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!

Where Does the Time Go?!?

I can't believe it's almost half way through March already!  This year is flying by and I certainly don't seem to be getting much accomplished! I am only able to report some success in chipping away at my February goals because I waited so long to post!  So first the good news:

February goal #3 - I finished my January Sue Spargo blocks a couple of nights ago.

I didn't add all of the suggested embellishment stitches to the tail of the bird in the middle - I liked him better without. I find that I am not a fan of doing bouillon stitches...I like how they look, but they are certainly hard on the fingers!

February goal #6 was to prep the next two Prairie Peony blocks. While I didn't completely finish prepping these, I did get the piecing done (the part I like the least!).

As far as goal #7 is concerned - finishing my hand-piecing homework - I really fell short on that one.  I finished one of the two 12" blocks late last week.  I haven't even started the second one.

I did manage to make a lot of progress on the Easy Street mystery quilt at a guild retreat a couple of weeks ago.  This is my stack of finished blocks:

I have two more blocks to finish and then can begin assembling the quilt.  I would like to finish the top in time to have it quilted for the show.  That would be three quilts that need to be quilted for the show.  Hmm... that's a LOT of binding!

So now for my list of goals for March:

1. Find a quilter for Lisa's Garden 
2. Finish Easy Street top
3. Finish February Sue Spargo blocks
4. Catch up on Wool Club hooking (Jan-Mar)
5. Finish March hand-piecing homework

I'm keeping it a little shorter and more realistic given the month is half way over and I am heading off to a rug retreat in the Kansas City area in a little over a week.  I still have to decide if I am starting a new project there or working on an old one. I have an awesome sampler rug I would love to color-plan, but really should go back to my Kaleidoscope and finish figuring out the colors on that one. Decisions, decisions!

Limping Along Easy Street

Where does the time go?  I meant to post my weekend progress on Easy Street last Monday but didn't get around to it until today.  I spent a few hours in the sewing room and made quite a bit of progress on Step 7.  I have to admit that I really, really stink at repetitive work.  I have the attention span of a gnat.  I managed to get 11 of the 16 triangles constructed before I hit a wall and just couldn't stand any more. Here's what I have so far:

I hope to finish the rest of the triangles (unfortunately all the ones that are left are the large ones!) and start building the blocks this weekend.  It's certainly going to be a bright quilt!

While off over the holidays I decided that I would go back to setting sewing and hooking goals this year to try to stay focused (reference my previous comment about my attention span).  I didn't stick with it so well last time, but I am truly a list-driven person and figured I should give it another shot.  I find it immensely satisfying to cross things off of a list so it is extremely motivational for me. So here goes - keeping it short since I am getting a late start:

1. Complete January hand-piecing homework
2. Make arrangements to have Lisa's Garden quilted
3. Plan monthly work on 2013 Wool Club rug and complete January portion
4. Finish two Prairie Peony blocks
5. Finish Easy Street Step 7 and complete at least a few blocks (Step 8)

I really should have a goal around working on my Ace rug, but it is so tedious and time-consuming that I don't want to promise anything.

I'm off to Wool Club tomorrow to start yet another project (it's a sickness...really!).  I will post pics next week.

Back to Work

It was such a bummer to have to head to the computer instead of the sewing room this morning!  The only thing keeping me going is knowing that the weekend is only three days away.  I like easing back into things after such a long time off!

I spent a lot of time over the weekend trying to catch up on Easy Street before yesterday's big reveal.  I didn't get everything done, but did make a lot of progress.  I am even more excited by the quilt now that I have seen it.  I have 64 more flying geese to make and then can start putting all the pieces together.  I am enjoying how the colors are coming together so I am anxious to see it assembled.

I finished my hand piecing homework over the weekend.  I'm not sure my background goes with the color of my diamond tips on this one, but by the time that thought occurred to me it was too late in the process to make changes.  I decided it isn't that bad...not bad enough to warrant that much extra work!

I also finished prepping my first two Prairie Peony blocks.  I love it when I have the time to baste my applique blocks so that I can pick them up and work on them whenever I get the chance.  I actually managed to get in a couple of hours working on one of these last night (my reward for finishing my homework early!).

I love this pattern, but did find that the "Y" seam construction was not a lot of fun.  I am not really looking forward to assembling 23 more of these.  I guess I should look at it as an opportunity to practice my machine skills.  I have to confess that I had to resort to doing a couple of these seams by hand...the machine was getting the best of me and making me cranky - and thanks to my LeMoyne Star project I am a master at doing these by hand!

My Twelve Days of Christmas

Twelve days of Christmas break, that is.  And it's actually only 11.5 days and they are coming to an end much faster than I would like!  It's been a busy week, but I have been able to squeeze in some sewing and shopping time around all of the Christmas festivities, cooking, and the Trans Siberian Orchestra concert (which was awesome, as always!). 

I finished steps one and five of Easy Street last weekend.  I have part of step four completed but still haven't started steps two and three.  The sixth step is just cutting - I think I can handle that this weekend. Here are my blocks from step five:

I am making good progress on this month's Lemoyne Star assignment.  I finished the first 12" block when I was traveling and finished the 6" block last weekend.  I am well on my way to finishing the second 12" block for this month - I hope to knock that one out tonight.

I always like to start a new quilting project over the holidays.  Perhaps I should focus on finishing some of my current projects instead, but where's the fun in that?!?  I felt particularly ambitious this year and have decided to start not just one but TWO new projects...and that's just this week!  I visited Sweet Annie's quilt shop to purchase fabric for Birds of a Feather by Blackbird Designs.  I fell in love with this quilt when I saw it at The Quilted Moose back in September.  I hadn't really made plans to start it but then one of my Yahoo groups selected it as a group project for 2013.  I am highly motivated by assignments and goals, so I figured I may as well play along.  Most of the fabrics I selected are from Edyta Sitar's last couple of lines:

I will throw in a few more reds and possibly a couple more browns from my stash to complete the palette.  The background is brown, and the large print floral is the border.  It's a little different from the rest of the projects I am working on so I am looking forward to getting started.

My second holiday project is Prairie Peonies by Edyta Sitar (Laundry Basket Quilts).  I pieced little strip sets for my first two blocks yesterday.  Here they are before the diamonds were cut from them:

The colors aren't great in the picture - they look a bit brighter than they actually are.  They go well with the beige/tan background batik I am using.  I'm having a blast with these so far.  I cut the diamonds and all of my background fabric last night and plan to piece the blocks and prep the applique today.  I didn't realize until I started working on these yesterday that the applique is different in each of the 25 blocks.  I think that is awesome!  I love combining piecing with applique, and I really hate the idea of repeating the same block over and over...probably why I am not progressing very quickly on my Rose of Sharon. 

Off to the sewing room - I can't wait to get my first two peony blocks together!

Turkey Day Break

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving break - five whole days without work - wonderful!  I was able to spend quite a bit of time in the sewing room and made a little progress on a couple of projects.  I finished my first LeMoyne Star block early last week and am getting close to finishing the second one.  These blocks were a bit obnoxious - trying to organize 16 points in the center is not my idea of fun. I am very happy with how it is turning out, however. I love my colors!

I made some progress on Dear Jane over the past couple of weeks, too.  I prepped several blocks while I was on vacation - I will be traveling a lot over the next three weeks so I figure I can polish off a few during flights.

They look a little wonky in the above photo since I haven't trimmed the over-sized ones down yet.  I need to re-make the little LeMoyne Star.  I tried to do it by machine and I am not happy with how the center turned out.  I tried to let it go - to live by the Brenda Papadakis Dear Jane motto "finished is better than perfect" - but I'm pretty sure I will obsess over it until it looks better.  That may be a project for next weekend.

Another project I made progress on over the break was my Antique Rose.  I finished my second block.  I'm toying with the idea that I might actually be able to finish this one in time for the quilt show if I put my mind to it.  I need seven more blocks.  It's not THAT much work if I focus, right?

As usual, any time I have more than a few hours of spare time I come up with new projects to start.  I received my pattern for The Caswell Quilt in the mail and it is even more beautiful "in person" than it looked on the website. I couldn't wait to get started! It doesn't look like much now...not at all like it took several hours to do.  The only down side to this pattern is that the block placement diagrams are photos of the actual blocks.  I tried a light box for placement but that wasn't great, so I opted instead for making an overlay, but I find that an overlay doesn't really work for me when it comes to stem placement and embroidery lines.  I think I will need to wing it a little with this pattern.  I'll have to keep in mind that no one will be holding up the overlay to see where I've strayed once it's finished...

And last, but not least, the mystery quilt.  I've followed Bonnie Hunter for years and have always wanted to do one of her mysteries. I decided that this would be my year. I am not too sure of my overall fabric choices just yet - my daughter was helping me pull from my stash over the weekend and I'm not too sure I'm happy with where we landed (burgundy, hunter green and navy...flashback to the 90s!), but I am happy with the two fabrics I selected for step one.  The light fabric is a background I bought four yards of over the summer.  It's too busy for applique, so it's just right for something like this. The other fabric is one I had a couple of yards of (not sure why...it probably had a purpose at one time). 















I'm not finished with the first step, but I made a good start.  I know I'm going to fall behind quickly with all of my upcoming travel, but I just couldn't resist.  I'm certainly never at a loss for something to work on!