Linda Nova Finish

Looking back into my blog archives I began making my Linda Nova quilt n July, 2017.

I don't feel one bit guilty about it taking me nearly three years to make, as that is the plan when I make an EPP quilt. EPP travels with me, and gives me evening-time respite from sitting at the sewing machine. Until my fingers give out, I'll probably always have EPP in progress.

No doubt I began calling this Tula Nova pattern Linda Nova after posting that this quilt doesn't have a single piece of Tula Pink fabric in it. Though I like Tula's fabric colors, I don't like the designs in the prints.

Though there's some print fussy-cutting in individual medallions, I also included solids. I'm still impressed with myself - HA! - that I came up with all those (a middle ring) stripes from my stash. 

It took a long time to settle on a background fabric, finally coming across this one from Hawthorne Supply Company. It's one of their own prints that came in more than a dozen colors. I use the past tense because, unfortunately, it looks like Hawthorne is no longer making this print. Still, they a have a nice selection of unusual prints. Just know that the hand is a little bit stiffer. But for the purposes of this quilt, it was the perfect background.

When piecing the background from two widths, I matched the designs as closely as possible.

Then I machine applied the medallion to the background, and cut away background fabric behind the medallion. I'm glad I did because the cutaway part was what I used to make binding!

All the quilting was done on my Bernina 770QE. After pin-basting Quilter's Dream wool, I used a walking foot to give stability to the entire quilt, followed by a combination of free motion quilting and ruler quilting working from the center outward. 

On Instagram, I looked at lots of other quilted (by longarmers) #tulanovaquilts as inspiration for several different designs that I used. 

Because I paid dearly for that background fabric, I used all of it, leaving about 8" of background outside the medallion. It's meant to have about 4" to 5" of background showing, but why not make the quilt as large as possible? It's 68" X 70".

Linda Nova, 68" X 70"

I miss my umbrella clothesline back in Iowa! Though our Bismarck palm works nicely as a tree-holder, this is about as much quilt that can be clipped to it's fronds. On the positive side, when I'm climbing the step stool to hang a quilt in the palm, I usually receive nice compliments from walkers passing by. A man asked if it was a new yard decoration. Ha. "You're so funny." 

This week's audiobook recommendation is The Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman. The story begins in 1950, in rural Quebec, as young Maggie is growing up in a family cared by a mother she dislikes and a father she adores. He's known as the "seed man." Maggie likes agriculture as much as he does, and works in his store while dreaming of someday running the store herself. But it's the 1950s, and women don't do those things. When Maggie falls for a French boy, and her dad disapproves - she's English, after all - (I was ignorant of the animosity between French and English Canadians) Maggie's life drastically changes. As she becomes an adult, works in Montreal, and marries, she thinks about the what-could-have-been. A baby, Elodie, is left alone, raised in an orphanage, and awaits adoption... until the orphanage becomes a hospital for the mentally insane - a true story about Canada's support for orphanages (75-cents a day) and support for the mentally retarded ($2.75 a day) that on March 18, 1955 turned orphanages into mental hospitals. It's a heart-wrenching story. In spite of that, it was so engaging I listened in bed until 2 am to hear the ending! The reader, Saskia Maarleveld, excelled at character voices, speaking French and English with French accents.


Linda's score: 4.4/5.0


On Saturday, for Dan's birthday, we lunched at a restaurant for the first time since March 10 when we ate at the same restaurant, Mojo's in Leesburg, with my cousins visiting from Ohio. We rarely eat out, unless it's a special occasion. Dan's too good of a cook! However, he thinks their Cuban sandwich is the one of Florida's best, with the best being at Kooky Coconut in Indian Rocks Beach.

The masked waitress gave each of us a single 8-1/2" X 11" menu that we're sure was then disposed. When we asked for ketchup (for French fries), she delivered a bowl containing a half-dozen packets. The same for salt and pepper. Returning home we stopped several places - Dollar Tree, Dollar General - for rubbing alcohol (limit one per person) that we're putting in a spray bottle to make wet paper towels to carry with us when we go out. How times have changed. Though we agree that we don't feel unsafe. While we don't expect to ever act the same way we did in January and February, it's good to have almost-normal moments.

Our regular Villages activities haven't resumed due to them being large group or high respiration activities. So, I continue to meet weekly with "Zooming" Big Cypress Quilters. Last evening was our Central Florida MQG monthly meeting, via Zoom.

Hey, speaking of Central Florida MQG, how 'bout that new CentralFloridaMQG.wordpress.com website and blog?! 😊 Like the little girls says in the old 1968 Shake and Bake commercial, "And I helped!"


Linda