Grassy Creek Week #1

I got off to a strong start on this year's mystery thanks to an easy first clue.  I had it finished before Thanksgiving weekend was over, even with working on a few other projects.

I was late to the party on this one - I think Pat Sloan ran a quilt along with this pattern in October - but I absolutely love it!  I actually fired up the new AccuQuilt cutter I purchased over the summer and cut all my 2.5" strips and squares. So far I have four blocks completed.  They are large - like 18.5" - so I think nine will make a nice throw to use as a Christmas decoration (maybe next Christmas?).  


I was also inspired by a new quilting friend I met through TAS to start on the Huguenot Friendship quilt.  We are up to our fourth block.  Here are my first two:




I haven't done quite as well with the second and third clues on the mystery - Christmas projects to finish and other "to dos" have limited my time at the sewing machine.  I'm a bit unsure how I feel about some of the color combinations thus far, but I will have faith that it all will actually work together in the end. 

I'm looking forward to my time off at the end of the year to catch up on the mystery and to hopefully finish organizing my sewing space - can't believe it's been almost two years since I moved to the basement and it still isn't finished! 

It’s November!

Hard to believe that it’s November already and mystery season is almost here!  I recently finished stitching the binding on the 2018 mystery and had hoped to get Frolic! quilted before Thanksgiving but it’s looking like that isn’t going to happen.  I need to spend some serious time on the long arm - I’ve built up quite a backlog of tops!

I managed to get away from work for an extended weekend retreat a couple of weeks ago.  It was wonderful!  I decided to work on simple piecing projects so I’d feel like I accomplished something.  First up was a T-shirt quilt for my daughter for Christmas.  I planned it on the fly and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.  I am a little worried it won’t be as soft as I had hoped.  The stabilizer I used for most of the shirts makes them feel a bit stiff.  It was one I bought over five years ago when I first planned to make this quilt.  I ran out of it as I was putting the top together and ended up purchasing something different that’s  a little softer, but I had most of the shirts prepped by then.  I hope the quilt doesn’t end up stiff as a board when it’s quilted.

I spent a little time working on houses, adding a dozen to my neighborhood.  My friend Pat was finishing up the houses for hers and had them all up on the display wall.  They were so fun to look at!  I can’t wait to see her finished quilt!


Then I started “Take it Easy” from Primitive Gatherings’ Redwork Gatherings fabric.  It went together very quickly from jelly rolls.  I managed to finish the top before heading home Monday.

It’s always exciting when Bonnie reveals the colors for the annual Quiltville Mystery.  I had planned to switch up the colors this year but changed my mind when I saw her choices.  The prominence of the grays intrigues me.  I hardly had any gray in my stash so I had to pick up a few pieces (which somehow ended up being 10+ yards, but I wanted variety!)  

I am going with lighter, brighter oranges and yellows.  My reds and greens are a fairly good match for the paint chips.  I am resisting the urge to replace the warm colors with blues and purples - I need to leap out of that box!  I’m looking forward to getting started.

The toughest part will be finding time to post updates.  It took me over a week to get this posted.  I hate it when work gets in the way of my fun!

Summer Hooking & Stitching

I have been terrible about posting in the past few months!  I blame internet overload...  While the one benefit of the pandemic has been an explosion in virtual quilting (and even rug hooking) events, my desire to participate in too many of them has monopolized my non-work computer time.  By the time I finish catching up on all the posts and FB Live sessions I am ready to get away from the screen!

I did manage to get away to a couple of real-life events over the past few weeks.  In July I headed to Kansas City for our annual workshop with Jayne Hester, which ended up being the "No Jayne Camp" due to COVID.  It was very nice - a small group with Janice teaching instead. I decided to start yet another rug - my third start of the year. It's a sampler, an older pattern of Janice's, and I am in love with the colors.  I am removing the people from mine...I'm not a fan of having people (especially faces) in my projects.

I had a chance to escape to a retreat center with a small group of friends for a long weekend and managed to get quite a bit of sewing done.  It was so wonderful to get away!  It has been so sad clearing all of my vacation trips from the calendar, so I especially enjoyed the chance to sew in person with friends.  I got the binding sewn onto my 2018 mystery quilt so all that is left is stitching it down, and also finished week two of the PG pieced SBOW.  I also managed to get the borders onto Frolic! so it is ready to load onto the long arm. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I'm even happier to be finished piecing it!

I decided mid-retreat that I would rather sit my 2020 pieced SBOW aside until I finish the one from 2019. I spent the last day of retreat completing week six, so I am halfway through the blocks.  Still a long way to go but I absolutely love this quilt!


Ans yes, that is one week's assignment! And speaking of intense piecing projects, in a weak moment I somehow decided it would be fun to sign up for Vintage Rose, a Judy Niemeyer technique-of-the-month workshop that is being taught by one of our local quilt shops via Zoom.  We've had two classes so far and I am hopelessly behind.  There are monthly classes through January....supposedly if I keep up the top will be nearly complete by then. I'm not seeing that happening!

I find paper piecing incredibly tedious.  I am following all of the prescribed steps and have to give Judy credit for developing a some pretty slick process steps to help things along, but I still am not a fan of tearing the paper out.   

Another online event that I participated in last month was a "retreat in a box" through Granny's Legacy Patterns.  They shipped all of the supplies for the retreat project along with a treats and a couple of little gifts a week or so ahead of the retreat event, and then during the retreat they hosted a few technique sessions, games, a trunk show and a shop tour via FB Live. It was fun and I enjoyed the project.  I just finished mine over the weekend - now I need to get one of those oval trays for it to sit in.

I have several virtual events scheduled for September, including another workshop in a box from Granny's Legacy and another Vintage Rose class. I also hope to get Frolic quilted and the bindings on both it and the 2018 mystery before the next one begins - it's hard to believe but November is right around the corner!

Hooking in KC

It was wonderful to get a chance to travel and spend time with friends last week!  Our gathering was small - only 8 instead of the usual crowd - but Janice treated us like royalty as always and we had a fantastic time!  I started a new rug and am loving it so far.  The colors are based on a bouquet of hydrangeas that Janice cut right before the birthday bash last November.  Originally blue, they had started drying out and had turned gorgeous shades of lavender, white, soft green, and gold with deep burgundy leaves.  We had pulled wools to match the colors at that time and they’ve been stashed away waiting for this camp.

I forced myself to put it away when I got home and have gone back to work on Old Maine House. I would love to have it finished by the time I go to Janice’s again next month.

There were some great projects in progress in our little group.  Joan was working on a huge critter runner she designed for her lake house.

Betsy started This Vine, an older pattern Janice designed.  I am planning to get started on it next month.

And Leah was working on a design she asked Janice to draw that is based on an antique rug she found.

Lynn was working on an incredible project she designed herself and was incorporating standing wool shapes into her hooking.  It was amazing!

The camp went by way too quickly as usual and tomorrow I’m back to work with a very busy week ahead.  It was nice to get the time away to recharge!

I did manage to do a tiny bit of sewing on the weekends.  I have been keeping up with the prep work on the first three weeks of the Primitive Gatherings wool SBOW and have been starching the fabrics for the pieced version.  I did get one of the pieces blacks finished and pieced the centers for the other four blocks for week one.

And I managed to add two more quilts to my collection.  The one below was found by my friend Cindy in Amana, Iowa.  It has a couple of damaged spots but is a great design and has beautiful quilting.  It’s hard to see in the picture but there are blue leaves on the border motifs.  It’s hard to tell if it was a green fabric that lost its yellow or if it started out blue, but it clearly wasn’t the same fabric as used in the blocks.  The baskets look to have been red initially but have faded to various degrees of pink.

The only nice thing about returning to work tomorrow is that it’s a short week.  I am already looking forward to a long weekend in my sewing room!

May Update

In spite of having more weekends at home as a result of most events being cancelled, I just don’t seem to be getting much sewing or rug hiking accomplished. It’s partly due to the very nice weather we’ve been having - I think it was the longest spring ever - but also because I have been trying to force myself to spend time finishing up the move to my new sewing space. Sadly the move has been in progress for 17 months now....but I finally received my new dresser that will provide additional drawer space so I have no more excuses. My goal is to have it completely organized by the end of June.  I will share pictures when I succeed.

I did manage to get a few things accomplished in May.  I added a few more houses to my Village...


And I was thrilled to be able to join a very small get together at Janice’s and get started on my Old Maine House rug. I saw the original when visiting the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Museum in Williamsburg in early 2019.  Unfortunately the rugs were displayed under glass so the photo isn’t great.

Janice drew up the pattern and we had planned to get a big group together to get started on it at the end of March, but unfortunately that had to be cancelled due to the pandemic. A few of us were able to meet in May to get it started.


I’m a little farther along than this now, and hope to get the rest of the sky and both trees completed before I head back to Janice’s to start another new rug later this month.

I finally managed to assemble the center of Frolic! and I have the borders pieced and ready to attach. I may try to tackle that this weekend.

And last, but not least, I started on a relatively new BOM from Homestead Hearth called Subtle Shades. It’s a nice mindless project - a welcome break from Frolic!

I am looking forward to participating in the Retreat From Home - Sew in your Jammies 2020 event this weekend. I am hoping I will have plenty of progress to show at the end of the 2.5 days!

April Progress

I decided to forgo setting goals for April and instead just work on whatever grabbed me at any given time during the month. Initially when all of the pandemic-inspired sew-alongs and projects started coming out I wanted to do them all, but soon reality set in and I decided that other than jumping into the Village project (too cute & fun to resist), the little bit of extra time I have gained from all of my travels being cancelled would be better spent focusing on existing UFOs. 

I decided that I would dust off an old hooking project that has always been one of my favorites. I planned this one in a workshop with Sally Kallin in 2012.  Here's where it was when I pulled it out of the project bag.  I've made decent progress on it over the last few weeks and plan to continue to work on it even if I am able to go anywhere and start anything new in the coming months.  I still really love this pattern! 

Down in the sewing room, I decided I needed to make myself assemble my Frolic! pieces and parts. I finished assembling all of the blocks:



And then pieced the sashings and started assembling the top:



I have to say that this is not my favorite of the mysteries I have participated in.  There were so many leftovers after piecing the blocks - dozens of flying geese and HSTs that weren't needed.  I understand why it was set up how it was, but can't help but find it highly frustrating that I spent so much time sewing and trimming flying geese (which are not my favorite to make) that won't even be used!  And then there's the assembly - so many seams don't nest that it is a challenge to get everything lined up. I'm about half way done with the top and then will be forced to make a decision on the border. 

I also decided it was time to get the 2018 mystery quilted. I reverse-sewed the block in the inner corner and was able to turn it the right direction and piece it back in with surprisingly little difficulty.  I loaded it up on the longarm with a backing I pieced from a batik I happened to have a lot of.  I knew it was a bad idea - Bonnie Hunter quilts do not work well with batik backs - but thought I could run the machine slow enough for it not to be a problem.  Wrong!  I had five thread breaks on the very first pass. I slowed it down even more and have had a little better luck with the next three rows.



I have two rows left to quilt and this one will be ready for binding.  I've decided that my next quilting project will be custom.  I have a couple of tops purchased on ebay that I plan to practice on. If all goes well I may even get my Starlite Skies (2017 Primitive Gatherings pieced SBOW) finished this year...G

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...