The Sewing Dilettante

I spent this morning in a quilter's paradise! Remember that friend I mentioned, for whose son and daughter-in-law I made the Double Irish Chains quilt? Well, she (Mrs. L.), my mom, and I whiled away a couple of blissful hours in The Quilt Patch , an amazing little shop that looks deceptively small from outside but which actually houses an amazing selection of brightly coloured cottons, baby fleeces, quilt kits, charm squares, jelly rolls, and pretty much any quilting tool you can imagine. Mrs. L. is currently working on a wedding present for a young lady getting married in October with a Halloween-themed wedding! The quilt Mrs. L. is planning is, appropriately, black and white, and we found some amazing spider-web print black cotton for the backing as well as a couple of lovely ash grey and marbled black fabrics for borders. For my part, I picked up a few fat quarters in colours to match my earlier purchases , another few in white to add to my hexie quilt , and a lovely, soft p...

Appearances may suggest that I've completely neglected all patchworking during my holiday, but such is not the case. In fact, I finished binding my Double Irish Chains quilt early last week and have been waiting for the perfect conditions in which to take the photos of the finished product, all lovely and crinkly after being washed. Of course, despite the weather here being only gorgeous (as I may have mentioned!), the lighting still hasn't cooperated and, typically, today it started raining! So, that nixed the outside photo options. You get the idea though... The quilt is now all packed away in its gift bag ready for leaving with the bride and groom on Saturday. Had I been organized enough, I would've snapped a few outside shots of the quilt in all the sunny weather we had this weekend and the early part of this week, but there were loads of things happening that kind of preoccupied me, including a road trip to Saratoga Springs, New York with friends thes...

I've been remiss in posting this week but only because it's been an action-packed one! Here are a few highlights... Dad and I had some quality father-daughter time on Tuesday when we drove up to one of my favourite restaurants - Parker's Maple Barn - for pancakes. I was a bit over-ambitious and ordered a towering stack of three fluffy pancakes topped with Parker's own maple syrup. Delicious!   Pancakes - nom, nom, nom! My three different layers: chocolate chip, pumpkin, and blueberry I managed to eat about three-quarters of my plate before admitting defeat and letting Dad finish them off for me. I left a very happy camper! Later that day, my mom and I visited one of the local farm stands to pick up some fresh produce and marvel at the gorgeous display of flowers.  Beautiful, huh? While we were there, we noticed that you could pick your own blueberries and figured we'd come back early one morning to do that. At the rate I'm eating them, i...

So, I don't want to make all of you back in Ireland and the UK feel bad, but the weather here in New Hampshire is only GORGEOUS! I'm writing this (Sunday evening) after having taken a leisurely swim in a friend's backyard pool and eating my way through the best part of a quart of blueberries picked up at the local farmer's market yesterday. Tonight, there's fresh summer squash on the menu, and the weather forecasts say it's going to be blissfully blistering for at least another week. *Grin* Fresh blueberries. Yum! From wikimedia commons .  There's only one thing that could make this holiday more perfect, and that's having hubby here to enjoy it all with me. I'm struggling on without him though. Saturday, my parents and I visited what I like to call 'the Mecca of bread' - the When Pigs Fly bakery and restaurant in Kittery, Maine. After sampling our way through most of the dozens of bread on offer and buying an obscene number of loaves f...

This is exactly how I feel right about now! It's been an exhausting couple of months with work, and I'm feeling pretty worn out. Luckily, I've got a couple of weeks of recuperation planned back home in New Hampshire, where I plan to sleep solidly for a day or two before re-emerging into the world a new, revived woman! I'm also hoping to finish my Double Irish Chains quilt, make amazing progress on my hexies, and, in a related activity, trawl the local craft stores for interesting fabric, quirky haberdashery, and other fun goodies. I'll let you know how I get on! xx Tina 

Well, after devoting much of my weekend to it, my Double Irish Chains quilt is all but finished. Phew! All I have to do, as you can see from the pic below, is hand sew the binding - the perfect project for those lazy days of my New Hampshire holiday next week. A rare spot of sunshine demanded that I take this photo in the front 'garden'. There were a few miscalculations along the way, as well as a couple of unfortunate fabric mis-cuts due to sheer exhaustion, but eventually, I got there. I briefly contemplated free machine quilting when I'd gotten the quilt sandwich put together, but I quickly ruled that out in respect for my sanity. Instead, I followed the chains themselves, quilting diagonal lines in an unobtrusive cream thread. The effect, I think, is perfect, as the diagonals emphasise and draw attention to the chains while still giving the eye a little something to work with in the large cream-coloured patches of fabric. A glimpse of the back   For the ...

Well, the Double Irish Chains quilt is still a *long* way from finished, but all of the 'B' blocks are done, and the rows of alternating 'A' and 'B' blocks are coming together. Yippee! If I spend all weekend doing nothing but patchworking, I may just finish this thing in time for the wedding in a few weeks. (3 weeks and 1 day, to be exact, but who's counting?!) Wish me luck! Block 'B' All 17 'B's together, looking a little shaggy... And the first couple of rows of the quilt top, with the chains clearly visible!

Some family friends back home are getting married in mid-July, and I long ago decided that I’d make them a quilt for a wedding present. I just wasn't sure what pattern I wanted to follow in making it. This lack of certainty was due, in part, to the fact that I wanted a quilt to suit both the people and the occasion. But, if I'm honest, I also wanted to pick just the right pattern because the groom's mother is a fellow (and much more talented!) quilter. Although I love many of the more modern block patterns and tutorials out there at the moment, my instinct told me to go for something more traditional. I briefly contemplated an Amish Wedding Ring quilt but decided I’d better attempt/practice curves on a smaller scale first! Then, I thought about another Log Cabin quilt, as my first one had come out so well, but I selfishly want my next Log Cabin quilt to be for myself! Finally, as I was flicking through my various quilting books, I saw a beautiful Double Irish Chain quil...