Finally some pictures

Finally have some pictures to share even if I didn't make the quilts. These two quilts are charity donations recently back from my binding fairy Jane.

This first one was made by Betty, quilted by myself and then Jane completed the binding for us. Ultimate destination will be hospice.

This second quilt is a cute scrappy little boys quilt made and quilted by Julia. This one will probably be going to our local hospital for a sick child.

Nice job ladies on both of these.

Just finished the last customer quilt I will be doing until after my surgery. Now to get a couple of my things quilted and then next week I will concentrate on getting some things done around the house, a couple of appointments and some kits cut.

Kathie

Midweek Update

Yes it is wednesday though I had to look at the calendar this morning to find out what day it was. Between jet lag and a cold I hardly know what day it is this week.

Only thing to report in my update is that I have managed to quilt up three baby quilts since I have been home. I have one more customer baby quilt and a lap quilt to do and then I will be finished up with customer stuff until after I recooperate from surgery.

Next week I will get a couple of my own quilts quilted and kits cut and made up so that I can sew well before I am able to cut or quilt again.

Here are a few more pictures taken in Hawaii. Daughter and I went on a submarine ride. Was a little scary being so far under the water (100 feet) but also very interesting. You will notice that everything is kind of a blue gray. The lower you go in the water all other colors kind of wash out so everything looks pretty much the same. Even on the sub the color red totally disappeared and peoples tungs and teeth looked strange colors.

Here is one of three sea turtles we saw, they were huge!

We also saw a shark but I didn't get a very good picture of him.

A couple of errands and quilting at least the baby quilt are on the agenda for today. Sunshine and warm today, I better take advantage as they are calling for storms tomorrow.

kathie

Pearl Harbor

The first thing the kiddo and I did in Hawaii other than shopping was taking a tour to go see the Pearl Harbor Memorial. I expected to be impressed but I was surprised at how emotional I was.

The first two pictures were as we pulled up to the memorial and disembarked our boat.

This is part of the Arizona that remains above the surface.

The wall with the names of everyone on board that died that day. That really hit me as a lot of the young sailors were probably only a couple years older than my daughter. I believe the number was 1177 young men that perished that day on the Arizona.

I guess the part that got to me the most is this next picture. It will be the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor this coming December 7th and oil is still seeping from the ship. They said that it was fully loaded with fuel at the time of the bombing. One third of it blew up with the ship, one third of it burned on the water and the remaining one third leaks out at about a quart a day over the last 70 years. If you can't see the oil click on the picture to make it larger.

I am still trying to recover from the cold I picked up in Hawaii. I did manage to get two baby quilts quilted yesterday between trips to the sofa to rest.

I got a call from the doctors office yesterday and they had a surgical opening so my hand surgery is scheduled for May 9th, not much longer to wait. I will be trying to get the customer quilts I have in house done and a couple of my own projects done before the surgery as I don't know how long it will be before I will be able to longarm again.

kathie

Design Wall Monday - April 25, 2011

What is on my design wall? Absolutely nothing!!! I was in Hawaii for close to a week and have been sick ever since I got home so nothing on the wall. Instead of showing you a blank design wall I will show you some pictures taken at Wikiki Beach.

This first one is the view we had from our room.

Next couple of pictures are various views of the beach. The one from under the umbrella where I hid most of the time.

Another beach view this one with the kiddo standing in the water.

One last shot of the beach. This one was taken when we were pulling back into the beach after a boat ride.

I definitely need to catch up on a few things around here today and get a customer quilt done but boy am I moving slowly.

Kathie

Two Week Sunday Stash Report (Enhancement)

Have not blogged in over a week. My husband had to go to Hawaii for a business meeting. Since it was spring break week for the kid and he had tons of frequent flyer miles we could use we tagged along.

The trip over is a killer, airplane seats are just not made for comfort.

Kiddo and I had a great week. Lots of time on the beach, some site seeing and of course I did find a local fabric shop and brought back some Hawaiian print fabrics and I also bought myself a Hawaiian quilt wall hanging.

Hope to have pictures downloaded and ready to post by tomorrow.

Here are my stats for the last two weeks:

Fabric used: 2.25 yards
Fabric used YTD: 102.78
Fabric purchased in last two weeks: 4 yards for fall table runners and 8 yards of Hawaiian prints (total 12 yards)
Net fabric used in 2011: 19.75

Now I have to catch up on things around the house, several phone calls that I need to make tomorrow and several customer quilts on the agenda so don't know how much time I will have to sew this week, or even remember what I was working on before I left. Call it jet lag or something, think I will use that excuse for at least a few days for anything I forget.

Kathie

Its Definite

Went back to the doctor yesterday and it is definite, I need surgery on my thumb. Now the question is when. They have to get approval from insurance companies (I have two) and then surgery will be scheduled. The surgeon's current surgical schedule is about 6 weeks or more out so I probably won't be getting surgery for two more month.

That is kind of depressing but what can you do.

I did get three customer quilts done this week and the rest of the week was pretty much taken up with my daughter's and my doctors appointments so no actual sewing time, so no pictures.

Have a great weekend.

Kathie

Midweek Update

Well the kid had a relapse of strep throat so spent the morning at the doctors office and pharmacy. She is keeping the TV and sofa company today and will go back to school tomorrow.

I did get a baby quilt quilted yesterday and another one today. Not a lot accomplished but hey it is something.

As it turns out I am glad I didn't plan on going to the guild meeting monday night. I had to have a biopsy done on my thumb (yes the same sore thumb) monday and wasn't feeling like doing anything monday night other than go to bed early.

One of the ladies brought a finished hospice quilt to show that night so I got it from her yesterday. This is a quilt that Cindy pieced and quilted from a kit I cut out of donated fabrics. Looks kind of washed out here but the batiks are much more vibrant.

Kathie

Design Wall Monday - April 11, 2011

I didn't think I was going to be able to do design wall monday today. Suddenly my computer won't recognize my camera! I am pretty technology challenged so tried all the easy stuff including rebooting the computer, turning the camera off and on and changing the USB cable but nothing worked.

Anyway figured I would try it on the lap top and if it worked then it wasn't the camera going bad, it is something with the other computer.

So anyway............ This is what is on my design wall. I didn't know what to do about borders so added a white one to make the large star float and then pieced together the 2 1/2 squares to make a final border. Now I have nothing left for binding but will worry about that once I find some backing fabric and get this quilted.

First up on my agenda for today is quilting a customer lap quilt. I had this quilt before but the backing wasn't large enough so had to send it back. I now want to get it done for her today. I also cut out about a zillion 1/2 square triangles last night out of donated batiks. Hopefully once I count them out will be enough to make into two charity quilt.

Have a doctors appointment also today so don't know how much else I will be getting done around the house. Tonight is my guild night but I don't think I will be going. This is a super busy week for me so think staying home I can make better use of the time.

Kathie

Sunday Stash Report - Week 15

Part of my fabric purchases and part of my fabric usage were both for my April UFO. I added the outer two borders on this quilt this weekend. The black from stash and the red I purchased this week at Joanns and found exactly the same fabric I had used on these squares a year and a half ago (these are left overs).

I also purchased a piece of "just bacause" fabric at the quilt shop on sale. A wonderful spring floral that I will put into a quilt "someday".

My usage numbers are getting up there but not making a lot of progress with my stash reduction numbers. I am happy though as I am using up some of the old fabrics my stash is looking fresher.

Stats for the week:

Fabric used this week: 6.5 yards
Fabric used YTD: 100.5 yards
Fabric purchased this week: 4.5 yards (borders, binding and just because)
Fabric purchased YTD: 71
Net fabric used in 2011: 29.5

Lastly, prom was last night. Here is a picture of the kid right before she left.

Kathie

Mid Week Update

Mid week update, a little bit late.

I quilted this tumbler quilt of mine on tuesday using the Pajama Quilter all over pattern called Fern ziggle. It gives nice all over texture.

I need to start working on the April UFO. I did pull it out.........

I found some 2 1/2 strips of the black so that will be the next border. I went to JoAnns today and found the exact same red though it has been about a year and a half since I made the quilt (this quilt is the left overs) so happy about that. the red will become the outer border and binding so once the fabric is washed and I get a customer quilt quilted I will start on that.

Yesterday was my day time guild and we had a trunk show from a lady that lives in this area. Wonderful quilts, pieced, applique, paper piecing etc. I don't think there is a method that she has not tried or not mastered. Inspired me to try paper piecing again one of these days (maybe).

Kathie

Project Progress

I didn't want to put all three of my class projects from last weekend away into UFO land. I picked the one that I had got the most done on (the Twisted 4-patch), completed those blocks and made it into two runners. The kit was to make a 40 x 40 wall hanging but I decided to do my own thing. The kit had plenty of fabrics in it for borders and bindings on these and still some left over. This first one I decided to use 4 of the blocks and use sashing.

The other runner I used up the remaining 5 blocks and since it was already longer skipped using sashing.

I guess now I really need to concentrate on UFO #4 which is the UFO I need to finish before the end of the month. I did pull it out last night, does that count as working on it?

It is only about 38 inches square as it was made from leftovers from a quilt I made my grandson over a year ago. I think the fabric I had cut for binding will become a narrow border, now all I need to do is find something for an outer border. At first look I have NOTHING that will work for that. Might have to hit the quilt shop tomorrow.

Kathie

Design Wall Monday - April 4, 2011

I was at the Chesapeake Fiber Arts Retreat from early friday morning until saturday evening. Talk about a great time.

As I unpacked yesterday I put each of my three projects on my design wall to take pictures and also to try and pick out which project I am going to continue to work on first.

This first project was from a Kaleidoscope class. Easy piecing as it is only sewing strips of fabric together. The hard part is accurate cutting of the wedges. I only got this first block done and one other strip set sewn together but I really like the result.

Second picture on my design wall was from a scrappy quilting class. We were making a scrappy background square and then making a half square triangle with white fabric which became a sail. I got the sail part done and the mast added but still need to add the bottom of the sailboat and then deside if I want to make this the center of a quilt or make it into a wall hanging. I am leaning towards making a few real small sailboats and scatter them around with this in the center and make a lap sized quilt.

This last picture is actually from the first class I took. This one is called Twisted 4 Patch and uses the mini twister tool. The kit makes a 40 x 40 wall hanging but I am going to use the blocks to make two table runners instead as the colors in this really wouldn't go on any wall in my house. This picture is of six of the nine blocks. I sat down last night and finished the last 3 blocks as they were already partially done. This class was friday afternoon and officially finished at 4:30 but several of us sat around after dinner and continued to work on these blocks until close to 10:00 p.m.

Classes were widely varied from applique, to piecing, weaving, needle punch, knitting, Project Linus etc. etc. so think everyone was able to do something they liked and also try something new. My major problem was that there were more classes I wanted to take than time. I also learned that I probably don't want to take 3 classes next year all with big projects. I should take one of those a day and then take another class or two that is more demonstration or a small make and take type of class so I don't come home with so many more UFOs.

Kathie

Sunnday Stash Report - April 3, 2011

Boy I hardly even know what day it is right now. I was at a wonderful Fiber Arts Retreat from early friday morning through saturday evening. Took great classes, had a wonderful time with friends and met many new people.

Since most of my class projects are not even unpacked yet I will try and show them as my design wall monday.

There was a mini quilt shop set up at the retreat so I did some shopping. I bought 12 FQs of kids type of prints to make a quilt. Not sure what pattern I am going to use, that will have to come after finishing all the class projects.

My stats for the week are:

Fabric used this week: 3 yards
Fabric used YTD: 94 yards
Fabric purchased this week: 3 yards
Fabric purchased this year: 66.5 yards
Net fabric used in 2011: 27.5 yards (same as last week)

Net is not WONDEREFUL at the end of the first quarter but since I set no specific goal other than try and use more than I buy and to use up some of the older fabric guess I am doing ok.

Kathie