Maine Sewing Adventures

Photos of Quilts for Classes and Kits

I have been having trouble conveying photos of upcoming classes at Sewing by the Sea.  I finally realized, that even though I can not post them directly on my webpage with the class information, I can post them easily on my blog in a album!  So, I am creating 2 albums:  one for class photos and one for quilt kit or new pattern photos. Since I design so many of my own patterns,  it seems this would be a nice forum for getting this information out without making the dial-up folks wade through pictures on the website or in an e-mail.  It is clearly your choice if you wish to enlarge the thumbnails!

Rug Making from Our Stash

   We are at it again!  We seem to have gone from bed coverings to floor coverings!  Our latest rug uses a technique called twining.  We read it in a book called "Rags to Rugs" by Country Threads.

  We began our project on Friday night by assembling frames from kits provided by hubby.  We measured, nailed, screwed, and twisted to make the 27" x 36" frame on which to construct our rugs.  After the woodworking was done, we grabbed some popcorn and watched the DVD that accompanies the book.  These gals have a quilt shop on a small farm and we enjoyed the tractors and the geese during the filming.  (It made me realize that my next adventure might be film making! Brace yourself!)  After viewing the film, we connected the strips and began to wrap the warp (say that 3 times fast).  Some were able to wrap at warp speed, others dragged into the night, planning to return early with a renewed sense of purpose and fabric.

   We did return on Saturday and began the twining.  Jill, who was not able to come Friday evening, joined us on Saturday and quickly caught up (that engineering degree came in handy on this project!) Once everyone got started and learned the dreaded "turning of the corner," things went quite smoothly.  The one or two ladies who have difficulty with "right over left and left over right," changed the words to "top over bottom" and seemed to be able to keep things straight (or properly twisted).  We worked throughout the morning and then broke for lunch. It was such a gorgeous Maine day that we went down to the camp on the shore that is behind the store.  There we had sandwiches, salad, and sweet tea on the deck.  A dessert of chocolate raspeberry tart was enjoyed by all (someone enjoyed it twice ).  After lunch, we returned to the shop and worked until 4 p.m.  No one got finished with their rug, but everyone went home to cut up more fabric and continue the twining.

At the shore making floor cloths

  While sewing is a great adventure in itself, it is even more fun to travel to venues outside the sewing and craft rooms to create our art.  So, this past Saturday we motored (by car) to the "backside" of Mount Desert Island to Goose Cove.  One of the quilting gals has a lobstering husband who has a heated shop on the shore.  They cleaned an polished the shop so that we could prime, paint, and paste our rugs.

After a long spell of pretty decent weather, it was "Murphy's Law" that the rain clouds would arrive for our day at the shore.  While the ground was dampened, our spirits were not.  We all dove into our projects like eager kindergartners finger painting in their new clothes. We applied the diluted mod podge to the selected fabrics. As  the sun peeked through the clouds, we were first able to hang out the wet fabric to blow dry in the salty breeze, but sprinkles and then deluges caused us to bring the entire clothesline inside.  We broke for a delicious lunch to allow a little more drying time. With a little help from our irons, the fabrics dried adequately.  We drew the quilt design onto the utility cloth and then cut out each individual piece. In order to get a nice seal on the glued down pieces, we had to press out all the air pockets under the fabrics.  Work was slow and somewhat tedious, but the prospect of a quilt for the floor kept us going.  A variety of quilts were made:  basic floor cloths with squares, a doggy mat, a place mat, and one painted and pasted rug.  One clever artist used leftover blocks from a previous quilt class to make a floor cloth to match her bed quilt.  While we all went home with a little more work to do in applying finishing coats of sealant,  we were all satisfied with our progress.  Click on the photo album at the left to see the pictures. 

Blogging! The newest adventure!

It is hard to believe, but I learned of blogging a mere two weeks ago.  My friend suggested  that I write a blog about our sewing adventures with my two stores: Sewing by the Sea in Trenton, Maine and Sew Portland in Portland, Maine.  I was intrigued enough to go home and check out blogs that evening.  After reading a few, I realized "OMG! I can do this!" 

The next step was to choose a company to host the blog.  I searched around, and selected typepad.com when I found that summer neighbor and fellow sewer, Martha Stewart, used them.  I checked out Martha's blog today and found that she, like I, had a boating adventure in the waters off Mount Desert Island on Memorial Weekend. This could be my first topic!  While Martha was prepared enough to have her camera on board (or camera crew), I was not .. oh to have "people".. wouldn't it be wonderful! Alas, no photos for my first blog!

Here goes......

My Captain, husband Gary and I took the dog (not-my-dog-Rover) out in our picnic boat (a 12 foot aluminum two seater) for a little spin up the Jordan River (a salt water river).  We putted across the river to deliver a cold beverage to Captain Steve who was rearranging the rocks on his shore. The Captains discussed the work and the upcoming lobster-trapping potential before we motored on to check out the eagle's nest on the point.  Papa eagle was standing guard on a high branch ..no mama or babes were visible.  It was a gorgeous May Day in Maine and the tide was running softy against the boat.  Not-my-dog was content to stand lookout in the bow while we cruised around the river before heading back to our dock where the mosquitoes greeted us.  A true sign that summer is indeed coming!

Okay, not a exciting as having the cute Coasties boarding your boat, but my Captain was once a cute Coastie! Does that count?