Design Wall Monday 1-27-2014

Wow! What a great weekend.  

Nancy, MaryBeth and Sharon came down from Maryland for a in-house quilting retreat.  This is the same group that went to Mary Jo's together several years ago.  You can read about it here and here.

It didn't get an auspicious start as they ran into a major accident on I-95 on the way down.  A 4 hour trip that included lunch took more like 7 hours.  Boring.  We unpacked the cars, got their stuff to their rooms and cracked open the wine.  Pat was our chef for the weekend except for one dinner that he had a dinner commitment. 

And we sewed: Friday night, all day Saturday, Saturday night, most of Sunday, Sunday night, and Monday morning.  I failed miserably at taking photos.  So here's Mary Beth's nearly finished Celtic Solstice. 

Her blocks were made before she came but she sewed all the blocks into rows, the rows together, made the border and attached it.  She was so thrilled to get so much done.  It's amazing.  We helped her audition another border as she wants it to fit on the guest room bed and needed a bit more to do it.  Our choice was more of the dark blue in the borders but she didn't have enough  She found more online, (amazing actually!) and she has it on order. 

Nancy made this modern quilt that showcases large print fabric.  She isn't tickled with it but she has some great plans for her next version.  The pattern picture used a white background instead of grey and the print floated in the white.  I love the random squares of color in the grey.  She was also making blocks from a charm pack.

I'm embarrassed to admit I didn't get pictures of any of Sharon's projects. First she completed her stain glass that she started two weeks ago here.   Hers is the red flower. All it needs is a label.  In no particular order, she also got the binding on a baby quilt, made the tops for twins), made a big sister top and then started in on a bigger project she drags a long as her back up.  I'm sorry I didn't get any pictures.  

I got my stained glass done except the binding.  Woot, Woot!  That will be done this month for sure. I also pulled out the shaded 9 patch and began getting the borders on.  One side is done, the second side is cut but I quit working on iras they were packing up -- I'm pooped.  I also did a bit of small seams on various blocks I've got in the works all of which need to be mailed off.  

Here we are nearing the end of our time together.  Hum, the blocks in the back of us are Chunky Churn Dash, another of Bonnie Hunter's quilts.  

Here are the intrepid travelers getting ready to pack up the car and get on the road.  We were well fed thanks to some incredible meals Pat made.  We enjoyed ourselves so much.  Now we are trying to figure out when we can do it again.  

There is also some talk of going to Houston too.  Nancy and MB are already committed.  Sharon and I are going to look into it.   I hope to see Nancy and MaryBeth at Hampton Roads quilt show later in February.  

One thing we had to do with this retreat is postpone it one day.  Kevin was hoping we could babysit Ellie Thursday afternoon/Friday morning when her other grandma was going to arrive to take care of her while they worked.  She starts daycare the week after that.  Sure! A chance to snuggle with the girl?  You bet.  It worked out great although I was a bit tired starting the retreat. 

Goals got marked off right and left this week.  Not much was left for next week. I did clear out two of my project boxes so I will be able to pick a UFO to put in one of them and I'll put the Polka Dot Challenge for Faithful Circle Quilters into one. 

Week of January 20, 2014

Prep for in-house retreat!  YEA!√

Make Ellie a Valentine’s Day T Shirt √

Visit Ellie and her parents for a short trip √

Make food for Tea group and enjoy the visit√

Work on Split 9 Patch put borders on -1 side is on√

Embroider shirts for Sophie and Natalie nope

Bake a cake, vacuum and dust house for retreat/tea group√

Continue working on A Tisket, A Tasket blocks nope didn't happen

Week of January 27, 2014

Finish borders on Split 9 Patch

Quilt brown and blue quilt

Make and put binding on stain glass quilt

Write a shopping list for Sunday’s quilt shopping expedition and go shopping!

Embroider shirts for Sophie and Natalie nope

Finish & mail Valentine T Shirts for Natalie & Sophie

Get hair cut

Wow -- I did very well on the goals this past week.  And it was busy.  This coming week is much less crowded and I hope to get a top quilted and bound before the end of January.  

Happy Quilting All! 

Design Wall Monday 2-4-13

New on the design wall!  Well, design cutting table actually.

All pieces cut and bagged ready for Mysteries for Relay weekend. 

It was a Mysteries for Relay weekend starting on Saturday.  I had gathered and purchased fabric in advance.  Friday night I cut it all up to be ready to start the next morning.  Except, Sat night I was AWAKE.  Really awake.  I got every thing cut for the mystery.  Then I went on to cut the next clue for Easy Street.  When I went to bed I was wide awake so I read for nearly an hour... so no, I wasn't bright eyed on Saturday morning.

Some of the units sewn together.

The first clue was to sew 4 patches.  So two hours later the four patches were done and I was way behind on the clues.  And, I was tired.  Break time!  When I got back to sewing I decided I would make some units so I could at least make a block on Sat.  Nope, didn't happen.  This is about all I got done on Sat and Sun.  I really would like to get a block done so I can see how my fabrics are going to work out.  I picked these fabrics from a print fabric that I hope to use for the borders.  Someday I'll be able to see how the block looks with the border fab.  I'll keep you posted. 

Here are the pieces of the clue I am currently working on in Easy Street.  I think the really dark purple doesn't add much I may rethink that color.  I don't have tons of purples so there isn't a whole lot of other choices but I bet I can find some a little brighter/lighter than those stars on deep purple.  

There are 5 little house units as Bonnie Hunter calls them.  Nah, that dark purple is just way too dark. 

The black and white strips will be cut into 3.5" squares. Once these two steps are done I think all the pieces will be sewn.  I know I need to cut some additional fabric that goes into the blocks.  I don't think I'll worry about what needs to be done next until after these two units are finished.  I'm making slow but steady progress on Easy Street.  I don't feel any need to rush. Especially since I can look at all the different settings and borders folks have come up with while I plug away on the basics.  Great inspiration on QuiltvilleChat at Yahoo groups. 
Next up weekly goals review. 

Week of Jan. 27, 2013

Bind small hexie quilt√ and quilt borders started

Finish string blocks√

Make Coffee cup blocks

Make BOM for FCQ√ and mailed

Heart blocks 2 or 3 √ and mailed

Quilt pinwheel quilt√

Start Dresden variation quilt oops

Lesson 4 in EQ7 double oops

Keep appliqueing orange peel blocks √

Week of Feb. 4, 2013

Finish quilting borders of Hexie Quilt

Quilt charity quilt on Ruthie

Continue working on Mysteries for Relay and Easy Street  quilts

Get oil changed/buy thread for machine embroidery

Make coffee cup blocks

Start Dresden variation quilt

Have fun with Sharon visiting

Embroider 2 shirts 

Keep on appliqueing orange peel blocks

Ok, enough to plan to do this week.  Sharon's visiting on Thursday through Sunday so I should get lots of quilty things done.  I'm looking forward to see what she has planned to show me.  I'm hoping to get one of the charity quilts quilted so she can take it back to Faithful Circle Quilters guild.  I've had 2 quilts for quite a while but haven't actually worked on them because I knew I wasn't going to be going to the guild meetings or seeing Sharon.  Now, I need to get going on one! 

Take some time this week to view design walls all over the internet by going to Patchwork Times.  I'll be spending some time this morning hitting a few blogs. 

Happy Quilting All!

2 More Finishes in 1009

Mystery #11 is now done. Marge is selling the pattern on her site as Quarter of a Court House Square. A portion of the cost goes to the American Cancer Society. I finished the binding last night. This is the front:

And, here is the back. I used left over blocks laid out in a different pattern. And then added various fabrics from my black collection. This used up some of the fabrics, others I have bits left. Hum, wonder if they'll end up in other scrap quilts?

Today I quilted a String X from Quiltville. Tomorrow I'll get a picture of it to post. I started with a pantograph and then didn't like how it looked. Tore out 3/4th of one row and then I did a stipple stitch on it.

The pups had a great time playing in the snow today. It is nice to see the Kona is playing with Raggs a bit more. She still doesn't do much with toys but she runs around and chases Raggs. Tonight I took out a little metal dimpled disc from Ragg's mouth. Oops. I think he ate my entire leather thimble except the metal disc. I'll check upstairs to see if the leather part is up there but my guess is it is being digested.

Hope everyone has a safe New Year's Eve and a great 2010. (Wasn't it just yesterday when we were worried about what would happen to the computers when the year changed from 1999 to 2000?) I'll be watching the Rose Parade and the Rose Bowl. Maybe we'll see Brian and Jenny there. They'll be sitting in the end zone pretty low so we might be able to see them during field goals. Brian is, OH NO, an Ohio State fan. We SC fans are somewhat tolerant.

Happy Quilting All!

New Fabric Wow!

While on our weekend in Maryland I hit a quilt store and a yarn store.  Today I'll share the fabric purchases I made at Cotton Seed Glory.  The pinks are an attempt at Double Pink as described by Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville.com.  I want to make her mystery quilt Double Delight.  Of course, I'm not doing it as a mystery.  I want to make it a bit smaller -- like wallhanging size.  So I figured I could wait til the end and then figure out what I needed from there.  So this is the beginning.  Bonnie used cheddar, indigos and shirting.  I'm going to be making some changes but I do like that cheddar. Do I have any cheddar?  Probably not but I'll look before I shop!  The burgundy in the background is the sashing for the million brick quilt. (So named by me!)  I haven't decided how big to make that but at least I have enough of the sashing to make it huge should I want to.  (Probably don't want to!) 

I also bought some darker batiks to go with a group I am working with.  These will blend right in with my planned quilt.  It is basically a big nine patch gone funky.  I am using a pattern from McCall's Quilting Feb. 2009.  It has beading on it and is suppose to look "beachy." I don't need the beads but I may actually put some embellishments on after I get the quilt done. That is my priority for February.  

Here are all the fabrics I plan to use on this quilt.  Yummy.  I haven't made a whole quilt from batiks yet but I'm looking forward to working with these.  They will be a joy to work on as winter continues. 

HELP

I have been so frustrated uploading my pictures today.  Maybe some of you bloggers would know the answer to this question.  I uploaded the picture of the 4 turquoise fabrics at least three times today because as I manipulated all the photos I lost that one.  My question is there a way to get this photo back without reloading it?  I know they go somewhere.  The question is where and how can I get it back.  

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie