Temporarily Side Tracked To a New Project and Loving It

For the past two days I have been scrubbing down the house and cooking up a storm for a gathering of ladies from my church circle this morning.  After about two hours the house emptied out. leftovers were put away and dishes were washed.  DH vacated the premises before the ladies arrived and is not due back until later this afternoon.  Now the house seems altogether too quiet and even the dogs are bored.  I’d love to sew, but I think I better take a nap before picking up scissors, rotary cutter or needle.

During breaks from all that activity, I pulled out a charm kit that I purchased from Wanda Hanson at Exuberant Color last summer and started working on my very first colorwash quilt.   

I confess, when I first started separating the 200 unique pieces of fabric in the kit, I had a bit of a panic.  Many hours later and with some long-distance coaching here is the layout as it currently stands.  I still see some more tweaking I want to try, but I'm pretty close to finished.

When she put the kits up for sale, Wanda said that she considered this a “starter” kit and that for a top which uses 196 pieces, as this one does, she usually starts with a selection of 250 fabrics.  I did add a handful of additional cuts to smooth out some of the blends, but not all that many.  

This and that...

Last rose of summer?

...maybe not with a long-range forecast like this and a bush loaded with buds.  It rained this weekend and that was very good news, indeed, but I would have expected cooler temps by now.

 

My Jane Stickle collection for October has grown.

Quilting slowly continues on my Christmas wall hanging. 

Probably very little more stitching will be done the rest of the day as my eyes are still not back to normal following an eye doctor visit this morning.

Just Checking In

Most of my projects are in that in-between stage that does not lend itself to fresh photographs, but I do not want my blog to go dormant so it’s time to check in. 

I can report that my collection of completed Jane Stickle blocks for the month is growing.  The outer two blocks incorporate some of the fabric cuts Wanda Hanson shared with me.

Other blocks are in the process of being appliqued.   

It seems like I spend more time prepping my blocks for construction than I do in actual sewing.  Here is some of my batik stash I've pulled for possible use in future blocks.  Some of these will be difficult to incorporate because of the large size of their motifs.

I’m also working on a winter-themed mug rug for an exchange.  Unfortunately, it will be some time before I can post a picture of it, since my exchange partner is not supposed to see it before it arrives in the mail.  Oh, well, here is a teaser peek just in case Wendi sees this.

We enjoyed a brief visit from long-time friends from Dallas this weekend and Stitch ‘n Chat friends stopped by this afternoon.  I missed the first Stitch ‘n Chat meeting of the season in September because we were travelling, so it was especially nice to see everyone.

Play Time during a Rainy Weekend

The housework beckoned, the Jane Stickle blocks were demanding attention and there are full laundry hampers.  So what did I do during our nice rainy weekend?  I stitched up a fun wall quilt kit I purchased in Madison.  It shouldn’t have taken nearly as long as it did, but I experimented with machine binding and had to do some unsewing before I was ready to call it finished. 

Usually I don’t enjoy the scary side of Halloween, but this little guy looked so cheerful at a vendor’s booth at the Quilt Expo he just had to come home with me.  The kit shorted me on some of the orange cuts.  Fortunately, I had orange remnants in my stash, so no worries.

I also sandwiched my Christmas wall hanging quilt and it is ready for quilting on my Janome. 

Finally, I am ashamed to confess that there was very little progress on Jane Stickle blocks in September.  These are the three I completed.

I now have 83 center blocks of 169 completed.  I did spend some time Sunday kitting up more blocks and I have one ready for hand applique.  Progress.

Progress

I was able to work on the hand applique for this Christmas wall quilt during our trip and finally finished it last night.  It is ready to be sandwiched and quilted.

Getting Ready to Sew

It looks like I’ve become one of those ladies never satisfied with the way the furniture is arranged.  I had some time Friday while Bob was at the ranch and decided to reconfigure my sewing area ….again.  I am probably going to do some machine quilting on my DSM this fall rather than on my HQ16 because the ranch pretty much becomes “Man’s World” during hunting season.  So, I swapped my end table around and reinstalled my Pfaff in its cabinet.  You have to be something of a contortionist to get cords and foot pedals threaded through the various openings and adjust the table height so the machine is flush with the sewing surface.  Since this is my take-along machine for those times I need something other than a straight stitch, it has not been in its cabinet in well over a year. 

I also spent some time prewashing my batik acquisitions from our Wisconsin trip.  Now they are ready to be paired with Jane Stickle blocks.

And, I found a temporary home for the quilt that Wanda gave me.  Someday I will add a sleeve so I can use it for a wall quilt.  Until then it will serve as a table topper for the basket that holds my growing collection of mug rugs.

Today I hope to kit up some Jane Stickle blocks for Sit ‘N Sew Day.

Fun in Madison and Beaver Dam

The day after my visit with Wanda, was spent at the Wisconsin Quilt Expo.  This was the eighth annual Expo and my second time to attend.  My first visit was in 2007.  This year’s event was bigger and more crowded than I remembered.  It was here that I took the crazy quilt class I posted about September 9. 

My Strips that Sizzle quilt that I named "Breaking the Mold" was juried into the show.  The judges were very kind in their comments and the feedback was constructive.  This was my first submission to a juried show.  The organizers were patient with me and responsive to all my questions as I prepared my entry for shipping.  I don't know when or if I will submit another quilt for judging, but this experience was definitely positive.

Of course, there were lots of vendors and I certainly did my share to stimulate the economy.  The day following my visit to the Expo, we took a short detour to Beaver Dam where I spent a little time at the Nancy’s Notions Store while Bob made a store run.  At the conclusion of our Beaver Dam stop, my long-suffering husband informed me that the quilting portion of the trip was finished (and it was)! 

Here is my bag of loot from the trip which includes the fabric cuts from Wanda and purchases made at the Expo and Beaver Dam.  That's a lot of fabric, but most of it is small cuts for my Jane Stickle quilt, and the rest was purchased to help meet specific commitments rather than impulse buys.  So, I was very, very bad, or maybe very good, depending on your perspective.  Whichever way you choose to look at it, it was a lot of fun.