Gardening and Quilting

Deanna's article in this month's newsletter got me thinking about all the links between gardening, canning and quilting.  They  can be past times that give a lot of pleasure, they provide comfort and nourishment of one sort or the other and can be frugal and maybe not as you can buy a lot of expensive fabric or an iris bulb that costs $50.00 each!  None the less, they can become compulsive hobbies.

I then did some searching about the internet about  some of my favorite gardening and preserving related items.  The first one that came to mind was corn and beans which is a very neat block.  Quilting Assistant has a nice page with the corn and beans block assembly and My Quilt Genie has a nice page on how to calculate a quilt with this block.  My Quilt Genie has many,many block to calulate out so take a look at all the possibilities.  The Wooden Thimble Quilts  has a nice  printable page of the block also, along with some other familiar patterns.

Here's something I didn't know.  Do you know what a "Sweet Potato" quilt is?  They are those older quilts with lots of that gold-orange color in them that has more recently been called "cheddar".  I think this sweet potato term is more common in the south.  Have you ever wondered why the ladies used that sweet potato color their quilts, especially when it seems to be so vivid?  An explanation that I heard was in the times of these women, they used candlelight or lanterns as their main lighting and when a sweet potato or cheddar colored quilt was laid on the bed, it absolutely glowed...they knew their stuff.  Location, location, location and lighting.

Another food and preserved block pattern that I thought was interesting is the pickle dish pattern.  Now I went to quite a few sites to look at them but many of them showed me a wedding ring pattern instead of the block that I recognized.  I was a bit confused but did find one that show what I though of as the pickle dish at Quilt Obsession .  This shows the pieced tooth like block that is based on those old cut glass pickle dishes that everyone's granny used to serve  up their special pickles.  Now I know that many blocks have the same name but this is the one I'm familiar with.  Also, the Kansas  City Star Quilts official home is called the Pickle Dish.

Deanna's salsa making started me on this so I had to find something with salsa and found the Strips & Salsa Quilt.

Still into pickles, so I found Bread and Butter quilts.  One is a medallion style quilt at Wilmington Prints.  Another I found at Red Rooster Quilts.  Go to  their site, click on store and then free patterns and you will find the Bread and Butter Quilt.  They were having some internet problem so I couldn't provide a direct link.

Everyone loves pumpkins and FavQuilts has a cute runner.

Do you remember Kitty Cucumber by In The Beginning Fabrics?  When you get to their site, go to free patterns and find the Kitty Cucumber but I think  you'll be checking out all the other nice super cute patterns.  For those interested in Halloween fabric and such, the Hallowgraphix Quilt is really great.

This is a link for a miniature quilt by Martha Wolfersberger called Cranberry Relish.  Traditional and sweet. It comes in five parts.

You will enjoy a blog called Red Pepper Quilts.  Rita, who is the blogger and quilt designer, has a lot of nice patterns and when you go to her shop link you will also find a tutorial for a scrap buster quilt called Pieced Border Quilt.  Its very charming. 

Hope you enjoyed the gardening, canning and quilting tour.  I  bet  you can find a lot more!  diana