I am back in N. H. for a few days to get ready to go to the Vermont Quilt Festival.  I left Maine in a rain storm, but the sun was out half way down.  The weather was beautiful today until suppertime when a thunderstorm came up.  Miss Molly does not like thunder and was very upset.  I think that she likes Maine much better.  She enjoys taking a nap on the swing in Maine and does not like to go outside here in N. H.

This morning, I had six poppies in my Maine garden. My flowers are beautiful here.  I’ll take some pictures tomorrow unless the rain storm destroyed them,  We really needed the rain.

Years ago, when at the quilt festival, I designed a Dresden Plate quilt in my head.  It was going to use hand dyed fabric as well as some purchased ones.  I gathered the fabric for several years. The colors had to be just right. When I think back about some of my earlier quilts I realize that I gathered fabric for years for some until I had just the right combination.    The medallions are very large and the quilt grew to king size.  It is beautiful in its simplicity.

I saw a pattern that stated spectacular quilts from simple shapes. I thought it would be nice to make a simple quilt.  I didn’t pay attention to what it really said.  It did not say simple quilt.  It said simple shape.  The simple shape was a square.  The quilt was not simple to make.   I started gathering fabrics for this quilt and liked what I had, but there was something missing.  At that time, I was teaching some of my co workers how to quilt.  We quilted at my dining room table that had a cutting mat that covered the whole table.  I had found it at a yard sale for $2.00.  It was fun.  We could cut anywhere near our machine.  I miss that mat.  One of my friends had bought a piece of pink fabric at Keepsake Quilting.  She laid it on top of my pile of fabric so we could see it.  That was it!!! Just the right color to finish my spectacular quilt.  I sent a piece of the selvage to Keepsake with a check and by return mail I had my accent fabric.

Every quilt does have a story.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

 

Miss Molly and I were sitting on the porch swing enjoying the cool evening air.  I had some un-sewing to do and she was just taking it easy.  There are two poppies tonight with more to come.   I don’t know what these flowers are but they are small and very pretty.    The end of the driveway is filled with these pretty little flowers.  They weren’t there last year and who knows where they came from.  

When I decided to make the gaa-Barge series, I made a mission statement.  In the statement I said that I would make one a week and even if they were not good, I would keep them in the series.  This one is not good.  After the success of the underwater scene, I thought that I would make a landscape.  This is part of the White Mountains as seen from a cabin where we stayed during a fishing trip.

It’s a good thing to make an awful piece once in a while.  It makes you think and do much better the next time.  I can only say that this one inspired me to do better.

I think that I did because I figured out a way to make Landscape Gaa-Barge and even taught a class with the procedure.  This one stays in the series to remind me that not all quilts are well made or beautiful.

Next week, when there is another Gaa-Barge post, I’ll show you one of my class examples and just maybe will tell you how to do it.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

The garden quilt top is finished.  It has been basted and ready to quilt.  I looked at it all one afternoon trying to decide how to quilt it..  I drew out several quilting designs but nothing seemed right.  I decided to stitch in the ditch with invisible thread and think more about what I would quilt later.  The only problem with invisible thread is that you can’t see it.  It’s not hard to thread through the needle, but is hard to see where you have already quilted.  I’m using Superior Threads mono poly.  It glides through the needle with no problem.  Not at all like the old invisible thread that was terrible to sew with.  While I was sewing the stitch in the ditch lines, I was thinking about what I would do for quilting.   I have some of it settled in my mind.  I can quilt those designs in the spaces made by the invisible thread and then decide what to do in the other spaces.

Now that the Garden Quilt is on it’s way to being finished, I am starting another new project using the last twelve 10″ blocks from Kimberly Einmo’s block book.  I’ll use more of the Japanese cotton fabric to make these blocks.  They are the same fabrics that I’m using in the Moda Blockhead 2 blocks except the Moda blocks will have a black background and the Kimberly blocks will have a white background.  The two quilts will look very different when finished.  

 

 

 

The Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilt top is almost done also.  Just one more row of blocks and then the partial row that straightens out the bottom of the quilt.  I’ll probably hand quilt that one.  It seems a shame to machine quilt a quilt that was pieced by hand.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

Miss Molly and I were sitting on the porch swing this afternoon.  It was a wonderful place to relax and work on the Grandmothers Flower Garden quilt. The air smelled so fragrant from all the flowers around the front of the house.

I looked around at all the flowers.  The lupine will be gone soon, but still is beautiful.  The yellow iris, purple chive flowers,  white pom pom bush and the Ragusa rose bush are all in blossom.  On the other side of the white fence, Grandpa’s geraniums are in full blossom.  My Dad gave me the first plants and his grandchildren gave them their name.  As I looked around, I spotted the first poppy of the season.  It is beautiful as usual.  It is a vivid orange with a purple center.  It always reminds me of a quilt that a friend made with purple fabric and a big splash of orange.  It was a very striking quilt.

I have decided to join the second year of the Moda Blockhead blocks.  Each week, I will receive a pattern.  The size is from 6″ up to 18″ or whatever the designer decides.  All my blocks will be made from Japanese cotton fabric.  I have a multicolored print which I will use somewhere in each block.  The background will be black.  There are enough color and patterns of fabrics in this stash to complete the quilt.

Block 1 is Stellar Star by Lynn Hagmeier.  There are 13 designers at this point who will take turns designing the Moda Blockbuster 2 blocks.  It will be a fun journey.  I’ll post each block as I make it so you can go on the journey with me.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

The Canadian Lilac does not smell like a lilac, but is very pretty.

  Iris

Beginners and enders are small pieces that you sew together between sewing seams.  They make starting a seam much easier.  The needle doesn’t eat the beginning of the seam.

Confetti is a king size quilt that was made with 2″ squares.  Using the 2″ pieces as beginners and enders made this quilt easy to make.  It took a long while to sew all the pieces but sewing for a few seconds between other seams made it effortless.

I had a stack of log cabin blocks in my ufo pile.  When I made them I was trying out a new “easy” way to make a log cabin block.  I don’t know why I didn’t finish them.  They only needed corners.

One day, as I was sewing, I needed some beginners and enders and spotted the log cabin blocks.  I could sew triangles on the corners as a beginner and ender and the blocks would be finished.  I would just have to square them up and sew them together.  In two days, I have four blocks ready to finish.  This ufo will be finished in no time at all.

I’ll look at my ufos differently now.  Maybe using them as beginners and enders will diminish the pile.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

Going Buggy is the seventh in the Miss Rosie Series.  All thirteen quilts in the Miss Rosie’s Spice Of Life Quilts book by Carrie L. Nelson were made by me and my daughter after we challenged each other to make all thirteen quilts using only our stash.  We were glad when the last stitch was made.  Miss Rosie took over our life for a while.

I enjoy sewing curved seams such as the Drunkard’s Path block.  Carrie made her curved blocks another way.  She invisible machine appliqued circles using freezer paper.  Then she cut the circles into quarters.  I didn’t enjoy this method until almost the last block.  It took me all that time to be comfortable with doing it that way although I had done invisible applique before.

The traditional name for this four part quilt is Dogwood Blossom.  Carrie changed it by alternating the colors in the four segments.

My Going Buggy had a white background.

My daughter’s quilt has different fabrics for the background.  

All three quilts look different.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

 

 

 

I love to make mystery quilts. It’s fun to use another person’s design.  Of course, when you begin, you have no idea what the end result will be.  You only know what value the fabric should be – light, medium, dark, etc. Instructions are given one at a time for several days or weeks.  Only, at the turn of the last page, will you know what the quilt will look like.

Several years ago, I made the quilt that is pictured below.  I had made other mystery quilts designed by this quiltmaker.  They came out very nice.  This quilt  took a lot of days and lots of sewing,  When I finished the top, I realized that I could have made it in half the time, cutting and sewing my own way.  It could have been made with squares and half square triangles.  It was a simple block made complicated.  Live and learn.  The mystery was why this designer chose to sew it this way.

It is a very pretty little quilt anyway.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

   

More flowers from the garden.

I had the most delicious supper tonight.  I thought that I would cook whatever I had in the refrigerator.  I found a sweet potato, asparagus, onions and an apple that was partly bruised.  In the freezer was a small pork chop that I had frozen earlier when I bought a whole package of pork chops.

I started by turning the oven on to 400 degrees.  Into it went the sweet potato.  I cut the bottom stems off the asparagus and put the tops into a steamer kettle.  I did not turn this on yet as asparagus only takes about 15 minutes to cook.  It was ready to go when the time was right.

I have been using the cast iron fry pan lately and found it much better than the other fry pans. It can go from the stovetop to the oven without any problem.   In it, I put a little butter and the chopped onions.  The onions cooked on low until they were brown.  Be careful that they don’t burn.  I peeled the apple, cut away the bruised part and cut the pieces into chunks.  Now is the time to turn the heat on under the asparagus.  When the onions were browned, I added the apple and one tsp. sugar  and cooked for a few minutes.  The onion/apple mixture was removed from the fry pan and placed on a plate.  The pork chop was browned in the same fry pan for 3 min on each side.  The onion/apple mixture was spooned on top and the cast iron fry pan was placed in the oven with the sweet potato. It takes only about 3 to 4 minutes to finish cooking. Everything should be ready to go on the plate at this time.  The sweet potato might need one minute more in the microwave if it isn’t done.

I didn’t  tell amounts because everyone has a different idea of what is a single serving.  Use a sweet potato that is the size that you want to eat.  Also the size of the pork chop and asparagus.  The onion will cook down, so I used about 1/2 cup.  I would have used one whole apple, but had to cut some away because of the bruising.

The onion/apple mixture is delicious.  It would be wonderful on chicken.  White potato or rice could be substituted for the sweet potato.  Any vegetable can be cooked.  Adjust the timing to the amount of time that it takes to make the sauce and cook the meat.

Enjoy

Have a great day and happy quilting.

The first gaa barge piece is scraps made into a crazy quilt block.  The seams were covered with built in stitches in the sewing machine.  This would make a very pretty large quilt.  It would be a good way to use up a lot of scraps.  The quilting could be done on the machine in a very short time.  It would be fun to make a sampler type quilt and quilt each section with a different built in stitch,

The second piece Is made of thread that was cut off in the beginning of embroideries.  It is covered with tulle and beads are couched on.  For some reason, this piece is heavy and wants to be folded in half so it would make a very nice book cover.

The iris are beautiful this year.  I had planned to separate the bulbs because they were all jammed up, but didn’t get around to it.  It didn’t matter as they outdid themselves and made a beautiful display.  The massive display was battered by the last rain storm so I didn’t take a picture. These are pictures of a few that were left standing.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

The lupines are beautiful this year.  Each year, in the fall, when the lupines have gone to seed, I cut off the stems and lay the whole piece in whatever garden that I want new lupines to grow.  The first year, the plants come and the second year the flowers come.  If I do this every year, I am assured a crop of flowers every year.  The seeds do not have to be covered,.  They just lay on top of the soil.  Some seeds do not germinate so I lay several stems worth of seed in the area that I want planted.

    

Several years ago, before the auctioneer retired, we went to an auction every Saturday night.  They had a food stand and we had our supper while we waited for the auction to start. It was our fun night out.  One night, I saw a quilt under a table.  It had bubble gum pink and gray.  I pulled it out and looked at it.  Then I hid it back under the table.

The quilt was in decrepit shape.  It smelled very bad. I hung it on the line outside and sprayed it with Febreze.  It didn’t do any good,  It still smelled.   Then, I decided to reproduce it.  I looked for about six months to find fabrics that looked like the original.  I had to apologize to the quilt shop owner when I took the quilt in to match the fabrics.  The four patches were made with different fabrics and I found enough to make it look like the original.  The fun was in the hunt.

The pattern is easy.  It’s a nine patch made from five four patches and four plain blocks.  It is set on the diagonal with a plain alternating square.  Even the backing is similar to the original.  The reproduction looks very similar to the original.  And it doesn’t smell.  

Have a great day and happy quilting.

 

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