Christmas Gifts 2008

Christmas 2008 has arrived and all the presents for my family are delivered. I have been busy making strippy quilts for the grand and great-grand children. It has been a lot of fun and has helped me practice new designs using my super quilter. Strippy quilts have a focus material

and are very easy to make.I chose fun designs for each of them.

This first one is my grandson Jacob's - age 10 I also made matching pillow cases to go with each one. I did french seams on the inside and had learned how to do this from earlier days of sewing for my family.

This one is for my great-granddaughter, Isabella - age 2
View of close up of quilting.

Grandson Joshua's - age 10...yes they are twins.
Another close up
This is great granddaughter Olivia's - age 7

Close up
Ms Allison, 13 whose birthday was this month informed me that she would like 'money' so she and her brothers could purchase a new game. So I made this purse and fulfilled her request.
Of course, she was overjoyed.

I also have two older grand-daughters who are married. Em - 23 and Rach -28 so I decided to made them these table runners in Christmas designs.

This is a wall hanging I made earlier this year for my daughter-in-law.

So it has been a very busy time. But it is so rewarding when you put your time and energy

into items made with your hands for those you hold dear. It is very fulfilling to the heart.

Merry Christmas

Peace comes when we open our eyes to another dimension, to the mystery of God that lies all around us....especially at Christmas.

May your heart take wing in the moments of stillness and the peace God gives to us all.

Poem taken from a Christmas card sent by a friend.

Merry Christmas to all my Quilting Friends.

(manger scene was given to us by our son many years ago. The sun was shining and hitting it.)

Star BOM 10

This is the light blue I will be using and also a darker blue for contrast....#10 below

Star Block I am doing online with Judy Laquidara. This is #10 and has been a fun series. I have 3 more blocks to go. We will not get the next one until February 1 as she is writing a book and has a deadline.It will be nice to have a break as the season is so busy. MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HIS BLESSINGS TO ALL!!!

Tacoma Breakfast

We in Maine have just come through an ice storm where many lost their lights and it has now turned very cold. This morning eleven of us from the Tacoma Lakes quilt group ventured out to have breakfast and present a quilt to our former President, Beth at Mill Stream Restaurant. We invited her to come and see what we had been doing. (She took a full time job and is unable to attend our meetings). Each member made a block and signed it, we worked on it for a couple of meetings and our present president, Barb (who was very sick today) did a beautiful job of quilting on her Tin Lizzie and Pauline a member finished with the binding. We were delighted and she was surprised and pleased. Several of us finished 'the tallest tree' hanging I talked about in the last posting. L-R Judy, Donna, Maggie, Margo, Andrea and Pauline. We all agreed it was a fun project and liked the result. Other members are still in the process.

These wonderful snowmen with little lights graced our table this morning. It was made by Rayna and so adorable. There were several 'show and tell'. It is always great to get together and share what we are doing and what we have learned. Nothing like friends with the same love of quilting.

The Tallest Tree Runner

Our group 'Tacoma' met last Wednesday and our project was 'The Tallest Tree by Pieces from the Heart'. We pre-cut our background, green, brown and 44 pieces of Christmas fabric for the borders before the meeting. We then shared them. I did use some of my own to give the border variety. I also did 'quilt as you go' and then put it on my short arm quilter to do the border and finished the stitching around the trees on my Janome. Rayna brought this huge jar of red buttons for all of us to choose from. What a blessing!

This one below was done by Koleen and she chose to use identical fabric for the trees and background. This is such a versatile pattern. It was really enjoyable to do. Our president, Barb skillfully walked us through all the steps.

Star Block #9

This is a block of the month I am doing online with Judy Laquidara. She posts the pattern on the 1st and 15th. This is #9 in a series of thirteen.

Received the pattern this morning and wanted to stay caught up. Christmas season is busy and did not want this hanging over my head.

I am pleased with the result...

Star BOM #8

This is a block of the month I am doing online with Judy Laquidara. She posts the pattern on the 1st and 15th. This is the eighth in a series of thirteen.

Phew!!! Made it before the next block posting. Used the paper piecing as suggested. It was a challenge to get my printer to print correctly. But my friend Sue came to the rescue and told me to uncheck everything on my printer that wanted to pre-determine the size and it worked.

It is a busy time of year but I am looking forward to the posting Monday. Amazing how it is coming together...thanks Judy....

DownEast Trip

7:00am this morning the telephone rings and I hurriedly jump out of bed. My husband is up and ready to start his day. His agenda included a trip to Machias area. Of course, as the lady of the house I had to make sure my work is done and house neat. So I scurry around and finally off we go by 8:30am. We had breakfast about 25 minutes away from home and then made our jaunt through all the little towns. It was a very quiet day and the scenery is so barren at this time of year. A highlight of our trip and always quite a site to come upon and cross the bridge at Bucksport. It is very impressive and something you might like to do if you come to Maine.

Penobscot Narrows Observatory Open May 1st - October 31st
A one minute ride on the fastest elevator in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont will take you to the top of the tallest public bridge-observatory in the world. The others are in China, Slovakia and Thailand. Just opened in May 2007, the observatory is already proving to be a popular attraction. The beauty of the Penobscot River and surrounding countryside is immediately apparent as the elevator door slides open to a dizzying view from 420 feet up. Ascend two more levels up to find 360 degrees views, complete with identification panels showing you how to locate nearby mountains, lakes and towns.

Then we were off to Machias where I found a quilt shop 'Gingham' and of course I had to stop for a 'few minutes' and make a purchase. This is the easternmost fabric shop in the whole U.S.A. and also as a guild member I get a discount. It is always fun to see the different shops and the fabric lines they carry for their particular clientele.

Pictures below are the inlets we passed. They are so quaint and peaceful looking. But these boats represent a lot of hard and dangerous work for the men that fish with them in all kinds of weather in the Atlantic Ocean.

The person my husband wanted to see was not home so we decided to go onto Calais an hour North of Machias. I had heard that the Marden's there carried a lot of fabric so wanted to check it out. The Canadian border is just a few feet from them. There are hundreds of bolts and everything is very neat and accessible. I got a couple yards of baby material and a piece that matches a teal/black quilt I want to make using BQ2 quilt pattern by Maple Island Quilts.

It was a very long day. From Machias to Ellsworth it rained very hard and was difficult driving. After leaving Ellsworth we looked up and the stars were out and then when we arrived in Augusta they had salted the roads because they had been icy. The saying goes, 'just wait the weather will change'. We did stop and eat at 'Barb's restaurant' a place where a group of quilters ate last week. Their lobster stew was scrumptuous. Arrived home at 9:00pm. It was long and tiring but a great day to get away and change the scenery. You always feel renewed afterwards.

Two by Two Quilt

We recently had a vendor at our quilt group and she was demonstrating the 'Flip Flop Block' by Kathie Alyce. I was going to make a baby quilt and thought it would be fun to use. Curves do not intimidate me as I was a seamstress for many years. I found it very easy to use and pleased with the result.

After sharing that the baby was named Noah a fellow quilter suggested calling it 'Two by Two' . The baby shower had a cake with all these wild animals on it. I need to put a label on the back and then I will get it to them. Shhh.. do not tell if you know who it is... This is a close up. I did it on my short-arm quilter.

Kieve Quilt Retreat

Early Saturday morning 20+ gals headed to Camp Kieve in Nobleboro for our annual Fall retreat. This is the lady that greeted us at 'The Learning Center' looking very studious with a dove perched on her shoulder. A dove represents peace and it was such a peaceful place shut away from everything to do the thing we enjoy. SEW!!I have always taken my big Janome 6500 to weekend retreats. But decided it was just too heavy and purchased this Janome 760 with table. It was wonderful...It has a great feature stop/sew on it and you do not use the foot peddle. It was great for the straight sewing I was doing.

I made strippy quilts. A design by Mary Johnson.These are quick and great for kids to toss around. Now to get them on my quilter before Christmas.

The other project I had was a panel 'Rob Pete' from Quiltsmart. We learned to do this in a workshop and I chose to do a runner with fall colors. Quiltsmart is a pre-printed pattern that you sew and turn and iron on your fabric. I will finish it off by appliquing by hand. You can also do a buttonhole stitch by hand or machine.

We have a wonderful design wall at Kieve that we all use to lay out what we are doing in different stages and the following 2 are the same pattern only different use of color. It is called "Winner's Bouquet'. This is Donna's done in black, white and red.

Ann's is done in Navy, red and light patterns. Amazing how different they look. Ann is pictured in the next quilt.

Ann did 2 quilts. This one is called BQ2. I really like this and will purchase. They are big pieces but it is very striking.

The next quilts are 'stack 'n whack' that several gals had started at a workshop. First one is Anne T.

This second 'stack 'n whack' is Joanne's.
Beth's is a smaller version using the left over pieces from her bigger stack 'n whack.

Elizabeth was doing this tree that will have her genealogy on it. She changed the pattern some and it was very nice and I am sure will be cherished.
This is Deni and Sherry working at their stations. Lots of laughter this weekend.

This is the main room with a fire place at the end. I sat in a chair after lunch, with my legs hanging over the side of the arm, just to enjoy the coziness and warmth and fell asleep. Could not believe it with all the noise. (smile)

This is a quilt done by Christa using the X-box ruler. It was very different and vibrant.

For the life of me I do not know who did this. Maybe one of the gals will let me know so I can give credit. Sorry..

Here we are leaving a wonderful weekend. I took more pics but some were dark and some were in the morning when we were in our jammie's, hair not done...you know how it is...not our best... Carolyn is pictured here...she worked on a picture quilt with musical note fabric around them. It was very nice but I did not get a picture. I am sure I have missed many but this is a sampling.

Sandra's 'Retirement Sampler'

I finally quilted and delivered this sampler to my sister, Sandra. She retired in September and just had a hip replacement so decided this was a good time to get it to her. Nothing like a quilt to wrap yourself in when you are recovering. She was really surprised and that brought joy to my heart. The dog, Sam was her daughter Tracy's who lost her battle to cancer a year ago. We laughed at him because he was determined to stay there.The blocks, a design by Jean Wells, was a project we did in our local quilt chapter last Fall. It was fun deciding on the color palette. I started with black and white but could not bring myself to put a black heart or star. Adding the color added a new dimension to it. I generally do my blocks and then audition different fabrics for the borders until I decide what will work. I quilted some on my short-arm quilter and some on my domestic sewing machine. Our goal was to have it finished by September. The size is 62 x 77.

Star BOM #7

This is a block of the month I am doing online with Judy Laquidara. She posts the pattern on the 1st and 15th. This is the seventh in a series thirteen. I am using the same palette as I started with. The swirly fabric was added last month. I had questioned it but I really do like it..I have light and medium blues that will be used for the borders. I am so enjoying the process. This is the first time I have every done anything online and I am enjoying the process. And it is exciting to know other gals are doing the same thing. Thanks Judy!! P.S. From the picture it looks like I lost my points...not so!!

Theresa Star Done!!

I finally finished the quilt that was started at Casey Quilter's retreat last weekend. It is called 'Theresa's Star' by designer Theresa Eisinger. It is 64x71 and will be a gift after I quilt it. Had a hard time getting a picture as it is on an angle and I see it looks crooked. Just could not wait to post it. Will take a better picture eventually. There is more information about the quilt plus others who took part if you scroll down to next couple of entries. Also posted a close-up.

Below is a small quilt using the trimmings from above quilt. This was done by Sherry Flagg, the instructor. I have mine all sewn together into half triangles and will add sashing. I just have to size up and decide what I want to do. It will have to wait until after Christmas.

I have an album of all the quilts I have made over the years, the size, the recipient and a description. It is fun to go back and see all that I have done. I started quilting in 1973. I took a class with Cindy Black who had a class at our local high school. I got hooked and enjoy it more each day. Cindy owns Busy Thimble in Litchfield and has wonderful reproduction fabrics. It is always a joy to go there and I always come out with something.