Turkey Tracks: “Allietore,” Bonnie Hunter’s 2015 Mystery Quilt

Turkey Tracks: January 6, 2016

“Allietore”

So, since I returned from Charleston after a splendid Thanksgiving with my children, I have been working each week on Bonnie Hunter’s “clues” for her 2015 Mystery Quilt, “Allietore.”

Just before New Year’s Day, I caught up with all the “clues.”

Could a quilt come from this pile of “clues”?

Some of the individual units were really interesting to make–and we used Bonnie’s two favorite rulers a lot in this quilt: Easy Angle Ruler and Companion Angle Ruler.

See those little red clips holding together the blocks on the right? I LOVE those clips and am finding all sorts of uses for them.

Here are pics of the individual units so far:

Bonnie “revealed” “Allietore” New Year’s Day!

What a gift!

Here’s her computer picture, likely done on EQ7.

Here’s her own quilt in fabric–note that she has scalloped the edges:

And here are the two blocks:

These are the COOLEST blocks. Thank you Bonnie!!! There are, really, just four main colors–red, gold, black, and grey–so these blocks are going to be gorgeous in loads of colorways. It has been so fun to see all the differing colors people are using on Bonnie’s Facebook quilt studio.

I still have to cut the red and gold block centers AND some red fabric for the corner and inner border treatments, but…

Unfortunately, I can’t get to this quilt until I get the second of the two granddaughters’ quilts off the design wall.

All in good time…but I got some fabric today for the gold inner border and the black outer border. They are currently in the washing machine.

That’s progress of a sort.

YOU can print out her patterns from her blog–go to quiltville.com and click on the blog button–for a bit more time. Then she will sell this pattern.

Bonnie meticulously explains each and every step for making one of her mystery quilts.

Turkey Tracks: Mount View Chamber Singers 2015-2016

Turkey Tracks: January 6, 2015

Mount View Chamber Singers 2015-2016

One of my most favorite events of this past holiday season was attending an event on December 20th at The United Christian Church in Lincolnville, Maine–with my friend Rose Lowell and her friend and neighbor Dee.

My goodness, after an extraordinary peaceful hour passed in the candlelit church among the Mount View Chamber Singers, I left with renewed faith and belief in the young people of our nation.

The church is old–built in 1821. Inside were “old timey” church boxes–where one opened a gate to enter a pew.

As we got settled, dusk fell–which it does about 3:30 in the afternoon in December in Maine.

A hush fell over us all as the young people entered the church, each carrying two lit candles in jars, and spread themselves in a circle around the church–stopping at the music stands put up for each person down the side aisles and across the front and back of the church.

After each song, the singers rotated one stand to the right–so the audience kept hearing different voices among the total voices.

The young people–high school age I’m thinking–were dressed as if going to a party. The boys wore black tuxedos, and the girls wore stylish black dresses, heels, and stockings. They looked smashing in the flickering candlelight!

AND, the music was very challenging–all sung with no accompanying instruments. This music was from the middle ages for the most part. There were songs like “Hodie, Christus Natus Est,” a plain chant.

How many teenagers do you know who would spend the amount of time these young people have on this kind of an effort?

They gave about 30 performances all over Maine, beginning November 28th.

Here they are–these lovely young people from the Thorndike, Maine, area–which is very rural in nature:

Thank you all for an oasis of quiet, peace, music, candlelight, and renewed faith in people and the future of the earth.

This event may have been the best gift of the season.

Turkey Tracks: THE FARMER’S WIFE 1930 SAMPLER QUILT

Turkey Tracks: December 30, 2015

THE FARMER’S WIFE 1930 SAMPLER QUILT

Fellow quilter Becca Babb-Brott brought this book and project to the attention of the Coastal Quilters in early December.

The Farmer’s Wife was a magazine in the 1930s for…not just farmers’ wives. Remember that America still had a largely rural population in the 1930s.

The book contains 99 classic quilt blocks from the 1930s–each with a name, like “Lola,”–and an excerpt from a farm wife letter to the magazine–often detailing life conditions in the 1930s.

We are going to try to make two blocks a week for 2016. The book comes with a CD that has directions to all the blocks, including foundation piecing if desired.

There are at least four of us who are going to participate.

Want to see some of the blocks all made up? Take a look at Katy Jones’s blog right now. She’s been making the blocks and has pictures of them on her design wall.

Source: Quilt Monkey

Katy Jones is a popular British quilter, and the blog is colorful and fun.

Turkey Tracks: Solstice 2015

Turkey Tracks: December 22, 2015

Solstice 2015

December 21st is Solstice–the longest night of the year.

Friends Margaret Rauenhorst and Ronald VonHeeswijk host a Solstice bonfire most years. This event is one of my most favorite events of the year.

Solstice marks the passage from darkness into light. Solstice is a time of reflection and quiet.

This year, the sky was filled with clouds, so no stars or moon–though the moon will be full at Christmas.

Margaret and Ronald light a HUGE bonfire that warms all who stand about it. This year, we are experiencing very warm weather on mid-coast Maine. It will be 60ish tomorrow. But the fire still warmed our hearts and provided moments of contemplation and companionship.

The paths in the yard are all lined with lumanaria that guide us down the drive to the house and fire.

See the sparks? We have to watch for those as the wind shifts because they can and do burn holes in your clothes.

When the embers die down, we throw our past and future intentions into the fire:

Holly is for a future intention we want to adopt or experience; hemlock for the past and involves something we want to release/let go/stop. We make little packets with our intentions written down and wrapped around the greenery.

The house is lit only by candles and the fire inside the hearth.

My camera flash illuminates the room for a moment only.

The sideboard is filled with bowls of nuts and fresh and dried fruit.

And Margaret makes us her dad’s special drink–a Tom and Jerry–which has eggwhites, spices, and whiskey as ingredients. It is delicious!

Thanks, Margaret and Ronald, for once again bringing your friends together for this celebration you make for us.

Turkey Tracks: Christmas Decorations

Turkey Tracks: December 21, 2015

Making Christmas Decorations

…and the stockings were hung by the chimney with care…

The reindeer on the mantle were made by my daughter-in-law Tami Kelly and her two daughters–at our Thanksgiving retreat at Camp St. Christopher in Seabrook, SC. (A very fun time was had by all–great family time.) The fireplace is in their house in SC.

Here’s a close-up of these reindeer:

This project uses driftwood from SC palm trees…washed up on the riverfront beach of the Edisto River.

I thought about putting one in my suitcase, but thought it would not make it.

What a fun project!!

Turkey Tracks: Playing With Fabric “Crumbs”

Turkey Tracks: December 21, 2015

Playing with Fabric “Crumbs”

What do you do with small pieces of quilting fabric that are too small to use in something like a strip or a square?

I learned from Bonnie Hunter to call them “crumbs,” and to use them. Quilting fabric is now around $12 a yard and the width has shrunk from 44-45 inches to 40-42. (How greed can kill an industry.)

Like Bonnie, I throw these pieces in a bag and when it gets full, I start a project that uses them. I also throw in large trimmed pieces that have been already sewn together.

(At the very least, you could use these scraps to stuff a dog or cat bed…)

Here’s my ongoing “crumb” project:

Some of the pieces are larger, but would not cut into a 2-inch square. I don’t cut into 1 1/2-inch squares because they would be too bias stretchy. I use 1 1/2-inch strips to form small squares.

I played with making fabric from the crumbs–which was kind of interesting. And you could cut squares out of a piece like this and use the remainders to form more blocks. If you use those blocks as a center with sashings around–or as a center to a larger pieced block, you’d have an interesting quilt.

Right now, though, I’m interested in creating sashings. So here’s my growing pile of sashings:

I cut my large piece of “made” fabric into diagonal strips measuring 2 2/1 inches wide. I use a backing piece of paper to sew these sashings and then I trim them up on the cutting board. I can sew strips together to get the length I want.

I’m thinking of using these with this block, which you’ve seen before:

Stay tuned…

So, I warn you…

This kind of “play” is addictive.

Turkey Tracks: December 2015 Quilty Update

Turkey Tracks: December 8, 2015

December 2015 Quilty Update

The hexie project I took with me to Charleston, SC, for Thanksgiving is coming along.

Truth to tell, I’m addicted to it.

The center is nearly ready to sew together:

I’m should have let the teal stripe NOT line up, as the little doll head looks disembodied in the middle of a sea of strips.

Will I go back and take out tiny, tiny seams and restitch. As much as I am a perfectionist, no.

This project is scrappy and is using my 2 1/2-inch squares and strips.

The missing unit is greens and is now ready for the neutrals. And the project gets quite a few neutrals around this center. You can see pictures in an earlier post. The design is from Edyta Sitar.

Once again, the Sewline fabric glue pen is to English Paper Piecing (EPP) as a rotary cutter is to quilting. Holy Cow what a find!

One of the bright scrappy quilts is on Lucy the Longarm:

Love the bright coral backing:

I’m using a dusty rose thread. And this is a Bonnie Hunter block, as you can see from earlier posts.

I’m caught up with Bonnie Hunter’s second clue, released last Friday, for the 2015 mystery quilt, Allietare.

I wonder if we will get the gold fabrics next Friday?

Love the neutrals in this quilt. Many are from Cotton + Steel fabrics. I have some lovely posts on that group of fabric-designing women here on the blog. Such an interesting story. Use the search button on the right sidebar to find that story.

I am also working on the other bright scrappy quilt–it’s on the design wall and getting some more borders. More on that later. It’s cute!

Turkey Tracks: Winter Apples on Trees in Camden, Maine

Turkey Tracks: December 8, 2015

Winter Apples on Trees in Camden, Maine

During our first winter in Maine, I was enchanted with how apples clung to their trees after the leaves were long gone.

I stopped many times to try to take pictures, and, later to paint them.

This year has been a banner apple year.

Just before Thanksgiving, I stopped to take this picture. The sun is very low in the sky now; yet it caught these apples with a light that made them glow.

The picture does not do the experience justice, except for the gorgeous sky.

Here’s a close-up:

I refrained from trespassing into the yard to pick one of the apples. They look delicious, don’t they?

Later in the winter when the snow is deep, we will see turkeys perched in these apple trees, devouring the fruit. I wonder if the apples will be fermented at that point, so that the juice has alcohol in it?

Turkey Tracks: My Hexie Project

Turkey Tracks: November 16, 2015

My Hexie Project

The moment I saw Edyta Sitar’s book AND this amazing quilt last year in Houston, I knew I wanted to make the center of this quilt. (I am completely intimidated by Edyta’s applique–but it is so beautiful, isn’t it?)

I so enjoyed talking to Edyta as well. She is so pretty and so, so nice. What a treat to meet her, and I have admired her quilting for some time now.

I got as far this fall as buying a 1,200 pack of paper piecing templates. (I’m using 1-inch hexies, not the 7/8-inch Edyta used. My goodness they are…small.)

I could not decide whether to use the more traditional colorway Edyta uses or to go for brighter colors with more whites and the wonderful white printed neutrals out now.

When I realized I could use my 2 1/2-inch squares to make the hexies, that cinched the decision. That box is full and needs to be emptied. And it is filled with more traditional colors.

Here’s a close-up of that cover:

I have one of the diamonds completed. And I’ve cut and counted out the 532 neutral squares I will need and will take them with me to Charleston, SC, this week as a hand project while I am traveling and am away.

I had started sew/basting the neutral hexies.

BUT, guess what!!!! You can glue them instead.

I like the Sew Line glue stick–and I got lots of refills…just in case. (I tried another brand of glue stick and hated it–the glue was gummy and thick.)

And purchased some new straw needles, as I like the long, thin, flexible needle for hexies and bindings:

Best of all, while getting the glue stick at Alewives Quilting in Damariscotta Mills, Maine, I saw this GORGEOUS book.

Turns out there are quite a few tricks to English Paper Piecing. I quickly discovered better ways to cover difficult shapes–like the diamonds with which I am also working. (You leave the little flag/flaps in place and sew around them!)

Also, take a look at Leah Day’s video on sewing hexies together. I really like her method as it does not EVER show the tiny stitches between the hexies. That link is on this blog–search for Leah Day and hexies on the right side bar search button. But, you could also just search her web site.

I’d like to say that this will be a winter project, but…hexies are slow for me…so who knows???

Turkey Tracks: Allietare: Bonnie Hunter’s Mystery Quilt 2015

Turkey Tracks: November 15, 2015

Allietare:

Bonnie Hunter’s 2015 Mystery Quilt

I’m ready!

I leave for Charleston, SC, to be with my family for Thanksgiving, but my fabrics are ironed and ready to go.

Allietare, writes Bonnie, is Italian, and means “joyful,” “abundance,” etc. Bonnie, in her introduction at quiltville.com (the quilt’s instructions are on the top tabs), says this quilt was inspired by her recent trip to Italy. She will post the first clue on Black Friday–so I will be a bit behind the starting gate as I will get home on Monday. Guess what I’ll be doing first thing December 1st…

Here are my fabrics:

The colors:

The grey will be constant in the quilt. The rest, in true scrappy fashion, I will mix up as much as possible.

And the neutrals and paint cards that serve as a guide:

	lynettecw on Leila Gardunia’s Scrappy…
	louisaenright on Wisteria Graces Our Woods
	lynettecw on Wisteria Graces Our Woods
	wondrousclearlyd5c2b… on Happy Birthday Soup
	celiamalm on Happy Birthday Soup

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
30	31