Project 89 - Butterfly Garden 

Butterfly Garden
for Mom
June 2012

Took this off the frame last evening and then finished the binding this morning for mom. Look closely -- one of the blocks is turned the wrong way! But by the time I found it, I didn't want to pull everything out. I'm a bit lazy like that sometimes. Mom and I are okay with it. I'll just pretend to be an Islamic rug weaver. They always weave a mistake in so that Allah won't think they are trying to imitate His perfection. 


I've heard that the Amish do a deliberate mis-stitch in each quilt as well. I don't have to make deliberate mistakes; they just come naturally!!! But I've taken the "process pledge" with a number of other online quilters. We are determined to get as much enjoyment from the process as from the product!  It's also our goal to share the frustrations and the blessings of the process.  Too many times people just show their beautiful finished project and people think they could "never do something like that" because they haven't been privy to the trial and error that took place while the project was under construction.  Here's to the process!

Project 2 - A Decade of Cabins in Green and Brown

A Decade of Cabins in Green and Brown

Mom pieced this quilt top more than a decade ago!!  I've had it in a cedar chest.  Since my brother and his wife are moving into a new home and their bedroom is in cafe latte, mom asked me to quilt this and get it ready for them IN THE NEXT TWO WEEKS!  It's a fairly good size - 72 inches by 96 inches.  I still have her butterfly quilt on Penny (my frame) and I'm more than 1/2 finished with it.  My goal is to finish the butterfly quilt this week and get the brown and green log cabin mounted on the frame this weekend and then get it quilted next week.  

Big Boy checks out every quilt before quilting!

Since I quilt in an old cabin behind my house, with no air conditioning, I'm having to do my quilting very early in the morning.  We are in the middle of some above average temperature days.  Today was over 90.  We'll see how this project goes.  (It might end up being their Christmas present and not their housewarming present.)  I have a twin size bright butterfly quilt for their daughter that I wanted to get ready for the housewarming as well.  (And I thought this summer was going to be relaxing!)

Project 96 - Cathedral Window - For years I have wanted to learn to do Cathedral Windows,  My desire to learn to do this particular pattern strengthened about three years ago when a friend of mine died.  She left me the contents of her sewing room.  


Elsa was a bit like me -- she kept many projects going at one time.  I've finished several of her quilts but just haven't had the courage to tackle her Cathedral Window project.  She had finished the initial sets of four window frames but had not put any of the "glass" bits in the frames.  Elsa's work was always exquisite so I haven't wanted to tackle this until I felt a little more confident of my skills.

So at the International Quilt Festival in Ireland last week, when they offered a class on Cathedral Windows, I jumped at the chance to take it.  It was taught by Bernadette Falvey.  She taught us the "old and authentic" way to make the block and gave us a small kit to practice.  This is my first attempt.  I have a long way to go before my technique is perfect, but at least I have hope that I will be able to tackle Elsa's project sometime in the near future.

Bernadette Falvey on the left
Me on the right!

Antique quilt
(Wonder if mine can ever look as good as this?)

Another attendee at the festival showed me a couple of short cuts and I'm trying those too. (Thanks, Karen). I also found a third method in the book Quilting School by Ann Poe yesterday in the middle of the night when I was trying to remember what Karen taught me.   
I've been told there are also ways to do part of the work by machine rather than doing everything by hand.  I'm not sure yet what method I will settle on.  It will depend partially on the method that Elsa has already started with and partially on my comfort level.  But at least I can say that I have learned how to make this quilt block -- even if my attempts are still a little wonky!


I found a good YouTube tutorial for sewing the Cathedral Window by machine by Helen of Ludlow Quilt and Sew.    How did I survive before I could look up things on Internet and YouTube?

Project 89 - Butterfly Quilt 
Working on this one for mom - Spent a couple of hours quilting for mom this morning.  She originally purchased this quilt as a quilt kit.  She scavenged the pieces she liked and then I "inherited" the kit leftovers.  I picked through my stash and found some pieces that would work and put a twin size quilt together.  Then, she liked it so much -- she wants it back.  But it's all good because I inherit her quilts when she meets Jesus later in life.  We tease each other about it quite a lot.  ALL her quilts will be MINE, ALL MINE some day!  (I'm not really selfish -- we give tons of what we make to friends and family but we give the ones we really, really like to each other!)  

Trip Home - June 15, 2012

For some reason I found this funny.  In ALL my travels with students over the years during summer holidays, I have NEVER had a student be late to return to the coach, I have never had a student get sick and have to remain at a hotel (and remember I have traveled with both insulin dependent diabetic and pregnant students.)  I have NEVER had an airline lose our reservations, I have NEVER had to fly standby, I have NEVER missed a flight connection.

I thought traveling with adults was going to be a restful, rejuvenating experience!  But we had one lady get lost at St. Kevin's Monastic Settlement and we had to send someone out looking for her.  One lady was sick several days and stayed in the hotel, missing out on wonderful fun.  Air France lost our reservations for the flight home on Friday and we had to fly stand-by.  Then when I got in to Orlando, I didn't make the connection to Atlanta and I had to spend an extra night in Orlando (at airline's expense, of course.)

Before going on this trip, I thought it might be time to give up student trips and begin to travel with adults.  Oh, well -- changed my mind on that one.  I'm going to send the travel agent I work with on student trips a big thank you as soon as I get home for all the wonderful work he does for me!!

I hope to be back in a day or two and begin putting my own pictures on line and take more in-depth looks at what I discovered during this Irish journey.  I'm especially interested in talking about the quilting stuff I learned from fellow travelers.  For now, I'm getting ready to head back into the Orlando Airport and start another day of travel to get back home!!  

Avoca, Glendalough, & Dublin - June 14, 2012

Avoca Mill Site

I knew our last day in Ireland was going to turn out to be one of my favorites.  I had been wanting to get to Avoca ever since I first heard of this trip last year.  Some on our group wanted to skip this, but I was adamant that THIS was the reason I chose this particular trip - because we would spend time in Avoca.  We had a fabulous tour of the site and I was able to get plenty of pictures in the mill.  It's quite an interesting story of how one family in the last generation has taken this nearly defunct mill from employing six individuals to employing 800.  I'm looking forward to getting this presentation together for my students.  Of course, I could only afford one small thing in the store but I did buy a beautiful rose colored scarf.  I'm going to dare anyone to touch it!


After Avoca we traveled on to Glendalough and I loved this place too!We visited St. Kiven's Monastic Settlement and walked around the cemetery and grounds.  Then Pam and I settled in for a thirty minutes brisk wall (It was chilly!) to the lakes and back.  Of all the places we went, this was the most poignant.  I need to get ready for the next plane ride -- so I'll be back to finish

Blarney Castle, Rock of Cashel, and Dublin - June 13, 2012

Pic from www.blarneycastle.ie

It was a whirlwind of a day.  We left Killarney and traveled several hours by coach to Blarney Castle.  I had kissed the Blarney stone last year -- so I didn't bother to climb the castle steps and kiss it again.  I wonder what kind of germs are on that rock!!!  Plus I don't like depending on two men I don't know to hold on to my legs as I lay backwards to kiss a rock.  Something a little bizarre about that!  This picture comes from their Web site.

We spent a little time in the Blarney Woollen Mill shop.  The knitted sweaters and scarves were beautiful, but how often do I actually wear a heavy sweater in area during winter?  So I left them behind.

We traveled on to the Rock of Cashel, which according to current public relations materials is one of the most visited "heritage" sites in Ireland.   There's a great audio tour on the Cashel village Website that will let you visit the site without climbing that gigantic hill!

Here in Cashel we stopped at a lovely "carvery" for lunch.  A carvery is similar to a cafeteria line where the meat is carved for you in front of your eyes.  Plate portions seem to be tremendous.  I can see why everyone walks everywhere if they are eating in these restaurants.  Along with any potatotes that come with your set meal, they also often put potatoes and "veg" with it.  We had meals at some places where we actually had three different servings of potatoes with the meal!    At this carvey, I opted out of the potatoes and meat thing and had quiche!

We ended the afternoon in Dublin where we had a couple of hours to look around and SHOP!  How much shopping can a group of women do?

Druid's Glen Golf Course

About seven o'clock we broke our journey at Druid's Glen Resort.  They must have bribed someone to get us in here.  We had to go down teeny little country lanes to get to the resort, but the road then opened into a beautiful world class resort, golf club, and hotel.  Right now their room rates are only about $150 U.S. but the literature in our room indicates that during height of the season our room's actual charge could be closer to $500 U.S.  It was marvelous with down covers, big rooms, wide halls, and excellent dining.

Greens fees at the golf course are about $120 U.S. per person.    The Irish Open was played here in 2000.
The resorts gets its name from a Druid Altar rock located on near the 12th green.  However, in the evening it began to rain buckets and I couldn't get out there to get a picture.