Life: The Good and the Bad

For Slow Stitching Sunday I will be working on my fifth block for Freedom's Friends BOM. It is called Society Rose. This is a good part of life, my stitching. Linking up with Kathy's Slow Stitching Sunday HERE

Another good thing, I won a contest!! I never win anything so this was such a surprise! Missouri Star Quilt Company had a naming contest for two new quilting designs. I named this one Bloom and Plume and won a $150 gift certificate!

Another good thing, my quilt is on exhibit at the New England Quilt Museum with the other Hospital Sketches quilts. I won't be able to go to the exhibit so was so thankful they put a short preview up on their web site and I could see mine hanging in the museum. I think this is the highlight of my quilting career! If you go HERE you can see a few more.

Another good thing, we got two logging truck loads of green firewood delivered. It will need to sit and season, but we have firewood for several winters to come. Below is a short video of the first load being unloaded.

He ran out of room so had to put some of the logs on the other side of the drive.

So now for the Bad. First I hurt my left knee. How? I have no idea so have been unable to do many of my normal activities, such as mow the grass, which you might have noticed on the pictures above.  I haven't been in to the doctor yet, just trying to rest it, elevate it and ice it.

Now for the next Bad thing. It looks like our insurance is not going to cover the damage to our roof from the snow and ice storm last winter. They will cover the ceiling damage, but not the roof damage. That doesn't do us much good, because it will probably leak next Spring and we will have ceiling damage again, and have to pay our deductible again! So angry and disappointed! And I know there are many people in much more dire circumstances, like the flooding in Kentucky, so we are so lucky in many respects.

But I have my quilting to console me! Thanks for stopping by! Rebecca

Sunday Quilting

 I have started hand quilting the border for my Springtime Album quilt. I purchased a ‘half hoop’ from Ebay. I got a really good price. With shipping it came to $31. I had looked at others, one on Amazon for $90 and another on Etsy for $85. I am really happy with it! It is very comfortable to quilt with. I will be linking up with Kathy's Slow Stitching Sunday as soon as I can.

It had never been used.

I also got all four borders prepped for applique for my Cassandra's Circle top. So if I get tired of hand quilting today I will work on these borders. They are not sewn on to the top yet for easier stitching, but once they are I will fine tune those corner vines. I will probably add more flowers and leaves in the two corners that don't have the plumes.

I also finished my grandson's quilt top. I don't know why I find borders such a pain, but they are on finally. It measures about 78"x 94". A big thank you to Chantal of At the Corner of Scraps and Quilts blog for making me aware of a mistake in the piecing, all taken care of now I hope. You can read her blog HERE. She always has some wonderful scrappiness going on over there!

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Now that that top is done I will move on to the next grandson's quilt.  I have been collecting fabric for it and I think I have all I will need now. I just need to wash and press it all. It is made from 2 1/2" strips so I will be able to use my Accuquilt Go cutter. That will certainly speed things up!

I will be making the quilt from this book.

This is the one I have chosen.

I think I have plenty of black on white fabrics and black on black fabrics.

A tub of colorful batiks for the color blocks.

Happy Quilting! Rebecca

New England Quilt Museum - Hospital Sketches Exhibit

 In 2019 Barbara Brackman organized a BOM called Hospital Sketches. The purpose was to commemorate the brave women who left their homes and loved ones to help wounded Civil War soldiers. Each month we had a new applique block and there was a story of  another Civil War era hospital and the women who helped care for the soldiers there. One of the most famous women was Louisa May Alcott.  There was to be an exhibit of some of the finished quilts at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA in 2020, but because of the pandemic it was put of until 2022. That gave me time to finish my quilt, I still had the borders to do.  I had the quilt professionally quilted by a local quilter, Rose Edgren. She did an amazing job! It was the first time I had a quilt quilted by someone else.  My quilt was chosen to be part of the exhibit along with 14 others. The exhibit will run from July 20,2022 to October 1, 2022. I am thrilled beyond words to be part of this exhibit!

Rose Edgren a local quilter did the quilting for me. She did an amazing job! This is the first time I have had a quilt professionally quilted.

Happy Quilting! Rebecca

Prepping for Applique

 I will start off with a recent visit by Mama Moose and Baby.  She comes up to drink out of our rain barrel. We caught them on our security camera, but I couldn't figure out how to download from there so took a video of the video. So I apologize for the quality.

So not much actual sewing going on here. I have been spending my days painting the exterior of the house. I started last summer and I am back at now. I wanted to start sooner, but had all that firewood to deal with first. So my evenings have been spent prepping (hopefully) all the applique pieces I need for the borders of my Cassandra's Circle quilt. I used Karen K Buckley's Perfect Circles and her Bigger Perfect Leaves this time. The leaves will definitely be quicker to sew this way. I also made a template for the flowers and used it to press the edges of the flowers shapes. I am hoping this will speed up the flower applique too.

All the pieces are prepped, now just to position them on to the next three borders

The template I made for the flower pieces

This is the first border. I just need to sew down all the pieces. Two corners will have the plumes, two will not. The plumes will be "kitty-corner" from each other.

I finished block 4 for the Freedom's Friend's BOM I am doing. You can find out more about it on Barbara Brackman's blog HERE and HERE.

Block 4, the Dove

Happy Quilting! Rebecca

Catching Up

 So the seasons have changed and we are enjoying some warm summer days. We are getting chores done outside and getting prepared for next winter. My main job was stacking the 12 cords of firewood we had delivered. I have been getting some quilting done too.

I got my Cassandra's Circle top sewn together and I am now working on a border design. This quilt was a BOM with Barbara Brackman on her Civil War Quilts blog. You can see the patterns  HERE

This is my border idea so far. There will be plumes on the opposite corner, diagonally, and the vine will go around the other two corners.

I also finished my top for her other BOM,  the Ladies Aid Album Sampler. I will not be adding any borders, I will finish it off with a red binding in the same fabric as the hearts. You can find the free patterns HERE.

I have continued my hand quilting on my Spring Time Album. I only have one more block to quilt and then I will start on the borders.

I finished one top for a grandson, just need to add borders.

I have been playing around with some Liberated Baskets.

Finally, I am working on Barbara Brackman's new BOM Freedom's Friends, you can find the information HERE.

I know this was a long post! Thanks for hanging in there with me! Rebecca  (I have no idea why this letters are so big, lol)

If You Give a Moose a Muffin......

 We had a Mama Moose and her calf stay around the house for four days! That never happens. And  honestly, I didn't even try to give them a muffin! It certainly made things difficult, like trying to walk the dog, or even go outside. My shoveling got put on hold. The Mama wasn't aggressive, but the calf was, he charged my husband and our dog once. We had a couple of sleepless nights when they decided to hang around the front door and even came up on to our side walkway that leads to the carport. Poor dog! I am sure she thought  was protecting us with all her barking. LOL They finally left when my husband moved our truck, they saw that and ran off.  Of course we took lots of photos and videos. It was interesting to watch them. Who knew moose groomed themselves. They also seem to be adapting to the deep snow, they would climb up on our huge piles of snow to reach higher branches on the birch trees. 

In quilting news I redid the la st block for the Ladies' Aid BOM. Below is the one I prepped, but I was just not happy with it.

This is the new version, all finished. Much happier with this one.

I have also gotten a little hand quilting done on a very old project, Spring Time Album. I will be working on this today for "Slow Stitching Sunday".

Next block marked and ready to quilt.

This is my little sewing box I keep my hand quilting items in. 

Photo chart I use to keep track of my progress.

Not as much sewing this week as I would have liked. so much snow to shovel. Now that the moose left am back to it. I keep working at bit by bit. I will be linking up with Kathy's Slow Stitching group, HERE Happy Quilting, Rebecca

Icemageddon2021

Warning: Long Post

Icemageddon2021 is what Alaskans in the Interior are calling the winter storm that hit us in December. It started with record snowfall, then freezing rain and then more snow. The freezing rain left a 2 1/2" layer of ice on top of the snow. With the layer of ice and so much snow we were snow bound, unable to drive out of our driveway and then more snow came on top of that. We are breaking records for snowfall this winter. The roof collapsed on our local grocery store and one of the gas stations in town on December 26. There isn't another grocery store for 90 miles, in North Pole AK, but the roads were too dangerous to drive on, Condition Red. Many people were in dire straits. We are okay, we normally keep a good supply of food on hand, especially for the winter months. We had to hire a skid-steer to plow us out, the normal plow trucks could not plow the deep snow or break through the ice layer. I have been doing a lot of shoveling on the deck, the roof, stairs and around the house. 

The family that owns the grocery store also own the liquor store and they have begun to stock some basic necessities for the community. People are slowly getting plowed out. And I know we are not the only ones having issues this winter. This is nothing compared to the tornadoes and fires others have experienced.

Skid-steer getting us dug out

My Jeep I drive in the summer is buried!

Our driveway with the snow berm from the plowed snow.

The moose are having a really hard time dealing with the deep snow and ice. They are having trouble getting to their normal food sources and are becoming quite agitated. One cow moose attacked a women in her driveway and left her with a broken leg and a concussion, she is still in the hospital. They are hanging around town in the parking areas. People have been warned to not try to feed them and to stay out of their way. The wildlife biologist do not expect the calves to survive the winter. The wild bison heard in our area is also struggling.

(Not our car)

In some quilting news I have pulled out a project I worked on last year. It is a queen sized quilt for one of my adult grandsons. I have made this pattern before and it goes together pretty quick. I have all the 16 patches  done. I just need to make the star parts. I hope to get all the star parts done this month and get a start on sewing the rows together,

On the applique side of things Block 10, Carolina Rose for Cassandra's Circle BOM is almost finished, just need to do the star in the center.

The next block for Cassandra's Circle is prepped. This is Block 11, Charleston Star. There are 13 blocks in this quilt.

I finished the squirrel block for Ladies's Aid  BOM. I had to make the squirrel block, because we have so many squirrels on our property!

This is the antique block it was taken from.

The next block for the Ladies' Aid BOM is prepped.

And since I am going to need some extra blocks, the BOM pattern has 12.  I am going to try to turn this one into a moose by altering the antlers a bit, or it could be a caribou. I found this block in Barbara Brackman's book "Encyclopedia of Applique".

So I hope all of you are well and surviving your winter! Happy Quilting Rebecca