Easter Weekend Progress Report

I had a very busy weekend cooking, running errands and cooking...not to mention judging the family Easter egg coloring contest....but still managed to get a little sewing done. I guess I have to concede that I am officially behind on the 365 challenge now as I was not able to finish last week's blocks, but I managed to get four of them finished,

There are a couple that were assigned later in the week that look incredibly painful.  I'm hoping to get back on track next weekend because if I get too much further behind I will be overwhelmed!

While sewing the 365 blocks I got back to working on my leader-ender tumblers which actually made them more fun.  I finished my third row (57 tumblers) and got started on a fourth.

I have been spending my evenings working on my newest project, a Baltimore album quilt. In what might have been a moment of crazy....under the influence of incredibly inspirational applique at this year's Academy - my friends and I decided to embark on making an album quilt.  One each, not a group effort.  And a complete quilt, not just a few blocks. It has been so much fun so far - we are all comparing notes and progress and keeping each other motivated.  We are still on the first block so we have a long way to go, but I am so excited and inspired by this project!  Here's my first block so far (please excuse the wrinkles!):

I also spent some time prepping more orange peels to be sure I had plenty for my trip.

I had a very turbulent (and thankfully short) flight and have been busy both evenings I've been here so I haven't even opened my little bag.  I'm hoping to get at least a little sewing time tomorrow - I am so close to making my one a day goal this month!

Easter Weekend Sew-In

I'm hoping to wrap up work early today to allow a little time to get started on the Easter Weekend Sew-In. I'm not sure how much time I will be able to spend in the sewing room with family in town, Easter activities and a business trip beginning early Sunday afternoon, but I plan to do my best!  If you would like to sew along with the rest of us (or try to, anyway!) you can sign up on the Sugarlane Designs blog.

Sign up here!

I had a chance to visit the Bits 'n Pieces 2016 Fanfare of Quilts last weekend.  What a fantastic show! I could tell it was going to be a good one from the moment I walked in the door.  

Look at all the beautiful applique! This one was my absolute favorite:

The colors were absolutely beautiful and the applique was spectacular!

Once again I have a bunch of lousy pictures - I think it is time for a new iPhone... This was a very striking quilt (hard to tell in the washed-out photo):

Here are a couple more excellent examples of the appliqued quilts on display:

The show was very inspiring!  One of these days I will have an applique quilt in a show...I have a solid start on about 50 of them. I just have to live long enough!

365 Challenge Dilemma

I've been plugging along with the blocks for the 365 challenge and have been able to keep up for the most part. I'm not sure why I can't get a decent picture - the colors don't come across correctly on the iPhone - but here is most of my progress since I last posted them.  There are a couple more that I finished after this was taken. 

Here's my dilemma, though - I spend almost all of my machine time trying to keep up with these. Thankfully they are assigned in a level of difficulty progression by technique so there are usually a couple of quick ones in the mix each week, but they still require a lot of time. My interest is starting to wane. But given that I have 72 blocks completed I feel a little trapped!  I could put them all into a small quilt but where's the fun in that?? I was just about ready to cry uncle last week and stop trying but then spread these all out on the floor and felt like I had to keep going. Given I feel this way now I'm not sure I'm going to last 9 more months!

I stopped working on 365 blocks long enough to prep a bunch more orange peels. As of last night I am caught up for this month so far - 16 peels completed by the 16th!

I should know better than to have committed to two blocks per day between these two projects. What was I thinking?!?