Time Flies....

I can’t believe that it’s been over a month since I last posted!  I've had quite a few adventures over the past few weeks but apparently have been having too much fun to remember to get photos! I need to get back in the swing of posting quickly...only eight more sleeps until the first Good Fortune clue is released!

Since my last post I did manage to conquer the tumber quilt. It ended up being 43 rows of 54 tumblers, 2,322 tumblers in total.

I decided to try the Baptist fan pattern and although it has a lot of back-tracking (which I usually try to avoid) I really like how it turned out.



Irene Blanck was in town for a three day workshop. It was fantastic!  We had a great group. While the smart move would have been to continue working on my Mosaics quilt, I decided to start Auntie Green.  I have had that pattern in my collection for quite a while now and couldn't resist. I didn't get very far.  Only the basket and some of the stems are stitched.  Another project for the ever-growing UFO pile!

Irene was supposed to head to Kansas City to teach after our workshop but they cancelled her so she decided to hang out here instead.  We took a quick afternoon trip over to Homestead Hearth so she could see the shop on Monday, and then Tuesday she had her first rug hooking class with Nola. It was great having her here to visit for a few extra days.

Last weekend I headed over to Kansas City for Janice's and Julie's annual Birthday Bash.  It was crazy crowded but increadibly fun (as always)!



Most of us were working on projects already in progress.  There were a couple of finishes over the weekend. I loved this version of Floral No. 7 (looks like the border has been permanently changed to the vines):



And this is an old pattern of Janice's that turned out really beautiful in blues and greens:



I worked on my Floral No. 5 pattern that I started with Jayne back in July and made great progress.  Lots and lots of background work. 



I've been able to get a bit more of it hooked since returning home and am hoping I can finish this one off, binding and all, by the end of the year.

I did eventually succumb to temptation and ended up planning another rug before leaving.  I was being SO good but then someone moved a pattern to the end of the rack where it was in my line of sight all day Saturday and I just couldn't resist. It is Janice's pattern, Floral Fractur No. 2 (I think it was the name that got me - I now feel the need to fill in the blanks and have florals one thrugh seven) and I am planning to use a gray-green background with soft pinky-apricot flowers and yellow-green leaves.  I don't think the colors are very true in this photo but it gives the general idea - very soft.



The next few weeks promise to be pretty crazy with the mystery quilt kicking off plus new flooring and a sewing room move/redesign in the works, not to mention the general craziness of the holidays.  I will be back soon with mystery quilt fabric choices.  I am very excited to get started!

Tumbler Frustration

As mentioned im my previous post, I decided it was time to get my tumbler project off of my sewing room floor and across the finish line.  Knowing that I had a nice quiet weekend ahead with lots of time to sew, I sat down Friday and started assembling rows. Row after row of 57 blocks each.

My little guy decided he would help with pressing...

I continued sewing rows all day Saturday until I noticed that the piles of neutrals were starting to look really low.  So I stopped and counted. I originally planned for this quilt to be 47 rows of 57 tumblers, or around 94" square. I had calculated exactly how many lights and darks I needed and I thought that was what I had cut back when I started this project a couple of years ago. I must have seriously mis-counted my cutting, though, as I found I was almost 300 tumbers short!  I have no idea how that happened.

I scavenged a couple more lights from another Kansas Troubles project and then threw in a couple of fat quarters that worked with the KT colors well and spent Sunday morning cutting more tumblers.  I then resumed row assembly. I kept at it until late in the afternoon, until I was down to this.




I counted and I have enough pieces left to make one more row. That gets me to 43 rows, 8" short of what I planned.



Luckily I have been assembling this thing in sections so I can distribute the new fabrics, but now I have to figure out how to deal with the shortage. There's no way I am cutting more tumblers!  So I decided I have two options.  One is to finish assembling the top, measure the length and lop off whatver I need from the side(s) to make it square (probably around 86"). The other option I am considering is to take three tumblers off of each row and build them into rows.  This would decrease the width by about 5" and allow me to build 2 more rows which should get the length to around 90".

Now to decide which of these options seems less painful....

My Latest Obsession

I have been a great admirer and lover of antique quilts and quilt history for a very long time. I enjoy researching quilt history and have been a "member" of the Missourt-Oklahoma-Kansas-Arkansas (MOKA) group for years (dating back to the Yahoo Group days), but only this year actually started participating in meetings. I was so excited and inspired by the June meeting that I couldn't wait to attend the meeting this weekend in Harrisonville, MO, even though it meant a second long road trip in less than one week.

Fresh off the heels of Baltimore on the Prairie, with my anticipation building for the MOKA meeting, I suddenly got a wild hair to take up quilt collecting.  Maybe it was the pictures of Lisa Bongean's antique collection in the journal my friend Pat gave me at BOTP that pushed me over the edge?  Of course, when I start something I have to jump in with both feet....the UPS guy will be bringing three new acquisitions sometime today. In addition to shopping online, I decided I needed to visit the local antique mall. I don't think I had ever been there before.  It was dangerous....I found several quilts that really wanted to come home with me.

There was this fan with lots of blanket stitching:

And I really loved something about this one, although contrast was not the maker's strongest skill. There was so much work put into the piecing and you can barely see the blocks!

I circled back to look at this strip-pieced star three times.

But then finally decided that this gorgeous blue and white bowtie quilt needed to be the first addition to my collection.  I'm not sure of the age - the fabrics look very similar to antique reproduction fabrics I have in my stash. I need to do some studying on dating and value before I do much more shopping. I have no idea if I paid a fair price for any of my purchases.   

So then it was off to Harrisonville for MOKA.  All three of the speakers (Kelly Cline, Robyn Gragg and Barbara Brackman) were outstanding! I was particularly inspired by Kelly - she is an amazing long-arm quilter who perfected her custom quilting skills on vintage tops she purchased very inexpensively on eBay and in antique shops. Her thinking was that it was far less intimidating to work on a $10 top than one you had spent loads of time and money on. What a brilliant idea! She now does masterpiece-level quilting on vintage linens and is far beyond where I will ever be, but I am totally hooked on the idea. I have two tops that are ready for custom quilting but I have been afraid to start them. I spent Friday evening in the hotel room surfing eBay for cheap tops.  I was lucky enough to win one in the silent auction (more on my other auction successes later). Here's my $14 top that will be my first custom quilting project:

There were loads of beautiful quilts shared in the show and tell sessions. This one particularly grabbed my attention.  What a beautiful log cabin!  The black fabrics include a lot of silks which have deteriorated, but it was still stunning!

Back at home and in the sewing room yesterday I decided that I am really tired of looking at my tumblers sitting in the floor next to my sewing table.  I spent the afternoon watching baseball and sewing rows.  I managed to finish two rows I had started previously and to make two more. I ran out of time and didn't get all of the new rows added onto the second section, but I made it to 20 rows.

That's 20 of 47, so not quite half way there. By the way, I have a remarkable ability to randomly place the same fabrics adjacent to each other in rows.  There are some rows where it has happened three or four times, and some places where I managed to do it three or four rows in succession. I am thinking I should try to sew one row a day until this quilt is finished. Let's see I can put up with the monotony for 27 days....

En Provence Week Five

I'm a little late with this post - I've been too busy celebrating the holidays and enjoying the heck out of being off work for a week!  I actually had this week's step finished Friday night. I was surprised to see purple again!  When are we going to use those greens and yellows? I am thinking this week's step is going to require a lot of effort considering it in theory will consume 3.5 yards of fabric (assuming green and yellow are the only colors we use). I am looking forward to seeing the reveal.

I couldn't resist including a picture that my daughter took of my little guy at the vet last week. He's been having trouble with one of his back legs so we had him checked out. We learned that the poor little guy has a dislocated patella. It's seriously dislocated - all the way over on the side of his knee! The doctor said we could have it repaired surgically but that it would be pretty tough on him at this age (he's nearly 11) so pain management might be the better option. He seems to be handling it pretty well with only occasional pain so we will have to wait and see if it gets any worse.

Back to sewing... I have been working on my Magic of Christmas blocks and finished two each of two more. I still have quite a few more to finish.  They are pretty tedious with LOTS of pieces so I plan to continue mixing them in between other more mindless projects.

While working on En Provence and the MoC blocks I managed to finish another row of tumblers and then joined the two sections I had assembled thus far.  I still have a very long way to go but I love it!

I decided to get a head start on my 2017 UFOs by working on my Disappearing Nine Patch. I have just completed all of the nine patches and will head to the sewing room now to cut them up and start assembling blocks.  This one has been hanging around for a long time...started in 2007.  I'm thinking it deserves to be finished by its 10th anniversary!

Back to the sewing room for me!  Check out Bonnie's Monday Link-up to see how others fared with this week's nice and easy clue!

FNSI Update

I was able to get a fair amount accomplished this weekend in spite of being severely handicapped by an overly ambitious workout on Thursday night. I really had no idea muscles could be that sore...I could barely make it up and down my stairs!

My weekend project was week two of the Among Friends SBOW.  I decided to try it old school this time with no triangle papers. I finished 15 of the 44 blocks and prepped 8 more.

I checked each of my HSTs with a 1.5" square ruler and trimmed here and there as needed but found that they are coming out pretty accurate and are going together easily.  So far much more enjoyable than dealing with paper.

I haven't tried sewing them into the larger block yet but I am ironing the seams one direction this time so that I am able to nest them when I put them together.  I am hoping that makes for a much more accurate and less frustrating assembly process.

I took a break from the tiny HSTs to try out a few hourglass blocks.  I was planning to avoid the temptation to start Bonnie Hunter's new leader and ender challenge since I haven't made much progress on last year's, but where's the fun in that?

These were a lot of fun. They go together quickly and seem huge (3.5" unfinished) compared to the other things I have been working on.  I have no idea what setting I will use for these but I am thinking that it would be a good way to use the stack of red and cream fat quarters I have had sitting on a shelf in my sewing room for years.  I remember collecting the stack on a trip to the lake - perhaps a shop hop - that included Homestead Hearth. I recall having a plan for them at the time but have long since lost the plot on that one. I really like them and am anxious to make more!

I figured if I was going to start a new leader and ender challenge then I needed to try to make some progress on the old one.  I finished off a couple more rows and added them to the five I already had together. Seven down, forty to go!

I'm just not very disciplined at using them as leaders and enders.  I tend to use whatever project I am working on as my L&Es instead (starting the next block when finishing the last seam on another, etc.).  What is really amazing is how many times I manage to end up with the same fabrics lined up together. I even have places where there are three of the same blocks lined up. Oh well, I'm still counting on no one really noticing once all 2000+ tumblers are put together!

Weekend Sewing

I missed the sign up for the FNSI this month - by the time it was posted I was too busy to remember to look for it. And as it turns out I was completely exhausted Friday and didn't do a bit of sewing that night anyway! I did manage to get some time in the sewing room the rest of the weekend, however, and entertained myself by working on something "new".  Not really a new project, but I had not made any of the stars from my second start on my Stars and Sprigs project. I made nearly all of the stars in Kaffe fabrics before deciding it just wasn't my thing.  My Kaffe collection and my star blocks went in the guild's garage sale and are now part of someone else's stash.   

I suppose it is the effect of cropping photos on my phone, but find it very perplexing that photos posted in their "original size" can be all over the place in size!  Below is the beginning of my next album block.  This one is a little less intricate than the first one but will be tedious nonetheless. We set a target to finish this one by the end of June. Seems like plenty of time, but there are a LOT of little loops to applique!

And then there is the most disproportionate picture of all - the tumblers!  I managed to finish another row while working on my stars and added it to the other three. I was able to add another row after dinner last night so I am up to five rows now.  I still have about 50 rows to go and will not even come close to finishing before Bonnie announces the next one, but I am really loving it.  It is amazing how often I manage to get identical patches adjacent to each other when choosing positions and fabrics randomly but figure it really won't be all that noticeable when I have all 2000+ of them sewn together.

I'm hoping to get a few orange peels done this week.  No way I am making my target this month so my goal is to at least get out of the single digits. I can't believe May is almost over!

Friday Night Sew-in

My Friday night was actually more of a "prep-in" as I never actually sewed a stitch.  I did get a lot accomplished, though!

My evening started with trying a new recipe from Taste of Home.  I like to find things that would work well for my daughter to prepare at school and this cheesy beef tortellini skillet recipe looked promising.

Not sure that it is all that photogenic, but it was delicious!  Quick, simple and made enough to keep me from having to cook the rest of the weekend!

My first project of the evening was to finish the prep for weeks 11 & 12 of my summer block of the week.  I haven't started stitching it yet but at least I have been keeping up with the prep all summer.

My next project was cutting tumblers.  I decided that I really needed to get a handle on how many light and dark I still need before I began tearing into this stack of fat quarters:

I figured I would be short on lights from the jelly roll since KT fabrics are generally mostly dark. After getting an idea of what I needed, I spent a couple of hours pressing and cutting up fat quarters.  

I'm about half way finished cutting the 2,679 tumblers I will need for a queen-sized quilt.

I organized my tumblers by color. Based on the two rows I have done I think it will save time to have them sorted. I am ready to go!

I'm not sure the dogs were as excited as I was about spending the evening on the sewing room. 

I got s smile from Belle (although she looked terribly bored most of the evening) but Ace was too bored to even look my direction for a picture.

I'm back in the sewing room today.  First up is prepping the guild BOM and then I will be firing up the sewing machine to work on the backing for my star quilt.  If I can get my act together I will have three more quilts heading out to be quilted in the next couple of weeks. That's a record for me - seven in one year!

MSQC Christmas in July

I finally made it to Hamilton to visit Missouri Star Quilt Company!  I had an incredible time at their Christmas in July retreat this past weekend. Hamilton is quite an experience and MSQC definitely knows how to show quilters a good time!  Our hostesses Cindy and Susan were fantastic (and quite the comedic team) and we had a great group of people.

Jenny Doan treated us to a trunk show on the first day. We learned a lot about the family, the business and the quilts. Jenny is an excellent speaker and it was really interesting to see how the designs evolve.  Here are just a few of the quilts we saw.

 

   

This one doesn't show up well in the picture but it is one of my favorites. I've been wanting to make it since I saw it in Block magazine. I am thinking it might be interesting in red and cream...

The MSQC folks went all out on the Christmas in July theme. The retreat center and shops were all decked out for Christmas. Santa and Mrs, Claus visited the shops and handed out presents in the afternoon. Mrs. Claus had ditched her costume by the time of the trunk show but Santa made an appearance at the end.

The agenda for the retreat was a bit chaotic, with demonstrations going on both at the retreat and in the stores throughout the weekend. We saw a demo of the Dresden Tree pattern at the Seasonal Shop.

And Cindy demonstrated all kinds of different projects, including the Orange Peel and a tree skirt.

I  had planned to do the Orange Peel and cut my own charm squares from some batiks I have had around for a very long time as part of a stash saved for a New York Beauty I have never gotten back to.  Sadly I didn't make much of a dent in the stash!  I played around with a few blocks but didn't get very far.  I'm not in love with turning those things inside out - they are really hard to get smoothed out. I had also planned to do the tree skirt but didn't get a chance to start it. I spent the bulk of the weekend putting together my stars.

I didn't have enough room to lay the blocks out and leave them so keeping things in order was extremely challenging. I managed to get things all screwed up and had to make a few adjustments to get everything in the right place. I still managed to end up with too much of the same fabric in one spot so I still need to make a couple of adjustments.

I did finally get started on my leader & ender project. I took along one of my Kansas Troubles jelly rolls and cut the first set of pieces for my tumblers.

I had a lot of opportunity to sew my tumblers in between squares and rows.  I managed to finish the first two rows and get a solid start on a third one.  

One of the many highlights from the weekend were the Amish fried pies from the farmer's market. They were incredible!  Hamilton is such a neat little town. I can't wait to go back!