Out and About

Enjoying the cabin and the area . . . 

I rearranged the front porch and hope to buy a fern for the twig planter . . .

. . . and brought this vintage pillow from home.  

On my early morning walk I noticed a few new twig-style street signs . . .

. . . and an eagle bench made by a chain-saw carver down the street.  

There were lots of colorful mushrooms to photograph while hiking with my daughter. 

I found this piece of barkcloth at the thrift shop . . .

. . .  and my granddaughters (L and R ) and their friend bought these dresses for $4 each. So cute! 

Tomorrow we're taking the ferry to Burlington, VT, to meet up with some friends :)




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Copyright 2017, Barbara Schaffer

 

 

Just Itchin'

. . . to work in my garden plot in the north country.

We arrived yesterday so the first thing I did this morning was go for a walk up our driveway . . . 

. . . and down to the corner store where I saw a patch of Viper's Bugloss on my way . . .

. . . to the Community Garden :)

But I'll have to wait for my son-in-law to get home to unlock the gate. He is in charge :)

I was so excited about starting a vegetable garden but when we weren't able to get up to the cabin this spring my daughter and her husband planted the seeds for me :) 

I THINK this is my plot. It has two varieties of squash and cucumbers. I can't wait to go back later! 





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Copyright 2017, Barbara Schaffer


 
 

An Oldie, Hostas, and Hexies

The other day when I was walking my granddog near the pond behind our house, it reminded me of a quilt I made years ago for our guild's One Patch Strawberry Supper Challenge Project.   

Yep! Geese! 

Flying Geese, that is :) The challenge was to use only one shape and the finished quilt had to be 24" x 24" or larger. Mine is 32" x 43".

I knew right away I wanted to make a repro of this early New England quilt in Sandi Fox's book, Small Endearments, another all-time favorite. Triangles were the only shape.  

All the fabrics were from my stash and I sewed the geese in horizontal rows . . . 

. . . taking care to mark and align centers all the way across. 

The fabric on the back is another favorite by Karen Jarrar for Marcus Brothers.

A detail of the chevron quilting.

That was the first time I ever made a 3/8" binding. Up until then my bindings were always 1/2". I started the quilt in 2002, showed the top at the Strawberry Supper in 2003, and after pledging to the guild to complete this UFO, finished it in 2004 :)

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On another note, we have lots of Hostas in our yard.   

My daughter sprayed them last month with deer repellent which seemed to do the trick. So far the deer have left them alone :) Thanks, Con! 

My current evening project is quilting Morris hexies and so far I've been able to do one per night. Little by little . . . 

Have a great week!




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Copyright 2017, Barbara Schaffer

Independence!

I made Independence! with my ancestors in mind.  It's #6 on my 2017 list and was finished just in time for the 4th!

The quilt is a Jan Patek design called Flags of the American Revolution and Lori at Humble Quilts offered it as a quiltalong in 2014. I'm so glad she did!

Barbie machine basted it for me and that is something I would highly recommend for a large quilt. I started quilting it on March 3rd and set a goal to finish the end of May--oh well, how about June?

I quilted parallel rows 1-1/2" apart in nearly every flag using pearl cotton thread.

My stitches varied from small to medium.

I quilted around each star and then added a row of navy stitching around the edge. 

  Simple quilting in the star and crescent blocks.

The design in the navy print had a perfect grid for quilting diagonal lines.

On the back I used four different 1-yd pieces of fabric and added a central focus.

A detail of Lady Liberty and some quilting.

More quilting seen from the back.

This is as close as I could get to doing a big stitch but it looks more like a basting stitch! I still need to work on perfecting that technique but I wanted to give it a try in the outer border. It's just a different look and so different from the heavily-quilted traditional quilting that I would normally do. 

The label:

In memory of my ancestors 

who helped shape our 

nation during the 

Revolutionary War

Elnathan Appleby, Westchester Co., NY

William Davis, Ulster Co., NY

Jonathan Fisk, Wenham, MA

John Kittle, Ulster Co., NY 

Aaron Martin, Windham, CT

Benjamin McCord, Westchester, NY

William Wood, Ulster Co., NY

Most were for independence, one was against, and two remained loyal to the king! 

Probably more than you want to know :)

William Davis is my direct 4th gr-grandfather and signed the Articles of Association in Rochester, Ulster, NY. In 1776 his name appears on the muster rolls of Capt. James Milliken’s State Troops / Militia of Ulster County (NY).  He was 20 years old, b. NJ, 5’10”, with a fair complexion, sandy hair and brown eyes. 

John Kittle is my 5th gr-grandfather and William Davis's father-in-law. He was bp. 16 Mar 1729, Hurley, Ulster, NY. He signed the Articles of Association, was a PVT in John Cantine’s 2^nd Reg’t Ulster Co., NY, and was killed by Indians Aug. 1, 1781, Wawarsing, Ulster, NY. Read about him here.

William Wood was b. 17 Jul 1740, Kingston, Ulster, NY, and refused to sign the Articles of Association. "....We the committee of the Township of Marbletown in the County of Ulster, do hereby Certify that the above List or Roll contains all the Persons Names who have Signed the General Association within the Township of Marbletown and also William Wood on the back hereof who refuses Signing the same.......  5 Jun 1775, Levi Pawling, Chairman." More about Wm. Wood here.

Jonathan Fisk was b. 1 May 1751 in Wenham, MA and d. 1825 in VT. He is listed in the DAR Patriot Index with a rank of Corporal. Additional info here.

Aaron Martin was b. 29 Jul 1742, Windham, CT, d. 12 Mar 1819, Williamstown, VT.  Read about him here and follow my line beginning with Aaron then his daughter Hannah Martin Fisk to her daughter Eunice Fisk Davis to her son Horace E. Davis to his son Ralph Butler Davis to his son Franklin Ralph Davis (my dad) :) 

Elnathan Appleby served in the Westchester County Militia 1^st Reg’t under Col. Joseph Drake. He protested against the Whigs at White Plains, NY in 1775 and pledged "loyalty to the king." He is my 6th gr-grandfather on my mother's side. 

Benjamin McCord was b. 4 Jul 1742 in Scarsdale, Westchester Co., NY and died in 1807.  He was a captain in the British irregular service and the Battle of White Plains was fought on his farm.  He is my 5th gr-grandfather on my mother's side.  

Thanks for reading all of this--if you did!

Hope you have a great 4th!



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Copyright 2017, Barbara Schaffer

Scrappy Squares Top and More

For lack of a better name I'm calling this quilt Scrappy Squares. It just seemed to fit.

I managed to add the last border so the top is now done!

Thank you, Susan, for sharing this feather fabric with me! It is from Windham's Wm. Penn's Vision line designed by Patty Harants. I am so happy to have finally found the perfect place for it :)

I added corner blocks using the same squiggly fabric as the inner border. 

Summer time in NJ brings back memories of the shore. 

I made Summer Serenity in 1984 after seeing an Amish family at the beach. It was a sight I will never forget. This quilt was published in Quilt Art Calendar in 1987 and Quilting by Laurie Swim in 1991. It was the only quilt I ever entered in the Vermont Quilt Festival and it won a blue ribbon in 1989 :)

A couple of years ago I took photos of two panels of a collaborative effort of quilts portraying the boardwalk in Ocean City, NJ. The Strand Theater was made by Pat Kline of Marmora, NJ.   

. . . and Shriver's was made by Debbie Lombardozzi of Ocean City. It is the oldest business on the boardwalk and known for their homemade salt water taffy. 

I hope you are getting in some good summer time quilting! 

See you on the 4th!




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Copyright 2017, Barbara Schaffer

It's A Finish! Catching Up! Plus!

I finished The Gypsy Influence, made a little progress on other projects, and took more pics of the deer and flowers in our backyard.

Remember when I made these small quilts after I finished Gypsy Wife? Well, I finally sewed them together using Wendy's potholder method. I've so admired her quilts that I thought I'd give it a try.

  
Each mini-quilt is quilted and bound . . .  

. . . then whip-stitched together. I love the result. Thanks, Wendy, for sharing your tips! Make sure you hop on over to her blog The Constant Quilter to see what she's been up to.    

The label. Ta-da!

I recently published my 2014 blog book via Blog2Print. I'm working backwards so have now completed three.

I'm always pleased with the quality of the color printing.   

This binding winder gadget definitely comes in handy! I'm getting closer and closer to that final step on my Flags quilt :)

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Here's what's blooming in our yard: 

Feverfew reseeds itself every year so there's lots of it in and around the garden. It smells so good.

Tiger Lilies make a big splash of color at the end of the driveway :)

A late-blooming Rhododendron.
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The deer were back the other day. Mama started pawing at the ground when she saw me. The little fawn is getting big. So cute! 

And the other day my son-in-law sent this picture of the snapping turtle in our yard at the cabin. Every year it returns to the exact same spot where she digs a nest and lays her eggs. Unfortunately, we've never seen any hatchlings. Maybe this will be the year! 

Have a great week!




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Copyright 2017, Barbara Schaffer