Mill Quilt (Completed)

Quilting 015, a photo by basketcasejoy on Flickr.

This quilt is part of the Mountain to Sea Trail exhibit created by members of the DOQ Art Bee for the 2012 Durham Orange Quilt Guild Show. The show runs from October 18 - 20, 2012 at Bay 7, American Tobacco Campus, Durham, NC. Admission is $5.00.

My quilt depicts Glencoe Mill, Burlington, NC. The river section shown at the top is my portion of the actual "Trail." This piece was quite the test of my creativity! I was afraid to begin for months. (If memory serves me correctly, the challenge was issued in August 2011.)

I was finally able to wrap my mind around the project in April 2012, when I went out to the site to take some photos for inspiration. These photos were then translated into a "quilt pattern" in June (Thanks, again, Hilary!) and I finally began the task of turning my vision into a completed quilt. Ultimately, I am pleased with the result.

All of the fabrics came from my stash. I used quilting cottons and even some bits of an old T-shirt or 2 from a T-quilt that I made last year. The only fabrics not in MY stash came from my good friend Britt, who can often be found "shopping" in my stash, too.. (Thanks, B!)

Remember, if I can do this... so can YOU.

Happy Quilting!

NTB4 Quilt Retreat

Last weekend I was off to my Quilt Retreat.  I packed up all of the quilting "stuff" on Wednesday night, can't recall when I packed up the projects, and packed up my clothes on Thursday night.  Friday morning I was off to my regularly schedule Knit Group and got home in time to load the car for the trip.

My driver and I were the first to arrive.  We set up the sewing space and unloaded our gear.  We each chose our spot and set up our machines.  The minute everyone else arrived, we were off and stitching!

I got a LOT done on my 100-Patch quilt.  Too bad things were a little wonky!  It turns out that I may have to rip out all of the stitches that attached the sashing to the pieced blocks.  :o(

When I noticed there was a problem, I trimmed everything down.  Under normal circumstances, that might have worked.  This time?  Not so much!

The next step in the process is to add a pieced border onto the sashed blocks.  Well...the border pieces no longer match up to the sashed blocks.  :o(

Not a problem!  If you sew, so shall you rip.

Ripping off the sashing and cutting wider sashing pieces will be my next step in the process.  I'm not happy about it, but it will look a LOT better than the mess that I now have.

Adventures in quilting...you've gotta love it!!!

Until next time...
Happy Quilting!

Heart Pin

Heart Pin, a photo by basketcasejoy on Flickr.

Who KNEW that one little 2" quilted item could take (at least) TWO YEARS to complete?!?!

This little pin began as a group project. My quilt bee had a little lesson on making them at our February 2010 (?) meeting. We each brought scraps of pink and/or red fabrics for the occasion. The "teacher" provided the felt for the backing. Members took turns stitching and by the end of the meeting, everyone had completed one.

It was SO much fun that I decided to make more!

I made them for everyone in our group (at the time) who was unable to attend the "workshop." I passed them out at subsequent meetings, but never quite got around to finishing my own.

I found it in the case for my "sewing glasses" the other day and thought enough was ENOUGH!!! It was time to finish my own little heart pin.

All that remained was sewing on the clasp. It took 5 minutes...tops!

Why do we stop a project so close to completion?

That's the question, but I haven't been able to come up with a reasonable answer.

Oh, well... I'm just glad that this little UFO is DONE.

Until next time...
Happy finishing!

In My Defense...

In My Defense, a photo by basketcasejoy on Flickr.

Sometimes a girl's just GOT to knit! My friend, Threebagsfulled (on Ravelry), is a knit wear designer. I tend to be her "Test Knitter." This is one of her latest designs.

I finished "Alibi" some time ago, but I'm not the best at blocking. Thus, the delay in post time.

This shawl measures 65" (wingspan) x 28" (drop) and was knit from a single skein of Malabrigo Sock that I purchased at The Hillsborough Yarn Shop.  Who could resist the Ravelry Red colorway?!

Beautiful!!!

Progress on the Mill Quilt

Progress on the Mill Quilt, a photo by basketcasejoy on Flickr.

Can you say PROCRASTINATION???

I've really made progress on my Mill Quilt this week. Nothing like the LAST MINUTE to light a fire under your (my) creativity!

When there was "plenty of time", I simply couldn't wrap my mind around this project. Now that it needs to be completed by NEXT WEEK, I was finally able to "buckle down" and make a concerted effort at working out the design challenge set before me.

Perspective. From photo to drawing and from drawing to fabric. "Hey! Does this angle look funky to you?" That was the question of the week.

Next week's question:

How am I going to quilt LIFE into this quilt???

Until then...
Happy Quilting!

The Cutting Bee...

...a quilt workshop with August Cole.  That's how I spent my day today, thanks to my friend Maggie, who had signed up for the class.  Unfortunately, for her (fortunately, for me), she wasn't able to attend.  I figured that I had PLENTY of fabric to meet the requirements of the class.

Goodness knows I can ALWAYS make room for another quilt!!!

Augusta's basic units are the 4-Patch and the Half-square Triangle.  With those two units (and maybe a few other bits), a quilter can create any number of quilts!  The class packet showed how to make about 15 different layouts.

How is a quilter to choose???

Well, first we began with choosing fabrics from the assortment that participants brought to share.  If you brought 10 pieces of fabric then you chose 10 pieces of fabric.  If you brought 20 pieces of fabric then you chose 20 pieces of fabric.  Utter chaos?  No, there was order to the chaos.  Augusta had us drawn numbers and stand in line for the first pick.  Once everyone had chosen, we were lined up in reverse order for a second pick.  Oh, the fabrics!  What a wonderful selection for  wonderfully scrappy quilts.  Yes. Quilts, plural.

Did I mention that I actually started THREE quilts today?

The Simple Cross was my first choice because I wasn't in the mood for making HST units.


Then the Star option caught my eye.


But I couldn't resist Augusta's Confetti Quilt and my table-mate, Jean, was getting rather twitchy about the fact that I'd been there for HOURS without sewing a stitch.  You'll have to go to Augusta's website for a peek at that.  All I got done during the class was the first step on some 4-Patch units!  (I made these two blocks pictured after I got home.)

All in all, I'm am happy that I attended The Cutting Bee workshop.  Even though I now have THREE MORE UFOs,  I had some "me" time.  I had fun visiting with quilting friends that I don't see often enough.  I used some stash.  And, I'm not telling my UFO Club a word about it!  The members are all about FINISHING the quilts that have already been started!  How could I possibly tell them that in ONE DAY there are now THREE new projects on my list?  YOU better not breathe a word to them.    I wouldn't want them to disown me!

:o)

Until next time...
Happy Quilting!

Baby H's Quilt (top)

Baby H's Quilt (top), a photo by basketcasejoy on Flickr.

The first week of the Summer 2012 (Ravelry) UFO Club yielded a new quilt top. Hooray!

I started with a stack of strips on one afternoon and by the next afternoon, I had a quilt top for Baby H. It's a good size for a baby quilt and it's not too big that if they wanted to put it up on the wall, that would work, too.

You DO realize that this progress means NOTHING when it comes to the question of how many quilts will actually be COMPLETED this quarter, don't you???

Never fear...

There is always HOPE!!!

Until next time...
Happy Quilting!