Tag: Sarah Fielke

My New Sewing Area

Yesterday I SEWED in my organized and (mostly) ready-to-use upstairs sewing area. I say mostly as the design wall is “in progress” and the longarm arrives February 16th.

I love having my sewing machine right in front of these windows which look out to the neighborhood. (The Plantation Shutters were installed yesterday morning, and I love them. They control light so easily, with just a touch on one slat in each panel, and are so modern and uncluttered.) It is dusk outside, but I have plenty of light for sewing with all my portable lights.

My second machine is set up on the short wall behind me, with my bulletin board above it. This machine is set up with the walking foot for installing bindings or sewing a grid onto a smaller quilt. The hallway to the big room is to the right, and a closet is further to the right on the other short wall–so more storage for the bins I have with cut strips and blocks.

To the left is the wall that will become a design wall.

I began my new sewing adventure yesterday by making the 5th row on the Traverse BOM project designed by Tara Faughnan and hosted by Sewtopia. I have the fabric for three more rows and will catch up with those first thing. Sewtopia is shipping the rest of the rows in a few weeks in one package. Getting hold of the fabrics has been hard for Sewtopia this winter.

Here are a few finished blocks in a wide row that will use two rows to make its design. I am testing to see if my blocks are perfect as the row has to measure exactly to all the other rows.

***First, before giving you more pics of the upstairs, a blog reader asked me about the quilt on the downstairs couch. It is a “Sunday Morning Quilt” finished in March 2019. The blog post is as follows: https://louisaenright.com/2019/03/10/turkey-tracks-sunday-morning-quilt/

There is a search feature on the right sidebar of my blog.

The stairs to the upstairs areas stop at a landing where I hung this quilt on the right side. This area is filled with light.

This picture is too dark, probably from the top bar of the shutters, but there is a lot of light in this space. This picture shows the truer colors in this quilt–which I designed some years back in a class taught by Amy Friend.

There is a long wall flanking the right side of the walkway into the larger “game room” area where the longarm will live when it arrives on the 16th. There are blog posts on all of these quilts. The quilt on the far left is made from a block and fabric palette created by Latifah Saafir as guest designer for The Color Collective. The quilt on the right in an improv method designed by Tara Faughnan for The Color Collective. The “four season” quilts in the middle were inspired by Sarah Fielke in the book by Sarah and Kathy Doughty, MATERIAL OBSESSIONS 2.

The “game room,” which is dark, is next. The longarm will go here. To the left is a closet and beyond it the utility room that houses the ac/heating systems. All three quilts represent work done in The Color Collective seasons.

On the opposite wall I set up the serger, and there is a bookcase flanked by storage units that store items that will be needed in this room. The longarm is coming with an overhead light bar that will help with light in this room. The New York Beauty quilt is my design, and the diamond quilt is a smaller version of a quilt designed by Tara Faughnan in The Color Collective. The larger version is hanging in the downstairs hallway.

The hallway door on the left is a closet that houses my fabric stash and beyond is my sewing room.

I’ve been working hard in the last few years to whittle down my stash, and it all fits easily into this closet. The top right shelf on the right is filled with projects I need to make but have not started.

There is a very nice bathroom opposite this closet.

I brought the very comfortable queen blow-up bed with me, and it will be easy to set it up in the sewing room if I have overflow guests. There is the downstairs guest room, and the grey couch in the tv/sitting room is a queen sofa bed, but more privacy would be available for a guest upstairs.

So, there you have it–a tour of the sewing digs.

Turkey Tracks: I Hung My Four Seasons Quilts Myself

Turkey Tracks:  October 19, 2014

I Hung My Four Seasons Quilts Myself

 

I am feeling REALLY SUCCESSFUL this afternoon.

I finished my “Four Seasons” quilts and hung them myself this afternoon.

LOOK!

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Here’s another view:

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And one more:

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(There are close-ups for these quilts earlier on the blog–though I added more “falling blossom” buttons to “Spring” last night.)

(And a reminder that these quilts were inspired by Sarah Fielke’s quilt in MATERIAL OBSESSIONS 2–and I used her tree-trunk template.)

I found the nice white rods at Loews about a week ago.

Each rod has 4 nails–which required a trip to the hardware store this morning for a box of “just right” nails.   AND, all the nails had to be lined up perfectly both horizontally and vertically–which took the 4-foot level I purchased last summer.  (It’s such a useful tool.)

The hanging took a bit of math, a ladder, a footstool, patience, no panic, etc., etc., etc.

Boy am I happy with how they look hanging.

The quilt you see on the bed was a gift from the Coastal Quilters when John got really, really sick.  Isn’t it beautiful?

I have spent some time this year making this room a pretty bedroom/office (for me).  I reframed some pictures John took–and one of our wedding.  Melody Pendleton painted it.  I consolidated all the “office” stuff–and moved my work space into the office space. I’m almost done.

(The little hand-made doll is a version of one I gave a granddaughter on her third birthday.  Her younger sister will get this one on her third birthday.  There are blog posts on these dolls here.)

 

Turkey Tracks: The Four Seasons Quilts

October 3, 2014

The Four Seasons Quilts

 

I have spent large time chunks this summer making the Coastal Quilters’ 2015 challenge:  The Four Seasons.

We could do one of the seasons, or all four.

We had a length requirement, but could use a range of sizes for the width.

These challenge quilts will be hung at our state show, mounted by the Pine Tree Quilters Guild, in July 2015.

 

I was inspired by the banner show from Italy at the Machine Expo in Manchester, New Hampshire, last spring.  These seasonal banners were hung by the separate seasons–and you can see them in an earlier post here.

But here’s a reminder–here’s spring:

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And I used an idea done by Sarah Fielke in the book by Sarah and Kathy Doughty, MATERIAL OBSESSIONS 2.

 

Fielke supplied the idea for the tree crown–made with a wedge ruler–and the template for the tree trunk.

 

Here are my “Four Seasons”:

Spring:

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Summer:

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Here’s a detail of the pearl cotton quilting used in all the quilts:

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Fall:

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And my favorite, though “Fall” is a close second, Winter:

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Turkey Tracks: Snow Day!

Turkey Tracks:  February 13, 2014

Snow Day!

As I write, the sky is pouring snow.  It’s still unclear how much we will get and if warmer temps will turn some of the moisture into sleet.

Our monthly knitting meeting has cancelled for the second time this month.   When it starts to snow this seriously, I hunker down and take pleasure in all my projects–on the theory that some trips are not worth the risk.  In this case, it’s not the going, it’s the getting home after several hours of snow.

So, as we are deep into February, my wild turkeys are now quite tame.  I throw them leftover chicken food, some scratch, and some sunflower seeds.  It seems to be my mission in life to feed things.

I’ve told you they talk to me–so I took this little video yesterday–a bit after some long conversations had already occurred.  And my goodness, you should have heard them this morning.  They knew the storm was coming.

The males are really starting to display now, and their heads are turning cobalt blue.  I will try to get pics of that phenomenon soon.

Look at THIS:

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I have six of the 12 needed of these BIG hexies.  I am working on the 7th and have two more planned.  You will recall that this idea/pattern comes from Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke in Material Obsession 2:  More Modern Quilts with Traditional Roots.   Remember these earlier pictures of two different settings?

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And:

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The issue is bed quilt or wall hanging.  I go back and forth daily.

I have a quilt on the long arm and will work on that some this afternoon.

And I am listening to an Elizabeth George mystery downloaded from the library:  Careless in Red.  I have to finish it as Mary Karr’s Lit, which I had put a hold on, is now available.

Oh my goodness!!!  So many good things to do, so little time.

Turkey Tracks: I’m Obsessed: Hand Sewing

Turkey Tracks:  November 18, 2013

I’m Obsessed

with

Hand Sewing

It’s official.

I’m obsessed with hand sewing.  I have one project going and two more planned.  And I can’t wait for dark to fall so I can settle in and hand sew while watching something fun on the television.  Though just at the moment I’m hand-quilting the clam shell quilt which is, as yet, nameless, but not homeless.  And, I’m putting the binding on the Winding Ways/Wheels of Mystery quilt which I’m naming “Earth.”

I think my obsession all started with Bonnie Hunter’s numerous posts on her hexie projects.  Hexies are all the rage in quilting these days, which I’m sure most quilters know.  And these projects are NOT your grandmother’s flower garden variety.

Or, maybe it was seeing the gorgeous quilt that Rhea Butler of Alewives quilting, in Damariscotta Mills, Maine, from Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke’s MATERIAL OBSESSION 2 book.  (Those gals are from Australia, the home of fantastic quilting.)

I did a hexie project a while back–a challenge to depict a grocery store product–I chose Green Hive Honey, a local raw, unheated honey.  That quilt was called “A Thousand Flowers” since that’s what it takes to make a ridiculously small bit of raw honey.  (You can search for it elsewhere on the blog.)  I found sewing the hexies tedious–especially the whip stitching that joined them.  And the stitches showed in a way I didn’t like.

BUT, But, But!  There is a better way to do this whole process.  And I began to discover that only recently with Micky Dupre and Bonnie Hunter’s book, RING AROUND THE HEXIES:  A Collaboration Celebration.

Hexie blocks

You can English Paper Piece the hexies and then the way you join them is NOT with whip stitching.  I’m posting a video from Leah Davis that’s a close-up of her hands piecing hexies in the “new” way in a separate post.  (Ask and you shall receive from the universe.)

So, Bonnie makes a pieced quilt, leaving, in the above case, blank black squares on-point.  Micky pieces a hexie formation–and she manipulates the hexies to get interesting color changes–and appliques her arrangement onto the quilt.  They are beautiful.  The resulting quilt is beautiful.

But, I think my own obsession stemmed from Rhea Butler’s quilt from MATERIAL OBSESSIONS–hanging in Alewives.  And somehow I did not take a picture of the whole quilt.

Kite Block book

That quilt is made of large hexies–all constructed from a kite-shape (a quadrilateral) that when combined forms a hexie.

Here are some examples of those bigger blocks.  You can see the “kite” in the dark, outer prints with circles–it takes two “kites” to form that dark patch.  The outer neutral fabric is also made of the “kite” shape.  The red dotted fabric is used to link a line of blocks together–it’s a large diamond shape.

Kite Template block

And, here hyou can see the kite shape a bit better:

Kite block 2

These big hexies are joined with interesting geometric shapes and lavish, BIG borders from contemporary fabrics.

Here’s fabric for my first try at these blocks–and you can see the kite template.  The dark fabric will be used on the outer ring.  I suspect the peach fabric will form the inner ring.

Kite Block fabrics

I was going to do these by hand, but Rhea says they sew well on the machine, too.  So, I’ll play around.

BUT, if I’m not going to hand-sew these, what is going to occupy my fingers?

This project I suspect:

Take a hexie and pull out the sides, and you get a “honeycomb” hexie.  And back in the day in England, a woman named Lucy Boston used that shape to construct the most amazing quilts.  Rhea Butler was already playing with this honeycomb hexie when I saw her last.

Here’s the book, done by Linda Franz, and a packet of honeycomb papers.  One varies the block by varying the fabric color within the block.

Honeycomb blocks

Whatever I do I’ll pull from the stash.

So, on to Leah Day’s excellent video.