Perfect Quilting Weather

Saturday, January 13, 2024--Currently in Baldwin City, Kansas, it's -4 with a wind chill factor of -24 degrees! We have 10" of snow on the ground that will be here for some time as we don't expect to get above freezing for at least the next 10 days. For us, it's perfect quilting weather! We are cozy inside with our hot tea or cocoa, homemade potato soup, and plenty of necessities to get us by for several days. 

Looking back at this blog, I see it's been nearly a year since my last post. Well, shucks. Let's just say that 2023 was a mixed bag with about 6 months of hubby's medical issues that needed to be addressed, plus some fun times as well. Several trunk shows were either cancelled or rescheduled. There weren't as many finishes as I had hoped, but lots of starts and a few finished tops. 

   

Starting off with a new goal and hopes for a much better year overall. My goal for 2024 is to work through more UFOs and do my best to begin to catch up with the 30+ tops we have either waiting to be pinned & quilted or partially quilted and left abandoned and needing finished. 

So far, I'm off to a good start. I have already completed quilting two, got them both bound, and already washed. The patriotic quilt was pinned and dried on the design wall to block it before labeling. It's now ready to gift to my husband's best friend of 40+ years. The Fancy Nancy minky-backed quilt was washed and tossed into the dryer and will go to my granddaughter. 

   

Up next is the 2013 Bonnie K. Hunter Mystery--Celtic Solstice. I collected the clues and started sewing on January 1, 2014. I finished piecing the top fairly quickly, but after getting the stitch in the ditch nearly complete, I was asked to make a second one for the Maple Leaf Quilters' Guild in Baldwin City, KS, as their 2015 opportunity quilt, which I custom quilted. It has long ago been gifted to the owner of the winning ticket. Once it was complete, I had moved on to other projects and folded up my original one and put it in the closet. Today I finished the ditching on Solstice Moonrise and started the fun parts with the first thread color change. It will get finished this year for sure!

There are a few trunk shows and workshops scheduled for this year. First up on Tuesday, February 13, I'll be speaking to the Prairie Quilt Guild in Wichita, sharing my Confessions of a Quilt Starter: UFOs, Orphans and More talk. They hold two meetings--1pm and 7pm, at the Pleasant Valley United Methodist Church, 1600 W 27th St N, Wichita, KS. 

Other presentations will be in Colorado, Ohio, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and a few closer to home. I'll be adding those to the calendar on my website as soon as all contracts are signed and dates confirmed. 

Looking forward to being more in touch this year. 

Stay tuned for more stitching fun!

Liz

Setting Goals for 2018

🎉🎉🎉 Happy New Year!!! 🎉🎉🎉

It's hard to believe how quickly 2017 sped by and here we are on the first day of January, 2018. My friend Denise Stahl at the Curious Kansas Quilter posted her goals for 2018 and inspired me to consider what I want this coming year to look like. 

Without having set specific goals for 2017, a lot was accomplished! Numerous beautiful quilts were quilted for customers, many samples were added to my Hexified Panel Quilts trunk show, and two quilts appeared in the new book, One Block Wonders of the World.  

Here are a few thoughts that I will aspire to meet as goals for 2018...

Work towards more finishes in 2018. I have a growing number of UFOs that need to be pulled out and evaluated. The number is much larger than you might imagine as I not only have my own, but also some 40+ that I inherited from my sister-in-law Cindy when she passed away several years ago. Some will go in my new trunk show, "UFOs, Orphans, and More! Oh My!" Those may remain UFOs or the items in the trunk show may evolve as I finish some and replace them with others. Regardless, the number of UFOs has to be tackled in some way. Although it may be difficult with my current schedule of classes, trunk shows, and quilting commitments, my goal is 12 finishes this year. 
 
Make the pile of tops waiting to be quilted shorter! At last count, I believe I had close to 25 tops anywhere from small wall hangings to large 100x100" quilts waiting to be quilted. Since I work on a sit-down quilter, it takes me a lot longer to finish a quilt. From pinning the layers, stitching in the ditch to stabilize the quilt top, and then deciding what to quilt on it, it's not a load and go with a pantograph kind of project. So, I've decided some need to be finished with something simple--get the grandkids' quilt tops done and gifted! One was started while I was still in California caring for my folks and still isn't done 5 years after my return to Kansas! That particular one has to move to the top as he graduates from high school in May! Others will get semi-custom quilting and some extensive custom quilting. Each needs to be done!
 
Work towards getting 3 PIGS started and made. PIGS or projects in grocery sacks (or, in my case, large 2-gallon ziploc bags) are piled high in my sewing room. Some of these are going to be gorgeous quilts! Time to dive in!
Maybe taking the PIGS, one at a time, to the several retreats I go to each year will give me someplace to focus on something new.
 
Focus on sticking with one BOM--the upcoming Tribal Star Vector Quilt with David Gilleland. By choosing only one BOM, hopefully I can stay on top of it throughout the year. 

Create a second and start on a third trunk show program to present to guilds. As I continue to receive invitations to speak at regional quilt guilds, if I want to be invited back, I need to kick it up a notch and get more ideas worked into story-telling presentations with different themes.

 
Get better at updating my blog! How about a minimum of 1 post per month! If I can do that, maybe I can increase it more next year.

Beyond my quilting and professional goals, I need to...

Organize my time better so I can spend more time with my husband and best friend. We have a very special connection and came into our marriage at a time when neither of us ever expected to go there again. Making the effort to spend quality time without feeling pressured to work would be a blessing. 
 
Travel more! Although long trips can be grueling on our bodies, seeing more "bucket list" locations like Mount Rushmore and Niagra Falls, among others, is high on our list. Plus, his daughter is moving to Sweden this spring!!! Time to get my passport at long last!
 

I'm sure there are many more goals, but this already feels like a lot to accomplish in one fleeting year. Wish me luck and check back for updates on my progress! I'd love to hear your goals in the comments. Wishing you all a very Happy New Year and may 2018 be filled with blessings for all!

More snippets from the sewing room soon...
Liz

UFO Busting in 2016--Two-Step Through Oz is nearly there!

Let's see... I've only been quilting since 2006, but have completed over 60 projects from pillows to large quilts. Then I look in my closet and in the boxes around Sassy's table (the HQSweet16) and realize the number of UFOs could actually match the number of completed projects! Good grief!!! I had attempted to make 2015 a year of finishes, but fell short. This year is definitely going to be the year of finishing up old UFOs and I'm already feeling like I'm making progress. I've already finished binding two wall hangings from last year, plus adding hanging sleeves to a couple more. Time to dig deeper!

The first large project that came out of the UFO pile is a Wizard of Oz themed quilt that I started back in November of 2012 when I attended a weekend workshop put on by the Emporia Regional Quilt Guild in Emporia, Kansas. They had invited Pat Speth, known for her books on Nickel Quilts based on units made from 5" charm squares, to put on a 3-day workshop. I was so excited to be taking part in this workshop that I worked diligently all day and then went home to work late into the night on fussy cutting the centers for each block, and making additional units so I could have my quilt top laid out asap. During the workshop I got most of the sub-units made, and did manage to get two squares completed and up on the design wall to share.

First blocks complete and up on the design wall to share during the workshop.

Within a week after the workshop I had all of the blocks made and had a layout done on my floor, ready for the blocks to be sewn into rows. I had selected Pat's Texas Two Step pattern for my quilt. It looked so different from the sample pictured in her book because hers was made with batiks and I had chosen a very distinctive line of prints featuring the characters and themes from the movie, The Wizard of Oz.

Less than 2 weeks after the workshop, all of the blocks were made and ready to sew together!

What I didn't realize then, but found out soon after as I started sewing blocks together, was that I had sacrificed accuracy in my haste to be a "star pupil" at the workshop. Instead of making a few blocks correctly, I rushed through and didn't take the added time to measure and trim each sub-unit before assembling the blocks. As it turns out many of those nice points in the layout pictured above were chopped off. As I measured the already assembled blocks, I realized I had to trim them down before I could sew them together. Yikes! I finished sewing the top together, but was unhappy with myself for being so foolish (did I mention I'm a recovering perfectionist?) and put it away to deal with later after I'd cooled down. It was far too late to take it apart and fix it, so I had to come to terms with the fact that I had made a quilt I wasn't happy with as far as accuracy goes.

Over a year later, I finally added the borders and got ready to piece the back.

In fact, it was over a year later in March 2014, at a retreat at the Kansas Troubles Retreat Center in Minneapolis, Kansas, when I finished the top, finally adding the borders. Once the borders were on, then the process of piecing the back started. I had several photo-blocks from the movie that I wanted to include in the overall layout, so I placed them on the top to get a spacing I liked, before adding the additional Oz fabrics around them to make the overall pieced back. The pictures were pinned in place at the retreat and taken back home for assembly.

Placing the pictures that would be pieced into the backing.

Once I got home, I continued to play with the layout of the picture blocks for the pieced back. Standing on my end-table gave me the best vantage point to take a picture from above since my living room floor was my design wall. The back got pieced, the quilt got sandwiched and pinned, and then once again it got stuffed into a box with other UFOs when I moved at the end of 2014.

The process of stitching in the ditch begins on Jan 20, 2016!

Jump forward to January 2016, I'm determined to start knocking out old UFOs. I had pulled this quilt out to use as an example of what NOT to do for my Beginning Quilting 101 class and realized it was still pinned. I was sure I had at least ditched the rows, but apparently not. That afternoon after class I decided it was time to get it at least ditched. I cranked up the tunes on Pandora and went to work. Hours later all of the rows going both directions were ditched. The next afternoon I ditched around the subunits in the blocks, finding a path that allowed me to ditch every individual piece with minimal overlap-stitching. With a 1/4" line of stitching around the outer border, the entire quilt is ditched and I've decided that is enough. It's going to be used by my grandkids when they visit and probably again as a sample in my classes, so minimal quilting for a utility quilt is plenty.

Oops! Do you see the 4-patch turned the wrong way? That Jacob's Ladder block doesn't look right.

When I got to the bottom of the quilt, I found there was one 4-patch that had been turned the wrong way. Rats! I hate when that happens and I miss it before quilting! Such is life--I guess it's like the Amish quilts, it has an error proving it was made by human hands.

One of four quotes included in the fussy cuts.

Overall, I'm delighted with how this quilt is turning out despite its problems. I love the fussy cuts, especially the few blocks with movie quotes. To a non-quilter I'm sure it's amazing. It's only because I'm so picky that I think it not my best work. I've decided I'm going to machine stitch the binding down after I sew it on tomorrow since it's a fun quilt for the grandkids. No real reason to put the hours into hand stitching down what feels like miles of binding for a potential fort/picnic/campout quilt. It came out a super-twin measuring 70"x93".

Two Step Through Oz is complete! 

Showing off the pieced backing on Two Step Through Oz.

Friday morning update: The binding is on and the top is complete! Two Step Through Oz is ready when the grandkids come visit next week! It's too long to hang up inside and too cold to go outside to photograph. Plus, we only got a couple of inches of snow, so the grass is showing through--not so good for pretty quilt on snowy background pictures. So, here it is, both front and back, hanging from the rod above my couch. It's draped over the couch, so has some funny ripples, but it's the best I can do at the moment. I'm just happy it's done!

Before I can pin any more of the UFO tops, I have to "release" more pins already in quilts that have been waiting far too long to be quilted. After finishing this one quilt, my pin box is magically half full! Rather than continue to buy more pins as I've done in the past (I probably have over 500 if I got everything quilted that is currently pinned!), I'm going to quilt, quilt, quilt, until I get caught up. Then I won't feel guilty about pinning another project! Among others, the UFO pile has two more Wizard of Oz tops (both king size!!!) that have yet to be pinned, not to mention quilted! I'm hoping they will both get knocked off the UFO list yet this year. Wish me luck!

More snippets from the sewing room soon...
Liz

Sunday UFO Progress

For my UFO Sunday, I worked on putting together the blocks from a Stack-n-Slash top that I started at a quilt retreat several months ago. This whole top was a complete accident in the making. At the guild retreat last October someone asked me about Stack-n-Slash tops. They had heard of them, but never made one. So, my quilting buddies Sharon and Linda and I raided my fat quarter drawer mid-retreat and selected enough pieces to each make a 9-block top. Well, I got back to the retreat with only 8, so chose to do a center block fussy cut/applique for fun to fill it out. The blocks were done at the October retreat and have been sitting in a project bag since then. Sharon came to my place Friday night for a sew-in weekend. By the time she left Sunday afternoon, both of our Stack-n-Slash tops from the retreat were assembled except for final borders. Mine will have a medium green leaf border fabric that I'll also use to back it. Next weekend we're meeting up here for another sew-in visit and plan to have borders already sewn on so we can layer & pin on my big tables and then start quilting. [Please excuse the lighting--it's late afternoon and the sun is shining through the blinds right onto my design board.]

I've also started on the Free Motion Quilting Challenge Express Your Love! whole cloth quilt. I managed to get two full size 30" x 41" tops traced--one muslin and one black--by the end of last week after discovering the challenge on Leah Day's FMQ Project website. Once I started layering my quilt sandwich I realized, from looking closely at the pictures of Leah's sample, that she had stitched all of the main outlines of the quilt, which I had not done. So, yesterday I got about half of the outlines quilted and will go back to it this week to finish that portion so I can start the actual thread painting of the words that I've chosen to thread paint in the breath wisps.

I'll be using the first lines that Leah suggested, "I am Enough", "I Have an Open and Willing Heart", and "My Cup Runneth Over." I'm also adding "Live Laugh Love Dance Breathe", "Give Thanks", "Imagine Living in Peace", "Be The Change You Want To See In The World", and "We Are All Connected In The Great Circle Of Life".  I'm excited to start on that portion of the quilt!

I'm excited to be taking part in this challenge as I love FMQ, but need practice and help coming up with new ideas for my quilts.

When I showed the design for Express Your Love! to my daughter, her response was "WOW! Oh Momma, that's so YOU!" She knows me well and she's right, this is the perfect design for me to work with affirmations and color and creativity in my quilts. Plus, it will be an awesome piece to hang in my sewing room or above my bed when it's completed!

This past week I've been able to take advantage of the year-end clearance sales at several favorite quilt shops. Their mark-down selection has allowed me to add to my batik collection for a future project, plus I was able to get end-of-bolt discounts on quilt backs for several quilts in progress. It's nice to know I have enough to finish projects when I start them or go back to them.

Despite having had one of my sewing machines for several years, it seems there's always something new to learn. Sharon and I both sew on a Brother Quattro 6000D embroidery/sewing machine and when I was grousing about having to stop and lift the presser-foot every time I needed to shift the fabric while stitching down the fused applique, she came around and showed me a setting that leaves the needle down (which I already had set) AND lifts the presser foot every time I stop! SCORE!!! I was so happy to learn a new trick! I'm sure I'll be using that setting a lot from now on!

My afternoon was topped off by about an hour snuggling with my little grandson. My daughter had texted me and asked me to stop by for a visit, which I always gladly do! We had a great talk and getting extra snuggle time with Jacob is always an added bonus. Now to get back to a couple more hours of sewing before relaxing with a movie this evening.

More snippets from the sewing room soon,
Liz

Life starts anew...

It's been quite awhile since I posted here. A lot has changed and life is evolving every day. Just over a year ago I was dealing with my 95-year-old father and his failing health. Quilting was one thing that helped me keep my sanity. In early April 2012, just a week before his 96th birthday, Dad passed away, thus ending my longer-than-expected tenure as caregiver. His passing prompted my immediate move from California, where I had been in my childhood home for 7-1/2 years, back to Kansas to make a new home for myself in the state I had called home for over 20 years before I took on parent-care. And the procession of U-Haul trucks began. Two trucks and a car load later on three separate cross-country drives in three months, I settled into my new home and began setting up my sewing room so I could get back to some semblance of normal. I found the quilt shop in my new hometown and was soon a member of two quilt guilds as well. Looking back at the months since I returned to Kansas I can say that quilting is taking a major role in my life. I have made pillowcases and children's quilts for guild service projects, made and gifted a Quilt of Valor to my older brother, and made my new grandson's quilt, Jacob's Jungle, that won a first place blue ribbon at both the Lyon County and Kansas State Fairs!

This fall, I managed to finish several quilted and sewn Christmas gifts in time to put under the tree, and am now looking at the stack of UFOs that need to be finished after their cross-country trek. The first one off the shelf is a One Block Wonder that I started in March 2011. The piecing has been done for quite some time as indicated in this picture of me holding the top in May 2011; however, the quilting has been dragging on. With about 80% of it done now, I started in again today and spent several hours ditching the mini orange border so I can free motion the blue field border to complete it. That's my first goal--to complete this beauty and have it bound and ready for snuggling soon.

There are many more where that one came from, so more projects will be completed soon.

More snippets from the sewing room soon,
Liz