Wooly Woolens Fun

I had an absolutely fantastic time in Kansas City last weekend!  Janice & Jim Johnson are always fabulous hosts!  We had a great group of people - some of the regulars and a few new faces.

This was my second workshop with Jayne Hester and I am really thrilled with how my rug turned out. I would have never come up with the idea to run with teal in a pineapple and certainly would not have used teal for sunflowers, but I am so happy with the colors!

I've actually made a little more progress since I got home, mainly filling in background.  This is such a small rug relative to my usual projects - it might actually be finished reasonably soon!

Jayne's specialty is low contrast, old-looking rugs.  I think she stepped out of her box a bit for me (although my colors certainly aren't "bright" relative to a lot of things I do!). Many of my classmates had much more subtle rugs. Jeannette's was very neutral:

And Leah's was done in shades of gray with just a hint of lavender:

Cindy's rug looked amazingly old - and she is a ridiculously fast hooker:

There were lots of other great rugs - I got sidetracked taking a picture of the fabulous lunch Jim was preparing and missed getting pictures of the rest. Lunch was beautiful, too - you can see why I was distracted! 

This delicious lunch came from Jim's garden (he even claims to have grown the sausage!). As usual, all of the food was wonderful.  It was a great weekend!

Something New

It's hard to believe it is already July - and that it's been a month since my last post! I just can't seem to keep up with things this year. I am really ready for things to slow down a bit...I need a "real" vacation instead of these one- and two-day breaks I have been taking.

While I did a pretty good job of focusing on wrapping up UFOs the first part of the year, I fell off that bandwagon somewhere after Paducah and have been starting new projects ever since. There's the new BOM for guild (which really shouldn't count, right?) - I finished the July block a couple of weeks ago. I love these blocks because they are so easy!  This one only took a couple of hours to complete.

I need to decide what my final layout will be for this quilt so that I can figure out which blocks will have laurel wreaths. I would like to start adding those as I go along rather than doing them all at once. I am not good with repetition.  If I wait until the end this will be a UFO forever!

I attended Kansas City Quilt Festival a couple of weeks ago. It was very nice. Quite a few of the prize-winning quilts were ones I had already seen in Paducah, but there were a number of others I had not seen before.  There is a lot of talent in the KC area!  One of the quilts that really fascinated me was made almost completely from selvages. 

I couldn't get a complete picture as there too many people admiring it, but the quilt was large - probably at least 75-80" square - and had the smaller stars all the way around the center star and then selvage diamonds all the way around the outside of the center square. It was unbelievable!  I'm guessing this lady had all of her friends saving selvage for her - there were thousands of them!  

I took a couple of days off last week and got a strong start on a new project I found at Homestead Hearth during this year's Super Bowl sale. I was standing at the register checking out when I looked up and saw this quilt on the wall.  It was published in McCall's Nov/Dec issue (which I had not read at the time).  I fell in love with it immediately and had to pick up some of Edyta's fabrics to make one myself.

I completed all of the star blocks last weekend and cut all of the setting squares this weekend.  I need to figure out the layout before I can start sewing the rows together. The pattern doesn't have a border but I have a LOT of extra fabric (they didn't have kits left, fabric was on sale 25% off with a one yard minimum cut, so why buy a half yard for $5.50 when you can get a whole yard for $8.25...you know how it is!) so I am thinking of piecing a border for it. I have always wanted to do a piano key border. I need to do a mock-up on the computer to see if that will work....I don't want to overpower the center.

I tried my hand at a little paper piecing over the holiday weekend. I have been collecting Judy Niemeyer patterns for years and after seeing a bunch of them at the KCQF I am really wanting to work on one. I have not done any paper piecing in years so I decided to start with something a little less overwhelming than a Judy project. This is the center from a Kim McClean pattern I ordered recently.

The center circle has broderie perse applique. I started on that yesterday but didn't get very far.  I can't say that I am a big fan....

I'm going to stick with it though as it is good practice for my Rising Sun.  I am actually using the same fabric for some of those flowers so I need to figure out how to manage all of those spiky edges.

This week's plan is to choose a pattern for my workshop with Jayne Hester next week. I have so many rug patterns in my stash that I do not want to buy anything new. The trouble is finding one that suits Jayne's style and that I don't already have a plan (and wool for).  It isn't going to be an easy task!

A Few Finishes

I haven't posted in a long time - I missed the entire month of May!  I have a good excuse....binding.  I spent almost all of my sewing time over the past month binding two queen-sized quilts for the show. The quilt that was supposed to be my fourth entry didn't make it back from the quilter in time (I think it should be here this week). While I was a little disappointed, I have to admit that by the time I finished binding quilt number three and got sleeves on all of them I was actually relieved that the other one didn't make it!  So far this year I have sewn a little over 96 ft of binding.

All three of these quilts were on my UFO list for this year. First up is Easy Street, the Bonnie Hunter mystery from 2012:

It's so hard to get decent pictures of these monster-sized quilts!  Even with them hanging at the show I had to take them at odd angles. I think I need to invest in a quilt display rack just for pictures!  My second quilt in the show was my Hunter's Star. My daughter has claimed this quilt so it will be heading to Kansas City in a week or so.

Last but not least is my LeMoyne Star quilt. This one is my favorite of the three. It was quilted by Jane Hair - she did a wonderful job.  The blocks in this quilt are all hand-pieced.  

I did manage to spend a little time at my machine last month in between binding sessions and finished piecing the spool quilt I started in one of my classes with Edyta.  

The center went together very quickly, but the applique border will take forever to finish. There are a lot of pieces!  Edyta's finishing kit for the border is almost too pretty to disturb.

Sorry about the glare from the plastic bag - but this is one side of the roll. There are beautiful blues and reds on the other side. We had the option of choosing her Silhouettes (laser cut pre-fused applique shapes) for the border and while that would certainly be much faster, I much prefer needle-turning to machine stitching so this top is destined to be a UFO for a long time. 

It's a relief to have the show over and not have any deadlines hanging over my head (quilt-related, anyway).  I am not sure what I machine project I am going to work on next. I am thinking that I need to focus on doing smaller quilts for the next show - having to sew on sleeves after all that binding adds insult to injury!

As far as other new projects are concerned, I did agree to do another BOM for the guild. This year's project is a Nancy Page pattern that I have wanted to do for a long time. It's called Laurel Wreath and we will be doing the five birds and four of the flowers. We're going to stick with just the motifs for guild as the laurel wreath part of the pattern isn't supposed to be added until the blocks are sewn together.  Actually, looking at the original pattern, I'm not convinced that the designer ever actually made the quilt.  The pattern calls for vines to trail off the top and bottom of each block and then supposedly line up to make a continuous curve when the blocks are sewn together. Talk about difficult!  Here's the first block:

I am also really hoping that my Primitive Gatherings Summer BOW shows up today. The wait is killing me!  I am considering taking a half day of vacation today if it shows up. I can't wait to get started!

Paducah Edyta Immersion

I had an absolutely wonderful time in Paducah last week - a giant step up from last year!  The workshop selection was much better this time around and I was fortunate enough (make that fast enough!) to get into a lecture and two workshops with Edyta Sitar. It was a week of Edyta immersion - so inspirational! All I want to do now is work on Edyta quilts (I already have several in progress not counting the ones I started in her workshops!).  I actually finished a couple of tops prior to heading for Kentucky.  I've been working on piecing the sashing blocks for My Garden Album for the past couple of months and finally finished. I had finished the applique blocks a few years ago. This was a block of the month from Homestead Hearth.  I didn't care for the sashing or border fabrics they provided (multi-colored batiks like on Edyta's original) so I opted for a mix of batiks and reproduction fabrics from my stash and added a Jo Morton border.

I finally finished the applique on my house quilt and got the borders on just before heading to Paducah. I will have to say that appliqueing on a large project is not my idea of a good time...

So back to Paducah.... On Wednesday night I attended Edyta's "Reasons for Quilts" lecture. She is an amazing speaker and it was an incredible presentation!  She brought tons of quilts - many I had not seen before - and did such a nice job sharing the meaning behind each one.

On Thursday afternoon I participated in Edyta's spool quilt workshop.  Her preparation for class and her generosity is amazing. She provided each of us with two pieces of fabric to cut into 24 strips that we then exchanged with each other in order to ensure that everything worked well together and was good quality. Much better than taking whatever people brought from their stash!  We only completed one spool in the class which was fine - the Janome machine I was using was giving me fits so I would much rather work on them at home.

Friday I had an all-day workshop on Stars in Quilts.  It was great!  Edyta started with a lecture detailing 15 different types of stars and how to make them and use them in quilts. She reviewed her technique for piecing 8-pointed stars by machine. I plan to practice that with my Prairie Peony blocks as soon as I get a chance.

After the presentation, Edyta started us on Dresden Stars.  I had no idea we would be making these in class - I have been wanting to do that pattern forever!  Here's Edyta's version:

And here is my first nearly-complete block.  I ended up making two before class ended.

Edyta is such a thorough instructor!  She makes everything seem so easy, from choosing fabrics to sewing complicated pieces.

The other highlight of my week down south was my visit(s) to the Primitive Gatherings booth. Yes, I went more than once.  Almost every day. I couldn't help myself! Lisa gave us a sneak preview of the Summer BOW. She somehow manages to top herself every year - it is beautiful!  I can't wait for it to start.  She also had a project at the booth that completely sucked me in....little bowties.  I couldn't resist!  I bought a bunch of charm packs (the $5 pattern was free if you bought >$200 in fabric - makes perfect sense to everyone, right?!?!) and couldn't wait to get home to start.  I managed to spend a little time in the sewing room yesterday and knocked out 42 bow ties.  They are so much fun!

I was so impressed with my progress....that is, until I took a second look at the pattern and saw that is says "you will need 3,024 bow ties for the quilt". WHAT?????  That's over 18,000 pieces and this thing isn't even bed-sized! This is going to take a while....

Quilt Shows & First Finish!

I've been on the road for work the better part of the last two weeks but managed to squeeze in a couple of quilt shows in the middle of my travels. I traveled home from Kalamazoo, MI last week via the Chicago and made a stop at the Quilt Festival on Friday. The best part of the trip was meeting up with the Chicago area quilter that is going to quilt Celtic Solstice and Grand Illusion for me. She;s hoping to have them both finished in time for me to bind them for our quilt show in June. If all goes as planned I should have five queen-sized quilts finished by early summer.  That definitely makes a dent in my UFO list!

I had not been to the Chicago show since it moved back.  I was very disappointed.  It seemed considerably smaller than in years past - a lot of the vendors I usually expect to see at a major show weren't there, and there really only seemed to be about half the number of vendors they used to have. A large portion of the quilt exhibits were repeated from Houston, too, so it didn't take me a lot of time to buzz through the show.  I was in and out in about an hour and a half.  

The version of the red and white exhibit at Chicago wasn't nearly as impressive as Houston but it was still very eye-catching.

I didn't get any other pictures at the show. Most of the quilts that caught my attention were in the "no photos" exhibits.  I am really disappointed that the Quilts Inc. folks prohibit photos.  I know that they want you to buy the books (which I always do!) but sometimes you want to get that close-up of component of the quilt that you just can't see in the book photos.

On my way home from Chicago I stopped in Bloomington, IL and visited the local guild's quilt show. They had a fabulous show!  They had a wonderful featured quilter, lots of really great quilts and a very nice selection of vendors.  I didn't take any photos since I was a bit pressed for time....had to get the rental car back before 6 pm...but I really enjoyed the show.

Now that I am back at home I finally managed to finish the binding on my Hunter's Star quilt. My daughter claimed it back when it was a pile of blocks so it's on her bed until show time. So far that's 386" of binding for the year....I'm off to a running start!

   

2015 TAS Challenge

We were planning to kick off our local TAS chapter's 2015 challenge last Saturday but the weather had other plans. Our challenge this year is to each choose a project we want to make progress on this year and commit to work on it each month and share progress. It was really tough to decide what project to choose - I have so many in progress (and of course would like to work on them all!) and there is a new project I have been dying to start - more on that in a minute. After considerable deliberation I decided to choose my blocks from my classes at Baltimore on the Prairie last year. Each year when I get home from the conference I promise myself that I will finish at least one of the projects and take it back for show & tell the following year. I've yet to finish a single class project.  Sad, isn't it? So I am thinking this year will be my year - I should be able to complete at least one of these blocks by September!

Unfortunately they aren't very far along - most of that is glued in place. Both blocks were from workshops with Sue Garmin and she believes in glue basting as much of the block as possible before beginning to stitch. The top block is part of a four-block wall hanging (all the same block). Note that I am not committing to getting all four completed, just the one.  The bottom block is the first pattern from a new Baltimore album pattern Sue is designing.  I will be taking workshops on two other blocks from this quilt in September.

Back to the new project I've been wanting to start...  It all started with a picture on Facebook.  This quilt, done in mostly (perhaps all?) Jo Morton fabrics with no fabric repeated more than three times really spoke to me. I love it!

I'm not planning to set any limits on fabric repetition, particularly for the backgrounds, but I am going to commit to doing it all from stash. I prepped about 10 orange peels last week to get things started.

I'm using the starch prep method for these since placement is critical.  I cut my own template out of heat-resistant plastic but always have a tough time getting them exactly right and perfectly smooth, so this week I contacted Brandi's to see if they could make what I needed. Three days later a box of perfectly-cut mylar templates appeared in my mailbox. That guy is awesome!  I can't wait to prep more - these will be great for travel.

Speaking of travel, I learned the hard way that it is impossible to work on a large applique project on a completely full 737.  I had started working on my house quilt again at a recent day retreat I attended and was so excited that I was making progress on it that I decided to take it along with me on a business trip.  I managed to sew a couple of leaves down on the way down to Tampa (also a full flight, but I had a window seat), but found it impossible to stitch while sitting in an aisle seat on the way back. I will not be trying that again!  I have been making progress nonetheless and hope to be ready to put borders on within the next month or so.

I hope to get a lot of sewing done this weekend.  I finally picked up my quilts that I sent to the quilter last July so I have a lot of binding to sew on, and I have to get the borders on my LeMoyne Star and piece or purchase a backing so that I can get it to the quilter. Looks like I am going to be stitching a lot of binding before the quilt show!

 

Not Much Getting Accomplished Here

It's a bit sad that I follow up a post about an incredibly productive retreat with one that sadly shows almost no progress on any projects, but I have a pretty perfect excuse.  Her name is Belle and she came to live with us exactly one month ago today.  She is the sweetest and most loving puppy!

This picture was actually taken a couple of weeks ago and I think she's grown an inch or two since then.  She's going to be a big girl!  She's an incredibly calm, well-behaved little girl. I find myself spending all of my time playing with her instead of getting anything done. Her big brother requires a little extra attention, too.  He's still trying to get used to having to share me. I'm hoping he comes around - he needs a playmate!

I attended the new Kathy Dunnigan Applique Academy a couple of weeks ago. It was a wonderful event and while there weren't all that many participants from TESAA it seemed like a very natural transition and felt like home. There was a very nice tribute to Elly Sienkiewicz that featured some gorgeous quilts.  The following picture of Elly was borrowed from Cynthia Collier's Facebook post since I was unable to get anything that didn't include a bunch of backs of heads...

My conference workshop was taught by Evelyn Crovo-Hall. We were working on a Baltimore-style beehive block that is supposed to look like this:

 

I managed to finish a couple of stems, a couple of leaves and part of the beehive during the class. Preparing the edges of the little pieces was extremely tedious and didn't really hold my attention. Add in a couple of work meetings I had to attend and I was the slowest kid in the class.  I made sure to stand at the back when we did the show and tell at the closing dinner.

I have been trying to get caught up with an online crazy quilting class I am participating in (trying to, anyway).  I finally pieced my block yesterday.

In retrospect I think I needed to switch fabrics 2 and 4 (the tan with scribbles and the light one that you can't see the print on).  I really don't have the time or desire to do it over again...I want to get started on the stitching.  I am hoping the instructor will let me move forward even though my contrast isn't all that great.  I will submit it today and see how it goes.

One other small thing I did manage to finish last week was the stitching on the first block of my Sunflower Gatherings BOW.  I also made progress on block two - I hope to finish it this week,

My goal is to have this top pieced before the new BOW starts at the end of May. Perhaps not realistic, but a girl can dream!