Monday, May 30, 2011

Design Wall Monday - Week 22

Happy Memorial Day! We've spent the long weekend planting grass, which has cut into my sewing time. Still, I've made decent progress on the Hunter's Star.
I laid it out on some leftover batting when SOMEONE kept running across it and scattering blocks. Of course, SOMEONE thinks the batting makes it even better to nap on.
 On the actual wall is the iSpy. The two side rows are together and most of the two middle are pieced. I might need to cut one or two more pairs of novelties to fill it in.

Check out more design walls at Patchwork Times!

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Sunday Stash Report - Week 22

Because I'm feeling slightly grouchy about it, I'm counting the Steelers quilt as out this week. I can't find a border that matches the gold locally, and I'm not going to the city again until the OK Shop Hop. So it's just going to sit there until then.
Of course, I bought the backing, so I'm not winning at this at all. (It was on SALE!)
I also bought a half yard of the beige Civil War print to finish up those blocks, and 1.25 yards of pink Kona to finish up the Hunter's Star.

Used this Week: 2.33
Used Year to Date: 57.01
Added this Week: 3.75
Added Year to Date: 87.63
Net Used for 2011: (30.62) yards

Check out how everyone else is doing on Patchwork Times!

Friday, May 27, 2011

Giveaway Winner!

Mr. Random picked AMKreations! She's a fan of Countdown to Christmas. 
I'm not surprised to see all the Flurry fans. I've got four charm packs of 12 Days of Christmas from last year. Kate Spain rocks!
Personally, I'm all about the Grinch this year. We watch it every year on Thanksgiving to kick off the holiday season, and I can't wait to get my hands on those Grinchy fabrics for decorating.

Congratulations to AMKreations and thanks so much to everyone who entered!

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Work in Progress Wednesday - Week 13

{If you're here for the giveaway, head here. Or browse. Browsing's cool, too.}

Steelers Quilt: now has two out of three borders. I'm not sure what to do next - I know I don't want to end with all those HST seams. I could do another plain black, or some sort of B&W. (The Steelers banner has B&W dots, for example.)
I have just barely enough of the Steelers fabric for a skinny border (like, 2" tops) in either the white or the gold. But the quilt is only 57x47" and I was hoping to make it bigger. So... Not really sure what to do there. Thoughts?

Manassas Railroad: six blocks completed, most of the rest cut and in various stages of put together.

iSpy Sliced Coin Quilt: row one is pieced. If I meet my goal of piecing one row as a leader/ender each day, I should put it together on Saturday.
Completed
Untouched This Week:
Charming Wildflowers

Awaiting Quilting:

In Planning:
Cars Quilt (the Dude)
Hunter's Star (my sister)

New Projects: 0
Completed Projects: 1
In Progress: 10

Check out more at Freshly Pieced!

Monday, May 23, 2011

Design Wall Monday - Week 21

If you're here for the giveaway, it's here. But feel free to browse anyway. And if you like what you see, follow me to see more. ;)
On the design floor:
Frequently arranged by a cat or a kid, but coming right along. There's two of each fabric so my nephew can play a matching game.

And on the design wall:
The sashing isn't cut to size yet because I'm not sure if it's too light for Civil War fabrics. Opinions?
I love that the cornerstones will make little shoofly blocks, even though my dad will never notice.

Check out more design walls on Patchwork Times!

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Giveaway!

 
In honor of my 100th post, and Sew Mama Sew's Give Away Day...
 I give you Christmas in May!
Four fat quarters of Basic Grey's Figgy Pudding.
Free to a good home - US or international.
All you have to do is comment with your favorite upcoming Christmas fabric line and hope Mr. Random Number Generator picks you.
(You MUST leave an email if you are a no-reply blogger.)
Winner will be chosen on Thursday, May 26, and posted on Friday.
Good luck!

{This is not a requirement for the giveaway, but in light of the tornado hitting Joplin, MO, last night, please consider texting REDCROSS to 90999 to give $10, or donate in any way on the Red Cross website or a charity of your choice.}

Sunday Stash Report - Week 21

Even with a finish, the numbers are not dropping this week. Possibly because I had to buy the backing. (If I kept minkee in the house, the Dude would steal it. Seriously. He has a half-yard smuggled away on his top bunk.) At least the binding was from stash.
I also picked up a yard of Jo Morton's Indigo Berries while at a sewing retreat for the Railroad Crossing blocks. I'm not very experienced in Civil War fabrics, but I think these work well together.

Used this Week: 1.28
Used Year to Date: 54.68
Added this Week: 2
Added Year to Date: 83.88
Net Used for 2011: (29.2) yards

Check out how everyone else is doing on Patchwork Times!
 
{Stick around, I'll be posting my Sew Mama Sew giveaway tonight!}

Friday, May 20, 2011

Baby's First Library - Finished!

This quilt is a gift for a special person. Because of her, I was able to take several quilting classes this year, and really expand my skills. She also gave me seven hours a day to myself to sew.  (Not that I used all of them.)
She's my son's kindergarten teacher, and she's expecting her first in October.
I debated several different designs for a class quilt - the handprint quilt, having each kid color a layer cake slice... But when I saw Don't Call Me Betsy's bookshelf quilt, I knew exactly what I was going to do.
The quilt is 33x44", made entirely from stash (including one of my precious Dr. Seuss FQs and a scrap of my Japanese import birds) and backed in minkee. It's quilted in the ditch along the tops and bottoms of the "books."
To make it from the class, I envisioned each of the kids signing one of the books as if they were the "author."
But you know how things go when kindergartners are involved. By the second kid, they were signing on the white; three of them signed the Spot book; almost none of them signed in any sort of a straight, book-title-ish fashion.
{sigh}
Well. It's a little more unique than I planned, but it's probably just what a kindergarten teacher would expect!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Work in Progress Wednesday - Week 12

{This is my 100th post.}
{Also, the blog is a WIP this week. I like it simpler, but I think it's going to end up green.}

Last week, I sat down and made a list of the quilts I needed done by a certain date. Which means some were then boxed up and others were dragged out for cutting. Priorities. Deadlines. I have them.

This is the block I'll be making for my Dad's Civil War quilt. It's called Railroad Crossing and it's from Barbara Brackman. (If any of you guys are doing her Civil War quilt, it's a sneak peek of a July block!) One down, 29 to go.

Steelers Quilt: piecing together the HSTs. I have solid black borders on the top. Not sure what borders to add after the HSTs.

Baby's First Library: quilted and bound. I just need to bury threads and remove the pins.

iSpy Sliced Coin Quilt: vertical sashing cut, piecing together the coins.

Untouched This Week:
Charming Wildflowers

Awaiting Quilting:

In Planning:
Cars Quilt (the Dude) - Rudolph is put off till Christmas, but I promised I'd put together his Cars quilt before the movie came out. Which is, um, June.
Hunter's Star (my sister)

New Projects: 1
Completed Projects: 0
In Progress: 11

Check out more at Freshly Pieced!

Baby's First Library - Top Finished

Started Monday, finished Thursday - my favorite kind of quilt!
Okay, it might have something to do with the fact that it's only 33x44".
But whatever - it's all from stash and it's all adorable.
(And it's all thanks to Don't Call Me Betsy's awesome tutorial.)
On Saturday, the Dude and I are headed to the LQS to pick out the backing. He already knows exactly which section to pick from. ("Mom, where do they keep the minkee?")
I let him into my precious Dr. Seuss FQs for one of the books. Yes, he's smiling like that because he knows I'm taking his picture.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Design Wall Monday - Week 20

Last Friday I sat down and made a list of quilts I needed to finish by a certain date, and realized I needed to get started on this one.
We'll be on vacation around my nephew's birthday, so I need to get this done before mid-June. Along with a couple others...oh, and this is my last kid-free week. Eek!
This is Don't Call Me Betsy's Sliced Coins as an iSpy quilt. I think the skinny sashing works really well to set off the novelties - as a stacked coin, it would be too jumbled. 
It took me forever to decide on a light blue Kona, but I think it's playing nicely with all the other blues.

Check out more design walls on Patchwork Times!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Sunday Stash Report - Week 20

So...
Yeah. Um. I finished Baby's First Library. But I also went shopping.
Top left is some Dimples and Civil War Homefront for a quilt for my dad, and some Figgy Pudding fat quarters for Sew Mama Sew's giveaway day. (You might want to come back for that.)
Top right, Kona solids for the Steelers border, Wildflowers charm pack and i-Spy Sliced Coins.
And the bottom novelties are for arm splints for my husband's cousin.

Used this Week: 1
Used Year to Date: 53.4
Added this Week: 10.42
Added Year to Date: 81.88
Net Used for 2011: (28.48) yards

Check out how everyone else is doing on Patchwork Times!

Saturday, May 14, 2011

LQS Saturday Sampler - Block 4

This one was easy - all the HSTs only had to match one other fabric, instead of bunches of different ways that I managed to get turned around on every other block.
My LQS's owner is at Market right now and I've been reading her updates eagerly. It sounds like we're getting Jaybird's ruler/patterns after a rave review of Firecracker. Woo!
She also told me that she had four "people" to shop for at Market, and she named her "young mothers" category after me. My husband is not impressed - he thinks this means I spend too much time at the store.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Work in Progress Wednesday - Week 11

Finally, my finger is near recovered and I had a good couple of sewing days!

 Which means the cat must now sit in the sewing room to get my attention.

Steelers Quilt: pieced! It's 40x50" so I'll be adding borders. The plan is a 2" black border, then the million 2" HSTs, then... I don't know after that. Another black? A B&W?

New:

A baby quilt for the Dude's kindergarten teacher. It's from Don't Call Me Betsy's tutorial, but bigger. I'm going to have the kids sign the books, so I need at least 20, and I went wider than 1-2" books because kindergartners need a little more space to write. (Or at least mine does.) It'll end up being a three-shelf bookcase, with some stacked, some straight and some leaning.

Another quickie charm pack project, for my husband's grandmother.

Untouched This Week:
iSpy Sliced Coin Quilt (but not for long - the accent fabric has been purchased!)
LQS Saturday Sampler 

Awaiting Quilting:

In Planning:
Rudolph Quilt (the Dude)
Hunter's Star (my sister)

Non-quilting:
Second Snow White commissioned.
Finished the pattern keeper/easel for my sister. Need to start the bag. 

This Week's Stats:
New Projects: 2
Completed Projects: 0
In Progress: 13

Check out more at Freshly Pieced!

Monday, May 9, 2011

Design Wall Monday - Week 19

The Steelers quilt is coming along nicely.
I'm about to the point where I need to contemplate borders. Which means I need to trim the 160 2" HSTs leftover from the corners. Ouch.

Check out more design walls on Patchwork Times!

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Sunday Stash Report - Week 19

In honor of Mother's Day, you have to sit through a picture of my kiddo.
His kindergarten teacher is expecting her first, and he's busy pulling scraps for a bookshelf baby quilt.
In other stash news, I jumped at the chance to participate in the GenX Quilters' Japanese I-Spy swap - 28 unique novelty Japanese charms? Heck yes!
My order came this week, and it appears somehow a half-yard of that Cinderella print got in there, too. Must have been a mix-up. No one tell my sister.
Nothing out, but some stuff is getting close to done.

Used this Week: 0
Used Year to Date: 52.4
Added this Week: 1.5
Added Year to Date: 71.46
Net Used for 2011: (19.06) yards

Check out how everyone else is doing on Patchwork Times!

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Muck Raking

I finally got my tomatoes in the ground today.
Which meant over two hours of weeding and beating back the trumpet vine and raking and digging and moving the sprinkler so the ground was good and soaked before the plants went in.
Trust me, it was good and soaked.
Two of my four Romas, oregano, cantaloupe, and my helper's shovel.
My eight Rutgers and the butterfly bush - hopefully this year it'll be big enough to attract some bees! In the back is the mint, which is apparently unaffected by winter.
I still need to clear the last part in the middle left for a pumpkin plant, and then set up the soaker hoses.
Unpictured are the Traveler '76s and Mortgage Lifters. Can you guess what I love most of all from my garden?!

Thursday, May 5, 2011

May the Fourth Be With You

This may be my favorite unofficial holiday.
The Dude and the husband both wore Star Wars shirts to school/work. (Husband wears usually-inappropriate black shirts under his uniform.)
 As soon as the Dude got home from school, we made Star Wars cookies. (Williams-Sonoma molds)
 Which were served with blue milk.
And now the Dude and I are locked in an epic battle between good and evil. Which is taking forever since we lost the instructions and have to keep reading each step off the computer.
 
And in sewing related news, someday (maybe for next May the Fourth), I'm going to make this. Except not a pillow. I'm saving every Kona scrap, and I'm going to make a full Iotacon Star Wars quilt.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Work in Progress Wednesday - Week 10

This week was almost a complete wash. Immediately after posting my WiP last week, I sliced off the side of my finger. I couldn't even walk into the sewing room for a couple days without feeling nauseous. 
Once I did start sewing again, I discovered that your index finger does a lot of the work holding a ruler in place, so that ruled out anything with precision trimming.

That left this:
Except I sewed all my precut squares in about an hour, so now I'm faced with needing to cut more... I'll probably piece all the white Xs before I brave the rotary cutter again.

Frolicking Pinwheels: Sewed one more together (discovering the necessity of a working index finger on the ruler.)
 
Hunter's Star: Hit halfway and packed the project up for a week until my finger heals. It requires precision trimming on those biased edges, and I don't want to mess it up now.

Untouched This Week:
 
Awaiting Quilting:

In Planning:
Rudolph Quilt (the Dude)
Hunter's Star (my sister)

Non-quilting:
Second Snow White commissioned. I really need to have a clothes-sewing week.
 
Knitting bag and pattern holder for my sister. I'm going to insert foam pieces before finishing the binding. It should then fold nicely and stand up like a easel. Should being the operative word. 

This Week's Stats:
New Projects: 0
Completed Projects: 0
In Progress: 11

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Monday, May 2, 2011

Design Wall Monday - Week 18

I had two of these up, and was planning on trimming the rest of them as a fast leaders/enders, when The Accident happened.
I thought they might need sashing, but now I think I like the secondary pinwheels. Maybe. When I finish all of them, I'll see if it looks too busy.
However, I never realized how much your index finger holds the ruler when trimming, until I was squaring up the third pinwheel. I powered through that one, but I'm going to have to go buy a gripper or something, because I have nothing but the Steelers quilt pre-cut.
This, folks, is why you should not rotary-cut your finger have lots of projects pre-cut and waiting for you.

Check out more design walls on Patchwork Times!

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Sunday Stash Report - Week 18

In: codeine-laced Tylenol, antibiotics and bandaids.

Out: 1/8" of skin.

Needless to say, I've been avoiding the sewing room since Wednesday afternoon.

Also out: probably 10 pounds from freezing wet shivering.
In:

Used this Week: 0
Used Year to Date: 52.4
Added this Week: 0
Added Year to Date: 69.96
Net Used for 2011: (17.56) yards

Check out how everyone else is doing on Patchwork Times!