50 Quilts from 50 States - New York

 

Its interesting that I am writing this post while I'm in New York, but
the inspiration for this quilt came from my previous visit in 2014 (OMG was it that long ago?). Saul and I made a driving tour of New England that included visits to family in Brooklyn and Ithaca, a drive up the Hudson River valley to the Finger Lakes district and then through the southern part of the state back to Brooklyn.

As I was pondering which of the many interesting sites should be my inspiration, I of course thought about the New York City sky line, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the hustle of Manhattan, and architectural points of interest. But the thing that struck me most of all were the various water courses and how they reflected the sky and surrounding buildings and foliage.

The water ways that caught my attention were the East River - its color reflecting the grey of the clouds overhead and the buildings surrounding it.

 As we drove north through the Hudson Rive Valley, we followed the Hudson, swollen and muddy from recent rains.

Then we stopped in Syracuse for a visit to the Erie Canal Museum.  The canal was completed in 1825 and was the first navigable water that connection the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean.

Next stop was wine tasting at one (or 2) of the many wineries along the banks of the Finger Lakes - Cayuga Lake to be specific. The lake was a beautiful blue and the sweet wine slushie I had was refreshing.

Niagara Falls was the highlight of a different trip back in 1996 and in fact I'll be going again tomorrow. The mist got everything damp - a nice cool down during the hot weather.

So here were my five water ways. I like to design in odd numbers of motifs - surely I heard that in an art design class at one time. Now, how to represent them? French Braids. A technique I hadn't used before, French Braids would be great to represent the dynamic, ever - changing water ways. 

I just happened to have a batik jelly roll in the muddy browns and green colors of the Hudson. A couple off trips to quilt shops added some grey, blue, and sea foam colored jelly rolls and some yardage that I wanted for the constant squares down the middle of the braid. 

I started work on  this quilt while visiting my Mom near Phoenix Arizona. Although not my standard work area, it served me well for the week that I was there. I'm not sure how Mom felt about the mess though.

Here is  pic of the almost-finished quilt top. Water ways are from left to right - Erie Canal, East River, Niagara Falls, Hudson River, and Finger Lakes. This was a lot of fun to do - picking out colors, deciding how wide to make the braid sections, and how to bring the sections together. 

The pattern (when finished) will be available to download or by mail from my Etsy Shop

Get Curious about New York! It's a great place!

Cruising and Quilting - Does it Get Any Better Than This?

Me: We should go on a quilting cruise!

Friend: Yes we should. Here is a good one.

Enter COVID and everything got cancelled.

Friend: I think cruises are going again, want to go on this one to the Eastern Caribbean?

Me: Sure Do!

We booked through Dawn at quiltandcruise.com. The teacher is Annette Ornelas of Southwind Designs. The Quilt is cute. I buy the pattern and choose the fabrics, The excursions look good, we sign up for a couple. We wait, and wait. We get vaccinations. We get tested. It's a GO!!!!

I love cruises anyway, but a quilting cruise combines the best of all
worlds. The plan is to sew only on sea days, reserving port days for excursions. We boarded the hugest cruise ship I have ever seen in Fort Lauderdale - Royal Caribbean's the Allure of the Seas. After getting settled, we met in our sewing room on Deck3 and got to know our machines, Jenomes provided by Scott.

We we got to start on our projects the next day. Teacher Annette was amazing. She developed a very cool technique of inserting fabric between 2 other pieces of fabric and then after sewing and pressing, it looks like an elongated flying geese block. Except that it's dimensional and after piecing the rest of the block you are supposed to fold the points up and top stitch them. This results in the cutest little curved points.  Needless to say, I bought several of her patterns to take home. One especially would make a great class project.

Dawn set up a private trip to Caribelle batik factory for the day we were in St Kitts. The site was beautiful, nestled into a little valley, with gorgeous foliage of every size, shape, and color. 

We were able to use stamps dipped in wax to make our designs - I used turtles - and them dye them in purple or a deep indigo dye bath. It was wrapped up in bags and safely stowed until I got home to rinse the extra dye out. I had blue fingers for a day!

Of course we had the opportunity to shop in their store. I bought a poncho thingy that will look great with some brown leggings and a 4 yard piece of fabric that I intend to use as a backing for the quilt I made during the cruise.

The eight days went by way too fast. Some of the 38 quilters in the group finished their tops plus the bonus projects Annette gave us. I got a little over half done. I plan to work on it during a couple of upcoming retreats. 

So I'm back home, having to make my own bed, prepare my own food, no cute little towel animals waiting on my bed, no more rum punch under tropical canopies. I'm dressing in layers because it's 35 degrees outside. But I'm already planning my next cruise with Annette - next April. Saving my pennies.

Come cruise with me!