Maine Quilts

What fun! The Quilt Show that is! Haven't been for nearly a decade so my friend Bea decided that it was time to change that. We drove through a pouring rain to Augusta just last Friday. I took over 200 photos. You'll be glad that I followed a blogging buddy's advice and pared them well back. 

A friendly reminder not to touch the quilts or else...

~Bea takes a closer look~

Soon enough, we were in a crowd of mostly women, mostly in our age group, all studying fabric, design, stitches, composition. If you can't tell, I seem to have been busy matching ladies' clothing to quilts.

 ~awe~

~study~

The quilt above with the same shade of green as the lady's shirt, fascinated me, too. I first thought it was all blocks, but instead was made from strips to create the block and then give that wonderful edge.

~quilts all around~

If I lost all my photos of that day, I think I'd remember this one the longest — the quilts hanging on one side and the ladies all colorfully dressed and looking like quilts themselves on the other.

Now with only minor commentary... 

~a comparison between hand stitching (Japanese) and long-arm stitching~

 ~a close-up of the quilt above it~

 ~A "Challenge" where each quilter created the same pattern in her choice of colors~

Be as a bird perched on a frail branch that she feels bending beneath her, still she sings away all the same, knowing she has wings.

 ~the older I grow the more I know it!~

The quilt above and below were in the vintage quilt display.

~a "Signature" vintage quilt~

 ~would love to try something like this~

 ~love~love~love~

~charm packet banner~

Hope that you've enjoyed the quilt show from my corner of the globe. If you'd like to visit another quilt show, THIS one at Pat's is great.

My sister and I are making drapes curtains today...joy unspeakable...so I'll catch you this evening when I have a chance to put my feet up! 

Oh, do you quilt or do you pretend like I do?

Edited to Add: I have since discovered, much to my horror, that I was not supposed to publish photos without providing proper credit to the quilter. Though I could add the names of the quilters and the names of the quilts, I have purposely chosen not to do so based on how I would feel about having my name all over the WWW. Because this was posted over a week ago, I think that I fall into the category of going forward and begging forgiveness after the fact. I do promise not to feature quilt shows in the future. If you should have a question about a particular quilt, please contact me. Thank you!

Fun App

~bottom center~

So last week I was shopping in the App Store where I found this one called Craftsy. It is free and I'm all about "free." (Mostly free...there are things for purchase.) The premise is that one can take classes so I signed right up for "Craftsy Block of the Month" with Amy. She also blogs at Stitchery Dickory Dock. Isn't that a cute blog name? Anyway, imagine my surprise to visit there today to find that Mr. Stichery Dickory Dock was working on a quilt! Kinda fun.

What I have really appreciated about Amy is that her methods are simpler than some others. She showed me how to join binding in an easy way. I mean, I was getting ready to spend $10 on a binding tool and now I don't have to. Yay!

November was an ambitious month!

The finished project was a sampler of sorts...many different blocks and many techniques taught. It really was a lot of fun!

Of course, much of the joy of all this is so I don't have to actually make a quilt. Don't gasp. I have discovered that, simply by watching, I don't have to do a thing. I warned you that I was in slug mode.

It works for other things, too: I pin, therefore, I am. 

Hopefully, I'll return to the land of doing soon. You know, beyond making meals, doing laundry, etc. I used to think that because my home was neat and tidy that I had "done" something. Now I realize that there's a big divide between really doing something and thinking that one has.

Oh! Wait! I did make my own quilt block in Photoscape.

~the grands~

Nah, that doesn't count.

I watched the snowball fight.

Son and Grandsons

Am I going to have to learn how to make mittens?

No Time on My Hands-The Story of Grace McCance Snyder

In Blogdom, I have been reading so many wonderful Year in Review posts in the past couple of days. It has all felt familiar because, for the past several weeks, I have been reading a life in review.

The biography autobiography is No Time on My Hands. It is traveling around the country because Suzanne of At Home With the Farmer's Wife created a book swap and lined up an itinerary from the bloggers who expressed an interest in reading it.

The book is based on the life of Grace McCance Snyder who grew up in Nebraska during the 1880s and 1890s. Her dream as a girl was to grow up to marry a cowboy, to create exquisite quilts, and to fly above the clouds. It's a Little House on the Prairie sort of book for adults. Death and Weather feature prominently and more vividly than many of the characters.

Whether Grace married a cowboy or flew above the clouds, I'll not say, but I will give it away that she did create exquisite quilts. Her famous flower basket quilt is at the bottom of *this list* where you can click on her quilt to see it more closely and you can read the amazing details of its creation.

This book is much more, however, than a story about quilting. In fact, quilting does not feature prominently until the final chapter. No Time on My Hands is the story of a pioneer life homesteading in Nebraska. Grace lived a remarkable life in a remarkable time.

Often as I was reading, I thought that the book could be made into a compelling movie. Imagine my surprise reading in the Epilogue to learn that it had been made into a play called Quilters. I loved the description of the play (except for one clinker) and would love to see it performed. Life is like a quilt with thousands of pieces making up the whole.

On this last day of 2011, I want to thank you for visiting me here in my little spot in Blogdom. I am living an unremarkable life (though I may be living in a remarkable time). That you honor me by visiting and commenting never ceases to amaze me. With about gazillion four hundred million blogs from which to choose,  I am humbled that you're reading here today. I also look forward to another year of blogging together. Blogdom is remarkable...

Here's wishing you a Happy New Year filled with God's richest blessings!