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!

Been kinda quiet...

So, I haven't been much motivated to post lately. I didn't realize how hard it is to talk to yourself. Several of my pals have stopped by, but no comments, no followers...sniff sniff.

Anyway, in the interest of staying active and being committed to this whole blog thing, I'm breaking a cardinal rule and posting that I'm going on vacation. I'm taking Rhi's quilt with me (I am finishing the boarder quilting, and hope to have it ready to bind when we return!!!!), my nook, lots of sun screen, and yes, the kids.  I hope to take part of a day and go see the AMAZING Keepsake Quilting and Patternworks in person. And I am even taking money....yay!!! Fabric, here I come!

Also, I have just finished another quilt top, and this time I took my husbands advice and took pictures along the way to show a "progression" of the process. These are the main blocks.

  And the flying geese units.

The main units coming together. This was a chance for me to use up some of that REALLY old fabric I had in my stash, while making it look "younger" with newer fabrics.

Not too bad when they come together....

First just the top...a little ho hum.

And then the top once the batik border and the outer border are added. I love how the flying geese are NOT symmetrical in placement. 

Close up of the black-on-mottled batik border. This is a blend of batiks, and "classic" prints. The oldest had a date of 1994 on the selvage, and then the red multi print I bought just a few months ago. What doesn't show up in this picture is the gold fleck detail. It gives the quilt just a little sparkle. Lots of fun. I haven't taken a picture of it yet, but all the half squares that came from the main blocks I sewed and pressed and will put on the back as a border...a Quiltville "waste not"!

Continuation of Tammy's Quilt

So here is my shout out to two of my dearest, closest, bestest friends! Tammy (the sneaky girl she is) has been reading my blog on the sly and saw my comment that I regretfully did not remember to take a closeup of the quilting detail. So, she posted several pictures for me to steal. Here is the one that I think shows it best~

Thank you Tam!

Tammy and Jason's "wedding" quilt

I realized in looking back through my pictures, that I hadn't explained the one I use as my header, and as my FB id. This quilt is made from two blocks: Jacob's Ladder, and the Buckeye. It worked out to be roughly 64"x64". A generous throw, small bed cover.




 I first saw it as the featured quilt in one of my many magazines, and loved the country cuddly look. And since it was fat quarter friendly, I decided it was time to clean out that drawer of some fabric. Yeah....right. Nice story, isn't it?

I went a little more for the bright and jewel tone colors from my "big cut" stash, and was thrilled with the collective. But man was it a lot of cut, sew, press, cut, press, sew....

My only regret is not getting a close up of the hand quilting. I used a white thread and did a modified shadow stitch around the main pattern, with a traveling outline stitch into some of the background fabric.  I swore this was it, never doing it again....and I now have a bag with the next round of fabrics set aside for the quilt I "won't " be making again....

Necy and Bryan's Quilt

Continuing to post my past quilts, another one I loved doing was this "throw" sized tumbler I made for my dear friend Necy and her goofy husband Bryan. Necy shares my passion for Purple, and hey, Green doesn't hurt either.

This was another of those quilts where I just cut the fabric, tried real hard to be random in piecing it, and hand stitched it with a purple thread in the ditch. 

Funny thing happened today as I was pondering what to post. I went upstairs and picked up a UFO (my oldest daughters THIRD quilt) and laid it out for how I want to piece it up. Stacked the rows in sewing order, pulled the binding and backing fabrics, smiled....and then started looking through my stash for a new project to cut. Now seriously, what is wrong with this???? 3 in bags, cut and ready to sew, 3 tops pieced and folded with backing fabric waiting to be sandwiched, 2 pinned and in some state of quilting, and one I am actively hand quilting for a graduation gift. Oh, and the 2 I started, looked at at various states of pieced and wondered what I was thinking before being relegated to the drawer below my scraps. So why do I need to pull another project into the to do state???? It is an addiction......

"Sew" much news!

I promised myself I would stay with this, but it's hard! I am in such awe of bloggers that can do this every day!
Ok, as the title of the blog states, lot's of news on the home front. First off, I hope everyone had a safe and relaxing holiday weekend.
Last weekend (June 25th), my wonderful hubby showed what a sport he is and went with me to the HUGE Vermont Quilt Festival (www.VQF.org). We pawned the kids off and went for almost 3 hours. Fabric everywhere, machines, ideas...and tons of display quilts. I got to see several long arms in action and got inspired to try many new things. It also gave me a much needed opportunity to see in person several different machines.
After killing my 2nd Brother, I decided it was time to start researching and consider buying my first "big girl" machine. I still have my mother's hand-me-down Elna SU 62, but that thing needs a vintage license plate to be used!
After drooling, oogling, and many late nights on the internet, I narrowed it down to Pfaff and Janome. And off I went to see them both in Middlebury!

2 hours later, like a proud huntress, I dragged home my prize....My new Janome MC6600P. 

Oh do I love this machine!!!! Knee life, Auto thread cutter, HUGE extension table, 10 feet, AccuFeed, and oodles of onboard stitches and 2 alphabets (including foreign symbols I've never seen before!). It also has a 10 inch neck so pushing a queen size quilt through this will be tight but doable. Machine quilting, here I come!!!!

Maggie likes sitting up with me, keeping guard both inside and out.....

while Lilly just sleeps the day away....saving up her energy for the late night feet attack!

*** I have to do a little plug here and tell my reader(s) that if you are in the New England area, looking for great fabric, wonderful people, and superior machines, check out The Quilter's Corner at http://www.middleburysewnvac.com/.  I spent 2 hours there, learned a lot, walked away with a steal, and classes coming out my nose.***

No more training wheels!

After an amazing weekend at the Vermont Quilt Festival (will post more on that later!), we started our second week into summer break. If you can call this summer. Rain....rain....wait, more RAIN.....And then today, when it looked pointless to think of anything else, I look outside and there goes Becca on the neighbors bike, WITH NO TRAINING WHEELS!

For everyone current, and those not, Becca has once again showed her true nature. After mastering the trainer (no peddles), we were sure she was ready for that "big girl bike" last summer. But one look at the training wheels and it was like all her confidence went out the door. And then at the beginning of this spring, she discovered one was loose and decided she wouldn't even try it again....sigh. 

So imagine my surprise, to look out the window, and see her zooming by, with no help! Good old Becca...waits forever to do something, and then up and does it like it's last years news!

So here she is, on her bike, no trainers, looking at me like I'm crazy for wanting her picture.

Basting....sucks.

So I would really appreciate some feedback on this one.

Every quilter has something about the process they don't like or are not as strong at. Cutting, picking fabrics, deciding how to quilt the top, pressing seams....mine is basting. I hate it, and it hates me. It is a critical step in the process, especially for hand quilting because if it isn't done right, your top shifts, you get wrinkles in the backing, and worse.

I have tried several methods, and one the one I like the best is pinning with huge safety pins. I have tried running stitches, and the punch gun thing. But what is driving me nuts is that I can fuss and smooth, and banish all living creatures from coming near the work, smooth out the batting and pin the top on, and pick it up....and there's a huge wrinkle going up the middle or some pucker, or whatever. I work on a large carpeted area so masking tape is out. I have tried pinning the backing to the floor first....

Any ideas or tips? PLEASE???? I would love to hear what other quilters do. Tips of the trade, hints, etc.

I understand many have had problems with leaving comments, so feel free to email me at
 jospaena@gmail.com and I will re-post them for all to share.

Oh, for the love of Batik's

As I mentioned before, my mother is guilty of getting me hooked on Batik's. I have not fallen prey to the Civil War Reproduction Prints, or the 30's prints, but Batik's....

I think that my passion (obsession???) for fabrics is carefully hidden behind my quilting hobby. A fabric store is my venus fly trap. I cannot just go in to look, or just for one thing of thread. Nope, not happening. And help me if there is a sale!

Back to topic though, this is the quilt I made from Island/Thai Batik's. It is a modified 4 patch/rail block. Another wonderful pattern found in my favorite "Quilts and More"

It's hand quilted with a varigated blue-green thread in a 4 tulip pattern centered on each 12 inch block. I think I was a bit  overwhelmed by the intensity of the fabrics and not confident enough to use a darker thread to make thee quilting stand out more.

In all, this is my largest project to date, as it's roughly 100 x 100 inches. Nice for cold winter nights watching tv with a quilt in progress on your lap, but summer months....hence why this was almost a year in the making!

 ***For anyone NOT familiar with this publication, it is a quarterly magazine by Better Homes and Gardens~ well worth a peek!***

Past Lap Quilts

Well, here's the real reason I started this blog. To share my quilts. I have spent a lot of time reading books, magazines, and other people's website. And it seems like everything else in the world, there are hundreds of thoughts on the same topic. Some say you shouldn't use flannel for backing, or always match your thread material to your fabric content. What batting to use, which way to stitch a quilt. And what I have found is.....it's all personal choice.

This first quilt is based off the basic tumbler block. I decided to experiment, and ultimately used a rotary cutter and found an angle I liked. Great way to use up some of those funky prints from the stash....

I scalloped the two edges and straight finished the other two. Hand stitched in the ditch with a clear thread.

And finished with some print I had in the "big bin". This is where I keep the larger yardage cuts. Who knows when or even what I bought that fabric for, but it worked out nicely.

Another quilt I made freehand what this square/paired rectangle quilt. I miscounted the squares I would need so instead of eliminating an entire row, I decided to be quirky and make it with notched corners.

Quilted mid row on a wave again with a clear thread, and backed with a pale lemon flannel. This is a quilt that is always on the couch!

And finally (for this post), a goofy little quilt I made from my mother's scraps. She is the reason for my new found passion for Batiks. It's all her fault- that's my story and Im sticking to it! She made a beautiful stained glass quilt and sent me home with all her drops. I couldn't resist the colors but had no idea what I would do with them.

I saw a pattern in one of my favorite magazines "Quilts and More" and thought that it would make a nice adaptation, but after fudging around with the yardage, I realized the only thing the quilt and the pattern had in common was the cuts. This was one of the first times I hand stitched a quilt in a white thread and didn't follow either the seams (in the ditch) or a pattern. Instead, I stitched squares on the point. It's a little odd, but again, for a lap quilt, it works. Backed with a gorgeous Brain Coral Batik out of the Big Bin, it's a nice eclectic quilt. 

Lilly!!!!

So on a non-quilt note, we have a new family member!

She came to us via one of my best friend Ann. She was rescued by another woman along with 6 three week old kittens in a box. The vet thinks our Lilly is somewhere around 12-15 weeks. We are all smitten with her, though Moon seems to think we had enough cats before.  Maggie and Lilly sleep up in our room at night, and seem to be getting along well. Lilly is a motorboat and loves to chase her tail, especially once we turn the lights out for the night.

But who can resist the antics of a kitten?