February Wrap-up

Well, February comes to a close with very little progress to report, although I must say that I spent more time working on projects than usual. I was on the road so much of the month that most of my time was spent on applique and rug hooking, neither of which goes very quickly.

I started off the month with a trip to Homestead Hearth's Super Bowl sale.  The following week when I was down in Dallas at the Applique Academy I received a call from the shop indicating that I had won a quilt in their Super Bowl drawing. I stopped by the shop on my way to Kansas City this weekend and picked it up, It is a beautiful quilt and is completely different from anything I make.

The Lenexa hook-in was lots of fun. I had taken my ship from Sally Kallin's class (was that 2015?) along as my Old Settlement is too big for a lap frame and really enjoyed working on that one again. I have actually made decent progress on it in the past few days - I might have to try to finish it off before going back to the other one. Can I finish them both by June???

I didn't get a lot of pictures of rugs at the hook-in but did take this one - I am in love with the pattern and the way the background is hooked. The pattern is called Primitive Paisley. I may have to have this one...

We found a great "dive" called Growlers just down the street from the Community Center.  The food was delicious!  We particularly enjoyed the garlic Parmesan pretzel appetizer.

I made it home in time for a couple of hours in the sewing room on Sunday.  I caught up on my Triangle Gatherings 6" blocks - only to see when I logged in to post this that she posted another one today. I'm still doing pretty well at keeping up.

And I had time to finish a few more bow ties. My total for February was 64, or 2.1% of the number required to finish the quilt. I'm not sure how many I have altogether - I need to count. But given how little time I had at home this month, I am just happy to be able to count any progress on my UFO.

I did not get anything accomplished on the other UFO assignment for the month, Among Friends. Hopefully the next time that one comes around I won't be traveling. It requires serious sewing machine time.

Can't wait to see what UFOs I will be putting on the "To Do" list for March!

TKDAA 2017

Apologies in advance for the lousy photos - I think it is about time for a phone upgrade (or to go back to an old-school camera).  This year's TKDAA was lots of fun albeit not terribly productive (as usual for me!). I was in Elly's "self study" class this year and spent my time working on a block for my SLAM quilt. It is amazing how long it can take to prep a single block! I finished the week with about a quarter of it stitched.

Elly was entertaining as always. There were so many beautiful quilts on display during the dinners, including a number of Sue Garman's designs.

Mary Koval shared several quilts and her vast knowledge of broderie perse applique in a luncheon lecture.

She brought along this recently-acquired album quilt to share with us. It is in wonderful condition!

Brenda Papadakis discussed her Dear Jane journey at a dessert reception.  The quilt behind her was made for George and Laura Bush by quilters from all around the world by the online Dear Jane group after 9/11.  Brenda has been trying to get the quilt to Laura Bush for years.  

Spending time with Brenda over the week and seeing other attendeess quilts and blocks makes me want to start another DJ quilt. I started three but have never landed on a color theme that inspires me to keep going. It's likely a fourth start would meet the same fate - and I already have more projects started than I can finish in my lifetime. So far I have controlled my impulses - hopefully the thought will fade soon!

Lisa has been busy posting Triangle Gatherings patterns!  I caught up on my 6" blocks over the weekend. I still haven't started any of the smaller ones.Below are blocks 8-13.

I also spent a little time working on bow ties yesterday so I could claim at least a little progress on one of my February UFOs. I only managed to finish 16 before it was time to make dinner but it's better than nothing! I shudder every time I see the total needed on the pattern card (3,023). Sigh!

I also worked a little on block 1 of Sue Spargo's 2017 BOM over the past couple of weeks but her BOM rules prohibit us from sharing pictures.  I hope to finish the applique this week so I can get to the decorative stitching.  The second block kit arrived Saturday so I am already falling behind.

I'm off to Kansas City for the Rock Creek Hook-in next weekend. I have made a little more progress on my Maggie rug but nothing worth sharing - still trying to get half of the background finished before moving on to do more of the fun stuff. I am still hoping to have that one finished before heading back to Janice's in June....an ambitious goal for sure!

May Progress Report

I managed to squeeze in quite a bit of sewing time around yard work and cooking over the weekend and made a little bit of progress on several projects. I know it would make a lot more sense to focus my efforts on one project and have more to show for my time, but that's just not how my brain is wired!  It is a lot more fun to mix it up!  I'm pretty sure I have Quilter's ADD if there is such a thing...

I finished a few more stars for my Stars & Sprigs "do over".  This brings the total to 9 complete.  This was my APQ UFO for May (#7) so I can at least claim a little progress. There are 45 stars in the quilt and enough applique to last me 10 years so I've only made the tiniest of dents in the project, but it's a dent nonetheless!

Jenny Doan of Missouri Star Quilt Company posted a video on bow ties last week and got me all excited about working on my little ties again. I had lofty goals about how many I might be able to finish in a weekend but these little guys aren't all that fast to sew.  They are lots of fun, though, and I managed to add 30 to my total.  This is the pattern that calls for 3,024 blocks. I now have 72.  

Between the stars and the bow ties I managed to build up quite a pile of little scraps.  Rather than add them to the two draws of scraps waiting to be cut into "scrap saver" sizes I decided I would go ahead and do the cutting.  I cut everything up into 1.5", 2", 2.5" and 3.5" squares as Bonnie Hunter recommends. I really need to start working my way through the backlog as it would be nice to have all of these scraps organized so that they could be easily incorporated into projects. If only it was more fun to cut!

May was a pathetic month for orange peels.  I might be able to add a couple to the official May total tonight but as of now the May total is 17, bringing the overall total to 118.  I recalculated the total number I need and depending on whether I want to have borders or not I am under or over 10% of the way to the finish line. I will need 1024 peels if I decide to use a border, 1296 if not.  I will be working on peels for a very long time!

I spent some time prepping more orange peels for June as well as doing a little more prep on my second album block. I decided that I wanted my tulips to be blue instead of red like the original block. 

I managed to get a couple of the flowers stitched last night and am hopeful that I can get this block finished by our June 30 deadline. 

That's pretty much a wrap for May.  Perhaps I will try to focus on something with a few less parts in June so I might actually get a quilt finished this year!

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....