Scattered Scraps and Snippets

Garland Guild Quilt Retreat 2010

2010-05-26T18:28:00.007-05:00

I went on a wonderful retreat last weekend with my local guild. I didn't have a camera with me to record all the shenanigan's but here are pictures of what I got done while I was there.

First I put these blocks together. This is my oldest UFO and they are now almost a top. I made 32 of these blocks sometime around 2001. The other half of them went into a quilt for my niece Helen who was 3 at the time. She is now almost 12.

I'd taken some fabrics with me for the borders and decided I didn't like them. Still need to decide on border fabrics.

I also took another really old set of blocks and put them together into this. Ditto on the border problem.

I finished a bunch of blocks like these

and the bug jars for June BOM in the guild

And another UFO bites the dust

This was from a focus fabric into blocks swap with my friend Medina. It took a while to get the layout just right. I put the blocks on a design wall and my friend Sharon and I spent about an hour redistributing them. At one point I just walked away for a while and when I came back I knew it was perfect.

BTW tirane, I was wrong- you had all the green daisy blocks. I had them confused with these butterflies.

Pinks & Reds Runneth Over

2010-05-04T06:14:00.004-05:00

They are finished just in time to give to the guild tonight!

I still have enough scraps for another 2 quilts. I'm making a split 9-patch top and a flying geese top. Then I hope they'll be all GONE!

On a Roll Again!

2010-03-29T05:26:00.006-05:00

I don't know what it is about spring. Maybe it was inspiration from the Dallas Quilt show, maybe it's the warmer weather,but I have been busy!

I had decided that my Goals for March and April were going to be to finish up some UFO's, make some easy donation tops, and get rid of a lot of scraps.

This will be a donation quilt I'll give to the guild. I used blocks from a recent swap at QATW.

And since I'm a glutton for punishment, here's what I started yesterday

I swear, I can't get away from pink & red! The box of strips was screaming at me.
And the gal that gave me all of these let me know she's sending me MORE!

First Day of Spring

2010-03-24T06:34:00.005-05:00

Yep- we had more snow. Friday was a a beautiful day with temperatures in the mid 70's.
Then we had a 40 degree drop.

I stayed inside and finished this

Favorites from the Dallas Quilt Show 2010

2010-03-19T07:16:00.012-05:00

Last weekend was the Dallas Quilt show. I have gone to every show for the last 6 or 7 years and really liked this one. Some years it seems that the quilts are all the same, 1 year there were way too many Art quilts for my tastes, but this year there seemed to be a very good variety. Plus there were a lot of bright quilts which is always a good thing in my book.

I did a little bit of shopping- picked up a couple of novelty FQ's since I'm going to get back to making "I Spy" quilts again, and I also picked up some B&W prints because I want to get back to working on "Babs meets Jane and Freddy".
I took over 100 pictures, but here are a few of my favorites...

Here's a wedding ring in blacks and grays. I love it.

I like this Black & Bright. I do not typically care for embellishments but this one calls to me. She titled it "It's a Bling Thing"

and here is another Black & Bright- "Eye of the Peacock" (I wish I could get as creative with the back of my quilts)

This Star quilt was made entirely with Oval shaped Yo-Yo's
and I really like this "Self Portrait"- don't we all feel like that sometimes?

Crunch Time!

2010-02-17T13:42:00.004-06:00

Each year the President of our guild picks a "Challenge" quilt. Anyone who participates presents their work at the March meeting. This years theme was Log Cabin's. It can be any size, and it doesn't have to be quilted, just a top is OK.

Miss Procrastinator that I am put mine off...but I've been having fun making blocks like this one

I only need a few more 12 inch blocks but I still need to figure out how many 6 inch ones I need for my border..tirane, beth, swooze, guess what I'll be bringing to do on Saturday...

Top has to be done by March 2! I can do it!

Recent Presents

2010-02-16T13:35:00.009-06:00

I love "Secret Pal" swaps. When I joined the Garland guild last summer I couldn't wait to sign up for the swap this year. I got my questionnaire and filled out all the usual questions
about likes and dislikes.

I got my partner and she is a definite challenge. Polar opposite of me. Crazy quilts, applique, lace, velvet, toille, ruffles, and almost everything in her house seems to be the same 1 color. It's been hard shopping for her. I'm glad the Dallas Quilt Show is in a couple of weeks because I intend to shop for things to give her the rest of the year.

On the other hand, whoever has me ROCKS!!! In January I got a gift card to Target. My favorite store next to JoAnn's. At the February meeting I walked in and saw this on the table
I had been in a really lousy mood and just seeing the envelope boosted my spirits. I can't bear to get rid of it. Then I opened it and found
I had mentioned I collect Antique sheet music. I don't think she realized it but tucked inside this piece was another page with the chorus to another golden oldie. WOW! I've already sat down and attempted to play both. They are quite challenging, but I've been looking for something new to play. Along with these were a big handful of Reeses Peanut Butter cups,
which I've already eaten :)

I love my Secret Pal, whoever you are!

I also recently participated in a "Sweet Swap" on QATW and didn't give that many details, but here's the bounty I got from it-10 very bright FQ's, a quilting jigsaw puzzle, some Ghiradelli chocolates, a quilters emory board, and wallhanging kit. I can't wait to use the fabrics! and I've been good and only eaten 1 piece of chocolate even though it's been in the house over a week.

I've been sewing a lot again too- will post about that tomorrow. Gotta get back to work!

SNOW!

2010-02-11T13:48:00.004-06:00

I think this has been one of the whitest winters around here ever. It started snowing in the middle of the night and hasn't stopped. It isn't sticking to the concrete- at least not yet anyway.

Tonight I plan to make some hot cocoa and sew- All the blocks for "Monster Mash" are done, but I need to get started on a challenge- can I make a log cabin top in a little over 2 weeks? We'll see! Stay tuned for the details and pictures of progress!

Catching Up

2010-02-04T12:37:00.009-06:00

I didn't realize it had been a month since I posted...where does the time go? I've been really busy at work and dealing with some personal issues and haven't done a whole lot of sewing since finishing the pink & red top which is at tirane's house.

A while back I posted these fabrics I bought at Golden D'orI took the fabric with me when I went on my first retreat back in January with the Garland Quilt Guild Board. Until I started cutting I had no idea what pattern I was going to do. I spent the weekend cutting it all up and since then I've been making these blocks.

I've already dubbed this quilt "Monster Mash". (I'm not very original with names). Tirane says the googly eyes give her the creeps but I hope she'll have fun quilting the top. I hope to have it ready for our next get together. I'm sure some kid will love it. For being such an easy pattern it's the first time I've ever made a "Snowball & 9-Patch" quilt. It won't be the last. I can see using up a lot of my novelty yardage and brights in similar fashion.

Since I've been lax in posting, here are some promised pictures. First is a picture of the Christmas presents that Swooze made for me. I love them. The pincushion is stuffed with dry walnut shells (I think). It's so pretty I haven't started using it yet.

and last, but certainly not least, is a promised picture of the "Ankh" quilt on our bed and a close-up picture of the quilting. This is the quilt that David really wanted and my friends helped me make so I'd stop whining about it. I love my friends :)

(sorry the closeup pic isn't that great, I think I should have zoomed in a little closer)

2010-01-05T13:31:00.003-06:00

I've been thinking about a lot of things this week.

1. I love my stash. Am I going to add to it this year? Yep. Am I going to use up a lot of it this year? Sure hope so. Am I going to spend time I could be sewing counting it and adding it up? Nope. Not gonna do it right now. It is what it is.

2. Beginning of 2008 I had about 60 UFO's. I'm down to less than 30. I'm good. Some of these were traded away, some were given away, heck, some were actually made into quilts. I have been looking at the UFO's that are left and I can say 1 thing...I'm tired of "samplers". More UFO's may be going away soon.

3. There are things I want to learn this year. I want to get better at binding. I want to learn to miter corners. I want to make tote bags. I want to learn to quilt on my machine. I want to get over my fear/loathing of applique. I used to say that about paper piecing so I know I can do it.

4. I am NOT going to set unattainable goals. My ONLY New Years resolution is to FINISH more than I start. That's it and I know I can do that.

5. I'm going to spend more time with my loved ones and friends, cultivating friendships and creating memories.

Here's to a great 2010 my friends!

Christmas Present for DH

2009-12-30T07:49:00.002-06:00

I have the best friends in the whole world. We get together once a month for our "Sit & Sew" or whatever you like to call it. We've been doing this for several years now. tirane's house is on English Street, hence our name "The English

Since the day I started quilting my husband has wanted a quilt. Not just any quilt, he wanted a certain design. I had a mental and emotional block about it and never made the quilt. At our November get together after my talking about it again my friends said "Just bring the fabric Babs".

At our December get together they helped me make the quilt. tirane has the pictures and has done a great post about it so please check out her blog...

What friends are for

A little determination

2009-12-28T07:00:00.003-06:00

I was so bound and determined to get it finished by the end of the year I finished the top at 3:00 Sunday afternoon.

I've already pulled a BIB (blocks in bag) and some scraps and am gonna shoot for another finish.

Remedial Math & White Christmas

2009-12-26T15:26:00.007-06:00

It went like this:

18 inch blocks needed- they were easy. Done.
12 inch blocks needed-Done
6 inch blocks needed. It took me a while but I made all 36 needed.

I start to assemble. OOPS. Everyone knows I can't count. I needed 27 of the 12 inch and I'd only made 18. Back to the sewing machine yesterday.

ALL blocks are now made. The 6 inch blocks are sewn together in their pairs and next I'll sew the pairs to the 18 original 12 inch blocks.

I'm bound and determined to have this into a top by the end of the year. I'm going to use up large scraps and piece the back but I have till mid-to late January to get that done...when are we meeting tirane?

We had a WHITE Christmas here in Dallas! Here is a picture taken of the pond behind our house.

And here is a picture of my niece Raegan in the apron I made her for Christmas. She is going to be 3 in March. She has a kitchen set she received last Christmas that she plays with every day.
And this year she received more appliances and foods to go with it. Martha, Sandra, Rachael, and Paula need to watch out in 15 years or so...

I used the Apron pattern from "Sewing for Dummies" by Simplicity. It's definitely a keeper and I'll make more of these in the future.

Helping Out

2009-12-02T13:24:00.003-06:00

Irish Flood Quilts

I have deep Celtic roots. I've volunteered at the North Texas Irish Festival for the last 4 years and met some wonderful people from Ireland. I'm going to set aside the "Random Blocks" quilt and other projects for a bit and make some blocks and tops to help out with this effort. I'll be concentrating on kids quilts as that is the largest portion of my stash.

2009-11-30T13:38:00.007-06:00

First I finished this

Then I made the last 5 of these. Here are all 9 18-inch blocks

Then rather than switching to black thread and digging out my brights I decided to keep going and made these last 6 12-inch blocks needed

Friday morning I went to Golden D'or and bought these

75 yards for $80.

Then I made this block for Dec. BOM at the Garland Guild

While I was at it I made this one since I'll be presenting it for the January BOM.

I also got several more of the 6 inch pink and red blocks made and did laundry, dishes, took the trash out, slept, and ate. What did YOU do this holiday weekend?

Thanksgiving Week Goals

2009-11-23T18:06:00.002-06:00

I have 3 simple goals for this week. If I get them done by 8am Friday, I'm going to reward myself by going here for one of their 25% off everything sales. I need backings for several quilts and I might treat myself to some more black & whites for an upcoming project.

My goals are

finish a charity top I just started on Saturday. I have the center pieced, just need to add the borders. (they are cut) It's a really cute kids quilt.
Make the 18 inch blocks needed for the pink/red "Random Blocks" quilt. 4 of 9 are done.
Make at least 5 "Happy Scrappy" quilt blocks

I Won!

2009-11-13T05:34:00.004-06:00

I never win anything but I have been following along in the 100 Blocks Blog Tour and I fell in love with this block by Julie Pieri. She named it "Hot Fudge Please".

Each block designer was given a copy of the book to give away and I checked out some of the designers blogs and I won a copy from Julie! WOW! So pretty soon I'll be getting this in the mail.

There were so many beautiful blocks. I visited about 20 of the blogs but I only entered about 8 of the drawings so I feel really lucky and happy to be a winner!

Thanks Beth for turning me on to this!

Black & Bright

2009-10-19T13:17:00.006-05:00

I just love Brights. Loud, Vivid colors are my favorites. I always say "If it hurts your eyes I'll like it".

When QATW had a swap for these easy Black & Bright blocks earlier this spring I just had to join. Purple seemed to be the favorite color. The original quilt design had all the blocks on point but of course I had to be different. I played around with laying out the colors randomly and nothing looked right. So I did this.

It's hard to tell but there is a difference between the dark blue and the light blue. They seem to blend together. Those are teal blocks in the bottom left next to the purple corner.

I'm doing a skinny border of black, and then a scrappy/strippy border of colors around it with the colorways switched. Does that make sense? The 1/2 with blues, green, teal will have pink/red/orange/ yellow strips and vice versa. Then I think there will be another strip of black beyond that. I hope it turns out like the design in my head. LOL.

I've also been working on a layout for some 30's Sampler blocks and I've been making "Kansas Trouble" blocks with scraps for another QATW swap. And I'm plugging away at cleaning up the sewing room. I've got the afternoon off today and am going to get back to working on it.

This is actually week 3 of my 13 week challenge and my goals are:

get the borders cut for the Bright quilt
finish designing the layout for the 30's quilt
finish the "Kansas Trouble" blocks for that swap

Oh, I keep forgetting to post some really fun news! I joined the Garland TX Quilt Guild back in the spring and I've been asked to serve on the Board! They need a "Fundraiser" chairman. So far the only fundraiser they've been doing is the monthly BOM at meetings. So I will get to pick those and make one to show and sell the tickets and all that. I think it will be a lot of fun. I can't wait to get with the gal who has been doing it to see what blocks have already been done cause I have lots of ideas but I want to make sure I don't repeat a block too soon.

Voila!

2009-10-12T12:19:00.003-05:00

I finished it yesterday! I am so glad I followed tirane's suggestion in using the square in square border. It really makes the quilt.

Then I stayed up late and got another set of blocks into rows. I smell another finish coming on!

Fall 2009 Online Quilt Show

2009-10-09T13:24:00.006-05:00

This is my entry in Amy's Fall 2009 Online Quilt Show. This is the first top I ever made. I saw the pattern in a magazine and had to make it. It took me several months to gather up the fabrics I wanted to use since I was a new quilter but I wanted a scrappy look.

I started the top sometime around 2001 and it got put away until last year. I pulled it back out and finished it up and had my dear friend tirane do the quilting.

Here's a closeup of the quilting

and a closeup of the border. It's one of the only times I've asked her to do something specific in the border. I wanted a holly vine and as usual she did an outstanding job.

I hope you've enjoyed my quilt and check out what other quilters around the world are doing!

Inquiring Minds Want to Know....

2009-10-09T06:00:00.002-05:00

What thread do you use for machine piecing?
How often do you change your rotary blade?
How often do you buy a new ruler to use?
How often do you clean out your lint and oil your machine?

I have been using Coats & Clark ever since I started sewing but it does put out a lot of lint. I change out my rotary blade as soon as I have a hard time going through a couple of layers of fabric.

I think I'm too rough on my rulers/templates. I use a 6 1/2 inch square ruler a LOT. It seems that if I've been getting a lot of projects done, I have to get a new ruler every other month or so. The corners end up worn off. I like the yellow Omnigrid ones.

I clean out my machine (at least the parts I can get to easily) every time I change the bobbin and I oil it the first of every month.

---------

An update on the square in squares for the border- they are done except for squaring them up! Maybe I'll have a finish by Sunday night?

30's prints

2009-10-08T16:31:00.007-05:00

I'm working on the square in squares for the border of the shoofly quilt and wanted to show off some of my favorite fabrics. Some of these were given to me in a special exchange we have in QATW called "Heart to Heart". If you need certain kinds of squares or strips you can post a request and then people will send you packages in the mail if they have that.

I think I especially like the little houses on purple and the cute Little Bo Peep print. So many of the prints I have remind me of quilts my Grandmother made. I wish I had pictures of those.

I have about 1/2 of the 46 squares needed...

October Goals

2009-10-05T17:48:00.002-05:00

1. Finish "30's Shooflies" quilt
2. Get bed out of sewing room.
3. I just got a commision to make a baby quilt for a boy in blues and browns. I'm going to do something very simple like a rail fence or a turning 20.
4. Make substantial progress towards "Random Blocks".
5. Blog at least twice a week WITH pictures.

My hours at work are getting cut again for a while. I'll have more afternoons to get some cleaning and sewing done though so I look at it as a mixed blessing.

13 week Challenge

2009-10-01T16:32:00.002-05:00

I decided that I'm giving myself a 13 week challenge. Each week I'm going to pick 2 projects and ONLY work on those 2. I CANNOT start anything new (from scratch). It must be from my UFO list or my BIB list. I hope to have at least 4 tops finished by the end of the challenge.

I've decided on the border for the 30's shoofly and will get those on. I should have time left to make a few more Random Blocks.

Projects that only need a little bit of work will get worked on till they are done. Other projects may get worked on a bit at a time.

A non-quilty goal for next week is to get rid of that bed and then I'll have a design wall!!!

And the Winner Is.....

2009-10-01T06:16:00.003-05:00

I realized it was really weird of me to put a giveaway and my biopsy news in the same post and I apologize for doing that.

But I did promise that anyone who posted had a chance to win my scrap bag, so the winner is.....

GINA!

Please send me your address and I'll get this bag out to you!

Opinions Please

2009-09-30T13:31:00.002-05:00

Here is something I'm currently working on. I want to add a 2 inch border of white and then a color and then another 2 inch border of white...but what color to add? I'm stumped!

Over 1/2 gone!

2009-09-28T13:36:00.004-05:00

Well I woke up Saturday morning with a bad cough that followed me around most of the weekend. I didn't get any sewing done. However, I did some reflection, planning, and organizing in my sewing room.

David has agreed that if I can find a buyer for the twin bed then we can get rid of it and that will free up a lot of space in the room. I need to move some stuff out of the way and take the frame apart and post it on Craigslist. Anyone local to Dallas know anyone who'd like a Twin bed with a Red metal headboard in great condition? It's really cute, just not needed.

I went through my tubs of blocks. I posted over a year and a half ago my list of 'BIB's (blocks in bags). At that point I had 73 sets total. I now have a list of only 25!!!!! I should go back through the old list and count the ones actually made into tops, but a lot were given away or traded away. Some still on the list don't really speak to me anymore so I'm thinking of trading or giving them away too.

My new list of 25:

Crumb Blocks
Black & Bright Pinwheels
Fall Sampler blocks ( I have enough blocks for 2 or 3 quilts though)
30's Sampler
Brown/Pink/Cream Sampler
Black/Pink/White Sampler
Blue & Yellow Sampler
Christmas Sampler
Halloween Blocks
Black & Bright Indian Stars
Lot O' Hearts (won in QATW February Block Lotto)
30's Churn Dashes
Spring Fling
Tennessee
Orange/Yellow/White Sampler
Better Be Bright Blocks
Red & White Sampler
Pink & White Sampler
Butterfly FBS
Pink & Purple 16 patches
Black & White & Wild Friendship Stars
Batik & Cream Sampler
Kids Buzzard Roost
Scrappy Bowties

That doesn't count a few UFO's. To me UFO is anything I'm currently working on, or have started and not finished. That list includes

Pink & Red Random Blocks
Babs meets Freddy & Jane
Adagio
Rocky Road to Kansas
30's Shooflies
Red/Green Dutchman Puzzles
Black & Bright Zig Zag
Spiderweb

In the next couple of days I'll post my list of October Goals.

150th post!

2009-09-25T16:14:00.003-05:00

This is my 150th post! To celebrate that and the great news I got from the Oral Surgeon today, I'm having a giveaway. I've gathered up a bag of 150 scrap pieces from one of my scrap tubs. Nothing in this bag is smaller than 2 1/2 inch square. There are a lot of 2 1/2 inch strips, 4 inch charms, and FQ's with one corner cut out. There are several whole FQ's.

Anyone who posts on this comment gets a chance in the drawing. If you feel inclined to do so and post something on your blog about me, my blog, or my giveaway, you'll get another chance.

I'll draw a name and post the winner at 4pm on Wednesday Sept. 30th.

The good news from the Oral Surgeon is that the 2cm x 4 cm chunk of white stuff on my tongue that they removed came back as "pre-cancerous". I'm sooo glad she decided during the biopsy to take the whole thing at once rather than 1/2 of it as I would have had to go back for another surgery.

The bad news is that once you get 1 of these you are likely to get them again. So I get to stick out my tongue a lot the rest of my life and check for white spots. LOL.

I'm still sore and can't eat real food yet and still talk a little funny and don't really feel like going anywhere so I feel another sewing marathon coming on....

Sewing Marathon

2009-09-21T07:39:00.007-05:00

Here it is several weeks later but I finally did my weekend sewing marathon. I need to do these more often. I got so much done. I had a medical procedure done on Friday and didn't feel like doing anything except sleeping and sewing. So that's exactly what I did.

First- I tackled "Medina's Project". She and I exchanged blocks a while back. She sent me 7 blocks and extra focus fabric. I'm glad for the extra because 3 of the blocks were so far off in measurements there was no way of saving them. These had been blocks from "friendship swap" and you know how that is sometimes.

I spent a long time trying to decide if I should take the bad blocks apart and try to use some of the fabric and remake new blocks but after playing around in EQ6 and looking through books for layout ideas, I decided to make 9-patch blocks. There was exactly enough of the fabric for that. So here is Medina's top. I hope she likes it and doesn't think it's too dark. It's only 48 inches square but I think it will make a nice wallhanging behind her couch.

I also owed her 4 Dutchman Puzzle blocks from another exchange. She wanted 30's and Cream.

Then I made these "Jacks-n-Six" blocks for a swap in "Friends Who Quilt". The colors came out sort of dark but they are Orange, Brown, and Burgundy on Cream.

I'm still recovering from the procedure and cannot talk very well. I'm also on a liquid/soft foods diet for a week. I hope to get some more sewing done this week. I want to get back to working on my pink & red "random blocks" and I may try to finish up the 30's Shooflies top I've been puttering around with for a couple of weeks.

As far as the medical procedure- I won't go into all the details here but I had a biopsy done on my tongue for a large white spot I'd found. They removed the entire spot and I'm awaiting results on Friday. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers. If you'd like to know more, just e-mail me.

Calgon.....

2009-09-02T16:56:00.002-05:00

I know I've slacked off on posting. I've slacked off on sewing too. I went to the guild meeting last night though and showed off the "Hole in the Barn Door" and 1 of the shooflies. Got lots of compliments and got lots of inspiration to get going again.

There's a game going on at QATW where we chose 3 UFO's to work on for the month. They'll draw a number every night and the next day we're supposed to work at least 20 minutes on that project.

The UFO's had to be at least 3 months old, so I chose....

1. Rocky Road to Kansas- need to make tons of block parts.
2. 30's shooflies- already sewn into rows now
3. Black & Bright Windmills. I have 8 blocks, want to make at least 4 more

So she'll draw a number between 1 and 3. Or if she draws the Joker, then we get to pick any of the projects to do.

This weekend I'm going to have my own mini-sewing marathon and see what other stuff I can get done. I have Christmas presents I'd better get to working on too.

Thimbles? and blocks

2009-08-06T16:17:00.005-05:00

They still did not have the power restored. After calling all the parents to let them know I went to JoAnn's. I picked up a bulb and a spare. I looked at thimbles....hhhmmm...I don't know anything about thimbles. I had no clue what kind to get...do you have a favorite? Ideas? Your suggestions and recommendations are greatly appreciated.

I did buy a little bit of fabric. I have realized in making these blocks that a lot of my fabrics are Tone on Tones. I needed something white with pink and red in it. I found 2 fabrics that were perfect and bought just 1/2 yards of each.

Here are the blocks I made last night and so far today. I am probably going to make all the 12 inch blocks first because they are the easiest. I have 7 made so far, just 20 to go.

I won't post pictures every time I make a few, I just seem to be on a roll. These are so addictive that when I get this top made I'm thinking of doing one in brights to use up some scraps and stash.

Pinks and Red Random Blocks

2009-08-05T16:19:00.003-05:00

After writing earlier this morning I got a call from work NOT to come in. They had some guys come in to tear up part of our parking lot and re-do it and somehow they managed to CUT the power lines to the school. They had to call all the parents to come get their kids NOW and then they called me. Hopefully they'll be able to get it fixed tonight.

So since I was home I got a few things done around the house and started working on these.

Only 33 more 6 inch blocks, 25 more 12 inch blocks and 9 18 inch blocks to go. But they are going together really fast. I'm going to keep working on them the rest of the day so we'll see how many I can show y'all tomorrow.

I tried to do some binding work but I kept sticking myself. I need to get a thimble. I also need a bulb for my machine cause it went out. I'll be going to JoAnn's tomorrow for sure. Just going to stay away from the fabric area because I DON'T need any.

Charity Quilts

2009-08-05T10:09:00.004-05:00

I have been going through my UFO's and picking out blocks and fabrics that I really don't care for and making those into tops for Charity quilts. I finished another top last night. 5th finish in about 2 months. Granted, all I've done is sew blocks together and add borders but that's more progress than I've made in a long, long time. I have other projects calling my name, so the charity ones may slow down a little but I'm going to keep them out and work on them when I feel the urge. Typically that happens when I hear something on TV or elsewhere that tugs at my heart strings. Then I feel like I need to be doing my part to help. I have my share of problems and things going on in my life but I know that there are people far worse off than I am.

I stayed up till midnight last night and finished this baby quilt. I know that some little girl is just going to love it.

I wish I'd done a little better on centering the squares of the fabric but it still turned out OK.

Today I'm gonna take a quilt with me to work and try to do some binding. Then tonight I'm gonna see how many of the "Random Squares" blocks I can make. Here is my good friend tirane's. She LOVES Black. I'm doing mine in pinks and reds simply because that is what I currently have a LOT of in my stash. Beth is doing hers in a set of teal and brown fabrics. It will be interesting to see how these all turn out. I'm way behind but with the rate I've been sewing it may not take me long to catch up. LOL. Swooze, are you still doing one too?

My 150th post will be coming up soon. I'm going to have a small giveaway or 2. Keep watching!

August Goals

2009-08-03T14:55:00.002-05:00

I'm keeping it simple again. I have lots to do at work getting the summer over with and ready for the school year to start. I'm really excited about the class of kids I will bet getting.

My Quilty goals for August are

1 DJ block a week
Finish the Pink/Brown/Cream Baby quilt
Get most of my Pink & Red "Random Squares" quilt done
Finish project for Medina
start Christmas presents not already done

2 Finishes and a Start

2009-08-03T09:25:00.007-05:00

Well I didn't quite make it by July 31, but I did finish these 2 Shoofly tops this weekend.

I had other intentions for the borders of the first one. I had designed something in EQ6 using some slanted strips. I printed off the patterns and made the blocks. Dumb me forgot to REVERSE 1/2 of the blocks and so all my strips face the same way. So now I have 28 of these

I don't have too much more of the black dots left. It's a standard fabric from JoAnn's, but I realized in making the Shooflies that sometimes the shade of black and quality are different from bolt to bolt. I think what I'm going to do is make as many of the reverse blocks with the fabric as I can and have a cool zig-zag quilt.

I got a few other things done this weekend too. In the QATW swap I did for the pink/brown/cream Rail Fence blocks I received 20 blocks from a swapper that were too small. I cut those down to 6 inches and made 5 of these blocksI had played around with placement for a standard Rail fence but just didn't like the way it looked. I am going to use these 5 blocks in a large 9 patch design. I haven't decided what to put in the other 4 squares. I think this will be a charity quilt so I don't want to do anything too complicated and it's only going to be large enough for a crib quilt.

Hole in the Barn Door

2009-07-15T07:53:00.005-05:00

I finished it last night. The border fabrics both came from old stash- fabrics I bought several years ago when the Hancocks 5 minutes from me closed down. Here is a closeup of them as I think it's hard to tell in the other picture. I soooo want a design wall or I need to clear off a better place to take pictures.

I have enough of the jigsaw puzzle fabric left to use as the focus fabric for a quick quilt.
Just need to find an easy pattern.

I also got rows sewn together for the Black & Bright Shooflies. I decided rather than making 1 large quilt I'm making 2 small. 1 will have the pieced borders I designed and I found a great black with colored Musical notes on it in my stash for the other one. I think this Hole in the Barn Door is the first time I used a print and not a TOT to border something! So I am learning!

Goals for the week of July 13th

2009-07-13T16:14:00.000-05:00

My boss is on vacation so I have Office Duty this week. This means that I have my mornings free to get some sewing done. I fully intend to take advantage of that!

My goals for the week:

1. Finish Kids Hole in the Barn Door.
2. Finish Kids Shoofly
3. Make at least 3 DJ Blocks.
4. Continue making Crumb Blocks. My scraps and partial block bin runneth over. This quilt will be my Camping quilt so I need to have it made, quilted, and bound by mid-October.

I'm going to pull some multi-colored brights from stash and choose from those for the HBD. I hope to finish that top by tomorrow morning. I have the black washed and all the scraps ready to go to finish the Kids Shoofly. I can do it! 2 tops this week!

Pictures

2009-07-13T07:25:00.006-05:00

Here are "Hopscotch", "Cathie's Campfire", and "Simple Simon"

These have become addictive! I spent some time this weekend sorting through my bright scraps and pulling all the Black & White fabrics I'm gonna use. As fun as these are though, I really want to use my time this week to finish up a couple of UFO's.

Friday night I pulled this BOB (blocks in bags) and sewed them together.

I don't know what colors to do for borders. It is going to be a charity quilt so I really don't want to piece anything. I could do strips of any colors except yellow. There is a lot of green already so I really don't want to use that. I thought about a skinny blue and then wider red, or reverse that and do a skinny red and then a wider blue? Help?

Multi-Tasking

2009-07-13T06:48:00.002-05:00

The other night David and I were watching "Surviving Surburbia" and "The Goode Family" on TV. 2 more shows that I love and have probably been canceled. The last several Saturdays they've finished up the "Eli Stone" episodes. I really liked that show. Not just for Eli's sometimes musical visions, but that each show seemed to convey an almost spiritual message to me. Beginning this Saturday they are gonna show the last 4 episodes of another short-lived favorite- "Dirty, Sexy Money". Nothing spiritual about that show, just several good looking men.

Anyway, I already digress. We were watching TV and I turned on the computer. I played some solitaire and I worked on some stuff in EQ6. David questioned what I was doing. I can't "just sit". If I "just sit" I fall asleep. My hands have to keep moving. I have to have something "to do". I seem to multi-task everything. You should see my "to do" list. I plan short things to do while I'm waiting on other longer tasks. For instance, clean out the dishwasher while waiting on the washing machine to finish.

Now most of the quilters I know have lots of projects going on all at once. Right now I have:

Dear Jane (aka DJ) Blocks
Adagio
Scrappy Rocky Road to Kansas
Crumb Blocks
Kids Hole in the Barn Door
Kids Shoofly

The first 4 on the list are "on-going" projects that will take me a while. The 2 kids quilts are short term projects that I'm actually hoping to finish this week if I can stop making DJ blocks long enough.

However, I really do know a couple of quilters who start 1 project and actually FINISH it before they start another one. I don't see how they do it. I like having choices. I see what mood I'm in and that decides which project I'm gonna work on. I've already got another UFO pulled and 2 quilts I want to start after these 2 kids quilts are done.

So what do you do? Are you fidget-y? How many projects do you have going on right now? What do you do to relax? I tried reading...it put me to sleep too...

Weird Names

2009-07-09T13:15:00.003-05:00

Here are A6 Uncle Homer and A8 Florence Nightingale. I should do some research and see if there are reasons behind the names. Most quilters know A6 as "Uneven Nine Patch". I've also heard it called "Puss in the Corner".

As I get into this more and make the harder and more challenging blocks and work with other brights and colors, I may go back to these beginning blocks and redo them if I need to change colorways.

Adagio

2009-07-07T05:26:00.003-05:00

Here are 2 of the blocks. This is going to be so cool. I love how all these colors are playing so well together although I'm not quite sure about that dark green corner, so I might change it later. We'll see when I get more blocks made.

On a Roll Again!

2009-07-06T05:39:00.005-05:00

After being so frustrated Saturday night about the pink & brown quilt, I drowned myself in a little bit of ice cream and went to bed feeling defeated.

Was not to last long because just a few hours later I was wide awake and ready to go, so I picked out patterns and printed off papers and got these made.

I had already made and sent her 5 but I don't have a picture of those. I hope that she likes all of them.

After a break to do a load of dishes, several loads of laundry and take a short nap, I spent the evening working with these strips

I got 48 blocks started but didn't finish a single one. I will tonight and get a pic posted. I have grand ideas of entering this one in a show so I am trying to take my time and do everything just right. Sure don't want to sew any of these upside down. LOL.

What's wrong with this picture?

2009-07-04T16:06:00.002-05:00

Yep, I just realized after all the problems with the piano key borders, that in my rush to finish this, I sewed the last 2 rows on UPSIDE DOWN. ARGH!!! I don't know how to fix this, other than beg and tip tirane real good for her help. Or just give this to charity. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it anyway.

But it's done for now and I'm on to those blocks for Medina...

Sewing Marathon

2009-07-03T06:23:00.002-05:00

The school is closed today and David has to work all weekend so I am having a sewing MARATHON. I'll do a little sleeping, a little eating, and take a break tonight to go to "First Friday Folksingers" at church but other than that I'm going to sew, sew, SEW.

My weekend goals are:

Finish the Pink/Brown/Cream Rail fence aka "Sweet Rails".
I'm starting my version of "Dear Jane" and have picked very easy blocks to start with. I want to get at least 2 done this weekend.
I need to make some blocks for Medina. We had a 1 on 1 exchange and sent each other a yard of fabric to make 12 blocks. She's a SAHM and had all of my blocks made and back to me within a month. I've been slacking and haven't finished hers (several months later). Still need to make 7 blocks and hope to get most of them done this weekend.
Many years ago when I was active in the quilting group at about.com we did a swap for 2 1/2 inch Moda Marble strips. The colors chosen were so pretty I didn't want to use them in anything else and sat the tub of strips aside. They started screaming at me the other night and I sat down and designed the quilt in EQ6. I have a ton of solid black to use with them and have named this quilt "Amish Stripes". Gee, I wish I was more creative with titles. LOL. I want to get this quilt started and as much progress made on it as possible.

So that's it! I promise pictures and progress updates so stay tuned!

Helping out a friend

2009-06-08T12:58:00.002-05:00

http://kristiesyardsale.blogspot.com/

Quilt Guilds

2009-06-04T08:40:00.005-05:00

Tuesday night I attended my first meeting of the Garland Quilt Guild. The speaker was Margaret Bucklew. Although I do not applique I found her work fascinating and she told a lot of funny stories. She does Portraits in fabric. Here she is with 2 of her works.
This is a quilt she did that was highlighted on the show Texas, Country Reporter. She told us the story of meeting this soldier and I wish I'd taken better notes. Sorry about the bag being in the way.
When you look at this up close you can see the reflection of a flag in the sunglasses that he is wearing. She talked about how to choose just the right colors and I learned a LOT from her on values and shading. She brought in her computer and showed us how she turns a color picture into black & white and then plays with the values until she gets everything just right.

After her lecture there was Show & Tell and I showed off Leslie's Quilt. Here I am on the right with the Guild President, Valerie Hubbard, on the left.
Helle hasn't finished the binding yet, but it earned me an extra chance in the Door prize drawings. You get 1 chance just for showing up and 1 chance for bringing a Show & Tell. It seemed like there were at least 20 door prizes and maybe 60-75 members there

There were several people that I knew and I had such a good time that I joined. I picked up the BOM for next month- Diamond Star but they are asking for it to be done in Red CW or Blue CW on Cream CW -none of which I have but I think I can get some large scraps from a good online friend.

They are also doing a couple of drives for some charity quilts and I'm thinking about giving a few things for those.

I'm excited to get involved! I feel even more motivated!

June Goals

2009-06-02T17:37:00.000-05:00

I'm keeping it fairly simple this month as to not get too overwhelmed.

Quilty Goals :

finish the binding on the charity quilt

finish making the pink/brown/cream rail fence

bind the Blue & White quilt

Make huge strides on the "Lot O' Hearts" quilt

Make at least 6 blocks towards my secret project.

It may sound like a lot but it's really not. Notice I didn't say "Finish" the Lot O' Hearts quilt. :)

Non-Quilty Goals:

Lose 10 pounds

Read at least 1 book that isn't Quilting related. Last Saturday I made a trip to Half Price Books and picked up a $3 copy of this

I am finding it very interesting. It's been a very long time since I've read anything Non-fiction.

Clean out my car and get it washed!

That's it. I can do it! I think I can...I think I can...I think I can...

Current Projects

2009-06-02T05:10:00.009-05:00

Here are a couple of things I've been working on lately.
I have been taking my scraps and doing this

and this
to make blocks like this

and Saturday after I got home from "Sit & Sew" I decided to take a whole bunch of these
6 inch Rail Fences I had from a block swap

and make them into a top. It isn't quite finished yet.
I have 6 of 12 rows put together.

My bad wrist has hurt a little bit the last few days so I haven't finished the binding on the charity quilt just yet. I know there is no real rush but I want to get it done before I start binding something else. I feel I need more practice.

Learning something new

2009-06-01T10:07:00.003-05:00

I really love our monthly "Sit & Sew" at tirane's house. A chance to get with my BFF's and sew and chat and get some sewing done. The last few months I'd been so tired by the time the Saturday would get here, I felt too tired to lug my sewing machine and stuff over that I just took some scraps and my cutting board and cut. (I still have those baggies organized and they are for projects later this summer.)

This past Saturday I conquered another fear. I learned how to bind by hand! I walked in carrying nothing but a couple of books I owed Beth and tirane wondered where my stuff was to work on. I said "Your gonna teach me how to bind". Several months ago I'd taken some ghastly fabric and made it into a charity quilt and she had quilted it and set it aside. We pulled it out and after a quick lesson I started sewing. Here is a picture of my chubby fingers working away...

When I first started the stitches looked awful, but by the time I got to the middle of the second side, you couldn't even see them. She had to show me how to do the first corner (the one in the picture) but after I did the 2nd corner by myself I sat there with a big smile on my face.

My hands were pretty sore and other things called my name the rest of the weekend, but I'll get that binding finished in the next day or 2 and show you the end result.

I'd been paying her to bind my stuff but now I can do it myself! Well, at least the stuff I can fold over and bind. A lesson on sewing on bindings is still to come.

Why was I so afraid of doing this? I think back to when I first started quilting. I was scared to death of paper piecing. It was several years before I was ready to try it and now I'm addicted to it.

I've been afraid of binding, curved piecing, and applique. I'm not going to let it take another couple of years to get over curved piecing cause there's a pattern I really want to try sometime later this year but I'm still not sure about applique. Maybe if the right pattern called to me.

Are there quilting techniques that you've been or are afraid of? What's stopping YOU?

Stash Report, Week 22

2009-06-01T08:20:00.008-05:00

I haven't posted in forever. I am finally getting into my new routine at work though and have been doing some sewing and getting some things done.

Here's an updated report...

Fabric Added this Week: 10 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 28.625 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 1 yard and a Whole lot of scraps!
Fabric Used Year to Date: 49 yards

The fabric acquired this week was 10 yards of solid black that tirane was able to get at a great bargain. $3 a yard. We thought it was going to be Kona black, but even though it wasn't, it was still a good enough quality that it was a good deal.

The fabric used this week was actually from 2 weeks ago, to put the borders on the quilt I've made for my co-worker. I've already picked up that quilt back from tirane and my boss, Helle, is going to put the binding on it. Separate post coming about it later this week after it's completely finished but here is a sneak peek.

All of the strips used in the blocks were from the 2 boxes of pink and red scraps that my friend Lynn had sent me.I had dumped them all in this bag. Making Leslie's quilt barely made a dent in the heap so I'm on the lookout for another pattern to use up more of them. Maybe a log cabin? Maybe "Boxy Stars" from Quiltville? Try something challenging that I've been wanting to do and make pineapple blocks? What is your favorite pattern for using 2 1/2 inch strips?

We had our monthly "Sit & Sew" at tirane's house on Saturday and were discussing my stash clean up. Swooze asked me if I'd been buying fabric again. I let out at resounding "NO". It feels really good to say that. I haven't stepped foot into JoAnn's or my LQS in well over a month. I realized I never even went to pick up my BOM kits for May and here it is June 1. The LQS will save them up for me and they will be there when I get them. It's not a project I've been keeping up with on anyway.

I haven't used up as much as I would have liked by this point halfway through the year, but I feel that is changing. I've got several projects I'm currently working on now that involve scraps, but hey, the borders and the backings have to come from somewhere right? And I'm getting a lot better at "shopping my stash" even though there are a lot of neat fabrics out there right now that I'd love to get my hands on.

Speaking of stash, I had set a goal to sew over 150 yards this year. I'd better get busy!

Stash Report, Week 18

2009-05-06T13:36:00.002-05:00

OK, 17 went by without a post.... but here's a little update...

Fabric Added this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 18.625 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 1 1/2yards
Fabric Used Year to Date: 48 yards

Fabric Given away this week: 35 yards

I traded 2 boxes of fabrics and unwanted books on QATW for books of stamps and I gave 2 friends I was in scavenger hunt swaps with a bunch of extra fabric just because. It's fabric I'm sure they will like and it's out of my house!

The bad thing is that I also got a flat rate box full of pink & red strips, most are 2 1/2 inches, although some are 1 1/2 inch and some are as wide as 4 inches. I have 3 projects these are getting divided into. The same lady is sending me another box of pink & red FQ's and scraps and also a box of novelty scraps as my "I Spy" supply was greatly depleted last year.

I'll have to post some pictures when I get all these goodies.

She Lives!

2009-05-06T13:27:00.003-05:00

Yes, I'm still alive. Been crazy busy with the teaching job at work and actually doing a little bit of sewing.

My Co-worker was finally brought out of the drug induced Coma on Sunday after 2 1/2 weeks. My boss went to see her yesterday and she is looking much better. She was trying to talk but since they did a tracheotomy on her last week that was very difficult. They still have her on a breathing machine and hope to get her off that soon too. She is truly a miracle and living proof that prayers are answered. We weren't sure she'd make it. She will still have a very long road to recovery but the worst is over.

I've been doing a little sewing but it's just finishing up some swap blocks I owed. These will be done by the end of the week and then NO MORE SWAPS for me till I get a whole lot of tops done. Don't let me sign up Eileen!

Stash Report Week 16

2009-04-22T06:46:00.002-05:00

Last week I bought 5 yards but turned around and gave it to tirane for the backing of "Orange You Glad".

My co-worker is still in ICU and still in a drug induced coma. She is now on 75% Oxygen and her color is getting better but there is still something wrong and they have run more tests to determine just what. They are hoping they can take her out of the coma by Sunday. Prayers are still needed. She will have a very long road to recovery.

Hug your friends and loved ones today. Hug your earth too. It's earth day. I don't know how much they will understand but I'm gonna teach the kids about recycling and saving electricity today.

Thoughts and Prayers Needed

2009-04-13T18:16:00.002-05:00

My fabric sale and sewing in general may be put on hold for a week or so. One of our teacher who is NEVER sick is in the hospital ICU with Pnemonia and I am convering not only her hours but some of mine as well so this will be a LONG week.

Please keep my friend and co-worker Leslie in your thoughts and prayers. Thanks.

Overwhelmed/Easter plans

2009-04-09T13:53:00.003-05:00

Well last years spring cleaning and this January's clean up didn't solve the problem. I walk into my sewing room and I still feel overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I have. I haven't read it yet, but I'm reminded of Peter Walsh's book "Does ths clutter make my butt look fat?".

I am trading away some block sets on QATW for fabrics I need and am going to have a sale here on my blog starting April 13 of fabrics and books. Those of you that are local to DFW can pay me $ in person and the rest will be by mail or paypal. So please check back Monday morning and maybe there will be something that sparks your interest.

What are your plans for the holiday weekend? Unfortuantely I have to work all day Friday but hope to cut some fabrics when I get home. The only other goal for the weekend is to finally decide on the sashing and borders for the shoofly quilt and get those cut and/or made.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend and can do something quilty!

Stash Report, Week 14

2009-04-06T12:07:00.003-05:00

Fabric Added this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 18.625 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 1 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date: 46 1/2 yards

Quick post. I'm home on my lunch break and I want to go sew.

April Goals

2009-04-02T10:05:00.002-05:00

I did get all of the shooflies made the other day but I still need to press them and get them squared up. That's on the list to do today. I'll post a pic when they are all done cause I can't decide anything on sashing and borders. I looked at some Shoofly quilts online trying to get inspiration and didn't really see anything that caught my eye.

This weekend QATW is doing what is supposed to be a really easy, No HST's, scrappy Mystery quilt. We were told to get 1.25 yards of scraps that were very light and 4 yards of scraps that were on the dark side of medium to dark. Well, being one who loves to be different, I'm going to use WOW scraps and Brights, but I am going to pick from the blue/green/purple sort of range. Maybe throw in some Black and some red. We'll have to see what happens. Should be fun! and a nice diversion from the taxes that DH and I need to work on this weekend too.

As for the rest of the month...my few goals are to..

finish the Shoofly top
make a top from the Heart blocks I won in a lotto
and start something with a collection of pink and red scraps gathered from my stash and from friends. I have a pattern in mind but I haven't played with it in EQ yet.

There are some other things I might work on but they will be icing on the cake if I do. I just really don't want to set myself up with too many goals and stress myself out. I'm also going to be working on my health and that's gonna start with cutting out some of the junk food I had started eating again. I have already started and have lost 2 pounds this week. I've been drinking the Gatorade like I'm supposed to but I have been neglecting the water and I need to start drinking more of it. I would love to lose 10 pounds this month. I know I can do it if I put my mind to it.

Only 1 thing today

2009-03-31T10:16:00.006-05:00

Keeping it very easy...

I have these from a Friendship Block Swap on Quilting Around the World

I have the fabrics cut and HST's pieced for an additional 11 blocks and will see how many of them I can get made.

Out Like a Lamb

2009-03-31T09:54:00.003-05:00

I can't believe March is over already. It started in a blur with getting ready for the Irish Festival, and then I worked a lot of extra hours for several weeks, plus I got to enjoy the Dallas Quilt Show.

I'm glad to report that I was able to complete the 3 goals I set for myself last week. I posted the picture of "Orange You Glad" and here is the finished charity top...

I also finished counting all the stash, (not including the 4 large tubs of scraps) and I have a grand total of 872.5 yards. How many quilts is that tirane?

I've been thinking about goals for April. I have a few scrappy projects that I have started on so I know those will be on the list. I want to make these small manageable goals, as I also need to take some time to concentrate on my health again. I'm going to be making a renewed effort to bust stash AND pounds.

And now presenting...

2009-03-29T14:45:00.002-05:00

It's done. It might be a little wonky, and I wish I'd spaced some colors out differently, but "Orange You Glad" is done. It will be a while before I use setting triangles again.

Stash Report Week 13

2009-03-29T10:03:00.002-05:00

Fabric Added this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 18.625 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 3 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date: 45 1/2 yards

I am "unofficially" participating in Quiltathon. I thought I was going to be gone most of the weekend, but instead I've been home, sewing away. My dizzy spells have come back a bit.

I'm simultaneously working on 3 projects- finishing the stash project, the borders on the charity quilt, and working on another stash busting project of my own.

I am on a roll! Better get back to it!

Stash Count

2009-03-25T14:04:00.002-05:00

Here is where the stash count currently stands. There are many small and mid-size tubs still to go but all the big ones are done except the borders/backings tub and it's on the agenda for tonight.

Brights- 145 yds
Novelties-79 yds
Batiks-29.6 yds
Neutrals- 92.4 yds
Fall- 42 yds
Black & Whites- 25 yds
Christmas- 39 yds

added to the list this morning...

Bugs- 13 yds
Foods- 23 yds
Southwest-23 yds
Halloween-15.5 yds

For a total so far of 524 yards.

Tackle it 2sday

2009-03-24T10:11:00.002-05:00

I'm still feeling a little under the weather but today I'm going to continue counting stash. The non-quilty thing I'm going to do is take at least 10 things out of my car. I have made a lot of progress on the front seat and the trunk but you could run a garage sale out of the backseat. LOL.

When I was at Sit & Sew at tirane's house on Saturday she helped me decide on the background color for Judy's stash project. We decided on Orange...not a color I would typically pick but it works. I only have 3 large yardage pieces of bright orange in my stash so one of them better work. I'll be checking that out today too. Maybe I'll even get the triangles cut.

Stash Report Week 12

2009-03-22T08:49:00.002-05:00

Fabric Added this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 18.625 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 8 yard
Fabric Used Year to Date: 42 1/2 yards

Fabrics used this week were for backing given to tirane, and 2 yards sent to a friend in exchange for a book...I've been sewing again, but it's out of the scrap box.

My goals for the rest of March:

Finish Judy's Stash project
Finish counting stash
put border on the charity pinwheel quilt.

This past week was crazy busy since it was spring break, and I've come down with a cold, but I think I can..I think I can...I think I can.....

Happy St. Patricks Day!

2009-03-17T06:43:00.004-05:00

Top of the Morning to ya! I hope you're wearing your green! If not you'll get pinched!

Several years ago I began volunteering at the North Texas Irish Festival. My friends Chuck and Jodie run the Performer Products booth where the CD's of all the groups performing are sold. The last 2 years I have been their Finance Manager. Essentially I sit and run the cash register for the weekend. I thoroughly enjoy doing it and have met lots of really interesting people, not to mention some of the performers.

The festival takes place at Fair Park and is spread out amongst several buildings. The outdoor stage, named the Shannon stage, is where the Celtic Rock groups perform. They are always my favorite. This year I took several breaks to go listen to my favorite local group perform. Needfire is made up of a Father & Son and several friends. I tried to take lots of pictures but none of them came out very well. Here's the best one. Good looking guys in kilts!

I also used the weekend to do a little research into my ancestry. I am Irish on my Mothers side and Scottish on my Fathers side. Angus MacClellan was my great-grandfather. Now how much more of a Scottish name can you get? I spent a little bit of time at the Clan MacClellan booth in the Scottish Village. I really want to learn more about my Celtic roots.

Go n-eírí an bóthar leat.
May the road rise with you.

Stash Report, Week 11

2009-03-16T07:16:00.002-05:00

Fabric Added this Week: 4.5 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 18.625 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 1 yard
Fabric Used Year to Date: 34 1/2 yards

I went to the Dallas Quilt Show on Saturday and will post more about that later. I did buy a 3 yard piece of a beautiful batik and 4 brown FQ's and 2 Black & White FQ's. The brown FQ's are going straight into a project I'm working on currently. The rest is going into stash.

Gotta Wear Shades

2009-03-10T10:47:00.010-05:00

I want to show off a few of the blocks I've made from Judy's Stash project. I am way behind in making this top but I do have all the main blocks made. I am still trying to decide what to do for the 4 corner blocks and what color to use for the setting triangles.

I will try to take a picture later with all the blocks so that I can get your ideas.

Stash Report, Week 10

2009-03-10T06:54:00.002-05:00

This is really week 10. Last week's was really week 9.

Fabric Added this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 14.125 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date: 34 1/2 yards

I did make Judy's Stash project blocks, but I pulled from my scrap bin and am not counting that in yardage. It barely made a dent in my bright scraps. I'll do another post later today with pictures of my blocks.

This weekend is the Dallas Quilt Show, and I do intend to do some shopping, but only for batiks and some certain projects. Last year I wore a little wrist band with some little scraps tied to it and used it to match up fabrics. I'm going to do the same thing again.

Just Stuff

2009-03-04T14:41:00.003-06:00

Our ISP is down for a few days so I'm popping in from work. I can't post any pics from here, but I've been super busy the last few days working on several projects.

I'm making Judy's latest Stash project- I chose a lot of large bright scraps for mine with a few bright novelty rectangles thrown in.

I did get all my brights folded and added up. For me, "brights" includes TOT's and Prints. It is easier for me to find them and pick them if they are all together. I have 145 yards of brights. Yowsa! And 2 boxes of scraps that are brights. I have another scrappy quilt planned with those.

I also added up my novelties, except for the Bugs box and the foods box. Without those I have 79 yards of "things".

And I found 3 more yards of a COC to add to the Neutrals tally, so right now my stash is at 450 yards....Only 1 more large tub to count- the fabrics set aside for borders and backings. After that is the small and medium tubs of colors and projects. I won't be able to get to those till next week.

Hopefully the ISP will be back up and running soon, I want to share some pics of my projects!

Stash Report, Week 10

2009-03-01T08:06:00.002-06:00

Fabric Added this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 14.125 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date: 34 1/2 yards

Didn't do any sewing this week but I've been gathering, cutting, and adding it up.

Was really tempted to go to JoAnn's but resisted!

Should have big numbers next week for fabric used though.

TGIF

2009-02-27T11:17:00.003-06:00

And the 100th post giveaway winner is.... Heidi! Thanks to all who left comments!

The stash count is up to 225 yards- here is where it stands so far:

Batiks 26.6 yards
Neutrals 89.4 yards
Fall Fabrics 42 yards
Black/Gray/Black & whites 25 yards
Christmas 39 yards

My weekend goals:

Put the borders on the pinwheel charity quilt
Count and fold Brights and Novelties. This should be the biggest amount, as I'm starting with 2 tubs of brights and 2 of novelties, and that doesn't count Bugs and Foods that each have their own box. Also doesn't include the 100's of squares already cut and ready for "I Spy" quilts. They are in small tubs by size. Can you tell I like Brights and Novelties?
Lunch and errands with DH on Saturday
Do our taxes on Sunday
Performer Products Managers Meeting for NTIF Sunday night. The Festival is in 1 week and I can't wait! It's one of the highlights of my year. This is my 5th year as a Volunteer and my 3rd year to be the Finance Manager in our booth.
Edited to add- Gather and cut fabrics for Judy's latest stash busting quilt. Maybe even start sewing on it.

Hope y'all have a great weekend and do something quilty!

And It Begins...

2009-02-26T08:01:00.008-06:00

Last night I counted Batiks and Neutrals (WOW, COC, beige, tans, etc.) This has already been a very eye opening yet exhilarating experience. I like the space saved after folding everything.

The Batik tub started like this-scraps and yardage jumbled together.

and 26.6 yards later, it looks like this....

The yardage is stacked on the left and the scraps are on the right. I am not including any scraps in yardage count, as my math skills are horrible and to add up all the inches would just boggle my mind.

The neutrals started as 1 large tub, 1 Avon box, and 1 small tub of scraps.

Now I have it down to all 89.4 yards folded into the tub

and the scraps are in the Avon box.

So the stash count is already at 106 yards and I've barely started. However, when I was folding the batiks I started designing a quilt in my head. Let's just say I have a lot of yardage of good watery blues...

I should note- I consider "scraps" to be anything smaller than a FQ, or strips less than 6 inches in width. I also realized that I'm gonna quit buying FQ's. If it's nice enough that I want some I'm going to get at least 1/2 yards. There are several batiks I wish I had more of and I'm not sure if the LQS still has them. I'm trying not to buy at this point anyway.

Next are the Fall Fabrics and Black & Whites...

Tackle it 2sday

2009-02-24T12:02:00.003-06:00

I've been so busy this morning I almost forgot it's Tuesday! I already tackled several things this morning- did some laundry, ran some errands, and since I'm the musician on Sunday at church I picked my music.

What am I doing the rest of the day? You're not going to believe it. After spending several days looking for a fabric I know I have, and still not able to find it, I've decided to clean up and re-organize my stash again. I was reading Brenda's post about counting her stash and although I'm scared to see just how much I really have, I want to do it and see just how much is here. If I had to guess I would say there's probably about 500 yards. Scary, huh?!

Now there is no way I can keep this going non-stop, but I'm going to do it a little bit everyday. And I'm going to re-fold everything so I can see at a glance what I've got. Just for kicks I want to see how much of each color/theme I have too. Should be very interesting.

Since there are several upcoming non-quilty things coming up that will take me away from my sewing room, I'm setting a deadline to have this room totally re-done by March 31st. I'm sure I can do it in between sewing projects.

The non-quilty project for the day is to finish gathering all my medical and donation receipts so we can work on our taxes. I'm hoping to get something back and not have to pay.

So how is your Tuesday?

Celebrating 100! Celebrating Spring!

2009-02-24T07:17:00.012-06:00

Well for some reason Blogger thinks I started posting in 2005, but I swear I didn't start till July 2007. As far as I'm concerned, this is my official 100th post!

I know that some of you are still experiencing Winter and getting snow. Here in North Texas, we are already experiencing Spring weather. They are forecasting 80's for later in the week.

My allergies are not happy when everything starts blooming, but there is one thing I love about spring- Texas Wildflowers.

I especially love our state flower- the Bluebonnet.

They usually start to bloom in mid to late March and are gone by mid May. Brides love to have their picture taken in fields of them, and if you drive down some of the major freeways you can see families pulled over to the side of the road taking pictures of their children in the fields of them too. I've never had my picture taken in them, but I actually hope to resolve that this spring. I want to take a road trip to find just the right spot.

Another one of my favorite things are fabrics by MODA. Leave it to them to come out with this gorgeous selection of fabrics- "Hill Country Spring".

For those of you that don't know, the "Hill Country" is central Texas, pretty much the area east of Austin and north of San Antonio. While North Texas is basically flat, and West Texas is basically desert, this area is hilly, lush, and green. There are many beautiful lakes and rivers.

To celebrate my 100th post I am giving away 2 charm packs of "Hill Country Spring"

There are 22 charms in each pack. Just enough to make yourself a nice table topper or a runner and some placemats. You will also recieve a set of my Criss-Cross Coasters made with Bluebonnet fabric from another Moda line a few years ago.To win this giveaway, leave a comment in this post before midnight, Thursday, 2/26. Tell me your favorite thing about Spring where you live. I will put your name in a pot and post the winner Friday morning. If you post a link in your blog about my giveaway and let me know I'll put your name in the pot twice.

Good Luck!

Ideas Please!

2009-02-23T13:04:00.004-06:00

This is the charity quilt I've been working on. A couple of years ago a very nice lady gave bolts and bolts of fabric to our little sewing group to be used for charity quilts. She owns a quilt shop in one of the small towns southeast of Dallas. We split up a bunch of the fabrics and I came home with a couple of yards of the pink/hearts print.

I started cutting this while watching President Obama's Inauguration. I've worked on it a little in my spare time.

I can't decide what colors to use in the border. I have the bright pink fabric that is the same as the teal, yellow, and purple, and am thinking it needs to be the outer border. I was thinking yellow as the inner border, but is that too much yellow? With adding borders all around, it will be 60 inches square.

The nice thing is I have enough of the print left to make another top. I want to start on it this week but am not sure what pattern I want to do. I don't want to do more pinwheels. Any easy suggestions? I do have a lot more of the yellow and the purple but not much of the teal and I really don't want to go shopping since I'm trying to use up stash.

I'm a Geek after all!

2009-02-23T12:40:00.005-06:00

If you've been following my blog lately you know that we've had computer issues. I thought for sure we'd somehow fried our USB ports. The printer and camera dock weren't working and I had tried all sorts of things, including calling Toshiba support. They told me I needed a new motherboard, which meant we might as well get a new laptop.

Well, I'm still not sure what I did but after clicking on a few things and deleting a few things, they work again! Hallelujah! It really sucked not being able to print my EQ patterns or download pictures to show off.

So here are a few things I've been working on.

****Eileen, if you want to be surprised, DON'T LOOK any further!****

Here are pictures of the Blue & White top I finished with Eileen's blocks.

She sent 13 blocks. When I saw this star block, I knew that I wanted to make it the center square. I wasn't sure about the borders around it, so thanks tirane for your great idea.

Then I played around with what I wanted to do for the outer borders. I finally decided on scrappy flying geese. I've grown to love pieced borders although I don't like tearing all the papers off (I paper piece everything).

I showed this top to my friend/boss Helle and she loved it. I am thinking of doing the same layout with another group of blocks.

I had a lot of fun putting this together. I hope she likes it.

It turned out 72 inches square. Yep, I'm gonna use this layout again. I can see having a few more blocks around a center so that it's 90 inches. Perfect for a queen bed.

Stash Report, Week 8

2009-02-23T07:13:00.002-06:00

Fabric Added this Week: 6 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 14.125 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 15 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date: 34 1/2 yards

I went to get February's BOM and bought a 2 yard piece of COC and 3 yards of Brown TOT. Also picked up several remnant pieces.

I sent the last box of fabrics I didn't want anymore to Cissie and made some blocks for a swap on QATW.

I'm still using more than I've bought, so I'm doing great!

Tackle It 2sday

2009-02-17T11:43:00.002-06:00

Unfortuntely I had to come into work early, so today's projects are this-

While I'm here at work I'm going to tackle the growing stack of papers that need to be filed. There are 3 of us that work this office and none of us like filing. But it needs to be done and I'm bored.

Tonight at home I'll continue cutting pink, brown, and cream fabrics. I'm working on 2 projects at once- a controlled scrappy rail fence, and wonky stars ala Bonnie Hunter to accompany the sampler. Both should be very cute when they are done.

I also need to finish taking the papers off Eileen's top so I can get it in the mail to her tomorrow.

What are you doing with your 2sday?

Stash Report, Week 7

2009-02-16T07:08:00.002-06:00

Fabric Added this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 8.125 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 4 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date: 19 1/2 yards

I used about 2 yards in finishing Eileen's Blue & White top and gave away 2 1/2 yards to someone.

I am on a roll again and getting a lot done. Should have a big report next week. Hopefully my co-workers are well now and I won't get stuck working 10 hour days this week.

Inspiration

2009-02-13T09:10:00.011-06:00

Last spring when we went to NYC and Boston I drug David along to lots of museums. And I took a lot of pictures. His remark was always "You can look at that online". It's not the same as seeing it in person though.
I can say "I was there".

Of course I took pics of my favorites..Monet, Picasso, Matisse, Renoir, O'Keefe, Pollack, etc.

But there were a few that I took that now I wish I had written down the artists name and title of the piece. Most of these caught my eye as future quilt ideas.
I did get the name and title of this one. It is "Bed" by Robert Rauschenberg. He framed a pillow, sheet, and quilt, then scribbled on them and splashed them with paint. I liked the Courthouse Step and wondered how old they were. Left me wondering who made the quilt and if they knew it would one day be hanging at the MoMA.

This gave me ideas for paper pieced diamonds or butterflies. The colors are a lot more vivid in person.

and this one is so bright and wild that of course I love it.

And this one is from a Seminole Indian's dress.
Doesn't it remind you of a quilt block?

The Visitors Center in Salem, MA has tile was laid out like a 9-patch quilt. I took pictures but can't find them. They may not have gotten downloaded. If I can recover them I'll post those too. Gray background with squares of navy, teal, rust, gold, and hunter green. Isn't it funny where we find inspiration sometimes?!

An Artists Pallette, or where is that Mauvy, peachy pink?

2009-02-11T16:36:00.004-06:00

Saturday was our monthly Sit & Sew at tirane's house. She has a stash to die for. Every possible color folded and stacked nice and neat on wooden shelves. She was working with a panel that had very subdued pastel shades. She pulled fabrics from her stash that complimented it nicely even though they were all from different manufacturers. Fabrics that I never would have thought about using together. But she has just the knack for making things work. Then she realized she needed a pink. Went back to her stash and pulled just the right pink the first time. Wow. She doesn't believe in "stash busting", because as she says, your stash is your pallette. Had that been a panel in my stash, I would have had nothing to work with it. I'd have given up and given it away.

I thought about a pink that I had that would have worked nicely with her fabrics but then realized I'd given it away in my recent purging.

Then I got to thinking about what is left in my stash. As far as colors go, I have lots of blues, greens, reds, and pinks. Very little brown, yellow, orange, or purple, which is strange because it's my favorite color. But within each color I am limited in certain shades. Most of my fabrics lean towards the bright side. I do have some deep rich hunter greens and some navy blue. But if someone asked me to make a baby quilt in pastels, it would be an excuse to go shopping. I have a growing selection of 30's prints, batiks, Black & Whites, and my novelty selection is extensive..every "thing" under the sun, but that's a post for another day.

What colors dominate your stash? Are there colors you're lacking? Have you given something away only to wish you hadn't? Do you purge fabrics? Stash bust? or are you like my friend and always have just the right shade of mauve pink?

Stash Report, Week 6, 2009

2009-02-09T07:35:00.002-06:00

Fabric Added this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 8.125 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date: 15 yards

Nothing in, but nothing out this week.

However I am happy to report that my recent slump is over. I spent Saturday cutting scraps at tirane's house and continued the cutting therapy here when I got home. I have nice stacks of charms and strips to use in finishing some projects. Will get some pics posted soon.

Yesterday I worked on Eileen's Blue & White top. It's coming along nicely and I hope to get it mailed to her by the end of the week. Need to take some pics of the progress on it too.

Tackle it 2sday

2009-02-03T08:12:00.003-06:00

I have been feeling a bit down in the dumps lately and haven't done a whole lot of sewing. I seem to go through this every winter. I don't know what it is. Last year I was motivated to sew as much as possible in the hopes of making $$$ and since deciding that I won't do that craft fair again, I don't seem to have something to challenge me. I do have the tubs of UFO's, but I don't seem inspired to work on any of them. At least not lately.

I do need to work on Eileen's Blue & White top. We did a swap of blocks to make each other a top and funny thing is we sent each other Blue & White blocks. I laughed out loud when I got her blocks. She made me this lovely top with mine...

For today's quilty "tackle" I will work on hers. I was having a really hard time deciding on what to do for the outer border but now I have a plan. I hope she likes it.

And I think for today's non-quilty tackle I'm going to go get a perm. I've been needing a new one, as the one I got in October grew out fairly quickly. That should help me feel better.

BTW, my 100th post is coming really soon and I'm thinking about a giveaway. Not sure yet what it will be but be on the lookout!

Stash Report, Week 5, 2009

2009-02-02T07:18:00.002-06:00

Fabric Added this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 8.125 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 1 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date: 15 yards

Pretty boring week here. Had a cold I was getting over and didn't feel like doing too much. I did work on some scrappy blocks. We also had an ice storm for several days so I didn't get out and shop.

I have several things on my plate for this week so I should be able to bust a bunch of stash.

Pounds Busted, Week 3

2009-01-26T06:53:00.002-06:00

Pounds Busted this week: 0
Pounds Busted YTD: 12

I figured this would happen with an 8 pound lost last week. I'm going to increase my activity this week and hopefully report a loss again next Monday.

Stashbusters, Week 4

2009-01-26T06:49:00.002-06:00

Fabric Added this Week: 7 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 8.125 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 5 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date: 14 yards

Friday was the beginning of a sale at my favorite LQS. I needed 2 yards of a nice navy blue and when I went to get it there were several baskets of FQ's marked 20 for $20...I saw several I can use in upcoming projects and some brights so of course I bought them.

Showing Off

2009-01-22T07:17:00.006-06:00

I realized that I never posted about my win!

Every year we have a Service Auction at church and people donate goods, services, parties, and anything they can think of that people might bid on.

My friend Anne donated a basket full of quilting goodies. She isn't a quilter, but she gave quite a good batch of stuff. There must be a story behind it that I need to find out. She does sew, so maybe it was a gift given to her by someone else.

There are several quilters at church, but surprisingly only I and the husband of one of them were bidding on this.

The basket

was filled with these (6 of the Elm Creek Quilt books by Jennifer Chiaverini)

and these great 1/2 yards

and these wonderful FQ's

And a book- "Beginner's Guide to Quilting" which I forgot to take a picture of and have already gifted away to a co-workers granddaughter that has started quilting.

The funny thing is that I'm the computer data entry person at this auction and keep up with the winning bids. I thought for sure John had beat me by $5. But a few weeks ago the Auctions organizer told me that I had actually won and I picked up the basket. I've always wanted to read the books, and although I'm not sure what I'll do with the fabrics yet, I'm sure it will be something luscious. I especially love the basket. It's currently holding some pink & brown fabrics gathered for an upcoming project. How appropriate. LOL.

Tackle it 2sday #2

2009-01-20T07:38:00.002-06:00

Today I'm going to see how much I can get done on a Charity quilt. I have the fabrics in the dryer now. A nice bright focus print which I'll cut 6 inch squares of and some matching brights which I think I'm going to make pinwheels with. Not even sure how many pinwheels I need yet but I'll figure that out.

The non-quilty project of the day is several loads of laundry including bedding. I always hate doing that. Since I have this bad head cold it will include washing our pillows.

Of course I'm also going to be watching the Inauguration. What an exciting time in America. I remember watching the Inaugurations of Reagan, Clinton, and the most recent Bush, but I never felt then what I'm feeling today. I feel a sense of hope and change and really think we're in for a much brighter future.

Pounds Busted

2009-01-20T07:28:00.002-06:00

I am feeling a little better today. I have the day off and am going to a Doctor's appt. later this afternoon. A follow-up visit from the dizziness and problems of last fall.

Decided I want to keep track weekly of my weight loss too. I officially started on January 5th. So here we go-

Week 1- 4 lbs.
Week 2- 8 lbs.

YTD- 12 lbs

YEA! I cut back on all the junk food and am keeping a food journal. I need to get motivated to exercise more. I can tell my body is feeling better over all. I have a stack of clothes ready to wear as soon as I lose about 20 more lbs. I can do this...

Stash Report, Week 3

2009-01-19T06:47:00.001-06:00

Fabric Added this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 1.125 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 3 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date: 9 yards

short post today as I'm sick. Don't know if it's a cold or the flu but I've been down since Saturday afternoon. I've gone through a whole box of Kleenex. Hope y'all are feeling well!

January Projects

2009-01-15T06:38:00.009-06:00

Way back in August I was working on turning this fabric that Patty gave me

Into this...

It ended up being very small so I asked my dear friend tirane for some suggestions
on making it larger. We decided on adding a border of skinny flying geese
and then a border of small 9-patches. I think it will make a great quilt for a bird lover.

Then I got busy getting ready for that craft fair. This went into the UFO pile. I wasn't planning
on working on it till later in the summer. I knew I was going to have to buy some more drab colors as they are way out of the box for me. I hit the end of the year inventory in December at my LQS and all these colors were calling my name so I bought 20 FQ's for about $1.50 each.

For the last week I've been making these...

I miss my brights, but I wanted to do something with my overflowing boxes of scraps
so I also started turning these...

Into these

The makings of a "Rocky Road to Kansas" quilt. I have 20 of the 168 sections started. I am going to use some WOW scraps for the background color, but cannot decide what to do in what ends up being the center of each star. Just scrappy those too? pick 1 focus color? I found a lot of RRTK quilts online and they use 2 alternating colors like red and blue. Looking in my scraps I have a lot of green scraps and pink scraps but I can't envision using those. Black would be too dark. Creams would be too light. Any suggestions?

Scattered Scraps

2009-01-14T12:02:00.005-06:00

I really need to figure out what's wrong with the USB ports in this laptop. Here is the Scattered Scraps Quilt. I couldn't fit the whole quilt in the picture that I took. Maybe I can take better pictures at Tirane's this weekend when I go for sit and sew.

Here is a closeup. I chose a dark green and brown for the borders because the rest of the quilt is so busy. I think it gives the eye a good place to "rest".

Please check back tomorrow for pictures of other projects!

Tackle-It-2sday

2009-01-13T11:17:00.003-06:00

My hours at work were cut again, but the good news is that I now have most of the day off on Tuesday's. I'll only have to work the late afternoon shift (3-6:30). I was cut from 35 hours a week to about 25. Enrollment is down in my age group and we've taken my private kindergarten class to 2 mornings a week instead of 5. The other days they will remain part of the 4 year old class that they are with every afternoon.

Instead of being depressed and upset about it, I'm going to start using this extra time to tackle at least 2 projects. 1 will be something quilty, and 1 will be a household/other issue.

I spent most of this morning trying to resolve the computer/camera issues, and I still have several hours till work so I'm going to go see how many more skinny flying geese I can get pieced for the bird border. I have 20 sections done and should be able to get the other 20 done today. Then it will be on to the 6 1/2 inch 9-patch border.

So what are you doing with your Tuesday?

Computer Issues

2009-01-13T10:20:00.002-06:00

So I get the new USB cable and now the computer won't recognize the camera. I've tried all the troubleshooting I can think of...you would think that things would work together better. Gonna keep working on trying to fix it, but in the meanwhile, I'll have to do this another way. I'll go buy a disposable camera, take all the pictures again that I wanted to post, get them developed on a disk, and be able to show them off tomorrow. Sorry for the delay!

Stash Report, Week 2

2009-01-12T06:58:00.002-06:00

Fabric Added this Week: .125 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 1.125 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 5 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date: 6 yards

The only fabric bought this week was part of a Block of the Month kit.

I used up fabrics from stash for the borders of Stitched Scraps, started on borders for the Bird quilt, and also started working on some "Rocky Road to Kansas" blocks.

On Friday I realized that the USB cable for the camera had gone kaput. Bought a new one on Saturday and got it home and the mini is the wrong size! Was sewing too much yesterday and didn't want to go shopping, so today I'm going to take that cable back to Staples and will have to go to Fry's or Best Buy to get the right one. I have lots of pictures to post when I do! So please check back tomorrow...

Four!

2009-01-08T13:43:00.003-06:00

In the last 2 days I've lost 4 lbs! I'm sure it's because I've been sick and all I've eaten is oatmeal, applesauce, soup, macaroni & cheese, and diet ice cream. It hurts my throat to eat anything hard, chewy, or especially crunchy. I know cause I was craving salt again and tried to eat a couple of pretzels.

I'm feeling a lot better and went back to work today. I may try to walk a couple of laps on the playground this afternoon with the kids. Depends on whether they wear me out before we even make it outside. I still don't have much of a voice, so thank goodness for my co-teacher. They listen to Ms. Jennifer better than they listen to me anyway. Especially the boys. She's younger and prettier.

If all goes according to plan I will have Stitched Scraps finished by the weekend. Borders are cut, I just need to press the top again and get them sewn on. I have the borders cut and ready for Spiderwebs, but am going to wait till our Sit-n-Sew at tirane's on the 17th to sew them because she's gonna teach me how to miter the corners. Can't wait to have these done.

New Year, New Me

2009-01-07T09:24:00.004-06:00

I want my Mommy. I have a fever and a sore throat so I called in sick. I feel whiny and depressed. I'm going to go back to bed for a while and if i feel better when I get up I am going to sew something. Probably work on the borders of a couple of projects.

I watched "The Biggest Loser" last night. I have watched every episode of every season, but this season is different. It's the largest group of contestants they've ever had. The ladies actually look like me. I could see myself in so many of them. I sat at my desk and cried. I'm tired of looking and feeling this way. I don't have trainers like Bob and Jillian to work out with, (if I had a trainer that looked like Bob I would be in high heaven!) but I need to get back to eating the way I know I'm supposed to. I need to start walking again, except that because of my current health issues I can't really walk around the neighborhood. The doctors are scared I'll get dizzy and fall. There isn't a mall close anymore or I'd walk there. I think I'm going to research the local community centers and see what they offer for fitness classes. Or figure out a way to find someone in the neighborhood that will walk with me. There are a couple of ladies who walk together but they are very fast and I wouldn't be able to keep up with them.

At the end of 2008 with the health problems I was having I gained back some of the 70 lbs I'd lost in the first half of the year. I'd like to lose that weight this month and then start February back around my lowest point. I've been doing better with my eating the last few days but haven't gotten on the scale in about a week. I'm going to do that tomorrow when I'm (hopefully) feeling better. I'm going to put a tracker back on the sidebar here and start keeping track again.

May we all have a healthier and happier 2009. If you are losing weight or exercising, I'd love to hear about it. We can encourage each other.

January Goals

2009-01-05T07:11:00.002-06:00

Just a few small sewing goals for this month. I am trying to get my butt back in gear with my weight loss and need to concentrate some time and effort there.

Sewing Goals:

Add borders to "Stitched Scraps".
Add borders to "Spiderwebs".
Make the flying geese border for the Bird Quilt.

Personal Goals:

I got a pedometer for Christmas. I am going to wear it every day and keep track of steps taken. I'm not anywhere near the recommended 10,000 steps a day, but maybe in less than a year I'll be at that point. For now I will be very happy with at least 10,000 steps a week.

I want to lose the weight that I gained back these last few months with the health problems and get back to what my lowest weight was and keep losing from that point. I have gone cold turkey from some of the foods I had started eating again. They will not be brought into this house anymore!

Stash Report , Week 1, 2009

2009-01-05T06:57:00.002-06:00

Fabric Added this Week: 1 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 1 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 1 yard
Fabric Used Year to Date: 1 yard

I went to JoAnn's to get a new 6 1/2 inch ruler and some thread and made the mistake of glancing at the FQ's. They were on sale for .99 cents again. I noticed some new fabrics. My stash of blues is fairly small so I bought 2 blue FQ's. Then I noticed the same fabric in a gorgeous gold and bought 2 of those too.

My fabric used this week was in making some blocks. So 1 yard in, 1 yard out. I did OK this week.

Mark's Got It Right!

2008-12-23T07:29:00.002-06:00

I am a huge fan of Mark Lipinski. A few days ago I received the latest issue of Quilters Home. I read his Letter from the Editor and started cracking up and smiling and couldn't stop. He writes about getting rid of the fabrics and blocks and things that you don't want that are cluttering up your life and possibly stifling your creativity so you can start the new year right.

That's what I've been doing for almost a year now, but especially the last few months! Back in February (I can't believe it was that long ago) I posted here and here about my vast collection of block sets, mostly from MSN group swaps I was in. I just counted and there were over 70 of them. 70! What was I thinking?

Well, between actually making some tops, and giving/trading a LOT away, I am now down to a workable list of 30. That's 40 sets gone bye-bye. I feel good! I feel refreshed! And thanks to his other idea in the issue of creating a quilting journal, I now have some ideas drawn up for some of them. I will share those in the coming weeks as I get started on making these into tops.

In case you're interested, here's the list of what is left, in no particular order...

Pink/Black/White, Christmas Sampler, Scrappy Tennessee, Scrappy Mini-Bowties, 30's mini bow-ties, Mapleleafs, Fall Sampler, Black & Bright Windmills, Blue & Yellow, Orange & White, Pink & White, Blue & White, Spinning Flowers, Scrappy Cats, Scrappy 9 patches, Butterfly Focus, Wild Focus, Patriotic Sampler, Spring Fling, Batik & Cream, Boxy Stars, Indian Stars, Scrappy Sisters Choice, Daisy Focus, Pink/Brown/Cream, Halloween Sampler, B&W &Bright, Kids Hole in the Barn Door, Kids Buzzards, 30's sampler.

And these are just the blocks. In the last few months, I've also traded away over 15 flat rate boxes of fabrics, and given away several patterns I wasn't going to use.

I think I am ready to start 2009! Thanks Mark!