My dear friend Jacquie, aka the Quiltmuse and author of the lovely poesy in A Black and White Tale (see my blogpost here and order from Jacquie here or Ann here), came to visit a couple weeks ago with her daughter, Melanie, who had come over from Germany to visit.  It was such a treat!   And here it is two weeks later and I’ve still (Bad Blogger!) not gotten the photos posted.  I’ll claim being overwhelmed with making a 36×42 inch quilt due by July 1,and prepping for my teaching road trip to Virginia (2000 miles plus round trip, to Harrisonburg and Floyd, leaving Wednesday).   So without further delay…..

Jacquie and me in my dining room, with Melanie as photographer...notice Jacquie's book (Ann Fahl is the instigator and her quilts are featured of course!) in the foreground!

Jacquie lives in Vermont, and has been able to make it to her home state of Maine a couple of times in recent years.   She gets to Germany to visit her girls (she spent most of her adult life there, and her daughters and granddaughters still live there) about every other year, and Melanie can often come the intervening years.  This is the second time I’ve been able to have them come–this time to the new house.  We had lunch and futzed around here, then went on a drive to see the local sights (such as they are).  The next day we ate in town at Long Grain (AWESOME pan-Asian cuisine at a great price in Camden) then came to my studio to play with cloth and paint.  Here are photos from in town:

Jacquie with the Camden Falls behind her

Like mother like daughter... Jacquie and Melanie

Camden Falls--the buildings date from when folks WORKED on rivers (even small ones like the Megunticook, here) and used the power of the water to run millwheels to generate power. Tourism was in full swing up here even in the 1800s, but not like it is today when everyone wants to see the water

Camden Harbor on an overcast day (which is why we played in the studio instead of going to the top of Mt. Battie, as we would have seen *nothing*

And me and my friend again at the harbor

It was such a treat and thrill that Jacquie wanted special to come visit.  We had such a wonderful time and I’m so glad we got to spend time together—-HUGS!

Last post I shared about the Shaker Museum in Enfield where we stayed when I taught for the Northern Lights Quilt Guild.  Thanks so much for inviting me!  I could seriously see wanting to teach weeklong workshops where we start with an idea for a project, try out a few techniques in the mornings, and play with the pieces and design in the afternoon.  Finish with quilting and binding… that would be SO much fun!   But this time, we had a shorter time frame.  Our classroom was HUGE!  I’d guess it was 1/3 of the second floor.  The Shaker’s probably didn’t foresee me needing to darken the room to do a slide presentation, but the room actually has built-in, recessed shutters on all the windows which came in handy for my purposes, too!

One side of the room--the chairs are leftover from ladies gaythering near the projector and screen before they moved to the walls (and electrical outlets or natural light). Those green raised-panels you see next to the windows are actually the recessed shutters!

Looking across the room (which is set up for the lecture Friday evening)...VAST!

For the first day, I taught Applique 3 1/2 ways, and as usual was so busy I forgot to take photos.  The next day, however, Chris had her blocks out, so here they are…alas, her lovely satin stitching on the one block doesn’t show in my photo!

Chris's Gingko leaves

Then we moved on to free-motion quilting on Saturday.  Students experience levels varied from having done absolutely none to having done some but not entirely happy with what they did.  The key, of course is the dreaded P-word:  practice. But knowing a few tips and tricks, and most of all proper preparation, helps folks immensely.  Here are some photos of the samplers students did.  I use the sampler that is also in my book for teaching, but offer students the choice of using the block/grid format or  just going free-form in the freedom of open space.  Some students prefer the limited space of the block—it isn’t as intimidating to them as all that openness of an 18 inch (or thereabouts) quilt sandwich.  For others, the blocks are seriously claustrophobic, and they prefer to noodle around.  So I encourage them to do what makes things most comfortable….. and boy did these ladies go to town!

Free-motion play!

I love the way this one looks like braided leather. The student wasn't too wild about the feathers on the far right, I think because she was being critical of the shapes of the petals which weren't as smooth as she wanted. However, it is a great look with the thin feather plumes on a straight stem grouped like this. I think I'll have to find a way to use this...great for sashings and borders!

Red! I ask students to use a highly contrasting thread on top and a matching thread on the bottom. I know this is evil. We are so much more critical of readily visible mistakes, but it makes diagnosing tension problems SO much easier--you can actually see what is happening, then write notes onto the white fabric as a reminder of what you did to correct the issues. I'll take the piece and walk a few feet away, then turn it over to where the thread matches the back, and students are always surprised at how good their beginner work looks with just a few more feet distance and matching color!

Another red...I think she was having fun!

Another, done within the grid

And a blue one...

And one more in progress at the machine

Noone ever believes me when I say that it is easy to write with the sewing machine, but apart from one lady who didn't try (in another class long ago) every single student who has tried to write their name, CAN and does! Your hands know where to go...think how many rent and grocery checks you've signed in your life! Remember how hard it was back in first grade to make the shapes of the letters, and now you don't even think about it? That is muscle memory and practice. Ditto for quilting!

Sunday was a half-day session with a few parts of my Fine Finishes class, about edge finishes, bindings and display techniques.  The program chairs decided to focus on the basic and essential double-fold bias binding, which is the basis of so many other techniques, and piping.  I taught Susan K. Cleveland’s way of making piping using the Piping Hot Binding tool.  As so often is the case, it is a simple idea that is brilliant, with some of the best written directions ever.   I heartily recommend this tool–tho it may seem expensive for a piece of plexiglass, the instructions are SO worth every penny!   You can find it here at her website, Pieces be With You.  It was so much fun watching the ladies learn how to make the piping, use the tool, and then get totally jazzed about the possibilities of using the piping alone, in combination with other stuff (like inserted into the bias binding, alone, etc)!  And yep…I was so busy trying to cram the most into a half day that I didn’t take pictures!

Thanks again ladies for a wonderful weekend!

After Enfield, I drove south and lectured the next night for the Chelmsford (Massachusetts) Quilt Guild –and of course no pictures– but really enjoyed that visit, too. I had forgotten that I’d be teaching at a Quilters Gathering in NH, and some asked what classes I’d be teaching.  I didn’t know, but one lady kindly checked for me (she’s on the board) so I was able to share that, too.  I’ll have to put the classes I teach at shows onto my class listings…where I post where I’ll be teaching on the Classes page of this website.  Add that to the to-do list!  I’ll be back here soon with more of the stuff that has been keeping me from blogging…stay tuned!

What FUN!   Michelle G.  from the QuiltArt list and program co-person for the Northern Lights Quilt Guild (Enfield, New Hampshire and environs…near Dartmouth) decided to organize a retreat with teacher for her guild, and I got to be the lucky teacher!   I arrived late Thursday (tho as the crow flies it’s not so far from mid-coast Maine to western New Hampshire, the roads are two-lane twisty turny—up here all roads lead to Boston, if you’re going anywhere else, it takes a lot of slow driving time!).  We had full day classes on Friday (Applique 3 1/2 ways), Saturday (Intro to Machine Quilting), a lecture Friday night (With a dash of color), and half-day class Sunday morning (Fine Finishes, about bindings, but a short version of the class).

Leaving Hope/home, Thursday morning--it has been rainy for weeks in Maine

I’ve never had the chance before to spend that much time with a group, either as a student or as a teacher.  It was so wonderful to get to know the ladies (hey Chris!  Thanks for being my on-site IT help!), share potluck (I gained a couple of pounds…sigh), and just hang out.  Michelle booked the group into the Shaker Museum.  Yes, a MUSEUM that used to be a Shaker colony. Here’s a photo from Route 4 (or was it 4A?):

The Museum is on the right. My room was the two windows on the 3rd floor on the right. They were doing re-roofing, and every so often during class debris would plummet past the windows!

And my room…really large!  I expect at least four if not more persons slept in these rooms.  The furniture was reproduction shaker furniture (there is a Shaker Workshops catalog..I actually made Joshua a long bookcase from their stuff about 14 years ago and it is still wonderful and sturdy) and there were gorgeous and still well-working built-ins in the room:

View in my room. Like most old buildings, the windows were finnicky, but they were large and the room airly and light.

The door on the left (with the white patch of paint on the bottom) is the door from the hallway. Built in next to it are drawers and a cupboard (perhaps for a chamberpot?). The walls are lined with peg boards. There are these cool shelves that can hang from a peg, plus one can lift the chairs off the floor to sweep by perching them on the pegs. The desk, chair, and stool/bench at the foot of the bed are repro pieces. And that small mountain by the door is my teaching stuff--pink boards to pin up samples, suitcases with class samples and stuff to sell, my laptop/projector bag, and the crate has my handouts and teaching binders for the various classes. I swear the schlepping of "stuff" is what will drive me out of teaching (that and air travel).

And here are some quintessentially New England buildings nearby:

Another Shaker building, lumpy (as opposed to flat-finished) stone, large and gorgeous...across the road

Next to the museum...probably a private residence

Next post I’ll share about the classes!

A few weeks ago a bit of art appeared on the side of the road not long after the last (FINALLY!) snow of April… one of those moments of whimsy and suprise that pop up hither and yon.  I decided that along with Moments of Beauty, I need to begin a series of posts about unexpected delights, whatever those might be.  This one is art, and is currently alongside Route 105 which runs (at least hearabouts…it goes beyond, too) from Hope to Camden.

At first I didn't really get to see the art, as it blends in to the side of the barn...

But I could tell it was worth slowing down, pulling over, and having the camera!

I just love this...if I ever win the lottery, maybe I'll be able to afford to buy art, not just admire it

and the artist’s sign over the garage door:

Art by Ron Russell

Have I said recently how much I love living in Maine?

A is for Apricot

One of the reasons I’ve been walkabout so long is that I was part of another Postmark’d Art postcard swap.  I had thought that due to the move and the general chaos that I would be really late, and thankfully the group said that’s OK…just get them eventually done.  Luckily, I was only about a week late.  This time I was in three groups swapping with five other women.  The themes I chose to participate in this time were  Fruit, Bridges and Buttons.  So the one above is obviously Fruit.  I’ll try to take photos in few weeks of the cards I received and share those, too.

My second effort was B is for Button, and I made a “button band” like on the front of a tailored shirt, then sewed the buttons to that.  All the buttons came from my stash, and one postcard (the one I kept…sorry ladies!) had vintage buttons from Mama’s button box.

B is for button

I wanted to continue the  “A is For, B is for” series with my bridges card, but B  was already taken.  And I wanted to do a picture of the stunningly lovely Penobscot Narrows bridge (click on the hotlink to see the Wikipedia article).  It is between Prospect and Verona Island (in the middle of the Penobscot River, with Bucksport on the north side), and is so completely unexpected in this relatively remote stretch of road.  It is Route 1, the old Atlantic Coast Highway, that runs north-south on the East Coast of the US (what folks used before the interstate  highway system), but it is still  pretty far out of the way…maybe  3 1/2 hours north of Portland, Maine, and 4 or so hours south of Canada.  But P for Penobscot or N for the Narrows seemed to be stretching things a bit, so I decided to let that idea go and keep it simple.

The quilting says Penobscot Narrows Bridge, Prospect, Maine.