Saturday, October 24, 2015

A Triple Decker

 I just had to join in
Lori was calling it Country Roads.

If I were "walkin' down a country road" near me,

  this is what I would see.

And this is my "Country Roads".
26" x 28"

I enjoy working on Lori's little quilts.
She keeps it simple.

Did you catch my humility block?

Not on purpose, just a continually reminder.

I love the look of quilts with no borders,
but I have a hard time leaving them off.

So I added two, one only 1/2" and the outer
border with two different widths.

I dug deep in the sewing stash and used
some ancient fabrics.
The center gold/cheddar is from a very 
early line of Fons and Porter called Cumberland.
The narrow border and binding from a 
Barbara Brackman line called Trailing Vines.

 And on the back, the oldest fabrics,
 are from Country Threads'
first line, Welcome.
Does anyone remember these?
Boy, did that feel good.

Thanks, Lori for another 
fun sew along.

****
I was recently a winner
of Diane's giveaway over at Butterfly Threads.
She sent me a copy 
of the newest magazine from
Simply Moderne, issue #2.


I hadn't had a chance to thoroughly enjoy
this magazine yet so,
 I was really thrilled to receive a copy.
It's filled with stunning photos,
modern style quilts,
and new ideas from young designers,
like my blogger friend,
There's a beautiful full page photo of her
prize winning red and white quilt from the recent
Sydney Quilt show. 
Check it out!

Yes, it certainly lives up to the standards 
of the original magazine, Quiltmania.
I'm going to have to add this to my
magazine subscriptions.

Diane also generously sent 3 of her
own published patterns.
You can find these and more over at Craftsy.

Thanks, Diane.

****
It's been almost
20 years ago since I went to the
International Quilt Festival in Houston
but I'm heading there next week!
I'm so excited.
I'm leaving plenty of empty space in my
bags and I'm ready for some
quilting overload, 
and maybe a bit of overindulgence.
Unfortunately, I'm there only one day
so I'm going to have to move in overdrive.
Did I say I was excited?


Until Next Time-

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Flow With the Seasons

 I have a very dear quilting friend
whose stitching philosophy
is to work on seasonal projects
during the same season.
That way she's working with the
colors and styles that represent
that particular time of the year.

I understand her thoughts,
 It surrounds you with 
seasonal expressions. 
Although, I have to admit,
 I'm usually a season or more behind
or on a few occasions, I'm actually ahead.
 Depending on how you look at it!

But this time
I was right on.
I finished working on 
my "Autumn" pillow
designed by Crabapple Hill.

If you remember I started this a 
few weeks ago while
 sitting and waiting for Running Man
to finish running 50 miles.

I had gotten to this point 
by the time he crossed the finish line.

For the last couple of weeks
I've been enjoying the rest of the stitching
 

as the fall colors have begun to appear
in my neck of the woods.

The design incorporated a few bits of wool
for the leaves and rosehips.
It gave the pillow solid spots of color
on the outer edges.

The directions also suggested a 
small wool scalloped border
which I tacked down with french knots. 
 I used a small hand dyed brown piece that
had been lingering in my wool bin.

I liked how it framed the embroidery.

I had three pieces of fabric that I wanted to use.
One for the border,
the marble for the cording
and the dots for the backing,
but sometimes you just have to improvise.

It was a sweet project to work on
and now it's ready to enjoy
during the "current" Autumn season.


Until Next Time-

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

The Nine Patch Connection

When Barb Vedder
organizer a nine patch swap in June of 2014,
I decided to join in.

And I'm glad I did.
My 3" reproduction nine patch blocks 
were mailed to her,
she did her magic of swapping them around,
and I in return received beautiful nine patches
made from 50 different quilters around the world. 

Barb's tutorial for making fast
and accurate nine patches can be found
on her blog Here.
It's a great method.

I wanted to do something special 
with these blocks.
Here's what I came up with,
nine patches side by side and 

 two borders of appliqued leaves.

The colors just say fall,
 especially with the cheddar fabric behind the applique.

 I did big stitch quilting using
 

both an orange mustard and a medium bark
Aurifil #12 
which is their heaviest cotton thread
 on a spool.
 
It was beautiful thread to work with
and never frayed as I stitched.
I had to order it online from
out of Georgia.


 It was a wonderful project to participate in.
Thanks again to everyone who included blocks.
 I feel connected with so many quilters
just by their sweet little nine patches.

I also wanted to show you the tree I was using 
for my photo shoot.

It was a magnificent old cottonwood tree
living in the field behind my house.
In the spring,
a storm gave it a mighty push 
and down it can.
It would take at least 4-5 people
to circle the circumference of the base.

It's sad to see
this mighty tree toppled over,
but I could tell other critters 
had taken up residence in the fallen branches. 
So her usefulness continues on.
As I age, I hope
that can always be said about me.

Until Next Time-

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Santa Fe

Before heading to the 
Bear Chase Trail Run,
Running Man and I visited
 

for some Rand R, as well

good New Mexican Mexican cuisine.

Santa Fe is a very unique place.
There are hundreds of local art galleries,


multiple cultures
 
 to explore

and trinkets to try on.

The farmer's market was
full of all kinds of peppers
sweet and hot.

The architecture is
uniquely Santa Fe
from churches 

to every public building

and of course in the condo we
stayed in,
 which we found through VRBO.

There's so much to do in the area.
We've been here before so
this time we decided to explore the
Museum of International Folk Art.

The permanent display features
a "small" portion of 
Alexander and Susan Girard's
 
collection of over 100,000 pieces
 that they had collected for their 

whimsy,

cultures,

 and beauty.
There really is too much to see in one visit.

This was Polish paper cutting
which looks like it was done with fabric and appliqued.

This mural was done with yarn


pressed into warmed beeswax.
Amazing!

We also visited and learned more about the Puye Cliff Dwellings 
home of the Pueblo Indians
from 900AD to 1580 AD.

The drive through this scenic part of the country 
is wide open and truly the Land of Enchantment.
 

Just one more thing,
if you happen to be a fan of the TV series Longmire,
you can find Walt's Sheriff's office

actually on the plaza in Las Vegas, NM
where some of the series is filmed.

Enjoy your travels wherever they take you.
 Until Next Time-

Thursday, October 1, 2015

The Bear Chase

 It was almost 90 degrees
last Saturday.
Way too warm for the end of September.

But despite the predicted scorching weather,
Running Man and about 50 other
crazy Ultra marathon runners took to the trails
to run the 50 mile Bear Chase Trail Run
held in Morrison, Co.


 It's always an early start for
these races.

Even before the sun comes up.

Here's me and my little spot for the
long day.

Running Man's race was for 50 miles, but
there were also runners doing a 100K, (62 miles)
and a 50 K (31 miles)
Ready, Set, Go!
Look at all those crazy people.

The course was a 12.5 mile loop,
which made my job as the CREW pretty easy.
 I just stayed in one spot and waited
for Running Man to show up.

The course was through open fields

 
 and through creeks


With the temp around 90 degrees

everyone was trying to stay cool
by dumping water over themselves.

Not a cloud in the sky
or a tree for shade.

Some of the crews had great set up with
tents and BBQ grills.
 

Remember my little set up?
Some of the younger groups must have felt
sorry for this older crew person and
invited me in under the shade.
Good thing, because I would have fried!

So what do you do for about 11 hours
while your runner is
 hopefully avoiding bears?

You sit and stitch,
 an embroidery by Crabapple Hill, called Autumn.
Hard to see the design,
but look what I had done by the end of Running Man's race.


Running Man was a superhero


and crossed the finish line in 10 hours, 34 minutes.

He looks a little spent,
needless to say,
but he was first in his age group, 60+,
and 16th over-all.

What do you win?
This
and bragging rights.

It was a good day
and a good run


despite the heat.
Easy for me to say!

Until Next Time-