Two January Finishes

Hooray for me. I have finished two tops this month! Neither one is quilted yet, but it still feels good. The first one is the string quilt you saw as a WIP. I am very pleased with how this turned out. I even used fabric from my stash for the sashing and corner blocks. This is very thick already since I used a muslin base, so I think I will use a flannel backing and just quilt the two layers. The second finish is a quilt that I started in December for my son. He wasn't too happy with it while it was in progress, but he is happy with the result. He thought it had too many light fabrics in it, but I assured him they were needed. Now he agrees I am right. First time in 16 years apparently.
I am going to add these to the January finishes in my sidebar, but first off to work and to get taxes done. Yuck to both.

Update. I should have referenced the pattern for my son's quilt. It is noted in this blog entry here.

It is called Cabin Tracks from a Quilter's Sampler Magazine. I will add the issue and the shop name.

Donna

Progress on String Blocks

I have really been having a lot of fun working on these string blocks. Here is the stack, all 192 of them. They are 4.5" squares. The strings are sewn on a muslin base.

Since the blocks are rather on the thick side, I need to pin them. I love these ultrafine pins from Fon's and Porter. They have glass heads, glide through the fabric and usually don't cause a broken needle, although I have had my share of mishaps.
I also use a walking foot due to the thickness of the blocks so that they stay nice and even. I sew rather slowly on these, and go right over the pins.

This is the setting I am playing with. It is hard to tell from the photo, but the sashing is a pale yellow. I like it so far, but need to put another row together before I make a final decision. The plan right now is for a layout 6 blocks x 8 blocks.
I have one more seam to sew and then the Double Delight will be put together also. I am still trying to decide on borders.

Donna

The Stash Part III

So these are the third and last group of photos of the bundles in my stash. The rest of the stash is individual fat quarters or bundles of solids. This grouping is called Sonnet. I love the blues in here and think this would make a great fall quilt. I don't remember the name of this grouping. I bought it on a whim at a sale 2 years ago. Of all the stacks I have this is one that I have no clue what it will turn into.
These are some vintage types. I love the bright cheerfulness of this stack. I think this would look good with some white Kona cotton and have several pattern ideas in mind.
This is an older bundle from Valori Wells. I had some pattern in mind when I bought it, but for the life of me have no clue now. I think this is called Mariposa.

Finally Strawberry Lemonade from Me and My Sister. I love their fabric and have one top completed waiting to be quilted from their first line Cookies and Milk. There fabrics are fun to work with.
That is all of the stash posting for now. Pulling all of these out has kept me from impulse purchases on line, but I am going to Prescott tomorrow for my daughter's cheer competition and my aunt wants to go to the quilt store there. It may be too tempting for me.

I have been working diligently on Double Delight. It is really taking me a long time to put the rows together, but I like how it is turning out. Maybe somes pics next week if I can figure out the border.

Finally I have made at least 100 string blocks this week. I do not know why, but I have this overwhelming need to deplete the bucket of strings. It is actually about half gone now. I will have pictures of the blocks and the bucket later as well. It has been no small task, but oddly relaxing. It would probably make a non quilter think I am crazy though. All this new fabric to work with, and I am obsessed with scraps!

Donna

Some Mindless Sewing

I have assembled all of the blocks for the Double Delight, and cut all the setting triangles, but I needed to take a break for the day. So I have decided to put together some string blocks. I have lots and lots of strings. I was going to toss all of them, but decided to see how these would look. I think they are pretty cute. There is no rhyme or reason to how I am piecing these, and they have every fabric under the sun in them. These are 4.5" blocks, and I have another stack of 8" blocks I will show you next time. I am off to lunch with the girls now, and then back for an afternoon of mindless sewing! String blocks do make a mess. I will have to take a picture of the floor and "string bucket" next. That little green cutting mat under the mess is one of those mats that is on a turntable. Hands down it is one of the 5 best quilty things I have ever purchased, along with the still MIA purple thang. I resisted buying it for a long time because it is fairly pricey, but I use it all the time for trimming up blocks. Used it alot for the Double Delight.
Back later,
Donna

The Stash Part II

This is the Ava Rose bundle from Fat Quarter Shop. I love how it is packaged . It is almost too pretty to unpack. I am going to look for a pattern that will work for these large florals and bright colors.
This is the Chez Moi stack. I actually unpacked it for the first time tonight to take a picture. The colors are so pretty. It is kind of weird but I never unpack the bundles and look at each fat quarter until I am ready to make a quilt. I know that this is very backwards, but it is how I always do it. Finally this is Flutterby by Tula Pink. There are some great prints in this bundle. I am tempted to buy the Nest bundle to coordinate with this, but I really don't need to since there is plenty here.

There is a least one more round of pictures to go to show all the fat quarter bundles. I don't buy jelly rolls or charm packs. The rest of the stash is loose fat quarters for the most part and some 1 and 2 yard pieces. OH and LOTS of SCRAPS! I have started to use Bonnie's Scrap Users System and you can see in my sidebar that I have a few scrap quilts going. I will show some pictures of these soon.

The Double Delight is coming along very well. All of the trimming is done and I am assembling the large 9 patch blocks now. Next step is to cut the setting triangles. I am going to use a new Fons and Porter ruler I bought for this. I hardly ever set quilts on point, but this one sure is looking great.

All for now,
Donna

Quilter's Guilt

So am I the only one who suffers from guilt when I look at my stash? I have decided to face the issue head on and organize the stash, as well as to kind of get the creative juices flowing. I have lots of bundles that have been sitting, some for a long time on the shelf. My sewing set up actually has my back to the stash, so I only see it when I walk into the room. I thought if I post pics of them here it might help to remind me of what I have and also keep me from buying new. This first guy here has been in custody for about 5 years now, and was actually one of the first bundle purchases I made. I am picturing this as a medallion type of quilt.

This is one of the Funky Monkey bundles. I am not even sure which one. It was at a 50% off sale so I bought it. My son actually loves monkeys so it may end up as a throw for him.
This is a Buggy Barn bundle that I got as a birthday gift last year I think. I don't have a vision for this one yet.

This is the Fresh Squeezed collection from Sandy Gervais. I have seen lots of quilts in blogland made from this and really admired them. I picture this with white sashing, maybe a simple log cabin or rail fence even.
I have another bunch of stacks on the shelf to photograph next. I think this will help me to put thoughts in order for 2009. After all it is no fun just to finish projects and not start anything new is it?

Finally my progress on the Double Delight Mystery. I have all of the 9 patch strips sewn together and have begun the block assembly. I still have lots of trimming to do. UGH!

I am looking forward to see how all of these blocks look together. I am sure I will cheat and make a few more blocks before I finish all that trimming.

All for now.

Donna

One Project a Month Challenge

There are so many UFO challenges in blogland these days, along with free BOM and weight loss challenges I really decided to concentrate on just one. It is a challenge to finish one project a month and you can get the details here at Tag Along Teddies blog. I have put a partial listing of some of the completed tops I want to quilt, and a second list of tops that need to be completed on my sidebar. I really need to go into the depths of the quilting closets to make sure I have inventoried all WIPs. If nothing else, this challenge has made me take a hard look at what all I have started and not completed. I do so love to start things. I am truly looking forward to completing some projects in 2009. Plus I get to put this cute teddy bear picture on my blog!







Donna

Purple Thang

I am not advertising for any company, but gosh I love this tool, and I have lost mine. My business trip got postponed until next week, so I thought I would work on the Double Delight Mystery. I can't find my Purple Thang! It works great for holding down all those little seams when you go through the presser foot. This means I may have to make a trip to the quilt store, oh no there goes any hope of stashbusting. Plus Hancocks has a 20% off sale for the next day or two. What should I do? Hmmmm.

Donna

Too Many Projects Update!

This is a picture of the quilt my son picked out for me to make him. Lots and lots of skinny strips. He took all of about 15 minutes to go through dozens of books and magazines and decided on this one. I love the quilt, but it has been a challenge for me.

These are some of the skinny little 1" strips sewn together to be cross cut into 2.5" strips for sashing pieces.
These are the finished blocks. They are 8" square and are four different layouts.
This is what one of the finished blocks will look like. I am working diligently, but it kinda makes my eyes cross, so I decided to take a break and start the Quiltville Mystery.This has been lots of little pieces too! Do not look further if you are working on this one and do not want to have the later steps spoiled. I have skipped ahead without finishing one step at a time. Step one blocks are finished and about half are trimmed.Step two blocks are 80% done, with only a few trimmed.The trimmings are cute.
Step 3 and 4 are in process. I wanted to see what one of the cute little 9 patches would look like. Here is the step 4 block put together correctly.......



And here it is put together incorrectly. I wish now that I had used a lighter value where the blue is so that the star would pop better, but that is the danger of a mystery. I think it will be fine when it is finished, but probably not what Bonnie envisioned for her pattern.
Have fun with the mystery everyone. I will not be sewing until the end of the week since I go back to work tomorrow, but it has been a fun weekend.

I have to decide which of the many challenges in blogland to participate in. Lots of stashbusting and UFO finishing challenges!

Donna

Double Delight

Happy New Year's Eve everyone. I have decided to do Bonnie's Double Delight, the latest Quiltville Mystery, even though I have plenty of other projects to work on. One thing for sure is that I decided to use fabrics from my stash, so at least I don't have to feel guilty about making any new purchases.

I still have not decided whether or not to take Judy's Stashbusting Pledge. She has a great though provoking post about stashbusting here. But, I am weak and there are so many great sales right now, with more to come I am sure! So I decided to take the coward's way out and start a new quilt with stash fabrics.

This is what I chose below. The red, black, blue and whites are all from a coordinating bundle designed by Alex Anderson that I purchase about 4 years ago. I think it is called Remembrance. The yellow I bought some time ago, just because I liked it. I am going to use the yellow where Bonnie uses the double pinks, so I will have only one print here instead of a variety. I don't know if it will work but we will give it a try.

I made a few blocks this morning. So far so good. It will take a lot of trimming time, but hopefully it will be worth it when it comes to matching seams and not cutting off points. I don't have the ruler Bonnie recommended, but this little Omnigrid works pretty well.

Back to the sewing room.

Donna

Thank you Kate!

Well it was sure fun on Christmas morning to open my SCSS gift. There were so many lovely surprises inside. Thank you so much Kate! First there was this darling Christmas hanging. There are red bells at the bottom, but I cut them off when I rotated the picture. It will hang in my family room on my quilt rack.

Then there was this magazine and a postcard from where Kate lives. Oh those beaches look so lovely. I adore all of the Australian magazines and I am looking forward to enjoying this issue. One of the things I have been wanting to learn to do is stitching.
Kate sent me the goodies below which should put me on to a great start. Little does she know she may have to get me started with email instructions! There was also a yummy bag of cookies that I think my son already ate before I could get a picture. Finally not to be outdone this is the bundle of fat quarters my hubby got for me, along with lots of other gifts. He is well known at the quilt store. He always buys fat quarters, two of each pattern at a time. It is great for stash building and since I love to make scrap quilts, these always fill in for missing colors or patterns to add that extra touch. They are special too since I know he picked them out when I look at the finished quilt.
I hope you all had a lovely Christmas. It was wonderful at our house.

I am pondering whether or not to continue my blog. I started out with great intentions, but always seem to have a long time between posts lately. I do love to see all the other blogs out there though, and it doesn't seem right to lurk but not participate. We shall see.

I hope you all enjoyed the SCSS exchange. Thanks so much to Donna for organizing this. It must have been a lot of work for her.

Happy Holidays,
Donna

My SSCS gift arrived this week. I was out of town on business, so it was a nice surprise to come home and find this waiting for me. I will wait patiently until Christmas to open this parcel. Thank you Santa.

I have only done the minimum on Christmas decorating so far. My tree is up, sadly without any ornaments. My teenagers do not have time to help and I have not been home. Maybe we will just have twinkly lights this year. It seems like I only just put those ornaments away a few days ago!
I have hung a few of my Christmas quilts. At least I have a little bit of decorating done.

Donna

A Happy Stack

Last January I started on Christmas quilts for my sister's 5 kids. I thought I was giving myself plenty of time. Well I came down to the wire, but here is the stack of finished quilts. I love the backings on all of them. It is the only fabric I had to buy for five quilts since I had so much Christmas fabric in my stash.

Here are the fronts. This one is for my oldest niece. She is a college student.

Next niece number 2 a high school senior.

Next niece number 3, 8th grade.

Then niece number 4, 3rd grade.

Then finally my nephew, 6th grade.

It was fun to make each one. They will go in the mail by the end of this week. Each one needs to still be washed.

And I get to buy new Christmas fabric to replenish my stash!

Donna

Not Working on Christmas

So I should be working on Christmas gifts, but somehow I can't get in the mood for that, so I am working with these pretty florals. They are from the Hoffman Flower of the Month Series from a couple of years ago. The pattern is from a Christmas Magazine, so at least I was looking at Christmas projects.

I have worked on my Secret Santa Christmas Swap gift, but I don't think we are supposed to show more that a sneak peak from that, so here is a sneak peek of that also.What is everyone else working on?

Donna