I have been quiet for some time. My parents are getting really old now so I have been driving a lot between them and my home (2 hours drive). They are 90 and 91 and still live in their own home, but there are challenges now, that I have to deal with. The last week, though, I have been in the UK to experience rose gardens and that has been a wonderful week. I feel refreshed now. Not much sewing as my garden is big and everything is growing very fast. I try to keep up with the weeds. A lot of hard work.
It's so nice to see your familiar faces. I promise I will be back with new projects.
BJ, I love your quilt. I wonder how it will look without the golden border because I liked that a lot, too.

Rita, what a fun idea! But how to do it so that it wouldn't become such a burden for someone to handle. I wonder how it would work to treat it like those chain letters you see: Start with some number of names on a list, then you make a block and send one block to each of the names, say 5 or whatever number we agree on, add your name to the bottom and take off the top name. Or something like that. I usually ignore those types of emails or letters, so I might not be describing it correctly, but maybe it would work in this case?

Margo I am delighted that you are back at it again! 5 quilts? Any change of some photos?

BJ your quilt looks beautiful. I think 'Aprille' is a good name as Robin suggested. And then you could do a quilt for each month and call it your Chaucer series, LOL.

Geneva you must be exhausted from building and moving, your energy will come back. I have found mug rugs a great way of keeping the hand in even when I am tired or short on time.

I think TQS needs another exchange to create a bit of excitement. Does anybody have any suggestions or would anybody be interested in volunteering to organize it? I live too far away and the postage from the USA to Ireland has doubled at least in the past year so that's not practical. However, I was thinking about what I would personally enjoy doing as an exchange and while trawling the net today I came across a free pattern from McCalls called 'The House That Kaffe Built'. It is a quilt of miniature paper-pieced houses. I think the pattern calls for 30 houses but it is a mini quilt so one could increase the number easily. Wouldn't it be fun to have a quilt full of all our TQS friends houses? It's just a suggestion

Here's a link to the pattern
http://www.mccallsquilting.com/mccallsquilting/articles/The_House_that_Kaffe_Built

I'm still moving from my 37 year old city home to my new home in the country an hour and a half away. It's a slow process moving 1 car load at a time so I'm starting to take 2 trips a week now. I still check in on TQS daily. That's about all the entertainment I'm getting lately, not counting all of the grandkids b-day parties, including one today. I'm hoping to get most of the moving done this summer so I can get back to quilting in the fall. And the building that was damaged by the ice storm last December is finally starting to get repaired and turned into a retreat center. I finished editing the floor plan last night, I think. It's going to have room for about 24 retreaters so I need to make more bed quilts. That will keep my busy for awhile. I'm enjoying reading about what everyone is up to.

Geneva, welcome to the Northwest! Have you been to the quilt shop in Prosser yet? I've heard lots of good things about it but haven't been there myself. Hope you enjoy your new home.

I have missed my TQS friends also. BJ your quilt is awesome!

We have moved, that is my excuse. I retired 12-31-13 and thought I'd have lots of time for quilting. Ha! I just realized that we have been moving for 6 months. We built a new home, sold our home in Northern CA and moved to Eastern WA. We've also sold my mom's home and moved her up here to an apt.... twice! (She didn't like the first apt.) All since May. My sewing room is finally coming together. Yay! I'm so excited to have a room just for me to sew in. I'm still sorting through decades of sewing stuff that has been hidden in storage.

I have enjoyed making some mug rugs during all this turmoil. Thank goodness for that!

It seems my creative energy has been left in a box somewhere. I'm hoping when we get a little more settled, I will find the box it is in and let it out!

Take care everyone!

Geneva

I'm glad to see the response to your question, BJ! My daily habit is that I check the forum every morning and evening and have noticed the decline in posts too. I was really glad to see the response to the Jacqueline de Jonge quilt just to see that there are plenty of quilters paying attention to this site, just not posting on the forum. I've loved TQS a long time and feel that I know so many of you because of all of our posts over the years.

Thanks! I did an in-the-hoop embroidery with white thread on the black Radiance and it came out really well. I'm quilting around the words now...slow work, and then I have added some additional swirls on each side of the text box like the border and will be painting those. I think sometimes we have to complete our quilts before they say their names. LOL

Oh, wow, BJ!! Your quilt is stunning!! Can't wait to see it complete! How did you get the lettering into it? Was it printed on fabric? As to name, how about simply "Aprille"? I'm having trouble coming up with a name for my Hoffman challenge quilt, too. Maybe it will tell me as I get closer to completion

Wow, there is some work in that quilt...It's looking great and I look forward to seeing the finished quilt.
I don't have any ideas what to call it but I'm sure one of the TQS family will come up with something.
Good luck.
Anne

Sew nice to see you all and what you are doing. I have been working for about a year on a single quilt I began the design work on in 2012. :shock: It's my Chaucer silk quilt that puts a folk artsy central theme into an illuminated manuscript style quilt, thereby mixing up two centuries. LOL Here's my design picture (not the quilt, just a design).



I have completed the top and am currently quilting it. I decided not to put the small gold border on it, but to just bind it in black. I'm using silk dupioni for the center and silk/cotton Radiance for everything else, even the back. I'm going to paint the border after I finish the quilting. I did some practice on this and like the results:



The appliques are really tiny and I used Pat Holly's method she presented in quilt show #608 and Superior silk thread.

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I cannot figure out what to name it. Suggestions are welcome.

Here's a blog I did about my plans: http://www.blog.bjfabricartist.com/2014/06/progress-and-plans/

I am really getting fed up with Facebook and am really reducing my activities there. It takes lots of precious time, and I even got blocked by another quilter because she completely misunderstood something I said (hoof in mouth, or rather hoof on keyboard) and apologies did not seem enough. This forum has a much friendlier feeling.

Sew Robin, this is the first year since I started entering Hoffman Challenges in 2008 that I decided not to enter. I have so many quilts in my plans, and I keep coming up with more. Good luck on your entry. Margo...it is beyond question that your getting your mojo back is something we all rejoice about, and yes, I hope to goodness this website and this forum continues for a long time to come.

Margo, I'm glad your getting back into the swing of things! I look forward to seeing some pictures!!

I've been busy with work and finishing up my Laura Nownes quilt. I'll post some pictures on that forum when I get a chance.

BJ, I'm glad you started this thread! I've had a very busy spring. Early April was the Ogallala Quilt Show, and I entered four quilts (one of which I finished at 2 am the morning they had to be turned in ), then in late April I was lucky enough to be able to go to Paducah !!! which was awesome! Immediately after I returned, I tackled a huge copyediting project (1400 manuscript pages to be edited in a month—I didn't pick up a needle the whole month but when that check comes in, I can buy the sewing cabinet I want, so it was worth it), and now I'm working diligently on my quilt for the Hoffman challenge. Once I get that off, I'll try to blog again. I, too, have made a lot of wonderful friends through this Forum, so I'd like to see it be a very active place!

Yes, indeed ! It has been very, very quiet here. I've been thinking folks have been enjoying spring/summer
as for many it was long in coming....sewing and catching up !! Chinese Whispers is done and Mug Rugs have
slowed down. BOM is getting done..even with pattern glitches...easy fixes, really ladies !
Maybe we need to show off some of our work !! What have you all been doin'?? Garden Pics are nice, too.