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WIP Wednesday

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We are not so patiently waiting for spring to arrive in southeastern Pennsylvania.  Four nor'easters in March is just cruel and I've had enough of this cold weather.  The upside is that it makes it easy to stay inside and stitch.  I'm making progress on a few things, but for reasons not clear to me, I've had a hard time settling down with one project.  I had the pleasure of taking two classes with Catherine Theron at the end of March.  You can see the projects she taught on the Salty Yarns website by clicking on the Events tab.  When I got home I was inspire to find the piece from the first class I took from Catherine at the Delaware Valley Historic Sampler Guild  many (maybe 10??) years ago.  This will become a Quaker sewing case. During class, I struggled putting in the black for the Florentine pattern which is why I put it away all these years.  After looking at it closely, I found and corrected several mistakes.  I filled in several of the diamonds whi
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Friday Finish

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For at least the past two years, the duClay EGA chapter has hosted a stitch-a-long based on a designer.  Members are free to stitch any design by the designer and it's fun to see what projects everyone is working on.  This year, the chosen designer was Plum Street Samplers.  I had *several* charts to chose from, but decided on Rubie Owl's Sampler.  I used DMC threads on a 36 count linen from my stash and finished it yesterday.  I love the autumn colors and that little owl sitting on top of the tree.  In the spirit of full disclosure, I have to say that stitching those leaves drove me a bit crazy.  I ended up making a working copy of the chart and marking each leaf off as it was stitched since I found it easy to lose track of where I was. I'd love to know what's been keeping you busy!
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Out with the Old, On with New Age

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Happy New Year, everyone!  So far, it's been quiet and very cold here in southeastern Pennsylvania.  We had a nice Thanksgiving with my son in (much warmer) Los Angeles, and a great Christmas at home with two of our children.  I hope all of you had wonderful holidays also On January 1, I emptied my ort jar.  It's always fun to see the layers of threads.  Those blue and green threads are from Needle Delights Starstruck.  The red is from a needlepoint canvas of a ladybug that I didn't quite get finished in 2017.  The threads at the top are probably all from Brenda Keyes' Sampler Houses. Pictures of these projects will appear in future posts. My OMG (One Monthly Goal) in quilting is to finish New Age, a block-of-the-month quilt from 2016.  I kept up with making the blocks on schedule and then didn't follow through with the setting.  Here's where the project is as of this afternoon. I need to sew together the other six blocks, and also piece and att
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WIP Wednesday

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I spent some lovely time playing in my stash yesterday deciding what to take to my guild's retreat in Ocean City, Maryland this weekend.  Retreat projects have to meet certain criteria.  There can't be too many color changes or the need to check the chart constantly.  This project, Sampler Houses by Brenda Keyes, has been my work-in-progress for some time, and it is probably the most perfect project for a retreat ever.  Look at all those areas that need to be filled in with one color!   Even the houses don't require much looking at the chart.  I'm going to be working on the border of this piece tonight so that I can do more of the filling in over the weekend.  This piece is a SAL with the duClay EGA  and also on my 2017 WIP Challenge list there.  Only three more houses and the rest of the border to go! I recently acquired an Accuquilt cutter and when I saw this block on Bonnie's blog, I got the appropriate die.  I haven't purchased much fabric during the
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Done!

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Just a quick post to document that I achieved my One Monthly Goal for September.  These pillowcases were finished pretty early in the month and then I was inspired to move onto other projects in the sewing room.   I finished the album blocks I showed in the last post, but as I anticipated, there were problems putting them together into a finished top.  When I was making them, I had trouble getting the block size consistent and that meant that I couldn't get the sashing to line up. So I'm slowly taking the rows apart.  One row of four blocks will become a long runner to go on top of the TV stand in our guest room.  Another group of four blocks will be re-sewn into a square for a table topper.  I'll probably make a runner and a table topper from the remaining four blocks and give those items to my daughter for spring decorating in her apartment.   I'm off to Bethlehem, PA tomorrow for a class with Catherine Theron, and then to Ocean City, Maryland for a guild ret
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Commitment Issues

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Patty at Elm Street Quilts  opened the link-up for September's One Monthly Goal a week ago.  Ever since I finished the queen size quilt that will be a wedding present for my nephew, I've been trying to decide on my next monthly goal.  I kept looking at the projects in various stages of completion in my sewing room and didn't want to commit to any of them. There is a pile of these block awaiting sashing.  However, this project has had its difficulties and I'm just not feeling it right now.  I probably could push through and get it done, especially since it would be a good project to practice quilting with my embroidery machine.  But at the moment, it just seems like all work and no fun. Last night, I decided that my sewing room needed straightening up and I looked at a couple of potential projects and some WIPs.  I found three of these blocks that need just a little work to be made into a table runner.  It would be a nice fall decoration for my daughter, but again
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Another Monthly Goal Accomplished

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My One Monthly Goal for August was to complete a block-of-the-month quilt.  I started this is 2015 and then work on it stopped when I decided it wasn't going to the originally planned recipients.  My nephew got married in a small ceremony in July, 2016 right before I had surgery on my shoulder.  I'm slowly getting back on track completing larger quilts and thought this would be a good gift for the (somewhat) newlyweds.  When I put the finished top on my bed, I was tempted to keep it.  I even showed the picture to my sister to confirm whether or not her son and daughter-in-law would like it and was more than a little disappointed when she said they would love it.  But I know this will go to people who appreciate it, and it's perfect for their home on the coast of California. I'm linking up with Elm Street Quilts .  It's always fun to see what others accomplish during the month.
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