Turkey Tracks: Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild October 2019 Stay Retreat

Turkey Tracks:  November 3, 2019

Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild October 2019 Stay Retreat

It was fun.

A Stay Retreat means those who can’t travel elsewhere for various reasons can quilt for two days at our local Lions Club alongside other Mt. Battie Modern QG or Coastal Quilters members.

A Retreat offers a time for intensive sewing where projects can be finished while sharing time and projects with other quilters.

I finished the top of this YEARS LONG project:  a quilt made from Bonnie Hunter’s Wild and Goosey quilt block—an intense foundation pieced block that is fun, but time consuming to make.  Look at all those tiny, tiny pieces

I like how the neutral border came out—a light grey binding will stop the eye and the light border holds the quilt middle nicely.  Thanks Betsy Maislen for this idea.  I like, too, the bits of color in the neutrals.

This block can look very, very different in other hands—like Linda Satkowski’s.  Her quilt with carefully chosen colors and a darker background is so handsome.  She has been my quilting companion during this long, long project—for both of us.  At this retreat she is sewing rows together—I think there will be 7 or 8 rows.

I have a very cool backing for this quilt—again thanks to Betsy Maislen who found it summer before last and brought me a fat quarter of it.

I have the Slopes quilt top on the longarm now—from Amanda Jean Nyberg’s NO SCRAP LEFT BEHIND.  Mine is made from Cotton+Steel fabrics—the dark colors, not neutrals—collected over past years.

Turkey Tracks: Lone Star 4-patch Done and Hung

Turkey Tracks:  November 2, 2019

Lone Star 4-patch Done and Hung

And boy am I happy with this project, which TODAY replaced a quilt that had been hanging in the stair well for 15+ years.  The old quilt, light-faded and still lovely, is downstairs in the washing machine as I write this post.

A friend from Augusta who was visiting the dog park this morning came home with me and helped me hang this quilt, which involved stair-well drops and a tall ladder.  Thanks Kathryn!!  She made me feel very safe up on the ladder.

I quilted with size 8 perle cotton—and tried to match colors.  The background fabrics are from my stash, but the rest of the fabrics were curated by Tara Faughnan who taught this online class for Amy Newbold’s Sewtopia.  Season 2 of The Color Collective is under way now and promises to be as exciting as Season 1 was.

I used the green color (Kona Pickle) in all of the Lone Stars and bound the quilt with it, and it does seem to be working to unify the project.  Otherwise, I went down a Lone Star rabbit hole of wondering what would happen with light/dark backgrounds and how color and light/dark placement affected the Lone Star.

Now to finish up the Radiating Log Cabin project (probably today for the blocks!) from Season 1.

 

I am having so much fun!

Turkey Tracks: Tori’s Prompt of “Words”

Turkey Tracks:  October 27, 2019

Tori’s Promp of “Words” (Matter)

This post is overdue, as the Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild members turned in their challenge blocks for Tori Manzi’s “prompt,” which was “Words” (that matter).  She asked us to also use fabric in our creations that spoke in some way to our word.

Here is my main block for Tori:

But I also made these letters for Tori, as I thought her name also matters—since she is an inspiring and exciting quilter.  I did not connect the letters as I don’t know if she will want to use them vertically or horizontally.  The fabrics are all Alison Glass, the compass collection, since Tori loves Alison Glass.  I had the colored fabrics and some of the neutral, but ordered a yard of the neutral as I can always use neutrals/low volume.

The blocks that came in were AWESOME, and you can see them on the Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild Facebook page.  Do go over and take a look, as the creativity of our members’ work is worth the look.  The prompts we have finished are also on that page.  Some of the first prompts are about to come back, finished as quilts, and we are looking forward to seeing them.

Turkey Tracks: They Came!

Turkey Tracks:  October 26, 2019

They Came!

I am still pinching myself.

Becky Reavis Meyer and Marty Greenhow Hallgren came to visit me here in Maine in early October.

Here they are at Becky’s home in Colorado, the day before their flight to Maine.  Marty flew from Texas to join up with Becky before coming to Maine.

We are three military brats whose parents were station at Offutt AFB in Bellevue, Nebraska.  They graduated from Bellevue High School in 1962, and I graduated in 1963.  After graduation, we scattered across the country as we took up our lives.

Becky and I go back to 4th grade or so at Barksdale AFB in Shreveport, Louisiana.  My family went on to McDill AFB in Tampa, Florida, for a few years, and Becky’s family went, I think, on to Nebraska.

Marty came to Nebraska from Puerto Rico, where she was friends with Charles Derr, another AFB brat and dear friend of my family.  John and I met Charlie in the Washington, DC, area, and our two sons grew up with Charlie’s daughter Tara.

Here we three are at the Mt. Battie tower, up on Mt. Battie, a scenic overlook of our coast.

 

Here’s one part of the 360 degree view at the top of Mt. Battie:

Can I just say that we did not stop talking from Wednesday night to Sunday when they left.  And I have since thought of so many things I wish I had asked them.  But catching up on nearly 60 years of information is a daunting task.

I can say that both Marty and Becky are both great, have had rich lives, and have beautiful children and grandchildren.  We have all been lucky in a lot of ways.

Thanks so much for coming to see me, Marty and Becky!

Turkey Tracks: Joining a QAL

Turkey Tracks:  October 22, 2019

Joining a QAL

Coastal Quilters President Tori Manzi encouraged members to join this year-long QuiltaLong—sponsored by Bernina—which is meant to teach some sewing skills.  Many of us are going to take part.

One could do the rainbow version, with fabrics Sugaridoo chose, as seen below.  One could buy Sugaridoo’s kit or just collect the listed Kona fabrics elsewhere.  One could also do a version with less fabrics that is not rainbow.  Or, one could put together whatever fabrics one wanted.  The goal is to learn some new techniques (or refresh old ones) by making a bar of the quilt each month for a year.

I chose the rainbow version, since I have not made a rainbow quilt.

 

 

 

 

Here is a link to this QAL:

Sugaridoo Bernina Quilt Along – Are you in?

 

 

Turkey Tracks: “Lone Star Done and Hung”

October 20, 2019

”Lone Star Done and Hung”

I wrote this post back on September 25th, when I finished the Lone Star that I thought worked best outside my quilt room.

Then I fell in love…

Here’s what I wrote in September:

“Yes!

This version works exactly as I wanted on the wall outside my quilt room.

That luscious background color is Kona’s “Nightfall.”  I’ve fallen in love with it.

I had to patch nail holes and do some touch up painting on this wall.  Didn’t it come out nicely?

 

HEre’s the view into my quilt room.

THEN, I finished quilting the patchwork version that I just thought would be fun.  And, I fell in love with it.

Here’s what exists now, in mid-October:

 

 

And here’s the quilt room now with the other Lone Star moved in and the little piece I did in a Timna Tarr workshop relocated—on the far left.

Now I’m happy!

And I’ve moved on to finish up working on the Radiating Log Cabin blocks I had wanted to make from Season 1 of the Color Collective—more on that to come.

AND, I’m itching to start Season 2.  Look at the quilt Tara Faughnan made from the first block of Season 2:

It’s another freezer paper method!  I loved learning that method in Season 1.

Turkey Tracks: “On Point” Done and Hung

Turkey Tracks:  September 25, 2019

“On Point” Done and Hung

“Fall:  Sawtooth”

This quilt comes from the online class with Tara Faughnan I’ve been blogging about in recent months—The Color Collective, hosted by Sewtopia, and featuring the work of Tara Faughnan.  Each month Tara taught us a method and sent us a curated collection of Kona solid fabrics.  This quilt was made using the freezer paper method.  AND, I LOVE IT.  I named mine “Fall:  Sawtooth.”

 

I quilted all those shapes with size 8 perle cotton—and the resulting texture is lovely.

SEASON 2 starts in October.  Yes, I’ve signed up.

Turkey Tracks: Monarch Chrysalis Update

Turkey Tracks:  September 9, 2019

Monarch Chrysalis Update

For the past few days, the green chrysalis darkened to black from green, and the orange wings began to show really clearly.

Sunday was cool and damp, off and on.  Would the butterfly emerge?

Here she/he is.  You can see the now-clear chrysalis behind him/her, still stuck to the amaryllis plant.  She/he hung out all day, just moving slowly and gathering strength.  She/he is gone his morning.

What an amazing, stunning process!

 

Turkey Tracks: Down a Lone Star Rabbit Hole

Turkey Tracks:  September 8, 2019

Down a Lone Star Rabbit Hole

This large 4-patch (each block is 30 inches unfinished) contains all the fabric colors that Tara Faughnan curated and Amy Newbold of Sewtopia sent to us for this THE COLOR COLLECTIVE project.  I added the navy, pink, and soft green backgrounds as they were what I had in my stash.  I could not stop making these blocks because I wanted to see what would happen with color placement and how they all looked together.  AND because they turned out NOT to be so hard (with Tara’s instructions and videos to guide).

This one is all layered and pinned now.  I’ll hand stitch mostly with perle size 8 cotton, though I may do some grid sewing on the domestic.  It’s going to hang in a stairwell, replacing a quilt that has been hanging for 15+ years.

In part I wanted to see different color combinations appeared on light or dark backgrounds—especially at the points.  You can see on the upper right/pink background of the above 4-patch how light and dark fabrics at the points can have a kind of fireworks effect.  The lower two quilts have a light point on dark background and a dark point on a light background.

The one below has colors from the collection—I added the yellow as I had it on hand—and is going in my bedroom as a wall hanging—to replace another small quilt that has been hanging for many years.  I thought it would go on the wall outside my quilt room—to replace another quilt that has been hanging too long, but while I like the block, the colors don’t quite work in that space, given other nearby colors.

This scrappy one I made from leftover scraps—and it is modeled on a BIG one that Tara Faughnan made that is scrappy.  Google “Tara Faughnan Quilts” to see it.  I’m going to back it with the really dark fabric that came in the collection—a kind of luscious dark navy/purple that you see around the yellow star center above.  I ordered more of that fabric, and it came yesterday and went right in to the washing machine.  I like this one a lot.  Not sure where it will go.

My favorite is on the 4-patch—the top one on the left with all the blues.  I ordered more of those fabrics, except for the pickle color points as I already ordered more of the pickle color.  The pickle is destined to be the binding for the 4-patch.  I added in a chartreuse for the points and will back with the dark navy/purple.

This last one (?) is going to hang on the wall outside my quilt room.  Guess what I’m doing today?

Turkey Tracks: Monarchs

Turkey Tracks:  September 7, 2019

Monarchs

 

Look what friend Betsy Maislen found in the amaryllis leaves on the porch—just before she left to go on the windjammer J&E Riggin for the week—where she and co-Captain Annie Mahle enjoy cooking together:

You can see the butterfly wings in the casing now.  And isn’t the gold trim…amazing?

There have been more than a few Monarchs in the yard in the past two weeks, which is encouraging.  From the Maine fall flyway, these butterflies will fly all the way to Mexico without stopping to create more generations.  They will lay their eggs in Mexico, and next year, those babies will migrate—in generations—back to Maine.  Mother Nature is…AWESOME.

AC has been hunting tiny frogs and the fall crickets (which are singing now) in the grass.  If it moves, he’s all over it.  I rescued this Monarch from him the other day.  Maybe newly hatched?

I scooped her with a flat hand from the bottom, so just her feet touched and put her into the cleome bush that has been wildly growing all summer with all the rain we’ve had.

 

Here’s what the chrysalis looks like this morning:

This butterfly is almost ready to fly!