Design Wall Monday - 5/31/10

Wow the end of another month, how the time flies.

I hope everyone will have a great Memorial Day with family and friends but also stop and give thanks to all the people that served and gave their lives so the rest of us can enjoy days like this.

Last night I decided to work on another backing. This one is for the second Patriotic Flurries quilt that I made. I didn't have enough of any one fabric so pieced it. I was going to do my usual 10 1/2 squares but decided to go quicker so just cut these 10 1/2 by 20 1/2. Made a quick and easy backing and better yet used up stash.


Kathie

Who Do You Remember

I was reading another blog a little bit ago that asked who you were remembering this memorial day weekend. I am remembering my dad.

As an 18 year old kid he left home with a bus ticket and a cardboard suitcase and went on a construction crew to help rebuild Pearl Harbor a few months after the bombing. While there he received his draft notice and came back to California and went in the Army.

After the usual training he ended up in the infintry and was mainly in Germany. He was one of numerous people that landed on the beaches at Normandy in the dark of night to mark where mines were laid so that the troups landing the next morning could do so more safely.

He wouldn't talk about his service for years and years and wouldn't even watch old John Wayne movies with all the shooting. I think that he probably had what they then called "shell shock" and it took many years to get over it. Many memories were put way back in his mind and a lot of it never came back until the start of the first gulf war. I heard later that it had the same effect on a lot of the vets.

He was a very proud American and believed very much in this country. He didn't live long enough to see the dedication of the WWII memorial but I was there the weekend it was dedicated for him.

Kathie

Sunday Stash Report 5-30-10

I didn't think I would have a very good stash report this week since I didn't get much time to sew but I did put the borders on a quilt and pieced a backing for another quilt so my amount used ended up pretty good.

I did take a trip to the quilt store this week but only got fabric for borders and binding for my pinwheel quilt and also a couple of fabrics to go with a challenge fabric for my one guild, not bad.

Fabric Used this week: 8 yards
Fabric Used YTD: 127 yards
Fabric Added this week: 3.5 yards
Fabric Added YTD: 78.75
NET used in 2010: 48.25

I also FINALLY had a finish. I had been gradually working on the binding for my take 5 quilt for probably two weeks. Finally got it finished the other night.



Kathie

Why We Quilt

I have an aunt that lives in eastern Washington State that I am in touch with a few times a year. In fact she is the last of my Dad's generation. I would tell her about my quilting in letters and a few months ago, maybe a year now (I lose track of time) she mentioned she wished she could see some of my quilts.

I had a quilt I made that was soft pinks and purples, just right for an elderly lady. I packed it up and sent it off to her as a surprise. She was so happy and had her picture taken by one of the people at the assisted living facility she lives in.

She told me several times through the months how much she loves it.

Today I got one of those phone calls you don't want. Her daughter, my cousin, called to say that my aunt had a massive stroke and is only expected to last a few days at most. They are bringing her back home from the hospital where she will be comfortable and will have hospice assistance. She wanted to me to know that the quilt is on the bed waiting for my aunt.

I will always remember the summers we visited her when I was a kid, the great cookies she fed me, giving me my first puppy from her dogs litter and that last month on my birthday she was still remembering my birthday and sending me a card each and every year.

I can't say that I have remembered her on special occasions as much as I would have if we had not been living 3,000 miles away, but I am so glad I sent that quilt!!!

I love you Aunt Arline.


Kathie




Kathie

Backings

The other day I wanted to put one of my craft show quilts on the frame and discovered that I had no backings ready so decided that is my next task. I pulled fabrics yesterday to make backings for a red/white and blue quilt and a Christmas quilt that I have tops made. I also checked in my box of 10 1/2 squares and had enough already cut to make a backing for the pinwheel quilt. I put all the squares on the design wall and am slowing getting them sewn together between customer quilts and work around the house.

Busy weekend coming up with end of the year school project to help with, dance costumes to alter and sew things on and trying to get some painting and de-cluttering down around here.

Doesn't sound like much sewing time so with working on the backings a little at a time I will still accomplish something.

Kathie

Its a GO

We got word tuesday afternoon that our offer on the house had been accepted so we will be moving shortly. I am excited about getting a new house but I am so dreading all the painting etc. that will need to be done on both houses and also the move itself. That is never "fun" it is time consuming and high stress.

At least it is practically the end of the school year and the dance year so our daughter is going to be doing a lot of helping, I told her that will be her summer job this year.

I am trying to get some things done around here that can be done and also keeping up on customer quilting. I finished this large customer quilt the other night.



The colors are wonderful in this quilt. It was nice and flat and square and a pleasure to quilt.

Last night I took the time to get the final border on my tesselating pinwheel quilt. I don't know if I will get it quilted anytime soon but at least the top is done and the binding cut.



Kathie

On the Frame

To answer a couple of question, no I didn't do an OFFICIAL SUNDAY STASH REPORT this week, just didn't have the time. I did not buy or use any fabric last week that had not already been reported so the report would have been zero anyway.

As for moving? Still waiting to hear back on the offer we put in but if we get the house it is probably about 5 or 6 miles from where we currently live. Wanted to say in the same zoning for high school and it is a really nice neighborhood.

This is the customer quilt that is currently on the frame. Very nice fall colors of batiks. I had no clue what color thread to use so ended up ordering a variegated king Tut thread that had just about all the colors in it and it is perfect. I will try and get a picture of that once the quilting is done.


Kathie

Design Wall Monday - 5/24/10

Really nothing new up with my design wall. I still have the turtle applique block on there waiting for inspiration and the tesselating pinwheel quilt is up there until I have time to take a run to the quilt shop to try and find border.

I have not sewn in the last few days as we have been busy house hunting. We did find the place we want and put an offer in yesterday, just waiting now to hear if it is accepted.

Kathie

Busy Week

Wow it was a busy week, I managed to get a couple of customer quilts quilted, quilts delivered to Hospice, another hospice quilt quilted and lots of de-junking around the house.

Yesterday I went out looking at houses and we will be going out again this afternoon. No wonder the week went by so quickly.

This first picture is of the quilt top I put together (finished it up yesterday) of the left over blocks from the recent baby quilt I made. I wanted to use up these sections and not put them away somewhere that they would be totally forgotten about.



This second pictures is one of the customer quilts I quilted this week. Very simple piecing but don't you just love the colors in this, makes me think of sunny spring weather.



Kathie

Hospice Day

Yesterday Jane and I delivered all the hospice quilts (17 in total) that I had collected over the past few months. Neither one of us had been to Hospice House before so they gave us a tour. Their facility is wonderful, peaceful and very homelike. We saw two unoccupied rooms and both beds had lap quilts across the bottom of them.

Since I couldn’t find a craft show quilt that I had made backing for I loaded a hospice quilt on the frame and got that quilted up in the afternoon. This is a pretty one that Jane made mostly with donated fabrics.

I guess I need to pull fabrics one of these days soon and get a couple of backings made up so when I have time I can quilt up the next couple of craft show quilts.


I guess today I will load the next customer quilt and do some more de-junking. I was up and down the stairs and step ladder a whole lot yesterday getting things out of cabinets so my knee is protesting a bit. Think I need to not climb today.

Kathie

Just off the Frame

I quilted this small customer quilt for Carol yesterday and just took it off the frame this morning. She is our guilds "scrap queen" and always makes good use of scraps from everyone. I quilted freehand peacock meander on this one.

Next on the frame will be a craft show quilt if I have one with a backing ready, will have to check that out. If I don't I am not going to take the time to piece one today, I will go ahead and do one of the hospice quilts.

It is amazing that it takes the thought of moving to get motivated to do a real "de-junking" of the house. So many things I have started to look at with the "do I love it, do I use it and is it worth moving it" frame of mind. Not that anyone else but us would see the difference yet but I feel like I am making headaway even though I have only been working on the house a couple of hours a day for the last few days.

Kathie

Design Wall Monday 5-17-10 and Sunday Stash Report

Due to internet problems, doing things around the house and house hunting yesterday I never had the chance to post my sunday stash report so I am going to combine that here today.

I did purchase some fabric on Mother's Day for a backing and a couple of "go with" fabrics for upcoming project but I also used up a lot of fabric this week for a backing, borders and bindings, cut out a horse quilt and contributed one of my fabrics to a charity quilt so I did use more than I purchased.

Fabric Used this week: 12.25 yards
Fabric Used YTD: 119 yards
Fabric Added this week: 8 yards
Fabric Added YTD: 75.25 yards
NET used in 2010: 43.75 (yipee, up over 40 yards).

As for the monday design wall, this is what is currently on there. I got the first two borders done on my pinewheel quilt but waiting for inspiration (and time to run to a quilt shop) to figure out the final wide border.

No Quilting

My husband has finally discovered one thing that makes me not interested in quilting for awhile, looking at new houses!!!

He has been talking about wanting to move out of the area when he retires in a couple of years, either back to New England where he was raised or possibly to the Norfolk area where he spent many years.

After a lot of thought and talking we pretty much decided to stay in this area and just look for a different house. We had been telling our daughter that she had to look at in state colleges because of the difference in tuitions and moving somewhere else would change all that.

The real estate lady we used when we purchased this house 13 years ago is out of town so we decided to do some drive bys of various neighboorhoods and houses we saw on the internet last night.

A couple we definitely would like to see the inside of when she gets back and a couple we were able to cross off our list for various reasons.

Needless to say my mind has been occupied with this the last couple of days and I have got zero done in the quilt room.

I am off to a cutting bee of some charity fabric this morning and then going to start doing some major "de-junking" of this house as a start to potentially moving. If I do enough of that this weekend come monday I will be back in the mood to get back to customer quilts.

I will have my stash report and an updated picture of my pinwheel quilt tomorrow.

kathie

Hospice Quilts

Hospice Quilts 15, 16 and 17


I received three donated hospice quilts on Monday night. The first one is a scrappy quilt made of squares by Carol E. The zig zag quilt and the quilt all of blues were both made by Julia. All three quilts are beautiful.

Workshop quilt

I went to the guild workshop for my tessellating pinwheels. There were a dozen or so of us and each and every quilt top turned out looking totally different. We all started out with a top (grid) of 7 squares across and 7 down and a 3 ½ border. We then cut it up with a special template making sure that everything was kept in exactly the correct order and then sewed it all back together. Then it was magic as it made all these pinwheels. This is what my top ended up looking like. Now I want to add probably 3 borders to make it into a lap sized quilt. What a fun workshop.

kathie

Left Over Quilt

I have been working on a quickie baby quilt for my step-daughter to give a friend of hers. I got it quilted and the binding on yesterday so think I will wait to take a picture until it is totally done. I ended up having a bunch of left over 4-patch blocks and some of the bear fabric left. After playing with it on my design wall this is what I came up with. I will try and get these blocks sewn together over the next few days and then it will become a craft show quilt for fall.

Last night was our quilt guild meeting and what a great presentation. We had a lady from an organization that provides quilts and afghans to wounded soldiers that come into Andrews Air Force Base. They have provided over 10,000 quilts since 2003. It is nice that we have an organization close enough to us that we can provide quilts twice a year to them and no one will have to pay any postage. Twenty-three quilts were donated last night and I hope that she inspired some members that have never made a soldier quilt to make one for our fall delivery.

I am already doing well on my weekly goals listing. I got the baby quilt quilted and binding on it yesterday, just need to hand stitch it down and I also got the binding on the Mardi Gras quilt.

Today I need to get three customer quilts logged in and get a customer quilt on the frame and I also want to take pictures of the three hospice quilts that were turned in last night. Those will fill up the second huge bag of quilts I have so I guess I need to add “call hospice” to my agenda for the day and set up a time/day to deliver them.


Kathie

Design Wall Monday - May 10, 2010

Nothing very exciting on the design wall today, just sections of the quickie quilt I am making for my step-daughters friend. Since the baby is due in three weeks I decided to go with about the easiest quilt I could make.

I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day yesterday. We went to lunch and near there was a huge JoAnns that I never go to. I went with a mission in mind and stuck with it. I brought fabrics with me that I needed "go withs" for projects. I had a couple of horse fabrics for a kids quilt and got a really pretty brown to go with them, brown is something I have practically none of in my stash. I found in my stash a soft green to make a backing for the baby quilt but didn't have enough so picked up a soft yellow to make a pieced backing with the green. I also had a really bright kids print I purchased a couple of years ago and purchased fabrics to go with that to make a warm wishes quilt.

So I purchased about 8 yards of fabric and will have to add that to my stash report next week but feel great that it was only for specific projects and I will make those the next few projects I work on. In fact the backing for the baby quilt I pieced last night so I have already used some of the fabrics.

As for goals this week.

1. Quilt baby quilt and get binding on it
2. Get binding on Marti Gras quilt
3. Quilt customer quilt
4. Interlocking pinwheel top (workshop this week)

Kathie

Sunday Stash Report - May 9, 2010

First off a very big Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there. Being a mom is not an easy job but very very rewarding. I lost my mom three years ago so my emotions are always high today. Happy with my daughter and all the great memories I have of my mom and sad because I still miss her so much.

So on to the stash report. I used a lot of fabric this week with borders, binding and sashing and also for a baby quilt for a friend of my step-daughter. As I was piecing it realized I was going to have a lot of extra blocks so I am going to add a little more fabric to it and make two baby quilts.

Fabric Used this week: 9 1/4
Fabric Used YTD: 106.75
Fabric Added this week: 5 yards (for the baby quilts)
Fabric Added YTD: 67.25
Net used in 2010: 39.50

I finally topped the magic number of using more than 100 yards this calendar year, to bad it is offset by purchasing over 60 yards!!!

Kathie

Craft Show Runners

I made two of these runners awhile ago and finally got them quilted a couple of weeks ago. I finished the binding on the first one the other night and then tucked it away in my craft show boxes. I made these two runners a little longer than most as every year I get inquiries for long runners.

I did get fabric for the baby quilt cut out last night but that was it. After a lengthy dentist visit for a crown and having to pick my daughter up from school sick herself I just didn't feel like doing anything else last night. I hope to get started on the 4 patch blocks later today.

Kathie

Patriotic Flurries Take 2

I sold my Patriotic Flurries quilt earlier this week and since I had all the fabric cut and waiting to make another one I set about getting it pieced. Such a simple quilt it didn't take any time at all. I put the outer border on it last night and got binding strips cut. I like the stripe border fabric on this one.

It will have to wait to be quilted as I need to get busy on the baby quilt for my step-daughters friend.

I took four charity quilt kits to my day time guild yesterday and ladies took all four of them to make up. Only have three kits left that I cut out and I hope to get rid of those at my other guild meeting monday night. Once those are out of here I will try and get busy and get a few more cut up. I have two bins of donated charity fabrics and two bags of donated tone on tones to go with them and would like to get it knocked down as I really don't have the room for all of that or I will have to do some major reorganization.



Kathie

Wonderful Wednesday

It is a wonderful wednesday, we are going to have nice spring time weather and it is also the day my day time quilting guild meets. It is not only a great group of ladies but I love show and tell to see what people have been working on all month. A wonderful lunch is provided and today we are going to be given some preliminary instructions for our interlocking pinwheels class.


My step-daughter called me Monday and requested that I make a baby quilt for some friends of hers that are expecting a baby boy. I was thinking that I would have plenty of time, but the baby is due in a month. I didn’t have a thing in my stash baby boy appropriate to went out to JoAnns and bought these fabrics. Since this will have to be a quickie quilt I think I am just going to make 4-patches out of the blue and green, solid blocks of the bears and then use the yellow for binding. Should be able to get it done quickly.

Hospice House Quilt #14

I put a label on this 14th quilt finished for the next hospice delivery a couple of nights ago. The quilt was made by Doris and I did the binding and label. I love this quilt and the fabrics are great. I didn’t take a picture of the back of the quilt but it is a stripe fabric that looks pieced but isn’t and is in different blues and browns, so nice and so soft.

Since I now have two huge bags of quilts I need to call Hospice next week and see when it would be convenient for me to drop them off.

Kathie

Design Wall Monday - May 3, 2010

Design Wall Monday – this is the only thing on my design wall right now. This block was from an appliqué class I took at the fiber arts conference I went to the beginning of April. I finally got it finished (appliqué is not my thing and it took me forever). Now I need to decide what to do with it.


I would like to make it the center of a lap quilt for either charity or craft show. I think this one might have to sit here awhile for an inspiration to strike.


Another year rolls around and its my daughters birthday again. I am so blessed that I have a happy, healthy teenager. We drive each other nuts many times but that is just part of the whole growing up thing and we will both survive it. I am having such a hard time realizing that in a couple of years she will be off to college. Seems like just yesterday she was that little kid getting on the school bus for the first time.



Kathie

Sunday Stash Report - May 2, 2010

I did pretty good with stash reduction this week. I used fabric on a backing, some sashing and some strips cut for table runners. The small amount of fabric I purchased is to be used making charity kits so that will cut up and out of here soon.

Fabric used this week: 7.25 yards
Fabric used YTD: 97.50
Fabric Added this week: 2 yards
Fabric Added YTD: 62.25
Net Fabric Used in 2010: 35.25 yards

I am so happy to see my total used near 100 yards, to bad the total purchased is over 60.

Been busy the last few days and not on the computer as much. My daughter has a birthday coming up tomorrow and seemed to think she need a whole "birthday weekend" full of activities. It was actually a 3 day weekend off of school for them so we have been playing parent taxi a lot.


I did get the mardi gras quilt quilted and off the frame, the binding finally finished on the latest hospice quilt and pieced blocks that will become two craft show table runners.

Today I need to get the next quilt loaded on the frame which is a scrappy quilt of a thousand seams..

Kathie