WHAT WEATHER!!!!

Ok, I know we needed rain but it has to stop sometime!!! We have had 4 1/2 inches of rain in the last 24 hours and expecting more. They say we could have a total of 8 or more inches before it stops.

Since they say we might be having thunder storms off and on today I don't know if I will run the longarm or not. I will load the next quilt in line and then see what the weather is doing.

I started working on some blocks yesterday out of horse fabric to make a quilt for craft show season. I think this will have to be the last quilt top I make as I need to get everything quilted up and bound.

If this weather doesn't let up I will probably try and get the horse top put together.

kathie

Mid Week Update

I have been managing to keep up on my customer quilts but life has seemed to have been getting in the way of any time to work on charity quilts or my own projects. Spent all day sunday at the mall looking for homecoming dresses and a big portion of monday at the allergy doctor where my daughter had to get allergy testing done.

The doc said she was allergic to so much stuff we should build a bubble around her. Do you think I can QUILT that?

Yesterday I was trying to play catch up some things so this picture is the total amount of sewing I have found time for in the last few days. This is the October block of the month for quilt guild so I decided I could at least get that much done. I do hope I win this batch of blocks. I like that it has a framing around it that way, since swap blocks are never all the same size, they can easily be trimmed up.


Another small quilt on the frame for today but after that I am going to take a break and spend a few hours on sewing/quilting one of my projects.

As for the 10 MINUTE CHALLENGE on cleaning. Well needless to say that "life" has got in the way of that also. I did pick up for a few minutes this morning so hopefully will be back on track with that also.

Kathie

Design Wall Monday - September 27, 2010

I have not done any sewing in the last few days so no new project started and these two runners are still on the design wall. Guess I did finish the borders since I showed the picture last so it is slightly different.



No sewing again yesterday, we spent the major of the day at the mall trying to find a homecoming dress (along with every other teenager in the State of Maryland). Several hours and stores later we did have success and I have to admit she look really pretty in her new dress and heels.

I picked up my quilting entries from the county fair last night. It is fun to get ribbons.

Sunday Stash Report - September 26, 2010

I didn't do to well this week in stash reduction to make up for my purchases the week before but at least I am headed back in the right direction. I used fabric for the backing on two runners I quilted yesterday and on the two other runners I made earlier in the week.

My current stats are:

Fabric used this week: 3.5 yards
Fabric used YTD: 198
Fabric Purchased this week: 0
Fabric Purchased YTD: 131.75 yards

Net fabric used in 2010: 66.25

I hope to get a little more sewing time this next week. Over the last few days have taken my daughter to appointments, attended the county fair, did my normal chores and today we go looking for a homecoming dress. Needless to say that sewing on any of my projects has not been on the top of the to do list the last few days.

Hopefully tonight or in the morning I can get started on a new project so I will have something to show on "Design Wall Monday".

Kathie

Mid Week Update

Yesterday's customer quilt wasn't that big (about 50 x 60) and was no problem at all so I got it done fairly quickly. I love doing the free hand dwirling (from Pajama Quilter DVD). I kind of zone out and lose track of time.



Once that was done the rest of the day was mine and I worked on table runners for upcoming craft shows. Even though all three of these fabrics are from the same fabric line I can't say I am thrilled with the lighter green with the dots on it. I am hoping that once I get borders on these (more of the poinsettia fabric) it will tone down the green a bit.



10 MINUTE CHALLENGE

My 10 minutes of picking up/cleaning time was again used on ironing, folding and putting away fabrics.

Lastly, we took the daughter to a college fair last night. Wow were there a lot of college represented. We told her to stick to looking at only Maryland colleges as the out of state tuitions are just not in the budget. It was all kind of overwhelming thats for sure. She is a junior this year so this is all getting "real" for all of us but still hard to believe that in less than two years my baby will be off to college. I am going to have a hard time with that I am very sure.

Kathie

Tuesday Again

Right now I am pretty busy on customer quilts so have not had much time to work on my own projects. I decided no matter how busy I am that I am going to take some time every day to work on other things.

Yesterday I decided to spend a few minutes working on hospice quilts. I had a top that was donated probably a year ago and I had not quilted it yet since it did not have a backing ready. Fabric was donated with it but I had not got around to piecing the back. So thats what I did yesterday, I measured the fabric, cut it and sewed the one seam that was needed. Not a big deal but now it can be stacked with the other hospice quilts waiting to be quilted.

Today I plan on spending at least an hour working on craft show items.

10 Minute Challenge

My 10 minutes a day quilt room cleaning time has been used ironing and putting away fabric and other items that I purchased at the quilt show on saturday. Of course that isn't making much forward progress but at least it is helping the quilting room to not get more cluttered.

Kathie

Design Wall Monday - September 20, 2010

Well for the first time I have NOTHING to show on my design wall. The only sewing I have done on my own projects this last week was yesterday when I spent the afternoon putting bindings on the 5 table runners I had quilted the week before.

Not very fun or interesting and nothing on the design wall but some bits of thread that I really need to clean off.

I do have several pictures from the Pennsylvania National quilt show on saturday. These are not necessary any that won any ribbons, just ones I found interesting for various reasons.

This first one I liked because it looks 3D, like the design is coming out of the fabric. Can you imagine doing all these points!!!



This second quilt looked like an oriental rug from a distance. This was all made with 1/2 inch (finished) squares. I would be locked in a rubber room before I completed the first rose. It was beautiful



The third one I liked because of all the color gradation, doesn't it look like a Ginny Beyer pattern?



The next quilt was my favorite of the show. The applique was wonderful, the quilting the best and if you really look at it you can see that each section represents a different season.




And lastly I took a picture of this one because it looks just like a table runner pattern that I have made several times. Never thought to keep adding to it and making a quilt.


Hope you have enjoyed this mini quilt show.

Kathie

Sunday Stash Report - September 19, 2010

Well this week has been a stash enhancement week, not a reduction. I worked on customer quilts and household things all week so didn't use up any stash at all.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to be able to take a bus trip to the Pennsylvania National Quilt Show. It was great, wonderful quilts (will post pictures of a few tomorrow), great vendors and wonderful friends. What more could you ask for in a day.

Here is a picture of my purchases. All across the back are Christmas fabrics, most will be used up in craft show items. On the right are a few fat quarters that I picked up to go with a panel that I have had for a couple of months so hopefully those will also be used up sometime soon.


The FQ pack I saw when we first got there (all batik) but I resisted but then spent the next 5 hours walking around thinking about them. So needless to say when we were getting ready to leave I popped by and picked them up. These will be for a quilt for ME!!

I also picked up one pattern for a Christmas tree wall hanging and a Wing Trimmer ruler for making perfect flying geese.

I guess you could say that I really stimulated the economy yesterday.

Here are my current stats:

Fabric Used this week: 0
Fabric Used YTD: 194.50
Fabric Purchased this week: 13 yards
Fabric Purchased YTD: 131.75
Net Fabric Used in 2010: 62.75

Kathie

Finally Friday

Seems like it has been a long week. My daughter has had lots of activities this week so Mom's taxi has been busy.

I don't have any pictures to share as the only thing I have been working on the last few days are customer quilts.

I am off to the Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza early tomorrow morning on a guild bus trip. I am really looking forward to seeing all the quilts and of course all the vendors. It has been over two years since I have been to a quilt show of any size so I am excited. I hope I don't "enhance" my stash by to much but I refuse to feel guilty about what I do buy since I get to shows so rarely.

10 Minute Cleaning Challenge

I am plugging along on the cleaning. Yesterday I was flitting from one spot to another picking up a couple of pins, scraps of fabric, putting rotary blades away etc.

I think this morning I am going to straighten my FQ drawer. It is hidden out of sight so won't make a difference in the look of the room. I am taking a panel with me to the quilt show tomorrow to try and find some FQs to go with it. If I organize the drawer today I can see what colors I really need to look for tomorrow.

I had a recent question about my Christmas Tree/Poinsettia table runners. No I don't have a pattern. I sew five 2 1/2 cream strips together and then cut a point at each end. I use my setting triangle for the cuts. I then add a 2 1/2 border, fuse on then stitch down appliques, quilt and decorate with crystals.

Kathie

Early Color

Seems like a lot of trees changing already here, seems to be early. Maybe it was due to the long HOT summer we had this year. This picture was taken out our back window a couple of days ago.

10 Minute Challenge

Have not been making to much progress on the 10 minute cleaning challenge. I have been using my 10 minutes but seem to need it to keep the same places clear and not anything new. I did spend some time picking up little pieces of fabric, thread, string etc. off of the floor so thats an improvement.

Maybe tomorrow I can clean off the top of one of my cabinets or other messy area.

kathie

Mid Week Post a Little Bit Early

I wanted to post pictures of two hospice quilts that have been completed. I know of at least three more that are in the binding stage so should have more pictures of them soon.


This first quilt is a hiddlen 9 patch made out a stack of 5 inch squares donated to the guild. It was a team effort from the guild. Jan put the top together, Joyce the backing, I quilted it and Jane did the binding. It is fun to see all the various fabrics in this quilt.

The president of our guild Carol was gifted several years ago with a whole truck full of quilt tops and fabrics. She decided that some of them had to be finished and made use of. This little quilt she donated and Nancy quilted it up. The color of the picture is bad, it is actually a brown and peach quilt, not cream.



You should have seen all the donated quilts last night at our meeting. Some will be going to a wounded soldier project and a bunch of them to our local emergency room for kid and teen accident victims.

It is nice to see so many ladies use their talents to give comfort to others and I am sure glad to be a part of it.

Kathie

Design Wall Monday - September 13, 2010

Well my design wall has the same thing on it as it did last monday, my convergence quilt from the workshop. I kept feeling like it needed something so kept it there all week looking at it.

The only thing I could come up with was it needed some sort of applique so I cut out this black kitty and pinned to it yesterday.

What do you think? Should I keep it plain or go with the black cat?

Here is also a picture of the quilting I did over the weekend. It is so nice and time efficient to load a large piece of backing on the frame and then quilt one runner after another. I used up 4 smaller pieces of batting on these 5 runners so my stack of batting looks a whole lot more managable now.


10 MINUTE CHALLENGE

As for my challenge to clean 10 minutes in the quilt room each day before quilting, well I have not been down to the quilt room (basement) yet so have not done that today. I need to run a few errands first so it will have to wait until later.

Kathie

Sunday Stash Report - September 12, 2010

I had a great week with stash busting. I bought some Christmas fabric but used up a lot more than I brought in the house. I used fabric to back several table runners, made a backing for a Christmas quilt and did a few other small projects, not bad.

My stats for the week:

Fabric Used: 9.75 yards
Fabric Used YTD: 194.50
Fabric Purchased: 4 yards
Fabric Purchased YTD: 118.75
Net fabric used in 2010: 75.75

I better enjoy the good numbers this week because I know they won't look so good next week unless I sew like crazy all week and don't have time to do that as I have several customer quilts to work on. Next saturday I am taking a guild bus trip to a big quilt show in PA. Since it is over two years since I went to my last quilt show (Machine Quilting Expo in New Hampshire) I am sure I will be coming home with fabric.

10 MINUTE CHALLENGE

As to my 10 minute challenge to spend 10 minutes a day cleaning up my sewing room I have been doing well. I have my cutting table and sewing table both cleaned off and this morning I used my 10 minutes (ok more like 20) to measure all my left over batting pieces, label and fold them up. Some of the pieces will be perfect to use on runners, one is the perfect size to use on a customer wall hanging and several are about the same length and can be zig zagged together for the next charity quilt.

Anyone else cleaned today?

Kathie

September 11th

I watched some of the news this morning replaying the events of September 11th. As anyone that was an adult at the time I will always remember that day. The shock, the upset and a feeling for the first time of being totally vulnerable. We live near a Navy base and also a power plant so as a precaution all the kids were sent home early from school that day.

One of the ladies in my quilt guild lost her husband at the Pentagon that day and a guy I worked with lost his brother-in-law, he was on the plane that hit the pentagon.

I didn't sleep that night, I spent the night on the sofa watching TV. When I heard planes in the sky it was unsettling because I knew the only planes in the sky were military and I kept wondering what was happening.

My first thought was for all the little kids that had parents drop them at school or day care that morning and never came home.

I think I hugged my daughter so hard that night (she was 7 at the time) that she was wondering what was wrong because at 7 you don't really understand.

It is a day that changed our world and how we look at things and I know for one I will not forget.

Kathie

10 Minute Challenge Status

I have made some good progress cleaning up, now if I can keep it that way. I spent my 10 minutes a couple of times on my sewing desk and it has gone from a total mess to where I actually have room to sew without moving a bunch of stuff first. The pile on the left contained some fabric scraps, a couple of patterns and other misc. items.

Before



and this is after




I quilted a small customer quilt yesterday afternoon. So that is it on the customer stuff till monday. I try and do craft show, charity or just something I want to do if I quilt on the weekend other than during Christmas rush season when I am doing customer quilts most of the time.

I sewed two pieces of fabric together yesterday to have a nice huge backing. I am hoping to be able to quilt 5 table runners on it one after another this weekend. I am at least going to get the backing fabric loaded today but I am trying to get all the house hold chores done today plus doing a lot of running my daughter to social/school functions today.

Kathie

10 Minute Challenge

There have been recent discussions on an on line charity quilting group that I read on a daily basis (heartstrings) about cleaning up your sewing room. Some of these ladies have inspired me to TRY and make my sewing room a little cleaner and more organized.

I decided that taking a day or two of nothing but cleaning in my basement quilting studio didn't sound like much fun or something that I would stick with so I am challenging myself to spend the first 10 minutes of anytime I go to the sewing room cleaning/straightening up or organizing. I figure that I can probably get a lot accomplished in that little bit of time if I stick to it for a couple of weeks.

This morning I went down there and spent 10 minutes and in that time I got my cutting board totally cleaned off. Wish I had taken a before picture because I had fabric strips, some patterns off the internet, a quilting magazine and 3 pairs of sissors on there. It will be nice to do some cutting without having to move everything first.

Do you want to join me in my challenge? How much can you get done in 10 minutes?


Yesterday I had declared a day to work on craft show projects. I was going through my "to be quilted" shelf and found this top that I had totally forgotten about. About six months ago I had made a baby quilt for my step-daughter to give a friend. Since I was not using a specific pattern I had lots of pieces and parts left so used them putting together this little quilt.

I decided to try my third attempt at Dawn's Fern Ziggle from the latest Pajama Quilter DVD and I had a lot better success this time. I even got the binding about half way hand stitched down last night.

Kathie

Mid Week Update

Do you have a Habitat Humanity Restore place in your area? We have one close to us and it is my husband's favorite place to look for treasures. He made the mistake of taking me with him last weekend and I had to have this porch swing. Reminds me of sitting in a swing at my grandparents house when I was a little kid.

Of course we spent over half an hour taking it apart to get it in the van but it is real nice and relaxing to sit on and now that we are starting to have cooler weather I will be able to enjoy our screened deck.



Several people commented after I mentioned that my hubby sews. For many years he did upholstery (auto and home) as a sideline so he had industrial sewing machines. That led him into being interested in vintage sewing machines, mainly Singer ones. He collected, traded, fixed up and sold many of those including several featherweights. When he would get a new one running he would sew a project on it to make sure it was working right.

He doesn't LOVE sewing like I do but when it comes to making curtains, tote bags or things like he is much better than I am, I stick to my quilting.

As for my sewing this week so far I quilted a couple of customer quilts in the last few days, quilted two of my table runners and last night I made a backing (only a couple of seams) for a Christmas quilt.

Today I intend on working on craft show items and then tomorrow will be back to customer quilts.

kathie

Design Wall Monday - September 6, 2010

I hope that everyone is having a great holiday and will fit some time into sew.

On thursday I went to an informal workshop making a quilt from Ricky Timms book on convergent quilts. We each bought a book and then a lady that had made a few of them kind of led us through the process and gave us tips. I finished my top yesterday by adding 3 simple borders to it. I am thinking that I still need to add some sort of applique to this.



This is not a techique I would have normally tried but I like the results. I am tempted to make one using Christmas colors but I have a few projects that I need to do before I even think about making another wall hanging.

My husband is going to make our daughter a tote bag for school since her back pack doesn't seem to be working out to well so my project for the day will be to quilt that fabric so he can start making the bag. If I have time later I would also like to get a couple more table runners quilted and get bindings on them as I am just about out of evening hand work.

Kathie

Sunday Stash Report - September 5, 2010

I had a great week busting stash considering I wasn't home two days and didn't do any sewing of any note a couple of other days. I used up fabrics backing runners, made a backing (out of squares) for a Christmas quilt, finished cutting out and kitting a Christmas present and cut squares for a Harmonic Convergence workshop that I went to on Thursday.

I did end up going to our local quilt shop yesterday and picked up a half yard of batik to go with my convergence quilt and several yards of Christmas fabric but I still ended up using more this week than I purchased so I am nudging forward on my number of net used yards.

Here are my weekly stats:

Fabric used this week: 7.75 yards
Fabric used YTD: 184.75 yards
Fabric Purchased this week: 4.5 yards
Fabric purchased YTD: 114.75
NET FABRIC USED IN 2010: 70 yards

Hope you have a wonderful day today, the weather is so beautiful here in Maryland this morning, sunny and only around 60!!

Kathie