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!

Paducah Edyta Immersion

I had an absolutely wonderful time in Paducah last week - a giant step up from last year!  The workshop selection was much better this time around and I was fortunate enough (make that fast enough!) to get into a lecture and two workshops with Edyta Sitar. It was a week of Edyta immersion - so inspirational! All I want to do now is work on Edyta quilts (I already have several in progress not counting the ones I started in her workshops!).  I actually finished a couple of tops prior to heading for Kentucky.  I've been working on piecing the sashing blocks for My Garden Album for the past couple of months and finally finished. I had finished the applique blocks a few years ago. This was a block of the month from Homestead Hearth.  I didn't care for the sashing or border fabrics they provided (multi-colored batiks like on Edyta's original) so I opted for a mix of batiks and reproduction fabrics from my stash and added a Jo Morton border.

I finally finished the applique on my house quilt and got the borders on just before heading to Paducah. I will have to say that appliqueing on a large project is not my idea of a good time...

So back to Paducah.... On Wednesday night I attended Edyta's "Reasons for Quilts" lecture. She is an amazing speaker and it was an incredible presentation!  She brought tons of quilts - many I had not seen before - and did such a nice job sharing the meaning behind each one.

On Thursday afternoon I participated in Edyta's spool quilt workshop.  Her preparation for class and her generosity is amazing. She provided each of us with two pieces of fabric to cut into 24 strips that we then exchanged with each other in order to ensure that everything worked well together and was good quality. Much better than taking whatever people brought from their stash!  We only completed one spool in the class which was fine - the Janome machine I was using was giving me fits so I would much rather work on them at home.

Friday I had an all-day workshop on Stars in Quilts.  It was great!  Edyta started with a lecture detailing 15 different types of stars and how to make them and use them in quilts. She reviewed her technique for piecing 8-pointed stars by machine. I plan to practice that with my Prairie Peony blocks as soon as I get a chance.

After the presentation, Edyta started us on Dresden Stars.  I had no idea we would be making these in class - I have been wanting to do that pattern forever!  Here's Edyta's version:

And here is my first nearly-complete block.  I ended up making two before class ended.

Edyta is such a thorough instructor!  She makes everything seem so easy, from choosing fabrics to sewing complicated pieces.

The other highlight of my week down south was my visit(s) to the Primitive Gatherings booth. Yes, I went more than once.  Almost every day. I couldn't help myself! Lisa gave us a sneak preview of the Summer BOW. She somehow manages to top herself every year - it is beautiful!  I can't wait for it to start.  She also had a project at the booth that completely sucked me in....little bowties.  I couldn't resist!  I bought a bunch of charm packs (the $5 pattern was free if you bought >$200 in fabric - makes perfect sense to everyone, right?!?!) and couldn't wait to get home to start.  I managed to spend a little time in the sewing room yesterday and knocked out 42 bow ties.  They are so much fun!

I was so impressed with my progress....that is, until I took a second look at the pattern and saw that is says "you will need 3,024 bow ties for the quilt". WHAT?????  That's over 18,000 pieces and this thing isn't even bed-sized! This is going to take a while....

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!

   

2015 TAS Challenge

We were planning to kick off our local TAS chapter's 2015 challenge last Saturday but the weather had other plans. Our challenge this year is to each choose a project we want to make progress on this year and commit to work on it each month and share progress. It was really tough to decide what project to choose - I have so many in progress (and of course would like to work on them all!) and there is a new project I have been dying to start - more on that in a minute. After considerable deliberation I decided to choose my blocks from my classes at Baltimore on the Prairie last year. Each year when I get home from the conference I promise myself that I will finish at least one of the projects and take it back for show & tell the following year. I've yet to finish a single class project.  Sad, isn't it? So I am thinking this year will be my year - I should be able to complete at least one of these blocks by September!

Unfortunately they aren't very far along - most of that is glued in place. Both blocks were from workshops with Sue Garmin and she believes in glue basting as much of the block as possible before beginning to stitch. The top block is part of a four-block wall hanging (all the same block). Note that I am not committing to getting all four completed, just the one.  The bottom block is the first pattern from a new Baltimore album pattern Sue is designing.  I will be taking workshops on two other blocks from this quilt in September.

Back to the new project I've been wanting to start...  It all started with a picture on Facebook.  This quilt, done in mostly (perhaps all?) Jo Morton fabrics with no fabric repeated more than three times really spoke to me. I love it!

I'm not planning to set any limits on fabric repetition, particularly for the backgrounds, but I am going to commit to doing it all from stash. I prepped about 10 orange peels last week to get things started.

I'm using the starch prep method for these since placement is critical.  I cut my own template out of heat-resistant plastic but always have a tough time getting them exactly right and perfectly smooth, so this week I contacted Brandi's to see if they could make what I needed. Three days later a box of perfectly-cut mylar templates appeared in my mailbox. That guy is awesome!  I can't wait to prep more - these will be great for travel.

Speaking of travel, I learned the hard way that it is impossible to work on a large applique project on a completely full 737.  I had started working on my house quilt again at a recent day retreat I attended and was so excited that I was making progress on it that I decided to take it along with me on a business trip.  I managed to sew a couple of leaves down on the way down to Tampa (also a full flight, but I had a window seat), but found it impossible to stitch while sitting in an aisle seat on the way back. I will not be trying that again!  I have been making progress nonetheless and hope to be ready to put borders on within the next month or so.

I hope to get a lot of sewing done this weekend.  I finally picked up my quilts that I sent to the quilter last July so I have a lot of binding to sew on, and I have to get the borders on my LeMoyne Star and piece or purchase a backing so that I can get it to the quilter. Looks like I am going to be stitching a lot of binding before the quilt show!

 

Not Much Getting Accomplished Here

It's a bit sad that I follow up a post about an incredibly productive retreat with one that sadly shows almost no progress on any projects, but I have a pretty perfect excuse.  Her name is Belle and she came to live with us exactly one month ago today.  She is the sweetest and most loving puppy!

This picture was actually taken a couple of weeks ago and I think she's grown an inch or two since then.  She's going to be a big girl!  She's an incredibly calm, well-behaved little girl. I find myself spending all of my time playing with her instead of getting anything done. Her big brother requires a little extra attention, too.  He's still trying to get used to having to share me. I'm hoping he comes around - he needs a playmate!

I attended the new Kathy Dunnigan Applique Academy a couple of weeks ago. It was a wonderful event and while there weren't all that many participants from TESAA it seemed like a very natural transition and felt like home. There was a very nice tribute to Elly Sienkiewicz that featured some gorgeous quilts.  The following picture of Elly was borrowed from Cynthia Collier's Facebook post since I was unable to get anything that didn't include a bunch of backs of heads...

My conference workshop was taught by Evelyn Crovo-Hall. We were working on a Baltimore-style beehive block that is supposed to look like this:

 

I managed to finish a couple of stems, a couple of leaves and part of the beehive during the class. Preparing the edges of the little pieces was extremely tedious and didn't really hold my attention. Add in a couple of work meetings I had to attend and I was the slowest kid in the class.  I made sure to stand at the back when we did the show and tell at the closing dinner.

I have been trying to get caught up with an online crazy quilting class I am participating in (trying to, anyway).  I finally pieced my block yesterday.

In retrospect I think I needed to switch fabrics 2 and 4 (the tan with scribbles and the light one that you can't see the print on).  I really don't have the time or desire to do it over again...I want to get started on the stitching.  I am hoping the instructor will let me move forward even though my contrast isn't all that great.  I will submit it today and see how it goes.

One other small thing I did manage to finish last week was the stitching on the first block of my Sunflower Gatherings BOW.  I also made progress on block two - I hope to finish it this week,

My goal is to have this top pieced before the new BOW starts at the end of May. Perhaps not realistic, but a girl can dream!

Most Productive Retreat Ever!

I'm a little slow with this post - my retreat is really a distant memory after the crazy four day, 60-hour work week that followed it...  The weekend before last I went on a four-day quilting retreat with friends.  It was probably the most productive retreat I have ever had!  I took along multiple projects - a couple of which I never touched - but I did manage to finish one top and nearly finished another.  Both are on my top twelve UFO list so I am off to a strong start for the year.

I originally wasn't in love with the teal cornerstones in the Grand Illusion mystery quilt setting and had started using black instead.  Then a very creative quilter posted a slight variation of the pattern on the Quiltville Facebook page and my mind was changed - the simple addition of a teal inner border completely pulled it together!  She also added a couple of other 2" borders that increased the size to around 96" square which worked better for me.  So, following her lead, here's what I ended up with:

I absolutely LOVE it!  I am very happy with how it turned out, crazy bright colors and all.  I decided that I will use some black batik that I have on hand for backing. Now I just need to find a quilter....

After that top was complete, I moved on to my LeMoyne Stars. I had ordered a couple of pieces of Japanese taupe fabrics from Homestead Hearth as possible sashing and luckily one of them worked out well.  The blocks were a bear to work with!  I have definitely learned an important lesson about hand piecing - cut the outer seam allowances really large!  I will also pay better attention to where the bias falls next time.  After all of the handling in piecing the outer edges were a little off-square and required a lot of finessing to get right.  By the time I got the center together I was too exhausted to deal with the outer borders. It took the better part of two days to get it to this point:

I am very happy with how it is turning out!  I have two more borders to add - a 2" blue one (the same fabric as the sashing) and a wide (6") one of background fabric - and then it will be ready for quilting.

This past weekend was our annual Wool Club Camp at Nola's.  I didn't accomplish much - it was very crowded and just not conducive to working on my giant rug.  I also think I was too exhausted from the week and too distracted by a rescue puppy I fell in love with on Facebook (she's still available and I am trying to control the impulse to call about her....) to do much hooking.  Here's a peek at where it stands currently:

I still have quite a way to go, but I am making progress. I also made some progress on a couple of other projects this week, one which is on my UFO list and one that is not.  I made a bit of progress on the second diamond wedge for my Rising Sun while flying to and from New York this week - it wasn't picture-worthy.  Over the weekend I pulled out a project that has accompanied me to several retreats but returned home untouched - My Garden Album.  I did all of the scrappy cutting for the sashing blocks and even started piecing them.  

At this point they are just a messy pile next to the sewing machine, but it's a start!  Considering I have had all of the applique blocks finished since 2010 or so it's about time to get this thing together.

All things considered, I feel like I am off to a strong start for the year! There are about three new projects calling my name but I have resisted temptation thus far...  And then there's that puppy...Not sure how long I can stay strong!

Slow Sunday Stitching - Baskets

I haven't had a lot of time for slow stitching this week as I have been pushing to finish my Grand Illusion Mystery (which still isn't finished, by the way!).  This week I pulled my baskets out from the depths of the UFO pile and, after checking to verify I could still find the fabrics I was using - there was a brief moment of panic involved, but I found them - I started stitching little basket again. I managed to finish two:

This brings my total to 23.  I was convinced I was in the 30s when I sat them aside.  I wish I could say there might be more around here somewhere, but I am pretty sure this is it.

I am not nearly as far along as I thought....  I think I need over 250 for the quilt.  This project is definitely slow... I just have to finish before I stop liking the fabrics!

See what other slow stitchers are doing on Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching link-up.