Christmas Break

Christmas break has arrived and I have not made much progess on my projects. So far the memorial quilt is about half quilted.

I am doing a random star motif for the quilting.

This quilt has one block completed.

With luck, over the holiday break I will make some progress. Unfortunatly, there are some other things that I have let slide (like hemmings), that also need taken care of. So, we will see.

Friday Night Sew In

Sugarlane Quilts is hosting a Friday Night Sew In. Since I am constantly working on one project or another, I thought "Why not? Sounds like fun". After all, when does getting together with a bunch of quilters to sew not fun?

Well... That depends. I spent the night on a task that some do not find fun and had my first venture into basting. We will see if I managed to maintain flatness. My sewing machine does not do machine quilting, so this is another hand quilting project. The Sweet Pea quilt is temp shelved as I seem to have forgotten to buy backing and that is now on it's way. Connecting Threads thankfully is currently running a backing sale. What perfect timing!

This picture is from the quilt roughly half basted. Ended up taking 3-4 hours total. Currently working on motifs for the hand quilting. Looking at stars and deciding on connections between them. Grateful to have this task out of the way. =)

This quilt is a memorial to my mother who passed away several years ago. She taught me to sew and love fabric when I was 10. She always wanted to ride in a Hot Air Balloon and see the land from the air. She would have loved this quilt. Some elements blend in, for example there is a purple blanket stitch used on the applique kite tail bows and a silver lining on the clouds(also blanket stitched). The rays of the sun are golden glass beads and the basket ropes are brown yarn.

Minor Updates

Lately this blog looks like I win things all the time, which is not true. I just don't post that often. I have several UFO's and they get worked on as time permits, but posting is something that I seem to not have time for. (sometimes I just don't know what I want to say or I don't feel a project has enough progress to warrant 'look at me!")

The first update is for the lovely scenic applique quilt. I ended up removing the clouds and replacing them with more cloudy clouds =)

They are edged in a light grey blanket stitch for a cloud with a silver lining. (Please ignore the hair in front of the camera. hehe)

The revised 2x size Sweet Pea quilt is still in the cutting pieces phase. I have discovered that I will need 132 HSTs so this part is taking a bit of time. Particularly since I am also pairing fabric with fussy cuts at the same time. I ended up not grouping them with safety pins since they became a nuisance and I doubt the fabric pieces will travel much.

My last update is a counted cross stitch lighthouse. These come in kits and I love making them, they just seem to take quite a while to finish. I have one that remains a UFO and has been for at least 5 years. I also love the kits with scads of details, so that might be why they take awhile =)

I would love to say that my New Year's Resolution is to blog more. Unfortunately until my college semester ends in early May, finding the time to even work on projects is difficult. To give you an idea.. I enter my Senior year this fall for a Bachelor Degree in Business Administration, with the Individualized Option in Accounting. I am taking 5-6 classes a semester (for a total of 15-18 credits) to graduate next Spring. The Pennsylvania State University decided to add presentations to every class, which has increased everyone's homework. Hard to say by how much, but our usual homework is Read a Chapter and Answer a Few Questions or for english we may have a paper to write and for math a list of problems to solve. Normal homework. Presentations are a bit more complicated. They are akin to writing a report, usually require a powerpoint slide and that you talk in front of the class. These are not really a big deal, but they do take up more time then my usual homework assignments. Adding them to every class, even English and Accounting courses was not a welcome change. 

Lack of progress

I would love to say I have made some progress finishing this:

But the truth is, other then removing the lake this has not progressed any farther.  I have 6 classes this semester, so time is at a premium and finding time to do other things is difficult.

Quilting

Working on an applique quilt, which is slow going. Still attaching many peices and working on a embroidered design for the Summer of Stitchy Love project. Might post pictures. I don't really like to show off my work for some reason. Quilt is a memorial for my mother, so sharing is difficult.