Missouri Star

Has It Really Been That Long?

I decided to check my blog today, thinking it had been a few months since I posted. I was horrified to see that it had been over nine months! Where does the time go? Over the months I've considered no longer writing the blog, but in looking back, it's as close to a journal as I'll ever have, so have decided to continue. 

It's probably fruitless to try and catch up on the past nine months, so I will just begin with where I am now. Last time I posted, I was working on the Tulip Quilt and have made sufficient progress on that. All of the blocks for the center are done and I'm working on the border. It doesn't look a whole lot different than last time, so I won't bother with pictures. I have, however, started a new quilt - Bed of Roses by Sue Garman. (Click on the photo in the link for a larger image). I had originally planned to do her Friends of Baltimore, but decided that might be a little too ambitious for my skill level at this point. Instead of red and green, I will be doing this in shades of blue. I am using the paper pattern pinned to foam core to pin on my pieces as I prep. I'm anxious to get sewing, but this gives me a chance to vet all the colors before going to all the trouble of sewing them down. First off - lots of little circles and stems:

 

To the right is a styrofoam tray with bias strips waiting to be made into stems and to the left is a little heart shaped box given to me by Mei-Mei where I keep all my little circles. Unfortunately, when she gave me the box it was empty, but oh well!

On the hand quilting front, I am working on my Aunt Gracie's Garden. This was from the Fons and Porter website and I utilized lots of fat quarters of 30's fabrics. I'm probably about halfway done with the center.

I'm going to be taking a break from this in order to quilt on a little baby quilt. I made this Windblown Kite Quilt by Susie Ennis way back in 1982 and gifted it to a friend's baby (who has since graduated from Harvard with an MBA - I like to think that my quilt had an influence in his development!) I liked it so much that a year or so ago I dug out the pattern and pieced another top. And now the time has come to quilt it.

I'm trying something new with marking this. Recently I was reading about Crayloa Ultra Clean Washable Markers.

Apparently they really do wash out and a lot of quilters are using them for marking their quilts. I did a test on the fabric I was using for the backing - I made a heavy "X" out of each color and washed the fabric. They did indeed come out. It was still with a lot of fear and trembling that I marked the baby quilt top. To my frustration, I discovered that I marked part of it wrong. This is not like the blue wash-out marker; it doesn't just disappear with a spritz of water, but needs soap as well. So - I tossed it in the wash with laundry detergent, and lo and behold! It came right out. Here's a close up of the marking (this time the wind is oriented correctly).

There are also knitting and music that have happened since last I wrote, but I'll save that for another post. Hopefully it won't be another nine months! For now, I leave you with photos of last weekend's snow camp at Tall Timber.

 

Tulips, tulips, tulips

It seems as if tulips have been at the forefront lately, both in quilting and in real life! As much as I'm itching to start on my Friends of Baltimore Quilt, I decided to plug along for a while on my Loopy Tulips. After a marathon session of prepping leaves, I had enough to finish one full block.

Lots more to do, but once prepped they are pretty mindless stitching and seem to be going quickly. One problem I'm encountering has to do with aging eyes. Saturday morning I spent about 5 minutes trying to thread a needle - something I've never had trouble with. I had to dig out my trusty needle threader.

This is the table top threader by Clover - a little pricey, but the only one I've found that doesn't break.

In real life, my friend Bethy and I took the girls over to the tulip fields in Mt. Vernon. The tulips were almost a month early this year. We avoided the crowds and went on a weekday, and although we didn't exactly have the fields to ourselves, we were able to get some lovely photos.

The last picture was taken by Isobel. She has quite the eye for photography and it will be interesting to see if she pursues this.

I did need a comfortable knitting project to work on in the car and socks just aren't doing it for me right now, so I cast on for a small shawl. The Geology Shawl.  This is complex enough to keep my interest, but simple enough that I don't need to concentrate too hard.

I'll end this on a sad cautionary tale. The day before yesterday we thought we were giving Maggie a treat and let her chew on a hambone. Yesterday evening we ended up at the emergency vet with our poor puppy extremely dehydrated and suffering from pancreatitis, probably due to a swallowed bone chip. The x-rays don't identify the foreign body as a bone chip, but we accept that that is what it is. We will never do that again! Here's poor Maggie at the clinic wrapped up in a warming blanket. 

Fortunately she seems to be fine after a night in the hospital and a boatload of money! That was one expensive hambone!! 

The Pile

One down side of hand quilting is that my "to quilt" pile is increasing faster than my ability to keep up with it! 

This is only a small fraction of the quilts waiting to be quilted, but are the ones that I want to get to first. Realistically, if I want to get them all done I'll have to machine quilt some of them, but these will be hand quilted.

The latest finished top to go in the pile is my rendition of Erin Russek's "Jingle" pattern.

Not the best photo, but you get the idea. I'm torn between starting this next or my 30's quilt. I'll probably do the 30's quilt since I actually have the backing for that. I also have no idea what quilting pattern I will put in the border and the triangle on the Jingle quilt, so I'll have to do some research on that.

I really wanted to dive right into my Friends of Baltimore, but decided to work on my Loopy Tulips first. Today I spent prepping some leaves. My preferred method of applique is the freezer paper and starch method. I trace the applique shape onto freezer paper, iron it on to the wrong side of the fabric and cut out. Then I use starch and a small iron to turn the seam allowance over. The paper is removed and the resulting shape is glued onto the background with water soluble glue. Here is my work table showing the prepping of the leaves.

I don't even want to think about how many leaves this quilt has!

On the positive side, they're pretty easy shapes to prep and sew down. When I visited my local quilt shop this week I splurged and bought some Tulip needles. I was torn about spending over $1.00 per needle, but have discovered they are well worth it! It makes stitching so smooth! I only tried them with applique but will give them a test drive with quilting this evening.

In other non-needlework news, I had my first public performance (other than church) with our bluegrass band last week. We played at the local assisted living facility for St. Patrick's Day.

Not the best photo, but I didn't have the foresight to get our friend to take a picture, so that's extracted from a video. You can see that I am very, very serious! I was concentrating like mad to try and keep up with the rest of the group, who are much more seasoned musicians than I am. That's hubby next to me, our friend Pete in front and his kids behind him and Kerry on the violin. The residents seemed to have a good time and I think I managed to not embarrass myself.

 

Trying to Keep Up

Once again I seem to be remiss in keeping up with the blog. I guess I could throw out the excuse of not having enough time, but in reality I've been using my time for other pursuits.

One of those pursuits was what is becoming an annual event - Snow Camp. Last year we had very little snow and this year we were afraid that would be the case again. Driving up it rained the entire way, even up in the pass where you would expect it to be snow. But we were pleasantly surprised to find Tall Timber had plenty of lovely snow!

The girls wasted no time in joining the other kids for a no-holds-barred snowball fight. These photos were taken by my friend Bethy. I don't believe she escaped unscathed.

She had also requested that Mei-Mei bring her Elsa dress for some real "Frozen" pictures. Mei-Mei was a trooper and allowed herself to be carried and plopped down in the middle of a snowy meadow for some truly magical photos.

One of these I turned into a scrapbook page.

Two years ago Bethy also took some stunning photos of the girls at Snow Camp and this one I used for a challenge - which I won! I think Bethy and I make a good team.

On the needlework front I've been doing a lot of quilting. My priority right now in hand quilting is Abby's quilt. The center and inner borders are done and I've started quilting on the outer borders. I'm hoping to have this done in time for our quilting guild's show in July.

My Jingle All the Way quilt is also coming along, with all of the small applique and pieced blocks done. The only thing left is the embroidery and a few small applique pieces on the large center block and it will be ready to start putting it together.

 

I still sometimes feel as if I'm going at a turtle's place when others in my guild are showing a new quilt every month. But I know the decision of going slower and concentrating on the hand work is the right one for me. I am enjoying the process and I know when I do finish a project, it will be one that reflects my own personality and vision. I have already picked out my next project, and it is a doozy!

This is "Friends of Baltimore" by Sue Garman. I was inspired by Kerry of Simple Bird Applique. She pointed out that none of the applique is exceedingly difficult - there is just a lot of it! I have bought the pattern for the first block and the background fabric and will begin as soon as I have pieced together my Jingle quilt. Stay tuned!

You may also notice that I have changed the blog's theme to a spring motif. With apologies to the rest of the country, we are experiencing an extremely early spring. All of the spring trees and flowers are in bloom and the tulips over on the mainland are blooming almost a month early. Let's just hope it doesn't kick us in the pants with a late frigid air mass and snow! 

What's on the Design Wall

As I may have mentioned before, I spent a lot of years wasting time coveting what I could not have. I have watched as my friends bought longarm quilting machines and the latest and best embroidery machines. Due to space and cost, a longarm is not an option for me, and I had to face the fact that a $10,000 embroidery machine was not in my future either. About a year ago I decided to return to my hand quilting roots and I have been so happy with that decision. Not only do I love the process, I am much happier with the finished projects as well.

Recently I have been rediscovering hand applique. First of all, I dug out a long languishing project, Loopy Tulips by Jaimie Davis of Sunlight Cottage Industries. This will not be on the front burner, but I'm plodding along on it.

My real love now has been discovering the designs of Erin Russek. She blogs at Once Piece at a Time. Go on over and take a look, but be prepared, as I did, to spend an entire day reading all of her back posts. She is a really talented designer and shares so much of her work for free. I have started on my Christmas quilt using her Jingle blocks. I was fortunate to have a gift card and really enjoyed being able to coordinate and buy all the fabrics at once!

I am using the freezer paper and starch method of preparing the pieces. I really like getting the block prepared and being able to sit down and stitch without having to worry about turning under the edges. I especially love making circles, although I found these little circles really taxed my skills!

Quilting has commenced on Abby's quilt and it's actually gone a little faster than I expected. I had told her to prepare for at least a year to finish, but maybe it will be done before then. No promises, especially as I seem to be distracted at the moment with preparing little circles!  I bought a wide piece of fabric - Wintergreen by Moda - for the backing and I'm loving it. Between that and the wool batting, it's like quilting through butta.

One piece of exciting news. Hang on to your hats!! I bought a new iron. Yeah, I know. Only we quilters could get excited about that. I've been using a Panasonic Cordless and as much as I really want to love it, I just can't. It's fine for pressing quilt blocks, but just doesn't stay hot long enough for pressing pillowcases and yardage. I did a lot of research - talked to other quilters, read blogs and reviews and then . . . . bought the one that was on sale at the Navy Exchange. So far I'm loving it. I like that instead of just a few large steam holes, it has lots of little ones. This provides for a much more even steam. And it heats up lightning fast. The real test will be if it doesn't start spitting down the road. I'll keep you posted as I know you will be holding your collective breaths!

One of the downsides of doing all this hand work is that it is slow going and therefore doesn't provide for a lot of ever changing blog fodder, so it seems only right to fill it up with exciting appliance news. I'll try to have more exciting news next week, but no promises!

 

Finishing Fool

As much as I love to knit, finishing those knits has never been my favorite part of the process. Maybe that's why I end up knitting so many shawls! But the pile was growing deeper and I finally decided to go on a marathon finishing process. Here are the results:

Acorn Trail

This was made using Amy Herzog's Custom Fit pattern. I think it needs a little tweaking here and there, but overall I am very pleased. It's probably one of the most well-fitting and flattering sweaters I've ever made. As much as I love the buttons, I may have to replace them. They are just a little too small for the buttonholes.

Ben's Shawl Collar Sweater

My son is always hard to buy for, so last Christmas I gave him a box of yarn. The goal was to knit him a sweater before this Christmas and I succeeded. The parts of it had been done for quite a while, but I was a little freaked out about doing the shawl collar. This is my own design and I was making it up as I went. I finally just dived in and the collar ended up being a piece of cake. He is enormously pleased with the result. GQ anyone?

Touch the Sky

This was made for my daughter-in-law by request to match the child-sized one I made for Mei Mei. I was able to locate the same yarn and now they have matching sweaters. I think this style is darling on both of them. In the interests of complete disclaimer, I have to confess that Mei Mei will not wear sweaters I make for her. We barely got it on her for the photo. So there probably won't be many more sweaters for her in the future.

Felicia Vest

This one also sat in the finishing pile forever. All that was needed were the armhole edgings. Despite my best efforts I wasn't all that enamored of the fit. Once finished I blocked severely and it's passable. However, I look like a dork in the model picture, so you get a picture of the sweater alone

So there you go! Not too many knitting projects going now because I'm on a quilting spree. I finished the piecing on Abby's quilt. I was going to have a friend baste it with her longarm, but ended up going over to my friend's house to hand baste instead. She has a wonderful large table and it was so easy to spread it out. I didn't even end up with a backache. I'm really enjoying the handquilting process!

And I've found my next project! These wonderful Christmas blocks by Erin Russek of Once Piece at a Time really caught my eye.

I love the combination of pieced and appliqued blocks. Let the fabric shopping commence!

 

Traveling Woman

Edited: I just checked my blog and was surprised to find out that I never posted this, but just saved it as a draft. So here it is a little late!

It seems as if lately I haven't been spending all that much time at home! Not that I'm complaining, although hubby has been feeling a little neglected, I'm sure. I appreciate that we have the means to take trips and engage in activities that make life interesting. But I am ready to stay home for a while!

My sister and I traveled back to Missouri to spend some time with my folks. The trip did not go exactly as planned. We arrived on Friday night and Sunday morning my Mom was taken to the hospital due to a heart episode. She spent the night and was released the next day with an adjustment in meds and an appointment with the cardiologist. They determined that it wasn't anything serious, but at her age something that does happen. What was gratifying was seeing how quickly help came to them in their remote part of the Ozarks and what a great medical facility they have nearby.

Going back home to Thomasville always seems like a step back in time. I was born there almost 65 years ago and nothing seems to change very much. You would think that the town would either grow or die, but it seems to have done neither. The population was probably around 75 then and numbers close to that now, although it's hard to tell since it is unincorporated - just a wide spot in the road. 

While we were there we visited The Hideaway Quilt Shop in the neighboring town of Birch Tree, where my father was raised. From the outside you would discount it, but you would be making a mistake, because inside it is one of the nicest shops I've seen. 

I didn't have room in my luggage for much fabric, but I did manage to score a couple of patterns and a specialty ruler.

But the highlight of the trip was being able to spend time with my Mom and Dad and my brother Mike. The only one missing was my brother Pat. We're hoping in the near future to be able to get everyone together.

On a completely weird and hilarious note, we spent an inordinate amount of time hunting down cow boats - those of you who are fans of Gary Larson will appreciate this.

I had no sooner arrived home than I was off again - this time to a three day quilt retreat. Fortunately it was right here on the island, only a 20 minute drive away. The facility, Willow Pond, was fabulous! A large house with a beautiful kitchen and just a short walk across the driveway to "The Barn", which really wasn't a barn, but a large open workspace. There were 15 of us altogether and we spend the time sewing, eating, laughing, eating, playing games and eating more. We divided up into teams for the cooking and each team only had to cook once. I had hoped to get Abby's quilt finished, but discovered that I still needed to buy one more border fabric. I did, however, get the center done.

I was also able to almost complete my 30's quilt. I finished the applique border and attached it to the center. All that's left is to finish off with flowers in each corner.

That pretty much brings everything up to date. I'm still knitting, but nothing exciting to show quite yet. And with Christmas coming, there are stealth projects in the works as well! Stay tuned!

Catching Up

Once again, time has slipped by and it's been almost four months since I last blogged! I've been meaning to try and catch up for weeks, but get a little overwhelmed trying to remember everything that's happened since I last posted.  So, rather than trying to do a recap, I'll just pick up with current events and go from there.

The biggest thing that's happened recently is that we took an Alaskan cruise on the Disney Wonder with the family. We left last Monday (Labor Day) and returned today. The trip got off to a little rocky start. There were two cruise ships leaving out of Vancouver that day, but due to the holiday there were only three custom agents to process over 5,000 people! It took us an hour and a half to get through, but we were lucky. The rest of the family got there about an hour after we did and it took them over three hours! Thankfully everyone kept their cool and we were a pretty happy bunch heading out of port.

We had gone shopping for princess dresses for the girls and were disappointed at the price and quality offered, so of course Nana volunteered to make their dresses. Mei-Mei was the princess from "Frozen" and Isobel the princess from "Brave". She was impressed that Merida carried a bow and arrow!

Once aboard, we quickly learned that much of our day would revolve around Food, Glorious Food! From the Disney character breakfast to the adults only formal dining room, our head server Paula and all the other servers made sure we were taken care of in grand style!

Our first stop was at Tracy Arm. Although we didn't get off the ship, we did get up close and personal with twin glaciers and hundreds of sea lions.

The next day we got off the boat in Skagway. The weather wasn't too cold, but the wind was pretty brisk. There was lots and lots of shopping, but history too. Abby, Claudia, Isobel and I took a walking tour of the town and learned about the beginnings of the Gold Rush.

Juneau was our next stop and we were surprised at how small it is. Pretty small for a state capitol! There really wasn't much to see in town, but we did take a trip out to the Mendenhall Glacier. It was a little sobering to stand in the visitor's center and realize that in the 1930's you could have touched the glacier from that vantage point, but it is now over a mile and a half away. In another 75 years it may be gone altogether. 

That sign on the bench warns people not to carry any open containers of food because of the bear danger. When we returned to the ship the girls wanted to dive into the pool and go down the slide. This is them:

This is the lifeguard:

Brrrr! Ketchikan was our next stop and my favorite. Very quaint and pretty. And very, very close to where the ship docked. We attended the Lumberjack Show - a little hokey and touristy, but enjoyable nevertheless!

The rest of the crew went back to the ship, but my sister and I decided to explore further. I'm so glad we did! We found the charming Creek Street and at the end of it, a fish ladder. We kept on walking upstream and were astounded to see thousands and thousands of salmon swimming upstream to spawn! What a sight!!

I have never seen so many salmon in my life. You couldn't even see the river bed in places!

So there you have it - a wonderful family vacation, but it's certainly nice to be back home in our own beds. I did actually get some knitting done, although not as much as I expected. I promise to be back soon and catch everyone up on my creative ventures.

 

 

Blogger's Quilt Festival

It's time for the Blogger's Quilt Festival and this is my first year to enter. This North Carolina Lily is one of my favorite quilts and is entered in the Hand Quilting category. I had always wanted a red and green quilt and this fit the bill perfectly. I drafted all of the feather quilting designs myself. This quilt has won numerous awards and was juried into the AQS Show in Paducah. I hope you'll pop on over to the Hand Quilted Quilts Category sometime during May 24-29 and give my quilt a vote. You'll need to scroll down a little to find my quilt.

Slow Going

The problem with hand quilting is that the going is pretty slow and after a while all the progress photos look pretty much the same. 

 The good news is that I am on the last wide border and then all that is left are four smaller borders and some fill in quilting on the inside. The quilting I have on some parts doesn't quite fill up the space adequately and I need to add some more leaves or something.

 I really am anxious to get this done and move on to something else! After ten years of marriage I am finally making a quilt for my daughter-in-law. In my defense, it's taken me this long to really get an idea of what she would like. Once we decided, I quickly popped over to the quilt shop on the neighboring island and bought the fabric before either one of us could change our mind.

This is a little departure for me. I don't normally lean toward scrap quilts, although I like the look. But I just don't seem to be capable of being totally scrappy. For this quilt, I used Donna Lynn Thomas' guidelines for a more "planned" scrap quilt. I used the print as my idea fabric and Abby liked it well enough that it will also be the border. I'm especially pleased at all the beiges I found - I think this will add a lot of interest. The blocks will be Monkey Wrench, but I really haven't thought too much ahead on how to set them. Probably something fairly simple. The quilting will also have to be pretty simple, especially in the print border. I had thought to wait on this until October when I go to a quilting retreat. I thought it might be fun to have a new project to work on. But I doubt I will be able to wait that long!

On the knitting front I have discovered Amy Herzog. I took her "Fit to Flatter" Craftsy class and it's causing me to look at sweaters, and indeed my whole wardrobe, in a different way. I am determined to break away from my normal uniform of shapeless sweatshirts and jeans. I ordered one of her Custom Fit patterns and I'm anxious to see the result. The pattern I'm using is Acorn Trail. The back is done and blocking and I have started on the front.

I'm happy to report that Isobel's sweater was a big hit! There was a bit of a crisis when it was left behind at the dance studio just days after I gave it to her, but it was retrieved without incident. I have to chuckle at her photo - she was trying to look "cool". Nine years old and it has started already!!

Hope all the Moms out there had a great day. Hubby's gift to me was not only tomato plants, which he planted, but the promise to water them for the entire summer! It's a bit of a joke in our household that I start out with such great intentions on gardening and then forget to water. So this is really the perfect gift.

And more gardening goodness: