Hourglass Quilt

I recently finished this Hourglass quilt. I am happy with the way it turned out but plan to add more quilting, maybe some by hand.

A post by Amanda Jean here inspired me to use this pattern. Then, Bonnie Hunter announced the Hourglass block would be the Leader-Ender project for 2016. I look forward to making another one!

Scrappy Corduroy String Blocks

Here are some close-ups of the blocks in the quilt pictured at the top of my blog.  

My very first post!

Welcome to my very first post on my new blog, Pond Hollow Quilts.  My name is Sally and I live in beautiful Charleston, South Carolina. I absolutely love fabric! If I compliment you on your shirt or dress or pants, I am probably thinking how beautiful it would be cut up and used in my quilt. I admit to buying some clothes just because I want to eventually cut it up for a quilt, and discouraging my children from buying anything made of non-quilty fabric (no polyester or knits). (We do lots of ironing, matter of fact I am starting to break away and encourage some wrinkle free clothing because neither teenager irons.) I am blessed with two sweet brothers-in-law who enjoy fine clothes, and gift me with their beautiful cotton shirts when they can no longer wear them. Likewise, both of my sweet sisters save all their natural fiber clothes for my quilt-making efforts. I try to stay away from fabric stores as much as possible. There is no way I can use up all the fabric I already have if I continue to buy more. But sometimes, a little new fabric gets the creative juices going. I had rather buy new fabric than new shoes! 

Pond Hollow is the name of a small rural area in South Carolina where my two great-aunts, Sallie and Annie Johnson lived. They made scrappy quilts, using fabric scraps, old clothes, and textile remnants that people gave them. They did not purchase fabric to make into quilts. That would have been too extravagant. All of their sewing was done on a Singer 99 treadle which I now use. Their quilts are mostly string quilts and all are quite heavy. (I always think of them when I am at the dentist and they lay that heavy blanket on me before an X-ray. That is what their quilts feel like.) The one featured here is made entirely out of corduroy! It is about 56 x 48. This was my 'baby' quilt that was made for me in the 50s. Thankfully, my mother didn't lay it on TOP of me! It was meant to be put on the floor and I would play on it. 

When quilting enjoyed a new popularity in the late 70s-early 90s, I was so excited and searched eagerly for directions on how to make something like these Pond Hollow quilts (my great aunts had passed away by this time.) Alas, everyone seemed to be enamored with Sunbonnet Sue, Grandmothers Garden, appliqué, Lone Star, many other quilts made with templates, patterns, etc. This was not what I wanted. I couldn't find any bit of information about these scrappy types of quilts. Bonnie. Hunter. When I stumbled upon Bonnie Hunter ( Quiltville.blogspot.com ), I had found my answers. I can never thank her enough for educating me about scrappy quilt-making and using vintage sewing machines.  

So! Is that enough history for my first post?! I hope this will evolve into a fun blog, covering quilty things but also including other day-to-day issues as life dictates. I am still figuring out the fundamentals of blogging, so please be patient. I would enjoy hearing from you!

Take care,
Sally

My Second Post!

First, I want to say thank you to everyone who has taken the time to comment on my first post. Lots of words of encouragement and I appreciate every bit of it!  I have been wanting to post again, but have not been able to get another photo to load. I think I finally have one on this post, but I would like to show close up photos of  specific blocks/fabrics in the quilt. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. Looks like maybe I need to establish a Google photo library or something? I thought there would be a way to transfer photos on my iPhone or iPad to the blog post.

The quilt at the top of this second post is also made entirely of corduroy fabrics. The fabrics in this quilt are not the same ones used in the first corduroy quilt I showed you....with the exception of two tiny scraps from quilt #1 used as corner pieces in two blocks in quilt #2. I think it is amazing that there was such a variety of corduroy fabrics available in the 50s. I am sure many of the fabric pieces were given to Aunt Sallie and Aunt Annie by friends that worked for various textile mills....probably some end of bolt pieces. My mother always commented when pointing out a particularly odd-colored or patterned fabric in one of their quilts, "I am sure they didn't buy THAT fabric. Probably someone from the textile mill gave it to them." Oftentimes, those "odd" fabrics add a certain spark to the quilts, don't you think? Once I figure out how to put multiple photos in one post, I want to show close ups of the different corduroy fabrics. I wish we could still buy some of these. It really would be awesome to reproduce some of them again. Out of curiosity I weighed this quilt.... 9 lbs.

I am working on a quilt for my son who recently graduated from high school. Was hoping to have it finished in time for him to take it to college this fall, but not too sure I will meet that goal! Thankfully, our weather will be warm a little longer. Maybe it will be completed in time for cool weather. I had him look at my Pinterest board of Quilt Inspirations so I could get an idea of what he wanted. He specifically chose this quilt.  https://christaquilts.com/2013/10/15/cover-girl/  I hope that link works! It's the quilt she has on the magazine cover, with the navy background fabric. The only problem with this quilt is.....it's made entirely of SOLID color fabrics! I have a HUGE collection of fabrics and only a very few pieces of solids. Sigh. So it's been interesting working with just solid fabrics. I am still sewing the blocks together into rows. There are so many seams to match. I am not a perfectionist, thankfully, but I do want it to look nice! Thinking ahead and trying to figure out how I will quilt it. It will be done on one of my domestic (not longarm) machines. How would you quilt it?

Ok....I was trying to make this a clickable link, and here it is!.....just not up in the paragraph where I wanted it! I can't move it, but hopefully it works. Thanks for understanding!

Sallyhttps://christaquilts.com/2013/10/15/cover-girl/