Trimmings and Bindings

Monday I carefully cleaned the marvelously empty guest room floor to spread out my Barbara Brackman's sew along quilt, "Stars In A Time Warp" for trimming. Link.

A small kneeling pillow and scissors, as seen below in the upper left corner, is what I use to trim off the excess batting and backing. I know that most people trim with a rotary cutter on a large mat.

I prefer using gravity to help me manage the sheer bulk of my big quilts.

It is tough on the knees, so I rested in between each side that I trimmed.

Soon all four sides were trimmed and below is a peek at how that Judie Rothermel 108" wide backing looks with the quilt. Don't you  love it?

The audition for binding material was short and sweet as there was a red stripe that had already won my heart!

Getting it sewed onto the front of the quilt and ready for hand hemming was next. My arms and shoulders ached from horsing that big quilt around, but I got it done!

Tuesday was my wonderful Sunshine Club at the Alton, New Hampshire Senior Center where Sue was happy to show us her "Sidewinder" free standing bobbin winder. Neat tool! And fast, too!

Sue also was happy to share the saga of her loot from last summer's annual June tent sale at Keepsake Quilting's retail store. Keepsake is located in Center Harbor, New Hampshire about 90 minutes away.

Sue proved that you can cram more of the scraps into their ziploc bags by folding rather than rolling. The bag must close before it is rung up!

Joyce, above on the left, is looking on and learning the tricks of careful folding. We are all gleefully anticipating the first weekend in June to go again to Keepsake's Sale!

Joyce is doing terrific with her cute-as-a-button log cabin blocks! Go, Joyce!!!

I organized my little log cabin blocks a little and then we all had breakfast at the Senior Center.

Soon I was off to rush over to the last Tuesday of the month's meeting of the Handwork Circle at the Evergreen Country Primitives Quilt Shop.

Dawn was doing her beautiful Lucy Boston blocks with English Paper Piecing.

Click on any picture to enlarge it. Dawn was whipstitching one of the pieces into place on the outer edges of the block.

This is Carolyn, who had made a gorgeous stack of Farmer's Wife blocks, all by hand. Nice work!

 Miss Lily, the Evergreen shop kitty, was truly enjoying that imported Canadian catnip that I had sewn into a calico catnip mouse for her!

She was tough to photograph as she raced about the floor, playing with her newly beloved toy!

While I was there, I did complete one side of the hand hemming of my binding. My wonderful hostess, Camille, the owner of Evergreen, took a couple of pictures for me. Thanks, Camille!

The optical illusion that the alternate hourglass blocks create adds so much more drama to the star blocks, don't you think?

Thank you again, Barbara Brackman, for all your inspiration and education about Civil War era reproduction fabrics!

Linking this post to Oh, Scrap! Link.

Happy quilting!

Unscathed!

Not a single snowflake for us from the big storm, heehee! My condolences to those still digging out.

Friday we gathered at The Golden Gese Quilt Shop on 22 Liberty Street in Concord, New Hampshire and had great fun!

Most of the upstairs gang was doing hand work on various projects.

Below is Barbara, who was celebrating a birthday and stitching on this really cute primitive wool mat. Happy Birthday, Barbara and nice work!

Eleanor was making batches of tiny and perfect HST's as you can see below.

Marianne had an embroidery project that was all in blue floss. Now tell me, is that "Blue Redwork" or is it "Bluework?" Those bluebirds are going to be pretty no matter what you call the work!

Below, Lil Claire was finishing up a binding on her pretty pink and purple fence rails quilt. Nice!

Maureen was just getting started on her newest table runner as seen below.

I cut and pinned a couple of pillowcases but forgot to take a picture. When I got home, Felix had made a delicious pea soup with lots of ham in it. Mmmmm, mighty meaty!

Happy quilting and I hope you have comfort food in the January weather!

Perfect Quilting Weather!

Sunday night I did JOT, or "Just One Thing" on my Barbara Brackman's sew along called, "Stars In A Time Warp".  Link. I decided to just sew the last remaining stack of 11 blocks into the 11th row.

After I did that, I felt motivated to push on a little further, so I sewed the last three of the rows into the top and got it completed!

It was snowing. I was unsure on the next morning if I would be daring enough to risk driving on the terrible roads to get to Ellen Peters' Studio to quilt it. But I did and I got there in one piece, figuratively and literally!

When I arrived, Ellen let me finish pressing my top while Nell, another quilting customer, finished quilting her very first ever top on the longarm. Isn't it lovely?

Soon Ellen, below, was hard at work, loading my top onto the big machine. Before quilting, it was 89" square.

Seeing the top all unfurled made me smile at seeing all the blocks that I had had such fun making.

Each block is a story of the fabrics used to elucidate Barbara Brackman's marvelous teachings about the specifics of Civil War reproduction quilting fabrics. I did the quilting in big freehand spirals.

After the shoveling that I'd done in the morning, the quilting was taxing on my muscles, but I was able to get it done in an hour and a half, yeay!!!

Soon Ellen was helping me to unload the quilted quilt. You can see that Judie Rothermel designed wide Civil War backing fabric on the upper roller bar. Before using it, I did prewash it and then dried it in my dryer.

I am thrilled with this quilt and I can't wait to get it bound. Thank you, Barbara Brackman!!!

This morning, the bitter arctic cold, driven by howling winds, could not stop The Sunshine Club from meeting in Alton, New Hampshire at the Senior Center.

Sue was assembling more of her Easy Hourglass blocks from the Jenny Doan video. Link.

Dianne, our newest member, had brought a beautifully made slice and dice quilt that she was binding.

I did a few rounds on the little log cabins but for all the chatting and fun and chocolate, I forgot to get somebody to take my picture for the blog!

When I got home, Miss Emma went out for her constitutional and then was ready for cuddling with quilts on the futon when she came back into the house. (The odd looking black thing sitting on the pillow sham is a much-loved chew toy from my latest trip to Marden's in Sanford, Maine).

Winter is wonderful with wonderful quilts!

Stay warm and quilt on!

The Lucky Winner

My random number generator, Husband Wonderful, when asked to pick from one to twenty three, decided that number 16 was his pick, so congratulations to the lucky winner, Janet O. of Rogue Quilter's blog. Link.

To all of my other readers who did not win, thank you for your gracious participation and I hope to do again!

The Friday Quilters group at The Golden Gese Quilt Shop was in full swing today at 22 Liberty Street in Concord, New Hampshire. Here's Maureen,  below, working on her Dutchman's Puzzle.

Maureen has also been working on the Denice Lipscomb Block Of The Month sew along called Storytellers by Windham. This is the center medallion for it.  It is so pretty!! Nice work, Maureen!

Beverly was working on a really cute group of panels that she is assembling for a baby quilt. Don't you love that Peter Rabbit?

As I continued working on my little group of Mile-A-Minute Log Cabin blocks, I was able to get a full two rounds sewn onto the 16 blocks that I'd begun. Wheee! They look like prayer flags the way I'm holding them.

Although I'm not a billionaire in money, I'm abundantly blessed and thoroughly enjoyed myself today! That's being a winner.

Happy quilting!

Everyday Riches

It's unusual, but I LOVE winter! We got cold, snow, and wind last night and I was out there this morning, in the fresh bright sunshine, sweeping diamond dust off of the cars so Felix could plow. Thank you,  Honey, for a great job on clearing our driveway!

Yesterday, at The Alton, New Hampshire Senior Center, we welcomed a new lady named Diane. She brought in her Mariner's Compass quilt to our show and tell session and we were all very  impressed!

Isn't this just gorgeous?

Bev, below, had brought in her machine and made great progress on her grandson's soccer tee shirts quilt. Looking good, Bev!

Sue, below right, had finished up the straight line quilting on her table runner for her daughter's house. She had asked me to give a brief coaching session on  machine stitching the binding onto the mitered corners. Sue has done this before and just needed a little reassurance that she was doing it right, and she was!

Joyce, seen above on the left helping with Sue's runner,  was busy with me as we both sewed on our Log Cabin blocks. We chomped a little chocolate, too!

It is truly a blessing to have dear friends who are far away as well as the geographically close ones as noted in the above pictures.

My dear friend, Grace, honored my fabric addiction with a gift certificate from Whittle's Fabrics.  Oooooo, what fun! Thank you, Grace!

I chose 2 yards of the Karen Styles, "Victoria Park" line for Somerset Patchwork by Marcus Brothers, and a nice bundle of Civil War backgrounds, too. Who could resist?

I was definitely thinking about pretty floral pillowcases with these and I'll have to keep them for myself with a name like that one on the selvage, LOL!

Imagine  my surprise when the same mailbox also held a delightful gift from Janet O. with her fabulous hand made herbal soaps! Wheeeee! Thank you, Janet! The gingerbread men exude a lovely scent of peppermint, mmmmm!

Technology is a wonderful tool that can keep us close to family and friends wherever they are. I'm so lucky to live in this age of friends both near and far.
Although I don't usually gamble, I felt so lucky that I actually bought a Powerball ticket for tonight. Why not? After all, I already consider myself  a big winner!

Happy quilting!