Hate it When That Happens!

I recently (in August) started a year long advanced hand-piecing class at The Quilted Fox in St. Louis. I am finding that hand piecing is absolutely addictive! I hadn't done it in quite a while, so it took a bit of time to get back into that mode, but I'm on a roll now. Of course I am already behind on my assignments...I finished part of the August homework:


















I'm using my stash of Japanese taupes for this one - it will be very scrappy.  I was supposed to have two of these blocks along with another 6" star but didn't get that far.  We received our second assignment last Saturday.  I haven't had much time to sew this week, but have been trying to squeeze in a few minutes here and there to sew a quick seam or two. Of course, rushing these things can be problematic.  I had time for one quick seam before bedtime last night.

Hmmmm... Something just isn't quite right here! Don't you hate it when that happens?!?

I did manage to finish another basket before I was sucked into the hand-piecing vortex:

I've lost count of where I am at on these.  I know I have a lot of work still to do before I can assemble it to send off to a quilter.  And the show is now only nine months away. No pressure!

Sauder Village

I finally made it to Sauder Village to experience a little taste of Rug Hooking Week!  It was a very quick but very fun adventure (if you don't count the part where all of the roads leading to the place were closed for construction and I spent over an hour driving an additional 40 miles in circles trying to get there!).   The rugs looked great - it's a very nice set-up.  Someone said there were over 400 rugs in the show.  It doesn't seem possible, but I suppose rugs take up a lot less space than quilts.

Here are a few of the rugs I found particularly impressive (the first one doesn't seem to want to display vertically, but you get the idea):

And then there was this one - so cool to this pattern done in completely different colors!

I fell completely in love with this one - I'm going to have to get this pattern:

I spent some time enjoying the historic village while I was there.  The quilt shop is really nice - they had a beautiful quilt on the wall and another awesome one in a frame being quilted:

My primary "mission" while exploring the village was to find all of the items in my Sauder rug.  I'm happy to report that all were accounted for, from the chicken to the chair.  Even the little church:

It was a great trip that offered lots of inspiration.  I've added at least three projects to my rug hooking list, not including the cute little one I picked up to hook for the guild auction.  If I'm not careful my rug hooking UFOs are going to start catching up to my quilt UFOs... Yikes!

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Somehow it's always the same old story - I head off to a retreat with plans to make great progress on projects (I always pack several) yet somehow when I return home I am farther behind than when I left!  It's crazy how inspiring it is to spend time sewing with friends and see what they are working on. It's also quite dangerous to go shopping at a really great quilt shop with them and see what they are purchasing! I seem to always end up with pattern and fabric for a whole new quilt (or two) when I go. 

This is the project I was working on.  It's the "Carnival" pattern from Gudrun Erla's latest book.  The blocks are HUGE!  I was able to finish six of them at Kinderhook.  There are nine total plus sashing so I still have a way to go.

One of my firends finished several quilts over the weekend.  This one only needed borders so it was almost instant gratification once she found the perfect fabrics at Hickory Stick:

I love the pattern!  It's called "Bento Box".  I'm not sure who the designer is.  It's a great pattern for Bali pops - and I seem to have a few of those around.

One of the other projects she started and finished over the weekend used neutral jelly rolls we had created from an exchange we did at a guild retreat several years ago.  I've been saving mine for a neutral log cabin.  She used a keyhole pattern and it turned out beautiful!  (Sorry, I failed to get a picture...)  Seeing how wonderfully they went together inspired me to get back to mine - and to pick up a few extra fabrics to throw in:

Speaking of new project, I also picked up a bunch of fabric (including four Bali pops - imagine that!) and a pattern for a new Judy Niemeyer quilt in blues and browns.  Not sure when I will get to that one...I seem to have a serious backlog of her patterns even though I really don't like paper piecing. 

I also managed to finish binding the Sauder Village rug on the trip.  I still need to sew down the binding tape, but it is almost ready to make the trek to Ohio:

 I'm still plugging away at my baskets, too.  Here's the last one I finished:

I want to keep sewing!  Too bad we can't retreat every weekend - it's scary to think how much fabric and how many new projects I would end up with!

Sore Fingers!

Not that I got all that much accomplished over the weekend, but what sewing I was able to do certainly was hard on my fingers!  Both middle fingers are sore - the right one because I worked without a thimble pad for too long and the head of my chenille needle penetrated my skin, and the left one because I hit it too many times with the same nasty needle.  I intended to work primarily on my baskets and did manage to get one finished:

I also started prep work for three more - I have plenty of stuff to work on during Karen Kay Buckley's workshop on Wednesday. 

My thread came in the mail along with last week's BOW, so I couldn't resist doing a couple more of the summer freebie blocks:

I love these blocks!  Especially the little sheep.  I'm really enjoying the embroidery, too.

I made a lot of progress on the Sauder Village rug over the past week but failed to take a picture for today's post.  I have the church, one house, and a little background left to do.  My goal is to have it hooked, steamed and ready to bind in time for Wool Club next Saturday.  I love deadlines!

Hooking with Jayne Hester and Other Things

I'm a little bit behind on posting (not unusual, I know) so I have so much to share...  I attended a fabulous workshop with Jayne Hester at Wooly Woolens in Blue Springs the weekend before last.  Jayne was a great teacher, and Janice and Jim are absolutely incredible hosts!  We had great food, fantastic conversations (especially talking gardening and cooking with Jim!), visited one of my favorite quilt shops of all time (Quilter's Station) and shared the company of a group of wonderful people.  My rug was a bit of a challenge, however.  It was far more difficult than I anticipated, and made even more challenging by Jayne's affinity for low-contrast hooking. I somehow completely forgot to take any pictures during the workshop, but I did snap one of my pattern when I finished drawing it:

It's a quilt block called a kaleidoscope.  When done correctly, there is a secondary pattern that develops that looks like circles around each block.  We learned the hard way that this doesn't work unless there's enough contrast between the mediums and darks.  I ended up pulling out a good portion of the work I did over the three days.  I have corrected some, but still have a little work to do before it is right.

I went back to working on the Sauder Village rug when I returned home.  Now that I've figured out the grass and sky colors it's just a matter of finishing the hooking.

I am making some progress on my summer BOW but am falling behind at a rapid rate (again, nothing new!).  It isn't all my fault - block one was a week late (shipped with block two), so I was one block behind from the start, and then I had to order thread.  It took a week to get the thread, and by then block three had arrived.  Since I didn't have the thread for the BOW, I set to work on the summer freebie:

Once the thread arrived, I set to work on the BOW.  I finished block one over the weekend:

I also finally got back to the project I am supposed to be focusing on - the quilt I want to have finished for our June 2013 show.  I finished the last of the four rose blocks, so now I can move on to something different.

I have a long way to go on this one - 19 more blocks, I think. It's a bit daunting to think that I have only 11 months left to finish all those blocks and piece the border, not to mention get it quilted.  I haven't given up yet.  I prefer to live in my little fantasy world just a tiny bit longer.  Just 2 to 3 blocks per month - not a big deal, right? Sigh...

Shop Hopping

A few friends and I went on the 'Movie Mania' shop hop in central Missouri last weekend.  I realized as I was driving home after dropping everyone off that I completely forgot to take any pictures - what a bummer!  We started our extended shopping spree at Homestead Hearth in Mexico.  It is definitely one of my favorites!  From there we headed over to Mexico Sewing Center, and then on to Centralia to visit Material Girl Quilt Shop.  I wish I had taken a picture of that one - it is so cute!

Our next stop was Columbia, MO where we visited Satin Stitches and Appletree Quilting Center.  Both shops were larger than the last time I visited.  It's great to see places expanding in this economy!  From there we headed to Specialty Quilts & Fabrics in Jefferson City.  We wrapped up our first day with dinner at my favorite restaurant - J. Bruner's.  The onion rings were absolutely fabulous as always, and my filet was perfect.  I'm pretty sure they serve the best onion rings in the world!

We headed for Stover on Saturday morning, stopping first at Claude's Country Threads.  Claude's had an adorable version of this Fons & Porter bonus pattern hanging in their shop:

Their version had sashing between the blocks, a look I think I prefer. This isn't a quilt I would normally be the least bit interested in, but then I found this fabric:

It is so cute!  I love some of the names!  I decided I had to have some - and that it would be a perfect border for the puppy quilt.  I downloaded the pattern as soon as I got home.

From Claude's we headed to NuStyle and then Stover Quality Quilting.  I found a couple of great fabrics and a super-cute kit at the second shop.  I've been pretty good about staying away from Christmas projects, but they had an adorable table runner with ultra-suede gingerbread men down the center.  It is actually a stitchery pattern called "Ginger Garden Table Runner".  I didn't take a picture of the shop sample, but here's a picture of the kit:

Our next stop was Love to Sew in Osage Beach.  That shop has really grown!  They had fantastic ombre fabrics...I had to by some of nearly every color.  They are fantastic for applique.  We wrapped up the shop hop at Fabrics and Friends in Camdenton.  Sadly, none of us has received a call to tell us that we won any of the prizes.  You'd think at least one of us would win something!

We then visited my second-favorite (or maybe it's a tie for first) restaurant for lunch - On the Rise Bakery & Bistro.  They have expanded, too - life must be good in central MO!  I had my usual - the Monte Christo.  It was yummy!

We wrapped up our shopping with a stop at The Quilted Fox on Sunday.  I have been thinking about signing up for an advanced hand piecing class I saw in their newsletter but hadn't taken the plunge - that is until I saw the quilt.  It is gorgeous!  Sign me up!  The class starts August 4th.  I can't wait!

We had a blast shopping and eating - it was sad to see the weekend come to an end so quickly!  One bright spot in the week was the arrival of blocks one and two of the Primitive Gatherings block of the week.  I was so excited to receive them that I have already prepped the first block!  The black flannel background feels wonderful.  I am hoping it will be nice to work with.  Here are the first two block kits - don't they look fun?

What may be even better than the BOW itself is the summer freebie!  It's called "My Favorite Things".  I love both of the blocks so far!  Here's a picture of the kit for block two:

I love it!  I can't wait to see what's next.  I may have to prep this one tonight - I'm so anxious to get started!

Dyeing Frustration

I am making great progress on the Sauder Vilage rug.  So much so that I wanted to start the grass and sky this weekend.  I hate leaving all the background for last!

I broke out the dye pots on Saturday.  I hadn't done any dyeing in a while and was really looking forward to it.  I went through several recipe books and finally found colors that looked perfect - a light, bright green that would contrast with the corn stalk and a happy, sunny sky blue.  I did everything just the way it is supposed to be done, and ended up with this:

The colors in the photo aren't great...but the green clearly isn't light and bright!  The blue is way too dark.  Both colors are very pretty, but neither will work.  I considered starting over, but thought I might be better off just waiting to get them from Nola.  Definitely an 'epic fail'!

I spent a little time playing with a very old project in the sewing room this weeekend. About three years ago I went to Runaway Quilters' retreat and spent the entire weekend in sit & sew stitching these triangle papers.

I spent several hours cutting them apart, tearing off paper and pressing them.  I barely made a dent in the stack - those things are time-consuming!  

I am excited about working on this project, though. Perhaps I could finish this one (lap quilt size) in time for the quilt show....