Flying Crow top completed 10-5-2024 . Eleven years.

The top is completed. Pics to follow.

Starting this quilt for 2013. It's a Flying Crow Block that I discovered via an article by Betty Neff in Quilters Newsletter Dec/Jan 2013 issue. She mentiones that the block is from the 1850's and that she has only found seven or eight quilts using the block. She first discovered it in the book Lest I Shall Be Forgotten (Goschenhoppen Historians, 1993).

Here's my first block:

I plan to make 20-12" blocks for a full sized quilt using my 1800's reproduction fabrics. The original quilt design by Betty Neff was titled Cinnamon and Cider and was made using 6" blocks with a 9 block setting for a wallhanging. Lovely quilt, lovely inspiration.

Quilting Time--Alfred's Quilt

I'm loving my knitting, but it's time to put some quilting time in. This is a quilt that I've been working on for over 2 years. I finally finished the top this Spring and vowed I'd get it onto the longarm for topstitching. I've loaded some pictures of the quilt on the longarm so you can get an idea of what this machine set up is like.

This first picture shows a side view of the quilt on the machine. You can see the backing is red. The white stuff behind the quilt top is the batting, and of course the black & grey design on the top there is the quilt. The pattern is from the book Strips and Strings.

This is a close up of some of the stitch work I'm doing on this particular quilt. I'm using the Circle Lord to get those nice accurate spirals. It works much like a Spirograph (if you remember playing with those as a kid). You plug a stylus that is attached to the machine into a template and it maintains the arches while you move the machine. Great ingenious device.


These spirals are all over the place. There is no pattern involved, I'm just stitching and turning the quilt a few feet and adding another spiral here and there. I love the way it's coming out. I'm using a red thread, which you can't see here. It's really hard to get any relief shots on this dark fabric.