Grand Manan

Monday,July 29, 2013

Last week I took a little vacation away from the quilting world and took the Grand MananV  ferry to the lovely island of Grand Manan. We watched the ferry as it arrived at Black's Harbour. Below,you can see the Swallowtail lighthouse which stands proudly on the cliff as a beacon to show that you are nearly to the island. As we rounded the bend , the dock at North Head, Grand Manan comes into view. Our vacation was very relaxing although it was hard to get quilts out of my mind while I was there.

The sunsets and sunrises were beautiful from our cottages porch and the color combinations in the sky can't help me but think of all the nice color combinations to quilt from.

Here we are up on the cliffs of Southwest Head looking out over the Bay of Fundy at the water below. It is a good feeding ground for Northern Right whales and if you look carefully you may spot them in the distance.

Our quilt today is the "Disappearing Nine-Patch '' quilt. Bev has done a nice job on this small child's quilt. It measures 39"x 52" and has an all over 4 inch butterfly pattern over it. .

A soft Minke fabric was used for the back of this quilt. The little butterflies seem to just dance all over this charming little quilt.

Christmas In July...

Thursday, July 25, 2013. I know, I know, you don't want to think about Christmas but now is the time to search out those great Christmas fabrics and patterns for later. The stores are selling them already and you can't help but think of projects to get started on. I am showing you some lovely Christmas fabrics below and getting you in the right frame of mind to show three snowman quilts my customers have finished. These are smart girls.

These three snowman quilts were done by Colleen. Heather and Jeanne Kay. They measure 49 x  61 and are custom quilted. The outside borders are done in the pattern "Cozy Mittens" You can see the pattern better on the backing fabrics below. The second border was done in "Harvest Wheat" which is a nice little curved border for a small area. We quilted the quilt on the snowman with a large stipple and a small stipple behind the snowman heads. This is a such a cute little quilt and I know these girls had fun making it.

Dragonfly Summer

Thursday, July 18, 2013

It's Thursday again and July is speeding by for me. I have three dragonflies in my garden this week. Can you tell me which one is the real thing? If you said the last one , you would be correct. The gardens are visited frequently by these little fellows and this particular one likes to land on the porch for a rest. I think they like those bright lillies that grow so tall and stately. 

I have masses of this bright yellow perennial  all along the sidelines of our property. Yellow loosestrife makes a lovely border, it is a real spreader and fairly tall so I keep it maintained along the edge of our side lawn. When the sun shines in the morning it looks like a roll of flames and puts on a great show. The dragonflies love the garden just as they love today's quilt. This quilt is a darling little quilt made by Patricia for her teenage daughter. The young lady was very excited to see her quilt measured up for the big machine and had a great time picking this dragonfly pattern to go all over it. The quilt pattern is called "Stained Glass Dragonflies -" and is done in bright orange thread. It measures 72" x 101" . The colors are gorgeous in this quilt and what young lady wouldn't like to cuddle up to this? 

Look how nice these dragonflys show up on the back of Patricia's quilt. This is definitely a fun project for your daughter.

The water sure looks inviting.................

Monday, July 22, 2013.

 It's Monday again and I decided to show you some views of my gardens. The weather has been so warm that I have stayed inside to quilt and sew and so, my gardens have not had the care they should be getting. However I still enjoy them as they survive on their own.

These pictures were taken in the early morning as the sun was coming through the trees. This is a small portion of the gardens as they wind their way down and around through two other arbors. One arbor is loaded with northern kiwi while the other has climbing roses. This massive garden is just like planning out a patchwork quilt. Everything must fit in the right place.

Our flower today is the "Clematis". They are loaded with blossom this year because of all the rain we received. They certainly are a deep purple and are on trellis's way above my head. .

Oh my! I certainly got on a bag kick the other week. Once I made one, I couldn't stop until I made ten in total. Here they are lined up on the table ready to give to all my sisters, daughter and daughter-in-law. They loved them!

Little quilts can be so much fun! This little quilt is 37 x 37 inches and is quilted in the pattern called "Wisteria". Sally made this quilt for her daughter with the colors from her daughters wedding. You will notice the blocks are randomly pieced together using all her favorite colors. It is hard to see the quilting on the back of this quilt in the pictures with all the lines in the fabric. What a nice little quilt.