Old Man Winter

 Tea at Downton Abbey Finished - 40" square

This was a mystery quilt project with the Ninigret Quilters guild.     Here I am holding it in July.   These seems years ago, not months.

Our balcony looks like this now!

I used a beautiful pillar print on the back.  I had to piece it very imperfectly.

In keeping with the Tea theme, I quilted it with the tea cup pattern.

I use my walking foot and serpentined one way and then the other to create this pattern.

I get a bobble once in a while and some I do over if they are really noticeable.

I quilted straight lines in the border and followed the pretty fabric pattern for the borders.

I used a pre-printed label.

I am still making these circle blocks for Cecile's sew along.  This time I tried to make them with low contrast which is not my usual style.

I am also working on my Whig Rose hand quilting.  Those triangles are super slow going.

This weekend I'm taking a Tara Faughan workshop.  I am going to work outside my box again with this pastel pallet.  

Believe it or not, it is snowing again today.  We got 6 inches on Sunday.   Pretty.

Old Man Winter is here to stay for a while!

Stay Warm and Stay Well.

xo

Stars in A Time Warp

Hello from very snowy Connecticut.  I guess I asked for it in my last post with my remark about it being an easy winter!

Hooray.   I finished my Stars in a Time Warp top.  It measures about 40" square.

I have two tips to share about using this setting:
Make a road map!  I made a color copy of my layout on computer.  I have literally turn pieces the wrong way in the 10 steps to the machine!

I ended up clipping and pressing the long connecting seams in different directions.  I tried an open seam, but it kept warping that point.  It is intended as a wall quilt so I don't need to worry about stressing the weakness.

I've decided to commit to sharing my project process and inspiration.  This quilt has a long winding road to come into being.

I always loved the Sawtooth Star (c.1890) quilt in this book co-authored by Barbara (see her blog here), Rachael and Natalie who are founding members of my NJ guild.  It is one of my favorite State Documentation Books - EVER.

Can you believe I removed page 110 and lost it?  The horror!  The Shame!  I still have the notes we made when making it for a guild raffle quilt.

Here is me and (former blog partner) and still great friend, Mary V., selling tickets at the 2007 quilt show.  Jill and Susan set the quilt for us and Mary quilted it.

We made a little quilt with leftovers to raffle to a guild member.

The color combination is one that I love and have used before.  Here is a quilt I made Hanna in 2002.    coco was so curious about it laying in the snow.

There is every color and style of fabric in this quilt. It was the result of a year long nine patch swap with my friends of the Piecemakers of Elmhurst, IL  and there is my little sparrow at the top.

Here is the backing (pretty sedate for me).

You can tell it was well used!  there are a ton of thread pops from tugging on the top.

I made a little mini quilt for her American Girl doll, Molly.

 It has a cute dollhouse print on the back.

Here you can tell just how little the little one is.  I resized the nine patch.

I also made this quilt with pink and black as a setting theme.  It's called "Good and Plenty" and is part of the Hanna Vedder Private Quilt Collection.

Here are some snowy photos - the first one is unfiltered - it was that blue in the early morning hours.

 It was so beautiful.

I'm off to New Jersey tomorrow to teach Folk Art Applique' - My Passion!  I will share some photos next week.

Let me know if you like having the back story of my quilts.   I never know it is too much or too boring.

Happy Wednesday from the great white North East.

xo

Fifty Shades......of Lavender!

Hooray!  My first big finish (top) for 2014.  This is a quilt for my daughter Hanna's bedroom.  It's not really 50 shades of lavender, but I couldn't resist naming it that.

You can see by my boot prints that we got lots of snow, about 8 inches.  I'm working on a quilting plan with variegated purple thread and a gorgeous backing fabric.

Here is a view of the 8" of snow on the deck early this morning.

I love when the snow looks blue in the early morning.  Coco is making a serious inspection of it.

 Hmm......

A good batch - I'm planning to do a little snow shoeing later with this wild animal.

Jubilee quilt update - I've nearly finished the whole center portion!

You can see it better on the back.  I'm always amazed how different the quilted areas look and feel.

I've posted more photos and information on The Jubilee Quilt blog.

I've got lots of new ideas and projects percolating and hope to be posting more in the future.  Time seems to be flying by lately!