Fat Quarter Stars Quilt along

Well, I put that unexpected free day yesterday to very good use. The Batman quilt was loaded onto the machine, and, if I hadn't goofed on the backing, it would have been done. But, when I got to the end of the top, I'd run out of backing about 3 inches too soon. Oops. Now I have to take it off the machine, (am I ever glad have have zippers on it), sew up another strip of batman fabrics to add to the bottom of the backing, load it back on, (did I already say I'm glad I have zippers on it) and do the last bit of the quilting. (sigh) While I was waiting for the batting to relax after taking it out of the bag, I pieced together the first square of the Fat quarter stars quilt along 
and I like it. I like the way the small star seems to float in the centre of the large one. If all the stars are like this one, it will be quite a lovely quilt. And now, I have to run and get ready for work.

Almost did a rant....

I was just about to do a rant about the differences in prices between the States and Canada, but then I decided I'd better check my facts first. Yesterday I went out in search of a specific yarn to make this scarf Somehow I had it in my mind that I could order it online for about $20.00. So when I got to the store and found out that they wanted $38.00 for it, I nearly choked and fell over in a dead faint. However, I was wrong about the $20.00 online. It is $30.00 online, so it isn't a huge gap, but it is still way too up there in price for me. So I settled on a sort of more economical choice. It's a 50% merino wool and 50% silk and it is just so soft and will feel so nice on my neck come the winter cold.  I got home, and started in on making that drop stitch pattern, only to decide that it looked really blah in the plain colour, so I ripped it out. I only had maybe 4 inches done, so it wasn't that big of a deal to rip out. But then I had to come up with another pattern. I got to thinking about how textures always look better with a plain coloured yarn, so that's what I started looking for, and I have this 
done so far. I am quite liking it.  I have 3 balls of this stuff, so we'll see how long it will be after all of them have been used. Hopefully long enough to fold in half, and then put it on with the 2 ends pulled through the folded part. I like wearing scarves like that. And it is so soft, that I'm stopping and petting it every so often as I knit. (giggle)
Anyway, enough of that. I didn't get any of my quilty goals done yesterday, so I'm going to try again today to get Noel's Batman quilt loaded and started, and the  Fat Quarters Star quilt along block done. Somehow I had it down on my calender that I had to work today, but it turns out that I don't. I feel like I have a bonus day off, so I'm going to go and have some fun with it. And, even better, I don't have to cook today, either, because I made  Chicken and Dumplings yesterday, (thanks Denise), and there is more than enough for leftovers today. Bonus!!!

Surgery Date set.....

Well, I saw the eye surgeon yesterday, and received quite a sort of pleasant surprise. Although the wait time to get in to see the eye surgeon was six months, the wait time for the surgery is one week. So, I am booked for the right eye to be done October 5th, and the left eye on October 19th. The doctors says, that with the new lens implant, I should be able to go without glasses, except for reading and close work. That boggles my mind! I've worn glasses since I was 13 years old, although there were a few years in there that I went without. I might get them to make me a pair that I can keep on all the time, though, just so I don't become one of those people who are always searching for their glasses, which would definitely be me. He had to warn me, though, that because I'm quite far sighted, my vision in between to 2 surgeries could get wonky, because the 2 eyes will be very different, and I won't be able to see out of my current glasses with the eye that has already been done. Something tells me there won't be a lot of sewing or quilting done until the second eye is done. That means, I have to find something else to do with my hands in the meantime. I think that will involve some knitting, which is going to involve a trip to a yarn/fabric store later on today. There is a really cool, easy scarf pattern that I really like, and I love the yarn it has been done with in the picture. The yarn shop I want to go to carries it, so I'm off there after I finish this. Then, I think there is some quilty stuff I should get done before the surgery, Noel's quilt should get done, and I have a couple of customer baby gifts to do. And the first block for the Fat quarters stars quilt along has been posted, so I'd like to do that. And do some more crumbs. But, if I'm going to get anything done, I'd best get moving.

Design wall Monday Sept 26

 Monday again, and lots of inspirational, fun, and wonderful eye candy to be found over at Judy's Patchwork times I'm linking this post up there, as well. I mentioned last week that I was contemplating starting a new project, not because I need another, but because I wanted to. Well, I did it, and now have one Swoon  block sewn together, and 2 more cut out, and ready to go together. I had some fun novelty food fabrics hanging around, and I'm liking the way this is looking so much, that I've ordered more. It will end up being a really fun quilt, I think. The pieces in this quilt are a perfect size for showcasing this type of fabric, 3 inches finished, and the centre block of the star is 6 inches. So it goes together quite quickly. I'm still working on the RRCB, and am up to 36 or 37 of the string squares done, a couple more than what I had yesterday. After I finish here, I'm going to go do some more of the strings, until I have to go to work this afternoon. Tomorrow is my appointment with the eye specialist to find out about surgery for the cataracts. Here's hoping that the wait time isn't too long.

Stash Report Week 39

I did some major internet fabric shopping button pushing last week. But, since the packages won't arrive for a week or two, I don't have to count them yet. I'm having a lot of fun working on my novelty food fabrics Swoon blocks. That's why I have new fabric coming in. I liked the big print fun food thing so much, that I ordered more of them. And of course, each food print needed it's own coordinate, so that added up to more........ (giggle) These blocks are actually quite a lot of fun to do. It takes longer to cut the fabrics out than it does to sew them together. I can fully understand why there are so many version of this floating around blog land. Here's a sneak peak: 
Each one of these squares uses up 21 inches of fabric, and pretty quickly, too. It takes longer to cut them out, than to sew them together. And then there are the crumb blocks. I've decided that I'm going to count them as each using 63.4 squares inches of fabric each. That's taking the size of them, 6.5 inches, and adding 50% to allow for seams and trimming. Anyway, on to the numbers:

Used this week:                     2.8 yards
Used this year:                   105.5 yards
Purchased this week:              0 yards
Purchased this year:           121.5 yards
Balance:                               16 yards more purchased than used.  

I'm linking up to Judy's Patchwork Times where there are a bunch of other people keeping track of there ins and outs.       

Crumb Along....... I'm hooked

The instructions for the second part of the Crumb along went up today, and I felt like playing today. These things are a blast to make. I'm totally hooked. I've done 5 of the stars, and still need to do the hearts. But I had all kinds of stuff there to do regular crumbs with, so I've made a bunch of 3 1/2 inch crumb squares, that I've sewn together to make up 6 1/2 inch squares to go with the geese and the stars. I have no idea where this is going, but it sure is a lot of fun, and is making a teeny dent in my crumb and string pile. I'm figuring out the stash usage for these by figuring out the number of square inches for each of these squares at 6.5 x6.5 to equal 42.25 square inches each. Then I'm adding 50% to allow for all the seams and the trimmings, for a total of 63.5 square inches each. Figuring that out for 14 squares, gives me approximately 2/3 of a yard used up. It sure doesn't look like I've used up that much fabric. And now, I think I'll go back and play some more, and make up some crumb hearts this time. Fun, fun, fun.......

Design Wall Monday Sept 19

I have a couple of things up on my wall right now. Most of it is components for Roll roll cotton boll. The black and purple half square triangles on the right side are parts of the churn dash squares for RRCB. ANd under those are the 5 crumb blocks. But, I'm stalled. I want to start something new. But I'm not sure just what. I've been watching different quilts in the 36 patch quilt along for the last while, and have totally fallen in love with Kathy's I really, really want to do one of these. And then there is a collection of fall themed fabrics, for one of the quilts out of Judy's book Weekend Quilts, that I want to do. ANd then there is Swoon I've seen all kinds of different versions of it, and it is loudly calling my name. I have some novelty fabrics that I've been looking to do something with, a lot of them leftover from making Matt and Becca's Wedding quilt.  Here's a pic of some of them, paired up with some
coordinates. The more I look at them, the more I think this might be it. There are others that are a bit more girly and pastels, as well, but I'm not sure if they will work with what I've got so far. To see other design walls, hop on over to Judy's patchwork times where there is lots and lots to see, and cause temptation to quilters wanting ideas and inspiration for new projects, even when not needing ideas and inspiration for new projects. (giggle)

Stash Report Week 38

This is another 2 week report, since we were up visiting the kids and grandkid last weekend. And there is a big WOOHOO in this one. I have broken the 100 yards used mark. And I'm only 18.8 yards away from breaking even. I've been working rather steadily on the Roll roll cotton boll quilt mystery from Bonnie Hunter, which is no longer a mystery because she published it last year. I've been doing the string pieced neutral setting squares, and they eat up a lot of fabric. I'm not really sure how to figure out exactly how much, though, so I've taken the finished size of the squares, and added 40% to allow for all the seams, and all the trimmings that get hacked off, and thrown away, because they are too small to use for anything else. I'd be interested to know how anyone else figures out amounts for string pieced and crumb blocks.

Fabric used in 2 weeks:            4.9 yards
Fabric used this year:             102.7 yards
Purchased in 2 weeks:               0 yards
Purchased this year:               121.5 yards
Balance:                                  18.8 yards more purchased than used.

To read more stash reports, check out Patchwork Times.

A Crumb Along

I've been reading posts about this Crumb Along for a couple of weeks now. I thought to myself, "this looks like fun, but not right now". Then, last night I was looking at the posts of various people who have finished some of the crumb blocks, and thought to myself, "this looks like a lot of fun, but not right now". Then, I went upstairs, took a look at my cutting table, and saw some trimmings from blocks that were red, and already had a triangle sewn on one side and thought that they looked like the flying geese for the first step of the crumb along, if only they had another triangle sewn on them. And the next thing I knew, I was sewing on the second triangles, and digging through my crumbs and strings and leftovers. The result......... 5 crumb blocks that I wasn't going to do.   
They measure 6 1/2 inches square. The funny part, or maybe the expected part, is when I finished them, and went back and looked at the posts again, the instructions said to make 2 blocks. As you can see, I read instructions really well.......... not. (giggle). I'm not sure what these will end up as, but they sure are fun. And now, after I finish my second cup of coffee, I'm off to see if I can get the last row of Shakespeare in the Park quilted, and get him off the frame. In the meantime, I'm linking up to Jo's Country Junction where there are a bunch of others also doing the crumb along.

W.I.P Wednesday Sept 14

Since my last W.I.P. post I have had 2 starts and 2 finishes. The Batman quilt top and pieced back for my son. And I'm actively working on one of my UFO's, the Bonnie Hunter Roll Roll Cotton Boll mystery from last year. There has been a lot of good progress on it. The individual components are almost all done and ready to sew together. All I have left to do is 30 more of the neutral string pieced blocks. Here's a W.I.P. picture of what is put together so far.

Starts in the last 2 weeks:  2
Finishes:                           2
Leaders and enders in progress:       2
Active WIP's                                   1
Being quilted:                 Still working on Shakespeare. Only 1 1/2 rows left to do.            
Waiting for quilting:      10, Batman got added to the list.
Waiting for binding:     4, no progress there.
Ufo's:                           7, RRCB got taken off this list, but My Tweets has been added to it, so the              number remains the same.
Nearly deads:         13. There were 11, but I've found a couple more. A Grandmother's Flower Garden that I started years and years ago, and the year 2000 Piecemaker's calender quilt. So, all in all, not bad. At least there is some progress being made. I had promised myself last week, that if I got up to step 4 of the RRCB quilt done, I'd reward myself with a new start. However, I'm having fun with this one, so I'll keep going while the desire to work on it lasts.
I'm going to link up to the other Work in Progress posts over at Freshly Pieced, where there are a few with lists as long as mine.

Too cute not to share.

I might actually be doing a couple of posts today, one family related, and the other quilt related. While we were away visiting Noel, Laurie and Avery, I took a couple of videos of Avery using the camera. All well and good, until I tried uploading one of them to my blog. Do you think I could get it to work? Nope, wouldn't do it. Of course, not having a clue about what I was doing didn't help. Then, I found out that it should be uploaded to Youtube first. Sure, OK, I can do that........... not. I couldn't get it to upload, and when I finally figured out how to do that, it said it would take 138 minutes to complete. Huh????? We just started a new internet provider, and it hasn't been going well so far. The blistering speeds we were led to expect haven't happened. In fact, for a while it was slower than the old dial up. Anyway, fast forward a couple of days, and much troubleshooting later, and the speeds are better. It only took 38 minutes to upload a little over a minute worth  of the videos from my camera to youtube. So, without further delay here he is, his first video performance on my blog, my wonderful oh so adorable grandson Avery.....

Design Wall Monday Sept 12

There isn't anything too terribly exciting on my wall today. The backing for the Batman quilt is done. I managed to use up the last of the fat quarters that came in the collection, and some of the leftovers from cutting the pieces for the top.

We were on vacation for a few days and over the weekend, so not a lot of sewing got done. We went up to see Noel and Laurie and Avery and had a wonderful time. He's smiling and laughing and cooing and is just soooo cute. I took a couple of videos of him, thinking I could upload them onto my blog. Unfortunately, it seems like it isn't that simple. There seems to be some converting over to youtube videos, and for the life of me, I can't seem to figure out how to do that. It's probably something simple that I'm missing, But, for now, no videos. But I do have a picture on Noel and Avery chillin' at the campsite.
While we were there we did another spot of baby sitting, and can you believe it, but this Grammie forgot her camera at the campsite. I couldn't! There was so much I wanted to photograph, and I forgot the camera.  grrrrr. I was so mad at myself. Oh well. This trip out to the campsite made for 4 all together for Avery. Three with us, and one with Becca and Matt. He loves being outside, and is fascinated with watching the leaves blow in the breeze. I think we may have a potential camper here. They came out for supper on Saturday. Scott cooked up some Atlantic salmon over the fire, and then we had some rice and salad. Pretty classy food for camping out. It was really tasty. I'm hoping to get one more camping trip in over our Thanksgiving weekend, in early October. But that will totally depend on the weather. Early October can be gorgeous, especially up there with all the fall colours. If not, we'll stay with Noel and Laurie.

There are lots of pictures of quilts that are a lot more exciting than mine over at Judy's Patchwork Times Go take a look, if you have a few minutes.

Design Wall Monday Sept 5

Ah bliss........ this is the first of 11 days off. There is going to be blog surfing, and quilting, and sewing, and best of all, a trip to visit Noel and Laurie and Avery later this week, and time spent outdoors at the campground, cooking burgers over a fire, and marshmallows, and watching and listening to the waves on the shore. It is going to be soooo good.
On a quilty note, I think I have found my "go to" pattern for fast, easy but effective quilts. This Batman quilt was cut out Wednesday night. It has been sewn in the hours before work on the last 3 days. The blocks are all finished, and just need to be sewn together. I am going to use the leftovers from the top and the fat quarters packs to piece the back. And the back will probably take longer to make than the top did. I am sure that Noel is going to love it. It's a good thing I know that he doesn't read my blog. And now, I'm going to make myself another coffee, and surf some design walls over at Judy's Patchwork Times. And then, it will be sewing and quilting time. I want to see if I can't get a little bit more done on Shakespeare, and then get Batman all sewn together. Then the questing is, do I start on Batman's back, do I work on Roll roll cotton boll, or do I start something else new. Ah temptation, even though I had made myself a mental promise not to start anything new until I finished step 4 of RRCB. Hmmmmmmmm....... Oh, I know.... I'll work on stuff I already have going until we leave to go see the kids, and then work on new stuff when we get back. That sounds like a good deal. I wonder if I'll keep it. LOL.

Stash Report Week 36

I have more stash used up this week. I finished the Rose Log Cabin and started a new project. I'm making a Batman themed quilt for my son, using the Big Quilt pattern from Maple Island quilts I had ordered 2 Batman themed fabrics from The Fat Quarter shop I'm using the red, navy and black solids where the black fabric is shown in this picture, and the Batman prints are going into the large fabric sections. I found out when I was cutting though, that I didn't have enough of the solids in the fat quarters that came with the fat quarter packs to do the whole quilt. I had wanted the quilt to be 3 squares wide and 4 squares long, which would be 4 squares from each solid fabric. I had enough for 3 squares from each. That meant I had to find something in stash to make up the 4th. I discovered that I do not do solids, not a one. I do prints and textureds, but not solids. One of the many things I love about my husband is his willingness to give his opinions on what I am working on, when I ask him. I had this green fabric in my stash, the same greens as are in the batman fabrics.
I wanted his opinion if I could get away with mixing a textured fabric in with the solids. Now, to understand my husband, he is an abstract artist, among his many hats, and he never gives just a yes or no. He looked at the fabric in question, gave a yes, and then went on to give his reason pointing out that the shapes in the green fabric, picked up and mirrored the Batman logo shapes in the fabrics. And once I looked, and I mean really looked, I could sort of see what he meant. So to cut short a very long story, the green is going in. Now, after all that, on to the numbers for this past week:

Used this week:                     3.6 yards
Used this year:                     95.6 yards
Purchased this week:                   0 yards
Purchased this year:              121.5 yards
Balance:                                  25.9 more yards in than out.

I'm almost up to 100 yards used. Wow!! When I started this stash report thing out of curiosity, I had no idea that I could use that much fabric in only 8 months. And now, I'm off to use more fabric before I go in to work this afternoon. To see how much others are using and buying, check out Judy's Patchwork Times