Nothing quite as good…..

as sleeping under a new quilt, that you made yourself.

Easy Street

The first quilt that you see here is my Easy Street quilt, designed by Bonnie Hunter. I have posted previously about my progress on this quilt. It was Bonnie’s mystery quilt this past November. It started the day after Thanksgiving and Bonnie posted her last series of instructions in February. I loved making this quilt. I learned several new techniques and the use of some new time saving rulers. Such Fun!!! I took a class with Bonnie in May a was able to show her my completed quilt. That was a lot of fun.

I took this picture on one of the few nice days we have had here lately. While a lot of the country has been experiencing late Spring it still feels like April around here.

I am a member of the Pine Tree Quilt Guild and of the local chapter Evergreen Quilters. Every May we have a Tea Party. We ask members of our chapter to bring their quilts and give us a show. They tell us about how they got started quilting and they show us some of their wonderful quilts. We have some very talented quilters in our group and I always look forward to them showing us their treasures. As a bit of a reward for their effort and a show of appreciation members of the group make them a gift. This year I offered to make a wall hanging for one of the presenters.

Spring Skinnie

The pattern is called Spring Skinnie. It was published in the March/April ’13 issue of Quiltmaker. I had such a fun time pulling colorful scraps to make this quilt. I did all of the stitching by machine. I am going to make myself one also. Maybe this weekend since it is supposed to be rainy and cool.

The one advantage to the miserable weather that we have been having is that I don’t mind having a quilt in my lap to work on. When it is hot and muggy I don’t want to do hand work because I get too warm. These days with the heat off (it is after all the end of May) having a quilt in my lap is actually a good thing.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. I hope wherever you are it is nicer than it is here.

Be Kind…

Faith

Lots of work being done around here….

May22

Genevieve Crabapple tree in bloom.

Spring is here and so is the season for home improvements. The first project that we had to undertake was to replace the windows in our sunroom. We had replaced 1 window several years ago but since then 3 others have lost their seal. When double paned windows lose their seal they cloud up. We have a beautiful back yard and we just didn’t feel like looking at it through “frosted” windows.

windows removed

Of course the day they removed the windows was a beautiful sunny day – until all of the windows were removed. It got overcast and windy and the entire house was freezing.

All new windows – clear and clean. No frost!

Our next project was the Pool! A lot of the tile had come loose and needed to be replaced. We had to have it pulled off, cleaned up and replaced.

Almost empty pool

Work in progress – it was a messy job but the results were so wonderful.

clean pool retiled

taken from inside of empty pool

I am very pleased with the pool now – it is refilled and almost ready to swim in. Of course it is only 50 degrees here today so it is not likely that we will be doing any swimming any time soon.

I love Spring but this year it has been very cool here. I look at the forecast for other parts of the Northeast and I am very envious. It is cold here. I can’t plant my veggie garden because the ground is just too cold. The tomatoes and pepper like warm ground and there is none of that around here. Hopefully next week it will warm up and I can get all of the wonderful plants that I bought into the ground.

Tomorrow I will have some pictures of quilts that I have completed or started recently. Some very pretty things to see, if I may say so myself.

Have a wonderful day…

Be Kind…

Faith

A bright Tuesday morning…

Apr30

Pansy

It is a beautiful Tuesday morning here on the coast of Maine. The sun is shining and wonderful things are popping up through the dirt. Several years ago I had pots of Pansies on my side steps. The past 2 years they have come back – I have not planted a Pansy in 2 years but there they are smiling up at me when I walk out the door to get the paper every morning. I love Pansies!

Ocean Waves

I have been doing alot of sewing/quilting lately. This pattern is called Fruit Cake – it is made using a collection of fabrics called a Layer Cake – A layer cake is 10″ precut blocks. I love the batiks in this quilt – it reminds me of the sun shining on the waves in the summer. The edge is praire points – these are squares of fabric folded and added to the edge. I machine quilted this quilt with my new sewing machine. I used an entire spool of thread on this quilt. Thankfully I ran out just as I came to the last stitch. Happy, Happy!

Another project that I am working on is Potholder quilts for our returning soldiers and veterans. My quilt chapter is of course helping me with this project. We will be making 12.5″ finished blocks that are quilted and bound. We then stitch them together to make a whole quilt.

pratice block – oops too small

Ohio Star blocks 12.5″ quilted and bound. Just hand stitching left.

We are hoping to have a pile of quilts done by Veterans Day 2013. I was inspired to start this project by a lecture given by Pam Weeks who is the curator of the New England Quilt Museum. Pam wrote the book Civil War Quilts and came and did a lecture about the quilts that were made by the woman of New England for the soldiers in the Civil War. It is a fascinating book and story of what women did to help the war effort.

2 blocks for our Potholder quilts

These are 2 of the blocks that I made for the Potholder quilts. They didn’t take me too much time and I really enjoyed digging through my Red, White and Blue fabrics to make some Patriotic Blocks.

My project for today is to get the binding on my Easy Street Quilt. My friend Clara did the longarm quilting on this quilt for me. It is much to big for me to quilt on my sewing machine. Someday I may have the confidence to quilt a quilt this large but not yet. Hopefully I will have a picture for you within the next few days.

Enjoy the beautiful sunny day…

Be Kind…

Faith

Faith in ME…

Apr3

I am involved in an online block swap. I have written about it here – https://quiltingonthecove.com/2013/03/07/block-swap/

All of the people who are participating in the Swap are posting on a Forum. When I sign my posts I write Faith in ME. Of course my name is Faith and I live in Maine. Hence the sign off.

One of the other participates mentioned that she appreciated the signature because it caused her to pause and have “Faith in ME”. I was touched by this sentiment. We do need to have Faith in ourselves, we need to have confidence to take a risk. We need to have the courage to do things that may make us a bit uncomfortable – an example of this is me writing this blog. I still have doubts when I think of a topic that anyone will even be interested enough to read it.

I have doubts when I pull piles of fabrics out of my stash to start a quilt. Do these fabrics really go, should I use one color or another? All of these self doubts bombard us on a daily basis – sometimes it involves our relationships, sometimes it involves our jobs or career choices. We have to learn to trust our guts!!! Don’t have “buyers remorse”.

Right now I am working a quilt challenge – all of the participants had do bring in an 8″ square of fabric. 21 of us are involved.

Fabrics for Challnge

So we each need to make a quilt using all 21 different fabrics and it can’t be larger than 144″ outside dimension. So I started to cut these fabrics and work out how I was going to use them all to make a quilt. I have to have “Faith in ME” that I would choose the correct design and use of these fabrics. I don’t have any extra – once it is used it is gone. I will keep you posted – I started to sew last night. So far so good. I have an idea I just have to be very careful not to make mistakes that prevent me from achieving my desired results.

Learn from your experiences and have Faith in ME.

It is chilly and breezy here today – hope some warmer weather is on the way.

Be Kind….

Faith in ME

Oh my Spring is coming…

Mar27

First Crocus

Spring is coming – some would say it is here. It probably is in some places but we still have snow on the ground. I love to see these darling little flowers poking up out of the mulch. There is other evidence of flowers to come poking up through the mulch – maybe some tulips or daffodils. Hopefully the deer will leave the tulips alone this year. Last year they ate all but one beautiful red one. Most of them a planted in a fenced area where the deer can’t get to them but some on in my front island and they are like a salad bar for the deer.

Enjoy the sunshine,

Be Kind….

Faith

National Quilting Day and a trip to the Beach….

Mar26

Full Bloom

March 16th was National Quilting Day – to honor this day and to have some fun, 10 friends – some new friends and some old friends loaded into 2 cars and went on a road trip. We started our journey at 7:00 AM. We all live in southern Maine not far from the coast, our destination was the mountains of New Hampshire. QUILT SHOPS!!!

Our first stop was the Attic Cat which is in Effingham, NH. The road or roads to the Attic Cat are windy and hilly. I am not sure if I would have ever found it if I didn’t have capable co-pilots with me. What an adorable little shop, the Attic Cat was offering a 25% discount off of your total purchase. Loads of lovely fabrics, books and tools. We all did some damage to our bank accounts when we stopped there. We left inspired to quilt and to shop some more.

Next stop was a quilt shop known to many – Keepsake Quilting (www.keepsakequilting.com) in Center Harbor, NH on the coast of Lake Winnipesaukee. Many of you, I am sure have seen their catalog, flipped through the pages looking longingly at the quilts and fabrics. The first place we headed was the SALE room. We wanted to snatch up any wonderful kits, fat quarters or yardage that was not only on sale but also 20% off. Such bargains, such dreams of wonderful completed quilts. We all did some damage in this area as well. I bought several kits to make quilts with. One is very intricate and sort of modern, the other is very traditional and made with 30’s fabrics. I can’t wait to start both of them.

Quick break for lunch at a lovely restaurant called the Canoe which sits on the edge of the Lake. Very nice views of both the lakes and the mountains. We were all hungry but also anxious to get back to shopping. We had so much fun discussing our purchases and our quilts and getting to know each other better.

Back to Keepsake for the final hit of the day. Purchases made, bags stuffed into the car and off we go. One friend mentions that there is another quilt shop that maybe open just over the bridge in Laconia. The Quilted Frog. Ladies, do we want to stop? Of course, we are here, why not? As we piled out of the car and into the shop the owners thought that maybe a bus had arrived. Once again purchases were made, and bags were stuffed into the car. We decided that this had to be the last stop because there was no room left in the car.

We were headed home – laughing all the way. What a wonderful day we had. Good company, beautiful fabric and quilts and lots and lots of laughs!

Thanks Ladies for a wonderful time!

The next part of my journey took me to Florida to visit family. My husband and I traveled the day after a snow storm to Florida. It was a trip that took a few hours longer than expected but we got there. Plane de-icing and missed connections and all.

It was so wonderful to walk on the beach with our feet in the water.

Heaven

We had some company for part of the walk.

This beautiful Heron decided to walk with us for a bit. I think he thought we had some food foe him. Since I don’t think Heron’s drink wine he was out of luck with us. Isn’t he a beauty though! The birds are so tame it amazes me.

We had a wonderful but short vacation – we visited with family, laughed alot, ate good food and too many desserts but that is what vacation is for.

Have a very Happy Easter! I hope where ever you are spring is on its way. We may have to wait here in Maine because there is still alot of snow left to melt.

Be Kind…

Faith

My new I-Pad cover…

Mar19

I take my I-Pad everywhere. I rarely leave the house with out it. I decided that although I have a cover for it I needed a bit more protection…not to mention something that was just a bit more my style. When I put my I-pad in my bag the magnetic cover sometimes opens which could lead to scratches or a dead battery. I decided that I would make one – Big Surprise right???

I googled covers and tons of covers that I could buy popped up – then I turned to Pinterest. All I needed was an idea – I had a pretty good plan already bouncing around my brain but I wanted to see what others were making. Sure enough loads of good ideas popped up on Pinterest. Many very similar to what I had been thinking about.

I took some measurements, thought about what materials I had on hand, wondered how I could use scraps rather than cutting “new” fabric and this is what I came up with.

Here are some of the stitches that I used to decorate it.

I used velcro to secure it when my I-pad is in it. I am very pleased with the way it turned out. Here are a few more pictures of the final product.

So that is my latest little creation. It is snowing again here in Maine. It is pretty, but I am ready for Spring. Winter just wants to hang on tight but eventually Spring will win and little green shoots will be poking up through the dirt and I will be very excited.

Enjoy your day…

Be Kind…

Faith

Flower Show and some other cute stuff…

Mar8

My beautiful Orchid – Blooming in my sunroom.

We woke up to snow and wind this morning. Don’t get me wrong, I love the seasons all of them including winter, however I am about done with winter this year. I need some Spring in my life. We went to Portland this afternoon to visit the Flower show. The displays that the landscapers put together are absolutely amazing. It really makes you long for a yard free of snow and the smell of dirt. We always get ideas for our yard and gardens.

Weeping Cherry

I love this Weeping Cherry Tree – I have the perfect place for it in my back yard. We will have to wait and see. I love to imagine the yard free of snow and full of flowers poking their way up through the mulch.

Here are a few more little plants that I want to add to my gardens.

Lenten Rose

Maidenhair Fern

I also saw a lovely little flower called a Ranunculus ‘Bloomingdale Mix’ – it seemed to be in almost all of the displays. It is an annual and I usually like to plant mostly perennials but this little flower is so sweet. Of course did I get a picture of it – Nope – missed that one. I got a picture of the name card but not the actual flower. Oops.

After the flower show we went to grab a bite to eat at Allison’s in Kennebunkport, ME. This is the view from the parking lot before we went in to dinner. I love the amazing colors in the sky. What a beautiful sunset.

Beautiful Sunset – Kennebunkport, ME

I also spent the week sewing – I was making gifts. There are some people who I really love to make gifts for, they are people who also like to create, people who really appreciate the passion I have for creating things. Mari is one of these people. Mari is also a creative person – we are both a bit stifled in our actual jobs because we would rather be making things with our time. We both love to cook and to create for others. Kindred spirits for sure. Mari loves whimsical things. I made her these gifts for her birthday. I think the purse fits the description of whimsical.

Little bag

stitch details on bag

Pillow

So once again this evening I am in my sewing room. In a few minutes I will be parked in front of my little antique Singer Featherweight machine stitching my swap blocks.

Have a nice weekend and don’t forget to set your clocks back.

Be Kind….

Faith

quiltingonthecove

A peek at my life. My quilting, my cooking and a look at the beautiful place that I live!

Archives

Nothing quite as good…..

Lots of work being done around here….

A bright Tuesday morning…

Faith in ME…

Oh my Spring is coming…

National Quilting Day and a trip to the Beach….

My new I-Pad cover…

Flower Show and some other cute stuff…