Okay, Count me in!

[Kathryn S.]

OMG, Lois, those are both fantastic quilts. i love your black in the pineapple, and your green centers. Mine is red centers and totally scrappy! I remember the hexagons from Gyleen's show. Her website is great, she has a lot of good stuff. I can see why you are busy, with all that fruit coming in at one time. It may be a lot of work, but it must be really gorgeous outside for you right now.

Those quilts will wait!
Kathy

[Lotti D.]

Mmmh, Lois, do you need any help munching that lovely fruit? My mom and my aunt always found my visits quite relaxing, as I took a turn through the garden first thin in the morning, munching all the yummy stuff ready... And another tun late afternoon, to see what the day has ripened. I'm good for: strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, brambles, currants, generally berries of all types, small soft fruit off of most reachable trees, snow peas, regular peas, beans, a leaf of this herb, a sprig of that one, and I can easily pull a carrot or two...
Of course, if the objective is ot just to have the produce picked and munched, I can also gather ino dishes... The rule of every tenth item is the gatherer's pay applies !!!
hoping to spend next June at my parents' in Canada, so they better eat all the berries they can this summer, for next year the finding of ripe fruit could be critical...

[Rita C.]

Lois your hexagon quilt is beautiful - and you did all that by machine? I will have to give it a try. The pineapple one is so beautiful too it's nice to see it again.

We had such a cold spell of weather for about two weeks - broken when the sun reappeared as soon as Lotti hit the country - that everything was plunged back into winter. So my strawberries are just flowering now. I am pleased to say that the elderflower is now flowering. But unfortunately today it is raining so that's no use. I hope it stops and dries up soon so that I can pick the heads before it is too late. Elderflower cordial is one of the great delights in this house. I know what you mean about quilting having to be put on hold. I am the same every year at this time as the fruits come in thick and fast. I noticed that my gooseberries are almost ready too. And then there are the raspberry canes that DH worked so hard to organize this past winter, followed by the blackcurrants. It all comes in a rush doesn't it. And I haven't even made the rhubarb and ginger jam yet! And that's usually the first to get done.

Kathy, these pineapple quilts turn out a lot better than you would imagine even the really scrappy ones. I believe that the two I have made so far are as good as anything else I have made (the quilting is not as good as my apprentice piece though :lol: ). When I made the first one and finished it, my daughter and I started to count all the different fabrics in it - there were 190 odd fabrics in the first row alone. There is a history all in itself, never mind the history of the person who made it. And when it was finished and folded neatly over the back of a chair waiting to be wrapped as a gift we were all amazed at how beautiful it looked and how much we wanted to open it up again to take another look.

[Lois B.]

Kathy, Right now we are having a little break in the humidity so its a good time to catch up in the garden. Everything is 3 weeks to an entire month earlier than usual due to the mild winter. I am behind and the garden is way ahead of me. Thanks goodness, yesterday I was able to hire a young man to do some major pruning to some trees that are becoming overgrown. He agreed to come and rototill my vegetable garden Saturday. I usually dig it myself. I have four 4'x8' patches that I do a day at a time. What a relief to be getting it all done in less than an hour. I may get my vegetables in on Saturday as well.

Lotti, When I was a kid all this berry picking was a family affair with cousins and aunts joining in and now it is just me. I would certainly welcome you to my garden anytime you can come. You can eat, cook and visit. When will you be here. Summer of 2013 would be fine. Its a straight line south from your family to central PA.

Rita, Gyleen's flower garden layout with 2 leaves attached to the flowers comes from her antique quilt collection she gathered for the book that was featured on the TQS episode when she was the guest. I don't think it is in the book but she posted it on facebook when I was searching for a layout. I am so interested in that quilt. I need a name appropriate for its history. The pattern is from the 1930's. I began collecting the fabrics for it in the 1970's -80's to present day. It's totally machine constructed and I plan to quilt it with machine techniques quilter's are developing now in the 21st Century. Hope you all feel free to help with that.

[Lois B.]

Kathy, Right now we are having a little break in the humidity so its a good time to catch up in the garden. Everything is 3 weeks to an entire month earlier than usual due to the mild winter. I am behind and the garden is way ahead of me. Thanks goodness, yesterday I was able to hire a young man to do some major pruning to some trees that are becoming overgrown. He agreed to come and rototill my vegetable garden Saturday. I usually dig it myself. I have four 4'x8' patches that I do a day at a time. What a relief to be getting it all done in less than an hour. I may get my vegetables in on Saturday as well.

Lotti, When I was a kid all this berry picking was a family affair with cousins and aunts joining in and now it is just me. I would certainly welcome you to my garden anytime you can come. You can eat, cook and visit. When will you be here? Summer of 2013 would be fine. Its a straight line south from your family to central PA.

Rita, Gyleen's flower garden layout with 2 leaves attached to the flowers comes from her antique quilt collection she gathered for the book that was featured on the TQS episode when she was the guest. I don't think it is in the book but she posted it on facebook when I requested help for a layout. I am so interested in that quilt. I need a name appropriate for its history. The pattern is from the 1930's. I began collecting the fabrics for it in the 1970's -80's to present day. It's totally machine constructed and I plan to quilt it with machine techniques quilter's are developing now in the 21st Century. Hope you all feel free to help finding that name.

[Nancy R.]

Lois - Your quilts are simply beautiful! I live at too high an altitude to have much fruit, especially this early in the season. But a couple of years ago a wild raspberry bush decided to grow in my yard. Of course, it decided to take up shop right around the step to my front door so you now have to fight through the brambles to get in the house, but I'm so excited to have those few little raspberries that I just leave it. It has leaves now so I have high hopes for berries later in the season. Enjoy your garden!

Nancy

[Renata L.]

Lois your quilts are beautiful!!! I particularly like the border fabric you chose for your pineapple quilt--so unique and different from you normlly see on store shelves... and I love how it coordinates with the black and white miniature leaf border in the body of the quilt. Your hexagon quilt is very pretty; I look forward to seeing more of it as you get on with it. Should be another beautiful day in Pennsylvania for gardening. I woke up to a bright, shining sun and perfectly blue skies--most of the east coast should be that way today... enjoy your time out there. Thank you for the pictures!

[Renata L.]

WOW Lois,

Thanks for sharing, they are beautiful.

So fun to see blueberries.

[Charae H.]

OMgosh, Lois!! Love both of your quilts! When my trade shows are over in August I will be doing my pineapple quilt. Although I must admit that you seriously tempted me to cancel a couple shows and get started now!

[Jill B.]

Love both of your quilts, when my grandaughter stays with us in December this year for a month we are going to make one, I have the book and tool all ready to go, will have to show her yours as inspiration.

[Lois B.]

Thanks so much everyone. I loved doing it and am eager to do another one. You can do it completely randomly or pick combinations of choice for each block. I did the latter because the tecknique provided opportunity to play with my trash combined with stash in ways I never did before. There was a new combination of colors, tectures and patterns with each block. The green centers and black with its regular spots in the block provided great continuity for play. In the past, that kind of variety of choice involved starting a new project. I am eager to finish this one and use the tecknique to play with color texture and pattern in still another way.

[Renata L.]

I took a break from my Sedona Star BOM this past week and went back to the pineapple quilt I had started but set aside to catch up on Sedona Star... I did not think too much about the imperfections in putting the pieces together--I just wanted to knock it out and have fun, and I did! So tomorrow I'll cut the borders and get it ready for quilting. I learned a lot in the process. For starters, I think the centers would stand out better if I chose the first set of surrounding fabrics in a consistently darker tone than the center. But most importantly, I discovered that some colors I never even thought about really looked good together--like grey and cheddar! I also discovered that I really like orange, pink and yellow in the same fabric.

Question: is it a good idea to stabilize the quilt by stitching in the ditch of the eight-inch squares before doing the FMQ or does it not matter?

Here's my quilt:



Yes, something got in the way of the picture on the left bottom corner, but I decided not to retake the photo... :roll:

[Lois B.]

I love your pineapple quilt. I plan to stablize mind using the dual feed on my machine and water soluble thread. That's because I don't want to emphasize where one block stops and the next one starts. That's not a rule that is just my design choice for this quilt. Have fun with the quilting. I have to be statisfied to do little things like pin cushions and other small projects for now. I have too much summer going on. Just got home to Pennsylvania from visiting my daughter in Nevada. Smelled smoke from fires when I landed for a plane change in Salt Lake City, Utah. Flew over Colorado north of Denver but could see nothing. There were clouds there. I was hoping that meant rain. I don't think that happened but I was praying for it. Lois

[Robyn B.]

I love your pineapple quilt. I plan to stablize mind using the dual feed on my machine and water soluble thread. That's because I don't want to emphasize where one block stops and the next one starts. That's not a rule that is just my design choice for this quilt. Have fun with the quilting.

What a great idea :!:

[Renata L.]

Thanks, Lois! Have fun with quilting yours too--it is lovely (I've already made a mental note for the black and white leafy fabric you used--I really like that!) and welcome back home!