Stash ENHANCEMENT Report - July 31, 2011

Yesterday I went on the guild bus trip to the Hershey, PA quilt show. Fantastic show (to bad I forgot my camera), wonderful vendors and a great time. The 3 1/2 hour bus ride each way was kind of tiring but still had a wonderful time.

As I expected I did some major stash enhancement at the show. I was specifically looking to add a couple of batik fabrics to my stash and find some nice small prints that would make good borders to some fall table runners.

I ended up getting the batiks, the fall prints, a bright kids print and a FQ packet I couldn't pass up. In addition I purchased two patterns, a spool of bottom line bobbin thread, a couple of quilty cards and a telescoping back scratcher. I definitely helped the economy.

Here is a picture of my "haul" and stats for the week:

Fabric used this week: 3/4 yard
Fabric used YTD: 180 yards
Fabric purchased this week: 9 yards
Fabric purchased YTD: 127.5 yards
Net fabric used in 2011: 52.5 yards

My usage this week was very small. I spent most of the week quilting customer quilts and working on very little of my own projects. Here is a picture of one of the last customer quilts I quilted. This was made by a 14 year old, she did a great job.

and look at this little piece of a quilt, this was the last one on my frame.

Have a wonderful day.

Kathie

Senior Pictures

Well I can cross another item off of our summer "to do" list. Senior pictures were taken last night. Weather cooperated, it was warm but not to hot and the right light for outdoor pictures. I can't wait to see them. Some were taken by an old weathered barn, others by trees and greenery and the ones I think will be my favorites were taken on a dock on the water.

Guess the next biggie will be college applications. At least one of the universities we visited applications go live next week. I am sure I will be "encouraging" Mandy to make an early start on those since there are so many things you have to request (transcripts, letters of recommendations etc.) in addition to the applications, essays and other information.

Accomplished very little in the sewing room yesterday. I got one block cut out for my sampler quilt and the next customer quilt partially loaded on the frame but thats it. Hope to get more accomplished today.

Kathie

UFO of the Month for July

Ok UFO for July is done. All that was still needed this month was binding and a hanging sleeve but just about waited till the end of the month to get it done. This was from a guild workshop where we used Ricky Timms book.

I am back to doing some customer quilts although I don't want to tackle any larger than a large twin/small full sized yet. I wanted to get another charity quilt quilted in between the customer quilt so quilted this bright yellow quilt made by Betty the other day. Just did a meander in bright yellow thread just to get it done but as brite and busy as it is the meander is just fine. Wish I had taken a picture of the backing as it is just as pretty as the front, lots of bright print squares with a few orphan (I guess) blocks tossed in.

Great job Betty.

Another doctors appointment today, a few errands and then hopefully will get the next customer quilt at least loaded but think I am going to take a break today and do some piecing this afternoon.

This evening we will be going to get my daughters senior pictures taken. She is very excited as it is a whole photo shoot done outside. What happened to a few pictures taken in a studio? Big bucks but you are only a senior once!! Guess we did save by not having to buy a class ring, her skin reacts to metal so it just wasn't an option. I think Senior year is going to be VERY expensive.

Kathie

Design Wall Monday - July 25, 2011

Currently on my design wall are Christmas sampler blocks

Two of my friends are in charge of the block of the month at one of the quilt guilds I belong to, so I have been trying to make blocks, turn them in and try to win them. No luck on the winning so far. I also made 4 or 5 months worth and then there were a couple I just didn't want to put the time into making, and other months I just wasn't able to make them for various reasons.

When I made one in the requested colors to turn in I was also making one out of Christmas fabrics and figured by the end of the years worth (August) I would have enough to make a sampler quilt.

In our recent newletter they requested that anyone that had won blocks or made their own bring in their quilt top to the September meeting. Ok, so finally that got me motivated to make a couple more blocks and get these on the design wall. I am going to make three more blocks, then sash and border this for a Christmas lap quilt. Do you think a thin black sashing would look ok?

The other exciting news of the weekend is that we bought a new car on saturday. This is a Hyundai Sonata, which is a nice midsized car so should be good on gas mileage but also big enough that the three of us could take trips in it.

Hope everyone has a wonderful (and hopefully cooler) week.

Kathie

Sunday Stash Report - July 24, 2011

I thought I was going to have nothing to report this week but remembered that I did make one block. Not much but medical issues pretty much took up the week.

Current stats are:

Fabric used this week: .25 yards
Fabric used YTD: 179.25 yards
Fabric purchased this week: 0
Fabric purchased YTD: 188.5
Net fabric used in 2011: 60.75 yards

I am afraid that my report next sunday will definitely show a DROP in the net usage unless I sew like crazy this week. About 30 of us from my quilt guild will be going on a bus trip next saturday to the Hershey PA Quilt Show. Really looking forward to it. There are always fabrics I have not seen before at those that I just HAVE to pick up. With the prices that fabric has gone to I am sure I will be coming home with less yardage than in the past but will still have a few things to "freshen" my stash.

Kathie

Quilty for a Change

Nice to have something quilty to blog about for a change and not just health issues.

I actually have finished a couple of things this week while vegging on the sofa I completed the bindings on this second pink baby quilt

and also the binding on this holly tumbler quilt

and this morning I was able to go downstairs and take the baby duck quilt off the frame that I had quilted on sunday

I try not to spend hours on the computer reading blogs but there are a few that I try and read on a daily basis or at least every few days. One that I especially like is Alycia's blog out in Colorado she does so much QOV charity work. Today my thoughts and prayers go out to her and her family after a the terrible loss of her cousin and three nieces in a freak flash flood earlier this week. I think every one of us tends to take our families for granted so if you are lucky to have yours around give them an extra hug today.

Kathie

Wednesday Update

Had my heart cath done up at the Washington Hospital Center in DC on monday. Was scary and not fun but not to bad. Since no blockages were found they let me go home the same night so now just recooperating from the meds and the trama to my leg where they went in. Good think purple is my favorite color as I am about six different shades!!!

Since I can't do stairs for a couple of days I have been doing some hand work and making progress on bindings. Hopefully I will get a couple of things done so I will be able to post pictures.

Kathie

Sunday Stash Report - July 17, 2011

Well no exciting projects were worked on this week but I did manage to use up some yardage on two backings. One backing was entirely out of stash, the other was purchased.

Current stats are:

Fabric used this week: 7.5 yards
Fabric used YTD: 179 yards
Fabric purchased this week: 3.5 yards
Fabric purchased YTD: 118.5 yards
Net fabric used in 2011: 60.5 yards

College Tour #3 and other things

Well it has been a very strange few days. Doctors, tests and a trip to tour another college.

I had the do-over of part of my stress test on thursday right before leaving for out of town. I really expected things to be ok but they were not. My doc is out of town so they took me and my results to see the head of the medical building to explain the results. To make the story short they think I have a partial blockage.

He wasn't thrilled that we were going out of town but after telling me to take an asprin a day, gave me a prescription for nitro (for just in case), and telling me to take it easy he let us go.

They did set up a heart catheritization procedure for me monday morning. The one thing I really don't like about where we live is that for a procedure like that we have to go to one of the bigger hospitals in DC which means about a two hour drive each way or more considering rush hour traffic.

Anyway.............. this college trip was to Salisbury University on the Eastern Shore. I loved everything about it with the exception that it is the farthest from home. It is the smallest, 30 miles from the beach, 15 minutes from a mall (Mandy thinks thats way important) the least expensive, GPA and SATs right in line, good looking housing, campus is beautifully maintained and they have a huge new business major complex opening this fall that was endowed by the Perdue (chicken) people. On top of that it is the only school we visited that allows freshman to have cars on campus. Will have to see where she ends up getting accepted at but if it was ME I think Salisbury would be my choice.

I have a lot of little things to wrap up this weekend and a couple of appointments to cancel for next week. Other than that I am going to try and sew/quilt a lot this weekend to keep me busy so I don't dwell on my upcoming procedure.

Kathie

Charity Quilting

A while back I cut out a ba-zillion half square triangles with my Accuquilt GO and made them in to 8 or 9 quilt kits to be made up for hospice. I am starting to get them back in so figured I should take the time to get a hospice quilt quilted this week.

This is the first of the half square triangle quilts, pieced by Louise. A whole bag of State Flower fabrics had been donated and this is the first quilt from that bag.

I believe this is the 13th charity top I quilted this year. Not as many as I accomplished last year but respectible.

Once all the college visits and a short vacation are out of the way I want to try and get back into my old routine of spending one day a week working on charity projects. That includes cutting kits, making backings or getting some of them quilted.

kathie

Tropical Tuesday

Well it feels tropical anyway, in the 90's and humid today. Not my type of weather!!!

This is the most recent quilt off the frame. Made this baby quilt a few weeks ago and got it quilted and the binding on the other day. Now it will just be added to my hand stitching pile.

Last night was our local quilt guild meeting. Nice to see everyone. Eileen gave me back 3 quilt tops and 3 backings she sewed up from kits that I had cut out for hospice quilts. Sounds like I need to get busy and get a few quilted or find some other quilters that would be able to get a couple of them quilted for me.

Carol also turned in one completed hospice quilt. She pieced and bound this quilt and another member, Pam, did the quilting.

I am still working on trying to get a backing pieced for the second horse quilt, hope to get that together this afternoon and also the next quilt loaded on the frame.

Kathie

Design Wall Monday - July 11, 2011

Last thing on my design wall was this stretched star baby duck quilt. I bought the fabrics a couple of years ago and in looking for something else the other day found them and decided to go ahead and use up the fabric. You can't tell from the picture but the outer border is white with all sorts of pastel polka dots.

Another thing accomplished over the weekend was I quilted this seat that my hubby had made for a lady he works with. I think he did a great job!!

I should be getting one customer quilt to do today and will be working on getting that quilted this week. I have been getting some calls on quilts to do but all of them are in the full to queen sized range and don't want to over task my hand yet. Right now I am just sticking to twin sized or smaller. Guess I will continue to catch up on quilting my craft show items and hopefully a hospice quilt or two until some more of the smaller customer quilts show up.

With several medical issues and hopefully a short vacation in August it is actually good that I am not very busy right now.

Kathie

Sunday Stash Report - July 10, 2011

Well it has been a great week in stash reduction. I made backings for two quilts (one of them has been quilted already) and I made a duck baby quilt top (picture tomorrow). I purchased the backing for the one quilt but everything else came from my stash.

Weekly stats are:

Fabric used this week: 12.5 yards
Fabric used YTD: 171.75 yards
Fabric purchased this week: 4 yards
Fabric purchased YTD: 115 yards

Net fabric used in 2011: 56.75 yards (not bad!!!!)

A few weeks ago we purchased the old chaise at a thrift store. Finally all the old fabric has been removed and it is ready for new foam and new fabric!!

The big thing we did this week was college visit #2. This one was to Towson University outside of Baltimore. Mandy liked that it is in a town with a mall (lol), seemed to be a lot to do in the area and she liked the campus.

It is not as manicured/nice looking as College Park was but that is mainly because they are constructing several new buildings.

I think she just felt generally more comfortable with this school. We stuck near the tour director and were able to ask several questions.

The schools give you a range that 50% of the students accepted are in a certain range on SATs/GPAs with of course 25% above and below. College park would be a stretch as she would be at the lower end of the 50% (even with a 3.9 GPA) but at Towson she is totally above that percentage so she feels more confidence that she would be accepted there.

One more tour to go this summer and that will be Salisbury over on the eastern shore.

Kathie

Timing is Everything

I recently quilted a panel quilt that looked like a huge basket of flowers that would become one of our hospice quilts. Jane was nice enough to do the binding for me and handed it back to me at our day time guild yesterday with binding and label complete.

It just so happened that one of the other members approached me to see if she could come by the house one day to get a quilt for an ex-principal of one of our local schools that is suffering from terminal cancer.

Since I had just been given that quilt back I was able to hand it off to her for delivery. Perfect timing all around.

As to the question did I find the backing? No, once I got distracted I never went back to it. I don't have many browns etc. but hope when I look again that I will find enough pieces to make 10 1/2 squares to create my backing.

Woke up at 2:30 this morning with a headache and jittery. Got up and took my blood pressure to be on the safe side (everything fine) but then just couldn't go back to sleep. Watched TV till 4:00 and then went to the basement and sewed till about 5:15 when my hubby got up.

I did manage to finish the middle section of my duck quilt and pull fabric for the borders.

A trip to the grocery store this morning and to the dentist about noon to receive my perm crown on my tooth and I am going to try and come back home and take a short nap.

Kathie

Just Ducky

I was looking through a bin of fabric yesterday to see if there was anything in there appropriate for a quilt backing and found this duck fabric that I purchased several years ago.

Since I was in the mood to piece something simple I started this "Just Ducky" elongated star quilt. Didn't get to many blocks made but it is a start. I don't know how big it will be, that will be determined by how many blocks I make before running out of the yellow star point fabric. I am going to try and use stash totally for this quilt and hopefully not buy a thing.

Its always nice to get some of the fabric used up that has been hanging around for awhile.

Today is my day time quilt guild followed by another doctors appointment so probably no sewing on the agenda for today.


kathie

Prices

Every time I go to the grocery store it seems like prices are up and of course we all know what the prices have been like at the gas pumps. I make adjustments that I can like combining errands and basically just driving less and also clipping coupons and buying multiples of things we use a lot if I see a good sale.

Of course since quilting is my hobby plus I made things for craft shows to sell the prices of fabric going up and up is really getting to me. I went to JoAnns yesterday. Remember when you could find $3.99 and $4.99 fabrics? Those would be the ones I would buy when I needed yardage for backings especially.

Everything is now $5.99 and up with a couple of rare bolts at the $4.99 level.

I guess as the prices continue to raise I am going to have to raise my craft show prices but that will eventually get to the point where people won't want to pay what I need to charge.

Sure hope this is the last jump in cotton for awhile!!

Kathie

Design Wall Monday - July 4, 2011

Happy 4th of July to everyone.

I actually do have something to show on my design wall but unfortunately it is a lot like last weeks. This is horse quilt #2. I had pieces of two horse fabrics left, a bunch of left over 9 patches (from the first horse quilt) and some rope fabric to fill in. Kind of fun to gather that all up and end up with another quilt top.

The only thing I had to go out and buy was the outer border.

I made a backing for the first horse quilt yesterday and have it partially loaded on the frame. I hope to at least get that quilted and the binding done on a couple of my table runners this week between doctors visits, getting the final crown on my tooth and college visit #2.

Kathie

Sunday Stash Report - July 3, 2011

Well considering I didn't sew for several days this week due to an unexpected hospital stay I did well with my numbers. I purchased a piece of fabric to use as borders and binding for my second horse quilt but it all got used up already.

Stats for the week:

Fabric used this week: 7.25 yards (on two horse quilts)
Fabric used YTD: 159.25 yards
Fabric purchased this week: 1.50 yards
Fabric purchased YTD: 111 yards
Net fabric USED in 2011: 48.25 yards

I am going to try and do a little more stash reduction today by piecing the backing for the smallest of the two horse quilts and maybe think about loading it on the frame.

Kathie

June's UFO #8

My UFO for June was done on time. I just didn't get a chance to post the picture and link to the UFO Challenge site.

I am lucky that the number for July has been pulled as UFO #2. This one I quilted awhile back and all it currently needs is a hanging sleeve made for it and it will be all done.

kathie

No Quilting

I guess I should have known when I didn't feel like quilting this week that something was up. I had been feeling "off" for a couple of days.

Well wednesday night about the time my daughter got home from ballet I started feeling worse and had her drive me to the hospital with chest pains. I must say hospitals treat you immediately when that is what you go in for.

They kept me a full 24 hours for a full cardiac workup including every test known to man. Things look good but still don't know why my blood pressure and pulse is acting weird. Right now in the just watching it phases and go back in a couple of a weeks for a repeat of one test to see if it shows anything differently.

Of course this was all going on with my hubby out of the country on a business trip. Luckily I have a great friend and quilting buddy that I was able to call on late wednesday night and she went over to the house and spent the night with Mandy so she didn't have to be alone after being kind of freaked out.

I did walk in the sewing room today and put a couple of pieces of fabric away but thats it. Hopefully tomorrow I will feel like getting the outer borders put on my Horse Quilt #2 so I will have another top complete.

Kathie