Friday, October 30, 2015

Orange is for Halloween

The pieced border for Mother Earth (see previous post) is done. It's not yet added to the too-short backing, but that will be easy to do tomorrow. To celebrate, I ....um....started another quilt. Yes, another quilt for my UFO list. I know, I know.

See if you can guess which pattern this is:

Remember all those 2" dark green squares I ripped apart from the too-dark sashing of Grand Illusion?  I finally found a use for them!  Furthermore, I am able to make this entire quilt from my stash!  This new quilt is a Sandy-altered version of Orange Crush, a Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt from 2005. I found an example on the web (and now cannot find it again to give proper credit) where the crafter substituted light blue / dark blue for Bonnie's black/red squares and used one print for all the Friendship Star centers. It's a bright, cheery quilt that gets me all excited!

My family knows I am not crazy about the color orange. So why have I made so many quilts with orange?  Maybe because orange complements the greens and blues I do like.  Below are just a few I have made. The first one was a gift to my brother who does like orange.

Orange quilt #1 - Modern Chevron












Orange quilt #2 - Halloweenie









Orange quilt #3 - Broncos Crossroad












Orange quilt #4 - Celtic Solstice


It's amazing how many different orange, peach, gold, and dark rust prints I had in my stash. This is going to be fun!

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Mother Earth News

This one has been a long time coming.  (drum roll please) I finally finished the flimsy of the quilt "Mother Earth"!!!!  The earthy greens, tans and brown inspired the name. Pattern is by Mary Robertson. Bonnie Hunter could claim it, too, but I followed the directions (mostly) published by Mary.  Backing will be a brown flannel from Connecting Threads. It is an alphabet print with green tones. My longarmer is busy through Christmas so it will be completely finished early 2016. One more UFO completed!


UPDATE:  Okay, so it's not really completed. I needed one moment to feel relief that this simple quilt which has so long languished in my pile is now ready to be longarmed.  However, it's not exactly ready. There isn't quite enough backing material, so I am planning to channel Elizabeth Hartman and piece an insert to extend the backing and make it "pretty".  I should be able to do it this week.

Friday, October 9, 2015

Strawberry Fields Quilt

Last night I finally finished the quilt borders of my newly named "Strawberry Fields" quilt. This was a super easy pattern by Kathy Flowers, published in McCall's Quilting magazine issue Sept/Oct 2015. The fabric and cutting directions were so generous that I used the extra fabric to make the quilt larger. I also altered the border slightly to make it more symmetrical and highlight the cute little corner 9-patches.
This is a pretty pattern for a red and white quilt. Because I like to be a little bit different to make each quilt "mine", I selected a teal floral print for the background that reminds me of my maternal grandmother. I am dedicating this quilt to her memory. Both fabrics were ordered from Connecting Threads, as will be the backing fabric I ordered today.

On a higher note, my airplane is in the shop for annual maintenance. My hubby says the bill will be somewhat higher this year, due to replacing two cylinders, one with a push-rod tube issue, sending out one of the magnetos for rebuild and replacing our ELT (emergency locator transmitter). Between the two of us, we flew over 75 hours this year! Soon 90B will be back in the air and my mood will soar along with her.

Thursday, October 1, 2015

The Importance of Being 50

Okay, the world didn't end when I turned 50. I noticed a new wrinkle, that's all. And as a gift to myself, I am having all the recommended medical screenings - cholesterol, TSH, PAP, mammogram, and (ugh) colonoscopy. The first four tests are okay. I saved the "best" for last. Today is my all-liquids day. Fun.

Anyway, I wanted to show progress on my version of Strawberries & Cream. Just need to sew on the thin inner border, attach the pieced section and add the outer border.

On a higher note, last weekend the hubby and I flew our airplane two hours north to Corning, NY. On the way there, we actually had to fly past Corning and land at Penn-Yan Airport to wait for the low clouds to dissipate from the Corning-Elmira valley first. It wasn't a long wait, just enough to look around and visit the facilities. Then we popped down to Corning and parked at the local general aviation fixed-base operator (called an FBO) - Atlantic Aviation. We picked up our rental car and started on our to-do list.

First stop was lunch in the Gaffer District of Corning, then a drive to Watkins Glen State Park, voted #3 most popular state park in a 2015 USA Today poll. Seems like everyone else in the area had the same idea; it was crowded!  We hiked about a million stairs across 2 miles of the Gorge Trail. At least the sights were quite pretty. If you visit this park, I recommend hiking up the main Gorge Trail and taking the Indian Trail back down to the south parking lot. You avoid the crowds and steps for a more gentle trip back.



That evening we saw "The Intern" at the movie theaters of Arnot Mall. The movie was funny and touching. I think it might even encourage companies to hire retirees back for at least part-time work.

The next day we drove to Hammondsport, the cradle of modern aviation, to visit the Glenn Curtiss Museum. And surprise - they had a small quilt exhibit by local quilters!  For those who fly, Glenn Curtiss ranks even higher than the Wright brothers. He was an amazing man who died way too young at 52.  He invented the motorcycle, too. The museum had airplanes, motorcycles, cars, quilts, dollhouses, toys, engines, and loads of memorabilia. Something for everyone! We spent 3 hours there and could have spent even more time. Hammondsport was a delightful little town with a great view of Keuka Lake, where Curtiss tested so many of his designs.

Here are some equipment Curtiss designed:





And here are few pictures of some of the quilts:




On the way back to Corning, we drove along the Seneca Lake Wine Trail, visiting several wineries and buying some of their vintages.

The next day we visited Corning Museum of Glass. There was so much more to the museum than I ever imagined!  Of course we watched glass blowing and glass art demonstrations. The science section was very well done, with very interesting explanations about the history of glass manufacturing to hands-on activities. The modern art section was fun to walk through, to scoff at some of the more pretentious designs and to nod appreciatively over the beauty or uniqueness of other designs. We had to rush through the fascinating history section, so that's on my to-do list if we ever get back to Corning.

Our flight back home went well, in spite of a line of rainstorms threatening to divert our path. Originally we had planned to fly over Wellsboro, the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania, but a cold front parked over its hills convinced us to just fly directly home.

I am so thankful we own an airplane which allows us to take trips like this weekend.  It was fun to explore a new area and have the flexibility to go almost anywhere and whenever we wanted.