Design Wall Monday 3 - 9 - 2015

What a great weekend!  MaryBeth and Sharon came down Wednesday evening because of forecasted snow on Thursday and that meant we had 3 full days to sew.  And, boy did we.  Here are some of the quilts we worked on. 

These are all MB's work except the little finished baby quilt that is mine.  (Yea, finished including the label!)  And, the same quilts from the other angle. 

And how about a good shot of the star quilt?  It's a Bonnie Hunter one but I can't remember the name.  And, no, she didn't do all of it this past weekend.  But she got it to the top stage. 

In between this stitching Ruthie was doing her part.  I quilted the little baby quilt and MB quilted the 1600 quilt.  

Sharon was also working away on projects.  This picture doesn't do the colors justice.  Needless to say it is a beautiful top. 

This is an easy pineapple block that Sharon and I learned a few years ago. Sharon got all the blocks finished and added the sashing. (No, she didn't do all of it here but I know she was still making blocks when she started working on it here.)  I hope I get a photo of it after she puts the borders on.  The flower print which is the center square is going to make this quilt sing! 

Saturday we went out to a local quilt store trying to find some interesting fabrics.  I picked up one more black on black to finish the log cabin blocks.  I had several in works when I checked how many I needed for my main project.  Way more than I needed! Since there were 10 extras done and more in the works, I decided I could make 10 more and have enough for an extra quilt. Those are almost done so I'll be making progress on the final blocks... yep, I'm not telling much about them just yet.  Just that I do something to each of the blocks.  Te first one I tried looked great and it was pretty easy to do. More to come in the future. 

As all good things must, our in-house retreat came to an end late Sunday morning.  The machines were packed away and MB and Sharon headed home to the snow and the prospect of having to go to work.  I headed to my chair and took a big nap.  I was totally pooped out.  But must say I was so pleased with the progress I made.  I got another donation quilt top done.  It needs to be trimmed before it can be quilted but I am happy with how it looked and how easy it was.  

Ruthie has lots of quilts waiting for me to load on her so she can do her thing.  I still have a big quilt that I need to buy the backing for and batting.  Tomorrow I'm heading out to buy at least the batting, who knows, I might even find a backing too. 

Here's what I got done last week: 

Week of March 2, 2015

Finish Wild Dog; prep backing√ except the backing

Continue on the log cabin blocks√

Have fun with an in house quilt retreat with Sharon and Mary Beth! √√√

Sew the strippy quilt to top stage√

And what I'll be doing this week: 

Week of March 9, 2015

Prep Wild Dog Backing

Finish the log cabin blocks and begin next step

Quilt something on Ruthie

Continue to work on listing books in Excel

I'll be linking up with Patchwork Times and Monday Making at Love, Laugh, and Quilt. 

Happy Quilting All! 

15 Minute Spiff Up # 9

What's up this week for the Spiff Up assignment? 

Time to organize and straighten up your desk.  

I've got a pretty big studio with lots of horizontal spaces.  This is one of several desks I can use. For the most part it's used to store projects I'm working on or thinking of working on.  The pile of turquoise fabric and the purples are two different fabric groupings I thought I could use to make a quilt.  To the far right is fabric I'm using for sashing on a quilt and who knows why the black is sitting out too.  

I'm hosting the second annual mini-retreat with my Maryland friends so I have to have the desk cleared so Sharon can put her machine there.  Nothing like a good reason to clean something up!  So things are being put back where they belong.  Pat's favorite saying is a place for everything and everything in its place.  The more forgetful I get the more I agree with him. 

This was a really easy assignment for me.  Most of it was putting fabric away, batting away, a sewing machine away.  But it'll look great when Sharon and Marybeth come to visit.  So sorry Nancy isn't joining us this year.  But hope she starts feeling better after breaking her leg. ARGH! No fun and bad timing to boot! 

So folks.  Pick an extra desk or any horizontal surface in your studio and start putting things away!  By the way, in total honesty, I didn't get too many books listed in my file last week.  Nor did the space get cleaned up.  On the other hand I had weekend company so there wasn't as much available time either. Oh, heck, I just didn't feel like working on the darn books!  Maybe I'll get a bit more done on them in the next week or two.  Hope you join me "Spiffing Up" this week! Now, what should I plan for next week?  Any suggestions? 

Happy Quilting All! 

February Stashbusting Report

And the numbers are - - - - good!  Not great like last month but I'm still showing using more fabric than buying for the year so that sounds good to me. 

2015	Fabric In Month	Fabric in Year	Fabric Out Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
Feb	6.5	6.5	3.125	8.750	2.250

One of these months I'm going to have a huge usage to report.  I purchased a wide back online but the color just wasn't right for the quilt so that fabric is going into the stash and I'm getting a new backing this month.  I hope to get the queen size quilt on Ruthie soon after the backing arrives.  I did get a quilt done this month but the blocks were from the FCQ E-quilters and I could only count the backing and the binding.  But I was happy to get it off my UFO list.  

Last weekend we had visitors.  Look who's smiling with her Peka!  (Sophie started calling Grandpa Peka and it stuck so he's Peka to all the grands.) Poor Oskie. He was Kevin's bear and evidently he lost his eyes and his nose!  I was suppose to sew up his nose but Kevin took Oskie when they went home. 

Happy Quilting All! 

Design Wall Monday -- 3-2-2015

I'm  so done with winter!  How about you?  We had another snow storm and then just to make sure we didn't get lonely for crummy cold weather we had sleet yesterday morning.  This week we're going to see the 60's during the day and then plummet down to below freezing.  Here's our forecast: sunnny, rainy, rainy and snowy. That's today through Thursday.  ENOUGH!

Here's as far as I've gotten on the Wild Dog Quilt. It may not look all that differently but the first blue border is on. I've still got two more borders to sew on.  Hopefully I'll get those done this week.  I'm making progress on my log cabin quilt too.  I didn't do a whole lot of sewing this week but those are the two I worked on along with finishing the quilt for TAPS. I'll take photos when the weather warms up and post them.  

The weather was ok so a group of us could go to the Mid Atlantic Quilt Festival on Friday. We were very happy we hadn't planned to go on Thursday as more snow fell and it would have been a mess getting there. Luckily by Friday the roads were clear.  Although I did spend some time seeing the quilts I can't deny that I spent more time looking at the vendors.  I needed to buy thread for my long arm so that was my big purchase.  

I like to check the vendors for new products and I found something something that struck my fancy.  Evidently this product came out in the last year.  After watching the demo I purchased Quilter Ruler Update Kit.

The kit provides material to update two rulers: a 24" ruler and a 12" ruler.  This picture shows what is to be used on the 12" ruler as I already updated my 24".  The "stuff" on the brown paper is thin, long strips of plastic that is put on the long sides of the ruler.  The yellow piece attaches to the underside of the ruler and is moved for the size of cut you want to make. Here's what it looks like in use. 

It is designed so that fabric snugs up against the yellow piece. The strips on both long edges holds the ruler up and when you press your ruler as you cut, it makes the ruler very steady.  It worked really well yesterday when I cut out a strippy quilt.  No moving and messing up your cutting. The one thing that might get annoying is having to move the yellow part to the size of strip you are cutting. My guess is if I'm cutting a whole quilt out and making multiple cuts for each size it'll be great.  If I'm just trying to do a quick cut of one strip... well, the other 24" ruler might be coming out.  

If you get to one of the big quilt shows check this product out.  I'll let you know how I like it as I continue to use it.  You can see what it is all about by checking the website for Guidelines 4 Quilting. 

And on to the weekly goals. Finally, a week where I got several things done and every item was moved forward! 

Week of February 23, 2015

Finish quilting r, w, b quilt√

Make binding for r, w, and b quilt.√

Finish Wild Dog Borders√  well the 1^st border is done
Attend Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival√

Week of March 2, 2015

Finish Wild Dog; prep backing

Continue on the log cabin blocks

Have fun with an in house quilt retreat with Sharon and Mary Beth! 
Sew the strippy quilt to top stage

I'm linking up with Patchwork Times and Monday Making at Love, Laugh, Quilt.

Happy Quilting All!