Quarterly (oops) check-in

I've made some progress, really, I have! First off, I checked one thing off my life list last month: enter a county fair.

I entered my blue Bible Studies quilt (Top row, second from left). It didn't win a ribbon, but I was still fine with that. My life list just said "enter the county fair," not "win a ribbon at the county fair." When I went to pick it up after the fair the Baked Goods ladies gushed over how pretty it was. So at least somebody liked it. I may or may not ever enter the fair again; if I was desperate to win a ribbon I could game the system by entering low-level categories. But what would be the fun of winning a ribbon without competition? The quilt that one best of show really was nice; from what I could see, it had really careful custom machine quilting.

I also finished Secret Project # 1, a signature quilt for a quilting buddy who moved across the continent this summer.

It was a fun group effort, and each block completely resembles the personality and tastes of the quilter who made it. The block pattern we used is an 8" Sawtooth Star from the flying geese tutorial by Darra Williamson at See How We Sew.

Secret Project # 2 is off at the long-arm quilter, although it may be a couple weeks since she has some good life stuff in the mean time. I'm so late with Secret Project # 2 for the life event it commemorates, what's a couple more weeks? I want her to enjoy her life-craziness.

I've started work on my Downton Abbey fabric quilt for Historic Club this year. It is not going to be finished by December. The quilt is something like 65 sampler blocks, and I have made about four. Or maybe I've made three. Here's the problem:

This is a lovely block. The problem is that the blocks are supposed to be 8.5" unfinished, and due to some bad directions, this block ended up 10.5" unfinished. There was a typo in the directions as to which seam line was supposed to measure what. Whoops. My wonderful quilty friends said to just stick it on the back. I was annoyed after fussy-cutting the center of the block. I eventually did a lot of trial and error and got the right proportion for my printer to print the pdf templates at the right size. (And no, it wasn't a printer scaling issue the first time, because I carefully did trial and error of printer scaling the first time to make things the wrong right size.) I am trying to decide whether to make the proper smaller block for club on Saturday or make an entirely different block and put this block in "time out."

This summer I did the Row by Row Experience shop hop, which was a blast! I got so consumed with it that it even invaded my dreams a couple of times! I started off on completely the wrong foot. I thought the point was to collect the license plates, and only took the row patterns out of politeness at the first two stores I went to. Finally after the second shop I went to, I did a quick check-in with my friend who owns a quilt shop and she clarified everything for me. Boy I felt silly! It was never my intention to try to win, just to collect license plates and patterns. I was puttering along, doing crazy things like driving 45 minutes out of my way from picking up my daughter from sleep-away camp to go to The Cotton Quilt. (She very graciously opened her shop for me even though she hadn't been intending to be open that day. I just happened to call ahead the day before to check her hours, and she insisted I come by.) My DH may disagree, but at least at that point, I was not going overboard. This was just normal quiltiness.

Then it somewhat blew up on me. I wanted a really pretty row pattern that I saw at a shop on the clear other side of the state. A casual conversation with a co-worker in another office turned up that his S.O. is a quilter. So I offered to buy them lunch if they would go retrieve the pattern and kit for me. Then she had so much fun she got involved, and I would randomly get IMs in the middle of the day from Co-worker saying "Marjory* is going to a quilt shop, do you want anything?" Then she told a friend about it, and the friend retrieved two patterns from her vacation in another region. Co-worker took a child to school in yet another state, and tried (unsuccessfully) to get license plates for me there. Soon, I was getting quilty care-packages from all over. It was like quilty Christmas!

I've spent my mad-money and then some; I lost count after about 16 row patterns and various kits. I have not yet started working on it. I have told myself that I am not going to do another Row by Row hop until I finish the top of the 2014 quilt. Right now it is all neatly packed away in a tote bag in the Closet of Death.

I visited many new quilt shops that I never knew existed. Almost every new quilt shop I went to, I would visit again. I met so many gracious and friendly people. In addition to the owner of The Cotton Quilt, the gentleman at Cloth Peddler at Stephens City, VA, entertained my kids with simple fabric crafts while his wife cut out my kit. The woman at Quilting Sew Easy in Gaffney gave us a hint of her favorite produce stand next to the outlet mall, and I came home with 2 quarts of amazing blackberries. How did she know? I must have had blackberries over my head like an Arby's hat.


*not her real name; names have been changed to protect people thinking about quilting while they should be working

Along the way, I even did two shifts as a volunteer at the AQS Quilt Week show in Charlotte at the end of July. It was fun to see all the quilts. My favorite part was the Quilts of Valor section. I did not realize each of the quilts was designed by a famous quilt designer until the very end of looking at each quilt. The funny thing is that my favorite Quilts of Valor quilts were made by my favorite designers! At least I'm consistent.


Quilts in Progress, as of October 6th, 2014

1. Teal Single Irish Chain (hand quilting)
2. Secret project # 2  (shh- a present!)
3. Mill Girls by Nancy Rink (still in time-out)
4. Bible Studies (at the long arm quilter!)
5. Mystery Quilt from Downton Abbey fabric for 2014 Historic Club.
6. Champions of the West (blocks finished, but not stitched together- I got creative block when it came to the border)
7. Civil War Sampler "cot" quilt by Karen Witt (haven't finished all the blocks yet)
8. Liberty of Londons sampler quilt (I honestly can't remember where this is in the process, but I definitely haven't got the quilt top finished)
9. Golden's Journal quilt (haven't finished all the blocks yet)
10. Peggy Martin-technique sampler quilt (ditto)
11. Crazy quilt (not your usual crazy quilt, but it is crazy! Quilt top finished, but needs sandwiching/quilting/binding)
12. Roses for Shiloh quilt by Painted Pony 'n Quilts (haven't finished all the blocks yet)
13. Amish with a Twist (haven't finished all the blocks yet)
14. Not quilting, but alter my dirndl to fit my new, smaller, self, and finish the heart-ruching trim for it.

Quilts in the "Some Day" Stage, as of October 6th, 2014
1. Olivia the piglet quilt
2. A Baltimore Album quilt
3. A hexagon quilt
4. A chintz panel quilt
5. A quilt with the Metro Blues fabrics that I got in New Braunfels and Belleville
6. Various Rosemary Youngs Civil War Diary and Civil War Anniversary quilts
7. Barbara Brackman's Civil War Sampler
8. Barbara Brackman's Grandmother's Choice women's suffrage sampler
9. A botanical album quilt that I've had designed in my head for a long time
10. Away from Home by Nancy Rink (postponed indefinitely)
11. Mimi's Bloomers quilt by Erin Russek
12. Just Takes Two quilt by Sentimental Stitches
13. The Hazel Ilene quilts by Prairie Moon Quilts
14. Path to the Civil War: Aurelia's Journey Quilt
15. A Dear Jane quilt
16. A bed-runner designed by one of my kids
17. Miscellaneous quilts that I've downloaded from quilt-alongs and free patterns from textile companies.
18. Row by Row Experience 2014 quilt
19. Clarity quilt by Zen Chic, using her Sphere line