Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Palm Beach interlude


We are anchored in Lake Worth, between Palm Beach and West Palm Beach, and happy to be back in the United States. One of our first tasks ashore was to visit a Publix supermarket, where we wandered around touching all the familiar food items. "Look! Ghirardelli chocolate! Seven different kinds of tomatoes! A bag of Chex Mix for less than $7!!" Life is good.


In between visits to first world establishments (a real Italian restaurant! free public transportation!) I've had plenty of time to work on some more of my UFOs. This one was actually finished back at Dudley's dock, but didn't make it into my retreat post. This is my Ernie quilt, inspired by Rose and finally all quilted up using simple stitch in the ditch. 


I debated whether to add more quilting in the homespuns, and I'm still a bit on the fence even after a pass through the washer and dryer. The horizontal pieces are 1.5" finished, so there's certainly enough quilting to hold it together. Does it need anything more fancy? Hmm.
 

The backing is some big chunks of the coral and green, plus a stripe of the border fabric. This one is going to Covered in Love.


This one is also bound for CiL. The blocks are called Old Italian, made with Anita Grossman Solomon's method from one of her books. I only made enough of them for a 36"x48" quilt, so it needed a nice wide border to get it up to CiL size. 
 

The colors in this top seem very 1980s to me: dusty blue and pink and maroon. So I've named it '80s Flashback. Or maybe that should be "Flashdance"? Anyway, I quilted the center with orange peels that barely show in the busy, busy fabrics.


In the border, I decided to practice big feathers. All that wide space called for something interesting, and I've been wanting to spend some concentrated time on feathers. A blending blue thread hides any wibbles and wobbles.


The quilting shows up better on the back, and I'm pretty happy with it. I had to pick out a couple of pleaty bits, but mostly it went smoothly. These are sort of beginner's feathers, what Angela Walters calls "basic" as opposed to "custom" feathers. 



Here's an overall shot of the back, which I pieced from some fabrics that are kinda sorta in the same '80s color scheme. Both the stripe and the blue border fabrics were donated to CiL, so I wanted to use them together in this quilt.


DH Sean really likes the colors in this one, but when I asked if we should just keep it, he said, "Um, no." Since I haven't been able to ship out anything in over four months, the boat is suffering from Deadly Quilt Backup and there are piles of quilts everywhere. I suspect he wants to see them gone, gone, gone.


Here are two more that I finished in the last week or so. They are small ones for Wrap a Smile, only 40"x50", so they stitched up speedy quick. They are literally half the size of the Covered in Love quilts. I get a lot of comments about how many quilts I finish, so it's good to keep in mind that the little ones go together super fast. By the way, that's tony Palm Beach in the background, with a median home value of $1,166,200. Our anchorage is free, bwa ha ha!


This piece is made from a charm pack of Kaffe Fasset Collective fabrics in soft, spring colors. I sashed and bordered it with a pretty green blender. All the fabrics are really light and soft, almost voiles. This one got a lot of petting and patting.


The backing is an odd garden veggie and greenery fabric, also a voile. It has leaves and leeks and broccoli on it. Several small pieces of this were donated to me by a gal on eBay who was clearing out her stash. I had no idea what I'd do with leek fabric, but it looks really nice on the back of this little quilt, which I'm  calling Peeking Through the Garden Lattice.


The quilting is quite simple, straight lines paralleling the piecing and extending into the border, done with my walking foot. An older, more traditional lavender with twee flowers made a nice binding.


Finally, this is Lazy Rail Fence. Rail fence designs are made by sewing strips of fabric together, but lazy rail fences simply use pre-printed stripes. I had lot of small chunks of bright striped fabrics so I just stitched them together in alternating directions. 


I think it actually looks quite festive, and it was a good scrap buster. I quilted it in bright yellow thread in a liberated orange peel. "Liberated" is quilting talk for "don't look too closely because things are a bit wonky." And "wonky" is quilting talk for "Dang, that's crooked!" But it's wonky on PURPOSE, so that's okay.


This quilt is also destined for Wrap a Smile, and it will hopefully comfort a small child undergoing cleft palate surgery. To keep it child-friendly and extra cheerful, I backed it with the last of my animal butts fabric. There are very few children who aren't endlessly amused by butts, so I'm confident it will be well-received.

I've finally been able to wash and dry all these quilts, but shipping them off to their destinations still has to wait at least another week. Tomorrow we are heading right back out into the Atlantic to head north. Palm Beach is nice, but heat, humidity and hurricanes make summer kinda the worst time to be in Florida. There is an excellent weather window that will hopefully allow us to take the boat directly to New York in one straight shot, so we're gettin' while the gettin' is good. I'll be completely out of range of internet for a week, but promise to respond to your comments and visit your blogs when I get back into coverage. (As always, if you're curious about our status while we're on long offshore passages, you can check the boat's Twitter page.  We update that using our limited bandwidth satellite phone for short "all's well" messages. You don't need to have a Twitter account to view the status updates.)

Cross your fingers that the ocean is calm enough for me to be able to sew!

31 comments:

  1. Some pretty awesome finishes, Louise, but that Ernie Quilt really calls out to me! I love your interpretation of the original! Safe travels!

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  2. Wow, great finishes. You have been busy as ever. We forget about the down side of things you go thru living onboard and visiting paradises! Who would think of pleasure going to the Publix.....unless you had been out of country. Safe travels.

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  3. So many great quilts, Louise! I love the Ernie quilt; welll, I love them all, actually! Hope you have good weather and get back to NY in that window. Great to have you back!

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  4. Holy cow girl you have certainly been a mean, lean, quilting machine!! They are all so lovely. I would have never thought to put those stripes together for a lazy rail, but it works great!! I laughed at your supermarket story...it's exactly how we felt after 11 days in Yellowstone without wifi and grocery stores when we encountered our first Super Walmart!

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  5. You've been very productive! Thanks for sharing all your bright colorful quilts. I'm sure the recipients will love them, and you are so generous to create them for donation. Safe travels on your way to NY.

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  6. Wow. There is a lot of stitching happening. Love the feathers. I really do need to get over my fear of them

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  7. Great finishes! Ernie's my favorite though!

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  8. Wow, so much going on here I can hardly remember all my thoughts! Ernie is my fav, too. I love Anita Grossman's patterns--she has such nifty tricks up her quilting sleeves! Great job on the feathers, too. Have a nice trip right up on to NY!!! Love seeing your photos.

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  9. You accomplish so much. I can imagine how great it was to get back to the familiar again.

    Your Ernie quilt and that Flashback quilt are both fabulous.

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  10. I am just absolutely fascinated by your life on the boat and will be checking out the twitter page. I don't blame you hightailing it out of Florida before the bad weather, although I am scared of boats and the sea. I always said I would not be on the sea in a boat unless it was the size of the Titanic and look what happened to that!!!!!

    I just love the quilts and know exactly what you mean about the '80;s chintz, I am quite glad we moved away from it and plain fabrics took its place. Love the brown feet of the person quilt holder!!!

    Thanks for sharing.

    Hugs, Susie x

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  11. Ernie is GORGEOUS! No, you don't need to quilt it anymore. The fabric is the star of this one. LOVE IT! Animal butts? I don't think I've seen that fabric before but I about died laughing because your comment is so true about kids being endlessly amused by butts. :D

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  12. Great group of Quilts, Louise. As far as dated fabrics go, that can be just our bias toward current trends. Most non-Quilters have no idea of popular colors, so many of them love the older fabrics which remind them of their past. As you yourself once stated in your Covered In Love guest blog, just a small patch may be exactly what is precious to others.

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  13. All beautiful! Glad you are back in the US safe :)

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  14. I love all those quilts and as always amazed at how you come up with suitable patterns each time to fit your pieces and colours..... I did have a laugh at you languishing amongst the million dollar homes in your free anchorage.... happy travels to the next spot...

    Hugz

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  15. You have the best ideas for scrap quilts, Louise! I'm really drawn to Ernie - love all the stripes and color! We discovered Publix on a trip to S. Carolina a year ago, and thought it was a really nice store. I can just imagine how it felt to be back in a US store after being in the Caribbean for awhile! Enjoy your sailing!

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  16. Lots of great eye candy. Can't beat scrappy.

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  17. Oh my goodness, I don’t know where to start! So much wonderful eye candy representing days and weeks of work. WOW! Every quilt is awesome, from the eighties flashback to the animal butts, LOL. Will your waterline change when you mail off all those quilts? Hehe

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  18. WOW! What a lot of great color in these quilts -- you have been BUSY! Wishing you smooth sailing on your way to New York.

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  19. Superb collection of quilts here Louise, love them all!!
    Have a safe trip to New York, look forward to your posting tell us that you've arrived safely.

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  20. Hi friend! Welcome back!!! I'm with Sean and love the same quilt as him...but I'm always in happy awe of how much you get done. Enjoy that chocolate!

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  21. You must be out of range of technology. Just popping in to say hi and tell you that you've done a great job on all of these quilts! Actually amazing would be a better term.

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  22. Oh I want to do an Ernie quilt! Actually there isn't one here that I dislike! You and I will be in NY (state) maybe at the same time, just different ends... And I know exactly where you're docked (free anchorage? No way! and free public transportation, like where does that happen except maybe on Anna Maria Island that I know of...). While I was in a Yin yoga weekend with Sarah Powers my husband spent some wonderful time perusing the yachts there.
    Wonderful work, so generous, so worthy of causes. Thank you for all the positivity you put into these causes.

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  23. More great quilts. The 80's Flashback quilt is a real beauty.
    Hope your trip up the coast is uneventful. The weather here in NY was warm and sunny today and is expected to be good for the next week.

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  24. You've been really busy with finishing so many quilts up. They all look great. Hope the trip to New York went well.

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  25. Goodness me, I liked Ernie, then came another 'Wow', and another and so on. You have been busy. And I think your feathers look great. So lovely that you generously share these with people who will appreciate them.

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  26. So many quilts spreading so much love, your generosity knows no bounds. I love your Ernie it has to be my favourite although the lazy rail fence is wonderful for a quick quilt, very clever. Enjoy your supermarket shopping, and the Italian food, yummy!

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  27. It's hard to pick a favorite. There's not a bad one on the bunch! Safe passage.

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  28. Busy, busy gal. Hope you've had smooth sailing up to New York. Unfortunately, you've sailed directly into a major east coast heat wave. Ours in No. Virginia has abated and we're suppose to be temps in the high 70's instead of the mid to high 90s with a ton of humidity. Ah - relief. Your quilting output is amazing. Do you quilt when sailing (I can't imagine you do...) I'm assuming most of this is done in port. Your quilting looks great. And, yes, I find it amazing how much you get done! Hope you get to port where it is less hot and humid than Palm Beach.

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  29. This blog is very inspiring to me. With pleasure I will recommend this blog to my friends.

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  30. What a wonderful show and tell. So much variety. BUTT, that Lazy Rail Fence is fun! lol

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