Woven Sunset

 I wonder why I was drawn to work on these warm colors on a cold, snowy day? 

This project started almost a year ago, during a retreat weekend in March 2015. Carole Kenny taught a workshop of the Sunset pattern by Julie Popa. It looks complicated, but it goes together quickly.

 The quilting was done over the course of three days. There were lots of starts and stops and thread tails to bury which gets old fast. I need to break up jobs like that into bite size pieces.

The quilting was done with a pale peach 50 wt Superior So Fine thread. It blends nicely with the warm strips and shows up nicely on the background.

I "marked" guidelines for the orange peel quilting with a bone folder. If you look closely, you can see some creased lines. They will disappear with use or during the first washing. The orange peels aren't perfect, but I love the overall effect.

I picked up the yardage for the backing when my local quilt shop had their retirement sale. I picked a red from my stash for the binding.

 You can see the straight line and serpentine quilting in the woven strips and the border. That center border was pieced from leftovers from the blocks. No waste!

#husbandsholdingquilts

Woven Sunset

55" X 70"

Started 3/13/15

Completed 1/23/16

Great Escape #30

 I'm unpacking from a terrific retreat weekend. I brought waaaay too much stuff! What was I thinking? For Julia and myself, I brought about 9 different projects (only touched 3) and 3 machines (never took out the Bernina).

Here's Julia with our quilting idol, Barbara W. Barber. At last year's retreat, Barbara was telling a story about the "illness" she suffers when she finishes a quilt and doesn't know what to do next. Julia diagnosed her with "Between Quilts Syndrome" and a quilt was born! If you click on the photo you can read the first panel of the comic strip.

 

Since there's not a really good picture of us together, I thought I'd go with this one that made me laugh.

 

Julia and I have wanted to make a NY Beauty quilt together for a long time. Last year, my LQS was kitting up block of the month blocks and I couldn't resist. I almost never work from a kit, but I knew we would never make this quilt without one. Julia pieced all the points after a little refresher and some new tips from mom. She sewed the curves on two blocks, and I sewed the other two. Please pretend that the blocks are perfectly square. They have been starched into submission! After we make the rest, we'll trim them up.

 

Our Saturday workshop was the Sunset pattern by Julie Popa. We did some prep work in advance, so many quilters were able to finish the top during the day. This is mine on the left and Suzy's on the right.

 

 I used my stash of orange, pink and red. Surprisingly, I did not use a white background. It is a cream with green dots that softens the whole piece.

One of the instructor's friends had pieced all her cut off scraps for the border, which I loved, so I did it too. I was able to get it finished just in time for workshop show & tell before lunch on Sunday.

 

It's time to start planning for 2016!

Testing, testing

I'm sitting in a waiting room as Julia has her wisdom teeth removed. With an hour to kill and no hand stitching to do, I thought I would test out posting from my phone.

How about a photo? My brother posted a sunset photo to Facebook this week from his vacation spot in Florida. So I snapped the sunset from the grocery store parking lot last night. It's the best spot in town to see the sunset without driving down to the beach.

ETA: Now that I'm home, I see how bad this photo is! And it posted at "original size" which was humongous. I'll need to figure out how to post smaller photos.

Weekend Crafting

I've been having fun cleaning out my sewing/quilting/crafting space this weekend. In the process, I found some supplies I had forgotten about and made some quick crafts.

A couple of weeks ago, I started this embroidered piece from Happy Zombie. I finished it into a pillow using an orange remnant I picked up on Friday from Joann's for $2.50. Pete just said he thinks it's creepy, but Julia & I like it.


A few months ago, I bought 1/2 gross of ring blanks from Rings & Things. The rhinestone jewels were pins that I picked up at a consignment shop for a few dollars each. I cut off the pin back, but it needed to be filed flat with a dremel. I love these rings!


Some old and new buttons from the stash and my favorite adhesive, Bond 527, and we have a pile of cute button rings. These were inspired by WhiMSy love. Her vintage buttons are soooo much cuter than mine.


I needed a project to take to Pete's doubleheader yesterday so I grabbed a bunch of t-shirt yarn. Seven innings later, and T-tote Two was complete!


Saturday night, Pete took this photo out of the car window in Newport. We were on our way to see our favorite guitarist, Peppino D'Agostino. It was Grandma's first time seeing him, and she enjoyed the concert as much as we did. We were happy to introduce Peppino to 3 generations of fans!

If I could just stop sneezing and blowing my nose, it would be a perfect weekend!
AAH-CHOO!

End of Summer Weekend

Summer is unofficially over. So sad.
We tried to squeeze in some fun to enjoy the long Labor Day weekend.

Bill and I worked on a Craig family block for the Union College 215th Anniversary quilt. The maker hopes to bring together family histories to demonstrate the diversity of the College. Union itself is a huge part of Bill's family history, so the Nott Memorial is pictured in the background of the block. (I used bubble jet set to prepare the fabric and printed directly on it) His father was in the class of 1945, and returned after graduate school to teach there for 35 years. Bill and 2 of his siblings are also alumni. In 1979-80, Ed was a visiting professor at the University of Liberia. Bill attended 8th grade at the American school in Monrovia, where his best friend was the US ambassador's son. Bill and his mother fled the country after the first coup in 1980. Ed remained to finish the term. The Liberian people have held a special place in their hearts, so the quilt block is bordered with African fabrics. Bill and I are happy with the final product and happy that it is done and will be on its way to Schenectady today.

Meet Charlie, my mother's rabbit.
Let me explain. My mother lives in a low-income apartment building for senior citizens. There aren't many "extras," so the Tenant's Association, of which she is the President, tries to raise funds to provide services and entertainment. They have a craft club that meets weekly to make items for their annual bazaar.
One of the ladies received this magazine, probably in February, and encouraged my mother to crochet the bunny on the cover to be raffled at their bazaar. She accepted the challenge, assembled some yarn and started hooking. We knew we were in for trouble when we saw the size of one leg. She persisted, and a bunny started to take shape. Oh My! We can't stop singing the Veggie Tales Bunny Song.

She propped him up in my father's chair and named him Charlie. Wow. We're going to work on his facial features and getting his head sewn on right. (She wouldn't listen to me when I repeatedly told her how, instead she let her friends lead her astray. Kids- I mean Parents- just won't listen!)

We took one last trip to the beach.

I love the late afternoon light.

It seems like lobsters were everywhere this week. We realized Julia and Pete have never had one, so we took advantage of one of the many local restaurants lobster specials. Pete just had fun playing with his. Neither kid particularly liked the taste. The price was right for such an experiment. Now they know.

This was the view from our table.

And the sun went down on another summer.

I Hate Sea Gulls!

I've always hated sea gulls, ever since an incident in Atlantic City in 1980. Now, I think I'm allergic to them, too. I'll get back to that.


Our 24 hours on Rose Island was a success, despite the rain on Thursday. We survived a wet, bumpy boat ride out to the island and were assigned several tasks: sweep out the bunkers, scoop the goose poop and remove the feathers from the lawn. Sounds like fun, right?!

But look at all the quilty goodness! The multi-colored slate tiles on the roof are hexagons!


We started with a tour of the keeper's quarters and
this cool old treadle.


There is a quilt on every bed. I didn't have time to look very closely, but I thought they were pretty and suited the beds they were on.



The red one is in a display case and is probably the only vintage piece.


The sun didn't emerge on Thursday until just before sunset. That's the Newport Bridge, just beginning to twinkle.


Since it was so wet, we set up our tents in the bunkers at Fort Hamilton. The bunkers have served as barracks and torpedo storage. We would have been safe from enemy cannon fire, but we were not protected from the noise of the sunrise alarm. You cannot even imagine the cacophony of bird calls that woke us before 5:00 am. It is a bird sanctuary, after all.


I don't want to blame Iggy the Egret for any of that racket. He was far outnumbered by the gulls.


We were given rakes to clear the feathers off the lawn, but they were too wet and just shriveled up. So off we went with our garden gloves, picking up one seagull feather at a time. I think that's what kicked in the allergy. I don't even want to talk about the goose poop!


The wild honeysuckle had the most delicious aroma. And the sweet peas were everywhere.

If you'd like to experience the fruits of our labors, the Rose Island Lighthouse Foundation is having a clambake on the island today, and it looks like the weather will be perfect.


How about a joke?

What do you call a sea gull that lives by the bay?

Give up?

A bagel!

(bay gull, get it?)

Please forgive me. I was up at 5 again today, and I'm not a morning person. I'm hoping these early mornings will prepare me for the 3:00 am wake up call on Monday!

The 100 post giveaway starts tomorrow night!