Category: Turkey Tracks: My Life in Maine

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

Turkey Tracks: My Improv Paper Piecing Designs

Turkey Tracks:  April 13, 2017

My Improv Paper Piecing Designs

I can’t quite believe it, but I designed some quilt blocks–thanks to Amy Friend, author of IMPROV PAPER PIECING.  AND, it seems two quilts.

(See the post before this one.)

I drew and colored on EQ7–which is both fun and frustrating as I have a LONG way to go before getting some proficiency with this program.

Here’s one design–which I learned to “export” to my photos, but from which I forgot to remove the blank border feature.

Oh well…

“Dawn Winter Trees”

There are TWO blocks here, because if I set them without a sashing strip, the tree trunks would make one long line down the quilt.  So the second block’s trunks are off-set from the first.  And the stained glass background has all mixed up color–no set pattern there.

I have shot cottons for the pieces–all in soft “dawn” colors.

The first block I made is beautiful.

AFTER the workshop, I started thinking about a more modern setting.

I like both settings.  Which one will I make?  I will play around with the stained glass blocks before deciding.   But I am drawn to this second quilt.

It will be a wall hanging.

I can also see hand quilting with pearl cotton in curving lines across the horizontal–but NOT across the lavender trees.

I drew this star point block in the drawing part of our workshop.  When I got home, I drew it on EQ7 and learned how to rotate it to make all four pieces of the big FUNKY star.

I always saw it with a solid charcoal background and the low-volume Cotton+Steel fabrics.  I love the big dark whirl-a-gig that has formed.  And the partial diamonds of its fans.  And the suggestion of an octagon come undone around each star.  I love it so much I think I will keep the traditional grid setting.  It’s something like 60 by 72–so a nice lap size.  There will be no borders–and probably just a charcoal binding.  I’ll decide that later.  I don’t want anything to distract from how the quilt is just as it is now.

Here’s my block done at 6 inches–to make a 12-inch block.  I can see right away that the center whirling star needs to be more defined.  Imagine it in one of the darker low volumes.

AND, I’m now wondering about making it at 8 inches…  It would be bigger, more dramatic, and could show off more of the low-volume fabrics.

Big blocks have never drawn me much, but I seem to be changing a little…

There are a lot of cat fabrics in the Cotton+Steel fabrics have.  Hmmmm.  That could be dangerous.  A friend of mine here drew a black dog and one came into her life about a year later.  Cats are a whole different ball of wax from dogs though.  And I do not have a logical space for kitty litter in this house.  And they can scratch furniture…

 

As I said, my brain is spinning…

Turkey Tracks: Amy Friend Workshop

Turkey Tracks:  April 13, 2017

Amy Friend Workshop

You probably think I have deserted you since I have not posted recently.

But, I have been having Quilty Fun.

Amy Friend was just here for a workshop on Improv Paper Piecing.

Our brains are still spinning.  Mine is, anyway.

Here is Amy’s exciting new book.  She is such a good teacher.

We learned all about how to create our own improv blocks and all of us walked away with fresh design ideas that we are now making into quilts.  Our monthly all-day Sit and Sew at the Camden Lion’s Club was buzzing with Amy Friend projects in process.

First, Amy did a trunk show of quilts from the book–and some extras as well.  She used these quilts to illustrate the ideas in the book AND to show us what makes an improv, modern quilt.

So, I’m going to share those quilts with you.

The quilts are being held up by President Lynn Vermeulen and VP/Program Organizer Becca Babb Brott.  (Remember Becca has an Etsy store, Sew Me A Song, where you can find some really interesting modern fabrics, including the harder-to-find Japanese fabrics by Japanese designers.)

Note the jagged triangles–very modern.  This is an early Amy Friend quilt that is NOT in the book.  Amy used it to talk about destabilizing a traditional block, among other ideas.

I love this one–of course I do.  I’m a scrappy quilter.  These fabrics are all Cotton+Steel.  This one is a great scrap buster.

Funky stars done in a very modern black/white/green combo.

Simple is sometimes best.  That’s Amy on the left.  Here she talked about the use of negative space, an “open” block, and her color combos.

A modern hour glass.

Note that the dark blue does NOT evenly meet up with the light blue.

I LOVE this one:

Stained glass and the use of negative space with interesting quilting.

Architecture…

Modern objects–a road sign repeated.

Love this one too.

Mirror images.

These next quilts are not in the book, but were made along the way as Amy refined/defined what she wanted to share in the book.

My goodness!  I love this quilt.

And this one, seen some time ago now, probably from Amy’s blog, likely sparked my own design for the workshop.  It seemed like stained glass.

This one, “Twinkle,” is in a book named SCRAPS, INC. Vol. 1, compiled by Susanne Woods.  It generated one of my designs from the workshop (a separate blog post on those).  This quilt is probably my all-time Amy Friend favorites.  I think because it is scrappy.  I think I will make it one of these days.

Amy has her FIRST fabric line coming out any minute now.  She has designed “blenders” as she really likes to work with solid fabrics in her quilts.

Amy’s blog is http://www.duringquiettime.com.

So, more on my designs and plans next post.

 

Turkey Tracks: April 2017 Quilty Update

Turkey Tracks:  April 3, 2017

April 2017 Quilty Update

It snowed all Saturday.

Didn’t amount to much, was beautiful coming down, and provided a quiet sewing day to enjoy.

We all just hunker down on these sorts of days, providing we can.

I don’t feed the turkeys unless we have packed snow on the ground–which we did up to a few days ago.  (Though we have more snow coming in tomorrow, but maybe we will have rain here on the coast.)  The turkeys know I’ll throw out food when it snows, so they begin to assemble early morning, and when I let Penny out, they come running and talking.  They are more vocal now than ever before.   Anyway, I have had a lot of feed bags this winter.  I used to throw these bags away.  The feed bags from the chickens too.  But now everyone is making very nice bags from them–for the grocery store, for recycling, for anything that needs a bag.  I have been giving mine away, but everyone is “full up” now.  So, rather than throw one away, I tried to make a bag.

SUPER easy and very fun.  There are MANY tutorials online.  Here’s a good one:  Source: Feed Bag Tote Bag

I took the bag to the garage where it is storing newspapers to recycle at the dump.

The last of the amaryllis are blooming now.  The white one is from Rose Lowell (La Dolce Vita Farm).  It bloomed before and I put pics up.  Then it sent up a whole new stalk and bloomed three blooms again.  The gift that keeps on giving…

My leader/ender project got sewn into a quilt top.  More on that later as it will be a gift.  I got backing/binding for it today.  So my NEW leader/ender project seems to be a 10 1/2-inch log cabin block made from 1 1/2 inch strips.  I forgot (AGAIN!!!) how demanding log cabin blocks can be and spent most of yesterday resewing blocks.  Each section has to measure right or the whole thing goes awry.

How to set them???

It’s time to do 8 or 9 more Tula Pink blocks.  What a treat!  I’d probably rip through the whole book if I were not so busy with other projects as well.  Pics to follow soon I’m sure.

I spent a lot of time ironing fabric yesterday–getting ready to cut for the “Bits and Pieces” quilt made with Carol Friedlander “Doe” collection fabrics.  I’ve loved this quilt and this fabric for ages and ages.  I first saw it at Alewives Fabric Store in Damariscotta, Maine.

I wash fabrics first because the chemicals and dyes don’t agree with me.  If they didn’t, I probably wouldn’t.

The fat quarters go into making the “bits.”

I found this fabric in Friedlander’s recent collection.  It’s perfect for the neutral strips.  Or so I think.  I like the texture.

 

 

Here’s the whole array.  I’m thinking I’ll have enough for two quilts maybe…

The backing is a white/black Friedlander.  It’s perfect.

So, En Provence is still in pieces and ready to be sewn together.  Millifiori is getting BIG.  More on that later.  And the selvage star quilt is waiting patiently.

 

Turkey Tracks: Quilting: Improv Quilts

Turkey Tracks:  April 3, 2017

Improv Quilts

I love this book!

This book is a slam dunk for the Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild.

We are making “traveling” quilts now.  Each of us started a quilt in some way, then it “travels” to another Mt. Battie member for work.  Quilts change at the monthly meeting.  So I am working on another member’s now, and I’m having so much fun doing so.  Working on these quilts is pure play.

Here’s my own “start.”

Can’t wait to see what happens next to it at the end of April.

Alphabet help came from Mary Lou Weidman and Melanie Bautista McFarland’s OUT OF THE BOX WITH EASY BLOCKS.

I’ll go back in with pearl cotton to give the exclamation point it’s bottom circle, etc., when the quilt is layered and ready to quilt.

Turkey Tracks: “Crossed Kayaks” Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  March 23, 2017

“Crossed Kayaks” quilt

This cutie baby quilt got mailed recently.

The 12 1/2 inch foundation pieced blocks are from a book by Lynn Goldsworthy, THE ULTIMATE QUILT BLOCK COLLECTION.  She actually called this version a “Bento Box” pattern, but I’ve seen in other places a similar pattern called “Crossed Kayaks.”  Likely that pattern did not have the colored square beneath the kayaks.

The fabrics are from a collection by Riley Blake called “Crayola.”  I pulled from my stash to add more solids.  I bought this collection in Coastal Quilters’ fund-raiser auction last November.  I’ve always LOVED crayons.  As a child, nothing much was more fun than getting a new box of crayons–each with their tips still pointy and new.  That was probably the first realization that I loved the whole range of colors.  This suite of fabrics also comes in girly pinks.

The secondary patterns are neat in this quilt.  The center makes an Octagon.

Here’s the back.  I stole from the backing fabric to get the front border, so pieced to fill in.  That’s always fun.

 

Turkey Tracks: Tula Pink’s 100 Blocks

March 16, 2017

Tula Pink’s 100 Blocks

I have been totally enjoying making my March and April blocks, plus a few, for our year-long Tula Pink project.

I’m using Cotton + Steel fabrics for the most part in my blocks.

Here are the ones I just finished:

These blocks are addictive.  They’re easy, and they’re all about the fabric.

Turkey Tracks: Zipper Bag Nutty

Turkey Tracks:  March 14, 2017

Zipper Bag Nutty

It all started with two of these little pouches, made by Coastal Quilter Margaret Elaine Jinno for our auction fundraiser last November.

Margaret Elaine used a clear vinyl front so one could see the inside.  The top has a zipper.  You can see one of the ones I purchased is stuffed full of EPP templates all ready to go.  The other one is too, but with a different EPP project.  How did she make these anyway?

Then Tori Manzi, also a Coastal Quilter, showed some of us the craft bag she made using pet screen, which is easily located at any large hardware store.  And, yes, it cuts and sews easily.  I did not get a picture of Tori’s bag, but then Becca Babb-Brott (Etsy Store Sew Me A Song) made one as well and it was so nice and roomy.  I had immediate bag envy.  I knew I had to make one of these bigger craft bags that stored EVERYTHING.  I didn’t get a picture of Becca’s bag either, but Becca sent me a tutorial on how to do it.  This tutorial uses clear vinyl, but you can easily substitute the pet screen.  It’s from So Sew Easy and is easy to follow:  “How to Make Clear Vinyl or Project Bags.”  Just google for it if this link does not come up

On the way to the So Sew Easy Tutorial, I saw a blog post on a “52 zippers project”–one a week for a year.  Hmmm.  Until I put the big zipper into my “Aeroplane Bag,” I had not put a zipper into anything for probably 32 years.  Maybe I better take a look?

Here’s the introduction

52 zippers project: All the zips! In 2017 I have a few lofty goals. One of the bigger ones is to undertake a project I’m calling “52 zippers”: this year, every week I will sew a new zipper pouch and post about it. I have kind of the perfect storm of reasons for doing this–I have too many zippers, too many cute fabrics that I’m not using because I don’t want to cut them up, lots of fabric embellishment ideas that I want to try out but not on a whole quilt, and of course a lack of organization. My other thought is that while I know many people have mastered zipper pouches, I think it is a common thing to fear the zipper. I’ve written up a set of basic lined zipper pouch instructions, which you can download for free! As the year goes on I will be adding more modifications and techniques to add to the simple zipper pouch. Look for more handouts to come! These handouts will be free for a limited time; at the end of the project I’ll be compiling all of the handouts into a comprehensive zipper pouch pattern.

Source: 52 zippers project – a little crispy

Before I knew it, I had these two pouches and had printed out instructions for how to install a “D” ring, a wrist band, and make a “dumpling bag.”  Pouches lend themselves to showcasing bigger pieces of fabric, like this fabric from Anna Maria Horner.

These bags are LINED, and doesn’t my zipper look nice?

At this point I was using zippers I already had in storage.

Ok, now I had more confidence, so I went back to the So Sew Easy tutorial.  I had a pale lavender zipper, and here is what emerged.  I love the look of the hanging outside zipper technique.

Oh, BLISS!

Then, this one happened with a white zipper I had on hand.  You can see it in relationship to the lavender bag in terms of size.

How fun is this!

More googling and I discovered that Sew Michelle sells COLORED pet screen in lots of colors.  So this package arrived the other day.

And Zip It (Etsy store) sells all things zipper, including fobs and what are, in bunches, really reasonable zippers in many sizes and colors.  So this package arrived, and I chose the colors of the zippers.

I have a real soft spot for these zipper fobs, but there are all different kinds at Zip It.

Also, it seems that there is a way with plastic zipper teeth to separate the two sides for easier sewing–which also means you can use the smaller pieces of a zipper you’ve cut off by adding a new pull–which, of course, Zip It has.  You could mix and match zipper pull colors with the zipper itself, like putting a blue pull on an orange zipper.

It’s clear my go-to present these days will be zippered bags of some sort.  They are just so much fun to make.

Turkey Tracks: The Farmer’s Wife 1930’s Sampler Quilt is FINISHED

Turkey Tracks:  March 14, 2017

The Farmer’s Wife 1930’s Sampler Quilt is FINISHED

This project–99 foundation pieced blocks–many of them VERY DIFFICULT and time consuming–took a year to make.  A group of us at Coastal Quilter’s (Maine) took on this project in January 2016.  We decided on 9 blocks a month, and if it weren’t for the encouragement and stimulation of these other quilters, I don’t think I would have ever finished this project.  All of us have completed all 99 blocks, two of us have totally finished, two of us have quilts at longarm quilters, one “very busy” of us with a larger family has all her blocks finished, and one of us elected from the beginning to make a smaller quilt and is finished with her blocks.  I call that a roaring success.

Each of us used different fabrics and different backgrounds, and all of the quilts are GORGEOUS! We will bring them all together at a Coastal Quilter’s meeting when everyone is done, so I will get pictures to share of the others then.

Here’s mine–and I’ve even washed it.  This is a BIG QUILT.

Because I used this zig-zag setting, I could either “halve” four of five of the blocks or chose a different setting.  No way was I cutting any of these blood-sweat-and tears blocks in half!!!  And I thought this setting made the quilt too long and narrow.  So I added two rows on either side and floated the extra blocks.  I did have one extra block, to make 100, and it went into the body of the quilt.  I love this setting.  I had visions of quilting down the length of the zig-zags from the front of the long arm, but that would have meant quilting each of the blocks individually, and that would have been way too time consuming for me.  And would have probably involved a lot of thread changes.  I decided it was way too involved for me, so I used one of my favorite pantographs, “Simple Feathers” by Anne Bright.

Right now, it’s living on the living room couch where it totally perks up the room.

I chose this bird fabric for my backing and used a darker (than the front) teal blue/green solid for the binding.

I quilted with a thread that matched the teal/green surrounding fabric that just disappeared into the quilt.  I didn’t want anything to take away from the blocks themselves.  I washed it, which I almost never do until needed–I wash all my fabric before quilting with them as the chemicals in the fabric bother me–so it is all crinkly and cuddly.

Here’s a pic of a few of the blocks.

 

Turkey Tracks: A Sunday Walk

Turkey Tracks:  February 27, 2017

A Sunday Walk

Yesterday was warm.

In fact, we’ve been blessed with a warm and sunny spell these last few days.

No No Penny and I have been out walking–our “sap” is rising with the warmth–so I am not ready quite yet to let go of the winter hibernation I also love.  But, one reason I love living in Maine is that we have four solid and very different seasons to experience.  And, of course, in each season is a teaser for the one before and the one to come.

No No Penny and I checked on Saturday to see if we could get into one of our favorite walks.  Yes.  There was mud, but the paths were open.  And mud is no threat to an LLBean boot.

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No No Penny was deliriously happy to be outdoor and free on this beautiful day.  It is hard to believe that she is 14 sometime this year, but she has slowed down some.  Rat terriers are up for “play” no matter how old they get, for the most part.

I love this view from the first of our walk:

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The little retaining pond is still frozen, but water is rushing everywhere around us.

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Deer footprints abound in the soft soil.  This one is very light–probably a young doe or a newish baby.  There are deeper tracks near by from a heavier deer.

 

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The little creek is singing pretty loud:

And the vibrant green moss is glowing amidst the mud and vanishing snow.

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The big brush pile has gotten bigger.  It provides needed safety places for all kinds of animals over the winter.

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Someone built a lot of cairns in the woods last summer/fall.  They are still there.

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Out of the woods, the wind is sharp with brisk cold.  It is refreshing and tangy after closed in winter rooms.

Can you see the sun shining on the bay at the edge of the land and sky?

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And when we are “up top,” the bay is clearly visible.

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What a gift is the access I have to this walk.  What a gift this land, this place, this moment.

We go home exhilarated and happy and planning more walks while the weather holds and beyond, to the coming spring and summer and fall and, yes, the winter.