Quilting Intensity

 Retreat Season is in full swing. 

I finished October with my third quilt retreat, Material Girls at a B & B in Wasillla. I was a monagamous stitcher. My goal was to minimize my packing. 

All blue matalic batiks fabrics from my stash. I still need to sew all the blocks together.

This is a free pattern from Scott Flanagan's blog, 4th and Main Designs. He has done a free quilt along in the summer the last three or four years. I always print up the pattern but this one was finally the one I had to make. 

I finished quilting my grandson's quilt and for the first time used a minky fabric for the backside. 

"Enchanting," is the pattern from the book, "The Magic of Three Yard Quilts."

Hard to see but the focus fabric is a batik with the state of Alaska.

I'm definitely a fan of the minky backing and had no issues quilting with it.

The Breakfast Club group I quilted with many years ago desolved and a new group formed, the EOB...End of Bolt group. They meet every Tuesday at a quilt shop in Anchorage, Seams Like Home. I made it one day last month. As I am typing I am realizing it's Tuesday and I'm missing the group! It's just not in my habit pattern...yet. 

So...my goal for the one time I attended the EOB Tuesday was to finish cutting out parts for a new quilt, Blue Onion. It requires an expensive Creative Grids ruler that I was borrowing so I needed to return it to my friend that Tuesday. I stitched one block...came together beautifully with a lot of tips from other quilters on YouTube. 

The colors look so intense in this photo...color of my world has changed with the arrival of winter.

The quilt shop in Eagle River has a class for the Blue Onion pattern so several friends have made or are making this pattern. Seemed like the perfect time to jump on their bandwagon.

I have a retreat this upcoming weekend in Eagle River at my local quilt shop, Twisted Sisters Quilty Pleasures. For the first time I am attending a retreat run by the shop's owner. I really prefer these daytime retreats...sleeping in my own bed.

I have picked my focus project. A kit...not batiks. I seem to be captured by panel projects. A new phase! My granddaughter Kate loves purple...I think she will love this quilt. 

October Bucilla projects were devoted to Halloween.

Trick or Treat Puppies

Purrfectly Spooky

and Halloween Squad...

which I finished but never took pictures and now all the Halloween decorations are packed away.

I had enough decorations to fill a pretty good sized tree. My grandkids loved it!

I also stitched up a Lizzie Kate chart, Vinnie Von Fang. 

There are several embellishments to add to Vinnie and he will be finished as a stand up piece. There is a companion witch I hope to get done by next year. 

I also made a pinchusion kit I have had for several years. There are three more pieces to make in the kit. Maybe next year. This is from the pattern, "Fright Night," from Cottonwood Creations.

We've gotten some snow. It is with much relief our winter is looking a bit more normal than the last two that slammed us with record breaking snow fall amounts. 

I have started putting my Christmas decorations up. 

It is so dark in the winter...those Christmas lights really help!

Quilting Season Kicks Off in Autumn

 We are quickly switching from Autumn colors to WINTER….NOOOO!

I know…last time I posted it was still summer. Autumn is my favorite season…love the colors. But it only lasts about three weeks where I live. No hard frost yet which is amazing but most of the leaves have dropped from the trees. My biggest accomplishement was finishing the quilting of my version of Lori Holt's Chicken Salad, "Kauai Chicken Salad." I still have button eyes to add but I had to take a photo outside while I had some decent sunlight.

I really love this quilt! I did Lori's method of an interfacing backside on the applique pieces...and tiny strips to make the feet. Would never do either of these methods again. Fusible applique would look just fine and be so much quicker! I will probably do a post with close ups of all the blocks once I get the eyes stitched in place.

On to all the activities that took place in September. 

I busy with lots of quilting happenings...SWEET!

The Alaska State Fair ended on Monday, September 2nd. I entered five pieces and came home with five ribbons. I don't enter to win ribbons but it sure is nice to get them! I enter to support the wonderful tradition of sharing accomplishments in my community in the hope of encouraging others to enjoy these hobbies too! I love taking time to look at all the handmade pieces entered...especially the junior categories. 

We do have a lot of great quilters in Alaska...and I wish more of my friends would enter. 

All three quilts I entered won blue ribbons. The second quilt hanging from the rafters at the fair was my king-sized blue version of, "Sky Full of Stars." 

My favorite photo of the quilt is my grandson, Austin, on my son's shoulders as they checked out my entries.

The third quilt hanging in the rafters was my smaller version of Bonnie Hunter's mystery, "En Provence."

And my third quilt entry was a lap size version of the pattern, "Take Flight.

For the first time I entered some of my Bucilla pieces. Understandably, kits are not as favored as more original pieces. My goal here was just to share them. I want these kit to continue to be made and no stores in our area carry any felt kits so how will others learn about the possibilties?

I am working diligently to encourage my granddaughter Kate to enter pieces into the fair. I tried to get a photo of her in front of her stocking but the camera couldn't focus on both locations. 

The last of my entries were two cross stitch pieces. 

The winning cross stitch pieces were all large...and beautiful. No aspirations to take on full coverage or large pieces.

Quilt retreats start up in September. 

The first was the, "Sisters Retreat," group...started by three sisters, one of which asked me to join several years ago. We meet at our local quilt shop in Eagle River for three days, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

I worked on two quilts. I started with making log cabin star blocks. I am trying to decide how I will handle the borders. I have very little fabric left of fabrics in the log cabin blocks.

The second project was a pattern using 6-inch strips, "Stepping Up." I bought several sets of 6-inch strips over 10 years ago when I went to Hancocks of Paducah. I expect to make three more tops with this pattern. I think that means I like this pattern.

The second retreat I attended was also a daytime retreat at my local quilt shop, Twisted Sisters' Quilty Pleasures. This group only meets once a year...every September. A lot of the ladies were in the Breakfast Club with me that I attended sooooo long ago. We picked a new name, Savvy Stitchers. 

I mostly worked on a big, but simple pattern, 2M Quilt from Villa Rosa Designs. Super easy and very striking. I saw this made up at the Houston quilt show last fall and immediately came home and ordered the pattern and fabrics. Most of the fabrics are from Tim Holtz through Free Spirit fabrics and it is on their website.

We also had some surprise projects to make at the retreat. A chicken pincushion and a little basket

The next retreat is with the Material Girls at a B & B in October. 

I worked on many hand stitching projects in the evenings.

I finished the ornament set that accompanies the stocking I made for my granddaughter Kara.

This was a challenging set of ornaments...just like the stocking.

I then took a detour from Christmas projects to a new kit for Halloween,

Another mantel series from Merry Stockings

I set up a small Christmas tree and am working on putting Halloween decorations on it. Photos to come once I get it done. 

Since I use this blog as a journal I am including a couple of photos of quilts taken in the sunlight. We are losing daylight hours and I hate when I give a quilt away and don't have a decent photo of it.

Not sure who will get, "En Provence," but it will be one of my granddaughters.

I'm giving, "Take Flight," to my grandson next time he is over at the house...hopefully next week.

It's rutting season for the moose so lots of them roaming the area. I feel like half of my trips into town involve a moose sighting. It was a little foggy but you can see we did have some pretty fall colors.

August…How Can It Be Gone?

 Wow…I know time flies but really…what happened to August?

The weather was gloomy…totally typical for August in our part of the world. 

It was confirmed again this past month…I am primarily a topper when it comes to quilting. More tops finished…no quilting of any tops. I did start quilting a top yesterday that has been loaded on my frame since early July.

I finished three tops that are for my granddaughters. I snagged the fabric and panels on a close out sale at my local quilt shop. Little ballerinas. I’ve ordered cuddle fabric to back all the lap sized tops.

I have enough fabric to make pillow cases for the girls too!

I finished Kara's stocking that will hang at her other grandmother's house. That grandma is an amazing sugar cookie decorator so that's what led me to pick this kit from my stash. This is a kit from 2009, "Santa's Sweet Shop."

I had a fun Christmas print in my stash for the lining.

Instead of putting her name on the stocking, this kit has it on an ormanent that hangs with the stocking.

Some details. Lots of satin stitching but in small bites so I didn't mind it too much. I tacked the gingerbread men and other sweets in the basket so they won't get lost over the years.

My other handwork project for evenings has consistently been a Noah's Ark cross stitch series. 

Two more animal sets finshed. 

Skunks.

Camels.

My grandson was at the house to visit when it dawned on me to check the stash of baby things from when my boys were young and found several smocked coverall sets I had made. Here's Austin wearing one of them. Fits great!

The one thing I did do very well in August was spend time with all of my grandkids.

Kara and Kate are with one of their three chickens. Kate, the oldest, carries that chicken around like she's a baby doll. The other chickens don't really like getting picked up but this little red hen does.

I had a memorable visit with a bull moose.

 I caught sight of him strolling along my garden while sitting at my computer. 

I was standing inside my dog run which has a 6ft tall fence.

Since I was charged by a moose cow earlier this summer...I've been more cautious.

My dogs slept through the entire episode.

It was amazing to get such a close look at the velvet on his antlers.

Heading to the Alaska state fair tomorrow. I went two weeks ago but I was with Kate who is four and she didn't want to spend as much time looking at all the quilts as I needed. I did well, blue ribbons on the three quilts I entered.