Happy Mother's Day! (Hexies & Stash Report Week 19)

Happy Mother's Day!

We celebrated with my mom yesterday and gave her the sewing machine cover made from my grandma's scraps.  She found some scraps that my aunt, also deceased, had given to Grandma so it had lots of memories for her.

Since we went out for breakfast yesterday and out for dinner a few days ago for my birthday, I sent DH some recipes and requested a meal at home.  I don't know about you, but there's not many sites sexier than a man working in the kitchen!

I did a bit of handwork this week.  Angie and Billie are doing a Friday linky party for Hexie Friday.  It's not Friday, but the linky is still up and Angie is having a giveaway, so here are some of my evening stitches:

Finally, I did an "AHHH!"  Check out Tonya's new website for ordering these fun EPP creations.  There are lots from which to choose.

I have another of these and will use a light, medium, and dark blues to get a 3d effect, like a tumbling block.

Then, I worked on the 1" hexies.  Basted a few and added a few more pieces to large unit.













Finally, last weekend I worked up some square in a square blocks to go with some string blocks to make some everyday placemats.  I may get to these this afternoon.

For my birthday my mom and stepdad brought me some Fairy Frost FQs and some quilting thread.  My mom isn't a quilter and I didn't have the heart to tell her that it's hand quilting thread - and I don't really hand quilt.

However, they also brought me a straight stitch plate that fits both my Viking machines.  I'm excited to try that out this afternoon on some triangles, too.

Today I shopped for a  Flickr fabric swap that I participate in.  All my partners always want "modern" fabric, which I don't keep on hand. The newest shop in town calls itself "contemporary" and has lots of fabrics that modern quilters use.  While it doesn't carry the huge prints, it has several lines and basics that can appeal to many types of quilters.

I also shopped for clothes.  Uggh!  I am not a shopper.  The stuff that I want never looks good in the fitting room.  However, DH gave me gift card for a new shop nearby so I gave it a try and found some stuff.  WooHoo!


To the numbers:
Used this week: 1.25 (machine cover), 2.125 (giveaway fabric) = 3.375
Used YTD: 60.5
Added this week: 0
Gifted this week: 1.25
Added YTD: 48.75
Net used YTD: 11.75

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

And the winner is....

Comment #2.  Congrats to Angie!

 Thank you for the birthday wishes and for playing along!

Have a great week,
K-

Birthday Giveaway (and Stash Report Week 18)

In two days I will be another year older.  To celebrate, I will give one of you a gift (more details below).

I've reached both Lucy Ricardo's age (29) and Jack Benny's age (39) and have to decide which to go with - I'm leaning towards Lucy.  Although, the first time I helped in my son's kindergarten class this spring one of his classmates told me that I looked like his grandma, not his mom!



On a happier note: The birthday celebration started a bit early with a great package from my April swap partner in the Flickr Monthly Fabric Swap Group.

Pretty batiks, yummy chocolate and a pretty Villa Rose pattern from Christine in Washington state!

Our weather here was so nice most of this week that I've been outside, not inside sewing a single stitch.  The only additions are the pretty 1/4 yd cuts of extra fabric that my partner sent me.  So, my numbers are practically unchanged from last week.

Here's what I've pulled out for one of you! There will be a few little goodies added to the bundle.

Four FQs and a charm pack of 45 different dot fabrics.  The lemon, lettuce, and blue floral fabrics are from Paintbrush Studios.  The neutral is a Lori Holt design for Riley Blake.  The 5" charms are cut by moi from the various dots I've used in my 3/4" hexie flowers, which I've gotten away from recently.

This will be a quick giveaway, open to all.  Please leave one comment on this post telling me if you do hand sewing and, if so, what your most recent hand project is.

Rules and such:  A winner will be determined by the Random Number Generator on Tuesday evening (May 7th) at 9PM CST.  Any comment after 9M on Tuesday will not be included in the giveaway.  All "no reply" comments will also be discarded.  Please, if you are not sure if you are a "no reply" blogger, then leave your email address in the comment so that I can reach you.  If the prize is not claimed via email response by Thursday evening (May 9th) at 9PM, then I will draw another winner.

I know it is annoying, but the word verification is still on.  I tried removing it and still got spam, so it is there to stay.

Good Luck!

To the numbers:
Used this week: 0
Used YTD: 57.125
Added this week: 0.5
Added YTD: 47.5
Net used YTD: 9.625

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

Another finish! (Stash Report Week 17)

Love the Bleeding Hearts.  They bloom for weeks!

It's raining again!  The April showers will eventually bring out all my spring showers.  My lilac bushes are so close to blooming.  They are next to the front door so we will smell them every time we open the door.



It's been a busy week!  First, I finished the binding on DS's batik Dresden plate on Tuesday afternoon before the guild meeting.  That's one more UFO completely done and checked off my list!

I used washable Elmer's school glue along with my iron to hold the binding down on the back of the quilt while I used a decorative stitch from the front.  It was so great not getting stuck by pins and I did it as one continuous seam.  Here's a link to a Sharon Schamber YouTube videos about using school glue for binding.

After visiting the podiatrist, being diagnosed with bursitis in my foot (yeah, my foot), and getting treatment which included some new insoles, I have a spring in my step again.  Oh - it feels so good.  And, it spurred me on to get the T Block quilt to Cheri for some of her long arm magic.


Yesterday, quilty friends Joyce and Shannon and I traveled to Paducah for the AQS show.  Well, we traveled to see all the vendors and our first stop was Hancock's of Paducah, which was soooooo crowded that we could hardly bare to shop.

We managed to do a little bit.  I grabbed a Moda scrap bag comprised of 33 strips from the 3 Sisters line called Etchings. They're all selvage ends and seem to be about 2"-3" wide (about 2 yds?).  I have a few cuts from this line so maybe a small project or two will come from this scrap bag.

And, the store must have received a lot of the Mini Tonga Treats (charm packs) in Pomegranate because these were $5.98.  That's like 2 for 1 - so I bought two (about 2 1/4 yds total).

Since my queen bed quilt projects are getting finished this year, I have discovered how much heavier a cotton batted quilt is than a wool batted quilt! As in, my moving them around to finish the bindings.

So, I bought a Quilter's Dream Select Poly batt to try on yet another queen UFO that needs to get finished and out of my project boxes.  I've heard that Quilter's Dream is like the Cadillac of battings. Have any of you used this?

At the show, we didn't buy much either.  Last year I almost bought a pre-cut kit from John Flynn's booth.  This year I did!

I got the Storm at Sea kit in blue, green, and purple 9" blocks to finish at 22x30.  It's not the miniature kit.  I'm calling this a half yard in stash report.


To the numbers:
Used this week: 0.5
Used YTD: 57.125
Added this week: 4.75
Added YTD: 47
Net used YTD: 10.125

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

Have a great week!

Some QOV's (Stash Report Week 16)

DS's dreamcatcher in the school district art show - he's very proud!

Hello!

It's spring here, again, a little chilly but we didn't float away in all the rains that came a few days ago.  Some communities in our region cannot say that between rising waters on the Mississippi and the flash flooding of smaller creeks.

A correction from last week:  From memory (that says it all!), I wrote that Bonnie Hunter's method for calculating scrappy quilt top yardage was to multiply the backing yardage by 1.5.  Wrong --- she multiplies it by .25 (or 25%) and adds that to the backing yardage.  So, my QOV from last week actually used 4.5 (.25) = 1.125 + 4.5 = 5.625 (top) + 4.5 (back) = 10.125 total. The numbers are adjusted!

Quilty friend Cheri donated her quilting prowess to my scrappy Pineapple Blossom QOV.

And I finished the pillow case quickly one evening this week.  All three fabrics in the case are from Tonya's shop at Ozark Fabric. You can see two of them in the quilt - the red border and the white background.










Cheri also gave me two more QOVs that she and quilty friend Gale pieced. Yes, these are rather feminine, as Cheri says, "women serve, too." These three quilts will be delivered to Dar at our guild meeting Tuesday night.








Other fun finishes include the cute table runner that did not get put away in one of my drawers to languish for years after the shop hop.


It's adorable, I think!  I used the thermore batting from Hobbs so it's super thin and I can set something on it without fear of it being wobbly.

I also used Marti Michell's method of pillow turning that I stumbled upon in one of her Marti & Me class patterns rather than binding it.  When I've turned quilted things I've always put all three layers together, then turned.

Marti instructs us to piece the back so that there is a whole for turning in the center (make it the same size as the top), much like the method that Ricky Tims uses.  Press and stitch the top and back together first (right sides together) using a 1/4" seam and pinning well.  Then, add batting that is the same size as the top and back. Clip the batting in the corners so that it is just out of the corner seams.  Stitch the batting to the other pieces with an 1/8" seam, clip the corners a bit, turn, and press.

At no spot on this runner did the back want to show to the front, as often happens when stitching all 3 payers at once.  However, it's still a good idea to pin and then topstitch around the edge.  I used a bit of Stitch Witch fusible web under the turning seam on the back to hold it together while quilting.  Marti suggested pin basting the remainder of the project, which I did, and finally, quilt as desired.



Another little finish for this week is my bird applique wall hanging.  I took this class last fall and it had been hand appliqued for a good while.

I added some embellishing stitches during a car trip last month and finally quilted it using 50 wt aurifil thread and wool batting.  LOVE the wool batting!




There are 3 quilts I've not shown you since Cheri them quilted for me.  I have the binding on DS's Dresden plate but not stitched on the back and need to get cracking on the two queen size quilts, Apple Cider BOM and Uncle Sam's Jacob's Ladder.  I used wool batting in the Apple Cider BOM and it is so light - love it.  Seriously, if anyone around here carried it, I would put wool in all my quilts.  Guess I'll be stocking up at Connecting Threads' next batting sale


To the numbers:
Used this week: 2.5
Used YTD: 56.625
Added this week: 0
Added YTD: 42.25
Net used YTD: 13.405

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

Have a great week!

Another Finish (stash report week 15)

Okay - it's almost finished! Quilty friend Cheri is quilting the QOV for me.  After Dar got so many quilt tops at our last guild meeting for a returning Missouri unit, I took Cheri up on her offer to quilt this one. The QOV group must really be busy getting quilts ready for June.

It took a about a week for me to decide whether to add another border.  It measures 55x73, the minimum width.  However, with several UFOs in my pile that require borders, I'm discovering that borders aren't so much fun! So, this one stops at two borders.

I usually just double the backing fabric and call that my total yardage for a scrappy quilt. In one of her books, Bonnie Hunter determines yardage for scrap quilt tops by taking the backing fabric and multiplying it by 1.5, taking all the seams and such into consideration.  That calculates to 4.5 (1.5) = 6.75 (top) + 4.5 (back) = 11.25 total.  Hhhmm, I like Bonnie's equation! (correction on next post, total is 10.125 yds)

I especially like it since I added more to my stash.  After going to 10 shops last weekend on the shop hop, no one had any of my favorite fabric in the whole wide world, Waikiki (Hoffman 1895 #360), or any Transfer-eze.  So, when I got home an online shop had their 1895's on sale and there was Waikiki for $7/yd - I got 4 yards. I'll look for the Tansfer-eze in Paducah or order it.

I picked up this, too.

Yesterday, quilty friend Joyce and I went to a shop that is closing.  She found some solids that she needed.  Then we went to a new shop in our area, Janie Lou, and we both found fabric!

Joyce is fun to shop with because she usually shops for a specific project.  Yesterday she had her pattern with her and needed 12 FQs.  So, if I don't find anything, I can at least help Joyce find some goodies.  If I shopped with a purpose, maybe I wouldn't have so much fabric lying around!

I was shopping for a swap and instead of doing FQs on two of the four fabrics, I did 1/2 yards.  So, I added 2 FQs to my stash on this trip.  I will show you the fats after I mail them out - want to surprise my partner!








Oh - and another near-finish - hopefully later today.

How many times do you buy a cute project at a shop and then get home and get caught up in all the parenting/housework duties and in your current sewing projects?  Happens to me all the time!  Then, those cute little projects get put in a drawer.  Well, I needed a little therapy earlier this week and decided to do the table runner that Cheri gave me on the shop hop.

Just happened to have some Fig Tree scraps that Joyce had given me last year that worked perfectly for the border.  Now to get it quilted and put it on the credenza behind our sofa for spring.

BOM block 1

April is quite the quilty month around my house.  The shop hop was the first weekend, got in some spur-of-the-moment fabric shopping yesterday, this coming weekend is the BOM at the LQS (pity the poor non-quilter who tries to decipher this blog, lol!) where I won a gift certificate on the shop hop, and then the last weekend is the Paducah show.  Whew!!

However, Mother Nature has been working against me this weekend.  I cannot sew/quilt when the birds are singing and the sun is out and there are too many outdoor chores to do.  I may have to take the featherweight out on the patio this afternoon.  Have you ever sewn outdoors?

To the numbers:
Used this week: 11.25 (10.125)
Used YTD: 55.25 (54.125)
Added this week: 4.5
Added YTD: 42.25
Net used YTD: 13 (11.875)


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

Have a great week!

Local Shop Hop (stash report week 14)

Yesterday was tons o' fun!

Five of us piled into my husband's new-to-him, used SUV and took off to visit 7 quilt shops, with me driving it for almost the first time.  We got to all the shops and shared two meals and lots of laughs along the way.  



And, my stash only grew slightly - 1 charm pack, 4 mini charms packs, and 5 FQs.  Quilty friend Cheri got me the charm pack and the cute This & That table runner pattern for driving, wasn't that nice?  I've been wanting to get to my machine all day!


To the numbers:
Used this week: 0
Used YTD: 44.00
Added this week: 3.5
Added YTD: 37.75
Net used YTD: 5.25

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

Have a great week!