It's been busy!

I guess I had better get a post in before April gets away from me!  March was a very busy month for me, with our quilt guild retreat at Lake Williamson.  I fully intended to have several posts on the retreat, but my intentions didn't make it into reality.
I had promised hubby that I would work on a quilt for him at retreat.  It was a Kansas Troubles Quilters  pattern called "Candle in the Window".  He had seen the quilt made up at A Quilting Bee in Mahomet, and wanted me to make it.  Not exactly an exciting thing for me, but I told him I would work on it at retreat.  Well, it is done, and is at the long arm as I type.  Pictures to come.

I did get the binding done on this quilt, also made for Wayne! The pattern is from Elisa's Backporch Design.  It is called Earl Grey, but I added an extra round to make it bigger, as well as a border, so I am calling it The Duke of Earl Grey, a nod to Wayne's teen years in the 1950s!  If you go to Elisa's website, she has a great video for doing those curves.

I did make some more of those mini pieced baskets and made a miniature quilt!  I was labeled as the crazy one at retreat...but I really enjoyed the challenge of working with small pieces and seams!  Sally Collins' technique made it so easy!  I will be taking an Heirloom Quilting class from Millie Sorrells in June.  I am going to wait until then to quilt this, as I am going to ask Millie for some advise!

I also finished up the cherries from Nancy Prince's class.  I used Sally Collins' technique to add that 1/8" border.  I used silk thread and silk batting.  Wayne thinks I should just frame this instead of finishing it off with binding.  I may just do that....eventually!

Speaking of Wayne, he is the reason I have been so busy!  Wayne had lost nearly 100#, and was feeling lots better physically.  So he traded in his motorscooter for Yamaha 250cc motorcycle.  Less than 24 hours later, he fell while getting off said motorcycle, fracturing his femur.  He spent almost 3 weeks in the hospital, and is home.  But he is to be no weight bearing on the leg that was fractured.  Fortunately, we had a power chair from when he fractured his proximal fibula (small bone in the lower leg just below the knee) last year.  So I have been doing private home care duties.

The weekend that Wayne fell, we were going to go to Shiisa Quilts in Bloomington, IN to take a Hexie Class from Mickey Depre.  I needed a hand project to do while in the hospital, so I taught myself to English paper piece.  I designed a little wall hanging on EQ7.  I am going to add some hand stitched embroidery ala Laura Wasilowski.

Wayne's accident also truncated my planned trip to Paducah!  I did manage to get down for Tuesday and Wednesday!  Circle of Life didn't get any awards or ribbons, but I am just thrilled to see it hanging at the Paducah Show!

So this brings us up to the current date.  I have been working on a few things.  This is my independent stab at thread painting!  I traced a picture that my nephew Logan Ingold had posted on his Facebook site, and followed Nancy Prince's instructions!  Not too sure what I will do with this. Probably quilt and bind it, and hang it in my sewing room!