Projects New & Old

PIt's been so long since I have posted that I actually have progress to report!  I finished assembling this top last weekend.  Leaving it out on my sewing table definitely paid off!  This is the first quilt I have made with an appliquéd border (or at least the first one where I have actually made it to the border!).  I had to lay out 430 inches of vine without anything to go by other than the picture on th pattern cover.  It was tough!  It took much longer than I expected.  I still have a long way to go - hundreds of leaves and berries - but I was happy to get this far.

A close-up of the appliqué:

Speaking of projects I am finally making progress on, the giant rug is finally hooked!  I finished booking it and steamed it last night. The binding is going to take some time - this thing is 40"x54" - but it is great to have it off the frame!

 

Last but not least, I've been trying to choose fabrics for a quilt reproduction project I am doing with a group of folks led by Rita Verroca.  

I found a couple of the fabrics in a bundle of fat eighths so I had to go on an internet hunt to find more.  I have only found one batik that works so far.  I would like to have three or four in my star.  I've ordered a couple on the internet - I'm hoping they will work.  Too bad we don't have shops like Homestead Hearth or Quilted Moose in our area!  

What Happened to Summer?

I can't believe that school has started and that Labor Day is a little over a week away!  We have had the most wonderful San Diego-style weather here this summer - I guess time flies even faster when the days are sunny and gorgeous rather than oppressively humid and unbearably hot!

I have been busy shopping, cooking and packing for my girls as they head off to college, but I did manage to squeeze in little mini-retreat at the lake. I only took hand work, so I don't have a lot to show for my time, but I did manage to finish another star.

I think this one may be my favorite so far.  The colors are a little off in the photo - it's actually more blue.  I love the fabric.

I've managed to slip in a little time at my sewing machine over the past few weeks, too.  I decided to leave a project out on the table and just do a few minutes here and there as time allowed.  I've managed to progress from this:

to this:

In just a few short sessions.  I want to get this one assed because this pattern has an appliqué border.  I've always wanted to do an appliqué border and this one is fairly reasonable.

I still plugging along on the rug.  I really wanted to have it finished by now, but just can't seem to find the time or the motivation to keep it going!  It is getting closer...  

Maybe I can shoot for Labor Day?

Obsessed with Handwork

I can't believe that it has been over a month since I last posted!  I feel like I am pedaling as fast as I can but still losing the race these days...  Things are starting to slow down a bit now, so hopefully I will be able to keep up with my projects and posts for at least a while. 

I am still working on the Lemoyne Stars and actually managed to finish both of my 12" blocks last month thanks to a couple of really long travel days to and from Germany.

I'm working on the 12th block now.  Our last meeting is Aug 3rd.  I'm pretty sure that I won't have my homework finished this time around, but I have kept up fairly well and only have about 5 more 12" blocks to finish (and several 6" blocks...I lost count on those).  I just hope I can motivate myself to stick with them after the classes end.  I think I will be really happy with the quilt when finished.  I am really in love with the colors.

I spent the weekend trying to catch up on prepping my Summer BOW and Summer Freebie blocks.  Week 7 arrived last week.  I am completely caught up on the prep work and have finished stitching two of the freebie blocks and am almost finished with the third BOW block.  At this point my goal is just to keep up with the prep...I will eventually get to the stitching.  I really need to figure out what I am going to do with the words.  I have decided to embroider them, but I need to decide on a font.

 

I am looking forward to wrapping up my LeMoyne stars (or the class, at least) so that I can get back to my hexies.  I am obsessed with English Paper Piecing right now and can't wait to have time to do some!  Chris Moline visited our guild in July and I had an opportunity to take an EPP class from her. I am fascinated by how many variations there are on the EPP technique.  In any event, one of the shapes she gave us to try was a clamshell.  I loved it!  I would really love to do a clamshell quilt one of these days. She also showed a quilt in her trunk show that is perfect for EPP.  I love the indigo - I really would love to make this one too!

Chris has an absolutely amazing quilt collection!  Her trunk show was wonderful.  I found several quilts I would love to make (all handwork, of course...I'm going to have to live to 200 to work all of these in!)

And then there are my rugs....I have so many rugs started and now I've signed up for another class this year!  I am on a mission to get my kaleidoscopes finished in two weeks.  It's an aggressive goal, but I am getting close.

I have one more row along the top and one column on the side plus most of the little corners to do.  And the border. A lot of hooking, but I am on a mission!

It's a Wonder I Ever Finish Anything!

The weather was beautiful yesterday - a perfect day for sitting out on the deck at the lake. My dogwood isn't even close to being ready to bloom but the redbud is in full bloom and the sun was shining. 

I have been trying to work on my Kaleidoscope rug a little every day with a goal of completing it before my workshop with Sally Kallin in June. I worked on it a bit at Wool Club on Saturday and spent yesterday afternoon hooking out on the deck. I've managed to make a little progress.
















I'm about half way finished so there is still a lot of work to do, but it does go pretty quickly.

A lot of the folks were crocheting at Wool Club on Saturday.  They were working on scarves and tote bags from the new Crochet Noro book.  I had planned to resist the temptation to dabble in yet another hobby (although I used to crochet, I haven't done it in 20 years), but I caved... I stopped at Knitorious (a wonderful yarn shop in St. Louis) when I left Nola's and picked up the book and some yarn.  So instead of working on my hand piecing homework last night like I should have, I crocheted this little bowl:

I have absolutely no idea what I will do with it, but it turned out really cute and was lots of fun to make.  I just may have to make another....

And speaking of things that distract me from what I should be working on, I started one of my new wool applique projects last weekend.  I managed to finish the first block:

These blocks are really small and go pretty quickly.  I would love to prep another one to work on but really need to focus on the things that I've committed to getting done, including binding my TAS quilt (I will post a photo and tell a little more about that one once the binding is on) and putting a sleeve on my Runaway quilt.  If by chance my quilters come through on the two quilts I dropped off last weekend I am going to have a LOT of work to do in May!