Quilt Fest Part 5-6

 It's spring - even on the calendar now - and I'm enjoying the fresh breezes (when it's not a gale!)  And the flowering trees and bushes.  We're having a quilt show in May for the first time since 2019.  I'm even enjoying the rush toward that.

Quilt Fest -  last 2 groups - maybe I'm getting tired of answering or maybe I never saw anyone else's answer of these - at any rate - let's finish it off!!

Most Loved Quilt:  Now that's a hard one.  I love Holiday / Seasonal quilts because each year when you get them out to display, it feels like seeing an old friend again!  I actually forget about them between seasons!  Yeah, I'm worried a little about that too!

 

But I do have my 'comfort' quilts too.  For the last few years it's been "Shhh - it's low volume"  This quilt was shown on the web.  A quilter in a Scandinavian country was making it - I had to have it!!  I'd been collecting neutrals "Beige-ings" is the nick-name for them.  And 'conversation' prints - their name before 'text' fabric,  Anyway, I loved adding my few bright fabrics for the pluses.  And collecting brights for the next ...

It's been my extra quilt on my bed for a couple of years now.

Quilts in the Wild:  I never saw anyone's post to this prompt.  But ironically, when I give away quilts that have been languishing in the closet - I call it "releasing them into the wild!"

New Skill:  I wish I could say it's organization!  But, alas, still trying to correct bad habits - unfortunately, ignoring resolutions is one of my bad habits!!

Whoops:  Over the years, I have to say I have not gotten better at actual counting during prep work!!  What does that mean, you ask?  

I'm famous for having twice the number or half the number of components needed!!  I think it all comes down to dividing the block into the sub-units and then getting the 'blocks' counts mixed up.  I just go with it, grumble when I'm under and giving the extra away when I don't feel like making another one with them!

Binding Technique:  Boy, I'm struggling with this right now.  My Janome, after a decade, bit the dust during COVID.  It had the best little stitch to machine bind.  It took a 'divot' to the left; a stitch forward; and a divot to the right ... repeat.  It made a sturdy hem stitch which was very forgiving - it didn't create a solid line, it was softer to the eye.  My new Ever Sewn Quilters' Edition has many things going for it, but not this stitch.  Darn! I'm trying to find a replacement I can live with.

Current WIP:  Oh boy, I'm in a mess with this one.  I have 5 family quilts planned for this year - 3 tops are finished and 2 almost so - (one is in time out!)  And only one is going to be quilted by a long-armer.  How I'm going to get those other quilted and out, well I'm still pondering that.

Texture:  I get my Texture fix from wool applique and simple embellishments.  I love doing that, but I back away from 'fussy' techniques.  Partly because my hands have become problematic at 69 years old.  I can't hold small parts securely anymore - so working with a large amount of - let's say, ruching is problematic.

Favorite Finish:  I love making Quilts of Valor, a national association. (QOVf.org)  I love seeing 80 yr old veterans looking like they are going to start jumping up and down like a 3 yr old when they receive their quilt.  I'm an active member of our local chapter and usually make 2 QOV quilts a year.  It feels like you are actually making a difference in somebody's life.  I won't start preaching their cause, but check into it - it makes such a difference in someone else's life and in yours!

Must Make:  While, once again, following some program to organize the chaos that is my sewing room ... I admitted to hundreds of WIPs.  A WIP is a quilt in progress.  Although, in this case, they counted projects that you have the supplies, or the pattern worked out, or you've become obsessed with even if not a stitch has happened yet.  So I claimed all the ones on my extensive lists (I love a good list!) but I did explain I didn't count all the ones on my Pinterest Pages!!  

Right now I'm inactively working on(!?) Monkey Business by Bonnie Hunter; StashLab strip projects; several quilts in line for quilting; #scrapsnap - 4 color sets cut; new small holiday wall quilts for the gallery wall ... but wait - there's more!!!

And Many Many UFOs too!

Favorite Post:  I love the small modern quilts people are making and often selling on IG.  I started "ModQuad" 6 years ago.  A local group of quilters exploring the modern quilt techniques.  And I love the graphic statement a quilt can make - always have.

Thanks for putting up with me waxing poetic about my life in Quilting.  I hope I'm 'preaching to the choir'.  I can't imagine it not in my life.  My kids complain about being buried in quilts.  But I was told the baby quilts are still hauled out when we're not feeling good.

When my DS & family were in Panama for two years, their storage unit was destroyed by the Almeda Fire.  They lost 27 quilts.  Does anyone that isn't a quilter or isn't related to a quilter even have 27 quilts?  I replaced 5 of them last year to welcome them back home.

Quilting keeps your mind busy - and no, I'm not referring to that 'where did I put my scissors' problem! Creating and organizing ideas; putting ideas into action; involving all levels of the brain - it's got to be good for you.  Being that involved in life.  Not just sitting like a bump on the couch.  Although, we do do plenty of sitting too!  It has been a good life.  People I love know I love them - they have proof in the quilt gifts.  People I hang out with share my interests.  We always have something on the burner and are busy sewing, laughing and living.  How can you resist?  I can't!!

The sun is shining ... today!

The rain is slowly tapering off and (I hope) we are headed to spring.  Life is speeding up, gearing up for the end of school year and all that comes with it! We went on our first beach walk yesterday since DH's heart problem in December.  It was great being back on the beach!!

My DH is much better and back on the golf course.  He can even hit his woods and irons now.  Last weekend he golfed with his buddies and he was teased that he should be using the 'old man' tees since he was out-driven by them (very rare!)  But he's planning his revenge soon! 

When a family member expresses an interest in quilting - do you feel you have to 'hide the good stuff?'  Tee-hee!  A Lincoln Quilter's daughter was in mom's sewing room, came out and asked if she could use the plaids. Mom didn't get up and go see what she was asking about, and said yes.  It ended up her daughter cut the backs off all the plaid shirts in the ironing pile!!! Be careful!!!

Let's talk Retreats!   Always a favorite of mine from the beginning.  Oh, I like bus trips ... but shopping is too easy!  What I really enjoy is hours and hours of no responsibilities pulling at me.  Just me and my sewing machine, quilting friends around and no housework nagging me! Heaven on earth!

I run "Finishing School - a 5 day March retreat out here for 9 of us.  5 years ago I did research on where we could hold a retreat - the guild decided not to hold one, but 8 of us still were interested.  There's a pretty rustic 'retreat center' over the Bandon quilt shop and oh-boy, do we have fun.  A lot of shopping in our slippers!!  It's always been scheduled and filled for the next year before we leave each year. Here's the "Graduate Students" of Finishing School!

  

As you can see, the 3/4 inch finished log cabin blocks are still being worked on!!

It was my reward for finishing the Cancer donation quilt and some other 'at the last minute deadline work' during Finishing School!  But of course, this isn't finished yet - I need hundreds of blocks!!!!

The Brookings guild has a 4 day retreat in February up in Gold Beach at a Best Western.  We get hotel rooms(!) and take over the conference center.  We take turns making lunch and dinner using crock pots, etc.  

DH makes fun of us - we leave a town with two quilt shops to go to a town where there is none!  But he doesn't get it!!  It's just far enough away that we're 'out of touch' but some can come up for a day easily.  We had 35 this year.  Not bad for a guild of 60!!

We discovered the joys of command hooks!  The 'official project' was Blooming 9patch.  (I didn't do it of course!!! Some things don't change.) So the guild bought large packages of Command Hooks.  We fastened them to the walls (over vinyl wallpaper, doors, painted walls ...) and had design walls hung all over the room.  Worked out great - took them all down at the end and have the hooks to use again.  All you have to do is buy extra tape pads to hang them.  And then hang them right so you can pull them off!!!  Might be a good addition to to all retreats large and small!

My third retreat of the year is in April back in Bandon - both sides of a duplex right on the ocean.  Newport's "Bayshore Babes," a small group that I belonged to when I lived there. Two full kitchens, it sleeps 22. Alcoves for handwork; long dining tables for machine set up.  I've convinced them Brookings is a southern suburb of Newport (a mere 5 hours away!)  I get put on the waiting list so current members that meet weekly can get in.  But I usually make it - IF I promise to bring my lasagna!!!  That's coming up in April.

Meanwhile, I'm stressing out this spring. Our condo needs to have windows replaced by Summer.  I can't even get to the window in the sewing space!  And I really don't want to explain that room to a non-quilter.  I'll be on a Hoarders episode in a flash!! So, in an effort to get at the base of the problem, it's worse than ever!!!

AND I'm "honored guild member" at our Memorial Day Weekend show.  It used to be "featured quilter" but last year the hard-working guild member didn't really have any finished quilts!  She also didn't stay in her booth.  So - I figure that the pressure is lower than it was before!

What does it involve???  I have to be there all day for 2 days; have a "booth" display of me!  But still run the QOV presentation on Sunday - which is why I got the nomination.  A quilting friend I walk with wore me down to accept the nomination.  I was secretly hoping the other gal would win - I've never been an officer here and she had.  I had a small panic attack when they announced it.  And a bigger one at 2 am that night!!

I'd appreciate tips from those of you who have had this honor and lived through it to tell the tale!!  I already told the Finishing School crew they are my committee.  They have to check on me, make sure I'm drinking water, taking bathroom/stretch breaks and that no one has moved in to 'keep me company'??  Woolies is meeting here this month and I plan on them helping me decide what going into my space!  That will be fun - a one woman show at home - so to speak! 

Meanwhile, QOV is doing great here.  Last year we had our first presentation at the quilt show.  We presented quilts to 17 veterans.  This year I already have 24 nominees - and 20 quilts promised.  Since I only have 18 members ... hard to push for more quilts.  I've reached out to State QOV to get 4 more finished quilts.  But I'll be glad when that's not on my mind 24-7!  I want it settled ASAP - I've lived thru the nightmare that can happen for delivery to  our little 'end of the world' location!

Meanwhile, the progression of tops coming into my sewing space; being paired, mailed out to quilters, coming back and going back to their makers ... well, let's just say I haven't lost track of anything quite yet ... but I've come close!!  I now put a placard with the quilters name on the quilt top before measuring and taking a picture of the top.  And in a small condo - the only space to do that is on our king size bed.  I also have to clear the nightstand (a pile of books and a box of Puffs does nothing for the ambiance!) cover the bed with a flat sheet so I'm not left with animal hair and threads in my bed!!  Stand on a kitchen chair to take the picture ... it's a hobby all on its own!!!

A Nebraska friend said she'd like to come out in May for the show, but I told her she'd be in charge of bringing me water and rubbing my feet!  She then said she was expecting company that weekend!! I was kidding, but I hope I don't have company because I'm not good after 'I'm "on" all day!?'  

Do you know what I mean?  Being social all day - well, it takes a toll.  The evening usually involves a Mikes Hard Lemonade, no tv, OR an old favorite Rom-Com; laying on the couch, reading a book, covered by a quilt, bonbons optional!!  I can't see anyone agreeing to that!

Well, that's what has been keeping me from blogging!!  I'll end with just one of our winter sunsets!  Yep, that's what keeps us here!!!

x

Well, that week didn't go as planned!

It was the best of times, it was the worse of times ... more of the latter!  Sunday night I had a little episode of "Keystone Kops get a let cramp!" Ended up bruising a rib and 3 other points on my body!  It's just ridiculous how getting old is not that fun!!

But I made the best of it.  I was unsupervised - DH was on a golf trip!  I had all this stuff already out from the retreat, so why not get ALL the rest of it out and stir it up a bit??  So out came to bags, bins, boxes and bushel baskets of scraps that live here and there in the condo!  And it just exploded from there!!!  By Wednesday, even I was appalled at what a mess I had made!!!

I had a short list of projects I started gathering for retreat. No I didn't get to all of them, still haven't!!!   - but now it's time to get organized (in order to create loads of chaos in our condo!)  If I'm going to get all the scraps out, I need a list of what needs to be cut.  There are 10 projects on my list and I need sizes from 10" squares to 2.5" squares!  So - cut cut cut! Stack stack stack and keep it organized!  We're going to need chocolate!

First up is a smaller version of that awesome asymmetrical rainbow diamond.  If I cut the squares at 5.5" then the HSTs will finish at 4".  That will work !!  Should I pair it with a white on white fabric again?  Or something with more pizzazz?  Time will tell!  First I have to find all those bright fabrics I used before.  Oh-oh!

Another project on the list is 'Slash a Stash'.  Sounds like fun, doesn't it!!  It's not what comes up with Google - I tried.  In fact, it's surprisingly hard to find online.  So I pulled out the blurry printed instructions from 2003, designed by Susan Fuquay for American Quilt Retailer Magazine. It was a free give away pattern at a Quilt Store.  Here's a link to someone else talking about it!  It's a scrappy asymmetrical Bento Box.  6" square surrounded by 3.5" strips of one fabric, like a Happy Block.  Make many of these blocks.  Then cut them asymmetrically - shuffle and rejoin.  Turns out darn cute - or at least I'm hoping it will!

The printed pattern just uses 6 pairs of FQs.  But let's face it - all fabric goes together, right?  So choose your favorites and start sewing them together.

There's Angles and Squares from the book "A Thread Runs Through It" by Barbara Dieges. A variation of Road to Oklahoma?

There's Many Scrappy Trips by Bonnie Hunter.  16 x 2.5 strips

There's a Moda Bake Shop pattern called Basic Math.

Most of what I like this year is asymmetrical!  Goodness - that's kind of quirky!!  But I'm going with it!

Big news - I also finished an UFO this weekend!!  Hoo-Rah!  I was Lady In Waiting #9 and headed toward UFO Queen at the speed of light!!  What a relief to be back in slacker heaven! Hmmm, I mean the bottom of the list!

This quilt is a QOV quilt.  Based on the 'Mystery at the Tea Shop' which our guild ran as a mystery this last year. (We didn't know the name of it at the time, of course!!)  The mystery was smaller than required by QOV so I made 10 extra blocks and put in sashing strips that made a secondary pattern.  

SS, a QOV long-armer in Eugene quilted it for me and I put the binding on it, ran it through the wash and labeled it.  Done-done!!  I even had a sunny day to take a picture of it outside!  I haven't said that very often lately!

Taken in the side yard of our condo building.  The sun was so bright off the ocean, I couldn't even get a good shot of the ocean as backgroud!

I also topped and made a back for this baby quilt for the famous Brookings Yearly Baby Shower - I'm sure you're tired of hearing about it!!

 

                                    Front                                                 Back

Made from some jungle prints I used in a strippie quilt for a great nephew's baby quilt years ago.  But a fellow Stashbusters member- a Yahoo online group -  posted this baby quilt.  That is one clever design!  I've already been thinking about the next one(s) I want to make!!

I used 8" blocks.  4 1/2" squares for the 4 patches. Top and bottom borders to lengthen it - easy peasy.  Yep, it's an addition to the cutting list!

This week is busy.  Haircut, Valentine's Day.  I have to make a presentation to the Veteran's Group here.  We'd like to make QOV presentation at the quilt show.  If anyone out there (yes, you my invisible friends) has done this before, please let me know.  I have a few questions!  AND just between you and me, this type of thing makes me very nervous!  I don't know enough about how QOV works to tell someone else, especially a room full of non-quilters!  Yikes!  

And Friday is the first meeting of "Mod Squad"!  Showing my age, but a group of us would like to learn modern design methods for quilts. And that name just makes me smile!!  When I was at Houston last fall, I met Deborah Boschert.  Her quilts are fabulous!  I bought her book "Art Quilt Collage" and talked a few like-minded quilters into working through the book as a workshop.

It's a case of the blind leading the halt!  But we have a few really good teachers in the group.  We'll take turns leading the sessions.  I lead on Friday!  We're going over page 20 - getting inspired from photographs.

Our goal is to make a 15 inch square example of the designated design each month.  We are to 'sneak' it into the shop where we meet before the next meeting.  The owner is going to keep our anonymity, hang them in the classroom area.  We're going to gently critique them and try to guess who made what!!  We'll see how long that lasts!  Next year we hope to have an 'endcap' at the quilt show showing our process and what we've created.  Another reason to be nervous - but of course, everyone in the class knows we're all beginners ... and hopefully will be bringing their patience along too.

The last new-to-me technique that I got hooked on this week is "Magic Numbers" quilt method.  Yep, it's also asymmetrical but 'cubist'???  I had hauled some leftover fabric and blocks from a YBR I did 8 years ago for a DGS. (8 years???) I wanted to use it up, it's darn cute, but not make another YBR.  

I love YBR - but the blocks are quite big for a crib quilt.  I wanted it the same but different!  This afternoon I had my second boo-boo this week. (I stubbed my little toe HARD putting furniture back in place. Yowzer! 

 I was just cleaning all the quilt supplies, piles and tools back into the sewing room before DH came home!!  Well, I had to ice the toe.  So I started playing with all the pieces I'd cut at retreat.  It's so very addicting!  I did cut additional shapes.  4.5x6.5; 3.5x3.5; 3.5x6.5; etc.  And yes, it is magic - they do all go together!  So fun!

See what I mean about 'cubist'?!?  It's currently 22 x 25.  Since I gave myself more part sizes, I haven't worked out a new 'block' pattern yet.  It's been fun to add to one side then the next.  I'm going to need more parts cut and ready to go!  I think I'll aiim for 36x45 for size.  Unless it's so darn cute I'll dump the baby shower idea and make it king-size for our bed!!!!

Oh, that is so me!!  Tee-hee!