Archive

I added the border to Lib’s quilt and moved on to the slowest and most meditative part of the process, whip-stitching the edge of the border down by hand. I particularly enjoy this part of the process because it allows me the time to mentally sum up the whole piece as I literally sit with […]

I decided to use an old baby knit and crochet pattern book for the trim around Lib’s quilt. When thinking about Lib I always remember her working on a quilt and to me she always seemed to be carrying around the absence of her daughter. I was a bit of a sickly child so I […]

Busy week on the homestead.  Thought I’d shower you with the images that I got from Jay this week.  

I finished crocheting together the medallions on the side and hung Grace’s quilt up. I’ve been staring at it for a while trying to decide if it is done or not. I’ll probably keep it there on the wall in my living room for a while until I make my mind up. I do this […]

I was thrilled last week when one of my cousins who has been following the blog, Marianne, posted a photo to FB of a lace apron that she has in her possession: It was passed down to her from her mother Joanne who received it from her mother Mary. She believes it was made by […]

Pardon the pun, I couldn’t resist. I’ve been hand-sewing on the pineapple medallions that I crocheted. When I started thinking about the quilt for my great-grandmother Grace I asked for input from people from the family that had known her since she died before I was born. My cousin Joanne (Mary’s daughter) remembered her always […]

Really, I know how to count. I make a cheat sheet for each of the quilts at the start to help plan things out and to let me know how many of each shape/print/book page I need to cut out. The math is fairly straightforward: you take the number of a particular shape/print combo that […]

Slow going again this week. 93° and muggy today. I’ve found that I can get some sewing done early in the mornings before it gets too hot. Then later in the day when it gets sticky I sew for short stretches then let everything cool down while I crochet for a bit, then clean off […]

A couple of people have asked if sewing the waxed dipped paper and the encaustic prints causes the sewing machine to gum up. I’ve answered back that, no it doesn’t really but I have to stop from time to time to clean off the footer. After a while sewing I start to feel the footer […]

Got back to working on Grace’s quilt this week. I managed to pick a ridiculously muggy day to dip the cut up book pages. Nothing like standing over an electric wok full of melted encaustic medium for a few hours on a nice humid summer day on the coast of Maine. Something I hadn’t anticipated […]