Wednesday, October 29, 2014



Nice video of a bed turning. I'd like to examine those quilts a little more closely, wouldn't you?


Here's a little Halloween wall hanging I just finished. I did a little crazy quilting to make this piece. Do you like the bats? They are silk flower petals. I embellished the quilt with fabric yoyos, buttons and beads, ric rac and embroidery. This is about as scary as I get. 


This is part of a wonderful quilt my friend Donna made. It was on display at the Tacoma Lakes Quilters show in Litchfield this past weekend. Donna said she loved working on this quilt as each block was different and a challenge to figure out how to piece. The pattern is by Jen Kingwell from the UK. You can see more of this quilt and other quilts from the show at the Tacoma blog. The ladies put on a very good show with lots of quilts and friendly faces. 

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Cocheco Quilt Show

On Saturday October 18 my quilt group took a bus trip to see the Cocheco Quilters Guild annual show in Rochester, New Hampshire. They did a fantastic job displaying the quilts. Everything was bright with wide aisles for easy viewing. Lots of vendors along the perimeter walls. There were 55 of us on the bus and we had a great time. After the show we boarded the bus and drove to Henniker, N.H. to the Quilted Threads quilt shop. It is a really special quilt shop and worth visiting. We spent two hours at the shop and by then we were ready to head for Kittery, Maine where we ate a delicious dinner at Roberts Maine Grill. On the way back home we watched Miss Potter starring Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor. What a lovely day and the fall foliage was a bonus treat!



Sue Spargo design by Linda Bevins



Wool applique with embroidery details. So much fun!


Love the ombre fabric background


What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's all about? 


This one was darling. We got to talk to the woman who made it, too.  Her name is Laura Sue Parsons and this is a red-brolly pattern.


Lovely soft gray fabrics


The machine quilted trees were very nicely done on this very calm quilt wall hanging


Cute posies and patchwork blocks


Gray is the new black in quilts, too


Bonnie Hunter design


Beautiful wool embroidery. Buttons are fun touch.


Round quilt!


Bugs in jars with some star blocks, too. Fun for a child. We still have the bug jar quilt I made around here somewhere. 


Gorgeous Kate Spain fabrics


Aboriginal inspired fabrics. I like the white diamonds that help break up the patterns. 


Lovely border fabric on this pretty quilt.


Here comes the sun!


So funny-kitties with ric rac whiskers


Hard to get the color right on this one. Brown and pink



Bonnie Hunter design-Quilter used brown and blue rather than Bonnie's scrappy style. 


Bright! I like this pattern. I think it would look nice in a modern palette of  grays, turquoise, and yellow, very pale.


These were really big fun blocks. 

Circles are appliqued on. 1930s fabrics, always cheery


Look Ma, no curves! Those are all triangular pieces. 


Judy Niemeyer design

Pretty pretty



Another quilt by Laura Sue Parsons. We got to talk to her about this quilt, too. I really like it. She calls it Quilt Me a Dream and she used applique blocks from Lynette Anderson and Bunny Hill Quilts combined with traditional quilt blocks. She said her stash is all these colors and she just used fabrics from her stash to make this. Lots of soft blues and reds. 



Love the camper





Really nice fabric for the borders, too



Beautiful blue and white quilt which was machine quilted by Margaret Solomon Gunn. 




This is a "potholder" quilt. I took a class at Maine Quilts this summer by Wendy Caton Reed where she taught us this old technique. Each block is pieced or appliqued then quilted and then bound. These bound blocks are whip stitched together to make a complete quilt. It was fun to see one at the show. 


The back of the potholder quilt. 




Someone used a lot of orange fabrics for this juicy quilt. You just have to smile when you look at this one. 


A little doll quilt. 


Wool applique


Love the crow's necklace







Old quilt blocks made into quilts. 




Another little quilt. Seems that it is difficult to hang the little ones so they often look rather rumpled. 

That's it for the show!


Tuesday, October 14, 2014

A finish and something new



Folklorica quilt top is finished!  The finished size is 70 x 80 inches. I need to buy backing fabric and decide how I want to quilt it. I would like to have someone baste it for me and then machine quilt it myself. The quilt is so busy that I think only some minimal simple quilting is all that is needed and I can do that. 

I also finished a baby quilt and have given it to the new baby. I'd show you the quilt but I forgot to take a picture. How sad is that? I designed it myself and made a mermaid for the center block. I also machine appliqued a sand castle, a fish, and other blocks along the same theme. The background for the blocks was a deep turquoise. I sashed the blocks with white fabric and made a wide outer border of a pink and turquoise plaid. It was very fresh and pretty. I will have to visit again and take a photo. 



I've been making crazy quilt hexagons lately. I got the idea from Viv's Crazy Quilting Journey. She has a tutorial on her blog that gives the details. The sides of the hexie are 4 1/2 inches. I got my hubby to show me how to draft a hexagon. It was fun! This purple hexie is my latest. The big yellow flowers are made from two different silk flowers with a little bead flower and a bead to hold them together. 







 This blue bird was my first attempt. Viv uses all the fancy silky fabrics in her hexies but I just used cotton because that is what I have. Very fun to make but keeping the sides a perfect size is a bit of a challenge.


Red hexie with the same bird fabric in the center. I've never quite known what to do with this fabric but these hexies are the perfect setting. 


The three hexies together. Ultimately the hexies will be whipstitched together. I'm not planning a big quilt with these. I'm just playing for now. 

How about you? Have you ever tried crazy quilting?