Day: October 5, 2015

Turkey Tracks: Sailing and Quilting

Turkey Tracks:  October 5, 2015

Sailing and Quilting

I LOVED my September sailing on the J&E Riggin this year.

September is sailing supreme in Maine.  The wind was so good on our first day that we sailed all the way to Blue Hill Harbor–after leaving Rockland Harbor mid-morning.  Word was that we were going 10 knots for part of the sail.  We were skimming across the water like a giant bird sailing across the sky.

I signed up for next September.  Of course I did.

Rhea Butler of Alewives Quilting will be on board and will teach interested passengers English paper piecing, using Lucy Boston’s honeycomb template.  (I’ve written about Lucy Boston and her work on this blog if you want to know more.)

Rhea’s use of fabric is stunning, interesting, and fun.  Here are some samples of her and other staff members Lucy Boston blocks.  You can see they really enjoyed “fussy cutting” contemporary fabric patterns–as did Lucy Boston, but Boston did not have access to today’s amazing colors and patterns.

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These blocks can be combined with other templates to make a whole quilt or floated on background fabric and appliqued–either singly or together.

One can also make plainer blocks–as I did as I wanted to contrast red and green in this block:

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I used the templates (as did Lucy Boston) to make a background.

But I am so looking forward to making blocks like Rhea and the Alewives staff do–and I want to applique them to background fabric in some way.

Plain or exotic, quilting or not, Jon Finger and Annie Mahle will be sailing the J&E Riggin with me on board September 21-24, 2016, boarding September 20th.

Come join us?

Turkey Tracks: Talula’s Beans

Turkey Tracks:  October 5, 2015

Talula’s Beans

Hi everyone!

I hope all of you have been as busy and happy as I have been this summer and fall.

I do apologize for not posting on the blog a bit more, but life got in the way.

And now I am almost done with winterizing outside, but I can’t quite break down the front flower pots yet.  They are still so beautiful.

When granddaughter Talula was here in early August, she planted this row of beans for me:  haricot vertes.

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Look what I picked last week:

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These little guys are so delicious and freeze well.  I picked another batch almost as large Sunday.

This bush bean will bloom and make beans until the frost stops them.

Thanks, Talula!