Happy 2019!

It's apparently that time of year when we, once again, reflect on the year just passed, and ponder what the new year might hold. I don't know about your year, but mine held the same 57 UFO's that I started 2018 with. I know that's the exact number, cuz I have them on a spreadsheet. For real. But, since I'm an over-achiever, I actually increased my UFO's to an even 61! (That doesn't make sense, but I'll blame it on the bourbon-spiked egg nog.) And I bought a few kits, patterns, books, and jelly rolls - which means the new year holds a minimum of 67 UFO's. I might not quite understand the concept of how that list works. 

I've started quilting for customers again, and my calendar is filling up. If you've got a quilt top in the works, you might want to get on my waiting list. 

Hang on. I lied. My sister finally became a grandmother in 2018, and I actually did finish 2 projects for my new great-nephew. Debbie embroidered and cross-stitched a cute little crib quilt, and gave it to me to quilt for her. They decorated the nursery in a space/universe-type theme, so I made a glow in the dark quilt for the crib. But I'm not sure they count as UFO's as they were never on the list in the first place.

2018 also saw me put the Quilter's Cabin Retreat up for sale. My older daughter and her family moved back to Tomball from Greenville, SC, and moved less than a mile from me. Then, as luck would have it, my son-in-law was offered a terrific job in Austin, and just like that, they were gone. And they even took the 3 grandkids! Now come on!! After 18 months of babysitting, school pick-ups, sleepovers, cookouts...how could I let all that get away? So, I'm going to retire from the retreat business and move to the Hill Country. Most likely, the Liberty Hill area. (Love the name!) 

After the retreat sells, I'll be selling my log cabin next door. And if you're in the market, my daughter's 2 other houses are also for sale. 

You can see them all on Zillow here:

My log cabin 

My daughter's house across from my log cabin

My daughter's house about a mile away

If you think you might like to have as much fun owning a retreat as I have these past 11 years, give me a holler! I have a wonderful business broker who's handling all the details for me, and I can put you in touch with her. 

We'll see what the new year holds, but I'm looking forward to the new chapter I'll be starting. And I hope yours is exciting and fulfilling for you, too! 

Quilt Catch-up

This year has gone by so quickly, filled with drama, deadlines, decisions and discombobulations. (Is that a word? ::Pause to check:: Yes, it is. And it's spelled correctly.) Did I mention, that in 8 years of elementary school, I only got 1 word wrong on a spelling test? In 8 years. No medal; no certificate....cheapskates.) Where was I? Oh yeah.
With Andy's numerous and recurring health issues, the demands of expanding the retreat, quilt deadlines missed and missed again, trying to get the last 2 kids through their senior year, meeting college deadlines, running the household... there hasn't been near enough time to devote to my personal quilts. So, as far as the 2012 Finish Line goes, it's pretty slim pickins. But I do have a couple of quilts to show for it, and even though they're small, they still count! First up:
Cameron's Baby Quilt, made for my little great-nephew in Southern California. It's small, and is sized for his car seat or stroller. It gets chilly there at night, and I thought it might come in handy.

This one, similar to Cameron's, is made for my "great-nephew" Hudson, the son of my "wish-she-was-really-my-niece," Casey, in Prosper, TX. All the nine patches are identical to the first quilt, but the snowballs and borders are different.

Both quilts were made with leftover floral fabrics from the ones I used to make duvet covers for the retreats. Those 9-patches are 3" square, and I made them as leaders/enders while sewing other projects.

And Hudson has a big sister, Audrey, who also needed a quilt, so I made her one for herself and/or her baby dolls. It started as a pretty little panel, and all I had to do was add a few borders and quilt it up.

Next up is a tote I made in my Scrap Therapy class.

It fits 4 Scrap Therapy bins inside which, theoretically, are all my scraps, cut into 5," 3.5," and 2" squares, ready to go into any number of ST projects. Yeah. In theory.

Also, from Scrap Therapy is this little wallhanging. I took a Jacobean hand applique class many years ago from Pat Campbell. Since I knew I would suck at it, I did it on crummy, unbleached muslin. *Note to self: on the off-chance that it might actually turn out ok, don't use crappy fabrics for your workshops.* I didn't know what to do with this little flower, til one of the Scrap Therapy sessions called for applique. Well, screw that! It'd never get finished, and that'd leave me with yet another unfinished project. I already have 50+ in various stages of completion - or not. So anyway, I pulled out this little project and used it for the center of the wallhanging. Done. Whew! That was a close one.

Pat called it Jacobean Silky Sapling, but I think I'll call it Flame Tree since I quilted it with a variegated yellow/orange King Tut in kind of a flame pattern. 

Let's see...what's next? Oh! How about the little wallhanging I finished last month while I was on retreat at SkyVue Lodge in Winslow, Arkansas. It's from a workshop I took with Debbie Bacon, when she came to our guild. The project, called "Celebration," was supposed to be in RWB, but since I still have tons of retreat duvet fabric left over, I decided to make mine from those, instead. I changed her pattern a little bit to make it the size I needed to hang in the Blue Room at the Cabin Too. I really like the way it turned out!

(And it'd make an awesome emergency baby quilt!)

Being as we're only 7 days from the end of the year, I'm pretty sure I won't be adding any more to 2012's Finish Line. That being said, I'm looking forward to 2013 being a) calmer, and b) more productive!

The Finish Line - April 2012

O.M.G. Has it really been over a year since I've finished one of my own projects? Apparently. And the only reason I finished these two is because I'd entered them into our guild's quilt show last month. I had aimed for four entries but only finished two. Small. Ones. The first one was made for a border workshop I took a few years ago and never finished. I know. Surprise. I'll go ahead and mention that the whole idea of the workshop was to make different borders fit the center, and the highlight was to show how to miter the outside border so the stripes would turn the corners perfectly. "What stripes," you ask?? Yeah. I brought all solids. Typical. Everyone else brought the appropriate fabrics. Big fat eye roll.

Plain & Fancy 28"x28" 2nd Place, Wallhanging, 2012 Tri-County Quilt Guild Show

Then I had a miniature quilt that I quilted with clamshells, (which totally sucked), so two days before I had to turn it in, I ripped it all out and re-quilted the whole damn thing. Ok, so it's only 16" square, so really, it took way longer to rip than it did to re-quilt. I still wasn't happy with my quilting choices (too much fiddly-feather-foo-foo in the center which you can't even see), and it might have gotten a ribbon if I'd quilted it differently. I may rip it out again and re-re-quilt it. Maybe - maybe not. It's not like I don't have better things to do with my time...

Shiloh 16"x16"

Click on it. Go ahead, click on it! Even that big you can't see the 4 feathered wreaths in the center!

I do like the 1/4" chevron border though...So let that be a lesson to you...don't wait til the very last minute before a deadline til you start quilting, and don't waste time quilting intricate patterns when they won't even be seen.

November 2010 - Finished!

You know, I don't get near as many quilts finished as I used to. Some years I'd get 4 or 5 done, and now, I'm lucky if I get 1 finished. In a year. But this actually makes my 2nd one of 2010, and I'm planning on having another one done in the next week or so.
This one's for Sofie - and it's only 5 months late! It's a scrap quilt made of 1930's repros and white ric-rac. It's quilted with a panto by Dave Hudson called Security Blanket - perfect, and way cute! I gave it to her on Thanksgiving.




And here's the pretty girl trying out her first quilt from Nana.
And her 5 month picture

And speaking of pretty...how about this Thanksgiving Banana Pumpkin Meringue Pie? Yes, it was very yummy!!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

June 2010

Holy Mackerel! It took me a flippin' year to finish another quilt! How embarrassing.

This is the autograph quilt I donated to the Tri-County Quilt Guild as a little fund-raiser.

It's 34" square and the border fabrics are from the Kashmir ll collection from Sentimental Studios by Moda.

It has the following celebrity quilters' autographs: Linda Taylor, Paula Nadelstern, Ricky Tims, Nancy Zieman, Marti Michell, Eleanor Peace Bailey, Linda Jenkins, Becky Goldsmith, Charlotte Angotti, Brenda Papadakis, Jamie Wallen, Mark Lipinski,Harriet Hargrave, Pepper Cory, and Judith Baker Montano.

Hopefully my Quilt Completion Track Record will improve in 2010. Except that since I've already used up 6 months...probably not.

The Finish Line 2009, The End...finally

I'm only slightly behind on my record-keeping, but I came across this quilt in my studio and realized I'd completely forgotten about posting it to my blog. It's a Dear Jane-esq baby quilt that I finished last July. It's called Baby's Jane or Whatever Happened to Baby Jane...haven't made up my mind. It's a throwdown baby quilt for a future grandbaby. Take a good look and guess what's so cool about it.

So here's what's so cool: it's a cheater. The whole center panel is one piece of fabric - I didn't have to do any piecing except for the border. I imported a photo of the panel into EQ6, sized it according to its actual size, then fitted that triangle border to it. I printed out the templates for the triangles, sewed a thin coping strip to two sides of the panel, and whipped up the borders. They fit perfectly. I started it on Saturday and had it quilted and ready to show at our guild meeting on Tuesday. Way cool. Maybe I'll do another one with 'boy' colors for the borders.

The Finish Line, part deux

Kat Skratch Fever
14.5" x 15.5"
Ok, I finally finished the Improv Workshop quilt from last month - the one with Mark Lipinski's Katmandu fabric. I ended up not embellishing it at all, since my daughter wasn't sure she wanted to hang it - she might use it as a coaster on her desk, and any beads or buttons could make her Iced White Mocha a little unstable. Just looking at this makes me a little unstable. But it's done, and I can cross it off my list.

The Finish Line!

I've decided to actually keep track of how many UFO's I finish this year, and with 48 UFO's in various stages of completion, I really need the encouragement to press on. I've finished four, but added another, so I still have 45 UFO's stage-whispering to me from my studio closet. Here's the first batch for the year:

Jackson's Star
48" x 48" for my grandbaby Jack.



Meganz Heartz
These blocks were the result of a class with Jan Mullins back in...I don't know...2001?
46" x 52"


Sugar & Spice

34" x 40" For my newest grandbaby Teaghan

The corner squares in the borders and the 'snowball' corners are cut from her daddy's shirts.

London Roads

50" x 50" This is a "throw down baby quilt" in the event I need an emergency gift. I have several ready and waiting to be gifted. The blocks were the result of an exchange with my favorite online swap group, Sew Many Swaps, using 1930's reproduction fabrics.