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Turkey Tracks: “Garden Tumble” Quilt

Turkey Tracks: October 23, 2015

“Garden Tumble” Quilt

I don’t know…

This quilt is either the ugliest quilt I’ve ever made OR the funkiest fun quilt.

Bonnie Hunter’s current leader/ender challenge is to make a quilt with the tumbler patch. And there is something very sweet about traditional one-block scrappy quilts.

I had a 3 1/2 inch thick sturdy template bought years ago AND a lot of the veggie and fruit prints in my stash. So here’s what evolved.

Someone on Bonnie’s FB site for her fans suggested making a darker “self” border by combining dark blocks.

I like the darkish red binding…

And, here’s the backing:

Here’s a close-up of some blocks:

AND:

I quilted with a light fern green thread that’s nice on the back–using Debra D. Geissler’s 11-inch pantograph, “Deb’s Swirls.”

I think “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” with this quilt. It is funky and fun and just “is what it is.”

Turkey Tracks: Fall Bounty

Turkey Tracks: October 12, 2015

Fall Bounty

The nights have cooled, and the trees are starting to turn. Finally.

Hope’s Edge CSA (Community Shared Agriculture) farm has two more weeks to go.

I will miss going out there weekly so much.

The winter squashes are all coming in now–and they are so bright and pretty:

The long orange one in the back is a pie pumpkin. I’m going to roast/carmelize it and use it in a salad recipe from Jennifer McGruther’s book The Nourished Kitchen. (Search on this blog for more info.) The recipe pairs the sweet pumpkin with bitter greens, nuts, and balsamic vinegar, among other ingredients–as well as I remember.

The funny looking veggie to its left is a rutabega. I cook it like a potato. Rutabegas are great cubed in soups and stews. The flesh is buttery yellow and mashes well.

The oblong squash to the left is a spaghetti squash-one of my very favorites. I cut them in half, seed them, and roast them (cut sides down on a greased piece of parchment paper). Once done, run a fork through the flesh and it breaks into strands. I heavily butter and add salt and pepper. Scoop out the stands and put on your plate. This one reheats well too.

The striped squashes are delicatas. They are so sweet that you don’t need anything in them but a bit of butter. I bought some one fall in Charleston, SC, and they were bitter and bad. This squash may need more of a New England climate to develop its sweetness????

The tan squash is a butternut. Mild and delicious. You can eat the skin on both delicatas and butternuts. I’m going to put it cubed into a stew with black beans, hamburger, and Indian seasonings–in the crock pot.

How did that banana get into this picture? Mercy!

The orange squash in the middle is a “Sunshine” and has a heavier, sweeter flesh. I’m going to cube it and roast it with garlic, rosemary, small potatoes, red onions, and chunked green tomatoes. It’s a dish to which I look forward every fall. I’ll make it while sister Susan is here next week.

That’s likely the last large tomato to come out of the garden. I”ll get some Sun Gold cherry tomatoes though.

The garlic crop is great this year. I’m loving all the fresh garlic in the kitchen.

I’m missing a Blue Hubbard squash, which is a great keeper. I’ll pick one up though.

That’s the last bit of annual flowers I’ll cut from the garden behind the squashes.

I cut these Panculata Hydrangeas this morning for the dining room. Hope they dry nicely.

It’s a BANNER year for apples in Maine this year. Every tree is loaded down–even old trees that have had significant storm damage:

Local folks are making apple sauce, apple butter, drying apple slices, and making lots of apple pies.

The girly dogs and I have been walking every day in this glorious fall weather. Sunday afternoon I drove by a friends Harry and Marsha Smith’s house to see their gorgeous fall yard.

What a treat this view was!

Turkey Tracks: October 2016 Quilting Update

Turkey Tracks: October 6, 2015

October 2015 Quilting Update

I seem to be working on about 7 quilts–three using the 4-patch blocks I spent the summer making.

The tumbler quilt is off Lucy the longarm and is ready to be bound.

The Coastal Quilter’s 2016 challenge quilt is ready to be bound. That’s a little guy–16 inches square, with 16 pieces, and using one set of opposites on the color wheel.

The two quilts that are emerging fast though are these bright and happy darlings–both using Bonnie Hunter blocks from Quiltmaker magazine: Criss Cross and Carolina Crossing.

Carolina Chain: I saw this quilt completed on the Bonnie Hunter FB site in regular, not bright, scraps, and I loved it on sight. I’ll make this one twin size. Love the bright happy colors.

Criss Cross. I think I want to make this a medallion quilt with these blocks as the center. I’m going to go to a border of white fabric with tiny dark blue stars next and then build out from there. Not sure which block I’ll use next. If it gets too wide, I’ll just extend on the ends???

I think these two quilts want to be companion quilts, and I know two little girls who are getting a new, shared bedroom in the near future. One of them does not have a “big girl” bed quilt from me.

Hmmmmm.

Turkey Tracks: “Bee Beauty” Quilt

Turkey Tracks: October 6, 2015

“Bee Beauty” Quilt

I finished the “Bee Beauty” Quilt.

I have so loved working on it.

You may recall that I spent the summer making light/dark 4-patch blocks out of my 2-inch square scrap bin. Here’s one use of those four patches. There were about 6000 squares in that bin, and I wound up with about 1600 4-patch blocks.

You may also recall that this block is a Bonnie Hunter block–as she designed a quilt using this block for the American Patchwork and Quilting 2015 scrappy challenge–using 4-patch blocks. (Bonnie’s web site is at quiltville.com.)

This pic of the quilt is not great, but I have fallen in love with it and will save it for a grandchild.

Here is a block. I quilted with limey green thread with the “Lovely” pantograph by Denise Schillenger.

The backing fabric I’ve had for a long time, and I’m pleased with how it worked with the front of this quilt. I chose the dark purples and limey greens from the backing fabric:

The backing has a strip of this block to make up for not having enough of the backing fabric.

Here’s a corner so you can see the binding and border fabrics:

It’s just such a fun, lively quilt:

I like it so much I’m going to make it with a cheddar background:

I can see red sashing, I think. Mercy!!

Turkey Tracks: Play Day in Damariscotta: Aboca Beads

Turkey Tracks: October 6, 2015

Play Day in Damariscotta: Aboca Beads

Last Thursday a friend and I enjoyed a play day in Damariscotta.

We had lunch, made some jewelry at Aboca Beads, got a coffee and some new books at the book store, visited a women’s clothing store, and wound up by going by Alewives Quilting Shop in Damariscotta Mills. It was such a fun day.

Aboca Beads is such a fun store. Whenever I have time, I love to go in and make some earrings. Owner Patricia Palmer is always so helpful and fun.

Here’s Patricia, who cheerfully makes my combinations into fun earrings:

This trip, I made two pairs of earrings for a fraction of what I would have spent if I had bought them.

Here’s a view of one part of the store:

These tins are full of such interesting stones, beads, crystals, metal pieces, etc. I think I am at least part hunterer/gatherer as I really love gathering up bits of things–nuts, berries, garden veggies, stones/shells, etc.

Look at these gorgeous crystals:

There are always assortments of stones and other materials with which to make pendents:

And of course, dozens of ways to make necklaces.

My friend made an adorable little ladybug necklace for her granddaughter, that when finished will just fit around her tiny neck without much overhang to catch in her hands or other activities:

Look at the pearl necklaces below my earrings:

And look how pretty Patricia packages what her customers have made:

What a fun day we had!

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.

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:

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.

Look what I picked last week:

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!

Turkey Tracks: Quilty Update

Turkey Tracks: September 2, 2015

Quilty Update

…and time just keeps on marching on…

…it’s been a lovely summer…

…and I’m looking forward to fall.

So, as usual, I have a lot of quilting projects “in process.”

This quilt, as yet unnamed, is on the long arm:

You already know that the block is Bonnie Hunter’s block for the American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine‘s four-patch 2015 challenge, AND that this is the first quilt using blocks from the sewing I did for most of the summer–making light/dark four-patches from the two-inch square bin.

The backing is a fabric I bought on sale some years back:

You can see part of the pantograph in the above picture. I’m using a limey green that goes well with the green in the quilt and in the backing:

I will finish with the long arm later today–“God Willing and The Creek Don’t Rise”–as my dad used to say.

I’ve been trying to make one of Bonnie Hunter’s most recent blocks from her column in Quiltmaker magazine every day or do…

Bonnie Hunter’s 2015 leader/ender challenge is to use the tumbler block. It so happened that I have a really nice tumbler template bought years and years ago AND a bunch of veggie/fruit fabrics also purchased years and years ago. So, I seem to have gotten a little side-tracked with this project, like making it a main project, not a leader/ender, and look what’s happening:

I added some fabrics to the collection to get more variety at the Pine Tree Quilt Guild state show in late July when I knew I’d use these fabrics with the tumbler block. Otherwise, I had way too many reds, oranges, and greens.

Using the dark prints together is making a nice border–something Bonnie suggested somewhere along the way.

Finally, Coastal Quilters issued a little challenge at the June 2015 meeting. The organizers gave us a brown paper bag with a collection of fabric, including a backing piece to indicate size. We were to create whatever we wanted, and we could add some fabric, but we had to use some of all the pieces in the bag.

I made a little quilt called spring moon:

I added the green polka dot background, the orange chicken legs, and the chicken’s neck fabric.

Here’s a close-up of the chicken:

(I may move her eye back just a hair. I used a picture of one of my chickens, and the bead is where the eye is in the picture, but it isn’t translating quite right here.)

I quilted with the domestic machine and by hand with pearl cotton.

Why this chicken?

I spent the summer looking at the fabric I got, and the black and white fabric looked like it wanted to be a kitchen or bathroom floor. Or, a foyer. And I just could not get excited about that idea. Eventually I worked my way around to the chicken. AND, one factor was that in an earlier challenge I made a black and white picture of my Copper Black Maran rooster, Napolean.

So now he has a sweet little hen named Spring Moon to accompany him in his quilty journey:

Turkey Tracks: Camden Clothesline Laundromat

Turkey Tracks: August 25, 2015

Camden Clothesline Laundromat

I’m not quite sure where this day has gotten to.

I did sleep later than usual. I don’t sleep well in humid hot weather. Neither do the dogs. By the time I got up, the sheets felt like they had been dragged through the fog outside my windows.

It’s rained or been foggy and hot/humid for days and days now. The grass has gone almost two weeks without being cut. Mercy! Will my little electric motor do the job when it finally dries out??? One can’t cut wet grass with an electric mower for sure.

About the time I had finished feeding the dogs, the top layer of the in-counter revolving shelves collapsed down on the tops of the things stored on the second level. OK, I thought. I’m going to have my tea and think this over. Kraft Maid has a help line, and I located that. But what if what I needed was just a simple tightening of whatever holds up the top shelf. I called Stephen Pennoyer (who is beyond wonderful) who happened to be in Home Depot–which carries Kraft Maid. He said he’d call back after talking to the cabinet folks, but within 30 minutes he was on my door step and five minutes after that had tightened the screw that holds the top shelf in place. My goodness!!! I am so, so lucky to have Stephen in my life. He is a caring, kind, generous young man.

Next, I thought I’d go to the laundromat and do my weekly wash, including the damp sheets.

I’ve been without a washing machine since mid July. First there was a part to be ordered, then it came, then it got installed, then it didn’t work the morning after. That was about the time that John Park started to put a new roof on his house and so would not be able to come for another two weeks. He comes this Thursday!! And I’m betting the part is bad, so I thought I’d get ahead of the curve and not let the wash back up until the weekend. (John Park is also wonderful, and I’m so happy he, too, is in my life. I’ll never forget his helping me carry food down two flights of stairs and out to the garage when the kitchen frig went belly up one early evening.)

Camden Clothesline is totally automated, clean, nice, efficient, and it’s kind of funky fun to go there. Likely I’ll continue to take heavy bed spreads there from now on as there is a BIG washer that can handle more than one spread at a time. Running multiple loads is just so much faster, and the big dryers are amazing. They’ll dry a lighter load in 18 minutes

This automatic door REALLY helps when you’re hauling heavy baskets of clothes up these stairs:

Washers: they are the size of my front loader at home. But it washes for 47 minutes on normal. These machines wash for about 27 minutes. I think I have better rinse cycles at home. And the longer “tumbling” time cleans better. But…

Dryers–all the machines can be operated with a credit card. See the swipe pad? Plunking in $3.00 worth of quarters can take a long time.

Dogs waiting in car, but so happy to be able to “go” as it was cloudy and a bit cooler:

Now my Frigadaire RANT!

My Frigadiare Affinity is THREE YEARS OLD.

The entire electronics package that runs everything is secured to the machine WITH ONE BOLT and located FIVE INCHES from the drum.

Front loaders rev up and jiggle A LOT. ONE BOLT IS NOT GOING TO HOLD THAT PACKAGE FOR LONG.

Of course it flew off and hit the outside of the drum and smashed.

The warranty is ONLY FOR ONE YEAR.

Folks, this kind of thing is a TOTAL BETRAYAL OF THE CONSUMER. It is a breach of good faith. It is planned obsolescence. It’s deeply, deeply wrong.

Profit goals that don’t take into consideration pride in product and workmanship is producing this problem.

So, if the replacement parts are not going to work, the whole thing is going to wind up in some landfill.

That’s wrong too.

And, unsustainable.

***

Meanwhile, the local store from which I bought this machine, Kelsey’s Appliance, has not returned ONE of my three calls for repair in the past month. Yet, I’ve bought two major appliances from them and was contemplating a third. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. Guess where I will NOT be shopping again.

End of rant.

And I’ll end by saying that I am so grateful that we have TWO lovely clean laundromats in Camden. The other is the Queen Bee.

Turkey Tracks: The Two-Inch Bin is Empty!!!

Turkey Tracks: August 22, 2015

The Two-Inch Bin is Empty!!!

See?

Can I tell you that there were 6720 squares in that bin. And note that it’s a SMALLER bin (13 by 8 by 5 inches deep) than I usually use.

Who knew there would be THAT MANY squares in that bin???

Now I have what I think of as “assets”: 1680 finished four-patch blocks.

Note that I use Bonnie Hunter’s Stash Management system to manage my stash, and you can read all about that in any of her books and on her blog, quiltville.com.

One part of that system is to cut leftover fabric from making a quilt into useable sizes that work together mathmatically AND to do something with a bin when it gets full.

I have spent the summer sewing these squares into light/dark four-patch blocks. And that effort started with the American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine‘s challenge to work with four-patch blocks this year.

I was inspired, also, by Bonnie Hunter’s quilt block, as she is doing this APQM challenge.

So, at first I made Bonnie’s block. (Bonnie’s background is aqua–which is so lively and pretty.)

AND, Bonnie’s sashing is AWESOME!! (I went ahead with my rich magentas BEFORE I saw what Bonnie opted to do.)

I can’t wait to see what she does with the cornerstones, to see the finished quilt, AND to buy whatever book into which she puts this quilt.

(To follow her progress with this challenge, go to her web site, quiltville.com, click on the blog button, and search for the APQM challenge.

I put the final border on my quilt yesterday–after sewing the LAST FOUR-PATCH BLOCK–and am working on the backing now:

And of course I will have to make Bonnie’s version since I love her strip-pieced sashing so much. That will take 150 of my 4-patch blocks. A drop in the bucket of my assets.

I have some of these already started–and the corners are from the 3 1/2 inch block bin–which has gone down considerably with the use of Bonnie’s block.

I am very excited about doing a Jacob’s Ladder in blue/neutral. I was able to carve out quite a few of those blocks:

And could not resist putting two together to see the result:

I have this great winter blue-jay fabric that I can use for a backing for a blue/neutral quilt.

AND, the mixed blocks would make up beautifully in a Jacob’s ladder with a constant setting for the half-square triangle blocks.

I also carved out some red and neutral blocks.

What if I turn this block straight? The lines would then be on the diagonal…

This block came from Lissa Alexander, whose quilt was featured in the APQM article on the four-patch challenge. I made a baby quilt recently using this block if you want to see a finished quilt: Happy Baby Quilt.”

I have some green and neutral blocks–but not a whole lot.

Could this green-based block fold into the red-based quilt???

And, somehow, I seem to have gotten started on Bonnie’s current block in the September/October 2015 issue of Quiltmaker magazine: Criss Cross.

They are fun, but I’ve had a little trouble translating directions to the Easy Angle Ruler AND with the given size for conventional cutting of a large square into four triangles. I’m wondering if there is a mistake?

I’ve solved it for myself however.

So far, there are a minimum of five quilts out of these blocks…

	lynettecw on What Bird Is Making That …
	louisaenright on What Bird Is Making That …
	StitchingGrandma on What Bird Is Making That …
	juliejjones on What Bird Is Making That …
	Tracy on What Bird Is Making That …