Turkey Tracks: Sewing/Knitting Projects Update November 2014

Turkey Tracks: November 17, 2014

Sewing/Knitting Projects Update November 2014

Late October (that strange blizzard) and early November have brought a fair amount of inclement weather. It is snowing off and on today, as a matter of fact.

So, I have been snuggling into a whole array of winter projects.

This big quilt is quilted, and the binding is on. It is just waiting for me to sew down the binding. It’s 97 inches square, so it will take some nights of hand sewing.

BUT, I’ve been finishing knitting a white linen shawl at night. There’s a tale here. I started this shawl on the J&E Riggin in early September. I had it completely finished but did not like the tension, so I took it apart and went down a needle size. I’m much happier with it now, and it’s almost done. Just a few more nights.

After linen is knitted, one thoroughly wets it, dries it, and irons it. In the process, the linen turns soft as butter and very shiny.

Our Coastal Quilters and Georges Valley auction took place last weekend–and look what I bid on and won:

Gail Galloway Nicholson made this quilt, and Joan Herrick quilted it freehand on her long-arm.

Here’s a closeup:

It gives me such pleasure to have the work of friends and family in my home. Everytime I walk past one of these pieces I am reminded of the loved ones involved and of all the wonderful energy that they have put into their work.

You can see that this quilt is so, so happy to live on my coral chair!

I am in the process of making other quilts for this downstairs room. I need quilts that can be loved, used, and washed–in place of the dog-blanket strategies that live in this sitting room/tv room/den space. So, here’s a quilt top I’ve just finished that’s going to go on the back of the couch–where Rey Rey likes to hang out so she can see the back door comings and goings:

Fun, huh? It’s 85 inches square, and I think I’ll just bind it without adding any borders. I’ll quilt it when I return from Charleston December 2nd.

Here’s the backing–which is especially nostalgic as grandson Kelly Enright picked it out with me this summer. He’ll get such a kick out of seeing this quilt with it’s lively backing when he next comes to visit.

This quilt is made with the 2 1/2-inch strips that I cut up from my stash two summers ago. I had a HUGE bin filled to the top. Look now:

OK, I have a few of the darks and mediums out on the cutting board as I’m using them in another quilt top:

It’s Bonnie Hunter’s Scrappy Trip Around the World version, and I’m having so much fun putting together various sets of 6 strips for each block (at 16 inches). Here’s two of the blocks I made yesterday:

I’ve seen so many variants of this quilt now, and I can’t wait to see how mine develops. I’m sure the blocks will get moved over and over again until I’m happy with the results.

My leader/ender project now is a low-contrast quilt made with a focus fabric and 2 1/2-inch light and dark blue blocks. I’m mixing the focus fabric into the four-patch/eight-patch blocks.

Here’s what’s forming on the design wall–in a dark corner of the wall. I’m playing with creating a center of 8 pieced blocks surrounding one of the focus fabric squares. I don’t know how this will work out… I’m just playing. I may play with some single 4-patch blocks surrounded with sashings of the focus fabric as well. Or, use another fabric that co-ordinates. Who knows? That’s what play is all about…

I made a big soup yesterday so was able to quilt until I got hungry. AND, I’ll freeze some of it to have on the night I return. The meat is from the turkey I roasted earlier in the year–a turkey from last Thanksgiving that came from my neighbors: Susan McBride and Chris Richmond of Golden Brook Farm. Sometime last summer I defrosted the turkey, cut it up, and roasted it. I froze one-half of the turkey breast and am just now using it.

I used a chicken bone-broth base (of course), the turkey, and what I had on hand: frozen tomatoes from the summer, onions, carrots, celery, fresh parsley, rutabaga, some brown rice, and the Indian spices (cumin, coriander, a bit of cinnamon, tumeric). It’s super delicious!!

My fabrics for Bonnie Hunter’s Mystery Quilt 2014–Grand Illusion–are ironed and ready to go! I’ll get the first clue the day after Thanksgiving, but will not be able to start it until I get home. But, I’m ready!

I leave for Charleston, SC, this Thursday, for the Thanksgiving holidays with my family, and, as always, posting to the blog with the ipad is always chancy–but I’ll take lots of pictures and will post when I get home if all else fails!

Turkey Tracks: Fall Squashes

Turkey Tracks: November 14, 2014

Fall Squashes

I get such a kick out of passing my kitchen counter and seeing the fall squashes assembled there.

I’ve learned the hard way that squashes keep best in a warmish room–not a cold room. Last year, Melody Pendleton gave me a large pumpkin that sat on the counter until early spring.

The big guy is, as those of you know who read this blog at all, a Blue Hubbard. I’ve successfully grown a few over the past years. But not this year. Our summer was way too cool and rainy for squashes of any sort. Anyway, the hubbards are fabulous keepers. You can, even, cut chunks out and put the rest in a cool spot (which I don’t really have) and it will keep as long as you work away at it within a few weeks.

The long bright orange one and it’s mate, the long green one are pie pumpkins. I’ll cut them in half, scoop out seeds, and roast them. Soon. Then I’ll freeze them. I like to let all of these squashes sit a bit before cooking them as the “sugar off” and get really sweet

The tan butternut is a common squash in grocery stores and a winter staple.

The striped yellow squashes are Delicatas They are more fragile and need to be eaten early. I like to slice them in half, scoop out the seeds, and then slice the halves into strips and roast them. I like to use red palm oil and lots of garlic. And I often mix them with a lot of other roasted fall veggies of all sorts.

The green round squash is a buttercup. It’s a dense, sweet squash that I like to cut up and pair with the last of the green tomatoes chunked up, some red onion chunks, some small potatoes chunked up. Drizzle all with UNREFINED coconut oil, throw in garlic and fresh rosemary and roast at about 375° until soft and beginning to char at the edges.. Turn once with a spatula about 5 minutes in to coat everything with the oil and turn once more in about…30 minutes?

The purplish round veggies are rutabagas. I use them like I would a potato. They are delicious peeled, chunked up, cooked in water until soft, smashed, with lots of raw butter and salt and pepper. Sometimes I also use them in the turnip, parsnip, carrot, onion/leek, garlic mixture I grate up and lacto-ferment.

Poems: “Desiderata”

Jeanine Gervais, whom I met and enjoyed on board the J&E Riggin windjammer last summer–and we will sail together next summer (July 20-2)as well–along with friend of long-standing June Derr–sent me this copy of “Desiderata.”

Enjoy!

DESIDERATA

Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly, and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they, too, have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexations to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements, as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore, be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.

Be careful. Strive to be happy.

[Found in Old Saint Paul’s Church, Baltimore, dated 1692]

Turkey Tracks: Houston International Quilt Festival

Turkey Tracks: October 28, 2014

The Houston International Quilt Festival

I’m off to Portland, Maine, tomorrow and will fly to Houston on Thursday.

Blog readers will recall that I made these plans last January–and, now, here I am, mostly packed and ready to go.

Seeing this show is a bucket list item for me.

And I am excited!

Dear friend Gina Caceci, my wonderful neighbor back in Falls Church, Virginia, has arranged for me to picked up by a DRIVER!!

Oh my goodness!

And, somehow, it’s a wonderful mystery at the moment, I am also being brought from the hotel back to the airport on Monday by the same company–free of charge and Gina isn’t funding this leg of the trip.

She has promised to tell me when I get home.

Also, Gina has business in Houston and delayed her trip back to Virginia so that we can have dinner Thursday night. How fun is that???

I will try to post from Houston, but the ipad is not crazy about the blog. Likely I will not be able to post until I get home.

Turkey Tracks: Maine Fall Foliage

Turkey Tracks: October 28, 2014

Maine Fall Foliage

Neighbor Meg Barclay posted this photo this morning on Facebook.

Meg really captured the intense fall color of our trees now–a color that does not always show up well in photos. On top of that, there is a RAINBOW.

I am posting Meg’s picture to my blog so many of you can see one of the natural events that I love about Maine. And, because I ran into Evelyn and Jack Kane at one of our local coffee shops and promised I would put the picture on the blog. Evelyn also belongs to Coastal Quilters, Maine, but is here only during the summer/fall months most years. We wish she were here more…

Thanks, again, Meg!

Turkey Tracks: Miss Reynolds Georgia is Ready

Turkey Tracks: October 27, 2014

Miss Reynolds Georgia is Ready

to go in the car…

She does not look like she’s 12 years old, does she?

She doesn’t act like it either. She plays and cavorts like a puppy.

She’ll be 13 on March 15, 2015.

Barring the two times I nearly killed her with the first/spring heartworm medicine pellet over the past three years (NOT this year as I finally learned and when Penny, who has a cast-iron stomach, reacted), she’s been pretty healthy.

She’s highly bred, so there have been some food issues–but not much any more since I can feed her whole ground chickens–the bones and organs and skin and EVERYTHING–mixed with my food, bone broths when I have them, and some dehydrated veggies for some of the food each week. Oh, and chicken poop which she dearly loves. Mercy!!

Her coat is Maine thick and as soft as velvet.

She is my shadow and runs my life a lot of the time.

I would not have it any other way.

PS: Rey Rey is a “floppy ear” rat terrier, so she’s really listening or excited when her ears go up.

No No Penny’s ears are always up. And No No Penny runs both Reynolds and me.

Turkey Tracks: “Ailey Loves Lighthouses” Quilt

Turkey Tracks: October 27, 2014

“Ailey Loves Lighthouses” Quilt

About 9 years ago, Denise Lanier, one of my Virginia quilting friends–with whom I have been quilting for something just shy of twenty years–gave me set of lighthouse blocks.

We had just moved to Maine, and she had just visited us in our new home.

The blocks sat pinned to my design wall for all that time. Can you believe it? I just could not find the right setting for these clever little blocks. Either additional blocks detracted from them or the colors were too dark.

Then, along came Ailey, who adores our lighthouses. And, along came all the polka dot fabrics… And, at some point, the polka dots came close to the lighthouses. Magic ensued.

Here’s what happened:

I’ll quilt it with a lime green thread–and will keep the quilting very simple and away from the lighthouses. And it will be bound with another blue polka dot fabric I have.

Can’t wait to see it finished.

Turkey Tracks: “Ain’t This Fun?” Quilt

Turkey Tracks: October 19, 2014

“Ain’t This Fun?” Quilt Finished

It’s such a nice feeling to finish binding a quilt, fold it up, and call it done.

I finished “Ain’t This Fun?” this past week.

You may remember that I used the string blocks that I made last March in Williamsburg/Norfolk with my Virginia quilting buddies–using selvage edges and leftover strips of fabric that were too big to throw and too small for a 1 1/2-inch strip. After a week of quilting many hours, I had about 100 blocks.

What to do next?

Bonnie Hunter’s “Tulip Fields” quilt in her book STRING FLING provided an idea for setting the blocks and for the border.

Here’s what this quilt looks like on a queen bed–so you can see the size.

Here’s the backing–which is a spring green, not really a yellow:

And here’s a close up of the blocks–the quilting is a “spring” green–using a pantograph called “Denise’s Spirals.”

I made this quilt for the Coastal Quilters’ auction in November.

It’s a lively, very fun quilt, and I had a lot of fun making it.

Turkey Tracks: I Hung My Four Seasons Quilts Myself

Turkey Tracks: October 19, 2014

I Hung My Four Seasons Quilts Myself

I am feeling REALLY SUCCESSFUL this afternoon.

I finished my “Four Seasons” quilts and hung them myself this afternoon.

LOOK!

Here’s another view:

And one more:

(There are close-ups for these quilts earlier on the blog–though I added more “falling blossom” buttons to “Spring” last night.)

(And a reminder that these quilts were inspired by Sarah Fielke’s quilt in MATERIAL OBSESSIONS 2–and I used her tree-trunk template.)

I found the nice white rods at Loews about a week ago.

Each rod has 4 nails–which required a trip to the hardware store this morning for a box of “just right” nails. AND, all the nails had to be lined up perfectly both horizontally and vertically–which took the 4-foot level I purchased last summer. (It’s such a useful tool.)

The hanging took a bit of math, a ladder, a footstool, patience, no panic, etc., etc., etc.

Boy am I happy with how they look hanging.

The quilt you see on the bed was a gift from the Coastal Quilters when John got really, really sick. Isn’t it beautiful?

I have spent some time this year making this room a pretty bedroom/office (for me). I reframed some pictures John took–and one of our wedding. Melody Pendleton painted it. I consolidated all the “office” stuff–and moved my work space into the office space. I’m almost done.

(The little hand-made doll is a version of one I gave a granddaughter on her third birthday. Her younger sister will get this one on her third birthday. There are blog posts on these dolls here.)

Turkey Tracks: Bonnie Hunter’s Annual Mystery Quilt

Turkey Tracks: October 15, 2014

Bonnie Hunter’s Annual Mystery Quilt

It’s started!

The first posting has come for Bonnie Hunter’s annual mystery Quilt.

This first posting describes what inspired Bonnie. This year it was her stay at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan, where she has taught for several years now. The quilt’s name is “Grand Illusion.” Bonnie gives, in this initial posting, detailed instructions about fabric choices–and provides numbers to paint chips available at Loews.

Quiltvilles Quips & Snips!!: Grand Illusion Mystery!.

The first clue will come the day after Thanksgiving. And every Friday morning thereafter, Bonnie will post the next clue–or what to do next. Bonnie makes her quilts in units that combine to make a quilt. There will be from 6 to 8 weeks of clues. Bonnie will reveal the quilt sometime between Christmas and New Year’s.

I have been rounding up fabrics and pawing through my stash since this post came in, and I’m assembling some really nice fabric choices. I’m excited!

I’m going to keep my neutrals to the white end of the neutral scale, which will pop the other colors out. Bonnie says the yellow fabric will be the constant in this quilt.

Last year, you may recall, I did this annual mystery quilt, “Celtic Solstice.” And I learned so much from reading Bonnie’s detailed instructions and from interacting with other folks around the world making this quilt. (There is a Facebook group you can join.)

“Grand Illusions,” said Bonnie, will be less intense than “Celtic Solstice.”

The information on “Grand Illusions” will come off Bonnie’s web site sometime in June, I think. And the quilt will go into an upcoming book.

GO BONNIE!

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