Thanks for stopping by.

My Old Kentucky Home

I have finally finished this log cabin quilt. Well, the top. Getting it quilted is another thing. Will have to think about that for a bit. I've taken 3 different views. It's on my husbands bed which is a regular size and the quilt is really almost a King Size. So as you will see it goes to the floor on both sides.




With this view you can see the borders. The inside one is just small half logs and the out side is made up of 2 inch squares. what I call 3 patch. Just made a lot of them. Each side has 64 units and the top and bottom have 58. That's a lot of squares but it sure helped use up a lot of scraps.

Oh, in case I haven't said they are all Thimbleberries fabrics.


Here is a view from the bottom of the bed. Sure can see the different colors of the fabrics.
Judy Martin suggested to quilt feathers in the light blocks and diagonal lines in the darks


Here;s slightly different angle. You can see how it hits the floor on this right side also. I couldn't be more pleased with this quilt.

Any suggestions about the quilting?

My daughter said this would fit her new queen size bed but--- we will wait and see.

Mystery Done!

Yes, here is my third project finished for the month already.. I really am quite proud of the quilting on this one. I have a close up below
This was really a mystery for the card trick blocks and I decided I wanted to set mine a little differently. So used more of the printed pieces from Lazy Crazy collection of Thimbleberries from a couple years ago.
I wanted a quilting pattern that I could follow and fill in all the light spots. It was a butterfly strip and I copied it all around the center flower and them made it go around the card tricks. For the border I went around the flowers etc. Love this border fabric.

This I want to use on my table in the spring time.

Pint Sized Thimbleberries Club

I have finally finished my second project for the month. This is the Thimbleberries 2007 club quilt only I made it half size or as some say Pint Size.It's 33x46.

I did change some of the blocks. Didn't like the big setting blocks she used. I just made it my own.

Also machine quilted it Did some meandering if you can call it that. A first and it could be better but you have to learn. It will be hung in the basement along with the miniature quilts.

Now on to the next one which is the mystery quilt that Kairle gave us after Christmas. It is pictured in the Jan. 1 post. I have marked it for quilting and it is almost all pinned. I plan on going down to the basement where my Juki is setting on the two large 8 foot tables for quilting. I shall watch my soap, Days Of Our Lives, down there. Been watching that show since it started many years ago.

Hope the rest of you are coming along on your projects to complete for January. Thanks for coming.

Big Mistake

I also meant to give this award to Kathy at Inspired by Antique Quilts. I went in and told her about it but had left her name out. I don't know what I was thinking. That's what happens when you get old. LOL

Kathy is making the most wonderful copy of an old quilt she saw in a book. Do go into her blog and read about it.

See I am also a lover of old quilts. Used to sell a lot of them when you could get them at a decent price at auctions. Those days are gone but the quilts do show up now and then. Wonderful to try and duplicate them