The House on Edgewood Lane

Dear Quilting Friends,

I spent four days last week machine quilting my first and new design. The pattern which I named "The House on Edgewood Lane" will soon to be in a quilt shop near you!! Can you guess what quilt shop will have it in stock first?



Just when you think the design is finished, you end up making changes along the way that you think will enhance the "look" of the quilt. I have more notes of changes than actual notes! I used Beach House fabric by Blackbird Designs for most of this quilt. Then I threw in a little Rhubarb and Ginger and Sweet Romance....two old favorites of mine from my plentiful fabric stash. Just when I thought I was seeing daylight at the end of the tunnel, I had to machine quilt it!

In my opinion, machine quilting is extremely creative yet exhausting at the same time. It took me one whole morning to mark the crosshatching in the border and then mark the areas for the circular feathers.



Then another hour to load the backing and quilt top on my Handi Quilter (HQ16). Finally, let the quilting begin!!! It's the same as saying, "Gentlemen, start your engines!" I don't know if I'm just slow or just a perfectionist. It's not that I agonize over every stitch and thread color choice....well I guess I do. There are some problem areas, that I'm not going to stress over because in the grand scheme of the overall quilt, I'm the only one that will notice....I hope.




I've had a great time designing, piecing, machine quilting and doing the applique on this quilt. It's been a real learning experience and makes me appreciate all of the talented designers in the quilting world. Now I have to transcribe all of my notes that I made while creating Edgewood Lane and get them into an easy to follow quilting pattern. I'll work on the binding today until my arm tells me to stop and hopefully the quilt will be in the shop Monday morning for all to view. I have more ideas on my design wall and pages of drawings of new creations....."Let the designing begin...after I finish the borders of Blossom of Friendship!"


As always,

Lynn

Month #7 Miss Poppy

Hello quilting friends and welcome to Miss Poppy, our beautiful little May basket.

For those of you out of state, the poppy is the California state flower....so why did I make mine red instead of orange?? I'm clueless I guess. When I was selecting the fabric for this block, the great red fabric had just arrived at the store and I really wanted to incorporate it into the block...so I did....but I should have used it in a different flower. So for all our you purest out there, please feel free to change it. I may even change mine before I start putting the quilt together. Also, the little flower on the right-hand side should have two leaves instead of flower petals. I'm changing that one for sure.

This weekend at the store, I was absolutely delighted when Patti brought all of her blocks in to show me! Patti is making her quilt larger to fit a king-size bed so she enlarged the blocks by 250%. She's done a fabulous job putting her own "touch" to each block. She puts me to shame because she's also finished her embroidery. I'd better start putting it into high gear as a couple of you have almost caught up to me!

When you lay out all of your completed blocks to admire, you will notice that Miss Poppy has the largest flowers and least number of pieces in the whole quilt. I may add a hummingbird or a butterfly....we'll see. That's the beauty of quilting. Make the quilt your own by making changes and additions. Add in some of your favorite fabrics or toss in a few circles for added interest.





I selected the vine fabric for the border this week and Melissa ordered three bolts for us. Our Blossom of Friendship heirloom quilt is really starting to come to life and I'm loving mine!

Everyone take care and enjoy each day.

As always,

Lynn

Wildlife at the cabin

Good Morning,

I'll bet there isn't another quilting blog site out there that has an image like this one!!

My children know how much I enjoy seeing wildlife, especially right around the cabin. We've had bears and bear cubs up on our deck. We have herds of deer pass by and of couse all of the typical creatures that live in the mountains. So for my birthday this year, they (the kids, not the creatures) all chipped in and bought me a critter cam. The infra-red camera takes 30-second video clips upon activation...that is when something walks in front of it.

Every morning, Zinny and I head out with coffee cup in hand and walk down to the back of the lot so she can do her "thing" and I can collect the video card out of the camera that we've placed at a well-defined game trail. We come back to the cabin and watch the video clips of frolicking raccoons, skunks and the 3-legged coyote. Well, was I surprised when this mountain lion appeared on my computer screen! Needless to say, Zinny and I have not been taking our walks through the woods to the lake every afternoon. I'm afraid she's going to end up as an appetizer for this scrawny mountain lion.

I just took a screen capture of the video so the quality isn't top notch but you get the picture. When I first saw the video, for a split second I thought it was a kangaroo.....which is total nonsense, but the tail was so long it threw me for a loop.

We plan on hunkering down inside the cabin this rainy day so I can work on the final blocks for the Blossom of Friendship quilt. I'm not going to risk going outside for long walks until I finish this quilt!!!

As always,

Lynn

Quilting at the Cabin

Good afternoon my quilting friends,

As mentioned in several posts ago, we finally got technology at the cabin. I'm sitting at the computer right now with little Zinny at my feet while I "blog" away. I've been working on binding all day and my right arm was telling me ever so gently that it needed a break from hand stitching what seemed like miles and miles of binding.



This quilt has been on the bed in the master bedroom for the last six years and I thought it was time for a change. I made the quilt at a class at In Between Stitches that Pam Kelly taught several years ago. I love the quilt! So much so that I made three of them! It's a great scappy quilt that used up so many of my scraps and fat quarters.



So here's the new quilt that I've working on. It's called Sherman's March and for those of you that live locally, I'm teaching a Sherman's March class at IBS on May 30th. The block looks more complicated that it is......the block is very forgiving.




I hung it out on the railing to give you an idea just how big it is and why my arm is aching!



Last weekend, Athena my future daughter-in-law, saw the quilt on my quilting machine and loved it!! She loved it so much that I've decided to give it to her as a wedding present next month. So, no new quilt for the cabin bed....but I think I'll score a few points with Athena!

As always,

Lynn

The daffodils

My three daffodils made it through the last dusting of snow. More snow is expected this afternoon into evening.

Here's the reason why my quilting productivity is at an all time low......a little ten-week-old Golden Retreiver named Zinny joined our family two weeks ago. It is amazing how much I can get accomplished while she's napping. She's a sweety and loves frolicing in the snow. She yaps her little puppy bark at the snow which we think is funny now......give it some time and I doubt that her barking will make us laugh!

So now I have to get back to my quilting. Zinny just curled up under my sewing chair. I can tell she's chasing squirrels in her puppy dreams.

As always,

Lynn

Month #6 Miss Lily

Hello quilting friends,

One of my favorite things about working at In Between Stitches is meeting so many of you that are working on Blossoms of Friendship. It's a great deal of fun to connect a face to the names that I've been sticking on the envelopes that contain all of the fabric for the next block. There are quilters all over the United States working on this quilt and I've met more than half of you so far.

So, here we are on block number 6 already. This block won't take you too long since the pieces are large. (Don't I say that every month?) I love the daffodils in this block. I have a total of three, yes only three daffodils that made it through a Sierra Nevada winter. Snow is falling on them right now so I'll see if they can make it through the night.

Melissa and Leslie have been busy over the past month unpacking boxes of fabulous new fabric. I've been incorporating quite a few of the new fabric lines into the quilt. I didn't post any border flowers last month since I want to utilize some of the new fabrics that you will be receiving soon.

I'm working on my last two blocks. Melissa and I sat down with a sales representative from a fabric company last week and we ordered the fabric for the borders and sashing. We love it!! I can't wait until it arrives and I'll start putting my quilt together. I'll be posting images of the borders as soon as I get them done. Be patient now!

There's absolutely no excuse for me not to post more often. We bit the bullet and finally had Internet installed at the cabin. Wireless no less! I'm at the table in the dining room watching very large snowflakes fall covering the deck. If April showers bring May flowers.....what do April snowflakes bring?

As always,

Lynn

Month #5 Miss Susana

Hello Blossom of Friendship Quilters,

It's a cold and rainy day here in California and the weatherman is forcasting rain for the entire week. So let's begin by brightening your day/week when you receive Miss Susana. This is one of my favorite blocks of the whole quilt......love the basket! I've selected a designer fabric that you will need to cut out "just right" so you can have the floral design running right down the middle.

Pay attention when cutting out the basket handle so that it lines up with the design on the basket. It's not the end of the world if it doesn't line up....but I think it looks nicer.

All of my finished baskets are hanging up in the store. I just basted them together for the time being. I'm almost finished with month #9 which is Miss Zinnia. We will be ordering the fabric for the vine in the border soon. I've narrowed it down to two shades of green. I'll keep you posted.







As always,
Lynn