Bags, Bags, Bags

Ah, I love a long weekend. I had a delightful afternoon making totebags. I made four bags! They are so quick and easy to sew. I found a tote bag tutorial online at Skip to my Lou. 

Here's a chance to use some of those fun fabrics in your stash. 

I made this applique piece years ago when I took a class with Becky Goldsmith of Piece o' Cake fame. I've had this block kicking around for all that time. Recently I added the running stitch embellishment. I backed the block with quilt batt to give it a little more body, but I did not use any batting or interfacing on the other bags. 

A lovely soft yellow Fig Tree fabric.

I've had this Australian piece of fabric for a long time, too. So cute! 

My quilt group is having an end of the season ice cream social and auction tomorrow. I plan on bringing a couple of these bags for the auction. Generally, we just bring in stuff we no longer want and someone else buys it and the proceeds go to the chapter. Last year I brought home some real goodies. I'll report back later on what I bought.

Enjoy the Memorial Day weekend!

Bullion Rose and Petunias

We had perfect weather here in my part of the world this weekend. Clear blue sky, temps in the upper 70s and dry with low humidity. It could stay like this all summer and I would be very happy. I bought two baskets of petunias at a local farmstand. 

Purple petunias from Mother's Day. Thanks, Bill!

Purple pansies from my birthday. Thanks, Gaye!

TAST Week 20 Bullion Knot

I made a bullion rose. It is about the size of a dime, quite small. I had difficulty with this stitch with other threads but this one is with 3 strands of embroidery floss. One of the keys to making this stitch is to use a milliner's needle. It is very narrow at the eye, not wider than the shaft so the needle passes easily (or more easily) through the wrapped stitches. 

As always, you can see more TAST stitches at Pintangle. Sharon highlights some of the most interesting samples of the week and they are well worth a visit. 

A Purple Ann

Remember this block? This is the block I worked on during the Camp Kieve retreat back in March.

Here is the finished quilt! It is another of my "Ann" quilts. 

Here is the first Ann quilt that I made last January. These quilts are about 65 x 70 inches. The curious thing about this purple quilt is that it is very difficult to see the rings that are so evident in the brown and pink version. The purple quilt photo shows the rings much more clearly than in real life. I had the quilt top on my design wall and I kept looking at it and looking at my pattern wondering if I had made a mistake in the piecing because I just could not see the rings. The only thing I can think is that the light purple fabric is just too busy, it doesn't recede the way the smaller pink print snowball does. All that piecing and the design is lost! I really thought there was a good contrast in the fabrics so the rings would pop out. It worked when I tried it in EQ7. I still like it, I'm just surprised with the way it turned out. 

Here is the recipient. Sophie turned 5 on May 5. I made her a doll quilt, which she seemed to like. Not sure about the quilt, but her mother liked it.

 Here is the back side of the quilt. Love that purple fabric! I bought the quilt top fabrics at Mariner's Compass in Bath and the backing at Fiddlesticks in Belfast. I used a wool batt. Oh, the back of the doll quilt is a pink fabric with little girls dressed up like princesses having a tea party.

Knitting news: One member from my knitting group took two of us to the home of a woman who was given bags (bags!!) of yarn to give away. Apparently the owner of the yarn developed arthritis and could no longer knit. I think she may have owned a store.  She wanted her yarn to go to good homes so we got to pick what we wanted.

Betsy and I were a good team. She wanted all the bulky weight yarn to knit tams. She showed us an old photo of a group of children with their teacher (1900?). Four or five of the little girls were all wearing solid color knitted tams with big pom poms on the top. Betsy is happily knitting tams now with her new yarn.

I gravitated to a wool sport weight yarn called Pony from Lang. There were bags of each color, so I have plenty for many Fair Isle projects. I decided to try a hat first. The pattern is from Charlene Schurch's book Hats On!

I enjoy knitting Fair Isle patterns, but it always takes me a while to get into the rhythm of the patterns and remember how the repeats are set up. There was considerable tinking at the beginning. In Fair Isle the color rows of the motifs are mirrored. You knit with colors A,B,C,D and then at the middle knit D,C,B,A. The ribbing is corrugated ribbing which doesn't seem very stretchy. I am making the extra large size (176 stitches) knit on Addi Turbo needles, size 4, 16 inch. Fun!

Thank you generous knitter who gave us this yarn!

Wheatears and Spring Flowers

A bouquet for my birthday! 

Tulips in the garden

Phlox by the front steps

Rhubarb!

TAST Week 17 Wheatear stitch 

Here it is sideways...

and here it is upright 

You can take a look at other TAST stitches at Pintangle

The daffodils are so beautiful dancing in the wind this spring. 

Happy Spring!

p.s. I will have some quilting to show you soon. I've been working on my Camp Kieve project and it is done! After the recipient has received it, I will post photos. :-)

Forsythia and Flowers

Spring in Maine is a chancy thing. My birthday is in April so I have always loved Spring. We are as apt to have a foot of snow on the ground as green grass at this time of year. This year Spring has been very kind to us as you can see by the yellow sprays of forsythia in the back garden. Some years all we get are a few piddly blooms near the ground, but this year is glorious.

"Hoe while it is spring, and enjoy the best anticipations. It is not much matter if things do not turn out well." Charles Dudley Warner

I like that quote. It sounds like me and my many projects. It is always so lovely to start something, isn't it?

"Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush." Doug Larson

Now that sounds like Maine! 

Here is my Week 16 TAST - French Knots

I used the trellis worked in stem stitch from last week. Two strands of DMC embroidery floss. SharonB gave a good tip for working French knots on Pintangle. Use a milliner's needle as the eye is the same width as the needle and your French knot will not slip through to the hole. 

Last weekend I layered and pinned the new purple Ann quilt I am making. Tomorrow I hope to machine quilt all day. Pictures to follow.

Enjoy Spring wherever you are!

Congratulations

Do you remember this quilt? It was featured on my blog last August. Here's what I said:

 Wow, that's a lot of ribbons! Cartoline da Venezia (Postcards from Venice) by Margaret Solomon Gunn. Best in Show! Fabulous. I couldn't do that in a million years. Just enjoy

Margaret entered this quilt in the American Quilters Society show held in Lancaster, PA this March. She won Honorable Mention in the Wall Quilt-Longarm/Midarm machine quilted category. Congratualtions Margaret Solomon Gunn of Gorham, Maine! Fabulous!

TAST Week 14-Stem Stitch

TAST Week 15: Stem Stitch. I was a little pressed for time this week so I practiced the stem stitch with three strands of Caron's Wildflower thread. I worked a trellis which is about 2 inches apart. I think this will be a nice basis for adding small motifs within the trellis.

Take A Stitch Tuesday is offered at Pintangle by SharonB. Take a look at her blog for more stitching goodness. Lots of crazy quilting eye candy!

Okay, the weather is too nice today to stay inside. Monday is a holiday here in New England. It is Patriot's Day, a holiday commemorating Paul Revere's ride in Boston and the start of the Revolutionary War. Huzzah!

Belfast, Maine

TAST Week 14-Satin Stitch
I've never really liked satin stitch, so many ways it can turn ugly. Too close together and the stitches buckle. Too far apart and the background shows through. One stitch a little too high and it glares at you forever. This litte world of satin stitchery was actually fun to stitch! Done on green cotton fabric the circle is 3 1/4 inches across (8.25 cm). I used a blue quilter's washout pencil to draw the circle and the inner shapes, waves, hills, valleys. The threads are embroidery floss, perl cotton, and wool.

I bought a several hanks of Paternayan wool yarn yesterday in Belfast. I went out to lunch with four friends and we visited several interesting shops in town. The first shop we visited was right next door to where we ate a delicious lunch (Darby's). Try the Scottish Toffee Sundae! Fiddlehead Artisan Supply is a beautiful fabric and craft shop. They have many fresh and modern quilting and sewing fabrics. Along with a good supply of sewing notions there are embroidery threads, both cotton and wool, Collette sewing patterns, a good selection of sewing and quilting books, and sketching and paper supplies. It is a lovely shop and well worth a visit.

There is a delicious range of colors in solid fabrics. I bought a gorgeous deep purple fabric for the back of a quilt the dragonfly quilt I am making. It was only $6.50 a yard and the quality is really nice. Since most fabrics are now at  $10.50 a yard, this one seems like a bargain. I hope my quilting is up to the scrutiny of a solid fabric!

Happy Easter!