Turkey Tracks: My Life in Maine – Page 107

Turkey Tracks: “Blossom,” the wedding quilt

Turkey Tracks: May 13, 2013

“Blossom,” the wedding quilt

Daughter-in-law Tamara Kelly Enright and I wanted to make bride Ashley Malphrus (now White) a wedding quilt. The wedding was April 21, 2013, and it was gorgeous. The ceremony was held with one of the low country rivers as a backdrop–green lawns, big house, big white tent. It was lovely. Ashley and her mother, Allison Malphrus, had thought of so many thoughtful, sweet touches all during the wedding. I’m always in awe of that kind of thoughtfulness as I’m not good at it.

Last Thanksgiving, Tami and I picked out contemporary, colorful Kaffe Fasset fabrics–and Mainely Quilting shopowner Marge Hallowell cut us a big array of the Kaffe Fasset prints. With a “layer cake” design, one starts with a 10-inch square (in our case), cuts off four borders, which leaves a central square. Different borders are put onto different squares, and the result–after using these bright modern prints–is a very contemporary, colorful quilt.

I finished hand sewing the binding just before the wedding and mailed the quilt to Tami. It’s BIG, and I didn’t want to carry it on the plane. Tami and I delivered it the Friday before the wedding, as I didn’t want to have it at the wedding tent. I also wanted to explain that the quilt is an heirloom quilt, to be used and loved, but also to be cherished in the way of being a little careful with it.

Here’s “Blossom”–and it’s not a great picture of it. But you can see how big it is.

Here’s some blocks close up. I quilted it with a bright pink thread, and that is wonderful on both the back and the front. I used a “Sweet Pea” pantograph, but both sides are busy enough that you don’t really see the pattern. It will catch Ashley, some day, when the light falls just right on the quilt. I did the best job ever on the quilting.

Here’s the backing and binding–so you can see how they play with the blocks:

And here’s what “Blossom” might look like folded on the foot of a bed:

The name “Blossom” describes the quilt, yes, but it’s also meant to wish, for Ashley, that she blossoms with her marriage, that her marriage blossoms, that the blossoming creates fruit, that in turn, blossoms, and on and on and on…

Turkey Tracks: Chickens Gone

I am back from Charleston, SC. I tried to post to the blog on the ipad from there, and the interface was just too clunky. Friend Giovanna McCarthy told me there was an app for “WordPress,” so I downloaded that a few days ago, but have not yet tried it out. I LOVE the ipad. It’s so easy and light when traveling. So, the blog below was written on April 26, just before I came home on the 29th.

Turkey Tracks: April 26, 2013

Chickens Gone

I’m in Charleston celebrating the arrival of a new granddaughter, a family wedding, and visiting with my children and grandchildren.

I left the chickens free-ranging and unfenced–as I have for the past few springs. They had such a long, hard winter this year.

Just got word that FOX has eaten all of my chickens but one black hen, who is now locked up in the coop and cage.

May 8, 2013

Update: the surviving black chicken was Rosie, the purebred Maran hen. What a lovely surprise. Now if I can find another Maran rooster…

My dear friend Rose Thomas has gifted me with three of her hens–all in the Americauna line. They are very busy laying the most beautiful eggs. Pictures will follow when they’ve settled down.

Right now they think I’m the devil since I had to dust them all and coat their legs with vaseline to halt any of the lice-like bugs that get under the scales of their legs. Dusting involves holding them upside down by their legs, and it scared them to death. Of course. In a large flock like Rose has, it’s really hard to organically control lice and mites in the flock. I am tempting them each day with many treats so they begin to associate me with nice things.

***

I am sorry not to have posted on this blog sooner, but I have been so busy “catching up” here. Today David Hannan came and we worked from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. when I quit for the day. He kept working until 3. I am so grateful to him for coming to help me with the spring tasks. David picked up the winter boardwalk that Mike put down last fall. And, together (but mostly David), we brought out all the lawn furniture and pot stands and wind chimes and hummingbird feeders and temporary fencing from the top of the garage and put all in their spaces on the three porches and in the yard. We put up the summer chicken fence and fenced the garden with the new green metal rods I bought this week. Part of this fence will become permanent. And, David showed me how to use a crow bar to dig a hole–which he did–to sink the pea poles deeper into the ground. David did more clean-up, like the path to the meadow and odd raking back of stones that have slid around over the winter. And he blew off all the stones and grit from the driveway so that when it rains tonight and tomorrow, the driveway will get all clean.

He has promised to come next week to help me pot up and plant all the flower containers and to carry the pots to their places around the porches. One more day should finish up the spring clean-up. I will mow the lawn as soon as the rain stops.

YEAH!!!! So many really hard tasks completed today!!!! And it is always fun

Turkey Tracks: The Kiddos’ Quilts in Charleston

Hello Everyone!

Turkey Tracks: April 23, 2013

The Kiddos’ Quilts in Charleston

I make them.

Than most of them I give away.

The grandchildren have quite a few of them. There were the baby quilts. Then the “big bed” quilts. And, in a few cases, a wall quilt.

Imagine my delight to see some of the quilts in use in a bedroom that can sleep four of the kiddos in bunks, freeing up a bedroom for a guest–like me!

I love both of those wall quilts and had such fun making them. Both came from now-famous patterns. The one on the left is called “Over By the Pond” if I’m not mistaken. The “jar” block is pretty standard, but I’m sure I bought this pattern as a kit that came with the buggy fabrics. I wanted my kiddos to be deeply connected to nature, and I love and am fascinated with bugs.

The little blue churn dash quilt was made for my first grandchild, Bowen. It has some Maine blueberry fabrics in it.

The red-bound quilt was also Bowen’s, his “big bed” quilt. All these children have special quilts, not just Bowen.

Here’s a better view of “Over By The Pond.”

Turkey Tracks: Dogs Being Dogs

Turkey Tracks: April 7, 2013

Dogs Being Dogs

First, watch this video I took the other day outside Boynton McKay, a favorite lunch and/or coffee spot here in Camden, Maine. Local people often tie their dogs outside, where they wait patiently for their owners to eat. The lighter lab I see frequently. S/he behaves impeccably to passers-by.

So, what you have here is dogs doing what dogs do. I didn’t see the second, dark lab as I came toward Boynton McKay. But surely the woman walking the dog did. So,what you have is TWO dogs waiting outside. TWO equals trouble. They will now back each other up. Add in that they are feeling insecure because their owner is inside and they are in that big wide open world outside all alone. Add in a third dog, a big dog, too, and you get…what you see in the video. Even the best of dogs will behave this way.

Lesson: if you are walking a dog and come upon TWO tied dogs outside of a store, give them a wide berth. Stop above them as well and speak reassuringly to them.

Turkey Tracks: Current Projects

Turkey Tracks: April 6, 2013

Current Projects

Spring is on the move, but we’ve had a chilly, if sunny, week.

One of my current projects is to practice taking more videos in order to learn what works and what doesn’t. I erased quite a few for various reasons. One reason is that it is very hard to hold the cameras steady. Here’s one of the Camden Harbor at low tide, with the spring-full river pouring into it. At high tide, the water would rise to a foot or two below the docks. The wind is high and the noise of it and of the river interferes a bit with what I’m saying.

It’s elver season, and people trap them at the mouths of rivers–as near as I can determine. Elvers are little eels that fetch the most astonishing prices per pound. These little guys are sold alive to the Japanese, mostly, who then raise them to be much bigger before eating them.

Have you ever eaten eel? It’s delicious actually. You could try it in a sushi restaurant. It’s cooked with a sweet sauce of some sort.

Anyway, here’s the video:

I’ve almost finished a pair of socks for my sister-in-law, Maryann Enright. She chose the yarn just before John died. We had a nice visit one day around early December to our newest yarn shop in Rockland, Maine, called Over The Rainbow. It’s a fabulous yarn shop, and we are so lucky to have it. I think these socks might be a bit wilder than Maryann imagined, but she will rise to the occasion with them. The yarn does not have black in it, but deep navy and dark plum and a tiny bit of dark brown.

I am working on an applique quilt made with big blocks of green turtles. I have not done any applique in some time and am very slow at it, so I refreshed my skills (ha! that’s a joke) with this little Easter Card for Maryann–in a class at Coastal Quilters taught by Barb Melchiskey, who is a master appliquer. If I were doing this card again, I’d chose either a colored card or a colored background. The two whites aren’t working so well together, and I don’t like the lines running away from the eggs. But the eggs! Ah, the eggs. Perfect for this very eggy household.

The turtle applique quilt will get a lot of quilting to bring out texture in the blocks–on the domestic machine. But, here’s one block ready to go. Now I need to do more. I have not decided whether to do 6 or 9 blocks…

What is really drawing me is the scrap quilt taking shape on the design wall. This one calls me from other rooms to work on it. I have fallen in love with Bonnie Hunter and ALL of her books: LEADERS AND ENDERS, SCRAPS AND SHIRTTAILS I AND II, and STRING FLING. She embodies the kind of work I love best to do–make functional quilts that people can curl up under or into and use as much of the stash fabrics as possible.

Bonnie’s motto is reuse, repurpose, recycle. She has a monthly column in QUILTMAKERS and her web site is awesome. There must be 50 free quilting patterns on that web site. She’s coming in May to our state guild, Pine Tree Quilting Guild, on May 5th, and I will be there to see her quilts and meet her, God willing and the creek don’t rise.

Bonnie Hunter also promotes Victoria Findlay Wolfe’s new book: 15 MINUTES OF PLAY , which is so much fun. Both Hunger and Wolfe are having way too much fun with their quilts, and both employ string piecing methods to great advantage and fun in their quilts.

Anyway, Hunter uses a method that I really like. She cuts any pieces of fabric in her stash smaller than a fat quarter, or at the biggest, a half yard, into strips: 3 1/2 inches, 2 1/2 inches, 2 inches, 1 1/2 inches. (I also cut 5 inches as I have rather a lot of those now and want to make a broken dishes block with them.) These measurements work well together. She divides these strips into light and dark piles. When she starts a project, she’s already done a lot of cutting. And she can cut the strips further down with rulers, like the Easy Angle ruler, into the shapes she wants. (She also likes the Tri Rec ruler set.) I’ve been using the Easy Angle ruler, and it makes PERFECT half square triangles, as long as you have an accurate 1/4 inch sewed seam.

This quilt started using Bonnie’s method described in LEADERS AND ENDERS, where you keep a basket next to your machine with some block parts in it–like two-inch squares. When you would need to cut thread on another project, instead, you just feed a light and dark set of squares through the machine and cut off the piece you wanted to free on the back side of the needle. In no time, you have a pile of sets of two squares sewn together. You can finger press those and sew them to another set for a four-square–and so on.

Well!

Here’s what happened in short order at my sewing machine–the idea came from Hunter’s LEADERS AND ENDERS. And it’s putting a real hurt on my green stash fabrics!!!! I’m no longer just piecing squares through the machine while working on another project. I’m making time to make as many blocks as I can.

Here’s the block: a form of a Jacob’s Ladder block, depending on where you locate the dark and light of the half-square triangles.

I iron the half-square triangle blocks along the way, but I don’t iron the whole block until I’ve finished it. I’ve had to trim up very, very few of them. All have been a bit too big–with stretching from ironing mostly I think. None have been too small. Most are perfect.

The squares quickly overflowed from the basket as I cut into my stash.

The basket got filled with half-square triangle pieces:

And I have a pile of strips all cut and ready to be cut further–and separated by value–so Bonnie is right that just a bit of cutting each day delivers a lot of sewing for days to come. She also says that she groups medium and dark values together and relies on the REALLY light fabrics to create contrast in a quilt like this one.

I finished and mailed a beautiful quilt for a beautiful bride, Ashley Malphrus, who will be married in Charleston later this month. I will put up pictures when I get home from Charleston, and the bride has seen the quilt. But I am delighted with it.

So, I will leave you with this picture: the last bouquet of flowers from our CSA, Hope’s Edge, last summer. Those days are coming around again. Look at all that green in the windows.

Turkey Tracks: Beaver Dam

Turkey Tracks: April 2, 2013

Beaver Dam

I’ve been fascinated with the beaver dam at the foot of Howe Hill, where we live.

Below our house is a wetland that is fed by the stream that runs just beyond the wood line that flanks our house. Our stream feeds into a stream that runs through culverts under the road intersection below our house where Howe Hill Road meets Molyneaux Road.

Across Molyneaux Road is another wet land that feeds into the larger stream that runs all along Molyneaux Road and gets fed from yet another stream a bit further along that comes down from the higher elevations up Howe Hill.

Anyway, there has been a beaver dam all winter controlling the wetland stream across Molyneaux Road. Now, though, with the spring melt-off, there is a little waterfall over the dam.

I stopped today to take a video so you can hear the rushing sound of the water–a familiar sound these days as water is pouring off all the mountains.

Turkey Tracks: “Coastal Pleasures” Quilt

Turkey Tracks: March 27, 2013

“Coastal Pleasures” Quilt

There are many of my quilts in my oldest son’s home.

But, none were made especially for Mike.

Bryan, my younger son, has one–“The O’Bryan,” pictured elsewhere on this blog.

Both Tami and Corinne have one.

All the grandchildren have one. The older four have two as they got another when they graduated to big beds from cribs.

But, Mike had nary a one.

So, I made him “Coastal Pleasures” for his birthday this summer–made from my pre-cut blue squares and a lovely, swirling white on white fabric, “Ramblings” from P&B Textiles. (Both of my sons and their families live two blocks from each other on Isle of Palms, SC, just north of Charleston, and both are two blocks from the beach.)

Here is the backing:

Here is the backing with the binding and a bit of the front:

Here is a close-up of the quilting–a pantograph called Threadz from Urban Elementz, by Patricia E. Ritter (copyright 2012). I loved the swirling energy of this pattern; it felt like wind moving on water and was very fun to quilt.

Here’s a wider view, but still close up.

Here’s the binding from the front on a white spread:

Here’s the quilt at the foot of Mike and Tami’s bed:

The pattern idea, “Blue Lagoon,” was seen in JELLY ROLL QUILTS by Pam and Nicky Lintott. I pretty much used the same colors they did—and found a similar quilting pattern. However, this pattern is pretty basic and could lend itself to many variants. I’m going to try more blue squares in a low-impact variant. I found a big floral I’ll use as the white is used in this quilt. I can hardly wait!!!

Turkey Tracks: Margaret’s Birthday Lantern

Turkey Tracks: March 27, 2013

Margaret’s Birthday Lantern

Margaret made me a hanging lantern for my birthday.

Here’s a picture of the light itself:

Here’s a video that’s way too dark, but gives some idea of how the colors change with the addition of a little battery tea light that changes colors.

Margaret makes these lights with three primary ingredients: a balloon blown up, wood glue diluted by half with water, and tissue paper. She also used a pipe stem at the top to stabilize the opening. Her friend Mary makes more tissue paper at the top and folds it inside to stabalize the opening. Some ribbon makes the hanger. And a small battery-driven light that changes color makes the colors change. If hung outside, one could also use a tea light.

She said she paints the balloon with the wood glue mixture, layers on the tissue paper, and…lets it all dry. She deflates the balloon when the light is dry.

Anyway, I can’t wait to make these lights with the grandchildren this summer.

Or, to show them this one.

Margaret and Mary are making the lights for the wedding this summer of Mary’s son. They are going to hang the lights in all the trees around the house.

Turkey Tracks: RUGS FROM RAGS

Turkey Tracks: March 27, 2013

RUGS FROM RAGS

For those of you who might like to make the rag rugs shown in earlier posts, you can get directions for the VERY easy looms, clear instructions, and so forth from the book RAGS FROM RUGS, by Country Threads. It sells for about $10.

Turkey Tracks: I Finished The Rugs!

Turkey Tracks: March 21, 2013

I Finished The Rugs!

The old sheets I cut into strips with my pinking rotary cutter blade made three rugs.

Here are all three rugs at the front door:

You can begin to see the possibility of sewing the rug sections together to make a larger rug…

And here’s a video so you can see them close-up:

I like the first one I show the best, which is a surprise. It’s the one without any strips or blocks of color, but with the sheets and the fabrics always just alternated. It looks so sweet at my back door in the kitchen. It looks very French country, actually.

I put leftover strips on the loom to hold the side rods in place, so it’s all set up for another project. I noticed this week in changing sheets that the elastic in one bottom blue sheet is getting very stretched out. Probably by next winter, I’ll be cutting up more sheet strips. Blue ones. These rugs would make nice gifts, especially here in Maine where people take off their boots when they come in your house.

	celiamalm on Happy Birthday Soup
	celiamalm on Spring Garden Time
	louisaenright on It’s A Sunny Sunday
	Tracy on It’s A Sunny Sunday
	Andrea R Huelsenbeck on Yeah! The Improv Quilt Is Off…

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