Catching up

I have not been in the sewing room now for almost a month and has been well over a month since my last post! I had such great plans for quilts that I was starting...  I started sewing the "Between Charming Friends" quilt. I know - everyone else who was doing them are long finished but I like the quilt and had a charm pack to use. It's still in the same state on the wall as it was a month ago.

Start of Between Charming Friends quilt

Instead, I have been working on bookkeeping for my daughter's business. They had a major fire in their building and need everything caught up for insurance. The end is getting close now so hopefully, I'll be able to get back to doing some "FUN" stuff soon!

Update on my Stash Report....

Used this week: .65 M
Used Year to Date: 35.16 M
Added this week: .25 M
Added Year to Date: 23.47 M
Net used for 2010: 8.44 M

New Quilter

It's Sunday again! I've been busy this week helping my Grand-daughter Leah (16) make a quilt. She is doing great and I'm so proud of her! Because of her quilt, I haven't had much opportunity to work on any of my projects but that's ok. I'll have lots of time after she goes home next weekend to do any sewing I want. I'm sure going to miss having her around. I'm planning to do a post with pictures and daily progress of her first quilt.

This week, the purchases I made were for her quilt. Most everything came from my stash until she decided she wanted purple setting blocks and I just didn't have enough of any one on hand. She also found a neat black & white print to use in her quilt. I'm hoping that we can find something in my stash to use to piece the back yet too.

STASH REPORT for Week #32

Used this week: 5.6 M
Used Year to Date: 34.51 M
Added this week: 3.0 M
Added Year to Date: 26.47 M
Net used for 2010: 8.04 M

Check Judy's blog for all the stash reports this week.

Quilt Two-step

This past week I decided to use up a charm pack that I have had around here for a long time. I had been admiring all the "Between Charming Friends" quilts that were done and decided that one of those would be great for using up the charm pack of 'Midas Touch' by Ro Gregg for Northcott that I had. When I looked at the instructions, I realized I needed two charm packs... I figured I would never be able to find another charm pack the same as it is a few years old already.  Scrap plan #1 for now and move on to plan #2.

Plan #2 was to join in on the "Charm Quilt-along" on Freckled Whimsey. I have 3 charm packs of L'Amour by Sandy Gervais for Moda that I'd "won" on ebay and had no idea what I was going to make with them. This quilt-along is perfect! All I needed was some background fabric so, off I went to the quilt store.
When I walked in and started looking around, I spyed some charm packs and... GUESS WHAT? There was a single charm pack sitting there of Midas Touch! Of course I bought it and decided to go back to plan #1, the Between Charming Friends quilt. I couldn't remember how much background I needed exactly but picked up 2.5 meters. I rushed home and began cutting.

I cut a whole bunch of 5" squares for the first step, or so I thought. When I checked the instructions on Charming Chatter to find out how many I needed, I discovered that I was cutting for the plan #2 quilt on Freckled Whimsey and NOT for the plan #1 Between Charming Friends quilt. OK then... rather than waste all of that cut background, it looks like I'm going to be doing both. Thankfully, the antique white background I bought works well with both sets of charm squares. I ran back to the store and picked up some more of the same fabric so I'd have enough to do both quilts.

I cut up all the Midas Touch squares and realized I was 2 squares short. I found some black with a gold metallic swirl pattern and cut 2 charms from that. Phew! Thank goodness for stash!  I've sewed the 12 four-patch blocks required and got the strips joined for the 16 patch blocks.

Thats when I decided I needed the design wall to lay these blocks out so I can get good balance. Problem is... my double four-patch is still not all put together and is still on the wall.

 

OK, so I stop everything in order to sew the double four-patch quilt top together to free up the design wall. I had sewn all the vertical rows together when I had to stop for the night.

Does anyone else work like this?? or is it just me? Always seems to be three steps forward and two back.


STASH REPORT for Week #31
Somehow I've confused things and missed week #30 altogether but, there were no changes to report anyways.

Used this week: 9.05 M
Used Year to Date: 28.91 M
Added this week: 6.4 M
Added Year to Date: 23.47 M
Net used for 2010: 5.44 M

Check Judy's blog for all the stash reports this week.

Lost & Still Not Found

Since I have never showed this project, I'm presenting it today. This was a kit I purchased a few years back and finished all the hand appliqué and stitching on it in about July of 2008. It seems now though, I have misplaced it somewhere plus I couldn't find the finished picture either. This next one shows the appliqué partially done...

I'm going to have to go digging in some boxes downstairs to see if its down there somewhere! Hmmm, maybe I'll find the other missing pillow too. Does anyone else loose stuff like I do??

Hope everyone is having a great Sunday and a wonderful summer. I don't have much to update on the stash today. The past week has been a total wash as far as getting any quilting done. It's just been too hot!

STASH REPORT for Week #29
Used this week: 0 M
Used Year to Date: 19.86M
Added this week: 0 M
Added Year to Date: 17.07M
Net used for 2010: 2.79M

Check all the stash reports on Judy's blog.

Who Matters?

There comes a point in your life when you realize
who matters,
who never did,
who won't anymore, and
who always will.
 So, don't worry about people from your past,
 there's a reason they didn't make it to your future.
Author Unknown
 

Sunday.... Again!

Do weeks pass more quickly in summer? I've managed to catch up a little with Hazel's Diary Quilt-along finishing block 6 and 7 plus the last 6 alternate blocks. I'm not sure I like my fabric choices for Block 7 (on the right). I may end up re-making that one at the end when I see what fabric I have left over.




Then,  Block 1 has been bugging me since I made it so, I decided to try fixing it. I took it apart and re-oriented the yellow and teal. Now I like it more!! See original here.



STASH REPORT for Week #29
Used this week: 1.2 M
Used Year to Date: 19.86M
Added this week: 0 M
Added Year to Date: 17.07M
Net used for 2010: 2.79M

Read everyones reports on Judy's blog.

Even Small Steps Forward Is Progress!

A little bit of sewing has been happening here and I do mean a little! I needed a clothespin bag and, instead of being patient and waiting to find the one I really wanted to do (see my previous post), I just went ahead and created a utility version. This is my new clothespin bag! Nothing too fancy, just used a fat quarter and some bias tape I'd had sitting around for a long time.

Two more blocks for Joseph's Coat were appliquéd this week bringing my total to 19 now. My hopes of doing 3 or 4 blocks a week have not materialized. Since I had to use 2 different background fabrics, I need to figure out what backgrounds I still need to cut and out of which fabric before I start assembling my first two rows. The last thing I want is to have to take them apart again...

Block 5 for the Hazels Diary was completed. Now I am only 3 behind...

My oldest grandson (13) is staying with me for a few weeks and I'm doing my best to try to keep him busy. That means doing things like cleaning out the garage and doing some repair work around the house instead of sewing. He's already washed both the car and truck twice by hand just for something to do!  Wonder if he'd like to learn to quilt??

STASH REPORT for Week #27

Used this week: .36 M
Used Year to Date: 18.66M
Added this week: 0 M
Added Year to Date: 17.07M
Net used for 2010: 1.59M

I've LOST it!!

I've heard that it happens to everyone but, it seems to happen to me LOTS. I have been wanting to make a new clothespin bag for a while already as the old one is totally wrecked has seen better days. It was a replacement I made for the original one purchased many moons ago. The old replacement has lasted at least 10 years so, I figure it's time for a new one.

The one I want to make is nicely lined and is really cute. OK, all I need to do is go to that website where I have seen that really cute clothespin bag with the tiny appliqued clothes on a line on the front of it. I have seen it many, many times, always right there in the side bar of ??her?? blog. I went to all the usual sites I visit... not there. Where the heck is it?? Not even google could help me find it. RATZ! Guess I have to figure something out for myself. Do you know where it is?  **Edited - the tutorial I was looking for is by Joanne at Thread Head HERE**


About those PhD's...  How is it possible that six months are over?? Another thing that I seem to loose is TIME. I started the PhD Challenge sponsored by Myra at Tactile Pleasures in Fabrics in January and set a goal of 6 projects to be finished in 6 months. Sounded doable to me. I managed to get two done early on but, since then, I have not had any more finishes. (Insert red face here.) Here are the pictures of my two project finishes for the challenge.












Not very much to show for six months.... One tote bag and one tablerunner.

Maybe I will do better in the next six months?

Flooding, Scraps & Stash

I live in the area of Southern Alberta where there is a lot of flooding happening right now. Its not a good situation for many people. I am fortunate enough to live on higher ground and shouldn't experience any problems. There is a news story about it HERE on CTV News Calgary for today and yesterday. Just click the play button on the video player that comes up. I'm not sure how long they keep their top stories but would think several days.

I decided to do some organizing this week of all my scraps... not that I really have all that many, but I thought they should be sorted out a la Bonnie Hunter. I have one of those four drawer plastic organizer thingies so figured that would work. When I pulled out my pathetic pile of scraps, I discovered that I wouldn't even come close to filling those drawers, even the shallower ones. Guess I need to make more quilts to create more scraps?? I will probably just use the video organizer boxes that I have been storing the unorganized scraps in. I'll divide them up into size categories and mark the boxes. Maybe one day I'll have enough to do something with...

I did find  LOTS of those 'bonus' triangles that I'd saved so, during my TV time, I'm sorting those into sizes so I can hopefully create something - perhaps a pinwheel quilt. One may be a mini as the triangles will make 1" blocks. Why on earth do I feel compelled to save these bits of fabric? Most people throw away a lot bigger pieces than these! Perhaps it was from the early lessons I learned from my parents:

 Waste Not, Want Not

 OR

Use it Up,

Wear it Out,

Make it Do or

Do Without 

Stash Report for Week 25

Yikes, almost to the half-way point of the year! Nothing used or purchased again this week. Haven't done well on the PhD (UFO) finishing front either as I've only done 2 of the 6 I had wanted to finish by the end of June. I did manage to finish one more block for my Joseph's Coat project but all of those fabrics have been counted already.

Used this week: 0 M
Used Year to Date: 18.3M
Added this week: 0 M
Added Year to Date: 17.07M
Net used for 2010: 1.23 M

Have a look at how everyone else is doing with their stash reports on Judy's blog.

Sunday Confessions

Somehow, two weeks has gone by since my last post! Not sure where all the time runs off to... sure would be nice to find a whole lake full of it and dip some back out. I love this picture. I took it in BC near Chilliwack during an off-road adventure several years ago. Doesn't that log just look like a sculpture of an animal?

I've been sewing Klosje blocks by hand in the evenings these past two weeks. There are another 13 done which makes my total now 27. At a finished size of 3 1/4" each,  I'm going to need quite a few of them to make anything. Guess I should decide how big a quilt I really want! Something is saying.... wall hanging.

There are two other hand projects that I have been neglecting - Joseph's Coat and Diamond Stars as nothing has been done lately on either of these. I'm going to aim toward getting another 3 or 4 JC blocks appliquéd this coming week. So far, 16 of  the 48 needed are done.

My Stash Report for Week 24
The net amounts have not unchanged from my last report on May 30th. I suppose nothing new purchased can be seen as a good thing!

Used this week: 0 M
Used Year to Date: 18.3M
Added this week: 0 M
Added Year to Date: 17.07M
Net used for 2010: 1.23 M

Check out everyone's reports on Judy's blog.

Not sure anyone is really interested in all of this but, the accountability is good for me! It is, hopefully, how I will stop creating more half-done projects. Your comments are a big help to me as well! *hugs*