Yankee Quilts

Hi,

The time is flying by so fast, I hardly have time to appreciate what I have been doing. The weekend at the Fransican Center was fun, good food and great foliage. Made a quilt using a method that an old friend wanted me to try. I sat with my pieces all cut and never got up to iron anything until I ran out of pieces – it worked. My quilt is flat and straight. I finished it (after cutting lots more pieces) at the teacher seminar in Windham. It is not something I would do with different size blocks but when you are working with pieces all the same size and have a good diagram, you can do it. You do have to concentrate on your sewing; no chatting to the neighbors.

Elizabeth Lake and Lydia Quiqley always have something interesting that they are working on. I love to try out their pieced patterns. Lydia surprised me by working on the quilt that I have on my bed. We like the same fabrics so the two quilts will be very much alike. Elizabeth was working on one of Lydia’s earlier designs, a log cabin and stars (more complicated than that but too hard to describe here). I had to make some sample blocks so I could make it when I got home. I am working on 2 Christmas quilts and want to get them done this week so I can quilt them before the holidays. We are all quilt teachers at this seminar and the sharing of ideas is so much fun. Marti was working on her trip x 2 quilts (got all the blocks made) and just has to sew it together. She also did a quilt called Bamboo (Diane McClun and Laura Nownes pattern) in Japanese prints and it is beautiful – Marti, just has to go with her instincts; her color choices really make the quilt pop. Candy, our dear friend, finished up 2 quilts, made a tote bag. She was in and out in 2 days but she sure made good use of her time.

We had lost electricity in Chelmsford for 5 days after the early snowstorm.  I had to hurry home on Thursday so I could wash clothes (the electricity came back Thursday afternoon); the Quilters Gathering was this past weekend. I volunteered to work on Saturday and spent 5 hours sitting behind the admissions table. Before and afterwards I got to see the quilts and visit the vendors. No matter what I am working on, I always find great fabrics at the Quilted Crow (Boxborough, MA). If you have never been to the Gathering (www.aquiltersgathering.com) plan on coming next year. It is always end of October- beginning of November. Next year it will be held in Manchester, NH at the Center of New Hampshire which is a larger facility (there is a good size airport in Manchester, easy to fly in and out of) . The Gathering is so much fun because you get to know everyone; especially if you participate in the evening “gatherings”. Susan and I had a quilt in the show, our Ice Crystals (most of the credit goes to Susan). It looked good but as the tradition goes our names were spelled wrong on the poster.

I can’t imagine how anyone living in New England could miss this show. It was started by Marie Geary and Jeanne Glenfield and Jeanne’s 3 daughters have carried on the tradition since Jeanne passed away and Marie retired. It is a very personal and warm show always with astonishing quilts and a great mix of vendors.

There is so much more I could say about the Gathering. I love meeting all my old friends from the New England Quilters Guild; Rhonda, from the New England Quilt Museum is always there along with a bunch of great raffle quilts from guilds all over New England.

Enough already, Peace everyone.

Anne

This week Susan and I traveled to Charleston, Rhode Island to lecture and teach. We stayed with a wonderful lady, Betty Coombs. She and her husband have a lovely home with an in-law apartment and it was perfect for Susan and me. We had dinner at the Shelter Harbor Inn – great food. Our lecture was well received. Next June we are going to have an exhibit of 34 quilts at the Vermont Quilt Festival. Each quilt has to have a name, 50-70 words about the quilt, a sleeve and a label. The Ninigret Quilters Guild was very helpful suggesting names for some of the quilts. The workshop the next day was fun and we left Thursday night very tired. We spent the night at my house and left for Bennington, Vermont the next day (picked up Deb Towle on our way). The roads were incredibly bad, very slow going but everyone was patient and we finally made it only 15 minutes late. Susan and I were the featured quilters at the Bennington Quilt Fest. We did a lecture both Saturday and Sunday and had fun with all the quilters. My sister, Patsy, and our friend Patty Bertrand surprised us by showing up for the lecture on Saturday. Friday night and Saturday night we had dinner at the Madison Brewing Company. All our meals were excellent and the local beer was delicious. There was a car show going on at the same time as the Quilt Fest. They even had a tractor pull which Rocky (my brother-in-law) and his friend, Don watched while we were busy at the quilt show. We took route 2 west to Greenfield and got on route 91 north. We stopped at the visitor’s center as soon as we got into Vermont. They have great displays of crafts, furniture etc made in Vermont. The rest area is always clean – that is so important. We arrived home tired and exhilarated from our travels. John (wonderful man that he is) had dinner waiting for us; a glass of wine and good Italian cooking will perk you up anytime.

Everywhere we go, we meet wonderful quilters who are so interested in what we do. We told the group in Vermont that we no longer traveled outside of New England because of all the driving we have to do. The quilters from NY wanted to know if Albany is part of New England. It could be.

Susan and I took time off after a very unsettling year. We are going to be careful with our time and only do one major event each month. It’s the packing and unpacking that makes us so weary. Besides that, we need time to work on more quilts. We have a long list of quilts we want to make and not much time to get them done.

Chelmsford Quilters Guild Meeting is this coming Monday (Sept 26th). We always have a major show and tell at the meeting and it so much fun to see everyone after the summer. We do have meetings in the summer but they are casual and about half the group makes it to these meetings.

So for today, I want to thank Deb Towle for manning our booth (broken arm and all) while we did our lectures this past weekend. Deb is a good sport and a hard worker and no, you can’t have her phone number. She is our worker bee and we plan on keeping her.

I wish the Japanese people a quick recovery from their latest disaster. I hope the roads and homes in Vermont are repaired before the first snowfall. I wish everyone good health, especially Fran, who does not need one more illness to test her metal. She’s proven herself already. Peace everyone.

I’ve worked hard in the garden so these last few days, I made backs for quilts and looked at the stack of unfinished projects. There are 5 quilts ready for quilting, another 7 that need binding only so out of the 31 unfinished projects I’m almost there with 12 new quilts.

The stack of projects is going down. I have a king size half square triangle quilt that I need to work on before I do anything else. I have a sister (there are 5 of us) who has been waiting patiently for her quilt for her new bed. She never says a word but I know she wishes it was done so goal Number 1 is get Terry’s quilt finished.

I miss my friend, Susan. She now lives 2 hours away. I can’t run over to her place to show her a new idea or progress on one of our quilts. We get together once a month and I always have a long list to show her. She very often takes the project home and finishes it – she is a better sewer than I am. If it is all cut out and ready she can work in her corner of the living room while her remodeling is going on.

Summer always seems to fly by and I feel guilty if I don’t spend time in the garden. I organized a couple of projects that I can work on in front of the television. John is always watching the Red Sox so I need to keep busy and spend some time with him.

I’m working on descriptions for our new classes. We tested out the “Making it Right” class and it was a success so now we can add that to our list of classes. I’m slowly finishing the tools workbook, I’d rather sew than type any day. Peace everyone.

We’ve had quilts in line to be quilted by us for so long that I forgot what they looked like. Laura Sexton quilted four for us this past week – our machine sits lonely in Nashua, NH without anyone using it, sigh! Soon it will be coming to Chelmsford where I hope to set it up in the basement.

We’re going to Vermont on Tuesday to speak to the Champlain Valley Quilt Guild Tuesday night and we will do a workshop on Wednesday. Thursday we will head home but not before we stop and see our old friend, Carolyn Fernandes in Northfield, VT. Carolyn is an antique appraiser; her specialty is antique quilts. She always has something interesting to show us.

I’m doing my spring cleaning with the help of Robyn Logan. Elizabeth Lake and Lydia Quigley will be here for a week next Tuesday. I love having company because it makes me clean my house. All winter the wood stove has been keeping us warm but wood stoves create so much dust. I’ll be glad when the warm weather comes and we can put the stove to bed for the summer and fall.

Elizabeth and Lydia are well known quilters from Kingston, Ontario. They team teach like Susan and I do. I’ve been trying to get them to do some classes down here but they say they have retired. Lydia, also designs fabric for Clothworks. Their patterns can be found on the website, www.therabbitfactory.com. It is worth looking at.

The quilts are all packed for Tuesday; I just have to get the workshop equipment together (make sure we have everything). So back to work before Holmes Inspection comes on. Can’t miss it. ag

I had great plans to do a lot of sewing today however my head and neck decided otherwise. I can’t move my head to the left without inflicting great pain -so, yes, I am a pain in the neck.

Got a catalog in the mail from Mahoney’s (flowers). I like looking at them especially when they have overall pictures of fields of flowers, great ideas for color in quilts.

Last week I went to Noank, CT to visit my friend Kathleen McLaughlin. She is in the process of embroidering around these small appliqued circles on this fantastic quilt – I think there are 100 of these circles. Then she showed me this quilt that has 11 spokes or segments per quarter of the block – talk about work. Look for her quilt in the Vermont Quilt Festival. Kathleen and husband, John, are both artists in their own right. John does some amazing wood carvings. I think I like his brown bear best right now.

So Chelmsford is going up to the Fransican Center this week without me – I’m so sad! They will have a wonderful time. Diane and Cathy do a wonderful job organizing the retreat. Cheryl will keep the place lively.

Quilt shows are coming. I know MaryKay and her group went to Lancaster. Someday I’ll get there. Watch for all the local shows. My favorite quilts are the beginner quilts. I love to see a new person get hooked on quilting.

I have to clear some space so I can trim quilts before I put on the binding. It is fun to have new quilts and new stories to tell when we get them done (every quilt has a story). One of the quilts I finished was for a tools class. I didn’t really like the block as we were making it but now that the quilt is quilted it looks great. Just shows you what I know (or don’t know).

I am amazed at what is happening in the world right now. I commend the Egyptian people for their stand. John spent 18 months in Egypt and made many good friends. I wish other countries success in their struggle for freedom.

The Japanese people are in my prayers.

May the snow melt quickly.

Anne

Susan and I have had a lot of changes in our lives. Susan and Fred have packed up and moved to Brookfield NH. Am I happy about this? NO! Brookfield is 2 hours from Chelmsford. There will be no running up to Nashua to drop something off or discuss a new idea ‘r’ (the r is for you, Kaye). Susan likes living close to her daughter and getting to know her grandson (they are a mile up the road). We are now planning to sew together twice a month, once at her house and once at mine (although, until she gets my bedroom ready, we’ll be meeting here). We have gone to a few retreats in the past year and have thoroughly enjoyed the Franciscan Center in Kennebunk ME sewing with many old and new friends.

Our great friends, Elizabeth Lake and Lydia Quigley (www.therabbitfactory.com) will be visiting us from Kingston Ontario in April. We plan on taking them to our favorite quilt shops, doing some sewing and tasting a lot of wine. Susan will be here, Marti Porch (www.twolightslobstershack.com), Candy Jewett and Deb Towle will join us sometime during the week. Oh, yes, we will invite Bill Towle so John won’t be completely outnumbered. Christine will be showing off her new apartment and her new decorations.

MQX is next month also. It is held in Providence RI which is only an hour down the road from us. We will be going. There are so many talented machine quilters in our area; we are looking forward to seeing their work.

For those who this blog is too personal, don’t read it. We know so many people in the quilt world, we will be talking about people and things that interest us.

Our friend, Rick McGuire (long lost cousin from the Ohio branch of the family) has retired from IBM so we expect to see many new quilts designed by Rick. Ken, Cindy, Emerald and Azureen (our quilting family), we miss you. Em is in grad school and Az is planning on going to vet school this fall.

So have a happy St Patrick’s Day.  Anne