Book Club

I belong to the best book club. We are quite the varied group, we are 20 if everyone comes (rarely) and we range in age from mid 40's to almost 97! Some live in rural areas, some on small farms, some live in towns and villages. We come together for the better part of a day to talk books but we always manage time to catch up on our lives and happenings. We are artists and craftspeople, writers and "hobby" farmers, a couple are involved in local wineries and a couple are involved in film. We are such an interesting group! The best thing though is our book talk, we read what we want to and we share our books. It is like having our own livingroom talking library!

Last week we drove inland to Uta's, it was a beautiful fall day and the leaves were pretty wonderful. We drove through farmland and came across a farm and a pumpkin field with a herd of cows thoroughly enjoying a feed of leftover pumpkins. They were still at it when we drove back almost 5 hours later!

The cows enjoying a feast at DeLong's farm. It was a big field and there were a lot more cows, this one was quite intrigued that we had stopped to take pictures!

Part of the welcoming committee.

Mr. Watson, the indoor welcoming committee!

Some of Uta's lovely pottery collection.

Love the polka dots!

A stunning Bird of Paradise with a stunning view!

My books this month were the last in Gil McNeil's series "The Beach St Knitting Society and Yarn Club" and Leslie Crewe's "Chloe Sparrow" Both I enjoyed so much. At Uta's request we are all going to try and read something about World War 1 since the 100th anniversary is coming up. I am going to start with Anne Perry's "No Graves As Yet". 

Inspirations and Connections

Way back in the mid 1980's I decided to work through Roberta Horton's book "An Amish Adventure". I had used very few solid colour fabrics up to this point in my quilting career so this was a real challenge for me. I had also discovered and was fascinated by Amish quilts after hearing a lecture by David Pottinger, author of "Quilts of the Indianna Amish". I was hooked!

After working through many of the exercises in Roberta's book, I decided I needed to take an existing traditional quilt and "make it Amish". I had been using and had saved my copies of the Quilt Engagement Calendar and I came across a crazy quilt that I thought would make an interesting Amish quilt. Many thanks to my friend Polly  Greene who found the picture of the quilt and to Bettina Havig who was able to tell me that it was in the 1979 calendar. Sadly these wonderful calendars which were edited by Cyril Nelson and published by Dutton are no longer being produced. I am so glad I kept so many of them. I must see if I can find the few I am missing to make my collection complete!

The caption for the above very handsome and unusual example of Victorian needlework  reads, Pieced quilt, silk and embroidery, c. 1890, New Hampshire. 56"x51". The photograph was courtesy of Thos. K. Woodward: American Antiques and Quilts (private collection).

Here is my "Amish" version.

"All Things Bright and Beautiful" machine pieced and hand quilted. The name and quilting design was inspired by a photo in David Pottinger's book "Quilts of the Indiana Amish" of two children looking up at the sky. The photo didn't show that they were looking at hot air balloons flying overhead. I imagined if they were Amish balloons they would look like this! I also wrote about this quilt here is this blog post.

Now, jump ahead to 2014, the internet has exploded and we are consumed by Twitter feeds, Instagram, blogs and Facebook to name a few. I follow Australian quilter Sarah Fielke, I have long been fascinated with her delightful patterns and her wonderful use of colour. Sarah collaborated recently with American quilter Amy Lobsiger to write a book called "Little Quilts" published by Cico Books.

I believe it was through Sarah's Instagram feed that I saw a picture of a quilt from their book of a quilt that Amy had made that she called "Cocktail Shakers".

"Cocktail Shakers" by Amy Lobsiger is machine paper pieced and machine quilted. It is slightly different from mine, it has five units in each section of the shaker and mine has seven. I have been in touch with Amy, she sent me the image of her quilt and gave me permission to write about it, thanks Amy!

I think it is wonderful that the quilters of today have such great resources they can use to be inspired to make such wonderful quilts. Be sure and check out Amy and Sarah's book and be inspired!

This and That

A few bits and pieces...2014 grape crop, more house renos, a quilter visits and the making of a scarecrow!

The racoons are loving us this year! It has been a good crop! We have 2 grape arbours, one over the back deck and one over the secret garden room, both have had a good but sour crop this year. We are still using last years harvest which was made into grape jelly.

They have been here a long time!

House renos continue and thanks to the good weather Peter is making progress re-shingling the worst of the shingles, the south facing back wall. He uncovered a bit of a surprise...birch bark flashing! 

And lots more wide boards and handmade square nails.

After a Google search, yes, Google does know everything, I found it is quite common in houses as old as ours. Creative builders?

I was so delighted to hear from Kay Phillips awhile ago, she and her husband were coming to NS and would have time for a visit. Peter and Gerry went golfing and I gathered together a couple of quilt friends and we had a lovely but too short afternoon talking quilts! Kay shared a couple of her latest quilts, can't wait for her to come back next year!

Now we are getting ready for the Mahone Bay Scarecrow Festival which starts on Friday. Well over 150 scarecrows will appear all over town. If there is one thing this town does well, it is having festivals thanks to a huge crew of great volunteers. More information and the schedule of events can be found here. Our Mahone Bay Quilters Guild bi-annual quilt show and sale happens this weekend too with set-up starting tomorrow.

Please come!!

After moving here last fall, we were determined to have our own scarecrow this year. We get quite a lot of traffic by our house both cars and foot traffic so we just had to have a scarecrow who would advertise our quilt show. Here is her transformation...

This is how she arrived,stuffed with plastic bags and dressed in crimpoline! She is ready for any weather! Thanks to PJ's in Oathill, I had told them she was going to be a quilter and this is what I got! Gray hair and all!

Auditioning outfits!

Thanks to Ben we are getting there! The quilt top was pieced by Peter, a good 35 years ago! Come back to see the final version tomorrow!