Tag: Mary Sue Bishop

Turkey Tracks: Subaru Storage Box Project

Turkey Tracks:  February 7, 2016

Subaru Storage Box Project

The storage box between the two front seats is where No No Penny likes to “ride.”

Both dogs toenails can and do pit the padded top of that box.

So, a few years back, I made a quilted top meant to fit over the top.

Only it never did very well…

And time and sun damage meant it was time to do something else.

One day, friend Mary Sue Bishop got into my car, took one look at the worn-out box protector, and said “I’m making you a new one.”

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Here’s what she was seeing:

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Here’s what she made:

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The dogs weight and “digging in” with the motion of the car can make the protector slide a bit, but it isn’t going anywhere.

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Mary used three strips of velcro to anchor the protector against the above force–and the really important one goes from front to back.  (I had only used elastic side strips.)

She also put in a draw string ribbon, so as the fabric stretches with use, I can tighten it up.

It’s brilliant!  It works!  It matches the car!  And I love it !

Thanks Mary Sue Bishop.

Turkey Tracks: Sister Sue Visits and Fingerless Mittens

Turkey Tracks:  October 22, 2015

Sister Sue Visits and Fingerless Mittens

It’s been busy, busy here.

Sister Susan came for a visit to see the fall leaves and me–the trees are still turning and are very late this year.  But many were beautiful while Sue was here.

While Sue was here, the old oven went out (the back door had to be removed and the old oven dismantled in the kitchen), and the new oven went in.

Sue brought good luck:  this stove event went flawlessly thanks to carpenter and friend Stephen Pennoyer (who came today to install the new stainless steel backsplash), the installation crew from Kelsey’s Appliance, and Linda McKinny, who cleaned where the old stove had been.  The new stove came in with a half-inch leeway!

We walked every day.  The girl dogs were in doggie heaven.

There was a cold snap one day, and we bundled up–which meant I could use the hand-knit fingerless mittens Stephen’s mother Mary Sue Bishop made for me.  (Mary is one of my oldest friends here in Camden.)

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Don’t they go nicely with my new light LLBean coat and the winter hair band Bonnie Sinatro made for me last year.

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Mary Sue Bishop takes orders for the gloves and uses all sorts of wonderful yarns.  And Bonnie is a fellow Bellevue High School (Offutt AFB) 1963 classmate and terrific email friend.

Here’s Sue at Camden Deli for a cup of coffee after our cold-snap walk:

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And here’s our view of the Camden Harbor at dusk.  We’re at the point where the river comes under these buildings and spills in to the harbor.  The windjammers are getting their plastic winter cocoons these days, and the harbor is slowly emptying out.

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Turkey Tracks: Buzz Saw Block

Turkey Tracks:  January 16, 2015

Buzz Saw Block

Mary Sue Bishop and I recently saw a quilt made with a block that we recognized, but we could not come up with the name of it.

My old quilt bee in Virginia made me the sweetest quilt from this block with 1930s fabrics.  See?

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I love the piano key border…

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I came home and searched for the name until I found it.

I knew it was a cross kind of between a log cabin and a pineapple block.

Finally, I turned it over:  it’s a Buzz Saw block.  So I made one:

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This one finishes at 5 1/2 inches–and there are two oranges and two blues, so the whole unit here of four blocks would finish at 10 1/2 inches.

You start with a half-square light/dark triangle that gets cut into four equal strips.  Then one adds a solid strip to the dark-side end.  One must always cut with the same side down–in this case, the dark fabric always went to the bottom.  (If one cuts with the light side down, will that reverse the angle in the middle of each strip???)  (When they passed out spatial relations genes, I didn’t get any.)  Then you realign the strips to form the graduated color, or light, pattern.

Warning:  one tutorial I found started with a 10-inch block, which gets to 9 1/2 inches when you make the half-square triangle.  That’s not so easy to divide into four equal strips.  So….I dropped to an 8 1/2-inch block, which sews in at 8 inches, is easily cut into four equal strips which finish at 7 1/2.

Then to the 6 1/2 square, which finishes to 6, and then, 5 1/2.

The little art quilt we saw had smaller blocks:  we think 4 1/2 which would finish to 3 1/2…

The quilter had used a different setting–one which placed the lights side by side and made them rise and fall…

I wish now I’d taken a picture of it, and I will when I next visit that restaurant:  the River Grill, Damariscotta, Maine.

Meanwhile, I think I could use a fair amount of my stash with this block…

And make a fun quilt.