Star Surround QAL - HSTs

Yesterday I had the house to myself.  DH at work, DS at his grandparents.  You might think I got loads of sewing done.  Not exactly....

After I did the chores I got the featherweight out and started stitching hst's for the Star Surround QAL.  I love chain piecing!


Every once in a while we quilters discuss our favorite specialty rulers.  This one is mine - the Quilt in a Day 6.5" Triangle Square Up Ruler.  Using the ruler, the hst's are squared up after sewing, before pressing, and you trim two sides at the same time - two cuts, not four.

Joann's has them, too.  I use it all the time!  Check out other QAL progress at Happy Quilting.

Door County Has Come to Us! (Stash Report Wk 30)

Nighttime temps in the 60s and even into the 50's, daytime highs below normal, and the key - no humidity.  Yep - it's the same weather that we escape to every summer!

It is Fan-tas-tic!!!!!!!!

We slept with the windows open the past few nights, a quilt over us, letting the tree frogs sing us to sleep - doesn't get any better than that in July-almost-August.

If you've read my blog through at least one summer, you know that I do not care for the sweltering heat we get here in the very center of the country, and that's putting it nicely.  The sweltering part being comprised of high humidity and no air movement.

You know what I've been doing?  Well, not much in the house, that's for sure.  It's practically a crime to be inside with such lovely weather.




I took DS to my mom's for the county fair this week, spending the afternoon on the midway, and then he wanted to sleep in their camper - lovely time for it.  He's still there so hubby and I have been on our own this weekend.  We went out with friends Friday night and piddled around yesterday and watched a movie last night.  No plans for today, yet, but I'm thinking we'll go to a lovely park with the dog and get some ice cream or something.

To avoid coming into StL at rush hour on my trip home Thursday afternoon, I had to stop in Effingham, IL, for a coffee and then at the next exit to visit The Wooden Spool (it's on Facebook, no web site yet).  I had great sales resistance - and I mean great, some of the fabrics are priced at $7-8, not the usual $10-12 at other shops.  The shop is laid out so nicely.  Only one yard of a light-ish solid brown came home with me for a QAL, the irony, huh?






Quilty friend Pat gifted me a couple of text fabric FQs.  Wasn't that nice?  Aren't they pretty?

Four of these!

Speaking of FQs....  Tonya at Ozark Fabric (on Facebook) had a clearance sale this weekend with some FQs priced as low as $.45, nothing over $1.35!  You had to be fast and I missed a lot of the pretties but grabbed some that will cut up nicely for scraps and for little gifties. Those won't be coming in for a while, so they will be counted when they come through the door.

I've been telling myself that since DS isn't home, I need to sew.
Can't do it!
Can't sit in the house and waste these pretty days.
Sew, as I keep telling myself, "maybe tomorrow!"

Used this week: 0
Used YTD: 66.58
Added this week: 1
Gifted this week: 0.5
Added YTD: 81.75
Net used YTD: -15.17

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

Have a great week!

The Star Surround QAL

from Happy Quilting

I need another project like I need a hole in the head!!  Sew, I've decided to join a quilt along!

Melissa at Happy Quilting is hosting a QAL using her new Star Surround block.  Isn't it pretty?

She has lots of block size options and project size options.  I am making two 16" blocks to use as pillow tops with some of the batiks that bloggy friend Leona sent me a couple weeks ago.

It's evening, these colors aren't quite right.

While coming home from dropping DS off at my mom's house, I stopped in at The Wooden Spool in Effingham, IL.  The store has a large selection of solids from various manufacturers.  This brown is called "bison" from Timeless Treasures.

I had pulled a darker brown batik from my stash but it wasn't quite right.  Any excuse to buy some more fabric!  Check out what other quilters are quilting along over at Melissa's.  Did I mention there will be prizes?

A Small Vacation (stash report week 29)

We spent most of this past week in Fish Creek, Door County, Wisconsin.  That's where my header photo was taken years ago.  It's so rural and peaceful and laid back.  This was our third trip and definitely not our  last.

Our first stop after settling into the condo was a drive-in.  DS loved it!  There was a nice playground. The concession stand was great and the restrooms were clean.  The most unusual thing for us, living in this urban desert, is that we got a bit chilly when the sun went down.  We forgot that nighttime temps drop elsewhere.  When we arrived back home a few days later it was 88 degrees at 9 P.M.

We swam in the pools, at the beach in Lake Michigan, we played chess on a giant board, and had our food delivered by train at P C Junction.  DS insisted on accompanying DH for 9 holes of golf on the small course at the resort.

So, I took a walk.

Between car travel and some down time here and there, I got lots of hand stitching done -  bit of applique', a bit of embroidery, and a bit of EPP.

DS said he wanted the turtle hexie - for what is unclear, but he liked it! Before we left, I watched Hillbilly Tonya's YouTube video on EPP and how she fussy glues.  Tonya sells these great 3" hexies in her shop.  This one is called "Stepping Stones."

With all this stitching planned, I failed to pack lots of thread and no Aurifil.  I am now a hand sewing thread snob!  The Mettler metrosene in my hand work pouch knotted and shredded and was just terrible to work with. From now on I will pack only my thin cotton threads: Aurifil, YLI Soft Touch, or Masterpeice.








When our mail was delivered I had two packages.  I've shown you my swap fabrics and the first to arrive was the neutral 5" charm swap.  I sent in 2 yards so I received 2 sets of 56 neutral charms, 112 total.

Leona hosted this swap and she also sent her last stash batiks - 12 F8's!  How sweet of her!!  They are lovely!!










I also received a tiny package of 2.5" charms.  I sent 50 different squares and received 50 in return.  With all the scraps I have cut, it is amazing that it is so difficult to gather more than about 70 different fabrics for these postage stamp swaps.  And, that is why I am swapping, to get some variety.

While on vacation, I did not go into a single quilt shop.  Yesterday was BOM day at the LQS and our sew day.  I used the last bit of the shop hop gift certificate and got 1/2 yd each of these two white on black prints.

2 strips and 2 more triangles to go!

Easy Street kicked my pa-tooty yesterday.  My blocks were getting a bit wonky or something.  I think I need to square up my flying geese b4 I go any further.

Sooo, I switched over to Pineapple Blossom #2.  This is for my MIL and the blocks will finish at 12" since I used a jelly roll.  This is such an easy pattern - simple prep/cutting and nice, mindless sewing. Sometimes that's just what a gal needs!!



Used this week: 0
Used YTD: 66.58
Added this week: 3
Gifted this week: 1.25
Added YTD: 80.25
Net used YTD: -13.67

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

Have a great week!

Adding, adding, adding..... (stash report week 26)

More of this...

leads to more of this...

Yep - more fabric has been added to the stash!  There are 5 yards of Dear Stella and 1 yd of Moda and one FQ lollipop that I got at our guild meeting Tuesday.  The 3 yds of fabric on the right is going into a project box with a Midwinter Reds layer cake.  The other two cuts are slated for two swaps happening next month.

I cannot tell you if this fabric is still available because I am not looking at the Hancock's of Paducah web site for a while.  Why tempt myself?!

On the strange weather front, cold air has moved in and it 66 degrees here as I type!  That's crazy low, lovin' it, windows open, a/c off, birds singing - WooHoo!!  Our high today is supposed to be 78 - one year ago the weatherman says our high was 105.

I have some yard work to do before more rain comes in this afternoon.  Can anyone say, "sewing time?!"  Looking forward to the best of both worlds today.

We caught this pic yesterday as we waited out a brief thunderstorm under a steel bridge in a paddleboat in Forest Park (yeah - that was smart, huh?)  Most of the storm was a downpour, very little thunder or lightening.

That is the St. Louis Art Museum on the hill.  Our goal was to paddle around the fountains in the Grand Basin at the base of Art Hill, which is from the 1904 World's Fair, as is the oldest section of the Art Museum.  The rain lasted just long enough that we decided to the get to the Grand Basin another day.





Used this week: 0
Used YTD: 66.58
Added this week: 6
Gifted this week: 0.25
Added YTD: 76
Net used YTD: -9.42

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

Have a great week!

100 miles later (stash report week 25)

Since we live in the metro St. Louis area, I rarely "have" to drive more than 5 miles from home to get to the grocery store, the gym, drugstore, etc.  Now, the LQS's are about an 8-12 mile drive from home.

In the midst of summer vacation, DS and I made three trips to local libraries to patronize the weekly summer reading program weekly events.  We saw two science shows and live animals this week.  Then, I had two appointments that also took us out of the house.  Imagine my surprise when I got gas and realized that we had traveled 100 miles in three days and never left the southern half of the county.

With all this travelling, very little happened in the ol' sewing corner this week.  Yesterday, while the boys went to see Monsters University, I started sewing the Pineapple Blossom blocks for my MIL's quilt.  I really started it b/c everything was cut, ready to go, and it's such mindless sewing.  That's what I needed, mindless sewing.

With DS and his friend playing in the basement the past few days, I had more time to check Flickr for more fabric swaps.  There is a Flickr Group called "Fabric Swap Finder."

So,  I have fabric out to two swaps and three more groups to send in the next few weeks.  Two of the swaps are neutrals/low volume (charms & F8's), one is 2.5" squares, one is 2.5" strips, and one next month is a "paper" themed F8 swap.  Fun!





That leads right into my purchases!  Yes, my Hancock's of Paducah order came in.  Geesh!  I love getting packages!

Truly, I was not going to order fabric --- until I came across the swaps.  And then noticed that I could get fabric for said swaps at $2.98 - $6.98 per yard.  There are quite a few prints, including neutrals, from Dear Stella in the $2.98 category.  I have read about the company but to my knowledge, I'd not seen any of it in person.  So, I ordered 5 one yard cuts.  (The newsprint cut is from Wilmington.)  The Dear Stella feels great!

Used this week: 0
Used YTD: 66.58
Added this week: 6
Gifted this week: 0
Added YTD: 69.75
Net used YTD: -3.17

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

Have a great week!

A Pretty Week (Stash Report Week 24)

We had another great week weather-wise.  It got summer hot only 2 or 3 days.  The days were perfect for DS and his neighborhood buddies to be outside playing.

We had DS's 1/2 birthday party last weekend and we did a bit of Father's Day shopping this week.  After a late brunch this morning at O'Charley's, we settled in for a day of relaxation, DH took a nap. Even DS wanted a day to relax at home after playing so hard all week.




I went to the basement and sewed some more on the 4th of July quilt.  Yes, it has been on the design wall all week and I hadn't sewn a stitch on it.

Friday I got ready for the Saturday Sew Day with friends by getting my 3rd block done in the LQS BOM program.  We got the 4th block Saturday.











Then yesterday I got to do something I had been looking forward to for weeks - I started putting the pieces of Easy Street (no longer available, will be in Bonnie's next book) together.  I followed the steps as Bonnie presented them, so I did all the setting triangles first and then got one of each block done.

Easy Street was the only project I worked on yesterday.  My quilty friends asked how many pieces were in each block.  I have no idea!  After doing the Apple Cider quilt, I thought I'd never do a block with more than 50 pieces ever again.  Well, here I am...and enjoying it!







I really do need a finish to help my numbers a bit.  Here's a tiny one (1 yd).  I put this together ages ago and tried to bind it using Sharon Schamber's YouTube videos on binding with washable Elmer's glue.  Well, it didn't go too well and I cut more binding strips and showed my quilty buds how I use glue and a hot iron in place of pins when I fold the binding to the back.  So, I learned a bit about using glue from YouTube.






Here's why I need help.  A package from Ozark Fabric arrived with only 5 yards in it! Then, I ordered neutrals from Hancock's of Paducah to use in another swap next month.  I must stop!

The package also had a Clover needle threader, a sewline glue pen, a Frixon highlighter, and  this cute book with embroidery patterns.

I've joined two fabric swaps and mailed out two yards of 5" charms squares and two yards of 2.5" strips. So, I'm gonna count it out and then I'll count it back in when my packages arrive in the next few weeks.

Used this week: 5 (1 used, 4 swapped)
Used YTD: 66.58
Added this week: 5
Gifted this week: 0
Added YTD: 63.75
Net used YTD: 2.83

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

Have a great week!