Catch Up

Its been over a month since I posted, time to catch up.

My first visit to Quilt Week in Paducah!

 

My Phebe quilt, "The Cotheals at Home", won Honorable Mention in the First Time Paducah entry, Bed Quilts Longarm Quilted. This is what I look like after only 4 hours of sleep.

I had lunch with another quilter, Mona, who I met at Houston last fall and this is her quilt in the show, "Sunset over Lac Clara"! Nice to see you again, Mona!

Did you know I'm a calendar girl? Well, actually my "Selvage Star of Bethlehem" quilt is pictured in the 2016 Quilt Art Engagement Calendar! Here I am (in pink) at the calendar signing party on the first evening we were in Paducah. I must have had some coffee by then because I'm looking more awake.

Here it is, the very last quilt in the book! Lots more happened in Paducah - quilts, shopping, eating plus a few interesting experiences with our bus tour. I don't know that anyone from Paducah, KY reads my blog but "Thank You!" for being friendly and offering help when we needed it!

 Back home again, I needed a UFO finish for May so here it is, quilted by another guild member, Susan McMillan. I'm fairly sure that while I was working on it, I had a brown cloud hanging over me. I initially named it "Serengetti Oaks" because the border fabric reminded me of zebras and an African safari. I'm thinking of renaming it ...

"Second Spring" from a quote by Albert Camus.

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower." 

Albert Camus

Until next time,

Mayleen

Friday already?

I feel like spring is rushing by, so much to do. I have accomplished some stitching this week which surprises me because my schedule is full!

My April UFO finish is ...

Pumpkin Peel from the book Small Pieces, Spectacular Quilts 

written by Mary Elizabeth Kinch and Biz Storms. I used blue bias binding which I don't think you can see very well in the photo.

 Here are some photos of the machine quilting done by Jan Hutchison.

This is a large wall quilt, nearly 80" square. For now, I plan to store it on a spare bed because I'm already seeing fold lines just from having it folded since getting it back from the machine quilter.

After seeing another blogger's progress, (Quilts...etc.), on her Love Entwined quilt, I was inspired to get mine out and start appliqueing the stems for Part 6.

I had previously taken off the heart wreath on the left in the photo to try to make the points sharper. Not sure I'm making a major improvement but it looks better to me.

 Serengeti Oaks is at the machine quilter and I should be able to share it with you next month.

I also continue to big stitch quilt on my Jubilee+5 quilt. I can only manage to stitch a few blocks before my fingers are too sore to continue so its going slower than I'd like. You'll notice the bird is still there. Embroidery starting soon!

Until next time, Mayleen

Like Swimming Through Molasses

That's how slow progress has been on UFO #5.

Turning Leaves from Quiltmaker, September/October 2002 

The top is finished and it looks a lot better than I thought it would. I really wish I'd taken a photo of the layout before piecing it though. I'm seeing too many dark blocks in the upper half. Definitely not taking it apart to move them around at this point!

The reason this became a UFO was because I felt the colors of the leaves were all too different. However, the outer border fabric seems to pull all the colors in the blocks together. When I look at that fabric though, it reminds me of Zebras which reminds me of grasslands and a safari. I'm thinking of naming this quilt "Serengeti Oaks".

Can you believe I spent two days piecing this backing? I've never gone this crazy with backing but I didn't want to buy more yardage so I started piecing whatever Batiks I had together. Unfortunately, I mismeasured a few times and I had to add filler strips an inch wide. Piecing this took a lot longer than I thought it would but I did use up more of my fabric.

Now I'm looking for a machine quilter and its taking longer than I expected too. Eventually, it will all come together and the quilt will be finished. I'm just so ready to be done with it.

I've also been working on this UFO which I hope to have finished in July. At this point, I'm just doing some big stitch quilting in the octagons using orange Perle Cotton. I plan to embellish all the blocks with hand embroidery and am seriously thinking of adding a border. I just can't get used to it without a border.

Do you see the bird to the left of the initial "M"? I've decided that block has got to go because the bird just looks too different from the other blocks. He also looks like he's going to peck on my initial! I'm still thinking about what would be the easiest way to remove the bird block and add a new block. All the blocks are hand pieced and I may applique the new block in place.

Yesterday, I thought I'd take a break from Serengeti Oaks and thinking about the bird block so I started piecing our quilt guild's latest BOM block. I think I made a mistake at every step. For me, making a mistake is the best way to learn better technique. Time to go into my sewing room, turn on some music, maybe have some M&M therapy and try again!

Until next time when I hope to show you my bound Pumpkin Peel quilt,
Mayleen