Yup - I did it again!

Don't you wonder how the brain works (or in this case - doesn't work!). Just 2 short weeks ago I lost 2 bindings for my Jane border and spent an hour looking for them. So yesterday I wanted to work on my quilt for the AQSG Past and Present 1825 challenge and I went searching for the little hexagons I had made a few weeks ago. Where could they be, I asked myself after 45 minutes of searching???  I finally gave up and went out to shovel more snow. It was a medium weight snow (now I know why the Inuit people have 16 different words for snow, however, i can only think of one at this point and it is not white in color!) and as I took a shovel full it dawned on me that I had placed my little babies under some heavy books to keep them flat. Hmm, I guess that means snow is good for something!

This was the view out my sun porch (sun - really??) window this morning. Not only do we have over 4' of snow in the yard but it is 14 below this morning, just to put things in perspective. The weatherman said that with the windchill factor last night it "felt like" 40 below. I love this new "feels like" that they use nowadays. How do calculate that? I say it feels !#$% COLD! We don't usually talk about the weather in Maine, it is too variable. In fact, we have a saying, "If you don't like the weather in Maine, wait a minute". But this winter is different. Our major ski mountains have closed the lifts from time to time on account of wind, but this year they have cancelled lift service due to excessive cold. 

I am shamefully behind in my "Stars in a Time Warp" posting and was going to share them today, but forgot to photograph them last night. Lori, from Humble Quilts is joining in the fun. Check out her beautiful stars. Hope you all can take a minute to join in the fun. I am anxious to see what people do with their finished stars.

O.k. enough, I will leave you with a photo of my ugly ironing board cover and another stack of Jane border blocks. I haven't dared to start assembling them yet. Maybe tomorrow!

Jane management and a reveal!

I know a lot of people took their Dear Jane book to a print shop to change to a spiral binding. I simply cut the binding off (on the band saw) and put it into a 3 ring binder. This way, I could photocopy (for my use ONLY) any pattern I needed. As I mentioned before I did re-draft quite a few blocks, mainly because I prefer applique to piecing (clearly Jane did not!) and changed many of Jane's originals from piecing to applique. I also glued a scrap of each fabric used next to the pattern in the book. 

I did try to match Jane's fabric selection as closely as I could. The fabric swatches made it much easier to keep track of the order of the border blocks.

Ohhhhh sorry to show you my ugly ironing board cover! Time for a new one I think!

And, now for the reveal... I am cheating I suppose, but because I do love applique and because I am hand quilting the border triangles, I have opted to simply applique circles on the alternate blocks instead of piecing. I couldn't imagine hand quilting all those tiny little pieces and I just love appliqueing circles. 

I hope it doesn't make it look too contemporary, but I have finished all the appliques and I am NOT doing them over. I think it will look nice when finished. XXXX those are my fingers crossing!

Have a quilty day!

Super Snow-Sew day

I hope all you New Englanders had a super sew day! I was able to finish up a number of my triangle border pieces on my "Cooking With Jane" potholder quilt. I have almost an entire side done. 

I was also able to make up a few dozen kits for some of my upcoming potholder classes. I am teaching 4 classes in the next few months so it was nice to get a few kits made up. The kits include squares to make two 4-patch blocks, with bating, backing and binding for both. 

And, a friend kindly sent me these photos of my quilt at the "Road to California" this past week. 

I am in very good company between two award winning quilters, Linda Roy (one of my hand quilting idols) and Janet Stone.

 What more could I ask for (except maybe to be standing there with it!). Thanks for the photos and the kind words Pam.

Enjoy the day.

Snow day - sew day

I usually don't believe forecasters, but it looks like they may be right this time and we are in for some snow. Seems like we had very few "snow days" when I was growing up (in Maine). I remember being glued to the TV in the morning, waiting for the "cancellation" that never came. Unless more than a foot was predicted, we got on the bus (actually a Ford station wagon). 

Well, I think I will predict my own snow-sew day tomorrow. Hope all of you in New England can do the same. Stay warm and safe and happy quilting.

Snow pattern by Simon Beck - he is amazing!! Makes me want to strap on the snowshoes - after my day of quilting of course.

Happy dance!!!

I just found out that my"No Bake Applique" potholder quilt won 2nd place in the traditional applique category at Road to California. I wish I was there with it! It was great to see the judge's comments.

Good variation in background colors and good color placement throughout.
Fun to see a potholder quilt.
Construction is very well done.
Very good applique technique.
Extremely fine hand quilting stitch.


I especially liked the comment: Fun to see a potholder quilt. It has been interesting to see people's reactions to this historic method. 

Whoop - whoop!

And the winner is...

I am thrilled and a bit overwhelmed by the response to my scrap giveaway. You all have had such great comments on how you manage your scraps. I had 91 comments in all - wow. I couldn't figure out the random generator so I counted every comment from the beginning from 1 - 91 and put them in this bucket (after I tossed the remains) I drew out #62. Congratulations Vic in NH at Park Hill Farm  . Ironic, Victoria since you live in the next state and when I checked out your Blog, your January 21st post is titled "Shopping My Stash". Well, now you can shop from mine! Do check out her Blog, Park Hill Farm. And once again, I thank you all for your comments and words of wisdom.

Turkey red stitch along

I am overwhelmed and delighted by the response to my scrap giveaway and I can hardly wait for Friday! Please check out all the comments to see how others deal with their scraps. I'm having a ball reading them all. Thank you so much for participating. I wish I could send them to all of you!

As I mentioned, my friend Cyndi and I are following Barbara Brackman's Civil War Quilts stitch along called Stars in a Time Warp. We are making 6" Variable stars. Each Wednesday, Barbara lets us know what color she will feature. Last week was Turkey red, and here are two of my stars. Barbara asks us to think like a 19th century quiltmaker while planning the blocks. This is not easy for people who are precision piecers (myself NOT included). Even though I am not a perfectionist, this first one was a bit of a stretch for me. I tried to use the checked background in a way that it might have been used in the mid 19th century. If the piece wasn't big enough, just add a piece onto it and don't worry about the direction fof the check. Hmmm.

This one was far easier as I often use two or more similar fabrics in a block. This star has 3 different Turkey reds in it.

 Check out Barbara's Blog and join in the fun!