Category: Quilting in Maine

Quilting, mine and others

Turkey Tracks: Shine On

Turkey Tracks:  March 18, 2013

Shine On

A year before John died, my quilting chapter, Coastal Quilters, of Camden, Maine, brought us the most beautiful quilt.

“We are bringing you lots of hugs,” they said.

And, we felt each and every one of those hugs over the next year.  Some, many times over.

I called the quilt “Shine On” because it is a heritage quilt that will be passed on to a grandchild and will carry with it all the hugs and love that reside in its depths.   This quilt glows with light and warmth and will always “Shine On” down through the years with its beautiful colors and memories.

Here is a picture I took of it on my bed upstairs, where I take a picture of all the quilts.

Shine On edited

Here is a close-up of two of the many beautiful blocks that so many in the Coastal Quilters chapter made.

Shine on blocks edited

Here is a picture of the border fabric and the binding, each put on by Sarah Ann Smith, whose blog link is on the right sidebar.  Sarah designed the quilt; bought, washed, and ironed the fabrics; made kits for each interested quilter; squared up the blocks; and  assembled the quilt.  The quilting was done by Marge Hallowell’s Mainely Quilting in Nobleboro and is beautiful.  Marge also donated the batting for the quilt.

Shine On border

Here is a picture of the label, made by Barb Melchiskey:

Shine On label

And here is a picture of the downstairs room that son Mike and I put together for John for the day when he could not manage the stairs any more.  This room was formerly John’s office, so we thought he would be close to his computer as well.

Shine On on John's bed

John never made it to this bed, choosing instead to die in his own bed and in his own time.  And now I spend a lot of time in this room.  I’ve moved my computer down here.  And my quilting and research books.  And my quilting supplies are now in this closet.

The quilt speaks to me as I pass it many times each day, reminding me of all the love and the many hugs it holds.  For it “shines on.”

Turkey Tracks: Ann’s Blue and White Chocolate Feather

Turkey Tracks:  December 8, 2012

Ann’s Blue and White Chocolate Feather

Ann O’Callaghan is my husband John Enright’s first cousin.  She and her sister Margaret Nealon live a few blocks from each other in the Boston area.  Their children have all grown up together, and it is the greatest pleasure to John and me that our sons have kept close ties with both of these families and all their children.  Now, John, Ann, and Margaret are grandparents many times over as many of their children now have children of their own.

Ann and Margaret have always been more sisters than cousins to John.  Their mother died very early, so Ann left Ireland as a teenager to come to Boston to live with one of her mother’s sisters.  (John’s father was her uncle.)  Margaret, who had lived with another of her mother’s sisters, followed Ann to America some years later.  All of these families are outliers from their mother country–Ireland–where the bulk of all their families live.

When we moved to Maine from northern Virginia, we began to see more of Ann and her family.  Every time Ann would come to visit, she admired whatever quilts I was working on at the time.  Always she would tease and say how much she would love a quilt.  And, I would always ask “what colors do you like.”  The answer was consistent.  Blues.  So, this winter, as part of my scrappy project, I made Ann a quilt.  John’s sister, Maryann Enright delivered it to Ann a few weeks ago, so now I can put it on the blog.

Here’s Ann’s Blue and White Chocolate Feather:

Ann's blue and white chocolate feather

The pattern is from “American Patchwork and Quilting” (August 2010).  It’s called “Outside the Box” and was designed by Karen Montgomery of The Quilt Company.  It uses 3 1/2 inch squares–which I took from the box where I store pre-cut leftover fabric from other quilts and from my stash.  I purchased the white fabric.  What’s cool about this concept is that the block is made like a log-cabin, in that it has a light and a dark side made from 16 blocks–six white and 10 blues.  So, the block combines in the same way that a log cabin block does–into all kinds of log-cabin patterns.

The quilting is from the Chocolate Feather pantograph, thus the name.  And it came out beautifully–it’s a functional quilt meant to be used and loved.

Ann's blue and white quilted

Here’s a view of the center:

Ann's blue and white, center

I like the varigated blue thread on this quilt a lot.

Ann's blue and white quilted

Ann's blue and white backing, binding, top, 2

Somehow, I’ve made a lot of blue and white quilts over the past year.  My blue and white stash has been reduced considerably–which is the goal.  I’m working on another right now, actually.  It, too, has a white background, though the pattern is different.  What I’m wondering about now is how a low contrast Kaffe Fasset kind of treatment, where the white becomes a blue print and the blue blocks are made into squares that float around in the print…

Perhaps I’ll find out this winter as I have enough 3 1/2-inch blue squares to make another quilt…

Turkey Tracks: Flamboyant Fall Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  July 5, 2012

Flamboyant Fall Quilt

This contemporary bar quilt is another colorway of an earlier quilt:  “Bar None”–which is on this blog.

I started with Flamboyant Fall with bar strips of neutral rectangles–2 by 3 1/2–cut up and saved as I finished other quilts.  I cut up any leftover scrap that was not approximately the size of a fat quarter.  Bigger pieces went back into my stash.  About 2 years ago, I realized that I had bags and bags of pre-cut squares and rectangles, and I began to quilt with them.  I purchased a Handi-Quilter long-arm two years ago and that enabled my production rate to increase sharply.  This past winter, I made a real dent in the saved bags of pre-cut quilting fabric.

At first I thought this quilt would be really pretty with browns, golds, and creams–and here’s what I pulled from my stash to highlight the neutral rectangle “bars.”

Here’s what the dark brown strips and the neutral bars look like on the design wall…

At this point, I headed off to Marge’s Mainely Sewing to get borders.  I had bought some lovely large fabrics for backing at a sale at Quit Diva’s in Rockland–one of which really wanted to be part of this quilt.  TAnd I did not have enough of the paisley to use in the quilt.  The plan for a mostly neutral quilt went right out the window.

Here are the fabrics that came home with me–the backing is the third from the left–the fabric with the leaves.  Marge found the big Kaffe Fasset floral for me, and I loved it at first sight.  (The laundry basket is a dog bed for whichever dog is hanging out with me in the quilt room.)

Here’s the top on the design wall–ready to be put on Lucy the longarm and quilted:

I quilted with a varigated thread that had all the colors of the quilts in it–all the golds, oranges, deep reds, and so forth.  This pic doesn’t do this thread justice, but you can at least see the pantograph pattern:

Here’s a good pic of the outer and inner borders.  Note how the inner border has the dark brown of the bars.  I love how the swirly fabric worked for the binding.  I cut all bindings on the bias these days, so that really made this fabric’s movement shine.

Look at how well the backing and the binding work with the quilt.

Here are two pics of the quilt on a low bed upstairs.  Neither do it justice.  One is faded and the other’s colors are a bit “off.”  But, here they are.

And:

Flamboyant Fall is both wild and controlled, what with the bars in the center.  I love the fabrics in this quilt.  I’m really pleased with how it came out.

Turkey Tracks: “Nora’s Friends: Peter and Benjamin Rabbit” Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  May 16, 2012

Nora’s Friends:  Peter and Benjamin Rabbit Quilt

My dear friend Rosie Pilkerton gave me this fabric panel about two years ago.  The kit was meant as a wall hanging–or an infant quilt–and came with backing and batting.  Rosie made it as a wall hanging and did a lot of wonderful free-motion quilting around the scene of the two rabbits.

Nora is Julia’s little sister–and I wanted a quilt she could love to death for her.  So, I added borders and made the quilt larger for a growing almost-toddler.

Here’s the finished quilt:

And another view:

You can see that I put in a wide outer border so that I could practice with the Constantine Quilts swag ruler–which is easy once you get the hang of it and which is so much fun and which makes a really nice border.  Constantine Quilts is an Australian company, but they now have an American distributor, Quilted Memories, LLC.  There are great videos on Utube to show you how to use these “no-nonsense” long-arm rulers.  I started with the 5-inch swag ruler and just ordered the 8-inch.  The number denotes the WIDTH of the swag.

Here’s a close-up of this adorable panel:

Here’s a view of the borders.  I like the red brick fabric I found–it spoke to me of English garden brick walls and bunnies who find ways around them.  I used it for the binding as well.

I was able to take this quilt back to the domestic machine and sew all the “stitch-in-the-ditch” borders down–that worked really well actually–with a walking foot, of course.

The backing is a soft cream polka-dot fabric, which blended beautifully with the front.  And you can see how pretty that swag border is from the back.  And, the nice lines made when I stitched down the borders from the front.

Thanks you again, Rosie.  Nora thanks you as well!

Turkey Tracks: “Julia’s Jungle” quilts

Turkey Tracks:  May 16, 2012

Julia’s Jungle Quilt

Steve, Ann, and their daughter Joann (one of my favorite people in this world) visited last week–driving up from Boston for the day.  Joann has two little girls, so I got myself organized, pulled down two quilting kits I had collected along my quilting way, and made them each a quilt.  These quilts are loosely quilted so as to be soft and cuddly and are meant to be dragged around, washed, and loved to death.

Here’s “Julia’s Jungle”–made from a kit assembled by Debbie at Quilt Diva’s in Rockland.  Debbie and Doris of Quilt Divas have a terrific selection of kid-friendly fabrics.

I especially like the orange-stripe binding on this quilt–which Debbie included in the kit packet.

Here’s a close-up of one of the panel’s animals:

Here’s  a picture of the borders–the black and white animal print works really well, don’t you think?

One of the fun things Debbie did when putting this kit together was to include some big, orange rickrack, which she used to separate what is really two panels.  Both the rick-rack and the orange-striped binding really drew me to this kit.

I like the backing I found for this quilt:

Joann reports that Julia loves her quilt.  I am so glad.  I had fun making it.

Turkey Tracks: Bar None Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  May 7, 2012

Bar None Quilt

“Bar None” is all finished.  I LOVE this quilt–from the way it came together to the quilting in it and the binding of it.

Here’s how it started on the design wall–after I took a strip of the rectangles to Marge’s Mainely Sewing and, in passing, waved it over this purple/lime green fabric–which just made everything sing.  It’s going to be a bar quilt–with a strip of what is called “Chinese Coins”–or rectangles stacked into a bar.

Next came the blue and green borders, which I found on a rainy day at Fiddlehead in Belfast–lovely contemporary fabrics there:

What’s fun about this quilt are the lively colors–I adore the purple and green and the clearer blue all together.

The girls like it, too.  Both wanted pictures taken on this quilt.

Here’s a close up–see the swag quilting on the green border and the really fun toothy leaves in the blue border–I’ll use those again in the future.  The green border is done with green thread, and the blue border with blue thread.

Here’a another view:

Here’s a close-up of the borders and the terrific polka dot magenta binding:

Here’s the backing–which is a kind of reversal of the purple on the front–blue with tiny magenta dots:

I don’t know if the next photo will do justice to the free-hand quilting–it’s some of my best and I felt really good doing it on the long-arm–it’s a three-leaf pattern combined with a kind of twining vine that works like a meander to help me travel around.  The thread is a variegated purple, green, magenta, blue blend from Signature.

It’s going to be hard to part with this one!

Turkey Tracks: The Flopsy Bunnies Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  April 30, 2012

The Flopsy Bunnies Quilt

Two years ago when I was in Williamsburg with my dearly beloved quilt buddies who live in Virginia, on our last day, I bought some adorable Peter Rabbit-type fabrics from a local quilt store–whose name I am not going to recall.  (But if you are in Williamsburg, it’s near the college, and it’s very nice.)  The panels were meant to be made into fabric books.  They tell a story.  But, I thought them perfect for baby quilts.  I bought two sets, and each had a panel, some border fabric, and some backing fabric.  Quick quilts, I thought.  Ha!

So, when my niece, Lauren Howser Black, got close to having her baby, Owen Wallace Black, born in mid April, I pulled out one set and started to work.  These fabrics had beautiful border prints.  Only, I didn’t buy enough of them to go all the way around the blocks.  And, when I cut the panel into separate blocks, I had some narrow borders where the pages would have joined.  So, I had to make the blocks a bit larger by adding an additional border.  It’s the cream fabric.

I found a gorgeous paisley fabric in my stash that was so interesting with the blocks.  And, another stash print worked well with the paisley as sashing blocks and as an outer border.

Anyway, here’s the quilt that got mailed to baby Owen this past week.  (Sorry for the overexposed picture.)

Here’s another view:

[I don’t know why The Beauty Queen (aka as Miss Reynolds Georgia) wanted her picture taken with this quilt.  But, she clearly did.  I could not dislodge her as she ran from one end of the bed to the other when I suggested she remove herself.  I can tell you she missed the grandchildren and that she loves babies.  Maybe she was putting her own special energy into this quilt.]

Here’s a close-up of one of the panel blocks.  Aren’t they sweet?

And, here’s a close-up of the border.  I trimmed it and used part of it as a side border.

This suite of fabrics came with a blue print that I was going to use for the backing.  I, of course, didn’t have enough, since I had miscalculated how big the quilt would be when I got the blocks ready.  So, I found a coordinating fabric and used it to surround the suite fabric:

I quilted with a clam shell groovy board, which I LOVED!!! Can’t wait to use it again.

Here’s a picture of the whole back:

Here’s what the backing, binding (a great blue stripe cut on the bias), and the front look like together:

So, there you have it:  THE FLOPSY BUNNIES QUILT.

I’m very pleased with how it came out.  Truly, it’s a “one of a kind.”

Turkey Tracks: Quilting the Last of the Rectangles

Turkey Tracks:  April 27, 2008

Quilting the Last of the Rectangles

For those of you following The Scrappy Quilting Project progress, I’ve used up the last of the 2 by 3 1/2-inch rectangles I have been cutting for over 10 years.  I had BAGS of them–all ready to be used.

This quilt, as yet unnamed, is on Lucy, the longarm right now:

I really like this quilt.  I’ve always wanted to make a bar-type quilt, and I like the “Chinese Coin” bar arrangement.

I have another set of the rectangles in shades of cream that I’ve sewn into this same kind of barred formation.  Hmmmm.  They look good with browns:

I took the very last rectangles and made them into eight funky placemats, using fabrics from my stash for borders, backings, and bindings.  They turned out to be surprisingly cute.  And, given the experience of other placemats I’ve made, they will last forever and only get prettier as they get worn.

These placemats, I discovered, do best when they are NOT overquilted.  Here’s one that is overquilted, so you can see what I mean.  These placemats are reversible, so this one looks great on the other side!  Anyway, a simple meander works better, given all the color and scrappiness.

I paired the placemats with an array of different-colored napkins and some cute napkin rings (brass chickens) and sent them off to the four older grandchildren in Charleston.  There are six for the family and two for me and John–which was a nice way to signaling to the children that we are coming to visit soon.  Wilhelmina, the four-year old, got this concept right away.  My reward was a big belly laugh from her.

Here’s the picture I got back from Tami of the placemats on her table–as arranged by Talula:

I had told Talula that I was making something for her when I talked to her about the quilt she helped make for me.  And, I called and told her the “something” was in the mail.  She was so excited when the package arrived.  She called me right away, and we discussed who was to get which placemat, which one she liked best, and could I help her make some in the near future.  When she comes next, I’ll turn her loose with rectangles, some pins, and see what she designs on the design board in my quilting room.  Then we can sew some placemats together.  She will be old enough to operate the sewing machine before we know it.

She was so excited that the chicken napkin rings almost got lost.  They were at the bottom of the package in a plastic bag.  I can see from this picture Talula has used some of their napkin rings.

So, here’s what’s left of the rectangles at this point…

Except for some rectangles I put aside for another project…

And, except for the ones I’ve cut in the past few weeks…

Turkey Tracks: Tami’s First Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  April 19, 2012

Tami’s First Quilt

Tamara Kelly Enright, or Tami, is SEWING!

Two summers ago, Tami bought a used Janome sewing machine from Marge Hallowell at Mainely Quilts in Nobleboro.  But, she has her hands so full with four kiddos under 8, now.  So, about 18 months passed before, during Thanksgiving, we got it out and started a project.  She made a receiving blanket for her coming nephew, Meyer Kelly.  And, I left her with fabric for pillowcases, the instructions, and with two extra feet ordered for her machine–a walking foot and a darning foot for free-motion quilting.  Soon, she was making pillowcases with abandon.

What’s fun about this story is that her two youngest–Talula and Wilhelmina–are helping pick out fabrics, hanging over the machine, and getting very excited when it’s time to give the gift that has just been made.  My guess is that there are two generations learning to sew now.

So, imagine my surprise and pleasure when a wall quilt arrived in the mail for my birthday.  And, it’s beautiful!  The girls helped pick out the fabric, and the whole family participated in that the guys had to do without mom for a bit while she sewed.  I hung it outside my quilting room door.  Isn’t it beautiful?

Tami’s first quilt is called “Maine’s Breakfast With a View” because from the windows in our dining area, you can see all the bird feeders and birds, the woods beyond the house, and, in winter, the ridge beyond our house.

I love the bird fabric.  I’ve been very drawn to bird fabric lately and just bought a yard to fussy cut not long ago.  There are so many really gorgeous bird fabrics on the market now.  I also really love the reds in this quilt–they look so warm in this spot outside my quilt room.  And I think the way Tami coordinated fabrics in this quilt shows real promise.  She is now taking a sewing class as she’d like to make some dresses for the girls–which is all how it starts.

What a fabulous birthday present!  I will treasure this quilt always!

Turkey Tracks: “Seriously Scrappy” Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  April 13, 2012

Seriously Scrappy Quilt

Here’s the latest finished quilt from “The Scrappy Quilt Project.”  Starting with a pattern from SUCCESSFUL SCRAP QUILTS (Judy Turner and Margaret Rolfe), I made light and dark blocks and alternated them.  So far, so good:

I had already pulled enough rectangles to make two other quilts–one of those tops is finished so will go on the long-arm next week.  The other uses strips of the cream-colored rectangles with some rich dark brown fabric and, maybe, a coordinating paisley.  So this quilt, already named “Seriously Scrappy” is using up as many of the remaining rectangles as is possible.

I had enough red and green rectangles to make a border–see?

Here’s a different angle:

With the top in hand, I went down to get help from Marge Hallowell of Mainely Quilts–who has been a great advisor with The Scrappy Quilt Project, and ran right into a fabric that had just come into the store.  I knew at first sight it would be perfect for the back:

See how well the top and this fabric play together–especially when bound with the great olive green striped fabric cut on the bias.  I make all my bindings on the bias now.  They just perform and wear so much better than using a straight grain.

Here’s a close-up of the quilting–with a few stray white dog hairs in the picture.  The dogs love it when I put bindings on quilts; they get beneath the quilt on both sides of me.  I used the Bishop’s Fan pattern groovy boards for the first time, and I LOVED doing it–so much I ordered a third board to make the quilting easier for the Bishop’s Fan and for the clam shell pattern.  Groovy boards make this daunting pattern really easy, and I love the way it looks on the quilt itself.  I used a variegated green Superior thread that Marge Hallowell of Mainely Quilts helped me pick out.  It’s beautiful on both sides of the quilt.  You always have to remember how a thread will look on both sides of a quilt–and I don’t like threads to really stand out all that much usually.

Years ago, my sister Maryann Enright asked me for a quilt that “had all the other quilts in it.”  So, Maryann, here it is!