Hobby Farm Stuff

My apologies to Grace for forgetting to credit her with her beautiful fabric gift to me! The bag was from Footprints Quilt Shoppe in East Rochester, New Hampshire, right on Route 202 by the Maine border.
Grace knows that I love reds! Wheeee! Grace, thank you so much, you're the best friend ever!!

Those are definitely Judie Rothermel's Scarlet Evening. In the background are a couple of Civil War scraps, well pretty big hunks for scraps, they are just under 1/4 of a yard, that I think came from Cyndi Black's Busy Thimble shop in Litchfield, Maine.
Those scraps had just come in from the clothesline where I had prewashed them.

The clothesline doesn't actually shrink up the fabric as wonderfully as my electric dryer, but it has the advantage of drying the cloth virtually wrinkle free such that it needs no ironing. The next shot shows a one yard piece of a Windham gingham in cream and greens that will be used for the binding on the Lost & Found Quilt.

Saturday was cool enough for us to go for a ride in our un-air-conditioned car to Clark's Feed & Grain Store in Chichester on Route 28.

They have great started seedlings and Felix, our resident gardener and beloved spouse, begged me to go with him. I really wanted to sew, but who could refuse an offer to buy a Dunkin Donuts breakfast for me on the way there? LOL! Besides, he's still so handsome!

There was only one lonely Verbena left in the "Bright Eyes" pink, so I grabbed it. Sorry the photo below is so overexposed.
Hey! Maybe this is what I'm gonna look like as my hair continues to turn silver, yeay!!! I like it! As long as you are still smiling, gray hair looks great on you. You may quote me, LOL!

Felix found the zucchini that he wanted, and an extra yellow straight-neck that he'd hoped for.

There was another interesting thing there that I wanted to share with you. Look at the rainbow of colored painted tomato cages. Aren't those just the coolest thing? Imagine that!

We had a great time and left before Felix's bad ankle could bother him too much. I was happy to be the pack horse for taking the plants to the old Mercury Mountaineer.

Lastly, before I go, let me show you my proudest picture and explain it. This is the very tail end of my 25 yard roll of Pellon Nature's Touch batting that I purchased last June. Wow. I thought that it would last me a lifetime and it's gone! Used up in big wonderful quilts; five large and three smaller ones.

Stay calm and quilt on! LOL! Keep smiling, too.

A Fabulous Friday At The Mothership

Yesterday my very dear friend Grace, from Maine, drove over to join me for a day of frolicking in fabrics. We went to the Keepsake Quilting Retail Store's Annual Tent Sale. Wheeeeee! We enjoyed perfect weather and we both filled a small plastic bag of scraps for $5.99 on the porch before we hit the tent.

There were happy shoppers galore, and my dear friend Sharon even surprised me as I was digging into a scrapbox. By the time we had a scrapbag filled, the line to get into the tent was gone. The parking lot was filled with license plates from "away" like Rhode Island, Pennsylvannia, New York, I think I saw a Kentucky, too!

We shopped 'til we dropped and about a hundred dollars later, we were ready for The Canoe, a nice nearby restaurant.

We were so hungry! Grace had their burger with home made chips that I kept stealing from her plate.

Mine was a big bowl of their famous Mac Cheese & Lobster! Yummmo!

For dessert, we tried to share a hunk of the very sweet and moist carrot cake, but even with the two of us eating it, we could not finish it, LOL!

This is what I photographed for you to see this morning; my loot from The Mothership. This is the contents of one scrapbag (plus a few pieces that Grace shared with me, thanks, Grace!).

I bought a total of twelve yards from bolts in the tent, and all Civil War, yeay!!!!

Lots of Marcus Brothers, a Windham, several nice Andovers, and a smashing Faye Burgos cheddar.

Most of these were $4.99 per yard with a one yard minimum, but some of the backgrounds were $3.99, and only one indigo that I had chosen was $5.99.

Grace was a very good Stashbuster, keeping her purchases down to only one yard, while I was the wanton outlaw Stashbuster in their "Wanted" posters, LOL!!! I'm terrible. I still have fabrics unused in bags from last year's tent sale, LOL!

But, you see, it's not a problem. I can quit anytime. Really. I just don't want to right now. That's all. LOL!!!
If you believe any of the above statements, then I have a charming piece of Florida real estate right over a large sinkhole that I'd like to sell to you, LOL!

Happy quilting!

A Sew'N'Sew Day

Wednesday was a great day at the Sew'n'Sews sit'n'sew group. What was best was seeing dear friends who are snowbirds that fly off to Florida in the winters. Welcome back to New Hampshire!!!

I worked on trimming up the edges of the "Lost & Found" quilt that I had quilted on Ellen Peters' longarm machine last Saturday.

As it was my first ever attempt to do freehand feathers on the longarm, I'm very pleased with them.

I sewed on "Scottie" my Scotland-made Singer Featherweight and got lots done on "Lovely" the little pansies fabric from RJR's Debbie Beaves.

Since I am not fond of joining big long rows, I put blocks together in large quadrants. That was fine until I discovered that I had one too many seams for my layout, LOL! No problem, I just un-sewed the one seam to add the rectangular piece onto the squares.

Can you see what I mean in the above picture? You can click on the photo to enlarge it. As I worked, I tried to distribute the colors fairly evenly, especially those black background notes.
Here it is all together, set 4 blocks by 5 blocks.

This will be a very small quilt as this center only measures 37" X 46". I have a bit of "Lovely" yardage that I bought to go with these two charm packs from Missouri Star Quilt Company. The whole quilt is a huge departure for me as I wade into the waters of the color, blue. Every time I look at this group of fabrics, I think, "Wow, it's so BLUE!" Not my usual palette, so I am definitely stretching my comfort zone with it.

Happy Quilting!

Lovely All Around

Today The Sunshine Club met over at The Alton, New Hampshire Senior Center. It was a fine sunny and warm day with delightfully dry breezes wafting through the open windows. When there is low humidity, 80 degrees Farenheit feels great!
I worked on my RJR "Lovely" charm packs by Debbie Beaves and I got a lot done. By the end of our Sunshine Club session, I had 12 of the blocks assembled compared to the 8 that I had done last time.

Sue was busy and did not join us, but she promised to come next Tuesday. We chomped some chocolate for her, LOL!
Marjorie, seated on the left below, had a new pattern for a baby afghan on circular knitting needles. Georgiana, standing on the right, stepped in to visit us, too. We were talking about this weekend's big annual Tent Sale at the Mothership, a.k.a. Keepsake Quilting's retail store in Center Harbor, New Hampshire.

Roney, (pronounced, "row NAY") joined us to talk about her upcoming workshop in those apple carved swans that she had presented to us last week.

Roney is the Center's director and she keeps all kinds of paperwork in order for all our programs as well as teaching us a few words of Spanish, too.

Roney has promised that her daughter, Kayla (k EYE lah) is  going to come back to visit us during summer vacation from school. What is exciting is that Kayla's grandmother has bought her a small sewing machine!!! That will be fun to see Kayla sew on a real quilting project, can't wait!

In the meantime, I put fresh batteries into my camera and took my latest quilt-finish out to the clothesline to photograph it. This is the reproduction fabric 5" tumbler quilt that has more mistakes in it than Carter has little liver pills, as my grandmother would've said, LOL!

Nevermind that the light/dark pattern is all syncopated and goofy. "Done is better than perfect, " as we say over at Stashbusters!
What I did wrong was to have made a whole series of independently made rows, which I then expected to just sew together.

If you care about the light/dark pattern matching up correctly, then I think that it is far better to make one row at a time and join them up as you complete each successive row.

I kept getting mixed up with which to start the new row with; a light or a dark? And also, you cannot just turn a row around because the shapes won't fit each other. The shapes alternate as well as the colors.
What's hysterically funny is that when I made the twin sized one of these for my guest bedroom, I had done it wrong then, too. So this quilt was supposed to be my redemption quilt to do it right, LOL!

But it's all good! The summery print on the backing was from an online sale. It is perfect to pick up the coral reds in the striped binding from The Golden Gese's sale corner. And the size is nice at 72" X 94" that is just right for snuggling with my Husband Wonderful when we'd like a light cover for our afternoon naps together.
I used the Pellon Nature's Touch 100% Cotton batting for this quilt and it is considerably lighter and drapier than Warm & Natural by The Warm Company.

Summer quilt, winter quilt? I like the heavier batting for the winter quilts and the lighter weight for the spring, summer, and the fall. This a nice summery quilt and I like it, warts and all!

Stay calm and quilt on!

And The Winner Is:

Here's a drumroll for the new winner of the giveaway (after a 24 hour waiting period for Cindy who did not come forward with her address) and it is number 43, Grace T. from Maine! Congratulations Grace!
The bright sunshine is beautiful and my garden walk made me enjoy the two new perennials from Freecycle. They are mint and bee balm and doing very nicely after being transplanted in April. The bee balm is monarda, I believe.

As for the mint, I'm never sure if it is peppermint or spearmint, LOL! One has the darker stems I recall, but I'm unsure which is which, now.

I often harvest about six stems, wash them to put into my big teapot. I pour hot water over them and let them steep for about 15 minutes. Throw away the wilted stems. Sweeten to taste and pour over ice for a refreshing change-of-pace drink.

As for my quilty notes, just plugging along on a couple of new Jacob's Ladder blocks today.

These are "kitchen sink scrappy" from the swaps over at Block_swappers on Yahoo Groups. Sometimes as I put these together and press them with a little home made best press, I look at them and wonder if they will work in a big quilt and "play nicely", as Bonnie K. Hunter would say.

When in doubt, add red! LOL! That's my rule, and I'm sticking to it!

Happy Quilting!

Rabbit!

Rabbit!
That must be the first word spoken out loud on the first day of a brand new month to assure that you will have good luck for that month. At least, that is according to the folklore in my Mother's family tradition. Felix and I have observed it with mixed results, LOL!
This morning Felix rolled over in the bed and his bony knee accidentally slammed into the side of my thigh. I screamed, "Ouch!" and, "Hey what're you doing?"
His response was, "Rabbit!" LOL! Geez, I had a bruise on my thigh and now the prospect of bad luck all month, too, since I had spoken up before saying "rabbit."

Now, what's a girl to do?

I did end the month of May with great times when Felix took me out for prime rib on our 44th wedding anniversary on Friday. We still enjoy each others' company and we never take these Golden Years for granted. I'm married to my best friend!!!!

Saturday afternoon Ellen Peters helped to get that "Lost & Found" quilt that Buddy had brought in to the Senior Center loaded onto her longarm. Here she is loading a new bobbin for me.

This big twin-sized quilt took three bobbins and lots of sore muscles for me. When I rent time on Ellen's longarm, there are many weeks in between sessions, so I never seem to develop any immunity from the muscle strain. But I have a ball doing it and in two or three hours a quilt is quilted! So it is well worth the effort to me.

I tried doing some freehand feathers in the borders on this quilt and it was the first time that I had ever done them on the big machine. It was quite challenging to make smooth sweeps of the plumes! It also was much more time-consuming than just doing my world famous spirals, LOL! The best compromise was to put the feathers out on the border and the spirals on the log cabin blocks. Here are the spirals.

The thread was a kind of cocoa-colored buff that worked with everything and didn't show off my frequent mistakes. Here is a section of the border.

They aren't very professional, but they're holding the quilt together! I'm just pleased to have the practice session to try it.

For those of you reading along from far away from New Hampshire, here is what the quick shower over the "Big Lake," as Lake Winnepesaukee is known to be, looked like as I drove home.

As for the promised giveaway, the Andrew Hedges Random Number generator selected #118 from the 206 list at 2pm today. That person is Cindy Dahlgren!! Congratulations, Cindy! I have emailed you and I will forward your name and address to the Clothworks Textiles coordinator as soon as you get it to me.

If you weren't a winner, I'm still very glad that you stopped by to visit my quilt blog. THANK YOU!!
Happy quilting!

What About That Giveaway?

Aren't they beautiful????? These are the American Made Brand fabrics for the giveaway. No, you can't have ALL of these, but the host company, Clothworks Textiles, will be sending out ONE bundle of EIGHT fat quarters of these gorgeous solids to one of my readers. Wheeee!

Here is the link to Clothworks Textiles so you can see the blog tour, here. Just scroll down to find the AMB blog tour link.
Actually I'm just thrilled that I was able to import this photo for you, LOL! Still not quite sure how I did it...nevermind.
I will be using the comments from my Park Hill Farm AMB blog post on last Friday, the 23rd, so if you are reading this today on the 31st, be sure you comment on THAT date and not this one. The drawing will be done tomorrow on June 1st. If you are a noreply poster, please be sure to include your email in your post so that I may contact you if you win.

Good luck and happy quilting!

The Found Quilt

Yesterday was especially busy with a morning that included Sunshine Club at The Alton, New Hampshire Senior Center and my Farmer's Wife group down in Milton, New Hampshire at Evergreen Country Primitives Quilt Shop. Most people would say that I had a conflict of schedules once a month. I just do both, LOL!
Sue and Marjorie were having a great time goofing up their respective projects and then solving their issues. Sue couldn't get her sewing machine to behave, and I think Marjorie dropped a crochet stitch.

I worked on preparing a last minute block for The Farmer's Wife by Lori Aaron Hird that you can see open to the page for the "Bat Wing" block in the above picture.
We got the news that our very dear friend, Pauline, will be returning to her home in Tennessee this weekend. The whole group will miss her and we wish her safe travels and hope that she will keep in touch.
The director of the Senior Center, Roney (pronounced "row- NAY" ), surprised us with her apple snacks carved by hand into sculptures and then doused with lemon juice. Look at this!!!

The apple swan even had seeds for the eyes. It was beautiful and delicious! Thank you Roney!

I munched some Hersey's milk chocolate Nuggets and then hurried away to The Farmer's Wife sewing group.

Shirley is holding up her fabulous on-point setting! She is the farthest along of this group that has chosen to piece every stitch by hand.

I know that we needed rain to cut the fire danger, but now I miss the sun. Here are some spring flowers in bloom in my backyard before all the showers. The forsythia bushes were glorious!

And so was the Alamata crab-apple tree in it's stunning pinks!

Note that I'm not showing you all the weeds and the untamed unmowed lawn, LOL!

I think that I mentioned before that a Senior Center regular named Buddy brought in a big banana box filled with quilty treasures for us to all share.

Inside it was this finished quilt top in all matching circa 1980's cotton fabrics. We are not sure if one of Buddy's lady relatives made it or not. But it is definitely worth rescuing!!!

It is a log cabin and a big twin sized top at 74" by 96". It sure does need a good pressing!

Right now it is unclear to me how much of those wobbles will press out or quilt out. It was a little breezy outdoors on my asphalt driveway where I had spread it out for these photographs, so that wasn't helping!

I hope that you are able to enjoy some of the spring weather before the dreaded heat and humidity set in for the summer.
Happy quilting!