Changing Plans

It’s hard to believe that just two weeks ago I was returning home from the Appliqué Academy and a gorgeous view of the James River.   We had a great time there, found a couple of fantastic new places to eat, and fell in love with yet another project that I am excited about starting as soon as the pattern arrives. I made a bit of progress on my Rising Sun, too, in spite of the fact that I wasn’t really all that motivated to work on it when I prepared for the trip.

I had planned to really focus on my Basket Case baskets this month for my OMG project but have instead continued to work on Rising Sun since getting back.  I’m nearly half way finished with my center star - I will have to start assembling it once I get the fourth point finished.  I am loving the colors!

Unlike many I see posting on Facebook, sheltering in place does not mean lots of extra time for me. I work at home anyway, and since I am involved in monitoring the status of our operations around the world it has meant working very, very long days.  This weekend was the first time I’be had off since getting back from Williamsburg. I set up my steamer and finally finished my Schoolhouse Sampler and got it up on the wall.

I also steamed my Fraktur Floral so I could get started on binding.

I was tempted by so many of the new projects and sew-alongs that I saw online over the weekend.  I’m waiting for fabric to start on Edyta Sitar’s mystery quilt.  I was really looking forward to taking a class with her next month but of course that won’t happen now.  I also fell for the sew-along posted by Primitive Gatherings CA - the Village pattern from Miss Rosie’s Quilt Company.  I’ve always liked the pattern so I decided to join in the fun.  Here is the start of my Village:

With no travel plans in my immediate future - a rug hooking trip to KC cancelled this week, Quilt history and Paducah cancelled in April, and Quilting With Confidence postponed for May - I am thinking I might need to take a vacation day or two to spend in the sewing room just to maintain my sanity.  With all the time at home I might even finally get my sewing room in order...

March OMG Project

Getting in a quick post just under the wire to link up with Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal for March.... I am hoping to make significant progress on the baskets for Irene Blanck’s Basket Case quilt this month. I finally was able to see the finished top in person this week (this is a Irene’s):

The lighting wasn’t great in her classroom so the colors aren’t true. It’s such a happy quilt! I prepped quite a few blocks to take to the Academy but didn’t end up spending any time on them.  I want to get the center finished before she comes to teach in October.  So far I have two blocks finished. My goal for March is to finish half of the center baskets (so 16 more).  Ridiculous stretch, I know - but a girl can dream!

February OMG Update

I did make a little bit of progress I made on my Frolic! project in February, but not nearly as much as I had hoped.  I made my way through all of the steps and, after having to rip and reassemble at least two of the pieces I managed to turn the wrong way, I finally finished one block.  My second didn’t go much better - I have a knack for turning patches the wrong way.  I am happy with my colors, but have to admit that I’m not looking forward to assembling the rest of it!

I had hoped to share a couple of rug finishes in this post, one that I finished binding and another I finished hooking, but I didn’t get time to steaming them today so those will have to wait.  I’m off to the Academy of Appliqué in a couple of days so my sewing time this weekend was spent prepping things to work on there.  I’m looking forward to a few days of appliqué inspiration!

February OMG

I've had a tough time deciding what to focus on for February since there are so many things that I want to work on! I do want to finish hooking my Fraktur Floral rug this month and get it ready to bind, but was thinking that my OMG choice should be something that is a little farther from the finish line. So in the end I decided that I need to get busy on my Frolic! project to clear away all the piles of loose pieces that have accumulated on my treadle table (sadly because every other surface in my sewing room is covered with other things...).  My goal for the month is to get the top assembled. 

I need to figure out what to do with the borders to make it a little bit larger.  I haven't done the math but it looks like increasing the number of blocks would make it too big. The pattern finishes at 82" square but I prefer to finish somewhere in the 90" to 96" range. I like what @mindyquilts did with her HST borders, making them into flying geese:

I've seen several finished tops with a plain outer border added which would be the easiest way to go. And then there's this one from @justlikegreatauntjulie.  It turned out great but I am definitely not this ambitious!

Perhaps the geese arrangement with a plain outer border (4") would do the trick for me?

I'm linking up with Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal for February.  My other goal for this month will be to post progress before the finish party ends...

Whirlwind Month!

The past few weeks have been just short of insane!  I definitely took a couple of tiny steps forward and a few huge leaps backwards as far as projects are concerned.  I managed to make a bit of progress on the last couple of steps of Frolic! before leaving town for a rug hooking retreat. I am working steps 7 & 8 simultaneously, trying hard to keep track of all the sets (this is definitely a time when chain piecing is NOT my friend).  The reveal was posted while I was away so I hope to have time to assemble a couple of blocks soon to see if all of these colors look cohesive in the final product.  They are looking like a bit of a hot mess right now....

And then there's my OMG goal - Maggie Macguire.  A complete FAIL!  I had set a target of getting 12 flowers done.  I do have more than 12 prepped, but I am slow at EPP and didn't have nearly as much time to work on them while traveling as I had hoped.  I only have 3 flowers to show for the month.



I had a fantastic time at the rug hooking retreat and made a lot of progress on my Fraktur Floral rug. I had been stuck on colors - the leaf colors completely died when I started adding background - so I was happy to be able to figure it out and move forward.  The retreat is attended by a great group of ladies and there are so many amazing rugs!  I will have to share some of my favorites from the rug show in a later post.



The dark green was exactly what this rug needed.  Looking at the picture now I think I will remove a bit of the dark that is surrounding that bubble on the upper left.  I am trying to bring just a little more of the dark into the top to balance the values...



So while I can report great progress on my rug (I actually filled in even more of the background since I took the photo), I offset my forward progress by purchasing two more patterns.  One I can sort of excuse as it is for a class later this year that I had previously committed to, but the other was completely new and not in my plans.

Then there were the new quilt project starts.  Irene Blanck will be returning to teach her new basket design in October this year.  She sent us the pattern for the center baskets in advance so we can get a head start.  I decided that I want to do mine in Japanese fabrics.  I completed two blocks and prepped a third. I also prepped my first two blocks for Afternoon Delight but didn't make any progress on getting them stitched.



Just three days after returning from rug hooking I was off to Ireland for work. I was busy with work all my waking hours there (other than dinner which was with my coworkers) so there was not much sight-seeing other than the rides to and from the sites.  Sadly the only photos I took were from the plane.



I did learn a bit more about Irish culture during the trip. Like the fact that they don't use much salt (at least not compared to the US) - they put the salt in the shaker with the fewest holes - and they have no idea what the corned beef is that Americans eat on St. Patrick's Day.  They have nothing like it there (which I think is brilliant because I can't stand it!). 

While I was traveling home a friend found an antique quilt on Marketplace that I felt needed to be added to my collection.  I picked it up in St. Louis on Saturday and it was much filthier than it looked in the pictures (to be fair, the description said it needed a good cleaning).  I set out to clean it, my first attempt at cleaning one myself (terrifying!!!).  I soaked it overnight in Retro Clean.  The water was disgusting!  I then washed it with a little detergent and spread it out to dry.  It has a rust stain that faded quite a bit but is still very visible - I may try to treat that next - but overall it came out great.  The binding is very worn and there are a couple of small tears in the outer red border but the quilting is amazing!  There is a small amount of sun fading on one motif.  Not sure how it was folded to only fade in one small area?



I hope that January will turn out to be my least productive month of 2020 and that February will be much better!  Now I just need to figure out what I want to focus on next month....

PHD in 2020

Continuing in the spirit of setting goals for the new year, I'm going to take a stab at joining Quilting Gail's PHD in 2020 challenge.  The challenge is choosing which 12 of my "PHDs" to include!  I have sooooo many UFOs (no way I'm counting!) and quite a few projects that I really want to start.  So, here we go:

1. Good Fortune (2018 Bonnie Hunter Mystery)

I'll start off easy - this one just needs to be loaded into the longarm, quilted, and bound.  Should be a no-brainer to get this one done.

2. Frolic! (2019 Bonnie Hunter Mystery)



Up until 2019 I had a fairly decent track record of finishing the previous year's mystery before starting a new one. I will try hard to get back on track and finish this one off before November when the next one is launched.

3. Afternoon Delight 

This is not mine - it's a picture borrowed from The Quilt Show (TQS) - but this is a pattern I have owned and wanted to work on for years. I purchased mine when I took my first class with Sue Garman. Now that TQS is doing it as their BOM for 2020, I am inspired to get mine started.  So far all I have done is take all the patterns out of their packages, put them in a binder, and selected some fabrics for it but I am considering that a start.  I will try very hard not to let this become a long-term addition to the UFO collection.

4. Maggie Macguire's Garden

Another recent start that I want to keep pushing forward this year. I have one of the many stars completed, and a second in progress. Still a long way to go on this one....

5. Dresden Star


All of the Dresdens are finished and just need to be appliqued onto backgrounds and assembled into a top.  I think I have one block completed so far.

6. Clamshells

While I recognize that I am getting way too ambitious with the handwork projects I am adding to my list, I really would love to get this quilt together. I need 12 of these panels to make a queen-sized quilt and so far have 4 completed and 1 in progress.  I have quite a few additional clamshells basted to prepare my next panel.

7.  Starlite Skies (Primitive Gatherings 2017 Pieced SBOW)

This one is ready for quilting, but will be my first foray into doing custom work.  I have a couple of tops I have purchsed on eBay that I plan to practice with, but I definitely want to try my hand at doing custom quilting in 2020.

8. Hazel's Diary


I have the center and one of the eight blocks completed with another one in progress. Six more blocks shouldn't be that tough to complete, right??

9. Star Penny Mat


I couldn't wait to get this one laid out, but once it was it ended up being set aside and (it was seriously fun to lay out!).  I just need to start stitching those pennies...

10. Triangle Gatherings

 

I have all of my blocks completed and actually started setting them but ran across another setting that I absolutely loved, so I plan to take apart what I have done (it isn't much) and start over with the different (and far more complicated) setting.

11. Circa 1880


I have 92 of these little blocks completed but need 564 for the pattern's version (roughly 76" square), more if I decide to go bigger. Still haven't decided yet.

12.  Square Deal (Primitive Gatherings 2019 Pieced SBOW)



Adding this one because I have made good progress on it (6 of 12 weeks' blocks completed) and really want to get another one of the SBOWs across the finish line before I start my 2020 collection.

I could go on...and on, and on... There are so many projects that I want to work on!  It will be interesting to see just how many of these I can push across the finish line. The first status update is set for Jan 15.  Will I have anything to show by then?  We shall see!

Welcome, 2020!

It’s hard to believe that my break has come to an end already!  I somehow didn’t manage to cross off very many items on my vacation “To Do” list.  The sewing room is still not organized, the pictures still aren’t hung in my office, and, other than making some progress on my Frolic! Mystery quilt I have very little to show for my time off.

I was very happy Tuesday morning when I found myself completely caught up on Frolic! - or so I thought.

I opened up Facebook and saw the “surprise” clue that Bonnie posted that morning.  Really?!?  That feeling of satisfaction lasted less than ten minutes.  So I was back at it on New Year’s Day, making flying geese.  I only managed to complete about a fourth of the new clue so far.  I will have to play catch-up this weekend.

As it is a new year, it is time for my annual attempt to set project goals and hold myself accountable. While I have not as of yet succeeded in meeting those goals, I haven't given up trying (yet).  I will start by linking up with Elm Street Quilts' One Monthly Goal.  While the obvious goal for January would be Frolic!, I figure I will be working on that anyway so I should choose something else that I want to move forward.  I finally received my first BOM shipment for Maggie Macguire's Garden and have finished my first flower:

I've made a start on a second, but I am slow at EPP.  I need to figure out how to pick up the pace a little.  My goal for January will be to finish at least a dozen flowers. 

The biggest challenge will be to avoid getting distracted by all the shiny new projects popping up everywhere.  I've seen at least three that have piqued my interest in the last two days....