Getting Back on Track

The past couple of months have been completely nuts - so much going on that I have had little to no time to stitch or hook. Between buying a house for my daughter and spending three straight weekends on cosmetic updates (not to over-simplify - there was a little drywall work involved!), putting a contract on a house for us and spinning up all the pre-purchase activities only to run away as fast as we could after seeing the inspection results, and my job being beyond the normal level of crazy I have hardly accomplished anything since mid-June. I knew there was no point in even selecting an OMG project for July but today I am linking up with Elm Street Quilts OMG for August to motivate myself to get back on track.

I did manage to squeeze in a few days of rug hooking with Jayne Hester in July. I wanted to go the neutral route again, this time with a navy background. Janice drew the pattern from an antique rug design that I found online. One of my hooking friends was giving me a hard time about being in a rut - she suggested I name this one "Floral No. 5" since it looks so much like the "Floral No. 7" pattern I did with Jayne last year...  Anyway, I love the design and really think the colors are awesome.  

When I had little bits of time to get to the sewing room I finally finished week one of the pieced BOW.  I started so strong going into week one and then completely crashed and burned. I now have a shopping bag full of pacakges that have accumulated over the summer. It's really a bit daunting!

I have managed to keep up with the Homestead Hearth log cabin BOM. I have been keeping all of my extra strips very neatly organized for mixing in with future blocks.

I finished the blocks for month four sometime in July, so I now have 48 complete.  They are really scrappy and fun!

So as I get back into the swing of things, I participated in a workshop on Saturday with Shelly Pagliai, designer of Hazel's Diary Quilt.  Here's Shelly's version:

It was a fun workshop - really more of a sewing day than a class - but we pieced the block in the morning and then worked on the reverse applique frame in the afternoon.  I was inspired to keep going when I got home and managed to finish nearly all of the stitching on the frame Saturday night.  I basted the center applique onto the block yesterday and started piecing the next "block" in the book which is actually the inner border.  I am really happy with my color choices and how it is turning out so far.

So my August OMG project will be Hazel's Diary.  I want to finish the center block, get the borders on and make significant progress on the center border applique.  I need to get myself back into applique mode in preparation for Baltimore on the Prairie. It's hard to believe that it's just a little over a month away!