My Pick up Project

In my last post I wrote about some of my quilting/textile adventures in London. When I returned home, mid-January, it was back to business! There was much to do to get ready for the upcoming American Quilter's Society Quiltweek, held for the first time here in Phoenix, Arizona. I had the finishing touches to complete for new patterns, a few quilts to finish binding, and a new fabric line with Henry Glass Fabrics to edit. It was almost impossible with all of this busyness to do a little stitching (save the binding), but thank heavens for my pick up project. More about that later...

Here is one of the new patterns I was able to finish just in the nick of time for AQS Quiltweek. It's called "Breakfast Tea", and it's completely pieced using my Elementary line of fabrics.

Breakfast Tea

And another pattern, "Bats in the Barn", a fun mini quilt -or it could be a table topper, too.

Bats in the Barn

AQS Quiltweek was a four day event, February 5 through 8. It was wonderful to see many old friends and to meet new friends too. Our booth was across the aisle from the Arizona Quilter's Hall of Fame booth, which was hosted by the nicest group of women I had the pleasure of meeting for the first time. We were all antique quilt lovers, and two of them came back one afternoon with some wonderful antique quilts they had just purchased from one of the vendors. Although I didn't purchase a quilt, I allowed myself to buy some sweet little quilt blocks:

 

Two of the blocks have a conversational print with little keys:

This key print was reproduced at least 15 years ago, and one I used for a quilt I finished in 1999. It was fun to find the original in my little quilt blocks. Here are some details from the blocks in my quilt where I used that reproduction print with keys:

 

Well, as I said before, with all of the busyness, it was hard to get any stitching in. But fortunately, I prepared what I call a "pick up project" last summer, that I can "pick up" and work on a few minutes at a time, if need be, when I don't have extended periods of time. 

If you follow my Facebook page, you may remember a block I pictured that I was working on during one of my airplane flights last summer. Below is that block on my design wall, in a more finished state. I'm auditioning the center circle fabric, and I'm planning (although it can always change) to use the brown stripe as a border. So far, I like the way it's turning out.

After making this first tester block, I decided to make the outer rings of each block first, and then follow with the inner rings. The outer ring is made up of 64 pieces, so it seems a bit less daunting to make all of the outer rings first. 

So far, I've completed enough outer rings for 3 more blocks - progress! And all of the piecing was done on planes, in hotel rooms and with 10 or 15 minutes to spare here and there during my "busy" times.


By the way, the name of this quilt block is Georgetown Circle.


Do you have a pick up project that you rely on when things get hectic?

Until next time,

Martha