Quilting in Maine – Page 45 – Louisa Enright's Blog

Turkey Tracks: Blizzard 2 of 2015

Turkey Tracks: February 13, 2015

Blizzard 2 of 2015

The other night on the local news I heard that Portland, Maine, has had 6 feet and 1 inch of snow–that total has climbed as it snowed more on Wednesday and Thursday.

Here in Camden, which is just under two hours further north, we’ve sometimes had more snow (much more) and sometimes a bit less. So, it’s pretty safe to say we’ve had at least 6 feet of snow this past winter–and most of it landed in the last three weeks.

We’re all braced for the blizzard that will start tomorrow afternoon late. Predictions are for up to 24 or so inches of light, blowing snow. None of us has a clue about where we’ll put another two feet of snow.

I’ve had a go-round with the electricity in the chicken coop, but that’s solved now. I have TWO lines going out there from different outside outlets. The water heater is working again. Our temps tonight are dropping to -14 degrees. That’s NOT wind chill. Or, that’s the prediction anyway. So getting electricity back to the chicken coop was really important.

I have two more longarm passes on the Bonnie Hunter 2014 Mystery Quilt, Grand Illusion. So, I will be binding that quilt later today. It’s always so much fun to unwind a finished quilt and to see the whole of the quilting in it.

I finished two knitted wool hats last night–made to go with wool scarves I made last year. I went a little crazy with buttons.

I put pics of this cowl (infinity scarf) up last year.

And:

There is a good match with the hat yarn in the lighter yarn in the scarf–it just isn’t showing in this picture.

Here’s the quilt-in-progress on the design wall–a streak of lightening pattern. This fabric is the leftover from the other two scrappy quilts I recently made from my 2 1/2 strip bin. I was left with some shorter pieces, so I cut 2 1/2by 4 1/2-inch rectangles.

I’ll use an inner border that’s about an 1 1/2 inches and put on a wider border of some sort–yet to be determined. This quilt will look very traditional when I’m finished. Simple and useful. This quilt will join its sisters in the downstairs tv/sitting room–replacing sturdy but ugly couch dog blankets. So far, so good in terms of looks and wear.

I wondered why the suet feeders were disappearing so fast. Then I saw this guy yesterday:

It’s the best picture I could get in a series. The Pileated Woodpeckers are HUGE and very jittery and scary. He’s been around off and on all winter, but today he treated me to quite a show. At one point he sat in the middle of the flat green feeder and just rocked himself back and forth. As long as I didn’t move a muscle, he stayed around.

Stephen Pennoyer has been working on more pour over coffee stands. Here’s the most recent picture he sent me:

I see a two-hole in this picture…

OK, bring on the blizzard. I’m ready.

Turkey Tracks: “Lucy Boston Quilt: Red and Green”

Turkey Tracks: February 8, 2015

Lucy Boston Quilt: Red and Green

About six months or more ago, I became fascinated with the Lucy Boston quilt block–made with paper piecing. I saw these blocks at Alewives quilting store in Damariscotta Mills, Maine. Rhea Butler and some of her staff were playing around with these blocks. And theirs look much more like Lucy Boston’s eclectic fabric choices–see below.

I thought I’d just experiment and that I’d try to do opposites on the color wheel, like red and green. Maybe I’d even make several small quilts playing with opposites on the color wheel, like purple/yellow and blue/orange.

I wound up doing four blocks–which turned out being larger than I had thought once surrounded with the outlying neutral pieces. This quilt finishes at 33 inches square.

This quilt also did not turn out to be square–even with the paper piecing–due to the bias edges on the pieces needed to make a straight edge.

Here’s a close-up of the blocks–which are very fun to do:

And, closer still of the joining blocks–which I kept very plain:

Lucy Boston herself made a coverlet–with elaborately fussy cut pieces of fabric–and the amazing coverlet is captured by Linda Franz in her book LUCY BOSTON: PATCHWORK OF THE CROSSES. Lucy Boston lived in England and made these blocks in the 1950s.

Here are more pics of this amazing quilt–from the book:

And a close-up of one block to give you some idea of the complexity Lucy Boston manages–look also at her cornerstones around each block:

So, I learned a few things about this kind of project. Cut the edge paper pieces on a STRAIGHT EDGE. And stay stitch them with the sewing machine.

I had a terrible time trying to decide how to quilt this project–and opted for some rudimentary quilting that used pearl cotton in straight lines and handquilting that just outlined the blocks. But, handquilting was really, really hard with the thickness of the seams. Since I had done all this handwork, I was not especially wanting to use the machine to quilt. BUT, I think I would now if doing this kind of project again. I don’t know, maybe Lucy Boston had the right idea with just making a coverlet–where she stitched around the edges, right sides facing, and turned the coverlet and…ironed flat??? I didn’t want to tie this quilt as I thought that would look messy. But, maybe just in the center of the cornerstones??? And with a very neutral pearl cotton???

Linda Franz does have alternative sewing methods–including stitching the blocks all on a domestic machine.

And Leah Day has a video on her web site showing an alternative way to paper piece that is different than whip stitching. I linked to this video in an earlier post on paper piecing. Search for Leah Day, and you will find it. Or just go to Day’s site and search for hexies and sewing…

These blocks are really fun to make–and I find myself wondering how they would look butted up to each other without the surrounding neutral layers.

Hmmmm.

Meanwhile, this quilt wanted to be outside my quilt room:

And daughter-in-law Tami’s quilt that used to occupy this spot has been moved to a place of honor in the main room on this floor.

Turkey Tracks: “Scrappy Scraps” Quilt

Turkey Tracks: January 31, 2015

Scrappy Scraps Quilt

Here is the second quilt in the scrappy series I have been making for my downstairs tv/sitting room–all made from the 2 1/2-inch bin of strips.

This quilt is based on Bonnie Hunter’s method in her “Scrappy Trip Around the World,” a free pattern on her quiltville.com web site and blog.

I had so much fun making this quilt! What a treat to experience!

Basically, one sews together six strips of fabric about 17 inches long, joins them into a tube, and then cuts them into 2 1/2-inch little tubes. Where you open the first tube determines the order of the block that develops as you open tubes and sew together the new strips. If you want a dark, definitive block to run up the middle (which really helps define the diamonds that form), you must include a dark strip in the mix of six AND begin opening the little tubes at that point, so that dark block is on the bottom. Bonnie has great pics on her blog of these steps.

Thanks to Megan Bruns and Matt who dropped in late yesterday with a warm latte and for a visit–for holding up the quilt. Megan showed me several projects she was working on–and I’m now kicking myself that I did not take pictures.

I am now wondering what would happen if one made this quilt all in one color family–like blue, or red, or green…using dark and light strips…

Here’s where the quilt is going to live–to prevent the dogs from marring the couch AND for folks to use for warmth and comfort.

Here’s a close-up:

I got the backing on sale at Alewives quilt shop in Damariscotta Mills, Maine, and you can see that it works well in this room.

Here are a few close-ups:

I quilted with a spring green thread–which also worked well with the backing. And, used the Acadia pantograph as I thought it’s swirls would work well with all these squares.

I actually think the 2 1/2-inch strips, which finish to 2-inch squares, work well in this quilt. I think I’d prefer 2-inch strips for the log cabin though…

My eye just loves smaller bits of fabric I guess…

Turkey Tracks: Wild and Crazy Quilt

Turkey Tracks: January 27, 2015

Wild and Crazy Quilt

Wow!

I am now piecing Bonnie Hunter’s 2014 Mystery Quilt (started Black Friday after Thanksgiving and revealed just before New Year’s 2014).

This quilt is one wild and crazy thing!

Here’s what my blocks look like so far–they are not joined to one another yet–just pinned. I am intrigued by the secondary pattern between the whirlagigs. So interesting!

Here’s a close-up of one block. Each block is sashed with the green/white/black outer border. The cornerstone is the big aqua block.

Quilting Information: Long-Arm Practices That Work for Me

January 26, 2015

Long-Arm Practices That Work For Me

Last year in April I took several classes at the Machine Quilters’ Expo in Manchester, New Hampshire.

What I learned there–and also what I’ve learned from the long-arm quilters on Bonnie Hunter’s Facebook Studio for Quilters–has helped me so much.

So, I thought I’d share…

Make sure your bars are level. Get or borrow a four-foot level and check them. If they are off, tinker until you have them level.

This apparatus below involves suspending a curtain rod over the bars and bringing the side fasteners over it. AND, see the long rod with the blue ribbons? Underneath is a plastic piece that the rod snaps into. This arrangement gives the sides of the quilt a great deal of stability AND prevents you from quilting off of it. (There are several forms of this kind of stabilizing rod for the edge of the quilt.)

Here’s another view:

I load my quilt backing in the normal way.

But after being encouraged to do so, I float my top, just like the batting. See?

I sew a plumb line on the batting (using my channel blocker piece), then line up the top of my centered quilt on that line–and sew it down. THEN I measure both sides of the quilt from the frame on each side and as I move the quilt forward, I make sure that I keep those measurements constant along the length of the quilt. I sew down the sides every time I roll the quilt forward. Every time. Especially if I am using a pantograph.

BIG TIP: If I were to roll the top onto the top bar, I would try to place the quilt (and the backing if needed) LENGTHWISE–which minimizes the bulk of side seams being rolled up over and over on top of each other.

At the end of the quilt, I roll forward to expose the end and sew that down before making the last pass.

I make a lot of scrappy quilts that seem to do best with an overall, even pattern. So I use, mostly, pantographs–sometimes I free-motion a pattern, but less and less so as I like the patterns in the pantographs. I place the pantograph UNDER this grid that fits the length of my table–and mark on it with a wet erase marker that can be erased with water.

I estimate the amount of thread that one pass will take–and whether or not a whole bobbin will reach through two passes. On a large quilt, it will not. So, I estimate the number of passes I will be making and load that many bobbins–from 2/3 to 3/4 full, depending on what I think the pass will need. The leftover thread gets run off onto bobbins for my domestic machine and/or just used up piecing scrappy quilts I’m making. There is no thread waste. (I also use Signature thread, which is sturdy, has a good range of colors, and is way cheaper than that other brand that is so pricy. I do have to order it online and bought a thread card showing all the colors.) Here are leftover threads. More importantly, there are NO thread joins in the quilt body.

One of the BIGGEST TIPS I got last year was from Sue Patten (quilter extraordinaire): “Let the right hand steer if you are right handed. The left hand doesn’t like to steer!”

I was having some trouble with thread shredding at the needle site, and with the advice of the long-armers, I went up a needle size. As I do very scrappy quilts, there are a lot of seams, so I try to keep my backings pretty plain–which does not add to the bulk of the quilt sandwich. The thread shredding involved both the expensive and the less-expensive threads…

Before quilting, I put three lines of Sew Rite down the length of my thread cone. Magic! No more shredding.

If things do start to go wrong, I turn off the machine and walk away.

I think my own personal goal for next year is to try to use more of the speciality rulers I’ve purchased for the long-arm. Maybe I’ll see if there are some hands-on classes at this year’s MQX show in April…

But, I won’t put any pressure on myself, because, truth to tell, what I like best to do is to piece a top that will be used and loved and washed–so a lot of fancy quilting doesn’t draw me. I’m not sure that I have the patience for it!!

Turkey Tracks: Quilts From Friends

Turkey Tracks: January 20, 2015

Quilts From Friends

I love having quilts made by my friends all around me.

Every time I see one of those quilts, which is many times each day, I think of that person/those persons. And I feel all the loving energy that went into that piece of work.

I bought this quilt top at a quilters’ auction in Virginia just before we moved to Maine. I thought it looked like Maine, and I love baskets. I quilted it the first winter we were here–2004-2005.

My Virginia quilt bee–the Toppers, because we made a lot of top for our big group’s auction–sent me to Maine with the Buzz Saw quilt–which I recently showed you:

It lives in my bedroom. Underneath it is an afghan made by my SIL Maryann Enright which lives on my bed most of the time.

Roxanne Wells made this quilt, which hangs in my bedroom.

The Coastal Quilters made this quilt for John and me when he was so sick. They said we needed a “quilting hug.” This picture is on my bed, but this quilt lives in the downstairs bedroom that we set up for him and that he never used. That room has been repainted and refurbished and is a favorite of many in the family. I am in and out of that room many times each day as its closet holds a lot of my quilting tools.

My DIL, Tamara Enright, made this quilt for my birthday a few years back. It hangs at the entrance to my quilt room:

Did you know that cardinals are said to come to a house when there is trouble/emotions. On the day John died, we had five or six at the feeders. Ordinarily these birds stay in Camden and don’t come out to Howe Hill. They like flat feeders…

Gail Nicholson made this quilt, which has launched me on a quilt trip to put more quilts into the downstairs sitting/tv room/den?

Joan Herrick quilted Gail’s quilt. Joan quilts free-hand on a long arm!

Betty Johnson makes beautiful little art quilts. I finally got one of hers at our last auction:

It lives in the living room:

Milly Young made this quilt top, and I bought it at one of our auctions and finished it and fell in love with it along the way.

I really need to use all these quilts more than I do now.

I have always had a tendency to “save” things for “good.” But the point of a quilt is to USE THEM. So, this last one is coming downstairs TODAY to go into my sitting room project.

TODAY!

Turkey Tracks: Buzz Saw Block

Turkey Tracks: January 16, 2015

Buzz Saw Block

Mary Sue Bishop and I recently saw a quilt made with a block that we recognized, but we could not come up with the name of it.

My old quilt bee in Virginia made me the sweetest quilt from this block with 1930s fabrics. See?

I love the piano key border…

I came home and searched for the name until I found it.

I knew it was a cross kind of between a log cabin and a pineapple block.

Finally, I turned it over: it’s a Buzz Saw block. So I made one:

This one finishes at 5 1/2 inches–and there are two oranges and two blues, so the whole unit here of four blocks would finish at 10 1/2 inches.

You start with a half-square light/dark triangle that gets cut into four equal strips. Then one adds a solid strip to the dark-side end. One must always cut with the same side down–in this case, the dark fabric always went to the bottom. (If one cuts with the light side down, will that reverse the angle in the middle of each strip???) (When they passed out spatial relations genes, I didn’t get any.) Then you realign the strips to form the graduated color, or light, pattern.

Warning: one tutorial I found started with a 10-inch block, which gets to 9 1/2 inches when you make the half-square triangle. That’s not so easy to divide into four equal strips. So….I dropped to an 8 1/2-inch block, which sews in at 8 inches, is easily cut into four equal strips which finish at 7 1/2.

Then to the 6 1/2 square, which finishes to 6, and then, 5 1/2.

The little art quilt we saw had smaller blocks: we think 4 1/2 which would finish to 3 1/2…

The quilter had used a different setting–one which placed the lights side by side and made them rise and fall…

I wish now I’d taken a picture of it, and I will when I next visit that restaurant: the River Grill, Damariscotta, Maine.

Meanwhile, I think I could use a fair amount of my stash with this block…

And make a fun quilt.

Turkey Tracks: Megan Brun’s Quilt-In-Progress

Turkey Tracks: January 16, 2015

Megan Brun’s Quilt-In-Progress

Megan came over this week for a breakfast, and afterwards, we sat and visited and worked on our hand-sewing projects.

I LOVE the quilt Megan is making.

She is making neutral panels with appliquéd circles:

Here’s a close-up:

As I understand this project, she will now add some half-as-long-panels with neutral circles.

The quilt is in the “modern” vein. The panels will be only part of this queen-size quilt. Megan plans to move out to other shapes, like big rectangles.

Here’s Megan:

I will show you my hand project soon! It’s getting borders now…

Turkey Tracks: Backing for Bonnie Huner’s Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt

Turkey Tracks: January 13, 2015

Backing for Bonnie Hunter’s “Grand Illusion” Mystery Quilt

On Saturday I went to two different quilt shops looking for a contemporary fabric for Bonnie Hunter’s 2014 mystery quilt, “Grand Illusion.”

I used Bonnie’s colors–and here, again, is her version of this quilt–which is based on the colors Bonnie found at the famous Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, MI:

Here’s the backing I got:

Light, contemporary, has the right colors…

And…FUN!

Turkey Tracks: “Piecing Heaven” Quilt

Turkey Tracks: January 12, 2015

“Piecing Heaven” Quilt

My downstairs tv sitting room is a favorite place for the dogs.

And, for me.

An outside door sits at this room’s entryway, so the dogs tend to track in outside debris. (People in Maine don’t wear their outside shoes inside. Shoes are removed at the door.)

I have a doggie blanket on the couch–which just got recovered not too, too long ago. But though the blanket does the protection job, it looks so shabby–as you can see below.

So, I decided to use scrappy quilts all over this room instead. Not always spread out, but folded in key places.

Quilts that could be used, washed, and loved, loved to death.

Here’s the first one–made from my box of 2 1/2 inch strips: “Piecing Heaven”–because I had so much fun making it.

Here it is on the back of the couch. Reynolds Georgia hangs out here a lot. See how ratty the dog blanket looks?

Here it is from the back:

Grandson Kelly picked out the backing fabric last summer, and I can’t wait for him to see it in this quilt. Likely, if it holds up, this quilt will go to him at some point.

I used a Bishop’s Fan groovy board and an old gold colored thread–which works fine in the quilt. Love the Bishop’s Fan pattern.

The center:

A random piece…

Here’s Gail Nicholson’s quilt on the orange chair–another favorite spot of Reynold’s.

And, here’s the third quilt in this project–almost ready to come off the design wall. I love how this quilt is coming out. This is a Bonnie Hunter pattern, and the border idea is also on her blog: “Scrappy Trip Around the World.” Again, I’m using the 2 1/2=inch scrap strips to build this quilt.

I got this backing fabric–on the long arm–at the Alewives (quilt shop) sale last weekend–40% off. It will work fine, and the colors work in the big room. With all the seams on the front, I wanted a solid backing.

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