Orphan Jethro's Jars

Orphan Jethro's Jars

It's a finish!

41 x 51

This one came to me in pieces. I assembled the top last year when I was working with orphan blocks. I named my orphan block quilts and this one I called Jethro. 

I quilted it with blue lines in the sashings and in the jars I quilted little swirls in different colors of thread that matched the color inside the jars. 

The back is a solid blue with different colors of swirls.

The theme this month in my sewing space is March Madness (Quilting) Marathon.  I'm going to concentrate on finishing up a lot of the small tops I have in the TBQ (to be quilted) pile.  They will then be donated to:

Fostering Crossroads

Wrap - A -Smile 

Quilts Beyond Borders

And sew on...

*****

CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

March 19 - Blooms in the cottage garden!

 

It's A Top! Orphan Jethro

It's a top!

Orphan Jethro

"Orphans" has been the theme in my sewing space in September and October. I've accumulated quite a few orphan blocks over the last few years so decided to try to put a lot of them together for comfort quilts for kids.  All of the orphan quilt tops have been getting names like hurricanes. I'm hoping to maybe get halfway through the alphabet before the end of October. But I'm also hoping to get some tops quilted since I have a new roll of batting sitting here. But I'm also hoping to get the gardens put to bed. But I'm also hoping...

All the pieces and parts came to me with some assembly required so I did not have to do a bunch of thinking to put this one together. 

Sometimes there is no time for thinking.

And sew on... 

 

It's a Finish!

 Prepare!

68 x 88

Hand quilted.

 Prepare. Don't just duck and cover. 

I have had this top made since September 2017. I blogged then a little about the quilt. 

I have so many quilt tops that need quilting that sometimes it makes it difficult to decide which top to quilt next. This one has been sitting around a long time because I never felt the urge to finish it. But with current events I decided now was the time to get it finished. 

 Ever since the Duck and Cover drills I practiced as a young girl I have felt the need to be prepared for a catastrophe. Of course as a young girl I also knew there would be little chance of survival with a nuclear bomb but I did know where the nearest fallout shelters happened to be. However, I worried about post apocalyptic times and what I would do about food. As I've grown older I've learned various survival skills and have made sure to have some food stuffs set aside like rice, beans, flour, pasta and canned and dried garden veggies and herbs.   

Around 2011 the CDC published guidlines for  Zombie Prepardness  so I added some zombies to my quilt. They are at the window trying to get into the cache of canned goods.  The "chalkboard" above the "window" lists reasons (embroidered in glow in the dark thread) to be prepared.  Pandemic is listed as one of those reasons. 

 Glow in the dark eyes of more zombies trying to get in. Although I think they are after brain and not my canned goods so I probably don't have to worry much about that. 

 I really am a survivalist (if you want to call it that) at heart. I guess I would call it more self-reliance.   Some friends I used to work with have called me recently to invite themselves to my house because they know they could at least get bread and homemade jam if food got scarce because they never did heed my warnings about being prepared. We all got a good laugh. 

My quilt shows me prepared with lots of chocolate and other snacks. Of course we know that is to have on hand!  But who knew TP would be even more important.  Not even the CDC had that on the Zombie preparedness list. 

 Bacon is another essential. 

 I've had this backing around for ages. I bought it specifically for the back of this quilt. It has dishes on shelves. 

I made a canning jar stamp in my scrapbook supplies so stamped it on my label. A lot of times my quilts don't get labeled but I think this one needed some documentation about the importance of preparedness in case this heirloom gets handed down through the generations. 

Top finished September 2017.

Little did I know that 3 years later there would be a global pandemic of CVD-19.

Hand quilted during self quarantine March-April 2020.

PREPARE: A New Flimsy, A Very Old UFO

PREPARE

68 x 88

It's now a flimsy. 

I made most of the jars for this quilt a loooooong time ago.  I knew I wanted to add a few words but I really don't enjoy free-piecing letters.  I know that because I've added words to a couple of other quilts I have in the hope chest - one has ships and stars and says "Don't set sail on someone else's star" and the other simply says "Get real".   Anyway...along comes the Ad Hoc Improv Challenge to add words to a quilt and out comes this old UFO.  And it now has words. 

Don't just duck and cover. 

You know, those "duck and cover" drills I went through in first and second grade scared the poop out of me.  Even at that young age I think I knew that a desk would not do me any good as protection if the commies decided to drop a bomb on us.  I even had doubts about survival in a Fallout shelter but for years and years wherever we went I made it my business to look for the symbol for a Fallout shelter so I knew where they were. 

Anyway...being scared about survival at a young age plus a few history lessons about Irish famines and Holocausts and Depressions have taught me to be prepared...to plan ahead.  I'm not one of those crazy type survivalists but I've learned to plant trees, split wood, cook on a wood fire, make clothes, sew by hand, darn socks, fish, raise and dress chickens and rabbits, forage, make wine and cheese and soap and jam and candles, bake bread from sourdough starter and continue the starter, garden and preserve the harvest by drying or canning, save seeds, identify some wild plants that are edible or poisonous or have medicinal uses...  I've learned to make do. 

Speaking of making do...

I ran out of black fabric to use in the borders and (since retirement have become a hermit that doesn't venture out much to even buy fabric) so used some glow in the dark eyes one one side (scary, huh? who's there? ) and some fabric that looks like kids have drawn on a chalkboard...

...above the chalkboard fabric I added a window with some zombies trying to get in and above that I "drew" (embroidered in glow in the dark thread) on the chalkboard reasons to prep (no matter how remote).  This is all in fun...kind of poking fun at myself, really.  (Can't you tell from some of those things I've got in the jars? )    I've tried to pass along some of this "plan ahead" mentality with my kids but they say if anything happens they know where to go - mom's house.   And I guess that's planning ahead, too. 

I wish my fabric was stacked as neatly on such flimsy shelves.  I think I might have to add a label on the flour jar.  I used a fabric I thought might look like wheat flour which is what I usually have on hand for baking and bread making.  

 I might have to label the sugar jar too. I used some white sparkly fabric for sugar. 

PREPARE

Don't just duck and cover

Now in the quilting pile.