Two finishes and more AQS quilts

I’ve been productive and have two more finishes. My granddaughter’s I-Spy quilt is done!

 

I found some black fabric with multi-colored dots in my stash that was perfect for the binding. There was just enough.

I will put this aside now to bring to CA at a later date. She is still a little young to enjoy it. 

I’ve been looking through my fabrics and quilt patterns to try to decide on my next project. No clue as to what I want to work on as of yet. I do still need to layer, pin baste and quilt Royal Squares. I did manage to sort and put away all the leftover scrap fabric from Having a Ball and the I-Spy quilt. I feel like I have a better handle on what fabrics I actually have now. 

The second sock is off the needles and now I have a cozy pair of warm socks for next fall. They are made with DK weight yarn so they are a little thick for Spring weather. 

I have some bamboo yarn lined up to work on another pair, but I may wait until Fall is closer to start them. 

Now for more quilts from the AQS New England quilt show. Enjoy! My WIP updates will be at the end of this post.

I want to share with you the amazing quilts that really caught my eye. These two quilts are the same, but in differenty colorways. The first is called Kaffe's Coral Reef by Linda Sullivan Snellgrove of Huntsville, AL.

The second is My Life in Living Color by Nancy Ouimette of Plantsville, CT.

I love the movement of these quilts. It is amazing how different they look. I only realized they were the same pattern when I was looking at my photos. 

 Next are two quilts that trick the eye into believing they are 3D.This is Visual Voyage, by Inger C. Blood of Camino, CA.

Then there is MONA Perspective by Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry of Port Townsend, WA.

I was just blown away by those two quilts. 

The center of this quilt is gorgeous. This is An Ode to an American Soldier, by Sandra Smith-Moore of Pace, FL.

 Another beauty is Majestic Elegance, by Kathryn Zimmerman of Mars Hill, NC. I love the purple!

Finally, this extreme fussy cut quilt is called In William's Garden by Barbara Menasian of Manchester,CT.

 I can't imagine cutting all of those pieces and getting them almost exactly the same. What patience. 

There were many more quilts that I took photos of, but that is all that I will include in this post.

Now for my WIPs. Cinnamon House has gotten a few of its surrounding motifs. 

I was concentrating on doing the finishes, so this has been slightly neglected.

I needed another yarn project. There are donation boxes at a few local libraries where blankets are being collected to give to children suffering from cancer. They must be at least 36" x 36". Unfortunately, only one of the 3 blankets that I had previously made for donation fit the bill, so I started another to use up more of my partial skeins of yarn. I decided on this crochet pattern that I will adjust to make it the correct size. It is an easy pattern.

Sadly, I am finding that I can no longer crochet for long stretches of time as my hand starts to burn and ache. I don't think I will be able to finish the blanket before the final pickup date, but it will be added to my stash for future donation. 

We have been having very changeable weather here. Warm, sunny, short-sleeve weather one day and cool and rainy the next. One nice afternoon the sky was filling with clouds...

and then this double rainbow occurred after some showers. Look in the clouds on the left for the second rainbow.

I will be joining Frederique at the Quilting Patch on Saturday and Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Take some time to relax with a cup of tea or coffee and pop on over to their sites to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by! 

AQS Quilt Week - New England

Last Friday Hubby and I traveled from our home on Long Island to Hartford, CT to check out the American Quilter's Society's quilt show. Oh my there were so many beautiful quilts to see. I will show you some in this post and some more next week. I took so many, many photos. Yes, this post is long and photo heavy.

This is the Best In Show quilt called The Sample Book Quilt by Pat Holly of Ann Arbor, MI.

Look at the tiny details of each block! Those green leaves can't be more than half an inch long.

This quilt won for Best Hand Workmanship. It is called Happy Days by Aki Sakai of Tokyo, Japan. Zoom in to see the amazing details. Wow!

Hubby got in the photo of Best Wall quilt. It is The Man Lost in His Memories by Marina Landi & Fabia Diniz of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

This quilt won Best Original Design. It is called Photographers by Hiroko Miyama & Masanobu Miyama of Nagano, Japan.

The details of the little dog and bird just blew me away.

What was quite interesting was the Lower Farmington River and Salmon Brook Quilt Project. 

This project consists of 52 individual quilted panels that form the river when placed side by side. It was crafted to ensure that the water flows seamlessly from one quilt panel to the next as you can see below.

Even though modern quilts are usually not to my taste, this one called Overprint appealed to my love of symmetry and geometry. 

It was made by Betsy Vinegrad of Short Hills, NJ.

You know that I love Log Cabin quilts, so Cabin in the Sun made me smile. This quilt was made by Danielle Boucher of Salem, MA. What a unique idea!

There was also an exhibit called Healing Hearts & Honoring History: The QOVF Semiquincentennial Tribute. Here are just a few of the 25 quilts on display.

You can see that many quilters used the same central panel yet the quilts are quite different.

There were some without that panel also. I just love this quilt below.

The eagle below was magnificent!

There are many, many more quilts to show you, but I will stop here for now. Hubby has always thought that the quilts that I make are show worthy and maybe they are for a local show, but now he understands that these quilts are masterpieces.

I am 3/4 of the way done with quilting my granddaughter's I-Spy quilt. 

There are no folds in the backing this time. I pinned it more densely and adjusted as I went along when the fabric wasn't taut enough. I expect to be searching for binding fabric next week. I am hoping I have something suitable in my stash. 

The buildings of Cinnamon House are almost done. I am working on the chimneys now. 

One short sock is completed and one more is on the needles. 

I feel like a sock expert now! I find this knitting to be very relaxing and satisfying.

Since we were already halfway there, we continued on from Hartford to Boston to visit our daughter and her family and help out some while her husband was away for work. We enjoyed some quality family time at a local Mini-golf course.

 

When we returned home there were some more daffodils and tulips in bloom around our house and yard.

If you are still here after this long post, I hope you enjoyed it.

I will be joining Frederique at the Quilting Patch on Saturday and Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Take some time to relax with a cup of tea or coffee and pop on over to their sites to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Getting there

The ninth page of Artecy’s Three Boats on a Tropical Beach is getting closer to being completed. This is how it looked three weeks ago at the last update. 

This is where that page is now. 

The lowest stitches are at the bottom of the page that I am working on. Do you think perhaps that I will be able to finish it by the next update? I hope so. 

This Stitch Along is hosted every three weeks by Avis at Sewing Beside the Sea who kindly sends us the needed posting reminders.

Grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea and take some time to visit the other bloggers below who are part of this stitch-along. There is a wide variety of stitching projects. These talented stitchers are from all over the world, so please allow for the time differences and check back for each post.  

Avis, Claire, Kathy, Margaret,

 Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, 

Cathie, Linda, MaryMargaret, Helen

Thanks for stopping by! 

Happy Easter

Easter will be a quiet celebration here. Hubby and I will share a ham dinner at our house with his mother. 

I didn’t go overboard with decorating this year. I did take out this dresser scarf to use as a dining table runner. 

I have had it for years and never take it out. I think it was my Wisconsin grandmother’s. It was most likely stitched by my aunt (her daughter in law). 

 I think it looks pretty with the candles and panorama sugar eggs.

 I have had these eggs for many years. Have you enjoyed these eggs?

I have started the quilting on the I-Spy quilt. I am taking my time and checking the tautness of both the top and bottom after each row. Most of the bleeding is out of Having a Ball. The blue marking pens have still left some weird yellow spots though that I am now working on. It is definitely better. Thanks to those of you who steered me to Vicki Welch’s wonderful post. 

Cinnamon House is getting its roof. 

I need to work on this during the day as the holes on the 28 count Aida are hard for me to see at night. That being said, I needed something I could work on at night. I had two small skeins of this pretty DK yarn. 

Just enough for a pair of short socks. Now that I know what I’m doing when making socks, this first sock is knitting up quickly. 

I’m reading The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter by Hazel Gaynor. This is a wonderful book and so easy to read. 

Just before the February blizzard that we had, I put the bird seed bowl on our deck railing. The stand had broken and I wanted to be able to easily fill the bowl after the snow. We have left the bowl there and continue to fill it for our birdie friends. Here are some robins and a male cardlinal patiently waiting their turn.

The first daffodil of the season has bloomed in my front yard.

I will be joining Frederique at the Quilting Patch on Saturday and Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Take some time to relax with a cup of tea or coffee and pop on over to their sites to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Spring or Winter?

 We have had a few days that have felt like Spring. I even took my Spring denim jacket out on Thursday. On Friday I had my winter coat and gloves on during a walk with Hubby. The wind chill is going to be below freezing this weekend. It was 19 degrees F this morning. Brrr!

It’s hard to decide what to wear each day. March is supposed to go out like a lamb, but the lion is still restless. 

The colder weather means more indoor crafting time. Except for its hanging sleeve, Having a Ball is all done. 

I’ve been rinsing it in cold water as the blue marking lines have bled to the back. Sadly, the red fabric that I thoroughly washed and tested before using is now bleeding onto the white fabric next to it. So are a brown and a purple fabric. I am so frustrated. Any suggestions for fixing this problem would be appreciated. So far the ice cube trick is working in spots, but not everywhere. The hanging sleeve is cut. I will assemble it soon and attach it once I get all the blue and bleeding color out. 

My granddaughter’s I-Spy quilt is ready for quilting again…. I think. I pin basted it yesterday, but I want to make sure the backing is as taut as possible before I start quilting. 

More stitches have been added to the Cinnamon House. I’m working on the window surrounds at the moment. 

I finished reading “The Little Shop of Found Things” by Paula Brackston. 

It took a few chapters, but in the end I really enjoyed this book. I was wishing for more and it turns out this is the first book of a series. I will be reading the others for sure. 

These are the other two books that I borrowed from the library. 

I started the Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter this morning. It is very easy reading.

At the beginning of the week Hubby and I visited a local nursery's annual flower show. The theme was Gardens of Games. 

How about a game of Candyland. I still have that board game from when my children were little.

Are you ready for the game of LIFE?

Here are some more photos. I didn't make note of the game.

The photo below is probably Hungry, Hungry Hippos.

LEGOs of course.

Walking through the flower show is always an enjoyable way to spend an hour or so. 

I will be joining Frederique at the Quilting Patch on Saturday and Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Take some time to relax with a cup of tea or coffee and pop on over to their sites to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by!