Funk Remover

Yup the funk is over. And what, do you ask, got rid of it??? Planning what projects to take to a retreat next month. I drafted some projects in EQ and now I would like to get some kits made up and pick some other patterns that I can just grab a strip bin for fabric.

I told someone today, I may just have lots of kits in my car, take a couple in to the retreat at a time and as I finish or get  bored, go trade it for something in the car! If nothing else, the retreat is a whole 4 miles from home and I can go grab anything I need or forgot.



Yikes - sorry for the blurryvision. This is actually part of a class sample.



This morning I was making strip sets for the next border on the above sample.

Design Wall Monday - 3/12/12

I've managed to get the center of my batik quilt together! It feels really small compared to some of the other quilts I've worked on recently. I know it still needs the borders (and I had planned 3  which would make it 48" x 57") but I'm actually considering adding another border of HST to make it bigger.

On one hand I would just like to just get it done as is but on the other hand I would like something usable. Mom says the current size is great for a lap quilt, which is true but not really my style as I want to be *covered* by a couch quilt, or I could use it instead of the cream afghan to cover the ottoman, a fav pussycat hangout. Washing a quilt or afghan is much easier than cleaning the upholstered ottoman. What do you think - finish it as planned or make it bigger?

Ooh ooh – almost forgot I took this next picture. I think this loud striped fabric would make a fun border or even the binding. The colors are spot on!

I also wanted to tell you about 2 squishies I’ve received in the last week. Bonnie had Yard Sale Saturday back on 3/3/12 and I purchased this great neutral with roosters from Julie. She even included the cutest quilt label for me.

Back on Leap Day I entered several give-aways on a Leap Day Linky Party. I actually won one of them from Jen at Quilter’s Daughter !! It did kinda throw me for a loop when I picked up the package at the post office this weekend as Quilter's Daughter is the name of our LQS (my next stop after the PO) and I had to think for a minute what would be in the squishy.



Midgie and I were bummed that the post office clerk crossed out the stamps
when they hadn't been properly postmarked.



I won 5 green FQs and a spool of green silk thread for hand quilting. Thanks Jen!!

Design Wall Monday

Can't say that this was my most productive (re quilts anyways) weekend so far this year and that's because I (a) was social and (b) took a long/deserved nap!!

Saturday morning I made blueberry ginger scones based on the latest Tea Time magazine. I would love to show you a photo but I didn't think of it until they were devoured :)  I hope to make another batch this coming weekend... I made the scones to take with my new Sevenberry Sangria Tea to Noel's house for a sew day! Amongst the chatter, I think we both got a lot done. And then...Noel served homemade Minestrone soup - perfect for a chilly day and I got to bring the leftovers home!

I knew we would have a middle-of-the-night rescue call because we had ice water rescue training Sunday morning - and we did have the call! Training went smoothly and my brother commented it was probably the best training he had ever had based on the poor condition of the ice. I would  have to guess there was only 2 to 3" of ice where we were training (and the firemen were falling thru the ice) but there were guys out ice fishing on the other side of the lake. No pictures of ice training this year - it was too cold and the whole training exercise kind a stopped when the Silver Springs VFD we were training with left for a structure fire.

After getting home and eating a yummy brunch of grits and sausage I was trying to do some computer work and just felt whooped so I decided to take a little nap on the couch. You know where this is going! I woke up almost 4 hours later. Guess I really needed that nap!!

I worked just a few more hours before another rescue call and then the weekend was practically over! Phew!

Remember the half square tri's I started working on last week? Well that project is coming along quite nicely. I had planned to make this a smallish quilt based on what I thought was half of the HSTs that I had paired up. I should never have assumed because now I think I'll be able to finagle a couch sized quilt out of these "leftovers!" I need to cut out some more sashing strips and cornerstones but I should know by this weekend exactly how big I can make it.

NewFO and UFO Thursday - February Report

Lets do UFO's first -

My UFO Challenge for this month was to work on my Orca Bay Quilt.  As you may recall from earlier this month, I completed 30 blue string blocks. I had plans to do more last weekend or even last night before midnight but it didn't happen. My goal for the month was to make progress on the quilt and I did... I just never thought to take a picture.

One of my own goals for the year was to finish my "florabunda" quilt based on an antique that Bonnie Hunter encouraged us to all work on starting last year as leader-enders. I finished the top, now called Kangaroo Walkabout, this month and even bought the batting. I still need to piece the back and get it sandwiched.

Now, on to the NewFOs...

My designated project for the month was to work on my broderie perse project. I didn't get far but it is started! I cut the green batik for the sashings. I was too timid to cut into the koi fabric and that's as far as I got. I never took a photo of the cut parts, nor did I remember to grab the EQ file. Can you guess what I'll be working on in March?

This months doll quilt was based on broken dishes or half square triangles. Not having the book to get the pattern from, I doodled in EQ which also let me play with color placement. This is the design I settled on:

The original design had more random color placement and a little heart stitchery in the center block. I've picked out the following fabrics (still deciding on the borders: rightmost fabrics) and planned to make a heart shaped yoyo for the center.

My last new project for the month, started on a whim 4 days before the month ended, was another Bonnie inspired project. You may recall that I came across some half square triangles and a pattern almost simultaneously. I again doodled in EQ to come up with this layout based on Bonnie's original design and my lack of 16 more HST:

The colors are not correct at all since the HST are all batiks...it was just easier to doodle this way. The two purple borders could turn out to be anything and I'll be going to the LQS tomorrow to see what strikes my fancy. As you can see in the following photo, I do have a neutral stripe that would be fun as sashing, border or binding. There is also a chunk of the neutral used in each of the HST blocks available to use. I also have that wild orangey fabric that I got from a sale bin. I originally thought it would work for backing but what about outer border? I don't think there is enough for both places. Tell me what you think before I go to the store tomorrow. Please don't make me make my own decision!!

Design Wall Monday - 2/27/12

Wow - the last Monday in February - where did this month go??

One of my goals for the weekend had been to do housework. Yeh, I know, my least favorite chores too but it had to be done. At least I got to spend Saturday morning watching the big storm while working on hexies by the front windows. I didn't even realize until 2pm that I had not turned on a radio or CD or anything but had just been enjoying listening to the wind.

 During some of the storm, I couldn't even see the houses across the street. Does that electric pole show you how tall (and old) these pines are? I sure would miss them if they had to come down - I just don't want them coming done on my house!

I love ever changing drift patterns...

...and tails on my car.

For most of the house, chores are dishes, vacuuming and changing out the sheets BUT in the quilt room, it means cleaning off surface clutter from various projects. One of the first projects I wanted off the surfaces was my selvage quilt. It's not that I'm tired of the project (on the contrary....I decided to make it bigger!!) I just need all this stuff put away for a party at my house in a couple weeks. I zipped together another 24 blocks Friday night from the parts that I had already trimmed to size and, after doodling in EQ on how I wanted to change the project, added them to the blocks I did last weekend. I hung the project over the door (and I'll leave it there for the party) so that none of the seams  will need ironing *again.* Pinwheeling the intersections on this style quilt works great until you have to re-press it each time it's been folded up. One bin emptied!

Another part of this selvage project is going thru my scrap bin to find some chunks large enough to use for one end of each selvage block. I was ironing the scrap, cutting off the chunk I needed and then throwing the ironed chunk into a laundry basket where it got wrinkled again. Duh! I re-ironed the whole stack and layed them out on my cutting table to I can take a few mins here and there all week to trim them into my scrap bins. Another bin emptied!

Then I ran across 30-some blocks that need trimming for my Omigosh quilt. These tiny suckers have been sitting out for eons waiting for a couple minutes (ok, maybe an hour) to be trimmed down to 2" squares. Easy peasy with a good book to listen to. I now have 101 of these suckers done! Another bin emptied!

You can barely make out one of the quality control officers in the background :)

Sunday was mostly the un-fun chores and a lot of interruptions. By 9pm I wanted some simple piecing to work on - nothing that would require brain power. Since I was sitting by the laptop I noticed a bin of half square tri's leftover from making this quilt on my left. On my right were some printouts of recent Bonnie quilts that I wanted to tackle "someday" and the one on top needed half square triangles. I doodled again in EQ to come up with a layout that would work with the HST's I already had but forgot to give the file a name before closing the software. ARGH! My second doodle is not half as accurate as the first! I'll show you more on this project later this week so here is only a peak. Another bin that will be emptied this week! Wonder if I can make a similar quilt or table runner with the leftover red HSTs that are in another bin?!  

May's UFO Challenge is done!

WooHoo!

I actually "finished" my May UFO project!!

All I had to do was finish adding 2 outer rows of borders to 2 sides of the quilt. The batiks were already sewn together, I just had to add the background material to fill out the rows (not enough batiks as these were from charm packs). What did that take? 30 Minutes?

I've kinda decided to call this "Headed North" or "Moving North" or "Moving Home" or something like that. What do you think? The batiks were purchased in NC as I was moving from Florida back to NY.

UFO Thursday & Civil War Blocks

This month we are supposed to be working on UFO #9 which is this batik quilt.
It looks done, you say?! Not quite because it's only 95% done. I need to finish the borders on 2 sides.

When moving from Miami back to Castile we stopped at a Quilt Store in one of the Carolina's and they had batik charm packs for sale. Who can resist a good charm pack or three? Especially when moving from the sunny south back to the cold, gray north. The borders were made from left over charms and they are all cut - some of them maybe already be sewn into strips - I just need to sew them to the top.

And that porch...by summer's end it will have a brand new coat of paint on it! We think the main support posts may be original to the 1892 house so we will have to be careful with them when scrapping paint. The trim will remain white but I plan to paint the deck a nice purple color. It may cause my 'hood to be in an uproar but I'll smile everytime I see it :) See, just thinking about it put a smile on my face :)

I've been playong catch up with my Civil War blocks. I'm now making two of these quilts so I had to go back and make duplicates - 3 done, 3 more to go. I've also made two new blocks and have a third cut and partially sewn together. Progress is good!

#14 - Fox & Geese

#6 - Richmond