April Wrap-Up

Gosh, I have a hard time making myself come to the laptop for blogging updates. The laptop has some funky things going on - some keys refuse to type on occasion - so it's just easier to avoid altogether!

The April wrap-up has been ready to share and I have a couple more updates worth sharing, so let's get to it.

ROW 1: You all know that my quilting output has diminished significantly this year, and family has been more prominent! The top 6 pics of my collage represent some special family moments in April. The top 3 pics are all from granddaughter Cate's first Easter Sunday! She is shown with her Uncle Adam, Great Grandma Jeannie, and Great Uncle Mark. 

ROW  2: Later in the month, daughter Emma "Auntie Em" plays with Cate, Mom poses with her first cousin Dave; and I hold my darling sleepy girl.

ROW 3: Now to the sewing - My hexie flowers have reached a grand total of 56, and that is where I stop. I will applique them to squares for a quilt. The William Morris economy blocks are looking good, and I will have more to say about that below. Last, DH and I and another couple spent a fun day antiquing; I came home with this sweet collection of red transfer ware dishes.

The economy blocks are completed, and I have gone straight to work sewing them together. This quilt will have such drama! Those sweeping Morris florals, leaves and birds in various sultry colorways really have impact. I will have a full flimsy reveal in a day or two.

The little adventure DH and I had on Tuesday was to the Cleveland Museum of Art to view the Tudor Exhibit. I have had a long fascination with all things British royalty. I've ready nearly every book written by noted author Philippa Gregory, and would without a qualm re-read most of them. This CMA exhibit featured art from the Tudor Era and while there was plenty of works directly linked to Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, there were many additional pieces on display that were from that era, but unrelated to the royal family.

The portrait above is one piece in the exhibit, and in an upcoming post I will share several other pictures I took of the artwork that most attracted me - the needlework. It was exquisite!

A final note today from the quilting room. I shared in an earlier post that I'd had the pleasure of spending Sunday with both daughters and granddaughter Cate. DD Emma wanted help with finishing a baby quilt, and DD Erin was here because S-I-L Jeff was golfing with DH. (Do you have all that straight?)

Gramma,Cate and Erin.

Anyway, because we were in the quilting room, pictures were taken. This was Miss Cate's very first visit to the quilting room, and thankfully Emma recorded the event. 

Does she look as interested in binding a quilt as I think she does? 

Who knows what magic Cate and Grammy will create in this room in the coming years!?!! It will surely provide lots of entertainment! Perhaps I will clean it in the meantime. *grin*

Happy Quilting, Friends!

April Wrap-Up

Time again for a monthly round up  -  already! These sure do come around fast, don't you think?

While my blog posting was sub-par as far as frequency goes, I did manage to do lots and lots of sewing. Because of quilt retreat there are lots of finishes! Yay! Let's review...

TOP ROW: I quilted Lady of the Lake before retreat and completed the binding while at retreat. The next two top row pics are flimsies finished at retreat, Mini Trip Around the World and Ohio Star Exchange

MIDDLE ROW: Also at retreat, I made the super-easy 3-yard quilt that Jan gifted me. The middle picture is of me and two college friends. We met up at a fraternity alumni bash; our husbands were fraternity brothers 50 years ago. Let's just say that no one knows us like college pals do, and the laughter was non-stop. The last picture in row 2 is the quilt I mentioned in this post - made by Frienzie Kay, and quilted by me.

BOTTOM ROW: Five of the Frienzies visited Kay last week, and we delivered the quilt. I will write a separate post about that outing soon. The last two pics are things I worked on at the very end of April. I quilted the patriotic quilt and am still hand-stitching the binding. All the Great Granny blocks are made and slowly the flimsy is coming together. About half the rows and sashing strips are joined together at this time.

So what will May bring?? (Besides May flowers.) I will definitely finish the Great Granny quilt. I am still attempting to long-arm one quilt each week - so I need to select and prep 4 quilts. 

Two or three yet-to-be-started quilts have been niggling at me as I finish up these other projects that have been ongoing. I can see a pretty pink 9-patch quilt coming, as well as another 9-patch/snowball quilt that will be primarily green and white. I also have a combination of stash fabrics hanging on my quilting room door that I have ideas about - I suppose an upcoming post on it is warranted. 

Here's an inspiration pic from Pinterest; I will do the Stepping Stones blocks in pink and white, and the setting squares will all the the same - a floral fabric that's been aging here in the sewing room for a few years. Changing it up to suit my stash and my needs, you know. Click the picture to be taken to the Pinterest link.

I need to get out of the sewing room for awhile, though, and do some spring tasks around here! My screened porch needs tidying. Windows need washing. This gorgeous spring weather is waiting to be enjoyed!

Hope you have a wonderful May, and a super-fantastic Monday!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Goodbye, April!

Pretty April has come and gone, and oh, gosh, what beauty she has left behind! Our trees and flowers and yard are all brimming with leafy beauty. We had plenty of April showers yesterday, so greening up is in overdrive as we coast into May.

Let's take a quick look at April's highlights pulled together in this collage.

Top Row: Retreat early in the month provided quality time to make good progress on these first three quilts. My blue and white Double Irish Chain flimsy, finished at retreat. More work at retreat involved continuing work on the red and white stars - mostly I made setting blocks. And after long-arming the small poison green wall hanging and bound it at retreat. It was a productive retreat!

Middle Row: Scrappy Spring Dreams in a table topper size, like the poison green, was bound at retreat. And the last of the retreat accomplishments is the scrappy 4-patch in the middle frame. About the middle of the month, we had 2-3" of snow - was gone as quick as it came, thankfully.

Bottom Row: My greatest accomplishment was quilting and binding the t-shirt quilt I made for a customer. What a relief. Out in the woods, I have found one Jack-in-the-Pulpit - I am watching it for when the "jack" appears. And last, just yesterday, I finished another Spring Dreams quilt - this one in the new 3 Sisters fabric, Sanctuary. What luscious fabric to work with!

Not mentioned directly, but probably most important of all this month is my growing confidence with the long arm machine. I have learned to clean and oil it. I know to change the needle regularly. I also still have a lot to learn, but I'm getting there. As successful as I was with the t-shirt quilt, I had plenty of problems to solve finishing that quilt - all of my own making. Like I said, I still have a lot to learn.

April was totally productive, and I look forward to an equally productive May!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Hello May!

It's May! Mother Nature is wearing her ever-greening finery around here, and I couldn't be happier about that! I have been doing regular checks of the wildflowers in our woods - plenty of trilliums, bluebells, meadow rue, violets, spring beauties, among others. I am eagerly awaiting the Jack-in-the-Pulpits. Maybe this week.

I have pulled together pictures from this past month for my April collage. Early in the month, my DH got a new toy! He has wanted a Can-Am Spyder forever, and finally found a reasonably priced used one. He's having fun learning how to operate and ride it. Next up, my 9-patch exchange quilt is finished. I worked on it at our Canter's Cave retreat, and finished the borders soon after. Also at retreat, I took ownership of my Featherweight, and look forward to many happy hours of stitching on it.

In row two, an easy jelly roll quilt called Blue Lagoon was begun and mostly finished at retreat. Like the 9-patch quilt, I finished off the borders back here at home. The lilacs in the center are from our yard. They smell heavenly! The group picture is from Easter - me and my siblings along with our mother. Seated: Carol, Mom, Sandy. Standing: Alan, Jayne, Mark. It was a bit cool for outdoor eating, but it was a wonderful day.

On the bottom, my two blocks for the Quilter's Planner project; sister Sandy and I at the Cap City Half Marathon where we walked in the 5K; and finally, my current stitching - a rather impromptu effort with some contemporary fabrics I've been collecting. I just love the intense colors; I need to learn to make myself more comfortable using them.

I have finished my university classes and hope to make quick work of grading finals and then submitting grades. I am formulating a to-do list for tackling after teaching obligations are completed, and I will probably share that later.

I hope your April was productive; sending you lots of encouragement for a magnificent May!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

April Round-Up and An Instagram Lesson

Here we are at the final day of April, and I have prepared a collage to corral all my activities for the waning month.

In the top row is my finished mini-quilt using the swap blocks shared with the friends in the Frankfort group. Next is the lovely FQ pack of dainty calicoes purchased online, followed by the fixed and finished Jelly Roll quilt that I attempted (and screwed up royally) back in September.

In the middle row I have two pictures that feature treasures from a box of fabric and linens from my mother. The embroidered pillow cases were a wedding gift to my parents in 1956, and I made the table cloth from a generous length of sturdy fabric buried down in the box. The final picture in the middle row are the newly-recovered barstools using remnants of the family room curtain fabric.

The bottom row shows the pincushions I gifted to the retreat participants, the finished Thimbleberries quilt begun at the '17 retreat, and my DH, as he approaches the finish line of the Cap City Half Marathon in Columbus. This race was Saturday, and he did so well for not having run competitively in about 35 years. It was quite an accomplishment!

Now, I am going to digress a bit, and talk about making these photo collages. There are many iPhone apps out there that will make collages, but the one I most often use is simply called Layout. It is compatible with Instagram, which I find myself using with increasing frequency. More often than not, I use the 3x3 option because it reminds me of the 9-patch block I love to make. Perfect for the quilter, you know.

Over the past few weeks, I have been seeing many collages on Instagram that look like the one above - the quilter is pictured in the center and is surrounded by examples of her work. It accompanied the hashtag (#) quiltvsquilter. The hashtag was created by an Australian quilter names Cat - her IG name is tincatsew.  She started a quilter's version of one that artists had going called #artvsartist. So the #quiltvsquilter is a way to see the quilter behind the quilt. Most often, we see the quilts but have no idea of the people who made them. Mine, above, features some of my most recent finishes - mostly from the year of the UFO, along with some others that I could quickly access.

I still consider myself to be a novice at the whole 'hashtag-IG-tagging-following' business, but one interesting phenomenon occurred after I posted the collage above with the quiltvsquilter hashtag. Before I knew it, I had over 100 "likes" - by gosh, I think the previous high might be 25. I mean, really, I have very little interaction of this sort with my IG posts. Now, I don't do it for the likes, but I admit, it feels nice to get them! My main reason for Instagramming is that I like to look at quilt pictures! I find quilters with similar styles to mine and follow them. Sometimes, they follow me back. The only way to be followed back is to post pictures. I admit to being gratified when a quilter likes something I have posted; it validates that what you are making is appealing to others, not just yourself.

Well, I have certainly rambled on a bit, haven't I? Like I said, all this new technology is fun, but the learning curve is wide - and getting wider all the time for this old gal.

Hope your April has been great, now let's make May even better!!
Happy Quilting, Friends!