Its a Mystery; Part 2

I've received and completed the next two steps of the Cabin Fever Quilters mystery challenge.

We could choose from two different quilts, although we had no idea what either looked like. I chose the one with the fewest amount of fabric color combinations to give myself a chance.  The other quilt apparently has fewer steps to complete, so initially, I'm receiving two steps every month.

This is a picture of Step 2 and 3 completed!!

You can't tell from the pic, but there are over 90 of the small triangle bits at the top.  Tedious and boring, but finished!!

Steps 3 & 4 will be complete soon.

Dory

Too Much Positive Thinking...

Did you ever think there could be such a thing? My older sister, Barbara, calls me Pollyanna because I always tend to look on the bright side. Did you ever see the movie? Its worth watching even though it was made in 1960 and based on a book written in 1913.

Anyway, because I am such an optimist, I had my fabrics cut for Planet Patchwork's mystery and I was busily working on my top for Longarm University's mystery. I had planned to work on my piecing in between quilting the different bits of the quilt. However, since I didn't finish my top until almost 10 a.m. (this was after getting up in the middle of the night and working on it from 2:00 to 4:30 a.m. and then starting again at 7), this didn't even come close to happening.  I was so far behind with my quilting, I never even looked at the Planet Patchwork website.

Of course, had I paid more attention to the instructions, things may have gone a bit faster *shrug*

These are some of the pieces, stars, trees and a cabin...

This is what the top looked like when I'd finished it. That border was rather fiddly, but I finally got it to work properly.

Alas, the top is still on the frame, but here's a sneak peak of what some of the "mystery" quilting looks like so far.

I downloaded the directions from Planet Patchwork's mystery and plan to start working on it soon. Its still a mystery for me since I haven't seen the finished top.

Underground Railroad

I have always been fascinated with the Civil War and the stories and history surrounding it. When Jennifer Chiaverini came out with her book, The Runaway Quilt, I couldn't wait to read it. In fact, I read it aloud to Dennis as we drove across the lower 48 to Texas to pick up our horse trailer a few years ago. He even liked it.

In keeping with the book, Eleanor Burns came out with her Underground Railroad quilt pattern, which I immediately bought and then allowed to languish on the shelf with the zillion other quilt books I own.  *shrug* However, this year, my Wednesday night class is doing the UGRR quilt; I quilted this one for our instructor.

Carolyn chose traditional colors, as did most everyone in class...except me. I'm doing mine in super bright batiks. I have no idea how it will turn out....

A few close-ups:

Impossible to tell without clicking on the photo to make it bigger, but I did a wishbone in the sashing with a gold thread. I really liked the simplicity.

Are you ready for my colors????

I love how each batik color carries into the next. Originally, I had planned to use the black for the sashing, but I'm thinking that its way too much contrast now. Oh well...guess that means I'll have to find something different and add this to my stash...darn!

This is the first block...I'm not loving the brights yet, but I hope that after the next few blocks, that will change. Otherwise, this is going to be a long semester.

Empty Spools at Asilomar

Isn't this the most gorgeous view?

This is what I woke up to on the Sunday morning before heading to Asilomar and my first quilting retreat with Empty Spools.  I say first because there will be many.  My friend, Cindy, and I drove down together from her grandparents' house in Santa Cruz.  Their house was built in the late 40's as a "party house." The views are all of Montery Bay; directly across is Fort Ord and a bit to the north of that is Monterey.  The interior of the house is very much of that period.  It is "U" shaped with a concrete courtyard in the middle of the "U."  There is a bar are in the dining room that can be opened to the courtyard and a huge wall that can be lifted to open up the living room to the courtyard as well.  It was terrific to be able to stay there.

I arrived on Saturday afternoon, February 20, and was able to meet up with another good friend for dinner.  She took me for the most excellent Italian meal I've had in quite some time. Then we went to her house and played "blind girls sewing" while we set up her new sewing machine.  She'd left her glasses in the car, so I'd put mine on, show her something, then she'd take them, put them on, and repeat it.  Good thing no one was watching!

Sunday morning we were off for Asilomar and Empty Spools.  Cindy and I had signed up to take Janet Fogg's class.  I have loved her style ever since seeing her "Kitty Corner" quilt at Pacific International Quilt Festival a few years ago.  There were 15 people in our class and we went through the entire process of creating a quilt using her methods.  It was quite an undertaking; mine won't be done for quite some time!

Below is a picture of what our room looked like.  My sister, Barbara, met us at Asilomar and she and I roomed together.  Cindy stayed in the next room over. 

This is only one of the beautiful view we saw when walking the grounds. Its a very peaceful place and very relaxing. 

Although hard to imagine from this picture, this will eventually be a quilt featuring Emma.  The process is so complex that in four full days, I was only able to get her head put together.  Her mane is still in pattern pieces.  This photo shows the colors being auditioned before sewing.  Some have been changed.  If you enlarge the picture, you can see the diagram better.  The large areas coming from the top of her body will be the sky in dark purple to blue batiks.  Below her, the grass that she's running across, will be the block called "Rite of Spring" -- seemed appropriate. On her butt is the center of the Rite of Spring block which will be done in her body colors, but the block will shine through.  At least, it will if I do it right...

This was the 25th Anniversary for Empty Spools at Asilomar.  In honor of that, they asked every teacher who had ever taught there to contribute a block befitting the occasion.  The blocks were then assembled into six quilts.  Each attendee got to put their name in the hat for an opportunity to take one of the quilts home.  On the last night the lucky winner was drawn and was actually a woman that was also in Janet's class--it almost felt like we had all won.  She won't get to take her quilt home until the sessions are over so that all can enjoy them.  During the last session, all the names will go back in the hat for one final quilt.  Chances of my winning that are only slightly better than my winning the lotto; I don't play the lotto.

So...next year.  I had to beg my sister and Cindy to come to Asilomar.  When my sister finally decided to come, she didn't want to take the same class as me.  That was disappointing, but then Cindy decided to come and she wanted to take Janet's class as well.  After the first full day of class, the two of them were already planning for next year.  I couldn't believe it.  The plan for next year is that we're all going to take Sally Collins' class.  Sally is incredibly nice and the most precise quilter in the world and hopefully, when I'm done with her class, my blocks that are supposed to be 10 1/2 for a 10" finished block will actually be 10 1/2"--wouldn't that be special??

Below is just one of Sally's quilts:

Busy Weekend...

This has been an incredibly busy weekend. First, Friday we were up early, worked out and then headed to Reno to pick up an order for Dennis at SanMar. While there, we stopped at Harbor Freight and I got another container like this for my bobbins. (I love having them in the little drawers)
On the way back, we stopped and loaded another 4 1/2 tons of hay. We didn't make it home til almost 5! Best of all, I got a Wacom tablet from Best Buy...I've been wanting one for ages. Now I just need to figure out how it works!

Saturday, I got busy with the SID on the frog quilt. Its turning out rather cute; but Dennis couldn't find a good embroidered frog pattern in all his stuff...so I'll be free-handing. This is the latest attempt...not too bad.



Then today, best of all, our friend is here with his baby backhoe digging the trench for the yurt. Hooray!! Things are actually getting started. They've been out there for hours. I was there just in time to hear a really odd crunching sound...guess we'll be replacing a bit of sewer pipe this weekend (oopsie!!)


Don't they look like busy little bees??