Design Wall Monday, August 5, 2013

Lots of stuff going on here today. I finished my Grandmother's choice quilt last night, and put it up on the wall to see what the final product looks like.

I like it. So now, it goes onto the pile waiting to be quilted.

 

Then, I wanted to see what Meteor Shower looks like, now that I have a few more blocks made. There are 13 of these squares to do. Another one that I really liking the way it looks.
 This is on my getting it done list for August, to get a couple more of the blocks done.













And then, I just had to put up some of the blocks and sashing for the Lazy Sunday Mystery, just to see what it looks like. I love it!! I so want to start sewing this one together. But first, I finish sewing the binding on my Dresden Plates. I'm trying really hard to finish things, rather than bumping from one thing to another. Although, I've bumped from on thing to another today on the wall, similar to what's going on in my mind. So many things I want to get done, but none of them get done if I keep bouncing from one project to another.I must develop some self discipline....... yeah right...... like that's going to happen. LOL!
I'm linking up to Judy's Design Wall Monday, and then I'm going to start in on that binding.

Stash Report, Week 31, 2013

The latest issue of Quiltmaker came out a couple of days ago, with the final installment of the Lazy Sunday Mystery, and I had to pick one up so I could see the final result. I love it! I got out all my fabrics yesterday and cut everything I need to get it finished. So there are more subtractions from the stash, including some of the neutrals that were in my last very large fabric delivery. Good thing I got them, because I'd used up most of what I had getting this mystery quilt to the stage it is at.

Used this week:                                       2.3 yards
Used this year:                                      91.3 yards
Added this week:                                       0 yards
Added this year:                                  160.75 yards
Balance:                                                 69.45 more yards in than out.

I've done some slow stitching today, too. It's a perfect day for sitting outside and enjoying the sun. In fact, when the sun goes behind the clouds, it's almost too cool out.

This is my second to last block for the Grandmother's Choice block of the week. I've been doing hand applique for this one, and there are only 2 of the blue leaves left, and I can call this one done. The last block was posted yesterday, and I have it halfway done. This might actually be a finished quilt this week. Woohoo!!
I'm linking up to Judy's Stash Report and Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching.  And now, I'm going to finish up this block, and the next, and maybe sew the whole thing together.

Design Wall Monday, May 20, 2013

I have the results on my design wall of working on some of my getting it done goals. First off are some of the border units arranged around Cactus Rose. Eight done, 28 left to go. I haven't decided if I will sew the curved seams as I go, or wait until they are all done, and then have a marathon curved piecing session. Then comes the decision on how to quilt it.

And I managed to get 2 more of the Grandmother's Choice hand pieced blocks finished. The umbrella, and the 7 pointed star down at the bottom left. The umbrella is, unfortunately, upside down, but I'm not taking it out. I'm still behind on this one, but it's coming. Out of 49 blocks, I have 28 done. I really like the way this is looking. Seeing it here just might give me the motivation to get caught up. Maybe if I do 2 blocks a week. That shouldn't be too hard, says she who is having trouble even getting one a week done these days. LOL!
I'm linking up to Judy's Design Wall Monday. Lots of fun eye candy over there today.

Stash Report, week 20, 2013, and a little hand stitching as well.

One of my getting it done challenge goals for myself this month was to get the borders for Cactus Rose started. Well, this past week, before we went away, I got the cutting for them done, and some of the paper piecing started. I'm hoping to maybe get more done today, so I'll have progress to show tomorrow for Design wall Monday, which is a great motivator.

Used this week:                                               4.5 yards
Used this year:                                               63.2 yards
Added this week:                                                0 yards
Added this year:                                          131.25 yards
Balance:                                                           68.05 more yards in than out.

That balance number is coming down nicely. All I have to do is resist pushing any more "checkout now" buttons, and it should continue to come down. But we all know that's not going to happen.
I got the opportunity to sit outside in the yard yesterday for a bit, and plan on doing more today, during which time I was able to do a little hand stitching on one of the Grandmother's Choice blocks.

It's a Seven Pointed Star for Australia. It has a lot of really odd shapes, and I debated for quite some time with myself exactly how to approach it. I finally decided on English paper piecing. It seems to be working OK, but I think simple hand piecing after drawing the lines on the backs of the pieces would have been easier. It looks a little wonky right now, but once it is done, and the cardboard shapes removed, and it is pressed and trimmed, hopefully it will look the way it is supposed to.
I'm linking up to Judy's Stash Report and Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching.

Design floor Monday on Tuesday

I spent most of yesterday finishing cleaning out kitchen cupboards. We have a corner cupboard that we use for our pots and pans that has a lazy Susan thing in it. What a pain in the back, literally, that thing was to clean. I could only get under it in the small section where the circle of the lazy Susan has a notch in it. And I had to climb into the cupboard, under the upper rotating shelf in order to get to the back of the cupboard. Am I ever glad I will never have to do that again!
So, by the time all this was done, it was 6 pm. In the meantime, Scott had been cutting and installing baseboards in the 2 bedrooms that need them. Neither of us felt like cooking at that point, so it was off to our local Wendy's fast food place for supper. Then, at last, I could sit down and sew a bit. I am caught up on all my Grandmother's Choice squares, and have them all sashed and sewn together. Well, except for the umbrella one, which still needs hand stitching, and has currently gone missing in the mess around here. I'm sure it will turn up, eventually. I couldn't get a picture last night, though. No place with good enough lighting.
It is a lot of fun watching this one grow, and not knowing what will be added to it from week to week. I have already decided where it is going to live, and how it will be quilted.
It is going to be a sofa quilt. The reds in it will be perfect in the new apartment with the red chairs. I'm not going to add any borders to it, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to quilt it with Baptist fans. So far, it looks quite at home on my couch.
I'm linking up, a little late, but better than not at all, to Judy's Design wall Mondays at Patchwork Times. I'm also going to link up to Connie's Tuesday linky party at Freemotion by the River. I've followed her blog for quite some time now, but have never linked up to hers before now. There is lots of other fun stuff to see over there. I think, after all the work yesterday, this is about all I'm going to accomplish today..... blog surfing, and maybe some knitting.

Stash Report, week 4, 2013 and Sunday Stitching

I’ve been plodding along on last weeks’ Grandmothers’ Choice block. It took me quite a while to even figure out how I was going to do it. I finally decided on the starch to turn the seams and then glue baste it down, even on the pieces at the edge of the umbrella, rather than trying to piece that arc.
So this is going to be my stitching project for today. \it is all glue basted down, and I can relax, for part of today, at least, and do some hand stitching.
I finished up 3 customer quilts in the past week and a half, so there hasn’t been a lot of time for sewing. But I did manage to get 5 more 36 patch squares done. So there is a little bit in the out column. And I got the 20 nine patches for the guild swap done as well.
Used this week:                                1.4 yards
Used this year:                                 8.6 yards
Added this week:                                0 yards
Added this year:                                  0 yards
Balance                                              8.6 yards more out than in.
I’ve opened one of the envelopes that came from the Fat Quarter shop, just to see what is in there, but the fabrics are still in the package, so I’m still not counting it in. There is a sew in date coming up at Gail’s in a couple of weeks, so I’ll be opening it, and cutting into them to start a quilt that I’ve been aching to do for years.
I'm linking up to Judy's Patchwork Times and Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching

Grandmother's Choice, blocks 19 and 20

I'm all caught up on the Grandmother's Choice, Votes for Women, block of the week.
Week 19 was called Old Maid's Ramble. This one was a challenge. I ended up ripping out a couple of times, due to getting the triangles either turned in the wrong direction, or in the wrong spot. And looking at the picture now, I just noticed that the brown ones are still turned the wrong way. Oh well, it's staying this way.

 
Week 20 was called Memory Wreath:



I was hoping to be able to do today' before going to work, but it is a bit complex, so there won't be time for that. I'm just going to do a little simple sewing on the 36 patch quilt that is slowly growing.

Desing Wall Monday, Jan. 7, 2013

 I have something new on my wall. Woohoo!! One of my goals for January was to catch up, and then keep caught up on the Grandmother's Choice block of the week. Well, I am now caught up,
 and have this weeks' block all cut out, arranged on a flannel board, and ready to sew together.

 
From left to right are: Capital T, Cheyenne, and Mother's Delight 
I have really been enjoying reading the history that is posted each week, along with the blocks. I've included the links to each block and its history, if you are interested. This week's block is called Old Maids Ramble 
It talks about how exercise for women was actively discouraged as being bad for them. It also talks about something I actually remember, the fight for having girls sporting teams which took place during the 1970's. I might be able to get some time to sew this one together today. We have some errands and running around to do today, including arranging for the purchase of appliances for our new apartment. We've started doing some work on our house here, as well. The main floor powder room has a new vanity in it, and is being painted by Scott as I type this. We also need to pick up stuff for upgrading the main bathroom- a new vanity and sink top and new flooring- and we also need to make arrangements for a new counter top in the kitchen. All of these things are at least 20 years old, and show it. We want to present this house, as much as possible, as move in ready, in order for it to sell quickly, and for the best price we can get. So putting the little extra money and time into it will hopefully pay off. Our wonderful son, Noel, is doing all the work for us here, and will be helping over at the new place as well.
I'm linking up to Judy's Patchwork Times for her design wall monday posts.

Grandmother's Choice, Votes for Women blocks

 I have last week's and today's blocks finished.

 Last week was a block called Bride's Knot.

Today's is called Centennial.

They are now sashed and added to the growing quilt. I really like this idea of sashing them and sewing them together as they come out. There are now 2 rows completed and sewn together. At the end of the year I will have a completed quilt, rather than still having the job of sewing it all together. I'm not sure whose blog I saw the idea on, but it was a great idea.
 
The lighting is really bad in the room where these are hanging. I tried adjusting the light exposure in iphoto, but it is still quite dark, but it is good enough to give an idea of what it looks like.

Grandmother's Choice Saturday

I spent last evening, and about an hour this afternoon, working on the Grandmother's Choice block of the week. I did today's, and the ones for the past 2 weeks, as well. I'm still one block short.

The Little Red Schoolhouse. I paper pieced this one, since I really didn't want to be bothered with all the odd shaped templates.

Little Boy's Breeches. This one was a real challenge, and it took a bit of thought before deciding to paper piece this one, as well. It worked fairly well, except there was an oops where the blue pants fabric didn't come down far enough to be covered by the center square. So, I covered the oops with the red square, and then put the brown square on top of that, and appliqued them both down. Now it looks like the pants have a yoke.  I didn't do the inset corner squares, either.

 Today's square, Everybody's Favourite, was very easy and fast to do, compared to the last two.

And here they are, all together. I've been adding the sashing as I go. I'm Just adding them in the oder they come, and looking at the ones above them and beside them for colouring ideas, so that there isn't too much of the same colour in one grouping. I'm liking it, so far.I

Saturday news

Matt and his cousin Seth came to the house today to do some repair work today. the area under our kitchen window was open to the outdoors.  That area from the door where it juts out, all the way over to the side of the house. It originally had particle board under there, that had rotted out. 
Consequently, it has also been open to mice. (yuck!!!). So they came today and sealed up that open area, and then got most of the front porch re-floored as well. What a relief to finally have that done. The warmth in the kitchen is noticeable already. The floor in there has been cold for years, and it is cold no longer. Woohoo!! They are such great guys, to help us this way.

I had planned on sewing all day while they worked, but I ended up babysitting Seth's son Noah, instead. He is such a sweet boy. Very active, and very talkative, and his favourite word is "why". But he is obedient, listens when asked to do something, or not touch something. I had a great time with him today. It's been a long time since I had an excuse to read The Cat In The Hat. I wish I had thought to get a picture of him. Seth and Noah were here until about 5 pm, when they had to head back home, but Matt stayed later, until it got too dark to work safely. So, I did get some sewing time in. I worked on the last 2 weeks' worth of Grandmother's Choice blocks. they are done, and the sashings added to them.
I'm not quite caught up with these squares. I've skipped one that was a rerun variation of one of the other squares. The square on the left that I did today was supposed to be an American flag, although I didn't have any star fabrics. But I'm thinking of substituting in a Canadian flag block, if I can find one that fits. And that's it for today.

Stash and Sunday Stitching Report, Oct. 14, 2012

For the hand stitching this week, I've been working on the block of the week for the Grandmothers Choice.
                 
The sunflower block is now completely finished, and the star on this weeks block is about halfway stitched. This makes seven blocks, so I can go ahead from here and sew the first row all together. I cut all the sashings and cornerstones this past week, so that's a good amount to come off the stash.

Used this week:                                                 3.8 yards
 Used this year:                                                97.9 yards
Purchased this week:                                            0 yards
Purchased this year:                                         157.8 yards
Balance:                                                              59.9 more yards in than out.

I just might break the 100 yards used mark in the next couple of weeks. That would be cool. I'm linking up to Judy's Stash report and Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching. I'm working this afternoon, so unless I do some stitching on my breaks, there won't be much stitching done here today.

Design Wall Monday, Oct. 8, 2012

I'm late posting again today. But I have a really good excuse. My daughter, who rarely ever is interested in anything to do with sewing, called tonight, and wanted to talk about sewing, and fabrics, and ideas and we talked for over 2 hours. We had the same web sites up on our computers and oooo'd and aaaaaah'd over all kinds of stuff. She was all excited and enthusiastic about making some things with the idea to sell them. Was I going to say no............ heck no!! I don't know if it will happen, but I sent her some links with pattern ideas, and we'll see where it goes from here. The idea of actually sitting down some time and sewing with my daughter has me all tickled pink, as the saying goes. 

I have the first six of the Grandmother's Choice blocks up on the wall.

It really isn't a very good picture for colour quality. I had to play with the exposure editing function of the photography software, since it was dark when I took the picture, using a flash. I read on somebody's blog recently, I can't remember whose, that they had heard of someone else putting  the sashing  onto their blocks as they made them. I thought this was a fabulous idea, and I'm going to do the same thing. I found that brown fabric in my stash. It's been sitting there for years.  It seems to fit the feel of the rest of the fabrics in there, so I pulled it out, and started cutting sashing strips and then put it all up on the wall, stood back and went "Wow..... I like it". One more week, and I'll have a full row to put together. So, when the year ends, the quilt will be done. And this way, I can get a balance of colours as I go, as well. I'm linking up to Judy's Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday post.

Stash and stitchery Report

I'm doing the Grandmother's Choice Block of the week, and I must confess to a few groans, and at least one "oh no!!" when I saw this week's block. It is most certainly not an easy one, and the thoughts of machine piecing all the "Y" seams and handling all the teeny pieces through the machine gave me a few shudders. However, once I calmed down a bit, I decided it would be a block that I would piece by hand. I traced out all the pieces onto fabrics and took them with me to work last night, to work on during breaks.
The first round of pieces is almost done. If I take it to work and do the same thing tonight, It should have this round, and most of the second added to it. The other hand piece I'm working on is the second of the Promises and Borders. I didn't get a lot done on it, but it is coming. I don't have a deadline for this, so slow and steady is OK.
I think all that is left to do on it is to do the flower centers, and then colour it in, and to put the textile medium over the coloured pencil, once I get the colouring done. And looking at it now, I've noticed that the bird's wing isn't finished.

There has been some movement in my stash, too. I've loaded my Heartland Star onto the machine, in the hopes of having it done in time for the quilt show at the end of October.

Used this week:                                   6.6 yards
Used this year:                                    91.5 yards
Added this week:                                  0 yards
Added this year:                                 152.8 yards
Balance:                                                61.3 yards more in than out.
Just out of curiosity, I checked last years numbers. This time last year I had used 102 yards, so I'm 10 yards behind that. This time last year I had added 121 yards, so I'm way over that. Neither is a good or a bad thing, it is just fun to keep track and to compare from year to year. I would like to end the year using at least the same amount as I used last year.
I'm linking up to Judy's Stash Report and Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching.

Grandmother's Choice- Amethyst

Here is this week's Grandmother's Choice block, called Amethyst. I must confess to a bit of nervous trepidation when I saw this one. Not because of the "Y" seams, but because of the need to print off templates. To say that our printer and I have a love/hate relationship would be kind. It took me longer to print this than to sew it. The first copy came out the wrong size. So I tried changing the size, only to get a message that the printer wasn't responding. So, I had to turn it off, go through all the start up stuff, before I could print. I'd changed the size to print, and that one came out to big. I'm starting to sound like Goldilocks here. So, I decreased the size, tried to print it, and got the non-responding printer message again. Grrrrrrr.............. That meant turning it off, turning it back on and going through the start up sequence again. By this time I was beginning to wonder if it would get done, and if I would have the patience to sew it once it got printed.  But, it printed, and came out the right size. Then I could sew it up, and here it is. It took a bit of thought to figure out the best way to do it, and away I went. It wasn't a perfect 8 1/2 inches square when it was done, but an 8 1/2 inch square drawn on my ironing board cover, some straight pins and some steam for blocking fixed that. Two down, 47 to go.

Stash Report and Sunday Stitchery

I've set aside posting about stockings for a while, as I can't show pics of it because I'm now working on Laurie's. But, I started a new stitchery project this past week. I have been drooling over this project since it first came out in January. It is called Promises and Borders and it is a stitchery block of the month that will eventually finish into a wall hanging. I hadn't started it earlier in the year because of wanting to focus on the Christmas stockings that I wanted to have done by this Christmas. Well, 3 out of 4 of them are done, and the 4th is about 30% done, so I figure I can start something else.
Earlier this week Denise did a post about an owl stitchery she was working on, where she was using coloured pencils to add to the stitchery, and I had an "aha" moment. So, I got out my own coloured pencils and started doing some shading into the stitched areas. I love the added depth the shading gives it. I still have a little bit of stitching left to do in the center of the orange flowers, and then I can add the textile medium over top of the coloured pencils, and I can count the stitchery on this square done, and then go on to block #2.
And now, I get to add up all the numbers from all the projects I've been working on this past week.

Used this week:                                       7.7 yards
Used this year:                                       83.7 yards
Purchased this week:                                   0 yards
Purchased this year:                            147.3 yards
Balance:                                                 63.6 yards more purchased than used. I am hoping to crack the 100 yards used by the end of this month. I've started a Newfo for September, actually, make that 2 of them, that might help towards that 100 yards goal.
There is a new block of the week by Barbara Brackman that started yesterday. I read about it on Denise's blog yesterday here. She's such a good influence....... LOL!  I'm even using the same fabric collection, since I loved the way her block looked so much. So, I immediately ran, well make that walked quickly, up the stairs and pulled out my fabrics and made the block in the 45 minutes I had left before having to go to work.
The theme of the whole quilt is Grandmother's Choice and it will follow the history of the fight for the right to vote for women that took place in the early years of the last century. Did you know  that women in Canada didn't get the full right to vote until 1919? Women in Quebec, according to Wikipedia, didn't get that right until 1940! In the USA, the right to vote came in 1920. So, we've had this precious right to have a say in what goes on in the government of our countries for less than 100 years!! Every week, along with a block, there is going to be a bit of history about the fight for this right. I am an history nut, and love finding out the history of various times and countries. I am also, as everyone knows by now, a quilt nut, so what could be better than to combine the 2? I am going to try really hard to keep up with this one.
I'm linking up to Judy's Patchwork Times for the stash report and Kathy's Quilts for the stitchery report.