Monday, September 19, 2011

Kleenex Box Quilt....Mainly!

My hubby and I spent the last two weeks vacationing in Maine. Well, one week was in Maine...the other week (almost) was spent driving to and from Maine! We put close to 4500 miles on our car...
it's a loooooong way from Missouri to the East Coast!
This week I'll be including a few pictures of things that inspired me along the way.
Today's picture is something that I saw everywhere in Maine and fell in love with. 
Lobster buoys not only bob in the ocean to mark the lobster traps but also serve as colorful decorations on many fences, houses and even rural mailboxes. 
The only thing more colorful was the Kleenex Box Quilt that I brought along to hand stitch the binding down during the long car ride. 
The bright hues of the liberated quilt really shine against
 the weathered wood of an old church.
Wooden buoys hanging on our cottage on the beach were the perfect compliment,
don't you agree?

 I can only imagine how big the wagon was that needed this huge wheel.

 My friend, Linda, volunteered to do the quilting on my quilt. What a wonderful dimension the curvy quilting lines add to the straight lines of the pieced blocks.
 The quilt back continues my use of scraps  to create this
The aqua fabric has been languishing in my fabric drawer for years...
the color is perfect!
 Leftovers from the front and some orange Amy Butler dot made a fun racing stripe.
 After contemplating several different binding fabrics, I finally settled on four colorful solids. I also tried Linda's favorite binding method for perfect mitered corners. This 'new to me' method took a bit more time, but after a few more tries it should become simpler. Check out this great tutorial by Flourishing Palms .
 If I lived near the ocean, I'd have a fence that looked like this to go with my quilt!
Stop by again tomorrow to see another finish and more inspiration from
Maine (mainly).

21 comments:

  1. Great quilt! The purple solid is fabulous! And your photos of the lobster pots are something I have never seen before! Great inspiration!

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  2. your quilting is gorgeous. This last photo inspired to make a quilt

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  3. What a fun post. I love your quilt and how you displayed it in various settings in Maine

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  4. Love the colorful Lobster bouys!!! And your Kleenex box quilt is fabulous!!! I love the colors set against the darker solid. Glad you made it home safely...looks like you had a wonderful trip!

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  5. I love your Kleenex box quilt. It is very inspiring. I read your blog regularly so I am not sure how I missed this until now. The purple is perfect. I want to run upstairs to my sewing room and get started!

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  6. I love your Kleenex box quilt and the wonderful photo opportunities in Maine especially with the lobster bouys. The colors are gorgeous!

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  7. Great photos and great quilt. I love Maine. Since my folks are (were) both from Massachusetts, we spent summers along the Maine coast renting cottages in various locations-mostly Ocean Park. Something about New England and Maine that is nowhere else in the world. Your photos made me nostalgic!

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  8. That quilt is beautiful!!! I love the scrappy blocks!!!!

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  9. I think you need to make a calendar out of these lovely photographs! The quilts and the scenery are gorgeous! Looks like you had a wonderful vacation!

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  10. Beautiful quilt with lovely quilting! Such great settings you found to photograph it! If I'd known the results could be this fantastic, I would have done this with my scraps long ago!! Congratulations on another beautiful quilt :)

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  11. Gorgeous! So glad to see this finished Carla! :) Love the purple and the binding looks great :)

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  12. So glad you liked Maine, my home state, where there is so much inspiration! We retreated there post hurricane earlier this month...

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  13. Your Kleenex Box Quilt is fabulous! I love all the photos too. I might have to go to Maine to photograph my quilts! :) Nice work.

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  14. Your quilt turned out beautifully. I love the scrap binding. And gosh, what a clever girl you are to have been able to take photos of your quilt with your vacation surroundings! Oh, wouldn't one of my quilts have looked nice on a backdrop of vineyards loaded with ready-to-be-picked grapes! Now why didn't I think of that!? You take lovely photos.

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  15. I love it! You can never go wrong with a strippy setting, it suites your scrappy blocks perfectly.

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  16. Gorgeous quilt! I love the quilting along the borders. I aspire to be able to do that one day!

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  17. The quilt looks beautiful! I just bookmarked it for an inspiration.

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  18. What a WONDERFUL quilt ... and I love how you took it outdoors and photographed it!!

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  19. Love this quilt!!! It's just beautiful.

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  20. Great post! What a beautiful setting for your quilt. It is another wonderful creation from you. Love how the purple binds it all together. The quilting is so pretty, too.
    ; )

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  21. Love love LOVE every single ting about this post!! Beautiful quilt. (Hey, I was supposed to be working on a companion Kleenex box quilt, wasn't I? Hmmm.Wonder what happened to that...)

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