Spring Blessings

If you are a purist about quilting blogs, then skip off to the next blog on your list, for here there is very little quilty today.
It was the penultimate late spring day full of all the blessings of the season. I wish we had smell-o-vision for you to sit on the deck as the mild tempered breezes waft their scent towards you from a wall of climbing roses.

To give you a sense of how tall these common climbers have grown, here is a reference shot of an peach tree  beside them.

 

This is the back yard, fenced for Raven's safety against the traffic on Route 140. Raven has had a great deal of unfettered curiosity about these kitties! When she must pass through the garage to use the dogyard, there are high tensions on both sides of the canine-to-feline worlds.

This evening at dusk, the kittens had decided to explore a bit of the great big world of outdoors when Raven came bumbling through and was startled to see them in the tall grass. The kittens squeaked and practically jumped out of their furry little skins they were so afraid. They ran at top speed back into the garage to the safety of the dark caverns of underneath the old stored furniture there. Whew! 

I stopped Raven from chasing them, but she would have gone as fast as her old arthritic bones might allow. 

Earlier in the day, I snapped some snack and nap times.

This group photo lasted a nano-second, but it shows all four babies. If the sex-linked tricolor rule is applied, there are three girls and one boy (on the far right, he is all tiger stripes with no white).

I had quite a surprise when Spooky deliberately rubbed her head against my wrist as I was putting out food and milk today and yesterday. I gave her a polite but cautious response of a very brief rub of where she had touched me.

I want to thank my dear blogger friend, Nann, for helping me to identify Spooky and her litter as Abyssinian cats as per PetMD's website.
The only way that I can tell the kittens apart is to look carefully at their noses. In the shot above, from left to right, is Spooky, the mother cat, then Tiger, who has no white on him at all, then Blossom (or Pinkie), then Tipper (with the tiny spot of black on the tip of her nose), and last is Tanner, who has a tan nose but has a white bib. My anti-cat husband groaned to hear me name them all, LOL!

Most of these cats run and scatter when they hear me coming. I've learned that it helps calm them for me to hum little old lullabyes and talk out loud soothingly. Spooky's favorite sound is me unscrewing the plastic cap from the milk jug.

My clematis needs retying onto the trellis, and the field daisies that I stole from the highway slopes are a joy to view!

But if you'd really like to lower your blood pressure, just gaze at this image of a quintessential cat nap, compliments of Tipper.

Happy sewing!

The Sunshine Girls

The little group of quilters that have begun to meet at The Alton Senior Center in Alton, New Hampshire have decided to call ourselves "The Sunshine Girls." Both times we have met so far, were rainy so we made our own sunshine by having fun quilting!

From right to left are Pauline, me, Sue, Margy and Norma, (Fran had warned us she couldn't make it). 

It's a very friendly group with everybody willing to help everybody else if they can.

The director of the Center, Amy Braun, said that we can use that name as long as we also say that we welcome men, too.

Pauline was happily working on her three dimensional hummingbird/log cabin kit quilt that is coming out terrific.
We passed the basket of chocolates, too, and I did a brief demo on turning the corner of the hand sewing of the binding of the Birds in America wallhanging.

I talked about the importance of labels and showed how to iron freezer paper onto the back of some light colored fabric to stabilize it to be able to write on it nicely with a pen. I got a few pieces done on my next group of 16 scrappy Civil War log cabin blocks, too.

As the group ended, the sun came out! We had lunch together at the center and thoroughly enjoyed the special roast beef dinner for Father's Day Luncheon.

Back home, I've started a second 5" tumblers quilt top, but no pictures of it yet, just a couple of rows done. I'm going with 20 units cause I want it a little wider than 58" this time. My first effort was only 17 units across.

Also, I'm trying using more lights by alternating light to dark side by side. This one above, I went three dark, then a light, more or less.

On Kitty Patrol, I spent hours gazing at kittens as they were fed, washed, and scolded for straying too far from their Mom, Spooky. I kept trying to get photos that show all four kittens at once in one picture. If you count carefully you might see them all, LOL! They are constantly wiggling.

The nicest compliment that I received today was when the exhausted Spooky had finished her milk drinking, she lay down with her back toward me and fell asleep!

Wow! She really has relaxed a bit.
Happy sewing!

Census Miscount!

Wednesday night was fun as it was Guild night of the Belknap Mill Quilter's Guild. I was up as the last person for Show'n'Tell and I was very proud of my three log cabin quilts for my friend's triplet grandchildren.

I also told the story of Ilse's blind brother in Germany, who will be receiving this little quilted American Birds wall-hanging and how I had sewn black pony beads onto the eyes for him to feel with his fingertips.

I'm such a ham and I loved the applause! I was laughing as the above was taken, me and my big mouth!
The little wallhanging is deliberately UN-finished on the binding of the last corner, so that I can take it with me for tomorrow's Friday Quilters at The Alton Senior Center. The group is so new and I'm still learning what they would value for my teaching them. But I know that Bonnie K. Hunter had just recently shown cutting off the little bulky area across the inner corner before you stitch backside of the miter. It really helps it lie smoother!

As for the other quilty news, I had bought, you may recall, a big bunch of pre-cut tumblers at the Keepsake sale.

I knew when I got them that they were a slightly smaller size from the Missouri Star Quilt Company 5" charm pack sized one. The Keepsake ones are only 4" tall. What to do, what to do?
I opened one package and took out a single fabric tumbler. With a pen, I traced around that with a ruler onto a piece of cardboard from my recycling bin (Plumrose Bacon's pasteboard box) and cut it out with my "paper-only" rotary cutter.

I know that I could've just used the cardboard template, but instead, I took it to Richard Houle of Belmont Glass. He made up a fine acrylic ruler out of my pattern in cardboard. I was delighted with it!

Sorry, I haven't peeled the tape and blue backing off of it yet, so that it would show up better in pics. Here are the two stacked on top of each other to have you see that they are quite different shapes.

There had been a giveaway at the Missouri Star Quilt Company last week and I collected their mini version at only 2 1/2" tall. Here they all are together.

I'm having so much fun cutting tumblers!

In the meantime, it has been fascinating to view Spooky, the mother feral cat living in my garage. And there was definitely a miscount on the kittens. Now I count FOUR, LOL! Please, please, I hope that's all there are!

You can click on any picture to enlarge it to see it better.
Happy sewing!

Spring Miracles!

Tonight is my regular guild meeting and when I looked up the program scheduled I also found this item:

"Did you know that the Jeanne D’Arc credit union donates $1,500 every quarter to a worthy area non-profit organization through its "Give a Click" program? The non-profit with the most votes will receive $1,500. Voting ends June 30th.

The New England Quilt Museum is one of the nominees for this quarter's Jeanne D'Arc donation. Please take a moment to register your support for the museum. Click here for more info or to vote. "

In the meantime, I have been busy adding two more rows onto the Tumble Inn quilt to give it a better length. Two rows finish at 8 1/2" lengthwise, so now, in this picture, I'm up to 58" x79".

My informally adopted 23 year old son, Matthew, has complained that his Broken Dishes quilt is too short, although he loves it dearly. I measured it this morning at 79" long, which is pretty skimpy. Here are the suggested sizes (although I am clueless as to just where I found this listing, sorry!):

 Quilt sizes

MINIATURE: Usually less than 36" square.
WALLHANGING: Any size can qualify for a wallhanging.
BABY: Usually between 36" X 36" and 52" X 52". This size can depend on whether the quilt will be used in a crib.
CRIB:  Usually between 30"x 46" and 36" x 50".
COT:  Usually between 58" x 90" and 72" x 108".
BUNK:  Usually between 66" x 89" and 74" x 103".
WHEELCHAIR LAP QUILT: Approximately 38" x 47".
LAP: Usually between 52" - 68" wide and the length can be from about 52" - 78".
TWIN: Usually between 64" - 72" wide and the length can be from about 86" - 96".
FULL: Usually between 70" - 88" wide and the length can be from about 88" - 100".
QUEEN: Usually between 88" - 99" wide and the length can be from about 94" - 108".
QUEEN WATERBED:  Approximately 76" x 104".
KING: Usually between 94" - 108" wide and the length can be from about the same, 94" - 108".
CALIFORNIA KING:  Usually between 100" x 98" and 114" x 117".
KING WATERBED:  Approximately 88" x 94".

I had started this quilt for ME as a snuggler on the futon, not sure if it is right for Matthew anyway. He says he wants a "darker" quilt in navy blue, not light blue. When I showed him the Tumble Inn top, he did not seem to love it. I think that what is really going on is that he has outgrown some of the raucous brights in the borders of the Broken Dishes. 

That's normal. Tastes change as we mature, or even on a whim, with me, LOL!  This quilt looks great in a photograph, but in person, that highway-safety-cone orange is a little hard on the eyes. The more I think about it, the more I'm thinking that he might like some of the Indigo Crossing that I've accumulated from Ebay dealers.

But the biggest news around the farm concerns the Spring miracle of birth. Somewhere in the depths of all the junk out in my garage, Spooky gave birth to three kittens!

She is still very leery but trusts me a bit now.

She had been out hunting in the rain and was rather wet.

I am able to photograph her now without her staring at me and hissing and growling.

The kittens are even shyer. We have seen three at once, so we know there are three, but we are totally unable to get good pictures yet! Here is the ONLY picture that we got of a kitten so far.

Their eyes are so bright blue! This one was devouring the haunches of a chipmunk who had worried my birdfeeders all last winter, while another kitten (not pictured) was growling wanting a turn at the tasty bit. This is as close as I ever get to Spooky.

Happy sewing!

Keepsake's Tent Sale, Center Harbor, New Hampshire

Most of you who read this blog are not local to me, so this post is for you! Yes, I went back to the Keepsake Quilting Annual Tent Sale (Center Harbor, NH) for the second and final day, but, this time, I remembered the camera! Yeay!
When the tent sale first opens at 8am on Friday, there are lines 4 persons deep that go all the way around the huge wrap-around porch of the building. People bring their own fold up sling chairs. The porch is scattered with very large open cardboard boxes of scraps with ziplock bags for stuffing by rolling or folding the scraps. Here is the view as I walked in from the further parking lot, with the two tents visible off to the far right.

A view of the porch with happy quilters busily stuffing $5 ziplock bags with scraps is here.

Inside the tent, there are cutting tables with clerks who slice off yardage from the tent bolts.They are mostly priced around $5 to $7 dollars per yard, $5.49 was common, and it is what I paid for a nice 2 yard hunk of Windham indigo. A post-it, with a hand written note of the price per yard and the amount of yardage that was cut, goes into the large clear plastic bag. One yard cuts are the minimum from the tent.

In the tent, there are many tables set up with kits, odd lots of notions, tubs of pre-cuts in baggies, too. When you have had your fill of shopping, you go inside the store to be rung up.

On Friday when I was there, there was a full chartered busload from Rhode Island, and then on Saturday, there was a different busload from Connecticut.
When I was waiting for only about ten minutes for one of the 6 store registers to open up to ring me out, I saw a woman spend over $400 and load her bags onto a slightly rusty vintage Red Flyer wagon to be able to get her haul to the car in the parking lot. The wagon was heaping!
The sale is an experience. I have heard rumors that folks fly in for it, but I can't confirm that.

Inner Sunshine On A Rainy Day

Today was a very full day! The newly formed little quilting group over at the Alton Senior Center met for the first time today, and I am their "fearless leader" as Walt Kelly's character, Pogo, used to say. That means that I was the one who called all the answering machines and left a message as to when we would meet after the room became available.
Sue, Margi, Norma, and Fran joined me and we had a lovely time! Two of us brought sewing machines, one was hand-piecing, one was cutting out pieces, and one brought a finished quilt that she had made. I remembered to bring the little basket of Hersey's Milk Chocolate Nuggets. I forgot to bring the camera. Sigh.

So these stock images will need to suffice as I tell my tale. I showed them the 5" tumbler top that is as yet unquilted, egad, as you can see in the above photo, it is unpressed, too! But it gave them a chance to see what is meant by scrappy quilting.
I also brought in the little Birds of America wall hanging that I'm doing for my neighbor, Ilse, to be able to send to her blind brother and his wife in Germany.

This was the perfect little quilt to do a demonstration of applying a binding and they really appreciated seeing me do the whole thing.
After the demonstration, there was a little more time for free sewing on whatever. I had my Joann's lined basket of Civil War strippy scraps with the little ziploc baggie containing a couple hundred red chimneys.

So I sewed sloppy log cabins, dropping a red chimney face down on the light strip as it went through the machine. They had never seen this and were very interested.
After we all cleaned up, we had a nice brunch right there at the Senior Center of scrambled eggs, sausage patty, salad bar, fruit cocktail, with milk and cookies as dessert. There were sugar cookies but I opted for the oatmeal raisin ones. Yumm-o!
The gals were delighted to have my two issues of the Keepsake Quilting catalogue and I had mentioned that after lunch I was bound for the tent sale at "The Mothership" in Center Harbor, New Hampshire. One gal brightened up to hear that and said that she might go too. Later, we met there by chance and shared little peeks of our treasures with each other.
It was raining steadily and the crowds were manageable with no lines waiting to get into the tent. I only shopped for an hour and had no waiting at all for a cutting table clerk. The line at the checkouts were being managed by a very pleasant Checkout Concierge who directed each shopper to the next available register. I was done in about ten minutes. So no pictures of the shopping this time, but here's the loot!

This paper bag cost me $145. Wait'll you see the contents!

There were 16 yards of fabric and lots of precuts, too. For those of you who indulge in "Selvedge Snobbery", as I do, these are tan Holly Taylor for Moda, red Jo Morton for Andover, and cream Sara Morgan for Blue Hills running top to bottom,

It is unusual for me to buy a blue that isn't an indigo, but this robin's egg shade by Henry Glass captivated me. I know, I know, it's another floral, will it never end? LOL!

Most of the yardage cost $4.99 per yard, but just as I had selected a green and tan printed gingham, the announcer called out that any yardage with green in it would be reduced a dollar per yard. What fun!

On top of the gingham are my four Civil War 5" charm packs of 50 squares each for 4.99 a piece.

Then there were the cute tumbler packs! These were the four inch high size, with 2 1/2" at the top and 4 1/2" across the bottom and all Civil War. I haven't counted these, but I think that they are also 50 to a $4.99 package.
Now let's see, my 5" tumbler top took me 272 pieces to do 16 rows of 17 tumblers and it came out hmm, 58" x 70", I think it was? Maybe I should've gotten more of them? Nah! I can make more if I need to do it. By the way, please do note the creamy tan with the very subtle stripe where those tumblers are resting.

It was a super fun day and I'm glad that I can share it with you!
Happy sewing!