I'm Baaack!

Wow.  I didn't realize how long it has been since I last posted.  Six months and so much has happened.  This will be a rather long post so I'll keep the quilty goodness at the beginning and add the personal update at the end in case anyone is interested.  In early April I spent a wonderful week in Lake Tahoe at quilt camp with many wonderful ladies and my high school friend, Connie.  I worked on finishing some WIPs and came home inspired and thankful.  I'll be sharing these soon. 

I've been successfully keeping up with Moda Blockheads block of the week despite some real challenges (see personal below).  Here's my work so far:

 

 

I recently purchased Jo Morton's Jo's Little Favorites II and fell in love with most of the quilts.  I finished the triangle one last week.  It is so satisfying to work on smaller quilts that can actually be finished.  Both quilts are hand quilted.

Courthouse Steps

Half-Square Triangle Challenge
 

Finally, here is my Circa 2016.  This was a sew along with Temecula Quilt Co. last year.  It hangs in our family room.  It is the only quilt I can ever remember my husband saying he likes!

Circa 2016

Tomorrow's Slow Stitching will be some hexi flowers.

******* personal info*******

After my delightful time in Tahoe, I decided to take care of some routine health maintenance which included my mammogram.  Much to my dismay they called be back, I had a biopsy and was diagnosed with breast cancer in early May.   I had lumpectomy surgery and a lymph node biopsy in mid-May.  I feel extremely fortunate that my cancer is small and an early stage, however it didn't get me out of chemo.  I had my first of 4 treatments last week, and while it certainly isn't a walk in the park, it is manageable.

I hesitated to share this much personal information, but there are two things that I want to share with my quilting sisters.  First, if you are not regularly getting your mammos, please start.  Do it EVERY year, if possible.  Women in their 60s are most at risk.  The second thing I want to share is how much being a quilter has helped me brave my frightening new world.  Hand stitching, reading your blogs, and prepping new projects have kept me from falling into despair.  We are so blessed to have this hobby to help us through the challenging times in our lives. 
With gratitude,
Barb

This Week in the Sewing Room

Its been a very productive week for me in the sewing room.  We got home from Arizona last Friday and within a week I finished my En Provence Mystery Quilt top as well as my Garden Party quilt top.  Of course it has done nothing but rain here in California (no complaints from me, as I think we are finally out of the drought). 

I basically used Bonnie Hunter's colors for the mystery except that I used Civil War era reproduction fabrics so the quilt has a more muted look to it.  I'm happy with it, even though the pattern isn't as bold as Bonnie's.  I sure did get A LOT of practice unsewing on this one.  Many ways to screw up!

Here is a close-up so you can see the colors better.

My Garden Party quilt just needed the two final borders to be done.  The pattern came from Bonnie Hunter's Addicted to Scraps book.  I prepared the back today and will drop it off to the long arm quilter on Thursday. 

 

 

 

Here's a close up

 

Finally, I'm starting to pin-baste my Allietare quilt.  My hand quilting buddy, Nancy, and I planned the quilting, and I'm looking forward to getting started . Not bad for a week's work- Oh how I love being retired !

Slow Sunday Stitching

Although I usually do slow stitching on Sunday (in fact, most days), I have been bad about posting pictures to Kathy's Blog.  I'm going to try to make it a habit in 2017.  I'm sorry about the quality of these pics.  I've misplaced the battery charger to my good camera, so I've used my phone.

I had planned on working on my big stitch spider web quilt, but as you can see someone thought it would make a cozy nap spot.  Jack thinks its his personal responsibility to lie on every quilt I make including the unfinished ones.

I'll just work on my hand-pieced Sunburst quilt.  I'm using www.cindyblackberg.com Cindy Blackberg's stamp set, and they are coming together easily.  I've made 8 since before Christmas and my plan is to make 16 for a wall quilt. No hurry, just very relaxing. 

Have a great Sunday stitching.  Stay safe and warm!

Slow Stitching

I had to lay aside the spider web quilt because it is too heavy for summer quilting.  Since I didn't have anything basted, I looked in the UFO closet and found this old beauty.  I made the top in 1988!! and started quilting it.  For some reason, I got tired of it, put it in the closet, and forgot about it.  I have been working on it steadily for about a month, so I only have the border left to do.  This is really sloooooooooooow stitching!

Baby Boy Quilt

Our nephew and niece in Indiana are expecting their second baby, a boy, this month.  They have already been blessed with the beautiful Vivian for whom I made this quilt.  I love sewing for girls!  Much to my dismay, my granddaughter hates pink and it is one of my favorite colors.

For Vivian's brother, I decided to use my recycled shirt bin.  I found the pattern here. Click on Shirt Quilt at the top of the page.  It was fun to work with the shirts because they're soft and many of them had belonged to my husband and son. 

 

I need to get this in the mail this week.

 

 

 

 

Better Late than Never

When preparing for quilt camp in late May, I wanted to bring some hand quilting but didn't want to bring a full size quilt.  I went through my WIPS and found these two quilts nearly completely quilted.  Why, I wondered, did I stop when I was so close to being done?  They were then put in a closet (you know, out of sight, out of mind).  It really only took a few hours to finish both of them.

 

This first quilt was a Jo Morton Little Women's Group quilt from 2006.  The hand applique and 95% of the hand quilting was complete when I rescued it from the closet. 

This next quilt was also hand appliqued and hand quilted.  It was probably 80% quilted when rescued.  Hopefully you can click to enlarge the pic to see that the background is closely stippled. 
This quilt was started in 2001.  It came from the book Once Upon a Season by Piece O' Cake Designs.  It was one of my earliest attempts at applique. Stay tuned for more "closet find" finishes in the future.  It's a great feeling to have them done.

On the home front, we had to replace my raised garden beds this year.  They weren't ready until June 1 and I was worried it was too late to plant (we have a very long growing season here in California).  Below are pictures taken June 1 and August 1.  It is unbelievable how much the garden has grown in 2 months.  I've already harvested more zucchini than we can freeze, eat and give away.  The tomatoes are just starting and the green beans are producing enough for dinner once a week (1 plant).  The eggplant and peppers have fruit starting as well.  We installed drip and the regular watering has made a huge difference.

Where the Heck Have I Been??

No posts since early May.  I tell myself no one really misses them but I know how much I enjoy other people's blogs so I'm determined to keep trying to become regular in this endeavor.  Since May I've been to Quilt Camp in Lake Tahoe, made a trip to Maine, Boston, and Cape Cod in June, visited Lake Tahoe again in July, and did lots of sewing and quilting.  I'll post quilty things from these trips over the next few posts.

Today I finished the latest Westering Women block from Barbara Brackman.  As you can see, I'm digging into my pink and brown stash for this sampler. 

I'm really enjoying the history lessons that accompany these blocks.  Even after teaching the westward migration for many years, I didn't realize how crowded the trails were.  We never stop learning, do we?

I've also been spending as much time as possible with these two darlings.  Here we are at Happy Hollow Park and Zoo in San Jose.