Sit and Sew

My plans for this past week went awry again, which is hardly anything new for me. Not only do I suffer from poor time management skills, but working for a living also puts a squeeze on my quilting time. Nonetheless I still managed to get something accomplished despite myself. I haven't finished my Theresa's Stars top yet, but I have finished all 30 blocks and have started sewing them into rows. I also played on my Lizzie during the week with a couple of practice pieces and the new pantographs I got. The Poinsettia pattern from Willow Leaf, which I want to stitch on Theresa's Stars, is my new favorite; and I was able to stitch a reasonable facsimile the first time I tried it.

Does that mean I'm getting better at staying on the line? No! Effervescence, also from Willow Leaf is the one I was contemplating stitching on the Orange Crush quilt, but it proved to be more difficult than I would have thought. Those circles are a little over three inches in diameter, and staying on the line was hard! Another pantograph I got was Bubbles, and I think I'll probably try that one instead. Another advantage of a busy quilt top--you won't see the bobbles in my bubbles.

Friday Barbara, Sherry, Koleen and I got together for a sit and sew in Koleen's studio. Koleen has a lovely studio built on a slab where her garage used to be, and it is a lovely big, well lit space to sew in. We started out the day with Show and Tell, which is an integral part of any quilting get-together. This is the quilt I just finished for Koleen, Twelve Stars Til Christmas. It's very nearly a queen sized quilt. The ribbon candy border was lots of work but well worth the result. Koleen was planning to put this one on her frame for quilting yesterday, and I should get it back on Friday. For the quilt design, we settled on a tannebaum Christmas tree pattern in a gold-red-green variegated thread, and I can't wait to see it finished.

I finished the Tug O' War pattern for Koleen some time ago, and it has been waiting its turn in the quilting queue. It was more important to me for the Christmas one to get done first, so I'll be waiting a little longer for this one to get quilted. Koleen's original pattern had some flying geese blocks and a partial border in flying geese for an asymmetrical look. My husband likes everything to be perfectly symmetrical, so I made those blocks and then substituted more of the Jacob's Ladder blocks in the finished top. Although this is a huge quilt, the pieces are large, and it went together pretty quickly. This will go on my bed when it's done.

Koleen has released 2 other new patterns as well--Cardinals in the Courtyard and Making New Friends--and you can see the versions Barbara and Sherry made on Barbara's blog. You can see all 4 patterns on Koleen's website here.

Not only is Koleen a pattern designer and longarm quilter extraordinaire, but she is also a prolific quilter. All four of these are Koleen's quilts. The log cabins will go upstairs in the loft of her studio, which is still under construction and where she will eventually have overnight guests.

You're probably wondering what the heck I did all day. Before I went to Koleen's I cut out the pieces for 4 of MaryJ's strippies; and I cut up my Turning Twenty quilt blocks that I made way back in February or March into strips for a lasagna-style quilt, because I didn't really care for the Turning Twenty pattern. What I actually accomplished was I finished the last 4 of my Theresa's Stars quilt blocks, and I assembled one strippy top. Not so much really, but we had fun, socialized, and had a yummy lunch too.

Credit where credit is due:

Twelve Stars Til Christmas and Tug O' War quilt designs by Koleen Painchaud, The Quilted Cardinal