My friend Renee sent a note tonight that she’s joining the amazing world of blogging.  Give her a visit here.  She’s quite the talented quilter and sweet to boot.

On the last post I have photos of fabric I bought at Mardens.  The green and coral/pink chrysanthemum will soon have a new home in the form of a “MJ’s Knitters Tote”!  The fabric has been quilted, needs to be cut and pieced and will go back to Maine.  That’s one weird trip I tell you.  I’m excited to be making the tote.

I’ve been sorta quiet on the blog front, well on many fronts lately.  Partly I’ve been working on the binding for the grandmothers flower garden quilt.  Partly MJ asked me to make a quilt for her and the “Big Idea” is to do a good deal of trapunto to highlight her embroidery and to really have some fun quilting.  Now, I’ve never done any trapunto.  I tried after watching Karen McTavish on Simply Quilts a long time ago, but, I tried this when I was really sick.  Being really sick and trying a new quilting technique is not a good thing.  Ugh!

I know the basics water soluble thread, tons of batting, more batting, lots of quilting thread, a great pair of scissors and voila trapunto.  Here are a few pictures:

The back of trapunto is supposed to look as good as the front.  I think I have a bit to go yet, however overall I like it.  Part of the Issue here, for me, is that the blue segment on this side kept creeping up to the front where it met the cream section of the cream, medium pink and dark pink.

I do like the feel of the piece.  With the wool batting it’s soft even though there’s a lot of quilting.  Two things I’m doing for MJ’s quilt 1) getting more thread, when I bought thread with her I thought man I’m going over board here and now I don’t think so; 2) getting wool batting (after I find out if she’s allergic to wool or not) I think it will add so much to her quilt.

The next piece is a practice piece.  I’m using MJ’s embroidery pattern to get a real feel for what her quilt will look like and the karen combs fabric adds a lot of texture and interest to the trapunto.  When I first started quilting the single block this morning I wasn’t so sure about it, now I love it.  The nine patch will be a baby quilt or something I’m not sure yet.

While I was quilting I thought I was running into trouble, a bubble formed right in the middle of the first arc’d area I was working in.  At first I wanted to scream as I thought I’d done something wrong however something told me to just keep plodding along and it worked out fine.

Happy Quilting!

Teri

While I was in Maine I went fabric shopping.  I bought lots of fabric. Last week I sorted it all by color groups ie dark, medium, light and I’m not quite sure, washed and dried it all and then spent days ironing all of it.  I pulled some fabric from my last trip that I wasn’t sure if I’d washed and did that too.  So here are a few shots of the fabric all washed, dried, ironed and ready for the shelves.

First is this lovely Chrysanthemum fabric by Lonni Rossi.  I bought enough of each color so that I could use it either on the front or the back of the quilt.  I love mums so this was a natural choice for me.

So here are the mum fabric with some other pieces…pansys are another favorite flower.  The second fabric is a green pansy fabric that I just had to have.  Two yards will do nicely either in a tote bag or a lap quilt of some kind.

Then there are the stripes and toiles.  These aren’t the usual toiles, oh no!  Tan backgrounds with black, red and purple patterns.  You’ll also notice the black & white.  Seems to be another theme working here.  You’ll see what I mean later.

Another view of the stripes and toiles.  The fabric that seems to wash out in the light is a green with a small scale, lighter green print.  Not quite sure why it’s washing out.

And here are some of my very favorite fabrics.  The dot collection.  I seem to have fallen in love with dots.  Black & white with shades of gray dots.  Black & white with shades of gray & red dots.  Pink with gray , black & white alone and more, more more dots.  This fabrics just jumped into my cart and begged me to take them home.  The black & white fabrics on the top are the fabrics I woke up thinking about a quilt.  I’m still trying to figure out how to do what I would like to do.  It’ll come.  I have a few other quilts to think about in the mean time.

Like Majors quilt. Here are two of the fabrics for her quilt.  The backing is the blue on top.  This was one of the first fabrics that we added to the cart as we walked around the Fabric Barn.  WOW doesn’t even begin to describe this fabric.  The fabric on the bottom is from Jinny Beyers Coventry Line and is even better in person. This will be the alternate block and the main border of the quilt.  The texture of this fabric lovely.  The fabric itself has given me some ideas for background quilting after I get all of the trapunto work done.

These two fabrics are a border and binding fabric for the quilt. Moda Marbles are among some of my very favorite fabrics and complement the other fabric choices in this quilt very well.  When I envisioned Majors quilt I was playing off the white in the background and Major went for color.  I’m excited to get started on this quilt.

I have plans for another blog post featuring my gramma’s thimble and sewing kit.  A few quilt show details have needed my attention over the last few days and now that the extra furniture is gone there are other household details that need attending.

One big detail that needs attention. . .after 14+ years at the same job my dh will finish at the end of this month.  At this moment there is nothing definite lined up however I have faith that something good will come along for one of us.

Happy Quilting!

Teri

I’m playing around with trapunto as I have a quilt to make after our quilt show in November.  My friend Major has embroidered blocks from some time ago that she asked me to make a quilt for her from.  After seeing the blocks I decided that trapunto is the way to go to really make the embroidery stand out.  While I was in Maine neen let me borrow her trapunto scissors to cut away batting.  When I got home I started looking and looking and looking to find these scissors by Dovo.  After a bit I realized that these scissors are sold by Dovo as “nose hair trimmers” and that I could probably get a decent pair at a local pharmacy.

I picked these up yesterday.  They’re a bit longer than the ones neen has, made in Italy, will be sharpened for free and about 1/2 the cost.  I’m looking forward to trying them out very soon.

In an effort to really get the hang of trapunto I put two techniques together over the last couple of days.  Trapunto and fabric card making.  Ricky Tims showed how to make fabric cards one day on an episode of The Quilt Show, I’ve used this method once before for a birthday card and it’s so much fun.  I wrote a message, cut away the excess batting, quilted the daylights out of it and here’s what I came up with:

This took a few hours but it was so much fun I decided to play again and came up with this for my sister.  I had a bit of trouble with neens “Thank You” quilt.  I chose red backing from a left over piece from years and years ago that I’d washed before using it at the time.  The red ran.  Thankfully I noticed this as the red started bleeding out, picked the quilt up out of the  water and just let water run through it.

My sisters quilt doesn’t use trapunto I just wanted to play with some quilting.

I promised photos of the fabric I purchased in Maine… here is all of it.

I woke up thinking of a quilt to make with this black & white & gray, black & white gray & red fabric.  I’m hoping I can pull off my vision the way I want to.  It’s going to be a bit of a challenge but worth it I think down the road.

The other fabrics are for tote bags or quilts.  I really like the chrysanthemum fabric and I seem to have a dot theme going on here…hmmn, that’s food for thought isn’t it!

Happy Quilting!

Teri

remember the bathroom story and the blue goo all over the place?  The one where I had to use the loo and was running warm water really needed to use the loo?

This isn’t that story.  Nope…as the title suggests this one is about Lemon Jello isn’t any more fun than blue goo to clean up although this time I didn’t have to use the loo, I just really wanted to get the jello in the fridge, make a grilled cheese sandwich (we have this off-the-hook aged white VT cheddar) and get into the sewing room.

DH needs to have clear liquids or clear type foods tonight.  I won’t go into detail at this point, however lets just say I feel for the guy.  At the grocery store I picked up lemon and lime jello.  3 boxes of each and started out making two boxes.  Hot water, stir, stir, stir, cold water stir some more and pop into the fridge to set up.

I must add at this point that jello is not one of my favorite foods to make.  I think growing up I missed the whole “stir until dissolved or 2 minutes” part of the directions so it set hard on the sides.  I like well made jello, just not when I make it it just doesn’t generally come out very well.  At the very least I know I can boil water.

I get the jello onto the bottom shelf of the fridge and realized I needed to get it on the top shelf as I had something else to put there.  So I start taking stuff off the shelf to rearrange everything to get the jello where I want it.  Ya’d think this would be fairly easy.  Except for the bowl of pasta sitting rather precariously on the other shelf, just up and to the left of the bowl of jello.  The pasta was good the other night when I came home, really good, especially since I didn’t have to make it.  It was, however, in the wrong place at the time I’m putting jello on that shelf to set up for my dh who needs to have it for tonight.  As I pull my hand back from setting the second jello bowl into the fridge the bowl of pasta shifts just enough to land smack dab in the middle of the liquidy jello.  Splash, doesn’t quite describe it.  The walls and shelves of the fridge turned from beautiful clear glass to a lovely lemon jello color.

The color of lemon jello is very cool, in fact so cool that a very similar color will be in one of my nieces quilt.  It does not belong on the walls and shelves of the fridge.  I start soaking it up thinking and hoping that that’s all I’ll have to do.  As evidenced by the blue goo story it’s always worse than it seems so as I grab this tub of Smart Balance and that bottle of Red Zinfandel out of the fridge I’m seeing yellow every where.  Yellow here, yellow there, yellow jello starting to set up because it’s so flat.  Yikes.  I empty the fridge shelf by shelf wiping lemon yellow jello from every crack, corner and crevice and I’m thinking…it’s just another one of those days.

After 15 minutes of cleaning the fridge and restocking everything my fridge is now clean, dh’s jello is setting up nicely and the sewing room and a/c are calling me back in there.

Happy Quilting!

Teri

This weekend was absolutely amazing.  My sisters youngest daughter was so excited about turning four it was contagious.  My 93 year old gramma came for the party and as we neared the car (gramma wanted to go home) our newly four year old told gramma she didn’t want her to go.  I wish I’d had my camera to catch the interaction because it was beautiful.

Thursday

night neen, giovanna and I worked on dm’s quilt, where this

was the original center and it changed and was quilted more.

After hanging the quilt on the design wall, making some cuts to shape the quilt by the star and adding more quilting to keep it the same across the surface this is what we came up with.  Neen and Giovanna helped me pick the binding.  DM loves the quilt an I couldn’t be happier because I was quite nervous she wouldn’t like it.  The binding is a green that matches and frames the quilt nicely.  Next time I’m at neens I’m going to have DM bring the quilt and I’ll shoot it hanging on the design wall.

Saturday brought us to the Maine Quilts quilt show in Augusta, ME.  It was a very, very exciting day for each of us…Neen had a huge surprise for Melissa.  Melissa made this quilt for neen in the same challenge I made the quilt above for DM.  Neen loves the quilt (& Melissa so much she entered the quilt in the show and Melissa took 3rd place in machine quilted bed quilts.

dm melissa neen

The look of shock, joy and surprise on her face is priceless and I’m so happy to have been here at this moment.  Melissa is such a teacher she showed a few ladies looking at the quilt how she accomplished the quilt pattern in one area of the quilt.

Then I went to find my quilt.  And I could have been easily knocked over with a feather when I arrived to see a second place ribbon on my quilt.  I’d just said to neen the night before that I’d entered the quilt for the judges comments and I KNEW it wasn’t going to get a ribbon.  I’m so glad that I added quilting in different areas of the quilt so that it was more even across the surface of the quilt.  And used some color in different areas to highlight and add some contrast.

I am so excited! 

This quilt will be in one more show later this year and will be making a special trip to Maine in October on a secret mission.

While in “The Hood” I worked on learning a bit of trapunto so that I can make my friends quilt later this year.  Neen showed me a book and I started playing around.  I have two blocks ready and two or four more to go for some practice then I’ll start working on the actual quilt.

We did some shopping at Mardens and I’ll post pictures of my loot later in the week!

Happy Quilting!

Teri

Whew!  Sounds like an awful lot however, the scraps, cleaning and the trip are all part of the same story.  On one of the message boards where I participate I mentioned something about getting rid of my scraps.  The scraps were building and at a certain moment I realized I’m not a scrap quilter.  I very much appreciate the beauty of scrappy quilts, particularly ones that are well planned, I just have no interest in making a lot of them.  And I do mean a lot!  I had no idea how much scrap fabric I had around until one of the other quilters on the message board said she’d take them for charity quilts that she makes on a regular basis.  So I started putting them in a bag, and then a box, then another bag.  I combined all of that and then there was the second box I started today.

Here comes the trip part.  I’m heading out for a quilt weekend including a show and thought I’d see my friend and give her the scraps.  Although she’s not coming for this trip she is going to visit a mutual friend next month so I’m bringing a huge bag, 24 x 24 x 9, and an 18 x 13 x 6 inch bag full of scraps for her.  Since I’m getting ready for the trip I’m also putting things together to take with me to work on, so the scrap pile kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger.  I couldn’t believe how many scraps I had.  As I tidied up the sewing room I “found” fat quarters, yardage and quilted fabric for totes - that was so amazing as I thought I’d finished up all of the “Color Bridge” fabric by Alex Anderson that I’d had.

My floor space has opened up considerably!  Next thing you know I’ll be able to vacuum and pick up all of the threads and odd bits of fabric from paper piecing that end up on the floor ala Eleanor Burns.  Eleanor has the luxury of other people cleaning up the studio after she’s finished, at least that’s how I picture the whole scene.

I had the privilege of attending the Clamshell quilters Quilt Show in East Lyme on Sunday.  The day started bright and early and I loved every moment of it.  There were some amazing quilts.  No pictures though since I put the rechargables in to recharge way too late and the other batteries were dead!  Ugh!  Two of the other girls took photos for me which I appreciated.  One of the neatest quilts is a whole cloth done on black fabric with variegated colors for thread.  The quilter designed the quilting and I’m inspired.

I’ll be at a quilt show this weekend as well, my NY Beauty is in the show and I’m interested to get the judges comments when they come.  One judge already gave comments that were very helpful and I made a couple of changes to the quilt before sending it off.

Oh, my new dining room table arrived yesterday afternoon!  I’ll try and get photos tomorrow.  We purchased a Canadel pub-height table and six chairs from a local shop.  Four of the chairs swivel and all are covered in chocolate brown ultrasuede.

The table cloth and plastic cover are to keep the wood from getting scratched by the cats.  Sometime in the fall we’ll be going to a local glazier to get a piece of glass cut to fit the top of the table.  This is also the first time I’ve been able to really use this table cloth…it really fits.  When the leaf is in it will hang just nicely.

Happy Quilting!

Teri

Although I still have some hand quilting to do on Maggie’s quilt I started machine quilting yesterday.  I’d been quilting fabric for totes and needed something different to do.  Maggies quilt is queen sized!  Amazing for someone who’s six!  I’m so excited to get to this part of the project.  I’ll get back to the hand quilting soon enough and plan for the rest of the machine quilting.

The quilting in the middle of the leaf is free-hand.  I drew the leaf in to fill the diamond as much as I needed and then went wacky with the rest.  It’s fun that way as I get to just play with the quilting!

The fabric for the center hexagon is just gorgeous!  A white background with lovely full pink roses.  As I pieced the quilt the white really began sticking out like a sore thumb.  As I started quilting I thought I can knock this back a bit.  I chose gold thread and have quilted kind of densely so that the white is still visible and the flowers get some attention.  I’m also outlining some of the flowers in maroon for a bit of detail.

Here’s a close up of the quilting on the white and around the flowers.  The more I quilt this fabric the happier I am with the decision to knock back that white a bit.  And I get to quilt and quilt and quilt.

This is one of the six feathered hearts that surround the main body of the quilt.  I used a stencil to do make the heart this size as it made sense with the quilt.  I’m not sure if I’m going to do the grid work in the center or not.  We’ll see once I get them all quilted and figure out what I’m going to do with the rest of the quilting.

And now for JB’s kid.  JB called the other night needing a good scream.  And I made her scream twice.  The twice is because the first one didn’t quite make the cut.  See JB has four kids…and overall they’re good kids and are really pleasant to be with.  She’s had her share of mom stories that are just funny.  MJ and I were encouraging her to write a book of short stories as she’s really good at telling tales of her kids antics.

Back to the other night.  JB had been working really hard all day getting ready to put wall paper up on her walls.  In an old farm house this takes a lot of work cleaning and prepping the walls for the paper.  JB and her sweet dh do this themselves.  Being farmers he’s out in the fields right now probably haying, if I remember it’s that time of year.  So JB is on the phone needing to talk to someone. . . and not just anyone will do she called me.  So, youngest kid Z is in the tub and JB is working on the walls.  Z decides that tonight is the night for a very special kind of bath…a bubble bath!  I remember as a kid how much fun bubble baths are, all the different types of hair and creatures that can be made with said bubbles.

Z takes a newly purchased bottle of kid shampoo and proceeds to dump it into the tub.  Not too many bubbles so he dumps about half the bottle in.  JB goes to check on him and finding him in some bubbles begins the mom inquiry regarding said bubbles that she didn’t put into the tub with him at the beginning.  Frustration level rises as he explains about the need for bubbles in the tub, the newly opened bottle of shampoo and not enough bubbles.  JB drains the water and begins filling tub again to clean said kid up and lo! and behold! much to JB’s consternation and Z’s delight bubbles.  When she called me he was sitting in a tub half full of just bubbles!  Happy kid.

JB calls me, we chat, she begins getting the frustration out and here we are several days later and JB is one happy lady.

Happy Quilting!

Teri

About 9 years ago the Circus came to live at my house.  We got 2 cats from a local animal shelter and after spending a bit of time with them we chose the names Barnum & Bailey.  Well, Bailey’s a poser…I had my camera out the other day to show dh something and look at what Bailey did for me.

this was the first attempt filling in this lovely space, somehow it just seemed emptier that I wanted

so I filled it in with some extra quilting in a very contrasting color…this filled in the space nicely for me and I’m a much happier quilter

After watching a Sharon Schamber video and then seeing Ricky Tims at the Super Seminar in April I decided to give free motion feathers a bit of a go and each time I get better at it.  One thing that helped so much is Alex Anderson explanation of drafting feathers on her vidblog on thequiltshow.com

Mary Anne Ciccotelli showed a few of us at guild this style of quilting to fill in space and add some motion to the quilt surface.  I’m so glad she did as it covers lots of space can be big or small depending on the quilt!  There’s a link to her site on the side bar…she’s just done a major re-do of her sewing studio that is just amazing.  One added feature is her “new” lime green clock.  Mary Anne has a great explanation of how she made the clock on her site.  Thanks Mary Anne!

Happy Quilting!

Teri

Giz loved the tote!  I’m so glad that she does and will get good use out of it.  Her one request was a zipper closure and that she got!

I’m working on Dawn Maries’ quilt today again, I’ll take some photos later today and post them.  The quilting is going well and I’m enjoying the process.

Putting the binding on the hexagonal quilt is coming along as well.  Once I made new binding the whole process is going much better.  I’m thrilled to be working on this quilt.  I just can’t stitch this while I’m trying to watch “So You Think You Can Dance!”.  I miss too much of the dancing.  This will be a project I bring to Maine with me in a couple of weeks.

Happy Quilting!

Teri