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!

Quilt Shows & First Finish!

I've been on the road for work the better part of the last two weeks but managed to squeeze in a couple of quilt shows in the middle of my travels. I traveled home from Kalamazoo, MI last week via the Chicago and made a stop at the Quilt Festival on Friday. The best part of the trip was meeting up with the Chicago area quilter that is going to quilt Celtic Solstice and Grand Illusion for me. She;s hoping to have them both finished in time for me to bind them for our quilt show in June. If all goes as planned I should have five queen-sized quilts finished by early summer.  That definitely makes a dent in my UFO list!

I had not been to the Chicago show since it moved back.  I was very disappointed.  It seemed considerably smaller than in years past - a lot of the vendors I usually expect to see at a major show weren't there, and there really only seemed to be about half the number of vendors they used to have. A large portion of the quilt exhibits were repeated from Houston, too, so it didn't take me a lot of time to buzz through the show.  I was in and out in about an hour and a half.  

The version of the red and white exhibit at Chicago wasn't nearly as impressive as Houston but it was still very eye-catching.

I didn't get any other pictures at the show. Most of the quilts that caught my attention were in the "no photos" exhibits.  I am really disappointed that the Quilts Inc. folks prohibit photos.  I know that they want you to buy the books (which I always do!) but sometimes you want to get that close-up of component of the quilt that you just can't see in the book photos.

On my way home from Chicago I stopped in Bloomington, IL and visited the local guild's quilt show. They had a fabulous show!  They had a wonderful featured quilter, lots of really great quilts and a very nice selection of vendors.  I didn't take any photos since I was a bit pressed for time....had to get the rental car back before 6 pm...but I really enjoyed the show.

Now that I am back at home I finally managed to finish the binding on my Hunter's Star quilt. My daughter claimed it back when it was a pile of blocks so it's on her bed until show time. So far that's 386" of binding for the year....I'm off to a running start!

   

Retreat Time!

I had a fantastic time retreating in Paducah with a few friends last weekend.  We stayed at the relatively new Quilt in a Day Retreat Center. Despite a couple of issues (spotty wireless and a leaky ceiling in one bedroom), the place was fabulous!  The sewing area is spacious and well-lit and there are so many wonderful places to eat.  We thoroughly enjoyed the food! It is difficult to get a good picture of the place because it is really long, but here's the view from my table...

I was able to get a lot of sewing done - not as much as I had hoped, of course, but I am very pleased with my progress. I managed to finally finish piecing my Orion's Star.

As luck would have it, they had the perfect batik for my backing in the Quilt in a Day store (and it was only $8 per yard - a steal for batiks these days!).

I'm hoping to be able to drop this one off with the quilter at the beginning of July along with my Easy Street top which has been laying in my sewing room floor for ages.

My second project for the weekend was my Celtic Solstice.  I started by piecing the 40 blocks with the 4 patches.

I managed to finish all of these and then moved on to finishing my chevron pieces for the alternate blocks.  I did take a break to lay out the two setting options and gather opinions from my friends.

Three votes for option one, one for option two (the original layout).  I'm still torn...I really don't like the lack of contrast in the center of the stars in the first option so I am leaning toward option two.  I suppose I still time - I still have 150 chevrons to make before I need to make a decision.  I know what I am working on at the next retreat!

Making Progress...

May was a crazy month - four trips in four weeks!  I am looking forward to a much more quiet June. All of the travel and work has definitely limited my sewing and hooking time!  The girls are home for the summer now, too, so cooking and general chaos has also been cutting into my "me" time....

I did manage to make a quick stop in Harriet Hargrave's quilt shop when I was in Denver. It was a nice shop with good variety. She had a nice selection of Japanese and Australian magazines and patterns - I resisted the urge to bring any home, but they were tempting! 

I had hoped to get to another shop while visiting Denver but between the insane traffic and crazy weather (daily hail and tornadoes) I decided the best place for my rental car was the hotel garage. I use the term "car" loosely - Avis couldn't come up with anything smaller than an Expedition for me....the perfect car for attending an environmental sustainability conference in a city with horrible traffic, right?!?

I have been making progress on a couple of projects. I decided to stop waiting for a retreat (I need one!!) to get back to working on my Orion's Star blocks from a couple of summers ago.  I have half of the quilt assembled and all of the strips put together for the other half.  Ann is absolutely in love with this one and is pushing me to finish it so she can have it for her room.

I've also made a little progress on my rug from Anita's class last winter.  I actually have more completed now than when I took this picture (I had high hopes of finding time to update the blog last week).

I have hooked the leaves on the left and am close to having the background filled in...then I can move to the other half of the rug not shown in the picture.... Did I mention that I need a retreat?

I had to break away from Orion's Star (much to my daughter's dismay) to work on a new BOM for our quilt guild this past weekend. We will be launching the BOM at our next guild meeting and I needed to get my sample completed. The pattern is an old Kansas City Star series designed by Eveline Folind. I did this one in Japanese taupes and hope to put together a second one in wool. Our guild president has done a version in William Morris fabrics and is working on a blue-work version....we are hoping to inspire lots of members to play along.

I am considering outlining the applique with embroidery a la Suzanne Marshall since I have always wanted to do that on a quilt, but I will focus on getting the wool version finished first.  Of course, that means I will have to resist the temptation to start my summer BOW when it arrives...first one should be here this week and I can't wait!