Project Progress

Well I am pleased to say that my veggie quilt is done and off to it's new home at my parent's house!

And yes, I am making the world's worst face in this photo. The sun was too darn bright.

Here is my dad enjoying the quilt in Alaska. The perfect size for snuggling under in front of the tv!

Before I gave it to him, I ran it through the wash to get all of the glue that I used in the appliques out. I was sure to add three sheets of color catchers, but when I went to move the quilt to the dryer, my boyfriend asked, "Why did you add all of these fabric softeners?" Oops. Luckily all of my fabric had been prewashed so no bleeding occurred. 

I'm a recent convert to washing my quilts before I give them away. I read on a blog someone who was worried about things coming apart or bleeding in quilts she gave away, but she wanted the new owners to know the quilts were washable, but also to let her know if they had a problem in the wash. The best way around this is to wash it yourself! That way any washing disasters can occur BEFORE you give the quilt away. So that's what I've been trying lately.

Well now that my veggie quilt is out of the way, it's been time to tackle some other UFOs. 

My Celtic Solstice is ready to be quilted but stuck in the corner until my stencils arrive. Unfortunately they were mailed to California instead of to my new home in Missouri, and I haven't been able to get the stencil company to respond to my requests to re-mail them to the correct address.

Now last weekend my guild hosted our first big retreat, "Sew Me St. Louis." As usual, I have no photos. But it was a blast.

Here is all my stuff packed to go. I brought waaaaay too much, but I didn't want to run out of things to do. Everyone in the group brought projects they didn't want to work on, but had to. Being stuck in a room with a sewing machine is a great way to finish up those projects that have been dragging on. We were joking about trading projects because nobody liked the one they were working on.

The first thing I tackled was this bargello. It only needed a tiny bit of satin stitching, and now it is DONE! Quilting will come after Celtic Solstice is complete.

Then I worked on a few Christmas projects, managed to sew through my finger (yep), and got down to business with my Skill Builder BOM. I've fallen behind on this project (and I think I haven't even shared all my block finishes on here) but I am bound and determined to get it done by the end of the year. I don't want this project to drag on!

Here are the three blocks I completed over the weekend:

This is supposed to be spools of ribbon, FYI

All three of these were supposed to be completed with some kind of gluing technique, but after I tried it on the rotary cutter I determined that it was absolutely not my cup of tea and I used fusible web on the others.

In fabric news, I am working on my fabric choices for Grand Illusion:

I think I have the pinks down pat, although the color card is a little more salmon/coral than my pinks. I bought a lovely yellow that I think matches perfectly. But I am short on teals and as you can see, my greens are rather dark. I am debating if I want to go with the dark greens or go buy some lighter shades.

I am very excited because my mom will be participating this year with me! Working on a quilt is way more fun when there are others to work with. That's one reason I enjoyed the retreat so much, just being able to sit and chat with others about the problems we were facing on our quilts, to swap ideas and advice, was tons of fun!

Here are my mom's fabrics so far:

So bright and cheery!

Finally, my lovely monthly fabric bundle came in the mail yesterday. GORGEOUS, as always.

Do you do any monthly fabric clubs? I am loving this one, but realistically I haven't used many of the fabrics yet. They are fun and modern but for example they don't work well with a mystery like Grand illusion where the pattern should be subtle and color is most important. So I can't decide whether I should continue this club next year. But I really love receiving these, I look forward to them every month and it is a total delight when they arrive. So...what's your vote on whether I should continue?