February news

Wow, it has been a long time since I posted a blog.  It wasn’t intentional and it wasn’t caused by any unpleasantness in my life; as a matter of fact life has been good and I am lucky to be able to share my passion of quilting with you.  Even if you don’t love quilting and you read this, I hope you are passionate about something in your life and you can share the feelings that I encounter in my updates of my hobby.

Just a few notes for catching up on the personal side.  I am excited to say that I have given my workplace notice that I will be retiring on September 9^th.  I have worked all of my life and I am looking forward to spending more time in my home, being a housewife, quilter and who knows what else will come my way.  Both of my sisters are retired and what fun it could be to get together occasionally for lunch, or a cooking class, or a little wine tasting.  On the quilting side, I am no longer in charge of Program for our local quilt guild, I am now co-chair of our annual retreat in Ivoryton, CT which will be at the end of May.  I will share updates on this as items come along.

What have I been working on?

The recommended quilt for Retreat 2016:  I used a jelly roll to make this quilt but we are also encouraging people to make it from scraps that they have.

A few years ago I made some take 5 blocks from some Jane Sassaman fabric that I loved the colors of.  Once I made the blocks, I didn’t like them, too much color, so I put them away.  Recently I took them out and decided to try to make them more palatable by adding white sashing to break them up, so I sliced and diced them and added the white.  I was able to finish the blocks into a quilt and quilt it, someone will love it.

The last item for now is something that I am just finishing up for someone special, here is a small piece.

Busy Day

While the rest of the world goes about their normal schedules of work, and the children are all starting back to school; it is a very busy day in our house.  It is the annual event of getting ready for the Terryville Fair (http://terryvillefair.org/).  My husband Chip, has been on vacation from work all week but he has not been able to rest.  He has been working with others, from 8:00 a.m until 10:00 p.m. getting the fairgrounds ready for our annual event, which for me begins tonight.  Today I take the day off of work to prepare for later this afternoon when people from all around will bring in their needlework to be judged and displayed for the weekend, hopefully with beautiful blue, red and white ribbons rippling in the dry breeze.  We normally get between 150 to 200 entries in the Needlework section.  This is what it looks like before:

This is last years “before” picture because I haven’t been there yet today.

It is a family affair for us.  My husband belongs to the Lion’s Club that puts this event on every year and my daughter Rebecca (https://rebeccabookreview.wordpress.com/) is also a Lion so she will help in our Needlework section tonight and occasionally over the weekend as her other duties permit.  You can see her reading one of her many books here as she was waiting for entries to come in last year.  Well I better get started on my day!

Summer Fun

Last time I was  making mug rugs to relieve some stress one evening after work, and that made me think about things I could work on during the week after work when I had smaller units of time.  I also have been hankering to play with some Halloween fabric which I think is loads of fun to play with  and I seem to have collected (hoarded) quite a bit in my stash.  Halloween panels are so cute, my daughter even buys them for me but then, what to do with them.  I find it is fun to use pictures from the panels to make place mats.   Cut out your pictures, put some borders on, do some fun quilting and machine bind them.  I used the smaller pictures for more mug rugs!!  If you haven’t  done machine binding yet, this is the perfect time to do so.  The place mats make lovely gifts and hand sewing the back of the bindings on 4 place mats takes quilt a bit of time, so if you can machine bind them all you get more gifts for more people.  I participated in a pay it forward by 5 challenge on Facebook this year and the 1st four place mats have already been delivered to my niece Jessica, for her family as part of that promise to do something for 5 people this year.  Here is a pair that I will enter in the fair and here are the mug rugs that also came from the panel.

More finishing up before the fair includes a table runner that was made from leftover blocks from a modern jelly roll quilt that was made last fall.   I did not do that binding all by machine, so I still have to finish the hand sewing part.

This will be a busy month with the fair coming on August 28th, so I will have to make use of those smaller periods of time in the evening after work, and it will help to reduce stress at the same time.

Stress relief

This week has been intense at work and my stress level has been up so Wednesday night I decided to try to level out by doing some evening sewing. I took a couple of leftover blocks and some leftover fused fabric and put together a couple of mug rugs. Now I just have to bind them.

 

Going into my sewing room and playing with some leftovers without any standards to uphold is so relaxing! It also kept me from using food to deal with my stress which is a whole other story. Anyway it was fun to play, and I am sure that my daughter, https://rebeccabookreview.wordpress.com will pick one out as soon as she sees the pictures! I know of a home for the other one!

 

 

Have a great weekend!

June notes

The last two years I have been co-chair of program for our BBT Quilt Guild with my friend Debbie Denslow.  We seem to be a good fit in anything we do together, our minds never stop brainstorming and when she suggested that we volunteer for the position together, I did not hesitate to agree.  Next Friday is our last meeting for our 2 year term and I have mixed feelings about it.  For anyone who is in an organization, don’t be afraid to volunteer to be on the board, or take a position of leadership.  I will admit, that it is a bit of extra work, but you wouldn’t be in the organization if you didn’t love it and you have a chance to meet new people that love the same things you do.  I have met some very interesting teachers, speakers, and people just enjoying the classes that we have scheduled and I would have missed it all if I had not volunteered.    It is not that we are going away, Debbie has of course talked me into a new challenge….. we are going to be in charge of planning our annual retreat for the next 2 years!  I can’t wait to see what I learn from this experience.

Since I last wrote, my family rented a condo in Newport, RI and we spent some time together.  It did not include any sewing but I did have a chance to go out with the camera for some photos of beautiful inspiring coastline area.  We had a wonderful time together, it was very relaxing and we got home just in time for my husband to pack for  Maine and leave me to 4 days of home alone sewing and planning projects for retreat.  Also this year I had been given blocks and unfinished projects from a woman who was no longer able to quilt, it was quite an extensive pile.  I brought all the blocks and projects home, washed them, picked a few pieces out for myself and packed the rest for retreat.

Last Friday, off we went to retreat!    We are usually given a pattern just in advance of a suggested project.  I put the top together while I was home alone Memorial Day Weekend, so I brought it to quilt.  I also quilted one of the pieces that I had been given and finally I put together a table runner and backing from some extra blocks that I had from a quilt last year.  The time spent with my fellow quilters and one reader (https://rebeccabookreview.wordpress.com) was inspiring.  So much color, so much laughter, so much fun!  The blocks and unfinished projects that I had been given were put on our share table and adopted by other quilters.  One of the women in our group, Cindy Guendert, took an unfinished project from the table and made her quilt top around it.  After it is quilted it will be given to a Veteran as part of the Quilts of Valor project that she participates in.   Wonderful!

My daughter Rebecca (the reader) and I went for a short walk each day to keep the circulation in my legs moving and she provided great conversation and support also.  It helps to have a younger, stronger person when moving all the equipment in and out, she is always so kind to me.  She didn’t get as much reading done as she thought she would and I didn’t get as much sewing done as I thought I would, so I guess we spent too much time talking, laughing and visiting!  Overall, we would both consider it to have been a successful weekend.

So now my focus will be put toward making retreat for the next 2 years as much fun as it has been in the past and more fun, if that is at all possible!  Don’t be afraid to get involved in the activities you love, the rewards are endless.

Quilting Coming!

This is one of my favorite times of the year for quilting!  I know many of you use the cold winter months to get more of your quilting done, but for a couple of reasons this is my time.  Our quilt guild retreat is coming up starting May 28th.  We pack all of our tools, sewing machines, tables, cutting boards, and a little wine and we head out into nature to spend 3 days sewing and spending time with the nicest women.  They are all just so happy to be there, there is not a complaint to be heard.  Smiles and laughter all around.  My daughter, Rebecca will be coming along again this year and if you have read my blog, she is not a quilter, but she reads in her spare time.  Her job is intense, so it is her weekend to get of the stress and read, read, and read.  You can check out her blog here : https://rebeccabookreview.wordpress.com.  This is a picture from last year, so peaceful.

Before we head out for that wonderful weekend, I also have Memorial Day weekend coming up.  The thing about that weekend is that my husband goes to Maine with his brothers and his Dad and they do repairs to a cottage they have, and get it ready for the season.  He will be leaving Friday morning so I will be alone to cut fabric, quilt, or get projects ready for retreat.  He will be back Monday night, so I have 4 days to work on projects!  I am looking forward to that weekend also.

Here are a couple of pictures of the quilting on the quilt that I am binding now:

Outside of quilting, I had the pleasure of a visit to Cape Cod.  My cousin lives there and she has been trying to put together a girl cousin weekend for sometime.  Most of our schedules finally aligned so my sister, another cousin and I drove up for the weekend for a visit.  Donna and her husband were so gracious to us and Donna tried to make sure each of us had something that we wanted to do, happen.  My wish was a stop at the local quilt shop.  We visited Tumbleweed Quilt Shop in West Barnstable and it was large and beautiful.  So many wonderful fabrics!  I could only buy a couple because my stash is already too large to manage.

One of our other stops was to watch an annual event of the herring swimming upstream and seagulls making meals of them, snatching them out of the water and swallowing them whole.  It was like a scene out of the birds!  I caught a photo with 2 seagulls with herring in their mouths.  Yikes!

Take a class!

One of the wonderful blessings that I have been given is the thirst to learn more.  I am not sure if it is a genetic trait, or if it was passed on to me by example or both, but I love to expand my knowledge about what I happen to be interested in.  Of course now my interest (passion) is quilting.  Yesterday our guild presented a class in Surface Design techniques for cloth and quilting and it was so inspiring to work with others,  learn and try different ways of changing cloth to suit your purpose of making art.

I can open up a whole discussion about the term of making art, and I consider it to be making art, when the finished project is a completely original project.  My Dad always said that you cannot claim yourself to be an Artist, but the world deems who is an Artist, but I do consider some of the work I do to be making art, even if it isn’t good enough to be rallied by the world to make me an Artist.  It is the act of creating something that comes from within you, that you feel is successful; it gives great joy!

Our Teachers were Melanie Johnston and Joan Blade Johnson, and we used foils, paints, and angelina fibers with glues and different fusibles.  There were no finished projects, but there were wonderful seeds planted in the creative side of our brains for use someday in the future!  It was playtime for adults and of course, as it always happens in gatherings of the women in our guild, there was lots of sharing and helping.

Don’t ever stop expanding your horizons!

What’s for Dinner?

WINTER IS OFFICIALLY OVER, but we are not really feeling the effects of that yet.  It has still been very cold, especially at night.  The snow should mostly be over, but we did have snow showers today.  Old Man Winter just will not let go of us.  I however, will look directly forward to spring and the possibility of the beautiful color of trees blossoming, flowers blooming, green grass, the beautiful blues of a crystal clean swimming pool and long light filled days!  Speaking of color, this weekend I am prepping for giving a lecture on color theory at quilt guild.  As a bonus, we will be raffling off door prizes of Joen Wolfrom’s Color Tool.  It should be an interesting night.

Also our “What’s for Dinner” placemats are due at the next Guild meeting.  I am sharing a picture of the plan for mine.  Also, since I am working on it this weekend I will share what it looks like right now.  It is almost finished, I have to add a napkin, silverware and maybe a beverage.   It is a project for fun, so I am just using an overcast stitch to finish the edges.  As you can see, mine is Breakfast for Dinner!

I have also been working on a quilt for a class in May and I need to get a photo into the newsletter to see if anyone wants to sign up for the class.  I finished quilting it last weekend.  I am not thrilled about how the quilting came out.  I prefer the look of a thread that is more subtle and doesn’t show your quilting errors as much, but as Angela Walter’s says “a finished quilt is better that a quilt top”.

Today is Goal Day with my daughter, Rebecca.  It has been a relaxing, fun filled day of planning and quilting and using the creative side of my brain.  We also got in some exercise too.  She is immersed into tax season with her job and this is one of the few days she doesn’t have to work 12 hours.  She is working toward relaxing and working on her reading and blogging which you can find here:  http://www.rebeccabookreview.wordpress.com

Well, speaking of What’s for Dinner, it is getting to be time to finish preparing dinner, I have cooked pork chops in the slow cooker with a ketchup, soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic and onion marinade.  It is a new recipe but I am not that optimistic.  I normally am considered an excellent cook, but my pork chops have always been on the miserable side.  If you have any great pork chop recipes, please feel free to send them to me, my husband will THANK YOU!

Cold Weather Quilting

This certainly has been a good winter in the Northeast for quilting.  We have had severe cold weather and snow, snow and more snow.  We have numerous days that our planned activities out in the normal world have had to be cancelled, and there was always sewing to fill in those dreary days.

One of my main concentrations right now is to improve my machine quilting and bring variety of stitches, as well as improve my stitching.  In January I finished a small quilt top “Floating Triangles” and machine quilted a spiral on the quilt top using a decorative stitch and my walking foot.  It was an interesting way to quilt and the distance between rows was fairly easy to measure by lining up the side of the foot on the last row.  See what you think…

This table runner was quickly pieced using leftovers from a quilt made last year.  I like using these table runners on my coffee table and this pattern is a quick project that you sew the strips of fabric on and quilt at the same time.  I consider that to be my stabilizing quilting because I really like a lot more quilting than you would get just by putting the strips on, and so I have added all over quilting as well.

This is another small piece that I had the ability to do some quilting practice on.  The background quilting is a combination of swirls, pebbles and leaves.  This block is a sample for a class we will be doing at Quilt Guild and I made 6 of the blocks incorrectly so I had to make another quilt top to demo the class.  I am hoping to start quilting the 2nd quilt top this weekend.

I have found a Machine Quilting Blog that I enjoy and will recommend by Lori Kennedy, http://theinboxjaunt.com/  the tutorials are easy to follow and she has great ideas for practicing and improving your machine quilting.

My weekly sketchbook has been enjoyable; I have been working from a list of prompts that I picked out on line.  I do enjoy sketching and I am hoping that it will improve my creative abilities.  Also, a sketch may someday inspire a quilt.  I believe in pushing myself into art areas that I am not comfortable in, hoping to expand my experiences and improve my art overall.  I find it challenging and exciting at the same time.  How do you like to challenge yourself?  I hope your challenges give you joy!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year!

What a great time of year, a time to reflect on the past year and review if goals have been attained, and plan new goals.  What are your goals?  Are they geared at getting by or will they be in the direction of making your soul sing?

At the beginning of 2014 I was challenged to make some quilting goals for myself, by my lovely and high achieving daughter, Rebecca (http://rebeccabookreview.wordpress.com).  I accepted the challenge and set a goal for myself to complete 2 quilt projects a month, any size, and to document these goals by starting a blog.  I did complete both of those goals, just barely!  Here is a listing of the quilts:

A.J.’S QUILT	JANUARY 2014
VALENTINES	JANUARY 2014
POD QUILT	FEBRUARY 2014
REBECCA’S WEDDING MEMORY QUILT	FEBRUARY 2014
STAR QUILT	MARCH 2014
2ND BABY QUILT	MARCH 2014
BLOCK CHALLENGE	APRIL 2014
ART QUILTS	APRIL 2014
DRUNKARDS PATH WALL HANGING	MAY 2014
MIDNIGHT BLUES	MAY 2014
CHRISTMAS PLACEMATS – 6	JUNE 2014
PINK BABY QUILT FOR JOHN & ROBIN	JUNE 2014
BATIK BOXES	JULY 2014
SATSUKI	JULY 2014
SMALL QUILTS GROUP	AUG 2014
RETREAT 2014 QUILT	AUG 2014
FAN DANCE	SEPT 2014
HOLE IN THE WALL GANG QUILT	SEPT 2014
BROOK’S HALLOWEEN PLACEMATS	OCT 2014
BECKY’S ENGAGEMENT QUILT	OCT 2014
COVERED BRIDGE QUILT	NOV 2014
SMALL STAR QUILT	NOV 2014
MODERN JELLYROLL QUILT	DEC 2014
SMALL PURPLE LIGHTENING QUILT	DEC 2014

I think this little Valentine quilt was my favorite:

In addition to the quilting, I started the blog.

After some reflection, I am adjusting my goals to better achieve what I hope for in 2015.

1. Improve my machine quilting by reviewing or completing all of my machine quilting classes on Craftsy,
2. Make at least 6 bed size quilts this year
3. Make most of my Christmas presents for 2015
4. Try to increase my blogging to twice a month
5. Sketchbook journal once a week

There it is!  I guess by publishing this, I am committing to these goals for 2015.  What about you, have you made any commitments to yourself?