Thanks, I needed that

I think that if I had been one of the early Humans, we all just might still be living in caves.

Tea & coffee, for example. I truly don't think it would have ever occurred to me to look at a coffee bush & think, "hmm, what if I heated those beans, ground them up, then poured hot water over them?" Or tea? Dry the leaves, again with the hot water. Nope. Dots I definitely would NOT have connected. We would all still be drinking water if it had been up to me to discover two of the most basic, universal & pleasurable beverages of Humankind.

Or Retreats? Going off with a group of friends with whom you share a passion, spending a few days away from one's daily routine & partaking of that passion. Again, nope. I would not have come up with that either. But I'm so very, very glad that someone did!

I'm recently back from HMQG's 3rd retreat. While the pace of my life has slowed to a more manageable one, the Daily Grind still gets pretty grind-y sometimes & getting away from it for a bit was just The Thing I needed.

Old friends, new friends, lots of sewing & a little wine! My main goals, quilt-y wise, were to take advantage of the large design walls at the retreat center & finish 2 tops that had outgrown my design door -- one done, one nearly done (I didn't bring enough of my background fabric). Then I just puttered & played with some of the many bagged-and-ready-to-go projects: plus blocks made with my parents' shirts that will be gifts for my brother & 2 nieces, a block for an HMQG charity quilt, wonky stars with a stash creature.

A lovely weekend

Not just a Lovely Weekend, I might just call it a Perfect Weekend. Much of every day of the long weekend was spent playing with fabric & sitting in front of my sewing machine. This sort of indulgence is a rarity for me & I really enjoyed it.

It began with an early & long gathering of the HMQG.

I admit, had I not committed to meet several guild members to join a carpool to the meeting, I might have blown it off. But, boy, would that have been my loss!

Jessica Darling, formerly of Remnants/Fiber Culture in Austin gave a lecture & led a workshop of color in quilts. Besides our Basic Sewing Supplies, we were instructed to bring scraps -- then ALL of our scraps were dumped into the center of the room -- making what Jessica called a "scrap mosh pit"; we picked our Color Party from the pile. Then we sewed. And sewed. And sewed.

On Sunday & Monday, I continued with my blocks from Saturday -- they're made & assembled, all they lack is one border & I have a top.

Earlier in the week, I had promised myself that I would assemble my Christmas tree blocks. The trees were all made, my back was assembled (I LOVE the back of this quilt, but you're going to have to wait a while to see it), then because it had outgrown my design door, I had pinned the back & the blocks to a quilt hanging in our hall.

But the Evil Demon Cat, Pippa (do NOT be taken in by her angelic publicity stills!) had, not once, not twice, but three times pulled down my trees. What the what, Crazy Girl!?! The first time she helped solve a design problem, the other times she just made me mad. So I had to put them together to remove Temptation. Now I have a Christmas Tree quilt top 3/4 done.

I hope your weekend was as good as mine!

The Flow

finished quilt -- about 70 x 84 inches
fabrics -- Denyse Schmidt's Florence & Kona natural
machine pieced & quilted

Time flies --

whether you are having fun or not. It just flies.

I am in the midst of about 5 weeks of work, then fun, then family, then more work hectic-ness: learning new software at work (blech, but at least that's over -- for now), QuiltCon -- the fun portion of the schedule, followed by a trip to see my Mom, then a week at work with a charming, but tiring fellow. I'm not finding much time to sew & finding less time to blog. So, a quick rundown of the past week.

Actually, my birthday happened before my last post. Shug got me a pair of RED COWBOY BOOTS!!! A total surprise!!! Very beautiful & they fit like a firm handshake!



We went to Galveston on Tuesday evening -- *Fat* Tuesday evening -- to see Lyle Lovett & Robert Earl Keen at The Grand 1894 Opera House. A lovely, intimate venue & a great show. I got this gorgeous image from @lylelovett's Twitter feed. (I LOVE Lyle Lovett!)

As I mentioned, it was also Mardi Gras. The celebration in Galveston is nothing like that in New Orleans, but we saw a bit of the parade & I managed to grab a bunch of beads. It was a very fun evening. 



I have done some sewing. I finished up my Madrona Road top & moved Pippa off the swoon blocks to set them together. Let's see, they are tops 4 & 5 for the year -- I need to start sandwiching & quilting!





At the February Houston Modern Quilt Guild meeting, I got even more presents! A basket, sweets, thread & book cover from Karrie, an x & + block pouch from Amy & in the mail, a mini pineburr block from nifty quilts! I am feeling loved!!



And lastly, I was invited to join the Fab Little Quilt Swap! I am surprised & pleased & wobbly with fear of failure! I've always enjoyed the swaps we have done in the Guild, so this should be exciting -- & scarey!

The next thing on my agenda: QuiltCon! I'll tell you all about it!

Hasty piecing

I've had my Madrona Road fabrics for weeks. I had a kind of lofty idea for using them, but it was going to be a bit of a challenge, so I stalled. Finally, I thought, if I'm going to get anything done in any sort of timely way (I had already missed the deadline for the MQG competition) I was going to have to simplify. So I went with squares -- very simple. The sashing & setting was/is (it still isn't quite done) time-consuming. But it's about 3/4 done & I kind of like how it is shaping up.



I had also gotten out my swoon blocks. I arranged the colors to my liking, then gathered them up to work on after the Madrona Road top. Fortunately for Pippa, I didn't get to them. :-)

 

What to do first?

After the Quilt Festival, I was -- & remain -- starry-eyed with the wonderful experience of seeing beautiful quilts, beautiful fabrics & talking to talented people. I was so full of ideas & idea fragments that my mind was bouncing around like a pinball! I had to force myself to be practical & focus first on what was on the downhill-side of being finished: finishing up some lap robes for the HMQG charity sewing & quilting my low volume quilt.

Done & getting done!

Weekend Update

I didn't have the weekend I thought I would, the weekend I *hoped* I would.

It was my first weekend at home after my trip to visit my Mom & I was finally starting to feel well after a 3-week cold. I wanted to sew, I wanted to relax, I wanted to indulge. Instead, I spent much of the weekend emailing back & forth on Guild bidness. Have you ever noticed that when you are dealing with people, you have to deal with personalities? What's up with that?!? Anyway, a group of awesome women & I did some important work for our Guild & if I may say so, we did a pretty good job. And the weekend wasn't all tense shoulders & typing!

I nearly finished my HMQG logo colors mini challenge (say THAT 3 times, real fast), all done except the handwork -- but I can't show it to you yet.

I made another Jane Market Bag as a gift for house-guests here for Quilt Festival.



I basted my low volume quilt -- I'm only 90% happy with this one. Had I realized how big it would be I would have made the design element larger. (The cans of tuna were for ballast, it was windy when I was basting.)



And Shug & I went to Big Lots for our very first time. Shug has been eating the breakfast cereal, Product 19, for about 25 years. It had disappeared from all our grocery stores some time ago. He had signed up for a sort of 'cereal subscription' from Amazon -- every month a box of 4 boxes would automatically arrive at the door. Then that stopped. The End of the Product 19 Era!!! But his Mom found some at a Big Lots in the Kansas City area, so we searched out a local Big Lots & came home with 8 boxes to help postpone the Era's end for a little while.

I'm sewing cats & dogs.

I had kind if a hellish week at work -- long days of hard & stressful work. By the weekend, I was sore & cranky & tired & ready for some rejuvenating time with my fabric & sewing machine.

I had promised some blocks to Tonya at  Lazy Gal Quilting & made some Kitty Love blocks. I used the method from her book Word Play Quilts & added a representation of her dear Pokey. (I had some help from Pippa.)

I finished this tote a while ago but didn't want to show it off until its new owner received it. Those are her pups, Frankie & Piper (cute girls!).



And it has occurred to me that I have a couple of swaps & prizes that I never showed off -- shame on me!

Here's the bag made for me by Jacey in the HMQG scrap swap back in January -- love it! It is always filled with projects & has done quite a bit of traveling. Thanks, Jacey!



In May, I won the 12 in '12 link-up from Liz at Fat Chick Quilts. I got this pair of adorable little purses. I'm still trying to decide what special treasures they will hold, until then I just enjoy looking at them. Thanks, Liz!

Weekend Update

I love my Guild! (The Houston Modern Quilt Guild, in case you don't know.)

We met on Saturday, talked of the Quilt Festival, QuiltCon, next year's retreat. Then show & tell: the challenge for this month was to quilt our jelly roll race tops from retreat. There were lots of terrific quilts. Mine was only half quilted -- & I worked hard to get that much done. I had thought to free-motion quilt it but my eyes were bigger than my free-motion ability, so I picked it out & tried a method I learned in a class with Mary Mashuta. I love the way it looks, think it is elevating a pretty ordinary little quilt. But I am going to take a breather before I get the other half done -- I've been quilting fairly feverishly for a couple of weeks.



On Sunday, I made a sleeve for my quilt, you know, THE ONE THAT WILL BE HANGING AT THE QUILT FESTIVAL! (Sorry, still a little excited about it.) I got out the pattern pieces for the shirt I'm going to make for Shug. I'm leaving at the end of the week to go visit my Mom & thought some garment construction would nicely fill the evening hours. I've also been obsessing on a quilt from the book Bold Improvisation. There are many awesome quilts here, one in particular I've wanted to make for a long time -- I did a fabric pull about a year ago, but other things pushed their way in.

 

Recently nifty quilts & The Root Connection have both been working on their version of this quilt & mine is burbling to the surface again. My pull -- all from my stash (well, almost all) -- was kind of primary colors with kind of a 1940s, 1950s feel. But I love the wild exuberance of my friends' quilts & was thinking of making a trip to Goodwill, the source of their fun fabrics. But I sat myself down & had a serious talk. Not only do I have miles & miles of yard goods (does anyone still call fabric "yard goods" anymore?), I also have lots of fabric from thrifted clothing. I pulled a stack from Laura Ashley & Laura Ashley-style dresses, the ones from the late 80s, early 90s -- over-the-top floral prints, big puffy sleeves, full -- really full -- skirts. They are pretty but I think the grouping might be a little vapid in a quilt, they would need something to give them a spark, but I'm not sure what. So they may have to continue to wait.

First ..... of many

My first Jane Market Bag -- LOVE IT!!

 

A week ago the Guild had a sew-in. I took tons of stuff to work on, but my main goal was to cut out &, with luck, make, a Jane Market Bag. Quite a few of my Guild friends have made this bag, so I was hoping for help & guidance. Liz has made LOTS of these bags, refining, tweaking, enlarging & reducing, along the way & she awesomely held my hand through my first bag. I got all the parts cut out & the bag assembled to a place where I needed to do some careful pressing. I am sure I would have scratched my head for days trying to do this alone. Back home, I pressed, top-stitched & added the handles.

It's like that old saying: Give a girl a totebag & she can carry her stuff until it wears out; teach a girl to make a totebag & soon she & all of her friends & family will have totebags out the wazoo for the rest of their lives.

Weekend Update

This past weekend was my first one home in the last 2.5 weekends.

The first half was filled with social stuff: on Friday, my new book group met for the first time, we discussed The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell (interesting, liked it but didn't love it); that evening, there was a pot luck dinner at our sail club (it sounds fancier than it is -- no yachts here, just small boats like Lasers & Sunfish), after dark, we watched the 'practice' fireworks of the neighboring tourist area -- fireworks over water -- always beautiful; on Saturday, HMQG had its summer pot luck & BBQ party. Some spouses & some kids were there -- Shug came along. There was lots of great food & I talked with some members that I didn't really know that well & with some new members & had a wonderful time.

Then on Sunday we stayed at home & did what we wanted to do. Shug tidied his (very messy) workshop & did a bit of turning. I got out my HSTs & began laying them out & stitching them together. I even rested with book in the afternoon!



I got the laundry done & did a bit of dusting. But didn't get the floors cleaned or the rugs vacuumed. Please don't tell anyone, but I really don't care that I didn't!

12 in '12

I am posting this a little early this month cuz I am soon heading up to MoKan.
Just one finish this month but I really love it. The row & round robin was the first group thing that HMQG did. This quilt has the talent & love of quite a few of my guild buddies & it means so much to me. I am glad it is now a quilt.

Retreat & More

It has been a week since I returned from the HMQG Quilt Retreat. I -- and I think everyone else -- had a wonderful, productive time. Time away from our daily lives & the ability to do NOTHING but sew was exactly what many of us needed. The meals were great, the company was great, the only problem was it was just a day (or 2) too brief. Nearly everyone finished -- or made major progress -- on at least one project. Some had 4 or 5 tops finished by the time we left Deepwoods Retreat on Sunday. (If you want to learn how to make efficient use of your time, ask a busy Mom!)









I took with me the fixin's for about 11 different projects. I had decided that my first priority was the yellow zigzag top -- it was built on the diagonal & had outgrown my design door. As I was laying out the rows I was thinking I might use some of the remaining blocks on the back. But as I came to my last rows I ran out of blocks! I was short by 2!! I would have been panicked but I knew that I had some leftover fabric at home. I joined in on the jelly roll race & came in dead last. (Woo Hoo!) I had planned to work on my Swoon blocks -- I had all the parts for 8 additional blocks cut & ready to put on the assembly line, but I had mis-cut one element for all of them. And -- of course -- it was too small rather than too big. So I moved on to another project. I came home with 2 finished (well, nearly finished) tops, great memories & a desire to go back SOON!



I also came home with more fabric than I left with. There were awesome gift bags for everyone! (Thanks Fat Quarter Shop & Pink Chalk Fabrics!) I got 2 "cutie packs" -- 2.5 inch squares -- of Circa 1934 (I think these will be cute used with linen, maybe raw-edge appliqued) & a layer cake of Malka Dubrawsky's Stitched in Color!!!! I can't wait to begin something with that!





When I got home, I was still in that GO mode. I built a daisy cottage for an internet friend



& (finally!) worked on my blocks for the QuiltCon Block Challenge. After I got my stack of fabrics in the required colors, I was sitting at my sewing machine & noticed how they matched the little Avon mug I have sitting in my window. So that became one of my blocks. (I think it is pretty darn cute.)





Happy Mother's Day!!!

Advancing to Retreat!

One of the 7 Deadly Sins

Jealousy. Perhaps "envious" would be a better description -- and, I hope, not so deadly -- of how I felt reading about the recent experiences of several of my favorite bloggers. Why was I jealous envious? Because they

a. got to get away
b. got to get away with quilting friends
c. got to get away with quilting friends to quilt
d. got to get away with quilting friends to quilt with several of the Gee's Bend artists

Before you start feeling too sad & sorry for me (you are sad & sorry, right?), at this time next week I will BE AWAY! WITH QUILTING FRIENDS!! TO QUILT!!! The HMQG will be having our first Quilt Retreat!!!! No Gee's Bend artists, but I guarantee you we will have loads of fun! I have been so excited about this outing, I started 'packing' almost a month ago. I've been cutting & stock-piling projects, gathering sewing supplies, hoarding snacks & drinks (me to Shug: "Don't eat/drink that, I'm taking it to the Retreat!"; Shug to me: "We can buy you more in the WEEKS before you go.") I can hardly wait!!!

Anyway.

Reading about the time that niftyquilts, Bumble Beans & fiberliscious had at Quilt Camp caused me to go to my quilt closet & pull out this quilt.



This is the most Gee's Bend-inspired quilt I have made to date. The denim is from my, Shug's & my Dad's jeans & there is a bit of South African indigo fabrics. I think I made it in 2003 or 2004 but I have never felt like it is finished -- it seems to need something more, I just don't know what it is.

niftyquilts shared some of the quilts & quilt tops she & her friends bought after Quilt Camp. Seeing them prompted me to dig out this quilt.



This is one of the first vintage quilts I ever purchased. I've mentioned before how I am rarely moved to buy quilts, mostly I am content to look & enjoy, maybe, with permission, take a photo or make a sketch. But this one I had to have. The completion date is probably much more recent than the age of the top -- that variegated yarn was very popular in the 1960s. (I've always kind of wanted to take it apart, I don't like the way it was finished but I am afraid the yarn will leave behind big holes.) The gorgeous rayons are from the World War II era, late 1930s to early 1940s. I would love to know where & how the maker got the variety of prints that you see here. I've always thought it was luscious.