JULY 4

Symbols of freedom

Places of peace and tranquility

And here's to a day of doing what makes you happy.

Days, Hours, and the Minutes

This blog started out being about quilting but that is just a small piece of our lives.  When we get together, it's not about quilting really.  That's our common excuse for assembling in the studio, at a camp getaway in Connecticut or some other venue, or trekking out to a quilt show.  But it is so much more than that.  How can you explain all that is a relationship, a friendship, a kinship?  It is about knowing that with or without talking about what brings joy or ache in our hearts, we are together and we know.  We know about the joys and the aches.  We feel for one another and to move on through time together..  We are there to say that both painful and glorious, wondrous moments pass.  And they will both come again.  And so we will gather again.  We will spend days, hours and minutes together and celebrate our lives.

 Mary quilting her first quilt.  She is a talented and precise at piecing and has come such a long way in gaining confidence and more importantly, thoroughly enjoying the process of making a quilt.  With a kind and sweet spirit about her, she is a pleasure to work with.

Kelly and I spent time in her new Jeep on a road trip by the lake, into the mountains and back around to South Burlington during Easter weekend.  We packed a lunch and had a wonderful time on our road trip.  We agreed to do it again after the snow melts.  A great nest at the top of a mountain road.  

Contented. Relaxed. Happy.

A happy day with friends in the studio.  All we need is to set a date, send a group email invitation including any theme for the pot luck lunch.  That morning, I turn on the lights and maybe the heat, start the coffee and watch the cars come up the driveway.   

Candy with her wicked cool Elna and some funky fabric.  Candy goes about making her quilts in a quiet and focused way.  It seems like they suddenly come together in a beautiful and clever way.  

Kathleen sings along as her machine runs.  She has a giggle and laugh we all want to hear.  It is contagious.

Deb has a lovely singing voice, quick smile and seemingly boundless energy.

Grandma's Aprons

This is Grandma's Aprons, made entirely from bits and pieces of feedsack fabrics, including my Grandma's apron.  The apron was well-used and held memories of warm oatmeal bread baking.

It's one of my very favorite quilts and so comforting to me.  Memories....

A gorgeous autumn 2012 day in the studio with friends

 Lovely projects and personalities

A bag? A placemat?

Independent projects, camaraderie and lots of opinions and help

A comfy spot for handquilting

The precision quilter intent on her project

Conversation and laughter could still be heard over the whir of machines



Bumble Bees

Bumble bees are fascinating.  It stops me in my tracks to watch them hover and work, hover and work.

K. Sperino from Finishing Lines inspired me to invest in a good camera.  I'm amazed at the images the camera is able to capture - even bumble bees and pollen on a sunflower.  I am contemplating how I would translate these images into a textile piece. 

Check out the link to Finishing Lines.  She does amazing work and both her images and work are pure eye candy.



All three photos were taken on Main Street in Boothbay Harbor, Maine this fall.

Goodbye to a friend

I was able to make a quilt for a friend in his last weeks.  It included photos from his close friends and family in lighter, carefree times.  Karl enjoyed hiking, vacations, cooking and spending time with friends and family.  

I will miss his gentle sweet smile. 

Karl certainly appreciated the quilt and the warm memories.

Making the quilt and seeing him enjoy it was the best thing I could have done for myself.

Waste nothing

The following project is an experiment in using every bit and piece of fabric originating with a specific project.  This is challenging to those of us who don't use patterns, love scraps and seem to create more leftovers with each and every project.  My scrap bins, although precious and useful in their right, have grown way too big.

The project started with 22 fat quarters and the intentions of using them all to make one quilt top and to use all the bits and pieces up.  The fabrics all had 2 things in common, they contained the color pink and were florals.

I cut strips out of each of the fabrics in 6", 4", 3" and 2" varying widths to use most all of the fabrics, keeping stacks of each width as I cut.  If I made a project in this fashion again, I'd use wider strips at this point, probably with the widest strip starting at 9" and a few 1/2 yard cuts in place of the fat quarters.  It would lead to a bit less variety of fabrics and less piecing.

 

As I cut the strips, I stacked strips of the same width together in piles to stay organized.

I mixed up the strips of the same width and cut them in chunks of varying sizes.  Nothing was measured.  The strips originally cut at 6' wide were now stacked in groups of 3 or 5 across my cutting board and chopped apart at whatever intervals or sections appealed to me visually; wide, narrow and in between but being very careful to keep the original strip sets together.  The result was stacks of rectangles that were 6" long by varying widths, and then 4" by varying widths and so on with the remaining strips.  It is very important to the overall construction to keep the cuts lined up across the grid and to keep the sub cuts perpendicular using the lines on the mat and the ruler.

Keeping the stacks organized, mix up the fabrics and sew rectangles together in sets of 2.  Sew the sets of 2 together to create sets of 4, and so on until reaching a desired length that would be the width of a large lap-sized quilt.  Another way to reduce waste when strip piecing is to pay attention to starting a set under the presser foot before the prior set is completely done.  It eliminates wasted thread between pieces and time spent cleaning up when you cut pieces apart.

Once you finish one stack and the strip sets are approximately the same length (the desired width of the quilt), move on to the next stack and do the same process to create strip sets the same length as the previous strip sets (the desired width of the quilt).

Sew the rows together in a way that is visually appealing to you.

Kelly and I were fortunate to spend another perfect week in East Boothbay at our favorite place on earth - courtesy of dear, generous friends. 

This is the total amount of leftovers, including selvage edges (there will be a separate complimentary project using these in a future post), trimmings from squaring up and clipped piecing threads (the little grey nest of threads on the bed of the Featherweight).

I'm not sure what I'll do with the trimmings.  That will be a real challenge!