Update on April and May's Doings

Gee, I didn't get to post at all in April!  Yet during that month and as this one got underway, INTENTION has been on my mind --- I just can't say FOCUS has been at the heart of it!  I can blame some of that on the gardening season which is in full swing and the fact that I've spent a lot of time at our community garden....

...and setting up the seed and root starts indoors that I should have gotten started at the beginning of  March.

Hmm, that Basil pot on the end needs watering.....

On the quilty front, I've did have a few moments here and there to do a little stitching...

1.  With all the green scraps laying around from the "Emeralds" project (and more on that later), I managed to finish Part 1 of  "Roll, Roll Cotton Boll" which is another of Bonnie Hunter's old mysteries....

....and lucked up on a sale of some perfectly-themed backing fabric for it!

2.  After donating string blocks for Kat Drinkwater's "Covered In Love" quilt charity project at the beginning of the year, I wanted to really make sure I made some blocks for her March/April block call.

The block design was so "Spring-y", it really suited the time of year!  Looking forward to seeing what she wants for her next block call which won't be until July.

8/31/19 Update:  See all the pretty "Late Blooming Quilts" made up from everyone's donated blocks here!

3.  In April, I helped a friend host an Afternoon Tea for her Building Association (this was just a small part of the set-up).

I wanted to use this box  I have to hold tea bags at the event.......

......but its cover is worse for the wear.

My dream has long been to make a quilted piece for the cover that would allow me to try out machine-sewn silk ribbon embroidery.  However, in the meantime, I thought I could maybe piece a little  tea-related mini quilt for it instead.  At first I was going to use designs from Maaike Baker's "Cups and Saucers" book (the link is to the updated edition):

However, then I found a cute online project with even smaller blocks called "Grandma's Tea Party" by Beth at Piece By Number.  I liked the smaller blocks in this one because it would allow me to fit more blocks within the same amount of space.  However, I started too late for these rather intricate paper-pieced units so only got the tea pot done by the day of the event.

The good news was that where the tea box was displayed in the room it sat with the top sitting open so no one was any wiser of the lid's condition.  After the event, I did get a few cup blocks also sewn up.  I had fallen in love with the background print I used -- it reminded me of old-fashiond wallpaper but I think the contrast with the cup prints could have been better.  Even so, they are cute so I want to finish the blocks and the piece up eventually.

Each participant got to keep their place setting from the event.  My friend had picked up special settings for each of us that had helped with all the planning, sourcing, food prep and set-up!   Hmmm, I think making a special mug rug may also be in order.....

As to my other projects?

4.  Wholecoth on Hold

When I finally (after a year's delay) got started on my wholecloth project back in January (!), I thought I was good to go.  But it didn't take long to realize that trying to quilt a queen-size top on the 18" hoop I have wasn't going to work easily.  The hoop has worked great with the mini, wall hanging and lap quilts I've stitched on it before.  However, with this project, when I kept trying to turn the hoop to stitch (I started working from the center), all it did was twist all the rest of the quilt around the base of the hoop.

At that point, I decided that a bigger hoop or maybe even a frame was in order.  I admit I've been awed by the work being done by Karen over at her Quilts...Ect/Karen's Quilting blog as she hand quilts her "Good Fortune" quilt (from the last Bonnie Hunter mystery) so that may have just had some added influence in making this decision!  However, checking the features and prices of various frames and hoops, at first I thought this might not be something I could justify purchasing since I don't do a lot of hand quilting.  However, as always the Quilt Muses look out for me and I managed to snag a used Grace Company no-baste hand quilting frame off of eBay recently for an affordable price.

What I like about this model/style is that it's adjustable to load three different sizes of quilts (baby, lap and queen).  Of course the down side is that now I have to rip out the little bit of stitching I had already done (which fortunately was not that much) and take out the basting so I will be able to load the project onto the frame.  Addtionally, this time around I'll have to work it from one end of the quilt to the other.

 I had also considered getting a Q-Snap frame which would have allowed me to continue to work on my project as is with it already basted.  I admit that I liked the idea that for future projects, using the Grace frame means I can eliminate the basting step completely.  Additionally, the Grace frame can be folded down for storage with the project being worked on still on it.  Even so, while I work on the quilt, I will have to figure out where I'm going to stand it while it's extended to its full queen-size width when I'm not quiliting on it.

While I did find some information about the frame on the company's website, it took a deep search to access it so they have clearly moved away from offering hand quilting frames.  Even Hinterberg which used to be the other big name in hand quilting frames, now only offers a "build your own" kit that provides only the cogs and gears for the rollers with instructions to source/make the actual frame legs and rollers.  Funny, when I started quilting at least half of all quilters still hand quilted.  I know that percentage has dropped over the years due to the advancement of machine quilting techniques and machines.  Does this mean hand quilting as a skill is now going the way of the dodo?

5.  What about Emeralds?

After making up all the blocks back in March, when I put them up on the wall, I was not excited about what I was seeing and even after trying to rearrange things a bit, it took me a while to figure out why.  What I came to realize is that while I had been very attracted to the magazine quilt and had noted the greens used in it, I had not taken into account the ratio of the specific shades and colors of green represented in it.

The majority of greens in the patterned quilt are in the yellow green - olive ranges with a just sprinkling of darker greens among them.  The greens I had pulled from my stash were just the opposite -- the majority were in the dark blue-green range with a just sprinkling of spring, olive and pale greens.  So the visual balance of color in mine is totally different than that of the patterned quilt.  Which makes sense since that's totally reflective of the shaded color palettes I tend to use.

I am still very excited about using the Blendables thread I purchased to quilt this with so I will eventually push forward with it as is.  Fortunately the darker overall tone will also be balanced by the fact that the tan fabrics I had pulled to use for the border setting triangles are of a darker value similar to that of my blocks in contrast to the lighter tan fabric used in the patterned quilt.   So I believe that in the end, the overall color balance of quilt will still be good.

6.  Spring projects:  As usual there are a lot of things I had wanted to work on once Spring hit.  I wanted to make a table runner for my dining room sideboard for Spring, finally get to a Spring Wool Wallhanging that I kitted up years ago and I wanted to finally paint a Spring barn quilt for my terrace (I previously made ones for Summer and Fall).  For May, the plan had been to get back to my Quilts of Valor projects and move them towards finishing.

So of course, at this point the question is "How the Heck Am I Going To Get To It All?!?!?"  Well,  hopefully I have a possible answer to that and I will share that in future posts!

Slow Sunday Stitching: Finally Starting on the Wholecloth Quilt

 I'm linking up for the first time in a long while with everyone over at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

The good news is that on my list of priorities for this year was to get back to last year's goal of working on the last of my original Bucket List projects.  Looks like I'm not the only one thinking about this:  American Patchwork and Quilting magazine has issued their Bucket List for this year and will be sharing a new bucket list item each week on their social media pages.

There are many on their list that I've already done in the past so I don't see them as "To Do's" for this year.  There are also a few I see getting to as I work on the things I want to get done for the year like "#16 Creatively piecing a quilt backing" or "#9 Sew a quilt using only my scraps and stash".  At the bottom of their list they made space for "write-ins" --- the perfect slots for my own Bucket List items:

The first of the write-ins is the subject for this post.  After spending March of last year adding  additional motifs to the pre-printed design, hand basting the trapunto batting layer and then the quilting layer, I've finally put it all in the hoop and started the stitching:

I think this will also be the year I finally make an armchair tool caddy!  Since it's been a good while since I've hand quilted, it will take some time for me to get in a groove on this.  I've already re-watched Shar Jorgensen's QHL episode with Jean Brown about using the Aunt Becky tool.  My plan is that this will be a project that I'll be working on for the whole year.

While I hope to get in some stitching time during the week, I can definitely make an appointment to stitch on Sundays (or thereabouts) because every week my DH and I usually sit down at some point to watch "In the Kitchen With David" on QVC.

We love kitchen gadgets (oh, and cooking!) and so this show is a must see for us.  Matt Ragland (the Bullet Journal Guy) gave a good tip this year to team something you want to get in the habit of doing with something you are already in the habit of doing.  I realized that one way to insure consistent stitching on this project would be to plan to stitch while we watch this show which we usually do in the livingroom where I've got the wholecloth project situated.  So Win-Win!!  Hey, if I want to get in even more stitching time, maybe we could also start regularly watching David on Wednesday nights (which for us would actually take place Thursday morning since DH works at night) or watching David's old co-host Mary who has an ITK show on Saturdays.  I'm just not sure our budget would approve of that!

I may not link up every week but will try to post my progress at least once a month.  Of course any milestones, trials, tribulations or cries for help will be posted immediately!!  Hope you are enjoying your stitching this week and I look forward to checking out what everyone else is working on this year!

Checking in for the Start of April

Can you believe it!  I went to a gardening conference on Saturday and spent the day in our community garden on Sunday getting to see things like this coming in.....

...only to then start off TODAY like this!

Prince was right:  Sometimes  it DOES snow in April!

Fortunately, by noon it looked like this....

Temps are expected to stay up and we're suppose to get rain for the next two days so it'll probably be ALL gone by then! 

Admittedly, since my mind has been on the start of the gardening season, it hasn't been snowing progress in the quilt studio.  While I got the wholecloth basting finished last month, I still haven't put it in the hoop so there's that to do this week.

I'm hoping to be able to pile the bottom of the quilt into that bin while I'm stitching so it won't be all over the floor while I'm working.

I had planned to work on my DWR as my other "Bucket List" project for the start of the year. 

Rachel Hauser of the "Stitched In Color" blog has been hosting a "Big Bed Quilt-Along" that is supposed to end this month and the DWR was supposed to be my project for that.  I thought I'd have already gotten started on it by now but there's still a chance to focus on it this month and at least get the top done by month's end (she said, fingers crossed).  I had finished the piecing of the center back in August 2012 (although looking back, I realize I never posted about that!) and cut out the borders back in April 2015.  Now I need to add the applique onto them. 

In anticipation of the applique work, I decided to treat myself and sign up for Sue Pellan's "My Magical Garden" BOM.  For the blocks in it, she is using her Leaves Galore and Hearts and More templates.

The first two blocks of the BOM were just posted this week and I'll see if I can learn how to use her rulers to create the leaves for the DWR borders.  After I signed up, I bought the grippers for the rulers that she recommends and a couple of small packages of Mistyfuse.  While I'll use the fusible for some test leaves, I don't plan to fuse the leaves to the DWR.  There are leaves already appliqued to the center of the top that were machine appliqued using invisible thread.  Since I don't have working zigzag machines at the moment, I can't do that so I'll have to hand applique the borders ones for now. 

I've had the "Leaves" rulers for years, having purchased them after I learned to hand applique because I thought I would do a lot of those types of projects.  I've done a few but not as many as anticipated and to compound things I now have a lot of Accuquilt leaf dies.  However, I'd still like to learn how to use the rulers since Sue also has some interesting alternative designs that can be made with them like gift boxes and applique bows. 

At this point I also don't plan to make the whole BOM -- just a few units or blocks to get the hang of the rulers.  I am budgeting to purchase the Hearts and More rulers in June since the BOM won't be covering use of them until then.  

The goal of just getting the top finished is a good one for now since I'll need to get my other machines fixed if I'm going to eventually machine quilt this quilt as desired.  With the weather finally clearing, a trip across the bridge to Queens to have the repairs done is far more likely to happen.  My DH will be on vacation again in a few weeks so maybe I can plan to bring them in then.

Well, back to clearing the cutting table and organizing things (yet again) so I can finish making my project plans for the month!

Checking In For National Quilting Day!

Before the day is over, I want to wish a very happy National Quilting Day to everyone!

 

 

Since this is my first post for March, I also wish you a happy National Craft Month as well!

Image courtesy LotsOfLime.com

If you are looking for fun quilty things to do for the day, you can check out the Quilt Alliance's home page -- they have links to free pattern sites for many industry companies.  I particularly look forward to trying Anita Grossman Solomon's "Make It Simpler" Hexagon cutting shortcut for 10" squares.  I think I might be able to make it even simpler using freezer paper.  We'll see!  I loved using Anita's technique for her Anita's Arrowhead blocks a few years back so like having an opportunity to try another of her shortcut block cutting techniques.

I started off my NQD celebration by taking a page out of the blogging book of LeeAnn Paylor at the Not Afraid of Color blog and making an "I Like" list of the things I enjoy so much about quilting:

I like Quilting #1: Utility

Brrr! quilt and coordinating neck roll.

I love that quilts can be pretty but also useful.   

I like Quilting #2:  Creativity


 Always a favorite of mine:  High Strung +2

 

Even with basic designs there also comes the chance to play around with layouts or add design motifs in order to "add a little something extra" to the things you make or to completely reimagine them or create something new.  There are no "shoulds" or limits --- whatever you can think up, there's usually a way to bring it to life.

I like Quilting #3:  Community

With so many blogs to read, social media to follow, linkups to join, guilds and sewing groups to meet with, podcasts to listen to, Pinterest boards to ogle  -- any way that you'd like to interact with like minded people, there is a way to do it.  Many times it doesn't even require you to leave your own home!


I like Quilting #4:  The History

Block purchased at a NY Historical Society exhibit.

I love seeing antique quilts in museums and quilt show exhibits.  I can read about the background of fabric and quilt style trends in books and on websites like Barbara Brackman's Material Culture and Civil War Quilts sites.  In fact, Barbara just did a post listing exhibits across the country that will be featuring antique quilts over the next few months.


I like Quilting #5:  The Goodies

This is the prize package I won from Meg Cox the Quilt Journalist from a giveaway offered in her January newsletter.   With prizes received from Meg (the True Blue charm pack), Victoria Findlay-Wolfe (a FQ bundle of her new "Parts Dept" fabric line) and Jane Dunnewold (her Creative Strength Training book had been on my wish list!), I think I got something better than the leprechaun's pot 'o gold this month! 

 My celebration activity for today is to continue what I've been working on all month:  I've been steadily (if not consistently) working on basting my wholecloth project.  Basting the high loft poly batting for the trapunto  layer took a lot longer than I had expected.  With my larger electronic machines still out of commission, I wasn't able to baste it the "tradtional" way by using wash-away thread and stitching it by machine.  I say traditional in quotes because the truly traditional way to do trapunto is to stuff cord, thread or yarn in through the back of the quilt after the quilting is finished.  Basting the first of two layers of batting with wash away thread behind the motifs you want to make "pop" is actually the modern approach to trapunto.  Since I've been sewing on my Featherweight this year and its throat space is small, I had to do the trapunto basting by hand.  I finally finished it all earlier this week.

It's also hard to get a good shot of all that white-on-white fabric and batting!  Now the quilt is layered with the second layer of cotton batting and I'm hand basting the three quilting layers together. 

Once that's done, this baby will be headed into the hoop for what I'm estimating will be the rest of the year.  Or at least I hope I can get it done that fast -- I found a few other examples on the web of people who had completed one of these preprinted tops and they have taken as long as four years to complete!

I hope you enjoy your National Quilting Day activities and any other projects you may have lined up to work on for the rest of this crafty month!

En Provence and Ringo Lake Update and Moving On To the Wholecloth

Joining in again for another edition of "Moving It Forward Monday" over at Em's Scrapbag:

In my last post, I thought I was done with the updates on my En Provence project since I had finished the top.  However, I had plans for one more touch to add to it and wound up getting it done a lot faster than I thought I would.

One of the quirks of this particular project is that when I started pulling fabrics for it, I found that I had at least one polka dot fabric for each of the colors called for in the quilt.  When I went shopping for additional project fabrics, I found even more so using polka dots became a sub-theme of the project.  Ironically when it came time to choose the magenta "focus fabric" I once again found a polka dot fabric for that too!  So needless to say polka dots abound in this top!

As I got to the part of the mystery where we had to piece the neutral borders for the top, I thought it might be cute to add "polka dots" to it as well.  My original plan was to do that by swapping in a dark square in some of the four patches that make up the last border but that didn't balance out visually.  So instead I decided to applique circles on the border as my "polka dots" instead.

As I found out in a previous project, an Accuquilt  GO! cutter makes short work of prepping circles for applique since you can cut both the fabric:

...and either fusible or (since I planned to do this by hand) templates (out of doubled freezer paper) for turning the circles.  Just cut a smaller circle for the templates than you do for the fabric.

As seen in the picture, I also used the templates from the set of  Karen Buckley Perfect Circles I have to turn the circles.  Since there were only five templates of the size I needed in her set, I die cut the extra freezer paper templates so I could prep more circles at a time.

So now the neutral border has polka dots too!

Also this week, I finally finished up the last of the blocks needed for the "On Ringo Lake" mystery -- Woo hoo! 

Next step for this one will be to put these blocks up on the design wall with the units we had to piece for sashing and play around with the layout.  If you check out some of the linkups for this mystery, you will see that people have employed some creative placements of the sashing units --- and not always as sashing!

However before I get to that, I'll be focusing this week on setting up my wholecloth project.  I've finally decided on the additional stitch elements I want to add and have made templates (in freezer paper again) for those so have to trace them out onto the top.

Since the whole cloth is one of the big "Bucket List" projects for this year and I'm way behind on getting start on it, I'll be taking this week to focus on that.

There's so much more to see over at Em's Scrapbag so why not go and check out what everyone has been up to?

En Provence and Ringo Lake Update: More Progress!

Once again, I am joining the crew over at Em's Moving It Forward Monday!

 

 

 As before, it's been "all Bonnie Hunter, all the time" around here in terms of the projects I've been working on.  While the stitching lately hasn't been as consistent as in previous weeks, what was accomplished on the days I did sew helped me hit two milestones.  For the "En Provence" mystery, I've got the center of the top all sewn together:

 

 

Now there's only a few rows of border units to be sewn and this top will be finished! 

 

For "Ringo Lake", I've got half of the total number of blocks needed sewn up:

 

 

It's gratifying to see the block stack growing, this one could also be a top by the start of Spring. 

 

At one point I needed something else to leader/ender to push those other two through so I pulled out some strips and was able to finish another Scrappy Trips block!

 

 

These have been fun to make and I look forward to the day when this one can become the main project.

 

I had planned to only sew a few of the mystery blocks a day but once the "En Provence" rows started coming together, I was anxious to see the center get done so pushed forward to getting a whole row done on those days when I did get to sew.  I have an idea for slightly altering the borders for it so finishing the borders may move a little slower than the rows did.  So once again, I'm hoping to try to finally start on my big 2018 goals.  

 

Up to now I've been stalled on moving forward with my wholecloth project but have found a resource that seems to have the inspiration I was looking for to help me take it in the direction I want to go.  With any luck, that project will be the subject of next week's "Move It Forward" post.  Fingers crossed! 

 

 

Now, I'm going to go check out what other people have been working on all week.  Join me over at Em's Scrapbag and see who's sharing something on today's "Moving It Forward Monday"! 

Happy New Year and What's On Deck for 2018

A Very Happy New Year To Everyone!

 

 

When a New Year dawns, we all think about what we hope the year will bring and what we can accomplish in it.  Normally, this is the time for quilters to reveal the "Word of the Year" that they want to guide their project aspirations for the year.  I have done some work this past year using a Bullet Journal and studying the prompts of illustrator and author Jessica Abel through her blog and her book "Growing Gills".  If you feel like you never seem to get what you want to accomplish done, I highly recommend the book (and the email prompts she will send you after you purchase it) to help you pinpoint what your issues are. 

Between the two, I realized my biggest problem was determining what the "Realistic" part of S.M.A.R.T. goals (see Tip #1 on this post) really means and how to truly prioritize them.  Those two things were the main reasons why I was able to stay on track at the end of the year and get a few projects competed even while juggling a Christmas gift project and Bonnie Hunter's annual mystery without getting discouraged or feeling like I was going crazy.

 

So as 2017 ended, I tried to think about what would be my guiding word for 2018.  However, as I rolled around the possibilities in my mind, two words kept bubbling to the top for me.  They represent what I want to do more than how I plan to work and that is:

 

BUCKET LIST 

 

Yes, for me the guiding principal will be that this year I want to finish up my original Bucket List goals.  I wrote about my Bucket List back in 2010.  The projects on it represented the quilts that when I started quilting, I felt I NEEDED to attempt in order to be considered a "real" (as opposed to fake?!?) quilter.  To fulfill those lofty aspirations, at that time I had seven projects still to attempt: Double Wedding Ring, String Quilt, Lone Star, Dresden Plate, Complex Applique and a Hand Quilted Wholecloth.  I finished the Dresden plate quilt called Merrimac Dresdens in 2013 so that left six more still to do.

 

I had actually started on the Double Wedding Ring way back in 2009, made siginificant progress on it in 2012 and had last worked on it in 2015.   

 

 

 For the Wholecloth project I had plans as far back as 2012 to start it and made them again at the start of both 2016 and last year but each time got sidetracked.  So with the Bucket List my focus, I could finally get it started this year.

 

 

 After doing the "Growing Gills" lessons, I wound up completely reorganizing my "Hussy" stacks (HSYs - Haven't Started Yet projects) which reacquainted me with some of the things I had chosen to fulfill my Bucket List goals.  For instance, while I had considered doing a number of projects to fulfill the Complex Applique wish, I realized that there was a project that I had long wanted to make that could actually fulfill that for me and I decided right then to forego all others in favor of it.  For that one I plan to make (or at least start) one of the Robert Callahan's Applique projects.

.
I also have stashed no less than five different Lone Star designs, all using different approaches to the construction. 

 

These are just some of the patterns I have.

 Again, I had long debated about which to start with but with cleared creative "Gills", I finally made a firm decision on which project to start with:  I'm going with the Jelly Stars kit I have.

 

 

Now that I know where I want to go, I am ready to plan the when and how.  I had always planned for the wholecoth to be a whole year project so the push for that one is just to get it started and in the hoop.  Once that's done I can work on it a little each week until it gets completed (and it will be great for "Slow Sunday Stitching" linkups).  For the other projects, I thought that the easiest plan for attacking them would be a personal quarterly challenge.  I can attempt to get one BL item started (or in the case of the Double Wedding Ring, continued) in each quarter.  If I plan well, some might even get finished within their quarter.  And from my experience at the end of last year, I know that it is possible to juggle more than one project as long as I was realistic about what I thought I could get done and monitored, accepted and re-grouped when I was sent off track from my plans.

 

This is not to say that I don't expect to work on other things during the year:  I definitely want to get the two Bonnie Hunter mystery projects, On Ringo Lake and En Provence, at least to the top stage:

 

Lots of parts still in progress......

A Bonnie project may also fulfill my String Quilt bucket list item but I haven't decided on that definitively yet.

I'd also like to make some headway on some decorating projects like my Halloween quilt and a few wallhangings I want to make for the house.  Hopefully what I learned last year about planning and deadlines, will clarify for me just how much additional time, realistically, I can devote to these projects if at all.  If I realize I can't get them done, then at that moment it will be time to decide what will take precedence.  I'm also sure there will be those times when the project du' jour may be frustrating me and I will welcome having a diversion at hand.      

 

So that's the 2018 plan for me in a nut shell.  What is your Word for the Year or plans for 2018?  Whatever they are I wish you well in bringing them to fruition and making 2018 the best it can be for you!