Christmas in April (in more ways than one)

Got the "Christmas Streets" quilt top done today! I call it "Christmas streets" because I used the Seattle Streets quilt pattern to use up a bunch of my Christmas fat quarters and scraps. The top is 60 x 72 inches. Its four 12 inch blocks across and five down, with 4 x 6 inch rectangles serving as the border. The picture washes it out but the light colored squares in the quilt are all gold fabric, must be that the camera flash was reflected so you really can't see the gold colors. I am expecting to hear from my local Long-Arm quilter that the last quilt I dropped off is ready in the next week or so, so I will be running out and getting backing for this quilt (an allowable purchase under the no-buy challenge rules) and will drop it off for quilting when I pick up the other one.

As for the other reason its like Christmas in April - well the reason I was getting some quilting done this week was because of all the cold, wet and even snowy weather we have been having (2 inches of snow on Monday). Its all rain, wind and cold today so back up to the sewing room I go.

New Boots

Its been a busy couple of weeks; work, car issues and the passing of a friend and fellow quilter. It has all kind of overwhelmed me mentally, physically and emotionally.

Not much new to report on the quilting front - still working on the Mystery Quilt. And the yard work is on hold as it is cold and wet out.

Looking ahead to when it will be warm and dry I picked up a pair of hiking boots today. These are lighter weight than the pair I have now. I am going to try and wear them as much as possible the next few weeks to break them in. Don't want to get blisters on the first mountain of the hiking season. Damon and I don't really have an Easter tradition, maybe getting new hiking boots would be a good one to start.

Folk Art

Last week I was in such a hurry to share the photos and info on the quilt exhibit that I didn't have time to talk about my other activities in NYC last weekend. First up is my purchase of this folk art print (complete with frame) from the American Folk Art Museum. We went to the museum to meet a friend and look at their other quilt exhibit, but I wanted to hit the gift shop because over a year ago I saw the prints by Susan Daul and really liked them. I regretted not getting one then so I was thrilled to find they had a couple left. This one is now hanging in my kitchen.

While in NYC we also hit the City Quilter quilt shop, they have doubled in size since I was last there. I love this shop, it has wonderful bright fabrics and NYC speciality fabrics. Then we had lunch at Jack Dempsey's Pub, right across the street from the Empire state building on 33rd.

A Few More Red & White Quilt Photos

Here are a few more pictures from the exhibit. It is pretty safe to say that there isn't a pattern out there that doesn't look good in basic red and white.

The Infinite Variety quilt exhibit

The "Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts" exhibit was sponsored by the American Folk Art Museum and features 650 quilts owned by Joanna Semel Rose. This exhibit was held at the Park Avenue Armory in NYC on March 25-30, 2011. This event was free, and you could take as many pictures as you wanted, in fact they even having a photo contest for the best photos taken at the event.

The exhibit is just visually stunning and overwhelming! If you are used to regular quilt shows this may disorient you a bit, as not all the quilts are at eye level. Some you are able to examine close up, but others are a couple stories above you. This is definitely not a linear show. Everything is in circles and at different heights and angles.

Sue and I went down for the opening day and even though we were not there long, I ended up taking over 100 photos. I am sharing some of the overall shots I took, I also took a lot of photos of individual quilts. And I am still sure that if we had stayed longer we would keep noticing new quilts we somehow had not noticed in our previous viewings. There is so much to look at all angles it is unbelievable. This was definitely worth a special trip into the city.

This event has broke the mold and has set a new paradigm for showing quilts.

Mystery Quilt - Step #5

This month's step for the guild's mystery quilt is to sew 2 of the 4-patch blocks with the dark squares to 2 of the half-square triangle blocks with the medium colors. There are still all the 4-patch blocks with medium colors so obviously the blocks shown really don't represent what the finished quilt will look like, but it gives the general color scheme and shapes involved. I

laid out the blocks a couple of different ways just to see what options there were at this stage. We get the next step at the April meeting.

Quilt Retreat Report (part 2 of 2)

Came across the Seattle Streets quilt concept/pattern on the Stashbusters Yahoo group and decided to use it to use up most of my Christmas themed scraps and fat quarters. I of course needed to do it 'my way' so while the original pattern is pretty efficient, I designed 3 different blocks with different construction requirements so mine took a bit longer, but I wanted more variety in my blocks and the fabric placement. I ended up making 20 12-inch blocks and had just enough scraps left over to do a border made of 4x6 inch blocks as well. I still need to lay out the block and use the black strips to join them all and the borders. With any luck I will have this quilt done by the next retreat.

I also started working on Scrap Therapy's Bloomin' Steps pattern. I bought the pattern at least a year or two ago, but finally got into my scrap bag and did some cutting (lots of 2-inch blocks) and brought them to the retreat to start sewing them. I managed to sew all the colored blocks for the center of the quilt to the background strips and made the half-square triangles in 3 of my selected 8 colors. I got a good head start on this project but it will likely take a bit more time to finish this quilt. Especially since I still have to press and cut all those 2-inch squares. I am thinking doing it in 15 minute increments over the next couple of weeks to keep the monotony and back strain to a minimum.
I did follow the no-buy challenge rules. I stuck to my list of needed borders, backgrounds, backings, and binding fabrics. But as my no-buy does not include books I did indulge a little bit and bought a few books.


Before I left for the retreat I also bought Bonnie Hunter's new book 'Scraps and Shirttails II.' While I already love many of her patterns on her web page, and enjoy making crumb blocks, I had to have this book because she has a pattern named "Holy Toledo."

So those are the quilting highligts of the retreat. As always it was great to see all the quilters we only get to see ocassionaly at the retreats or ocassional quilt shows. It sounds like the Wings Falls Quilt show and the Vermont Quilt Festival will be another chance to catch up with several quilting friends.