Headed out the Door

We are headed out the door for Cincinnati where Nikki is going to be induced in a couple of hours. YEAH!! I'll post an update soon, hopefully with pictures of the new baby.

Design Wall Monday

For the last month I've been working on an English Paper Piecing project off and on. At the end of June, I received a package from a swap of mini nine patches in which I participated. Along with my 200 blocks, I received a sample English Paper Piecing kit. The kit (put together by a company called Paper Pieces) included 7 paper hexagons (3/4"), 7 small squares of fabric (2") and a set of instructions. I figured, "what the heck" and gave it a try. The picture below has the original kit and two other blocks that I made reusing the paper pieces.


I really enjoyed doing this and decided that since I have a fair amount of reproduction scraps that I would make a bed size quilt using this technique. Of course that means the entire project will be hand pieced and quilted, and since I'm only working on it while I'm watching TV, waiting at the doctor's office, etc. it probably won't get done until I'm 120 years old. Anyway, below are the nine blocks that I have done so far and the pieces ready to make the next block. (Perhaps I'll work on that when Nikki calls and says that she's gone to the hospital to have the baby! Of course the way things are going, that may take a while! Not really, she goes back to the doctor tomorrow and they will decide their "plan of action.")


I'm really liking these blocks and my husband Jack has enjoyed them as well. Actually, Jack recently reminded my that when we had taken a hand quilting class together at a local quilt shop (about ten years ago) we met a woman who made a Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt entirely by hand. She was a flight attendant and had pieced the blocks while she was on layovers, waiting for flights, etc. Of course Jack remembers that I said that even though I thought it was beautiful, I would NEVER make one. The moral of the story is to never say never!

As I said before, I'm not working on this exclusively, but I since I don't have anything else to show for Design Wall Monday, I decided to post this. I'll probably show progress on this off and on, especially if I don't have anything else to show.

As you can tell from the pictures, I've decided to make this quilt pretty scrappy. I'm not really trying to match fabrics (other than the center hexagons and the connecting or path pieces). It should be interesting to see how this turns out.

Oh, by the way. I'm using 1" hexagons for my blocks. I seriously considered using 3/4" or even 1/2" hexagons, but decided that was just CRAZY!!

How many of you have made one of these quilts? Perhaps a better question would be "How many of you have STARTED one of these quilts?"

Check out what other quilters have on their design walls by going to Judy L.'s Patchwork Times blog.

Stash Report - Week 31

I just had to do it. Because I've been working on memory quilts and UFOs, I didn't use much stash this week and it was bugging me because I REALLY wanted to break the 100 net used mark. SOOOOOOO, last night I sat down and made pillowcases. I feel like I cheated, but then again, I used stash right?

By the way....still no baby!

Here's the weekly report:

Fabric Used This Week: 4 yards

Fabric Used to Date: 205.625 yards

Fabric Added This Week: 0.00 yards

Fabric Added to Date: 104.25 yards

Net Fabric Used for 2010: 101.375 yards

Check out the stash reports of other quilters at Judy L.'s Patchwork Times blog.

She's gonna kill me...

Lynn had surgery on her wrist yesterday and even though I know she's going to kill me, I love this picture! I took it just before she was given her "make me goofy and drowsy" drugs. Of course I sent it to her boyfriend so he was updated on the progress of her surgery. :-)


Everything went well and she's doing great!

I'm not sure I can say the same for Nikki who still has not had the baby. She's overdue now and is hoping that this child arrives soon! I'll keep you posted.

Design Wall Monday

I've been working on a couple of UFOs (same pattern, just two completely sets of fabrics so I'll have two differently looking quilts). I'm finishing up the Rolling Star blocks for each of the quilts and that is what's on my design wall/sewing table today.



As you can probably tell from the photo, one of the quilts will be scrappy (the top block) and one will be repeating fabrics. I'm looking forward to seeing the difference. The last one of these quilts I made was a very controlled scrappy because I was still new to "stash quilting" and I was too afraid to let loose and go for it. This scrappy one will be somewhat controlled, but near as mush as the other one. Of course I don't have a picture of the first one I made because that had been taken with the camera that reformated the XD card. I lost 10-12 pictures of quilts when that happened, so now I try to be really good about making copies as soon as I can after taking the pictures. I also try to remember to print out the pictures so I have a hard copy.

Check out what other quilters are working on today by going to Judy L.'s Patchwork Times blog.

Stash Report - Week 30

As strange as it sounds, I had a pretty good week sewing wise even though I didn't really use that much fabric and I didn't finish anything. As I reported in a previous post, I worked on a quilt using Annie Smith's 2009 NYE Mystery pattern. I haven't finished the borders but I decided what to do and I have them about half done. While I was trying to decide the borders for that quilt, I pulled out two UFOs and began to work on them. They are the same pattern - Bonnie Hunter's Double Delight - a 2008 mystery. I made one of these quilts while the mystery was taking place, but I gave that quilt away. I decided that I really liked the pattern and I wanted one for myself. I also decided that I wanted to make one as a raffle quilt to have on hand since I always hold at least one fundraising quilt raffle every year. When I have one on hand or at least partially done, it's a lot less stressful than having to decide what to make, get the fabric, and get it sewn and quilted. When I have to make these decisions quickly, I almost always go buy fabric because it takes too much time to "shop" my stash and that does major damage for a positive stash report!

Speaking of stash reports, I've finally broken the 200 yard mark for fabric used year-to-date and I'm getting pretty close to the 100 yard mark for my net usage. I'd really like to reach that next week, but we'll see.

Here's the weekly report:

Fabric Used This Week: 6.75 yards

Fabric Used to Date: 201.625 yards

Fabric Added This Week: 0.00 yards

Fabric Added to Date: 104.25 yards

Net Fabric Used for 2010: 97.375 yards

Check out the stash reports of other quilters at Judy L.'s Patchwork Times blog.

Design Wall Monday

Well it's Monday and I have something on the design wall and surprisingly it's not a memory quilt! Since I completed two memory quilts this past weekend (see my previous post for pictures) , I decided to work on a non-memory quilt project yesterday and here's my progress.



This pattern is from a 2009 New Years Eve Mystery hosted by Ann M. Smith. I like participating in mystery quilts, but have to admit that most of the time I opt to make the smallest size available, just in case I don't like the finished product. (It's funny that I say that because I have NEVER participated in a mystery that I didn't like the final product. Perhaps I'm just a big old scaredy cat and haven't learned how to give up some of that control that I like to have!)

Anyway, this was one quilt that I really liked and knew that I would make it again, in a larger size. The original quilt I made was crib size, with no borders. This is a bit larger and will be used as a Quilt For Kids project or just another small quilt to have around the house - you know, we are on baby watch since Nikki is due to have her baby anytime. I'd used this focus fabric for another Quilt For Kids project and had fourteen 6 1/2" squares, plus a strip of 5" x WOF left over. I couldn't bring myself to throw these pieces away because I knew I had a pattern that would use them. I just had to find it in my notebooks.

Unlike the last quilt, I'll be adding borders, but I'm still playing with that. Here is one option.



I think that I want to continue the red and blue fabrics into a first border and "finish" the diamonds. I have to do some math and see if I have enough of these fabrics, but I really don't want to go out and buy fabric to finish this, except maybe the backing.

Do you have a border suggestion?

Check out what other quilters are working on by going to Judy L.'s Patchwork Times blog.