Stash Report Week 31

There was a little bit of sewing done here this past week, but not a lot. Work at the hospital took up most of the time and days. And there was some fabric in delivered last week too, and I think I will be ordering some more, as well. My son is a Batman fan. He has all the movies, and collects the comic books. So when I saw this fabric at The Fat Quarter Shop, it had to go into my basket, and get delivered to me. It will make a perfect Christmas gift for him. I can safely talk about it, and show it here, because Laurie says he doesn't read my blog. So far, I only have The Joker's Back collection, but I am going to order the other Classic Batman, as well. The other thing that came in was a jelly roll of Charlevoix I've never ordered, or worked with a jelly roll before, (a collection of 40 2 1/2 inch strips, one from each of the fabrics in the design collection, for those of you who aren't quilters) And I've never worked with an entire fabric line, either. My current plan for it, subject to change, of course, is to do a Pineapple Blossom However, that is a ways away, as there is other stuff to finish first. So, on to the numbers

Fabric used this week:                          2.8 yards
Fabric used this year:                          85.5 yards
Fabric in this week:                              5.5 yards
Fabric in this year:                            106.5 yards
Balance:                                              21 yards more purchased than used. I don't know if this number is going to eventually get to zero, or even negative numbers this year. But it is nice to see it getting smaller. If I can get at getting some of the large number of quilts waiting to be quilted done, that will quickly use up a lot of yardage in backings. And now, I'm off to do some sewing, and some quilting. I hope you all have a good day.

Design Wall Monday July 25

This is going to be another quickie post, since I have to work this afternoon again, and I want to get some sewing done before I go. I have a little bit more progress on the Log Cabin Rose quilt. There are 2 more rounds of logs and triangles left to add to the green/cream blocks yet, but this gives a bit of an idea of colour, and placement. The green/cream blocks will end up being the same size is the rose squares. In the meantime, I have gotten all the 6 inch squares pieced together for the backing of the Bear Tracks quilt, and now just have to sew them down the middle of the backing. Then, I can load it, and start quilting it, and have another finish to add to my list for the year. Woohoo!! If you have some spare time today, grab a glass of iced tea, it's too hot for a cup of tea, and go look at some of the other design walls at Judy's  Patchwork Times

Stash Report Week 30

This is going to be a quickie post. I have to work this afternoon, and want to get a little bit of sewing in before I go. I have all the fabric cut, and some of the backing sewn for the Bear Tracks quilt. It's such a big quilt, that there is some piecing involved. I took some of the fabrics left from the top and cut them into a bunch of 6 1/2 inch squares to use in the back. And then there was fabric cut for the Rose Log cabin quilt. So the numbers are looking pretty good this week. There were a couple of small purchases, as well this week. And, I did some button pushing at the Fat Quarter shop, but it hasn't arrived yet, so it doesn't count yet.

Fabric used this week:                     12.5 yards
Fabric used this year:                       82.7 yards
Fabric purchased this week:              1.5 yards
Fabric purchased this year:              101 yards
Balance:                                            18.3 yards more purchased than used.

Vacation's over

I'm back to work tomorrow, after a lovely 12 days off, with lots of fun stuff finished and started. I made a mental list of what I wanted to do these past 5 days, and got all it it done, or at least started. I've gotten a start at finishing up July's UFO. The seams of all the arcs are now turned under, ready to be appliqued to the background triangle, and one of the triangles is in the process of being added.

I got a start at the Rose Log Cabin quilt, and am in the process of doing some of the cream and light green squares. They are quite time intensive, with the triangles that have to be added to the opposite corners, and then trimmed. (I am not keeping the trimmings.)

The pantograph design for the quilting design for the Bear Tracks quilt is finished, using actual bear tracks.

I would really like to get that quilt loaded, and started before the end of today. Then I can do a little on it each day before going in to work. I find that if I can get something quilty done before going to work, I have a much better shift. However, before I can even get close to loading that quilt, I have to do something about cleaning up the mess currently on the long arm.

Yikes, It looks worse in the picture than it actually is. At least, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. LOL. I have the habit of using it as an extra flat surface when I'm working on stuff, since the aren't a lot of flat surfaces in that room, aside from my sewing table, and cutting table, and desk top table and......

OK, OK, I admit it, if there is a flat surface, I'll manage to cover it with stuff. So, before I do anything else, I'd better get at cleaning up that space. The hard part is finding someplace else to put it all. Oh well, I've put it off as long as I can. Time to get up and moving.

This looks much better

Well, I've ripped out 4 so far, and fixed them, and finished them the way they are supposed to look. You'd think after all these years of quilting and sewing, I would know enough to do a test block, or 2, just to make sure all the measurements are right, and that it turns out the way it is supposed to. However, I've never done that. I have this bad habit of jumping in, usually without looking first. Maybe I should change that habit, and start doing that from now on. The good news is, I love how this looks, so far. So, I'm off to do some more ripping and reconstructing.

When all else fails, read the instructions, again

I've done it again. Gotten all enthused about a new project, and dived right in. I've been cutting and sewing up a storm on the Rose Log Cabin quilt. It needs 36 of the rose blocks, and I have half of the done to the point of putting the last 2 logs, that represent the leaves onto them. However, there is something wrong here, they don't fit. I looked, and looked and looked again at the pattern, and was coming to the conclusion that there was something wrong with the cutting instructions, when, in frustration, I looked one more time. And that's when I found the goof.  The light logs that frame the rose come in 2 different sizes. The ones that are on there right now were cut at 1.5 inches. They are supposed to be 1 inch. The last of the light logs that go on after the green logs are the ones that are 1.5 inches. Groan!!!!!!! So all of the squares I have done have to be ripped back to the round with the first of the light logs, which I can then trim down to the right size. And all this was after I had cut a bunch of the green logs the wrong size, 7" instead of      7 1/2". Then, I went and cut too many of the 7 1/2" green logs, which meant I ran out of dark green fabric for the rest of the 9" dark green logs. That means I have to go out and purchase some more dark green fabric to finish them. That's a fun part, at least. Something tells me I should just give up and try again another day. But, no way, I'm determined to get this one on it's way and working, because I just love the way it looks when it is finished. But, needless to say, I am not a happy quilter at the moment. 4 blocks ripped out and trimmed, 32 more to go. (sigh)

Design Wall Monday July 18

I'm up and moving early this morning, for me at least. Summer is well and truly here, and it was hot and muggy sleeping last night, so I finally gave up and got up, figuring it would be fun to get an early start to the day and see how much I can get accomplished.

We got home from our long weekend camping trip yesterday, at about 4 pm. So there was plenty of time to be able to get my Bear Tracks quilt finished. WOOHOO!!!! And I love it in person every bit as much as I did when looking at the photo on the pattern. The colours in the picture are bang on, as far as how it actually looks. This one is definitely going to live right here. This particular quilt pattern is from a company called Glad Creations and I really like their stuff. There is another pattern from them, called Auntie's Choice that I have purchased and want to do someday. But not for a while yet. Today, I'm going to browse design wall's at Judy's Patchwork Times Then I'm going to see if I can get the beginnings, at least, of some sort of quilting design figured out for this quilt. Then I want to at least get started doing a little bit of work on my July UFO. And best of all, I'm going to start a new quilt, more details to follow.

What a delicious evening

We were given the opportunity Saturday night to babysit Avery while Noel and Laurie had a date night. What a wonderful evening it was, filled with all sorts of wonderful looking after a darling baby stuff. There was  play time and feeding time and bath time and rocking to sleep while grammy sang him lullabies time. It was the first time we've really been able to spend that much time with him, and I enjoyed every single second of it.

First he had a nap, sleeping in his bouncy chair, that wasn't very bouncy since it needed batteries, but he didn't mind in the least.


Then he had something delicious to eat, but I didn't get any pictures of that, since I couldn't very well feed him, and take pictures at the same time. Scott could have taken the picture, I suppose, but he was bust trying to get the DVD player working.  Then we went downstairs, and changed his bottom, while he had a grand time looking at and playing with his bouncing camel.

And then, the most fun of all, was bath time. He loves his bath. Grampy took these pictures, after he gave up trying to get the DVD player working.

Shelby, their chocolate lab had to come in and make sure we were doing everything just the right way.

And after all that, was the best, the total best of the evening, a snuggle up in the rocking chair, with the lights down low, to rock and sing our darling Avery to sleep. We're home now, and I miss him already. I wish we lived closer. (sigh) 

Another camping weekend

I'm sitting here at the campsite, taking a break from stitching on the 6th block of My Tweets. I'm hoping to get it done by the time we get home. The 7th block is now out at One Piece at a Time. Every time she puts up the next month's block, I think that it is my favourite, but block 7 really is my favourite, so far. The campground is packed full this weekend, and it is rather fun to watch all the families. There a a couple of families just down the way from us who have never camped before. (Sound travels well from site to site, and it is next to impossible not to hear what they are saying and talking about). I'm not sure how many children they have between them, but there are a lot of them running around between the sites. They were having a wonderful time last night playing some version of flashlight tag. It was a lot of fun to sit and watch and listen to. I think laughing children has to be one of my most favourite sounds.
Noel and Laurie and Avery came out for a short visit last evening, but Avery wasn't too happy, over tired, most likely, and had a hard time settling off to sleep. He'd been on a road trip the day before, and had just gotten home. We probably should have gone to their place to see him. But it was fun anyway, with hot dogs and s'mores over the campfire. 
And Grampy got to have a snuggle with a briefly sleeping Avery.

Earlier in the day we went on an exploratory drive to find a place called Walter's Falls. We'd seen the sign for it, and had wondered from time to time whether there really were falls there. Turns out there are, leftover from an old mill of some sort, very pretty. It would have been nice to be able to get some pictures of the falls from the bottom, as well, but the trail leading down to them was way too steep for these old bones to even begin to contemplate.
Today, we are having a quiet day at the campsite, until this evening when we get to babysit our darling grandson. Noel and Laurie are going to have a date night, and we are going to babysit. So there should be lots of fun, and hopefully lots of pictures and cuddles and songs to sing him while he goes to sleep.

A perfect summer evening....

Spent outside with my hubby reading on the swing to keep me company, while I sew on some of the parts for the diapers. There is a lovely breeze blowing. The water in the pond is making a happy splashing sound. The birds are chirping away. And I have a lovely view whenever I look up from the machine.


 Lavender to smell, and dahlias and hostas to look at. This is what I wait all winter for, the opportunity to be outside as often as possible. My Husquvarna machine stays up in the sewing room, and my 25 year old Kenmore sits on the floor in the living room, beside the door, and waits for days like this. Absolutely perfect. God is good, thank you Lord, for perfect summer days.

Design Wall Monday July 11

Bear Tracks is up on my wall, and it is so close to being finished.  Right now, it is actually sideways. the bear paw blocks go on the top and bottom when it is finished. And that is all that is left to do, sewing the bear paw blocks together, and the attaching them to the quilt. The pattern shows to add 5 inch blocks on top of the bear paw blocks at the edge, but, if I end up putting them on,  I think I'm going to cut those in half. This thing is huge already, 90x100. But I think it might need something on the other side of those paws. It looks unfinished with the cream background on the edge. So, I guess that's another thing to add before it is finished. It's going to have to wait, though. We're going up to see Noel and Laurie and Avery on Wednesday afternoon, if I can extend the reservation on our campsite. If not, we'll be going up thursday for the weekend.




She's had a chance to use the diapers for a while now, and has expressed which ones work best, so I've promised her I'll finish the rest and bring them up with us. There are 1 dozen of the cloth diapers, and 6 of the pocket diapers left to do, plus finishing the edges of the inserts. So that is my task for the next few days, or however long it takes to get them done. If the weather stays nice today, I'm going to take my sewing machine outside and work on them there. Here's a pic of little Avery in one of the diapers.

There are more design walls to see over at Judy's Patchwork Times
If you have some time, go take a look.

Stash Report Week 28

I fell off the no fabric buying wagon this week. It has been since March since I bought anything. After seeing that in my last report, I gave myself permission to do a small amount of purposed purchasing. Hmmmm, purposed purchasing, that sounds rather cool. LOL. My Bear Tracks quilt is almost finished, and there will be a picture of it tomorrow, so I purchased some fabric to go into the next quilt I want to do. It's a variation of the classic Log Cabin design, called Rose Log Cabin by Deloa Jones, I believe her name is. I have been eying this quilt for years, and finally ordered the pattern last week. We went out to get strawberries on Thursday, and just a little further down that road is a quilt shop in Mount Bridges that I had never been to, so it seemed a perfect opportunity. I had some fabrics already here that I plan to use in it, but not enough, and it is difficult to match fabric shades on the computer screen, so it needed an in person shopping expedition. At least, that's what I told my husband, so that's the story I'm sticking with. LOL.
In addition, I also had to pick up a small amount of fabric for the binding of Crazy Curves So, on to the numbers:

Fabric used this week:               1.5 yards,   mostly in Bear Tracks, and the binding for Crazy Curves
Fabric used this year:                 70.2 yards
Fabric purchased this week:       4 yards,   mostly in assorted reds and light greens for the Rose quilt
Fabric purchased this year:        99.5 yards
Balance:                                  29.3 yards more purchased than used.

To check out other Stash reports, check out Judy's Patchwork Times

And, because a blog post with pictures is more interesting than one without, here's another picture of that adorably cute grandson of ours:

I love productive days

I spent almost all day yesterday in my sewing room. What a wonderful feeling. And got so much accomplished. Crazy Curves is now finished and taking it's place as a snuggle quilt in the living room, for now at least.
      

I quilted sun like points in the square areas, and feathers in the curves. The binding is completely machine done, using a faux piping technique found here It is now my go-to binding for almost all the quilts I do now. 

I used a black multicoloured for the binding, and the same green as the narrow border for the piping. I love it. It looks good finished, and saves the hours it takes to hand stitch them down. It took about 3 hours, start to finish to do this binding, from cutting the strips, to the last thread being cut at the finish. Captain Picard and his crew kept me company while I did it. And that wasn't all I was able to do yesterday. I sewed the main part of Bear Tracks together, after fixing the pieces that were turned the wrong way.  And then I finished up the bear track squares that I need for the borders. Today, I'm going to see if I can get some of the border sections put together, and added on to the quilt. I've found a free clip art graphic of some actual Bear Tracks. I'd like to see if there is a way to somehow make a pantograph out of this graphic. I think it would make a really good quilting design, if I can figure out a way to do it out of continuous lines. Anyway, I'm off to see if I can't get in another productive day.

Design Wall Monday July 4

Well, that was an incredibly LONG week that just passed. I worked 6 out of the last 7 days. Hokey smokes, but that is hard to do. The good news is that I have the next 4 days off. Today is going to be spent resting, and reading blogs, and maybe doing some playing. Mondays are always a good day to blog surf, since there is always plenty to see and read at Judy's Patchwork Times when she hosts Design Wall Mondays. She's been hosting as well, since the beginning of the year, a challenge to finish off our UFO"s. I haven't been able to do any of it in the past couple of months, due to the arrival of this perfectly sweet grandson, our Avery.  (Wasn't that a good way to have an excuse to slip in a picture of him? LOL)

But, I started thinking about that challenge in the last week or so. Judy pulled the number "2" for July, so just out of curiosity, I checked out what I had listed as my #2. It was my old friend/enemy the Double Wedding Ring. So, I hauled it out of its box, and hung it up, just to get an idea of what is still left to do on it.

It certainly isn't a very good picture of it, all wrinkled, and partially in shadow. When I put it away last, I was trying to figure out how I was going to applique the outer curves of the quilt down to the borders that are to go on next. Since then, I learned how to do the starch and press over non-melt mylar method of finishing the edges of applique, and the glue baste. And that is just what this quilt was waiting for. So, in order to progress further, I need to make a finished arc shape out of some mylar, and get pressing the edges. At least I now have a direction to go with this, which is more than I had at the beginning of today. How much I'll actually get done on it............. that's another question. Today, in addition to resting, I want to see if I can't finish quilting the Crazy Curves that is on my machine. It is strange how much difference quilting can make. When I finished piecing this quilt, I really didn't like it at all. Now, with the quilting almost done, it is quite growing on me. I'll post a pic when it is done. TTFN, I'm off to surf.