Mid Week Report

Ok so I know it isn't really mid week yet but since I will be out of the house most of tomorrow, first with my guild meeting and then with a doctors appointment, thought I would give a mid week report early.

My personal goal is to try and quilt two charity quilts a month. Since this was the last day of the month and I had only quilted one hospice quilt so far this month you can tell what I did today!!!

I quilted this quilt that was pieced by Regina from a kit that I made up out of donated batik fabrics plus a floral fabric out of my stash. This was my second attempt at using Dawn's Fern Ziggle from the Pajama Quilter Rethreaded DVD. It is fun and i love to do it but I am still having problems with the spacing. For those of you that have tried it do you do the large meander all over the whole quilt and then go back and to the ziggle or do you go row by row?



I also finished sewing the rows together for my Christmas backing (nice stash busting) so that quilt will now be ready to put on the frame, hopefully in the next week or so.




Kathie

Design Wall Monday - August 30, 2010

I just fused the poinsettias on these runners so they are still tacked to my design wall. Once these are quilted I put a few topaz crystals in the center of each flower and they come out looking real cute.

Yesterday I started piecing a backing for another Christmas quilt out of 10 1/2 squares. I had some already cut out but started going through my stacks of Christmas fabric to see what was old that I no longer wanted, what I didn't have much left of etc. and all that is going to be part of this backing.

I hope to get that pieced over the next couple of days between other things. Have a couple of customer quilts to work on, a workshop (Convergent quilts), a guild meeting and a doctors appointment all this week so I am sure it will zoom by.

Kathie

Sunday Stash Report - August 29, 2010

I had a great stash busting week. I used up some very old fall fabric as the backing for runners, used fabrics for borders and bindings for runners and continued to cut out and kit up a sports quilt that will be a Christmas present.

Most importantly I stayed out of JoAnns Fabrics and out of the quilt shop. I plan to go this week for a couple of things I need but nice to be able to stay away for a week anyway.

Current stats are:

Fabric used this week: 7 yards
Fabric used YTD: 177 yards
Fabric purchased this week: A BIG FAT ZERO
Fabric purchased year to date: 110.25

NET fabric stash busted in 2010: 66.75

Kathie

On the Frame

This is what I had on my frame yesterday. It was my converging chevrons Christmas quilt that will be for the craft shows and maybe my entry at the county fair next month.

I had it finished, off the frame and trimmed up by the end of the afternoon and I liked the way it turned out. Now to just get binding made and I will have a hand stitching job for a few evenings next week. I will take another picture once it is totally done.

I usually do customer jobs in the ordered received but I received three small customer quilt jobs all on the same day so will be heading downstairs shortly to get going on one of them. I believe one of them is going to be quilted in gold and since that is the thread currently on the machine I guess I will do that one first.


Kathie

Finished

This is the first of my Christmas Tree runners totally finished. I decorated them the other day with the crystals. I have two more with bindings done waiting for crystals but I was out of a couple of colors so have them on order.

If anyone is interested on where I get my crystals from a company called Sue's Sparklers. I don't have the website handy but I am sure you can google it. They were a vendor at the Houston Quilt Show when I went there many years ago and I have been ordering from them ever since.

My daughter survived the first day of school, has at least one friend in most of her classes and several people she knows have her same lunch hour so all is good!!

She had homework the first night but at least it was only one subject so didn't take her that long.

Today I have several errands to run and then I am going to quilt up my converging chevrons Christmas quilt that I have on the frame and then I will be back to doing customer quilts for a few days.

Kathie

Starting a new year

Well my daughter left for the beginning of her junior high school year this morning. You know that teenagers can be "high maintenence" so I am sure I will be getting so much more done and on my schedule now but I will still miss the company and our summer once a week lunches out.

Have you seen the commercial on TV where the guy hands the keys to the car to a little girl and then she is actually a teenager? Some days like today I still see her as that little girl walking off to the bus on her first day of school. I better not tell her or I will probably get OH MOM and a few eye rolls.

This isn't a very good picture but it is the prep work I have been doing for making some craft show runners. I made the cream center panels, fussy cut poinsettias (they will have crystals as the flower centers) and yesterday cut border and binding fabric for each one. I have five of them lined up and ready to go.


Kathie

Design Wall Monday - August 23, 2010

Well I have no new projects to show on my design wall but I do have my Christmas strippy top all done and still on the design wall. I thought I would leave it there until I made a backing for it or until I needed the design wall for something else.



I do like how this stash quilt turned out. It is about 48 x 60 inches so a nice sofa sized quilt.

I couldn't seem to get motivated yesterday but did manage to sew a bunch of cream strips together that will be the centers of 3 table runners and I sat and watched TV and fussy cut out some poinsettias that will go on the cream centers.

I was on vacation last week so today I need to get back to working on customer quilts. I don't have that many in house right now but have a couple of big ones so that will take awhile.

Between each quilt I plan on quilting up a couple of my runners and then on the weekend I want to get at least one of my Christmas quilts quilted.

Kathie

Sunday Stash Report - August 22, 2010

I didn't get much sewing in this week with being out of town for four days but I did finish making my Christmas blocks before we left and that used up some additional fabric and I also started cutting out a quilt yesterday which used some more.

Everyone reports their stash as used in different ways. Some when it is initially cut and others when it is completed.

I find it much easier to count it as out of my stash once I start cutting it into a "kit". Don't you love to have kits cut and just waiting to sew?

I did purchase some fabric this week but it was more white on white as I was very low on that and one color that I need for a Christmas gift so not bad.

My current stats are:

Fabric Used this week: 5 yards
Fabric Used YTD: 170 yards
Fabric Purchased this week: 4 yards
Fabric purchased YTD: 110.25
Net Fabric Used in 2010: 59.75

How did you do this week?

Kathie

No Fabric Vacation

We just got back from a few days in Atlantic City, NJ. The weather wasn't good about half of the short time we were there so using our trusty GPS we found a quilt shop in near by Ocean City, NJ. It was a cute little shop and had a nice selection of fabrics but I left with (do you believe it) NOTHING!!

I looked around and admired some of the fabrics but there was nothing there to add to any of my on going projects. I also am using mostly Christmas fabric right now and they didn't have any pretty Christmas fabrics that I liked enough to spend $10 a yard on.

I had given myself permission to buy while on vacation if I wanted to as I would never get to that quilt shop again but am kind of proud that I didn't end up with something just because.

Kathie

Design Wall Monday - August 16, 2010

Design wall is not much different than yesterday. I have a few more of my Christmas scrappy blocks pinned up but thats it. I am thinking about piecing the backing for this quilt out of 10 1/2 squares and doing a scrappy binding. That way the entire quilt can be out of stash!!



I also wanted to post a picture of the charity quilt I quilted this weekend. This was a hidden 9 patch quilt that a lady at our guild put together out of 5 inch donated squares.

I tried a version of the fern ziggle from the new Pajama Quilter work book (have not had time to watch the DVD yet). Not totally satistified with the results but that is why I tried it for the first time on something so busy. I did really enjoy quilting it. It is kind of mindless quilting and you can zone out while doing it.

I am definitely going to practice this design a few more times. Might have to look through the stack of hospice quilt tops and see what else is really busy I can practice on.

Kathie

Sunday Stash Report - August 15, 2010

Well I am happy to report this week I made a little headway using up more fabric than I purchased (a 3 yard piece of a theme print for a Christmas present).

My current stats are:

Fabric used this week: 7.25 yards
Fabric used YTD: 165
Fabric Purchased this week: 3 yards
Fabric Purchased YTD: 106.25 yards
Net Fabric Used in 2010: 58.75 yards

I started another Christmas quilt this week using left over binding pieces and a few other 2 1/2 strips that I had laying around. Here are the first 4 blocks.



It is VERY busy since there are so many different fabrics in it. I think I would like to try this block in a more controlled scrappy at some point like maybe in blues and yellows.

I quilted two of my runners yesterday and then got a charity quilt on the frame. I tried quilting a new technique from the recently released Pajama Quilter Rethreaded DVD and workbook. I have not actually watched the DVD yet but was drawing one of the patterns from the workbook and thought I would give it a try since the charity quilt was so busy with probably 100 different fabrics in it. I think it was called ziggling or something like that.

It was really fun to do but my technique left a lot to be desired but since the quilt is so busy no one else should notice that but me. I will have to find another super busy quilt to try this on and maybe watch that portion of the DVD for pointers on spacing.

Kathie


Kathie

Saturday Sew In

Most months our guild has a saturday sew in at the library the saturday after our guild meeting.

I have not been in a couple of months due to our move and various other committments but I am going to attend today, even if it is just for a little while. I won't bother to take my machine but will bring a couple of my Christmas Tree runners with me to work on bindings. Half the fun of the sew in is to visit so I can definitely work on bindings and talk at the same time (lol).

My friend Jane loaned me a new book of hers for a couple of days, one of the jelly roll books. I don't buy jelly rolls as they always seem to expensive for what you get but I always cut up my left over fabrics into 2 1/2 strips so those books are perfect. Loved all the great patterns in it and I already started making one. This is another Christmas quilt using up left over binding pieces. I have several blocks done and boy is it going to be busy with so many different fabrics but think I will like the end result. The name of the quilt in the book was Feed Sacks because that is what it was made up of but I will have to find a better name for mine. Do you ever wonder why people name quilts a certain way? Check out a blog I read about how she comes up with her quilt names, http://kwiltnkats.blogspot.com.

I will try to take a picture of it in process and post when I do my weekly stash report tomorrow.

Kathie

Yesterday's Runners

I wanted to post a picture of the two runners I made up yesterday. They are the same as the runner I made on sunday but with the lighter floral fabric has a whole different look.

I have another customer quilt half loaded on the frame so getting that quilted, grocery shopping and a couple of chores around the house are what is on the agenda today.

I have been doing a lot of thinking about charity quilting. At our last guild meeting the one lady mentioned that the local hospital would like to have some teen appropriate quilts to keep in ER for any auto accidents involving teens. Great idea and I would like to make one up but with the stack of hospice quilts I have that need quilting I need to put my charity quilting time towards that, not making new quilts. I would also like to make at least one QOV type of quilt before the guild delivers to them in the fall.

I think to be able to do a charity quilt from start to finish once in awhile and to not get burned out on the quilting I need to work harder at trying to get some other people to quilt some of the quilts and probably start to say no to quilting any charity quilts other than the hospice ones.

I had made a personal goal of quilting two charity/freebie quilts a month. That would give me time to do customer quilts, craft show things (both of these is where my income comes from) and an occasional charity quilt. With the number of quilts that have been coming in (a great number) I have been trying to average way over that.

I so hate to say no but guess I will have to pull back to the two a month and only for hospice at least until the end of the year.

Kathie

Pieced Backings

I love pieced backings. I think they add so much interest to a quilt and a side advantage is that you can use up fabric remaining from the front of your quilt or even fabric that has been in your stash for years and you can't remember why in the world you bought it.

I piece about half of my backings. It does take extra time but you don't have to go out and buy yards of fabric that way.

I didn't piece this backing but it was the back of the customer quilt I quilted today. It was so nice and bright and fun I had to take a picture of it.



Kathie

Wonderful Wednesday

It will be HOT today again but should be a great day. I have a few errands to do and bills to pay this morning (yuck) but then will spend the rest of the day in the sewing room. Daughter is going to a theme park all day so I should be sewing all afternoon uninterrupted.

I have a customer quilt loaded on the frame and ready to go. This is a small lap quilt so won't take a whole lot of time to do. I don't know if I will try and get a second one loaded today or get a charity one on the frame.

I forgot to mention at quilt guild the other night we had two people turn in small kids quilts to go to the local hospital, two people brought me backings that they had pieced and another lady turned in a hospice quilt top that I had cute out a few months ago.

Since a lot of people are on vacation this time of year I thought it was great that any donation quilts were turned in.

Kathie

Left Overs

I was going to put all the fabrics away from making the panel quilt on sunday but there was only a small piece of the black/red floral left. I thought why go ahead and put that small amount away to get lost so I went ahead and made up a table runner. I would have liked to have enough of the floral to border it in that but the black from my stash worked fine. I like this, I might just keep it for myself.

I definitely need to get the hubby to reload the photo editing software that was on our computer so I can cut out all the excess "stuff" around the edges of my pictures.



I quilted up two of my Christmas Tree runners this morning so now have 4 of the 8 quilted, and one of them bound. Now after a little book work and a couple of phone calls I will go load the next customer project which is small but will be a challenge as it is applique and I usually do an all over design and not used to having to go around applique.

In fact I turned down a quilting job last night. It was a beautiful quilt that had blocks that were partially done in crayon and partially embroidered. I told her that I couldn't do it justice and that she needed a lot fancier quilting than I could do and suggested a couple of people that she could contact. I like the type of quilting I do, freehand, all over designs. It is fun to do and great for people on a budget but some jobs just are not something I should tackle.

Kathie

Design Wall Monday - August 9, 2010

After seeing how many panels I had yesterday I got busy and made the Christmas one into an appx. 45 x 60 lap quilt. Nothing fancy, just added 4 plain borders to it, mindless sewing.

At least now there is one less panel in my stash and I will have one more Christmas quilt once it is finished up. I need to get binding cut and it will then go on my "to be quilted" shelf which is getting fairly full again.

At least I started off my week using stash up yesterday, now if I can just stay out of fabric stores this week maybe I will have a stash reduction to report next weekend!!

Kathie

Sunday Stash Report - August 8, 2010

Well after quilting panel quilts for the last couple of customer quilts I pulled out all the panels I have purchased over the last few years (here are a pictue of part of them) and never did anything with. I have a stack, but honestly not as many as I thought I had.

I do think I purchased two Christmas panels a few months ago and I can't find those anywhere. Now did I just think I purchased them? or are they lost somewhere in a stack of other fabric?

I do have one Christmas panel (a recent purchase) so I think that will be my next piecing project so that one doesn't get lost also.

I am making no headway in my stash reduction. This week I did use up several yards of fabric but purchased the same amount so nothing was gained.

Fabric Used this week: 6 yards
Fabric Used YTD: 157.75 yards
Fabric Purchased this week: 6 yards
Fabric Purchased YTD: 103.25 yards
Net fabric used in 2010: 54.50

Kathie

Panel Quilts

Do you make quilts using those cute panels they have in all quilt shops these day? I hate to say it but I probably have 8 to 10 of them in my stash that I bought because they were so cute and never did anything with.

The last two customer quilts I quilted were both from panels (the pictured one is a huge panel) and they were both really cute. It got me thinking that I should probably haul out one of mine as my next project when I am done with the current batch of runners.

I know I have 2 or 3 Christmas panels so I could make one of them up into a lap quilt. It would get rid of the panel and would be a quick and easy way to get another Christmas quilt for fall craft shows.

Off to do some back to school clothes shopping today. Tax free week starts tomorrow but it just fit into our schedule better to go today.

Kathie

Thankful

I went grocery shopping at the commissary yesterday and saw a family of 3 little girls. All in pretty dresses and so cute. I did a double take when I saw their mom. She obviously didn't have any hair and was wearing a pink ball cap.

She was obviously fighting some disease, probably cancer and my heart went out to her. It must be terrible to be fighting something like that and worrying about your kids.

I am as bad as the next person, complaining about all the little things but seeing that family and all they are probably facing it made me take stock of my life.

I am so thanksful to have a husband and daughter that mean the world to me, that we are in basically good health. We have a nice new house and my husband has a good job. My teenager drives me nuts as all teens do and of course I worry about her getting a license soon but she is a good kid and does well in school.

I am going to try and be more thankful and take it all for granted less.

Kathie

Wonderful Wednesday

Woke up to rain this morning but it is a wonderful day because today is my day time guild meeting. It is a great group of ladies and I always have a super time. Also when you work at home and by yourself it just feels so good to go out and socialize once in awhile.

I did get the quilt loaded and half quilted yesterday. I hope to get it finished this afternoon and will then take a picture of it. This was a simple quilt, just a large center panel with several borders but her choice of border colors really made it interesting.

I also machine stitched around the Christmas trees on two of my runners. Once I get a couple more stitched around I will put them on the frame between customer quilts as I need some binding hand work to do in the evenings.

I am enjoying all the extra space in the new house but it still doesn't feel like home yet. Think that is because we still don't have curtains up or very many pictures. I hung a few old family photos (black and white) up last night and that looks nice. Maybe I can get a few more up tonight. Curtains will have to wait until we do more painting, a slow process.

Kathie

Charity Quilting Assistance

Another lady in my guild agreed to take two of the hospice tops to quilt and last night at a board meeting another lady popped up and offered to quilt one. I was getting overloaded and overwelmed with the number of tops I had. I quilt 2 or 3 a month and probably had at least 6 months worth if I didn't get any more tops in. I would like to see a lot of these quilts finished and donated and NOT sitting in my basement so I was very happy about it. I also want to keep encouraging people in the guild to make quilts as there are so many organizations that can use them.

I also gathered up 10 1/2 squares and made two backing kits and took those to the meeting and both of them were taken to be pieced. I will try and make up a couple more and take them to our meeting next monday as probably half of the quilt tops I have do not have backings. I don't mind making up one once in a while but it takes time and I would rather use my charity time getting them quilted.

Having a little discomfort in my knee (arthritis) today so I don't know how much quilting I will do. I have loaded the backing (large) for the next customer quilt this morning and put a border on the last of my 8 Christmas Tree runners. I will at least get the quilt fully loaded and then see how the knee is doing before I start to quilt.

Kathie

Design Wall Monday - August 2, 2010

Not that much on my design wall, just these three blocks. My friend is now in charge of the block of the month at our guild. I decided in addition to the blocks I will make to turn in for the block raffle each month I will make one of each block out of Christmas fabrics.

By next summer I will have enough to make a Christmas sampler. It will be busy as I am not picking the same fabrics every month. I will probably have to sash it is black or something to tone it down a bit.

Here are my first three blocks. The 9-patch was for July, August is the one with the large center, and Septembers is the shaded 9 patch.

Do you set quilting goals for the month?

Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't bother, I just work on certain things. I usually quilt 2 or 3 charity quilts a month and I am running out of backings so I guess I will make a charity goal for the month of quilting two hospice quilts and making up two backings.

As for my craft show items, I will continue to work on runners and get as many done as possible this month.

Kathie

Sunday Stash Report - August 1, 2010

Do you believe it is August already?

My stash reduction is a wash this week. I purchased the same amount of fabric that I used but....... the purchase is for a backing so as soon as I wash and iron it I will be making it into a backing so it is never actually going to hit my fabric shelf.

I piece backings for my quilts at least half of the time but for this baby quilt I just wanted a whole piece of yellow.

So my current stats are:

Fabric Used this week: 3.5 yards
Fabric used YTD: 151.75
Fabric Purchased this week: 3.5 yards
Fabric Purchased YTD: 97.25
Net Used in 2010: 54.50

I am not making to good progress towards my person goal of a net of 100 yards by the end of the year.

I did manage a finish yesterday. I sat down and finished the binding on this pinwheel quilt before our company got here so that I could put it away. It was from a workshop we did at quilt guild. It was a fun workshop and I love the way my quilt turned out.


Kathie