My month of June

It's been far too long since I've posted but I think I've got a few good excuses!

Besides working like mad trying to complete my quilts for Prairie Quilt Guild's Common Threads Quilt Show, I've had a few interesting things happen. Everything from my mother's fall, hospitalization and eventually helping her move to the nursing home to having the brakes go out on our car while I was driving. I am all in one piece and trying to recuperate from the month of June! Hopefully, July will be better month because that's a special month for me! Details later.

Here's my Rocky Road to Kansas embroidered quilt which won first place at the show in the "Other Traditional Quilt" class. Its inspired by an antique quilt pictured in a Crazy Quilt book I own. This quilt was made to showcase my home state of Kansas' 150th. birthday and each embroidered center block features a state fact, symbol or nickname. Some of them are our state bird, animal, amphibian and even the state soil which I had no idea we even had!

This is my clamshell quilt hanging in the show. It won third place in the Hand Quilted class.

And then came a surprise!

My selvage quilt, "The Parlour's Tin Ceiling" won one of the Celebrity Judge's Awards!
It wasn't entered into the judged portion of the show but it won a ribbon anyway. Thanks to anyone reading this who sent me selvages and thanks again to Jan who did the beautiful machine quilting!

Until next time, Mayleen

Shell Shocked!

After two years of working on my clamshell quilt off and on, I'm happy to say that its finished!

Measuring approximately 88x89 inches, it turned out a little larger than I'd expected.
All the applique and piecing has been done by hand. I even hand stitched the binding on to the quilt. There have been a few things done by machine though. Before I knew that I wanted to make the quilt by hand, I basted the edge of the clamshells using my sewing machine.
The big stitch quilting was done with orange perle cotton #8 in the clamshells and border and green perle cotton #8 on the scalloped sashing.

The sleeve and label have been sewn on just in time for the quilt to be shown at the Common Threads Quilt Show in Wichita, KS next month. I've entered it into the judged portion of the show but am wishing I hadn't because I've found so many things the judge will not like. In fact, I'm thinking of making a list of things I wish I could do over to compare with the judge's show comment form.

My quilting bee was stunned to learn that I plan to use this quilt as a wallhanging and not a bed quilt. I have the perfect spot for it - over the open staircase to our basement. I think it will brighten up that wall which I've been ignoring for the past 12 years. Now if only my husband can figure out how to rig a scaffolding over the stairs to hang the quilt!

Lanolin Love?

Can anyone tell me why Charlie likes Bag Balm?

The listed ingredients: B-Hydroxyquinoline Sulfate in a Petrolatum Lanolin Base. Is it the Lanolin? Its been too long since my college Biochemistry class for me to even guess what the chemical is! Charlie loves to rub his cheeks against my fingertips when I rub some of the Bag Balm on them. I'm curious why he's doing this so if anyone knows, please let me know.
By the way, please excuse my very messy desk!

I've been working hard big stitch quilting the clamshell quilt and here it is draped over the ironing board. Those are freezer paper templates which I quilt around in the hoop in the upper right hand corner. As of tonight, I've finished 8 full diamonds, only 5 more to go!

Stitchin', stitchin', stitchin'

Keep those fingers stitchin'!

Just a quick post about my projects but first ...

I want to thank Linda from Flourishing Palms for awarding my blog the Liebster Award! Linda is a wonderful blog friend and someday before her move to Florida, we're going to meet in KC. Looking forward to that very much! My blog is officially a "No Award" blog but when Linda told me about the award, I really need some encouragement so again, my thanks.

Now back to quilting, you'll probably not be reading anything new on my blog for a few months. My life is just way too full right now taking care of my family and mom, quilt guild responsibilities and trying to get two quilts done in time for the June quilt show.

At our guild meeting on Tuesday, the president announced we are no longer able to withdraw quilts and I hope she was joking when she said they'd be displayed unfinished! I guess I could always call mine art quilts or folk art or maybe I'm just making a statement, ??? LOL

Here's the progress on my show quilts:

Clamshell quilt - I've begun big stitch quilting the clamshells. This is taking me a lot longer than I thought it would. Making those big stitches in a smooth curve isn't easy! The stitches on top look OK to me but underneath, not so good (if you can see them at all).

Rocky Road to Kansas - Is this a crazy quilt or an embroidered quilt? I'm sorry about the washed out photo. The gray is actually a little darker and the fabric used in the middle square is not quite so bright.

Thanks for stopping by!

Rub-a-dub, dub

... my quilt's in the tub!

I'm trying Vicki's advice and soaking my quilt top for 12 hours in hot water with Dawn dishwashing liquid and Shout Color Catchers. This picture was taken during the rinse and I'm now repeating the hot water/detergent soak. I'll let you know later how it goes!

If you're wondering why my old saucers are also in the water, they're holding down the quilt top so its completely submerged. I'm also realizing all over again that a 50+ year old body cannot reach and stretch like it used to. Very sore muscles today but at least I didn't fall into the tub!

What just happened here ...

Did I start some new projects or what?

I guess I can blame it on the cold weather we're having! Do not want to leave the house much except for food or fabric.

This is only part of a Rocky Road to Kansas crazy quilt. Just the strip piecing is done, still have to cut and sew the red insets and borders before I start stitching. Without being aware of doing so, I think my color choices were influenced by Amish / Mennonite quilts.

These wonky applique circles are part of a donation crazy quilt and one for me too! I think trim or lace or embroidery or something will be needed to make those circles look better.

More of the fabrics I'm using in that crazy quilt wallhanging. This one's a tough one for me because I'm used to working with strong bright colors and I'm trying to make something more in the pastel range and sweet, very sweet. I'm afraid I'm losing the battle and some brights are sneaking in.

These blocks are not new. I found them when I was looking around my sewing room for more fabrics to use in the Rocky Road to Kansas crazy quilt. All the fabric is brushed cotton / flannels and is striped. I remember now why I only made four blocks before I folded it all up and carefully put it away with the pattern (Antique Rug by Aardvark Quilts). See all those stripes? They have to match to create the design. At the time I started these, I didn't like matching but now it seems very appealing to me. Not sure when I'll get the chance to work on these again but I hope soon!

Remember my clamshell quilt? If not, you can see it here. I think I've decided to big stitch/utility stitch it in, gulp, orange perle cotton 8. Someone suggested orange to me this afternoon and my immediate reaction was less than positive but I've done some test stitching and it looks surprisingly good.

If I wake up tomorrow morning and hate it, I guess I can always blame it on the weather too!

Sunglasses on?

As my daughter put it, "Wow, the whole room got brighter!" Is that good or bad? Maybe our brown Kansas winter is getting to me.

When I started this quilt, I never envisioned that it would be quite this bright or colorful. Seems a little brighter in the photo than in real life but not by much. When its quilted and bound, I think I'll hang it in an area of our home that needs a little brightening up!

Still have much work to do on it but the borders are on. Quilting will have to wait as I have another project promised to someone which will have to come first.

By the way, my next project (already working on it) is in pastel colors (so far).

11 out of 13

Does that sound like a math question at school? 11 out of 13 = 2!

Only 2 more of the 13 diamond blocks need sashing strips sewn to them! That means I've sewn sashing strips to 11 of the blocks so far.
Of course, there's still the setting and corner blocks, deciding on a layout and then hand stitching all the blocks together. My next goal is to finish sewing the sashing strips to all of the blocks by next Wednesday, the 21st. I would really like to finish hand piecing this quilt top before the new year begins but unfortunately, I don't think I'll have the time to do that.

I have a bad habit of overcommiting myself, mostly to things that are worthy and need doing, but just who am I trying to impress? Instead of working like a mad woman on this quilt just so I can say I finished it before the new year, I plan to slow down and enjoy the process.

The Christmas season can be really stressful when we try to live up to other people's expectations. I'm going through one of those times today and feeling very torn about what to do.

Time to slow down, time to decide what's really important and time to enjoy the process!

Wednesday - Sewing Day!

I always think of Wednesdays as sewing day!

My mom was part of a church sewing society which met on Wednesdays during the fall, winter and spring months. Many of the women who attended were older farm wives and this day was not only a day of growing spiritually and doing something meaningful for church missions but it was also a day of socializing.

No socializing on my Wednesdays but I try to keep it just for sewing and not let a lot of errands and "things to do" creep in to my day!

Fifteen years ago, my mom embroidered tea towels with scenes of teddy bears doing housework. I wanted my kids to dry dishes with them so they've seen a little wear. Instead of them just laying in a drawer and never being seen, I decided to make them into a wallhanging. This is a little on the "cute" side for me but I still like them and hope to finish hand quilting this wallhanging someday.

About the block above, I'm not particularly fond of mending but I do enjoy sewing!

Clean day is also not a favorite day for me but it needs to be done. No cleaning fairy at our house!

Probably my favorite day is Bake Day! Unfortunately, that usually means an unhappy moment on the bathroom scale the next day.

Back to Wednesdays and sewing days - Yesterday, I finished handpiecing the clamshell blocks! I can hardly believe the blocks themselves are done. Here are some of them, not in final arrangement yet though. There are 13 full diamond blocks, 8 half diamonds for the sides and the 4 corner blocks.

Next up is figuring out how to make and sew on the scalloped sashing. My quilt is inspired by Kaffe Fassett's quilt in his Museum Quilts book. He used a narrow bias strip to make his sashing but had to make small tucks at each scallop. I don't want to do that so I'll have to draft a pattern for the sashing. The sashing fabric is green and will also be hand pieced/appliqued to the blocks.

I hoped, in one of my more optimistic moments, to have the top completely done by the end of the year. LOL My schedule this month has gone crazy with something on our calendar nearly every day of the month. I'll be checking in from time to time though and will let you know how my sashing saga is progressing!