Bits 'n Pieces

Since the big finish of A New England Album, how long did you think it would be before another project got started... or two or three or four? What’s worse, my favorite embroidery machine is at the shop for a clean up, so opportunities for quilting now abound. Here's a few peeks of what we've been piecing together this week.

Here is one of the projects coming along for the Summerhouse BOM. If you don't know, this is San Francisco Stitch's first quilt block of the month-- no embroidery-- and we are very excited about it. We have a quilt block each month AND a themed project. This lighthouse block is one of our favorites, and what would be better than to have one hanging over your bed? Sweet dreams, guaranteed.

And how about a fence for Le Petit Jardin finishing kit? Our center is all pieced together, (Did you get your free tutorial?) and now we are going to embroider an arbor gate and maybe some bunnies and climbing roses to surround our vegetable gardens... stay tuned.

And since we’re on a nautical bent, this is my challenge quilt I mentioned last month when I got stuck at the airport for six hours! This is just a little 25" square piece that is for my local quilt guild's show in the beginning of August. To enter the challenge, it needs a star, the colors navy and lemon yellow, and a sea theme to be eligible for the contest. One of the themes suggested was John Masefield's “Sea Fever” poem. I was forced to memorize and recite it for a speech class in tenth grade... it did not go well, and I’m still not over it! But when I saw that it was on the list for a challenge theme-- I truly impressed myself with how much I remembered. Like where are my car keys and cell phone, though?

And, of course, the poem is going to be embroidered in the border, because no quilt is ever complete without machine embroidery.

So, the clamshells are finished for the water, but I told myself if I don't have a star by the end of the month, it will never be done on time. Stitching up one of those big mariner’s stars is on my bucket list and paper piecing is really the only way to do it. I really don't mind paper piecing, but don’t do it often, so every time I do, it seems like I have to relearn it all over again. 

I drew the star in Adobe Illustrator and printed it out multiple times. The points are pretty extreme even for the precision of paper piecing. But I only need half a star for the corner of my layout, so I made nine of these when I really only need four, thinking I'd get some perfect ones. It seems to me, you don’t sew right on the line, but a thread's width into the seam for perfect results, but I do have to figure this out every time. Here's my best one—not bad!

We live near the Cape Cod Canal and this week, the tall ships all came through for Sail Boston. Inspiring to say the least, and a good omen for my challenge quilt! This is the Oliver Hazard Perry out of Newport-- I found out later it was built fairly recently. How wonderful that there is still enough interest and know-how to keep these gorgeous ships on the water.

Finally, this is the beginnings of another challenge quilt... a challenge that tickled our fancy, but our lips are sealed, just until the likelihood of finishing it is more certain. The deadline is next April, so this one will happen mostly over the winter, and we are using our coffee art mug rug GIANT SIZE in it-- (it's going to be a celebration of caffeine).

The first thing we really need is 156 of these "snowballs" for the borders... its relaxing and fun to do them at night.

So that's just a little bit of what we've been up to... Thursday this week is a quick trip up to Vermont Quilt Festival to visit the New England Album and see how it fared. Look for our next post as we take the road trip up... its absolutely our favorite summer show, and there are quite a few sewing stores on the way!

XOX