WE HAVE A WINNER!

One lucky person has won this week's drawing for the free pattern!  We are waiting for the winner to contact us back.  Meanwhile, here's the prize for next week's drawing.  Please get your entries (comments) in by Midnight, Monday, February 27th, PST.

Just leave a comment on any post here between now and midnight, the 27th.  You will be automatically entered in the weekly drawing!

Next week's prize is a free quilt pattern:

"Hawaiian Sue Quilt Pattern"

Twelve Sunbonnet Sues barefoot on the beach in Hawaii...what could be more fun? The Sue applique blocks alternate with a half-square triangle block to make a 61 x 79 inch quilt. This is a very simple quilt sewn in bright colors. You can order the Sues, ready-made, or sew them yourself. Ten page pattern in a 6 x 9 poly bag includes colored illustration, instructions and traceable pattern pieces.

Enter today to win this popular quilt pattern!

Coming Soon!  "Red, White and Blue" 

Patriotic Pieced Quilt

Listen to the music of Anthony Kearns - God Bless America

Don't forget to leave a comment and automatically be entered to win a chance for a free pattern.  Drawings will be held each Tuesday morning, weekly.  This week's pattern is "The Ultimate Apron."

Watch for this new pattern coming soon to 

Prairie Cottage Corner.

"Simply Sue" - A great way to

 welcome SPRING!

Don't forget to leave a comment.  When you do, you are automatically entered for a chance

 to win a free pattern (below).

Yes, I said SPRING!  It's high time we looked  Old Man Winter in the eye and said it:  SPRING! SPRING! SPRING! SPRING!

So there!  I've put our "Simply Sue" pattern on sale this week at 30% off, in celebration of the Spring that must surely come soon.  That's a savings of $3.00.

Here's the "Simply Sue" quilt hanging in The Quilt Crossing in Odessa, WA

The pattern is really simple - you can do as much or as little embellishment as you want.  I like embroidery, so use it for all the small things like the shoes, flowers and accessories.

Here, I used some fabric pens to "paint" the baby doll face and blanket.  I added some eyelet for the petticoat and hat; and embroidery for the flower.  It's fun.

I hope you will try this pattern for yourself.  You can do all kinds of things with it.  Here it is in pastels AND crayon colors:

                                  

Happy Stitching - Visit Prairie Cottage Corner Store to buy this pattern.

"Starters and Stoppers" Quilt

One of the problems with my Singer and my Bernina sewing machines is that they can "eat" small patches of fabric right at the start of the stitching of them.  The wide slot in the throat plate, that allows for the zig-zag stitch on these machines, is a great place for the old needle to stuff all kinds of little quilt patches when it doesn't easily pierce the stuff on the first stitch.  Consequently, I have always used "starters and stoppers" when chain-piecing and sewing small pieces.

What are "Starters and Stoppers", or, S&S's?

They can be any small scrap of any shape which you use, doubled, to make a smooth transition between one piece and another.  I have often used any old piece of fabric lying around and stitched over it again and again, then, thrown it away.  Then, my friend, Joyce, told me she was using her S&S's to make a quilt, while making a quilt.  I bet you're more confused than ever, now.

Joyce showed me how she rotary-cut 2 1/2" squares of light and dark fabric from scraps, and stacked them, alternating colors and shades, beside her machine when she was quilting.  When making a series of units for a block, she would, first, sew onto a pair of the 2 1/2" squares (right sides together), 1/4" from the edge, ending about 1/2" from the corner of the side.  Then, she would lay the first patches to be pieced in front of the presser foot, start the machine, sew off of the S&S and right onto the patch; and continue on, chain piecing the patches.  At the end, she would sew off on another, new pair of S&S's, stop the machine near the edge and snip the patches out from behind the presser foot.  The presser foot would remain down on the S&S, ready to begin a new chain.  In the course of sewing just 12 blocks for a quilt, Joyce could produce quite a stack of S&S's.

When she had quite a few of them, she made them into Four Patch blocks.

When she had quite a few of the Four Patch blocks, she added sashings and borders and VOILA!  A quilt!

So, I started using the 2 1/2" S&S's a couple of years ago.  As a matter of habit, I just kept cutting up my scraps and using them as I pieced quilts.  Last winter, I noticed I had quite a few of them, so put together a little quilt for my grandson, Cole:

A "Starters and Stoppers" Quilt made for my grandson, Cole.


After I made the quilt, I noticed I still had a lot of S&S's, so I made a quilt as a donation for our local women's shelter.  And I still had quite a few left.  So I made two more quilts for grandsons, Dylan and Carsen.  I literally had enough of the little blocks to make four single-bed quilts!  Easy as pie, too, and the boys love them.

You can do this, too.  It becomes a habit that can garner some real benefits.  Hugs for your children and grandchildren and all your loved ones can be given with quilts.  Life is grand.


Sunbonnet Sue is alive and well at Prairie Cottage Corner.  Please visit and see our new quilt patterns and selections.  There's a SALE going on now, too, in our catalog store.  Visit often, please, and tell us about your latest adventures in quilting with Sunbonnet Sue, quilting, applique and other needle adventures.

Looking for the Perfect Sue?

I had seen these pre-made Sunbonnet Sues on Ebay several times last year when I finally decided to buy a set of them and see if they were really as beautiful as they looked in the pictures. So I bought a set and when they came, I was so happy. There were 12 in a set; good cotton fabric of quilt quality sewn very carefully all around the edges to one-sided fusible (slit in back and turned inside-out).

I called the set I bought, Hawaiian Sue, and made a twin quilt from them which I showed in the Odessa Spring Fling quilt show this year. It was my first attempt to produce anything that could be shown. As it turned out, I actually showed the Hawaiian Sue, Green Thumb Sue, and Sunday Sue quilts.


The Hawaiian Sue set and all the other lovelies on Ebay of this sort are made by Norma Downing of the Tri-Cities area of Washington State. Her email address is downing2@verizon.net

She makes all kinds of Sues for quilts and will do custom designs as well. The Sues I received came pinned together. Each figure had five pieces and they were exquisite. I hand-stitched them to the block on point, then machine-pieced the alternating blocks to make the whole quilt top.

Susan Ryan, a wonderful professional quilter (her email address is dbltapmomma2@gmail.com), quilted it for me making huge flowers in the alternate blocks to match a lily design in one of the Sue dresses. Then, she echo-quilted the Sues. A vine quilt stitch was used in the borders. It's my favorite Sue quilt, so far and very easy to make. I'm just getting ready to release the pattern for it this next month.

Be sure to look on Ebay or Etsy for Norma Downing's Sues. They are really wonderful. And, if you want a really good quilter person who is artistic and easy to work with, send your quilts to Susan. Happy Stitching!

The Reiter Family Album Quilt

My other grandmother, who lived in northern Idaho all her life after coming west, made quilts from old clothes. One quilt I loved was made from wool and velvet, linked together with a herring-bone stitch. It was a twin size and really warm. There was a flannel sheet inside it, a cotton backing, and it was tied. I had that quilt when I was small. I could hardly turn over in bed, it was so heavy! I really loved it. What happened to it, I wonder?

In the "American Quilter" this month, there's an article about a quilt made from clothing and, in particular, the uniform of a German Hussar; called The Reiter Family Album Quilt. It's in the collection of the American Folk Art Museum in New York. It tells the story of four generations of women and this quilt. It was made in 1891 or 1892, taken apart, and reassembled in 1976. It was made of cotton and wool.

There's a tiny picture of it here http://books.google.com/books?id=lwSzZArnLeIC&pg=PT134&lpg=PT134&dq=%22Reiter+Quilt%22&source=bl&ots=EcMy8OosNK&sig=UkR1WwHVZhzXVrlJob-5JtAgj_Y&hl=en&ei=-MS9StWJHY-0sgPWycUl&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5#v=onepage&q=%22Reiter%20Quilt%22&f=false


but the photo in the magazine is much better. One of the things that may have saved the quilt was the fact it was de-constructed and lay in a box in pieces for many years. It was re-constructed and restored by an expert, Julie Silber, of San Rafael, CA. The owner of the quilt, Leba Wine, has written a book about it called Stitches in Time. I would like to read it.

It's late, again, and I suppose all we Sues should be tucked up in bed. Sweet dreams.....  Prairie Stitcher

Ruby's Old Double Wedding Ring Quilt

Ruby Mae (Steele) Allen's "Double Wedding Ring" quilt hanging in the 100 years old St. Matthew's Church in Odessa, Washington, this past weekend. The quilt was hand-pieced and hand-quilted by Ruby (1889-1989) in the 1960's. This is the first time the quilt has ever been shown publicly. Three quilts survive from her work: this one, the "Flower Garden" shown in the previous post and a "Dresden Plate Diadem Setting" which will be shown tomorrow on this blog. Below is a portrait of Ruby as a young woman in War Road, Minnesota, about age 16.


See the history of Ruby's life in the previous post for more information. Ruby was an avid gardener in her years in Spokane. She planted about 40 trees in her yard on East 29th, she said, to make up for the barren prairie years in Montana. She grew flowers in border beds all around the yard, especially for Memorial Day each year. Her iris and lilacs graced the graves of all those who were buried in the city. She gardened until she was about 96 years old. She made her last quilt for her great grand daughter, Erin, in 1982.