In My Neighborhood

It's time for the Theme-a-Lious February wrap up.  Let's revisit this months theme first:

Figural February

Who are the people in your neighborhood...your WIP neighborhood, that is? Give your people-populated projects some face time this month.

Since I didn't work on any WIPs in February (I think I'm in a slump), I'm going to put my own twist on this month's theme.   The people in my EGA neighborhood are working on our Chapter SAL.  I hadn't started yet so I decided it was time to pick it up and join in.  This is Toccata I from The Drawn Thread.  I don't mind a speciality stitch every great once in a while but this project is FULL of them.  A little, no a lot, outside my comfort zone...which isn't necessarily a bad thing.  I love to learn new things - at least that's what I keep telling myself!  Wishing you all happy stitches this week!

Apologies for the iPhone photo

Cherie, This One is for YOU!

I've had a finish!  And it's an absolute miracle because I honestly thought this would end up as a bonfire project.  I first blogged about this project in June.   The tiny flying geese (1 1/8" x 1 3/4" unfinished) sat on my sewing table every day since then.  I'd move them around a little and then look at the trash can and then move them around a bit more.  Flying geese and I aren't on the best of terms - I just haven't found my go to method of getting them pieced accurately.  Working with tiny ones certainly didn't hide that flaw.  While packing up for retreat, I decided to take them with me and I spent the good part of a day assembling this little quilt top.  Here is my humility project in all it's glory!  I've since wet it down and blocked it so it looks better and the chalk lines are out.  

Just to give you an idea at how small these flying geese finish -

Some points are cut off and some don't come to the edge like they should.  But when I look at it, I see something that I accomplished, something I didn't let get the best of me and even something I've learned from.  I see something to aspire to and hopefully something that will one day demonstrate progress in my skill set because I'll have improved.   So much from a tiny little project!

What's Your Number?

Earlier this week, I had someone ask me how many WIPs I had.  I thought I had about 12 but wanted to give an honest answer.  So I went and looked through my sewing room and counted.  First up, the project boxes in the closet. 

Then there are a couple on one of my sewing tables.  I was on retreat a couple of weeks ago and these are two projects I worked on there and in bits and pieces since I returned.

Then there are a couple on the floor.  Also pulled out from underneath my table (there wasn't room in the closet) because I was putting my sewing tote away from retreat.

And over the chair - these are the quilts that are probably a couple of hours away from being finished.  Seems borders brings things to a grinding halt.  There are a couple projects on the design wall - I actually forgot to count the Farmers Wife project until I took this picture.  So I've upped my count by 1.   Make that 2 because I forgot my bee blocks.

It turns out I have 19 quilting projects started but not finished.  For some of you, you may have far more WIPs/UFOs than 19.  That is perfectly ok.  The thing is, 19 isn't perfectly ok for me.  I know I tend to be a "work on a little of this and then a little of that" type of quilter but frankly, it's time to get some things done.  So, I'm going to be plugging away finishing up a few things and maybe even trashing a few things (which is hard).  I actually finished up a small project and will post about that later (Cherie you'll recognize it!) and then I went on to do a little bit of this and a little bit of that.   Maybe next weekend I can dedicate some time to borders and get those quilts on the chair ready for quilting.

Answering this question turned out to be a wonderful and revealing exercise for me.  Make no mistake, I'm not planning on getting all of these done, but to instead get them to an amount I'm comfortable with.  Who knows what number that is, I'll know it when I get there.  In the meantime, I need to get my rear in gear!  

Feast for the Eyes & Learning Something New

In January, one of our EGA members, Linda,  in Orlando came up and taught us how to make a cube finish.  She and Carol also brought up some of their stitched projects to share with the group.  Three tables were covered.  My eyes couldn't take it all in!   The box on the end in the picture below was made by Carol's husband.  

Before the class, Carol gave us a Show and Tell.  They brought several cube finishes - they call it a Cube It finish - as this is the finish we were going to learn in class.  

The tables were covered in unframed large projects.  Boxes were filled with smalls.  Truly a feast for the eyes.  I felt very fortunate to see it all.

We also had a special guest in attendance - Cathy from Inspired Needle.  She has been a good friend to our EGA Chapter.

I didn't take any pictures of the process of finishing my cube but here is my finished cube.  I stitched an ornament that I wasn't super in love with but I do like the way it came out.  I'll definitely be using this finish again.  The hardest part was the bow and I'm not completely happy with it but I'm done with messing with it.  Except I might add more gold.  Maybe.

Here's a picture of the side ribbon.  That's actually 3 ribbons layered on each other.  We used these steel pins.  No glue.  The pins came 225 to a box and I think I had 25 or 35 left over.

This is also my January Theme-a-Licious project.  January's theme was Jardin January - anything to do with a garden or flowers.  Those dolls are sitting under a tree - trees are in gardens.  Works, right?