Sunday Stash Report - October 31, 2010

Well back sliding again this week. I have been quilting (quilted both a charity quilt and a craft show Christmas quilt) and I have been sewing on a christmas present but all that fabric was previously counted.

The only fabric used this week and not previously counted was some fabric for bindings.

I also purchased a couple of yards of fabric but that was border fabric and will be cut and on the quilt hopefully in the next couple of days.

Fabric used this week: 1 yard
Fabric used YTD: 232.75 yards
Fabric added this week: 2 yards
Fabric added YTD: 152.75 yards

Net used in 2010: 80 yards (still no where near my goal of 100 yards and only two months to go).

Kathie

Quilt Storage

Since I have a cat that loves to spend time in my quilting room, as soon as I get a customer quilt done and off the frame I put it in a large zip lock bag so my cat doesn't decide to love all over it.

I had been getting the bags at Target which was the only place in our area that seemed to have them.

A friend of mine told me that she had found XXL bags at Dollar Tree right about the same time that Bonnie Hunter posted on her blog www.quiltville.com about getting some there. Well I don't know if it was just timing or if so many quilters read her blog or what but I have not been able to find any in stock there for the last couple of months.

My hubby finally thought to check Dollar Tree on line and found that I could order them through the website (had to order a case) for pick up at the store with no shipping costs. I did that a few days ago and picked up the box this morning of 36 of the bags.



They are the perfect size to return customers their quilts and also to take entire projects in to sew ins or retreats.


Thought I would share where I got these in case any of you were looking for quick and easy storage of your projects.



Kathie

Project of the Day

Today's quilting project of the day was to get this strip pieced quilt quilted. A friend of mine teaches young people to quilt. This was made by a new student of hers and she is only ELEVEN. I am going to have to put a note with this when I send it back to tell her what a great job she did with matching seams and also with her fabric choices. It was fun to quilt.



I did get some binding made this morning for the patriotic donation quilt. I was planning on sewing it on tonight but we are under a storm warning so I might just leave all my machines off this evening and stick to hand sewing. I have 1/2 a Christmas quilt and about 5 runners to bind so I won't run out for a few evenings.

Kathie

Do you Paper Piece?

I rarely do paper piecing. I just can't seem to get the knack and spend so much time fussing with it that I don't enjoy it at all. In an effort to expand my abilities I do try and do one or two small paper piecing projects a year thinking that someday it all my click in my head and maybe I will enjoy doing it more.

I made this runner several months ago. Nice big pieces, thought it would be a piece of cake and real quick. Well it wasn't hard but by the time I made 16 segments and made them into the 3 blocks I was ready to be done with paper piecing for another year. I finally got around to quilting this runner sunday and put the binding on yesterday. Hopefully one night this week I will get the binding hand stitched down.



Yesterday I quilted a fairly nice sized batik customer quilt so decided my project for today would be a charity one. I did a quick swirl quilting in red/white/blue thread on this little soldier quilt made by my hubby. I need to get the binding on and stitched down and a label added to be donated at our next guild meeting on the 8th.



This afternoon I have some errands to run and some work to do around the house but hope to get an hour of "me" sewing time later today when I plan on joining a few more blocks for a warm wishes Christmas present. I currently have 7 out of 11 rows done so not bad.

kathie

Design Wall Monday - October 24, 2010

This was one of the projects that I worked on at my two day retreat last week. I put them on the design wall yesterday to see how they all played with each other and as an inspiration to make a block hopefully every day or two until all the FQs are used up.



Yesterday I didn't have any errands to run, didn't have to take the kid anywhere and I had finished up all my chores for the weekend so I spent the day quilting. I quilted five table runners and then got bindings on three of them by machine and bindings made for the other two. I will have plenty of bindings to work on at night while watching TV. I think I have about 7 more runners and one more Christmas quilt I want to finish up for craft shows. I don't need to finish them all by the first show (November 6th) but want to have everything finished by the second show which is right before Thanksgiving.

Today I have lots of errands to run and a customer quilt to get on the frame. I hope to sneak in enough time to make a couple of batik blocks or to get the binding on the other two runners.

Kathie

Sunday Stash Report - October 24, 2010

Well this was actually a stash enhancement week not a stash reduction week if you look at my numbers.

JoAnn fabrics had all those nice sales and 50% off coupons this week so I took advantage and purchased 8 yards of christmas fabric to back table runners. Hopefully that will be enough to quilt up the rest of the runners I need to finish before craft shows start. This is one of the backing pieces.




I also purchased some flannel since it was 60% off (don't you LOVE a sale) in a lavendar which will be the backing to my batik lap quilt. One customer of mine backed several batik quilts with flannel and I loved the feel of them plus I didn't have any problems quilting them which sometimes happens because of the tight weave of batiks.

Here are my stats for the week:

Fabric used this week: 6.25 yards
Fabric used YTD: 231.75
Fabric purchased this week: 12 yards
Fabric purchased YTD: 150.75

Net fabric used in 2010: 81 yards

Last night was also the big homecoming dance so had to post a couple of pictures of that. Dear daughter waiting for her date to arrive...



and then with her date.



I know it will be a let down for her but I am glad that homecoming week is over and we can go back to a normal schedule.

kathie

Life

Well life and activities have gotten in the way of my blogging this week.

First I went to a two day retreat which was great. Then had to get a customer quilt done and catch up on things around the house. This is also homecoming week with dress up days etc. that always seem to involve more errands.

Wednesday was character day.



Then to top it off we finally got an offer on our other house that we moved out of in June so that of course involved much paperwork, meetings and many phone calls.

It seemed like the week zipped by with not a lot done in the sewing room.

I did receive the first quilt for our next delivery to hospice which will probably be in about February. This quilt was done by ladies (Jeannie, Margie and Elizabeth) from my day time guild out of a kit I cut using donated fabrics.


I was going to send this off to one of the guilds childrens charities but on rare occasions (luckily) hospice does have children patients so it will be nice for them to have one kids quilt to have on hand. I love this brite frog fabric.

Hope to get pictures taken of my retreat accomplishments, just have to get the backing my hubby is piecing for me off of the design wall first.

kathie

Mid Week Update

I will have to do my mid week update today with out pictures. It is Character/Costume day at the high school today as part of homecoming week and my daughter ran off with the camera. I guess I should say she flew off as she was dressed as Super Woman!!

I went to an all day retreat yesterday and will be going back there soon for another day. 99% of the time I do my sewing alone so it is always nice to sew with friends and see what projects everyone is working on.

I spent a good portion of the day working on a warm wishes pattern quilt that is going to be a Christmas present. When I got tired of that I made several batik blocks that will be for a lap quilt for our bedroom. I also took some hand work to do but by that my back and the rest of me was tired so just decided to head home for the day.

I hope I will have pictures of my accomplishments posted in the next couple of days after I get caught up on all the things I have let slide for these two retreat days.

Kathie

Design Wall Monday - October 18, 2010

We have a lady coming to our November guild meeting to pick up quilts for a wounded soldiers organization that distributes quilts to the wounded as they come into Andrews Air Force Base here in Maryland.

I have not had time to make a quilt for them with the craft show, hospice and customer quilts I have been doing. I talked to my hubby and he said he would stitch together one I cut out. So this weekend I cut out wide strips and he sewed up this bar quilt.

Now I will have to get a backing made and it quilted in the next couple of weeks but at least this much is done. I still have it on my design wall to remind myself to look for backing fabrics.



This is spirit week (homecoming week) at my daughter's high school. Today the theme is wacky tacky and this is how she went to school. I definitely think she has wacky/tacky down (the socks are red and the shoes are bright pink).



Have a great monday!! I have an all day sew in planned tomorrow so will be getting ready for that in addition to working on the next customer quilt.

Kathie

Sunday Stash Report - October 17, 2010

I had a great week with stash reduction. I did buy five yards of backing fabric but two of those yards have already been used and the rest will be in the next week or so so not bad.

I used stash on table runner borders and bindings and backing (last push before craft shows), cut out most of my batik quilt out and a simple patriotic quilt.

This weeks stats:

Fabric used this week: 11.75 yards
Fabric used YTD: 225.5 yards
Fabric purchased this week: 5 yards
Fabric purchased YTD: 138.75
Net used in 2010: 86.75

In addition to a customer quilt this week I also got another hospice quilt quilted. This is another of the quilts where we made up kits out of donated fabrics. I am very pleased with the number of those that we have got back.



Hope everyone has a very enjoyable day.

Kathie

Hospice Quilts Mini Quilt Show

All these quilts were completed in the last few days for hospice. Since I now have nine general quilts and three specific for the hospice patients at the veteran's home I am going to get these delivered hopefully today.

Here are the latest donations.

#5 is a pink star quilt pieced by Jan and quilted by Elizabeth, I love some of the fabrics in this.



Quilt #6 was a kit I cut up out of donated batik fabrics and then a floral out of my stash. This quilt was pieced by Regina and quilted by myself.



Quilt #7's center section was donated to the guild by an unknown person. Jane added some borders to it, quilted and bound the quilt. I always have liked this pattern. Quick and easy but has an interesting look.



Quilt #8 is out of printed panels, doesn't it look like all those geese are pieced? Very pretty quilt pieced by Elsie and quilted by Elizabeth.



Quilt #9 was also made out of a kit that I cut up out of donated fabrics. Ann L made this quilt and I quilted it. I love this color combination.



Thanks to all the ladies that made and quilted these quilts and to the binding fairies (Jane and Kathy V) that bound all of them.

Kathie

DAY 4

Yesterday was Day 4 of my self declared 4 day weekend. I sure did manage to get a lot done in those 4 days. I think declaring it "ME" time really helped keep me motivated.

First thing in the morning I quilted up this horse quilt that I pieced a couple of weeks ago. I make some type of horse quilt every year and so far every year they have sold at my craft shows.



The rest of the day I pretty much spent on making binding and sewing it on. Not exactly my favorite part of the process and doing bindings all afternoon got awful boring but it got a lot of things just that much closer to being totally done. I got the binding on the horse quilt, on 4 of the 5 runners I quilted over the weekend and I made up a scrappy binding (but not sewn on yet) for the Christmas quilt I quilted recently. I will definitely have enough hand work for the near future.


I very much enjoyed my 4 day mini retreat.

I should be back to customer quilts this morning but I have another hospice quilt partially loaded on the frame so will be doing that next. I think I am going to practice the Ziggle Ferns again from the Pajama Quilter DVD.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a mini quilt show. I got back 5 hospice quilts in the last couple of days from being bound so I will post pictures of all of them tomorrow.

kathie

Design Wall Monday - October 11, 2010

DAY 3 - of my long weekend found me cutting the rest of the batik fabric into strips and making the first four blocks of this quilt (for me!!!). I can already see that I need to take the block in the upper right corner apart as the fabrics right next to each other are to similar in color. I will keep these blocks on my design wall until that is done. I figure if I made a couple of blocks at a time between other projects it won't be that long until I get enough to make the quilt. I think I am really going to like this quilt.



I also spent time on the longarm yesterday afternoon quilting up these four craft show table runners. I sure enjoy being able to quilt one after another without reloading backing fabric.



Last night I was tired but I am not one to sit for a whole evening doing nothing so I "decorated" two Christmas tree table runners with crystals. That takes awhile since each crystal is individually fused but I did it on my kitchen island so I could sit and relax and could listen to TV at the same time.

What is on your design wall?

Kathie

Sunday Stash Report - October 10, 2010

Wow today is 10/10/10, now doesn’t that sound weird? Anyway first with my weekly stats. I did so well using up stash this week. I made a backing for a quilt (yet to be quilted), a backing for a bunch of table runners (currently on the frame) and misc. borders and other things. The only purchase I made was two yards of a pretty Christmas green that I had run out of.

Fabric used this week: 13.25 yards
Fabric used YTD: 213.75
Fabric purchased this week: 2 yards
Fabric purchased YTD: 133.75
Net used in 2010: 80 yards

My goal of using a net of 100 yards this year just might be attainable.

DAY 2

Yesterday was Day 2 of my self declared 4 day weekend. I tended to flit from one project to the next but I did get a lot done.

First I put the binding on this table runner made out of left over binding pieces.




Then I put the borders on these three runners and fused the poinsettias in place. Next step will be stitching around them.


I also cut about half of my batik fat quarters into 2 ½ strips and cut one strip of each color into 2 ½ squares.



I also pieced a backing fabric to quilt about five runners on and got this first runner quilted. I have the next runner pinned in place and will tackle that next time I am in the quilt room.



Now can I have good numbers this next week also since I still have Sunday and Monday of my long weekend?

Kathie

Day 1

I spent to much of Day 1 of my self declared 4 day weekend doing household chores both at this house and the house we are tring to sell. Not fun but I got a lot done.

Once I went to the sewing room I stitched two pieces of charity batting together and got a quilt for hospice on the frame. This top was made by Betty from my guild last year at a 9 patch pizzazz workshop. She didn't like the way it was turning out so gave it to me for hospice. I rearranged a few blocks, put the borders on and there it has sat for close to a year.

It finally came to the top of my hospice quilting stack and I just quilted quick swirls on it. I am glad I was finally able to get it done.



Next I went ahead and got the binding sewn on this runner that I quilted earlier in the week. I love the glitz of the gold fabric.



I also made binding to put on another runner tomorrow and pulled out fabric, ironed and cut it to back a few runners hopefully later this weekend.

All in all a nice start to my long weekend.

Kathie

I Declare

My husband is off work today and both my daughter and him are off on monday for Columbus Day so I am declaring this a 4-day weekend for me too.

I finished the last customer quilt I needed to get done this week yesterday so I am going to take the next 4 days to work on various projects (between running the kid around). I want to get one charity quilt quilted for hospice, bindings on a couple of runners that I quilted the other day, more craft show stuff quilted and batik fabric cut out for a quilt for me. My day time guild is having a two day retreat later this month and I would like to be able to start on that quilt then.

So I guess I need to do those nasty household chores this morning so I can start to sew this afternoon.

Kathie

Mid Week Update

Well after a couple days being without the longarm I am now on a roll. I finished quilting the Christmas quilt that was on the frame



Then I went ahead and quilted two of my craft show table runners to make sure all was well with the machine.



Yesterday afternoon I loaded the next customer quilt and I quilted that after dinner last night.

Today is my monthly "play day". I have my day time quilt guild meeting. We have tons of fun and the ladies are really nice. Won't really be a relaxing day this month. We take turns in groups of 5 providing lunch for everyone so yesterday was lots of cooking and today will be busy with heating food, serving and cleaning up. Its a lot of work but we only have to do it once a year so get to enjoy being cooked for and waited on the other eleven months of the year, can't beat that.

Kathie

Definitely a Keeper

My hubby is definitely a keeper!! He always has been anyway but last night after he got home from work he worked on my longarm rechecking things on the Nolting check list and he got it stitching correctly again!! Still don't know what happened but it was great last night. I finished the Christmas quilt on the frame to make sure it was stitching right.

Of course I will be slightly nervous that it is still ok until I quilt something on it today so I think after a few errands I will put a runner or something else very small on the frame to check out the stitching before I load the next customer quilt.

If I had not been so upset about the machine I probably would have enjoyed a couple of days of down time. I did manage to get a backing for the horse quilt pieced yesterday and worked on several craft show runners also so at least I was busting some stash.

Kathie

Design Wall Monday - October 4, 2010

This is what is currently on my design wall. I purchased a package of 14 fat quarters at the PA quilt show I went to a couple of weeks ago and intend on making a framed 4 patch quilt out of them. I am trying to decide if the 4 patch should be 4 different fabrics like the block on the right or 2 fabrics like the one on the left.

What do you think?


I know compared to people with major heath problems, people out of work etc. this is very minor but I am totally upset and depressed right now. Yesterday I quilted a couple of sections of this quilt which is a Christmas quilt for upcoming craft shows. I took a break for lunch and when I went back all of a sudden my longarm won't sew right. It is skipping stitches like crazy.


I did all the easy things like rethreading, changing the needle, checking the bobbin and bobbin case and my hubby did everything on the Nolting check list including checking timing etc. Nothing we did will make it stitch correctly so I am out of business till it somehow gets fixed.

I guess that is where the big upset is. This machine is not only my business, but my hobby and how I do charity work. I am in the midst of getting ready for craft shows and expect my busy Christmas quilting season to start in about 3 weeks. Timing could not be worse.

Ok, enough venting for now anyway. Think I need another cup of coffee to try and get rid of my headache and then will head to the sewing room. I can't do any quilting or customer quilts but I can find something to piece.

kathie

Sunday Stash Report - March 3, 2010

Fall is definitely in the air today. Cool this morning so I actually pulled a quilt over my legs while drinking my morning coffee, nice.

For the second week in a row I stayed out of quilt and fabric shops, yipee!!!!!!!! Of course I didn't get that much fabric used with customer quilts and with major rain causing the closing of schools.

I did manage to get this quilt top pieced. Since I had most of the fabric cut and made into a kit a couple of months ago most of the fabric had already been reported but managed to work on a few runners so ended up with a small stash reduction anyway.


I am PLANNING (but you know how that goes) on major stash uses this week. I want to make a backing for the horse quilt and put borders on several runners and maybe even start the framed 4 patch.

Anyway my stats for this week are:

Fabric used this week: 2.5 yards
Fabric used YTD: 200.5 yards
Fabruc purchased this week: ZERO
Fabric Purchased YTD: 131.75

Net fabric used in 2010: 68.75

Kathie