Fabric!

It's here! My Ozark Fabric & Other Stuff flat rate box.

Can you believe that I grabbed the camera before I opened the box?

Sorry it's so blurry but you can understand my haste. That's some Curious George fabric on top.  Tonya sold so much of that that she had to order an additional 4 bolts.

Look at this pile.  They are one yard cuts from Red Rooster, Free Spirit, RJR, Benartex, and In the Beginning. Most of this I bought when Tonya had a big year end sale and some pieces were only $2-4 per yard.

Here is the pretty flannel, all 5 yards of it, for the backing of the T square quilt.

Occasionally, Tonya gets some pre-cuts.  I needed a charm pack like a hole in the head but I think it will work nicely into a sewing machine cover.  The packages are some of Tonya's English paper piecing "AAaahh's" that she designs.  She works with Paper Pieces now to produce them, but you have to buy them from Tonya.  Isnt' the packaging pretty? Read more about them here on her blog.

What a fun stash report this week.  Where to put it all!  I think I'll ge those borders on this week to get some numbers in the "use" column soon.

Have a great day!

Some Organizing and Stash Report Week 4

The organizing comes in by getting two new sets of shelves.  They came from Lowes.  I am quite envious of people that live near an Ikea, there are some great looking crafts rooms out there using that company's products.  But, the closest one to us is over 200 miles away.

The two shelving units are the base for my new ironing board.  Instead of plywood, which we looked at, it is a closet door that was in the clearance section for $5.  Love it!  Especially since the shelves were not on sale.

All of the bins and tubs that you see on the shelves were some where on the floor in my sewing corner.  It feels so good to get the floor cleared off.  There were things piled under the old ironing board and in corners - uggh, stuff was everywhere.  Now the GO! Baby and its dies are side by side on shelves rather than across the room from one another.

My one quilty accomplishment for the week was getting the pieced border together and on the Apple Cider quilt.  It completed those square in a squares.  It's the first time I've worked with a strip in a border and required a bit of fussy cutting, although not as much as I should have on two triangles.

I had to think of my quilty friend Shannon when I did these stripe corners.  She loved working with these stripes when we were doing the blocks.

No fabric arrived for me this week but a box is on its way.  And I am resisting buying any more fabric.

As an example, I cut and put together strips to be the first border on the Jacob's Ladder quilt.  Then I didn't like it and neither did DH, which is unusual because we know how it goes when we ask for opinions, "I don't know." I should take photos more often.  What was I thinking?

Rejected border on left ---  new plan on right

I really wanted to try a red but I don't have a large enough cut. Did I go buy more fabric?  Nope, went through the drawers of stash upstairs in the spare bedroom and started over with a natural linen and another piece of solid blue which is a teensy bit off the shade used in the blocks.  Hopefully, the linen will provide enough of a break that the color difference won't be too noticeable.  I want it to look good but I'd also like to "make do" with the stash.

It's been a rainy, dreary day and I'd like to cuddle up with a good book.  What have you been up to this week?

Used this week: 0
Used YTD: 0
Added this week: 0
Added YTD: 0
Net added YTD: 0

Check out some more stash reports at Judy's Patchwork Times.

Have a great week!

Some "almosts" and Stash Report Week 3

Here are two tops almost done to show you.  First up is the Fading Charms top that several in our little group of quilty friends decided to make.

This one uses 2" squares and will measure approx. 54x54 when finished.  There are only two more strips to put on all sides and it will be done. I probably won't work on this anymore until we all get together again. It's a great pattern for community sewing.  Check out some more cute postage stamp patterns at  Wedding Dress Blue.

About 90% of the squares are from my grandma's stash with a few from friends and my own collection thrown in for variety.

Then, I finally got all the blocks and pieced sashing together on the Apple Cider BOM.  Sorry about the shadow but I wasn't about to take it outside to shoot today -- bbrrrrr.

This is a Marti Michel pattern and I talked in a recent post about putting quilt tops together in sections rather than row by row.  However, Marti said to do this one row by row and I listened.  The points definitely lined up better in sections that in long rows, and I pinned, pinned, pinned. Now onto the pieced 1st border.....

I expect to have some fabric to report next week.  Well, maybe the week after.  I ordered a yard of Curious George fabric this week from Tonya over at Ozark Fabric and Other Stuff on facebook.  She has a medium flat rate box waiting for me with some purchases I made in December.

What have you been up to this weekend?


Used this week: 0
Used YTD: 0
Added this week: 0
Added YTD: 0
Net added YTD: 0


Check out some more stash reports at Judy's Patchwork Times.


Have a great week!

Why am I still buying fabric?

to be quilted

Ya'll are laughing at that question, aren't you?

Yeah, I know, we all know why.  That's why we're here.  No one else understands us.

I finally updated my master list for the new year.  The fact that I use an entire sheet of paper for this is telling.  I list "tops/projects (ready) to quilt," "tops/projects to finish," "blocks to finish," and "projects to cut."

to be put together, pieced border

There are 5 tops ready to quilt. There are 11 tops to finish, which means that all the components are ready to go together into one piece. There are 8 projects with blocks/steps that need to be finished.

That's a lot right there, huh?

project boxes

This is the one has me asking myself the big question above. There are 16 items on my "projects to cut" list.  SIXTEEN!!  Projects go on that list when I have fabric pulled for them.  With the addition of the muslin, I just placed 2 more projects on that list.

So, why am I buying more fabric?  It may take me 3-4 years to get through those 16 projects, a few of which are small.

Maybe I need help!

Design Wall Monday

After getting all the Jacob's Ladder blocks together last week, finishing on Saturday, I decided to work on the next project that was so close to completion.

These pieced sashing strips and cornerstones became attached to the 12 blocks from the 2009 Marti Michell BOM.

My quilty friends will attest to all my rumblings about this pieced finishing kit.  Uggh - so much cutting of little pieces.  Now, with my new "just keep sewing, just keep sewing" attitude - well, it wasn't bad at all.  As usual, getting it started is the hardest part.  There is a pieced border that completes those cornerstones, but that's nothing now!

With DS playing at a friend's house after school, the first row is now one piece!!! WooHoo!  And I have time to blog about it!

I ordered some queen size wool batting from the Connecting Threads sale just for this one.

Check out more fun projects at Judy's Patchwork Times.

Almost there! (stash report week 2)

WooHoo!  I feel better now.  Not only physically, but here's a UFO that I drew out on graph paper when my son was 6 months old.  He's now 6.

It feels good to: (1) get these 35 Jacob's Ladder blocks done and (2) get them put together.  Now to figure out borders.

sorry for the poor pic, 60x84

It is so eye opening to see the difference between the blocks I made a few months ago and the ones that I made a few years ago.  Between using different machines, honing my cutting skills, and discovering that my original quarter inch foot was actually a 3/8 inch foot when sewn to the guide on the ride side, some of the blocks were off by 1/4 inch.

Initially, I constructed the HSTs with Thangles.  For the latest blocks I used the Easy Angle ruler.  I think this also contributed to the size discrepancy.  I prefer the Easy Angle because it seems faster for me to stitch the two triangles together and press and voila!, a HST.

I put the top together in sections, not row by row.  Doing this helped tremendously in dealing with the block size discrepancy, allowing me to ease in blocks a bit at a time.  Now, that doesn't mean that some of my seam allowances aren't a bit small in places!

Lots of quilt patterns tell us to put tops together row by row.  In my beginning quilting class, our LQS owner/instructor showed us how to put blocks together in pairs, then into 4 patches, then 8 patches, etc.  This prevents us from sewing long seams over and over again.  I use this method with complex blocks, too.  For example, rather than sewing a 16 patch block together row by row, I create four 4 patches and sew those components and my blocks come out more precise.

To the numbers!  I don't count yardage piecemeal.  Usually I wait until the binding is done before I count the yardage.  However, since I plan to do some "quilting by checkbook," I will count the top and backing once the quilting is complete.  I can count the binding later, when it's being added.  So, nothing "used" this week.

Have a great week!


Used this week: 0
Used YTD: 0
Added this week: 0
Added YTD: 0
Net added YTD: 0

See more Stash Reports over at Patchwork Times.

First 2013 stash report

Howdy!

Having been a little under the weather, gotten back to a normal work/school schedule after having DH home since mid-December, and having survived DS's first sleep over this weekend, is it any surprise that I have no finishes?!

My one computerized machine had to go to the shop.  A few weeks ago I was FMQing and needles started breaking.  It was just a side panel of my latest bag so I kept thinking that one more needle would do it.  Well, it didn't.  I don't know what this means exactly, but I'm told I probably knocked it "out of time" with the first needle break.

In between headaches I've been sewing away on Easy Street, which is no way near completion for me but check out Bonnie's blog tomorrow for some fabulous finishes.

I've also done some more stitching on my BOM's pieced sashing. I know I don't feel well when getting near a completion doesn't excite me.

Hope you're having a great day!

Used this week: 0
Used YTD: 0
Added this week: 0
Added YTD: 0
Net added YTD: 0

See more Stash Reports over at Patchwork Times.