Design Wall Monday 1 -26 - 2015

I decided not to work on all of my goals this week -- I got into making backings so I didn't think it was a bad thing since I generally hate to make backing.  

First, I finished the backing for my red and black heart quilt -- I finished the top in June. (Wait, that was 6 months ago!)  I split the black and white fabric in half and put a strip of the red down the middle. The backing is half loaded on Ruthie.  I use the "water spray" method of getting wrinkles out of a quilt top or backing.  So, I have one end clamped and the other end floating loose while I heavily spray it with water.  When I get upstairs later it will be ready to finish loading.  I need to do a bit of planning to decide on what quilting is going where.  I'm going to place hearts on each of the big hearts.  Then I'll need to decide what to do in the rest of the spaces.  I'll keep you posted.  I also opened the batting package I was planning on using to let it fluff up a bit.  All set to get going on this later today. 

I've learned that if I want to be successful with pieced borders I need to draw out the designs on graph paper.  I should be able to do simple ones in my head but it always messes up when I don't draw it out. The next quilt up is the red /white and blue/white pinwheels.  I don't have any larger pieces to use as a backing.  And I ignored my number one rule about making lap quilts and the like -- don't make it any wider than one fabric wide.  So, most of my charity quilts are only 40" wide. This one is definitely bigger.  I am not always thrilled with pieced backings but I decided I would try to make a 9 patch using fat quarters.  I picked 12 fat quarters in case I needed more fabric.  Then I made sure they were about 18" x 21. I auditioned them on my design wall.  Hey, they looked pretty good so I started sewing them together.  I'll finish them this week and then try to get this quilt on Ruthie also.  

I like the idea of a finish or two this month.  And both of these tops are UFOs.  (Of course, once Dec 31 passes I count everything I am working on as a UFO. Maybe that is why I have so many UFOs.) And the best thing about my possible finishes?  I haven't bought any fabric this month.  I have no intention of buying any until Feb 1 -- Super Bowl Sunday.  Unfortunately the red, white and blue pinwheel quilt is made from blocks sent to me by FCQ Equilters so that won't be busting a lot of my fabric. But the backing is definitely from stash.  I found that I need to be a little neater as I am pulling fat quarters out of my baskets and box tops.  Sigh.  I had just gotten those fat quarters straightened up too.  

Here's a donation quilt I just finished for Dorothy.  I used a new edge 2 edge design called Whootie Hoot.  Very cute and shows up nicely on this 3 yards, 3 quilts design called Super Sized 9 Patch by Anita Grossman Solomon.  I've made several quilts using this great pattern.  This is the last of the three Dorothy made.  You can pick up the pattern by clicking on the above link. It's a great pattern for donation quilts. I used "Pumpkin Spice" Essential Pro thread from Connecting Threads. Someone will really like this one. 

Here's how I did on my goals this week. 

Week of January 19, 2015

Sew borders on Wild Dog top Postponed 

Sew first border on Mystery of Powhatan√ and second ones are ready to be pinned on

Make backing for heart quilt√

Load and begin quilting heart quilt√ loaded but no quilting yet

Week of January 26, 2015

Start and complete quilting on black and red heart quilt

Finish making backing for the red, white and blue pinwheel quilt

Sew the first border on the Wild Dog Top

Finish Mystery of Powhatan borders 

I'm linking up with Patchwork Times.

Happy Quilting All!  

Do You Have an Sewing Nest?

Many quilters have a wonderful U shape desk set-up which allows them to cut, sew and iron by just turning in a twirly chair.  It puts all your tools right where you use them making it convenient and generally gives you more time to actually sew. I've dubbed it the "sewing nest." 

On the other hand, I've always had a separate ironing board and I've purposely chosen to put it a bit farther away than where I sew.  And, now, I feel somewhat encouraged (vindicated?).  Have you been reading the headlines about "sitting disease?"  Yikes.  A new report from Annals of Internal Medicine reports average people spend more than half of their waking time sitting.   And, the more sedentary you are the more likely you will die earlier than someone who is moving. You know you have way too much fabric so you need to be around for a long, long time! You can read a bit about the study in this post on Harvard Health Blog.

With the elimination of our "sewing nest" we could be prime examples of making sure we exercise just a little bit every 30 minutes or so. Here's a typical sewing process for me.  I will prep the next step for my project (and sometimes more than one project) standing at the ironing board.  I then walk across the studio, sit down and sew all the seams plus my leader/ender.  I stand up, walk back across the room and do my ironing and prep the next units for sewing, go back across the room and sew. It goes on all day (or however long I have for my sewing.)  In addition, my studio is upstairs and lunch is downstairs, I always get some walking and movement into my studio time.  

From this research all sorts of trends have started including the stand up desk. Well, it might be a trend now but evidently Thomas Jefferson, our 3rd president, used a stand up desk.  Some folks have attached a desk to a treadmill to walk and work at the same time. (Yikes, I'd probably sprain an ankle doing that or at the very least have way more typos than I do now.) I'm evaluating my non-sewing time to see how I can be more active.  

The take-away from this post is to look at your sewing time and see if you can add some more motion to it.  I pride myself on not being much of a tv watcher but instead of watching, I'm generally poking on the computer or reading a book either on a tablet, iPhone or a real book.  So maybe I'm not doing as well as I think I am.  Check out this article from the Washington Post about the health hazards of sitting. As much as I complain about getting up at 7 am 4 times a week to hit the Y, I am sure it is very good for me!  Now, I just need to cut back my night-owl tendencies. 

Here's my latest finish after sitting for too many hours! I wish I had knit a nice long cuff done in knit, pearl rather than an inch or so and then the stockinette stitch for so much of the sock.  These will probably be slouch socks. But, I love the colors and they are DONE! 

I also received a squishy in the mail today.  Irma sent her blocks to me for my turn with FCQ Equilters.  She had Nov/Dec blocks which I mailed to her yesterday.  I'm Jan/Feb so she is really on top of things since January isn't even over yet.  Thanks Irma.  

Both of these blocks are going with UFOs I uncovered when I was working on the first 15 Minute Spiff Up post.  The little candy corn blocks will go with the Halloween blocks to be made up into a wall hanging.  The Happy Blocks will be joining my other happy blocks to make some more quilts for the NICU at a local hospital.  

That's it for today.  I want to get a quilt on and off Ruthie so I can then do one of my quilts which will take a couple of days.  Let me know how you are putting some more motion in your quilting time. 

Happy Quilting Folks.  

15 Minute Studio Spiff Up Week #3

I've been hearing from folks making some progress on their studio space.  How did you do with the cutting table?  I'm happy to see I left it cleaned up when we went to the beach last week.  Hum, did it stay clean today after I was using it in the afternoon?  I'll have to check that when I head back up there. 

Because we were gone most of the week I wasn't sure what I wanted to do next on the studio.  It had to be something I could get done in a short time because I was going to have to do all of it yesterday and I wanted to do some sewing too.  

So here's what I worked on and your assignment for the week:  

Straighten up that fat quarter collection. 

I am lucky to have a whole hallway of bookshelves as I come into my studio. On top of my bookcases I have boxes and baskets full of fat quarters.  I tend to pull fabric from there if I am making opportunity blocks or blocks for the FCQ Equilter gang or other limited blocks.  It means I don't have to mess up the yardage nor take a small hunk out of the yardage. (Ha!  That doesn't mean I don't do that on occasion.) But, I've also been acquiring fat quarters over the last year as well as using it.  Fat quarters were on the top of the boxes and in a pile on the side of the basket.  Some colors had been put away in the wrong place.  They were a mess. 

I started with the purple because it was one of the worst.  I don't have all that many purple pieces.  I actually took the time to put the dark purples together, lights with other lights and the magentas together.  I had a new basket that a Christmas present came in so I moved the purples into it.  Here it is all cleaned up and put in the smaller basket. 

Although I call these fat quarters some are bigger pieces and most have pieces cut out of them.  But, I do have a specific way I fold them, even if they are a bit like swiss cheese.  Here's a whole fat quarter. (I didn't iron it flat before refolding... I was on a mission to get this done!) 

I've folded the cut edge back to the selvedge edge.  (Not smart of me to turn it sideways in the first picture... but it fit the frame better that way.) 

I fold it in half again so it is long and skinny.  (Well, kind of skinny!) 

Next I fold it in half the other direction. 

And then, I fold it again which gives me a nice little sized fat quarter. I used to work at a quilt store in Maryland and I folded lots and lots of fat quarters this way.  They fit pretty well in my boxes and baskets.  

Mostly I use boxtops from cartons of reams of paper to hold the fat quarters and three rows of this size fat quarter will fit in each box.  Unfortunately, I have some fabric that I just haven't folded neatly enough and those are harder to get into the boxes and baskets. 

I didn't get all of the colors organized from light to dark but these purple and the pink/red basket sure look nice. 

I got all of my boxes neatened up and all of the loose fat quarters were put back where they belonged.  I added the basket for the purples but was able to get rid of the basket with the blacks shown in the first picture on the far right. It is in the closet while I decide whether I need to use it or let it take a break for a while. 

If you don't have a special place to store your fat quarters spend this week thinking about whether your organization of fabrics works for you.  I love being able to grab a fat quarter without plowing through my yardage.  (Of course, my yardage piles are looking pretty darn bad now cause I keep grabbing fabric thinking I'm going to make a smaller quilt ... but then have piles of fabrics all over and no quilt to show for it.)  While I was working I kept grabbing pieces of fabric I thought I could use on a little quilt I actually am making blocks for.  I decided I really only needed enough for two blocks right now and the rest got put away.  And, I did cut the two blocks and one is already sewn together. I was using them as leader/enders while sewing the borders on the Mystery of Powhatan.  

It was a lot of fun to visit old fabric friends.  I still have some red apples on blue background that I bought at least 20 years ago.  My friend Sharon teases me about still having some of it left every time she sees some.  I must have bought 5 yards because I know we made a quilt together used it as the backing plus a piece of it has been in every scrap quilt I've made over those 20 years. (Well, I think it is...)  Needless to say I was surprised to see any of it left. 

I also found this piece of calico that I think I used in a dress for Jenny when she was a toddler.  I still like the color and the design.  It's burgundy with cream and green (or is it teal?)  And, that is all I have of it left. So, it'll will be cut up for some scrap quilt one of these days. 

Let me know how you are doing with the Studio Spiff Up. How do you store your fat quarters? Does it work for you? If not do you have some ideas of what will work for you?   We'll have another area to tackle next week.  And remember, you don't have to spend a whole day straightening up a section unless you want to.  I do much better with just spiffing up for a short time each day.  Thanks for joining me. 

Happy Quilting All!