Bears in Connecticut? Yes!

Just before dark an hour ago this bear came walking through the woods and past our front door! My husband, two sons and I were having dinner. I was the first one to see it. Everyone whipped out their phones. Of course the boys took videos. We went from window to window watching the bear. As you can see we don't have a lawn yet, having moved here in December. The only green plants here are the hosta plants that we bought today and set near our front walk (below). Yeah, I know they eat meat too. This bear was close! In the photo above it looks like there is a tag in his right ear. By the way, that's our driveway, not the road (above). I wish the focus was better, but I was a little excited, as you can imagine. We never saw a bear in CT before but I saw a bobcat here a while back. Yikes. Do you have any fearsome wild animals where you live?

Barbara Brackman's Snake Quilts

Isn't this a stunning antique Snake quilt? This is just one of 16 that Barbara Brackman is showing on her blog. She's been collecting photos of snake quilt variations for several years. I like how the cheddar blocks and the red block brighten this one up. And the high contrast snake segments look great. I've never considered making a Snake quilt until now. Another addition to my "To Make" list!

If you've made a Snake quilt, please email a photo (karengriska@optonline.net) and I'll post it here. If we get a bunch it will make an awesome exhibit for the Online Quilt Museum too.

Meet Diane Rose, a Blind Quilter from Texas

Diane Rose is a blind quilter in Waco, Texas. See her inspiring story on YouTube. Thank you to June Calender for this link.

Glass House

Take a look at this glass house designed by Italian architect Santambrogiomilano. Not much privacy, but the view is awesome!

Meet Rachel in Texas

Rachel in Texas (of the Too Sooner Late Than Better blog) has just made her first selvage bags. And her first time adding a zipper too. Very nice job, Rachel! And she has some good photos on her blog from the recent quilt show in Dallas. (And Hi! to your quilter aunt too.)

Did you forget that this blog sometimes features selvage projects? Haha. But I can't help noticing the red and white chairs among her selvages! What have we done to ourselves?

Happy Easter!

I hope you have a wonderful day savoring the joy of Easter.

Here's my red and white sampler quilt.

Here's a sampler quilt that I made about 5 years ago. I was showing it at the first meeting of the Connecticut Mod Quilter's Guild recently and Jackie (of Canton Valley Quiltworks) took this photo. On my screen the red looks pretty dark, but it's red and white, including a little red toile. This quilt started when I learned how to make fast and easy half square triangles. I made a batch of them and thought this big tree would be fun. Next came the improvisational fan for the roots. The tree had to be set on point, so next came the applique triangles to make a square center medallion. The dots in the lower right are buttons. I call this kind of quilt a random sampler. Never a dull moment making one of these, and it's one of my favorites. Do you have a red and white quilt in the works, or on the horizon?

Block of the Month - Red and White, Quilter's Choice.

You thought that was it for red and whites for a while? Not quite. I had to come up with a Block of the Month for my guild, Empire Quilters in NYC. We won't all be making this block, the design is quilter's choice. But we'll all use red and white to make any block we want, as long as it measures 8 1/2" square. The result will be a sampler quilt. I'm tempted to make more like this one and do a whole quilt. Here's how this block was made: DIRECTIONS: The strips were cut 1.25" wide. Sew 6 strips together. Then cut this new piece into 1.25" strips. Flip every other one so you have a checkerboard, and sew them together. Add a white border. Cut 4 red triangles by eye and sew one to each corner. Then add a red border. Trim to 8.5." Voila! Do this 64 times for a quilt! Haha. We'll see. It might happen.

Would you like to visit the cafe with me?

Let's have a seat and view the scene from the comfort of our table. Wasn't this a wonderful gift that Joanna Rose gave to quilters (and maybe future quilters like the little girl in the foreground)?

I can imagine someday hearing her say "When I was little I saw an exhibit that inspired me to make my first quilt." Do you think there will be a renewed popularity of red and white quilts? Are you planning to make one?

You know the feeling you get in early winter when you go outside and discover that it's snowing big fluffy flakes? It's quiet and the lighting is beautiful. That's what it was like for me.

Happy 80th birthday Joanna Rose!! Thank you for sharing your gift with us. I think I'll send her a note telling her how much we enjoyed it.

Red and White Star Quilts

There were so many beautiful star quilts. If I had to pick a favorite, it might be the one below.

Or maybe this incredible Mariner's Compass. I call myself a quilter? I'm a toddler compared to this quilter!

This combination of stars and stripes is stunning, don't you think? Notice the red fabric is a print rather than a solid.

Red and White Pieced Quilts - Part 5

I think the simple quilt above is curiously charming. It reminds me of a Tetris game.

The crowd was drawn to this retro style toy airplane quilt. It's such a classic.

Wow, this quilt would be quite a challenge to piece! The hand quilting is outstanding too. 

I call this the pretzel quilt. And look at all that echo quilting. Nice!

I guess the maker of this pineapple quilt still had a lot of strips when it came time for a border! Makes for a quilt with big impact.

Another quilt with a beautiful edge. Nice fan quilting and a tiny binding. Wow!

A double-masted sailing ship. No wonder they called this exhibit "Infinite Variety!"

Tomorrow we'll look at the stars quilts. You'll love 'em.

Red and White Pieced Quilts - Part 4

This zig-zag (above and below) reminds me of the designs you often see in Navajo rugs. Today I'm flying to LasVegas and meeting up with my husband and we're going to the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley in Arizona for a week. Can't wait. I'm bringing red and white applique to do in the car. I'm going to make a ton of "berries" using the yoyo method.

Look at the outer edge of this bow tie quilt (above). What a nice touch!

I peeked behind this quilt to see if there was more written there, but it was plain muslin. These are all hexagons. I wonder why all the "N's" are backwards. Another quilt with a nice edge. It would be nice to sleep under this quilt, wrapped in prayer for God's will to be done.

Red snowballs on white, an interesting concept. There were several quilts with circles like this one. I like this photo because you can see the circular arrangement of the quilts, and feel what the room was like.

LeeAnn in Seattle, this last photo is for you! Want to see LeeAnn's eyelash quilt? Here it is.