Wool Club Challenge & Serious Temptation

Now that most of the hustle and bustle of the holidays is behind me, I need to start thinking about what I am going to do with this:

Yes, it's an old bedspring.  The challenge is to turn it into something prior to the January meeting.  My first thought was a snowman, but a quick search on Yahoo shows that my idea isn't all that original.  I will mull it over for a couple more days, but now that I have the snowman visual stuck in my head it will be difficult to come up with something else!

As usual at this time of year I am surrounded by temptation.  I'm not referring to food - although there is a lot of that, too - but projects.  I am such a sucker for challenges, group activities and BOMs!  My Primitive Folk Art Yahoo group has decided to do quilts based on the "Album Quilts of Ohio's Miami Valley" book.  We are to start with out own eagle block in January, and then do our own blocks along with exchanging siggie blocks the rest of the year.  I tried to talk myself out of it, but couldn't resist.  I need to choose my fabrics and get started - this project has deadlines!

I am still trying to decide what to do for Wool Club this year.  My original plan was to do a small piece based on each month's theme.  After seeing the themes, though, I am not sure I want to go that route. I also thought about a twelve square "sampler" project,  but the monthly themes are all over the place and probably won't work in a single project.  I also need to keep in mind that I will be starting new rugs in workshops in March and April, so I already have more projects on my plate than I can handle.  More to come on that one...

And even though I already have way too many rug projects, I picked up on a discussion of a Dear Jane rug challenge in my Yahoo Rughookers group this morning, and of course had to jump in with both feet!  I would love to do something with the DJ-inspired pattern I started six or seven years ago.  I had switched to wool yarn and planned to do it in three colors, but after looking at it again may switch back to wool strips.  I'll have to give that one some thought as well.  So much to think about!

On the Road Again

It's been another crazy travel week with little progress on any projects (other than work!).  I did have a chance to break away for a little fun here and there, though.  On Monday night I took a long walk to see the New York store window displays, Radio City Music Hall, and Rockefeller Center.  New York is really hopping at this time of year - the streets were full of people shopping and sight-seeing. 

On Tuesday I headed to the American Folk Art Museum to see their "The Year of the Quilt" exhibit.  The museum is fairly small - the exhibit consisted of about 25 quilts.  There were several absolutely gorgeous applique quilts in the collection.  I took a lot of pictures (it's one of the few museums that actually allows non-flash photography) and also bought the new book they have released that shows their quilt collection.  The book weighs a ton - I am probably going to regret purchasing it after hauling it through all the airports tomorrow!

Today I was in the Boston area and finished up a bit early, so I checked the GPS for quilt shops.  I don't know how I lived without a GPS!  Much to my delight, I found that I was only about 15 miles from the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA, so I jumped on the highway and headed that direction.  One of the exhibits currently on display is a collection of antique blue and white quilts.  I loved them all!!!  I need to add a blue and white quilt to my "someday" list. 

One of the things that really captured my interest in the shop was a collection of out-of-print books they are selling to benefit the museum.  They had several of Elly's books (including two copies of "Spoken Without a Word" for $300 each).  I picked up a really wonderful applique pattern book by Pat Andreatta and one of Pat Campbell's early books.  There were actually two books by Pat that really caught my attention, but I decided I needed to exhibit at least a little self-control and leave one behind.  I had never heard of Pat and am looking forward to trying to find out a little more about her.

I'm headed home tomorrow and am looking forward to Wool Club on Saturday.  Nola is issuing a challenge - I can't wait to hear what it is!

Ready, Set....Sew!

I was able to spend quite a bit of time in the sewing room over the four day weekend (no shopping for me!) and managed to prep the first of nine blocks for the Antique Rose quilt.  I decided that I should prep all of the pieces rather than needleturn this one - I think because this pattern is so geomertic/symmetrical it is critical that everything be very uniform.  I used a combination of overlays and tracing on the background to get everything properly aligned and then basted the pieces in place.  I had a little bit of time to start sewing last night and was able to get a stem and leaf appliqued.  It will be interesting to see how quickly I can get all of the applique done - I'm not used to having everything ready to go like this!

Trying to Focus

I spent a good portion of Saturday trying to reorganize my sewing room to accomodate at least some of the stuff that I have been dragging home from all of the quilt shows and shopping adventures this year.  I was somewhat successful, but only because I pulled the remaining rug hooking things from the closet and baskets and hauled it to the basement (a.k.a. wool dumping ground).  I threw away a couple of things, and made mental notes to get rid of a few others at the guild's yard sale, but overall just crammed more stuff into closets and drawers that are already bursting at the seams.  The whole process served to remind me just how many projects I have started or purchased fabric for - I am totally out of control.  The worst part is that I do not have a single quilt to show for all my efforts in the past year or so - lots of blocks and partially-completed projects, but nothing even close to a whole quilt.  With the quilt show coming up in June, I figured it is high time I focus on a single project in an effort to have at least one thing to enter.  I do have the Runaway quilt to finish, but I really want to have an appliqued quilt to enter since that is the thing I love to do the most.

So I spent some time looking at some of my applique projects to assess degree of completion.  Bottom line is that most will require considerable effort (like making 250 more little baskets, etc.) to complete.  My Hearts & Flowers project is close, but I am not sure how I want to finish that one.  What I really want to do is start the Rose of Sharon pattern from McCall's Jan/Feb 2010 issue.  I fell in love with it the moment I saw it, and I purchased the fabric for it at the end of last year.  Here's a picture of the project and the antique quilt that inspired it (from Barbara Brackman's blog, Dec 2009):



I realize that trying to finish something this big in six months is quite an undertaking, but the pieces are big and there are only nine blocks, so it should be feasible, right???  I'm a little concerned about the symmetry.  I will have to be very careful not to let anything shift the least little bit or it will be obvious.  I know I am completely out of my mind, but I can't wait to get started!

Taking a Deep Breath

I'm just beginning to recover from the craziness of the past couple of weeks.  I still haven't tackled the gigantic mess in my sewing room (although I have to admit that my recent purchases are only part of the problem - I still have bags from Chicago, Paducah and Colorado), and I am way behind on other things like making arrangements for rug camp, installing my replacement router, etc.  I can hardly believe that it is nearly the middle of November already.  My travels and the warm weather have me totally baffled!  I took this picture of fall foilage this morning.  Trees around here usually aren't quite this brilliant in color, and the almost never have any leaves left by November!

Immediately upon returning from Houston, I attended a rug class with Anne Marie Littenberg at Nola's studio.  It was one of the best workshops I have ever attended!  We had a fantastic group of really creative people, and Anne Marie was an incredible teacher!  I am very excited about my project and was so inspired by everything I learned! 

The rug that Anne Marie is holding in the above photo illustrates one of the techniques I would like to try.  (And yes, that is Sharon Townsend in the corner - I said it was an awesome class!)  Anne Marie uses smaller and smaller cuts to create perspective as she works away from the foreground. The designer of this rug is using an 8 cut in the foreground and is gradually working to a 4 cut in the distance.  You could already see how dimensional it will look!

Here's a picture of my pattern and the hooking I got done in class.  With Anne Marie's and my daughter's encouragement I opted to do a view of the side of the Ha Ha Tonka castle rather than the view from the front.  I learned all kinds of tips for creating light and shadow.  I can't wait to get a little farther along to see how my building looks!

Another thing that Anne Marie inspired me to do is start a journal.  I have tried to capture ideas in various places in the past, including this blog and a composition notebook in my sewing room, but I have never been very serious about it.  I haven't found the perfect journal yet - I am off to Barnes and Noble in search of something tomorrow.  I want to do a better job of documenting my projects as well as the hundreds of ideas I come across, and jotting notes from my three days with Anne Marie seems like the perfect way to start!

Wrapping up the Sydney Trip

I'm down to the last night...  It's been a fantastic week, but I am definitely ready to be back in my own bed!  I have just about gotten used to some of the things that are different here, but others would take a much longer visit!  For example - salads.  I've been to all types of restaurants this week, and very few serve any type of salad.  Those that do serve something called "rocket" (a type of lettuce) with essentially no dressing - lemon juice or something.  I am craving a big ol' Bread Company Fugi Apple Chicken Salad.  Actually, I am craving anything from Bread Company!

I have spent quite a bit of time touring Sydney over the past week.  I hopped on a tour bus and did the city tour at the beginning of the week.  I went inside the Opera House and toured the Royal Botanical Gardens. 

The bathroom in the Opera House had the most amazing sink!  I had to get a picture:

I saw some beautiful flowers at the gardens.  So many that I have never seen in the US!  And along the walkway I ran into this little guy - just sitting there eating his lunch! 

I have so much more to share - next time will be about my trip to the Blue Mountains.

Visiting Sydney

It was a very long trip and a close call with the connection in San Francisco, but I made it!  I left home around 4:30 PM Friday and reached Sydney at 7:30 AM on Sunday.  I did get some sleep on the plane, so I am still functioning fairly well, but I'm not all that motivated to roam the city tonight.  I did some wandering this afternoon and found some really interesting things. There's a market in an area adjacent to the hotel called "The Rocks".  They had everything - lots of jewelry, art, etc.  I already have a few ideas for souvenirs. 

My hotel is located on the water, right at the base of the Bay Bridge.  My room overlooks the bridge, and the other side of the hotel looks out on the Opera House.  It's a beautiful area, although it was cold and rainy today.  I'm hoping for better weather so I can wander a little farther tomorrow - and look for some quilt shops!