Fundy--A Quilt full of Lighthouses

This quilt was made following a vacation in New England.  We particularly liked the Bay of Fundy area.  Five lighthouses set amid Snail's Trail blocks representing sky and water.  Pieced back has snail's trail, star, pre-printed lighthouse fabric.  Machine pieced, machine quilted with various threads.  Lighthouses included are:  East Quoddy and Mulholland lights on Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada and Whitlock's Mill, West Quoddy and Lubec Channel Light in Maine. 

Getting to the East Quoddy light is an adventure in itself.  You have to go down a ladder made from pipe, about 20 feet high (I don't like heights, so that made it even more exciting for me!), across a sand bar (actually more like gravel), up another ladder, across a tiny island, down another ladder, and then pick your way across the rocks to the even smaller island where the lighthouse stands.  This must be done at low tide, as the rocks and sand bar are under water at high tide, and the tide comes in very fast, so it is extremely dangerous to attempt crossing then.

My husband thought I had completely flipped when I attempted to get a photo of  Whitlock's Mill light, which is on private property and can only be seen from a distance.  I spotted it through the trees, so we stopped and I tried to get a good view of it.  I ended up standing on the edge of a cliff  above the river, holding the branches back so I could get a picture (remember, I don't like heights).  Then we drove on, and about 100 yards up the road was a little roadside park, with a path where the lighthouse could be viewed!

I was going to show a picture of the pieced back as well, but I apparently don't have one, and the quilt is currently in an exhibit, so I can't get my hands on it to take one.  

Where Does Your Inspiration Come From?

Inspirations is the name given to my exhibit of Hoffman Challenge quilts and Lighthouse quilts at the Artworks in Big Rapids gallery.  The exhibit will hang until July 26, 2014.
I am one of a small handful of people who have entered every Hoffman Challenge which began in 1988.  All of my Hoffman Challenge quilts are on exhibit, except the first two (which I sold, not knowing I would end up with a collection), and the last two.  Last year's is traveling, and this year's was just sent off to the curator.
These are the quilts you won't see in the exhibit:

Tony's Wallstar 1988

Country Garden 1989

Garden Path 2013

Lollipop Garden 2014

Do you see a naming theme there?  Three of them have Garden in the title.  I just realized that.
Here a few shots that were taken as we were setting up the show.  The local quilt guild did the hanging and I have to say that they were very efficient.

And the other part of the exhibit (because they had a blank wall to fill, as this is a good-sized gallery) is most of my lighthouse quilts.  For some time, I have been known as "the lighthouse lady", due to my having made a lighthouse quilt which won the 200th Anniversary of the US Coast Guard quilt contest.  That sparked a line of patterns, and several more lighthouse quilts, most based on real lighthouses.

They even set up a display of my lighthouse wall hanging patterns!

If you are in the Big Rapids, Michigan area in the next few weeks, be sure to stop in and view the exhibit.  Artworks is open Tues-Fri 10-5:30 and Sat 10-3.

Pinwheel Tutorial

The idea for this tutorial came about because a quilt that I took in for machine quilting had pinwheels, and they were very bulky in the middle.  I did a quickie demo for my quilt guild, hoping the guilty party was there (she was), and threw in a few other tips on pressing as well.  I know there are other methods which you may prefer, but this is how I like to make pinwheel blocks, or any block with eight points meeting in the center.

This is for a 6" pinwheel block.

Finished pinwheel block.

I prefer to oversize my half square triangles and square them up for accuracy.  Start with two 4" pieces, a dark and light.  Layer them right sides together, and draw a diagonal line on the light one.

Stitch 1/4" from both sides of the drawn line.  Cut on the drawn line and  open up the resulting half square triangle blocks.

Press seams OPEN and square up the blocks to 3 1/2".

Take all four half square triangle blocks and lay them out in a pinwheel formation.  It doesn't really matter which way they spin, but if you are using several in a quilt, try to keep them all spinning in the same direction.

Sew together in pairs.  Press seams open.

Lay the two halves with centers pointing to the middle.  They should look like this, with all seams pressed open.

Sewing the two halves together can be a little tricky to get the points to match in the middle.  To help with accuracy, line up the two centers and put a pin directly through the points where you wish to have them meet.  Don't try to tip this pin and secure the block there.  The fabric will shift if you do that.  Instead, with the pin perpendicular to the fabric, make sure the edges of the blocks line up, and pin the halves together right next to the first pin, on both sides of the seam.  Now you can take out the first pin and sew the seam, being sure to sew just a scant bit inside the point, so that it isn't eaten up when you turn and press it.  Again, press the seam OPEN to reduce bulk.  The finished block will look like this from the wrong side.

What is your favorite method for making pinwheels?

Turtles, T-Shirts and Houses

What do they have in common?  That's what my customers have brought me to quilt this week.  I'm almost two days late with this week's blog, and having my two rambunctious great-grandchildren here tonight is making even this a challenge.  They're 3 and 4 and never still a moment. Right now they're yelling into the fan that I have blowing on me.
 So you are just getting photos of what I've been working on this week.

First up was this delightful littleTturtle and Snail's Trail quilt intended for a baby.  The maker wanted the legs left floppy, but I just had to quilt spirals in the turtle bodies.

Next was this pretty red and white house quilt.  The blocks are set directly together, with alternating colors, one house red with white background, and the next one white with a red background. 

All the reds were different, but the white was all the same.  I just quilted in the ditch in the body of the quilt, but did feathers and fans in the borders.

And lastly, this stunning t-shirt quilt.  The maker claims to be a beginner quilter, but she did a bang-up job of creating a setting to showcase only a dozen shirts.  She said she only purchased a yard of fabric, instead using some of the boy's jerseys  for sashings.  It's just meander quilted, with the designs on the shirts outlined.

So that's it for this week.  Enjoy.

Spring foods from my back yard

It's Friday and I just realized I don't have a blog ready!  The sun is shining, and it even feels warm on the back when I'm out there.  Picked a few morels to go on my pork steak for supper.  Last night I had some stir-fried with fresh asparagus. 

The season for both morels and asparagus is so short, so when they're available, I eat them frequently.  Rhubarb is ready, too, so I'll share my favorite rhubarb recipe.
Rhubarb Crisp
In a 9"square pan, put about 4 cups of cut-up rhubarb.
Topping:
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
a dash of cinnamon if desired
1 egg
With a fork combine ingredients until crumbly.  Spread over top of rhubarb (or other fruit).
Pour 1/3 cup melted butter over top of this.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes.
Enjoy!

Quiltomology 001: Ugly Bug Collection

Some years back, I was part of an online group which held a yearly "ugly" fabric swap.  It was meant purely to be a fun event.  Rules were posted on April Fool's Day, and the fabrics needed to be mailed to participants on April 15, tax day.
Each participant sent two "fat 1/16th pieces of the ugliest quilting fabric they could find to all the other participants.  There were 54 who participated in this particular swap, so I ended up with 108 pieces of ugly fabric.  Of course, part of the challenge was that we had to make them into a quilt.
I pondered long and hard about what to make.  I like plays on words, and I kept thinking, "ugly rugs", "ugly mugs", "ugly bugs".  That's it.  UGLY BUGS won.
I got a book on insects from the library and created some oversized bugs, using a piecing method I'm very fond of, freezer paper piecing.  My goal was to use only the ugly fabric, and to use all of it.  I didn't want it breeding in my stash!

I even found some plastic flies to scatter around the quilt top.  I drew the line at the plastic spiders I found, though.  I hate spiders.  Anyway, they are not insects.

 I had a few fabric scraps left, and I wanted to use them all.  At that time, I was doing a lot of back art on my quilts, so the back became another place to get rid of that ugly fabric.

The bug spray effectively made use of the rest of the "uglies".
Too much fun?

Quilt Trails Galore

Quilt Barn Trails have been blanketing the countryside in the past few years.  To date, I believe 45 states and 3 Canadian provinces have quilt trails.  The movement began in southern Ohio in 2001 with Donna Sue Groves' idea to create an imaginary "clothesline" of quilts across Appalachia.  You can learn more about that here: Donna Sue's story.  Author Suzi Parron has collaborated with Donna Sue to document the movement in a book, Barn Quilts and the American Quilt Trail.  Clicking the link will take you to Suzi's blog, where you will find a link to purchase the book.  She is at the present time touring the United States, giving programs and doing research for a second book on the subject.
I joined the quilt trail movement in 2009 when a friend, Cindy Cambier and I started a trail in our home county of Osceola County, Michigan.  Osceola County has 92 quilt blocks on barns, garages, houses, businesses and public buildings. 
Now we have moved on to the two counties immediately to the north of Osceola, Wexford and Missaukee Counties, having started in 2014, the Quilt Trails of Wexford-Missaukee.  Our first block went up this week, a Snail Trail block went up on the historical octagonal building at the Wexford County Fairgrounds.

The grounds crew at the fairgrounds rounded up a few ladders, and with a lot of coaching from the bystanders, the deed was done.

 To quote Cindy's facebook post about this:  "A few years ago, when we were in Ohio for the national gathering of Quilt Trails, we proposed that every trail, in every state, replicate the Snail Trail quilt block in purple and lime in honor of Donna Sue Groves; many have done just that. Generally, we agree that we should not duplicate blocks on from other trails, but we love that this connects us all and honors DSG!"
Snail Trail was donated by our team to the fairgrounds, and we also donated one to the Missaukee Falmouth Youth Show, but they don't have it up yet.

It's been a busy week.  The next day we put up another block, this time on a barn.  The barn is located in a place where there used to be a village called Star City.  All that remains of it is the name of the road, and an old building which once was the Methodist Church.  Shelby Norman, owner of the block, is somewhat of a local historian, and she has named this block "Star City".

 Sometimes the biggest challenge is getting the block installed.  A local contractor loaned his equipment and aid in getting this 8' square beauty 20' up in the air.

The quilt trail is a volunteer movement.  None of us make any money doing this, but we get a lot of satisfaction out of seeing our artwork so prominently displayed, the wonderful people we get to work with, sharing the heritage of the families in our area, and bringing a small boost to the economy of the area through what is commonly referred to as "agri-tourism".  \
We don't have a website or dedicated blog yet, nor a trail guide/map, but those will be forthcoming as the trail grows.