Month: October 2018

Turkey Tracks: Another Lark Knit Shirt

Turkey Tracks:  October 11, 2018

Another Lark Knit Shirt

Sue Kandziolka gave me this knit fabric last spring.  It will go with so many of my clothes, including the soft red knit jacket I made last spring.  I used the Grainline Lark Knit shirt pattern and cut out the shirt last June.  I then got “summer busy” and didn’t get back to actually making the shirt until last weekend.

I did remember how to use the serger, and it didn’t take long to sew up the shirt.  I have set up my Janome 6600 next to the serger and put in a ball point knit needle, so I can just go back and forth without having to change eveything on my big Janome 8900.  (The Janome 6600 is an excellent workhorse of a machine.  I’ve had mine for 15 years now and still love it.). I have a sweat shop organized for winter sewing!

 

 

The Lark is very long, so tucks in beautifully.  Or, hangs out beautifully.

I put on the shirt right away—it’s so soft.

Thanks Sue K. For this gift.

On to the next!

Turkey Tracks: Yummy Dinner

Turkey Tracks:  October 9, 2018

Yummy Dinner!

Everything on this plate is local food.  And organic.

Grilled lamb chops (I get a whole lamb each fall and eat it from nose to tail), beets, fall spinach sauteed in butter and garlic, late summer cantalope—all from Hope’s Edge CSA.  The boiled fingerling potatoes swiming in butter are in our local markets now as well.  I look forward to them every fall.

A friend asked me to take a look at the food documentary THE MAGIC PILL.  It’s excellent and features many of my food heroes.  I highly recommend it.  You can get it on Netflix, Amazon, or UTube.  It’s well worth taking some time to watch.  I’ve been eating this way for many years now and have never been healthier, even in spite of the Histamine Intolerance issue, which I believe to be genetically acquired from my dad.

Turkey Tracks: Lynn Vermeulen’s Tula Pink Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  October 9, 2018

Lynn Vermeulen’s Tula Pink Quilt

She’s finished it and is putting on the binding!

It’s a spectacular quilt!

The longarm quilting is awesome in both the sashing and the individual blocks.

Here’s her backing.  I also like the darker binding she chose.  It’s making a really nice final framing.

Go Lynn!

Documentaries: RBG

Documentaries:  October 9, 2018

RBG

I watched the other night on Netflix the movie RBG—a documentary about Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

As a young woman, newly married and busy with babies, I kind of slept through the time when RBG was working to change laws that discriminated against minorities of many kinds, including men whose wives died leaving them with an infant to raise but who didn’t qualify for federal aid in the way a woman would.  She fought for women to be able to control their own bodies.  She fought for women to receive equal pay with men.  She fought for military women to have the same housing allowances that military men received.    She fought…to educate men blind to the inequalities they supported in a democracy.  She fought to put in place legally what the constitution decreed.  She appeared before the Supreme Court many times, defending these principles.

In 1993, President Clinton nominated her for the Supremes.  She had a 90+ approval vote from the Senate, which included, for instance, Orrin Hatch’s vote.

It’s a fascinating story—one women should see, of course.  But also men.  RBG’s history is American history.

Like her or dislike her, she is an amazing woman.  When I compare her character to Donald Trump’s or Brett Kavanaugh’s, I despair.  Trump uses courts to bully people, and Kavanaugh has never actually tried a case in a courtroom.

Now, the court, which has acquired a partisan majority that is backed by only a minority of the American population, is rolling back a lot of what RBG accomplished for minorities—much of which, I would argue, too many people are taking for granted until they discover what they, personally, have just lost.

So, RBG is reduced to being a dissenting voice on the court.  She is no longer a path setter as we roll ourselves backwards to the place where the wealthy control the levels of power in our country.  RBG can do no more than try to hold firm in her convictions about what is ethical, moral, and just in a democratic society.

This movie is important. There is a docudrama about RBG coming out at Christmas time, but this one is solid.  Take some time to watch it, ok?  It’s available on Netflix, Amazon, and UTube.

Turkey Tracks: My “ `Long Time Gone’ Cotton+Steel” Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  October 9, 2018

My “ `Long Time Gone’: Cotton+Steel” Quilt

It’s done!

And it’s another quilt that has surprised me in that I really like it.

Jen Kingwell designed this improv quilt, which uses traditional block forms but in an improv setting.

I quilted with a light grey thread and “McTavished” it.  I really love the texture formed with this dense quilting method.

The backing is also a Cotton+Steel fabric.  I wanted something where the quilting would not show all that much.  A colored fabric just wasn’t working for me.  The first fabric I chose was orange (one of the big butterfly prints), and I didn’t like how the grey thread was looking on the orange.  I bound with the same backing fabric.

Here are some random pics of blocks on the front:

I like how the black and neutral fabrics are working in this quilt, which is another reason that kind of backing was better for the quilt.

 

Slater helps with everything I do.  Everything.

 

Turkey Tracks: Take A Walk in the Woods With Me

Turkey Tracks: October 7 , 2018

Take A Walk in the Woods With Me

I am so lucky here in Maine to have access to gorgeous “wellness” and other woods paths where one can take one’s dogs and walk them off-leash, providing they are well behaved and that any waste is picked up.  Even having to walk a dog on leash is better than village streets and sidewalks.  There is so much more for everyone to see, and a dog like Slaty can really work out his kinks.

Here’s the start of one such trail.

To walk a dog free of a leash, the dog must come when called.  Every time.  Slaty does, thanks to the training method I learned years ago:  Peter Loeb’s SMARTER THAN YOU THINK.

The woods are beginning to show the advent of fall.  The ferns are all turning color now, and some of the trees are as well.

The woods are becoming a fairy land of gold, orange, and red.

While No No Penny and I stick to the path, Slaty is making big circles out to our right or left, running at full bore through the woods, underbrush, and over rocks.  He often finishes a circuit by coming up behind us on the path at full speed.

I can see him up ahead of us, but sometimes I lose him in the dappled shadows of the woods.  “Slaty where are you?” Always makes him pop back on the path so I can see him.

The underbrush can be dense in our woods.

At times he waits for us in the bends of the path.  He always knows exactly where we are.

After some recent rain, the woods are full of brightly colored mushrooms.  Here are pictures of the yellow Amanita muscaria, whose common name is Fly Agaric.  Yes, it is poisonous, but it is so pretty.  As it ages, it turns deep orange near the center.  It often has sort of scaly patches over the cap, remants of a covering (voluval) when it begins to emerge from the soil.  I saw patches of 40 or more in these woods.

 

Here mushrooms work to degrade a rotting tree.  This particular kind of shelf mushroom is not poisonous, but not really edible.  Some are, though, like the delicious Chicken of the Woods and Oyster mushrooms.

A spur of the path crosses a stream:

This huge old beauty is on the down-hill swing:

And now Slaty comes, even when he’s tired.

 

This path, with its spur, is about 2 miles.  It’s a joyful gift.

Turkey Tracks: AC Slater Points

Turkey Tracks:  October 7, 2016

AC Slater Points

 

I’ve seen him raise his right front foot numerous times now if he thinks “there’s something in those bushes” when he’s out in the woods with me.

He’s mostly Jack Russle terrior, for sure.  There’s some hound—his big old bark is hound.  But somewhere, there’s some hunting dog pointer.  His tail does not go out straight.  Instead it curves over his back.  But the point is there.  You’ll see it at the end of this little video.

This dog is so much fun!

Turkey Tracks: Mt. Battie Modern September Show and Tell

Turkey Tracks:  October 4, 2018

Mt. Battie Modern September Show and Tell

Lynn Vermeulen has completed her New York Beauty quilt.

Next to Churn Dash, this block is my favorite quilting block.  Lynn’s quilt is AWESOME!

Tori Manzi’s Katja Marek millifiore is taking shape now.  Tori and Becca Babb-Brott have figured out a way to sew these blocks without using paper piecing and glue sticks or thread basting.  They swear it is much faster and easier on the wrists.

Margaret Elaine Jinno’s medallion center to a Jen Kingwell quilt is almost done.

Sarah Ann Smith showed us her new lupine quilt.  Check out Sarah’s blog for more of her work.  Sarah is a nationally recognized quilter and teaches at the Houston Show, among other places.  She had her own exhibit there this past year.  Sarah is known for her quilting, in particular, and has published at least two major books.

 

Turkey Tracks: “Long Time Gone” Challenge Quilts From September The Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild Meeting

Turkey Tracks:  October 3, 2018

“Long Time Gone” Challenge Quilts From

The Mount Battie Modern Quilt Guild Meeting

Mt. Battie Modern challenged members to make Jen Kingwell’s “Long Time Gone” quilt, starting in January 2018.  We set up a schedule to make the separate blocks and allowed enough time to put the quilt top together.  At our September meeting, quilt tops started showing up.  Each is different, and each is wonderful.  The makers really had fun with how they chose fabric for the blocks, and many makers changed Kingwell’s scrappy block format to something else.

Here is Karen Martin’s quilt top.  She chose a srappy format.  And note that her border features Kaffe Fasset “coin” fabrics.

Tori Manzi chose to use Moda’s “Grunge” fabrics.  And you can see that she had a whole lot of fun with her pineapple blocks in particular.  She is going to add a border, and we talked about what she thought she would do next.

Lynn Vermeulen’s top pieces are done, and she is sewing together the sections now.  We were able to lay it out though.  Lynn chose to use solid fabrics, and look how sparkly her quilt is.  Right now, Lynn is saying she’s going borderless.

My top is now off the long-arm, and I’ve got one more side to bind.  So, look for pics to come soon.  I used all Cotton+Steel fabrics and changed the border treatment to a piano keys format.

I’ve included a selection of blocks from various quilts to show some of the variety in the quilts.  Tori gets th eprize for altering pineapple blocks.

 

 

 

 

Becca Babb Brott is putting her quilt together now.

Betsy Maislen has been volunteering on the J&E Riggin windjammer for the past month and is off to a river cruise in Europe.  Her blocks are mostly done, and she will finish when she gets home.

Linda Satkowski is also traveling, so we will see her top soon I’m sure.

 

 

Turkey Tracks: “Long Time Gone” Top Done

Turkey Tracks:  September 19, 2018

“LongTime Gone” Top Done

I wrote this post last week as well.  I’ve since finished quilting this quilt and am sewing on binding now.  Pics to follow in a few days.

——————

Yep!  It’s been done since early September.

But as I said, I’ve been really busy.

To remind:  this quilt is “Long Time Gone,” a Jen Kingwell pattern.  This quilt was a challenge issued by the Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild, and we started making blocks in January.

I did not use Kingwell’s border treatment, opting instead for the piano keys border.

The quilt is 100% Cotton+Steel fabrics, and I like it a lot.

I’ll likely get it on the long arm any day now, especially as I finally settled on a backing.  I had a backing that didn’t work with a light grey thread, which I need for the front I think.  That’s how that goes.  The discarded backing will find a new place.  And I’ll show the one I chose when I’ve finished the quilt.