Category: Turkey Tracks: My Life in Maine

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

Turkey Tracks: Four More Farmer’s Wife Blocks

Turkey Tracks:  March 27, 2016

Four More Farmer’s Wife Blocks

I’m learning so much with these foundation pieced blocks.

I’ve tended to pick fabrics I like together, but they do not always work well together with tiny pieces in this block.

The brown fabric should be much lighter in value.  Close up you can see they are bow-ties, but…

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I like the blue/yellow part of this block.  The green/pattern, not so much.  Would have been better with a light aqua.

I’ve decided I’ll redo the green side when I get home from Charleston.  It won’t take that long.  Maybe a reverse of the yellow and blue?

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Better.  But yellow is hard in quilting.  I should have reversed the yellow polka dot and the bright blue fabric.

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Better…  If this block is installed “on point,” the star works better.  But some blocks “hang” better flat.  Still not sure how to lay out this quilt.

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This has been a great learning project.

I’m not going to redo these blocks–there will be 99 of them in the end and these will just blend in.  I’ll take what I’ve learned and move forward.

Turkey Tracks: Katja Marek’s “Quilt-lets”

Turkey Tracks:  March 27, 2016

Katja Marek’s “Quilt-lets”

Here’s my first “Quilt-let.”

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The idea is make these little beauties “on the go” and to sew them together into a completed quilt.

One uses Marek’s designs from her book THE NEW HEXAGON and buys the EPP pieces from paperpieces.com.  You can buy a package of all 52 blocks in the 3-inch size or buy, in increments, the 4-inch block pieces during the year.  Marek is doing the 4-inch size.  I’m doing the 3-inch.  You can also buy templates to cut the batting and backing in the right size.

You can also just make these blocks and hook them together with other pieces that geometrically work, like a triangle.

I’m thinking, though, that I might anchor that central block with one line of stitch-in-the-ditch sewing on the machine.  I hate stitch-in-the-ditch sewing though…  Maybe “peck and stab” by hand with a matching thread???  Maybe just in the middle???

Turkey Tracks: Honey and the Red Heart Pillow

Turkey Tracks:  March 26, 2016

Honey and the Red Heart Pillow

Meet Honey, the Michael Enright’s female Golden Doodle–a cross between a Golden Retriever and a Poodle:

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At Christmas, Talula gave Michael this red heart pillow.

But Honey adopted it as her own.

She carries it everywhere with her.  If she forgets she’s left it in another room, she goes and gets it.

She has never shredded it, as she does her other soft toys.

Is it her baby?  Is it kind of like the way a Golden Retriever will carry a ball on a walk?

Who knows.

But it’s now Honey’s red heart pillow.

Turkey Tracks: Giovanna McCarthy’s Knitting

Turkey Tracks:  March 26, 2016

Giovanna McCarthy’s Knitting

I can knit.

But I have to follow a pattern.  I rarely try to “wing it.”

And some patterns make me break out in a cold sweat–mostly because if I make a mistake, I would not know how to fix it from within an intricate pattern.  (And I can fix dropped knits and purls, etc.)

But not Giovanna McCarthy.  She just gets better and better and takes on more and more intricate patterns.

Such as…this shawl.

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And look at his gorgeous shawl pin:

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Oh my goodness!!  Giovanna’s work just blows me away.

She is an inspiration!

 

 

Turkey Tracks: Hexie Project Update

Turkey Tracks:  March 24, 2016

Hexie Project Update

Last night I sewed several big pieces on to the mother ship.

Here’s what the hexie project looks like now:

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The pattern is from Edyta Sitar’s HANDFULS OF SCRAPS.

Seems like I’m more than halfway done now.  I started this project back in mid-November 2015.

I’m going to float this main piece on wide borders and applique it down.  Then I’ll remove the paper pieces.

I am really liking this quilt, and I love the hand work at night.

The fabric is ALL from my 2 1/2-inch square scrap bin or from 2 1/2-inch strips.

Turkey Tracks: Birthday Balloons

Turkey Tracks:  March 23, 2016

Birthday Balloons

Friend Linda McKinney brought me some birthday balloons last Thursday, my birthday day.

I don’t think anyone has ever brought me birthday balloons.

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The balloons, as you can see, are still going strong, and I smile and feel happy every time I see them.

This birthday has been one of the best ever.

I am so blessed with my family and my friends!!!

This last year has been a really good one for me.

THANKS EVERYONE–FAR AND NEAR.

Turkey Tracks: Handmade Cards

Turkey Tracks:  March 23, 2016

Handmade Cards

Coastal Quilters (Maine) members have been making handmade greeting cards.

We’ll use them to thank our speakers, to honor members’ birthdays, and to send a greeting for whatever reason we need.

Handmade cards are also good sellers in the fund-raising auction we hold every other year.

This card (Cosmos!) was made by Gail Galloway Nicholson.  She fused the tiny pieces with Steam-A-Seam, placed them on the card, and ironed them down.

 

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This card was made by Maggie Schwamb.  She learned how to make this kind of card while visiting family.  She glued a facing piece on the inside of the card to hide the stitching.

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When I finish a quilt, I take some pictures of it as I keep a notebook that archives my quilts.  I note down all the quilt math, the blocks used, the pantograph, etc.  And I’ve gone back to that information many  many times while making other quilts.  I also take a few extra pictures and insert them into greeting cards.

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Given the cost of greeting cards, taking some time to make some seems a good thing.  Besides, it’s a lot of fun.

 

Turkey Tracks: Katja Marek’s EPP: THE NEW HEXAGON

Turkey Tracks:  March 23, 2016

Katja Marek’s EPP:  THE NEW HEXAGON

Katja Marek has designed 52 hexagon blocks, each of which has been split into interesting shapes.

AND, there are many ways to use these blocks.

AND, there are many ways to make these blocks.

First, you can use other shapes to combine the hexagons into a quilt, like the triangles on the cover.

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Like THE FARMER’S WIFE books, each block has a female name.

You can draw your own templates.  Or, you can go to English Paper Piecing LLC and buy the pieces for each block.  I bought the whole package to make all 52 blocks.  AND/OR, you can buy a set of acrylic templates that help you fussy cut and/or make your own paper pieces.  (I’m going to try to make my “fussy cut” pieces by tracing pieces onto template plastic.)

 

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BUT, BUT, BUT, what I discovered in the past few days is that Marek is ALSO making these blocks into finished tiny quilts that you then sew together to make a quilt.  They are SO CUTE!  Each has a neutral low-volume fabric border.

Here are some pics from Instagram:

A single “quilt-let”:

And several in a pile:

I’m going to do this latter project BEFORE doing a project linked by the triangles.

These blocks, without the neutral border, have three-inch sides.

The English Paper Piecing LLC site has materials for BOTH Marek’s projects:  the Millifiore quilt I’m going to do AND these little “quilt-lets.”  The book has the three-inch blocks and the English PP LLC site also has a four-inch project.

Turkey Tracks: Alewives Fabrics Low-Volume Monthly Fabric Club

Turkey Tracks:  March 21, 2016

Alewives Fabrics Low-Volume Monthly Fabric Club

Friend Megan Bruns did a monthly fabric club with Alewives Fabric (Damariscotta Mills, Maine) that she truly enjoyed.  She’s using those fabrics in her Passacaglia Millefiori Quilt.  (See earlier posts.)

Alewives is doing a low-volume version, and I just signed up.  I LOVE the low-volume fabrics the market is putting out now.  This club starts in May and is already filling.  They will limit membership as they are a small shop.

Here’s the information:

Source: Alewives Fabrics: Fabrics

In the newsletter message I got from them, they included the prettiest picture of an English Paper Piecing project from Tracey Jay Quilts–called a “Morning Star” block.  I just ordered that for $6 too.

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The block is in the center, and the pattern forms through color manipulation.  The package comes with a blank coloring plan.

Isn’t this gorgeous.  Low volume prints and brights.  Heaven must be made of these colors!

Fussy cutting could add a whole new intricacy to this idea as well.