Admiration

Perusing blogs on a lazy Saturday evening. I was reading quiltinspiration.blogspot.com and saw some of the incredible work of Ann Feitelson, who is a published knitter "Fair Isle Knitting" as well as an award winning quilter. I was impressed to read that her quilts take several months or longer in the design process. Good stuff doesn't just happen. Here is an example of her work: It is entitled, "Swiss Chard."

May Start

My May goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes is my Sue Spargo tote. In April I blogged about the class. Here is the work in progress. If you are making one of these totes, be forewarned. I did not have spray fuse, so I quilted the lining to the batting. Fine on the sides, but NOT on the base. My error was quilting all 3 layers of the base before sewing it to the sides. I will make do by hand sewing the inner base edge. There is one pocket on the outside (with the handles stuck into it for now.) I added two pockets on the lining, a small one for a key, and a larger one for tools. What tools are indispensable for your tote?

May Day Mischief

As a child, May Day was a celebration of spring. We made little paper baskets at school the day before, and had instructions for early on May first. We were to get up before dawn, fill the little baskets with flowers, leave them on neighbor's doorsteps, ring the bell and hide. Since our mom's perennials were not blooming yet, we picked the neighbor's flowers. Mrs. Geisler had lovely borders of pansies, petunias, marigolds, and primrose. I wish I had a photo of Pam and I in cahoots, in our nighties, tip-toeing through the yards. The morning dew was cold on our bare feet, and the little baskets were so darling. Yesterday I went for a walk with our dog, Abby. A vacant lot is full of spring perennials, so I picked a few to celebrate May Day and spring. We had snow flurries during the day, a reminder from Mother Nature that spring is capricious. Here is the sunset looking south from our front door. What memories do you have of early spring mischief?

Goodbye April

Phew! I got 'er done. I finished my goal of sewing the blocks for the pickle dish/ horny toad quilt. They still need lots of TLC. I am going to fuse applique the heads, legs, and tails, and add embellishments such as eyes, spines, and beads... but for now they are happily sewn as blocks. It was a pain in the keister today, completing the blocks. I had printed and enlarged the pattern for the arcs 4 years ago, and sewed the arcs at retreat. I still have the QNM articles, and can see the pattern on their website, also. However! No pattern for the outer edges. So I made one and tweaked it to fit. It was not a perfect fit. it is close enough, and when the limbs and quilting are added, they will be great little horny toads. Here are the blocks: What have you worked on that you were glad to finish?

Keep Making Stuff

I spent today relaxing and pondering, as Mr. Thimblepie and I ran errands to McCall and puttered around our place. I didn't finish anything today, but I worked on my Sue Spargo tote. I ordered some handles for the tote on etsy and they arrived today. They were only $5 and $2 postage. Exciting! Tomorrow is the monthly meeting of the Pinehurst Quilt Guild. My term as president will start. I am thinking about the year to come, and what my term will be like. I am following a very organized and involved gal, who planned classes for each month. I like that idea, and lots of the others do, too. I like the way the group runs, with lots of community service and mutual appreciation. I'd like to see more sharing of ideas, and talents. I'd like to find out what the tastes and favorites of each lady are... I wonder if fabric exchanges would go. Or, round robin projects... Maybe a questionnaire is in order... Another new chapter for me is collaborating with my sister. She is leaving accounting, and expanding her long arm quilting business to full time. We had such fun during her recent visit, taking a class together, and working on several projects in tandem... that we are already scheduled to take a class next April from Gwen Marston in Port Gamble, followed by the spring retreat at Camp Huston near Monroe, WA. We are making a quilt together for the Chesterfield Foundation Memorial Day auction: a Trip Around the World. I pieced the trip, Pam pieced the borders. She is quilting it on her long arm. We are traveling together for Memorial Day to Chesterfield. Yay! Road Trip! I look forward to brainstorming and coming up with lots of fun ideas and projects.

It is Mostly Peaches and Cream

I get to go to a quilting retreat today, for 4 days and 3 nights of fun!!! The first retreat I went to was in 1988 or 1989...25 years ago...At that time I had 2 small children and a full time job, so a retreat was a real escape. Then there were no cell phones, and Camp Huston had a 2 pay phones for the 80 of us to share... Church camps provide comfortable heated accommodations, delicious food and snacks,and freedom from responsibilities. One gal brought an RV packed with goodies from her quilt shop so we could shop at retreat. Everyone brought quilts and wall hangings to decorate their rooms, so we had a walk around quilt show. I took lots of fabric and thought I'd get so much accomplished! Over the years retreat morphed...a scissor sharpener set up shop, we could sign up for massages, design walls everywhere were not only inspiring, but a good place to prank each other. We started a quilter's yard sale for fabric and sewing stuff to be cheaply bought and sold. I earned enough to pay for one trip there. Gas was cheaper then... My daughters all wished they could go with me. this year I treated my middle daughter, Ainsley, to a sewing retreat. Sister Pam drove over from Seattle, and we attended a 2 day special embellishing class taught by Sue Spargo in McCall, Idaho. Now my girls are all grown up, I am retired, and I can sew all day and all evening if I want, retreat is a different kind of treat. I still love to go to church camp and be served food that someone else cooks. I love to be around a whole bunch of quilt friends who share my love of fabric and sewing... I can nap, hike, and sew to my heart's content... I am leaving the computer at home, see you Friday!!!

UFO

< My April goal for "A Lovely Year of Finishes" is a repeat of my March goal; the horny toad quilt top. I got very sidetracked with wonderful sewing projects, while this darling UFO patiently waited. I sewed the arcs to their centers yesterday and it only took about an hour. That is how procrastination tricks us. We think it will be so difficult, so time consuming, so tedious... and then we find out the truth. It was not a big deal. I had the most wonderful visit from my sister for the past week. That is a whole blog subject, except to say that she is my most cherished and wonderful best friend. I am so lucky.