Tag: Alewives Quilt Shop Damariscotta Mills Maine

Turkey Tracks: Megan Bruns’ “La Passacaglia” is DONE!

Turkey Tracks:  May 27, 2019

Megan Bruns’ “La Passacaglia” is DONE!

I have watched Megan work on this quilt for three or four years now.  The construction time wound through the threads of her life.  Sometimes, when her life events got tough, the quilt got put aside.  But some times, the work on it offered solace and coping.

It was a complete delight for many of us at Coastal Quilters (Maine) when she brought the finished quilt to show us on the same May 2019 weekend she graduated from college.  In the past two years she has held down a full-time job, mostly a full-time college schedule, and the juggling of living alone with two beloved dogs to nurture.  Those of us who know her well knew that when this young woman finished the border and took the quilt to be quilted, she had gone around all the sharp edges life had thrown at her and was in the home stretch and moving full steam ahead.  What followed next was a significant job offer right here in Camden, so we will have her with us for at least another year.

There are earlier pictures of this quilt in progress on this blog, if you care to go back to them.  But to refresh, this is Willyyene Hammerstein’s “La Passacaglia” quilt from her book MILLIFIORI QUILTS.  Megan designed the large border treatment, and Alewives Quilt Shop quilted the top.

 

The quilt has wonderful, organic-inspired quilting.

I love the yellow border.

The back is a VELVETEEN!  I never would have thought to use velveteen.  It’s so soft and yummy…

 

GO MEGAN!!

And congratulations on graduating from college!!

 

Turkey Tracks: Noodlehead Market Bags

Turkey Tracks:  May 26, 2019

Noodlehead Market Bags

I’ve been wanting to make Anna Graham’s Market Bag, from her book HANDMADE STYLE, for some time.

As noted in previous posts, The Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild has challenged members to make something in “handmade style” every other month, using Anna Graham’s book as a kickoff point.  In other months, I have made pillows, using blocks from “The Color Collective” online class with Tara Faughnan and supported by Amy Newbold of Sewtopia.  More on that pillow project later.

Here’s my first bag, which uses all Cotton+Steel fabrics.  This one is a gift.

The leather handles came from the Noodlehead store.  I cut the top binding on the bias and hand stitched it on the inside—as I’ve never been able to sew this kind of closing properly from the outside so that it catches all the inside fabric.  Just can’t do it.  I also hand sewed the edges of the pocket in the same manner.

And I lined the pocket and fused the outer fabric to Pellon’s SF 101.

Here’s the bag I made FOR ME, or “ownself,” as I like to say.  I used Essex Linen in pepper and Cotton+Steel fabrics in shades of teal/acid green.  And I put longer handles on this bag for shoulder carrying.  These handles were bought locally at Alewives Quilt Store some time ago when I first saw the Market Bag.

 

I am organizing making Graham’s Explorer purse for a real purse as this market bag is really meant to carry things loose.  As my purse possessions are not secured in pockets for the moment, I made a little lined phone case in the same way the interior pocket is constructed and by closing off the top side binding in the same way the bottom closes off.

I’m going to make the small Explorer Tote.

Explorer Tote Pattern

Turkey Tracks: Mt. Battie Modern Show and Tell, November 2018, Part 3

Turkey Tracks:  November 17, 2018

Mt. Battie Modern Show and Tell, November 2018, Part 3

Vicki Fletcher has been on a roll with her quilts.  This is the third one in recent weeks.  She calls this one “the dinosaur quilt,” and it is meant for a grandchild.

I love the sashing fabric she chose.

Nancy Wright will leave Maine shortly for her Florida winter home, so in addition to her finished traveling quilt, which she left with us to show, she brought the quilts she is working on or has finished.

Here is “Flight Effect,” a design by Dash Maslund of Falmouth Maine.  You can also see Dash featured on Kim Soper’s Leland Ave Studios website.  Maslund has a nice web site (Prow House Quilts) so you can see the various colors she uses for this quilt and other pieces of her work.

Here is Karen Lee’s “Cabin Quilt” (quiltaposy.com), made with Carolyn Friedlander fabrics.

I love the quilting pattern used on this quilt.  It has the feel of the large rectangles on the front and the rectangle’s center openings.

This quilt is Anna Maria Horner’s garden quilt.

Luscious, glorious fabrics…

Alewives Fabric in Damariscotta Mills, Maine, hosted a fairly recent workshop for AMH and this quilt.

So, as you can see, Mt. Battie Modern had a lively, fun meeting this month.  And wait until you see the projects with which we are challenging ourselves next!

On to 2019!

 

Turkey Tracks: Becca-Babb Brott’s Latest Quilts

Turkey Tracks:  October 16, 2018

Becca Babb-Brott’s Latest Quilts

Becca’s “Long Time gone” quilt top, designed by Jen Kingwell, is done.  This quilt was a challenge in our Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild.  Note that Becca used a variety of neutral strips to piece her blocks together.  She is not going to add a border.

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Becca took an improv piecing class with Denyce Schmidt this past summer at Alewives Quilt Shop in Damariscotta Mills, Maine.  The quilt top emerged the other day—all finished.  It’s colorful and fun, and Becca really enjoyed the process she learned.  Denyce Schmidt’s web site is as follows:  http://dsquilts.com/

I am really intrigued by quilts made with the gorgeous solids on the market these days.  There is one in my future for sure.

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Turkey Tracks: January Thaw 2018 and Update

Turkey Tracks:  January 14, 2018

January Thaw 2018 and Update

Hi folks!

This post will be a mish-mash of updates.

First, we had a brief but very welcome thaw.  At one point over the past two days we had temps in the low 50s, with a lot of rain accompanying the warmer temps.  Most of the snow has melted away, so we are ready for more snow to make everything look clean and white again.  The temps have dipped again, so we are back to winter.

Penny dog began begging for a walk as soon as the rain stopped.  She would not leave me alone until I dragged on boots and got out our coats.  The walking produced a “walking haiku.”

18.

January 13, 2018

That dog loves her walks
A January thaw called
Her joy filled my heart

Coastal Quilters had their monthly Sit and Sew at the Lion’s Club on Wednesday.  Becca Babb-Brott brought her spider web quilt and worked on the binding.  The spider webs are made with selvages:

I love this quilt.  (Becca’s Etsy store “Sew Me A Song” carries some really interesting Japanese fabrics that are hard to get here in the USA.)

She quilted it with diagonal lines that vary in width.

I finished all the blocks for the “Big Star” quilt, started in an Amy Friend workshop last year about improv paper piecing, the subject of her new book:  IMPROV PAPER PIECING.  The fabrics are Cotton+Steel, except for the charcoal solid.  Who knew I could make my own design?  I didn’t, but I really like it–though I recognize that it did not create any new territory.  I am sewing it together now.

I am on my THIRD Brother inexpensive serger.  I’ve sent two back as they had serious problems.  I am going to try out the one that came this week later this afternoon.  There is not doubt that a working serger makes sewing clothes really fast–especially with knits.  If this one doesn’t work, I’m giving up and will look for a more expensive serger.

I bought this yummy cotton knit fabric to make a sweatshirt on the serger this week–in my Wednesday class with Cheryl Rodriguez, whose studio is located at Waterfall Arts in Belfast.  Cheryl is AWESOME, and has gotten me feeling competent on the serger.  Now if the new one works…

And I finished the corduroy skirt that will go with the fleece top I made earlier:

It’s Simplicity 2058, and it fits after some major measuring and altering of the pattern.  I am back hippy and low waisted in the back, so a skirt without a waist band works best for me.  Thanks Cheryl for helping me figure out how to sew for my body.

I like the flare that develops AFTER my hips are fitted–the flare makes a swirly fullness at the hem.

Friend Gus Bruns dropped by and brought me this cowl that she made for me.  I love it!  She didn’t know that I love snowdrops and that I have them planted all over the yard.  The white on the navy feels like the essence of spring, doesn’t it.  The knit came from Alewives Quilt Shop in Damariscotta, Maine, and it is a sweatshirt knit.  Well!  I’ll have to slow down and go down for a visit as I’m looking for a knit in which to to make the Simplicity skirt, now that I’ve got the pattern “just right.”  The cowl fits “just right” too, and I really like it.

I took this picture Friday at a friend’s because it shows the sailcloth bag the kiddos gave me this summer–bought from a local store that specializes in sailcloth products.  I wanted them to see it gets used all the time.  AND, this picture shows how a mudroom functions in Maine–I love to see all the winter clothes hanging.  that’s my black coat and turquoise scarf just above the bag.

Lunch is ready (a lamb stew) and “that dog” is begging for a walk.  We’ll probably do it, though it is colder.  The bracing air may help clear out my head and chest as I’m fighting a simmering cold.  I haven’t had one in some years now, so it probably is time for my body to cleanse itself immune wise.

Hugs to you all…

Turkey Tracks: April 2017 Quilty Update

Turkey Tracks:  April 3, 2017

April 2017 Quilty Update

It snowed all Saturday.

Didn’t amount to much, was beautiful coming down, and provided a quiet sewing day to enjoy.

We all just hunker down on these sorts of days, providing we can.

I don’t feed the turkeys unless we have packed snow on the ground–which we did up to a few days ago.  (Though we have more snow coming in tomorrow, but maybe we will have rain here on the coast.)  The turkeys know I’ll throw out food when it snows, so they begin to assemble early morning, and when I let Penny out, they come running and talking.  They are more vocal now than ever before.   Anyway, I have had a lot of feed bags this winter.  I used to throw these bags away.  The feed bags from the chickens too.  But now everyone is making very nice bags from them–for the grocery store, for recycling, for anything that needs a bag.  I have been giving mine away, but everyone is “full up” now.  So, rather than throw one away, I tried to make a bag.

SUPER easy and very fun.  There are MANY tutorials online.  Here’s a good one:  Source: Feed Bag Tote Bag

I took the bag to the garage where it is storing newspapers to recycle at the dump.

The last of the amaryllis are blooming now.  The white one is from Rose Lowell (La Dolce Vita Farm).  It bloomed before and I put pics up.  Then it sent up a whole new stalk and bloomed three blooms again.  The gift that keeps on giving…

My leader/ender project got sewn into a quilt top.  More on that later as it will be a gift.  I got backing/binding for it today.  So my NEW leader/ender project seems to be a 10 1/2-inch log cabin block made from 1 1/2 inch strips.  I forgot (AGAIN!!!) how demanding log cabin blocks can be and spent most of yesterday resewing blocks.  Each section has to measure right or the whole thing goes awry.

How to set them???

It’s time to do 8 or 9 more Tula Pink blocks.  What a treat!  I’d probably rip through the whole book if I were not so busy with other projects as well.  Pics to follow soon I’m sure.

I spent a lot of time ironing fabric yesterday–getting ready to cut for the “Bits and Pieces” quilt made with Carol Friedlander “Doe” collection fabrics.  I’ve loved this quilt and this fabric for ages and ages.  I first saw it at Alewives Fabric Store in Damariscotta, Maine.

I wash fabrics first because the chemicals and dyes don’t agree with me.  If they didn’t, I probably wouldn’t.

The fat quarters go into making the “bits.”

I found this fabric in Friedlander’s recent collection.  It’s perfect for the neutral strips.  Or so I think.  I like the texture.

 

 

Here’s the whole array.  I’m thinking I’ll have enough for two quilts maybe…

The backing is a white/black Friedlander.  It’s perfect.

So, En Provence is still in pieces and ready to be sewn together.  Millifiori is getting BIG.  More on that later.  And the selvage star quilt is waiting patiently.

 

Turkey Tracks: Alewives Quilt Shop Low-volume Fat Quarter Club

November 5, 2016

Alewives Quilt Shop Low-Volume Fat Quarter Club

Each month I get a bundle of ten, low-volume fat quarters from Alewives Quilts in Damariscotta Mills, Maine.

Low-volume fabrics are those that do not have a lot of dye in them–so they are mostly neutrals.

The club lasts twelve months, so there are more bundles to come.

But here’s what was in my mailbox today:

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My goodness, aren’t they pretty?

Each month has had a color theme–this one is clearly an aqua blue.

Yummy!

Buying fat quarters in bundles is a great way to get a wide fabric selection, especially if you are working with small pieces and English Paper Piecing.