Sentimental Stitches

Good grief stitchers - do you realize how long it’s been since I’ve posted any free designs other than our Midget Blocks or the regular Block of the Month patterns? Well, I realized it’s been too dog gone long!!!

No complaining about how busy I am or how much needs to be done, tonight and tomorrow is “FREE PATTERN TIME”

Isn’t this a fun and simple quilt? I love the “whisker cover” that was sewn on one edge to protect it (I’ll show you a picture later).
As simple as it is, it’s a fun block and you can stitch a few up now and then with special fabrics or it would be a great friendship block to swap. We’ve all got a little pansy in us. Wonderful blends of color, strong and hardy!
I’ll be listing this one on ebay along with tons of other things for a neighbor who is downsizing her huge collections of everything from old Halloween costumes to feedsacks, tablecloths, crystal and some awesome costume jewelry and Storybook Dolls.

See you tonight!

I am in awe of the beautiful colors in my Stargazer Lilies. First I marveled at the four buds and decided to tie them to the deck railing so they wouldn’t fall over.

Then the first flower bloomed and it’s fragrance began to fill the air.

Then there were two -

And three -

Finally the grand finale of four!

Their fragrance greets me when I leave for work in the morning and again when I come home. The gentle lake breeze sends reminders inside the cottage every now and then. I’m no photographer but they sure are beautiful. Paul took some pictures when he and Angela were here last weekend. He’s a fantastic photographer so I can’t wait to see his pics.

I’m sure you’ve all heard the saying “When life gives you scraps…… Make a quilt! Well that’s exactly what I plan to do this winter along with a whole list of fun projects for the Polka Dot Garden.

The store is scheduled to close at the end of the day on Saturday, Nov. 1. I imagine by the end of the following I’ll have moved back to Grand Rapids. That leaves me about a week before the Fall Dear Jane Retreat in Shipshewana. I’ll arrive there on Nov. 17 and stay until the 23rd. My roommate already has her airline ticket so it’s just a matter of counting the down the days. Some days it seems like a long way off but I’ve been getting block patterns together for the 3″ block swap I’m in. If I stick to my schedule the blocks will be finished in September but…………..I keep thinking of things for the Polka Dot Garden. Remember those embroidery blocks from the Motifs of March I said to set aside if the little Katinka logo was colored in? They were all flowers - duh - they grow in the Polka Dot Garden and will be part of our stitchery quilt. If you’re new to the Motifs of March embroidery, the past blocks can be purchased in the Online Store. You’ll need Blocks 4, 9, 13, 18 and 21. Now don’t fall over when I tell you there are over 100 blocks in the quilt.

Look at those little flowers, they’re small, stitch up quickly and I guarantee you’re going to love the quilt!

Aren’t these cute? Polka dots and flowers. I wonder what they’ll grow into?

Oh ya, I’ve signed up to be a Stitchers’ Angel. Did you see the emblem in the sidebar? When Paul tells me how to make it a link, it’ll take you to the Angel site but for now you can read about it HERE.

Last year I planted three perennials around the patio. A pink lily, pink carnation and a stargazer lily. They joined the white daisies, sweet peas, wild roses and a yet to be identified pink puff ball flower producing plant. It was suggested my new additions wouldn’t survive the winter.
Well……….so far I’ve been pretty lucky. The carnation was the first to bloom and continues all summer.

The lily had beautiful buds and I thought they would bloom yellow but they’re pink as can be.

The stargazer lily, my favorite because of their fragrance, has several large buds I’m watching every day. These have already bloomed at home in GR and Rob mentioned how he’s noticed their fragrance and is protecting them from wind and rain to keep them lasting as long as possible.

During a trip to the Farmer’s Market on Saturday I had to bring home one of the little serenity bouquets they were selling. The mixture of colors makes such a beautiful palette. The picture doesn’t show the surprise peach color bloom that opened at the end of a that long, rather bare looking stem standing up right in the middle.

I know, what do all these flowers have to do with quilting? More than you might imagine. Have you noticed the new tabs sprouting up across the top of the banner. One is the Photo Gallery. It has three of Denise’s Sally Post Floral Sampler blocks in there for you to see. I’d love to add photos of any project you’ve made from patterns on the site. Send them too me.

The second tab is Family History in Quilting. Remember when I told you I was going to document things about my Dad, kit quilts, embroidery and the role our family had in all of that? This is where that information and photographs will be going.

The third link (it’s in the Side Bar to the right under Block of the Month) is the one I think you’ll like the most. It’s the Polka Dot Garden! What grows in the Polka Dot Garden. Wow, more than you can imagine!

This is what I plan to do after the store closed for the winter but I can’t wait until then so I’m starting right away!
Here’s a draft of the first block I’ve drawn for the block of the month quilt which will start in September.


Now don’t go starting a block from this drawing, I’m still fine turning it.

My original idea was to use only polka dot fabrics or those that had dots on them. Then I pulled some solids, checks and stripes (with dots on them). They looked similar to this -

Now I’m second guessing myself and considering romantic pastels like Nature’s Chorus or soft Civil War prints like Colonies.

First things first - we’ll need a Stitching Roll to keep our scissors, thread, needles and the block we’re working on in. There should be a Tote Bag to put this new adorable stitching roll in. I think we’ll need some Embroidery here and there, a couple of Cushions, Table Toppers, a Pincushion or two and ……….
I’ll be doing photo tutorials of the way I do my Back Basting for applique, make yoyo dots and perfect circles. Just think of the fun we’ll have!

There are some great patterns I have in limited quantities in the Online Store. Once they’re gone, that might be it so if you’re tempted don’t wait too long. I’m also opening an Etsy shop and will put a link above the banner when it’s open.

I’m going to try and send a newsletter hoping the site doesn’t blow up like last time.

I hadn’t planned on writing today until later tonight. Having the day off I was focused on finishing two quilting projects but after reading several posts on the CyberQuilters list about Passage Quilts I wanted to share something with you.

They had a link to a newspaper article that appeared in a paper in Illinois. It was very interesting.

On Monday I had deleted the note I started on July 20th about this special quilt but I think I was wrong in doing that, just as I had been wrong when I hesitated making the quilt I’m going to show you.

The quilt you see is the one I made for my Daddy when he passed away on July 20, 2001. My brother had been suggesting I make a funeral quilt for him for nearly two years but for some reason I couldn’t wrap my mind around the idea. I finally relented and started the quilt on June 2nd of 2001 which was Dad’s 90th birthday. The design for the quilt came to me all at once and flowed like a river to near perfection. I used Michael Miller Krystals for the fabrics. The Star of Bethlehem was chosen because it was Daddy’s favorite quilt pattern.

It contains six colors, one for my Mother and one for each of us five children. Each color represents a Bible passage based on the hymn This is My Father’s World which was the opening hymn of Dad’s radio show during the 1940s.

• Yellow- The Light of the World (John 1)
• Purple- Fruits of the Holy Spirit (Phil. 1)
• Red- Jesus blood shed for us (John 3:16)
• Blue- Heaven (Gen. 1)
• Green- Earth (Gen. 1)
• Black- Death (Psalm 23)

I chose a musical print fabric for the backing.

Daddy passed away just as I was ready to start the quilting. A very special friend quilted and bound the quilt in one day so it would be ready to use at visitation time.
I had also made a miniature version of the quilt about 14″ square that I hand quilted. It was delicately folded and placed in Daddy’s hands for all eternity.

During his memorial service, the quilt was draped over the casket as the funeral pall and the sun coming down through the windows in the ceiling of the church shone directly on the center of the star and it just glowed. I knew then that making the quilt had been the right thing to do. Every year the quilt comes out of the trunk on Dad’s birthday in June and stays out until the end of July for all of us to use.

Funeral palls are traditionally a black or white piece of fabric with Christian symbols embroidered. I have a small antique pall made of white cotton with black embroidery. It has a beautiful angel, flowers and a verse in what I think is German. I haven’t been able translate it completely. Maybe I can post a picture of it and one of you will know what it says.

Having spent the last 10 years with parents in care facilities I think the idea of Passage quilts is wonderful. I’m going to contact the chaplin at Pilgrim Manor where my Mom is being cared for and see what their procedure is when a person passes away. They have different areas with different care levels so 4 or 5 quilts might be needed.

I’ll give this a little more thought as I get back to those projects I wanted to finish today and will share the patterns I design for my Passage quilts.

I’ve been trying to remember when things started spinning out of control and think it might have all started the day I hit the black squirrel on the way to work. When I arrived at the store that day one of the girls who worked for me quit and most things since then just blend together. Fifty hour work weeks, hiring two new employees just as tourist season was swinging into full gear. We’ve been twice as busy as last year and I’m so blessed with the three ladies I have working with me now. They caught on quickly, have gone above and beyond the call of duty and are working full time hours when I hired them for part time. We are that busy!!!

I have not enjoyed sitting in the laundromat at 9:30 PM because it’s the only time I had available to do my laundry and was out of underwear.

I have not enjoyed my glasses breaking in half and finding out they no longer make the frames so no possibility of ordering the little piece that goes across your nose.

I have not enjoyed (okay, I volunteered) driving from Traverse City to Petoskey and back after work to deliver giraffe purses to the store up there because we’re selling so many you should be seeing green, yellow, fuchsia and turquoise trimmed bags running up and down the streets of America. If you’ve been quilting (which I haven’t) and wonder what I’m talking about, here’s a visual aide -

I did not enjoy being pulled over by the county sheriff on the way to work for going a little too fast on the curvy road around the lake. I think he took pity on me handing him an expired driver’s license, registration and several insurance certificates he had to go through to find one that hadn’t expired. All the time Clutch is barking, barking, barking like a typical Chihuahua and I’m trying to explain why I haven’t renewed my license.

Clutch did not enjoy the Blue Angels being in town this week even though I did.

Neither of us is very happy about the long, long lines at Moomer’s Ice Cream now that we’ve made them famous. Wish I had a nickel for every time I’ve given directions from the store to the ice cream shop.

I have not enjoyed that they’ve taken my favorite Asian Seafood off the menu at Poppycock’s restaurant. I settled for a Whopper Junior that night.

I did not enjoy signing on to upload the Midget Block only to find the server had suspended the web site because they received over 100 complaints from AOL for spam coming from the site. I was already trying to deal with the drug information someone hacked into the script but this, this I had no idea how to handle. Paul worked with technical support and magically after three days we were back online. Not much of an explanation except that they reinstated the account because the complaints had only come from one service provider. I’m afraid to send a newsletter and have a glitch with AOL subscribers.

And finally, I did not enjoy learning on Friday that the store I’m working at will close on Oct. 15. They are tearing down (or renovating) the 1863 building the store is in so out we go. It looks like I’ll be unemployed.

Through all of this I’ve been toting this pretty summer spread back and forth to work with me in hopes of tracing the blocks to share with you. I want to stitch it in pastels.

Thank you to everyone who sent notes and checked on me when the site was down. It’s nice to know I was missed.

Guess it’s time to put my big girl panties on, stop whining and make a plan. Things could always be worse!

It’s a beautiful day here in TC. The sun is shining. There’s a beautiful breeze. It is supposed to get pretty warm today but that’s what we’ve all been waiting for. I have today and tomorrow off from work so I hope to catch up on things I’ve been pushing aside but I am going to spend some time stitching.

I hope everyone has enjoyed the blocks from the Sally Post Floral Sampler quilt. I’m uploading the blocks in groups of six blocks so when you open a file you can print off the ones you need. I hope that works okay for everyone. The fabric requirements are on the quilt’s block of the month page.
The blocks will be available until the morning of June 9. After that time I’ll go back to the block of the month format for the quilt. The entire collection of patterns will also be in the Online Store if you want to purchase them as a group.

A tender word about copyright. These patterns and photographs are for your personal use. That means you can make as many blocks or quilts for yourself as you’d like. Please don’t make copies of the patterns even if you’re sharing them for free. Please don’t email them to others or use them on your web site or blog unless it’s for a link here. In legal lingo:

Copyright notice
All images, text, and content on this site are protected by copyright and may not be used, copied or transmitted without the express consent from Gayle Bomers. You may link to this site or link to a post from this site, but please give appropriate credit for the content. Any questions, please email me at ssquilt@aol.com.

Sally Post Floral Sampler Blocks 1-6
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Sally Post Floral Sampler Blocks 7-12
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Sally Post Floral Sampler Blocks 13-18
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Sally Post Floral Sampler Blocks 19-24
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Sally Post Floral Sampler Blocks 25-30
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Sally Post Floral Sampler Blocks 31-36
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These are some of the pictures I took the other night at the shop.

Aren’t these the prettiest little stitches?

If you have any trouble in the next couple of days please email me. I know I’m really bad about answering emails but I’ll pay close attention today and tomorrow and try to take care of any crisis that comes up.

Happy Stitches!

Here we are with the most important block in the Sally Post Floral Sampler quilt. It’s the signature block. I am so thankful Sally took the time to intricately cross stitch her name, age and date on this block. It gives us so much to think about. What was life like in 1854? I’m sure she was an experienced quilter at age 63. It appears as if fabrics were purchased with this quilt in mind. How much did fabric cost in 1854? Was it readily available? Maybe not if red prints had to be substituted. I think I’ll do a little more research. I’m not ready to close the book on our Applique in May quilt.

Sally Post Floral Sampler Block 36
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When I spread out the Sally’s quilt at the store last night I discovered a third red print used in the triangles setting the blocks on point. You’ll see when I upload the full shots of the quilt the blocks with the second and third red prints are on the outside edges of the quilt. Did she run out of fabric? Did she decide to make the quilt larger? So many questions….

It’s a darling, tiny, red, white and black stripe. Now I’ll be on a search through my stash to find a piece matching the two red prints I have set aside if I decide to make the quilt in it’s original colors.

We’re down to the last two blocks. This one is my Traverse City cherry tree and I saved it until today. Enjoy!

Sally Post Floral Sampler Block 35
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PS. I’ve corrected the Midget Block 72 pattern. I started to type seventeenth and must have had an attack on my “meno brain” and it read seventh. The block is in the 17th row not the 7th.

Here are a few close up pictures from Sally’s quilt and some of my observations. The pictures of the entire quilt had too many shadows from the trees over the deck to I’m taking it to the store today and will spread it out there. It’s the only place I have enough open floor space without moving furniture and that doesn’t sound like fun.

Most of the triangles surrounding the blocks are from this fabric. Luckily in this triangle only one of the print flowers has fallen away giving us a good look at the fabric.

This shows the two red prints used in the triangles and the double pink print used in the sashing and flowers. I’ll have to go back and see if there’s a pattern to the use of the red prints or if it looks like she ran out of the flower print and had to some up with a substitute.

All of the cheddar pieces are this adorable polka dot. The pink in the flowers is the same fabric as the sashing. The red and green are solid colors.

The second red print.

The only blue in the quilt. It’s a darling sprig with a white dot flower.

Green solid color binding with machine stitching!

The only brown print in the quilt used for this bud and the black eyed susan center. It looks like a chocolate indigo.

Muslin backing

These little flowers were stitched using that dastardly red flower print and now have holes.

That’s it for today. Here’s the next block.

Sally Post Floral Sampler Block 34
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I actually have today off from work. It’s the only day in about 14 days. Memorial Day has passed and most of the schools are finished for the year this week so we’ll be in full tourist mode before I know it.

I slept in so the block is late being posted. Sorry, I just couldn’t resist the extra time in bed. I actually was up at 8 am but Clutch and I have been couch cuddling and deciding what we’d like to do today.
First on my list is to spread out the Sally Post quilt on this beautiful sunny day and take the best pictures I can. I may wait to post the next Nancy Page Magic Vine block and a couple of Midget Blocks until later tonight when the sun goes down. I’m also going to do an all out search of the internet for some of the P&B background fabric for the Shipshewana Amish Mystery Quilt. If I don’t find anything today, I’ll beg Teresa for another piece off what she has. No more waiting. My fingers are just itching to get going on that quilt again.
I’ve got some picking up and organizing to tackle. It’s amazing how fast a disaster appearance can creep up in your house when you’re in a drop and go mode.
I’m working on a friends Round Robin quilt and would like to cut out the pieces for my round. It is just beautiful and screams her name at first glance. She’s going to love it!
I have two huge bins of antique lace I was going to list on ebay but I’m not sure it’s really bringing in it’s deserved value so I might just do some sorting. I am going to list a bunch of Coldwater Creek clothes, Earth shoes, some purses and I have a really rare antique quilt kit I think I’m going to part with. The finished quilt was pictured on page 30 of Merikay Waldvogel’s Patchwork Souvenirs of the 1933 World’s Fair. There are two beautiful, tall vases of flowers. It is drop dead beautiful and I paid a lot for the kit several years ago.

I placed my first order at a couple of Etsy shops. That could be a dangerous place. So many creative people with beautiful things to sell.

I bought an antique fork bag from my Daddy’s old company,

a tiny pincushion,

a beautiful Martyushka doll

and a little family of Spoolies. These little babies could get as addictive as my Hitty doll is.

Also on the list are to put in at least two sections of dock, finish raking around the deck and take a trip to Renee’s House of Quilting in Williamsburg to buy my second Aunt Philly’s toothbrush rug needle because I lost the first one before I even started a rug! Considering the price of gas right now maybe I’ll just order it from Aunt Philly.

If I’m going to get anything done I better wrap this up and get moving.

Sally Post Floral Sampler Block 33
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