Quilt Tease

Laura's and Jeff's marriage quilt-a quick peek!

Today I delivered this long-awaited wedding quilt to the quilter. It measures approximately 102" square. More photos when it's bound, sometime around Thanksgiving.

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Beach Boy

Mom and Dominick
Myrtle Beach house, September 2009

Below is Dominick's Happy Quilt. It's only been in the pipeline for a year. The pinwheels are 3-dimensional as are the prairie points. Except for the backing, which Dominick and Mom helped pick, I had everything in my stash.

We Interrupt This Program...

...to bring you Nature!!!

I realize that the purpose of my little blog is to document all of the quilts I've made over the years and I've pretty much stayed to the quilting theme, but now and then my local nature is just so beautiful I have to share it. Although we are just beginnig autumn, I'm catching up here with summer.

Here is the town green again, in full summer. It really is a pretty, peaceful oasis. This is the last in the seasonal series of the green.

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Summertime can be really beautiful and relaxing in my town. Over the years, my buddies and I have met at The Grove down at the beach on Sundays.

We relax and work on various qulting projects, usually sewing binding, but every now and then doing some hand piecing. Browsing through quilt magazines keeps us motivated and thinking about projects we can do together. Dunkin' Donuts is nearby so we usually take a "coffee and..." break. Most times I'll bring the Sunday NY Times special sections to read but it seems I can never get to them. We plant ourselves on the one picnic table that always has shade (you can see it in the picture above) and occasionally folks will stop by to see what we are doing. However, this past summer has been so wet and chilly that we have not brought quilting with us - so we just walk, walk walk, and then go have a late breakfast. Recently I caught two gorgeous days in The Grove and was at the beach by 8:30 a.m. Each time a friend found me and my goal of actually finishing the NY Times was not achieved!

Here are some pictures of my slice of summer heaven:

My chair and

what I see from my chair:

The Boardwalk (it's concrete) and the beach beyond:

The Sailor

In the meantime, I've continued to work on finishing up Dominick's first birthday quilt (from 3 months ago) and his "happy quilt" (to go with his smile) made with bright primary colors.

I really didn't accomplish much this summer due to travel to California and my California family coming here. Because the boys, now 4 and 2, needed a place to sleep, I had to break down my quilt studio for the month of August. I did take Kyle on a fabric hunting trip to our local quilt shop. He made me write down the names of all the fabrics he liked. The funniest was "space ormalized fabric," really a Kona Christmas fabric with stars and moons, hence the space moniker. I was able to convince him he could use new pillow cases instead of blankets. (Yessss!)

Kyle at my "office"

Bob and I recently returned from a wonderful week in Myrtle Beach where - guess what? - I found two terrific quilt shops!!! Of course I came home with more fabric and new projects!

Now back to regular quilting programming...

Winter and Spring 2009 Remembered

Here it is Summer, finally! June has been a terrible month this year. I think we've had a total of 4 days of full sun. Perhaps Southern California has exported its "June Gloom" to Connecticut.

This is my spring view of our town green:

And my only yellow iris:

I can't say that I have accomplished a whole lot of quilting, although I spend almost every evening in my quilt studio. I have been working on a block-of-the-month project, The Queen and Her Court, through a CT quilt shop. I've completed the first 6 blocks plus the center medallion. Um, oh yes, I did finish the top for a flannel lap quilt for myself which I started maybe 2 years ago. And I did finish the top for Dominick's first birthday quilt, "Would You Like to Swing on a Star?" panel that Laura gushed about when she was with me at the quilt shop not long after Dominick was born. She insisted I didn't have to make it, but I kept it in the back of my mind. The opportunity presented itself and walah, a birthday quilt (which needs to be backed and quilted). I am currently working on Dominick's "Happy Quilt" for which Laura and Dominick helped pick the backing recently. It's full of primary colors. Pictures of all to follow soon.

The following was a draft post I neglected to upload back in May...

It's been a long winter here in Connecticut with snow that would not melt for weeks. Just as we could once again see our brown lawn, BAM! an end-of-winter storm dumped more than 6 inches of the fluffy stuff on us in March. I was hoping to get a better picture with snow actually on the trees, but I waited too long.

This is my winter view of our town green:

Note the still-packed snow on the street - I like driving around while the snow is still pristine, before it gets sloppy and everything looks dirty.

And this is how COLD it was...

This is actual FROST on the west window of my quilt studio. I removed the bottom curtain so you could get the full effect.

While we endured long-lasting snow, I WAS busy in my quilt studio working on Laura's and Jeff's wedding quilt. You'll have to wait to see pictures till it gets quilted, sometime this fall.

I need a new iron...HELP!

Is there anybody out there who can point me to a good, inexpensive iron for quilting? I just bought a Black & Decker Steam Advantage F1000 and I am returning it. It seems that when the iron stops heating, it just turns off and will not go back on unless I unplug it and plug it back in! AND it turned off while I was ironing!!!

One More California Quilt

This is the last California quilt to post, I hope. I made this one entirely in California with my Brother sewing machine I purchased out there to keep out there whenever the urge to sew came over me. This is yet another of Kyle's quilts that I made when he was really little. He uses it for his "baby" he puts in the little shopping cart out in the yard. This is the cover quilt on one of Mary Hickey's books.

On another note, during my last visit out there at Thanksgiving, I learned that the local quilt shop, Candy's Quilt Works, was moving CLOSER to my daughter's house - within WALKING distance!!!! I don't have any trips planned for the near future, but when I'm there and everyone is at work, you'll know where you can find me if I'm not at the house....

A Quilter's New Year's Resolutions

Is this true for every quilter I know?

1. Finish all UFO's that have been in "the pile" for the last several years.

2. Resolve not to buy any new fabric unless truly needed for a project.

3. Sew down the stash!!!

[but I never have the right green...]

Panic Attack! I have so many more pictures to take of quilts I've made. Who knew how many are out there since I began quilting? Egads!

Time Out for Christmas

Here are a few of the Christmas quilts I have made over the years. These are by no means all of them! I just have to visit other folks to take those pictures.

Mystery using Thimbleberries fabric

Pattern from a magazine

Not technically a Christmas quilt, but the colors work.

Jim Shore Collection on a Christmas block

Leftover block from A Star for All Seasons

Another mystery. The technique was "pull a strip out of a paper bag and sew it to another strip." I don't think I cheated. Lots of sewing.

Closeup

Snowmen. I could have sold this ten times over.

Thimbleberries Christmas Apples. This is so old I don't even remember piecing it. Horrors! I am now working on the binding, holding to my New Year's resolution #1.

Log Cabin Christmas Tree made in a class when I was new to quilting. Our cat ripped off a few of the bells on the ribbons, at least 10 years ago. I still have those bells...

A Moda panel. My friend Joann and I used cute buttons to embellish. Hers is still unfinished...

Kyle's big boy quilt. This is what kept me busy before Christmas. I had to fedex it to get it to Santa for delivery. Kyle picked out the space shuttle fabric, the monkey fabric and the solid blue which he said, "will go real nice with the other fabric Gramma." He's 3. I filled in with the soccer and star fabrics.

Grandchildren will put the kabosh on whatever project you've got on the table, because we can always find a reason to make another quilt for them, don't you agree?