A Work in Progress

Early on when I began quilting, I finished piecing and doing simple machine quilting of the stitch-in-the-ditch variety on some projects. Then I followed the instructions in a quilting book and successfully made the binding for them. Must have been beginner's luck because for the life of me, I couldn't do it again when it came to completing this snowman wall hanging. I fussed and fussed with it and couldn't get the angle right for sewing the two ends of the binding together. I even bought a special ruler at a quilt show that was supposed to give me a perfect angle and I couldn't figure it out with that. It was beginning to get in the way of my quilting enjoyment and making me avoid quilting. Finally, I took my problems to the owner of my LQS and she walked me through the steps again. Voila! Perfect binding! This cute little guy was a paper piecing project. (Have I mentioned that I really enjoy paper piecing?). He was to have been completed in January for Nancy's UF...

The sampler guild I belong to has a semi-annual retreat in Ocean City, Maryland, about a 3-hour drive from my home. I haven't been able to go in the past since in October and May I've been busy with the kids' sports or end of the school year activities. Now that our two younger children are in college, I've been freed from some of those responsibilities and I was finally able to join the group last weekend. I left mid-morning last Friday and after a stop to pick up the person who would be sharing the hotel room with me, arrived in Ocean City around 1:00. I really had no idea of what to expect from the retreat, but it was an absolutely lovely way to spend a weekend. No worries about food, cleaning, kids, etc. Just lots of stitching either in the rocking chairs on the porch with a view of the ocean or in the well-lit lobby of the Lankford Hotel. And of course, shopping in the shop, Salty Yarns , that is right next door (no affiliation with either the hotel or the shop). N...

I've finally returned to Blogland. I certainly didn't intend to be away so long, but my work life gets hectic this time of year. I had a wonderful (and much needed) break the week before Easter. My husband and I had tossed around ideas for a short trip to various warm locations, but nothing seemed right. I had myself geared up to stay at home and tackle a couple of projects around the house and do some stitching/quilting. Then, about a month before the break, my 92-year old aunt was moved from assisted living to the nursing home in the retirement center she lives in. She's the only remaining link to my mother's family and she has no children of her own. My husband and I decided a trip to Colorado was in order. Our plan was to make visits to the nursing home in the morning and afternoon and then re-visit some favorite spots during the day. (My parents also lived in Colorado after my mother retired and we took many vacations there.) Our first stop was Jamako Joes...

Last fall, I decided to join the "Scrap Happy" club at my local quilt shop. It was to start in January and sessions are scheduled on the last Thursday of the month. I checked the store's website for a supply list a few times in December and didn't find one. I didn't think anything of it since the class description said we would be getting tips for organizing our scraps and making small projects out of them. Then--surprise!--a few days before the first session, I thought to check again and found out that we were to have a pattern book and fabric ready to go for a full-size quilt. At the time, we were having some crummy weather and getting out was difficult. In fact, we had a snow day on the day of the first session. So, in the "scrappy" spirt of the class, I looked at my stash and took a bundle of fat quarters from the Frolic line of with me to class. I had splurged on the bundle last fall at the quilt show in Oaks just because I liked it. Twelve of thos...

I'm finally getting around to posting pictures of the quilt I made for my daughter for Christmas. This one was finished in November after I put in a solid day of shop-hopping and I took it to the longarm quilter the very next day. The pattern is Check It Out from Pressed for Time patterns. This is the second time I've used the pattern. It's a fun and easy one. The inspiration came from a bundle of fat quarters I chose because of the Eiffel tower fabric. I later found yardage of that and used it in the border. I think its' a Michael Miller fabric. My daughter took French in high school and got to go to France on a school trip (I haven't been yet. . .) so I thought this would evoke some nice memories for her. As I mentioned in my post about the Boy Scout quilt , I'm trying to learn something new with each project. For this one I learned that it's OK to dive into your stash and include a fabric that wasn't in the fat quarter bundle. I didn't think th...

As some of you may know, the Woodlawn Plantation in Alexandria, Virginia is the site of an annual needlework show. A local group, Nellie's Needlers, organizes the show each March. Although I have submitted pieces in each of the last three years, I have only been able to attend once in that time. Now that my daughter conveniently goes to college in DC, I decided that taking her back to school after spring break would be a perfect time to see the show and enjoy a weekend break. So we set off much earlier on a Saturday morning than my daughter would have liked. We had only one small glitch on the trip when someone misread the directions, which was fixed by using the GPS on her iPhone and we arrived safely. (Note to self: Must stop being so cheap and get a smartphone.) My daughter is not a needleworker, so she wasn't impressed by the show. She did enjoy looking at the furniture in the house. I, on the other hand, was enthralled by all the lovely stitching and so happy to see tha...

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...