Hip To Be Square

This is my last quilt of 2011 and my last Scrap Squad quilt and I must admit that makes me a bit sad. It's been wonderful getting to know the other members and Diane Harris via emails. I completed 6 scrap squad quilts this year, have gifted 3 of them.

I spent hours using EQ to draw out some ideas for this one and settled on a dark background Christmas quilt for this one. I used 4 reds, 2 greens, many blacks and kona white. Probably my least scrappy of all of the Scrap Squad quilts.



I made 24 blocks and every other block is turned a quarter turn, which makes a secondary star pattern and 4-patches. In order to have the seams nest when assembling, I pressed the outer block segments towards the black in both blocks.



Not wanting to waste those 96 bonus triangles, I trimmed them down to 2.25" to use in one of the borders. I made an additional 40+ half square triangle blocks.





I used both greens in the inner border and just the mottled on in the outer. The binding uses all 4 red fabrics.



It's quilted with holly and poinsettas using gold Glide thread.



This one will go on the twin bed in the spare bedroom next Christmas so I'm ahead of the game for 2012.

CONGRATULATIONS to the new Scrap Squad members: ENJOY! You'll have a great time!

Retreat Updates

I finally got some time on my computer tonight to update both retreats.

Our guild retreat "Spring Break in Vegas" has 25 registered and room for about 2o more. Your first payment isn't actually due until January 18th so you have plenty of time, but it would be great if you could get your form to me soon, so we can plan meals and activities.

The October 2012 Shipshewana retreat has 50 paid registrations, so we have room for only 10 more. If you're thinking about joining us, you will want to get your form to me soon. Of course, the room will hold more than 60 quilters, but it sure was nice to have a table for each quilter and not be crowded at all.

If you need a form for Shipshewana, you can print it here.

Private Selections

Through bzzagent, I received coupons for some free products made by Kroger brand, Private Selections.

Barbeque Chicken Pizza was the first one and it was very greasy....soaked through a paper towel. Once that was taken care of, the taste was really good. It's a thin pizza, so extra crispy. Not really big enough for 3 servings though.



See, not even as big as a Bounty Select-a-Size paper towel.




Next up is the Chicken Trumpets appetizer. These were yummy, but once again, very small portion sizes.



The dessert we picked was mini eclairs, which we took to Christmas Eve at Julie's. I didn't get a picture of them, they were mini all right, but very tasty.

I'm not sure if I would purchase these at their regular prices, although I did get a great deal when I got them as Kroger was running a promotion were you got $3 off your next order for purchasing 3 Private Selections.

Stashbusting 2011 - #52

Fabric Added this week - 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date - 105.625 yards

Fabric Used this week - .5 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 217.875 yards

YEAR TO DATE STASH USED: 111.75 yards

I used a grand total of 1/5 yard this week, just enough to make a bag for my granddaughter Courtney's new tablet. She opened her presents from me on Christmas Eve and didn't get her Tablet until Christmas Day, so I bought a little pocket calendar, notepad and pen set to put in the bag. She loved it as it was and was even more excited when she realized her Tablet would fit inside.



The pattern I adapted for my use was Lindsay's at The Cottage Home. I added a strap to mine and only one button tab.

Guild Christmas Party

Tuesady evening was spent getting the final touches ready for our guild Christmas party last night.

The party was loads of fun, lots of yummy treats because we all know that quilters are great cooks also. We had a potholder exchange rather than a fabric exchange and what a wonderful idea. There were some great potholders made my members, and even a few made by well known retail stores. Our potholders were exchanged via a left-right story about Mrs. Wright, the quilter.

I collected 19 handmade and 31 purchased placemats at the meeting. Bright and early this morning I delivered them to our local Meals on Wheels office for distribution today with their meals. Hopefully, they will bring smiles to those who receive their meals today.

We played a couple of games....

Name the Christmas carols such as:
The apartment of 2 psychiatrists
(Nutcracker Suite)

Decipher these acronyms:
STABLE
(stash accumulation beyond life expectancy)

WOMBAT
(waste of money, batting and time)

The officers and committee chairpersons received poinsettas complete with a card describing the latest drugs for quilters:

Oxy-cotton - Never fear sewing with a polyester blend again. Take this little doozy and all the fabric you've collected over the years will automatically have the look and feel of 100% cotton.

What a great time we had!
Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos :(

The last quilt before Christmas

I quilted this one for Cindy on Monday evening and what a pretty quilt it is. It was a row of the month at a local quilt shop. The fabrics are perfect and her piecing is impecable. It was really a joy to quilt.



I used Echo Holly and Poinsetta panto, Omni Safari thread and warm and natural batting.





And this makes 35 quilts since November 19th! Whew!!!

Carla's Baby Quilts

I finished all 3 of Carla's baby quilts and they are just cute as can be. They were just panels that she added borders to.



The first one, I quilted with angel wings because of the butterflies in the border fabric.





The second one has Button Flower in the center only and the borders have 2 different quilting designs.







The third one has stars and Loops in the center and wavy diamonds in the outer border.





I think they all turned out great and I'm sure her great Nieces and Nephew will love them.

Lois' Sock Monkey Quilt

Lois made this cute quilt with sock monkey fabrics.



I already had the stars and Loops panto on the table, so that's what I used, along with white Permacore thread and hobbs 80/20 batting.

Stashbusting 2011 Week 51

Fabric Added this week - 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date - 105.625 yards

Fabric Used this week - 0 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 217.375 yards

YEAR TO DATE STASH USED: 111.25 yards

Nothing in and nothing out. I finished the secret project this week but you'll have to wait to see it.

A Dreaded Virus

So, I was reading along, checking out the blogs in google reader, when suddenly IE closed down and XP 2012 windows started opening up warning me. The strange thing is they were warning me of a virus and XP 2012 is actually the virus. Not sure what to do but I'm glad I have my iPhone. I'm unable to open IE and it has disabled my Microsoft Security and Spybot, too. Any suggestions?

Virginia's Racing Quilt

This is the seventh quilt I've quilted for Virginia this fall. She's been very busy making quilts and sewing PJ's for Christmas.



I was planning to quilt something different in the flame blocks and do the borders separately, but when I saw the Mini Ebb panto on Jill's blog, I knew I was going to use Ebb and Flow for this one.



It's supposed to be water, but I think it sure resembles the flames and pulls the whole quilt together.

Alice's Christmas Quilt

Alice made this design-as-you-go quilt for her granddaughter's boyfriend. She had some blocks already made and used some great border fabrics to make a very nice Christmas quilt.



Echo holly and poinsetta is the quilting design I used, along with Omni Safari thread and Hobbs 80/10 batting.

Cindy's Blueberry Fudge Ripple

Cindy made this lovely quilt for her daughter-in-law....how lucky is she. She also customized pillow shams to match. It's actually called Raspberry Fudge Ripple, but since it's blue, I renamed it for my blog.



She wanted it quilted just like the pattern showed, which is stitch in the ditch, lots of it! Look how the straight stitching creates this star.



I purchased the stencil the pattern designer used, but after trying it out, I decided that I didn't like it, spent about 4 hours taking the stitching out and went with my easy-peasy bumpy feathers.

Saundra's T-shirt Quilt

Saundrea made this for her adult son and it's the first ever quilt for her. She had heard of t-shirt quilts and stopped at Rossville Quilts one day early this year to find out if they could help her. They pointed her in my direction and she came over with boxes of t-shirts. I showed her the fusible interfacing and how to get started. She came back a few months later with nice fused 12.5" blocks and we talked about adding sashing between the blocks. Off to Rossville Quilts she went to get fabric for sashing.



She brought the completed top along with a pieced backing of sweatshirt fabric and we decided on a meander. There are some very thick seams where the backing is pieced, so I had to be real careful in those areas.



When she picks it up, she will get a lesson on binding,which I'm sure she will do a great job on.

Didn't she do a wonderful job!
I hope this is the beginning of a wonderful quilting hobby for her and I'm excited to show it to her.

Angie's Pick-up Sticks

Angie made this flannel quilt for her brother. The pattern is called Pick-up Sticks and she said it will be a reminder to them both of the hours they spent playing pick-up sticks when they were kids.

Square Spiral panto and Omni Safari thread. Please forgive the shadow, it was just that time of day.

Stashbusting 2011 - #50

Fabric Added this week - 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date - 105.625 yards

Fabric Used this week - 0 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 217.375 yards

YEAR TO DATE STASH USED: 111.25 yards

Nothing in and nothing out. I did cut up some fabric, but it wasn't mine so I'm not counting it in or out.

Meijer Canvas Wrapped Photos

Thanks to Bzzagent Juno, I had a free coupon and I ordered this product from my local Meijer store, not knowing what the quality would be. It's a canvas photo wrapped around a box. It was ready the next day and I just LOVE it. Now I want one for everyone on my list. This is my son Jeff and his beautiful daughter.

Carla's Embroidered Blocks

Last night I finished the last 3 of Carla's embroidered small quilts. All nine of them were quilted the same and she is giving them to nieces and nephews for Christmas. Lucky family!

Julie's Zippy Strippy

Actually, this should be called Angie's Zippy Strippy because Angie actually pieced this one at Shipshewana, but made a trade with her daughter Julie for a beautiful snowflake, lemoyne star quilt.



I think this one is going to Julie's boyfriend for Christmas, so in keeping with the maaculine theme, we chose square spiral panto. I used Omni Safari thread and Hobbs 80/20 batting. What a great quilt for a guy!

Joann's Quilt for her Daughter

Joann made this queen size quilt for her daughter and wanted it done for Christmas. She wanted a design in each block and stitch-in-the-ditch around the blocks.



I chose a Chantilly Lace block design and a Pam Clarke design from her Design With Lines book. It's a great book with lots of ideas. I copied the pattern and then printed out 7 copies of it so I could have them laying on my table. I just lined up the outer edges of the block and the center and quilted like a pantograph. Of course I had to start and stop in each block, but it still went pretty quickly.

Stashbusting 2011 - #49

Fabric Added this week - 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date - 105.625 yards

Fabric Used this week - 0 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 217.375 yards

YEAR TO DATE STASH USED: 111.25 yards

Nothing in and nothing used this week. I barely looked in my sewing room this week.

Janet came over yesterday morning and quilted this cute quilt for her grandson, Maddox. He will celebrate his first birthday on December 27th and she will have this cute quilt to give to him.



She used the Popcorn panto and did a great job.

Occupy Your Sewing Room

I read about this on Bonnie's blog and I really need to spend some time in my sewing room, as my Stashbusting report shows.



I still have customer quilts to quilt, but will be spending time in my sewing room working on a new project. So, head on over to Barbara's blog and join us. There will be prizes and lots of fun stuff.

Stephanie's Baby Quilt

A very cute baby quilt made by Stephanie. She wanted Popcorn panto in the center and something else in the border. I have had lots of requests for this kind of quilting lately....must be the new thing, and I don't mind quilting it that way at all.



Darling fabric line!


She made this table runner also and wanted something tropical.



I chose Aloha panto for this one.