Last week’s Splendid Sampler block was called For the Love by Sharon Burgess.  It was inspired by flowers in her garden.  Sharon does paper  piecing and this piece was supposed to be English paper pieced. I  have been working on the Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilt for a long time,  It is English paper pieced and I did not want to make another block in that method.  I copied the pattern four times and the reverse four times, combined them into one piece and then used the leftover fused fabric from Melissa’s quilt.  The pieces were button hole stitched on the machine.  It was quick and easy.

This week’s Splendid Sampler block should be published tomorrow.  This week’s Moda Blockhead 2 block was published today.  I’ll sew them tomorrow and then I will be done for this week.

Today, I flipped from one project to another.  Nothing was finished, but a lot was accomplished,  It is raining and should rain most of the night,  It will be too wet to work in the garden tomorrow.  Maybe, I can finish something.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

 

I finished the Moda Blockhead 2 block of the week today.  It is the eighth block.  I should get another pattern tomorrow or Thursday. Then I’ll have to hurry and catch up again.   Last week, we had a choice of an appliqued or pieced  pineapple block.  I didn’t like the appliqued block , so I made the pieced block.  I’m enjoying the small Moda blocks.  Every week they are different sizes.

I’ve been working on the Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilt.  It is almost pieced.  I can see the end.  It seems as if I’ve been working on it forever.

The second quilt that is made from Kimberly Einmo’s book is pieced. The first border is on.  I’ve put it away for now.  The fabric that I want for the second and third borders is in N. H.  I’ll add the borders when I go to N. H. the next time.

I also did some much needed garden work.  It is hot outside so I only work out there for a short period of time. It’s much nicer sitting on the swing and doing hand work.   It’s time to separate some bulbs and make the gardens more manageable.  I’m watching the yellow and green beans.  They should be ready in a week or two.  The peas have gone by,  The tomatoes are green.  I keep looking for a red one.

The home grown vegetables in the summer are wonderful.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

I have four bins of finished wall hangings.  Some go way back to when I first started quilting. I like to make wall hangings.  Most of my earlier ones were hand quilted.  It didn’t take long to finish them.

I was checking my picture files today and found these three wall hangings.  I don’t know if I gave them away or if they are still in the bins.  I rarely change the wall hangings in my house, but if I wanted to, I have a lot to choose from.          

The raspberry bushes are still producing. I picked another big bowl full today.  There is more than enough for me.  My neighbors ended up with a bowl full also.  There are still more to ripen in a few days.

I took pictures of day lilies, alliums, Shasta daises and other flowers today and thought about how I could use them in a quilt. Then I wondered why I take pictures of the same flowers every year.  They don’t change.  They are just as beautiful this year as they were last year.

I had two ripe tomatoes in the garden.  I had forgotten that the home grown tomatoes have much more flavor and are sweeter than store bought. These were even better than Farmer’s Market tomatoes.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

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.