Design Wall Monday 9 - 28 - 2015

I've got a very busy time during this end of September, beginning of October week.  The end of the week is a quilt retreat with 3 days of sewing, no cooking, good friends and a beautiful location.  Needless to say I need to get all my projects organized and ready to go!  

Before that I have a bunch of stuff to do.  Here's what I'm working on.  I really would like to finish the teddy bear top before the end of the month.  If you remember I said I was going to use turquoise but Sharon's good sense prevailed.  I found a perfect brown that goes nicely with the bears. So, it's bordered and ready to be loaded on Ruthie.  

The border fabric is directional and I needed to think about how to use it successfully.(Click on the picture to enlarge it.)  I only had a half yard.  So I made sure that the pointed ends all faced the quilt.  I rather think the brown design mirrors the little hearts the teddy bears are holding.  This will be quilted and bound by Wednesday if at all possible! 

Additionally, I have a table runner to bind so that I can give it to Sharon to take to an auction at Faithful Circle Quilters.  And, daughter Jenny has asked me to do a fast turn around quilting job so she can get the quilt to a woman who is fighting a returned bout of breast cancer.  Because I don't have a huge quilting business I can generally get a quilt in and out of my house within a couple of days.  This one will arrive today sometime and I should get it back in the mail on Wednesday.  

The last couple of weeks I have been doing some embroidery.  I decided I liked this cute little spider so well that I wanted to use him on a mug rug.  I had the perfect Halloween fabric to go with it too.  I used the haunted house fabric on the back too.  It's old but perfect for this and great to use up a little bit more fabric! 

On to my goals this week as I really need to get up to the studio to get some quilting done!

Week of September 28, 2015

Quilt and bind teddy bear top

Quilt top for Jenny

Bind table runner

Sew down the Dresden plate and the center circles

Organize supplies for retreat

Have lots of fun at retreat

Here's what I got done over this last week. 

Week of September 21, 2015

Name and label quilt being donated to church auction√

Pack up & mail blocks to Fran√

Finish embroidering various projects√

Finish teddy bear top√

Sew down the Dresden plate and the center circles

Make Christmas table runner to donate to FCQ fall auction√ need to get the binding on

I've got a packed week and really need to get several things done before I go to retreat. So that's it from me for now.  I'm linking up with Monday Makings and Design Wall Monday.

Happy Quilting All! 

Leader/Ender

I've been busily working on things I want done soon.  However, I try to always have a Leader/Ender project as discussed by Bonnie Hunter on her blog.  You have to scroll down beyond the talk about her book with the same name to learn about her system.  It seems to me I was using the "ender" part of the process for years before I read about it and refined my use.  I try to always have something "real" to sew between piecing my current project rather than sending a little piece of scrap fabric under the needle.  

Last year I started this project but was not enamored with its looks.  Needing something to use as a l/e without a lot of prep work I pulled this one back out.  Pretty soon I realized I needed to lay the darn thing out to be able to work on it at all. 

I'm not all that pleased with it right now.  I think it is too conflicted/busy.  So I will be making a few of the quarter square triangles out of solid fabrics to see if that will calm it down just a bit.  Photos are good to look at if you want to see if your colors are dispersed equally.  Yikes!  Way too much orange/peach in the left side.  I'll wait until I throw some of the solids in to move colors around. 

I've got several projects I need to finish before I leave on retreat next Thursday.  It will be a busy few days until then.  One thing I try to do but almost never succeed is get new PJs for retreat.  I found these PJ's at Target and thought they would be perfect for a quilting retreat.  Except, I like cotton for my pjs and these were Modal.  For those who don't know about Modal (I didn't) it is a semi-synthetic fiber.  I found them too warm and I hate tops that gap at the top.  Sadly, I returned them. I guess, once again, I'll wear my old pjs. 

I'm linking up with Show Off Saturday.

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Design Wall Monday 9 - 21 - 2015

Short week, or so it seemed.  I know I got some things done in the studio but it sure doesn't look like it below! 

I've been making a donation quilt as my ender project over the last few weeks.  I cut all the pieces with the intention of taking it with me on retreat in a couple of weeks.  Um, no, that is not happening.  I wanted an ender project to work on right away and took this one out.  Note to self -- find and cut out fabric for another leader/ender project to take on retreat. 

This is another project from the book More Quilts for Baby: Easy as ABC.  I'm hoping to make one of every quilt in this book.  One is done and donated, this one is almost a top and I've got 19 left to make from it.  I love a good goal! 

I've been finishing up the little blocks for Fran of the FCQ Equilters group.  And, I've been making a secret block with a gazillion little pieces to send out to a secret location.  I've been doing a bit of embroidery on my trusty Bernina and then sewing on the very trusty Singer Featherweight.  I'm just a sewing fool these days.  

Here's what's happening goal-wise.  As you will see I changed my mind about some of the goals.  Others got moved along.  I must admit I hate to make pillow shams so when I found a couple of shams that looked ok (not great, just ok) I figured they would work until I have a chance to put new ones together.  Hey, I'm not talking really fancy shams, just using the left over backing material.  I was hoping to quilt some designs in the center but I'm happy to postpone that for a bit. 

Week Of September 14, 2015

Do some embroidering√

Continue making Easy Street blocks√

Pillow shams Postponing found some that will work for the time being

2^nd antique quilt Nope, will start up much later

Blocks for Fran√ 

Week of September 21, 2015

Name and label quilt being donated to church auction

Pack up & mail blocks to Fran

Finish embroidering various projects

Finish teddy bear top

Sew down the Dresden plate and the center circles

Make Christmas table runner to donate to FCQ fall auction

I'll leave you with this photo of our hummingbird.  I've enjoyed seeing this hummer at my feeder all summer.  I'm keeping a close watch on the feeder as I haven't seen one in the last day or two so I think he might have gone south.  On the other hand I wasn't really spending much time looking at the feeder but it is getting close for the hummers to leave our area. 

That's it from me for now.  I'm linking up with Monday Makings, Design Wall Monday and Main Crush Monday.

Happy Quilting All!