Longarm Projects Completed in April

I've decided to conclude each month with a post of my longarm accomplishments. This is more for me than you as it makes me accountable (not that I need additional accountability...lately several of you have been "nudging" me to "get the damn quilts quilted!") I do have quite the backlog...let's just say it's double-digit and if I quilt 3-4 tops a month I may be done by the end of the year! I did a good job keeping with the program in January, but then February and March were "dry" months (I did NOTHING!!!), so the pressure was on for April. Here's the good news: by extending the month one day (did you know that April now has 31 days?) I was able to complete three quilts! Two of them were recent additions to the pipeline (Maria's Little Gem and Sandy's Fall Panel Celebration), while one was 4+ years waiting (Lara's Petite Prism made with 30's fabrics). Believe it or not, I've got tops in the pipeline that are older than that! Shameful!!! Let's just look on the bright side...if I keep up the good work you'll all have your finished quilts by Christmas! Hopefully, without having to extend more months (thanks to Lauren for that idea...she's great at finding the loopholes!).


Here's a picture of Lara with her 30's quilt...

Sorbet Sunrise

Hi Friends! I thought I'd update all of you (who never read my blog) on my latest project. I write this blog for me, so it's okay that you don't read it...it's become a journal of my creative endeavors. Back to my latest project...it comes on the heals of Fiesta, a foundation pieced quilt, so it follows that this is also paper pieced. Years ago I fell in love with a wallhanging designed by Jean Wells called Sorbet Sunrise. Whenever browsing through my collection of quilting books, I'd always return to Jean's book that was filled with beautiful photos of her garden along with several of her interpretive garden/floral quilts. Each time I'd admire Sorbet Sunrise and add it to my current list of potential new projects. The truth is, I was totally intimidated by the paper-piecing process, so my love affair with this quilt never went beyond the list. Well, after completing Fiesta, I'm ready to tackle anything and last week I took Jean's book off the shelf, had the patterns enlarged, selected my fabrics, and began piecing Sorbet Sunrise. By this time next week I should have the quilt pieced and be ready to quilt it (after I quilt all of those in the queue, of course)! Here are a couple of pictures of Sorbet Sunrise in progress.

Fiesta

Just wanted to share my progress on the paper-pieced project I started in March. It's finished! Not quilted yet, but the piecing is complete...60" square, 75+ hours, 100+ fabrics, 16 unique blocks (one alone contains 135 pieces), and over 1,500 pieces total. Fiesta (aka Cinco de Mayo) is Completo! Terminado! Concluido!  Actually, I'm sad it's finished as I've never enjoyed the piecing process as much as I did with this quilt. Guess I'll just have to make another. :)

Goodbye, My Sweet Kiko

It's been about 12 years since the girls found the hour-old kitten just outside the lambing pens, left in the dirt by its mother as she was moving her litter to safer grounds. He was bottle-fed round the clock for the first month, growing and flourishing. At a few months old (and Verne's insistence), we tried to re-introduce him to barn life, but to no avail. Kiko became our house cat! There were only three of us who really loved him, a handful of family who tolerated him, and many others who strongly disliked him. He could be sweet, loving, and entertaining with his quirky ways or, on occasion, he could be aggressively hostile. Kiko left us last week after a year-long decline in his health from kidney failure. I'm including his obit on our Stix Blog as he was always present during our retreats and over the past few months has spent every day at the Studio with me as I quilt. Kiko loved blankets, especially quilts in progress as he would always lie down in the middle of my projects as I tried to work on them. I will miss my boy!


The following picture was taken at the last Stix Retreat in February.

Sally's Quick Trip

Here's the question: Does "talking shop" (in our case, talking quilting) constitute work (in our case, a Stix Mini Retreat)? If so, then Sally just came for a Stix Mini Retreat! Not quite 24 hours long, we spent a few hours admiring each others handiworks and had a couple of great meals. It was wonderful and memorable! I honestly think the real purpose of Ms. Sally's visit was to have her picture taken with her projects, though...she's always complaining about the disproportionate number of pictures of Maria and Lauren on the Blog. So, here's a couple of pictures of Sally with finished projects:

This quilt was made with just two fabrics, an orange-red and off-white. It's going to be even prettier after it's been quilted!

This is Sally's donation quilt. It'll be going to Cottage Hospital Outpatient Surgery in Santa Barbara along with the other donation quilts we've made. These precious blankets will be given to children who are undergoing chemotherapy treatments. God bless those special children...I hope our blankets bring them much comfort. Let's make more!

Challenge #1

No, I haven't forgotten. Have you? Maybe you've put it out of your mind like a bad dream. When we were last together laughing and having fun making felted beads, I challenged you to create something with those little fuzzy balls...they may be the focus of your project or merely an embellishment, but use them (or "it", if you only plan to use one)! Get crackin!