PHD in 2021

My friend Sue inspired me to participate in Quilting Gail's PHD in 2021 in an effort to move at least a few of my hundreds of UFOs across the finish line.   

Luckily the rules for this challenge are pretty flexible as I am struggling to decide which 12 projects to choose and I may change my mind as the year progresses. I seriously have some form of quilter's ADD!  Anyway, here's my first pass, in no particular order:

1. Grassy Creek Mystery
2. Frolic! 
3. Christmas Trees  
4. Vintage Rose
5. Village
6. Huguenot Friendship Quilt
7. Clamshells
8. Starlite Skies (PG 2017 BOW)
9. Take it Easy
10. Triangle Gatherings
11. Dresden Star
12. Square Deal

A few of these only require quilting and binding so it should be reasonable to at least get those finished. Others will require considerably more effort...

The toughest part of the challenge for me is committing to finish new starts. I have already started two new projects just since the first of the year. In addition to joining in on Sentimental Stitches' Little Blocks 365 project, I decided my dinosaur-loving grandson needs a quilt for his second birthday. I received the pattern on Saturday and finished stitching two blocks over the weekend. His birthday is Jan 27th so even though I am only making a smaller version, finishing will definitely be a challenge.

I have two T-Rex blocks cut and ready to sew.  These little guys are so stinking cute! 

January 2021 OMG

While I have never been a fan of resolutions, I am starting 2021 with a goal of getting back into the habit of blogging - both posting my own and reading others. The pandemic-inspired virtual explosion of 2020 has provided fantastic opportunities but has also been a bit of a distraction, at least for me.  I have spent way too much time reading Facebook posts and watching videos.  I definitely need to work on surfing less and stitching more in the new year!

One project I would love to start this year is a red & green applique quilt.  I haven't decided on a pattern yet, but would like to reproduce one from my collection.  I pulled out a few of my favorites to decorate for the holidays.  I love them all, but am leaning toward either the one on the top rung or the third one down. 

I have been making slow but steady progress on the Grassy Creek Mystery quilt. As my week of vacation comes to a close I am not even close to being caught up and I am really starting to second-guess my decision to use Bonnie's colors, but I won't give up.  I plan to focus on Grassy Creek as my One Monthly Goal for January, linking up with Elm Street Quilts.  I have now finished clue #3 (shown partly finished here) and am working on clue #4 which should be done this morning.

 

I did finish clue #5 before heading back to catch up on previous clues.  I still need to go back to clue #2 but will work on #6 (released yesterday) first. 


I also had a bit of catching up to do on my Huguenot Friendship blocks.  Once all of the shopping, wrapping, and baking were finished I was able to spend my evenings hand stitching and finished two more of blocks. 

This block gave me fits.  The inside curves on the flower were really tight.  My first attempt at doing it by needle-turn failed miserably. I had stumbled across my Appliquick tools while rearranging my sewing furniture the other day and decided to give them a try for this.  I can't say that I am a fan of having that interfacing material in the block - it feels pretty stiff, especially since there is a lot of fabric underneath it too - but I do think it turned out better than I could have done using any other method. There just wasn't enough seam allowance to prepare the edges with starch.  

I have so many new projects planned for 2021 - I have no self control when it comes to quilting!  I plan to start on the first one, Little Blocks 365, later today if I can decide on fabrics. The blocks are paper pieced (ugh!) and tiny - only 3" finished.  I need to choose fabrics that work in tiny pieces and, most importantly, will not get boring.  Not an easy task!  More to come on that - hopefully I will have progress to report by next week.  

Grassy Creek Week #1

I got off to a strong start on this year's mystery thanks to an easy first clue.  I had it finished before Thanksgiving weekend was over, even with working on a few other projects.

I was late to the party on this one - I think Pat Sloan ran a quilt along with this pattern in October - but I absolutely love it!  I actually fired up the new AccuQuilt cutter I purchased over the summer and cut all my 2.5" strips and squares. So far I have four blocks completed.  They are large - like 18.5" - so I think nine will make a nice throw to use as a Christmas decoration (maybe next Christmas?).  


I was also inspired by a new quilting friend I met through TAS to start on the Huguenot Friendship quilt.  We are up to our fourth block.  Here are my first two:




I haven't done quite as well with the second and third clues on the mystery - Christmas projects to finish and other "to dos" have limited my time at the sewing machine.  I'm a bit unsure how I feel about some of the color combinations thus far, but I will have faith that it all will actually work together in the end. 

I'm looking forward to my time off at the end of the year to catch up on the mystery and to hopefully finish organizing my sewing space - can't believe it's been almost two years since I moved to the basement and it still isn't finished! 

It’s November!

Hard to believe that it’s November already and mystery season is almost here!  I recently finished stitching the binding on the 2018 mystery and had hoped to get Frolic! quilted before Thanksgiving but it’s looking like that isn’t going to happen.  I need to spend some serious time on the long arm - I’ve built up quite a backlog of tops!

I managed to get away from work for an extended weekend retreat a couple of weeks ago.  It was wonderful!  I decided to work on simple piecing projects so I’d feel like I accomplished something.  First up was a T-shirt quilt for my daughter for Christmas.  I planned it on the fly and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.  I am a little worried it won’t be as soft as I had hoped.  The stabilizer I used for most of the shirts makes them feel a bit stiff.  It was one I bought over five years ago when I first planned to make this quilt.  I ran out of it as I was putting the top together and ended up purchasing something different that’s  a little softer, but I had most of the shirts prepped by then.  I hope the quilt doesn’t end up stiff as a board when it’s quilted.

I spent a little time working on houses, adding a dozen to my neighborhood.  My friend Pat was finishing up the houses for hers and had them all up on the display wall.  They were so fun to look at!  I can’t wait to see her finished quilt!


Then I started “Take it Easy” from Primitive Gatherings’ Redwork Gatherings fabric.  It went together very quickly from jelly rolls.  I managed to finish the top before heading home Monday.

It’s always exciting when Bonnie reveals the colors for the annual Quiltville Mystery.  I had planned to switch up the colors this year but changed my mind when I saw her choices.  The prominence of the grays intrigues me.  I hardly had any gray in my stash so I had to pick up a few pieces (which somehow ended up being 10+ yards, but I wanted variety!)  

I am going with lighter, brighter oranges and yellows.  My reds and greens are a fairly good match for the paint chips.  I am resisting the urge to replace the warm colors with blues and purples - I need to leap out of that box!  I’m looking forward to getting started.

The toughest part will be finding time to post updates.  It took me over a week to get this posted.  I hate it when work gets in the way of my fun!

Summer Hooking & Stitching

I have been terrible about posting in the past few months!  I blame internet overload...  While the one benefit of the pandemic has been an explosion in virtual quilting (and even rug hooking) events, my desire to participate in too many of them has monopolized my non-work computer time.  By the time I finish catching up on all the posts and FB Live sessions I am ready to get away from the screen!

I did manage to get away to a couple of real-life events over the past few weeks.  In July I headed to Kansas City for our annual workshop with Jayne Hester, which ended up being the "No Jayne Camp" due to COVID.  It was very nice - a small group with Janice teaching instead. I decided to start yet another rug - my third start of the year. It's a sampler, an older pattern of Janice's, and I am in love with the colors.  I am removing the people from mine...I'm not a fan of having people (especially faces) in my projects.

I had a chance to escape to a retreat center with a small group of friends for a long weekend and managed to get quite a bit of sewing done.  It was so wonderful to get away!  It has been so sad clearing all of my vacation trips from the calendar, so I especially enjoyed the chance to sew in person with friends.  I got the binding sewn onto my 2018 mystery quilt so all that is left is stitching it down, and also finished week two of the PG pieced SBOW.  I also managed to get the borders onto Frolic! so it is ready to load onto the long arm. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I'm even happier to be finished piecing it!

I decided mid-retreat that I would rather sit my 2020 pieced SBOW aside until I finish the one from 2019. I spent the last day of retreat completing week six, so I am halfway through the blocks.  Still a long way to go but I absolutely love this quilt!


Ans yes, that is one week's assignment! And speaking of intense piecing projects, in a weak moment I somehow decided it would be fun to sign up for Vintage Rose, a Judy Niemeyer technique-of-the-month workshop that is being taught by one of our local quilt shops via Zoom.  We've had two classes so far and I am hopelessly behind.  There are monthly classes through January....supposedly if I keep up the top will be nearly complete by then. I'm not seeing that happening!

I find paper piecing incredibly tedious.  I am following all of the prescribed steps and have to give Judy credit for developing a some pretty slick process steps to help things along, but I still am not a fan of tearing the paper out.   

Another online event that I participated in last month was a "retreat in a box" through Granny's Legacy Patterns.  They shipped all of the supplies for the retreat project along with a treats and a couple of little gifts a week or so ahead of the retreat event, and then during the retreat they hosted a few technique sessions, games, a trunk show and a shop tour via FB Live. It was fun and I enjoyed the project.  I just finished mine over the weekend - now I need to get one of those oval trays for it to sit in.

I have several virtual events scheduled for September, including another workshop in a box from Granny's Legacy and another Vintage Rose class. I also hope to get Frolic quilted and the bindings on both it and the 2018 mystery before the next one begins - it's hard to believe but November is right around the corner!

Hooking in KC

It was wonderful to get a chance to travel and spend time with friends last week!  Our gathering was small - only 8 instead of the usual crowd - but Janice treated us like royalty as always and we had a fantastic time!  I started a new rug and am loving it so far.  The colors are based on a bouquet of hydrangeas that Janice cut right before the birthday bash last November.  Originally blue, they had started drying out and had turned gorgeous shades of lavender, white, soft green, and gold with deep burgundy leaves.  We had pulled wools to match the colors at that time and they’ve been stashed away waiting for this camp.

I forced myself to put it away when I got home and have gone back to work on Old Maine House. I would love to have it finished by the time I go to Janice’s again next month.

There were some great projects in progress in our little group.  Joan was working on a huge critter runner she designed for her lake house.

Betsy started This Vine, an older pattern Janice designed.  I am planning to get started on it next month.

And Leah was working on a design she asked Janice to draw that is based on an antique rug she found.

Lynn was working on an incredible project she designed herself and was incorporating standing wool shapes into her hooking.  It was amazing!

The camp went by way too quickly as usual and tomorrow I’m back to work with a very busy week ahead.  It was nice to get the time away to recharge!

I did manage to do a tiny bit of sewing on the weekends.  I have been keeping up with the prep work on the first three weeks of the Primitive Gatherings wool SBOW and have been starching the fabrics for the pieced version.  I did get one of the pieces blacks finished and pieced the centers for the other four blocks for week one.

And I managed to add two more quilts to my collection.  The one below was found by my friend Cindy in Amana, Iowa.  It has a couple of damaged spots but is a great design and has beautiful quilting.  It’s hard to see in the picture but there are blue leaves on the border motifs.  It’s hard to tell if it was a green fabric that lost its yellow or if it started out blue, but it clearly wasn’t the same fabric as used in the blocks.  The baskets look to have been red initially but have faded to various degrees of pink.

The only nice thing about returning to work tomorrow is that it’s a short week.  I am already looking forward to a long weekend in my sewing room!

May Update

In spite of having more weekends at home as a result of most events being cancelled, I just don’t seem to be getting much sewing or rug hiking accomplished. It’s partly due to the very nice weather we’ve been having - I think it was the longest spring ever - but also because I have been trying to force myself to spend time finishing up the move to my new sewing space. Sadly the move has been in progress for 17 months now....but I finally received my new dresser that will provide additional drawer space so I have no more excuses. My goal is to have it completely organized by the end of June.  I will share pictures when I succeed.

I did manage to get a few things accomplished in May.  I added a few more houses to my Village...


And I was thrilled to be able to join a very small get together at Janice’s and get started on my Old Maine House rug. I saw the original when visiting the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Museum in Williamsburg in early 2019.  Unfortunately the rugs were displayed under glass so the photo isn’t great.

Janice drew up the pattern and we had planned to get a big group together to get started on it at the end of March, but unfortunately that had to be cancelled due to the pandemic. A few of us were able to meet in May to get it started.


I’m a little farther along than this now, and hope to get the rest of the sky and both trees completed before I head back to Janice’s to start another new rug later this month.

I finally managed to assemble the center of Frolic! and I have the borders pieced and ready to attach. I may try to tackle that this weekend.

And last, but not least, I started on a relatively new BOM from Homestead Hearth called Subtle Shades. It’s a nice mindless project - a welcome break from Frolic!

I am looking forward to participating in the Retreat From Home - Sew in your Jammies 2020 event this weekend. I am hoping I will have plenty of progress to show at the end of the 2.5 days!