Quilting in Maine – Page 46 – Louisa Enright's Blog

Turkey Tracks: “Grand Illusion” Quilt Revealed

Turkey Tracks: January 2, 2014

“Grand Illusion” Quilt Revealed

Well, I have my answer.

This

is going to turn into a version of THIS:

That’s Bonnie with her Dad at Thanksgiving.

And, here’s the computer version Bonnie Hunter posted:

Bonnie Hunter is ONE TALENTED WOMAN!!!

I can’t wait to sew my blocks together.

But I have to get THIS off the design wall first:

(Sorry, blurry photo, but you get the idea. This is a version of Bonnie Hunter’s Scrappy Trips…which is on her website.)

And THIS off the long arm so I can push it back against the wall:

Here’s a close-up:

Grandson Kelly fell in love with this backing fabric when we went to a sale at Alewives Quilt Shop in Nobleboro, Maine, last summer. Here’s a shot of it from the rear of the longarm:

I’m using the Bishop’s Fan Groovy Boards and an old gold colored thread that is puuuurfect.

Both of these quilts are being made from my 2 1/2-inch strips, a stash method taught by Bonnie Hunter. The bin is about halfway down now…Yeah!

I’m going to use them in my downstairs room rather than the blankets and dog-covers I have now. They’ll be loved and washed.

Turkey Tracks: What Kind of Quilt Will These Units Make?

Turkey Tracks: December 28, 2014

What Kind of Quilt Will These Units Make?

I’m up to date with the “clues” for Bonnie Hunter’s 2014 Mystery Quilt, Grand Illusion.

But, will there be another clue, or are we done?

There were 4 units that might well be the cornerstones this week…

Here’s what I have right now…including the little “extra” units of small 1/2-square triangles…

We will all get the “reveal” or a new clue next Friday…

Turkey Tracks: “Remembering…Louise Phillips Bryan, 1892-1981” Quilt

Turkey Tracks: December 18, 2014

“Remembering…Louise Phillips Bryan, 1892-1981” Quilt

I mailed this quilt to sister Susan Heath this week.

It’s one of the prettiest quilts I’ve ever made, and it was made in memory of my beloved grandmother Louise Phillips Bryan of Reynolds, Georgia. I had the most amazing relationship with her, and to this day, I can hear her big hearty laugh, see her twinkling brown eyes, and know that she “had my back” no matter what. I spent a lot of time with her growing up, and one of my fond memories is sitting in her back yard one afternoon, our feet propped up on a pole, singing old songs together. She was so much fun. She was a gardener, a seamstress, a knitter, made sure the table in her dining room held nourishing, delicious food every day, and was a savvy and successful card player. I could go on and on about her, as like many others, I loved her so dearly. Brown was my grandmother’s favorite color–she had dark fine curly hair and brown eyes.

Susan fell in love with this quilt as it grew on the design wall during her last visit. So I gave it to her.

This quilt is a split nine-patch, and I started it as Bonnie Hunter issued this block as a leader-ender challenge a while back. A leader-ender project is where one works on a block whenever one needs to cut thread while working on another quilt. You can see Bonnie’s version of this quilt easily as she has it on the banner of her web site, quiltville.com, at the moment. Or, it’s on the blog, which you can get to from the main site. I LOVE Bonnie’s version–it’s more modern and uses a different setting.

With light/dark blocks, setting possibilities are endless. I adapted a setting used by Lynn Roddy Brown in the Jan/Feb 2014 (#155) issue of Quiltmaker Magazine.

Here are some close-ups of this quilt that was made with dozens of different fabrics out of my deep stash:

I quilted with a gold/brown thread, using a pantograph called “Arcadia” from Urban Elementz.

Here’s the backing:

And the label:

Turkey Tracks: “Ailey Loves Lighthouses” Quilt

Turkey Tracks: December 16, 2014

“Ailey Loves Lighthouses” Quilt

Ailey loves lighthouses.

We have to go visit as many as we can whenever she comes to Maine.

Here’s how her lighthouse quilt came out–thanks to Denise Lanier for this set of blocks given to me about ten years ago.

I kept the quilting simple–meandering on the long arm with a light green thread and outline stitching of the lighthouses on the domestic machine in a darker blue thread.

I had enough of this great fabric for the backing:

It works well with the front:

This quilt will hang in Ailey’s bedroom–to remind her of Maine, of lighthouses, and of her grandmother’s love.

Turkey Tracks: Bonnie Hunter’s 2014 Mystery Quilt: Grand Illusion

Turkey Tracks: December 15, 2014

Bonnie Hunter’s 2014 Mystery Quilt

The mystery started on Black Friday.

I was in Charleston, SC, at a family retreat for Thanksgiving–more on this quality experience later.

I left my fabrics ironed and ready to go when I got home on Tuesday after Thanksgiving–FIVE days after the first clue.

I finished the first and second clues last night. Here’s what I have so far in terms of units made–which includes 400 bonus half-square 2-inch triangles made while making the pile of units on the left. This method of making bonus triangles was, I believe, pioneered by Bonnie:

Clue 3 came last Friday, and it’s got GREEN, which I had thought might happen:

I’m on the job as soon as I finish posting to the blog!!!

120 units to make…

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: 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: “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.)

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