Hello and welcome to another Tuesday post!
I've been putting in long hours in the quilt studio
over the past week and I'm anxious to join the
others on Texas Quilt Gal's link-up and show
a little of what I've been up to.
As predicted, the week was filled with golf,
quilting and the the annual shop hop.
My quilty friend and I head always get an early
start so that we can visit all the shops in one day.
The first shop snapped this of us and posted it
to Facebook. Later in the day at another shop,
someone recognized us from the post and we had
a good laugh about being shop hop celebs.
(We even offered to autograph their hop passports.)
The early pics have lighting issues due to the morning
sun shining in but I think you can see well enough.
Participating shops each create a block and then
designs a quilt around all the shops' blocks, using
a fabric created specifically for that year's hop.
Each shop sells a kit for their block as well as
a finishing kit for their specific quilt design.
I usually take lots of pics to share on the blog
but this year I chose to relax a little more.
The above 4 are the only ones I have of the
actual hop quilts. Below are a few others that
I snapped just for fun.
One of these days I'm going to make a leaf quilt!
I made a paper-pieced snowflake quilt a few years ago
(sold on Etsy) but I'd like to give these a go. At least
I wouldn't have to deal with the paper mess.
every year from afar. Some day!
And that's it for the hop pics. I've been so immersed
in quilting this year (esp fabric buying, that the
novelty of it wasn't quite there like it usually is.
In the past I'd splurge on a fun book or pattern but
I just received my order from Martingale's $8 sale so
I had plenty of new books waiting at home. It was
pretty warm out so it didn't even have that fall
quilty feel. But, I did buy 28.5 yards of fabric
so that's something, and all clearance goodies.
In order of appearance:
1) 7 yds -- backing stash
2) 2.5 yds -- so pretty! any American quilt?
3) 7 yds -- red/ivory quilt backing (hopefully this year still?)
4) 4 yds -- any fall quilt
5) 6 yds -- backing for my current Christmas quilt project
Not pictured is a red/white diagonal stripe (binding stash)
and a red fabric for my current 2 Christmas quilts that I'll
discuss in just a bit.
But first, I finally took some finish pics of
Hudson Valley Palisades.
If you recall, this is the one that had the tension issues
on the back (posted here) that led to my getting a new
longarm and all that.
The pattern, by Susan Ache, is Churned Around and
can be found in her book Start With Strips.
Her version is made up in shades of reds and white but,
as I often do, I changed it to my palette.
The [fated] quilting brings the whole fall leaves theme home.
I'm still a little sick over this one because it is just so pretty,
more so in person! It sat in limbo for 9 - 10 months
just needing binding (something I never do--while I
racked my brain for a way to fix it. But it's done now
and as I mentioned, I will just keep it so that's that.
Back to current projects:
I haven't started quilting my Indian Popcorn [name?]
(seen in background) but it is loaded and ready.
I've started two Christmas quilts, both from a
pattern by Corey Yoder. The second one is
completely cut out and waiting (above).
I spent my entire day, and I mean the entire day,
piecing these teeny little stars (fabric from shop hop)
and adding them to all 30 blocks. A few points aren't
perfect but at that size, really, who can see it?
I'm just sharing this teaser pic for now; I'll have much
more to show next week. I love what I do but the last
few weeks I've put some in very long work days in the
studio that have left me exhausted mentally
and physically--but in a good way at least!
Next week's to-do list:
1) Quilt Indian Popcorn (and settle on a name)
2) Finish Christmas quilt top #1 (name)
3) Start piecing Christmas quilt #2
Completely random, here's the cadet
posing bigtime at a recent formal meal:
But those uniforms are so cool.
Until next week, happy quilting!
Comments
-Soma