susana allen hunter

so lovely.

here

hand-tied

I just got lost on ebay searching antique quilts.  In a good way.  This one is pricey but lovely. 

Also, I fell off the no-coffee wagon.  One cup yeasterday and two today.  And I want more.  I'm a coffee monster.  MORE COFFEE!  GIMME MORE COFFEE!

via

projects

ethan's home and he helped me to move this old sofa into the studio.  finally.  i stripped much of the old upholstery off this summer outdoors and moved it into the front hallway where it has languished for months.  totally in the way.  blocking the piano.

it has a real sweet shape and it's small enough to fit in the space i want it to.  it's in front of the woodstove and near where i work.  i will be happy to sit here once it's finished to read or hand-stitch or whatever.  take a nap, perhaps.

also, here are a couple of my favorite antique quilt tops i've collected.  i'm hoping to sew them up into quilts AND finish the sofa over the next few weeks and after christmas has passed.

i bought that vintage tea towel fabric awhile back and i'm cutting it up into hand towels and sewing the ends by hand.  i know i could do it on the machine but i really feel like that extra effort lends something to the fabric.  i'm giving the towels as gifts to friends.  i love that i can give them something they can use daily.  something which i've sat with and added to stitch by stitch.

last picture is lazy jazzie sleeping in the big box of scrap paper destined for the woodstove.  cat love the woodstove heat.

x

L

antique quilt pillows

i'm having a love affair with this old hand-sewn quilt.  it may be a one-sided relationship.  i was just thinking about my personal heaven.  what if it involved bolts and bolts of these old fabrics?  omg.  i may faint and die a second time from the pleasure of it.

a couple of these will be staying at casa enhabiten on my sofa.  but the rest will be in the shop.  the first one will be listed after i finish this post.  but anywayz people, this quilt is a bit a-tatter.  which makes me love it all the more.  i double lined the pillow so it would be sturdy but the years show.  just so you know. 

lucy boston

Lucy Boston married in 1917 but divorced in 1939 and bought the moated Manor at Heminford Grey.  She restored it and made it the central character in her book series "Green Knowe."  She did not write her first book until she was 62.  In addition to writing she gardened in the summer and made patchwork quilts in the winter.  She is well-known among quilters for her exquisite patterns, piecing and fabric combinations. 

"She wrote about family belongings in the house and her son Peter Boston illustrated the books, drawing many of these as well as the house and garden."

She wrote, gardened and made her quilts prolifically until her death at age 98.

Her house is open to the public by appointment.  Her daughter-in-law, Diana, helped to restore and maintains the property.  You can call her up and go see all the restored patchwork and the house and garden.  Here's the Green Knowe website.

That would be my idea of a fabulous weekend getaway.

i get stuck on things and omg where did that last paragraph come from?

Have you noticed?  For instance, music, pictures, siberia and reindeer, certain textiles, siberia, reindeer...

And I've been stuck on this quilt.  I was frusterated today because I felt like my pictures weren't doing it justice.  You just have to be with it.  In person.  I love the fabrics used, the juxtapositions, the overall graphic quality, the fantastic fading, the fact that the pieces were hand-stitched together.  I put a couple of these together and in the shop today.

But my question to you is, does the fact that I love vintage quilts make me a Granny?  I mean, I'm not 20 but I'm not 80.  Not that there's anything wrong with either.  I'm just saying, why am I not into, like, something mod and you know, current?  Insecurities revealed.  And why am I even asking myself this question?

And on a different but somewhat related topic, there's a line in the Joanna Newsom song, Baby Birches, which goes "well, I wish I could take every path..."  It gives me a lump in my throat (side note-I hate the word lump)  everytime I hear it.  This is related to the above because....well, because, I feel myself and, holy carp, SEE myself getting older.  And I'm old enough now to look back and have some regrets and see the directions I might have gone but did not.  And people, I DO wish I could take every path.  Mostly because there is so much to do and to see.  And isn't that just the stinkingest and rottenest and most beautiful thing about life.  That you just get one.

auction goods and patch rugs

Darlings-
Here are a few things I'd like to bid on at an upcoming auction in April.
Nice, no?

And here are some patched oriental rugs I found the other day. Bad me, at the moment I can't find the link to the shop which sells these (surry rugs). I will find it and post when I do. But I'm not sure what I think of these..

Oh, and by the way, that chair I said I HAD TO HAVE at the auction last week...it was kind of sucky up close. So I didn't bid. But, I did get some great worn quilts including 2 patchwork and one crazy quilt. Some pillows made from these will be in the shop tomorrow.

And did you know International Quilt Day is March 20?? Oh my god, let the celebration begin! haha. I imagine the whole world will shut down and there will be dancing in the streets and everyone will be all "quilts this and quilts that."

I kid.

I love quilts but sometimes I think all the "days" devoted to this and that are goofy.

Okey doke, see you tomorrow. Enjoy the day today. I have to go to a wedding shower later. Then I'll probably stop in at an antique shop and the thrift before coming home.

xx

Liane