A Work in Progress

Last week, my good friend and I went to the AQS Quilt Show in Lancaster, PA. We're quilt show veterans so we arrived with shopping totes and bag lunches. We had a plan for which floor of the hotel to visit first. We had short lists of items we were looking for and vowed to spend some time actually looking at the quilts on display. There were some lovely Baltimore album quilts that were both hand appliqued and hand quilted. I love to look at them, but don't think that I'll ever attempt one. I recently bought Rosewood Manor's Baltimore Quilt crossstitch chart, though. My plan was to buy a specific ruler and a bundle of eight fat quarters from one of my favorite vendors. That went out the window when I saw this cute, cute, cute potholder at the Traditions of White Swan booth. I snapped up the pattern (Hot Cakes! by Susie Shore Designs) and one of the kits. This project requires 2 10"x9" and 2 9"x6" pieces of fabric along with some InsulBrite and Warm a...

I was a little surprised to find that it's been nearly a month since I last updated this blog. I've been busy with a little of this, a little of that--tax forms, paperwork for school--and I've recovered from a cold, but those things really shouldn't have kept me from posting. Anyway, I'm back with pictures of the quilt I made for my middle son who is an Eagle Scout. I've been trying to learn something from each quilt I make and boy, did I learn a lot from this one. First of all, I learned how to "fussy cut" all those badges. Then I struggled a bit with how to piece the horizontal sashing so that I didn't have a vertical seam. I checked in with the experts at my quilt guild and they assured me it was OK to do a bias seam. I learned how to handle directional fabrics in a border. I was pretty proud of my work on this quilt and I loved the fleur-d-lis design the longarm quilter used to quilt it. But this quilt wasn't done with me yet. Af...

Several years ago when we were getting a new laptop for one of my children, the salesman tried to sell us a wireless printer. I recall making a "mom" remark to my son along the lines of "If you can't get up to walk over to the computer to print, then you really are lazy." Well, readers, it's time to eat my words. It all started when our desktop's hard drive filled up and I got a new laptop. It was a bit of an inconvienence to take the laptop to the printer, hook up the USB cable and print, but I lived with it. Then the printer gave up the ghost. It was a gradual decline. It copied one sheet as it always did, but subsequent copies began taking 15 or more minutes to exit the printer. Still I lived with it. Until I began to do my taxes and needed to print reams of on-line statements. It was time to get the wireless printer that came free with my daughter's laptop out of the box. It's new and shiny and finally, after, oh, five or six att...

I know better. I really do. My "Keep Me" sampler was finished in July and languished in a pile of things waiting to be framed. One night in December, I decided to take a break from writing Christmas cards (which, frankly, were a bit of a chore at that point) and get my sampler ready to take to the framers. Like I needed to spend more money in December. When I took it out, I noticed a smudge on the top that would show when it was framed. I decided I could spot clean it. You know, just a little dab of water on the spot. And you also know how one thing leads to another which caused the overdyed threads to run. A lot. Panic ensued until I remembered the "cure" for this problem. Suffice it to say that "Keep Me" was soaked within an inch of its life and all of the dye came out. My framer helped me pick out a lovely green frame that I perfectly compliments the greens in the sampler and I couldn't be happier to have this hanging on the wall.

You may recall this post in which I decided my personal challenge this year would be to work on WIP for 15 days in January. I am happy to say that I successfully completed the challenge and can show you my work on Jane Longstreth.* This sampler is in the Vassar Collection, but was done by a girl who lived in Chester County, Pennsylvania. I was drawn to this sampler because of the colors in the flowers in the border, but also because I live very close to Chester County. Jane has been a WIP for (ahem) some time. The chart called for 28 count linen, but I decided to do it on 36 count. Not usually a problem, except that I didn't account for the over-one parts of the chart. The lettering is not so bad, but the stitched in those flowers are tiny ! The stems will eventuallyhave leaves on them, but the directions say to trace the leaves on the chart and fill them in with stem stitch. I'll have to re-size the leaves to fit the higher count fabric and that is what has left Jane langui...

When my nephew and his wife announced that they were expecting a baby, I, of course, decided to make a quilt for the new little one. The Schnibbles quilts seemed to be about the right size and I chose "Scratch" from Schnibbles Times Two. All it required was a charm pack or two, some background fabric and backing. I chose Barnyard Buddies for the charm pack and a very cute fabric with cows and pigs for the backing. My nephew is originally from Iowa, so the quilt was named "A Little Bit of Iowa." Aren't all those farmyard animals cute? Well, I found out that those Schnibbles patterns are a little more challenging that they look. I had never done setting triangles but soon mastered them (in my opinion). My biggest problem was with the coin rows. They were supposed to measure 30 1/2" (which miraculously the 4-patch rows did), but mine kept coming out 31 1/2 or 32". After some fiddling, I got them to measure correctly and am pretty pleased with the pieced ...

I spent Friday night working on "Snow Garden" ( not Snow House as I said in my earlier post). It's the first in Blackbird Designs Anniversaries of the Heart Series. I'm stitching all twelve of these on one large piece of fabric. This was my New Year's start and the plan is to finish one chart per month so the sampler will be done by the end of the year. That's the plan, anyway.