It's been really hot and humid on Quilt Island. Yesterday was about 85F (29C), so early this morning I turned the air conditioner on in my attic sewing room and was able to work comfortably for a couple of hours.
You can see that I marked the end of the rows with masking tape and numbered the rows. There are eight squares in a row and there are ten rows. I've done four rows so far.
I picked beet greens from my garden this morning. This vegetable garden is the first real garden I have had in several years. Last year I had a small patch where I grew a tipi of green beans and a few tomato plants. Last fall a neighbor plowed a garden for me on the front lawn. Snap peas, onions, lettuce, beets, swiss chard, potatoes, three kinds of tomatoes, zucchini, green beans and cucumbers are coming along nicely. I also planted brussels sprouts because I really like them, although no one else in the family does. Well, I bought a six pack in the spring and the plants are very robust and little sprouts are starting to show. What was I thinking? Six big plants!
Here's how I like my beet greens:
Boil and drain the beet greens. Add a dash of sesame oil and another dash of tamari and a splash of rice vinegar, not too much...heavenly.
Now I'm off to pick strawberries with my friend.
My husband and I took a long weekend vacation up to Baxter State Park after July 4th. We went through Patten to the north entrance. We camped at Lower South Branch Pond for two nights. The Upper pond is on the left and the Lower is on the right. The beach and camping area is at the far end of the pond, not in the photo.
When our children were younger we would go to Baxter every summer for a week. One week we stayed at the remote lean-to site at the head of Upper South Branch Pond. Happy memories.
DH and I rented a canoe and paddled across one pond to the next. At the narrows you have to get out and drag the canoe. This year there is a loon nest in the upper pond. The ranger said this is the first time loons have nested on the ponds, so it is a very special event.
Near the loon nest is a cliff where people(that would not be me, dear reader) like to jump off. My gentle daughter loved to go cliff jumping from the time she was about 7. The water is 75 feet deep or more and the kids always wore life vests. They would jump in and pop up like corks. One year three college boys climbed the cliff while we were there. They seemed wary of jumping, but they saw my intrepid daughter and son jump and survive, so they eventually jumped in, too.
This is the view of Katahdin from Daicey Pond. The building on the right is the library. It is full of old books, there are board games and puzzles to fit together. Sometimes the rangers give talks in the evening. DH and I rented a canoe here and paddled around the pond.
Daicey Pond is the first place we brought the kids camping when DD was 3 and DS was just 2. DS shared a bed with DH and fell out in the night. I woke up when I heard his head hit the floor. Ouch! After that DH slept on the outside of the bed, but DS hogged the bed even though he was just a tiny thing.
I thought about quilts all the time we were camping. How about a maple leaf tessalating quilt of greens and blues? Or a quilt made up of horizontal strips to show the colors of the mountains, the lake and the reflections? Chipmunks and deer? Dainty blue dragonflies? Of course, there was the ubiquitous black fly, but I'd rather forget about that! I am covered in red dots so I won't forget too soon!
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Next weekend is the Ocean Waves quilt show on Orr's Island. Anyone going?
You may have noticed "Maine Quilt Blogs" at the bottom of my lists on the left. I am trying to create a web ring. I have activated the account but it is "in queue", so nothing exciting happens when you click on it. I have seen so many rings on other sites, I thought it would be fun to have one for Maine quilters. My daughter is helping me to get this going and is going to make a banner soon. I'll let you know when you can join.
The other thing I am learning is that sometimes you can make a plan, but it doesn't always turn out the way you thought it would.(Well, that's not exactly earth-shattering news, is it?) I cut out all the 6-inch squares for my Asian quilt. I had fun laying them out on the floor. Then I put the blue print 2-inch squares down on top of the prints. I didn't really like it, which was a surprise. I quickly cut some squares out of black fabric and set those down. The black squares looked really good!
I had thought that I would have so many black background fabrics that the black squares would disappear. Not so. I've kept one large piece of fabric with a big pattern and a black background for the border. The blue print just seemed to disappear.
I had my daughter look at my layout. She prefers the black, too. What she said made a lot of sense: there are so many prints that the black fabric gives the eye a place to rest. I think she is right.
Now, on to picnic preparations! I already have the ants on the kitchen counter. Sigh. Borax and sugar works really well at getting rid of them. Onward!
On Tuesday I emailed a friend of mine for some quilting suggestions. I told her I want to make a large lap quilt out of some Asian fabrics from my stash. She had given me quite a few awhile back. Well, the next day she sent another stack my way via a mutual friend. Wasn't that nice?
I told Sue I was considering using the snowball block for these fabrics. I thought the large "snowball" could be any of the large Asian prints, and the nine patch could be made up of the many other fabrics. Sue took a class from Kaffe Fassett last year and made a gorgeous quilt using the snowball block. Sue uses lots of deep rich colors in her quilts and I always admire them. She thought the snowball pattern would be a good idea, too.
This morning, while my sewing room was still cool, I made up the two block set for the snowball pattern. I used a nine inch block, so the squares in the nine patch are three inches when finished. In order to show off some of the patterns in the Asian fabrics, I think the patches should not really be any smaller.
Last night I looked in some of my magazines for some Asian inspiration and found a few quilts which didn't really fit my needs. I did find "Sentimental Journey" from The Quilt Magazine, Sept. 2003. This quilt is really just the snowball pattern without the nine patch.
I like it very much. There are eighty 6-inch finished blocks plus borders, so it will make a good sized lap quilt. Don't you think the "snowballs" look like Chinese lanterns? That's what I'm going with, anyway. I seem to remember a Chinese lantern pattern from somewhere, but the block is a rectangle. The 6-inch block allows the larger patterned fabrics to show how luscious they are, but will still be small enough for the smaller all-over designs, too. Also, some of my fabrics are smaller pieces and I will probably be able to get 6-inch blocks cut from them, but not 9-inch pieces.
I am showing you these Sentimental Journey blocks on my portable design board. I just made it a couple of months ago and don't know how I got along without it before. I have a design wall behind my sewing area, but this portable thing is a big help, too. It is just a piece of foam core with quilt batt stuck to it with spray adhesive. I think mine is about 14 inches square. You can arrange your blocks on it, take it to the ironing board, then take it back to your sewing machine. Also good for taking to class.
I am using a small blue and gold print for the corner squares. I considered using black, which is an accent for many Asian fabric quilts, but prefer the print. Some of my fabrics have black in them and I thought the black corners might just disappear on them. On the other hand, I thought the black overall might make more of a statement than I really want. Of course, I have quite a few blue fabrics, too, but not quite the same blue. Also, I am a blue person, as I may have said before.
You can see that I marked the end of the rows with masking tape and numbered the rows. There are eight squares in a row and there are ten rows. I've done four rows so far.
