Connecting With Pieced Quilting (Mount Vernon, WA)

I have been in a WiFi black hole for the past three weeks.  No cell phone service and very little internet connection.  Even satellite TV was iffy at times. The campground in La Conner is a great place to be if you want to get away from it all,

 I love La Conner for the scenic views, the small quaint towns, and the delicious food, but the charm of being disconnected from the world is short lived with me.  I'm happy to say we are sort of connected again even if it is on the slow side here in Mount Vernon.  We move tomorrow (Monday) back to Blaine, WA.  I hope to do some catching up in the next week with everything I have been doing lately.

On The Cutting Board
And while I'm on the subject of feeling disconnected.  It has been a long time since I sat down and did some serious hand-pieced quilting.  Sales have slowed down in my shop and my inventory is overflowing with Mug Rugs, so I'm taking the quiet time to finish two retro quilts in 1930s design fabric.  I love this fabric so much that I have a Rubbermaid tub filled with just this fabric.

So far, all the work has been by hand.  From marking the fabric for cutting and for the quarter inch seam line to cutting each piece out with scissors (no multi-layered cutting here) and sewing the pieces together by hand.  

Still working on the Nine-Patch

Time consuming? Yes.  One of the best ways to stay entertained while disconnected?  Absolutely!  Okay, I cheated a little by listening to books on my iPod.

The thing is that I did not realize just how much I have been missing the process of making a quilt by hand.  The anticipation of marking/cutting the fabric and dreaming of what the quilt would look like while sewing the pieces together.  Granted, most of the pieces were cut out a long time ago, but it turned out the I was short a couple of blocks, so I did have to go back to the start with templates and pencil.

The feeling of seeing a top finished and knowing it all came together with no help from a machine is so satisfying.  If I do need to use a sewing machine, it will be to sew on borders.

 I finished the Lover's Knot top and I do believe that it is time to blow the dust off of my quilting hoop for a quiet time of hand quilting.  The nine-patch will take a little longer to finish since I am thinking it will need some applique work as well.  Hmmm...
Happy Quilting!

The Lover's Knot (Plymouth, WA)

Hitch ~ oh yea, I can smell the grass

The Lover’s Knot ~ A Someday Quilts Mystery by Clare O’Donohue

I loved this book!  It's cozy.  It's filled with quilt talk.  And it's a murder mystery.  My favorite combination!

If you like Jennifer Chiaverini’s first book: The Quilter’s Apprentice, you will enjoy The Lover's Knot.

I found myself in quite a dilemma…to read or to quilt.  So I would  read a couple of chapters then my fingers would start to itch and I just had to go quilt or do some kind of hand work.  All the quilt talk in the story had me motivated to get busy quilting.  I wish this series was available in audible format so I could listen to the quilters solving the mystery while I worked on my projects.

Nell Fitzgerald is the main character.  Nell is no stranger to the quilting world, but she is not a quilter…yet.   Right after she receives her grandmother’s wedding quilt, Nell is devastated by her co-worker/fiancée admiting he is not ready to get married.  Nell decides to get away from NYC and visit her sensible grandmother Eleanor in Archers Rest.  A small town where everyone know everybody's business.  Eleanor just happens to be the owner of a well-establish quilt shop – Someday Quilts.  I love discovering quilt shops like Someday Quilts – packed to the rafters with fabrics, tools, and books with quilts hanging everywhere.  sigh! oh sorry...back to the story..

Nell meets the Friday night group – The Someday Quilters.  Soon everyone in Nell’s new life along with the return of Nell’s ex(?)-fiancée are all tangled up in a murder mystery with small town secrets.  Most amateur detectives are unwilling participates in solving a mystery, but not Nell!  She openly admits that she is having fun playing detective despite being told to stop being a snoop by a very handsome Police Chief.

Between murder and romance, Nell starts learning about quilting.  I love the way Clare smoothly added little quilting lessons into the story.  In one part, Eleanor explains to Nell the measurements of a fat-quarter starting with a ¼ yard to why the fat quarter is more useful to the quilter.  Nell soon discovers quilting can be very therapeutic for the mind and soul.

I can't wait to start the next one:  A Drunkard's Path

Travel Day

One more travel day!  We plan to spend a week in Spokane before heading west on the North Cascades Highway. 

 It is so nice to be back in the NW area.  I miss all the green, the crystal clear rivers, the tall snow-capped mountains, and the rocky coast.  Oregon and Washington will always have a special place in my heart.

Happy Trails!

Binding Quilt Stories (Las Vegas)

No Peeking!

Sonoma Rose by Jennifer Chiaverini

When I start reading one of Jennifer Chiaverini's books, I anticipate a story filled with quilters finding friendship through their love of quilting.  There are few books published by a writer that understands quilters and our love to quilt or to talk quilt.  

I can understand an author wanting to spread her wings and write about something new.  I just feel Sonoma Rose should have been marketed separate from the Elm Creek series.  The only connection to Elm Creek was a couple of flashbacks to Elizabeth from The Quilter's Homecoming.  Otherwise, this story was about Rosa's family and Lars.

As you can tell, I never tire of reading about the process of quilting - no matter what is being describe.  But, this story did not focus on the quilter's life or quilting.  Basically, the only quilt talk came from Rosa thinking about block patterns and colors for each of her children's quilts, her mother's two quilts barely get describe, and she cuddles under her own quilt.  Towards the end, Rosa started to teach a friend how to quilt, but that ended before they even got started. Great!

If you are interested in Prohibition and life on a vineyard then this book is for you.  I enjoyed Rosa's story and I learned a few things about the Prohibition era. I often read Jennifer's books more than once, but I doubt that I will read this one again anytime soon.  I'll have to run out of reading material first.

I won't give up on her though... Jennifer's next book The Giving Quilt will make up the difference since it is about the Elm Creek's Quiltsgiving Day.  Two of my favorite subjects: Quilts and Project Linus.  

But, I have to wait until the end of October...so in the meantime, I found a new author, Clare O'Donohue.  I started reading her first book The Lover's Knot: A Someday Quilts Mystery today.  Quilts! Mystery!  Now that's my kind of story!

 

 On the Cutting Board

Okay!  I got all the binding done yesterday.  Can you see that the red binding is a lot thinner than the other two?

I was a little short on red material so I made the red binding 2 inches instead of my usual 2.5 inches width.  I would rather be narrow than short on length.  I have used binding this narrow before, but it is not easy to wrap around the raw edges of the quilt.

Tuesday Treasury

Like a buffet, I pick out one or two items that strike my interest and move on to the next section.  The more eclectic - the better I like it!