First Finish of 2014

I'm so excited to have completed my first quilt this year. It has been over 6 months since I finished a large quilt so I was a bit edgy and needed a finish.

I fell in love with this quilt as soon as I saw it on the cover of the October 2011 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting (the quilt was called Star Formation in the magazine). I knew I wanted to make it immediately but it wasn't until I signed up for a class with Paula Barnes that I got the push to actually make it.

It is a very easy pattern but sometimes you need that push, that sew a long feeling, to get you moving on a project.
I started my blocks in class, but didn't get moving on it until I went to the Modern Quilt Guild retreat last November where I completed 25 of the 50 blocks in the quilt

Then it went back in the bin until my January retreat where I completed the other 25 blocks. I would have finished the quilt there but I realized that I had not prewashed my background and sashing fabric. I do tend to prewash most of my prints and with all the other fabrics prewashed I chose to wait.

As soon as that fabric came out of the laundry I started putting it all together.

It was so large that I had to piece one half first.... 

and then the other... 

After both halves were done I just put it all together. 

I am loving the piece. 

Now I'm on the lookout of some coordinating fabric for the backing. I am looking forward to getting this one quilted.

I have a couple of other projects that are mid way through that I want to wrap up before I start another project from scratch but wtith the Dallas Quilt show just a week away... I think I might need to buy another Red Crinoline quilt Kit to work on.

This pattern was first published through American Patchwork and Quilting but Red Crinoline has since published it as a stand alone pattern. You can find it here: Regimental Stars

BTW: So sorry for the quality of the pictures on this post. I took all of them with my phone.

Dallas Quilt Guild Retreat 2014

If you have been reading my blog for awhile you know that my favorite time of the year is in January  when the Dallas Quilt Guild has it's annual retreat.
I love going to this retreat. I can hardly make it to our monthly meetings but the retreat lets me catch up with everyone.

It doesn't hurt that my daughter loves the retreat as well and flies in from NH to spend the 5 days with me.
Now, don't tell her this... (Hi, Nyshma!!!) but at this point I'm on the fence as to grand children just because I know she won't be able to come to the retreat when they arrive. Grand babies that live gazillion miles away --- Retreat in January.. I'm telling you! It's a tough choice!! Good thing I have no say in it! lol!!

This year there was the least amount of quilters I have seen since I started attending the retreat.

There were 81 of us.

My roomies. Renee and Robin. So focused on their tasks!

My other roomie, Nyshma (my daughter) and Mary Ann, who was not rooming with us, but is part of my small group. We meet once a month or once every other month, depending on our schedule, but it's always fun to hang out! She was making a Dr. Who quilt for her daughter!

Even though we were just a few (typically we are over 100) the room did not fail to inspire...

I wish I had grabbed every one's name so that I could give them the credit they deserve.

But of course I failed miserably on these beauties. The pineapple quilt was made using a strip piece method, not paper pieced or with the possibilities ruler... It looks even more lovely in person.

That last one was Jan's loveliness and we didn't realize it was sideways until after the picture.

Another version of Di Ford's Phoebe was present this year:

This one belongs to Peggy.

I love the details she put in the center block. And look at the sheep!!!

Never would have thought of making them out of wool. How appropriate! 

Pamela and her sister, Wendy were working on Blackbird Design's Love Letter quilt...

Pam chose the same color scheme I chose when I started making mine 

(which is in a bin living the life of a "thought I'd make you" project)

I feel quite inspired to pull the pieces out and actually START mine!

My lovely daughter decided to dance to her own beat, as usual, and was doing a bit of improv with a jelly roll of PB&J by Basic Grey. We hit the local quilt shop to pick up the weave fabric she used in the background.
I wish I had taken a picture of the finished top. It turned out wonderful!!

I worked on my Fat Quarter Shop BOM while there. Four blocks down.. 

3 to more to catchup.

AND... I finished all my blocks for my Regimental Stars quilt...

I was so excited about that!

I had to come home and start putting it together almost immediately...

I'm loving how this is turning out!
I think I'm very close to my first finish for 2014!!

Hello World!!

I have trouble believing that it's been 6 months since I last posted. I have no excuse except the lack of time. Quick recap as to what has happened in the last 6 months... Yes, I can recap it in just a few paragraphs and I'm not sure if that is a good thing or not...

Here we go...

 Last time we chat I had just adopted this little one:

I had gone off to Boston to visit this other one:

When I got back my sister, who has lived with me for the last 7 years, bought a new home and undertook a major renovation of the place. Very Brave. I will say it was worth it since the place went from "really? This place?" to "Awesome space, sis!!".  But there were many, many, hurdles on the way.
Lots of packing and buying new furniture (for me, not her, since all the furniture in the house was hers to begin with! LOL!).

All this happening during the end of year craziness that takes place at work.

I had parents visiting during the end of November through December. My Daughter, Son in law and grand puppy also visited during the Thanksgiving break. I will say, Oreo was exceptionally happy with the yard and the happy company of Penny.

Needless to say, I got barely a smiggin of sewing done.

In November I was able to go to the Dallas Modern Quilt Guild's retreat and I made a bit of a dent in the blocks for Regimental Stars (see here for details on that quilt).

I also started Piece of Cake 3 by Thimble Blossoms. 

I have made progress on that quilt since that picture was taken. I just need the borders which I hope to add sometime this spring.

As a result of my sister moving out of the house I was able to appropriate one of the bedrooms as a sewing room, so now I have a place I can spread out and leave things ready to sew in the few minutes I have free here and there.

I made this cutting table from bookcases from ikea. My daughter found a post on Pintrest and made one for herself. I loved it but had no place to put one, so as soon as I had a room of my own I made one! I STILL love it.

Over the Holidays I made this cute little iPad sleeve for my sister's iPad mini.

I am officially cured of any thoughts of making a hexagon quilt. Lovely as they seem, putting together those hexies can be trying when you have a tad of carpal tunnel.

Now you are all caught up with life in 2013 around my neck of the woods. Next time, I'll  let you know what I've been up to in the last few weeks.

Nice to be back.
Hope you didn't forget me!
Leave me a comment so I know you are still out there... lol!

To Boston, With Love

While I was visiting my daughter in New England last month I had a chance to drop by the Museum of Fine Arts on the last day of the To Boston With Love exhibit.

The tragedy that took place on April 15th touched many lives across the world and this project was born from the need to express the feelings of love and support that those events brought forth.

I lived in Massachusetts for many years before moving to Texas. I went to college there and found it to be a wonderful place to raise my, then, 2 year old daughter. When the bombing took place it was a bit of a slap in the face because the Boston Marathon is a huge thing for the city. There is a lot of pride in the event and people hold it close to their hearts. I was not surprised by the response that came back. The images that filtered through are ones of a strong city that basically said, don't mess with us!

I was so happy to catch this exhibit.

Here are a couple more images.

I love this museum. It brings me so many memories of all the times we visited through the years while living in MA. We would go every summer and it got to a point where we knew exactly where our favorite pieces were. They have been renovating the building and expanding the premises, so it's become all new again.

They had this wonderful Samurai exhibit during that weekend.

It's funny because the exhibit was from a private collection that came from Texas!

My daughter always had an inclination toward the Japanese culture (she has a minor in Japanese Language and Communications), so I have seen my share of Japanese artifacts, but this was one of the most extensive collections I had ever seen.

AMAZING!

Love this shot of my sister photo bombing my image. It was planned. She saw the opportunity and, well...

I was then able to go see two of my favorite pieces in the museum.

John Singer Sargent's The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit.

This piece is my favorite but it has nothing to do with the painting but the memory it evokes. My first trip EVER to the MFA, my daughter was very very young and out of all the paintings she saw that day, she tried to touch this painting. I was able to grab her hand before the alarm went off but it made me pause in front of the image and really look at it. The girls all seemed to be looking back at me. They seemed to be waiting. Sargent has many beautiful pieces and I have grown very close to his work, but I always remembered this image and would always go back to it on every trip.

This another favorite.

Thomas Cole's Expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

I never visualized the biblical scene until I saw this image. It just captured everything that it could have been. Click on the image to make it larger so you can see Adam and Eve fleeing. Truly outstanding work.

I had a few more excursions while in New England last month. I got to go to the Vermont Quilt Festival to see the Dear Jane Exhibit and I also went to Lowell to visit the Textile Museum and the New England Quilt Museum. I'll post about those trips later. Stay tuned.

Weekend of sewing... check

I finally was able to take a weekend to focus on some sewing.

I took a pile of theses

Put some serious sewing to eventually get them ready to become these

Which eventually became this mess

while Penny kept me company under the sewing table

I have already paired the half square triangles into units of two which will eventually become the flying geese part of my stars. If you don't recall when I'm aiming for, I'm making Red Crinoline's Regimental Star.

This week I hope to post a few pic from my trip up north in July.
So stay tuned.