The time is flying by so fast, I hardly have time to appreciate what I have been doing. The weekend at the Fransican Center was fun, good food and great foliage. Made a quilt using a method that an old friend wanted me to try. I sat with my pieces all cut and never got up to iron anything until I ran out of pieces – it worked. My quilt is flat and straight. I finished it (after cutting lots more pieces) at the teacher seminar in Windham. It is not something I would do with different size blocks but when you are working with pieces all the same size and have a good diagram, you can do it. You do have to concentrate on your sewing; no chatting to the neighbors.

Elizabeth Lake and Lydia Quiqley always have something interesting that they are working on. I love to try out their pieced patterns. Lydia surprised me by working on the quilt that I have on my bed. We like the same fabrics so the two quilts will be very much alike. Elizabeth was working on one of Lydia’s earlier designs, a log cabin and stars (more complicated than that but too hard to describe here). I had to make some sample blocks so I could make it when I got home. I am working on 2 Christmas quilts and want to get them done this week so I can quilt them before the holidays. We are all quilt teachers at this seminar and the sharing of ideas is so much fun. Marti was working on her trip x 2 quilts (got all the blocks made) and just has to sew it together. She also did a quilt called Bamboo (Diane McClun and Laura Nownes pattern) in Japanese prints and it is beautiful – Marti, just has to go with her instincts; her color choices really make the quilt pop. Candy, our dear friend, finished up 2 quilts, made a tote bag. She was in and out in 2 days but she sure made good use of her time.

We had lost electricity in Chelmsford for 5 days after the early snowstorm.  I had to hurry home on Thursday so I could wash clothes (the electricity came back Thursday afternoon); the Quilters Gathering was this past weekend. I volunteered to work on Saturday and spent 5 hours sitting behind the admissions table. Before and afterwards I got to see the quilts and visit the vendors. No matter what I am working on, I always find great fabrics at the Quilted Crow (Boxborough, MA). If you have never been to the Gathering (www.aquiltersgathering.com) plan on coming next year. It is always end of October- beginning of November. Next year it will be held in Manchester, NH at the Center of New Hampshire which is a larger facility (there is a good size airport in Manchester, easy to fly in and out of) . The Gathering is so much fun because you get to know everyone; especially if you participate in the evening “gatherings”. Susan and I had a quilt in the show, our Ice Crystals (most of the credit goes to Susan). It looked good but as the tradition goes our names were spelled wrong on the poster.

I can’t imagine how anyone living in New England could miss this show. It was started by Marie Geary and Jeanne Glenfield and Jeanne’s 3 daughters have carried on the tradition since Jeanne passed away and Marie retired. It is a very personal and warm show always with astonishing quilts and a great mix of vendors.

There is so much more I could say about the Gathering. I love meeting all my old friends from the New England Quilters Guild; Rhonda, from the New England Quilt Museum is always there along with a bunch of great raffle quilts from guilds all over New England.

Enough already, Peace everyone.

Anne

After the show we stopped at the Mystic Market in Mystic, CT for lunch.  If you get down to Mystic go there for lunch – the food is superb, good service and a pleasant place to be.  In fact the shoreline of Rhode Island and Connecticut has a number of good quilt shops plus lots of good eating.  Betty Coombs is re-opening her shop in Westerly.  Hoorah! Had fresh fish for supper (Kathleen is a good cook also); took a few homemade cookies for the ride home (2 hours) in the rain.  There is no place like your own bed to sleep in (and not have to get up early and drive home) and I stayed in bed until 9.

Today I cut strips for the retreat at the Franciscan center in Kennebunk ME.  I have a number of ideas for new quilts and want to be ready to sew when I get there.  Kennebunkport means fresh lobsters so we will go out one night for the twin lobsters.

I did not mean to post 2 blogs in one week but life has been interesting lately.  The Patriots play tomorrow, yes!  I love football.  I’ll sew a binding during the game but won’t get too much done because I like to watch the game – I sew when the commercials come on.  I love this time of year because of the weather and Sunday afternoon football, Sunday night football, Monday night football and soon (November 10th) Thursday night football.  And yes, I watch NFL Redzone although I prefer to see every game.

Sun is out, windy and the leaves are falling, the colors are beautiful – just take a ride out route 2 to see some great foliage.  Peace everyone.

Anne

Kaye England was teaching a workshop at the Holiday Inn in Dedham, MA sponsored by Ann’s Fabrics in Canton MA (great fabric and the best Bernina repair tech anywhere).  Kaye is an old friend so when she called, I asked her to spend an extra couple of days with us.  Life didn’t give her a couple of days but we did spend an evening and part of day before it was time to go to the airport.  Susan and I picked her up, John was home cooking and Candy was home baking pies and Deb and Bill stopped by on their way home from Maine to join us for dinner.  Kaye is a vegetarian and has spent time with us before so John made a pasta primavera and stuffed eggplant (grown in our garden), baked chicken for the non-vegetarians (they don’t even eat any vegetables) and pasta with marinara sauce.  It was a great evening of laughter and stories.  Kaye, Susan and I go way back with MaryEllen Hopkins and had fun reliving some of our funnier moments.  By the way, for the many people who ask, MaryEllen is alive and well and living near her son, David in southern California.  She does not travel any longer but is still full of fun and ideas.

Kaye is in the middle of the quilt industry and knows everyone – she is also one of the hardest working people I know.  We showed off our new quilts and had fun comparing ideas for more quilts (visit Kaye’s website www.kayeengland.com – notice the two e’s).  We still argue over the best way to do things but both Kaye and Susan and I focus on precise cutting, piecing to get accurate blocks.  We differ only slightly in methodology but all use the Nifty Notion rulers for accuracy.  This is not an ad but just a fact about what we do.

For our next outings, we travel to Maine for a few days at the Franciscan House to sew with friends.  Cathy and Diane (half Greek and half Italian – what a fantastic combination), the two sisters, organize the retreat and you never want to loose your spot -either fall or spring.  We look forward to sewing and sewing and sewing with a lots of laughs thrown into the mix.  The following week, we are off to Portland, Maine for a teacher seminar.  We look forward to these trips because we get to spend time with old friends, Elizabeth Lake, Lydia Quigley (www.therabbitfactory.com), Candy Jewett and Marti Porch.  Jean and Jan, we will miss you.  We come away with new pro-jects (Canadian pronounciation) that we will share with our students.

Our 2012 Calendar has us traveling to Beverly MA; Leominster MA; Burlington VT and New London CT.  We have a few open dates and were going to really cut back this year.  John, my husband, has volunteered to travel with us and do the heavy lifting and carrying so we will be booking more dates.  We are working on new patterns with a different format (yes, we are finally going to give you yardage and sizes).

Fall is beautiful around here.  We are enjoying the warm weather.  Peace everyone.

Anne

Everywhere we go, we meet wonderful quilters who are so interested in what we do. We told the group in Vermont that we no longer traveled outside of New England because of all the driving we have to do. The quilters from NY wanted to know if Albany is part of New England. It could be.

Susan and I took time off after a very unsettling year. We are going to be careful with our time and only do one major event each month. It’s the packing and unpacking that makes us so weary. Besides that, we need time to work on more quilts. We have a long list of quilts we want to make and not much time to get them done.

Chelmsford Quilters Guild Meeting is this coming Monday (Sept 26th). We always have a major show and tell at the meeting and it so much fun to see everyone after the summer. We do have meetings in the summer but they are casual and about half the group makes it to these meetings.

So for today, I want to thank Deb Towle for manning our booth (broken arm and all) while we did our lectures this past weekend. Deb is a good sport and a hard worker and no, you can’t have her phone number. She is our worker bee and we plan on keeping her.

I wish the Japanese people a quick recovery from their latest disaster. I hope the roads and homes in Vermont are repaired before the first snowfall. I wish everyone good health, especially Fran, who does not need one more illness to test her metal. She’s proven herself already. Peace everyone.

The stack of projects is going down. I have a king size half square triangle quilt that I need to work on before I do anything else. I have a sister (there are 5 of us) who has been waiting patiently for her quilt for her new bed. She never says a word but I know she wishes it was done so goal Number 1 is get Terry’s quilt finished.

I miss my friend, Susan. She now lives 2 hours away. I can’t run over to her place to show her a new idea or progress on one of our quilts. We get together once a month and I always have a long list to show her. She very often takes the project home and finishes it – she is a better sewer than I am. If it is all cut out and ready she can work in her corner of the living room while her remodeling is going on.

Summer always seems to fly by and I feel guilty if I don’t spend time in the garden. I organized a couple of projects that I can work on in front of the television. John is always watching the Red Sox so I need to keep busy and spend some time with him.

I’m working on descriptions for our new classes. We tested out the “Making it Right” class and it was a success so now we can add that to our list of classes. I’m slowly finishing the tools workbook, I’d rather sew than type any day. Peace everyone.

Well the Bruins won the Stanley Cup and the Red Sox are playing well so all is right in the sports world in Boston right now.  I wish the football situation would be resolved; they should let a couple of women decide what to do – at least they would get it right.

Vermont Quilt Festival (www.vqf.org) is next week.  Every new quilter, old quilter or in between should see this show.  The antique quilts will be phenomanel – take a moment to step back from each quilt and look at the graphics.  You miss a lot when you stand up close.  The contest quilts are always good – I know 2 that are great, one by Kathleen McLaughlin and the other by Linda West (minature).

I have this pile of quilts that should be quilted – 4 of them are now in a bag waiting upon Laura Sexton.  I have one that needs a border that I thought I was finished with but the quilt told me it needed a border so I’m planning for it now.  I hope Carrie L. Nelson takes a break from writing books – her last 2 are keeping me busy.  There are so many great ideas; I have made a number from one book.  I always change it a little so it isn’t a copy of the original.  I have a king size quilt with log cabins and flying geese that also needs a border.  I decided a simple four patch would complete it – I’ve made a number of them (4 patches) but I have to be careful not to let them become boring (the 4 patches).

Chelmsford Quilters’ Guild is coming up on June 27th – I’m looking forward to seeing everyone- we have lots of people in our guild and they are a very friendly bunch of quilters.  In the summer we bring our own projects and work on them while we chat with everyone.  Tina Van Roggen is teaching a simple quilt for beginners – she is an awesome quilter in her own right.

Next week is going to be tough – Candy has her knee replacement on Thursday, my son John, would have been 41 on Friday (I miss him so).  I think that I can handle everything but life just gives you a reminder that you are not superwoman – my son was a great person and the world needs more people like him.

Susan has not set the longarm up yet in Brookfield ( yes, she took it with her); she knew she would never get it back if it came to Chelmsford.

I ran down to Candlelite Quilts in Chelmsford (MA) this afternoon.  Cathy just got a new shipment of fat backs – no piecing – so I now have another quilt ready for the longarm.  Cathy had new fall and Christmas fabric in; I’m a sucker for both but I held firm.  I can wait until Tuesday before I buy anything else.

Today was a beautiful day and I should have been outside but my sewing room called (it was in competition with some weeds) so it won.

Peace everyone.

We’re going to Vermont on Tuesday to speak to the Champlain Valley Quilt Guild Tuesday night and we will do a workshop on Wednesday. Thursday we will head home but not before we stop and see our old friend, Carolyn Fernandes in Northfield, VT. Carolyn is an antique appraiser; her specialty is antique quilts. She always has something interesting to show us.

I’m doing my spring cleaning with the help of Robyn Logan. Elizabeth Lake and Lydia Quigley will be here for a week next Tuesday. I love having company because it makes me clean my house. All winter the wood stove has been keeping us warm but wood stoves create so much dust. I’ll be glad when the warm weather comes and we can put the stove to bed for the summer and fall.

Elizabeth and Lydia are well known quilters from Kingston, Ontario. They team teach like Susan and I do. I’ve been trying to get them to do some classes down here but they say they have retired. Lydia, also designs fabric for Clothworks. Their patterns can be found on the website, www.therabbitfactory.com. It is worth looking at.

The quilts are all packed for Tuesday; I just have to get the workshop equipment together (make sure we have everything). So back to work before Holmes Inspection comes on. Can’t miss it. ag

Got a catalog in the mail from Mahoney’s (flowers). I like looking at them especially when they have overall pictures of fields of flowers, great ideas for color in quilts.

Last week I went to Noank, CT to visit my friend Kathleen McLaughlin. She is in the process of embroidering around these small appliqued circles on this fantastic quilt – I think there are 100 of these circles. Then she showed me this quilt that has 11 spokes or segments per quarter of the block – talk about work. Look for her quilt in the Vermont Quilt Festival. Kathleen and husband, John, are both artists in their own right. John does some amazing wood carvings. I think I like his brown bear best right now.

So Chelmsford is going up to the Fransican Center this week without me – I’m so sad! They will have a wonderful time. Diane and Cathy do a wonderful job organizing the retreat. Cheryl will keep the place lively.

Quilt shows are coming. I know MaryKay and her group went to Lancaster. Someday I’ll get there. Watch for all the local shows. My favorite quilts are the beginner quilts. I love to see a new person get hooked on quilting.

I have to clear some space so I can trim quilts before I put on the binding. It is fun to have new quilts and new stories to tell when we get them done (every quilt has a story). One of the quilts I finished was for a tools class. I didn’t really like the block as we were making it but now that the quilt is quilted it looks great. Just shows you what I know (or don’t know).

I am amazed at what is happening in the world right now. I commend the Egyptian people for their stand. John spent 18 months in Egypt and made many good friends. I wish other countries success in their struggle for freedom.

The Japanese people are in my prayers.

May the snow melt quickly.

Anne

Quilting:  Laura Sexton brought me a quilt that she quilted for us.  It is great.  She did a wonderful job.  I would recommend her to anyone.

Quilt Shops:  Candlelite Quilts in Chelmsford MA will be celebrating their 5th anniversary this summer.  It is a great little shop, very homey and comfortable.  There are always quilters working in the back room having a good  time.

Pickering Farm in Richmond NH and Quilted Threads in Henniker NH are our favorite shops.  The both seem to combine great service, a welcoming attitude and lots of great fabric.  Pickering Farm has all the reproduction fabrics and almost every Moda while Quilted Threads has fabric that would make any quilter happy no matter what their style.

Susan and I plan a trip out to Indiana to visit Kaye England.  Her home is lovely and we always spend a lot of time sewing.  Kaye has llamas, goats and chickens; Susan loves to feed them although last time we were there she almost started a stampede.

I know the Lobster Shack on Two Lights Road, Cape Elizabeth, Maine opens soon, the 24th I think.  Best fresh lobster in Maine.  I’m glad I can go there during the season and fill up on seafood.  They are located near the Coast Guard Station right on the ocean.  They have picnic tables, lots of great food and a wonderful staff.  Their gift shop, the Candleshack is open in warmer weather – you can get plenty of Maine made items there.  MaryEllen Hopkins has been seen there on many occasions along with many other famous quilters.  Anyone who visits Portland Maine takes a ride out to the Lobster Shack.

I’m working on the challenge quilt for my local guild, red orange and black.  I also have a triangle quilt in the works for my sister, Terry.  Saturday I’m teaching a Trip X Two workshop for the “weekend trippers”.

The Vermont shop hop is going on right now – only a few days left.  If you haven’t visited Quilt-A-Way in Westminster, Vermont (right off route 91) do so this year.  Carol Corski has some of the best batiks made – she has a fantastic eye for color and the shop is loaded with colorful fabrics.  On your way North stop in Chester VT and visit the local quilt shop and the Henry Farm Inn (wonderful bed and breakfast, they do quilt retreats and Pat is the best cook in Vermont).

Make plans to go to the Vermont Quilt Festival and the Lowell Quilt Festival this summer.  Both great shows.  Don’t forget to stop by the New England Quilt Museum.  Our museum is alive and well and planning a 25th anniversary celebration.  More news about that later.

I’m off to reverse sew a long seam that just didn’t come out as straight as it should.

This has been a good St Patrick’s Day, a gentle day.

Anne

Our great friends, Elizabeth Lake and Lydia Quigley (www.therabbitfactory.com) will be visiting us from Kingston Ontario in April. We plan on taking them to our favorite quilt shops, doing some sewing and tasting a lot of wine. Susan will be here, Marti Porch (www.twolightslobstershack.com), Candy Jewett and Deb Towle will join us sometime during the week. Oh, yes, we will invite Bill Towle so John won’t be completely outnumbered. Christine will be showing off her new apartment and her new decorations.

MQX is next month also. It is held in Providence RI which is only an hour down the road from us. We will be going. There are so many talented machine quilters in our area; we are looking forward to seeing their work.

For those who this blog is too personal, don’t read it. We know so many people in the quilt world, we will be talking about people and things that interest us.

Our friend, Rick McGuire (long lost cousin from the Ohio branch of the family) has retired from IBM so we expect to see many new quilts designed by Rick. Ken, Cindy, Emerald and Azureen (our quilting family), we miss you. Em is in grad school and Az is planning on going to vet school this fall.

So have a happy St Patrick’s Day.  Anne