Have You Ever Wondered...

what 15 lap quilts quilted and ready to bind looks like? Well, here's the answer!

Do you remember this picture of these when they were just tops? There were only 14, but I just got the top that my sister Barb made. These are only 36" x 48" and they are all quilted. The binding is cut, pieced together and ready to be attached. Now, I was told that this pile looks kind of small, but you have to remember that they are only folded one time, and they are small. Nonetheless, I'm pretty excited to be at this point, as I only started these toward the end of the May. Each quilt is a different pattern and I'll take and post pictures when they are all complete.

I won't have a chance to work on these until next week because the Cleveland Breast Cancer 3-Day starts tomorrow. Please think good thoughts and pray plead for good weather. The forecast shows rain Friday and Saturday, and temperatures in the high 80's and low 90's. Well, we've walked before in similar weather so it won't be terrible, but it sure is easier when the weather is good.

I'll update you about the walk and other info next week.

Stash Report - Week 30

These Honor Flight quilts have really helped my stash reports lately. I have a total of seven of them quilted and I'm ready to do another couple later today. Each one uses
1 1/2 yards of fabric, and this week's report accounts for that as well as my purchase of the backing fabric for four more of these quilts. That sure does help make the report look good. I have also quilted three other quilts this weekend, but they are going to have to wait a week or so before I can get to binding them. They also used a substantial amount of backing fabric.

Here's the report:
Fabric Added This Week: 6.0 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 134.25 yards
Fabric Used This Week: 24.5yards
Fabric Used to Date: 266.125 yards
Net Fabric Used for 2011: 131.875 yards
UFOs Done, Done, Done (Pieced, Quilted, and Bound): 7
UFOs Still to Do: ???
New Quilts Done, Done, Done (Pieced, Quilted, and Bound): 12
Quilts Ready to be Quilted and Bound: 26 (14 of which are Honor Flight quilts and 7 of those are quilted. The rest of them will be done within two weeks.)

Check out how other quilters are doing with their stash usage. Go to Judy L.'s Patchwork Times.

I'm Doing It

I quilted today!

I used my friend's HQ16 and quilted one large quilt and one medium quilt. Nothing spectacular, just meander but it was so much easier than quilting them on my Bernina. I was going to quilt some of the Honor Flight quilts on the HQ today, but quite honestly, since they're only 36" x 48" and I'm slow at loading the machine (even with the red snappers); I'm doing these at home. I quilted four of them this evening. I still have to trim and bind everything, but at least they're quilted and one step away from the Done, Done and Done (pieced, quilted and bound) pile!

I'll try to remember to take some pictures and post them.

Off to sleep so I can go to an auction in the morning and quilt in the afternoon.

Avoidance

I should be quilting these quilts but I really didn't feel like it today. Do you think it had anything to do with the temperatures in the upper 90s? Probably not since we have air conditioning, but I thought it sounded like a good excuse. Really, I just wanted to piece something and not quilt.

So, instead of quilting, I made this.

This is another Honor Flight quilt and it's a variation of the Fast Forward quilt I made earlier this month. (I looked at the designer's website - Jaybird Quilts and found this quilt and the pattern is called Unwind.) I just know that when I was making my original quilt, I thought it would be cool to not include the vertical sashing, use gold for the background and only patriotic fabrics for the "ribbons." I envisioned gold stars appearing between the ribbons and look; there they are! I plan to bind this in gold, but who knows?

I like how this turned out and tomorrow I WILL do some quilting! I promise.

Are You Serious?!? It's Wednesday!

It's already Wednesday and I haven't touched that pile of Honor Flight quilts! Where did the time days go? I taught a class Monday night, and then another Tuesday afternoon. Lynn and Ty were here for dinner and a visit Tuesday night and I visited a hospice patient this morning. Well, actually I had originally only planned to be with the patient for a couple of hours this morning, but there were some issues and I was there until around 2PM. Well, there you go! That accounts for my last few days and the reason nothing has been done. No more excuses. I've got to get busy, or find some other REALLY good excuse to put it off even longer!

Design Wall Monday

It's Monday. YEAH!!! I love Design Wall Monday. I get so inspired when I see the wonderful works that people post. Sometimes, the quilt is such an intricate and detailed beauty that I wonder if I would ever be talented enough to do that. Other times, I'm simply in awe of the fabric choices that are made when making more traditional or "easy" blocks. I often think, "I would never have thought about putting those colors or fabrics together?" I often have "ah ha" moments when I see a quilt layout that includes blocks that I have made, but they are put together in a unique manner. Simply put, Design Wall Monday is wonderful. Thank you all for sharing your projects and talents!

Now, here's what's on my wall.

I made this block for a woman who is a member of an on-line group to which I belong. She was gracious enough to give me the pattern, as long as I made a block for her to use in a charity quilt she will be donating. I haven't made my blocks yet, but here's the one for her. She gave me a couple of fabric choices for her block, and one of them was patriotic, so here you go. I really like how this turned out and now have to decide what fabrics I'll use for mine.

Before I can make my star quilt though, I have to get this pile of 14 Honor Flight quilts quilted and bound. They're only 36" x 48" so it won't take long. I just need to sit down and do it. Maybe I'll start when I get home from class tonight. (We're NOT going to discuss the other 11 or so quilts that are ready also. Their time will come.)

What's on your design wall today? Go to Judy L.'s Patchwork Times to check out what other quilters have on their walls. Share your project also. I really do need one more project to inspire me and keep me from getting a good night's sleep!  :-)

Stash Report - Week 29 and Productivity

I was a little busy beaver this past week. I was able to finish the tops for 3 Honor Flight quilts and make another quilt top using a charm pack that I recently picked up. Of course I added some fabric, but more went out than came in. YEAH!!

Here are two of the Honor Flight quilts that I haven't posted yet. The Stars and Squares quilt was on my design wall Monday and by Wednesday I hadn't touched it. I decided right then and there that it was NOT going to be on the wall again this coming Monday, so I sat down and finished it that night. The Friendship Stars top was done as a leader/ender project so I kind of feel like it's a bonus quilt. I know it looks like it's not done, but it is. I had to add the small red border to the top and bottom (not the sides) because of the size requirements. I'll be binding the whole thing is the same red, so I don't think it will look bad.

So, while I was at a local shop Tuesday, I saw this charm pack and thought it was really cute.

I carried this pack around with me for a while and decided that if I was going to get it, I had to get some coordinating fabrics as well. I just knew that I really didn't have anything at home that would look good. Well, here's the result of that thinking.

After I finished the Stars and Squares quilt, I started on a project using these fabrics. This is what I was piecing at the same time as the Friendship Stars.

It's hard to believe that quilt was made using the same pattern as the second quilt in this post.

Ok, enough rambling. Here's the report.
Fabric Added This Week: 10.5 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 128.25 yards
Fabric Used This Week: 11.5yards
Fabric Used to Date: 241.625 yards
Net Fabric Used for 2011: 113.375 yards
UFOs Done, Done, Done (Pieced, Quilted, and Bound): 7
UFOs Still to Do: ???
New Quilts Done, Done, Done (Pieced, Quilted, and Bound): 12
Quilts Ready to be Quilted and Bound: 25 (14 of which are Honor Flight quilts that will be done within the next couple of weeks.)

Check out how other quilters are doing with their stash usage. Go to Judy L.'s Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday

I'm still working away on the Honor Flight quilts and I've finished 11 of them. The 12th one (or at least 1/3 of it), is on the design wall now. I've been working on these as leader/ender projects or two at a time so I'm okay with them not being done yet. I have until mid-August to finish them, and since I'm going to quilt them with a basic meander or all-over stitch the quilting shouldn't take too long. Of course, there's still the binding, but I really enjoy binding so I don't see that being much of a problem. Beside, I can bind while I'm watching baseball.  :-)

This 12th one definitely takes a bit more concentration than the last two did. It's a little deceiving, but this isn't just 4-Patch units with some stars stuck in there. I have to be careful of the layout or the pattern changes. So you can see the difference, here's the one that I was working on last Design Wall Monday.

Here's one that I finished earlier today. It's an adaptation of the quilt that I'm raffling off for this year's 3-Day Breast Cancer walk. It has a whitish border that you can't see because of the white design wall! I just read someplace that your design wall should be covered with black batting or fabric so the colors "pop." Well, this just proves that theory, now doesn't it?

Here's the raffle quilt. Do you see the similarities? I decided to go less scrappy and not have the pieced border on the Honor Flight quilt because it can only be 36" x 48". The raffle quilt, on the other hand is 84" x 104". I am going to bind the Honor Flight quilt with scraps of all the reds and blues, so that should help make it a bit more "interesting."

Each of the Honor Flight quilts is unique and most are a smaller or adapted version of another quilt I've made. I didn't want to simply make red, white and blue blocks of whatever project I was working on because the blocks would have more than likely been 10"-12" and I decided that I wanted to make the blocks more to scale with the overall size of the quilt. I know it's more work, but I just would not be happy the other way.

Check out what other quilters have on their design walls today. Go to Jude L.'s Patchwork Times.

Stash Report - Week 28

You know that sometimes life and it's responsibilities just get in the way of what you really want to do. People get sick and you have to take care of them; you have meetings to attend; or you have to get that project done that has a deadline. Even though you'd rather be sewing, gardening, reading, or whatever, you just have to set your priorities and do what needs to be done. I don't know about you, but sometimes I really don't like being a responsible adult. I really don't like to have to concentrate so much.

There's so much pressure you just want to throw your hands in the air and say "No more!"

This past week was full of responsibilities, and I had to "play" adult, so not as much sewing went on I'd have liked. I did finish my Fast Forward top and one more Honor Flight quilt top so it wasn't a total "do nothing" week. I changed the Fast Forward pattern a little bit. I had one less block per column and I added borders to the top and bottom. I'm really okay with how this turned out, even though I had so many issues last week. You really don't see the cut off points, do you?

 Tomorrow starts another busy week, so today I'm going to do a couple of relaxing things. I'd like to quilt a couple of small projects and maybe even get the binding sewn on. Who knows, I may just sit back, kick my feet up and do nothing.

 
Thanks Quinn and Sadie for being here this past week and providing some much needed laughter, entertainment and photo ops. (By the way, they were NOT part of the responsibility blahs.)

Here's the Report:
Fabric Added This Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 117.75 yards
Fabric Used This Week: 7.75yards
Fabric Used to Date: 230.125 yards
Net Fabric Used for 2011: 112.375 yards
UFOs Done, Done, Done (Pieced, Quilted, and Bound): 7
UFOs Still to Do: ???
New Quilts Done, Done, Done (Pieced, Quilted, and Bound): 12
Quilts Ready to be Quilted and Bound: 21

Check out how other quilters are doing with their stash usage. Go to Judy L.'s Patchwork Times. 

Design Wall Monday

I'm doing it! I'm posting twice in the same week. It's been quite a long time since that's happened, but hopefully I've broken the drought and you'll be hearing from me more frequently.

Here's what's on my wall right now. The Fast Forward pattern is by Jaybird Quilts and I love how it looks. My friend Kare is making one also, but like the pattern, she's using black as her contrasting fabric and her's is much more scrappy than mine. I really like Kare's quilt! It'll be fun to see them next to each other.

The column to the left is sewn together and I'm on working on the next one. Once all the columns are sewn, I'll add long, vertical sashing strips.

Now, I'm having a bit of trouble here because of a mistake I made early in the process. I decided to use some strips I had received in a swap for the ribbon pieces and supplement them with the leftover Blue Hawaii Bali Pop pieces that I had on hand here. Well, if you've ever participated in a swap, you know that 2 1/2" is not the same for everyone. Some of my strips were a bit bigger and some smaller. I didn't think about that small detail when I started sewing the strips together late on night; and I had already cut the contrasting fabric using the Lazy Angle Ruler, which in retrospect I shouldn't have done first. Anyway, not all of my strip sets equaled exactly 6 1/2" but because it was late and I was excited to see how this would turn out, I didn't pay any attention to the minor detail. Well, I should have because when I sewed the contrasting piece to the strip set piece, they didn't quite match up. Now remember, I said it was late when I was doing this and I was excited, so I just told myself that I would simply trim the finished block later - you know, when I was sewing the columns. Well, to make a long story short (I know, I'm too late to make it short), trimming them wouldn't really work because I would be cutting off the tip of the blocks. UGHHHH. I decided that I would fudge the pieces when sewing the columns; and let me tell you, that's certainly taking a lot longer than fixing the strip sets would have! Some of the tips are being cut off no matter what I do, but I've decided to live with it!

I'm working on another Honor Flight quilt and making it as a leader/ender project at the same time as Fast Forward. Here's what I have so far, but since this is really simple and small, I should finish it at about the same time as I finish the Fast Forward. I love it when I can finish two projects at the same time. I wish it would happen more often.

This will be a smaller version of David and Rachel's quilt; and of course it will be out of patriotic fabrics. I think it's appropriate that I might actually get to work on that today, don't you?

Check out what other quilters have on their design walls this Fourth of July!
Go to Judy L's Patchwork Times.

Stash Report - Week 27

It seems that I've only been able to manage one post per week lately, and I seriously think I need to change that! The key is organization, and I seem to be lacking in that department lately. I've been busy, but that's not a good excuse. I could easily post when I'm watching/listening to the ball game. I know how to multi-task. I really do; but lately I've just chosen to not do it. Maybe it's the weather. Yeah, let's blame it on the weather.

I did some sewing-related work this week. I finished an embroidery order and added a couple of varsity letters to a jacket belonging to the son of a friend. I also did do some quilt piecing, but more than anything, I bought fabric - 20.75 yards of fabric! Fortunately, everything that was purchased will be used within the next couple of weeks. My numbers are so out of whack this week because I bought backing fabric for the 12 Honor Flight quilts. I just finished adding the borders to the tenth of these quilts and I'm looking forward to finishing up the piecing so I can start the quilting. I'm not planning anything fancy; basically just some random meandering, maybe throw in a few stars, etc.

I also bought some background fabric for my Fast Forward quilt. All of the blocks are done for the Fast Forward, but I'm not counting the fabric used until the top is put together. I've been following that "rule" pretty much all year and I like it. I think it helps me to finish projects, at least the quilt tops. Now quilting the projects is another story. If you'll notice I now have 19 quilts that need to be quilted. 19! That's crazy. Of course 10 of those will be done soon (and they're small), but that still leaves 9 quilts and you know that I'm continually adding to the list. I really want a longarm! That would help me, right? I bet none of you out there in blogland that own longarms have any quilts of your own just sitting around waiting to be quilted. :-)

On another note, I'm hoping that my computer woes of the past few weeks are fixed. We'll see tomorrow when I try to post some pictures for Design Wall Monday. Keep your fingers crossed!

Here's the Report:
Fabric Added This Week: 20.75 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 117.75 yards
Fabric Used This Week: 7.5yards
Fabric Used to Date: 222.375 yards
Net Fabric Used for 2011: 104.625 yards
UFOs Done, Done, Done (Pieced, Quilted, and Bound): 7
UFOs Still to Do: ???
New Quilts Done, Done, Done (Pieced, Quilted, and Bound): 12
Quilts Ready to be Quilted and Bound: 19

Check out how other quilters are doing with their stash usage. Go to Judy L.'s Patchwork Times.