Monday, October 12, 2015

Celebrating Columbus Day

Today was a heavenly day of perfect Indian Summer sunshine and spectacular colors of foliage. I enjoyed driving through all of autumn's glory to get to Ellen Peters' longarm quilting studio. Here is Ellen, below, working to load my friend, Pauline's, quilt onto the machine.


If you follow this blog, you will recall that Pauline, seen below,


is a member of the Alton, New Hampshire, Sunshine Club. Pauline had left New England to return to her Tennessee home for the winter.

Below is Ellen, still loading Pauline's quilt. Thank you, Ellen!!


But before Pauline left, she had finished setting a whole group of pretty birdhouse machine-applique blocks that had been donated by a church lady for their church raffle in early November.


Now with Pauline gone, her adult daughter, Jennifer, needed help to get it quilted, pronto!
I agreed to do the quilting.


Getting this quilt loaded smoothly was quite challenging for Ellen because there were many "friendly" sashings that were waving at us, LOL!

We did the best we could and here below you see me beginning to quilt the loop-de-loops in an edge to edge design.


The thread was a variegated green and it looked very handsome on both the forest green sashes and the light sky blue background behind each birdhouse.


I had sold them a three yard hunk of the Warm & White 100% Cotton batting and we had just enough.


When I got home and called Jennifer to come and get it, she was pleased that it was quilted already.


There should be plenty of time for one of the other church ladies to bind it for the raffle.


On Friday, I goofed up and left my camera's memory stick in the slot of my personal computer's tower. If it weren't for my friend, Maureen, there would be nothing to show of my progress. I was laying out my 36 Scrappy Jacob's Ladder blocks. Thanks, Maureen for this photo!


This is, you will recall, the third in a series of queen sized Scrappy Jacob's Ladders, destined to be given to my older sister's adult children.


This one will eventually go to my only nephew and I've chosen the Fields & Furrows all diagonal setting.


The top will get scrappy neutral 2½" borders before I add the four-patch pieced borders.


I was quite liberated about this center, using all swapped units from the Blockswappers group, and not editing them out for being "too loud."


There are many brights and novelties in the mix and these photographs do not truly communicate quite how bright and circus-like the quilt top is.


It will be perfect for my nephew, who actually worked for a small family-owned traveling circus when he quit high school. He was the staff in charge of caring for the elephants and doing the lighting.






My time has also been spent making a few setting blocks for my "Stars In A Time Warp" quilt from the Barbara Brackman sew-along on her blog.


The above block has not been pressed yet, but it is a perfect 8½" block to go along with my 8½" sawtooth star blocks. I am using the Companion EZ Ruler placed onto a 4½" red and cream stacked strips for cutting. Thank you, Bonnie K. Hunter, for teaching me about this wonderful tool! Link.



It goes slowly, but I'm getting a few of these quarter-square triangle blocks made whenever I have a spare moment to do so. Some folks call them hourglass blocks.


Barbara Brackman had suggested this as a potential setting solution amidst the many ideas that she has given out freely to her readers. Thank you, Barbara, for all your inspiration and education!!
This is a sneak preview!


And yes, I DID make some blocks in colors other than red, LOL! But not many...

Below are two precious little mini quilts that I believe were done by Nancy Gesen, owner of the Golden Gese Quilt Shop on 22 Liberty Street in Concord, New Hampshire.


You may click on any picture to enlarge it for better details. Aren't they just as cute as a bug's ear?

They are for sale, so let me know if you are interested and I'll get the prices of them for you.

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends to the north and Happy Columbus Day to all the Americans here!

Lastly, I will tell you that Matthew and Bella have, at last, found a larger place to live and have moved out of my tiny guest bedroom. Felix and I wish them both great happiness in their new home!

Happy quilting!















4 comments:

Wendy Caton Reed said...

You all are so productive! I especially love the Jacob's Ladder. That was the first full size quilt I ever made. I was 15 or 16 at the time. I still love that pattern!

gayle said...

Thanks for the peek at your happy Jacob's Ladder! Every time I see one of yours, that pattern moves further up my list...
Your Stars in a Time Warp quilt is going to be absolutely beautiful!

Janet O. said...

Good job on JL #3!
I really like the QST setting idea for your stars. You sure you made colors other than red? : )
Cute little mini quilts.
Does the house seem rather empty now?

Cathy said...

I like the unedited circus big top!! I'm making one too!

Cathy

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