Stashbusting Report - 3/31/08

Well, you simply cannot go to a quilting retreat at Shipshewana and not buy fabric. Even if you're trying to participate in a No-Buy club. I had most everything cut out and ready to sew............plenty to keep me busy.

But when we saw the Funky Monkey quilt and I realized that I don't have a new quilt for my grandson who will be one year old in a few weeks, I had to buy.

The kit was about 3.5 yards and I also bought 3.5 yards of backing.

Fabric Added This Week - 7 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date - 12.375 yards

Fabric Used This Week - 10.625 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 128.25 yards

Net year to date: 115.875 yards used!

Retreat Summary

We had a wonderful time at Shipshewana last week.
Those three days seemed to speed by so fast. Here's a peek at what I accomplished.

Scrappy Stash Squares: This was cut out from my stash and ready to sew


Cocacola UFO for coworker: I added the borders to complete this top.


Coasters: From Benartex Mrs B's Sample 5" squares


Funky Monkey quilt for Andrew's First Birthday: I purchased the kit on Friday, made some changes as you can see.



March Challenge - Catch a Spinning Star: I added to borders to complete this top


Bricks and Stepping Stones: This was cut out and the 4-patches were sewn together before I left. I have more blocks finished, but they don't fit on my design wall.


Here's my daughter Julie and my friend Adrienne checking out Lolly's Bargain Basement

Shipshewana Retreat

My guild retreat starts today, but we're not going until tomorrow morning. And then two and a half days of sewing, laughing, shopping, and of course chocolate. If there's one thing that quilters can do well, besides quilt, it's cook. The goodies at these retreats are always scrumptious.

This retreat is always special to me because my daughter Julie comes along. Last year she was expecting Andrew and the bunk beds were not kind to her. This year the retreat we are attending is in Shipshewana, Indiana at the Farmstead Inn. It is a wonderful facility with very nice rooms, great sewing rooms, a pool, hot tub and exercise room (to work off all the chocolate!). There are several great places to buy fabric, in case we don't bring enough. Lolly's is like heaven on earth and I hear they have a bargain basement now. Yoder's Department Store is a favorite also. We always eat dinner at the Essenhaus Restaurant in Middlebury and a trip to the Wanna-Cup for ice cream is in order. If you've heard of Shipshewana for anything besides fabric, it's probably the Flea Market. It isn't open for the year yet, but there are still plenty of places to shop.

I have my projects all cut, packed and ready to go. I just need to get a haircut, to pack my clothes, to visit Rossville Quilts tonight for Wednesday Block of the Month, and then get a good night's sleep, cause I know I won't get much sleep for the next couple nights.

If you're in the area - stop in and say HI. We'll be the bunch in the Red Barn Up Meeting Room. I'll have lots of pictures to show you on Sunday.

My Son, The Soldier!

As a mother, I couldn't be prouder of my youngest son. He's been notified that he is on the US Army's E-7 Promotion List for this year. He joined the Army in the Spring of 1998, so this is his 10th year. Achieving this rank in that amount of time is amazing.

SERGEANT FIRST CLASS (SFC)
(Addressed as "Sergeant")
Key assistant and advisor to the platoon leader. Generally has 15 to 18 years of Army experience and puts it to use by making quick, accurate decisions in the best interests of the Soldiers and the country.

Retrieved from this site:
http://www.army.mil/symbols/Enlistedescription2.html

My friend Fran is going to see her son return from Iraq this week and I remember the goosebumps I had when Jeff's plane landed and they started filing down those steps.



And then they were marching toward the hanger we had been waiting in for their arrival.



And then to see his photo in the newspaper was a mothers proudest moment.



Fran, my heart is with you this week - ENJOY THE TIME WITH YOUR SON!

Stashbusting Report - 3/24/08

I bought no fabric this week and didn't work on very much of my own stuff until the weekend. But it's still going down!

Fabric Added This Week - 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date - 5.375 yards

Fabric Used This Week - 3.5 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 117.625 yards

Net year to date: 112.25 yards used!

Rhapsody Pantograph

This post should have been before the other one because I finished this quilt before I started the other one. Rhapsody is the panto and the batting is Warm & Natural and the thread is PermaCore Eggshell. I am always surprised at how long this panto takes. It really is time consuming, but beautiful, especially on floral quilts. Hope she likes it!

New-To-Me Border quilting

I finished this quilt today that was made by Kathy. She used to live here, but moved to Pennsylvania. She'll be in Indiana this coming week for our guild retreat at Shipshewana. I can't wait!!!

I tried something new-to-me in the borders. They aren't quite all the same size, but I think with practice, I could like these. I did 2 different flowers in the blocks and just meandered in the sashing around the signatures and quotes. Warm & Natural batting and PermaCore Eggshell thread.

My 15 Minutes of Fame

Well, here it is ............my very own "15 minutes of fame."

The current issue of Quiltmaker's All-Time Favorites, Special Issue - Spring 2008 has two photos of my Whiteout quilt on page 10. It's the quilt I made for a December Wedding where the theme was snowflakes and we had a near-blizzard that weekend.

Hidden Wells Strip Sets

Sandy asked if I had a photo of the strip sets used in my Hidden Wells quilt. I don't actually, but through the wonders of Photoshop, I can show you what they looked like. My strips varied from 1.75 to 3.5 inches and when sewn together my sets were 14.5 inches from top to bottom. My squares were cut 14 inches. The first one I made was 9 blocks, but this one, which was a class sample, only used 6 blocks. As you can see, the top and bottom strips create the most graphic diamonds in the quilt.

Quilt Smart Apple Core

At the Sewing Seminar in Noblesville, IN I purchased a Quilt Smart Apple Core pattern with fusible interfacing patterns. One of my guilds is having a speaker this week from Quilt Smart, so I thought this would be a great time to work on this project. We have a fabric swap every other month and the last one was Shabby Chic. There have been a few swaps in the past year or so that had lots of florals, so that is what I'm using for this one.

Here is the background, which I had a hard time just leaving it alone and not rearranging. The fabrics won't actually be touching each other in the finished project, so any amount of rearranging would be useless.



Here are a couple of the finished apple cores. I only have 47 more to do............

Stashbusting Report - 3/17/08

WOW, that little jelly roll I bought for the photo quilt has 2.5 yards of fabric, so that has been my biggest purchase so far this year.

Fabric Added This Week - 2.5 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date - 5.375 yards

Fabric Used This Week - 10.25 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 114.125 yards

Net year to date: 108.75 yards used!

Hidden Wells UFO

I finally added borders to my Hidden Wells quilt this week. I loaded and quilted it Friday evening, using the Rose Vine panto again. I used a poly batting on a small roll from Joanns that was cheap. It feels pretty stiff, but I hope it will soften up when washed. The first side of the binding is sewn down by machine and one side of the hand sewing is done. This UFO from 2001 is on one of my UFO Elimination lists for this month, so I'm going to finish it up in the next few days. The instructions for this one are here. I made my first one of these when I had just started quilting and didn't know to be afraid of bias edges.

QOV

Last night I was stuck on laying out the photo blocks, so I turned out the light in the sewing room and loaded a QOV quilt on the longarm. Sometimes you just need to walk away from something and focus on something else.

This is a really pretty quilt made by Martha. I used Warm & Natural batting, Double Rose Vine pantograph and lilac Permacore thread. What a quick easy panto with great results! I just love this simple panto for floral quilts.

Photo Quilt

After Janet left, I started working on a photo wall hanging, ordered by a co-workers friend, for his wife's birthday. The wife is a quilter and an art teacher, so I have to make sure this one is good!

When I asked him about colors and design, this is how he replied: She is a quilter and an art teacher. Sooooo ... i would say pinks, purples, and blues. Maybe a touch of green. Jewel tones. The room where the quilt will likely hang has mauve carpet. I think those colors would work.

So, what I found is Fresh Air by Chez Moi by Moda. I didn't take a picture of the jelly roll, but Bren has some good shots of it on her blog. I bought a Jelly Roll at Cheryl's Quilts across town on my lunch hour yesterday along with some EQ Printables, this is what I have done so far:



I just love the clarity of the photos on these fabric sheets.

Soldier Quilts

My friend Janet finished quilting her soldier quilt last night and should be stitching the binding on as I type. This one along with 2 of mine will go to my online friend Fran for single soldiers in her sons unit, scheduled to return from Iraq later this month.

How I Make Text a Link

Brigitte wanted to know how I do this, so here it is..........

This is how I link a word in my post to a new page.

While typing the post, I open a new window and go to the page that I wish to link to. Select the URL in the menu bar and copy it using the EDIT Menu or the keys Control and C.
Go back to the original post and highlight the word that you want to link. Then click on the link icon above the post. A new window will appear with the start of a URL.



Paste the URL from the link page and click OK.
The text in your post will be HTML and will look funny.

Click on Preview to make sure your linked word is a different color.

ConKerr Update

What a great project this is.
Pillowcases are a quick project and this organization is so worthwhile.

I just got an email from May and here is her update.

Francine, PP Chair, and I have delivered our Guild's first batch of 100 pillowcases. After meeting with the NJ Coordinator of ConKerr we are even more committed to this project. The pillowcases will be distributed to children with life changing illnesses at The Children's Center of Hackensack University Medical Center here in New Jersey. http://www.thechildrenshospitalhumc.net/
All of the children in The Center as patients or as outpatients receiving chemo or therapy receive a pillowcase, that could up 300+ per month.

March Challenge Quilt

I also got the center finished of the Catch a Spinning Star, which used lots of fabric.



The stripe is what I planned to use for the outer border, but now I'm thinking that it isn't right. I have 56 inches left of the dark fabric, so I could still use that.

Stashbusting Report 3/10/08

Woo-Hoo............I'm over 100!

Fabric Added This Week - 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date - 2.875 yards

Fabric Used This Week - 20 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 103.875 yards

Net year to date: 101 yards used

One of my online friends, May is working on a project to make pillowcases and this is the message she posted to our group:

I'm co-chair of my Guild's latest community project, Project Pillowcases, Cases for Children's Smiles. We are making cheerful pillowcases for kids ages 2 - 17 who are in hospitals with life changing illnesses. Tomorrow the Chair and I will be delivering our first 100 pillowcases to the NJ coordinator of ConKerr Cancer. She will be distributing them to kids in NJ Hospitals. We've had 2 Sew Ins so far and will continue to have them throughout the years to come. Biggest problem we've had so far is finding suitable fabrics for the older kids, especially the boys.

If your are interested in this nationwide project, their site is ConKerrCancer.org. You don't have to send large numbers of cases like our Guild is, any cases are more than welcomed.
May in Jersey

I sent her 9 yards to use for the pillowcases.

Pineapple Blossoms

Thanks again to Sossity's kit idea, I finished putting together another quilt kit. I saw on Susie's blog last week a Pineapple Blossom Quilt done in greens.
I couldn't remember where I saw it, but found it now. I knew that my green scrap tote was overflowing, so I started cutting greens into 2" pieces in 3 lengths. Then I got out my white/tan scrap tote.

I had all the 3.5" squares cut before I thought to take a picture. Here's the pile of white/cream scraps waiting to be pressed and cut.

Here is the after photo of that tote. Notice all the nice squares all cut up for the next project and the strips eady for string quilts.

The March Challenge Quilt

I'm not sure when exactly I cut the fabric for my online March Challenge, Catch a Spinning Star, one of JulyL's free patterns, but I would guess it was late at night. I cut 6 squares that were supposed to be 5.25 x 5.25 like this:

They were cut 5 x 5.25 instead.
Which wouldn't be a bad thing except............ when I was clearing off my cutting table I cut all those 2" black squares so I wouldn't have to put any back into my scrap totes.

I said a few choice words to myself last night and then went in search of more black solid, which I found, luckily, in my black scrap tote. It's not the same fabric, but at least it's a solid black.

So, I continued on, making the blocks for this quilt. I finished putting together 12 blocks and still had these left over:

I must have been really tired when I cut this one out.


I sewed the sashing strips together and put 8 of the 12 up on the design wall. I really like this one and may make more blocks, since I already have half of them sewn, and make this a queen size.

Stashbusting Report - 3/4/08

This past week wasn't such a good week for me. I still used more than I bought.

4.25 yards this week!!

Fabric Added This Week - 1 yard
Fabric Added Year to Date - 2.875 yards

Fabric Used This Week - 4.25 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 83.875 yards

Net year to date: 81 yards used


This is what I purchased at the Quilt show. An activity kit to make for Andrew. I believe that it has about a yard of fabric in it.

T-shirt Quilts & Pottery Barn Baby Quilt

I did these 2 last week for a customer and used Colorburst LAVA thread. One of them has batting and flannel backing and the other has minkee backing and no batting. She did a great job piecing them and was happy with the quilting.




This same customer purchased a Pottery Barn bumper pad at Goodwill for $2. She took it apart and sewed it back together for a quilt. I echoed the shapes and did a squiggle around the blocks instead of SID due to the difference in fabrics.

Sunday Stitchers

My friends Janet and Denise came over on Sunday and Janet quilted one of her UFOs. It is really cute dogs with floppy ears, all flannel. She meandered while Denise and I lifted the ears.



I loaded a wheelchair lap quilt and tried my hand as some free-motion flowers, leaves and loops.

Catching Up

It feels like I haven't posted in days - which, actually, I haven't!

Bloomington Quilt Show
The quilt show on Saturday was wonderful even though I didn't win a ribbon, it was so exciting to see my quilts hanging there among the winners. There is SO MUCH QUILTING on most of the winning quilts. I think there should be a category for quilts with no micro-stitching. But, bottom line - THEY WERE BEAUTIFUL!

It was a pretty crowded show and the isles are quite narrow, so taking a straight on photo of my quilts was impossible. I did get a couple shots just to prove that they were there.