Day: June 21, 2017

Turkey Tracks: Bag Obsession–June 2017

Turkey Tracks:

Bag Obsession–June 2017

Here are two more bags made with the pet screen.  Yes, I am bag obsessed.  I’d like to make a few more that are 16 inches or so as those would store a 12-inch block project.

The little green bag is in my “traveling” kit and holds thread.  The big one is, right now, empty.  It may wind up being a gift.

I kind of feel like I’m living out of the cold frame these days in terms of food.  I’m so enjoying the fresh, fresh, fresh lettuce.  I’ve reseeded the cold frame and I noticed this morning that the seeds are sprouting.  BIT, the days are getting hotter too, which does not bode well for tender lettuce and greens.  The sprig on the left is a garlic that seeded itself into the cold frame.

I seeded this cold frame last fall and covered it–after replenishing the dirt and laying the worm castings on the top.  A raised bed is ONLY as good as the dirt inside it.  You can grow pretty things, but they will not have the nutrients you need.

Look at the blush on this particular lettuce variety.   So pretty.

I am quilting the Big Star quilt–made with selvages:

I quilted the selvage pieces on the long arm and pinned the charcoal pieces before taking the quilt off.

Now I’m using my Janome 8900 to quilt the charcoal pieces.  This machine is new, and I do love it.

A friend here fixed my sewing machine table so that I can pull it out and use the back leaf to support a quilt.

This quilt is NOT perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I’m learning the intricacies of the Janome 8900 (wide throat space) and enjoying being able to lay in a grid on a quilt.  I don’t have the skills to do that work on the long arm.  In any case, this quilt will be functional and fun.  You can READ it.

I color sorted my selvages and am now making rectangles–using a pattern by Amy Friend, “Circuitry” from her book INTENTIONAL PIECING, but I’m making the rectangles bigger.  I’ve done blue, aqua, red, and yellow and am working on purple.   Here are the yellows:

I’m not worried about lining up the selvages perfectly straight as selvages are kind of funky anyway.

I’m plotting which fabrics to use for my next bag project:  a fabric “thread catcher” bag for my “traveling” kit.  I actually sew rather a lot with friends, so my traveling bag is always packed and includes everything I will need.  I only have to grab it, my project, and my machine, and I’m good to go.

I hope you’re enjoying your summer!

 

Turkey Tracks: The Completed “Farmer’s Wife” Project

Turkey Tracks:  June 21, 2017

The Completed “Farmer’s Wife” Project

A group of us started Laurie Aaron Hird’s THE FARMER’S WIFE 1930 SAMPLER QUILT a little over a year ago.

We showed the completed quilts at our June Coastal Quilters (Maine) meeting.

Here they are–in the order in which they were shown, which was ad hoc.

Lynn Vermeulen used batiks–and devised the very successful and subtle setting of pale stripes.

Lovely quilting too.

This quilt is Paula Blanchard’s FIRST QUILT.  She chose to do a selection of the foundation pieced blocks and set them in the “zig zag” setting with black.  Gorgeous Paula!

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Becca Babb-Brott’s choice of modern fabrics is a whole new learning curve for me.   I love these fabrics.  Becca used a pale grey fabric from Dear Stella Designs for her background.  AND she was the instigator of this group project.

Becca had started an earlier version of Laurie Aaron Hird’s sampler quilts, so Becca put those blocks on the back of her quilt.

Linda Satkowski used the most interesting background fabric.  I loved it at first sight!  Her scrappy blocks are so much fun.  Note how she uses the background fabric in some of her blocks so that the outer edges disappear.

Here’s the background fabric up close.

And Linda’s choice of a scrappy outer border delighted us.

Margaret Elaine Jinno wanted her quilt to have a coastal/water/blues feel.  And it does.  She has had some issues with her hand, and has since had an operation on it, but was able to get her top completed for our showing.  Go Margaret Elaine!  I could also say that M-E is the most proficient seamstress I know.  She could knock out these blocks without turning a hair while I SWEATED over many of them.

You’ve seen my quilt, but here it is again.  I added strips to the side to make the top wider and set extra blocks (not used in the zig zag setting) on each side.  My background fabric is the teal version of Becca’s grey.  This fabric comes in LOTS of colors, and I like them all.

THIS PROJECT IS DONE.  (We’re now working on Tula Pink’s 100 city sampler blocks.)