Sauder Village

I finally made it to Sauder Village to experience a little taste of Rug Hooking Week!  It was a very quick but very fun adventure (if you don't count the part where all of the roads leading to the place were closed for construction and I spent over an hour driving an additional 40 miles in circles trying to get there!).   The rugs looked great - it's a very nice set-up.  Someone said there were over 400 rugs in the show.  It doesn't seem possible, but I suppose rugs take up a lot less space than quilts.

Here are a few of the rugs I found particularly impressive (the first one doesn't seem to want to display vertically, but you get the idea):

And then there was this one - so cool to this pattern done in completely different colors!

I fell completely in love with this one - I'm going to have to get this pattern:

I spent some time enjoying the historic village while I was there.  The quilt shop is really nice - they had a beautiful quilt on the wall and another awesome one in a frame being quilted:

My primary "mission" while exploring the village was to find all of the items in my Sauder rug.  I'm happy to report that all were accounted for, from the chicken to the chair.  Even the little church:

It was a great trip that offered lots of inspiration.  I've added at least three projects to my rug hooking list, not including the cute little one I picked up to hook for the guild auction.  If I'm not careful my rug hooking UFOs are going to start catching up to my quilt UFOs... Yikes!

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Somehow it's always the same old story - I head off to a retreat with plans to make great progress on projects (I always pack several) yet somehow when I return home I am farther behind than when I left!  It's crazy how inspiring it is to spend time sewing with friends and see what they are working on. It's also quite dangerous to go shopping at a really great quilt shop with them and see what they are purchasing! I seem to always end up with pattern and fabric for a whole new quilt (or two) when I go. 

This is the project I was working on.  It's the "Carnival" pattern from Gudrun Erla's latest book.  The blocks are HUGE!  I was able to finish six of them at Kinderhook.  There are nine total plus sashing so I still have a way to go.

One of my firends finished several quilts over the weekend.  This one only needed borders so it was almost instant gratification once she found the perfect fabrics at Hickory Stick:

I love the pattern!  It's called "Bento Box".  I'm not sure who the designer is.  It's a great pattern for Bali pops - and I seem to have a few of those around.

One of the other projects she started and finished over the weekend used neutral jelly rolls we had created from an exchange we did at a guild retreat several years ago.  I've been saving mine for a neutral log cabin.  She used a keyhole pattern and it turned out beautiful!  (Sorry, I failed to get a picture...)  Seeing how wonderfully they went together inspired me to get back to mine - and to pick up a few extra fabrics to throw in:

Speaking of new project, I also picked up a bunch of fabric (including four Bali pops - imagine that!) and a pattern for a new Judy Niemeyer quilt in blues and browns.  Not sure when I will get to that one...I seem to have a serious backlog of her patterns even though I really don't like paper piecing. 

I also managed to finish binding the Sauder Village rug on the trip.  I still need to sew down the binding tape, but it is almost ready to make the trek to Ohio:

 I'm still plugging away at my baskets, too.  Here's the last one I finished:

I want to keep sewing!  Too bad we can't retreat every weekend - it's scary to think how much fabric and how many new projects I would end up with!