Stashbusting Report - 9/29/08

Fabric Added This Week - 1.5 yards (6 - 1930's FQs)
Fabric Added Year to Date - 92.625 yards

Fabric Used This Week - 10.75 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 321.55 yards

YEAR TO DATE NET TOTAL: 228.875

There are 13 more Mondays in the year for me to report my stash used and If I am to hit the 500 YARDS used this year mark, that means that I will need to use a little more than 13 yards per week. I guess I better get busy and quilt some of my UFOs because backings are the biggest stashbusters for me.

And A Little Quilting Today....

Last week I saw that Angela was using a pantograph by Jodi Beamish called Spin. This was one of the first pantos I purchased last year and I remembered that I really liked it but hadn't used it in quite some time. I got it out and used it on these two panels of Dotties, which were loaded together. I did have to baste down the inside edge of both of them as I advanced, but it still went pretty quick.





Then I loaded this one and did an simple meander on it.



All 3 of these have muslin backs, Hobbs 80/20 batting and white PermaCore thread.

Heartstrings Block Party

This weekend was designated a Block Party Weekend at the Heartstrings Yahoo Group. I had a big stack of muslin squares all cut and ready to start making blocks on Friday. I got 24 blocks finished and am trying to decide the layout. I HAVE SUCH A HARD TIME WITH RANDOM that I decided that one side would be blues and the other white/creams. Now the layout:

This was how I laid them out as they were finished:


Or maybe like this:


Or This:


I should say that planning a navy/cream homespin border, but I didn't get a picture of it.

Gosh, how will I determine how much fabric I used for these?

Saturday's Road Trip to Columbus

The road trip to Columbus with Shelly and Tammy was great fun. On the way I learned that these:

aren't only used to designate a parking spot, but speed bumps as well.....and if you go over with the front tires, you might just as well keep going forward, cause it's hard to go back over them in reverse. I'm sure you can imagine the laughter that followed that one!

Of course, after that episode, this curb:

wasn't a challenge at all to our driver Shelly.

The quilt show was wonderful....so much inspiration. I took a few photos, and put them in a Picasa album. As a longarmer, I tend to study the quilting so much more than I did before I got my machine. I didn't get a call last night, so I guess I didn't win the raffle quilt.

The trip home included a stop at The Back Door in Greenwood, IN. What a GREAT SHOP this is! I bought patterns for a bag, a redwork project and yo-yo ornaments. I did buy 6 1930's Fat Quarters, 3 at the show and 3 at Gabrielle's in Columbus. All in all a very good day.....Thanks Shelly and Tammy.

Loretta's Turning Twenty

Here's the full view of Loretta's wonderful quilt. She picked it up tonight and said it is to be a wedding gift, but that it will be hard to give away. I'm going to the COLUMBUS STAR QUILTERS Quilt Show in Columbus, Indiana tomorrow and I'll be on the lookout for some fall fat quarters to make one of my own.

Christmas Cottage Exchange

After thinking about it for a day or two, I decided to join the Christmas Cottage Block Exchange.

I only have to make 12 of these cute cottages and I made 6 of them tonight. I think it took me longer to decide on the fabric than it did to actually stitch them together. I have a large stack of 2.5 inch strips that I didn't use because I kept changing my mind. I tried to put something fun in each of the windows and may add some embellishments, like rick-rack, buttons, or ribbons.

Stockings For Soldiers

Since Christmas is now less than 3 months away, it's time to really work on those holiday projects. One of the projects that I have committed to this year is making Stockings for Deployed Soldiers. Barb, a member of the Heartstrings Yahoo group, posted a message about them and they are being sent to Fran in Illinois for filling and distribution. I got the pattern for Magic Stockings last year and didn't get a chance to try it. This week I have finished 2 and have a dozen or so in progress. It really is MAGIC how they are made. The most difficult part is adding the cuff, which really isn't difficult, just takes a few minutes.



Here they are sewn together, 2 linings-right sides together on top of 2 outsides-right sides together. I stitched around the sides and bottom, and then clipped the curves.



Reach inside the linings and pull them out so that the lining fabric is on the outside.




Now, reach inside the outside fabrics and pull them out so that the outside fabric is on the outside.



The cuffs are made with a scrap of fabric, the ends stitched together forming a tube, folded in half and pressed, lengthwise. A piece of ribbon at the back seam makes a little hanger.

Autumn Oaks

I quilted this for Loretta last night and just might have to make one of these fall turning twenty quilts for myself. She did such a nice job........from picking out the fabrics to piecing. Nice and flat with no extra threads poking out of the seams! I used Eqyptian Topaz PermaCore, Hobbs 80/20 and Jodie Beamish's Autumn Oaks pantograph

I will get a shot of the entire quilt before she picked it up this afternoon.

A New Years UFO Finish

I quilted and bound this little wall hanging on Tuesday so that I could take it to Rossville Quilts for show-&-tell last night at BOM night. I purchased the pattern from them and they were tickled to see a finished product. I am counting this as one of my UFO finishes for Finn's New Years Challenge over at Pieces of My Scrapbag.

With this one done, I only have 7 more to finish by the end of the year. The UFOs I have picked for this challenge aren't the ones listed on my sidebar, which were started before the beginning of 2008. The ones for this challenge are ones that I have started this year. I know you are probably thinking, "Why would a person start 8 new projects when they began the year with over 30 UFOs?" I dunno, they just caught my eye and I thought I had to make them. But, I'm on my way to finishing them up.

Ribbon Meandering

I received some longarm books, Darlene Epp's Pocket Guides, in the mail yesterday and decided to try one of the designs, Ribbon Meandering, on this t-shirt quilt. I used Lava Kilauea thread and Quilters Dream poly batting. I like it for a girls quilt.

Quiltathon Day 2

Yesterday's first project was quilting Peggy and Co.'s Baby Pineapple........just a small meander with Hobbs 80/20 and Natural PermaCore thread. They always do such a nice job with these pineapple quilts. This is the 3rd one I've quilted for them.





Then I got out the t-shirts and put borders on the front and assembled the back. This one will go on the machine tonight and hopefully be out the door by the weekend. She has been waiting several months for me to get this one done and I hope she like it. I think since purple is her favorite color that I will use a purple variegated thread. It's going to have purple binding also.

Stashbusting Report - 9/22/08

It was a good week for me...........no purchases!

Fabric Added This Week - 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date - 91.125 yards

Fabric Used This Week - 8.375 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 310.75 yards

YEAR TO DATE NET TOTAL: 219.625

Quiltathon

This weekend has been designated as a Quiltathon Weekend by JudyL. I did my best to comply by spending most of the day yesterday at Rita's house. She is having a sew-in weekend that started on Friday, and everyone else was spending the nights. I came home a little after 11pm last night because I need to do some quilting today. My accomplishments yesterday include:
1. Rossville Quilts BOM - due this coming Wednesday.


2. JudyL's Star BOM #3 - Yep, I'm a bit behind and I didn't take the Block #4 instructions, or I would have done that one also. Oh, and I know the pinwheels are going the wrong way, but as I've said before, "It stays as it lays!"


3. I sewed the individual rows together on my Courthouse stars.


4. Then, I caught the "Square Dance" bug from Mona, along with Rita and Colleen. She brought this cute Finding Nemo Square dance quilt and told us how she did it.


Well, I had taken some novelty halloween fabrics to do something with and this was just the ticket. Here's my Halloween Dance complete with a border.



Here is our hostess with her almost finished fall colors Square dance.


The rest of the sewing group includes Mona, Dottie, Ruth Ann and Colleen.




To see more photos of our day click here.

All Finished and Out The Door!

A former guild member was visiting from Maryland this week and she brought this one to me last Sunday. She wanted the lady done trapunto style. "I've never done that," I said. "Oh, I know you can do it," she replied.

Well, it's finished, picked up and it gave her goosebumps. She flys back home tomorrow, so I finished it just in time.

I spray basted Hobbs 80/20 to the back of the center and then stitched on all the outside black lines with water soluble thread on my Janome and then cut the excess batting away. Her batting was Warm & Natural and I used Permacore Eggshell top and bottom, except for stitching over the black outlines, where I used Smoke MonoPoly on top.

This is a wedding gift for an Asian/American couple. The front is for her and the back log cabin blocks are for him.

Well Into The Night!!!

I had a hard time making myself quit last night, or I should say, this morning!

I ran out of bobbin thread for the 6th time, looked at the clock, counted how many hours it was until I had to get up and go to work, and I turned off the lights and headed for bed. I'm pretty pleased with how this is turning out. Not bad for my first time trying trapunto.

I stitched batting to the back of the center panel using water soluble thread on my Janome and then cut out around it. So, the white stitching you might see on the black lines will wash away. I stitched on the black lines using Smoke MonoPoly.

Crayons by Mary

Back on the quilting front..........

Mary picked up her Crayon quilt today and loved the swirls. I used the swirls CL template and Lava Colorburst thread, Hobbs 80/20 batting.





Last night at guild I delivered Gwen's Amy Butler quilt to her. I used Hobbs 80/20, Permacore Natural thread and did some freehand designs in the blocks and sashing and beadboard in the border.

Julie's On A Roll!

Going to quilt camp gave Julie just the motivation she needed. Here are the projects she worked on at camp and since she's been home.

Her first project, placemats with Thimbleberries fabric, were started at quilt camp almost 2 years ago, but they're finished now!



Then she worked on this very nice Thimbleberries kit called Holly Hill Town. It still needs some borders, but is cute as can be.



And then the brights aura from sewing next to me came over her and she put this one together. The FQ's were bought at that quilt camp almost 2 years ago, along with the book, Take 2 and Add A Few.



She stitched on the first side of the binding of this quilt at camp and did the hand stitching at home, and now it's finished, too.



Looks like I better get busy myself!