quilt

Illusions

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I spent the past day piecing the borders of my kaleidoscope quilt. All that remains is to quilt the three layers – quilt top, batting and bottom. The quilt top took five months. I’ll probably spend the same amount of time quilting by both machine and hand sewing. In the end, it looks a bit dark but is still neat to look at through squinted eyes to see the different patterns emerge.

Kaleidoscope quilt top

It seems as if Pleasant Valley has been draped in fog the past few days. I enjoyed some brief, glorious sunshine and temperature in the 70’s today but by the time I returned home, so had the fog.

Evening fog

Homeward bound

I’m puzzled by the lights and dark

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Plural lights and singular dark.  I finished sewing the blocks for the kaleidoscope quilt I began in the spring. The pattern creates optical illusions, which intrigue me.   I followed the lights and darks of the pattern obsessively with the intent of piecing the four different blocks: A-B-A-B…C-D-C-D; very orderly , very simple.  Not!  When the blocks were carefully laid out in order, they looked too orderly.  I was stumped.  Every time I went into my work room, I moved a few pieces around.  Then I slept on it, not literally on it, but in spirit, and when I woke up I decided to throw order out the window, mostly, and just lay them out randomly.  Now I’ve been moving the random pieces around so they are almost ordered.  I didn’t expect such a contrast from the the lights and the dark.  The light components jump off the quilt while the dark ones recede and go into hiding.

A-B-A-B...C-D-C-D

I’m not sure which version awaits me.  I think I just have to stop looking and start sewing.

The other light is an outdoor light fixture I have puzzled over for several hours, took apart the light, the switch and now Tim has tested it with different fixtures.  Apparently it’s the wiring.  We’ll leave that one in the dark for now.

Latest Arrangement

Sideways, random order

Log Cabin, Quilt

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The comma belongs there. Today we visited the Adirondack Museum, specifically to look at log cabins and quilts.

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They have an assortment of buildings on the premises including a cute cabin that is getting its finishing touches after three years. We were checking it out and had a few questions when we found a man working on the exterior. It turns out he built if for the museum and he knew every cut and log.

He had all sorts of neat toys (oops I mean tools). We saw a chain saw sawmill, log scribes and a lancelot grinder which he demonstrated on Tim’s arm.

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Kids, don’t try this at home.

Next we explored the quilt exhibit, which had beautiful quilts from the 1800’s to today. Many were made of scrap material and one was made from old neckties.
I still have a long way to go.

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Shirley and quilt

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Loki, oblivious

I have almost finished my first (sort of) quilt

With the moral support of Shirley, Loki and Tim, I’ve been sewing madly. I’m pretty happy for an almost first effort. I just need to stitch around the whole thing about 3 more times and tidy up all the loose ends. My last (and first) was completed about 35 years ago and I no longer own it. I’m already planning my next project and I want to use scraps of fabric and hand sew it. Know anyone with scraps?

My flying geese’s wings are broken, does that mean my quilt won’t fly?

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I’m working on my first quilt in 30 years.  It’s a traditional quilt pattern that incorporates “flying geese” which are formed by joining 2 small and one large triangle together (as best as I can tell).  Now that i am on block 34 of 42, I am getting the hang of it.  The key is to get the points and seams to line up.  In about 25 of the blocks, they don’t exactly.
Now I am wondering how this will ever form square sides.  I guess it will entail some creative seaming.  When i’m not sewing I am reading about how to make a quilt.  I’m trying to decide if I will hand sew the 3 layers that make up a quilt, which takes forever; machine quilt it on my old machine that I am not sure is capable of doing it for technical reasons about feet, feeds, etc;  or send it to a professional to quilt it at an exorbinant fee.  When I am not actually working on the quilt or reading instructions, I am on ebay or somewhere else looking for parts for my 1940’s National sewing machine.
Notice the even point

Not so much

Another oops

So many options

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I’m progressing with our quilt. I have spent the last couple of days, cutting, sewing and ironing and at last a pattern is evolving. With a slight flick of the wrist, the whole effect changes.

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This project isn’t even finished and I am planning an optical illusion cubist quilt.

Machine quilting with a vintage sewing machine

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I’ve tuned up the vintage sewing machine to work on my latest endeavor, a quilt for our bedroom.  The machine is from the 40’s and works like a charm, after a little cajoling , oiling and tension adjustments.  Drafting experience has been handy because the latest tools for cutting fabric are a T-square and pizza cutter.  Very efficient.  I have a feeling the piecing will go easily but the actual quilting will be a bear.


I took a break and went for a hike with local women where we identified lots of spring plants – well I didn’t identify any but those in the know did, garter snakes and trompe l’oeil.