Wind in the Pines

It has been so windy for a few days now. No snow in the wind today but my goodness the damage it's done is amazing. The first thing I saw when I got off the bus in Ned was a poor VW bus whose roof had been blown off. It was really quite sad. Heavily-weighted mailboxes were down everywhere. The Pine trees are all being whipped into frenzies every which way as I right this blog. We are used to wind up here, but this is pretty impressive! I wish I had a web-cam to share it with y'all.
I have been happy lately. It's because I've returned to work at the iris farm and Spring is approaching. I finished another 16 blocks for the silk tie quilt. So that leaves me with 20 left, and I've even gotten up to Strip 5 on all 20 of them. One of the reasons I chose to back the ties with interfacing was so that I could chain piece them. It's worked out really well for me. I can just zip through them with ease, knowing the strips are stable and behaving themselves. I always knew silk was tricky fabric, but it is nothing compared to velvet. I did a crazy quilt for a client once and discovered just what a squirmy, runaway, do anything but what you want it to fabric.
Okay, that's for all now. Keep quilting, dreaming, creating, and loving!

Silk Tie Project Stage 2

This has been a wondrously productive week for me. I have constructed 48 of the 100 blocks for the silk tie quilt. They are coming out absolutely gorgeous, you just can't go wrong with rich silk fabrics. I have been using interfacing in order to make the ties behave better as I sew them. This is making such stable blocks, I love it. I also have my husband fusing the interfacing and cutting my strips for me. It just tickles me to have ready-to-use strips appear before me. I recommend this method of construction if you can talk anyone into it.
I have a recurring lesson in quilting. I never buy enough (of whatever) in the first place. I even try to do the math beforehand and always end up short. One time, I had to go back to the store 5 times for a mint green fabric. For this project, it is the interfacing that I didn't get enough of. I have made half of the blocks and used all the interfacing that I ordered. As soon as I saw that I would need more, I ordered again. I am now waiting a day or so and paying for more shipping costs. The time isn't so bad, I needed to do taxes anyway. But paying twice for shipping because I can't do math is pretty bad. This is a lesson in better business management that I must learn.
Now for some personal news sharing. I went back to work at the iris farm this week. I only worked one day, which is good for breaking back in the body that didn't do 'physical' this winter. My soul sang with happiness to be in the sunshine and digging in the dirt. Do others feel the call to dig in the spring? I can't be the only one. Spring is here officially on Sunday, but for me it has already sprung. I wish you all a happy spring and many creative adventures!

The Silk Tie Quilt Project

Do you see all these beautiful silk ties? I am

in the process of turning them into something that will resemble the antique quilt also pictured. This project was recently begun for a dear friend of the family. This friend wanted a traditional quilt pattern so I pulled out my copy of Vintage Quilts by Bobbie Aug, Sharon Newman, and Gerald Roy. I found this most exquisite Log Cabin Barn Raising from 1860 made by Florence Mae Hart Diehl. I just fell in love with the color ways she used. In the next few weeks, I will show photos and share the progress. I want to get it done quick because I get to go back to Long's Gardens and play in the dirt and smell iris soon.

It's been quite a week of progress for the quilt and my husband in the quilt world. We started by having to arrange the ties in appropriate color ways. I put Sid to work on that part, because he truly is my color guy. He started putting them in groups all over my long arm. A couple of hours in, I noticed he might not realize what we were trying to achieve. I continued explaining and he kept rearranging the ties. After about four hours, we were ready to kill each other. So we put it away for the day.

Second day of working on it, we begin in same (wrong) direction. I finally gave him all the books on how to piece a log cabin block, the photo above, any math I'd managed and sent him to his room. About a half hour passed and he started coming downstairs every few minutes to ask a very pertinent question or two. Then he'd go back upstairs to study and think. He finally came down and I could actually see the light bulb shining above his head. He actually got it, he figured out what I needed him to do. Ties were flying in all directions as he arranged them in wonderful groups of colors. When he was done, I realized that now it was my turn.

Well, Day 1 was only 6 days ago. I have already completed 28 of the 100 blocks. And I must it is coming out gorgeous! The next time we have the blocks laid out, I'll take photo for you all to see. We could vote on favorite variations of the settings.

Ice Fishing for Star Flowers

Here is the next in our series of Star Flower quilts. My husband put the fabric into the soda ash one day to prepare for the next days dyeing. When he returned to the bucket, it was frozen on top. Now, this is a really salty mixture and doesn't usually freeze! It did this time though and Sid broke a hole in the top and proceeded to go fishing for the fabric. He choose to go for the purple/aqua combo that always looks great. I also had him pleat the borders. I learn something with each quilt and this one taught me not to quilt feathers on pleated borders. It took a lot of time and they just disappear into the pleats. Sid and I have just started planning and creating quilts together again. Sometimes our ideas work and sometimes they don't. This one came out quite nice though and is for sale at my Etsy shop, www.mountainjoyquiltndye.Etsy.com.
Speaking of Etsy, my mother and both sister-in-laws have Etsy shops now too. I love it that there is somewhere for all of us to do our thing. There are so many creative people in the world. It is simply fabulous! Keep quilting and creating!