Signs of Spring!

Mud season is almost over  

and we are starting to see signs of spring.

My local group had scheduled a trunk show and class with miniature quilter extraordinaire, Leslie Muir Volpe for our guild’s April meeting. Unfortunately, she had to cancel so I filled in with a few of my mini quilts. I have posted most of my minis before, so I will share this little gem.

This lovely strippy was made for me by a dear sweet friend! She used one true antique fabric and challenged me to find it. Sue has a tremendous collection of reproduction prints. I had fun poring over each piece until I found it! Thanks a million Sue!!!

the antique piece is the one with the strawberry on the light background

I've been working on my April mini. Here's a sneak peak. Have a great day! 

Hospital Sketches - Love Apple

Block #3 in Barbara Brackman’s (Civil War Quilts)  “Hospital Sketches” sew-a-long is done.I adore the Love Apple block and I always enjoy making it. This was by far the largest I had ever done (18" finished), but it was a lot of fun. 

Once again, I am having trouble capturing that sweet pea green background fabric. 

My friend Meliss Swanson brought hers to our last meeting and we had fun showing them off. These two photos are a better representation of the color of my background. Meliss is machine appliqueing hers and they are spectacular! I love how she pieced 4 blocks together for her background.

You can see more of Meliss' work on the Hospital Sketches Facebook page (here). 

It's not to late to join in the fun!

A quick trip

Last weekend we went to Florida to visit this little guy (and his parents).

We took him to the MoteAquarium in Sarasota because he loves watching the sharks.

Imagine my surprise when I spotted this fabulous quilt in the foyer. It was a fabulous example of texture and color.

If you are ever in the area it is worth stopping by just to look at this interesting quilt!

As for our boy, I miss him already!!

String Fling & Pam Buda pin cushion update

I’m making progress on my potholder style string quilt sew-a-long with Humble Quilts. Check out Lori’s blog (here) for links to all the fun string quilts.

back - so far

I put all the bindings on at a recent quilt-a-thon and now all I have to do is machine stitch them down and put them together. 

The jury is still out on how I am going to like the machine zig-zag stitch, but this will likely go to our local Hospice and the recipient will love the colors and probably won’t notice the stitching!

And here is my monthly project from Pam Buda’s Vintage Patchwork book. April’s project is called “Walden” (you may remember Pam has titled all the projects in the book after 19^th century books) and was a real cinch to whip up.

You just can’t have to many pin cushions! I think that is just what Randy (Barrister's Block) said when she posted her little pin cushion (here).

Cathy (Big Lake Quilter) finished her adorable little pin keep as well. Check it out (here). What fun!

Happy Spring!

March Monthly Mini - Goodbye Mud Season

"Goodbye Mud Season" 

I have to post my monthly mini a little early this month as I will be off line until April 2. I apologize to anyone who hasn't posted yet. I will link yours up next week.

I love living in Maine. Nature is all around us. We have vast forests, glorious mountains, abundant farmland, beautiful rivers and the spectacular ocean. Mother Nature has also graced us with an extra season. In between the wonders of Winter and the promise of Spring, we have “Mud Season”!

What could be more welcoming during mud season than to have some beautiful bright feedsacks up on the wall? I’ve admired Racheldaisy’s (Blue Mountain Daisy) fabulous colorful quilts forever, so when she came out with patterns, I snatched them up. I just love the name of this one “Charming Smiles”.  You can find her patterns on her Etsy site (here).

I reduced the size from the pattern to accommodate the mini theme. I thought that curve might be a challenge in such a small size but it went pretty smoothly. I think if I were to make it with feedsack fabric again, I would starch the fabric first. It's not perfect, but certainly what I call "close enough". 

I wanted to use a turquoise rickrack, but I didn't have enough so I went with the yellow. I'm thinking I bought this package in high school. Seventeen cents?!!! 

I used a vintage floral for the back. 

Here are links to all the fabulous monthly minis. As always, feel free to jump in any time. I try to post them in the last few days of the month.

Randy (Barrister'sBlock)

Barbara (Quilts,Gravestones and Elusive Ancestors)

Barb (Fun WithBarb)

Janet (RogueQuilter) 

Quilting Babcia (AmityQuilter)

And Karen (Log Cabin Quilter) has made a little bunny quilt this month that you will want to see!

Happy Mud Season!

New England Quilt Museum visit

On Saturday I went on a most fabulous adventure to the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, Massachusetts. I have been to the museum numerous times and each new visit is better than the last! This time I went on via a bus trip organized by Meliss (no blog, but her FB page is here) for our local Kaleidoscope Quilters group.

 
Laura, Barb and me having fun!

And, the best part of this visit was meeting up with friends, Pam Weeks and Laura Lane from the museum and our own Barb (Fun with Barb). I forgot my iPad and I am horrible at getting good photos with my phone, but if you want to see some fantastic pictures visit Barb’s post (here). We had a ball!

There were 4 exhibits, each with its own appeal. The main gallery featured, "Guns: Loaded Conversations" by the Studio Art Quilt Associates. Pam made it quite clear that this was an exhibition of quilts protesting “gun violence”, not guns in general. I must admit they were disturbing and it was difficult to look at them as quilts and not simply what they represent.

There were two rooms filled with the little quilts of Nancy Messier. What a remarkable artist. Her quilts are absolutely amazing! This one was one of my favorites. 

The “Just for the Fun of It” exhibition of quilts from the Pilgrim/Roy collection was sensational. None of my photos came out so to see some great photos check out Barb's post (here).

My quilt pick of the day was this little gem in the permanent collection of the museum. I love the fact that it not only has the 4 poster cutouts, but it has little buttons which at one time were used to fasten the loop around the tiny bed post. Sweet as can be! 

After lunch we got back on the road and headed to the Quilted Crow in Bolton, for a little retail therapy. A fun day was had by ALL. Thanks Meliss for organizing such a great trip.

Oh, the wonders of the internet.

As I was searching for something totally unrelated, I came across a quilt I had made in 1991 titled, “Hoffman Garden”. It was part of the Great American Quilt Festival II. I think the theme may have been something to do with flowers. Contests were pretty sparse back then. I had entered the first festival in 1986 and had my name published in the book, "All Flags Flying" as being runner up from Maine. 

I decided to try again in 1991 and won. It was a purchase award by the American Folk Art Museum (Then known as the Museum of American Folk Art). I traveled with my friend to New York City to attend the ceremony and met my idol, Jean Ray Laury. She could see I was nervous and was ever so sweet to me. There was no publication for the second contest, so I had lost track of this all together. 

 As far as the quilt is concerned, I hope "I've come a long way baby"!