I went to the Maine Quilt show in Augusta today. There were so many beautiful quilts.  The vendors were excellent.  I stocked up on my favorite batting, Katahdin Summer. It is a low loft 100% cotton batting that is made Maine.  It is wonderful for either hand or machine quilting.  I always head for the booth that sells it because I know that the summer weight sells out fast.  I also bought two chalk pencils that really work.  The chalk disappears with a touch of an iron.  Adele Scott is my favorite vendor and I always find something new at her booth,  This year, I found a book that instructs me on how to do ruler quilting. I’ve browsed through it and have learned a lot already.   Now to put the instructions in practice.  I’ve had the machine foot and rulers for over a year and haven’t progressed beyond straight quilting.  Maybe now, I can use the other rulers.

The best of show was Marguerite Solomon Gunn’s quilt –  Banquet Royale.  I had seen pictures of the quilt in magazines, but it is awesome to see it in person.  The colors are beautiful.  Her quilting is beyond belief.

My favorite quilt was one that was appliqued with silk fabric.  Somehow, silk makes a quilt shine.  That quilt won four ribbons.

There was a display from the Lowell quilt museum.  We were allowed to take picture and I will share them with you.

           

Have  a great day and happy quilting.

I decided this morning to work on one project only, instead of working on several.  Dear Jane hadn’t been worked on all summer.  I chose that for today’s project. It took a few minutes to organize the bin.

Dear Jane is being made in the pot holder method.  Each block is hand quilted and bound.  Then they are sewn together with a modified ladder stitch.  I started with the center block and am adding blocks in the row that surround the center.  The second row is done and I am working on the third row.

 

There are sixteen blocks in the third row.  Three have already been sewn on the piece.

Six blocks have been quilted and bound,  They are ready to be attached.

 

 

Three blocks have been quilted and are waiting to be bound.

 

 

One block is pieced, but not quilted.

 

 

 

Three blocks are applique blocks. They need a little finishing and then they will be quilted, bound and added to the piece.

All of the work left on the third row is hand work.  That will be great to do sitting on the porch swing on a sunny day.

 

This is just the beginning of this quilt as there are 250 blocks.  Each row that is added has more blocks than the row before.  My plan is to finish the top of the row and sew it on, then the bottom.  After that, I will sew each side separately. The fourth row has 6 blocks at the top and bottom and seven blocks on each side for a total of 24 blocks.    There is a total of seven rows with the last row 13 block by 13 blocks.  Then there is a border, but I won’t think about that until I get there.

I’m enjoying making Dear Jane.  My friends remind me that I once said that I would NEVER make a Dear Jane quilt.  Never say never,

Have a great day and happy quilting.

It was a very productive day.  I sewed on a lot of  projects. Nothing really was finished, but I can see progress.

Dear Jane needed to come out.  I organized her bin and found that I forgot that I had a few blocks made, quilted and bound and ready to sew into the quilt in progress.  I paper pieced another block.  I always say that the three Ps is how to learn a new technique.  Practice, practice, and practice.  I found that it is also the way to remember how to sew an old technique.  Paper piecing is easy once you remember how to do it. Tomorrow, I’ll sew some of the blocks together.  I would like to have another row sewn onto Jane.

It was a beautiful day.  Miss Molly and I sat on the swing and I sewed some more on Grandmother’s Flower Garden.  The wind was blowing and I found it hard to keep things from blowing away so came inside.  I’m on the last row of blocks in the quilt and that row seems to take a long time.

I started three fabric boxes and they are ready to quilt and add buttons tomorrow.  They are needed for a tea cup raffle for the quilt show in October.

Last night, I went to a Christmas In July party with the Guild.  We had a pot luck supper with the most delicious food.  Its amazing how the right amount of entrees and desserts show up at a pot luck.

We also had a Yankee swap.  What a lot of fun! There was a lot of swapping going on.  A good time was had by all. Two years ago, a friend gave me the pattern for a Sunbonnet Sue wall hanging. I intended to make it this summer.  At the Yankee swap, I received Sunbonnet Sue already made.  I don’t have to make her now.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

I finished last week’s Splendid Sampler and Moda Block Head blocks.  Just in time.  This week’s blocks will come tomorrow and Thursday.

The splendid Sampler block is by Lori Kennedy. It is called Rose and Dot.  The block was supposed to be hand appliqued, but I have a lot of fused fabric left over from Melissa’s Quilt and decided to use that.

 

The Moda Blockhead 2 block #7 is a 6″ block.  It was easy to make.

 

 

 

Have a great day and happy quilting.

 

 

I have been to New Hampshire, Vermont, back to New Hampshire again, and now I am back in Maine.  It’s been a lot of driving, but well worth it.

While in Vermont, I spent the night at a very nice B & B and then attended my daughter’s wedding.  It was wonderful to see family, get a new family,  and make new friends.  The wedding was so much fun.  Children were welcomed with gift bags and lots of games.  It was like a big family party.  Two small children, one was two months old, the other just under two years old were attendants. There was also two little girls who were not flower girls, they were fairy princesses. They had flower crowns and wands.  Also there were two little boy ring bearers.  The children were so well behaved and cute.  They knew exactly what to do.  The bride and grooms grown children and their spouses or partners were all attendants also. 

The wedding was held outside.  There were a few chairs for those who needed them.  When the guests came through the gate there was a sign telling them to choose a quilt and pick a spot.  They sat picnic style as families on the quilts.  If you notice, there are a few Miss Rosie quilts on the fence and in the trunk.

 

 

 

While I was in New Hampshire, I took pictures of several wall hangings. I’m not sure if I have shown them before.  The Mariners Compass quilt was made several years ago.  It was not paper pieced.  I know that I didn’t know that technique at that time.  I noticed that I used some of the lightning fabric from “A Wild and Crazy Night With Suzanne.  I must have had some left over. This was made about the time that I decided to buy extra fabric and create a stash.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

 

I like making challenge quilts.  This challenge was fun.

We took the first letters of our names.  My letters are  BSM.  Then we assigned a color, a quilt pattern and a quilting pattern to each letter. You could decide which technique went with which letter.

 

 

 

Mine was easy  For B, I chose color.  The quilt is brown, burgundy, beige and blue. I had never though to put those colors together, but they played very well and made a pretty quilt.

For S, I chose the quilting pattern, stippling and swirl.  Stippling is very relaxing to me.  It is one of my favorite machine quilting patterns.

For M, I chose the maple leaf pattern.  This was an easy pattern to make as I had just made a maple leaf wall hanging for a  Concord Monitor article.

This is a very small quilt. It was a pleasure to make it.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

 

Melissa’s quilt is finally pin basted and ready to quilt.  As I was eating breakfast, I realized that the kitchen table was a good size for pin basting. My regular basting table is in the garage.  It is a rainy day and cold and damp in the garage.  I think that I’ll stay inside.

 

The clamps fit on the edge of table.  They held the two long sides.  The backing and batting was clamped on the ends, but the top was a little too short.  I pulled the ends as I pinned to make the top taut also.

 

 

 

I probably use more pins than I need to use but the pieces are not going to move when I quilt.

The pins are all placed, but not shut.  I do that later using a grapefruit spoon as an aid.

Here the pins are all shut  

If I forget to close a pin, it stands up and is very obvious.

 

 

 

The background fabric is a beautiful white on white batique that I bought at the Bittersweet Fabric Shop in Boscawen.  As I was piecing the quilt, I realized that the design is separated feathers.  I think that I will quilt around the feathers and use a few swirls to connect them together.  I don’t know what I will do with the melons.  While I’m quilting the feathers, I’ll make a decision about that.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

Well, I’ve done it again. I took a break before I basted Melisa’s Quilt and stumbled upon a you tube video,  Laura Ann Cola was showing how to make a woven quilt.  The quilt uses nine fat quarters and one yard of a solid background.  I did have to add the border fabric and the backing.  The pieces were 10″ long and different widths.  I could cut that out of the Japanese fabric pieces.  It is all straight sewing.  No matching seams.

It is such a unusual quilt and I really liked it.  I knew that if I didn’t make it now, I would never make it, so I wrote down the instructions and started cutting. Then, I started sewing,  It was so easy and fast.  I had the middle pieced in an afternoon.  I sewed the triple border today.  Now, I have another quilt in the “ready to quilt” pile.

This quilt would  be very nice with thirties fabric, or Christmas fabric, or solids,  It would be nice with stripes, although the pieces would have to be fussy cut.

It would be perfect for a Guild sit and sew day.  Most could go home with a finished quilt top.

I still have to baste Melissa’s quilt.  Oh, well, maybe tomorrow.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

It was cloudy and cool today so I decided to stay inside, not do gardening, and get caught up on the Splendid Sampler blocks. It was too cool to sit on the porch swing and sew on the Grandmother’s Flower Garden.

It was a very productive day.  I not only finished the three remaining Splendid Sampler blocks, but I finished  the latest Moda Block head block.  I had cut the pieces out yesterday.  Then I got really busy and finished zigzagging the edges of the flowers on Melinda’s Quilt.  I started that quilt in a class on fusible applique with Sue Pelland at the Vermont Quilt Festival.  There was just a little bit more to do to finish it.  Now, I can baste the backing and batting on the quilt top and quilt it.  It will be nice to have something finished.

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Clamshells designed by Helen Stubbings

 

 

 

  Milk and Cookies designed by Rebecca Bryan

 

 

 

   Balance designed by Wenche Wolff Hatling

 

 

 

It is great to be caught up on all the long term quilts, – Splendid Sampler and Moda Blockhead 2,  The temperature quilt is up to date.  Dear Jane is still sitting in her box waiting for me to make another block.

We are supposed to have another thunder storm tomorrow, so I did go out and pick the raspberries.  There were more that I got a few days ago and it looks as if there are lots more to come.  I’ll freeze some.  They will be so good next winter.

Miss Molly enjoyed her day off from sitting on the swing and checking the neighborhood.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

The day lilies are beautiful.  I look forward to them every year.

      

Even the ditch lily is pretty,  

 

 

 

This is the Splendid Sampler block #5.  That doesn’t mean that I have made all five.  I’ve only made one other.  I have three to make up sometime.

This block is called Point Taken.  It is designed by Susan Ache.  Susan says “Who says that a star has to have points,  Chopping off points is part of the design. ”  I’m not sure that I like chopped off points.  Maybe in the whole quilt, it will fit in.

 

Have a great day and happy quilting.