New England Quilt Museum and a mini shop hop!

Today was a day for a Quilty Road trip! 

It was my last opportunity to get up to Lowell and visit 

the New England Quilt Museum to see "Quilts of Japan"

SO Quilty Gal Pal Betty and I zipped on up

(stopping first for a medium iced coffee!)

then zipped on up - a quick hour and 15 min ride

but well Worth the trip!

The quilts were exquisite!

They allowed non flash photos for personal use,

I'm not showing entire quilts, just small sections of my favorites!

I hope it's ok.

If your in the area PLEASE see the exhibit

it is hanging until April 12, 2014

Just look at the tiny pieces and the beautiful appliqué

and delicate hand quilting.

loved this hand dyed red quilt that

featured aluminum tubing wrapped in thread!

And this was just unbelievable

the maker Mikiko Narita

sketched flowers from her garden

for the center and this was a piece of the border she created

using reverse appliqué to create a lace look!

Just look at the tiny hand quilting stitches in the

double cross hatched background.

I went back to this one a number of times!

The Japanese taupes have always been my favorite

they are just so calming (I need that some days!)

Can not imagine sitting and hand piecing 

all of those tiny pieces!

The colors and stitching are just incredible in this one.

A village all made out of repurposed jeans.

Soohee Lee of Korea

wanted to create a representation of everyday life with this quilt.

Here we are the Quilty Gal Pals

Betty and myself

in front of the red quilt that used the aluminum piping.

Of course what would the day be without a little shopping!

At the museum

I picked up a few sashiko projects, fabric and threads

plus a book that's been on my wish list!

Then we zipped over to

"Quilter's Way" in Acton.

Very nice shop,

bright, cherry and the staff were super nice!

Pick up more goodies!

patterns...

a fabric kit and 2 fat quarter bundles

(aren't the whales the cutest!)

a book and a magazine

to add to my ever growing collection!

After Quilter's Way we went over to the

"Franklin Mill Store"

where I was good and contained myself

while Betty bought Kaffee fabrics

to add to her collection.

All in All it was a great Quilty Day!

Nice to get out and about like this once in while,

and since my favorite local quilt shop closed

I've been in a bit of a funk…

but with these new goodies 

things should be turning around!!

Whirl Wind Week

This week and a half has been an absolute whirl wind!

It started out last Thursday (the 20th) with a trip to Texas with my daughter

she has accepted a graduate assistant position at Texas A&M Corpus Christi

with the women's soccer team! Work and Grad school all at once! So we made a

quick trip down to meet everyone and look for a place for her to live!

When they say things are big in Texas they are right!

Just look at the size of the campus sign!!

HUGE!

And the view of the ocean when leaving the campus!!

Yes that's right across the street!

She will be able to  work, go to school and

 take a dip in the ocean

all at once!

A tired Mom and Daughter on the plane home

I did manage to finish the hand stitching of my label for the

"Winter Days in Shades of Taupe" Quilt

 since I had so much time on the plane 

all the wording was embroidered too!

And here is a walkway on the campus

Looks like a quilt maybe coming out of this!

Tuesday was a Sashiko Lecture for the Rising Stars Quilt Guild in Lexington

followed by a Sashiko workshop on Saturday, where 10 fabulous ladies 

took part in the workshop!

Everyone was so very busy with their stitching!

Great Bunch of Ladies! Thank you!

YUP! A fun filled Whirl Wind of a Week!!

          

Sewing Room Re-organization ….Again!

Maybe I'm just procrastinating!

but my sewing space arraignment has not worked for me

so … YUP... it's time to reorganize!

 Here it is as you enter from the hallway

it seems to have a less crowded feeling

 This is the desk and sewing corner - with my Bernina 440.

Great for all the piecing projects I have on my to do list.

My main quilting area

features my Janome 6600 and my Horn sewing table

with storage cubes purchased at Michael's

and plastic project storage boxes from Joann's

Luckily the cubes and bins fit perfectly under the leaf of my sewing table!

The extra room the leaf provides can be used for cutting and pressing

or cleared for machine quilting the stack of projects behind the iron!

View from the desk  corner of the room - 

Yes … way too many books!

This set up features a nice view out to my deck and backyard…

which will be lovely once Spring and Summer arrive.

They are coming …. soon I hope!

Hoping this arraignment will provide me with a better workable space!

Okay back to Quilty Work!!

Ladies of the Sea Block 3 Completed!

Just finished block 3 of

Ladies of the Sea !!!

for the grapes I used the circle templates

felt they were time consuming

but most of my grapes came out nice and round

only a few looked like a bird ate them!

the challenging part was the fleur-de-lis

especially the inner curve !

for the applique I'm using the freezer paper on the back method

the boat riggings are done with a grey 50wt  Aurifil thread

and the embroidery with a variegated 12 wt Sulky thread

Thimble Pleasures Quilt Show

Yesterday My mom and I went to the

Thimble Pleasures Quilt Show in Upton Ma

Very nice show!

Here are five of my absolute favorites

in no particular order!

All the photos were taken with my iPhone

first time for doing this1

and I'm pretty pleased with the results.

AND this time I remembered to take a photo

of the quilt tag with all the quilt info!

"It's Raining Circles"

by Debbie Wendt

Love the way the circles of fabric and stitching 

bounce around between the fabric strips!

"Shadows of a Rainbow"

by Michelle Coppolino

Really like how Michelle used 5" charms from a charm swap

surrounding them in shades of grey and created

a color gradation.

(Think I'll have to put this on my Quilty Bucket list!)

"2013 Row Robin"

by Sherri Noel

Love the funky images,

and really love the grey!

Favorite part is the orange dandelion!

"Doodle Sea Turtle"

by Linda Ramrath

Linda started with the outline and then 

started doodling her favorite doodle patterns.

The coral was made from an old necklace!

the pattern is available at:

www.inspiredlayers.com

"Scrap Happy Sampler - Block of the Month"

by Sherri Noel

This quilt just made me smile!

Love the funky blocks and bright colors!

unfortunately my camera wasn't focused so sadly 

can't say where the BOM pattern came from.

After browsing through all the quilts

mom and I had a quick sandwich..

snapped a pic of mom laughing!

and then we visited

Distinctively Sweden
in North Attleboro

and picked up a couple of Ekelund Linens
made in Sweden!

A nice Ocean Sea Scape linen,
a way cute ocean theme wash cloth,
and a black and orange linen that will look great
on the dining room table at Halloween time!

Just love these linens!
The gals at the shop are so nice and helpful,
a pleasure to shop there!


Then, onto one of my mom's favorite places…

Briggs Home and Garden Center
it is a wonderful place to go year round for
houseplants, out side plants, gardening inspiration
and they have a nice little area for tea and desserts!
we each picked up cute little plants

Mine has found a home in my sewing room…
which has been under another
reorganization!
But that's for another time!

It was a fun filled jam packed day!

Inchie Quilts and Folded Flowers workshop for RNQG

Last weekend I had the privilege of teach

a workshop for RNQG

at All About Quilts

for this Inchie Folded Flower Wallhanging

Started out with Inchie Quilts

based on Inchies from

“Inchie Quilts” by Nadine Ruggles

They are CUTE little "quilts"

With focus fabric for the front,

fabric in the back and Tem-Tex in-between,

bead embellished on top,

thread zip-zag binding!!

AND they measure 

1inch x 1 inch!!

Terry working on her Inchies

Diana and Sarah busy, busy, busy!

Venora sewing, sewing, sewing

Then we worked on the folded flowers

called The Inside Out Flower

from

“Fantastic Fabric Folding” by Rebecca Wat

Diana folding her yellow flowers

And Ta-Da! Venora had a folded flower!

A Great time was had by all!!

A fall and some "Slow Sewing"

On Valentine's Day I was out playing with this cutie pie,

Bella

running around the yard - through the snow

when before I knew it …

found myself face first in the snow!

and in pain!

Of course Bella thought I was playing 

so she jumped on me!

OUCH!

Spent the last 3 days on the sofa with a pulled hamstring !!

Now I know why they lug the football players off the field with hamstring issues!

You just can not move.

Thank goodness the Olympics are on! 

and I've been able to do a little

"Slow Sewing" 

Love that they call handwork slow sewing now!!

This was what was accomplished while resting on the sofa…

A new Taupe Sashiko Applique table topper!

the original version was all sashiko

Love the addition of the appliquéd flower

Next step is to quilt it … once I can move off the sofa!

String Blocks

Back in the fall I picked up a packet from my guild's Charity Coordinator

for strip pieced blocks…...

Looking to do a little "mindless" sewing this past weekend….

thought this would be perfect,

so after going through all my scraps 

I decided on Green!

Cutting up some of my green stash and scraps into 1 to 2 inches strips

then I found a great Laurel Burch fabric

and had enough to use in the center of each block!

sewing and sewing and sewing…

making 30 of these babies!

squared them all up to 5 1/2 inches..

then read the directions … 'Don't square up your blocks'

OOPS!!

but I just had to see how they looked!!!

PRETTY!!!

SO since the directions were thrown out the window at this point!

I figure I'll just go ahead and make a little quilt top

instead of just a few blocks!

I'm thinking this is how it will end up!

Should be able to finish it up by next guild meeting!!

Sashiko for the Quilters By the Sea and Quilting ADHD for the Yankee Clippers

Last week on Thursday night I had the privilege going to Portsmouth R.I. 

to present my Sashiko hands on lecture
to the Quilters by the Sea.

What a Great group of Quilty ladies!

It was a large group and there is my RED Quilt in hanging in the front of the room!

 One of the gals wore her sashiko jacket she made 25 years ago while

living in California! What a fabulous Jacket!

 Absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!

We had a great night discussing sashiko 

and the guild members all received a small kit 

to make their own little sashiko flower!

I think everyone had FUN!!

Then on Friday night I was invited to visit 

with the Yankee Clippers guild meeting in Walpole Ma,

to present my "Quilting ADHD"!! lecture / slide show.

It was a small but nice group of ladies

(Sorry no pictures)

Just love showing my quilts and discussing

the techniques behind all the quilts.

We met at a local quilt shop

"All About Quilts"

nice shop with a good variety of fabrics and

they have a long arm service.

It was a whirlwind for me but such fun!

Spent the weekend doing "simple sewing"

but more on that later!