November NewFO--Not much progress

Yet another month has flown by and tomorrow starts the last month of 2013. How is that even possible?!? Didn't we just have Christmas a few weeks ago? And where did the riot of color that graced our hills go so quickly? 

Last week as I drove by this favorite spot just north of Baldwin City, KS, the trees were already the bare gray and brown of our winter landscape in Kansas. Oh well... Thanksgiving's turkey is gone, decorations for Christmas are going up all around me, and the year is winding down.

I'm hooking up with Barbara at Cat Patches on her November NewFO Linky Party.  Even if I'm crazy busy with school, I look forward to being able to share my little progress here each month. Let's hope 2014 is a MUCH more productive quilting year! As much as I appreciate the opportunity to get my master's degree and enjoy school, I'm certainly ready to be creative again.

The jelly roll race that I whipped out in October, Pilgrims & Pumpkins (hanging on the right), got completed in time to be hung in the community room at my friend's senior apartment complex for the month of November. My plans to whip up something for December didn't gel due to the end of semester push to complete final projects. Hopefully my plans will get back on track in the sewing room soon so I can take them another fun quilt after the first of the year.

I'm afraid I haven't done much quilting this month at all; although I did get my second fall jelly roll race pinned, quilted with Aurifil 50, and bound. After I finished quilting it, I spread it out on the floor to be sure I hadn't missed any sections and Jacob quickly plopped himself down and rolled up in it. When I'm binding, he always comes over and hides under the quilts and plays peek-a-boo with me while I stitch. It's such a blessing to have him here with me several days a week still.

The binding went on mid-month and now it's folded up waiting to come out of the closet for next fall. I haven't decided what to name this one yet. Maybe "Race to Thanksgiving" which gives a nod to the jelly roll race pattern. It's scrappier than the jelly roll race I made from an actual jelly roll last month. This one used up numerous fat quarters and various scraps in fall fabrics to help whittle down some of the long-untouched stash. I like the motion to it with more shorter pieces breaking it up instead of just the 40" strips. The jelly roll race is definitely a fun and quick way to make a quilt top!

The Stitching Grannies took two days to enjoy carpooling on the northeast Kansas Deck the Walls shop hop. We covered a good distance with hop shops in Overbook, Burlington, Burlingame, Topeka, and Baldwin City. We also stopped at shops not on the hop, but of interest, in Holton and Gardner, plus the annual holiday arts & crafts show in Ottawa. As usual, more was spent than planned and more NewFOs await in the closet to be unloaded from their various bags. This is such a fun group of gals who have quickly become good friends. And, yes, that's Audrey in the highchair, Jacob's little buddy who attends the Stitching Grannies with her gramma. She got to hop with us on Friday and was just an angel!

The other plans I have are to jump into Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice Mystery Quilt. She posted the first clue the Friday after Thanksgiving and quilters around the world are getting started. This will be my first mystery quilt! I picked up these fat quarters on the shop hop to add to the few I found in my stash. I'm anxious to begin, but have to finish the final class project that has to be complete and uploaded by Wednesday, Dec. 4 at 11pm. Once that's done, then I can breathe again! Today I took a break from school to write this post and did my "Shop Local" bit by picking up a set C of Marti Michell's templates to use with this quilt at Quilting Bits & Pieces. This will be my NewFO for December since I'm sure I won't get any cutting done before mid-week.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with family time and good food. Until school is out I won't even attempt to decorate; however, I did hang my advent calendar up today so Jacob and I can start putting (felt) cookies out of the bowl into the pockets to count down to Christmas. It's so fun having a little one to enjoy these little things with. We're making new memories and traditions together.

More snippets from the sewing room soon,
Liz

October NewFOs--busy stripping!

This has been my most prolific month to date! I have one finish and three NewFO tops ready to be quilted! My plans to set up my sewing space downstairs where I could sew while my grandson played is working better than I had expected. So here's what I've done this month and am sharing with the 2013 NewFO Challenge hosted by Cat Patches.

First off is the finish. It took nearly three years and two moves (one cross-country!) before this beauty got done. It's Strutting Peacocks made with the One Block Wonder design. I had finished the top in May 2011, but had shelved it until earlier this year. So happy to have this one off the UFO shelf!

Next up, I went to my stitching group's first all day stitch-in held in a local church fellowship hall. There were seven of us for this first gathering and we had a blast! There was laughter echoing down the halls causing other people in the building to come see what we were up to. One of the gals had wanted to make a Jelly Roll Race, but didn't know how. We both purchased jelly rolls at the quilt show a couple of weeks ago and brought them with us to the stitch-in. In just under 3 hours, I had this beautiful top complete! What fun to have a project I could complete in just a short time while at the stitch-in.

Next up is the fall quilt I'm making. I'm doing a stitch-and-flip technique on strips of batting that I'm then sashing to connect and will back and quilt like a whole top. It's ready for the backing so is close to being done.

When I finished the fall flip-and-stitch quilt sections, I had a whole table full of leftover 2-1/2" strips. So, I figured I'd just strip them together like the jelly roll, only these strips are varying lengths from 18" to 40", and put it together like a Jelly Roll Race. It turned out pretty cool! This one is ready for sandwiching and quilting, too.

Whew! There's plenty of scraps left from the stitch-and-flip quilt, so there will be more fall items coming together from the leftovers. How is it that for every quilt I make I seem to have enough scraps to make 2 or 3 more?!? Crazy! Next up out of the box will be the Christmas/holiday fabrics to start making something quick and fun out them. Time to get some of the stash used up, maybe sell a few quilts or table runners or placemats/mug rugs, so I can justify buying more fabric when I go on the Deck the Walls shop hop next week!

Jacob, sporting his Grampa Dave 'stache binky, loves watching the sewing machine go!

Jake and I, along with these little guys, wish you a Happy and Safe Halloween! More UFOs, these Eleanor Burns pumpkin faces will be hanging in my window tonight to greet the Trick-or-Treaters. They still need some quilting, but are perfect as is for today!

More snippets from the sewing room soon,
Liz

Only took nearly three years to finish...

This quilt was started when I was still taking care of my dad in California. We're fast coming up on two years since his passing and my return to my life in Kansas. Finally, Strutting Peacocks is complete!

In February 2011, a friend back in Kansas posted a picture on Facebook of the beginnings of a One Block Wonder in beautiful understated tones of creams and browns. I had purchased the same book and some beautiful fabric with peacocks in full tail spread and walking with tails behind that I thought would be beautiful in this kaleidoscopic design. [My one regret is that I didn't take a picture of that fabric before cutting into it. Today I'd know better!] With Laura's project as inspiration, I started cutting out and assembling the 60 degree triangles that would become my blocks in blues and greens. A month later I had put together all the blocks and took about 30 pictures of possible layouts, playing with color placement and flow. Every time I moved one or two blocks, I snapped a digital pic so I could go backwards if I decided I liked a previous layout better.

Once I decided on a layout I liked, I started sewing rows together, matching up the block halves on adjoining rows. When it was all assembled, I added the borders and fell in love with the little 1/2" orange pop border that brought out the bits of orange from the peacocks' feet in the print. In May 2011 I took the finished top to work to share and had my picture snapped with it. Then it got folded up and added to the UFO pile.

Jump forward two years after my move back to Kansas when this top came down off the shelf and finally got sandwiched and pinned! Progress! I had recently purchased a HandiQuilter Sweet 16 mid-arm and was ready to start quilting my backlog of tops. However, life got in the way once again and it got shelved once more. Finally after yet another move, it came down off the shelf and got quilted, bound, and is now FINISHED!!!!!

I used a lovely tulip stencil that fit perfectly into each of the design blocks, along with 1/8" ditching bordering each block. For the borders I followed the lead of the swirly print and did large scale swirls, leaving the little orange border alone except for ditching. All of the quilting was done with Aurifil #50 in coordinating blue & green. When it came time to bind it, I had planned on using the same blue as the borders; however, that left over fabric is long gone in two moves and ended up who knows where. So, a trip to the quilt shop to look for new binding. I chose to go with the deep blue that matched the background of the main fabric to frame it. I an so happy with how it turned out!

It's nice to see the pile of UFOs on the shelf shrink. However, just this week I started three new tops, so hopefully they won't have to sit as long as some of these that are still waiting to be quilted.

More snippets from the sewing room soon,
Liz

September NewFO's & UFO progress

I can hardly believe it's the end of September already!!! This year has been flying by way too fast. Finally I think I'm getting somewhat of a routine around taking care of Jacob and keeping up with school work to carve out some time to sew. I started two NewFO's this month and finished one just in time! And I helped my granddaughter Jordyn start her first NewFO! I'm linking up with the September NewFO Linky Party hosted by Cat Patches. Here's what I've been up to...

The finish is Jordyn's Love & Peace quilt that she picked out fabrics for last summer. I managed to get the binding done and label sewn on the day of her birthday last week, and gave it to her on Sunday when my son and I went up to my daughter's to celebrate.  It does my heart good to see her smiling like that! It went straight to her room and onto her bed after taking advantage of her uncle's and dad's height to get a full picture of it.

Being in the Marti & Me Club this year is creating lots of opportunities to start NewFOs. The newest start is barely started, but, hey, it's a beginning! The Seven Sisters with accompanying Set H rulers was handed out in late August, but I didn't actually set rotary cutter to fabric until about a week ago. I'm going to make it a Christmas quilt and it should be great fun!

I had this fun fat quarter bundle in my stash, pulled out several more cute Christmas fabrics, and am using the bright snowflakes on white for the background. The first three sets of stars are cut out of these fun fabrics. I got brave and layered up and cut three at a time. I didn't anything sewn together yet, so didn't have any "show & tell" to share at this month's class when I got yet another pattern and set of templates.

The next NewFO I'm working on has to be done in time to mail to Washington, DC, by Thanksgiving to be there in time for my great-great-niece, baby Opal's arrival. Opal is my great-niece's first baby. Chelsea and Dillon are so excited!

Chelsea had expected her MomMom (gramma Cindy) to make her baby quilt, and in a way she did. Cindy had completed tops for a girl quilt, a boy quilt, and a special quilt with things Chelsea likes before she passed away in May. Chelsea's mom, Shelly, stepped up and, although she's not a quilter, she got the three quilts completed including adding some personalization with machine embroidery. Chelsea & Dillon flew back to California for her MomMom's Celebration of Life and a baby shower with family and friends, and she was overwhelmed when she opened the packages with the quilts! I told Chelsea I'd also make her a quilt based on the colors she's using in the nursery and this is what I've come up with.

I'm using Acorn Quilt & Gift Company's Remember Whooo Loves You! Chelsea is crazy about owls and Cindy was crazy about making Irish chains, so this pattern is a perfect solution to include both. I selected fabrics from Maywood Studio's Memories of Love collection, Robyn Pandolph's Beach House collection, and Robyn Pandolph's Incense & Peppermint collection. The colors play so well together and provide enough of the colors Chelsea wants, plus it's beautifully vintage and feminine for baby Opal. The whole quilt will be pieced & quilted with a creamy Aurifil 50.

I worked in EQ7 to create the basic layout of the top so I could play with color placement. After a little online hunting, I came up with swatch jpg's of most of the fabrics and scanned the ones I couldn't find so the digital quilt would look close to the real thing. This afternoon I clipped swatches from the scraps to tape onto my printout so I can see what I need as far as rows sewn together strip-fashion to cut my 2-1/2" x 6-1/2" segments from to make the blocks.  

My goal is to have this quilt top done in October so I have plenty of time in November to quilt and bind it, and have it ready to ship before Thanksgiving. Nothing like a deadline to get me motivated! 


A truly fun NewFO project started in September by my granddaughter is Jordyn's "Road to California" quilt. We took our road trip from Kansas to California together in June and she got to purchase a fat quarter at each shop we found picturing something we saw along the way. Earlier this month she spent the weekend and in two good days she completed the main part of the top! Next visit we'll add borders and get it ready to ditch. While staying at her Nana & Papa's this summer, she made a small quilt in a class and did her own ditch work, so I'm thinking she may do the whole thing! So far the only part I've played is handling the rotary cutter. She's a little impatient, plus she's double-jointed, so her cuts tend to start straight and then veer away from the ruler dramatically. She's practicing on scraps, but for pieces going into the quilt, for now Mormor does the rotary cutting.

Traditional Honeycomb (surface) smocking

A non-quilting (or maybe to be included in some sort of fun artsy quilt someday) piece I worked on in late August, actually, is a North American or Surface Smocking sample. I'm part of the Smocking Arts Guild of America (SAGA) Southwind Chapter in Kansas that meets monthly. This group, which I was a member of years ago before my stint in California with my parents, used to have 15-20 members, but now has shrunk to 4 regulars. And we're getting more spread out after my move. Just to get to the meeting is nearly 3 hours drive for me. I'm not sure how long I'll be able to keep it up with school, Jacob care, and two quilt guilds, but for now I'm still supporting the group. So, anyway, I hosted last month (we're trying out rotating meetings to give me a break) and I taught the gals how to do what my mom called Honeycomb smocking. I've found several books that have instructions and when using gingham as a grid, it's really quite easy. These are my samples done with bright red thread so the gals could see what I was doing and where the stitches needed to be pulled up tight or carried from row to row without cinching. I've seen some gorgeous quilts done with this type of smocking, so maybe I'll try including it sometime for texture.

Honeycomb Variation (front)

Honeycomb Variation (back)

On the variation, the back is where the cool action is. Rami Kim uses this as one of the techniques in her gorgeous quilted garments and accessories. I think it would be gorgeous done on a silk and incorporated into a quilt somewhere. Someday...

For now I'm content with continuing to work on the projects I have at hand. I'm staying too busy sometimes, but plugging away at everything. School assignments are caught up for the moment, but two more due by the end of the week. There's definitely never a dull moment around here!

More snippets from the sewing room soon,
Liz

Friday Finish... Jordyn's Love & Peace

It's ten days since my last post and I'm happy to say I'm back to post a finish! Hurray!!! It's been a hectic time juggling two classes (at the master's level) with all the reading, papers due, online quizzes and message board responses required. Not to mention my daytime hours of watching little Jake which keep me more and more occupied as he gets busier and into more! So, there hasn't been much time to sew again. Darn! With my granddaughter Jordyn's birthday this week (she turned 10 on Wednesday), I knew I had to get a move on and finish her quilt!

So, I'm linking up with Richard & Tanya and their Link-a-Finish Friday! Thanks for hosting a fun collection of links that encourage us to whittle down those piles of UFOs. :-) 

I started this beauty last summer when Jordyn picked out these fun retro fabrics and brought them to me asking for a "peace sign quilt." It took some time, a trip around EQ7 to figure out the design and layout, and finally it was a top--Jordyn's Love & Peace quilt! I got it sandwiched & pinned not long after and then it sat on a shelf in my closet for months (in fact, two closets because it was finished before I moved last spring!) and as her birthday started to creep up on me, I realized I really needed to get this beauty out and get it quilted and finished so she could have it for her birthday this year.

What better way to kill time while taking care of Jacob than to be hand-stitching the binding down. School work doesn't happen with a 16-month-old in the house, so at least I could be productive for a few hours! It was so cute (and I wish I had pix, but he moves so fast it's hard to catch him when my hands are full of quilt and needle that I'm trying to keep out of his reach). He would come over and get under one corner of the quilt and play "peek-a-boo" and giggle like crazy! Made the time go quickly seeing him so happy playing under the quilt while I stitched.

Unfortunately this quilt is bigger/taller than my little patio fence can handle, but it's the best I an do for now. Hopefully I will get a couple of pix of her with her quilt on Sunday when we have dinner and presents with the family. Looking forward to seeing her face when she opens it! Edited 9/28/13: I put it on my spare bed (double/full) and took a shot and it came out great! She has a twin with a trundle so I'm sure it will be perfect. Not that it will spend much time there--more often than not she's in her dad's recliner or on the couch. Works for me! 

This entire quilt--piecing and quilting, was done with Aurifil 50 threads, primarily in light pink or white, with black on the wild borders.

It's a relief to finally have something in the DONE pile! Next month will be working on my great-great niece's baby quilt for an early December due date. Wish me luck!

More snippets from the sewing room soon,
Liz

Photo a day Challenge--Week 2

I'm back for another week's worth of photos for the Photo-a-Day Challenge hosted by FatMumSlim. I discovered the companion group on Facebook where I've been posting daily, but thought it would be fun to share my photo posts here as well. This week I got caught up in school work and a sick grandbaby, so didn't get as many posted. So, here's my catch-up for September week 2. 

So, the premise is, there is a list posted just before the first of each month with a prompt for each day of the upcoming month. Here's the list for September, the point at which I joined the fun. Pictures can be posted on Facebook, Twitter (which I have resisted signing up for so far), Pinterest, or blogs, or wherever else we decide to post them. So far, I'm trying to keep up with the daily posts to FB and am adding a weekly blog post just for fun, especially since a number of my pictures will be quilt/crafty related.

Here's my contributions for week two, Sept 9 through 15...
9/9  On the wall... Six generations

9/10  Sweet... Movie night with sweet treats and Sweet Home Alabama!

9/11 What you did today... Hung my brand new flag in remembrance of 9/11/2001.

9/12  Shadow... of the remaining blossoms on my rose bush.

9/13  Unexpected... pleasure of getting to see my grandson on the field for several plays at his first middle school game of the season!

9/14  Liquid... gloves to help with traction while free-motion quilting.

9/15  Season... of the Kansas State Fair! What a fun day, despite the 1"+ of rain we got in the last hour of the day. It was an adventure!

And now I'm caught up through last week and ready to start posting daily again. See you here for a re-cap next week!

More snippets (or photos) from the sewing room soon,
Liz

A trip to the Kansas State Fair

Sunday, Sept 15 was the last day of the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson. At the beginning of the fair I had made the nearly four-hour trek (one way) to take quilts to the fair for myself and seven other women from the guilds I'm in. I picked up a friend half way who rode with me the rest of the way, helped with the check-in, after which we enjoyed supper together before returning home. It was pretty much the same routine this weekend, only I picked up a different quilting friend to ride along and help with the check-out.

When we arrived, as soon as we got out of the car, we looked at each other and knew we should have brought some sunscreen! It was hot and muggy with little shade to be found other than along the noisy midway.

However, as you can see in the above picture, a front moved in about an hour later and dumped more than an inch of rain and hail on us in about an hour's time. I had hoped to wander and take some cool midway pix, but instead had to hustle to get the quilts from the exhibition hall to the car, keeping them as dry as possible (in a wagon wrapped in plastic!), and then hightailed it home!

Anyway, when we arrived, Linda and I made our way to the Domestic Arts building and decided to escape the heat and humidity and enjoy the air conditioning while we enjoyed looking at all of the quilts and needlework items that had been turned in for judging by people from across the state. Several of the women whose items I had delivered to the fair two weeks earlier had won ribbons! It was fun finding them and snapping pictures. Between the skylights and fluorescent lighting in the building, and the plastic wrapped around/over all of the quilts to protect them, the pictures aren't the greatest, but I did my best to capture what I could.

This first quilt is queen size with row after row of perfect flying geese and all long-arm quilted with fabulous feathers down each strip of geese. Kathleen, who did the whole thing, was delighted with her 2rd place ribbon when I delivered it back to her last night.

Kathleen's Christmas wall quilt, which was pieced, embroidered, painted, and custom quilted, took first and Best of Show in its class!

Linda had never entered anything in any event and missed the county fair deadline by just a couple of hours. However, with a great deal of encouragement, she entered several items and took ribbons on nearly everything, including two first place ribbons! Way to go Linda!!!

Linda, grinning from ear to ear, next to her queen size Labyrinth she had made for her son.

Linda's pieced and appliqued quilt got 2rd and had great comments.

Linda hand quilted this one, getting yet another red ribbon.

This mini-quilt, which she hand quilted, went to Afghanistan and back with her son, and now has won a blue ribbon.

We both participated in the QOV block contest, which was open to everyone across the state. Everyone was to use the same block pattern, but could pick their own red, white & blue fabrics and color scheme. There was only one ribbon given for appearance and technique and Linda took it!

This is the display board of all of the QOV blocks that were turned in for this year. These will all be turned into QOV quilts by volunteers to be presented to Kansas veterans. Such an amazing and worthy cause to support!

Only one of my four quilts entered took a ribbon, but I'm pleased as punch that Enlightened Souls was the one to win something! Entering any quilts at the state level puts you in a much larger pool of quilters, so taking any ribbon is exciting. This is a very special, original design quilt that I made for a friend, who graciously loaned it back to me to put in the fairs and quilt shows this year. This quilt won blue ribbons in two county fairs and Reserve Grand Champion at one of them, and now second place at state. Woohoo!!! It will be finding its way back to California to Adele before the end of the year to its permanent home with a new label listing what shows it was in and awards won this year.

 Two other gals from our guild also won ribbons. Joan took second on her miniature churn dash that she made at the last minute to enter (I think it's about 15" square).

And Sharon won first on her twilling embroidered table runner and third on her English smocked dress.

After looking at all of the great quilts and other items, it was time to head to the car to get the wagon, claim tickets, and various bags to put all of these quilts into when we returned for check-out. The building was to be cleared and locked at 5pm and reopened at 6pm to let people pick up their items. About 4pm we noticed the rain had started and was dumping like crazy (Weatherbug reported rain was falling at a rate of 3" per hour!). With thunder crashing and lightening flashing, we waited for a lull and about 4:30 we headed out to the parking lot. By the time we got to the cars, it had started again and we sat there for probably 20 minutes waiting for the lightening, at least, to subside so we could make a dash back onto the fairgrounds.

Looking out the window of the metal building we waited in, watching people make mad dashes towards the parking lot!

We got within a block of the Domestic Arts building when it started hailing! We hightailed it into the first open door we saw, which the fair security guy quickly closed behind us. The sound was outrageous being in a metal building with rain, hail, wind, and the nearby thunder! Once again we waited, probably another 20 minutes at least, before the cloud burst passed and we could continue on our way.

Just for fun we took shots of each other inside the metal building while we waited. Linda got her husband's coat and an umbrella when we got to the cars to help on the way back from the parking lot. I borrowed her hat and the umbrella for part of the walk, but mostly just got soaked to the skin.

The plastic ponchos came out of backpacks or were purchased on the midway for last minute protection.

Just across the alley from the Domestic Arts building, water pooled in the street nearly a foot deep!

We enjoyed watching this little guy walk right through the middle of the puddle, still ankle deep on him.

The fair staff came out about 5:30 and announced they had been told by the fair administration office to open the building and let everyone in so those waiting to pick up items wouldn't be left outside in the rain & lightening. So, we moved our line inside and waited for the check-out to begin promptly at 6pm. According to one friend who had been through this process before, we made it through check-out in record time, being fully loaded and on the road by 7:30pm. Everything made it safely to the car without getting wet and was then delivered back to their respective owners.

The sunset behind me as I left Hutchinson was spectacular as I headed back towards northeast Kansas. Viewing all of the quilts entered by quilters from across the state of Kansas was great fun and provided much inspiration. Running like a kid through the rain and attempting to dodge puddles ankle deep (my shoes are still wet two days later) was an adventure. I'm so glad I was able to attend this year and take part in the fun!

More snippets from the sewing room soon,
Liz