This 'N' That

There were lots of gray skies that promised rain but  then refused to deliver more than a few spits. And that dampened the grass just enough so that Husband Wonderful couldn't mow it. The hay field reigns.

We had a fun time at The Sunshine Club at the Alton, New Hampshire Senior Center chomping a few chocolates and chatting as we sewed. Below is Sue with her stack of new FQ's from Joann's, wheee!

Diane, seen below, had brought several more of the Hearts To Help blocks to be sent to the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild for the victims' families. Thank you!

If you are new here, this is what the Hearts Blocks look like and here is the link to make them in the 10½" size. Link.

I did a little mindless sewing of 5" charms into two-sies for later making into 4-patches. Not much progress to see here yet, but these were the Moda, Collections For A Cause line by Howard Marcus in the "Nurture" series. Here's a link if you want to gaze at how pretty the fabric is: Link.

A more graphic form of eye candy is this next peek of how my layout for the Jewel Box blocks is coming along. This was my first effort.
 

Nice, but I disliked the bright white block in towards the center, so I moved it out a ways.

It's still a work in progress. I must keep the bedroom door shut so that Miss Emma Lynne doesn't come racing in with her tennis ball in her mouth and slide all over the place, LOL!

In another arena, I'm expanding my neutrals quilt project. Once again, I readied some unbleached muslin, prewashed, line dried, and touched it up with an iron. This is the last of a Joann's coupon/sale bolt that I'd bought in 2010 or 2011 for $1.50 per yard. We'll never see those prices again, I fear!

My neutrals string blocks project now needs 19 more blocks, and I got an even 20 foundations cut for them in the 10½" size.

A big shout-out of "THANK YOU!!!" to my friend and fellow stashbuster, Teresa in Texas, for her gift of a box positively jammed with more neutral strings!

So I sewed a few strings onto those foundations just for fun.

Below, you'll see that I may regret choosing to use that one strip from my own scrapbasket that kinda reads like a red, but hey, it's in there now.

There were four blocks that I got sewn and I was pleased with them.

Miss Tanner, my lady kitty, has taken possession of my little cedar slats container on the deck. She thinks it's perfect to use for a daybed in the pleasant afternoon shade. Respectfully, I refrained from planting any annuals in that one container.

Linking up to Oh Scrap! Link.





Happy sewing!

Log Cabin Progress

Cool, dry air has dominated northern New England this week and made it very pleasant.

I've done some happy shopping for new quilting cottons, both online and in person.

These are some of my picks from SaudersFabric.com, Link where I scored a lovely large scale forest green paisley by Jo Morton and some Civil War neutrals, too.

These are the neutrals, below; Heritage Reds by Paula Barnes for Marcus Brothers Textiles.

Then, on Thursday, I went down to East Rochester, New Hampshire, to Footprints Quilt Shoppe, where Cindy took good care of me.

It was great fun to view all the new pretty little quilts on display in the shoppe!

Each one made me think of my dear friend, Janet, who makes amazing miniature quilts. Here is the link to her blog so that you can see what I mean! Link.

You may click to enlarge any photo.

I had to feed my positively insatiable appetite for Civil War backgrounds and neutrals.

Kelly, the shop's owner was busy teaching a class, but I raided her scrap bins and neutral displays to find some neat stuff!

Back at home, I did turn the iron on and pressed the last run of 16 Log Cabin blocks, YEAY!!!!!

They look so crisp, all pressed and starched and pretty!

Then, today, when I was at The Golden Gese Quilt Shop on 22 Liberty Street on Concord, New Hampshire, I got a big surprise!

The gals there were inspired to make some blocks for the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild's block drive. Thank you, thank you! Here's Madison, holding the block that she made, above.

Eleanor, Marianne, Heidi, Claire, Lil' Claire, and Madison all worked on blocks and finished them to add to our mailing envelope. Thank you, ladies!!!

The best photo of these blocks is this group of three generations of quilting women; Claire, her daughter, Lil' Claire, and her daughter, Madison, all holding up their blocks. Way to go!!!

On the Log Cabin front, I did some work with those 144 Log Cabin blocks that were all neatly stacked together.

I had a photo of a quilt that was made by a gal that I've never met in person, but who has often inspired me with her quilts, "Cheryl in Iowa."

When she posted her quilt's picture, I asked about its origin. Cheryl emailed me that the layout is credited to Judy Martin, and I was smitten by it. Cheryl thought that the design harkens back to traditional folk quilting.

Can you see the two "extra" blocks above in the foreground? The quilt is so large that those two wouldn't fit even on shop owner Nancy's giant layout table. Whew!

It was grueling work to lay these blocks out, both physically and mentally. The design was so large and complex that I often got "lost" as to where I was on the placement diagram photo of Cheryl's quilt.

After I had the eight inch blocks spread out, photographed, and I was pretty sure that they were all oriented correctly, I began picking them all up in careful, orderly rows. Labeled rows, that is!

Maureen's foam-wrapped dowel stick was invaluable for this project to push blocks around. Thank you, Maureen!

Soon they were all stacked and placed in a bag for safe transport home.

I'm so pleased with my progress on this project. It took me 2½ hours to get this layout done and I was exhausted afterwards. I'm still able to change the layout, but I think I like this one.

But I'm also very pleased to be charged with the care of these lovely Hearts To Help blocks for the victims and families of the Orlando Massacre. If you wish to send a few blocks, here is the link. Link.

It was an all-around great day!

Linking up to Oh, Scrap! Link.
Linking up to Em's Scrapbag. Link.
Linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict. Link.

Happy quilting!

Raspberry Romance

Tuesday was my sewing group, The Sunshine Club, over at the Alton, New Hampshire Senior Center and we had a good time!

Diane had finished up her beachy colors quilt with all the pretty seashells. Nice work, Diane!

Marjory joined us a bit late and was adding to her Pink Yo-yo Pillow top to make it big enough to fit the form that she'd bought for it. You go, girl!

Mary got some string quilt blocks trimmed, good job, Mary!

I had brought in some of the kits that I'd made for everybody to make up some Hearts to Help quilt blocks and below you can see Bev is choosing hers, and Sue is sewing one in the background.

Our Senior Center director asked me to take some pictures of the group's string quilt to be raffled off and here is what I took for her.

The quilt is 60" by 80", a nice twin or a couch potato throw.

This is the label that I made and stitched on to the back. Click on it to enlarge the picture.

While I had the sunny day out at the clothesline, I also took some snapshots of my now-finished quilt, Raspberry Romance. It is 76" by 76" and was made from a Missouri Star Quilt Company video called Easy Hourglass. Link.

The quilting was done at Ellen Peters' quilt studio in Laconia, New Hampshire. Thank you to Ellen for all her help loading and unloading the quilt and winding and refilling bobbins!

Also, thank you to Nancie V. from Austin, Texas, a fellow Stashbuster, who taught me how to do this quilting pattern by showing pictures over the internet. Thanks, Nancie!

It's sort of a half-feathered spiral and was challenging enough for me.

The backing was pieced from a couple of internet purchases and Ebay scores that I cobbled together.

The quilt needs a label, but it is done and I'm very pleased with it!

I hope you can stay cool and quilt on!