TBT: Hodgepodge

Time for another series of quilts from My Tiny Career. I can't believe how quickly Throwback Thursday comes up on the calendar each month. It always sneaks up on me. I have one more big post of quilts I quilted for Becky Schaefer in the mid-80's to early 90's. If you read my TBT post each month, you will recall that she constructed or reconstructed them from antique materials or blocks and then sent them to me for hand quilting. Last month, I shared what I called midi quilts--a little bigger than the mini quilts I usually worked on. After I published that post, I discovered more photos of midis (undocumented) in a shoe box. I'll wait until next month to show them. Today I'm sharing a hodgepodge of quilts--ones that didn't fit neatly into the categories for my other posts. They were quilted with off-white cotton thread, for which I was paid by the yard. These photos have all been scanned from my files, so some aren't very clear, but I have been working on this project this year to document my work all in one place. If you'd like to read more about my tiny quilt career, click on that label to the right or at the bottom of this post. As usual, I will include what I know of dates, size, and amount of thread used.

Let's start with some Irish chains, a pattern that never seems to go out of style. This first one is 9 1/2 by 11 1/2 inches. I finished the quilting in March 1987. It has minimal quilting--only 1 1/2 yards--of double hearts in the plain squares.

 I'm not sure if this backing fabric is old or new because I had some very similar in my stash.

Here's another one in a different colorway, and a little smaller, at 8 by 9 5/8 inches. Finished in May 1987, it has a bit more quilting: 3 1/2 yards. I like the dark background and how the quilting shows.

This backing is definitely very old and fragile.

And then this little one. Ooh, look! Teddy Bears! I don't remember if these were some kind of stenciling or fabric painting or print. The variation and details in the overalls makes me think it was a print that looked like stencil. It also looks like the little corner squares on the bear blocks were set in, because the bears spill over what should be seam lines. It measures 8 3/4 by 10 1/2 inches. Again, minimal quilting, just around the bears: 1 1/2 yards. Finished in March 1989.

This one had a typical muslin backing for these kinds of quilts.

These next two quilts are actually antique blocks that were quilted for framing. The appliqued sunflower block is 14 1/2 inches square. I finished it in July 1988 with 16 2/3 yards of thread. I mostly echo quilted this one. Look at those little jazz hands! I think my tiny helper was trying to keep the quilt from blowing around. 

More jazz hands!

And a Pine Tree block, 13 inches square, finished in July 1988 with 13 2/3 yards of thread. Also echo quilted. I don't know why that bottom looks kind of wonky. Maybe the way the light hit it.

Here are two more little quilts with applique: Rose of Sharon. Look at those tiny HSTs! And the applique has such tiny stitches. They are both 9 1/2 by 11 inches, and were finished in March 1989 with 6 1/6 yards of crosshatching in each. 

And then there were these little bow tie quilts, another enduring pattern. The first is 11 inches square, finished in March 1989 with 6 5/6 yards of thread (double outlining in the lighter parts). The second is slightly larger at 12 inches square (wider border), but with a bit less quilting due to a slightly different straight line design in the outer blocks: 6 1/6 yards of thread. It was also finished in March 1989.

How about a Broderie Perse quilt? This one is 12 inches square, finished in May 1989 with 14 1/8 yards of thread. I love the quilting on this one. It's pretty extensive. The center has crosshatching along with bisecting horizontal lines, and parallel lines in the tan triangles.The border has ghost quilting to echo the pink and brown triangles in the inner border. 

And a Pine Tree quilt, 14 3/4 by 11 1/4 inches. Finished in May 1989 with 12 1/4 yards of thread. The feather circles were my favorite motif for this type of layout in Becky's minis. I also outlined those tiny triangles! Looks like I lost some resolution when I cropped the crazy background out (Mom jeans and all).

More trees, this time with sashing. 11 3/4 inches square,and finished in July 1989 with 8 1/2 yards of thread. More outline quilting on this one and parallel lines following the brown triangles.

Then there is this brown churn dash, which I seemed to have missed on my earlier post about churn dashes. I don't have any documentation of it, which means it was probably finished late in my tiny career.I don't think these colors are that popular these days, but aren't they striking?

Two more. A drunkard's path. (I don't really like that name. There are alternatives. I should look them up.) Isn't this modern looking? I think it's the only one of this type I quilted for Becky. Again, no documentation. And a basket quilt. I thought I didn't have any photos of it. It was peeking out from behind a quilt I showed last time. But there it was in that shoe box of photos I found. No documentation. Sigh. But look at all those narrow borders!! And the scrappy piecing. Quilting on these was pretty simple: outlining in the lighter blocks of the drunkard's path and simple lines around the sashing on the baskets quilt with partial feather stars in the triangles. I have a photo of the backs but it's really bad so I've deleted it.

Okay. That's quite enough for this month. Next month, I'll slip in those last few midi quilts I did for Becky and I'll be done with the documentation of the work I did for her. As I worked for Becky, I found new avenues for quilting for others; some clients were referred to me by Becky, but others came through other connections. Those quilts are the ones I'll share next time. Some are much, much, MUCH bigger.

I'm linking up with mmm! quilts today for Sandra's Throwback Thursday linky party. Go there and see what other oldies quilters have dug up from their pre-blogging past. 

Have a happy November!