Mission Accomplished!

It's Saturday morning of Memorial Day weekend 2014. Where has this year gone already?!? Can it truly be nearly June? It will be a fun and fairly quiet holiday weekend for me with just one outing tonight. The rest will be spent quilting.

My bookcase has a permanent display in memory of my father, and in honor of brother and great-nephew who were/are all Navy. Dad served in WWII and I received the flag at his and Mom's burial in May 2012. Wayne served in Viet Nam and my great-nephew Christopher is currently in and stationed in Japan. I'll also have my flag out on Monday remembering all who served.

This evening will be a fun time calling a contra dance for friends in Manhattan, Kansas. Although I haven't gone regularly for a number of years, I still call on occasion when asked. It's great fun, easy steps that anyone can learn, and everyone gets to experience the joy of moving to live music! I took the above picture of my friends Enid and Lou at the Manhattan dance several years ago. I love the way I managed (accidentally) to capture the movement as they were swinging. Plus, it's a nice break from the quilting projects to do something entirely different. I'll still get a quilting fix as I plan to stop at a couple of shops along the way that I typically don't get to. On the way home tomorrow, I have a date with one of my best friends to meet for banana splits! I'm definitely looking forward to that, too!

Now for the quilting news! Mission accomplished!!! Way back in 2010 I flew from California back to Kansas to visit my daughters. Being a new quilter who had recently experienced my first shop hop, I decided to create my own shop-hop across Kansas between my girls' homes in Emporia and Leavenworth. It turns out there are a LOT of shops between them! In fact, so many that I ended up shipping an extra box of goodies home that I couldn't get into the already over-packed suitcase. LOL! One of the shops I visited was Quilters' Paradise in Baldwin City, KS. Little did I know, it would become my favorite and "home" shop years later when I moved back to Kansas. Anyway, Sharon, the shop owner, was in the process of designing a block of the month pattern out of the Wizard of Oz fabrics that were becoming popular. I fell in love instantly and bought the block kits she had on hand and ordered the rest. Several months later, back in California where I was caring for my folks, my box arrived with the rest of the blocks and a finishing kit, including Oz character picture blocks to be included in the backing. Life had gotten busy by then with work, full time classes for my BA, and Dad who was becoming increasingly frail, so I put the box on the shelf, thought about it now and again, and went on with my daily routine. That box would travel back across the country to my home in Kansas before moving to the top of my "to do" quilting list!

Jump forward to 2014 and I'm back in Kansas two years, living in my second home already (having followed my kids so I could continue babysitting my little grandson), and in January I decided it was time to start on the Oz quilt. I managed to make a block a day for several weeks, but it turned into a block a week sometimes. But I stuck with it and by early March the main part of the top was complete! I just love the way Sharon designed this pattern with the yellow brick road sashing marching from corner to corner! Then there was the matter of the pieced borders. Sharon had designed pieced film strips using lots of fussy cut pictures to go all the way around the top! It took me a few weeks to get those put together. The inner film strip went together great and fit the way it was supposed to. The pictures were another story--I had to fussy cut each to the correct width for side pix and height for top/bottom pix, put a strip of black between, and have them come out the right size to fit the film strip. It took some doing, but I got the top and bottom done and loved how it was looking. The sides were a bit more work, making sure the corner blocks fit and the rest of the pieces matched up. The outer film strip turned out to be a bit more of a challenge. The border had gained just enough that the 1" blocks didn't fit quite right. I took it with me to a quilting retreat and spent the entire weekend just finishing the borders! But by Sunday afternoon it was done, complete, finished!!! I literally did a happy dance when the last stitch was done! I'm so happy with it and can't wait to get the backing made so I can quilt it and put it on my bed! Here is the completed Dorothy's Adventures in Oz quilt top.

I have several other projects underway and plan to take the time to write about them too. In the meantime, have a safe and fun Memorial Day. While enjoying your time, be sure to remember why we celebrate.

More snippets from the sewing room soon,
Liz

Catching up with projects

It's been a busy few weeks between school assignments, Jacob care, and two retreats. I was gone at the end of the month, so missed out on the NewFO Challenge linky party for February, but plan to be back in March. Here's a quick update on the projects I've been working on.

Over Presidents' Day weekend, I spent four days with the gals from the Eudora Quilting Bees Guild enjoying four days of quilting at the Tall Oaks Retreat Center in Linwood, KS. The accommodations were delightful and the food fabulous, and the array of projects being worked on dazzling! I took way too many projects with me, but rather than being overwhelmed with too much to pick from, I focused on several that had been waiting to be finished. First I finally caught up on the flannel self-binding receiving blankets I had started months ago. That's a relief! The major UFO I took to work on was the "Remember 'Whooo' Loves You" quilt for my great-niece Chelsea and her new little one Opal Faye. I had assembled the top before Thanksgiving with plans to get it to Chelsea before Opal was born in early December. It turned out I hated the way it looked--the Irish chain disappeared with the fabric choices in the layout, so I had taken it all apart and it was waiting. Now I'm very happy with it and, although Opal is already 12 weeks old, it's never too late to send a quilt that she can enjoy for many years to come.

This week I got it pinned so I can do the quilting on it. I also played with the label and chose a design I could color in with my fabric pens. It is already sewn on so it will be quilted with the rest of the quilt to make it more permanent.

Between retreats I went back to the Wizard of Oz BOM from 2010 that I had started, but was far from finishing. All of the blocks are now done, sashed, and assembled into the main body of the quilt. Next will be to start on the pieced border. Maybe that will be a task for the next retreat over Spring Break.

Finally, another BOM I started in 2013 is the Vintage Rouge. It's a gorgeous pattern that includes piecing, English paper piecing, embroidery, and applique. I was going along great until the English paper piecing blocks popped up and I came to a screeching halt! There are five of these blocks that feature a Dresden plate--four smaller ones and one large one for the quilt center. I have to admit I was intimidated by the prospect of doing the Dresden plates by hand. This week I pulled those blocks out and started in making the Dresden plates entirely by hand and amazingly the first one came out great! I'm so relieved and have started on the second one with three to go.

There are several other blocks yet to be completed before I can start sewing them together, but at least I'm not stalled anymore.While attending the quilt retreat in Oklahoma last week I went with several of the gals to another nearby camp where a huge quilt retreat of about 90 women was being held. Numerous quilts were hung up on the walls around the main room including a Vintage Rouge that one of the campers had made and quilted. It was gorgeous and reminded me why I loved it so much! I am now anxious to get it together so I can do some fun and hopefully fancy quilting on it and get it onto a bed to show it off.

Projects are getting done, quilting is being finished, and I have bindings ready to sew on. It feels great to be making progress on several of the projects that have been stalled for too long.

More snippets from the sewing room soon,
Liz