Category: Turkey Tracks: My Life in Maine

Our Life in Maine, My Craft Projects, Quilting, Recipes, Book and Media Reviews

My Improv Quilts

The genesis for me for making improv quilts came from three sources: a Jen Kingwell quilt called “Long Time Gone”; encountering the early modern books by Freddie Moran and Gwen Marston where they collaborated and where they introduced the idea of keeping a “Parts Department” of blocks ready to be used; and the joint work of a newly formed “modern” quilt group in Camden, Maine.

I did blog posts on my improv and formative quilts from the above sources for improv work, so I listed the links below.

Here’s my “Long Time Gone” quilt, dated October 9, 2018. I added the piano key border which I would not do today as borders are not often seen in a modern quilt. This quilt could pass as a “sampler,” but also as an improv quilt made with blocks in a “parts department” bin.

If the link doesn’t work, you can search on the title to get to that blog post. ***If you right click on the title and open the link in a new tab, the link worked for me.

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

Here’s the first improv quilt I tried on my own–using blocks from my own “Parts Department.” This quilt is named “Parts Department Party,” and is dated May 2019.

*open link in a new tab.

Turkey Tracks: “Parts Department Party” Quilt

“Wild Thing” came from a Mt. Battle Modern Quilt Guild challenge based on the long-time “Bee Sewcial” group that posts to Instagram. Each month the designated member of the Bee Sewcial group for that month asks the other group members to make a block to their specifications–which includes design concept, colors, and sizes. The group works with solid fabrics. Many of this group’s quilts have won significant awards.

I chose a palette of bright, clear colors and made the key color the spring green color you see here. I also made extra blocks to fill in the holes that I needed filled in order to make the quilt top come together. Here’s the top:

Here’s he finished quilt top. Note that I used a clam shell groovy board to quilt it, and I do like that traditional quilting on this modern quilt.

The link to the blog post might not work, but it is called “Wild Thing” Quilt.

https://wordpress.com/post/louisaenright.com/13808

Here’s my “Improv Blocks” Quilt that I just finished. I used the blocks I made in a “blocks” class taught by Tara Faughnan. And I kept the same fabric palette during the class, hoping that would provide some consistency for a possible improv quilt.

https://louisaenright.com/?s=%22Improv+Blocks%22+is+done

I also made a quilt inspired by Gwen Marston and Freddie Moran’s work AND by how Debbie Jeske of The Quilter’s Table blog used and altered this idea: “Liberated Wedding Ring, made in the fall of 2021.

“Liberated Wedding Ring” Quilt

I seem to have a “thing” for wedding ring quilts…

My Parts Department is full of interesting blocks these days, so there will be another improv quilt, maybe this winter.

And Tara Faughnan will be teaching the improv block class again, starting in September.

I’m tempted.

Making a Quilt Series

I’ve been busy…sewing.

The Tara Faughnan online block class released the 5th of 6 blocks February 1st, and I’ve been having such fun playing with this “triangles” method Tara teaches. But more on that in a few days when I make myself…stop.

When I visited the Charleston Modern Quilt Guild a few weeks ago, I was entranced by a guild challenge that many had finished and showed that night. They each made a series of quilts: fabric and units from the primary quilt then were used to make the second quilt, followed by the first and second quilts being used to make something creative for the third quilt.

Ah, I had finished this as yet unnamed and unquilted quilt top using reproduction 1920-1930 fabrics I had in my stash (for 20 years). And I still had a lot of fabric left.

So, this smaller top happened. It’s a good baby size, 48 by 48. I’m calling it “Bubbles.”

What to do for the third quilt in my series?

This, I think.

I’ll likely keep it to a baby quilt size, but you never can tell. There is still a fair amount of fabric left.

I can’t wait to show you my design wall whenI finish up with the “triangle” project in a few days. Then I will return to the above quilt project until I can “call it a day” for using up these fabrics.

Giovanna’s Shawl Patterns and Yarns

For those of you who have contacted me seeking information about Giovanna’s Shawl patterns and yarns, here you go:

Pattern: WRAP IT REAL GOOD by Ambah O’Brien
Yarn : Sunshine yarns FEELING GROOVY advent set

Pattern: Sherbert Fizz by Ambah O’Brien. This one I made two and joined them together.
Yarn: SUNSHINE YARNS, Fade into you advent set

Giovanna added the following:

“Just in case people ask. Advent sets a.k.a Festive sets come in twenty-four or twenty-five mini skeins and could be fingering or DK weight. Every year designers come up with new patterns that many people will knit during the first 24 days of December.”

And:

Enjoy!

More Knitting From Giovanna

Many of my blog readers liked seeing master knitter Giovanna’s recent work. She just sent me pics of two shawls she just finished and that are now blocked and ready to wear. Giovanna is one of my Camden, Maine, friends.

Giovanna is very generous with her work–so these two pieces will likely be gifts for lucky people.

This one below may be the piece I last sent to you–all blocked now.

I can’t even…

…imagine trying a knitting project like these. 

I do ok with fairly plain knitting and have a whole drawer of wool socks I made, but I decided long ago that to get better I had to knit a lot and that that would limit my sewing time. Also, I left all the hats and scarves I made in Maine as they would be way too warm for South Carolina. I also left my really heavy coats.

So, I leave this knitting to Giovanna and admire from a distance.

She is awesome.

Jackpot Update

I finally got to the point where I had time to run down where the DNA dog testing on Jackpot went missing–for me, anyway. Sure enough, the Maine vet had the report and emailed it to me.

I sent it on to the amazing foster person–who is Irish–as I thought the new owners might like to have it. And I sent it to Glenna Tucker at Sweet Pups Nation Rescue and Sanctuary as Jackpot had two litter mates.

The DNA is NOTHING like I expected. I thought Jackpot a hound/terrier mixture–a “Feist” dog. Nope. There is a pointer bird dog, but no outright hound in the mix. No beagle or Basset hound. And no terrier either.

The foster person who took Jackpot from me and helped get him to a happy home has kept in touch with me, and she sends me current pictures from time to time–as she did this time after my email as Jackpot recently spent a long weekend with her. She is happy that she helped me get to South Carolina and to land on my feet here–and she was so much a part of making the move happen so that I could handle it as it was so, so hard for me to give up this adorable little dog.

Jackpot is about 7-8 months old now. She wrote the following:

“The little love bug has landed on his four feet too, smothered in love. He was back for a long weekend; it was so good to see him. He hasn’t gotten a whole lot taller. I think he’s stretched though; he seemed longer; his coat is so soft, a little thicker; he has grown into his funny ears. He’s still the same cautious, mad, fun, snuggly, adorable little dog, maybe slightly more mature, and his itching has completely disappeared. He is still a baby. He’s in heaven. The last photo, his ears were up, pointy, makes him look so different.”

Look at this trickster look. And note the snuggly blanket and the toys.

You can see the depth of his soft winter coat here. I want to leap through the frame and love on him.

The pointy ears. LOL. He’s such a sweet, sweet boy.

I’m delighted that his itching has stopped. He had a lot of detoxing to do, but he got and is getting what he needs.

Here is the DNA profile. Note the strong Akita on one side. There is a “mixed breed” marker, so maybe there is some hound/terrier there.

Anyway, I was so happy to get this Jackpot update.

Farewell: Moving Van Wednesday and Thursday, December 14 and 15th

Hello everyone!

This post will be my last post in Maine. Next week, after getting to Charleston, SC, hopefully on Sunday, I’ll work on changing the name and regional focus of this blog. I’m thinking of something like “Living in the Low Country” or “My Low Country Adventure.” If YOU have ideas for a catchy new blog title, let me know in the comments?

The movers will be here Wednesday and Thursday, and I am mostly ready. I will leave here Friday to meet my two sons in Portland. They are flying in to drive me to Charleston. With my mast cell disorder, it isn’t wise for me to try to drive myself. What if I get triggered along the way and have a bad reaction? I will bring my own food in a cooler, but triggers can happen with chemical smells created by too many people sharing in a small space all their body and laundry products. Or, in a hotel room that likely gets sprayed to control insects and/or has residues from cleaning and laundry soaps.

The second contract on my Maine house failed late Tuesday last week. But I’m moving anyway. I have an excellent house caretaking team here, and all agree that I should just go ahead and leave the house in their capable hands–so I don’t have to hang around here all by myself (again) during the upcoming holidays. Thus, this Christmas I will be with family after many, many years of being alone in these winter holidays.

I want to be with my family–and I’m very much at peace with this decision to go. The house will sell when it sells, and it will sell at some point. It is a beautiful house–and I have loved every minute of living in it and living in Maine and living in the Camden community.

Somehow I’ve erased by mistake my favorite picture of the house and garage. Oh my! But I used my favorite fairly recent picture as the wallpaper on my iPad Pro, so I was able to at least get a screenshot of it, though I could not get rid of the time stamp from last year.

Here’s the house from another angle.

I will miss the lush green of a Maine summer, hikes through beautiful woods filled with ferns and the smell of fir trees, the cooler temps, the SNOW, the bracing sharp clean air, the very different and beautiful light changes in a place so far north and east, the stunning sun rises and sunsets, the dark sky filled with a huge moon and bright stars, many vistas from high hills that look out over the bay… I can go on as Maine has been a gift of the soul.

But I’ll be regaining family and a kin network that is much closer, access to a beautiful beach, a place filled with parks and nature walks, a new house to make a home, and a whole new adventure. I’m excited about the change and the new explorations to come.

Here’s one more picture, but there are many on this blog taken over the years.

I have been so busy since Tuesday doing the last packing and organizing. But here’s the progress on the 1 1/2-inch blocks from the Cotton+Steel project of the last two years. The two patches have all been sewn into four-patches.

And here are the four-patches being joined into strips that when sewn together will make a 4 1/2-inch (unfinished) block.

Four blocks make an 8 1/2-inch bigger block.

But then what?

I can set these blocks with sashings. Or, even, wonky-sashing settings. Perhaps that solution would depend upon how many blocks I wind up with–though I can augment somewhat from the bin of 1/1/2 C+S strips.

Or I can set them all together–or at least some of them–to make some sort of medallion center.

However, due to the lack of CLEAR darks and lights, the above bigger joining seems somewhat incoherent to me. So I’m NOT going to go this direction.

Right now with the move, I might be able to carve out enough time in the next few days to make all the 8 1/2 inch blocks, which I’ll put back into the bin holding the leftover C+S pieces and blocks, like a good pile of Churn Dash blocks, the 2-inch squares, and some other odd leftover pieces–some sewn into pieces that can be used somewhere.

I’ll try to post again when I am in Charleston. Meanwhile, enjoy this season of dark nights and starry skies and all the gatherings you might have that hopefully include good food and much cheer.

I wish you all JOY!

LED Lights

I am not a particular fan of LED lights. They take some time to heat up, for one thing. At least the LED spotlights in the ceiling of my quilt room take time to fully illuminate.

BUT, a clear pattern has emerged where the non-LED bulbs in the dining room chandelier have pulled a lot of voltage, so over time that high voltage load will burn out the dimmer switch–which first grows way too hot to the touch. It is very scary to touch a switch that is…hot.

This is the third time that I remember where the dimmer switch had to be replaced. And this time the electrician told me to replace the “regular” light bulbs with LED light bulbs.

Off to Home Depot I went, where I discovered a box of eight LED lights in either “daylight” or a softer white–for about $15. I came home with daylight, which may be too bright, but they can be dimmed too.

The lights are bright right away as well, so this light dimmer switch issue may now be solved.

Plus, the lights themselves have this kind of funky, but cute interiors (hidden by the lamp shades) that feature three bars that light up and are very bright–made more bright by the “daylight” choice.

I have learned a LOT during this move I’m making to South Carolina.

Knitting Kitchen Cloths

Two events started this knitting project: (1) I mailed to Charleston the EPP hand-sewing project I had put together to work on until I can move into my Charleston house as it would take up too much room in my car AND (2) when sorting “stuff” for the move I found a bag of cotton yarns I had purchased so grandchildren could learn to knit. But, the three covid years didn’t deliver grandchildren to my house in Maine who wanted to learn to knit.

I really love to have hand work to do at night–so I started knitting these cloths for the kitchen. It is a good project as my stack of these cloths, which I use to dry my wet hands, was growing low and some cloths were getting worn and shabby looking.

I’ve finished the top three cloths now and am working on the fourth one.

The 4th cloth is being knitted in a moss stitch, which I’ve never made before now. I like the seed stitch (see the aqua/purple cloth), and the moss is the same except one starts with even stitches (seed with an odd number of stitches) and in moss one knits TWO rows that are identical and then two rows that start by knitting a purl into a knit and a knit into a purl, as with the seed stitch.

You can see the moss stitch creates wonderful texture.

The other two completed cloths are just a garter stitch (all knitting all the time)–and all of these choices (garter, seed, moss) give a heavier texture to these cloths, which I think is needed.

I have four more cotton balls, and they are all solids, so I will have fun with both the seed and moss stitches that create so much texture.

Extraordinary Attorney Woo

I finished watching all 16 episodes of the South Korean drama series EXTRAORDINARY ATTORNEY WOO Tuesday night. It is hosted by Netflix.

What a treat!

Attorney Woo is on the autism spectrum. She has a photographic memory and is a genius with regard to South Korean laws. But, as she is autistic, it takes some time for her colleagues to appreciate her amazing skills as she is very different than they are.

However, over the 16 episodes, her colleagues not only learned to appreciate her, they have grown to love her and to work together to protect her. Happy endings are part of comedy and romance, and at least some courtroom dramas, and this series brings all these threads into a satisfying ending by the last episode.

The first two episodes set up the characters and then the series just takes off and soars. Each episode features a different legal issue and different issues for an autistic woman to learn to manage, but each episode also shows how the characters stretch and grow. A full range of emotions is present, and I often found myself laughing out loud or feeling really sad about how things are developing. And one learns a fair amount about South Korean culture along the way.

There are subtitles. But I think it is worth reading them in order to experience some of the very good foreign tv series that are now available on our streaming platforms these days.

There will be a season 2.

Below, is a link to Wikipedia if you want to know more:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordinary_Attorney_Woo

Quilty Order Out of Chaos

I’ve been working for some days now–when I have time between packing, organizing all the “moving” parts of the move (pun intended) to South Carolina, and the general upkeep of the house and cooking–bringing order to the 1 1/2-inch squares created by trimming in the Cotton+Steel project of the past years.

The pile is going down–even though I have had to cut more neutrals in order to make a 4-patch that has neutrals and colors. On the right, you can see layered blocks ready to sew.

I’ve reached the point where I can organize better by color.

Here’s a picture of strings of sewn two patches on the ironing board that are ready to be ironed.

Next I’ll sew two 2-patches together to create a 4-patch that when used, will form diagonal lines in this project–as can be seen in this picture, which also includes the 2-inch 9-patch blocks that will also form diagonal lines.

I’m not sure how I’ll use the 8-in blocks I will create with the 1 1/2-inch squares. Maybe I’ll surround them with sashing so each block is set off by itself and can shine. Maybe I’ll just but the finished blocks back into the C+S “parts department” bin.

In any case, the time spent organizing, piecing, ironing, and planning is soothing to me–so I try to make some time each day for this project.