Thursday, December 29, 2011

Nice Week

It has been a nice week so far. I am enjoying having some extra time to spend with my daughter who is home all week and my hubby that took a couple of days off.

Have done a little sewing, a little reading and some errands. This is what I did with those 4 patch blocks...


I bordered them. I then used the twister template and cut them apart and sewed them back together to make this cute little block. Four of these blocks with sashing and borders will make a nice table runner.


No charity quilting accomplished this week but I did get one customer quilt done and have about 3/4 of the next one complete.

Kathie

Monday, December 26, 2011

Design Wall Monday - December 26, 2011

Anyone that has read my blog this last week will probably be pretty bored with this picture as it is a picture of the 3rd and last set of these runners (for a total of 6) that I have made in the last week. Figured I would get all I wanted to make done at the same time before I forgot what measurements I used.


Also on the design wall are some 4 patch blocks, can you guess what I am going to make with these?


I have a couple of questions if anyone can help me out. 1) is that I have been tempted to try that iron on tape that you use to join pieces of batting together. If you have tried it please let me know how you like it and also what it is called as I don't remember the name to do a search on it.

2) second has anyone used flannel sheets as a backing for a quilt? We recently got a new bed and we no long have a full sized bed in the house but have a couple sets of flannel sheets that have hardly been used. I know I have been told not to use regular sheets as the thread count is so different and hard to quilt but has anyone tried it with the flannel sheets?

Thanks for any inputs you can give me on either subject.

Kathie

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Eve everyone. Hope everyone has all their shopping and wrapping done and will be able to enjoy friends and family. Just the three of us here for Christmas so very quiet but nice.

Here is the second set of runners I made the other day. I like the dark fabric with the neon snowflakes on it. I have a third set in process (different fabrics) and once those are done (for a total of 6) I will stop with this pattern and get started on something new.


Getting a few chores done this morning around the house and intend on spending a little time this afternoon in the sewing room before starting our dinner which will be a family recipe for beef strongoff, yummmmmmmm.

Kathie

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

5th Hospice Quilt

This is the 5th Hospice quilt I have quilted in the last week and a half. It is made out of beautiful donated batik fabrics and I believe pieced by Elsie. I still have a couple more charity tops that have backings that could be quilted but think 5 this month is enough.


I cut and put together 3 kits to make charity quilts out of donated charity fabric earlier today also. I am trying to reduce the number of boxes I have of charity fabric so figure I will cut a couple kits at a time and take them to January guild meetings to hand out.

I think that will be it for charity efforts this week. I need to get back to working on some of my projects and getting my bookwork up to date for tax purposes.

Yesterday I did spend time working on a couple of runners. The blocks are very similar to ones on a present pattern I have and enjoyed tailoring them to be made into runners.


I think this will be a good addition to the patterns I make for craft shows.

Kathie

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Another Charity Quilt

This is the 4th charity quilt that I have quilted in a little over a week. This one was pieced by Jan, I love the colors. I have one more partially loaded on the frame that I am going to do and then I am going to spend time starting work on next years craft show items. I did wonderful with the shows this year so in inventory of table runners is down to about nothing so will have lots of fun doing those and coming up with 3 or 4 new patterns for next year.


I am enjoying having my daughter home from school and all her activities. Of course it makes it hard to get as much as usual done but thats ok. I better really enjoy it this year. She will be off to college next fall and though she will be home for Christmas I just think it will kind of feel different as she will then be visiting us and not really living with us anymore.

Wow enough of that or I will start to cry. I am definitely going to have a hard time when she leaves home.

Kathie

Monday, December 19, 2011

Design Wall Monday - December 19, 2011

FINALLY have something on my design wall to show. I have been working on this little quilt this week. It is a pattern called BQ (what a stange name) by Maple Island Quilts. Easy piecing and I like the results.


In addition to working on the kitty quilt and finishing up all the wrapping etc. I have been using my break from customer quilts to quilt up some of the hospice quilt tops that I have here. Lots of people in our guild love to make quilt tops and help out making backings, it is just hard to get anyone to take any of them to quilt up so I am trying to play catch up this week.

Since the start of my self declared break I have got 4 of the hospice quilts quilted. This is #3 of the bunch, a simple 4 patch and alternating blocks made from a kit of donated fabrics. Cindy did a great job of putting this one together.


I hope to get one or two more of the tops quilted up this week but also intend on tackling some projects around the house that have gone unattended to for far to long.

Have a wonderful week and a great Christmas.

kathie

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Number 19

I have really been enjoying having some free time this week. Finished wrapping packages, ran a few errands and had lunch with a couple of friends. Nice change in routine.

I have also had time to finally do some charity quilting. This is the second hospice quilt I have quilted this week. This quilt I actually made myself a few months ago out of a bunch of State Flowers fabric that had been donated. Nice to quilt one of my own up as I usually don't get many charity quilts pieced as my time is spent quilting them.
This was a pretty boring quilt when I first go the top pieced so cut out the flowers with my accuquilt GO and added them randomly and I think it added a lot to the quilt.

This is the 19th charity quilt I have quilted this year. Not as good as last years total but hopefully I will get a couple more done by the end of the month.

Kathie

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

On the Frame

I have not had time to quilt any charity quilts in a long time so yesterday I got this little batik quilt on the frame and got it quilted up and off to Jane for binding.


I LOVE these colors or batiks.

Do you decorate with quilts for Christmas. I have a few sprinkled around the house. The crazy quilt on the sofa I made many years (pre-long arm) ago. The quilting is lousy but I love the quilt. Table runner I made last year and little wall hanging I won last year at quilt guild.


The only problem with so many decorations is when I take them down in January the house looks so bare.

I did get my last customer job done yesterday afternoon so today I am going to start tackling some of the things around that house that have slipped through the crack, finish wrapping packages and sit and sew SOMETHING. No clue on what yet, guess I will have to see what speaks to me when I head to the sewing room later.

Kathie

Monday, December 12, 2011

Design Wall Monday - December 12, 2011

I have sure missed participating in Judy's Design Wall monday but I have had nothing on my wall for weeks and have been way to busy with customer quilts to do much of anything else.

Glad to say that I did get a few minutes to sew on saturday and got the borders on this little fused wreath. We have a local fiber arts retreat in April and this will be the workshop I am presenting. Nice to get the top for example #1 finally done.


My last customer project should be going on the frame this afternoon so hopefully I will have lots of time to sew the next couple of weeks. I bought an extra shelving unit yesterday so my first order of business is going to be to clean and reorganize my quilt room a bit.

Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season.

Kathie

Friday, December 9, 2011

Good Deals and Coupons

I LOVE great deals and coupons. I don't have a lot of success with grocery coupons but sometimes hit on some good ones. I love this time of year when you can get special coupons to help the bottom line of Christmas shopping.

I intend on finishing up my shopping today so am going to go armed with my JC Penny and Kohl's $10 off coupons on your purchase and also a buy one get one free coupon for Bath and Body works.

I am also taking advantage of some of the restaurant gift card deals for two restaurants we frequent. Ruby Tuesdays has an on line deal if you purchase $50 in gift cards they send you a $15 off your purchase certificate good for January and February. Since we eat there every month or so I took advantage of that deal. I am just basically paying for our eating out ahead and getting $15 free in the process.

I am just about done with my customer quilting for Christmas!!!!!!!! I usually don't work on customer quilts on weekends, spending about four days a week on them. I decided I wanted to speed up the process so have been quilting just about every day and am getting done with everything about a week early of my goal.

Will be nice to get packages wrapped and mailed and some other things done around here that have been put off.

and............... either today or tomorrow I am going to take the time to put borders on a little wall hanging I started weeks ago. My sewing machine has been calling my name lately but just have not had the time or energy to sit down and work on any projects.

Hope to start having quilting pictures again soon.

kathie

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Where Did November GO?

It seems to me definitely like it still should be November, it went by so quickly. I got looking back on my list of customer quilts and realized I did 21 customer jobs in November plus 3 craft shows. Ok, now I know why I have been so tired and also why November zipped by.

This is the total of what I have sewn in the last two weeks.


and no, I didn't make this whole wall hanging. This wall hanging was made in 2000 from a block swap I did with some friends. I would hang the quilt up every year but last year. I used to hang it on one of the hangers that squeezed the quilt between two pieces of wood and no hanging sleeve was needed. I didn't want to put excess nails on the walls in the new house so last year this never got hung up. So my BIG sewing project I accomplished in the last couple of weeks was to make and sew on a hanging sleeve!!! Oh well, it was something.

I did my last craft show saturday and did very well. I am also winding down my customer quilting orders for Christmas so looking forward to taking a nice break real soon.

COLLEGE UPDATE

Mandy found out her first choice college never received her counselor recommendation letter or transcripts so has been trying to get that straightened out at her high school.

She just got a letter in the mail today offering her a $3,500 a year scholarship to Salisbury University. Great job, all her studying so hard is paying off.

Kathie

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Customer Quilt

I know that Carol doesn't mind me showing her quilts on my blog so wanted to show you a quilt I recently did for her. She is our guilds "scrap queen" as 99% of the time what she does is scrap quilts. You should see her scraps since everyone knows she is a scrap quilter most of our leftovers tend to end up at her house.

Here is a cute zig zag quilt she made.


I had a nice day yesterday running errands, visiting a quilt shop and attending a planning meeting for next springs fiber arts conference. Did me good to get away from quilting for a day now I am refreshed and ready to tackle the next customer quilt.


Kathie

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

I Promise

I promise by the end of the week that I will do something that I can take a picture to post on here. I seem so out of touch with my own blog and with those that I usually read.

Between craft shows and a heavy customer quilting schedule I just have not had the time or energy to keep up on my blogging.

I have taken the last quilt that I am promising for Christmas. Have to cut it off somewhere plus I don't want to be quilting up till December 24th. People need time to get things bound plus I need time to relax, organize the sewing room as it is a disaster and hopefully bake some Christmas cookies.

I have six customer quilts and two table runners left to quilt in the next three weeks (hopefully less) than I am going to take a break of a couple of weeks to do other things and maybe do some piecing of my own so hope to have lots of pictures to share closer to the holidays.

I do have a couple of pictures of customer quilts I will post once I find the camera.

We had another great piece of mail this week. Mandy was also accepted at Salisbury University. Now only waiting on one more (her first choice school) before she has to make any type of a decision.

Kathie

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Mixed Emotions

I always have mixed emotions at Thanksgiving. I am thankful for a great husband and wonderful daughter and love them with all my heart. It is also a sad time of year as my father passed away Thanksgiving morning 16 years ago. All these years later I still miss him and my mom so much.

Last night we got a great piece of mail. My daughter got a college acceptance letter from Towson University!!! Not her first choice school and she will have to wait till January to see if she gets other acceptances but so great to get this one.

I am excited for her as she has worked long and hard for this but also kind of sad as I am sure all parents are when this happens because them leaving for college suddenly gets very real.

First thing I wished is that I could call my parents to tell them as they would be so proud of the first in our family to go to University.

So again a time of joy, sadness and mixed emotions.

Kathie

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Reflections

Our community has reason to be thankful this Thanksgiving season. The Girl's basketball team from the school my daughter goes to was involved in an accident with a drunk driver last night. I was so surprised to get up, grab a cup of coffee this morning and turn on Fox news to see a story from our little community on national news. Three of my daughters good friends are part of the team and were on the bus last night coming home from a game in Virginia. Don't know their individual conditions but was happy to see on the news that no serious injuries were involved and that all the kids had been released from the hospital.

Must have been a super scary night for their families and I am so grateful that it all had a good outcome.

Kathie

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

No slow down

Seems like forever since I have blogged or had the time to read others blogs but it has actually only been a week. I have had two craft shows and multiple customer quilts to do in the last week. I am loving having all the work to do but it leaves no time or energy for anything else.

Missed out on the sunday stash report (have been buying sale Christmas fabrics) and design wall monday (didn't have anything on there anyway). Hoping that I will get back to posting more after Thanksgiving but realistically it might be more like the middle of December.

I decided I am taking two weeks off at Christmas. No customer quilts at all during that time. I want to clean the sewing room, do things around the house that have not been getting done and maybe even read a book or two and do some relaxing. After of course, all the Christmas shopping gets done.

kathie

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Crazy Time of Year

I always go crazy this time of year, between customer quilts and my craft show preparation and actual shows I seem to be constantly tired and that has been one of those week. Toss in a dentist appointment for myself and a doctor appointment for Mandy and not much sewing (or working on customer quilts) has occurred in the last couple of days.

Sunday I did get this runner made, quilted monday and the binding finished tuesday night. That is the extent of my sewing this week.


Well I guess I actually did a little bit of sewing yesterday also, I had to put ribbons and elastic on Mandy's new pointe shoes but I hardly call that sewing.


I have my 2nd and 3rd (out of 4) craft shows this weekend so maybe once that is over with I will be able to sit back and breathe again.

Kathie

Monday, November 14, 2011

Design Wall Monday - November 14, 2011

Where in the world is November going? I can't believe it is already the middle of the month!!!

My whole day of "ME" sewing got interrupted by several things but still had several hours in the sewing room. I finally got the last two borders on this quilt that was started back in April at our local Fiber Arts Conference.


I really like how it turned out. Now folded up and put away on the shelf as I probably won't get it quilted until after Christmas.

I also spent a lot of time yesterday ironing and folding up fabric and putting it away that had been strewn all over my sewing room. It looks a whole lot better now. The rest of the time I had I used to make another runner using the wedge ruler and striped fabric. Since I have some of my backing fabric on the frame that I never got to quilting yesterday I am going to quilt a couple runners and then switch gears back to customer quilts. I think my next customer job is quilting three runners for a lady so guess this will be runner day for me.

Kathie

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Sunday Stash Report - November 13, 2011

I was busy and totally forgot to post my stash report last weekend so this is for the last two weeks. Very little fabric used in that time as I have been concentrating my time on customer quilts and household chores.

I did purchase fabric AGAIN. A couple of yards of nice Christmas fabric for craft show items and then when I was in JoAnns to get some wonder under I saw some flannel they have for purchase by the bolt. The bolt was on sale plus due to Veteran's day I got an additional 20% off for showing my military ID. Couldn't pass up a sale like that right?

I have been trying to purchase only for craft show items or a project I am working on NOW and not buy just to stash but I broke that rule this time. My daughter told me she would like to have TWO dorm quilts to go off to college with next fall so this bolt is destined to be backings. Won't start picking patterns or anything for a few months but in this case I thought it was worth stashing it for awhile.

Stats for the last two weeks are:

Fabric used: 4 yards (borders and backings for runners)
Fabric used YTD: 261.25 yards
Fabric purchased last two weeks: 10 yards
Fabric purchased YTD: 198.50

Net fabric used in 2011: 62.75

Even with all my recent purchases I still have a great net amount that I have used up this year so overall am happy with the numbers.

Kathie

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Quilting and Stuff

Well waited all morning for a delivery of a new bed to find out that the delivery truck broke down and now will have to wait till monday. It is one of those sleep number beds and was looking forward to a good nights sleep tonight.

I have been slowly putting borders on my purple quilt so hope to have those all on so I can post a picture in a day or two.

Still plugging away on my customer quilts, making good progress. Today I quilted an "interesting" one. The backing was a home dec fabric that would be more something I would recover a chair with. To my surprise no problems with it on the frame, no thread breakage or other problems.

I am declaring tomorrow a ME sewing day. I am only going to work on my projects. I want to finish up the borders on the quilt and hopefully get a couple more table runners quilted and hopefully bound.

Kathie

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Latest Hospice Quilt

This hospice quilt was recently donated but I never got around to sewing on the label. I did that yesterday and now it is folded up with the other quilt (only 2 right now as I recently made a delivery) waiting on an early 2012 delivery.

This quilt was pieced by Elsie, quilted by Julia (great job) and Jane did the binding, a nice community effort!!


I finished the twin customer quilt that was on the frame yesterday so took the time to get a couple more of my runners quilted. The Santa's Sleigh runner I completed hand stitching down the binding while watching the CMAs last night.


Today is looking like it will be an extremely busy day with a few errands and a late afternoon meeting so I don't know what if any sewing will be accomplished today. Next up on the frame will be a baby quilt so if I can at least get that loaded and get another binding done I will have accomplished something.

Kathie

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Wednesday Update

So that you don't think that all I have been doing this week is customer quilts I did finish the binding on this quilt last night. I had quilted it several weeks ago but never got the binding done.


Sandy asked how many more craft show items I am trying to get done for the rest of the shows and the answer is as many as I can...lol

I have two runners that just need to be bound, need to put binding on the Hidden 9 patch christmas quilt and need to quilt the four runners I have done and not quilted. If I get those all done I would like to make a few more runners but don't know how much will actually happen.

They were looking for vendors to participate in a local concert series. Guess they are going to have food vendors and art/craft vendors in addition to the music. Figure I would give it a whorl (since there is no fee to participate) so have an additional show now on the 18th.

Better get to sewing!!!

kathie

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

On the Frame

Since I am so busy with customer quilts right now I figured I would have to show some of them to have anything to blog about.

This quilt was on the frame yesterday, it was made by a 13 year old girl for her little brothers bed. She did a wonderful job, it is nice and flat and square, a pleasure to quilt.


My friend Jane is teaching her to quilt and has done a great job in stressing the importance of the 1/4 inch seam and pressing correctly.

In addition to this almost twin size quilt I quilted a wall hanging yesterday afternoon and another this morning.

I did take a few minutes for my own project last night and got the stitching done around the motifs on the santa's sleigh runner. After the next customer quilt is done I will toss a couple of my runners on the frame.

Kathie

Monday, November 7, 2011

Design Wall Monday - November 7, 2011

Well............nothing that was on my design wall as of last monday has been completed, or even moved off the design wall. I did add this partially done runner to the wall. No original design, basically used what the accuquilt GO die had on the package. I have some other ideas on how to use the sleigh but that will have to be for next year.


Wow it was a super busy week, in fact I was so busy I totally forgot to do the sunday stash report. Wasn't much to report so I will just combine it with next weeks.

This is my SUPER BUSY customer quilt time of year, I received 10 quilting jobs in the last week. Luckily (time wise) is that several of them are pretty small so I can knock them out quickly.

The other busy part of the week was that I had my first craft show of the season on saturday. This was a small one and I didn't sell as much as last year but considering how inexpensive it is to rent one of their tables all and all I came out ok. My hubby also sat there and kept me company a big portion of the day so that was nice also.

Have you ever seen the movie Pearl Harbor? My daughter was watching it this weekend. She has to pick 3 works on a subject and then right a comparison essay on them for her high school/college english class. She decided to pick the subject WAR and how it is portrayed.

I didn't see the whole movie but the parts I saw were very intense. We had the opportunity to visit the Pearl Harbor Memorial in April so I think the movie really hit home for Mandy. Watching it we said we could practically smell the oil smell that still hangs over the Harbor all these years later and I for one as I was watching the movie could picture the wall of names of all that were lost that day. It was great that we were able to combine a history lesson with a vacation last spring.

Kathie

Monday, October 31, 2011

Design Wall Monday - Halloween

Happy Halloween, are you ready for all the little gremlins to come tonight!!

A couple of works in progress on my design wall. The first is another runner I am making from the hidden spools blocks blocks from the Bonnie Hunter workshop


These are fun blocks to make and I intend on making a quilt using this technique in the future, I will just use a litter wider strips to make it.

For the last three April's our local area has had a Fiber Arts Retreat. The last two years I have given a presentation on tips to prepare your quilt to go to a longarm quilter. I didn't want to do that for a 3rd time so am thinking about doing a workshop making fused wreaths using small pieces of fabric and fussy cut motifs. This is a fall example I have been working on.


Hope to get borders on it and quilted in the next few weeks and then start on another example, either a Christmas or spring wreath.

Kathie

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Sunday Stash Report - October 30, 2011

No quilt pictures today, had been working on customer quilts a lot of the week and the rest of the time my daughter had the camera for homecoming week.

I did use a fair amount of fabric this week as I quilted up several table runners for my upcoming craft shows. I also purchased some backing fabric at JoAnns that was on sale. My stats are:

Fabric used this week: 7 yards
Fabric used YTD: 257.25 yards
Fabric purchased this week: 5 yards
Fabric purchased YTD: 188.50
Net fabric used in 2011: 68.75 yards

Here are pictures of lasts nights homecoming, sounds like they had a great time.



Have a great week.

Kathie

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Pinktober

Yesterday's theme for homecoming week was Pinktober. Mandy has lots of pink shirts but nothing else to go with it so was very low key. She said even a lot of the guys were wearing pink and some had spray painted their hair pink. I would have like to have seen that.


I did get the customer t-shirt quilt finished yesterday. Here is a pic of just a piece of it.....


There were a few of the t-shirts that had a lot of surface paint on them and that made the machine bog down so had to go very slow in those places. One shirt the paint was so thick that the needle actually put little cracks in the paint.

I can see where preparation of the shirts properly has to be done to have any success at all. All of the t-shirts were adhered to whatever type of iron on stabilizer/interfacing she used.

Two blocks seemed like parts of the shirt were not fully stuck to the stabilizer and when I quilted those sections the top shirt moved around some and caused problems. 90% of the quilt is nice and flat but those two blocks had some slight puffy areas because of the movement but I really don't think anyone else would notice unless you point them out.

Kathie

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Rulers and Such

I had several people ask about what ruler I used on the table runner and the purple blocks. It was a Quilt in a Day 45 degree triangular ruler. I am in no way affiliated with Quilt in a Day but if you decide to buy one of these rulers I recommend theirs. At the workshop I took in April there were several ladies that had ordered rulers of other brands and they were off so nothing was fitting together.

Yesterday was back in time (WAY back to the 80's, gee I feel old) for spirit week. I think Mandy was going for the flash dance or Olivia Newton-John look with the slouched socks and the shirt with the neck cut off and the bottom chopped way off. Thank goodness for a Michael's $2.99 shirt!!!


I spent some time with a friend yesterday helping her laying out some blocks so didn't get any customer quilting done. I did quilt up two table runners and got the bindings put on them by machine so accomplished somethiing at least in addition to some household chores.

Today I need to get a t-shirt loaded and quilted. I hear that they are a bear to quilt so wish me luck.

Kathie

Monday, October 24, 2011

Design Wall Monday - October 24, 2011

At the retreat last week Julia refreshed my memory on how to make these blocks (had only one complete at the time) so I completed the other 8 last week. Takes a lot of time with having to make up all the strip sets. Here they all are ready to trim and sew together.


I liked the look and the ruler I used for these but figured I wouldn't want to do anymore of them for awhile untill I found a stripe Christmas fabric in my stash and quickly made up these blocks for a table runner


I liked the look so much last night I made up another set of blocks, trimmed them up and complete two table runner tops.

Lastly and not design wall or sewing related at all but this is Homecoming week at my daughter's high school and today is wacky tacky day. I think she definitely looks way wacky!!!


Mandy's last high school homecoming week, hope she enjoys it all!!!

Kathie

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Sunday Stash Report - October 23, 2011

Since I was at a two day retreat this week I spent a lot of time sewing. Hubby was also on travel so I spent extra time in the evenings working on my projects.

I did purchase several yards of on sale Christmas fabric but still sewing more than I purchased:

Fabric used this week: 9 yards
Fabric used YTD: 250.25 yards
Fabric purchased this week: 6 yards
Fabric purchased YTD: 183.50
Net Fabric used in 2011: 66.75 yards

As I know I will be purchasing more Christmas fabric as it goes on sale I am hoping for a net of 75 yards by the end of the year.

At the end of the retreat my Singer 301 sewing machine started acting up and I sent a text to my husband so he would know I would need him to work on it when he got back from travel. Well......... he stopped by a thrift store and picked up this New Home Jem sewing machine for $20 (very much like the Janome Jem). It is very small and light and he thought it would be perfect to take to retreats and workshops. It is missing a spool pin but everything else seems to be in working order.


Kathie

Friday, October 21, 2011

Retreat was Great

Our two day retreat was great. We sew at a little building at the Navy Rec Center right on the water. The first day was sunny and warm and we were even able to sit outside for lunch, nice.

Second day was cooler and raining but no one cared as it was great sewing weather.

Lots of talking, laughing, eating and oh yes sewing. Some of the ladies were doing handwork, several were making spikey paper pieced borders that was learned at last months meeting. Several were making hidden nine patch quilts (from workshop a couple of months ago) and two ladies participated in a jelly roll race quilt. I love seeing all the different project in process and checking out everyone fabrics.

I finished all the hidden spool blocks from my bonnie hunter class and then switched to this project. I took a workshop back in April at a Fiber Arts Conference. I made one block, put it away and promptly forgot how to do it. Wednesday I got some help and made the two additional blocks shown here and then yesterday made three more.

The one on the right the center looks perfect but the others don't. For the class we were told the strips could be a variety of sizes as long as each strip set added up to the same width. Well that is what I did The "perfect" block had all the strips the same width. The others didn't which makes the centers look off. You have two center points of one size and two of another.

At least I have learned the technique and I am keeping this quilt for myself so its ok. When this one is done I am anxious to try another one, but this time with a striped fabric and not with all those strip sets.


This will probably still be on my design wall for monday as I have several other projects to work on so will probably be doing one block at a time till its done.

Kathie

Monday, October 17, 2011

Design Wall Monday - October 17, 2011

I had these tumber pieces partially done for at least 2 or 3 weeks. Yesterday finally got them together, the cream sewn on the ends and the motifs fused down. All I need to do now is stitch around the holly and poinsettias and they will be ready to quilt.


My customer quilting job for the day is just a couple of runners so once those are knocked out hope to get a couple of mine on the frame.

Tomorrow is my day 1 of my guild's twice yearly 2 day retreat (day time only) so will be spending some time today getting all my supplies ready. I have more projects picked out than I can possibly work on but it is nice to have a choice once you get there.

Kathie

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Sunday Stash Report - October 16, 2011

This was a stash enhancement week again. MOST of it was fabric that I needed so thats ok.

Here is the pile. I needed some fabric to back some fall runners so found the Halloween fabric on sale at Joanns. One of the pieces has already been used.


The one Christmas fabric I needed (several yards) to make backing for runners, also found that at 50% off at JoAnns.

The rest of the fabric was purchased at my local quilt shop, have to support them right? Anyway they had a 25% off sale on friday so picked up a couple cute Christmas fabrics there.

I am sure a lot of people are doing just like I am these days, only buying when you can hit a sale. I am sure that isn't good for businesses but have to cut back where you can.

Here are my current stats:

Fabric used this week: 5 yards
Fabric used YTD: 241.25 yards
Fabric purchased this week: 12 yards
Fabric purchased YTD: 177.5 yards
Net fabric used in 2011: 63.75

Most of the fabric I used this week was for backings for table runners as most of the time in the sewing room was spent on customer quilts. Think I will load the next customer quilt today but might not work on it until tomorrow.

Kathie

Friday, October 14, 2011

Quilting and College

It has been a busy week so don't have any pictures to show of my own quilting but this is the customer quilt that was on the frame yesterday...


It was an oversized lap quilt/not quite twin sized quilt. I love doing this size.

I also put a label on this quilt (shown below) so that it can be stowed away for the next hospice quilt delivery. I delivered 7 quilts to hospice last friday, 5 from my evening guild and 2 from my day time guild. Probably won't be taking any more until the beginning of the year so this will be the first quilt for 2012. It was made by Ann and Jane out of donated batik fabrics, I then quilted it and it went off to the binding fairies.


Lastly, the college application process continued last night. Spent an hour or so proofing the latest college application and helping (credit card assistance) getting it submitted. This was a common application so it got submitted to both Towson and Salisbury at the same time. Now a couple of weeks break and then I will be nudging her to start applying for scholorships.

Kathie

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

On the Frame

This was what was on the frame yesterday, this bright cheery customer quilt. Bright and sunny and nice and flat so it was a pleasure to quilt. I think I spent to many hours at the frame though with not enough breaks and my knee and foot are protesting this morning.


I am going to spend less time at the frame today. I have several errands I need to run and a few things to do around the house and then I am going to quilt a couple of craft show table runners before getting the next quilt loaded and ready to go.

Tonight is a meeting at the library on "Paying for College". Don't you just right a check for everything in your account and thats how you pay for college!!! lol Anyway think the hubby and I will go hoping that maybe part of the presentation will be on how to find scholorships etc.

Kathie

Monday, October 10, 2011

Design Wall Monday and Bonnie Hunter

Well what is on my design wall is the few blocks I have made from Bonnie Hunter's hidden spools class yesterday. Since you make it in quarters I have tons of 1/4 blocks done but only these completed blocks.


I am leaning towards making a couple of table runners out of all the blocks instead of a lap quilt.

The class was a lot of fun and it was nice to see Bonnie again.

Some of the ladies brought "Bonnie" quilts with them for show and tell.


It was a fun time for everyone.

Kathie

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Sunday Stash Report - October 9, 2011

I just about had to report nothing in and nothing out this week but I did end up making the block of the month for October (due tomorrow night) yesterday so was able to count that fabric. Also on the design wall is a tumbler table runner in process, I will be counting that fabric next week.


My current stats are:
Fabric used this week: 1/4 yards
Fabric used YTD: 236.50 yards
Fabric purchased this week: 0
Fabric purchased YTD: 165.5 yards
Net fabric used in 2011: 81

Most of my sewing time this week was spent on charity and customer quilts and working on getting some bindings done. Here is a charity quilt that I quilted yesterday.


This is an exciting morning, in about an hour I will be off to an all day Bonnie Hunter class. This one is called hidden spools and looking forward to seeing Bonnie again and to spending the day sewing with friends. My husband asked me how long I was going for as I have so much stuff staged in the living room ready to load in the car.

Hope to have pictures tomorrow of what I accomplished in the class as my design wall monday.

Kathie

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Project of the Day

This is a the quilt I was working on today. It is made out of shirts and maybe pants also as some of the fabric is thicker, maybe like a docker type of fabric.


This is the quilt that I had to baste the pockets closed. Customer wanted a few of them not quilted so they could be open which I did but............ I had forgot to baste one of them closed and the longarm foot caught in it and I broke TWO seam rippers trying to get the threads cut and the foot disengaged from the pocket.

Finally managed to free it with no holes in the pocket but it took some time.

Kathie