Rip-It, Rip-It, Rip-It

......or check twice, sew once or you'll be doomed to rip and sew again.

I was so thrilled to be so close to finishing the top of my Mr. B Scrappy quilt. My computer had been giving me fits and starts all day and it was happily humming away as I ran a full scan. So that left me free to get back to sewing. Carefully, I sewed rows. Carefully (I thought) I sewed sections. Voila! Open it up to see that the design was "upside down backwards" or something. Out came the seam ripper...*sigh* . So now its back in pieces and this is how it is supposed to look when I sew it together correctly. Remember check twice, sew once.

Home Again and Time to Catch Up

We got home from our 2 week trip last Sunday. Sure didn't leave the heat behind. This last week has set recording breaking high temps and humidity here in Maryland. The humidity is supposed to be a lot less this weekend.

I've managed to finish two baby quilts over the last month. One just got finished this afternoon. Both are awaiting their labels. The colorful one was free-motion quilted with the BSR on my Bernina 440QE. It didn't seem to move very freely but I think that may be because the backing was flannel. I still need more practice with my BSR before I can say I'm really comfortable with it.

The Wonderful Shelburne Museum

Twenty years or so ago, we took a trip with the boys to Quebec, Canada and through the Northeast. One of the highlights I remember from that trip was a visit to the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, VT. Jim remembers that he tried to keep the boys entertained while I tried to see as much of their vast collections as I could. I also remember that I did not see it all but I thought it was a wonderful place. I've wanted to go back ever since.

Today we got there and despite fighting a summer cold, I finally got to leisurely walk around and see all the incredible collections. Along with their permanent collections, every year they have several special exhibits. First and foremost on my list were 3 special quilt exhibits. They were all unique and interesting. One was a collection of contemporary Vermont quilts. I recognized at least two quilts in that exhibit that I had seen in Quilt Shows. The second exhibit was a collection of quilts by an African-American artist named Rosie Lee Tompkins. It reminded me alot of the Gee's Bend Quilts. The third was an exhibit of Amish Quilts called "Stars and Bars". It was from a gift to the museum.

Another interesting and beautiful exhibit was "Out of This World: Shaker Design Past, Present, and Future". It contained five different groupings....historical furniture, commercial items sold by the Shakers, Religious drawings and calligraphy, contemporary Shaker furniture, and a fancy work--which were items that the Shakers were shunning in their own designs. I also enjoyed the Chandelier exhibit and the folk art collection.

Electra Havemeyer Webb was the founder of the museum. In her lifetime, she amassed an incredible amount of art and other collections. Along the way, others have contributed to the collections. At Shelburne, I was able to stand up close and personal to art works by Mary Cassatt (a personal friend of Electra), Monet, Manet and others. It was just amazing. Mrs Webb donated most of her art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY but quite a few nice pieces are here in VT.

For a visit to the Shelburne, check out this web-site Shelburne Museum. In the meantime, here a few pictures from the outside. Unfortunately you can't take pictures with flash inside so I don't have pictures of the collections.