gladiquilts

Greetings dear readers! Here are a few more photos from the Cocheco show for your viewing pleasure. First up is another lovely piece in wool:

Our guild president gets to pick her favorite quilt and she chose this one.

I always love a traditional basket quilt and this one looks great in solids:

One of several whimsical quilts in the show:

This elephant pattern has long been one of my favorites:

A piecing challenge conquered!:

A lovely wall quilt:

Autumn quilts are always especially appealing to me:

Our guild “Challenge” for this year was interesting with lots of excellent entries.

Left to right, spring into summer:

Summer into fall:

Fall into winter:

I’ve been mostly doing hand work recently. I’m making slow, but steady progress on hand quilting Time of Plenty with the goal of finishing in time to exhibit in the next Cocheco Show, almost a year from now:

I’ve advanced the Red and White Crib Quilt #2 quite a bit! The leaves were all prepared via the “turned edge” method and basted to the background and about half are hand appliqued down. I’ve started to add some of the embroidery embellishment by hand:

Definitely planning to hand quilt it.

There’s very little bright color left in the landscape here. This is some of the last of it:

Dear readers, I mentioned previously that my sewing time has been limited recently due to family obligations. Those are increasing over the next month so I have decided to take a 3-4 week break from posting. I hope to be back to sharing my quilting journey on a regular basis by mid December. I wish you all a lovely Thanksgiving!

Be kind, be grateful, and cherish each day, Gladi

Greetings dear readers! I’m a morning person and like the extra light in the morning after turning the clocks back this weekend, but I’m not happy that it’s dark before 5 PM! Nevertheless, will, as always, find ways to be grateful for my days. 🙏.
The past week I’ve been focused on moving some projects toward the finish line. I completed the top for the quilt I’m gifting to our neighbor:

I also pieced a back for it out of some large pieces of reproduction fabrics and now I’m ready to schedule quilting with a long-armer. Yay! I also need a back for the library donation quilt and have this beautiful Michael Miller “Paradise Island” print/panel, given to me by a friend who downsized, which I think will work:

It’s wide enough and I can fill out the top and bottom with this lovely fabric, also from that friend:

Not sure I remembered to mention that the library silent auction will be in the spring instead of this holiday season, so the time pressure is off; nevertheless, it will be good to get this one out for longarm quilting too. I also pulled my Quarter Log Cabin quilt top out of the pile and decided NOT to hand quilt it and get that one out for longarm quilting too, so I pieced a back out of black and brown reproduction prints:

(That’s the top on top of the backing, of course.)

The other thing I did over the past few days was get out the Hexagon Star quilt and begin to make some final decisions about the border. I knew I wanted to use this red reproduction print, but what width and ? with a vine and leaf border? I tried a mock-up of a vine and leaf border and didn’t like it at all – too busy; there is so much to look at with the stars that it doesn’t need a fancy border. But, just the red alone? (Sorry, the lighting isn’t great.)

It seemed like it needed something more so I added a black print between the center and the red border:

Better, but still not quite right. After more study, I tried adding a narrow tan strip between the red and black:

Much better, I think! I will still need to determine the best way to appliqué the center to the black print ; I may ultimately add a tan flange between the red border and binding. Now that I have a good idea where I’m going with this, I’m putting it aside again probably until after the holidays when my personal life quiets down (I hope 🙂).

Now on to more quilt show photos! This first one features beautiful hand dyed fabrics and I like the “takes a village” concept:

I do love a classic quilt – baskets! – with hand quilting:

More beautiful wool work and I love the the winter theme and accompanying images:

Really pretty stars in a soothing color palette:

A lovely hand quilted version Edyta Sitar’s “Alaska” pattern:

And finally something whimsical and fun:

Still more photos from the show to come in future posts! Meanwhile, the last of the fall colors before we slide into brown/gray/pine green for the winter:

Above – My Japanese maple tree’s burst of brilliant red after all the other red is gone.

Below – the beech trees hold their leaves longer than most others and I love the gold and amber colors as the sun shines through:

Wishing you all the joy and comfort of stitching as we head into late autumn!

Be kind, be grateful, and cherish each day, Gladi

Greetings dear readers! It’s hard to read about/watch the news these days – war, gun violence, political dysfunction, resentment, intolerance, and injustice. To deal with this, it helps me to keep in mind – “in dark times, shine a light” – try to be the best person I can be, do what good I can, and hope for the best. I’m grateful that quilt making provides both respite and community as well as the opportunity to be creative. Creativity is one of the glories of being human – something positive instead of negative! With that in mind, please enjoy and possibly be inspired by, these photos of more quilts from the Cocheco show:

This wonderful quilt is by my friend Jean. I love her use of green and the sentiments expressed.

There were several quilts in the show featuring wool work and this next one was especially lovely. And of course I love dark backgrounds 🙂:

This next quilt might have won an award for best use of color if we gave one out:

This wonderful small quilt won a Judge’s Choice award. Another “wool” piece with fabulous detail:

This next quilt looks like it was a major challenge to construct!! I love the color scheme:

One of the long time features of our annual show is a “Meet the Quilter” section in which we feature the work of 3 of our guild members. Those folks spend quite a bit of time there over the course of the show talking with attendees about their work. This year my friend Jean was featured. We’ve been quilting buddies for at least 25 years – back when she was my Human Resources go-to person at the University! Here are some photos of her booth:

More quilt show photos to come in future posts!
I bought something at the show that I have fallen in love with!:

A guild member was giving a demo on piecing and mentioned how much she loved this rotary cutter. Over the years I have exclusively used Olfa cutters and been pretty happy, especially when used with “Endurance” longer lasting blades. The Quilters Select cutter is quite a bit heavier and requires almost no pressure to effortlessly cut, thus reducing the strain on the hand, wrist, arm, and shoulder. So far, I’m in love ❤️ and it does seem ergonomically more efficient, especially if you do a lot of cutting. I think it will be worth the investment (not inexpensive!).

I considered buying a set of Applipops – metal rings for making circles for appliqué – but decided to stick with my Karen Kay Buckley plastic circles for now. I would love to hear from any readers who have used the Applipops – do they work well? How do they compare to the KKB circles?

There has been some lovely fall color this past week, almost certainly nearly the last of it. The “burning bush” has been shining in both pink and red:

The sumac leaves have been brilliant:

And the peaches and golds make the whole scene glow:

Be kind, be grateful, and cherish each day – and SHINE A LIGHT! Gladi

Greetings dear readers! I am incredibly fortunate to belong to a wonderful guild with so many wonderful quilters in it. We are up to around 180 members now and our annual show is the best in the area. This past weekend’s show was excellent – and amazing for a volunteer organization! Here’s what the place looked like on Friday morning at the beginning of the show setup:

I’m mad at myself for not getting a photo of the overview after the setup, but picture in your mind 215 quilts hanging, special exhibits, 16 vendors, penny sale, boutique, raffle quilt and raffle sewing machine set up, ongoing demos, appraisals, opportunities for attendees to sew on some community quilt projects, etc. We squeezed a lot in there and attendance was great!

I’m thrilled that “Sweet Journeys” won 4 ribbons!!

It’s always so satisfying to win a viewer’s choice award and know that the folks attending the show really liked your quilt. A judge’s choice win is not bad either!😊

Here’s the fabulous Best of Show quilt:

Rainy Stevens worked on this quilt for 23 years, off and on, and I’ve been following her journey from the beginning. Long time readers may remember me sharing parts of this quilt over the years as Rainy was working on it. This BOS award is so well deserved as it is a masterpiece. All hand done! The workmanship is phenomenal. Here are some closeups so you can admire it – click on the photos to enlarge them:

Another multi award winner was this stunning wool on linen quilt:

Can you believe this is Carole’s first quilt?! The woolwork/stitching is outstanding and the details are amazing:

Carole’s quilt was part of a special exhibit of “house quilts” in the show and today I’m sharing several of those with you:

This first one was made by my friend Sally who is in my Bee. I love the overall design and the beautiful colors:

Jacque is a devotee of Edyta Sitar and makes a lot of her designs in blue and white. This one is lovely!

I really enjoyed the whimsy of this one:

I love the traditional grid style of this one paired with modern colors:

I’m always drawn to quilts with dark/black backgrounds as they make the colors stand out so well:

Continuing the “house” theme, our raffle quilt this year was a house quilt in traditional colors:

Many more quilts to come in future posts! Working on the show, helping with the judging and show setup, helping at the show – all were incredibly fantastic ways to get to know other guild members better, meet new people, and make new friends. Building community! I highly recommend guild membership and participation on committees for all quilters! The show was also a great way to see a number of friends and acquaintances who came to see the show! What a great weekend!

More beautiful fall color finally arrived this past week, later than usual, and not quite as widespread, but I’ll take it!!

Be kind, be grateful, and cherish each day, Gladi

Greetings dear readers! From tomorrow afternoon through Sunday I am going to be busy with my guild’s annual show. It happens October 21st and 22nd, 10 AM to 4 PM at the Rochester Community Center, Rochester, NH – Cocheco Quilters Guild. If you are anywhere nearby, please come because it’s going to be an excellent show! My “Sweet Journeys” will be there. I had started to add a line of hand embroidery along the edge of the binding so spent some time this past week finishing that up:

And I finally made a label for the quilt:

Tuesday afternoon I’ll be helping to set up for the judging and I’ll be helping with the judging – 3 judges, 93 quilts judged! – most of the day Wednesday and Thursday. Then Friday is the show setup- just over 200 quilts, 18 vendors, penny sale, etc. etc. Lots to do! I look forward to sharing some quilts from the show in my next post.

Meanwhile, I managed to get some more sashing into my gift quilt:

In this next photo, you can really see the difference the sashing makes:

I also made some progress on the red and white crib quilt. There’s a 1 inch wide red inner border and a 5 inch wide outer border and I’ve started to add some vines for a vine and leaf border:

Some of you are aware of my second hobby – playing the accordion. I referred to it on my “Sweet Journeys” label. The group of musicians I belong to meets once a month at various members’ houses. We have some new members and this past Friday, we met at the most unique house I think I’ve ever been to! That’s me on the far left with my accordion in the first photo:

The house was featured a few years ago in New Hampshire Home magazine and I’m providing a link for you to check it out – it’s well worth a look!:

https:www.nhhomemagazine.com/a-magical-renovation

Sadly, we are not having the usual spectacular fall colors in our area. One of the reasons is that a very wet summer caused a fungal infection in many of the leaves. I still manage to find some beautiful leaves and used them to create some “still lifes”:

”Still life with mushroom”:

”Still life with pinecone”:

”Still life with moss”:

Leaves and berries:

While walking in the forest I keep my eyes open for fungi and am sometimes rewarded with:

Closer:

We’re still blessed with some gorgeous color, just not the blaze everywhere that we’re used to:

Wishing you all a good week!

Be kind, be grateful, and cherish each day, Gladi

Greetings dear readers! With family duties sucking up time, and a shaky internet connection recently,it’s challenging to get a post done, but I’ll give it a try! On my “free” days this past week, I worked many hours on the library donation quilt, machine appliquéing 76 leaves and attaching the borders and corner blocks and- voila! – the top is done!

The above photo shows the colors much better than the design wall in my sewing room! The picture below is probably even better:

Here’s a closeup of one of the corner blocks:

And here are a couple of photos of the border:

I’m very happy with how this bright and cheery lap quilt made with floral prints came out! I plan to have it longarm quilted by someone – not me🙂. The crazy thing is that I believe my library has decided not to do their annual silent auction this fall!😵‍💫. No worries, though. I can save it for a future library fund raiser or donate it to a different cause.

As soon as the above top was completed, I moved right on to the quilt I’m making for my neighbor. All the blocks were done, so I arranged them on the design wall and then picked out this fabric for the setting triangles – I had just enough!

It looks darker than it really is on my design wall, but even when I viewed it with more light on it, I felt that it needed to be further lightened up so I made the final decision to add a thin, lighter value sashing and here’s what it’s looking like so far:

Here’s a better closeup before the sashing, showing the colors better:

So… I’ll be working on getting the sashing in and rows sewn together the next few days and I think this one is going to the longarmer as well.

I just finished reading Ann Patchett’s new book, which I recommend:

The main character, currently 57 years old, had a short period in her 20’s when she was an actress and played Emily in Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize winning play, Our Town – a prominent part of the book/story – so I read that too:

Some of the basic themes in the book and play are similar. I had some trouble getting into the story at first, but it got better and better and I really liked it by the end. In fact, I keep thinking about it days after finishing – a sign it’s had an impact!! Definitely recommended!

So far this fall the colors in my area of northern New England have been more muted than usual, especially the maples. The cause could be the exceptionally wet spring and summer we had. Sometimes only a section of a tree is really bright. So far my appreciation and enjoyment of the seasonal colors is frequently confined to individual leaves:

The bog is one of the places I can enjoy some more widespread colors:

Thanks to everyone for reading! Wishing you all the pleasures of stitching and the pleasures of the season!

Be kind, be grateful, and cherish each day, Gladi

Greetings dear readers! I just took advantage of a few days free of my other duties to catch up on my current quilting projects. I finished making the last of the 85 “square in a square” blocks for the gift quilt. Here’s a photo of some of the last ones:

Then I turned my attention to the library donation quilt and made and machine appliqued down the vines on the borders and cut out all of the raw edge leaves, using double sided fusible so I could play with arranging them on the borders.

After they’re all arranged, I’ll iron them down so they adhere permanently and then will machine appliqué them down with a buttonhole edge stitch.

I finished appliquéing all the red and white blocks that I had prepared for a crib quilt and sewed them all together:

The above photo is the best representation of the true colors! Long time readers may remember my first red and white crib quilt:

I pinned the new blocks over the center to check if this is the size I want:

It’s just a bit shorter, but I think a good size, though it definitely needs a border. And – gee – that vine border looks awfully good with this new piece! But I think I should come up with something at least a little different!

And finally the weather has cooled down enough to make hand quilting on Time of Plenty a pleasure. I tackled my first pieced block with stitch in the ditch and geometric straight lines and got this photo with light streaming in a window this morning:

I think I may want to add some more lines where the flying geese are.

At my guild’s monthly meeting last week, Marge Tucker gave a marvelous lecture/trunk show. I really enjoyed how she showed some antique quilts she owns and how they inspired her more modern versions. See how she interpreted this Chinese coins:

To this:

This:

To this:

She showed her award winning Ebb and Flow:

And showed how she used a Sashiko sewing machine to quilt some parts of it and how it really looks like hand quilting!

I just might have to consider this in the future!

This is another award winner:

This is a string pieced quilt and she showed how the variation of the shades of color within the strips is largely responsible for the added interest:

This next one was a Quilt Con award winner. What appears to be a gray background is actually white fabric over a black batting!

I’m looking for and enjoying signs of seasonal changes as I walk and hope you enjoy these too:

The bog starts to turn a rusty color:

Be kind, be grateful, and cherish each day, Gladi

Greetings dear readers! I recently listened to a podcast in which both the interviewer and interviewee agreed that most lives can be seen as divided into chapters. Chapters can be different lengths. I’m currently experiencing one of those short (3-4 months), interim chapters that has turned the normal rhythms of my life upside down- lots of driving and babysitting. I’m still prioritizing quilting on my “normal” days and making some progress! I figured out that I need 85 of the square in a square blocks for my gift quilt and now have 67 – only 18 to go!

Latest blocks:

Soon I’ll need to decide whether to add a sashing. I like the look better with it, but it’s more work!

I finished another 2 appliqué blocks for the red and white crib quilt:

I hadn’t worked on my library donation quilt for a while because I wasn’t able to find enough of a suitable fabric in my stash. Then, 3 weeks ago a long time quilting friend called to let me know she’s moving to an assisted living facility, not close enough to remain in our guild and our Bee, and downsizing. Would I be willing to pick up fabric she’s giving away and distribute it to folks who can use it? Of course I said yes. I picked up 9 large garbage bags stuffed with lots of wonderful fabrics! I couldn’t help wondering if I was getting a glimpse into my own inevitable future….😵‍💫. I have since gotten rid of all of it, mostly to my guild’s Community Quilts committee for making donation quilts. However, I did find a fabric I could use for my library donation border! It’s not perfect, but will do just fine:

The inner border will be half that width when sewn and the sand dollars won’t be as prominent when the vine and leaves are on:

Lots of leaf making and machine appliqué coming up!

Here are the last quilts from the AFAM exhibit, “What This Quilt Knows About Me” that I want to share. It’s always great to get a closeup look at one of Paula Nadelstern’s wonderful kaleidoscope quilts:

Primitive, but fascinating:

Of course there had to be an Amish quilt there! I love the red, pink, and purple combination:

At the Maine quilt show there was a small exhibit of antique quilts from the collection of Judy Roach, after her recent death. She was influential in the quilt world, especially in Maine, and designed a number of fabric collections. Here are 3 of those quilts:

Oops…this is out of order, but I want to share this statement from the AFAM exhibit:

Here’s what I’m reading right now:

I’m finding that I’m enjoying memoirs these days and this is a good one! Probably because she’s only a couple years older than I am and we both grew up in the ‘50’s and ‘60’s, both of us striving to break out of the restraints women were under back then, looking forward to the kinds of careers only men used to be able to have. She ultimately became president of Harvard.

I’m finishing this post not with “earthly delights “ this time, but with “whimsical delights”! Several weeks ago a friend and I went to the big annual craft fair in New Hampshire- so much fun, so much to see! We were both taken by the work of woodcarver Laury Nichols. Enjoy!

I like her use of the hexie flowers in this:

There’s definitely the feel of fall in the air today – I wore a jacket and scarf on my walk this morning. Soon the leaves will be turning and falling. Be kind, be grateful, and cherish each day, Gladi

Greetings dear readers! My non-quilting life has become super busy with family obligations which will continue for the next couple months. This is definitely cutting into my time for working on quilt projects and blogging. I have been posting almost weekly for some time now, but it may well be less than that for a while. I hope you’ll stick with me! I’ll do my best to not let too much time pass between posts.

Because of that diminished free time, I’ve focused those available moments on 2 simple projects. I’m up to 50 blocks for the “square in a square” lap quilt:

I’m enjoying choosing the fabrics and trying to get an even distribution of colors. The blocks are foundation paper pieced, easy to do, require little thinking, and the processes are easy to fit into those few spare moments that pop up. This is NOT the time for a challenge!

The other project I’m spending some time on is the red and cream crib quilt- the appliqué provides some portable hand work. It’s been much too hot to hand quilt Time of Plenty, but very soon I’ll get back to it as the weather cools.

The individual blocks above finish at 4 inches and are sewn together at this point into groups of four. I need at least 6 more of those (24 of the 4 inch blocks) then I’ll figure out whether it needs to be larger.

This past Saturday I did my trunk show for the Pine Tree Quilt Guild (their state guild) in Augusta, Maine. They are a great group and I really enjoyed it! Here I am showing my 3 Palm Leaf quilts and talking about how different colors, fabrics, and settings can made the same block look totally different:

This might have been my swan song for trunk shows. It’s getting harder to deal with making commitments so far ahead of time, the travel, and all the packing and unpacking of quilts – 27 quilts, 7 large plastic boxes, a large bag, and a box of other materials for the presentation!😵‍💫. Augusta was a 2 hour drive each way. There is a time and a season for everything, as they say. I’ve been doing these trunk shows for 8 years and it just feels like it might be time to be mostly done, with possibly an occasional exception.

I’m sharing several more photos today of quilts from the American Folk Art Museum exhibit, “What That Quilt Knows About Me” in NYC. This red and white “Pieties” quilt was unique and so interesting!

This album quilt was gorgeous! I just love that wild upside down tree and wish I’d gotten a closeup.

Japanese quilts made from old kimonos are always a favorite! The hand piecing of all those odd shapes is amazing!

The construction on this next quilt is primitive, but the work is humorous and one of a kind:

The next quilt was of special interest because my husband plays piano, has long been a big fan of Mary Lou Williams, and saw her perform in person years ago:

I still have some photos from exhibits to share – more next time!

I’ve also had less time to walk, but am still trying to fit that in when I can, so I do have some Earthly Delights to share. Recently went for a walk with a friend in a wooded marsh area. Here she is walking ahead of me on the boardwalk with a stick in hand to brush away any snakes sunning on it!😮:

There’s an abandoned beaver dam in the center here:

Wildlife:

Numerous kinds of mushrooms! Check out the weird stem on the first one:

I’ll finish this post with some bright color (not from the marsh area 🙂). These morning glories were really this bright and look like they’re lit from within!!

Wishing you all some satisfying stitching as fall (or spring if you are in the Southern Hemisphere!) rapidly approaches.

Be kind, be grateful, and cherish each day, Gladi

Greetings dear readers! My major accomplishment this past week was finally getting the center of the Hexagon Stars quilt completely sewn together!

158 fussy cut hexagon stars, hand sewn together using the English Paper Piecing technique, started in September 2017. Making the stars was the fun part; connecting everything with the tan diamonds was a bit of a slog, but I persevered! I only used 5 or 6 fabrics twice and those look different because they were fussy cut from a different section of the fabric. I think there may be 1 or 2 exact repeats. So there’s lots to see with close inspection! I plan to appliqué the edges to a deep red fabric:

I’m pretty sure I’m going to add a vine and leaves, but will wait till the border is attached and do a little mock-up before deciding. I may take a break from this project for a while first!😊

Meanwhile, I’ve started something new, but it’s fairly simple and is a gift. Al and I are able to keep up with most simple home maintenance tasks, but are not very handy when the complexity of a project increases even modestly! We are incredibly lucky to have a neighbor who is fantastic about helping us with those tasks and it’s finally time for me to reward him with the gift of a lap quilt. The decor in their house is traditional, so I’m using reproduction fabrics and a simple square in a square in a square design set on point:

I pinned up some light value sashing strips and I like the look better so will go with that when it’s time to sew the blocks together:

One of my favorite things at the Maine quilt show this year was the Hortense Beck exhibit. Her appliqué is exquisite! She was able to find excellent hand quilters to finish her pieces. Are there still very good hand quilters out there for hire? If any readers have information on this, let me know because I might be interested; I know I don’t have time to hand quilt every top I’ve made and might not want them all long armed. I’m showing several of Hortense’s quilts today. Enlarge by clicking on the photos to enjoy the details. These are an appliqué lover’s delight!!

I hope you’ve enjoyed these quilts as much as I have while relooking at them and posting them! If I had another lifetime, I’d reproduce several of these!

Be kind, be grateful, and cherish each day, Gladi