Strip Exchanges

I am completely in love with Edyta Sitar's latest book, "Friendship Strips and Scraps".

The first quilt I fell for was the spools.  A few of my guild friends were also hooked, so we organized a strip exchange.  We're each cutting 40 1" strips and will mix them all up and return them to participants in November.

When we were up at Kinderhook a few weeks back, we saw another quilt from this book at The Hickory Stick in Hannibal, MO.  Of course we decided we needed to do that one, too...



We have a group of 13 people that are going to exchange smaller strips for this one.  We are combining batiks and prints for this exhange.  The quilt in the photo has Civil War reproductions, batiks, and miscellaneous other fabrics and is absolutely gorgeous.  We're going to trade these strips a bit sooner.  I can't wait to get started on this project!

New & Old

I was lucky to have the opportunity to spend a few hours here and there sewing at a friend's house last week.  Although I wasn't able to devote a lot of time to "retreating", I did make a bit of progress on a couple of blocks.  I tried my hand at back-basting on one of the Applique Affair blocks:

While I am happy with how the block turned out, I have pretty much convinced myself that back-basting is not for me!  It took far longer to trace the pattern onto the back of the fabric and baste everything than it would have to just trace freeer paper templates and trace the patterns onto my fabric.  And I didn't find that I could follow the thread holes (I had to "connect the dots" with a pencil), and I also didn't find that the fabric turned any better.  I'm glad that I gave it a serious try, but I think I will go back to my old way.

I also had a chance to finish up block one and prep block two of this year's BOW. It's a lot more involved than the little blocks were last year, but I am very happy with how it is turning out:

I also had a chance to spend time in the sewing room over the weekend, and even hooked with a friend on Saturday night.  More on that progress later...

State Fair

I actually got my act together in time to ship rugs to the Illinois State Fair this year! It is really a shame that more people don't participate. There weren't many hooked items this year. My rugs took 2nd and 3rd. First place went to a very nice fine-shaded rooster. We went up to the fair on Friday. It's been at least two years since we've attended.  We had a great time! 

It was difficult to get a good picture through the glass...

Now I just have to keep my fingers crossed that they both make it home safely!

Jury's Still Out

I finally had a chance to break out my new "toy" - the AccuQuilt Go! cutter I purchased in Paducah this year.  Luckily the die that came with the cuttter is exactly what I needed for the project I hope to start at a retreat later this week, so I set up the cutter, read the instructions, and gathered up my fabric. I couldn't wait to give it a try! 

I started by pre-cutting my fabrics - the die I am using has multiple shapes on it and not all will be cut from the same fabric.  The instructions recommend that you cut the fabric about an inch larger than the shape.  That bugged me a bit from the start - seems like a lot of waste - but I figured I would try it that way first before trying to cut back a little on the excess.  I loaded up the die with two layers of fabric (it says you can do up to six, but I thought I should start off with less) and ran it through.  Hmmm.  I had to use my scissors to cut the pieces loose in several spots.  I then repeated the exercise with various numbers of layers, from one to six, and had about the same results for each.  Perhaps it is the fabric I am using (Kaffe Fasset), but so far I can't say that I am exactly thrilled with the cutter's performance.  I suppose the real test will come in the sewing - if the precision of the pieces makes accurate sewing easier, maybe it's worth it. So far, however, I am thinking that it would be easier and less wasteful to just cut the pieces the "old-fashioned" way!

Determination

It's been a while since I posted...  I have been crazy busy lately!  Not much time for sewing or hooking, with the exception of this past weekend when I had a wonderful opportunity to retreat at a friend's house.  I started on a new project, so a lot of my time was spent cutting, but I did manage to get 18 of the 100 blocks completed.  I forgot to take a picture, but here's one of the quilt from the Thangles site:

I purchased the pattern and fabric the first year it was displayed at Paducah.  I found the receipt for the fabric in the bag - it was 2006.  I've been wanting to start it for a long time, so it was really fun to finally get it going.

Starting this quilt was actually part of a two-year plan - a plan that involves having at least four quilts ready by the time of our guild's next quilt show (June 2013).  We just finished with this year's show and sadly I had absolutely nothing to show for the past two years!  We usually allow each member to have up to four quilts in the show, and I am determined to have four of my own in next time.  Never mind that I have never had more than one in the past...

Down to the Wire!

I finished piecing my Lisa's Garden quilt yesterday, just two days before the 2011 BOW is due to ship.  I am so excited that I was actually able to "finish" my 2010 project before the new one started!  I realize it isn't really finished - quilting is always the toughest part for me - but I have so little time to actually sit at a machine these days that I have to celebrate every milestone!  Now I just have to get the quilting and binding done in time for this one to be in the 2013 show!

I have also been making some progress on my Crazy Horse rug.  I took a picture last week but never had time to post, so here it is as of this morning:

I am hooking this one a bit backwards - background first - but I have had such a problem with having to pull out parts of my motifs because of conflicts with backgound that I have decided I will get all of the background done and then go back and figure out my motif colors.  

I'll be spending another day in the sewing room.  I'm not sure what I will work on next.  I have at least 20 things I can't wait to get back to!  I may just have to break out the AccuQuilt today - it's still in the shopping bag from Paducah.  I was thrilled to find that the standard dies that come with the cutter are the size that I need for the stars in the "Stars & Sprigs" pattern.  I can't wait to give it a try!

Mother's Day Sewing

What a nice weekend!  Lots of sunshine (a little too warm for May, but given that it was the first non-rainy weekend in recent memory, I'm not going to complain!) combined with a fairly short list of things on the "to do" list made for a relaxing couple of days.  I spent the entire afternoon in the sewing room yesterday and managed to finish up all of the nine patches for my Lisa's Garden quilt.  I still have 8 blocks left to applique and then need to come up with the setting.  I am definitely doing it different from the instructions, but can't decide if I want to include the squares around the border or not.  Decisions, decisions!

I also spent a little time hooking over the weekend and made a little more progress on my Crazy Horse project. 

I pulled out the red in the first flower and finished filling in the second one.  I'm not sure what direction I am going to go with the petals on the first one.  It really seems to defy traditional logic to hook the background before the motifs, but I feel like I need to have the background colors in place in order to make decisions on the flower colors.  I plan to continue working on the background for a while before filling in any other motifs.