A Newfo......

But hopefully not a UFO, since I'm hoping to have this one done for our grandson Jack for Christmas. It has a long way to go, but it sews up quite quickly.
This is another Judy Martin pattern, from her book Scraps. It's a pattern called "Celebration". It will be twin bed sized when it is done. I have tons and tons of the 3 1/2 inch novelty print squares cut. Probably enough to do 2 of these quilts. I'm having a lot of fun playing with these fabrics. And this isn't all of them. I have some cut into 5 inch tumbler shapes, and some more cut into 6 inch squares. Lots and lots of fun to come. I'm linking up to Cat Patches Newfo Party for October.

Design Wall Monday, Oct. 29, 2012

It is dark and gloomy and cold and wet here today. We are currently feeling the outer bands of the hurricane. We've been out today and stocked up on water, candles, lamp oil and firewood, just in case something in the infrastructure around us goes down. One of the things they have been predicting is extra high waves on the south side of the Great Lakes. Our water supply for this city comes from a pumping station at the south end of Lake Huron, so we thought stocking up on some water would be a good idea. It is definitely a good day for staying indoors.

I have a finish on my design wall today. Think Inside the Box is finished. I really wanted to make this bigger. It's measuring 56x72 at the moment, and I had hoped to get it more into the twin bed size. But no matter what I tried to do, the quilt wouldn't let me. It is quite loudly shouting that it is finished and that adding anything else would ruin it. So, I'm listening

to it.
I've also finished the backing for it. I had 8 of the grass or seaweed in water type fat quarters in my stash, and have never been able to quite figure out what to do with them. I decided to combine them with some water with bubbles fabric and came up with this as a backing. This makes 2 grandson quilts done, 2 to go, before Christmas.
I'm linking up to Judy's Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday post. There is lots of fun stuff to see there.

Stash and Sunday Stitching Report

I think I might be starting to climb out of the fibromyalgia pit I've been in for the last 2 weeks. I actually managed to spend a little bit if time in the sewing room yesterday, and pieced a backing for a quilt, and did the set of orange nine patches for October's nine patch swap at the guild. I did get a lot of hand stitching done in the past week.
I think the only thing left to do on this is the centers of the flowers, and then colour the rest of it in. I've been working on Laurie's stocking, too, and it is getting close to being done. I'm on piece 74 out of 117.

I haven't done a stash report in a couple of weeks now, and the numbers reflect that. I picked up 4 fat quarters of sky looking fabric for a quilt I have planned. There is a "quilt til you wilt" day coming up in November, and I know exactly what quilt I want to work on, and I needed more sky type fabrics for it. And then I picked up a package of 40 five inch I Spy charms, that have been trimmed to tumbler shapes. I'm collecting them to eventually be able to have enough for a twin sized quilt.

Used since Oct. 14:                                         6 yards
Used this year:                                            103.9 yards
Purchased since Oct. 14:                                1.7 yards
Purchased this year:                                     159.5 yards
Balance:                                                          55.6 more yards in than out.

I'm linking up to Judy's Stash Report and Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching.

I'm still here......

Even though I haven't posted in about 10 days, I'm still here. It's been a rough week and a half, starting with scheduling issues at work, and ending with a major fibromyalgia flare up. There has been no quilting accomplished, at all. I did manage to get the sleeve and label sewn onto the last quilt that is going into the quilt show. They have to be delivered tomorrow afternoon, sometime. The rest of the time has been spent on the couch, or in the recliner chair, or in the bed, waiting for this particular flare up to run its course. I've gone through a few books, a couple of netflicks movies, and a bit of embroidery.
And I am so thankful, for an understanding husband, who takes such good care of me. For a terrific Christian sister who called to talk and give encouragement. And most of all, for a gracious heavenly Father who gives comfort and peace when it feels like all the walls and ceilings are coming crashing down.

Design Wall Monday, October 15, 2012

Think Inside the Box is still up on my wall, but it is making progress. The first 3 rows are completely sewn together, and the fourth is all sewn and ready to be added. The 5th row has its plain muslin top and bottom triangles on, and ready to sew into a row. The 6th still has to be done.
I think this quilt is going to go to one of our, new to us, grandsons. A long time ago, for reasons I can't go into here, Scott lost contact with his daughter from his first marriage. Our daughter, Becca has looked for her on Facebook, pretty much ever since Facebook came into existence. Well, last year around Christmas time, she found her. To make a long and complex story short, Lisa, Scott's daughter, and he have reunited. She is happily married, and has 3 sons, ages 5, 4 and 2. It has been a wonderful and exhilarating experience, the answer to many many years of prayer. Both Lisa and Scott glow with joy when they are together. I am hoping to make each of them a quilt for Christmas this year.
Here's a close up of some of the fun fabrics. I think this is going to get a border of the muslin to frame the whole thing, and then another border of the novelty fabrics, maybe in 3 inch squares, as a final border. Life is so good, and God is so faithful to answer prayer. Our hearts are filled with such joy, my eyes fill with tears every time I think about it, or talk about it.
I'm linking up to Judys Patchwork Times Design wall Monday. I've already been over there to look, and there is lots of fun stuff to see.

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.

Shakespeare is done

I have no idea why it took me this long to get this quilt finished. Looking back, I started sewing on this quilt in July of 2010 and finished the quilting back in August of 2011, and then it sat, buried under a pile of quilts sitting on a chair in our dining room, waiting for the binding to go on. Well, it is now on, and totally finished.
This is another Judy Martin pattern, from her book The Creative Pattern Book. I love the movement in the quilt. I love the way the dark background shines through the gold stars.
I used spiraling feathers that follow the movement of the snails trails blocks, and the feathers also reach into the outer background areas of the large stars. The star points and interiors are quilted with continuous curves.
And, as usual, I used the faux piping technique to completely machine sew the binding. The binding fabric was a stripe printed on the diagonal that I found a year or two ago, bought expressly for binding this quilt. I'm linking this finish up to Amylouwhosews, who's having a virtual sewing sewing summit party this weekend. Unfortunately, I'm working this weekend, so can't participate, but she's also invited Friday finishes, so I can do that. I'm also linking up to Finish it up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts.