Vintage Recreating

It's been a whirlwind 2 weeks.  I got back from Paducah last Friday.  After sleeping 12 hours a night for a couple days, I am beginning to feel half-human again, and interested in working!  I went with my mom and 9 yr old daughter.  Sophie has always been great to travel with, but until this year we never shared a bed other than a king (so I never got to fully experience her ability to keep me awake!).  She's such a good traveler, taking every person and quilt in stride.  I really don't look forward to the year she tells me she doesn't want to go.  I am still amused of one particular story.  On Thursday afternoon I slipped away for a 1-1/2hr class.  Sophie and my mom wandered in town, going to shops.  They apparently went into one store where the shop owner (whom I do not know who was) knew Sophie by name!  My husband jokes that when he comes to Paducah he wants someone to refer to him as Sophie's dad.  Apparently she is known in this circle of life!

just some of the fun that came home with me...

While in Paducah, I got to rummage in too many antique stores.  There are many, but the last one I wandered into was the jackpot.  I just love the antique linens.  I managed to find (ahem, cough, choke!) quite a few.  Rest assured, though, I do have a plan!

I could hardly wait to mount this table runner on a piece of orange silk that Debra Linker dyed for me and get quilting yesterday.  As you can see, these linens were made by humans, and are not perfectly square or straight.  I'm ok with that, as I just love them.  Such a sucker for orange...

 I cut away the silk from beneath the linen so it did not show through.  It was mounted on my DSM, trimmed, then immediately loaded on the longarm.  It is quilted with several threads - major motifs are in a golden YLI polished poly, while dense and outline stitching is with 100 wt silk and invisifil.

With trepidation, I did mark this with purple pens.  You never know if older embroidery thread is going to be color-safe, but I spritzed it with water anyway.  All was fine.  I will enter into each one that I quilt carefully.

There are 2 layers of batting - wanted to maximize the texture.

 It is truly gorgeous in person.  I just hope the photos convey this.

It is so nice to just "quilt"...no deadline, no judge, no jury, AKA no cares!!

 Have a look at this gorgeous hand croched lace?...I'm no "frilly" gal, and I hate the itchy kind of lace with the best of them, but this is beautiful.

And the back is pretty showy too.  I don't think I will even bother picking out the small thread nest :-)

I will end with one of the very few selfies I have taken.  It's in front of my 2nd place winning quilt The Jester's Folly, at Paducah.  If my mother could take a clear photo, I wouldn't have to resort to selfies!!

For those curious, I am doing client quilts, and I especially welcome the simpler quilts.  I am coming up on summer when the custom quilting will go on hiatus.  If you have something you'd like to be quilted with an edge to edge, please contact me.