Irene.....ehhhh

Well, I have been working, a bit slowly, on my first attempt at a flying geese pattern quilt. The major distraction has been those darn little triangles that you cut off to make the blocks. I couldn't just let them go to waste. So, I matched them up, sewed and pressed them, and then started chain stitching them together thinking they could make a nice border, or a cut backing embellishment. After realizing I had almost 400 units, I thought it might make a nice little quilt. Mean while, the main quilt sat on my cutting board in various stages of done, silently wishing I would stop ignoring it.

Now my Dad and his wife are here for a visit.  This weekend is the start of our beloved Champlain Valley Fair. The kids are stoked, the tickets are bought, the ride bands are waiting for wrists to hug....and Irene is threatening to ruin it all. And what I say to all this is....BRING IT IRENE....BRING IT!!!

"Take 20" Quilts

Back to why I started this blog!

I decided it would be fun to show 3 variations of the same quilt. The pattern is called "Take 20" and it's just that. You take 20 fat quarters, make 5 simple cuts, mix them up and, poof! You have a generous lap/twin size quilt. And the best part is how many different ways you can make it.

The first time I made this quilt, I used a Thimbleberries Fat Quarter collection in a Red/Green/Gold that was a perfect match for the living room. Used beige muslin for the back and a simple stitch the ditch.

Then I made one in Blue and Orange prints (with a few fun novelty kid prints) for Aerik...the boy who LOVES orange! Again, beige muslin and a stitch the ditch quilting.

And finally, I decided to make a smaller Crib sized version in Becca's colors. Hot pink, soft orange, and a few pastel greens. White muslin backing, with a hand stitched 5 loop flower design. 

I'm finding it's a lot of fun to find a pattern you like and then see how many different looks you can get from fabric combinations and quilting techniques!  (And let's face it, it's a great cover for "having" to buy more fabric......)

Our July Vacation

Ok, I know I posted Rhianna's quilt last week, and now I'm going backwards to share about our trip.

One of my "bucket list" items was to rent a house for vacation somewhere. I just figured it would be on a beach, but considering 1. how expensive it can be, and 2. that we didn't want to spend more time driving that beaching, we thought we would check out Maine.  Nope, not happening. Apparently the average water temperature in July/August is 60-65 degrees. That is WETSUIT water in my opinion.
So, a little inland, and we settled on New Hampshire.

What's in New Hampshire? Trees. Lot's of them. And Mountains. And Lakes. And OUTLET MALLS!!! I am not a shopper, but my god, are there a lot of outlets in New Hampshire. It should be renamed New Mallshire.

But back to the vacation. We rented a cute little cabin in Conroy (o, so it hasn't had a redo since the late 60s) and we were on a little swimming pond. The kids swam and found tons of fresh water clams.

We went to the outlets, and down to Center Harbor for Keepsake Quilting www.keepsakequilting.com,
took the kids go-cart racing,

went to Story Land http://www.storylandnh.com/, and drove up Mt. Washington. I can honestly say, if you want to see some amazing east coast country, and get back to outdoor vacationing, this is the place to go!

Rhianna's Graduation Quilt

Well, it's done. And it's GORGEOUS if I do say so myself. Rhianna is Tammy's beautiful daughter, and I have known her since she was a wee little one. This past May, this beautiful amazing young woman graduated high school. I thought, "well, I made mom a wedding quilt, so I should make Rhi a graduation quilt". And true to form, it was my pattern choice.



Now in the spirit of tormenting the sweet girl, I sent her a graduation card with snips of all the fabrics I planned to use in this quilt (thanks to her aunt Necy for the color tips). But no word of size, pattern, order, anything. Mid way through, my old machine dies, I decided to pull out the ELNA work horse, go to the VQF and decided for the big 4 0 it's time to buy my own big girl machine. (previous posts).

Now pieced, I started hand quilting it with a gorgeous hand dyed thread that was too fine to use single ply, so....doubled up I went along. Stars done in a 1/4 shadow, sashing the same, and a gorgeous grape leaf pattern on the outer border.

The Pattern was taken from the McCalls Scrappy Quilts collection and it's called 'Royal Order'. They suggested using a gold set of fabrics which a replaced with Blue.

 Lilly gave it her seal of approval.

I used a mixture of Batik and classic tone-on-tone prints for the rail blocks. And now it's proudly living in Kentucky!