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!

Fabulous Quilt Retreat with Slow Progress made !

This past weekend was spent at a fabulous

quilt retreat at the

Wonderland Conference Center in Sharon

 run by the Salvation Army. 

It is wonderfully tranquil

and the perfect place for a quilt retreat!

My Favorite room is the sitting room over looking the lake

Just love siting here with a cup of tea working 

on a hand stitching project!

The bedrooms are basic

but your not in it for long, so they are fine!

My bed was very comfy! 

didn't mind the twin size bed, had the room all to myself

with no hubby or dog snoring!!

I was in heaven!

The kitchen staff provided us fabulous meals at 8am, 12 noon and 6pm

(we were like Pavlov's dogs!)

and in the evening they put out tea and freshly baked cookies!

or fruit, cheese and crackers!!

 Just LOVE this retreat!!

I seem to be working on long term hand stitching projects at the moment

and made slow but steady progress on them this past weekend.

Arriving Friday afternoon,

I continued on block #3 of

Ladies of The Sea

Spent Friday afternoon working on Grapes….

Lots of Grapes!

Added them to my wreath...

this was as far as I got by Saturday afternoon

Saturday afternoon I started

working on an embroidered workbox

from this book by Carolyn Pearce

It is just the cutest thing! and TINY!

The whole box is about 

6 " x 3"

and has many cute little accessories to go with it!

Not sure I'll get to all of the accessories,

but willing to try and get at least the workbox done…

not sure what decade that will happen!!

This is the front panel,

and I had a good start going into the weekend

added roses into the tree

and flowers to keep the bunny company!

So that was most all of Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning!

This is the quilting room all set up

with everyone busy working on their projects

Here are two of my Quilty Gal Pals

Giuliana and Diana

and YES we are watching a movie while quilting!

Doesn't everyone?

This is Giuliana's way too cute turtle quilt

think I'll have to add this one onto my

To-Do-Wish-List!!

All in All it was a relaxing delightful weekend,

can not wait for next year!

Maybe next year I'll bring a machine …

or these same hand stitching projects!!!

Upcoming exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts - Boston

Wanted to share with everyone a special upcoming exhibit 

that will be at Boston's MFA.

It sound wonderful!

Grab a few friends, stop for coffee, put on some good tunes and 

ride on over to the Museum of Fine Arts

to see…..

Quilts and Color: The Pilgrim/Roy Collection

APRIL 6–JULY 27, 2014

Above: Double Wedding Ring Quilt, about 1940. Pieced cotton plain weave top, cotton plain weave back and binding; quilted. Pilgrim/Roy Collection. 

This spring, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), will present Quilts and Color, an exhibition that celebrates the vibrant color palette and inventive design of the acclaimed Pilgrim/Roy Quilt Collection. Both trained artists, Paul Pilgrim and Gerald Roy acquired quilts with bold and eye-popping designs that echoed the work of mid-20th century Abstract Expressionist and Op Artists.

The exhibition opens with the vividly colored quilts that first drew the collectors’ attention and began their life-long passion. Exploring sophisticated principles of color theory, the exhibition’s opening sections display color vibrations, mixtures, gradations and harmonies in the design of the quilts ranging from the 19th to early 20th century. As their collection grew, Pilgrim and Roy turned their interest to the history of quilting and added more conventional designs. Many of these incorporated the color white to create high contrast, an effect that also plays an important role in the visual power of pieced quilts and the organization of their blocks or patterns. The exhibition’s sections—“Contrast” and “Optical Illusions”—examine this aspect of quilting in the dramatic color choices and innovative effects created within established patterns. The exhibition concludes with a final nod to the artistic vision of quilt makers and highlights artists who worked outside of standard patterns and design and applied color in inventive and striking fashion.

Ladies of the Sea Blocks #1 and #2

The Bluenose ~ 1929

 Close up of Crown

The Elissa ~ 1877

close up of Anchor and Rope

Sew Crazy 2014 Quilt Retreat

Just back from 3 fun filled quilty days on the Cape

with members of SCQG.

We had a little quilting, some food and lots of laughs

oh and a blizzard!

The organizers Carolyn and Donna always pick a theme

this year it was Mexican Fiesta!

We even had a little bull fight!

I actually went to a quilting retreat WITHOUT

a sewing machine!!

Just packed up my sewing basket 

 

top tray full or goodies and tools...

 

box of embroidery floss

fits nicely under the top tray

and on top of…..

 a few hand projects….

 needle turn applique,
(block #3 of Ladies of the Sea)

embroidery
(block #8 of my Children by the Sea)

sashiko
(part of a table runner)

and an embroidery work box!
(This one will take forever -
the bunny and tree took 3 hours!)

And it was SO nice to only have to carry in my little basket
and not lug a big machine!

Can not wait for the next one!
Wonder what the theme will be???!

Pleasant Surprise

The Quilt Show

with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims is my

favorite online quilty place...

(the second is Craftsy.)

Well much to my surprise
my "Red Quilt"

alias Aunt Millie's Garden
was featured on the Quilt Show's Daily Blog today!!!

It is so neat to hear from people all over the world that
they saw your quilt on the Quilt Show Blog page!
It really is a small world!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Jennifer Chiaverini and Clare O'Donohue Book Give away .. last day to enter!

With the busy holiday season upon us

just wanted to remind everyone

about the book Give Away 

complements of Plume Publishing!

Just leave a comment on your favorite 

holiday memory and

please make sure your contact info is available!

Drawing tonight Sunday Dec 15th 7pm EST

It all started with a few charm packs!

Starting with 2 charm packs of Kona Snow

and 2 charm packs of "Sew Stitchy" by Aneela Hoey

made Lots of half square triangles

turned them into this block

and put  nine blocks together to make this quilt!

This is the quilting idea I have in my head,

and let the marking begin

That's all for now…
The rest will have to wait until
after Christmas!

Christmas … my favorite time of year!!