Starting New Projects

Hard to believe we are more than half way through February already! I’m late with my January update and February list.  I did spend the better part of the retreat I attended at the end of January working on Indigo Way, and did get all of the cutting finished but am far from having my top completed.  I also managed to get the motifs finished on my Hidden Garden rug so all that is left now are the border and background. I did not, however, make much progress on my Twilight Stars blocks.  I think I only managed to do two last month, and so far have only done two this month.

Our January TAS program featured Diana Boston, daughter-in-law of Lucy Boston.  Her presentation was amazing!  Lucy Boston was incredible talented at fussy (or as Diana refers to it, ‘precision’) cutting.  Her quilts are truly amazing!  I was inspired to dig out my Patchwork of the Crosses project and finish a couple of blocks. Here’s one of them. I find the fussy cutting challenging - I need to work on getting better at figuring out those angles.

Although I should be focusing on finishing up some of the many, many projects I have already started, I’ve been having a lot of fun starting new projects this year. At the end of last month I jumped into the  Tiny Nine Patch (TNP) challenge led by Taryn of Repro Quilt Lover. I am working from little scraps and am really loving the little blocks so far, even if I am not keeping up. I have 31 so far (19 short of being on track). These blocks are 2" unfinished and are super cute.

I made a quick run over to Mexico, MO on Super Bowl Saturday to check out Homestead Hearth's open house.  The store looks great and pretty much everything was 25% off so of course I had to bring home loads of fabric I didn't need.  I can't pass up a good deal!  And then, of course, I had to stop at Dagwood's for lunch.  Their food is delicious!  


I also got started on the new 2024 Wool Box project from Primitive Gatherings.  Here are the first two blocks. Lisa indicated that there may be more embellishments added to the blocks later on.  These don't take long to do so I might actually be able to keep up with two every other month.


My focus projects for February are:

1. TNP - goal is 40 blocks
2. Temperature quilt - finishing the tree applique
3. Twilight Stars February blocks

I also want to work on my Hidden Garden rug this month.  My goal is to have it completed before I return to Eureka Springs in May.  It seems so far off but I know it will be here before I know it!

Eureka Springs Retreat & January Projects

It's a bit late in the month for a January goals post but it's been a busy month!  I have been filling my calendar (and my new quilting planner 😊) with retreats, workshops, and new stitch-alongs I can't resist in preparation for having more free time beginning at some point in 2024. I am hoping I will have plenty of finishes this year, especially some of the quilt tops that "just" need to be quilted and bound - I have a long list of those!

Before jumping into my list, I want to share a couple of quick photos from a recent rug hooking trip to Eureka Springs. I have been attending this retreat for quite a few years now and it is always one of my favorites - a great way to recharge after the chaos of the holidays.  I am really looking forward to next year when I might even be able to stay a little longer! It's a big group - I think the final number was around 107 after a few cancellations due to illnesses and crazy weather. We had crazy cold temperatures (below zero a couple of days) and about 5" of snow, which essentially shuts everything down in the mountains of Arkansas.  Here's a view from the doorway of the conference center looking up toward the building where my room was - it was a cold and slippery walk!

I'd like to say that we were all warm and cozy inside the convention center but that wasn't exactly the case - it was chilly inside too - but it was wonderful in spite of the cold. Here's the view of the hooking room from my chair - I was all the way at the back.

And here's a glimpse of the rug I was working on:

This is my Hidden Garden rug that I started in October at Sally Kallin's in Minnesota.  I had hoped to completely finish all the motifs while at the retreat but didn't quite get to them all.  I did finish them last night and am now started on the border.  I don't usually like to leave all the background for last but because the border uses leftovers from the motifs I needed to finish those first, so now it will take a bit of self-discipline to make myself keep going to get it finished.

That brings me to my three focus quilting projects for January - I have decided to start with just choosing three per month rather than creating a long list of WIPs, UFOs, and new starts knowing that would quickly get out of hand. So here are the three quilting projects I want to focus on with what is left of this month:

1. Indigo Way Mystery 
2. Reproduction Fabrics Tiny Nine Patches
3. Twilight Stars (catching up for at least this month)

On the rug hooking front, I will continue working on Hidden Garden.  I will post progress on all at the beginning of February.