Stash report, Week 30, 2013

Oh I've been having fun today. I'm working on my Dresden plate, and have almost finished the first row. It is time consuming, and fiddly, and I absolutely love the way it is looking. I love quilts that have large background areas to fill with luscious feathers.

 I'm using one of those Frixion pens to mark the spines of the feathers, and I must say I'm impressed. It disappeared with just the lightest touch of the steam iron.
The other great part of today was visiting with Avery on Skype. We've been doing this for quite a few months now, and he's getting quite into talking and visiting over the computer. It's fabulous to be able to see him, and watch him as he grows and learns new things.
For the stash report, there has been some good usage numbers this week, between a backing, and the border for a quilt, and cutting more pieces for another. However, I did buy some more this week, but it has a specific purpose, and will hopefully get used up in August, since I want to participate in Judy's next quilt along, Road to Brenham.

Used this week:                                      9.7 yards
Used this year:                                         89 yards
Added this week:                                       3 yards
Added this year:                                160.75 yards
Balance:                                                71.75 more yards in than out.

I'm linking up to Judy's Stash Report, and then I'm going to finish up the Meteor Shower block that I started last night. I made the mistake, just out of curiosity, of counting how many pieces are in each of those blocks..... 103 pieces. No wonder each one takes so long.

Saturday Sewing

It's been a lovely day for staying indoors and sewing. It's been rainy and damp, a perfect day for leisurely sewing. I finally have a finish. The 36 patch quilt now has all its borders on and is ready to go into the line-up for quilting.

It feels so good to finally have something finished. I've been bouncing around from one project to another lately, and I would so much like to get more focused and get more things to the finish stage. So, after this one, I think I will focus on Meteor Shower and work on it until it is done. I love starting new projects, but I am starting to get overwhelmed by all the unfinished ones hanging around here, so I'll try to concentrate on at least one more finish, before starting anything else. Angie, who blogs at Quilting on the Crescent, is having a celebrate sewing linky party, in honour of a special lady named Anne, who ended up being the patron saint of sewers and seamstresses. I didn't even know there was such a thing. So, I think I'll link up there, and join the party.

Sneak Peak

I loaded on one of my own quilts today. One of my Getting it Done goals for July was to get my Dresden Plate quilt finished. I spent a lot of time yesterday trying to figure out how to quilt it and thought I had come up with a plan. Well that plan got scrapped one I started since I found something I liked better. They both involved feathers but I like the way these flow better than the original idea. 

Design Wall Monday, July 22, 2013

I have a couple of things up today. We had a sewing day at the guild on Saturday, and I took my quilt project Thanksgiving, which is a pattern by Judy Martin, in her book Patchwork Among Friends. I took this one because I figured it needed less concentration than Meteor Shower, so that I'd be able to visit and sew at the same time, without running into problems. Well, this wasn't quite true, so there was a bit of ripping done, because I wasn't paying close enough attention to what I was doing. But, I came away from the day with another block done. Four down, 12 to go.

The other one I have up is Meteor Shower. I have 4 blocks done, and another about a third of the way done. This quilt needs 13 of the 2 coloured blocks. This too, is a Judy Martin pattern, from her book Scraps. I'm hoping to do some more on this one today, and get that 5th block done.

We're planning to take off for a week camping either tomorrow or the next day, so I need to get some projects ready to take with me, as well. I'm just not sure yet, what I want to take. It isn't likely that we'll get a hydro site, so whatever I take will have to be hand work. I'll have to rummage around and see what I can find. Maybe I'll have time to get some more prepared for My Tweets, and get back to working on that one.

I'm linking up to Judy's Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday, where there's lots of other fun and inspiring things to see.

Stash report, Week 29, 2013

Once again, the week got away from me, with not a whole lot of sewing done. And what did get done, had already been cut and accounted for, so there isn't a whole lot of change in the numbers this week. I needed to cut a little more for Meteor Showers, and I used some strips yesterday at our guilds sew day to make a slab block for the victims of the floods in Alberta, and that was it. I have made some progress on Meteor Showers, with another block finished this week, so that's something. I'll have pictures tomorrow.

Used this week:                                     .5 yards
Used this year:                                   79.3 yards
Added this week:                                   0 yards
Added this year:                              157.75 yards
Balance:                                               78.45 more yards added than used.

On the positive side for accomplishments this week, I've gotten 2 customer quilts finished, spent the day on Thursday with our son, and spent the day on Friday with our grandson, which really added to the wonderfulness of the week. And today I've loaded another quilt that needs to be finished by Tuesday, because I think we might be going away for a week, and she wants the quilt before August 2nd. So I'd best get it done before we leave, to allow for some flexibility in pick up times.
I'm linking up to Judy's Stash Report link box, and then I'm going to work on another Meteor Shower block.

A play day with Avery

Laurie came down with Avery for the weekend today, and he came to our house to play. We had so much fun. We went to the park where there was a wading pool for the little kids, and played there for a couple of hours. It was really hot, but so much fun. It was so hot, that I abandoned all restraint, and decided to sit down in the wading pool, fully clothed. It felt so good. But, I suspect that, after we finished at the park and went over to order the pizza, it must have looked a little strange to have this lady walk into the restaurant in wet jeans. LOL!!
After we all had our pizza for supper we went out into the back yard to play. I have been dreaming about this happening ever since we moved in here, being able to see Avery playing in the yard, and today was the day.
Back when Noel was little, one of his favourite toys were these small little airplanes. He used to love going out with his daddy to play with them. We saw some of them at the checkout the last time we were in Canadian Tire, and grabbed some, thinking it would be fun to see Noel Playing with his favourite toy with his son. We were right. Avery couldn't quite get the concept of throwing them, but he sure had the chase and get them and bring them back to Daddy or Grampy to throw game down pat. It brought back some great memories of doing the same with Noel.

 Matt brought out a remote control helicopter that had Avery absolutely fascinated. It was so much  fun watching my 3 boys playing together with the planes and helicopter.

 Noel showed Avery how the remote control worked, and the look on Avery's face when he moved the knob and made the helicopter move was priceless. Such a wonderful day, filled with family and love. Thank you, Lord, for the gift of loving family.

Carol's Hawaiian Punch Quilt

 I recently finished this quilt for Carol, who blogs at Quilt As Desired. If I have my facts straight, this is a quilt she made up for a friend of hers, using fabric from Hawaiian shirts of his that he gave to Carol to cut up for a quilt. She put together this beauty of a quilt. It was so much fun seeing all the different fabrics, and motifs and people and animals in the fabrics. She chose a fern leaf pantograph that looks almost identical to a palm leaf, for the quilting design. It complimented the fabrics and the piecing beautifully. This is why I love long arming for other people. I would never get to see the variety of quilts that I do, if I were only doing my own.

Thanks, Carol, for letting me do this wonderful quilt.