A Bit of Local Lore

Living near Washington Irving’s home in Tarrytown and the Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow, is an exciting place to be around Halloween. The area is packed with Halloween themed events and activities. This Year with the new television show, “Sleep Hollow” the hysteria has reached an all time high.

 The famous American author, Washington Irving was born in 1783 and lived in Tarrytown at his home, Sunnyside, an attraction that you can still visit today. Among Irving’s works is “The legend of Sleepy Hollow”.  The short story is about schoolmaster Ichabod Crane, who competes with the town bully for the hand of the daughter of a wealthy farmer. After leaving a party, Ichabod is pursued through Sleepy Hollow by a headless horseman. As Ichabod is about to reach safety, the horseman throws what appears to be his head at the schoolmaster. The following day, Ichabod is missing. Only his horse and the remains of a pumpkin are found. It is up to the reader to decide if he truly encountered the headless horseman or if he was the victim of a cruel prank.

Consequently, Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow have adopted the image of the headless horseman as icons for their towns. The horseman is always headless and holding a pumpkin, unlike the assault rifle which he carries on the new TV show!

So that is a little history about my town. Have a Happy Halloween!

On a separate note, I have started a Facebook page so be sure to check it out and Like Me On Facebook!

Grace, Sneak Preview

Here is a sneak peek at my upcoming line, Grace. Like many of us, I love to travel, not only for the places that I see and the people that I meet, but also for the colors I bring back in my mind and my camera. Pink sandy beaches, pastel colored cottages and clear turquoise waters inspired the Bermuda color palette for my Grace collection. In the islands farther south, the overwhelming blue and teal hues of the sea moved me to design Grace's Caribbean palette as shown below. I hope these colors can take you there as well. 

Grace is scheduled to debut in quilt stores everywhere in December!

I used the Grace, Caribbean colors to make  Clover and Violet's, Jane bag. One of the reasons I love Jennie and Clara's patterns is that their bags lend themselves to a playful use of fabrics!

Geometricks

Check out the quilt I recently competed.

I challenged myself to design and create a quilt using the four small geometric patterns from CSDs' yellow and lavender color palette. The quilt features triangular shapes, both in the piecing and the quilting.

For the quilting, I relied heavily on different variations of Angela Walter’s Starburst Design technique, which I learned by taking her Dot-to-Dot Quilting, Craftsy class. The quilting design styles she teaches in her class were perfect for this piece.  For the first time, I found free motion quilting to be totally stress free and fun because I kept Angela's mantra, "close enough is good enough" in the back of my mind while working!

New Summer Outfits

Summer is a great time to take on small, enjoyable sewing projects. My nieces received American Girl Dolls this past Christmas, so I decided to make them new summer outfits for their dolls. I picked up Lorine Mason’s book, Dressing Up 18” Dolly and found making the projects to be quite relaxing. The garments are super cute and the patterns are constructed quite thoughtfully. I know the girls will like their new clothes as much as I do...

Glitzy Holiday Dress in Cold Spring Dreams, (Yellow & Lavender)

Suit Jacket & Skirt in Cold Spring Dreams, (Yellow & Lavender)

Cropped Jacket & Gathered Pants in Cold Spring Dreams, (Pink & Blue)

Floral Drop-Waist Dress in Cold Spring Dreams, (Pink & Blue)

Fantasy River

There is an wonderful show underway at the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, New York. Federico Uribe’s, Fantasy River is a whimsical interpretation of a three-dimensional riverscape. Both flora and fauna are made from everyday objects such as pencils, shoelaces, gloves, coins and screws. Uribe gives back to Nature what was taken from her as he creates trees from books and animals from leather shoes and other objects. 

If you’re in Yonkers, I recommend you stop by for a visit and if Yonkers happens to be a bit out of the way, here is a link to the museum's exhibit page containing two videos featuring the artist and his work, www.hrm.org/exhibits.html.

 A ram created from electrical wire, a hippo from computer keys, and in the background, a leopard made of sneakers and a zebra made out of pencils.

Lizard, tiger and tree made of books.

Cougar made from bullet shells.

 A field of shovels and I'm not sure about the sun...

Whirl Pattern

Recently, I've been asked about the kaleidoscope quilt I made from my CSDs fabrics. I just finished making a pattern for the quilt and decided to call it Whirl. The pattern is in PDF format and you can download it for free right here! I’d love to hear how it works out for you.

Haute Tote

I just stumbled upon the Haute Tote, designed by Sue Marsh. It is featured in the March/April issue of Quiltmaker Magazine (better late than never), and I am delighted, not only because is it a cute tote but because it is made from Cold Spring Dreams and RJR’s Supreme Solids fabrics.  The bag uses 2 1/2” fabric strips, so the project is ideal if you have pre-cuts or left over scraps. Sue is also an RJR designer and her fabrics are wonderfully whimsical.  Check out her work at wpcreek.com.