Fall 2014 (Ravelry) UFO Club - The List

It's that time again.  The Fall 2014 (Ravelry) UFO Club has closed its sign-up period and all lists are in. Well, except mine.  Sorry!!!  I blame work, followed by DS2's football game on Friday, and 2 family birthdays to celebrate yesterday, along with a trip to the hospital for DS2.  This is the first chance I've gotten to sit down and blog.  Quickly, as I have to leave soon to take DS1 back to dorm.  He was home for Fall Break this weekend.  :o))

I have a few changes to make on my UFO List for this session of the UFO Club, but you can find the bulk of the list HERE.  I added fresh photos for the Summer 2014 session of the UFO Club.  Only one of the quilts shown were completed.  Just ignore Inspired by... The Series.  That will be replaced by The Tiffany Mystery, a quilt that was begun more than 8 years ago and never got past the cut pieces and sew half-square triangles part of the process.

Can you help me find the directions for the mystery???  I'm quite sure that I don't have a CLUE where they are!!!  Here's hoping that they are in the basket with the fabric.  (Whew!  At least SOME of them are there.  Didn't check to see if they were ALL there, but my guess is that if some are there, they are all there.)

It's a LONG list, but by NO MEANS is it a COMPLETE list of my UFOs!  Keep coming back to see what I finish next.  It should be one or more of the following "new" quilts that have been added to the list.

Three "T" Quilts:

Jacob's T-shirt Quilt

The small Frankenstein'd blocks still need to be stabilized.

Kennedy's T-shirt Quilt

The sports jerseys still need to be dealt with.

The Tiny (Christmas) Tree

Not sure about the bows in the corner...

Until next time...
Happy Quilting!!!

Summer 2014 (Ravelry) UFO Club - The Results

The Summer 2014 UFO Club is now CLOSED. Any interested quilters with 5 (or more) UFOs were required to sign up by Midnight (EDT) on July 7, 2014. All qualifying UFOs must be completed by Midnight (EDT) on September 30, 2014.

Membership: (15)

SEND: (5)
mducky: 1 completed project
freshwaterfibers: 1 completed project
andimc13: 1 completed project
MamaPro: 2 completed projects
jrnylst: 1 completed project

NO SEND: (10)
sockjeannieous: 2 completed projects
kris7: 6 completed projects
needleb: 2 completed projects
basketcase9702: 1 completed project
Yarnosophy
monicarose51
amalberti
hexiemum (formerly known as Sandybags): 2 completed projects
aerieiris
Ukelady: 2 completed projects

Session Totals: 11 quilters completed 21 projects.

Congrats! to all of our finishers and thank you to all of our cheerleaders. We had a wonderful session and your support encourages us to keep plugging along at our UFOs.  Kris7 somehow managed to finish SIX projects during the Fall 2014 UFO Club!  How many more UFOs could she possibly have?!  LOL!!  (Judging from my own UFO List, she could still have quite a few!!!)

Thanks to all of our participants, finishers and non-finishers, alike!  Non-finishers, if you made progress on ONE of your UFOs, the Club is working!!  If you still have 5 (or more) UFOs, please come back for another round of Finishing Fun.

We had both a Queen and a Princess of the Last Minute this time around.  :0))

MamaPro now holds the title of Princess of the Last Minute, finishing TWO quilts the day before our September 30th deadline.  Our reigning Queen of the Last Minute is Jrnylst, who finished one of her oldest UFOs only hours before the deadline.  Way to pull out a win, you two!

Until next time...

Happy Finishing!!!

Quilt Show Surprise!!!

The Durham Orange Quilters' Guild recently presented:

Quilting:  Stories in Stitches

The quilt show was held August 22 - 24, 2014 at the Durham Convention Center.  This was a new venue for the show and a different time of year than we normally hold our shows.  The change was two-fold.  Our previous venue was unavailable for rental and the new venue was unavailable at our "usual" time of year.

All in all, I believe the show was a success.  We seemed to fit the space well and (considering that it was August) the show was fairly well attended.  The show also included vendors, our boutique, a silent auction for charity, and a great number of demonstrations held throughout the weekend.

Thank you to our Quilt Show Vendors:

Artistic Artifacts/Batik Tambal
www.artisticartifacts.com

Cotton Fields Quilt Shop
www.cottonfieldsnc.com

Dragonfly Quilt Shop
www.dragonflyquiltshop.com

Empty Pockets Alpaca Farm
www.emptypocketsalpacas.com

French Connections
www.french-nc.com

Lynne's Outlet
919-742-6084

Quilter's Gallery
quiltersgallery.net

Thimble Pleasures
www.thimblepleasures.com

The highlight of the show, of course, was all of the beautiful quilts!  So many beautiful quilts, in fact, that I had a hard time choosing my favorite for my vote for the Viewer's Choice award.

Another highlight of the show was the number of winners from the Nimble Thimbles (my quilting bee.)  Congrats! to each of you.

And... (drum roll please)

The fate of my quilt entry:

Wall: Miniature
2nd Place - "Inspired by... " The Series

My WINNING entry!!!

This little quilt (series) has been in the works for quite some time.  The challenge was issued in December 2010.  The completed quilt tops sat on my sewing table for a month before being quilted.  The unbound quilts sat on my table for more than 3 YEARS waiting to be finished.

The quilt show was coming and this was the closest to completion.  One of the little quilts had already been bound!  The medium and small one remained.  I had 2 months before the show.  I could SO do this!!!  Although, it wasn't quite as straightforward as I had first believed.  The smallest of the series REFUSED to be bound!  So... you may notice that I opted to serge the tiny quilt.  And then came the challenge of how to hang the tiny trio in a quilt show! Thankfully, my inner artist decided to come out to play a few evenings before quilt turn-in day.

I am happy to report that this project is DONE!!! (As evidenced by the above photo.)

Inspired by... The Series can now be removed from my UFO List.  It may be my only finish for the Summer 2014 session of the UFO Club!  That's OK... it's still something to celebrate.

Why???

Surely, one of the paragraphs above explain my position on the matter.

Here's the Back Story:

My Circle Challenge for the Art Bee was due in February of 2011, but I didn't even start it until 2 weeks AFTER the deadline!!!  I hate to recall the truth, but I had known about it since December 2010!

Why did wait? Well, I wasn’t feeling inspired. :o(

Based on a piece of art by Brazilian artist Beatriz Milhazes, I drew up my design, but I didn’t do anything with it…until the Saturday that my friends went off to The MidAtlantic Quilt Festival and I decided to stay home to spend time in my studio!  The challenge deadline had come and gone.  My mind was clear enough to begin what ended up as a series of quilts:

Even though I tell the story a little differently (memory being what it is...older and more forgetful ever day), I actually began by making one the size of my drawing (done on a napkin!) and stepped it up a little bigger (and then a little bigger than that.)  My pieces measure 2" x 3", 3.5" x 5.5", and 8.5” x 11".  Basically, that's a business card, an index card, and a piece of notebook/computer paper!

To see the inspiration piece, look for:

Beatriz Milhazes
Popeye, 2008
Acrylic on canvas
78 3/8” x 54 3/4”

Who knew that a 3 month challenge would turn into a 3 year adventure???

Until next time...
Happy Quilting!!!

The SSB Reveal

Happy Labor Day!  It's a holiday in the United States and I am enjoying some much-needed rest and relaxation.  Including some time in my studio with NeedleB this weekend!  These things work together to make The Joyful Quilter truly joyful.

It's been a few days  since my last post (which was MONTHS overdue!) and I thought I'd do a bit more catching up on the blog.

I hope you've been doing well.  We had another life-threatening medical emergency in our house since I've been away.  Not to worry!  Although, this did include a late-night trip to the emergency room and a complete diet overhaul for my DH who is not a heavy man (by ANY stretch of the imagination!), but who had a great love for unhealthy snack foods which brought his blood glucose to dangerously high levels.  Two weeks and two different meds later, things are under control once again.  Hooray! for modern medicine.

I'm writing to share my SSB project with you.  Those initials stand for The Secret Sue Bag.  It was a custom bag for a good friend who (jokingly - since I charge a fair chunk of change for my bags) commented that she would love to have one of my custom bags.  (Special thanks to NeedleB for sharing her bag-making technique!  I've tweaked it to make it my own, but I'll always refer to it as YOUR bag.)

Little did she know that I was planning to make one for her birthday last month.  Of course, she figured it out once I asked her to choose fabrics!  :P

The bag itself was still a surprise, since I didn't reveal any of the details of the bag until it arrived in Knittingsuek's mail box (well in advance of her birthday.)  The note on the package instructed her NOT to open before her special day.  Her own DH took my note literally and hid the package!  I wrote right back telling her to let him know that she could open it if she really wanted to, but she decided to wait.  Whew!  Crisis averted.

The back of the bag with a view of the side pockets and strap detailing.

A free-form "S" applique adorns the front pocket of the bag.

This shot shows a glimpse of the interior pocket and the sewn-in label.

I had a lot of fun deciding on the details for this special bag.  I was rewarded with a huge "OMG! OMG! OMG!  I LOVE IT!!!"  That's pretty much the best response that a quilter can hope for in this day and time.  :o)

I have to tell you that I also created a challenge for myself when making the handle for the bag.  I'm still not quite sure what I was thinking when I cut the strips for the handle!  They weren't the proper width to form a tube (without the handle being uncomfortably narrow.)  My solution???  I turned the edges and added a piece of grosgrain ribbon to finish it off.  Brilliant!!!

Knittingsuek loves Sock Monkeys.  Adding a Beanie Baby Sock Monkey to show off the fun print on the interior pocket was a last minute decision.  The bag was such a hit that the poor little Sock Monkey hasn't been mentioned... for all I know someone took him out of the package before it was delivered!  :o(

Well, I'm off to take my college boy back "dorm".  He was home for the holiday weekend and needs to be back for tomorrow's classes.

Until next time...

Happy Quilting!

MTS Meets the End of the Line

This post, like a few others, is a little late in being published.  I'm not quite sure what happened to the first half of this year, but I feel like I must have fallen off the face of the Earth for a while.  Please forgive the delay.

From The Quilt Fest of New Jersey X Website:

"The Quilt Fest of New Jersey.... will feature a Merchants Mall offering the best in fabrics, notions, sewing machines, wearable art, embroidery and everything for the quilter and home sewer!  (Garden State Exhibition Center, Somerset, NJ.)

In 2014, the Quilt Fest of New Jersey (March 6 - March 9) will continue the "Tri-State Quilt Competition" open to quilt artists who are residents of New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

We hope you will enjoy the variety of The Quilt Fest -- its exhibitions, workshops, lectures and Merchants Mall."

One of those exhibitions was the Mountain to Sea Quilt display.  This brought us to the end of the tour.  The most exciting part for me is that I used to live in New Jersey.  I spent 11 years there.  My husband was born and raised there.  Our children were born there.  My quilting life was born there, too.  Although, I didn't get to go for The Show, I am pleased that some of my old friends were able to see a piece of my recent work. 

Of the Mid-Atlantic show:  The report from an "insider" was that our Mountain to the Sea special exhibit quilts were hung on the front wall of the quilt show!  Mancuso added a (tiny) picture of the series in the show handbook. It was a thrill to see them there! The only drawback of being so prominently displayed was (as one of the Art Bee members pointed out) it did mean that people occasionally rubbed against the quilts as they made their way thru the crowd.  No harm was done.

The final destination for the majority of the quilts in the series will be the offices of the Friends of the Mountains to Sea Trail.  (Info re: where and how to see the quilts HERE.)  Several of the quilts will remain with their makers and one quilt has been sold into a private collection.

Volunteers are the heart of the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail.  We need people with a wide variety of skills and interests to build and care for this beautiful trail. Here are some of the ways volunteers can help:

• Build and maintain trail
• Lead hikes
• Write articles and other publications
• Staff festival booths
• Speak publicly about the MST
• Raise funds
• Office help (in Raleigh)
• Hospitality at trail workdays and annual meeting (in Greensboro)
• Other? Let us know how you’d like to help.

If you would like to volunteer in other ways, please contact Kate Dixon, Executive Director, at kdixon@ncmst.org or 919-698-9024.

Look for note cards available for sale once all of the quilt makers have sent in their permission.  Once they receive the quilts being donated, they will be looking for opportunities to display them.

Return of the Monster Quilt and Its Companions

Some projects are completed in a day.  Others have a way of hanging on for a LONG time!  This was one that fell into the latter category.

I have an excuse.  No, really!  I picked up these antique tops (that should be your first clue as they are always a challenge) back in August of 2012.  There were a few projects in line before I could truly begin on any of these.  The quilt show was coming and my entries needed to be completed.

Anyway...  by the time their number came up, I was stuck in a quilting funk.  That explains the initial "problem."  Then came December of 2012!  I had great plans because I was FINALLY ready to tackle the Monster Quilt and its companions.

And then DS2 landed in the hospital.

Some might say that's not so bad, but this was worse!  First, he was in for the better part of a week.  (Ultimately, being diagnosed with the life-threatening disease Severe Aplastic Anemia.)  Then he was in and out of the hospital for the better part of a month before being admitted to receive chemotherapy followed by a bone marrow transplant.  The duration of that stay was more than a month straight!  Throughout all of this, the quilt tops sat on the "back burner" in my studio, patiently waiting to be transformed into usable quilts.

The health of my son and the fate of the quilts became wrapped up into one giant frustration.  I wanted my son to be well and I wanted the quilts to be finished! Some people are able to quilt through pain and turmoil.  I find myself unable to quilt when life interferes with the status quo around our house.  It happened when my father passed away nearly 7 years ago and it happened again in the midst of this crisis.  (This was going on as DS1 was completing his senior year of high school.  The poor guy didn't even get a Graduation Quilt!!!)

It took 6 months to return to quilting after my father's passing.  DS2 survived and thrived... only to be told in August 2013 that he would have to undergo open heart surgery during the Summer of 2014.  It was totally unrelated to his previous condition or treatment, but it provided another HUGE blow to the household equilibrium!  (To add insult to injury, his big brother, and bone marrow donor, was heading off to college at this time.)  Thus, my quilting bug abandoned me, yet again.

The project was too large to have hanging over me at this time in my life.  I wanted it done, but I was still having trouble facing it head on.  I couldn't let ANOTHER year go by without completing these quilts!  Ultimately, I  enlisted the help of a friend help with a long arm quilting machine. I've quilted on one in the past and wanted to do it again, but I had no time to rent time on a long arm machine.  My friend needed an influx of client quilts to boost her business and I needed this project DONE!, so we came to a mutually beneficial distribution of tasks and I'm happy to report that the quilts were picked up today.

I am VERY happy!  The owner is VERY happy!  So happy, in fact, that she will be bringing the next antique quilt top over in a few days so that I will have it in time for my trip to Mary Jo's next month.  Fortunately/Unfortunately, the process begins again.  I already have another commission lined up.  It will take precedent.  Lucky for me, the quilt top owner understands that I will make her quilt a priority when I am able.

And the quilts???  Not to worry!  I have posted photos below.

The Monster Quilt: King Sized Flower Garden

Companion Number One:  Queen Sized Log Cabin

Companion Number Two: Queen Sized Flower Basket

It's a little washed out, but it's the best we could do with only 2 people at home.

Until next time...
Happy Quilting!

Spring 2014 (Ravelry) UFO Club - The Results

**  Disclaimer:  Life is a bit mixed up at our house this summer... thus, I posted the new session's list BEFORE the last session's results.  Sorry!

And HERE are the results:

The Spring 2014 UFO Club is now CLOSED. This session began on April 1, 2014 and any qualifying UFOs must have been posted by midnight (EDT) on June 30, 2014.

Membership (20):

SEND (5):
jrnylst
andimc13: 2 completed projects
mducky: 3 completed projects
freshwaterfibers: 1 completed project
MamaPro: 6 completed projects

NO SEND (15):
Yarnosophy
sandybags: 7 completed projects
SunshineMom: 3 completed projects
Needleb: 2 completed projects
winterbird
SuziHomemaker: 2 completed projects
aerieiris
basketcase9702: 1 completed project
kris7: 7 completed projects
sockjeannieous: 4 completed projects
laceyspinner
Snookums: 2 completed projects
teajoygreye: 2 completed projects
monicarose51: 1 completed project
amalberti: 3 completed projects

Session Totals: 15 quilters completed 46 projects. Congrats! to everyone who contributed to our most UFO finishes in a single quarter. What an outstanding session!!!

Congrats! to Sandybags for finishing the most projects.  SEVEN in a single session must have taken a Herculean effort.  (Oh, to be just like her...)

Thank you to everyone who cheered us along in our quest to have a UFO-Free sewing room.  Come back next time to see what that group of quilters accomplish.

Until then...

Happy Quilting!!!