Design Wall/Bright Stars

Well, it's not Monday, but here's what's on my design wall. (Better late than never, right?)

This is an old UFO. (I have no idea of how old, I just know it's old!) I found this in a pizza box while I was reorganizing my sewing area. I have all the blocks done and it appears that I have all the background pieces cut and ready to go as well. You probably can't tell, but the pieces that look like quarter square triangles are actually 3-D praire points and I have the squares cut and ready to fold. Heck I even have the sketch that I made and the scrap of paper I used to determine my yardages. I sure wish I had included a date on one of these papers. I think I'm going to start doing that so I know when I started projects. On second thought, maybe I shouldn't. It might really be painful to see how long it takes to complete some of these quilts.

It's funny, but I love these colors and am surprised that I would have chosen them. They are so bright and wonderful! I went through a fairly long period of time when everything I made was pretty conservative. I mean, really conservative. Thimbleberries was just about all I used because I knew that no matter what I picked, the fabrics would all play well together. I started to branch out and add some other fabric lines, but often the majority were still Thimbleberries or all from the same fabric line. I was afraid to mix prints so I had just a few prints and them complimented them with Moda Marbles or something similar.

My husband calls that my "safe" period of quilting and was really glad when I branched out and tried other things. The idea of making a scrappy quilt, no matter how much I desperately wanted to, just about tossed me over the deep edge. I loved the looks of them, but just couldn't figure out how it seemed so effortless for other people to make them. I tried, but ended up making them very controlled and not really scrappy. My idea of scrappy was to use four different greens (all the same value) and a single background fabric. Whoa!!! That was a really big deal.

I've changed that up a bit. Check out a few of my more recent quilts. Carolina Crossroads is more controlled, but still fairly scrappy. My quilts using Judy Niemeyer patterns (Summer Solstice, Glacier Star) aren't really scrappy, but they certainly didn't follow my "normal" fabric selection process.  My Tumbler quilt is very scrappy. As a matter of fact, there are no fabrics used twice in this quilt. That's 577 different fabrics! My 4-Patch Galore quilt used a bunch of different fabrics and I love how they all worked together. Of course we have the raffle quilt I made last year that was scrappy 30's reproductions. I love this quilt! And of course, we have my still in progress Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt. Anyway, you get the picture. I've expanded my horizons and just love to try to work with tons of fabric now.

Getting back to the quilt I just "found." I'm choosing to ignore the fact that there are a some points that don't match. I thought about taking the time to fix them, but then I decided that they really aren't that bad and I can live with it. (You really have no idea how "freeing" that decision is!) Anyway, I'm excited to get busy on this, but it will have to wait a couple of days because I have to finish up a memory quilt for someone.





As I said before, I found this while reorganizing my sewing area. I don't know about you, but I ALWAYS make such a mess when I'm reorganizing. I know that it will be better when I'm done; but man, what a mess! I've been reading the book Organizing Solutions for Every Quilter, and I love it. I've taken the information provided and began to look at my sewing area a bit more critically. I really have an issue with clutter (never put away things after I use them) and realize that the main reason is that their "home" really isn't very convenient or practical so I needed to figure out how to change that. This reorganization is definitely a work in progress, but I'm excited that I now have some direction.

I borrowed the book from the library and had to wait for it since the end of last year. It was well worth the wait, but since there are so many people who have placed a hold on the book, I can't renew it.  :-(  It is actually overdue by 2 days now, but I don't want to give it back until I'm done reading it. I've taken a bunch of notes and should be able to return it in a day or so. It is worth the 10 cents a day late charge! Oh heck, I'm just going to buy the book. I know I will use it over and over. If you are unhappy with your sewing set-up, you really should read this book.

Check out what other quilter's have on their design walls.
Go to Judy L's Patchwork Times
                          and
Quilting by the River's Linky Party Tuesday.

Stash Report

Not a whole lot of quilting has been happening around here lately. Quinn and Sadie stayed with us for a couple of days after Nikki, Zach and Ronan left and that was a lot of fun. While Sadie napped one afternoon, Quinn and I made some small pillows. Check out this post to see some pictures. She loves the pillows, as does Sadie, who uses hers in the car.

The girls spent a couple of days at Lynn and Ty's house after they left here and I know they had a great time! They sure do love their Aunt Lynn and Uncle Ty.

After the girls left, Jack's grandson Ian came to spend a few days and it was really nice to see him. Unfortunately he ended up with strep throat and didn't feel so hot the last few days. We're keeping our fingers crossed that he didn't share the infection, but we'll see.

Last night we went to watch Jack's granddaughter Hannah perform in her school musical All Shook Up. It was a really good show and Hannah was awesome. I'm amazed at the talent that she and her schoolmates have.

Back to the stash report.....

I did get the borders added to the Carolina Crossroads quilt. I was a bit hesitant about these borders and introducing the floral fabric in the border, but Nikki really likes it and since it's going to be her quilt and she was certain that she'd like it, I did it.

I like the result and will like it even more when it's quilted and the binding is added because that will be one of the teal/green fabrics in the body of the quilt. Or maybe not....After looking at this a bit more, maybe I will try the dark brown again. I guess I'll just wait until it's quilted and decide.

 

I made a small purse Friday night (haven't taken a picture yet) and had a couple of embroidery orders, and that was all the time I spent in the sewing room.

I know I said it before, but really, here's the report:

Fabric Added This Week: 0.00 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 150.25 yards
Fabric Used This Week: 2.50 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 177.625 yards
Net Fabric Used for 2012: 27.375 yard

UFOs Done, Done, Done (Pieced, Quilted, and Bound): 9
UFOs Still to Do: ??? (I really should make a list, but that would only upset me!)
New Quilts Done, Done, Done (Pieced, Quilted, and Bound): 12
Quilts Ready to be Quilted and Bound: 13
Quilts Quilted and Ready to be Bound: 0

Check out what other quilters are doing with their stash by going to Judy L's
Patchwork Times. 

Link to a Giveaway

While taking a few minutes to check out some quilting blogs, I came across the Quilting Lodge blog. They are hosting a cool giveaway and as much as I'd like to keep it a secret and increase my chances to win, I'm going to share the link so you can all get a  chance at winning too. Click HERE to sign up for yourself. If you win because of this link from my blog, I think we should split the prize.  :-)

I love the circles that she working on and I can't wait to see how it turns out. Even though I'm not a huge fan of applique, this could change that. What do you think?

Thread Play

I think these pictures give a whole new meaning to the idea of thread play. The girls just love to play with the spools and this time they were separating the different types of threads. All the Superior Threads (So Fine and King Tut) were put on one rack and all the others were mixed and put "willy nilly" on the other rack. I figure this is good for developing fine motor skills, right?

By the way, I did dress Sadie today. She spilled a glass of milk on herself and they started playing before I got her dressed again.

Sewing Pillows!

Quinn and I made three pillows today! One is for her froggy, one is for Sadie and one is for Quinn. Quinn is letting Grndpa Jack try out Sadie's pillow.

I think the pillows work. Everyone is sleeping, including Froggy!  :-)

Design Wall Monday

Even though the sewing machine has been pretty quiet lately I'm still being pretty productive. I finished Ronan's quilt, which by the way has been initiated, if you know what I mean what can happen when you change a baby boy's diaper and you aren't quite fast enough to get the new diaper in place.  :-)

I finished both bindings that just needed the hand stitching. The puzzle quilt can be seen here, and below is one quarter of the pink and white star quilt that Lynn started a number of years ago and is finally done. I'll take a better picture later.

And I decided to pull out the Carolina Crossroads UFO that Nikki has been wanting me to finish for her. That's what is on the design wall.

I started this quilt back in late 2007 - early 2008 when Bonnie Hunter offered it as a mystery quilt. I followed along with the mystery and was even keeping up until it came time for the borders. I wanted something different than the original design, but I just didn't know what. Of course, I couldn't decide and then other quilts "got in the way" and this was set aside.

A couple of years ago, Nikki saw the top and asked if she could have it when it was done. I finally told her that she could have it, but that I had no idea of when it would be done. She said she'd be patient. (Yeah, right!) Anyway, this resurfaced a couple of weeks ago when my friend Kare told me that she had signed the two of us up for a class with Bonnie Hunter at Quilt Beginnings in Columbus. (I have great friends, don't I?)

Kare wants to take one of Bonnie's quilts that she has made with us when we go and that got her started on a search of projects. I decided to do the same. I've made a fair number of different quilts using Bonnie's patterns or variations of her patterns - Pineapple Blossom, Four Patch and Furrows, Fourth of July, Double Delight, Patches and Pinwheels, and Strip Twist - to name of few. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, most of these have been gifted already and I have no way of taking them with me, and I just realized that I don't have pictures of some of these quilts on this coputer. I'm pretty sure I took pictures. I just have to figure out where I put them.

Of course, the quilts I mentioned here are the ones I have finished. Besides the Carolina Crossroads shown above, I have two Double Delights that are UFOs and I'm really not sure what else. Sad, isn't it?

Anyway, to get back to the borders of the Carolina Crossroads....When I put this quilt away, I put it with some fabrics that I thought I might use in the border. After discussion with my brother Jerry and Nikki, here are the fabrics we decided to use.

I have to piece the borders and then add them to the quilt, but I'm doubting that the whole thing will be completed before the worshop with Bonnie, which is May 21st. It doesn't really matter. I'm excited that we figured out what to do and that I can soon cross this off my UFO list.

I finally got a decent picture of the Amazon Star quilt top this morning. As you can see below, it's big (104" x 104") and the guys had to hold it from the balcony so I could get a picture of the entire thing.

If you have a few minutes and want to read how a young person pays tribute to a special teacher, follow this link. http://blog.scholarshippoints.com/scholarship-contests/she-gave-us-a-life-lesson-more-valuable-than-any-chemical-equation-zoe-pendleton/

The granddaughter of my friend Vaughn wrote the essay as a scholarship entry and I encourage you to read and then vote for Zoe. I think this essay is well-written and speaks volumes of not only the teacher's quality, but of Zoe's ability to recognize  and thank someone who has played an important role in her life.  Good luck with the scholorship and school, Zoe!!

What is on your design wall? Check out what other quilters have on their design walls.
Go to Judy L's Patchwork Times.

Stash Report-Weeks 18 & 19

There was some fabric usage worth reporting this past two weeks, but it isn't because I did any sewing. I had a couple of technique classes for which I made up kits from my stash. For the past two weeks I have been stealing away a few minutes at a time to handstitch binding. I finished two (check out the puzzle quilt here) and I'm almost done with the second one. I don't have a picture of Ronan's completed quilt, but it is done. Maybe I'll get a picture later today. 

I may not have a great net fabric usage number, but I'm thrilled at my quilt completion numbers!

Here's the Report:
Fabric Added These Two Weeks: 0.00 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 150.25 yards
Fabric Used These Weeks: 14.75 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 175.125 yards
Net Fabric Used for 2012: 24.875 yard

UFOs Done, Done, Done (Pieced, Quilted, and Bound): 8
UFOs Still to Do: ??? (I really should make a list, but that would only upset me!)
New Quilts Done, Done, Done (Pieced, Quilted, and Bound): 12
Quilts Ready to be Quilted and Bound: 12
Quilts Quilted and Ready to be Bound: 1

Check out what other quilters are doing with their stash by going to Judy L's
Patchwork Times.