What a great month of stitching - I always love StitchMaynia, where my goal for the last several years has been to stitch every day. This year, I selected 5 works in progress and 5 new starts and I had blast working on all of them. I have quite a few big projects in the group of 10, so the finishes will probably be a little more spread out. My last start was an ornament and I also finished it on the last day of May. This jaunty little gnome is from the 2020 Just Cross-Stitch Ornaments Issue and I think he's pretty cute.
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| My Friendly Gnome by Ursula Michaels Designs Stitched on a mystery light pink linen with DMC threads |
In addition to my one stitching finish, I fully finished my Temperature Stars piece that I stitched last year and finished in January. I found this box frame at Michael's and it was the perfect size for this piece. The stitching is mounted on foam core with batting and then glued into the box frame. I also glued a key to the back that shows the colors for each temperature. It was such a fun stitch and I think I will hang this one in my bedroom so I see it every day.
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| My fully finished Temperature Stars by Zahra Design Studio |
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| Temperature key on the back |
My month included two trips. The first was a quick work trip to Virginia and I was able to bring along some stitching and find a little bit of time for both airplane and hotel room stitching. They really make me appreciate my comfortable chair and great light! The second trip was to a quilt retreat with a small group of friends. We tried a new retreat center this year and it was a hit. Seamless Getaways is in Forrest, IL and it can host 8 crafters. They've made the two car garage into a sewing room complete with eight tables, two ironing stations, a cutting table, and design walls all around the room. It was a great setup with great light. There are four bedrooms upstairs and I shared a room with my mom. The retreat center is on the edge of the small town and backs up to a cow pasture - we enjoyed seeing the cows each day that we were there.
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| Seamless Getaways Retreat Center |
I worked on four projects while at the retreat and am very happy with the progress I made. My first project was started in October at our Threads of Mine retreat. I made all the blocks at the last retreat and cut the sashing to be able to finish at this retreat. Everything went together really nicely and I have a finished quilt top! The quilt is called Quarter Square Log Cabin and it used a jelly roll. I selected one I had in my stash for a long, long time, Fresh Flowers by Deb Strain. I just love how bright, cheery and summery this quilt is. I also purchased an extra wide back for it when we shopped at Lost Arts Fabric Shop in the next town.
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| Tag-a-longs Luggage Tags |
My next project was a new quilt and I got it cut out, blocks pieced, on the design wall and then rows webbed together. I will put it together over the next few weeks as I need to have this one fully finished by the end of the month. The pattern is called Down and Across and it's from the book Cozy Modern Quilts by Kim Schaeffer.
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| My webbed together rows over my longarm - patiently waiting to be pieced into a top |
My last project was a leader/ender project and it will become a table runner. It is based off of a quilt pattern called Fly A Kite by Sweetwater. The pattern uses 10" squares that are then cut into triangles, so I cut it in half and am using 5" squares. I sewed together all the pieces I had and will cut some more soon.
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| Leader/ender pieces for a future table runner |
Our group had a great time together and we had lovely weather for the weekend, so enjoyed cocktails and snacks on the back patio each night. It was really fun to watch the cows :)
I did a little shopping at the retreat and also a little a few weeks before. There is a quilt shop near us that is closing and I couldn't resist a few pieces of fabric, some zippers, a new pattern and a ruler. This was my first quilting purchase for the year!
I also had a quilting UFO finish at the start of the month (it seems so long ago, I almost forgot to include it!) - I made this block years ago at a quilt retreat and always planned to make it into a pillow. I love the bright colors and finally quilted it and made the pillow for my daughter. I really love how it turned out! The letter is from Jaybird Quilts book Alphabet Soup.
As you may be able to tell, my May was a great one! It also included the return of my daughter from her freshman year at college and the last day of 11th grade for my son - we are now enjoying the slightly slower days of summer and I am trying to soak in all the time I can with both of them.
Here are the stats for the end of the month:
Stitching time with Kate at Life in Pieces:
31/31 days with crafting time (hooray!) = 100%
Stash Report with Donna at quiltpaintcreate:
My first month this year to add fabric, I am glad I also used a lot!
Fabric added this month: 7 7/8 yards
Fabric used this month: 7 1/8 yards
Fabric added year to date: 7 7/8 yards
Fabric used year to date: 13 1/8 yards
Net fabric used: 5 1/4 yards
FFO Challenge Tracking:
Stitching projects: +1 finish, -1 FFO = 41 finishes waiting to be FFO'ed
Quilting projects: +1 new quilt top, -1 pillow = 9 quilts waiting to be finished
Thanks for your visit and see you again soon - there will be a lot of fun to share over the rest of the summer!
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