Goodbye 2023!

My plan to get back into the habit of posting regularly seems to have gone the way of most New Year’s resolutions and fizzled by the end of the first quarter.  It’s a shame, really, as it is always nice to be able to look back at my travels and the history of my projects (many of which are in progress for a very long time!).  It would take far too long to catch up on everything that has transpired since March so I will just have to settle for capturing a few travel highlights and a couple of recent finishes.

I visited  Primitive Gatherings twice again this year, once in August for an open retreat with a friend and again for the Naughty or Nice Retreat in December.  I made a quilt for their 2023 Red, White and Green quilt show and enjoyed seeing my quilt displayed hanging from the ceiling in The Gathering.

I managed to finish the pieced retreat project while there, although it proved to be a bit more challenging than it should have been.  The retreat group had fun trying to come up with a name for it (it started out as “Big Ornament”), and after ruling out a few entertaining but inappropriate options (e.g., “Well Hung”), we landed on “Ho Ho HOliday”.

I also got a start on the Wrapped in Ribbons pattern from the December American Patchwork & Quilting magazine.  It isn’t really my kind of project but I got caught up in the excitement and ordered a kit so I figured I would try to knock it out.  I was able to finish piecing the top yesterday.

 
Among my many fun travels this year was a trip to Pine Island, Minnesota for a workshop with Sally Kallin.  I started yet another large rig, her Hidden Garden. I am loving this rug and will be taking it with me to Eureka.  Below is a picture of Sally’s - mine isn’t nearly that far along. 

I did manage to completely finish one rug this year, my Antique Basket. I finished hooking another oldie but goodie but it isn’t bound yet so I will save that one for when it is completely done.  This may be my favorite rug I have ever made.

As the new year begins I’m already fighting the urge to get sucked into more new stitch-alongs.  There are just so many options these days!  I do plan to restart my temperature quilt - I decided to put it on hold this year and wait instead to use it to celebrate my retirement year.  I’m currently working on the 2023 Bonnie Hunter mystery and am making reasonable progress on the Primitive Gatherings Twilight Stars stitch-along.  Let’s see how much willpower and common sense I can muster - I’m going to need it!

Pieceful Retreating

After several weeks of long days and weekends working, I made a last-minute decision to attend the Pieceful Gatherings' Spring Retreat in Crystal Lake, Illinois. Around 60 quilters gathered at the Crystal Lake Holiday Inn for a weekend of stitching that included a workshop with Lynn Wilder of Sew'n Wild Oats.  The retreat room was very spacious and the lighting was surprisingly good for a hotel ballroom.   

We worked on Lynn's new "Calico Cottages" pattern which includes tiny paper-pieced cabins at the center of log cabin blocks.  The cabin centers are 3" finished. 


I didn't work on the class pattern exclusively, but did manage to get two blocks finished while there.


The highlight of the weekend was show & tell - the quilts that were shared were amazing!  This is an antique, dated back to the early 19th century, shared by Pieceful Gatherings' shop owner Carrie:

This pattern was designed by Lynn and was featured in a class taught at Pieceful Gatherings.  This version was made by the person that taught the workshop:

I have always wanted to do a Lucy Boston quilt and have bought numerous tools (paper pieces, stamps, etc.) over the years. Pieceful Gatherings has been running a Lucy Boston club for a number of years and one of the participants recently finished her version:

And yes, I am now a club member and have started my first block!  I am finding fussy cutting a bit challenging - it's hard to position the paper pieces in exactly the same place every time.

I also worked on my Blue Baskets at the retreat.  I need to finish up the rails and hand stitch several basket handles but overall have been keeping up with this one fairly well.


I am continuing to stitch my tree for my temperature quilt, really hoping to have it finished by the end of the month. I'm also madly working to starch fabrics to get a start on Edyta Sitar's Stars Upon Stars quilt when the sew-along begins next week.  I have wanted to do this one for a while and collected BOM kits for it several years ago, so I figure I may as well jump in on it now.  

So that's three new UFOs added to my list this month. 🤣

February Update & March OMG

Well, it looks like I missed the monthly OMG link-up once again!  I started this post last night but ran out of steam.  I made some progress on both projects, but with a crazy month at work (February is annual report time, which means working days, nights and weekends) I didn't have much time for stitching or hooking.

I did get a start on my tree for my temperature quilt. This thing is large - about 60" tall and wide. 

I had to lay it out on the floor to trace and then baste in place. It took almost a day to do and was very hard on my knees! I am cutting it out as I stitch.  I didn't capture a picture but have about one and a half branches and the trunk stitched.  It is a bit of a struggle to manage all the fabric when doing needle-turn so it is slow, but I am hoping to finish the tree and start catching up on my leaves in March.


Again, work got in the way of meeting my goal on my basket rug, but I did make pretty decent progress.  I am going to stick with this project for March also, and this time am confident I can finish. I am hooking it in a 6-cut, even the background, so it does take some time to fill in, but it is pretty easy-going now that all the motifs are finished. 


I did manage to find a little time to start up one of the new projects on my "want to do" list - Blue Baskets from Piecing the Past Quilts.  I have my first two baskets finished and am nearly done with the second two.  I am off to a retreat this weekend and am hoping I can catch up on this weekly stitch-along.


On a whim - and mostly to celebrate (and get away from) the tough month at work - I decided to grab one of the spots that opened up at Pieceful Gatherings' Spring Retreat in Crystal Lake, IL. I have never been to the shop so am looking forward to visiting, and I have followed the retreat instructor, Lynn Wilder, for many years so am excited to meet her in person and work on one of her latest designs.  I am looking forward to a weekend of stitching!

I am linking up with Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal again this month - let's see if I can remember to post my updates before the end of the month this time!

January Travels & February OMG

I had a fantastic time in Eureka Springs in January!  Good food, great company, and lots of fun.

I made significant progress on my rug - it is still far from finished, but much, much closer.  My rug hooking OMG  for Feb will be to finish this one off (hooking, that is - I’m not making any promises on binding)!

I didn’t quite make my goal of 50 orange peels.  I managed to do 39, bringing my total for the one year, one per day challenge to 346.  Not too bad! I played around with piecing some of them together last weekend.  I only made four blocks but I can already tell I’m going to love it once it is finally together.

There are so many new projects I want to start!  A temperature quilt, the TQS block of the month, the latest Laundry Basket Quilts stitch-along, and more.  My OMG for February is my temperature quilt.  I am making a tree with split leaves representing the high and low.  I need to piece the background and tree fabric and get the tree basted to the background and catch up on leaves (I’ve only made about 10 so far).  

I’m linking up with Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal once again this month - and will try to get my wrap-up posted before the link closes this time!

Trying to Focus: January 2023 OMG

For whatever reason, the start of a new year always tempts me to start new projects. Temptation comes at me from all angles - new quilt-alongs from my favorite designers, challenges initiated in my quilting groups, my annual January rug camp, and even magazines. I usually go for months - years even - without seeing a single project in a magazine that tempts me, but while trying to catch up on reading over the holidays I found three projects I am dying to start, two of which are hand-pieced. I am trying hard to resist temptation but know I will cave eventually. So my goal for January is to make significant progress on a couple of aging projects even if I do start something new.

On the quilting side, I plan to focus on my orange peels.  I participated in a Facebook challenge to stitch one per day from Feb 2022- Jan 2023. Most months I did pretty well, with the exception of December when I spent all my free time stitching binding.  I am on track so far for January. Unfortunately the project I am working on requires 900 orange peels, so even with the 150 or so I had before I started the one-a-day I am only half way finished.  So my goal for January is to step up the pace - aiming for 50 this month - and to start piecing the ones that I have finished into blocks.

On the rug hooking side, I started my Antique Floral Basket rug back in May 2019.  I absolutely love this rug but it is large, I am hooking it with a small cut, and it is a bit tedious figuring out what to put where. My goal for this month is to make significant progress on it while at Eureka Springs.  I would love to finish hooking it, but after taking it off the frame to take a picture I realize that I have a lot farther to go than I thought!

I'm linking up with Elm Street Quilts' One Monthly Goal again this year to try to keep myself on track.  I just hope that I don't fall in love with any other new projects while checking out what everyone else is working on! 

2022 'Done & Dusted'

Wow - I only managed to do two posts last year!  I took so many photos with the intention of posting but just never got around to it. I did manage to make a fair amount of progress on a number of projects last year, and even finished a couple. Here's what I've been up to since my last post... 

In September, the weekend following Baltimore on the Prairie, I headed back across Missouri to attend the ATHA Biennial in Kansas City, KS.  It was a quick trip, but I did attend a workshop with Keith Kemmer on coverlet rugs.  It was a fantastic class and the project was so much fun to hook I had to keep going on it when I got home. I haven’t bound it yet but love how it turned out.

Early in the year I had committed to participate in the Primitive Gatherings Red & White Quilt Show. Of course I didn’t get around to starting my project until way too close to the deadline, so I had to come up with something that could be accomplished relatively quickly. I finished stitching the binding on this one the last possible day I could mail it to meet the deadline.  I named this one "Nine Squared" (so imaginative, I know!).

I was thrilled to be able to head up to Primitive Gatherings for the second annual "Naughty or Nice" retreat in December and was able to see the show in person.  My quilt was hanging from the ceiling of The Gathering.  It was so much fun to sew while immersed in all the beautiful red and white quilts! This was the view from my table (with my quilt in the distance).

I had been trying to come up with an idea for a quilt for my granddaughter for quite a while.  Unlike her older brother, she never shows much interest in anything in particular - she basically just plays with whatever he is playing with.  When I saw this quilt kit at Itch'n to be Stitch'n I knew it was perfect for her, and decided it would make a great Christmas gift accompanied by a stuffed fox and a fox storybook. Of course, I made this decision the first weekend of December, so I had to sew like a maniac to get it pieced, quilted and bound.  She really seemed to like it.

And then I completely lost my mind and decided that I should finish this project from the Naughty or Nice retreat for my grandson. I finished stitching the binding Christmas Eve morning.  I found an adorable stuffed snowman and a couple of snowman story books to go with it. He is obsessed with snowmen and has asked for a snowman birthday party for the second year in a row, so it was perfect for him.


I did spend a little time at retreat working on my Letters to Santa quilt.  These words are really fun to make!  Here's where I got to this year.  I can't work on Christmas projects after the holidays so this one will be packed away and pulled out again around November.

Last, but not least, is the quilting project I want to focus on finishing first in 2023.  This is Stars All Around, the 2022 summer pieced project from Primitive Gatherings.  The assembly is very simple but complicated at the same time - it's like assembling a puzzle and you have to be very careful to keep all the pieces in the right places. Below is the center.  I am working on the outer blocks now.


I don't have a picture of the rug I am focused on finishing first this year.  It's the Antique Basket pattern I started at Janice's several years ago.  It's a large rug and I am hooking it in a six cut so progress is slow, but I am hoping I can make a serious dent in it when I head to Eureka Springs later this month.

I have at least three (maybe four) new projects I want to start this month. I should be spending my time cleaning and organizing my sewing room as I had originally planned to do this week, but starting a new project sounds a lot more fun. I'm heading there now and will see if temptation or self-discipline wins. Happy New Year!