Manon's Summer Snowballs

My mom finished her quilt! Well, we finished our quilt! It really was a team effort: she chose the fabrics and the pattern inspiration; I did the cutting; she did most of the piecing; I did most of the quilting; we sewed the binding on together! It's washed, dried, labeled, and photographed, too!

Baggage Allowance

I've been making some more reusable shopping bags and wonder if it's worth making a quick tutorial here. Thoughts? They take approximately 2 half yards of fabric and are completely reversible (same five bags in the photos). I've been trying to use up a little of what I've bought at Marden's so that I can get all my luggage on the plane next week!

Visiting Maine?

If you find yourself in the Mid-coast region of Maine, here are two recommendations:

The Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay Harbor are fantastic, especially the Children's Gardens, which just opened July 8th, including Pole Bean Olympics, refreshing spray from the blowholes of 'whale rocks,' a sculpture inspired by Robert McCloskey's Blueberry's for Sal, and lots more!

Just 15 miles to the northeast of the gardens is a quilt shop I hadn't visited before, Alewives (beautiful website, eh?) in Damariscotta Mills - lots of bright, fresh fabric from Kaffe Fassett, Anna Maria Horner, Amy Butler, Julie Paschkis, and more. I'll definitely have to visit again! (The fish ladder restoration project in Damariscotta Mills is also worth a look.)

Susan's Summer Quilt

I'm still in Maine, but getting ready to return to Finland soon. While it's been a great summer here, I'm ready to get back to my quilting room in Vaasa (among other things!). I've been doing some non-quilting sewing projects (more posts to come) and have been helping my mom with a quilt (the first bed-sized quilt she'll finish - thanks to my 'help'). The fabrics she chose are really pretty - many of them are Kaffe Fassett. So is the inspiration for the pattern (sans medallion) - it's from Country Garden Quilts. Hopefully there will be a photo shoot of the finish quilt before my Monday flight!

Along the Ausable

... is the name of my cousin's great blog - and is also where I am as I write this post!

It's been too long since I've posted, but here are a just a few quilty photos to tide my remaining one or two readers over until I can post something more substantial...

The quilt on my bed at my cousin's (made by her other grandmother, maybe?):

Two quilts I made for their cats a couple years ago for Christmas (filled with a little catnip to be sure they'd be a hit):

Some shopping bags (the small ones are for two soon-to-be three-year-olds):

Hope everyone's having a great summer!

"Live in the sunshine,
swim in the sea,
drink the wild air..."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

(Simple shopping bag made by me,
quilt in progress by my mom!)

Revised and Finished!

This quilt has been hanging on the wall of my sewing room since May 2007 - waiting for quilting inspiration. With the help of a friend, I decided that it needed some sashing, so I took the blocks apart and sewed them back together with the yellow in between while I was in Maine two weeks ago. I did the free-motion quilting on my mom's new Bernina! As soon as it gets a label and a wash, it will be on its way to Hong Kong for the little sister of the recipient of this quilt!