Busy, but still getting stuff done

 Haven't been blogging much as I worked the last two weekends and didn't take any time off during the week to compensate. I am proud to say that I did manage to maximize my time by combining two projects.
When I got grandma's baking board a few years ago a side piece was missing and as it had been sitting the basement it wasn't in great shape. When my latest quilt needed border fabric (nothing I currently had worked with it) I went up to Fibre Junction my friend Carole's quilt shop. Carole's husband does woodworking so when I went up to the quilt shop I dropped off the board for him to repair and clean up. I found the border fabric I wanted and a week later I went and picked up the board.
It always feels good to cross off another project off the list.

A note on the weather. Yes it is April, no it is not Spring. Heck, we haven't even started Mud Season yet - everything is still frozen and covered in snow/ice. 

Spring Quilt Retreat Report

OK, the weather was anything but spring-like but the quilt retreat was great as usual. I am always so surprised by how much I get done at these retreats, so I did pack plenty of in-progress and possible new projects.

One of the last minute project I brought was the collection of orphan blocks which came together in this quilt top. Obviously these are not all of my orphan and test blocks. I tried to pull ones that looked fairly good together. I was  pleasantly surprised how easily they came together I only needed five or six extra scrap strips to fit them all evenly. I think it still needs some sort of border. 

By the last day of the retreat, which is only really a half-day, I usually have my bigger projects done and I am reluctant to start something completely new. So for my Sunday project this retreat I took out the scrap box and tried out the Trash to Treasure Pineapple block ruler and technique by Gyleen Fitzgerald. I started playing with different color layouts for this block. I like how they are coming out. A pineapple block quilt is on my to-do list, but it is a very versatile block and I am not sure what color layout I want to go with. I can totally see these test blocks (once I make a couple more) being the corner blocks for the border on the orphan block quilt.

Block Testing

Getting ready for the Spring quilting retreat. I dug out some fabric and a pattern that I bought in Paducah, KY last year called 'Tall Pines' by Irish Chain. The fabric I bought was expensive hand-dyed fabrics. The pattern uses their own custom templates for cutting the pieces. Given that I didn't want to make any mistakes trying this new process on the pricey fabric I jumped into the box-o-scraps and tried out the pattern and the templates. I noted a few minor adjustments, but it turned out pretty well. Here it is. This is a mini version, it is about 20 inches long. The version I will be making with the specialty fabric is the 4 foot version.

One of these days I am going to have to gather up my sample and test blocks and make a quilt. I didn't do it on purpose, but the background fabric used here, was also used in some of the Lemoyne Star blocks I made a while ago. So I know a few blocks will go together pretty well.

Blocks Done

I finally finished the Value Dance blocks. Here is a handful of them laid out. As this is the middle of the semester and I officially have my mid-semester cold getting much more done than the required minimum is not going to happen. Instead of quilting I figure I will switch to spending some time sitting next to the tissue box and perusing quilting magazines.

Starting on the Borders

The plan all along for the crumb block quilt was to have applique borders. I worked off and on for the past year tracing, fusing and cutting the various shapes. And then promptly tucked them all away into a project box. Because you need to lay everything out all at once I needed to make sure I had some uninterrupted time and space. So this weekend I divided out the applique pieces into four piles - one for each border piece. It makes sense to only work on one border at a time (less likely for pieces to fall off or get misplaced). After fusing the first border elements I started stitching them down. I will be using a variety of threads, but I am not going for matching each fabric color exactly.

First new quilt project of 2013

When Gina and I started quilting together we would select a pattern and then both make it using our own fabric and setting choices. We haven't done this in a great while. There always seems to be so many other projects we are each working on. So to start this year we decided to go back and pick one pattern to work on. We selected the Value Dance Quilt from the Stitched in Color blog. 

I don't normally do this, but for the new quilt project I have pre-cut all the pieces to make the blocks. I will say it takes up a lot less space once everything is cut. The scraps (the bottom two piles of fabric in the picture) are also more manageable. I will not throw them into the scrap box until I am sure I won't need them for some other aspect (maybe a border) for this project. 

The circle of life for quilting project boxes

 Yup, that is me with an empty quilt project box. Fear not, it will only be empty for a few hours. The project that previously claimed this box as home (pictured below) was dropped off at the machine quilter's. She just got some new funky geometric quilting designs that I think will work wonderfully with this quilt. I still have to make the binding for this quilt but other than that my work on this one will be done.
Next for this box will be projects for the March quilting retreat. I am already starting to pull fabrics and patterns to take with me.