A group of quilters has started a virtual quilt show on Facebook. Each quilters has been nominated by another quilter to show one quilt a day for ten days. There is no commentary about the quilt. Then, that quilter nominates another quilter to show ten quilts in ten days. This has been an awesome show and tell from a number of quilting friends and friend of friends.

There have been so many beautiful quilts shown and talked about. It’s hard to decided which one I like best, but I have seen some patterns that I would like to make.

My ten days are over. I did miscount and posted two different quilts on day 5, so I posted a total of 11 quilts. Many of my blog followers are not on Facebook, so I will show all eleven quilts here.

Day 1 This is a small wall hanging. It is a miniature of a larger quilt found in a magazine.

Day 2 Frolic is a Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt.

Day 3 This is a block of the week bed runner. Miss Molly is showing her favorite block.

Day 4 This was made in Sue Pellon class at Vermont Quilt Festival. It is fusible applique with machine blanket stitch around the applique.

Day 5 #! This is red work flowers and hand quilting. It took longer to get around to doing this than it took to do it.

Day 5 #2 Shadows. I made this at a quilt retreat.

Day 6 Canadian 150 It was made in celebration of Canada’s 150th anniversary. It is hand quilted. This quilt was supposed to be red and white but I used blue fabric.

Day 7 Vermont Windows was made in a class at the Vermont Quilt Festival.

Day 8 This was Blockhead block of the week. I have finished the blocks of a second blockhead, but haven’t put them together yet.

Day 9 My hand dyed fabrics were used in this quilt. It is heavily hand quilted. I changed the name of the pattern from October weekend to October Madness. It was hard to get all of the pieces in the right order. Some are not, but it’s hard to tell where they are.

Day 10 Basket and Butterflies. This quilt has won several blue ribbons, a best hand quilting ribbon at VQF, and viewers’ choice at Maine Quilts 2019. It is retired from shows. It is hand appliqued and hand stipple quilted.

I hope that you have enjoyed this virtual quilt show.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

When I came to Maine this summer, I bought only a few projects to work on. I’ve been working a little on each one and don’t seem to finish anything. Comfort and Blessings is together in rows. It is set on a diagonal. It needs to be sandwiched with batting and backing so that I can quilt each row separately. Maybe I’ll do that on the next rainy day. It’s much more fun to sit on the porch and read a book while the weather is good.

I have finished eight blocks in row c for Dear Jane. Of the other five, four are paper pieced and one is an applique. Another rainy day for sewing. I can sit outside and quilt and bind so I should get busy and piece a few.

The applique wall hanging top is finished. It has been sandwiched and ready to hand quilt. My thread came from Superior Thread so I can start hand quilting any time. When I basted the quilt, I noticed that I forgot to add two buds. The stem ends in mid air. I’ll add them when I get to that spot in the quilting.

I needed a piece for A Christmas In July Yankee swap. I have an easy nine patch pattern that when cut and resewn looks very hard. It’s not. I had made this pattern before with 5 inch pieces. This time I used a stack of 2 1/2 inch Moda samples that were given to me as a gift. It is partially quilted. I’m not sure how to quilt the next section. It won’t take long to finish when I decide what to do. I still have a lot of small fabric 2 1/2″ samples. Also some mini paper patterns for paper piecing. I should put them together sometime.

I had decided to take the 25 week machine quilting class with Lori Kennedy. I thought that one lesson a week could be added to what I already do. The lesson came on Monday. And Tuesday. And Wednesday and Thursday. There was so much homework that I got way behind in everything. Years ago, I read a book by Elizabeth Zimmerman. It was called “Knitting without Tears” It taught the European method of knitting which is much faster than American knitting. At the beginning of the book, Elizabeth stated that if you didn’t like knitting and it wasn’t enjoyable, don’t do it. Do something that you enjoy. Taking Lori’s classes wasn’t enjoyable, so I’m taking Elizabeth’s advice. I’m not going to do the classes anymore. I will download and save the lessons and read them, There might be some tidbits that I need to learn.

In the meantime, I have a new book by Angela Walters. She says that if you want to learn how to machine quilt, just start. What a wise woman. If I want to finish any of my projects, I just have to start and work on them until they are finished.

I have a few wall hangings in the Maine house. The birdhouse wall hanging was made several years ago when I was a member of the Tuesday Night Quilters. It was a small group of ladies from the area where I lived at the time. We did round robins, challenge quilts, mystery quilts, and had a wonderful time.

The fish wall hanging was made in a small class of retired women. We met twice monthly and had a great teacher who taught us many things. The day that we made this piece, a reporter from the local paper joined us. She wrote a weekly column about senior citizens. We didn’t think that we were senior citizens at that point, so she called us active senior citizens.

The fish were stuffed; They had beads for eyes. The weeds were built in and free motion embroidery.

I made the third wall hanging for my husband. He had it in his office until he retired. He tied fishing flies and I asked him one day if I could borrow four. He asked if he would get them back. I said, Yes, eventually. The flies are tied to the quilt with real fishing line.

So, you see, he did get his fishing flies back.

My raspberries are outdoing themselves again this year. I’ve frozen several big pails full and there are lots more out there for tomorrow. I will enjoy them next winter. Raspberries twice a day for dessert are wonderful.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

I finally arrived in Maine a few days ago. Our states now let us cross the border without quarantine. It is definitely different coming up two months late. The gardens in Maine are overgrown and impossible to clean up at this point. I’ll have to cut everything back when I can find time. I’ll be careful and leave the good stuff. I’m thankful for the gardens in New Hampshire. I was able to keep them up until I came up here. This year, I planted vegetable seeds and tomato plants among the flowers. Hopefully, they will still grow while I am gone. I’m going back for a few days at the end of July to check on them. We are having a much needed rain, The grass is crispy and brown. One of my grandsons had mowed the lawn until it turned brown. He did a great job of keeping the property tidy. I noticed lots of raspberries that will be ripe soon. The garlic scapes are ready to cut. They are so good in a stir fry. My neighbor’s peas are ready. I should buy my supply and freeze them for the winter. They are so much better than the frozen peas in the store. The farmer’s market is open on Saturday afternoon and I will get fresh vegetables there.

Some of my New Hampshire Flowers.

Yippee!!! I’ve just received notice that Crafsty/Blueprint has been acquired by TN Marketing, They have agreed to honor previous customer purchases for classes and subscriptions. Now, we just wait for instructions on how to do this.

I’ve only brought up a few projects this year. One project is Row C of Dear Jane, I have a few pieced and can quilt and bind them when I sit on the porch and do handwork.

The applique wall hanging is ready to baste. I want to hand quilt it so thread has been ordered from Superior Thread. It is supposed to come by Monday and the quilt will be basted by then. It’s not as if I don’t have enough thread. I didn’t have the right color and I wanted cones to make sure that I didn’t run out before finishing.

I’m taking an online 25 week machine quilting class with Lori Kennedy. The class is in the third week and I haven’t started yet. All the lessons have been saved to a file and I will start as soon as I get myself organized. Lori says that we are going to work hard and I believe her. There is a lot of information to learn and practice, practice, practice. My quilt sandwiches are made and my doodle pad is ready. Someone on her website told of a free app on an I pad that can be used to doodle. I’ll look it up and see if it is something that I can use.

The Comfort and blessings blocks are finished. I have the instructions for finishing the sashing and borders. I’m thinking of machine quilting each block and putting it together the lap quilting way. It would be easier than putting a big quilt under the bed of the machine.

I have a couple of other small projects to finish. It’s difficult to decide which project to work on. On rainy days, I like to sew in the house. On sunny days, it’s much nicer to hand sew on the porch. Hopefully, I can finish most of the projects while here.

The New Hampshire quilt guild has not met since March. The Maine Guild met last week for the first time since March. We sat outside and social distanced. It was so nice to be together again.

Have a great day and happy quilting.