Design Wall Monday 10-10-11

Really, a week has gone by?  Wow.  I finally started to do a little prep work for sewing yesterday.  But, the rest of the week I goofed off.  Not exactly -- I also lugged all the "stuff" I took to retreat back upstairs to the  studio and unpacked.  The sewing machine is back where it belongs.  The rulers were put in the ruler rack. You get the idea.  So, no I don't have anything new on the design wall.  You can click here to see what is still sitting patiently on my design wall!  Don't go yet!  I do have photos to share.

I won the prize over at Stray Threads give away.  And, wow, what a great prize it is! This little necklace is made by 1 Stitch Off and sold through their Etsy shop.  What I found particularly cool was getting to pick exactly what I wanted.  I loved the little bee charm.  I liked the saying Quilt and Bee Happy.  I wanted something red with it.  I told Pam what I wanted and next thing I know it arrived in my mail box.  And, I LOVE it.  In fact I like it so much I might be buying one or two for quilty friends. 


I was too distracted to wear it to my guild meeting this past Saturday.  But next meeting I will. 


 I was lucky enough to hostess Sue Moats, a Sulky educator the night before she presented to our guild.  Sue and I go way back as she is also a member of Faithful Circle Quilters in Columbia, Maryland.  It was fun to catch up.  And she had a wonderful trunk show to share.  Here are a few pictures of some of her beauties. 
























She had a lot of beautifully done vests.  I loved the colors and all the techniques done on this one. So, of course, I had to take lots of pictures. 


And look at this cute Halloween vest.  I remember when this fabric came out in, what, the 90's?  I was appalled because it was about $8 a yard and the average price of fabric was around $5.50 to 6.  Ah, how times have changed. Unfortunately I've used all of my piece up.  

I'll try to add more photos later this week. (Ok, I know, I've been bad at getting posts up.  I'll try to do better!) 


Goals for Week of 10/3/11

Day trip to Wegman’s √

Make and audition some new star blocks for stripe quilt √ cut some out ready to be sewn

Quilt Quilt for Kids quilt, bind  This quilt may never be done!

Work on brown/beige and turquoise quilt √ also cut more pieces and pinned them ready to be sewn.

Relax, read. √

Unpack sewing things from retreat√

Goals for Week of 10/10/11

Make up Potato Chip Bag

Work on stars for stripes quilt

Quilt Quilt for Kids quilt, bind

Work on beige and turquoise

Make cupcakes

Decide on UFO to work on and do something on it

There's a good likelihood that we will be visiting Jenny and Brian this week so I won't go wild with the plans.  

Have you been to Patchwork Times to see what is on design walls across the internet?  Check it out.  

Happy Quilting All!

  

Design Wall Monday 10-3-11

Just one new quilt on the design wall. 

I think the red and yellow looks really stark against the blue stripe fabric. (Yes, that is a blue background on that stripe...)   I've decided I'm going to make some more stars and use different colors pulled from the stripe fabric.  I have green and pink and I'll look for a blue.  I'll try one of each and then decide if it looks better. Wish I had thought of that before I'd made all the stars! 

Goals for Week of 9/26/11

Shopping expedition with the gals √

Cut out quilt to take on retreat √

Pack for retreat √

Plan on three projects to take √

Make stripe quilt top started but need to re-evaluate…

Finish funny animal quilt top √

Put the binding on red, white, & blue baby quilt √

Sew the twin size quilt top with red, white and blue squares √

Hum, what a great week last week -- I completed all my goals. Wow! 

Goals for Week of 10/3/11

Day trip to Wegman’s

Make and audition some new star blocks for stripe quilt

Quilt Quilt for Kids quilt, bind

Work on brown/beige and turquoise quilt

Relax, read.

Unpack sewing things from retreat

Prep guest rooms 

A short list this week as I'm sure I'll spend some time relaxing and doing very little! Take some time to visit other design walls by going to Patchwork Times.

Happy Quilting All!  

 

September Stash Report 2011

I was retreating yesterday so here's a delayed run down on my fabric usage this month.  Remember, I don't count fabric as used until the quilt is totally finished.  

September Stash Report

Fabric used:  6.5 yards

Fabric purchased (acquired):  2.5 yards

Net fabric USED from stash: 4 yards 

YEAR

Year to date fabric used: 55.5 yards

Year to date fabric purchased: 71 7/8 yards

Net Year to Date Acquired : 16 3/8 yards

I was well on the way to no purchases for September when I ordered a purse kit from Connecting Threads.  WHAT WAS I THINKING?? Duh, it came with 2.5 yards of fabric.  Sigh.  It is going to be used, preferably soon but don't hold your breath.   And, it came in during Sept.  Double Sigh!  I don't hold much hope for a no-buy October as there is a trip planned with friends from Maryland to MaryJo's Cloth Store in Gastonia, NC.  LOTS of fabric and pretty darn good prices too.  I have a couple of backings I need to acquire.  

And, because no blog is complete without a picture or two here are a few pics from the retreat this weekend.

 Meet Nicole a swan who lives at the retreat center.  She can no longer fly but she does walk around the various buildings checking out what is going on.  Poor thing walks with a limp too.  But she came by to say "Honk" to all of us. 

We made snap bags.  Cute little bags and it was really fun to sew with some one else's fabric.  Yep kits were made up for us to use. Neat. 

Michelle was sitting behind me and was sewing like a fiend.  She made the penguin and the monkey for her two young boys.  Yikes, lots of little tiny pieces in the penguin.  And, below her snap purse

Here's the twin size quilt made from the blocks from FCQEquilters.  I decided to change the layout to this variation of streak of lightening.  It is a bold, dramatic quilt.  Now to find backing and binding for it. Remember that trip to MaryJo's?  Yep, this is one of the quilts that I am going to be looking for fabric. Unless I unearth something in my stash that might work.  Enlarge the photo to see the very cool jacket Michelle made.  She used various fancy stitches on her machine to quilt different parts of the jacket. She did a great job.  

I'll post a bit more about retreat over the next few days.  I didn't take as many pictures as I thought but I do have a few more and I'll be taking pictures of what I worked on.  

Check in tomorrow for Design Wall Monday.  I'll have something new on it. (Amazing!)  

Design Wall Monday 9-26-11

Help!  I need to make these blocks (about 10" or maybe 9.5") big enough to make a 36 x 48 quilt for a NICU.  I only have the 9 center blocks.  Here's the fabric I'm working with and some variations. Original plan was to sash with this aqua fabric.  I've got lots of it so I could also use it on the back.  But wow, it really washes out in this photo.  

So then I searched the stash and came up with this "flamingo" colored fabric.  Wow, it pretty well shouts at me. 

Oops, it doesn't go well with the borders -- I tried two different purples but the stripe on the left was the original choice.  The darker doesn't do much for me. 

Another look at the aqua... hum, using the flash it does show up better . . . 

 Ok, how about some green Moda Marbles?? Yes, this might just work.  I think I'll be adding strips of yellow, blue and green at the top and bottom to take this up to 48" approximately. And, maybe I should use my lessons on mitering with that stripe? 

Luckily, I know what I'm doing with these fabrics.  This is from Terry Atkinson's book, Time Out Designs. Terry has you cut the stripe two different directions which makes for a very interesting design.  I've wanted to make it for years and in fact had the fabric picked out for at least a year.  I will be cutting this out before I go to retreat and hope to get the top made there.  Unfortunately I don't remember what size I was going to make so I'll have to remeasure all the fabric to see.  I think it is going to be BRIGHT!

I didn't do too badly on last week's goals. 

Goals for week of 9/19/11

Mail blocks to New √

Finish up my round of the Komen donation quilt

Cut out quilt to take on retreat

Return some shoes and a dress √

Make and mail pinwheels √

Finish NICU top √

Quilt Quilts for Kids Quilt

Quilt NICU top √

And here are the plans for this week.  I realized I should add making the stuff I was planning to bring with me.  Duh! 

Goals for Week of 9/26/11

Shopping expedition with the gals

Cut out quilt to take on retreat

Pack for retreat

Plan on three projects to take

Make stripe quilt top

Finish funny animal quilt top

Put the binding on red, white, & blue baby quilt

Sew the twin size quilt top with red, white and blue squares

I probably won't get a lot of posting done as the wifi was really weak. I will get up my stash usage figures for this month though.  I've been really good.  Although I may buckle as we are looking at new sewing machines on our shopping expedition.  Zowie, that means lots of fabrics hanging around.  Could be tempting! 

Hey, remember it is design wall Monday so go check out Patchwork Times.

 Happy Quilting All! 

Something's on Ruthie

I put together the small quilt that I made from the FCQEquilter's blocks to me from earlier this summer.  I know, I said I would do it at the retreat but, honestly, it was done in a jif.  Here's the layout I chose for this. 

 This pantograph is Popcorn from Willow Leaf Studios.  Two plus years ago when I first got Ruthie, I couldn't do this pantograph worth a hoot.  It was lumpy and bumpy and generally was embarrassing.  I really love how this one looks on quilts and I am so happy it is now in my repertoire.  

I will be using it on the next quilt I have to do also, a quilt from a Quilts for Kids quilt kit.  I've had two quilts way too long.  One is done and the other still needs quilting and binding. Time to get it finished. 


Jenny L --- skip this part of the post... 


                       We found this spider making a web and nest? on the side of the garage door.  It was huge and seemed a bit fuzzy.  YUCK.  Sorry, it is no longer there.  

Time to get going this morning.  Happy Quilting All.  

Field Day of the Past

Friday I was in Goochland helping the guild with Field Day of the Past.  Country Piecemakers has a booth where we sell various fabric items.  The money supports our charity -- quilts for the NICU at a local hospital.  

Our space was on the side porch of a log cabin.  It was a bit windy and chilly so I was happy when my time was up.  Surprisingly we sold about $100 worth of quilts and "stuff" before I left.  By the way the star quilt above is a raffle quilt to benefit the guild and we sold quite a few tickets for it. 

 Across from us was this pen where trick riding was being shown. 

Two? Really riding two horses at once?  This gal made it look easy. 
Down the row was this enclosure showing off American wolves... 

There were a lot of tractors and trucks and, yes, tractor pulls. And, no I didn't watch any. 

I did watch some steam driven saw mill activity.  And a piece of equipment that squished molasses from cane. Or whatever it actually did. I was on my way to JoAnne's with a 20% off everything coupon and wanted to get on with that before all the good stuff was sold. (as if!) 


Today I'm off to return some things I got for the wedding and didn't like -- shoes and a dress.  Don't know if I'll do any shopping or not. 


Happy Quilting All! 

Design Wall Monday 9-19-11

I'm back and I have some new things to share. The wedding was lovely, the bride and groom were beaming as was the sunshine.  Kevin and Aimee are in Thailand learning to scuba dive and riding elephants. 


Here's what's on the design wall bed: 

These are the blocks I received this year from the FCQEquilters.  They made enough so that I could make a twin size comforter and a baby quilt.  Both will be donations. 

I'm making progress on the center of this applique.  It will be donated to the Komen Foundation and auctioned in Baltimore.  I hope to get my part finished and in the mail this week.  All the triangles are made but I'm still sewing them together as a leader/ender project. 

These blocks are the current FCQEquilters requested block.  Wow, these are really easy.  I'm going to have to find some more pastel fabrics to go with the sweet baby clothes.  And, heaven knows I have lots of the brights.  
I have one more project I started yesterday.  I had gathered the fabrics over several years.  I'll try to remember to post it next week when it actually begins to take shape.  It will be another donation to the local NICU. 
No goals last week and it sure was obvious.  I think I finished 2 books though as I wasn't very motivated to sew or quilt. 

Goals for week of 9/5/11

Make bandanas for Homer and Cassie√

Prep binding for the red and white quilt√

Mani, pedi and hair trim √

Get the wrinkles out of the dress for the wedding Um, didn’t work really well…

Finish cleaning house√

Enjoy Kevin and Aimee’s wedding weekend√

Goals for week of 9/19/11

Mail blocks to New Zealand

Finish up my round of the Komen donation quilt

Cut out quilt to take on retreat

Return some shoes and a dress

Make and mail pinwheels

Finish NICU top

Quilt Quilts for Kids Quilt

Quilt NICU top

And last but not least -- guess who took some steps on her own this past week? 

Not at the wedding but at home.  She was a big hit at the wedding too. 

And, here's Cassie wearing her Wedding 5K t-shirt and her bandana I made along with the bride and groom's legs. 

Go visit Patchwork Times to see design walls across blogland.  I'm off to do a bit of sewing and to get breakfast. 

Happy quilting all.