TKDAA 2016

This year's TKDAA conference has sadly come to an end and unfortunately it is now time to get back to the real world and work, but I can't resist taking a few minutes to capture some of the incredible inspiration of the past few days.

The weather in Dallas was chilly but sunny most of the time and the view from the Rockwall Hilton was spectacular! The hotel is located on a large lake and there were actually people out boating most days even though temps were in the 40s and low 50s. Crazy!  I much preferred admiring the pretty view while stitching indoors.

I took a Broderie Perse class taught by Cynthia Williford.  Cynthia is an outstanding teacher and shared a lot of great historical information on the fabrics and the technique. I have to admit that I still struggle a bit with the technique myself - it is hard for my OCD brain to cut into some images on the fabric when cutting out others and I absolutely have to follow along the line of the image to turn under the background. No smoothing edges or leaving the original background for me! It can make the process very tedious. Nonetheless, I played along and got this far with mine:

It's tough to tell from this photo, but the left side is mostly stitched (down to the pink bud and blue/pink flower near the center). Several of the little leaves added into the sewn part were not part of the original design. There was a lot of adjustments and patching as seam allowances were turned and little "uh oh" spaces appeared.

We had several beautiful quilts shared in a classroom show & tell session.  This one was particularly awesome - a Baltimore in my color palette! Unfortunately I can't remember the name of the person who made it but she is my hero.  It was gorgeous!

I borrowed this and the following couple of photos from Cynthia's Facebook posts.  Here is our class photo (I'm hiding in the back row as usual). All of the blocks turned out slightly different - it was interesting to see how people changed things up.

We had a lot of time to visit with and learn from the masters during the event. Marylou McDonald presented a lecture on Friday and shared some Baltmore Album history with us. Her quilts were beautiful and very inspiring.

Elly Sienkiewicz joined us for dinner a couple of nights and chatted with us about the book she is trying to work on and other things she would love to accomplish. She is always entertaining!

Above is another picture borrowed from Cynthia - taken after Marylou's program Friday. From left to right: Elly Sienkiewicz, Cynthia Williford and Marylou McDonald. Three icons in the industry!

It was a great week and has inspired a new project...  More to come on that later!

January Progress Report

I've been plugging away at the many quilt-related commitments I made at the beginning of the year and am happy to say that I have made some progress! First up is the APQ UFO Challenge. The UFO chosen for January was #2, which happened to be my Somewhere in Time BOW. I managed to complete the stitching for blocks 1 & 2 and get a little start on block 3. I decided to do mine on a dark background instead of the light one provided and am loving the way the blocks are turning out.  

Next is the Quilty 365 challenge.  I got a bit of a late start on this one as I didn't run across the post until Jan 4. When I saw that some others had adapted the project to orange peels I had to jump in!  I started an orange peel quilt last year and hadn't made a lot of progress. I didn't originally include this one on my UFO list but love the idea of trying to do one a day so I decided to bump another project in favor of playing along. So 31 days in (we'll just say I started at the beginning of the year to keep the math simple) I haven't quite met the goal but I have made more progress in one month than I did all of last year! I hope to be able to meet and maybe surpass my goal in February with all of my travel. See how other challenge participants are progressing on their projects on today's Quilty 365 blog linkup.

I'm still trying to decide what method I prefer for making these.  I prepped the first bunch using the starch method because I was concerned about precise placement. I found I still needed to create a window template to ensure they were in exactly the right place, though.I hate dealing with the points when they are starched - I just don't like the feel of the bulk when you fold that starched flag under. I did the last five or so by needle-turn using my template for placement. It seemed a lot easier - faster prep and no annoying crunch flags to deal with!

Last but not least is the 365 Challenge.  My picture didn't turn out great but I did manage to complete all of the January blocks. I am hoping that all of these different blues play together nicely in the end - a few look a little out of place in the photo. These blocks are a lot of fun though I must say they are getting a little tedious...1.25" half square triangle are pretty darn small to work with!

The APQ UFO Challenge for February is #5 which happens to be my Disappearing Nine Patch. I am excited about that one since I got a bit of a head start on that one in January. I am optimistic I can move it along even though I will be short on machine time this month due to travel  

The sewing room saga continues. I spent all day Saturday trying to unpack and sort things for our guild's yard sale. It is going to take a LONG time before I have everything put away. There is so much stuff! I don't think I ever need to shop again!

Piecing Progress

I'm starting to think that my brilliant idea to move my sewing room was overly ambitious.  I will share before and after pictures eventually to illustrate how truly insane the idea was, but at this point the new sewing room is definitely not in any condition to memorialize on the internet! I still have a very long way to go and have to admit that the sheer volume of stuff is intimidating. There will be a LOT of stuff in the guild yard sale this year!

I did manage to get some sewing done over the past couple of weeks. I have been plugging away at the Allietare mystery and now have 15 of the star blocks completed and one of the alternate blocks completed. I'm not sure if I really like my colors together but it is probably too soon to tell without more of the Pisa blocks.  I still have a bunch more "Santa hats" to make before I can make any more. I absolutely love the pattern and can't bear the thought of having to remake the pieces with the gray in them, but if I get a few more together and still don't like the colors I may consider it.  This pattern is too gorgeous to screw up with bad color choices!

I decided to take a break from the mystery quilt and dig out an old UFO to work on. My bee did an exchange of blue and white nine patches back in 2008 in order to make disappearing nine patch quilts.We exchanged enough blocks to make a lap quilt and most everyone else finished theirs. Not me....I decided that I wanted to make a queen-sized quilt and made a bunch of additional blocks. I thought that I made enough and just needed to cut them up and assemble them. And that's where the project sat for years. When I pulled it out to work on over the weekend I found that I needed about 40 additional nine patches to get the size I want. So I started sewing....

I still have more to make, but at least I made a dent in the deficit. I couldn't resist assembling a couple of blocks to see what the quilt will look like.

This is a very simple quilt but I can already tell that I will love it!  I used my Jackman's coupon to pick up the perfect blue backing for the quilt over the weekend. Now I just need to forge a path to my sewing machine so that I am able to use it again soon!

2016 UFO List

It's that time of year again - time for me to set a bunch of outrageous overly-optimistic goals that I have no hope of ever achieving!  I plan to participate in the APQ 2016 UFO Challenge this year to help motivate me and have given a lot of thought to selecting twelve projects to list (probably a little too much!).  I decided that I would leave off the easy wins like finishing the binding on Celtic Solstice or binding any of the other four tops that are currently at the quilter or ready to send to a quilter. I think it sounds like more fun to choose projects that need a little more effort to move along. For the record, I am not setting the bar too high - I just want to make measurable progress on these projects.  There are a couple that I could resonably expect to finish at least to the point of sending off for quilting, but most are very, very long term projects I just want to chip away at.  So here we go:

1. Allietare Mystery - I am a bit behind on the clues due to a crazy December, but have made a little bit of headway over the holiday break.  I still need to finish all the piecing and assemble the top.

2. Somewhere in Time BOW - I have all the blocks and short sashiings prepped and all of the wool cut for the long sashiings.  I am still working on stitching the first block. This one needs the long sashings and borders prepped; all of the blocks, sashings and borders stitched and the top assembled.

3. Dresden Stars - Need to decide on a final layout and determine how many stars I need, then finish piecing, appliqué stars and centers and assemble the top.

4. Rising Sun - I am working on my third of eight diamonds and still need to do all of the appliqué.  I've prepped one appliqué section but am still not thrilled with my selection of fabric for the broderie perse.

5. Disappearing Nine Patch - I seem to recall having finished enough extra blocks to be ready to start the assembly.  I need to assess where I am at and do whatever is needed to finish the top.

6. Sister's Choice - only one block finished so far, so the main goal here is to piece additional blocks.

7. Stars and Sprigs - I have decided to scrap the Kaffe version of this that I started and to redo it in "my" kind of fabrics.  I may even bundle up all my Kaffe fabrics and sell at the guild's yard sale - I've decided they just aren't for me!

8. Mariner's Compass - I started this one this year but stopped at the point where i need to appliqué circles in between all those points (ugh!).  Still lots of borders to add on this medallion-style pattern.

9. Bow Ties - I love these little blocks!  I think I have about 100 of the over 3,000 needed for this one.  The plan for 2016 is to get to at least 500.

10. The Caswell Quilt - I haven't gotten far at all on this one...just a few leaves and stems on block one.  Lots of appliqué to do for this one.  I think this will be my TAS challenge.

11. Sweet William - not sure you can call this a UFO since I haven't started it, but I have the pattern and fabric.  I really want to finish a basket quilt but am not all that motivated by any of the ones I've already started, so I think I will work on this one.  

12. Red and White - another one that isn't really a UFO yet. I still need to make a decision on a pattern, but I have been collecting fabric and really want to get started on this one.  

It really was tough to choose just twelve!  I feel bad for all those projects left behind for yet another year.  So with one last bit of small print - that this in no way precludes me from starting new projects, which I already plan to do - I'm back to my sewing machine to try to make some progress on project #1. Happy New Year!

Allietare Week #2

Wow - Blogger does not like the word "Allietare"!  I had to change it back from the auto-corrected "Alliterate" three times before it gave up trying to help me!

I got off to a very slow start with week one of the mystery. I had such big plans - we held our first kick-off party and I had lots of great company - but unfortunately a sinus infection got the best of me and I was feeling too lousy to really enjoy the fun!  We had twelve Bonniacs hard at work on clue #1, some following Bonnie's color scheme and others getting creative with purples, blues and other gorgeous colors.

Most of the group are newly-addicted. Only four of us have done the mysteries in years past.  We had a couple versions of Grand Illusion and one Celtic Solstice for show & tell. We are planning another get-together in January and I am hoping to be feeling much better for that one.

Almost everyone finished (or nearly finished) clue #1 by dinner time that day.  Not me...I plodded along in a sinus headache fog and only finished about half of the clue.  I have since finished all of the sewing but still have around 60 squares to trim up.

I got a decent start on clue #2 over the weekend, completing a couple of sets of "Santa hats", about half of the headless geese and the cutting for the rest.

I decided that I had better pick up a little extra blue-gray so I can expand my quilt to queen-sized. I'm not sure how these blocks will go together but the gray seems to be everywhere so far, so I am guessing I will need more to finish. 

Prior to starting the mystery quilt I tried to progress my Dresdens from my class with Edyta back in April.  I want to make the quilt larger - the pattern is a kind of awkward very large wall hanging or slightly small lap size - but haven't decided how many I want to make yet.  Here's where the pile stood before being cleared from the sewing table for Allietare:

I absolutely love these blocks!  I might not love them so much when it comes time to applique them, but they are so fun to make and look very cool!  I think I may try to make 25 of them.  I currently have about 12.

I am also making progress on my new rug from my Sally Kallin workshop. I planned to go back to my runner once the pineapple was finished, but am concerned that I need to try to remember what Sally and I came up with before packing everything away.  In the meantime, I cut wool for the background (it't going to be a blend of about 20 different pieces so cutting was loads of fun!) and stated filling in around the ship. I am really liking the variety of colors in the background and am very happy with the way the water turned out,

This pattern is a little different from my usual florals so I am finding it very fun to work on. It might be hard to put it away and go back to the giant runner!

Only two more days to clue #3! Check out the Link-Up (yes, from Monday - I am behind as usual!) on Bonnie's blog to see how others are coming along with their first two steps.

Ready for Allietare!

Life is finally settling down at least a little - I am home for three weeks straight - and I am ready to get a few things done!  I am busily binding my Grand Illusion mystery quilt so that it will be ready for show & tell at our Allietare mystery kick-off party a week from Saturday.

I finally had a chance to pull fabrics for Allietare over the weekend. I was able to cover everything from stash except for the gray - I didn't have a piece that big or anything that was really the right color. I stopped by Jackman's in between rug hooking classes last weekend (I will share more on that in my next post) and found a piece of a blue-gray that really works well with my colors. My fabrics are mainly reproductions with a few batiks and contemporary prints (especially neutrals) mixed in.

I really love the colors this year! I am betting this will be a gorgeous quilt!

I pulled the final loop on the pineapple rug this weekend!  I am so excited to actually finish a rug for a change - it's been a LONG time!  I still have to bind it of course, but that is the easy part,

I found a fantastic teal-colored chunky yarn at Nola's for the binding. I surged the edges yesterday and will get started on that this week.

I hope to be back later in the week with a finished quilt to share! 

Home from Houston

Work and travel have interfered with my sewing and rug hooking over the past six weeks so I haven't had much to post about. I did manage to piece a back for the star quilt, see the binding on Celtic Solstice and Grand Illusion (another 64 feet of binding to hand stitch!) and finish piecing my Quatrefoil top.  Nothing all that picture-worthy, though.... As much as I usually like Edyta's fabrics I'm not completely in love with Quatrefoil.  I'm hoping the quilting can bring it to life.

Baltimore on the Prairie was a little different this year - new location, split into two groups to accommodate all the requests for Sue Garmin - and left me feeling a bit disappointed.  I usually leave there so inspired but this year that was not the case. One thing I saw that did catch my eye was the sign in the lobby of the lodge.  This tree would be awesome in appliqué!

Although my September trip fell a bit short of expectations, my trip to Houston definitely made up for it!  I was worried that it would not be all that exciting - I'm at a point where I have so many projects lined up that I really want to do that I really am not interested in shopping (awful, isn't it??) and things are so crazy at work that I knew It would not be a true vacation.  As it turns out, spending a little less time walking the vendor floor (although I spent plenty of time there, trust me!) and a little more time listening to presentations and wandering around downtown made for a great trip!

I listened to quite a few of the "Meet the Teacher" presentations. I didn't get pictures of them all, but here's Kathy Dunnigan on stage talking about her appliqué techniques:

It's hard to get a flattering photo of people when they are talking!

The first day I was in Houston - in fact, even on the plane on the way down - several people mentioned the Phoenicia as a great place to eat.  I decided to check it out for lunch on Thursday.  It is the coolest specialty market with prepared foods and groceries and places to sit and eat.

I was really impressed by the pita bread line.

Such a cool place!  I ended up eating there again on Friday.  It was great!

There were a number of really awe-inspiring quilts, including this one made by Barbara Korengold with an insane amount of gorgeous appliqué and embroidery:

And this one that turns out to be this quilter's first quilt (seriously?!?):

The trip ended on a high note with the most fantastic workshop on Friday - needle turn appliqué with Irene Blanck.  She does a couple of things that I really haven't seen before that are a bit intriguing and worth giving a try.  She is such a down to earth person and so incredibly nice! The class was a blast!

I'm back home now after escaping the monsoons in Houston this morning and in between unpacking and doing laundry I've already made the run to Lowe's for my paint chips.

Let the mystery madness begin!!!