Quilting at the Farm: March 2023

Friday, March 24, 2023

Off the Grid for a Few Weeks

This morning I woke up dreaming that I was giving a trunk show talk about some of my quilts. Were they finished ones or in process ones? I do not recall, other than, after a quick bathroom trip, I crawled back into bed expecting to fall asleep right away, but, alas, the trunk show carried on with specific quilts, their journeys and timelines and progression of skills and techniques learned, as well a life happenings along the journey, so I tried other let's get back to sleep habits that just took on more random rabbit trails of memories and reflections, since I just got back from an amazing ladies retreat in the Bavarian Alps in Germany with my daughter and granddaughter who were wonderful travel companions where my daughter got us organized and onto the correct trains and connections and my granddaughter kept me going in the right direction and kept us on time even though we missed not one but 2 trains but the next ones were better connections, so I finally got up and wrote my morning pages and a to-do list that would make my To-Do Tuesday group proud since we are doing taxes today and my cleaning lady is moving so I have to do the housework myself after all the grandchildren were here while we were away and they sort of spread a lot of toys and stuffies and papers all over the living room as they were creating and shooting a movie including taking some of the stuffies out to the back kitchen for auditions where they left a sheet with the credits written out and how they missed a whole box of ice cream bars is beyond me since I found them first try as we were creating space for the meat that arrived from the butcher where we had sent 2 of the pigs since they had to be sent out before we leave for Australia next week where we will be gone for 3 weeks visiting friends, Scrub Stitching quilt retreat and judging cows at the Sydney Easter Show, so I watered the plants taking care to count how many are in each room since Ava will be watering them when we are gone and that took a good half hour since there are 57, unless I miscounted but I will probably count them again before we go and I did the laundry from my trip and plan to just repack the bags now instead of waiting until the last minute like I did last time and I have to bake an apple pie before the grandkids show up for lunch and I had to replace the batteries in my mouse yet again.

So, I don't think I will be doing that trunk show anytime soon.

Blessings,

Chris

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

What Will My Next Impulse Project Be?

I am an impulsive type who obsesses ad nauseatum about the next project I want to work on. I see so many fun creative quilt projects and quilt-a-longs that are so tempting, but reality tells me I need to take that time and energy to finish off a few of the ones I so loved when I started and I still love them as I pull them out, put them on the design wall and drool over their beauty. Then I walk out of the room and totally forget their existence.

So, here are a few future possibilities.

The Storyteller's Sampler Quilt.
Only 369 two and a quarter inch hexagons. Will I make them all? Of course not. But I would like to make a few. At least 7 to make one collection. But then, as I keep reading through the book, she increased the size of some of the blocks by 141% to make something bigger. Now there is an idea.

Then there is Cadence Court.

This was a BOM from Sassafras Lane Designs. Where did I find it? Don't remember. But thought it might be a fun Rainbow Scrap Challenge project. But then, I do not want to begin another until my Bright Jane blocks are done. Also, it is mostly foundation pieced and I have been doing FPP for quite a few blocks and am sort of tired of it.

Then I bought Wandering Geese from Canuk Quilt. This also looks to be a RSC possibility. But then, Bright Jane might be offended.

Whatever happened to the hand applique quilts that I so love to work on? Oh yeah. I am still working on a couple.

And then, I was talking to a friend I hadn't seen since covid lockdown. She reminded me that we both bought Jinny Beyer's BOM from Craftsy way back when and do I want to join her in making it? Sure, since I have the patterns and she does not. but where is the kit? Wait! I bought 2 kits. They are here somewhere. This is in the most vibrant turquoise and gold and blacks. But, now that I recall, I do not like sewing with black. Alas, I will have cataract surgery in May so my opinion might change.

I have not forgotten Windermere. I bought the book when it came out. I bought the papers back in the winter. I have most of the fabrics in one or 2 of the collection boxes. I do like the purple sashing she used, but cannot find that in any of my searches. I have another that might work.

So as I parade my thoughts upon the page, I am reminded that Lucy is hovering nearby wanting to play and Ella is begging to go to Australia with me. And Bright Jane has quite the rejection complex. But then, March is green month and her green blocks are all done. Of course, Sarah Morrell cannot complain since she decorated the big design wall for more than a month this winter. Shades of Pemberley got some focused attention for the Dust Off a Quilt Book blog-hop. TOMDO (Think of Me Dear One a Baltimore Album Quilt) got a few hand stitches one night because pouty Lucy was in time out.

For the first 3 months of 2023, I have pulled out and added a few stitches to 7 of my 23ufo quilts. Not nearly as much as I would have liked, because I have been diligently progressing on the Wedding Quilt. This is what it looked like the last time it was up on the wall. Now to get assembling those blocks and triangles.

Not to mention that I was in Germany last week for a women's retreat with my daughter and oldest granddaughter.

I will be off the grid for most of April having fun with my Sweetie and Scrub Stitching. I have booked a few days at a Farm Stay just because I could. And I will have so much more room in my carry-on bag without the winter coat and boots. Three flights down and only 8 more planes to get on and off.

Blessings,

Chris

Monday, March 6, 2023

OMG and To-Do Tuesday for all of March

I have been so taken up with working on the Shade's of Pemberley ufo for Dust Off a Book Blog Hop. It will be going on all week. You can find links here to see what other quilters have been inspired by old quilt books. I also have been slowly but diligently working on the Wedding Quilt. I made almost as many mistakes as I did correct seams. It was quite discouraging to keep unstitching. I don't know about a lot of other quilters, but I find that working at my machine for any length of time exhausting. I have dealt with low back pain most of my adult life and trying to do the finish-it-up-marathon was very painful. Hense, the hot tub. I was up and down to clip, cut, sew, press, line up, etc.

I thought I was getting quite a good workout, but not so. I have spent a small fortune over the years on physio, massage, chiro, osteo, and pain killers. The hot tub is the best treatment. Even in the snow.

Now to change focus for this month.

I am going away next week and again for most of the month of April. I plan to take along a few hand applique blocks for Ella aka the Anniversary Quilt.

I have not done any significant work on it for 2 years and it is time to finish it up. And why? Because we have set a date for the 50+2 Anniversary Celebration. It will be the weekend of July 1-4. That is a long weekend here in Canada and in America where some of our family live. We have booked a tent and a bouncy castle and a roaster for a pig roast. It is going to be spectacular.

But I still have to finish the quilt. So, my goals this month will be to complete these 3 foundation pieced blocks that are already prepped and on the go. I also want to make significant progress on the applique blocks. That is it for my quilty goals.

My 40 Bags are filling up. I have about 7 right now and time this week to fill a whole lot more. Mostly outgrown clothes and empty yogurt containers I use for freezing meals. I will be dropping off the clothes on Thurs.

Linking with Carol at To-Do Tuesday and Patty at One Monthly Goal. Now to get busy.

Blessings,

Chris

Dust Off a Book

I have hundreds of quilting books. Many were purchased new, signed by the authors. Many were bought on discount during countless quilt shop hops over the years. Many were purchased impulsively on line. How did we ever shop before amazon? Many of them were purchased used from vendors at quilt shows and antique shops. I really need to keep away from those. Many were gifts. The oldest book I have is the very first one I bought back in 1974. It has been the inspiration for a lot of my quilting over the years. I wrote about it here.

For this challenge I decided to go with the second oldest book I bought used on line a few years ago. It was published in 1958. My copy is from 1964.

How delightful to find a picture of the Austin Coverlet in it.

Barbara Brackman did a BOM a few years ago about the life and culture of the Austin family in early 1800's. You can read about it here and here.

This is the book that Esther Aliu used to recreate the epic Love Entwined: A marriage coverlet from 1790.

I collected all the patterns when they were free back in 2013. This inspired me to start blogging that year.

I could not decide what colour to make that center so never actually started it.

Averil Colby published this quilting book in 1958.

I was trying to decide if I had enough time (whatever that is) to participate this year.

As it turns out, I have a ufo based on the Austin Coverlet. It is called Shades of Pemberley. I figured I was in good company with this unfinished project since neither Jane nor her sister Cassandra nor their mother completed theirs 200 years ago.

I started mine in 2007, a mere 16 years ago. It was a 3 week class at my local quilt shop. I decided to use black for the sashing just to be different. It does make the colours pop doesn't it.

I had all the black sashing strips cut. I do not like sewing with black. I cannot see it to be accurate. I used gray thread.

And I had the instructions. It has serious flaws. Like how they said to cut the fabrics on the straight of grain. yes, between the outermost diamond points not along the edge.

First I laid out all the rows of diamonds.

They were in order on the fuzzy back of a purple table cloth. My Sweetie wants me to make the border that colour. I was thinking about the puke green on a cream ground from this Austin Collection from Makower in UK. It is called Darcy. Great choice thinks I for a pattern called Shades of Pemberley.

Jane and Cassandra did not have access to Wonder Clips 200 years ago, or they might have completed theirs. Well, I did not complete mine either. Not that I have not had enough time. But, I had set aside the last 3 days to work on it.

It was a snow day with little girls here. And lots of snow. The power went out for 15 hours. Turns out a tree branch had fallen on the power lines next door, but they were not home to discover that. So, I spent time in the hot tub since that was the warmest place on the farm. That is me in there somewhere. And I did walk barefoot out there.

There is a new movie out on netflix based on Jane's book Persuasion. I love it. It is funny and informative. The heroine, Anne Elliot, narrates the story and identifies who all the characters are for those who have not read the book a thousand times trying to figure out who Mrs. Clay is and her significance to the story.

This is as far as I got. That center does not line up with the rest of the diamonds and sashing and I need to think about how to fix it to make it fit. I could take another 16 years to do that. I have a plane to catch next week. The first of 10 over the next few weeks. Better publish this so I can visit all the other bloggers and see what they have been reading.

Blessings, Chris

You can visit all the other Dust Off a Book bloggers here:

March 6th

Quilting at the Farm (that's me)

Lemon Tree Snippets

Creatin in the sticks

Natalie (on Beaquilter)

March 7th