Design Wall Monday 6-2-2014

First I need to confess my fabric explosion.  Yes, I bought some fabric this month. Yikes, I went wild!  And, no, I didn't have huge usage either.  I failed to give a complete accounting of April as I was out of town when I would normally have published it.  So, with no further ado, I present my fabric usage purchase statistics for April and May. 

2014	Fabric In Month	Fabric in Year	Fabric Out Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
April	4.	35.00	.25	23.25	11.75
May	19.25	54.25	5.25	28.50	25.75

Oh foot!  I've brought in WAY more fabric than I've used over the last few months.  I definitely need to focus on finishing some quilts.  If you are new to my fabric statistics I only count a fabric as used when the quilt it is in is complete.  Yep, that binding should be sewn down before I count it. (Truth to tell though, sometimes I count a finish even if I'm still hand sewing a binding...) 

On to what I've been doing and what's on the design wall.  I spent several days getting another disappearing 9 patch star quilted.  I'm happy to have it done.  I need to get one more quilt done by the guild meeting in less than 2 weeks.  Luckily it is small and I should be able to whip it out after I get home from retreat. 

RETREAT you ask?  Yes, I leave Thursday to spend the night with Jenny and family and then Friday I head to the eastern shore for the FCQ retreat. I'm in the process of picking projects to work on.  Today I got out my Carolina Christmas, a Bonnie Hunter mystery from about 2009.  I decided to make it smaller,  I didn't need another queen size quilt but I can always use a lap quilt. It needs a plain border and then a pieced border after that.  Luckily, the plain border is still the same width and I'll be making the 4.5" unfinished pieced border.  I've got the pieces all cut out so it will be easy to work on it at retreat. 

I'm also planning on putting the border on this one.  Tomorrow I will get the fabrics organized for it.  It shouldn't take much time to get borders on.  I'm using a print fabric but I think I'll want to put an inner border using one of the fabs already in the quilt. Or maybe that yellow one that is in the main fabric. Might be too bright though. I will probably bring most of the fabrics and then decide when I start to work on it. It will be in a silent auction in September and needs to get be finished. 

I'm very optimistic that I can at least get started on sewing this quilt together.  I won the blocks a few years ago. Around February I took the blocks out and planned the setting. I've cut most of the pieces so it should be pretty straight forward.  Hum,  I think I have enough of the black and white print for the backing. Wait, this picture doesn't show the correct background fabric.  It is an overall black and white print.  The corners will have a red go with fabric. It will help tremendously with those fabric statistics when I get this baby done even though it is a lap size quilt.  

I'll probably bring one more project as you never know how fast a quilt will go together.  The last thing I want is to be twiddling my thumbs doing nothing! 

Here's last weeks goals.  Yikes, it doesn't look like I did much.  I was having issues with the QOV quilt but it did get finished. 

Week of May 26, 2014

Finish blocks for FCQ Equilters√ (except I need to find the eyes to sew on the chickies... where did I put them?)

Make backing for Dots for Tots/sailboat quilt

quilt QOV quilt on Ruthie√

Decide on another UFO to work on…√

Get back to work on Christmas Favorites

Figure out border on older mystery quilt

Week of June 2, 2014

Finish pincushions

Sew heart quilt together

Finish Mystery Quilt into a top

Get Carolina Christmas together and make borders

Make backing for Dots for Tots/sailboat quilt

Spend an afternoon with Sophie

Enjoy FCQ retreat in Maryland

Don't forget to visit Patchwork Times to find lots of Design Wall Monday posts to look at. 

Happy Quilting All!