Design Wall Monday Nov. 28

I had all kinds of plans for today. I had to get up really early this morning, like 6:30 am early, which for anyone who knows me, just doesn't happen. But, I figured since I had to be up, and out for an appointment for my husband at that time, I could make a good thing out of it, and get lots done once we got home. Uh huh, yeah right, didn't happen. Here it is, 4:30 in the afternoon, and other than a little Christmas shopping, nothing has happened. Or at least, not yet. I think it is going to be a put in a DVD and watch a movie or something and knit until I can go back to bed tonight. Once again it is confirmed, mornings and I are deadly enemies. 

On the good news side, I did get some more work done on Make Your Point over the weekend. The narrow inner borders are on, and the triangle borders are all sewn together, and one of them sewn on. I still have quite a few of the 4 patches for the checkerboard border left to do yet, but there are a few up there just to give an impression of the final product. I like it.  Will it be done this week? I'd like to think so, but realistically, probably not. I want to get the Crumbs quilt loaded and quilted and bound this week, as well, so I think I'll be giving that priority. I'm still doing the Orca Bay Mystery but I'm going to wait and see on the 2nd step, which is the blue strings for 3 1/2 inch squares, and see if I can use plain blue 3 1/2 inch squares instead. I think, going by the hints Bonnie's been giving, that there will be some red string squares, as well, so I'll wait and see for those as well. This gives me lots of time to get the last 150  hour glass units done.

There are lots of fun design wall posts over at Patchwork times I'm going to link up there, and then maybe do some blog surfing. 

Stash Report Nov. 27

November 27, how on earth did that happen so fast? Wasn't it just yesterday that we were waiting for our grandson to be born, and he's a little over 6 months old already. He's such a handsome little boy. I am so thankful for the technology of the internet. It makes keeping in touch, and being able to see him so much more possible. He had his first taste of banana a couple of weeks ago, and Laurie called me on Skype, and put her laptop in front of Avery while he was having his first taste of it, and I was able to participate in the experience, even from 4 hours away. So cool. But, this is supposed to be a stash report, not an Avery report. Somehow, I seem to have gotten a bit side tracked. So, on to the numbers:

Fabric used this week:                                     2.9 yards
Fabric used this year:                                     141.9 yards
Fabric purchased this week:                                0
Fabric purchased this year:                             162.5 yards
Balance:                                              20.6 more yards in than out.

Hmmmmmmm, looks like I just might make the 150 yards used mark. I wonder if I'll actually get down to a zero balance? With only one month left to the year, probably not, but I'll get close. I'm linking up with Judy's stash report where there are other quilters also keeping track of there fabric ins and outs. And now, I'm going to go sew for a while, before I have to go in to work this afternoon.

Sweet Treats finished

Sweet Treats, aka Swoon, is finished, quilted, bound and washed, and she is so soft and cuddly and delicious to look at.She is quilted with continuous curves in the pieced sections, and swirling feathers in the white backgrounds. I used a variegated thread from Superior threads, a Rainbows thread called Seashells, and an off white thread in the bobbin.

While browsing through the webstore Thousands of Bolts a few weeks ago, I found a fabric that was absolutely perfect for the backing, showing more Sweet Treats. And at the same time I found a striped fabric that was printed on the diagonal for the binding. I love the way it makes it look as if I slaved over doing bias binding. *giggle*. And, of course, I used the Faux piped binding technique, found here which enabled me to do the binding completely by machine, so much faster and easier, and looks pretty good too. I'm linking this Friday finish to the Finish it up Friday linky found over at Crazy Mom Quilts. Go take a look, if you have some free time, at some more finishes.

"Resistance is futile"

As the borg say, in the Star Trek series, "resistance is futile". I tried, and tried and tried, to resist, but as everyone knew, including me, I caved in. I've started doing the Orca Bay Mystery. After all, how can all those other people playing along be wrong. So, here they are, 92 quarter square triangles, in blacks and creams, with a navy blue one, thrown in just for kicks. Actually, it was my test square, and it worked, so I'll keep it in. I've also gotten the quilting done on Sweet Treats and the binding made. So tonight's job is to get the binding sewn on, and the quilt into its first wash and dry, so that it's all soft and comfy. See ya later.......

Design Wall Monday Nov. 21

I've been working on getting the centre portion of Make Your Point all sewn together, and ready for the multiple borders this quilt requires. So far, I have 3 out of 4 sections pieced together. The last one will be done today, I hope, and then I can begin with the borders. I am liking the way this one is looking. I want to keep going on this, and get it finished, but I am seriously being distracted by the latest Bonnie Hunter Orca Bay mystery quilt. I have lots of leftover blacks and neutrals sitting on my cutting table that are yelling their pretty selves silly. They talked me into measuring them yesterday, to see if there were enough of them, and to see how many of the itty bitty quarter square triangles I could get across the width of a fat quarter. I figured any where from 10 to 12 across, so I have enough. But I'm not sure I really want to start this, but I suspect I'm going to be drawn in. It's not as if I have any other plans for these fabrics. They are just sitting on the top of my cutting table, taking up space, getting moved from one spot to another as I work on other things. They need to be used, don't they? I think I'm in trouble....................
To see other walls, go on over to Judy's Patchwork Times where there are lots of other tempting walls, some of which have the first step of this mystery going.

Stash Report Nov. 19

Not a lot of sewing going on this week. As I've said to a couple of people already today, working gets in the way of so many fun things. I did get some cutting and a little bit of sewing done on Make Your Point and am hoping to get a bit more done before going in to work this afternoon. Most of my time this past week was spent on quilting Sweet Treats I am having a blast, now that I've figured out how to do them, with doing the background fills with feathers. I'm hoping to have it finished this coming week. And I am having a really hard time resisting the pull of the newest mystery floating around blog land. I have a bunch of leftover blacks and neutral bits of fat quarters sitting on my cutting table, crying out "use us, please use us, please cut us into 1 1/2 inch strips and use us" So far, I'm ignoring them. LOL!!! Now, for the numbers:

Used this week:                   4.3 yards
Used this year:                   139 yards
Purchased this week:              0 yards
Purchased this year:            162.5 yards
Balance:                                 23.5 yards

There are other stash reports over at Judy Laquidara's Patchwork Times
Hmmmmmmmm, if I did the mystery, that would use up more yardage............. must resist........ must resist...............must resist............. must resist................... HELP!!!!!!!!

Trying new things part 3

And here it is, the coloured finish. I'm going to look at it for a while, and decide if I want to add any more to it. The next step is to embroider all around the coloured shapes. There are a couple of ways to do it, either by hand, or by machine. Also, the book says that the colours fade if the stitching is done before putting the textile medium on. But, the stitching acts as a barrier to prevent the colour bleeding when the textile medium is applied. So, I'm going to do a bit of quilting and let things simmer in my brain for a while before I decide what to do next.

Trying new things part 2

This will probably a post heavy day, depending on how far I get on this Faux Applique. I'm going to try and do step by step of what I'm doing here.
First, I traced the design onto the freezer paper. The book says to do it onto a regular piece of paper, and trace from there, but since there is no problem with the design getting reversed, I skipped a step and did it directly onto the freezer paper, which then got fused to the wrong side of my white fabric.
Then, I laid the whole thing over my light box, and lightly traced the design onto the fabric using a mechanical pencil. With the design traced onto the freezer paper, there were no issues with the fabric moving off the design.

And here it is, all traced, and ready for colouring.
I'm going to set myself up at the kitchen table with a pot of  Cherry-Amaretto tea, and start colouring. The hardest part will be deciding on which colours. The book shows red, but I think I want to be different. Stay tuned..............

Trying new things

A couple of weeks ago I was reading a post at Denise's Count it All Joy blog about a book she had received in the mail. It's about Faux Applique and the idea immediately intrigued me, especially after seeing the graphics on the cover of the book. So, I took a little time then, to see if I could find out more information about what was actually involved in Faux Applique, and found this tutorial on the authors' blog. I was immediately hooked. Applique, using coloured pencils, and a textile medium to make the coloured pencils permanent. So, I sent away for the book, some coloured pencils and the textile medium. Denise and I have decided that we'll work through the projects in the book sort of at the same time. The first project in the book is a neck pillow with a fairly simple design on it.  I'm going to try and get a start on it today. My fabric is washed, and needs to be ironed, and then I can get a start. In between, there is also  laundry to do, and I want to get a bit of quilting done on Sweet Treats as well, and maybe some sewing on Make Your Point. I think I'll do bits of time on each, and see how far I get.

Crumbs is a flimsy

I have the top for the Crumb Along finished. It still needs quilting, but at least the top is done. It was one of the things I finished up last week before going back to work. A couple of months ago, Laurie, my lovely daughter-in-law, asked for a quilt for their chocolate lab, Shelby. Apparently the dog has taken a liking to sleeping on Averys' quilts, and so would benefit from one of her own. And actually, Shelby is the only member of the family without her own quilt. So, this one is hers. I had a lot of fun doing this quilt. The whole concept of not having to have accurate seams, just working in a free form way was intriguing, and rather liberating. I'll probably keep this concept in my pocket, and bring it out to use in other quilts, maybe as the centre of stars, and that kind of thing, and replace the boring plain fabric squares, with crumbs. I'm linking up to the Crumb along reveal where, as the week goes by, there will be more fun crumb quilts to see.

Design Wall Monday Nov.14

I have a couple of things up on the wall today.  My leaders and enders project which is well on its way to becoming a real quilt. It's a pattern from this book which I bought for the quilt on the cover. They have named the quilt "Make Your Point", and since I'm terrible at coming up with quilt names, I'll use that one. I have enough of the 16 patches now made up to do the entire centre of the quilt, and a couple of the borders. I think I'll do the remainder out of strips, so I can get this one done. Here's what I have so far: It's a bit different from some 16 patch and pinwheels I've seen, due to the changing direction of the pinwheels. I love the secondary pattern that the pinwheel blocks form, almost like the 16 patch blocks are framed by the triangles. I'm planning on focusing on this quilt until I get it done, except, of course, that I need to find another leader and ender project. And then, there are the Fat quarter stars quilt along blocks. I'm a bit behind on these. The 3rd block is still in pieces. If I have a bit of time after writing this, before I have to head to work, I'm going to see if I can't it at least partially sewn together.
There are lots more design walls to see over at Judy Laquidara's Patchwork Times If you have a few minutes, go on over for a visit.

Sunday Stash Report

I haven't done any posts since last Monday. I've been madly sewing and quilting all week, trying to get as much as possible done before going back to work yesterday, after 5 weeks off. Man, that had to be the fastest 5 weeks of my life. And, after going back to work yesterday, lets just say I was right about not wanting to go back, and leave it there. Otherwise this will turn into a rant about work, and I don't want to do that; I'd rather talk about fun stuff, like everything I was able to get done last week. I managed to get the Summer Rental finished. There were 2 customer baby quilts to do, and both of those are done, and returned to their rightful owner. I finished the Crumb along quilt. And then, I found the Disappearing Nine Patch blocks that I had started a couple of years ago, and threw them up on the wall, rearranged them, and sewed them together. There are enough left for another quilt. And then, I had another leader and ender project that was ready to go to the next stage, so I started to take it there. And then I made the backing for, and loaded onto the machine, the Sweet Treats quilt. Whew, no wonder there was no time for blogging in there. I'm tired just reading that list. The good news from all that , especially since I didn't do a stash report last week, is some fairly significant fabric out numbers.

Fabric used last 2 weeks:                        15 yards
Fabric used this year:                            134.7 yards
Fabric purchased last 2 weeks:                  6 yards
Fabric purchased this year:                    162.5 yards
Balance:                                                  37.8 more yards purchased than used.

I'm linking up to Judy Laquidara's Patchwork Times Stash report, and then I have to get something to eat, maybe spend 15 minutes or a little more sewing, and then it will be time for work.

Design Wall Monday Nov.7

I'm still working on Summer Rental, by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.
I had hoped to have this done by the weekend, but the corners are a bit tricky to get sewn on correctly. My design wall isn't in the same room as my sewing machine, so it is quite time consuming to go between the rooms for only a couple of blocks at a time. And there have been a couple of times when by the time I got to my sewing room and sat down at the machine, the orientation of the blocks got turned, so I ended up having to rip out. Still, I am really liking it, and am quite happy with how it has turned out. There are 2 corners left to sew together, and put onto the main body of the quilt, and then I can call it done, and that is what is planned for today. I have a couple of customer baby quilts to do, which is also on the list for today and tomorrow. I'm linking this post to Judy Laquidara's Design Wall Monday where there are lots of other walls to peak at.

Beach Cottage quilt finished

 As well as working for the past week on the quilt
Summer Rental, I've been doing the quilting on
Beach Cottage. It is now finished, and bound, and can
 be added to my list of finishes for the year. WOOHOO!! I have been studying this tutorial for doing an overall feather meander for quite a while, and decided that this was the quilt to try it on. I am so pleased with the results. I absolutely love the effect, especially when combined with these fabrics. They seem to fit each other perfectly.

This is one of the fabrics that I bought earlier this year, intended as quilt backing. I didn't have a specific quilt in mind for it, but it fits this one. I love the way the feathers show up so well on the backing. And now, I'm off to get something to eat, and go back and do some more on Summer Rental.

Time for a tea break............

Time for a break, and a progress report. The quilt Summer Rental, (I have no idea why the author named it that), by Miss Rosie's Quilt Company, is coming along quite nicely, and I'm really happy with the way it is looking. I almost always start working from the centre of a quilt and work outwards, when beginning  a new quilt, and assemble enough of the elements to be able to see what it looks like. I'm too impatient to to all the block elements first, and the sew them into blocks. I like working a few blocks at a time. So, I cut a bit, sew a bit, press a bit, and repeat. The exception this time was all the star points in this quilt, which is what all those triangles off to the side are. Considering this was only started this past week, not bad, not bad at all. I'm hoping to have this to at least a finished top stage before I go back to work on the 12th. Unless I come up with a sudden inspiration on how to quilt this, (any suggestions gratefully received, by the way), I don't imagine it will get quilted before then. And now, tea break is over, and I'm going back upstairs to sew.