Turkey Tracks: Social Distancing: Ongoing Sewing Projects

Turkey Tracks: March 20, 2020

Social Distancing: Ongoing Sewing Projects

I’m ok.

I hope you all are all ok too.

I am social distancing. AC and I go every possible day to the woods, to the beach, and to the grocery store as needed. I am connected to friends and family a good chunk of each day via technology. Except for worrying about getting the virus in a serious way, about family or friends getting it and not faring well, and about my seriously diminishing stock portfolio, I am peaceful. I am enjoying all my sewing projects. It’s good to see ongoing planned projects getting finished. And working with my hands is, as always, soothing.

I am reminded that life is what it is, that we have to take it as it comes, and we can do that with joy and purpose and some laughter, or we can just let it all overwhelm us. That’s a spectrum, of course. I’m sure I hit the highs and lows of it every day, but mostly I’m…ok.

Here are some of my ongoing sewing projects:

The Galactic wall hanging top is finished, layered, pinned, and waiting for obtaining some Wonderfil GlaMour thread—a rayon with a metallic strand—that designer Tara Faughnan used and loved. Marge Hallowell at Mainely Sewing is going to carry this thread. I am hoping she can mail me some. I LOVE this quilt and this pattern. Tara Faughnan designed it and curated the fabrics in THE COLOR COLLECTIVE online class by Amy Newbold’s Sewtopia.

I am also playing with a two-round smaller version with the extra fabrics I have. I have no idea where this project is going. Play without a goal is important too.

Here is Gumdrops—another Tara Faughnan project from The Color Collective. The blocks are English Paper Pieced, and we learned how to use a cardstock that one’s printer would take to make the six different patterns. I’m making a wall hanging with this one too—probably about 30 wide by 30-40 long, with three staggered rows. I will, of course, move blocks around a whole lot more as each combo gets finished. I hand sew at night while watching tv.

I’ll be layering and pinning the solid scrappy trip/granny quilt from Then Came June (Checkered Garden) today. I want to diagonal grid quilt it on a domestic, but will pin it on the longarm. I loved Then Came June’s version and thought it would be a good use for the solid scraps I have. It’s bright and wild. And maybe that’s it’s name?

I cleaned and oiled my serger over the holidays—and replaced the knives. There’s a blog post on that project. It’s running like a dream. But I’ve been having so much fun with quilty projects that I have not circled back to making garments. There is a pile of knits to be used. I cut out two tops this week. Here is the Linden Sweatshirt from Grainline. I made this top a while back and wear it a lot, so will enjoy this one as well. This top can be hacked to make other interesting tops. There is a short-sleeved version as well. I wear it both layered with a high-neck t-shirt and all by itself when the weather is a bit warmer. This particular jersey knit is so, so, so soft on the skin.

Be well!

Take care of yourselves!

Turkey Tracks: Recent Projects

Turkey Tracks: January 30, 2019

Recent Projects

Good morning!

We had snow in the night and now…rain. It’s also very warm for Maine in late January.

Here are some pics on my current projects.

This EPP project is HARD! There is a real learning curve involved here, but I’m getting faster now. This is “36-Ring Circus,” designed by JoAnne Lewis and available at Paper Pieces. I did NOT buy the whole templates offered, just the ring kit, which includes the center “pointy” temlplate—shown in red on the first ring.

I am currently using Cotton+Steel fabrics for the centers and solids (pastels for the ring and darks for the ring centers and diamond shapes) for the rest.

Here’s the status of THE COLOR COLLECTIVES first project: circles. So far I’ve broken TWO of my machines with the invisible thread. Probably, I did not release the needle tension enough. I did release the foot pressure instead, which was clearly a mistake. I don’t think anybody but ME is having these issues. One machine is back—along with two spools of thread that the marvelous Marge Hallowell of Maine-ly Sewing donated to the cause and for me to experiment with and about which to get back to her. I would love to make this quilt a bit bigger, to a lap size, but I may also use the second months’s block—a foundation pieced cross—to create a border. I’m still movng around blocks on the design wall—which is kind of crazy as I need to fill in the holes first. I could, also, use a matching thread for the circles if I have matching thread. I do love these circles.

Recent intense weekend sewing produced this “Cool Sunday Morning Quilt” from SUNDAY MORNING QUILTS (Amanda Jean Nyberg and Cheryl Arkison). It’s all in blue/green/grey Cotton+Steel low volume fabrics. And it’s meant to be a companion to the recently finished “warm” quilt below, also made from C+S warm low volume fabrics—using Victoria Findlay Wolfe’s herringbone method.

Of course I also have three or four other projects developing or simmering, especially when I get to “playing” with some ideas and fabrics. More on those later.

Turkey Tracks: Vicki Fletcher’s Mt. Battie Modern Traveling Quilt is Done!

Turkey Tracks: October 25, 2018

Vicki Fletcher’s Mt. Battie Modern Traveling Quilt is Done!

Wow! Vicki’s Traveling Quilt—a project last year for the Mt. Battie Modern Quilit Guild—came out so pretty!

It’s the FIRST of these quilts to be finished.

To remind, those of us who took on this challenge started with one block. We each made a little book or set of instructions telling everyone what we liked and disliked. Then, as each of us got the developing quilt, we added to it, using the original information and what other people had done. Gradually, the quilts began to come together along their journey. There were eight of us, and the project took about 18 months.

Here’s a closer view:

Stacy Hallowell at Mainely Sewing, owned by Marge Hallowello, quilted the quilt. I really like the choice of the Bishop’s Fan for this veryl modern quilt.

The backing choice is awesome! And the royal blue binding is just perfect.

Vicki also just finished this quilt for a family member. We held it sideways so it would not get dirty.

Stacyl quilted this one, too. Love the circles!

And look at this great backing! It’s perfect for this quilt.

GO VICKI!!

Turkey Tracks: Coastal Quilters’ 2018 Mothers’ Day Retreat: Part 6

Turkey Tracks: May 21, 2018

Coastal Quilters’ 2018 Mothers’ Day Retreat: Part 6

Here is Jan Kelsey’s “post card” quilt, which she has worked on in previous retreats. The post cards were written by her grandparents and handed down to her.

The quilting came out really pretty. Stacy at Marge Hallowell’s Mainely Sewing, in Nobleboro, Maine, did the long arm quilting.

Jan pulled out this quilt last minute as I was leaving. I absolutely love it. I love blue and neutral quilts anyway, but a house quilt…oh my. I love the half-square triangle corner stones too. They give the quilt a lot of movement I think.

Mac (Nancy) Saulnier and Jan Kelsey went to college together and have remained friends since. Mac comes to us from Massachusetts for our retreat. She worked on a “trip” quilt made with bigger squares. Her husband picked out these colors. She got all the big sections done on this retreat.

This retreat was Jane Liebler’s first. She is discovering that she is an “improv” quilter. Look what she did in the space and time of our retreat. Go Jane.

Turkey Tracks: Play Day

Turkey Tracks: April 39, 2015

Play Day

Last Tuesday was “play day”–with Megan Bruns, who had a day off before starting a new job.

We headed south to Alewives Quilting (Damariscotta Mills) to see the new Cotton + Steel white collection and Megan was looking for fabric for pillows.

Here’s the collection minus the typewriter fabric, which already sold out.

Next we went to Aboca Beads in Damariscotta to make some earrings. Here are mine:

It’s so fun to make earrings!

Lunch was at the River Grill in Damariscotta–they make the best mussels in the whole world.

Coffee for the road at the little bookstore across from the River Grill.

And a stop by Mainely Sewing to visit with Marge Hallowell on the way home.

It was a FUN play day!

Turkey Tracks: “Scrappy Streak” Quilt

Turkey Tracks: April 20, 2015

“Scrappy Streak” Quilt

It occurs to me that I never put finished pics of this quilt up on the blog–though I finished it back in the winter–and am enjoying using it so much.

I apologize for the rug, but it would take two extra people to hold this quilt up for viewing…

I love the graphic nature of this very simple quilt–and it was made with the leftover (now small) pieces of the 2 1/2-inch strips that I used to make the big log cabin and the Bonnie Hunter “scrappy trip” pattern (free on her blog) this past winter. I am loving having these quilts downstairs. They are so colorful and welcoming and so much better than the old dog blanket that used to protect the couch. (The dogs do bring in a lot of mud, especially in mud season.)

I got the backing on sale at, I think, Marge Hallowell’s Mainely Sewing in Nobleboro. And I quilted with my clam shell groovy boards. (This traditional quilt pattern does not fare well with pantographs–at least not in my hands.)

The red border fabric is from a piece I’ve had for over 12 or more years. Ideas about quilts change over the years, and I no longer wanted to make the quilt for which this fabric had been purchased. So… It’s brilliant in this quilt.

Here’s a final view of the graphic nature of this quilt:

Quilts like these three quilts all made from my 2 1/2-inch fabric strips remind me over and over of other quilts I have made. Invariably, seeing a fabric from another quilt makes me smile.

This quilt is No 113 and was finished probably in February.

Turkey Tracks: “Songbird” Quilt

Turkey Tracks: June 25, 2014

Songbird Quilt

A baby quilt for a little girl!

Niece Lucy Howser Stevens was due in June with my great niece…

Here’s the fabric with which I started. I fell in love with the large print last fall at Marge Hallowell’s Maine-ly sewing in Nobleboro, Maine, and knew I’d use it in a baby quilt. Then, while at Maine-ly Sewing, at a January sale day, I saw these polka dot fabrics. Of course they were NOT on sale! As the large print was still in the store, I was able to determine that the polka dots would work. Friend Gail Nicholson saw the BIG polka dots and said she was sure they would work really well with the little ones. So I bought that fabric too.

Here’s the finished quilt–which I sent off last week. Five days to Wyoming…

“Songbird” is a nice size, too–which you can tell when it’s on a queen-sized bed.

Here are some close-ups:

I like the low-contrast of many of the nine-patch blocks in this quilt as they allow the big print and some of the big polka dot fabrics to shine.

Here’s the center:

The backing is pink polka dot:

And the pantograph was Anne Bright’s “12-inch Simple Feathers.” I really like the soft, feminine curves in this pantograph.

The quilting came out really nicely in this quilt. I used a soft cream thread.

So there you have it: “Songbird” quilt for a little girl, Willamina Grace, who, I hope, will sing through her life.

Turkey Tracks: “Blossom,” the wedding quilt

Turkey Tracks: May 13, 2013

“Blossom,” the wedding quilt

Daughter-in-law Tamara Kelly Enright and I wanted to make bride Ashley Malphrus (now White) a wedding quilt. The wedding was April 21, 2013, and it was gorgeous. The ceremony was held with one of the low country rivers as a backdrop–green lawns, big house, big white tent. It was lovely. Ashley and her mother, Allison Malphrus, had thought of so many thoughtful, sweet touches all during the wedding. I’m always in awe of that kind of thoughtfulness as I’m not good at it.

Last Thanksgiving, Tami and I picked out contemporary, colorful Kaffe Fasset fabrics–and Mainely Quilting shopowner Marge Hallowell cut us a big array of the Kaffe Fasset prints. With a “layer cake” design, one starts with a 10-inch square (in our case), cuts off four borders, which leaves a central square. Different borders are put onto different squares, and the result–after using these bright modern prints–is a very contemporary, colorful quilt.

I finished hand sewing the binding just before the wedding and mailed the quilt to Tami. It’s BIG, and I didn’t want to carry it on the plane. Tami and I delivered it the Friday before the wedding, as I didn’t want to have it at the wedding tent. I also wanted to explain that the quilt is an heirloom quilt, to be used and loved, but also to be cherished in the way of being a little careful with it.

Here’s “Blossom”–and it’s not a great picture of it. But you can see how big it is.

Here’s some blocks close up. I quilted it with a bright pink thread, and that is wonderful on both the back and the front. I used a “Sweet Pea” pantograph, but both sides are busy enough that you don’t really see the pattern. It will catch Ashley, some day, when the light falls just right on the quilt. I did the best job ever on the quilting.

Here’s the backing and binding–so you can see how they play with the blocks:

And here’s what “Blossom” might look like folded on the foot of a bed:

The name “Blossom” describes the quilt, yes, but it’s also meant to wish, for Ashley, that she blossoms with her marriage, that her marriage blossoms, that the blossoming creates fruit, that in turn, blossoms, and on and on and on…

Turkey Tracks: “Quilt of Many Colors”

Turkey Tracks: April 8, 2012

Quilt of Many Colors

I’m now thinking of this whole winter’s work as “The Scrappy Quilting Project.”

The “Quilt of Many Colors” helped use up more of the 2 X 31/2 rectangles I have been cutting up for over 10 years. Remember, I pulled out most of the blue ones to make the “Blue Fox Trot” quilt. So, here’s what the pile looked like when I started this quilt.

Clearly they needed to be color sorted first of all:

I had in mind using a pattern from Judy Hooworth and Margaret Rolfe’s book, SUCCESSFUL SCRAP QUILTS FROM SIMPLE RECTANGLES, which has guided me with cutting the 2 x 3 1/2 rectangles in the first place and, then, using them.

But, I didn’t like the way those blocks developed. Hooworth and Rolfe were working with plaids, and their version of this pattern is lovely. My colors were just dying in these blocks. See?

So, I struck out on my own.

I went down to Marge Hallowell’s Mainely Sewing in Nobleboro. Marge has been a great consultant in The Scrappy Quilting Project. She helped me pick out four bright colors: orange, turquoise, acid green, and magenta with a darker purple running through it. I loved what started happening. Note that I’m already alternating how the rectangles orient.

But, I began to see that just having these four bright colors was going to present problems with how to arrange them. Here there’s already a pattern forming on the diagonal of warm and cool blocks in the diagonol lines. So, I started pulling brights out of my stash, and here’s what happened on the design wall.

I found a great backing in Marge’s 40% off attic. And, chose a binding that’s hot pink with yellow stars.

Here’s the quilt all finished. Something about it reminds me of a brand new box of crayons–something to this day I have trouble resisting.

Here’s a block, so you can see how I quilted it–using a freehand daisy chain in lime green thread–which plays nicely against the flowers in the backing fabric.

Here’s the backing and binding. The yellow stars on the hot pink binding are adding a really lively and fun sparkle to this quilt.

So, there you go. A beautiful, fun, charming quilt out of the chaos of all those rectangles.

I’m really happy with this one!

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