Mickey Depre-Time to Play!

Did you know that Maine Quilts 2012 is at the Augusta Civic Center this weekend?  I went with friends to the Champagne Preview Thursday night. Today I took an afternoon class with Mickey Depre. We used Shiva paintsticks and to rub designs on fabric. It was fun and when my samples are dry I will show you what we did.

In the meantime, here is one of Mickey's delightful wallhangings. What you can't see is her fabulous machine quilting which she does herself.  Isn't this image fun? Well, so was our class, just time to play. It was so nice to take a class and not have to drag my sewing machine and half the sewing room to Augusta.

I bought two patterns at the workshop. The quilt on the far left in the photo is called "Wildflowers" and she had another called "Bee Charmer" that is just delicious. You can see them at Mickey's website.

DH and I bought a used canoe recently and have had it in the water twice. Once on Pleasant Pond in Litchfield and once at Caesar's Pond in Bowdoin. So much FUN! I love it. 

Old Snowflake

I'm not getting much sewing done these days, but I am "quilting" in Electric Quilt. I am taking EQ7 Sampler with Fran Gonzalez at Quilt University. The first week we used the EasyDraw drawing board to create different blocks and to color them with fabrics in a palette. I've used EQ7 a bit, but I've learned a lot that I didn't even know existed in the program. 

This first block is Old Snowflake Variation which is one of the blocks within the EQ7 library. Never heard of this block, but I like it. 

Now it is Week 2 of the class and we worked on a horizontal layout first and then this on-point layout. A few clicks with blocks in the alternate blocks and borders and it is done!

There is still some bonus material to work on in Lesson 2 so I will get to that later.

Enjoy!

Baby, it's hot outside

Blueberries

The pickin' was easy.

Lots more to come.

But, man it was hot!

Something new

Something new to inspire you....
Linda Estes is the first quilt artist on the new Quilter's Newslettter "tv" show. She has been artist in residence at several national parks, including Acadia National Park in Maine. Take a look!
http://www.quiltersnewsletter.com/videos/index.html

Palestrina Stitch

It's week 26 of Take a Stitch Tuesday and this week it's the Palestrina Stitch. You can see the directions for this knot stitch here on Pin Tangle or watch a video on Mary Corbet's Needle n Thread. I love this stitch! I stitched the curly border in Palestrina stitch using perl cotton in a light and dark olive green. The little birdie in the nest is done in back stitch using a variegated Windflowers thread. The bird design is from Nature's Beauty in Redwork by Debra Feece.

I want to add some buttonhole wheels on the inner curves of the border but I thought I would post this in time for week 26. I like making the buttonhole wheels as much as the Palestrina stitch!

Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian friends!