Out and About!

This is the outside of the Nashua, New Hampshire Holiday Inn on Friday. I took advantage of the fine weather, clear albeit cold and very windy, to go there for the Fabric Extravaganza held by 6 local quilt shops. It was a sure cure for my cabin fever!!!!

The prices were outrageously good with $5 per yard being the highest that I paid and most were less. I haggled for one piece and got the three yard hunk of Robyn Pandolf for Moda for a total of $5. The only thing that wasn't wonderful is that there wasn't very much Civil War type of historical fabric and the lighting in the conference room was designed to be romantic rather than to assess colors and values.

My road traveling home was fraught with big winds, but I stopped in Lower Gilmanton, New Hampshire, just to witness the huge snowplow piles stacked up on the old Stage Road by Potter's Farm.

In the above picture, the back of the standard-sized speed limit sign is dwarfed by the snowbank, as is the massive 100 year old sugar maple tree. Can you make out the snow blowing across the road that looks like fog? Those were 40 mile per hour gusts!

We watch the weather compulsively and plan our trips accordingly, bundling up with hats, gloves, coats and a quilt in the car, too.

Much more fun than standing in that wind was taking my beloved Husband Wonderful, Felix, out to eat to celebrate his 68th birthday!!

And, yes, he polished off  thirds on the Friday all-you-can-eat whole belly fried clam dinner at The Water Street Cafe in Laconia, New Hampshire. It was $25 and a great value. My flame-broiled prime rib was the middle sized 16 ounce at a bit under $20. We loved each other's company!

This morning, in the bright sunlight, I took some better pictures of my extravagant purchases.

Above are selections from Nancy Gere's "First Ladies" by Windham, some of the few authentic reproduction fabrics that I did find at the very last seller's booth. They were $2.50 per precut half yard hunks, or $5 per yard for the green scrolls. The next group, below, were some nice neutrals in oatmealy tones for $3 per yard in 3 yard hunks.

At one booth, there were a few skinny bolts that I liked and that I took the whole piece for a measured $4 per yard. Most had 2 or 3 yards left on the bolt and I was delighted to keep them on the cardboard, as you can see below.
The Marcus Brothers brown floral flannel stripe, on the far right, had a little over 4 yards and was designed by Faye Burgos. The bolt was originally $16.95 per yard and I paid $4 per yard. I was thrilled to take all they had!

At the far left, above, is that noted 3 yard hunk of Robyn Pandolf bargain at $5, along with three other various Moda choices. It will take me a while to ruminate some on how I will use all these new acquisitions, but if I die before they get used by me, I'm still very happy to own them now.

Before I go, I wanted to show you my beloved old neighbor, Alfred, enjoying his new lap quilt that I made for him.

Alfred recently turned 89 years old and we love to visit with him and his wife, Ilse.

While I was there, my other neighbor, June, was there at Alfred and Ilse's house, too, with her adult son, Hugh. Hugh was shoveling snow off of Alfred and Ilse's roof for a small fee that is well worth it.

The dangers of roof collapses are very real to us up here in the north country, especially if we get a sudden warming trend that could put rain onto the layers of snow and then it all re-freezes to ice!

Miss Emma Lynne doesn't shovel, but she does get tired from bounding through the deep snow!

Stay warm and cozy with a quilt!

Happy sewing!

In The Pink!

Hooray, it's Wednesday and time for the newest Civil War Quilts discussion by Barbara Brackman on her blog.
This is week 6 and the theme is Double Pinks, yeay! Here is my first effort at the Double Pinks that used a wee bit of chrome yellow, too:

The center square above is an older Sara Morgan for Blue Hills Fabrics, while the star points are from Molly B's Studio by Marcus Brothers.
My second attempt used a pretty pair of Jo Morton's for Andover Fabrics.

Jo Morton did the pink paisley in the center square, and also the background wiggly stripe in the flying geese units. The star points above are a Sturbridge Village by Judie Rothermel for Marcus Brothers. Lastly, the cornerstones are from an early Collections For A Cause line by Howard Marcus for Moda.
My Civil War double pinks are somewhat depleted as I have used many in those Bonnie Hunter Grand Illusion blocks, too. Here is her link.

I'm having so much fun designing more cinnamon pinks and double pinks blocks that I expect to do a couple more blocks before the week is over. Wheeeee! Thank you, Barbara Brackman!

Those "Go Four It" American Patchwork & Quilting four-patch blocks are growing, too. Mine are 2" strips sewn into 3½" unfinished 4-patch units.

I'm still trying to break away from my lack of blues in quilts by choosing more blue colors as I go. These were fun to chain press and then clip apart.

I wanted to be sure to include the Judie Rothermel Authentic Miniatures leaf-designed cheddar, too!

The stacks are so cool all together and they make me feel smug in my riches of four patches!!!!

For the Square-in-a-Square units, I've been cutting 3" strips with my #96 Omnigrid triangle ruler to get the four triangles that surround the 4-patch, then sliver trimming to 4¾" unfinished units.

There are only six that I have done, out of 444 needed, LOL! Yikes, I'd better get crackin'! Not so dang smug anymore, now am I?

Tuesday it did NOT storm, wow, that's a change! So I did get to go to The Sunshine Club over at The Alton, New Hampshire, Senior Center. Sue was hard at work on her double 4-patch blocks.

After I taught a lesson on making HST's, I put together that Scrappy Jacob's Ladder block that you can see laid out on the table in the above photo. It's right between the cups of free coffee and Hersey's Milk Chocolate Nuggets dispenser, LOL!

Lastly, some kitty pics: this is an empty dark picture of Miss Tanner running away from the camera flash. She is well and happy, albeit camera shy today.

Mr. Tipper, up on his perch, is still trying to learn how to fly after the chickadees at the feeder. So far, the chickadees are ahead on the scoreboard.

How's your personal scoreboard? I sure hope you're winning!

Happy sewing!

All Dug Out For President's Day!

Before I forget to post it, here is the week 5 solid overdyed green block that I made for the Barbara Brackman sew along on her Civil War Quilts blog.

I had virtually nothing to use for this week as I do not stock any solids except for some reds and cheddars. Well, I'm not counting black, white, and unbleached muslins, too.

At Barbara Brackman's most helpful suggestion, I chose a batik that "reads" as a solid when you squint at it, but it has the yellow and blue mottled variations. It is a good approximation and it begged to be worked with an Andover cheddar print.

A very long time ago, Felix, (my Husband Wonderful) and I were avid "Seinfeld" fans that had watched every rerun at least twice. In one episode, the character, Elaine (played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus), had a very funny rant over the availability of a restaurant's "Big Salad." Here is Felix's rendition of "Elaine's Big Salad."

Hidden underneath the layers of hard-cooked eggs and slices of ripe avocados are julienned Genoa salami and baby Swiss cheese over a bed of iceberg lettuce, fresh tomatoes, and English cucumbers.

It's a meal! I am so spoiled by my "Chef Felix", who loves to cook, grocery shop, and plan meals. I am most certainly a fabricaholic who loves to eat. He is a "foodie" that loves to nap under my quilts. That is why I never am tempted to go on a quilter's retreat. I live on a retreat!!!

Felix was cooking meals ahead in case of any power failures due to the ubiquitous storms, high winds, and bitter cold weather that we are experiencing. Our gasoline-fired generator will run the microwave for quick heat-ups of already cooked fare. So far, so good!

We shoveled yet another 8" of fresh snow and Miss Emma Lynne, our Labrador wanted to sniff it. As Animal Control Officers, we did have a stray beagle named, "Jessa" who visited us briefly during the storm. Before her rightful owner could pick her up, she had the audacity to pee on Miss Emma's private snow. How dare she!

Poor Mr. Tipper, one of our two outdoor-only cats, stayed right on his heated pet bed. Out in the garage he was sheltered from the high winds. This morning, at -6°F below zero, I looked for Miss Tanner, too, but she must be hiding under the snow-covered deck. I put out hot water for them both and some fresh unfrozen kibble.

As much as I have going on here at Park Hill Farm, I just had to buy the current issue of American Patchwork & Quilting by Better Homes & Gardens from Joann's for $6. It was a good investment for all of it's patterns.

I have decided to join Bonnie K. Hunter in the magazine's "Go Four It" challenge.
It was when I was snowed in and drawing diagonal lines that I saw her starting the "Go Four It" challenge. It is on her Quilt-Cam episode recently on her blog.

Like Bonnie, I was smitten by the Edyta Sitar "Scraptacular" design!

I am modifying the instructions to begin with 2" strips as I make some 4-Patches. That way, they can double their duty in the Sunny Lanes blocks that I am soon to swap.

Makes sense to me! Now that I come to think of it, they'll work in the Scrappy Jacob's Ladder blocks, too. Wheeee!

I'm just making stacks of them and I'll try to spread them around for variety. They are 3½" unfinished

Because I've changed the scale of the initial units, I realize that I'm on my own for measurements, LOL! Somehow I got these square-in-a-square units trimmed to a size that was 4¾" unfinished.

They are pretty time consuming units, but I'm having a ball doing it, so who cares?

Hope you are having some fun wherever you are sewing!

Happy sewing!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Colors, shades and values I tend to be good at, while numbers, counting, and arithmetic are my downfall. I was working on those Double Diamond units and I came up short AGAIN, this time by ONE STINKIN' Unit!
Boy, oh boy, was I ever mad at myself!!! This is the last one. It is made. I. am. done.

Having those all done allowed me to put these last three blocks together, Wheee! They are pressed, too. These are the last of the 25 blocks for my Bonnie K. Hunter's Grand Illusion mystery quilt.

Yesterday was clear, although cold, so I took a trip down to Concord, New Hampshire to the Golden Gese Quilt Shop on 22 Liberty Street.

Off to the left there is a ramp for wheelies! The Friday Quilters were in full session and there was lots of fun trading stories of being snowbound this winter. We chomped some chocolate, too!

From left to right are, Maryanne, Claire (waving), Allison (Darlene's daughter), Heidi, and Darlene.

Maryanne showed us all a quilt that she found at an antique dealer's shop for a mere $30, all hand-quilted. What a steal!!! She is donating it to a charity auction and we all hope that it fetches far more than she paid for it.

Claire, below, was just finishing up her top called Illusions. A very nice-looking modern top, there!

Claire also very graciously offered to help me trim some wonky Civil War log cabin blocks to righteous sizes, and I was very happy to tip her $20 for her patient efforts. Looking at all those numbers and lines on the big Omnigrid ruler gives me the willies!!!

Allison was wrestling with her blocks trying to get them to all play nicely in a pattern. It will be a really cute quilt!

Heidi, below, was making some leftover parts of other quilts into a whole new design.

Those batiks are so vibrant that they look tropical!

As for me, I had resurrected a top made of a sewn together Jelly Roll called "Snowbird" by Laundry Basket Quilts for Moda. I had done that part several weeks ago at the Sunshine Club over at The Alton (New Hampshire) Senior Center. It had become kinda stalled for any progress on it.

After a really good pressing, I was able to get the side edges neatly trimmed and apply some borders, too.

Border Patrol always takes me much longer than I think it should, LOL!!!! But it looks so nice when it's done that it's worth the trouble.
The top, repressed after the borders were added, measured 60" by 77" before quilting. It will shrink up a bit when it's quilted. Now I'm ruminating over what I shall choose for a backing. Flannel for warmth? Or pieced cottons for style? Not sure yet!

This Jelly Roll was purchased during a lonely bored moment when I started pushing buttons on Ebay late at night. So you see what happens. Your Mother warned you about that.

Looking through my slider where my hanging Hoya plant lives, I could make out Mr. Tipper trying to see if it would be worthwhile to leap upon a careless bird at the birdfeeder.

Once in a while it pays off for him, so you just never know. His white face has disappeared in the swirling flakes.

He's awfully grateful for the narrowly carved path that I made to the feeder that allows him to go underneath the deck, too.

Miss Emma Lynne likes it, too, but she wonders a lot why I never throw tennis balls for her anymore.

I hope you're comfortably holed up wherever you are.

Happy sewing!