Where Eagles Fly

In mid-June, my best friend suffered a stroke. As she struggles to come back to herself and us, and we pitch in to keep her kitty and her house going, I've kept myself together partly by working on a landscape quilt, now finished.

Where Eagles Fly is 15-1/2 inches x 32-1/2 inches. It will be listed in my Etsy shop as soon as I get the hanging sleeve made and attached.

The eagles remind me to fly above the turmoil, while the bear tells me to stay grounded...equally important. The ducks remind me to stay afloat, and on the wing as well.

This landscape began with some beautiful Northcott Mills fabrics (most from the Whispering Pines line), discovered at The Quilter's Trunk in Liberty, KY a couple of years ago. I love their shop, which from the outside looks like any other metal-roofed/sided industrial-type building in the middle of this beautiful Amish and Mennonite countryside. Inside, the merchandise is altogether modern, brightly lit and beautifully displayed. (And I found a refill for my Chaco chalk marker, which I'd been looking for for ages!)

Here are some closer shots of Where Eagles Fly. Click on any one to enlarge.

This one shows the quilting better.

After the sleeve is attached, I'll start some new quilt tops for Louisville Nimble Thimbles. They are a local guild that will make finished quilts from those tops, and then donate them, currently to Norton's Children's Hospital. I'm so grateful to be able to piece tops and have them be useful to this guild, as making a bed quilt, even with the QAYG method, isn't doable anymore--although I can still handle a crib quilt.

Fall is just around the corner and our weather has been delightfully cool for this time of year--unlike that of many folks across the USA and the world. We have been very fortunate, and these days I'm extra grateful for many things I used to take for granted. Like my best friend. Hopefully she will fully recover that blazingly brilliant mind of hers and be able to continue enjoying her simple, beautifully mindful daily existence. And I sure have missed working our jigsaw puzzles--another thing I took for granted. I've reminded her that (thanks to my sharing mom) we still have 25 of them waiting to be worked. That made her smile--and me grateful.

Have a blessed autumn--or spring, south of the equator. And be grateful whenever you can.

Linda

p.s.  I'm also very grateful to say that three of my landscape quilts are featured in the new Autumn 2023 issue of Art Quilting Studio Magazine. Thank you, Danielle.

Rescuing a UFO

UFO is of course "unfinished object." Ten years ago I pieced these kooky palm trees from unlikely fabric prints and then auditioned them in an arrangement that didn't work (photo further below). This year I tried again with a different scene, now finished and titled Springtime on the Nile.

34" wide x 36" long

To keep things lightweight at the machine, I first quilted the background to the batting only, after using masking tape to make guidelines for the sun's rays.

Then the fun began, adding the palm trees, the papyrus boat, and the animals with their babies (hopefully they won't prey on each other in such close proximity). The backing was attached with some of the lines of satin-stitching.

Ten years ago, I tried and tried to make it work with this combo...

...yeah. No wonder I gave up on it.

Springtime on the Nile will be listed in my Etsy shop within a week or so.

I got the best compliment ever on it when my husband said it made him feel happy just looking at it. It doesn't get much more gratifying than that.

Have a good weekend!

Linda

A Finish for My Sister's Quilt

 Finally, a finish for my sister's quilt! Weeks of quilting, but I enjoyed it (my legs, shoulders and neck did not, but they'll get over it!).

Hung it the best I could. Too wide for the design wall! 56 x 64 inches.

I quilted it with a 2-inch diagonal grid in a wavy stitch pattern, to represent lake waves.

The back is a 2-yard length of Liberty cotton lawn (a very fine, almost silky, cotton) wildflower print to represent the wildflowers growing on my sister's place at Lake Cumberland in Kentucky.

I had to border it on the sides to make up the width. For that I used a deep-rose polished cotton (shiny side down) from my stash. The binding was made from a Hoffman Watercolor in my batik stash.

Also on the back, two mini-blocks from the "Dear Sister"  panel shown in the last blog post. (Haven't sewn them down yet.)

Looking forward to our first lake trip this year, when I'll surprise Karen with this (planning to take a photo of her holding it). Hoping she'll love it.

Happy spring or fall, depending on what hemisphere you're in!

Linda

Progress on My Sister's Quilt

Some progress on the quilt for my sister. First, finished the log cabin blocks surrounding the camper panel...

...which did require giving up the narrow green outer border of the panel. It wound up in the seam allowance, and the blocks ended up fitting perfectly. The muse definitely knew what she was doing!

(This is looking gray, but it's deep blue.)

I wanted the quilt to be wider than 4 feet, though, so I looked for a good border fabric. Found this water waves yardage in my stash:

...and made a border that will be 4 inches wide after binding is attached.

Now for the back. This 18 x 22 "Dear Sister" panel appeared in the most recent Annie's Craft Store catalog--how fortuitous was that? The muse at work again!--so I'm planning to incorporate this into the back somehow, after cutting it into blocks.

Until next time,

Linda

A Sister's Thank-You

Recently I fell in love with (and purchased) this 33 x 41 fabric panel by Grace Popp for Studio Fabrics, titled Beneath the Stars.

The scene depicts what my sister Karen and I have done several times since 2019.

Her camper is modern, not retro, and her boats are kayaks, but everything else--stars, moon, fire, chairs, trees and lake--are right on. Except, replace the guitar (I wish one of us could play that!) with a nice bottle of shiraz, merlot or cab.

I don't want to surprise her with a wall quilt that she might feel obligated to hang. Instead, I want to make a quilt she can snuggle up under while watching tv; a quilt that will remind her of her lake retreat and of all the laughs we have when we're there.

My favorite quilt blocks are log cabin blocks, so I decided to at least surround the panel with a row of those, and then see what it needs from there.

And then it hit me...of course log cabin...we grew up vacationing at the same lake, in our Aunt's and Uncle's log cabin!

Me left, Karen right, swinging on a rope. Cabin at rear.

Our brother John with Karen,
between cabins. 1971.

So....apparently the muse had joined this project, and now I was pumped!

I figured 8-inch blocks were going to fit best around the panel, 4 each at the top and bottom, 5 down the sides, plus corner blocks. There might be some adjustments necessary in seam width and maybe a need to add sashing somewhere, to correct any spacing problems. But I've decided to plow ahead and trust the muse.

So, we'll see where this goes. I'm thinking I'll probably have to give up that narrow green outside border to make the blocks fit, but am hoping to save it. Not a big deal, though. Crossing fingers--no, trusting the muse--this will all work out!

Linda

Odds & Ends

Not much landscape quilting going on of late, but a few odds and ends were started and in some cases, finished. First, a normal-size stocking for my sweet granddaughter, Lucy...

...whose old stocking was a giant one made in a Minnie Mouse print flannel. Lucy is nearly eight now, has outgrown Minnie, and wanted a normal-size stocking like her parents' (which I made years ago from my same hand-drawn pattern).

Next I made Lucy's other grandmother (Grammy) a stocking, too. She is a dragonfly person, so out came the dragonfly fabric...

...and the music scale Christmas fabric in honor of her talent as a pianist...

            ...to make this stocking from the same pattern.

Also have been working on a scrappy QAYG project.

But this week I've been photographing all my fabric and categorizing it in a photo program. Now I can view my fabric on-screen, which saves me from having to haul out heavy storage bins and unfold and refold yardage, just to remind myself what a particular piece looks like. Fabric that you can't "read" well when it's folded, like these two pieces, for instance:

But I'll probably end up photo-cataloging everything, regardless! I love an organizational task.

Looking forward to designing a new landscape quilt. Got a couple of things stewing on the back burners in my mind.

Be well, and remember, spring is on the way (or fall, if you're below the equator--my favorite season)!

Linda