Summer Hooking & Stitching

I have been terrible about posting in the past few months!  I blame internet overload...  While the one benefit of the pandemic has been an explosion in virtual quilting (and even rug hooking) events, my desire to participate in too many of them has monopolized my non-work computer time.  By the time I finish catching up on all the posts and FB Live sessions I am ready to get away from the screen!

I did manage to get away to a couple of real-life events over the past few weeks.  In July I headed to Kansas City for our annual workshop with Jayne Hester, which ended up being the "No Jayne Camp" due to COVID.  It was very nice - a small group with Janice teaching instead. I decided to start yet another rug - my third start of the year. It's a sampler, an older pattern of Janice's, and I am in love with the colors.  I am removing the people from mine...I'm not a fan of having people (especially faces) in my projects.

I had a chance to escape to a retreat center with a small group of friends for a long weekend and managed to get quite a bit of sewing done.  It was so wonderful to get away!  It has been so sad clearing all of my vacation trips from the calendar, so I especially enjoyed the chance to sew in person with friends.  I got the binding sewn onto my 2018 mystery quilt so all that is left is stitching it down, and also finished week two of the PG pieced SBOW.  I also managed to get the borders onto Frolic! so it is ready to load onto the long arm. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I'm even happier to be finished piecing it!

I decided mid-retreat that I would rather sit my 2020 pieced SBOW aside until I finish the one from 2019. I spent the last day of retreat completing week six, so I am halfway through the blocks.  Still a long way to go but I absolutely love this quilt!


Ans yes, that is one week's assignment! And speaking of intense piecing projects, in a weak moment I somehow decided it would be fun to sign up for Vintage Rose, a Judy Niemeyer technique-of-the-month workshop that is being taught by one of our local quilt shops via Zoom.  We've had two classes so far and I am hopelessly behind.  There are monthly classes through January....supposedly if I keep up the top will be nearly complete by then. I'm not seeing that happening!

I find paper piecing incredibly tedious.  I am following all of the prescribed steps and have to give Judy credit for developing a some pretty slick process steps to help things along, but I still am not a fan of tearing the paper out.   

Another online event that I participated in last month was a "retreat in a box" through Granny's Legacy Patterns.  They shipped all of the supplies for the retreat project along with a treats and a couple of little gifts a week or so ahead of the retreat event, and then during the retreat they hosted a few technique sessions, games, a trunk show and a shop tour via FB Live. It was fun and I enjoyed the project.  I just finished mine over the weekend - now I need to get one of those oval trays for it to sit in.

I have several virtual events scheduled for September, including another workshop in a box from Granny's Legacy and another Vintage Rose class. I also hope to get Frolic quilted and the bindings on both it and the 2018 mystery before the next one begins - it's hard to believe but November is right around the corner!

May Update

In spite of having more weekends at home as a result of most events being cancelled, I just don’t seem to be getting much sewing or rug hiking accomplished. It’s partly due to the very nice weather we’ve been having - I think it was the longest spring ever - but also because I have been trying to force myself to spend time finishing up the move to my new sewing space. Sadly the move has been in progress for 17 months now....but I finally received my new dresser that will provide additional drawer space so I have no more excuses. My goal is to have it completely organized by the end of June.  I will share pictures when I succeed.

I did manage to get a few things accomplished in May.  I added a few more houses to my Village...


And I was thrilled to be able to join a very small get together at Janice’s and get started on my Old Maine House rug. I saw the original when visiting the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Museum in Williamsburg in early 2019.  Unfortunately the rugs were displayed under glass so the photo isn’t great.

Janice drew up the pattern and we had planned to get a big group together to get started on it at the end of March, but unfortunately that had to be cancelled due to the pandemic. A few of us were able to meet in May to get it started.


I’m a little farther along than this now, and hope to get the rest of the sky and both trees completed before I head back to Janice’s to start another new rug later this month.

I finally managed to assemble the center of Frolic! and I have the borders pieced and ready to attach. I may try to tackle that this weekend.

And last, but not least, I started on a relatively new BOM from Homestead Hearth called Subtle Shades. It’s a nice mindless project - a welcome break from Frolic!

I am looking forward to participating in the Retreat From Home - Sew in your Jammies 2020 event this weekend. I am hoping I will have plenty of progress to show at the end of the 2.5 days!

April Progress

I decided to forgo setting goals for April and instead just work on whatever grabbed me at any given time during the month. Initially when all of the pandemic-inspired sew-alongs and projects started coming out I wanted to do them all, but soon reality set in and I decided that other than jumping into the Village project (too cute & fun to resist), the little bit of extra time I have gained from all of my travels being cancelled would be better spent focusing on existing UFOs. 

I decided that I would dust off an old hooking project that has always been one of my favorites. I planned this one in a workshop with Sally Kallin in 2012.  Here's where it was when I pulled it out of the project bag.  I've made decent progress on it over the last few weeks and plan to continue to work on it even if I am able to go anywhere and start anything new in the coming months.  I still really love this pattern! 

Down in the sewing room, I decided I needed to make myself assemble my Frolic! pieces and parts. I finished assembling all of the blocks:



And then pieced the sashings and started assembling the top:



I have to say that this is not my favorite of the mysteries I have participated in.  There were so many leftovers after piecing the blocks - dozens of flying geese and HSTs that weren't needed.  I understand why it was set up how it was, but can't help but find it highly frustrating that I spent so much time sewing and trimming flying geese (which are not my favorite to make) that won't even be used!  And then there's the assembly - so many seams don't nest that it is a challenge to get everything lined up. I'm about half way done with the top and then will be forced to make a decision on the border. 

I also decided it was time to get the 2018 mystery quilted. I reverse-sewed the block in the inner corner and was able to turn it the right direction and piece it back in with surprisingly little difficulty.  I loaded it up on the longarm with a backing I pieced from a batik I happened to have a lot of.  I knew it was a bad idea - Bonnie Hunter quilts do not work well with batik backs - but thought I could run the machine slow enough for it not to be a problem.  Wrong!  I had five thread breaks on the very first pass. I slowed it down even more and have had a little better luck with the next three rows.



I have two rows left to quilt and this one will be ready for binding.  I've decided that my next quilting project will be custom.  I have a couple of tops purchased on ebay that I plan to practice on. If all goes well I may even get my Starlite Skies (2017 Primitive Gatherings pieced SBOW) finished this year...G

February OMG

I've had a tough time deciding what to focus on for February since there are so many things that I want to work on! I do want to finish hooking my Fraktur Floral rug this month and get it ready to bind, but was thinking that my OMG choice should be something that is a little farther from the finish line. So in the end I decided that I need to get busy on my Frolic! project to clear away all the piles of loose pieces that have accumulated on my treadle table (sadly because every other surface in my sewing room is covered with other things...).  My goal for the month is to get the top assembled. 

I need to figure out what to do with the borders to make it a little bit larger.  I haven't done the math but it looks like increasing the number of blocks would make it too big. The pattern finishes at 82" square but I prefer to finish somewhere in the 90" to 96" range. I like what @mindyquilts did with her HST borders, making them into flying geese:

I've seen several finished tops with a plain outer border added which would be the easiest way to go. And then there's this one from @justlikegreatauntjulie.  It turned out great but I am definitely not this ambitious!

Perhaps the geese arrangement with a plain outer border (4") would do the trick for me?

I'm linking up with Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal for February.  My other goal for this month will be to post progress before the finish party ends...

Whirlwind Month!

The past few weeks have been just short of insane!  I definitely took a couple of tiny steps forward and a few huge leaps backwards as far as projects are concerned.  I managed to make a bit of progress on the last couple of steps of Frolic! before leaving town for a rug hooking retreat. I am working steps 7 & 8 simultaneously, trying hard to keep track of all the sets (this is definitely a time when chain piecing is NOT my friend).  The reveal was posted while I was away so I hope to have time to assemble a couple of blocks soon to see if all of these colors look cohesive in the final product.  They are looking like a bit of a hot mess right now....

And then there's my OMG goal - Maggie Macguire.  A complete FAIL!  I had set a target of getting 12 flowers done.  I do have more than 12 prepped, but I am slow at EPP and didn't have nearly as much time to work on them while traveling as I had hoped.  I only have 3 flowers to show for the month.



I had a fantastic time at the rug hooking retreat and made a lot of progress on my Fraktur Floral rug. I had been stuck on colors - the leaf colors completely died when I started adding background - so I was happy to be able to figure it out and move forward.  The retreat is attended by a great group of ladies and there are so many amazing rugs!  I will have to share some of my favorites from the rug show in a later post.



The dark green was exactly what this rug needed.  Looking at the picture now I think I will remove a bit of the dark that is surrounding that bubble on the upper left.  I am trying to bring just a little more of the dark into the top to balance the values...



So while I can report great progress on my rug (I actually filled in even more of the background since I took the photo), I offset my forward progress by purchasing two more patterns.  One I can sort of excuse as it is for a class later this year that I had previously committed to, but the other was completely new and not in my plans.

Then there were the new quilt project starts.  Irene Blanck will be returning to teach her new basket design in October this year.  She sent us the pattern for the center baskets in advance so we can get a head start.  I decided that I want to do mine in Japanese fabrics.  I completed two blocks and prepped a third. I also prepped my first two blocks for Afternoon Delight but didn't make any progress on getting them stitched.



Just three days after returning from rug hooking I was off to Ireland for work. I was busy with work all my waking hours there (other than dinner which was with my coworkers) so there was not much sight-seeing other than the rides to and from the sites.  Sadly the only photos I took were from the plane.



I did learn a bit more about Irish culture during the trip. Like the fact that they don't use much salt (at least not compared to the US) - they put the salt in the shaker with the fewest holes - and they have no idea what the corned beef is that Americans eat on St. Patrick's Day.  They have nothing like it there (which I think is brilliant because I can't stand it!). 

While I was traveling home a friend found an antique quilt on Marketplace that I felt needed to be added to my collection.  I picked it up in St. Louis on Saturday and it was much filthier than it looked in the pictures (to be fair, the description said it needed a good cleaning).  I set out to clean it, my first attempt at cleaning one myself (terrifying!!!).  I soaked it overnight in Retro Clean.  The water was disgusting!  I then washed it with a little detergent and spread it out to dry.  It has a rust stain that faded quite a bit but is still very visible - I may try to treat that next - but overall it came out great.  The binding is very worn and there are a couple of small tears in the outer red border but the quilting is amazing!  There is a small amount of sun fading on one motif.  Not sure how it was folded to only fade in one small area?



I hope that January will turn out to be my least productive month of 2020 and that February will be much better!  Now I just need to figure out what I want to focus on next month....

Welcome, 2020!

It’s hard to believe that my break has come to an end already!  I somehow didn’t manage to cross off very many items on my vacation “To Do” list.  The sewing room is still not organized, the pictures still aren’t hung in my office, and, other than making some progress on my Frolic! Mystery quilt I have very little to show for my time off.

I was very happy Tuesday morning when I found myself completely caught up on Frolic! - or so I thought.

I opened up Facebook and saw the “surprise” clue that Bonnie posted that morning.  Really?!?  That feeling of satisfaction lasted less than ten minutes.  So I was back at it on New Year’s Day, making flying geese.  I only managed to complete about a fourth of the new clue so far.  I will have to play catch-up this weekend.

As it is a new year, it is time for my annual attempt to set project goals and hold myself accountable. While I have not as of yet succeeded in meeting those goals, I haven't given up trying (yet).  I will start by linking up with Elm Street Quilts' One Monthly Goal.  While the obvious goal for January would be Frolic!, I figure I will be working on that anyway so I should choose something else that I want to move forward.  I finally received my first BOM shipment for Maggie Macguire's Garden and have finished my first flower:

I've made a start on a second, but I am slow at EPP.  I need to figure out how to pick up the pace a little.  My goal for January will be to finish at least a dozen flowers. 

The biggest challenge will be to avoid getting distracted by all the shiny new projects popping up everywhere.  I've seen at least three that have piqued my interest in the last two days....

Frolic! Week Two

I love it that the first two clues of this year’s mystery have been easy!  I didn’t have a lot of time to spend in the sewing room this weekend but still managed to complete the second clue. It doesn't make for a very exciting picture....

And this picture didn't work well at all, but I ran across this pattern when I stopped by Nola's over the weekend for help with another rug.  I couldn't resist - it's so cute!  I want to finish a couple of other rugs in progress before I start any others, but I'm adding this one to my list for 2020.

I'm anxiously awaiting the start of a new BOM, Maggie Macguire's Garden, through Homestead Hearth. Here's the picture of the quilt from their website:

I stumbled across the pattern when a friend from Australia posted it on Facebook, and the shop was able to connect with the designer and get it set up as a monthly program. I can't wait to get started on it!