July UFO is a flimsey

I made it, with 8 hours to spare. Grandmother's Diamond Ring, designed by Judy Martin, is a finished flimsey. That was my goal for July, so I'm pretty pleased with myself. And to make it even better, I love it!! And now, it goes onto the pile of Mount-To-Be-Quilted. Judy Laquidara, who sponsors the monthly UFO challenge, pulled number 7 for August, which is the Spring Swap quilt that I did a couple of years ago. It is a flimsey, and needs quilting. The challenge will be to fit it into August sometime to get it done.

I'm sure, if I manage to get it done, that there will be some continuous curves in the pieced areas, and probably some feathers in the setting triangles around the outer edges. Either that, or it might be fun to do continuous curves in the setting triangles a filler. I'm linking up to Judy's UFO report, where there are a few more people with finishes this month.

Design Wall Monday

This is my July UFO, and it is almost finished. Grandmother's Diamond Ring, by Judy Martin, found in her book, The Creative Quilt Pattern Book. The center section is done, and it just needs borders added to it. I'm going to take some of the 2 1/2 inch strips of the leftover 30's fabrics and use them sort of randomly as the borders. I'll put them all up on the wall first, just to make sure there are no overlaps of the same fabric touching. And looking at it now, I think I might put a four patch of 30's fabrics on each corner. I have until midnight tomorrow to get it done in time to have it finished in July. I wonder if I'll make it, considering I have to work tonight.
I'm linking to Judy's Design Wall Monday.

Stash and Sunday Stitching Report

I managed to get a lot done this past week on Noel's stocking for this coming Christmas. All that is left to do on it is the small toys that are dimensional.


 
These are turning out to be so much fun to do. I'm glad I saw This post of Debbie's  where she reveals her Christmas stocking collection. It got my brain working, and inspired to do some of my own. Although there is no way I'll end up with as many as she has. But I should be able to meet my goal of having 4 of them done, plus the ornaments.

And then there is the stash report.  Not mush use to report this past week, since most of what I'm using has been already counted as cut. But my in numbers have gone up, which was a lot of fun.

Used this week:                                           .4 yards
Used this year:                                         62.5 yards
Purchased this week:                                    8 yards
Purchased this year:                              117.25 yards
Balance:                                                  54.75 more yards in than out. And this number is going to go up even more in the next week or so, once an order from Thousands of Bolts comes in. It started out as an order for some backing, and sort of grew from there into an order full of Autumn themed colours. There is a colour that I see every year in farmer's fields, that wonderful gold colour of ripening wheat and hay. I have always wanted to do a quilt using that colour, and I think this may be the year for it. That wonderful gold colour as the background for lots of wonderful leaves. I'll take pics when they come. I'm linking up to Judy Laquidara's Stash report and Kathy's Quilts Slow Sunday Stitching.

A Fabric Party.....

Is much better than a tupperware party, any day. Pam, the owner of Mad About Patchwork who lives up in the Ottawa area, was visiting family, and Gail, who writes at The Cosy Quilter, asked if she would be willing to come and bring her fabrics to a party. Instead of expensive plastic containers, whose lids have to be "burped", (I'm giving away my age here, aren't I), there was lots of luscious fabric. Some of it, of course, simply had to come home with me. There is a package of 16 fat eighths of Kona cotton lights, because that is one area of my stash that is lacking. Then there is a package of 10 fat quarters from a new Christmas collection called Tinsel Tree. I'm not sure what I'll do with these. But it is time this house had a Christmas quilt or 2.  And then there is a collection of "modern" fabric that I picked out from her fat quarters. I have never used this particular style of fabric before. I've been trying lately to get myself to extend my fabric colours and styles, and try new things.  I had a few ideas, but nothing solid in mind to do with these. But then, in my blog reading this morning, I came across something that had already caught my interest. There is a Great granny Square quilt along going on in blog land right now, and some of the ones that I've seen use these styles of fabrics.  Here's a picture of one of them, with the source of the picture on the picture. I'll be using the Kona Charcoal fabric that my fat quarters are sitting on for the outer triangles.      I don't know if I'll do it at the same time as the quilt along, but I must say the concept has me intrigued. And the lights that I purchased, well some of them, might just work with these for that Granny square project. Now, all I have to do is resist the temptation to start something new before I finish the quilt I am currently working on. Maybe I could just start a little bit by figuring out the math for a no waste method for 2 1/2 inch squares. Of course, then I would need to see if it works..........

Looking forward to a fun quilty day

I have great plans for today. I have a quilt loaded on the machine to play with. Charlene did a scrappy Broken Dishes. Here's a sneak peak. She wanted an over all something, so I decided to do some fn swirls.




 
And I'm hoping to get some more work done on the Grandmother's Diamond Ring quilt, as well. It is coming along quite well, and I would say that it is about halfway done.
                                                        



 
And tonight, I'm going to a fabric party. The vendor there is going to be the owner of the online store Mad About Patchwork It looks like there is some fun fabrics, and I'm looking forward to seeing what she will be bringing with her. I am anticipating some fabric acquisition to be happening. I'll show you tomorrow what I come home with. And now, I'm going to go and play.

Design Wall Monday July 23,1012

I have Grandmother's Diamond Ring, designed by Judy Martin. The pattern is in her book The Creative Pattern Book. This one is going to be up there for quite a while, I think. The blocks are all odd shapes, so it doesn't work well for chain piecing, plus it would be very easy to get them mixed up, or turned in the wrong direction. So, I'll be sewing them together slowly, one piece at a time. However, that means there will be a lot off leaders and enders going though, so the Irish Chain quilt that will be built from those will go faster. I sure am liking the way this is looking, so far. This is the first quilt I've ever done with the 1930's reproduction fabrics. They are fun to use, so bright and happy and whimsical. I have lots of them left, so there will be more 1930's quilts in my future.
I'm linking up to Judy Laquidara's Design Wall Monday party. There is lots of fun eye candy and inspiration to look at over there.

Stash Report Week 30, 2012 and Sunday stitching.

There has been progress in both areas..... stash and stitching. I like these Sunday stitching reports. They give another avenue of incentive to get some work done from week to week. We discovered a really, really good TV series this past week, called Downton Abbey. Scott had purchased the first season, and it was so good we watched it in a marathon last Sunday. We finished the last episode at about 8 pm, and Scott got up, and went right out to the store to pick up season 2, which we also ended up watching in another marathon over that same evening and then on Monday. It's amazing the amount of stitching that can be accomplished while watching a full year's worth of a TV series. LOL! There are about 150 pieces in this stocking, and I put #63 on last night, so it is almost halfway done. I think the rest of it is all the little toys.


For the stash report, I cut a lot for the July UFO, so there is yardage used.

Used this week:                                   4.4 yards
Used this year:                                  62.1 yards
Purchased this week:                             0 yards
Purchased this year:                     109.25 yards
Balance:                                               47.15 more yards in than out.
It is quite possible that my purchased numbers are going to go up this week. I've been invited to a "fabric party", kind of like a quilter's version of a tupperware party, but a whole lot more fun buying fabric rather than plastic. LOL!!
I'm linking up to Kathy's Sunday Stitching post.