I've been sewing

 I just can't show it.

I'm working on a secret project, a Christmas gift (if I can stick to my schedule).  But since there's a chance the recipient might catch a glimpse of my blog, I can't show it.

Suffice to say it involves that colorful stack of fat quarters I bought last week at Whittles ...

... and a little of this ...

I washed the fat quarters to make sure the bright colors wouldn't run.  I don't usually wash FQs because they raval so badly.  

The reds did run a bit but I don't think they will be a problem.  (Before you lecture me on how to prevent that mess of threads, I've tried many ways and none are worth the effort,  IMHO.)

I'm trying something out of my comfort zone, working with so many different colors ...  

I'm excited about how it is coming together.  I'm keeping track of my progress and will bring it all to light at the end of the year.

It only took two years!

 First, a little background ...

We offered to buy this current house when we thought we had a solid offer on the previous house.  We closed 6 months later ... to the same couple who made the first offer.  We left enough in the first house for us to live in when we had to return to Nashville.  That included kitchen items and cleaning products.  So when we were able to finally consolidate our belongings, we had a lot of duplicate items, especially in the home maintenance arena.  And we inherited a lot of the same supplies with this house as it had been cleaned weekly while it was on the market.  

There was little logic to where I had put things and the chaos was starting to get to me, so I used this period of hibernation to do a little organizing.  You have already heard about the studio organization.  Now it was time to attack other parts of the house.  

Last week I started with the pantry.

Let me just say that this pantry was a huge selling feature of this house!  Yesterday I cleaned out the utility closet.

DH now has strict instructions not to add anything to our shopping list without checking our current supplies!

As Promised

 Final Retreat Quilt Show

You'd better grab a cuppa cause there is a lot of goodness here!

The S'mores had their annual summer retreat this week.  There were 16 of us appropriately distanced around the huge sewing room.  Many I had seen at Jonesborough last month, but there were several new faces, including an "adopted S'more" daughter from Florida and a newer S'more from Kentucky.  Unfortunately, due to CoVID, the more distant members opted to stay home this time.

I had already planned to get an early start on Monday for a dental appointment in Nashville, but when that was postponed, I decided to leave early anyway and drive to the retreat by way of Whittle's Fabrics in Bowling Green, KY.  If you look at a TN-KY map, you'll see that Whittle's isn't exactly "on the way" from Crossville to Dickson, TN!  I was on a quest for a particular shade of Grunge and, even with their truly enormous selection, I wasn't able to find what I was looking for.  I did get a fabulous collection of bright rainbow TOTs.

In case you don't know, Whittle's can be found online here.  They have great prices (e.g., Grunge at $7.95/yd) and exceptional service.  One of the thoughtful things they have are tonal 5-piece FQ bundles of Grunge which they label with the color number to make selection and ordering easier.  So I picked up this bundle of whites/creams, hoping to find one that matches some I already have.

But you're here for a quilt show, so here goes:

Becky, who's mad for teal, made this beauty from Gelato gradations.

Becky also added a border to this donation quilt.

Ruth spent most of her time on this collage (I think it's Laura Heinz), a first time for her to try this technique.

When Phillis wasn't helping Ruth with the collage, she assembled these "Chinese lantern" blocks -- all paper pieced -- into a gorgeous top.   Sorry, I don't know the pattern name.

Shirley worked on a couple of donation quilts.  Apparently, the 4-Ps in this one began as 3" squares, but Shirley had to do some resizing to make them fit the larger squares.  I especially like this one and plan to make a variation with my collection of 2-1/2" squares. 

Sharon made this plus top for a family member who requested 70s colors and owls.

Sharon also worked on a simple QOV

Susan put the finishing touches on this Gordian Knot before she started on a rug (behind her).

Donna was quite busy, as usual.  First she finished binding this T-shirt quilt.  I love the basketball sashing!

Next Donna finished this really cute elephant baby quilt that she had started at home.

And Donna came close to finishing a huge 3-6-9 project.  What a great way to use a collection of fat quarters!

She had most of it together before I could get a picture.  It would look great in my bedroom ... just sayin' ...

Diane/Charlie made the blocks and got most of this great jelly-roll top assembled.

I posted other projects here and here.

And a great time was had by all!

Advancement at Retreat

 (not an oxymoron)

The Cloud is finally cooperating, so I'll give you a quick quilt show.

Phillis tackled Day Dream Leaf Edition

Shirley finished a BQ2

Sharon finished this long-term project - all floral scraps

Sena-3 whipped up a cool backpacking sleeping bag.

Sena-2 created a beautiful wall hanging from a panel.

In addition to finishing up Passionate for Paisley I got a good start on Harriet's Legacy.

There will be a lot more good stuff in tomorrow's post.

Exciting News

 and a retreat update

Yesterday was the 100th anniversary of suffrage ratification and Tennessee was the clinching vote.  Bells rang all over the state yesterday.  

You may remember the small suffrage quilt I made to be exhibited with others from all over the country at a small museum in Minnesota.

Well, sadly, the quilt show was cancelled because of CoVID and I wasn't able to make the trip to see the exhibit.  I just got word that the exhibit will be on display at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah from September 1 to October 16!  If you have the chance, go see it.  I know I will!

In addition, I submitted a photo of my quilt to the Pennsylvania Piecemaker's blog and everyone was a winner!  A $50 gift card is on the way to me.

Retreat is going smoothly and a lot is being accomplished.  But because I am in a dark hole, my photos are slow going to the cloud.  I'll show what I can.

I fixed the wavy border on the Asian panel but forgot to trim it before I took the picture.  And I also added the last flange and border to Passionate for Paisley.  Since then I have been working on Hariet's Legacy a/k/a Libby's Legacy because I changed the pattern order 😏

Nancy showed a Judy Neimeyer project from years ago that she had "lost" under her skirted cutting table.  She brought the borders to work on if she finishes the Jan Krentz hunter's star below.

I can't wait to show the rest of the photos tomorrow night when I get home.

Back in the Groove

I haven't accomplished a lot in the sewing room lately, at least anything I can show.  First, I had an episode of insect bites that seemed to originate in the studio as my husband was not affected.  So after spraying, I stayed out of the basement for two days.

Once I felt comfortable going back downstairs, I spent the better part of three days cutting and kitting blocks for Harriet's Legacy, now known as Libby's Legacy.  Today I put the four center medallion blocks together.

I wanted to get a preview of color and value distribution.  I also previewed a filler frame option and looked at how the next rounds will look.

I may very well stop with three rounds as it will be about 55" square at this point.  This will be my primary project at next week's Smores retreat.  I also took a few minutes -- well, more than a few -- to look at another project that uses many of the same fabrics.

Strippy Stars was started in a class with Jo Morton in 2008.  I am not in love with the yellow strip, even though I think it came from the same fabric as the pink floral border, so I may be searching for an alternative.  I can at least finish all the stars and reshelve any leftover fabric.

While I was at the machine today, I also repaired the flange fiasco on Passionate for Paisley.

I can't believe it's almost Friday (as I write this Thursday evening) and on Monday I will be sewing with my friends again.  We will be masked as needed, separated on 6-foot tables, and eating our own food this time.  It will be so nice to see everyone and catch up.

Round 3 Ready to Go!

 Bear's Paw

I made a test block to make sure I cut the right pieces on the other 19.  

I experimented with a darker background on this one and I really like it.

The colors in this photo are more true-to-life.

Twenty blocks are cut, bagged, and ready for retreat next week!  It's a lot of cutting, and I'd rather get it done at home where I can concentrate.

I Sewed Another One!

... or two

After kitting up the remaining three churn dash center blocks for Harriet's Legacy, 

I decided to start cutting and kitting round 2 of the medallion -- a sawtooth star-in-a-star.  

And I was going to need 12 of those babies!  

I thought about simplifying the block with an economy block center ...

Kinda simplistic, don't you think?  

So I decided to give the "real" block a chance and made the center of it as designed.

A bit fiddly, some odd measurements ... What about a Plan B?  

Why not reverse Rounds 1 and 2 -- put the sawtooth SiaS in the center?  Only 4 of those required!

The catch with that plan is the size differential.  

The stars finish at 10"; the churn dashes finish at 7.5".  

I will need 16 of the smaller blocks to fit around the 20-inch center.  

And I'll need to adjust the width of the filler strip between the two rounds.

Just for fun, I stitched another one ...

I can do this!

Only eleven more to cut and kit ...

I Sewed Something!

Here's proof

And it only required unsewing 4 seams!

Do you remember the Family Circus cartoons?  My favorites are the ones where a dotted line follows Jeffy's circuitous route from point A to point B.  That's me in my studio.  Here's what happened ...

I decided to get the solids out of a drawer and up on the shelf on the other side of the fabric/cutting room where I might be inspired to use them.  

But I had to move a box full of yellow and gray fabrics that were intended for a new king-size quilt for our bed.  Which got me wondering how far I had gotten on those blocks that I started in August 2018.  (Forty out of 100, if anyone is counting.)

As I did that, I noticed a PIG (project in a grocery sack) on the floor at the end of the counter and thought "that project needs to be in a box with the others."  

So I went into the sewing room to get an empty box out of the closet ...

 

... where I spied a UFO that I had forgotten about (along with about a dozen others that I tried to ignore yet again).  It is a Little Bits paper-pieced star -- actually two different sizes of them -- that I know I will never get around to.

SO I returned to the fabric room to reshelve that fabric which consisted of mostly 19th century reproductions that included a bunch of shirting FQs. 

Then I remembered I had put a note in Harriet's Legacy box that it needed more backgrounds.  

So I pulled out that box and decided that might be a good project to work on at the next retreat, especially if I were to kit up some blocks that wouldn't require a lot of thought ...

After cutting four blocks, I made a test block to make sure I had the right pieces and the result is what you see at the beginning of this post.

That's the way it works around here.