Wordless Wednesday

Nancy's Pi Quilt

Well, it's done!

The quilting went relatively well, only one thread break.

 I'm happy with the spacing of the all over. It's been a while!

And I love this pattern...I'm probably going to make one! 

There was one more glitch...with the binding...but she is hand sewing it down so it should be fine!

She's so sweet....just read the label. I'm a bit sad the edge is turned over on the label, but you can't see it when it's on the long arm. 

I hope she's ok with what I did. 

It was a challenge.

I learned A LOT.

And, considering everything, I think it turned out very well.

A Quilt & Murphy's Law

I agreed to do a quick all over for a friend. 

She had some surgery, fell behind on a quilt, and is pressed for time. 

She wants to bring it along to meet her new grand nephew, Jacks. 

Don't you love that name?

I had hoped that nickname would catch on for my John. 

(We wound up with the nickname Herman.  

I'll 'splain why another time)

More mind wandering....shocking, I know. 

Anyhow....

Nancy used the pattern Pi by Maple Island Quilts. 

Lesa, who also works with Nancy, provided the pattern. 

Her sister is Mrs Maple Island Quilts. 

(Its been oreviously established that I have a focus problem while blogging.

This post is a great example of said lack of focus.)

She used brights and mixed batiks and quilters cottons. 

It's cute!

When I picked it up, she told me there was one seam issue and showed it to me.

No problem, I said. 

I'll be able to fix that.

Upon further inspection, I found this...

Oh well, it's Nancy.

She's a good person.

I fixed them and brought it to the ironing board.

There I noticed....

A seam inside a block, upside down!

Really??

I took it apart, and guess what?

After flipping it over, it wasn't big enough.

Of course, it wasn't. 

It was that kind of day. 

So, I searched my scraps and found this not too terrible substitute fabric. 

I'm hoping once its quilted, you won't notice. 

Tomorrow, I'll load it and quilt it.

You know, with that quick all over. 

Yup, it was a Murphy's Law kind of day. 

Hope tomorrow is better. 

Stay tuned....

Wondering...

I follow the APQS quilting forum.

It's a great resource for me in my long arming adventures. 

This weekend, a member posted a thread titled

'Grey Grease in the Bobbin Area'

Every time I read it, I see Grey Goose. 

Problem?

What's a blog post without the obligatory picture?

Golf today

Ugh....

😤

Murray had no one to golf with him today. 

I had a choice....go with him or put up with his boredom. 

I put on my big girl panties and went. 

I really didn't want to go, but it wasn't THAT bad. 

It wasn't good, either. 

We walked 9, not awful.

I saw a sweet mama doe and 2 darling fawns.😍

And lotsa purty birds. 

I got some exercise and sun. 🌞

It was HOT. 😓

And my shoulders hurt. 😰

I NEVER COMPLAINED ONCE.😜

And I really wanted to...I was sweating.

Ick!

After, we sat on the deck and I ate a nice watermelon feta salad.🍴

I have admit that the food is good there. 

It should be since we pay and arm & a leg for membership. 💲

Bonus....now he can't balk at taking me to jazzfest tonight to hear the Brubaker Bros. 

a reward for me. 

Vermont QuiltFest Weekend....Quails, Quilts & Celebrities

O

Frannie always looks so miserable in the car.

I bet after this trip, she'll like it better.

We were off to Vermont to visit my sister Patty and her husband Bruce.

They're hippies now.

Patty packed me into her newly acquired VW van and we went to see the house my godson is building. 

I can not believe I didn't get a picture of the house...it's gorgeous.

He does such beautiful work.

Then we headed back to Kent Hill so Patty could make us a dinner party.

She had a bag of salt potatoes from Hinerwadels. in Syracuse...less than 2 blocks from Johns house. 

While she made the dinner party, I made cocktail parties to pass the time.

The Pre-Cocktails Cocktail Party was held on the front porch.

Grey Goose, Coconut Water, splash of cranberry and a lime squeeze...yum!

Patty's front porch is, without question, heaven on earth.

After a quick change into cocktail attire, the Cocktail Party was held in the driveway.

This was Frannie's first cocktail party.

Inside the new van...I wish you could see the rug.

Phil and Bruce thought the cocktails were too small, so they switched to GG on the rocks with a lime squeeze.

They paid dearly for this decision the next day on the links.

My gorgeous godson and his adorbs girlfriend, Heidi, joined us in the van.

Heidi drank the girly drinks, Scott went the way of Phil and Bruce.

Of course, I made sure Heidi knew how lucky she was to be dating such a fine specimen as Scott.

Notice that I am seated right in between them....I loved him first, you know.

She was a good sport.

Patty served up some baby birds on lettuce for dinner.

Thank God for the salt potatoes or we might have starved to death!

In all seriousness, it was tasty.

But it was not filling.

Or sobering. 

There will be many "quail' jokes in Pattys future, I'm afraid.

After strawberry rhubarb pie, we set off for an after dinner drink (uh oh) at the Barrows House.

The Barrows House is a newly renovated hotel within walking distance of Pattys house.

Walking distance was a must...as we were seriously inebriated.

It just re-opened, and we were pleasantly surprised!

It's a great spot. 

We bumped into Tim Daly of Wings fame at the bar.

Thankfully, we were good and liquored up, so we weren't shy about harassing him. 

Or his co star at the Dorset Playhouse.

Or his cousin, who we were assured would be famous very soon.

Sadly, when you over imbibe, it's hard to recall names. 

Did I mention that my godson is the cutest thing on 2 legs?

Ahhhh, to be young again.

I bet they can remember walking home. 

I can't. 

Oh well, I made it in one piece.

I woke up in bed, in my jammies.

I did, however, forget to remove my earrings.

I am old...that's good enough. 

Saturday we boarded the struggle bus early, went out to breakfast, ditched the men and headed north to the Vermont Quilt Fest.

(Frannie stayed with the guys.

She chased a fox, slept on the bed and enjoyed endless caressing by Uncle Bruce. 

If there was a dog petting contest, Bruce would leave everyone in the dust.)

You can read about the Quilt Fest in the previous post.

I loved it. 

After the show, we ate at the Shanty in Burlington.

I can't believe it, but we had a delish glass of wine...Talbot Kali Hart Pinot Noir.

Try it, you'll like it.

We ate a calamari appy that was obscene. 

We both ordered fried fish for dinner. 

I ordered scallops, shrimp, haddock and clam strips in a basket. 

Patty ordered clam bellies in a basket. 

When she tasted them, she remembered she didn't like clam bellies. 

I still laugh every time I think of this!

After all day walking around the show, we slept like logs til after 8:00 on Sunday morning. 

Then we rolled over and slept some more. 

We needed a late chek out. 

After we finally hoisted our asses out of that bed, we were off to the Promenade in Burlington.

Crepes for lunch and some window shopping. 

I scored 3 tank tops for Jimmy at Urban Outfitter. 

He liked all 3...a miracle!

We headed south back to Dorset.

On the way, we stopped in Vergennes for more window shopping.

While viewing the falls, we realized just how much rain we've gotten over the last weeks. 

The rushing water was violent!

Vermont is such a beautiful state!

We happened across this.....

and it's a good thing we went in.

The cookies were fab....but the Creemie was even better. 

A Creemie is soft serve ice cream...only way better. 

I do not even want to ponder what makes it so good. 

This was not a great Weight Watcher weekend for me. 

But you only live once, right?

After the creemies, we saw a sign for Basin Harbor. 

Patty has always wanted to see Basin Harbor.

So, we turned and followed the signs to.....

BASIN HARBOR!   What a great resort. 

A glass of wine there so we could feel the ambiance....

Yup, I'd vacation there. 

After the wine, it was back in the car.

Dinner was comprised of leftover cookies and devoured en route.

Cookies are a power food, right??

peanut butter chocolate chip...protein!

We passed through a brief, but strong, rainstorm.

And then, this.....

A perfect rainbow...I swear this was my mom winking from heaven. 

It couldn't have been more fun!

There is nothing like giggling with your sister...nothing. 

Phil drove home to Syracuse on Sunday night. 

Very slowly.

He and Bruce spent the weekend golfing. 

Good for them. 

Vermont Quilt Fest

I'm back and I had a blast!

The show was great.

Not much shopping, only 1 spool of SoFine and 1 spool of Aurifil. 

Even though I only had 1 day there, it was perfect. 

I was traveling with my sister, who is not a quilter. 

Her many questions really made me see and think about things I probably would have missed. 

And, in my opinion, there is nothing better than time with family. 

Here are the quilts that I was most drawn to...

I think the gloomy weather had me focusing on bright quilts. 

Jo Diggs had a HUGE exhibit at the show. 

Can you say prolific?!?!

This quilt, SUMMER IN A SHADE GARDEN, was my favorite. 

I had never even heard of her before...what a talent!

There were a lot of Judy Niemeyer quilts in the show. 

This was my favorite, JUICED AT THE CITRUS BAR, by Patty Gertz. 

For me, the citrusy colorway really set it apart from the others. 

3 of 1 by Joan Dorsay.

This BAQ was just delish!

HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL, by Susan Damone Balch

Susan also had an exhibit, and this was my favorite of her work. 

Just made me happy looking at it. 

This was a consortium quilt from Malone, NY. 

I'm a sucker for a scrappy red quilt. 

This one was exceptionally beautiful in my eyes..I wish I could remember the name of it. 

I wish I had a better shot of this beauty by Margaret Solomon Gunn. 

MEET ME AT GIVERNY, exquisite!

BETWIXT & BETWEEN, by George Sicilliano

Ok, now don't take this the wrong way, but I photographed this because I could not believe what I was seeing.  This quilt is a micro mini quilt, each block measuring ONE INCH. Within that ONE INCH are FORTY NINE PIECES constructing each individual 1" log cabin block.  This quilt has 2874 pieces and is 7x10 INCHES!  Yes, inches. Give or take...

My sister and I were talking about it and someone came up behind us and said...

"Wow!  Thats really something. But, I have to ask.....Why?"

I kinda have to agree. 

But it was very pretty and the workmanship was stellar. 

This quilt used over 12,000 yards of thread!

Yes, TWELVE THOUSAND.

See all those people and horses?

They are not appliqué, they are thread painted.

So is the fence and a lot of the other embellishments. 

It's called, LONGING FOR THE PAST, by Nancy Prince. 

Wowser!

THE LITTLE YELLOW QUILT, by Cindy Needham. 

One of the most gorgeous whole cloth quilts I've ever seen!

**sigh**

SPLENDID POPPIES by Betty Jo Quinn. 

Love the colors, and I think this was done on a home machine. 

Yum!

My sister and I, on the way home. 

Thanks for coming with me, Patty!

 

I loved Burlington and northern Vermont. 

I want to go back and spend more time poking around. 

I'll be posting on the rest of the weekend soon!