The Maine Event!

 After Vermont Quilt Festival was cancelled Wendy convinced me to enter my Chrome Sweet Chrome Quilt at Maine Quilts.  I'm so happy it received a 3rd place ribbon.

I also entered my Chernobyl quilt since Jen Kingwell was going to be the featured teacher/speaker.  I was surprised and thrilled that she posted it on her IG feed.  So I know that she saw it.  Yay.

Wendy's quilt was in the same category and received 2nd and Best Hand Quilting.  I may have done more quilting, but Wendy's is superior in every way.

Here is the first place quilt in our category. 

I finally had the opportunity to visit Busy Thimble Quilt Shop and see Cyndi.  Can you see the wonder and happiness on my face.

I think I purchased about 25 yards of fabric.  It was wonderful!

Her shop is by appointment only.   Here is her website:  The Busy Thimble

There were many beautiful quilts at the show.  Here are a few that I loved.

I really wish there was a little more information about the quilt.

I was lucky to win (bid highest) in the silent auction for  this hand quilted Amish style doll and quilt.  Nutmeg likes her too.

I also won a Christmas Raffle Basket but I didn't get a photo before giving half of it away.

It was too hot to visit the botanical garden so Wendy and I saw the Barbie Movie.  So fun!  Hi Barbie, Hi Barbie, Hi Barbie......

I'll be back soon with the Hortense Beck exhibit.   In the meantime you cans more from Maine Quilts on Gladi's Blog here and Wendy's Blog Here.

xo

barb

Summer Quilting Update

Nutmeg's Puff Quilt....She hates it.

Now you may wonder why I made this.  All I can say is that I wanted to try this method because I think they have a old timey charm and I wanted to understand how it was done.

We picked out fabrics.  These were from a 5" charm pack by moda.  the line is called Slow Stroll.

She liked this part

Here are all my little pockets ready to fill and sew.   I used this tutorial which I first saw on Instagram. 

 
Here is the back before adding the backing

I layered it and pinned it 

Then I tied each corner with perle cotton .

I used the floral print from Hanna's wedding tissue covers.  I brought the backing to the front and machine stitched it.

I made it to fit in the box she likes to lay in.

What can I say?  She hates it.

In other news:

I made a special label for  Hanna and David's wedding quilt using several label books.

I got that wonderful flat light box - where else?  Amazon.  Here is the one I purchased.

I combined several designs by tracing them, and I did the lettering myself.  It is not perfect, but it was done by my own hand.

Here it is on the back of the quilt.

I'm still doing big stitch quilting on my Vedderstone Ranch quilt.

On my Design Wall:

This is a quilt I started in 2015 - yep, that's 8 years ago folks.

The only thing left to do is sew on the top border and appliqué those top animals.  That is all that is left......so why did I put it a drawer for  so long???  

If you are still here, thanks for  reading my post today.  I'm feeling very conflicted about blogging at the moment.  So many great quilters and friends have given it up.

Like my friend, Wendy Reed, I am going to continue for myself and to journal my creative endeavors.

Here are a few photos out on the sound with my boys.

I love to watch the clouds out there in the open sky.

Happy Summer.

xo

Norway Part 2

Hello!  I'm back to share another post of our Norway trip.  It is hard to describe how beautiful and natural the scenery is.  

It is so pristine.  Did it look like this 1000 years ago?  The next photo was taken at 10:15 pm.

There are few signs of mankind.

It really filled me with wonder.  It also reminded me of Alaska another beautiful place.

Many of the Holland ships have a Tamarind Asian Restaurant.  We typically go at least once.  Here is a statue outside the restaurant.

We enjoyed sampling a few special cocktails.  It is vacation, after all.

The restaurant is pretty and very different than the main dining room.

Display of vases outside the interior entrance.

Hello Alesund Norway!

I climbed over 800 steps for  that view!

Whew!  I need to work on my cardio.

Worth it!  Hey -there's our boat.

We took a hop on hop off bus tour of the town and also had a bit of a walk about.  Even the buses are fun!

They had headphones and we learned a lot about the town.  I highly recommend it!

Like Trolls?  they got them!

We hopped off at the Aquarium and had a nice visit.   There were school children there so we felt very local.  I really do like to support local businesses.

cute playground

Back on board the Rotterdam there was an interesting sea life wire sculpture.

Andrew is totally photo bombing me!  

A vinyl record sculpture.  Looks like the ornaments you can make with Greeting Cards.

An interesting architectural painting display.  I love those colors.

Once again this is running long! 

I'll share a gardening post I did on Instagram.

Here is a new garden I created this year.  I love impatiens and I hope they fill in.  All those rocks on the border were in this little plot.

Wendy Reed shared some Ghastlie fabric squares with me - what fun.  I combined them with a print that I had.

So far I've just framed some of them.   We'll see what happens.

Finally, here is a link to the most clever airline safety video I have every seen.  It was created with over 1000 hand painted delft tiles.  the video I took wasn't super so....

See you again soon!  

xo