Maine Quilt Show and Scrap Box Winner

Spent 2 hours at the Preview Evening for the Maine Quilt Show in Augusta last evening.......this exquisitely-appliqued quilt was made by a friend, Marlee Carter.  This is her rendition of the online quilt BOM "Love Entwined" by Esther Aliu from Australia.  Click to enlarge photos to see the fabulous details in the small pieces!

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This is Marlee's other entry, "Ann's Legacy",  pattern by Di Ford, another Australian designer. Wish I had taken more closeups!  Her workmanship is beyond exquisite!

  Spent an hour at the New England Quilt Museum exhibit, "All in the Family", talking with Pam Weeks and Laura Lane about the magnificent reproductions that were displayed.  The exquisite applique quilts were made by sisters Beatrice Smith Utley and Barbara Smith Gray.  beginning in the 1980's......before the age of appropriate reproduction fabrics we have now....BUT you will be amazed at what they did with what they could find,  which were often decorator fabrics.  Anitz Loscalzo wrote an excellent, detailed article about these quilts and their makers in the current issue of "Blanket Statements", the quarterly newsletter from the American Quilt Study Group.
This Baltimore Album-Style Quilt was made in 199l

This was my Personal Favorite, a Broderie Perse Quilt Top, made in 1996.  The workmanship is beyond exquisite!  Center medallion of Broderie Perse bouquet surrounded with cutouts from colorful Toile that I just love!  Now for the most amazing thing......this Broderie Perse is done with teeny, tiny Buttonhole stitch with meticulous attention to matching thread colors to fabric colors! 

One of the most interesting blocks is this one with the darling little dragonfly!  Note his smile!  The blue fabric on the right was from one of the first lines I bought for my quilt shop in 1990.....called ColorWorks by Cranston Printworks.  

There are more photos to come next time!   The Scrap Box winner is Nancy E.....please contact me soon with your address and it will be on its way! 

Long Time Gone Again

I have made one block for the "Long Time Gone" quilt by Jen Kingwell.......have since found out that several friends are making it also!  Since I love HST's, and already have a basketful of hundreds of them (did I mention previously that these are also a Leader/Ender project?)

I already know a couple changes I will make in addition to using Reproduction Fabrics (I have seen quite a few Antique Quilts made in this random manner......will see if I can find photos of them).....will make old-fashioned center-chimney log cabin logs instead of the off-center ones (under the Bowtie blocks) and smaller Bowtie blocks.   Need to also check to see if I have any Orphan blocks that I could use.

While I was sewing the LTG block, I decided to experiment with assembly plan of the original project idea I planned......a fullsize quilt of the 2" HST's.  Decided to make 4-patches that will enable me to assemble with all seams opposing to reduce bulk.  Should have taken a photo of the back of my units to show how I spun the center and pressed the seams.......will do that for next time!

Due to my flying fingers, I accidentally deleted my post about the Scrap box Giveaway, my Leaders/Enders projects and my darling great-grandchildren!  Tried to find a way to retrieve it but could not.  I never heard from the selected winner and now the comments, which were still on the blogger webpage for a while, have gone the way of my lost post! Therefore, I will Start Over with the ScrapBox......to your advantage as I keep adding to it!

According to my notes, I began this quilt in 2013......it was supposed to be 9-patches surrounded by sashing but I prefer alternate blocks.  Did not get very far with plain fabric alternate blocks from the fabric line I was using (History Repeated by Julie Hendrickson) before I decided I wanted it to have a more flamboyant personality....therefore, added random pieced or appliqued blocks here and there!  I have decided that I just like making blocks! 

This is row 10 ready to be attached.  Plan to do 13 rows which will give me a quilt about 78" x 78".

Love when Customers bring Show & Tell!   A LOVELY broderie perse medallion center from Australian vistor, Heather!  I really should have taken closeups as her applique is all teeny, tiny buttonhole stitch! 

Another customer, Ellen L, brought her quilt top back in May.....this quilt top is Just Beautiful and she, like me, must like to make quilts with many different blocks!  Wish I could remember her inspiration pattern!  Anyone recognize the blocks?  Or, she may have made it up as she went!

During free time (if I can keep my nose out of a book and stay off Facebook), I have been making more "scraps"in the squares and strips that I most often use.....could not believe how quickly my boxes are emptying!  I like lots of variety and I am quite sure I have not yet cut 6-1/2" strips of all my older fabrics so I'd best get to it soon!

Til next time.....................................

Another Summer Visitor and a Scrap Box Winner!

While I was creating the draft for this new post, I somehow managed to delete the post with the  giveaway box BUT my Comment list was intact on the website so I was able to find the winner after my husband picked the magic number......which belongs to "bgdtravis"!!  So, if you will contact me with your address the box will be on its way and I'll start another!

This month I was visited by Becky Wright from Iowa and as you can see, she relieved me of some merchandise!  Very nice talking Quilts with her......she is The Civil War Quilter and you will find her blog here.

 A previous visitor, Terry Nixon from New Jersey, suggested that I post photos of a shelf of fabric once in a while in case I might have something that someone is looking for......so will do that today and see how you like it!  The fabrics in photo #1 are Maling Road by Di Ford with Andover.

Below, there are 7 bolts of 1850's "Sarah French" and 4 bolts of Rising Sun Medallion....both are from Washington Street Studio.

  The photo below shows the rest of Rising Sun Medallion  1840-1860.

I have SO Many projects in-the-works and at various stages that I should not even think of doing this but I am!  Love Betsy Chutchian's new book, "Quilts For All Seasons" from Quiltmania and this little quilt struck my fancy......probably because of all the "Oldies But Goodies" she used!  I decided to use 2" diamonds instead of 1.5" just to show the fabric designs a teeny bit more......am using an Ardco template and hand-piecing.

Til next time................

Long Time Gone

I think this is the longest I have ever gone without writing a post since I started this blog (back in 2010)!!!  It's been a Long Winter and it ain't over yet!!  Two days after the snow disappeared from the pastures, the cows' noses were to the ground!  Green was showing up!  One would think I would have lots of quilting projects accomplished during this winter but not so!  One Big Job (I say Big Job because it was not something I Wanted to do but Had to do!) was to make a new ironing board cover......bought yards and yards of this twill at a local remnant shop years ago and it should last my whole life!  I took a photo of the old, disgusting one but would be too embarrassed to show it to anyone!  

 On the ironing board is a Betsy Chutchian quilt in progress..........now it is in the next stage.....a Top!  

Made one log cabin block as a start for a bedsized quilt that I want to make with these 6" squares.  Loved the small one I made (in previous post, I think) so much after I handquilted it, that I wanted to make a cozy one for our bed!  Of course, now I am having slightly Second Thoughts......would also like Courthouse Step blocks, or maybe even Pineapples (probably would need to paper-piece those which means I likely won't do them!)  

Also made two more blocks for my 9-Patch that turned into sort of a Sampler.

This is where Sally, our Coon cat, spent most of the winter.  She had a couple of incidents that laid her low for a few weeks but is back to her perky, annoying old self now (another cat has tried to move in and she says "No...this is my territory" and she defended fiercely!)  Spent quite of bit of time carrying wood and keeping the two woodstoves going!

And I spent quite a bit of time filling bird feeders but the entertainment they provided was wonderful!   Sweet tiny Goldfinches liked the thistle seeds!   Also had lots of Chickadees, Juncoes, gorgeous Cardinals, Nuthatcher, blue jays, sparrows and even some of the ubiquitous crows came to the feeders this year!  The squirrels who chewed a hold in the peak of my building and moved into the attic were less than wonderful (in fact, a nightmare!) and have been caught in Have A Heart trap and given "transportation"!!  That is a whole other Long Story!!

This is what is in my hoop now......a center medallion (Hewson's vase/bird panel repro) and I am now out to border #4....found a nice little leafy design that fills those triangles pretty nicely.  But then I get to do the next border with a cable.....love to quilt cables.  Did a rather simple one for the first border and can't decide if I want to continue on with the same on or find another....I'll cross that bridge when I come to it!

New fabrics arrived from time to time......this is "Susanna" from Windham.....nice for broderie perse applique!  And little birds to fussy-cut!

And then there is "Bathwick", loverly 18th century designs.....nice gnarley branches...pretty flowers for broderie perse!  From Australian designer Karen Style for Marcus.

This is "Farmhouse Reds" tho you can see I got little "red".....mostly nice backgrounds this time!!

And from another Austrailian designer, "Maling Road", Di Ford's new line from Andover.....also early.

And American Jane from Moda keeps us supplied with the bright Provencals!!

A departure for me ....but I love "Lilac Ridge" by Jan Patek!  My Mom's favorite flower.........

This was kind of a whim......."Chalk & Timber" from Marcus to add to my pink and brown collections!

My "Long Time Gone" post title came from this pattern book by Jen Kingwell........Would love to make a similar quilt but with Reproductions!  Until next time......hopefully not so long!