Day: April 8, 2012

Turkey Tracks: Our Easter Eggs

Turkey Tracks:  April 8, 2012

Our Easter Eggs

On this Easter Sunday 2012, it seems fitting to show you a picture of our Easter Eggs.

All of God’s wonder, all the perfection and magic of nature, all of the sweet goodness of our chickens is held in these orbs.  Assuming the hen has been fed properly, these eggs are a perfectly balanced whole, with the exact right proportions of fat and protein, with choline for brain food, with nourishment that has sustained mankind for thousands and thousands of years.

Truly they are a magnificent gift to us.

Turkey Tracks: Rose’s New Purse

Turkey Tracks:  April 8, 2012

Rose’s New Purse

Rose told me months ago that she’d love to make a purse like mine.

My purse is made from the Bow Tucks pattern that is so popular with quilters.  I love it, and when I wear one out; I make a new one immediately.

Rose is a VERY busy woman.  She bakes bread and pizzas for TWO farmers’ markets–in her wood-fired oven.  She bakes pizzas to order for pick-up on Tuesday and Friday nights–and boy are they delicious!  She also bakes cakes to order and cakes and cookies for the farmers’ markets.  She has a big flock of chickens who give her eggs to sell.  She raises all kinds of greens and veggies to sell at the markets and in her seasonal farm shop, The Vegetable Shed.  She also makes and sells all kinds of yummy things–like the wood-fired roasted plum tomatoes she gave me last summer.  Or, pickles.  Rose is always already inventive with preserving food.

Rose really only has Monday free.  So, one Monday recently we went down to Alewives Quilt Shop in Damariscotta Mills, because Rose had never been to see the Alewives fish ladders or that lovely little settlement.  Alewives Quilt Shop is also lovely and one of my favorite places to shop for quilting supplies.  And, on the next Monday, we made her purse together.  I cut and ironed, and soon it was done!

Here it is.  These magentas, purples, and spring greens are favorites of Rose’s.  She uses them on her business card as well.

Here’s what the inside looks like:

  And, here’s Rose with her purse:

Here’s a web site for this purse pattern.

http://pursepatterns.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=153

There are, also now, web sites that claim they have the pattern for free.  My own feeling is that whoever designed this wonderful purse needs to get full value for that work.

NOTE:  The pattern we got for Rose had been updated.  In the new pattern, the front pocket is sewn on independently of the seams in the purse’s body.  I far prefer to anchor the bottom of the front pocket in the seam of the front’s upper and lower purse bodies–which is what my, older, pattern did.  You just center the pocket and insert its bottom into that seam and sew them together.  Then, you sew down the purse’s sides, anchoring the top of each side with some extra stitches.

Turkey Tracks: “Orange Sherbert” Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  April 8, 2012

“Orange Sherbert” Quilt

When I was making blocks for “Quilt of Many Colors,” I made some pink blocks that just didn’t work.

So, I used them to make this cute little quilt that I’ve grown to love.  My camera always makes quilts look crooked, but they aren’t.  And, the flash can wash out colors.

Here’s a corner of the quilt top with the backing and binding fabrics, all from my stash:

Here’s the center block, so you can see how I quilted “Orange Sherbert.”  I used the freehand daisy pattern again, but I made it denser by echoing the daisy and by using curves–like the outside curves of the petals–to travel.  I used Signature’s Victorian Rose thread, which is a soft pink.

I’m going to keep this little quilt for a bit–likely until a girl baby is born to one of my kin.  I’m going to hang it in an upstairs bedroom.

Turkey Tracks: “Quilt of Many Colors”

Turkey Tracks:  April 8, 2012

Quilt of Many Colors

I’m now thinking of this whole winter’s work as “The Scrappy Quilting Project.”

The “Quilt of Many Colors” helped use up more of the 2 X 31/2 rectangles I have been cutting up for over 10 years.  Remember, I pulled out most of the blue ones to make the “Blue Fox Trot” quilt.  So, here’s what the pile looked like when I started this quilt.

Clearly they needed to be color sorted first of all:

I had in mind using a pattern from Judy Hooworth and Margaret Rolfe’s book, SUCCESSFUL SCRAP QUILTS FROM SIMPLE RECTANGLES, which has guided me with cutting the 2 x 3 1/2 rectangles in the first place and, then, using them.

But, I didn’t like the way those blocks developed.  Hooworth and Rolfe were working with plaids, and their version of this pattern is lovely.  My colors were just dying in these blocks.  See?

So, I struck out on my own.

I went down to Marge Hallowell’s Mainely Sewing in Nobleboro.  Marge has been a great consultant in The Scrappy Quilting Project.  She helped me pick out four bright colors:  orange, turquoise, acid green, and magenta with a darker purple running through it.  I loved what started happening.   Note that I’m already alternating how the rectangles orient.

But, I began to see that just having these four bright colors was going to present problems with how to arrange them.  Here there’s already a pattern forming on the diagonal of warm and cool blocks in the diagonol lines.  So, I started pulling brights out of my stash, and here’s what happened on the design wall.

I found a great backing in Marge’s 40% off attic.  And, chose a binding that’s hot pink with yellow stars.

Here’s the quilt all finished.  Something about it reminds me of a brand new box of crayons–something to this day I have trouble resisting.

Here’s a block, so you can see how I quilted it–using a freehand daisy chain in lime green thread–which plays nicely against the flowers in the backing fabric.

Here’s the backing and binding.  The yellow stars on the hot pink binding are adding a really lively and fun sparkle to this quilt.

So, there you go.  A beautiful, fun, charming quilt out of the chaos of all those rectangles.

I’m really happy with this one!