Starting Up 2018

Hello hello - seems my break over the holidays turned into an extended silence.  
                 But I'm back baby! 
And ready to share some updates on all the buzz around here.   :)

 Last month kept me pretty busy at work getting our annual School Block Challenge exhibit up in the galleries. It takes a lot of organizing but is always worth the effort - seeing the kids' blocks is inspiring.  

School Block Challenge exhibit prep

This year was the 25th annual Challenge and we had 209 entries & 262 participating students from 20 states! Check out our website for details.

We also had a snow day here in KY - always exciting.  An extra day off meant I started a new quilty project, but can't share it here yet.  It's for the International Mini Quilt Exchange through The Quilt Show. My partner & I decided to make something indicative of where we live so I'm having fun playing with design and quilting. 

This weekend Momm & I hosted our annual #winterquiltretreat at the beach. Views of ever changing Lake Michigan, trips to the hot tub and quilting All Day! We bring whatever we want to work on and have a grand time chatting, laughing, cutting & sewing.

I help Momm make favors for the retreat which we give out at each meal. Here's this year's set: snazzy biscornu pincushion, a clear zip bag, journal, fabric bag & I already ate most of the chocolates.  :) 

We watched a group use fat bikes to ride along the beach - looked like fun, minus the single digit temps and those waves crashing into the beach!



This year I assembled my Quilt Camp Sampler blocks into a quilt top finally - so happy to see this one come together. 


It includes blocks from all 21 projects over the last 7 years I've run Quilt camp. So yes, it's supposed to look a bit chaotic Ha!

Worked on some paper pieced blocks for my Junior Quilters block swap project and can't wait to give them out to my kids. Using the Tall Tales pattern which is fairly quick to piece.  It's got me wanting to make a whole library of these blocks!

Looking forward to sharing more of this as it comes together, but it's a slow process so be patient.

Week to Week

return of the snow day!

It's hard to believe that this time last week I had the second snow day of the year due to another foot of snow; while today hit 60, sunny with a breeze promising Spring. What a difference! All the snow made perfect quilting weather with some small breaks for snow angels, soup making and catching up with friends. Once I can get some decent pictures of the quilts I finished I'll be able to post those here!

Had some trouble with a snowman, so I opted for a Dalek instead! Better watch out if you've still got snow on the ground.  :)

Detail of my #disco quilt - had enough fabric to add a couple rows so this will be big enough for the bed! I mixed a FQ pack of Architextures and some yardage of Botanics for this quilt and am loving how it's turned out now that the top is complete.

Worked on finishing up my watercolor quilt from the class I took with Katie PasquiniMasopust.  I pulled out my trusty Aurifil threads and used all the colors you see in the picture to quilt this. I chose a matching turquoise for the binding and will have a finished picture soon. This quilt is on my Q1 FAL list so it was nice to wrap this one up.

Paper Pieces is a new business here in town and I was able to stop in the other week with a coworker. They were great and we came away with some sample packs to learn how to English Paper Piece. Of course, once back at work we sat down to stitch up our very first flowers.  Several days later I saw the instagram from Tales of Cloth about making #flowersforeleni so I decided to put my skill to work.  I made two more flowers and sent those off in the mail. What a great way to share our talents with those who need them!

my #flowersforeleni 

 With all the snow melting & rain the river is creeping ever higher and since it warmed up so much the mist was enthralling. Spring is on the way friends and I am ready to enjoy it!