Tag: Annie Mahle and Jon Finger

Turkey Tracks: Windjamming Days on the J&E Riggin

Turkey Tracks:  July 24, 2016

Windjamming Days on the J&E Riggin

The house is organized.

The garden has been weeded…mostly…and watered.

My bags are packed.

AND I AM OFF TO THE J&E RIGGIN windjammer later this afternoon for six days of doing nothing but what I absolutely want to do.  Hot weather, Jon Finger’s quiet friendship, Annie’s fun conversations and fabulous food, being with their daughters Chloe and Ella, sights to see, a clean wind to feel, the swish of the boat flying through the water, books to read, a book downloaded from the Maine State Library system, sewing to enjoy, naps to take, former travelers to see again, and an abundance of laughter and fun.

Last night, this…

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…turned into this…

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…as I tried to use up my veggies from Hope’s Edge CSA last Tuesday.

I froze half for the night I come home.

I also processed some kale and washed some sweet peas in the shell to eat with my picnic supper aboard tonight.  I weeded heavily this morning–HEAVILY–and treated myself to lunch out and a coffee from Zoots. So I want a lighter supper tonight.

I finished two more quilt-lets in the past week at night:

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I made up a few more to do on the boat, but mostly I’ll work on the lavender sachets.  I’m now thinking of green ones (balsam), rose ones (rose geranium or roses), and yellow ones (lemon verbena???).

Did you know that if you squeeze a lavender ball when it no longer smells that you will release renewed smell?

Hugs to all of YOU!

 

 

Turkey Tracks: Sailing and Quilting

Turkey Tracks:  October 5, 2015

Sailing and Quilting

I LOVED my September sailing on the J&E Riggin this year.

September is sailing supreme in Maine.  The wind was so good on our first day that we sailed all the way to Blue Hill Harbor–after leaving Rockland Harbor mid-morning.  Word was that we were going 10 knots for part of the sail.  We were skimming across the water like a giant bird sailing across the sky.

I signed up for next September.  Of course I did.

Rhea Butler of Alewives Quilting will be on board and will teach interested passengers English paper piecing, using Lucy Boston’s honeycomb template.  (I’ve written about Lucy Boston and her work on this blog if you want to know more.)

Rhea’s use of fabric is stunning, interesting, and fun.  Here are some samples of her and other staff members Lucy Boston blocks.  You can see they really enjoyed “fussy cutting” contemporary fabric patterns–as did Lucy Boston, but Boston did not have access to today’s amazing colors and patterns.

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These blocks can be combined with other templates to make a whole quilt or floated on background fabric and appliqued–either singly or together.

One can also make plainer blocks–as I did as I wanted to contrast red and green in this block:

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I used the templates (as did Lucy Boston) to make a background.

But I am so looking forward to making blocks like Rhea and the Alewives staff do–and I want to applique them to background fabric in some way.

Plain or exotic, quilting or not, Jon Finger and Annie Mahle will be sailing the J&E Riggin with me on board September 21-24, 2016, boarding September 20th.

Come join us?