Design Wall Monday

I had a project on the design wall this weekend, but a conversation with my husband resulted in that quilt being taken down and a very old project of his being put up there.  

We are scheduled to go on a trip in May and we were discussing that. Jack really wants to do some hiking, but has admitted that might not happen because of health issues. We were talking about things he could do and I mentioned that he could work on the quilt he started quite some time ago. He said he would think. We wrapped up that discussion and each got busy with other things.

About an hour later, I went to the kitchen to do a few things and when I returned, I found this on the cutting table.

This tub has been packed away and stored on a shelf under my pressing table for quite some time. It was put there after Jack last worked on his quilt. He had spent quite a bit of time playing around with the fabrics and making the blocks. He had started to sew the rows together and was excited to get it ready for the quilting. I remember him putting it up on the design wall to talk about it with my brother Jerry, only to find a mistake in the bottom row. 

Do you see the mistake? Right there in the middle of the bottom row. He had even started playing with border options. (Ok, what was I thinking to have dyed that design wall fabric that color???)

Fast forward to yesterday... 

While I was preparing dinner, the quilt top that I finished sewing together Saturday (I can't show it because it's a pattern test), was taken down and this replaced it. 

The mistake has been taken apart and placed correctly. Jack inventoried the contents of the storage container, typed out the hand-written notes, and has once again started thinking about border and quilting options. :-) The quilt is being removed from the wall as I type up this post, and all of the rows are being labeled and organized. I don't think he plans on working on this until our trip, but he is excited to finish this. I am excited for him!

Maybe it's the new year, but the idea of finishing a project that has been put away for so long is really appealing to me. This got set aside because it needed "fixed" and other things took precedence. (Most likely those other things included me reclaiming the design wall and rarely having it empty. But that's another story...)

The reemergence of this project has me thinking. I have A LOT of UFOs and I think it is high time that I pull them out and evaluate them. I need to be honest with myself and prioritize these projects. Who knows; I might fall in love with a project that found it's way into storage and move it to the front of the "to do" list. 

But in reality, I am sure that will not happen to most of the projects and I'm ok with that. It's ok to decide that it's not perfect, but that doesn't mean that I can't finish it and give it to someone who can use it and maybe even love it. It's also ok to decide that I no longer have a desire to work on something. If that is the case, I then need figure out how to give it a new home and a possible new life.

I will do this slowly, as I know myself well enough to know that I will fret about how much money I have tied up in each of these projects. But, it needs done and I know that I will feel better after having done this. It's a way to clear my sewing space and my head. After that, I can proceed with what gives me pleasure.  

Friday Finishes and a Meeting

I've got quite a bit of quilting to do this weekend because I was able to finish some quilt tops. Yay!

 I think Jack's quilt will be the first one quilted. :-)

Next up will probably be this Strip Shenanigans quilt I finished yesterday for the Flying Horse Farm. These are the blocks I was using as leaders and enders Sunday. I finished the blocks when I got home yesterday and put them together very quickly. The binding will be scrappy, made from misc. strips from inside the blocks. This quilt measures 54" x 64", which is perfect for the beds at the camp. Wait a minute! I just realized that I don't have to quilt this. I just send the top and binding. Yippee!  

These two Quilts of Valor quilts are ready for quilting and I have the bindings ready for both, which always speeds things up for me.

I think I'll be a busy gal this weekend!

Yesterday I mentioned that I was going to share some details about a dinner I had Monday night. Here you go...

Have you ever "met" someone on-line and chatted with them for a long time but never met them in person? I've been commenting on Scott Fortunoff's Studio e Blog for quite a while as well as e-mailing back and forth about a variety of quilting subjects.

In case you don't know, Scott is a fourth generation textile executive. He is part of the Jaftex Corporation which includes Studio e Fabrics, Henry Glass & Co., AE Nathan, Blank Quilting Corporation, and Fabric Editions, Inc. He is one busy guy!

A while back, Scott send me an e-mail thanking me for being a loyal reader of his blog and a consistent commenter. I'm just thrilled he didn't think I was a stalker! :-) Anyway, in his e-mail he wondered when we would meet in person. I chuckled to myself thinking that I should suggest to Jack that we make a trip to NY so we could enjoy the sites and I could meet Scott. Instead, I responded with asking if he ever ventures west to Ohio. As it turned out, he had a meeting scheduled near Cleveland in mid-October and wondered if I lived anywhere near there. Well shoot, I live just about an hour from Cleveland so we made tentative plans to meet.

Those plans were solidified; and after flight delays on his part, we met Monday night for dinner.

I was thrilled to also spend the evening with Karen Junquet, the art director at Jaftex.

These two are very talented, energetic and fun! We talked about a ton of things - some quilting, some not. We laughed a lot, and just had a good time.

Scott asked me how many quilts I've made. (Jack has asked me that too and when I told Scott that my husband asks me that, he says that it's a man thing to want to "know the numbers.") I had to admit that I don't know for sure, but it's a bunch. I know how many I donate because I keep track for tax purposes, but I have not really kept track of the others. I know I should, but I just don't do it. But, after these conversations, I've decided to get at least a rough estimate. I've made bed quilts, wall hangings, lap quilts, table runners, class samples, baby quilts, etc. and I will  get numbers for each of the categories and then a total. I'm going to try to do this soon, but we'll see. 

Scott, thanks for the invitation and meeting. I look forward to our continued conversations. Now I have to get busy and quilt!

I'm linking up to

Confessions of a Fabric Addict -

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?

Design Wall Monday

I've finally finished all of the blocks for Jack's grey and yellow quilt. He decided that he wanted two vertical rows of yellow blocks, so that's what he's getting. I still think I would have liked just one row of yellow (second row from the left), but since it's his quilt I let him decide. Perhaps I'll have to make one for me and just have the one row. :-)

I still have a bunch of work to do before I start subbing long-term, so I don't know when I'll get this sewn together, but hopefully it won't take long.

I've been working on this and one other project as a leader/ender project, so I actually have two quilts that are ready to have bocks sewn into rows. I'll get this quilt off the wall and organize the rows so they are ready to sew and then I'll put the other blocks up and take a picture.

The second project is a simple quilt made using 48 - 5 rail fence blocks, and I've used just three fabrics throughout the entire quilt. It's a Quit of Valor project and I'm excited to say that all of the fabric has come from stash. YIPPEE!

Check out what other quilters have on their design walls.

Go to Judy L's Patchwork Times

and

Monday Making 

Design Wall Monday

There's a traffic jam on my design wall today.  :-)

This first quilt it what's actually up at this moment. I have three of the five rows sewn together and will have the other two done later today. Since I'm not adding borders, this top is almost ready to layer and quilt. YEAH! 

This is a free pattern that a friend got from The Fat Quarter Shop, and it's called Charm Pack Cherry Quilt. This is made entirely from stash and I think I even have fabrics for the backing and binding. This makes me VERY happy.

This is Avery's quilt that is finally quilted and the binding just needs to be hand sewn down. I should have had this done seven months ago, (she is seven months old today!!). I'm going to see her later today and since I'm not subbing today, maybe I can give it to her as a birthday gift.  :-)

This is not my quilt. It's Jack's. I was sewing with a group friends this weekend and Jack saw Chris working on a fabulous black and white star quilt He was inspired to pull out his long-ago-started quilt and get busy working on it. 

As you can see, the blocks are all done and he has sewn the top two rows and sashing together. It's a good thing we looked at this because Jack found a mistake on the bottom row. Now he gets to spend some quality time with a seam ripper. :-)

Jack and Jerry spent some time checking out border options (as you can see above). But, they were also already discussing the actually quilting Jack plans to do. He has been thinking about the quilting design since he started piecing this. He is really excited to get to the quilting. 

Here's the inspirations quilt. I love this Chris and can't wait to see the borders!!

Jack was very clear in his time schedule for finishing this quilt. He reminded me that he has an on-line class to take for the next two months, he has a couple of concerts for which he has to prepare, and he still has his regular schedule of teaching to maintain. I think we was worried that I was going to push him to work on this every day until it's completed. :-)  Silly man! He hasn't yet learned that I completely understand the value of a UFO. :-)

Want to be inspired or just take in a bit of eye candy? There are lots of people showing off what's on their design walls today.

Check out Judy L.'s Patchwork Times.