Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Tonight's update and some sad news!



Well, as you can see I got the first set of blocks done for the Christmas Scatty Stars quilt done. Was going to start on the next set, but I myself am feeling scatty and wanted to move on to something else

So, I decided to make the next block for my Folk Art Tribute quilt. Only 3 more blocks to go!! Yay! I had saved them to my computer because Dawn, at Linen Closet Quilts, had stated that as of June 1, the pattern would be taken down and up for purchase. So, tonight I pulled up the next block and to my dismay, it wasn't there! lol Apparently when she removed the pattern, it removed it completely from googledocs which is what I had saved it on. Sigh..only to me could that happen!! I did send Dawn a note to see if there was anything that could be done. So close...yet so far! lol Well, if nothing else, this quilt taught me that I do like applique...especially since I was letting my machine do it for me! lol

Now, off to figure what else to work on. Not like I don't have a million things!!

Ps...Oh..I am so glad to see that Mary Lou at Cheaper than Therapy quilting is going to be working on a quilt or two from shirts, also. I have asked her to be my "shirt buddy"! lol I figured we could share any great patterns that might work well with these fabrics. Anyone else game for it? Or have any great pattern?

Update #2

Mary Lou gave me a great inspiration and doesn't even know it! You see, I was thinking about her, and if I remember correctly she is from Kentucky. My dad also lives in Kentucky and when I was down there last year, I bought myself the Hobo Quilts book:



What quilt could be more perfect for old shirts than this? So, I made the first two blocks tonight:





Now, bath, book and bed are calling my name. I have tomorrow off, so Hannah and I are getting up early to pick strawberries. If I can get enough, I will be making jam and freezing a bunch. Then some major time out in the garden and getting my hair done. Who knows..maybe I can sneak in time to make another Hobo block or two!

Just a TAD outta control???

I was picking up my sewing room a bit and almost went into shock when I saw a HUGE pile on my shelves. A HUGE pile of what, you ask? A HUGE pile of shirts that I have collected to use in my quilts. I have been so busy using up scraps, that I haven't touched any pieces of fabric. How can I come in this room so often and NOT have seen how many shirts I had piled up??? The pictures may not look like much, but there is a grand total of 71 shirts here waiting to be used!!!


Lights

Darks

So, a new challenge to myself. Let's see how many quilts I can make out of these shirts. I think the bigger challenge will be to make quilts that don't all look like each other since a lot of the shirtings are similar. I am STOKED about this challenge. I will use other scraps or materials if needed, but I want each of my challenge quilts to be at made of at least 75% of the shirts. This is going to be so cool. I can't wait to see what happens to a lot of patterns that I love when shirtings are used in them. These kinds of quilts always look so inviting to me! I have seen some amazing quilts made from shirtings and I will be busy looking them up again.

So, since I have a little bit of sewing time today, I decided to start the blocks for my Scatty Christmas Stars quilt that have been posted monthly for those doing the Christmas quiltalong. Mine will be a homespun Christmas quilt! Here are the 5 shirts (sheesh..I know...5 out of the 71 seems ridiculous, but hey...it's a start!!) that I am going to use for this quilt:



Will post pics of the finished blocks when I am done!

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Whew...made it!

I didn't even get a chance to start quilting the graduation quilt I needed for the party this afternoon until this morning! I chose a large, loose pattern of flowers and meandering loops. Thank goodness I did, because the quilting was fast and I got that done and had it bound with minutes to spare before we left. Here is is:



Tory absolutely loved it! Btw...this pattern came from Maryquilts.com and is called Forest Bricks. It measures in at 55" x 73". I just love all the patterns on her site. She is a great designer and I recommend that you give some of her patterns a try!

Now, time for a little tv and relaxing. Tomorrow is Joe's graduation, so don't think I will get any sewing done then. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Quilt league and ugly fabric

Yay! Tonight is my quilt league!! Getting a little bit of a late start to it as I had to post all the pics for the Ugly Fabric Challenge. Wow..just wow!! You have GOT to check out the projects the 16 participants made!! Here is the link:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/1721001@N21/

You may remember that this is the ugly fabric we all had to work with:



The 3 projects with the most votes gets some wonderful fat quarters!! I did put a project in, but don't get to vote as I know who made what. Now...if you do go look..which project do you think is mine?

I should be quilting the graduation quilt, but I have no one to watch Patrick downstairs right now, so think I will bring my machine downstairs and do some piecing. The Lord knows I have a LOT of works in progress to choose from! lol

Will update later!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Grad quilt has its borders and what I can't show you



Well, got the borders on Tory's graduation quilt tonight. Rotten picture, but it is 1:15 in the morning! Tomorrow night I will quilt during my quilt league and hopefully it will be ready for Saturday!

What I can't show you are the test block for 100 Blocks magazine I got done and my Ugly Fabric Challenge project. Those projects will be posted tomorrow on flickr and I will post the address for that and see if you can guess which is mine!

Well, now off to bath, book and bed. It feels sooooo good to be sewing again. It is food for my soul!!

Saturday, June 18, 2011

YIKES final post



Well, I only managed to get the first of 3 borders on the graduation quilt, but hey..I'll take it!

Now for bath, book and bed. Tomorrow will be spent outside working, so won't be able to finish the last 2 borders until tomorrow night. That's okay, though. That will give me the rest of the week to get it quilted. Night all!

Yikes! Update #1

Well, so far I made laundry detergent and did all the laundry, got the bathroom cleaned, have a pork roast on for dinner and got half the kitchen cleaned up. I did get the center of the graduation quilt completed:



Now to finish the kitchen and laundry room, run to the store for a new coffee carafe (broke mine cleaning it today!), dinner and maybe, just maybe, get the borders on this tonight. That or have a drink with hub and just chill...decisions decisions!

YIKES!

So, I just realized that we have a graduation party NEXT Saturday that I need to have a quilt for! YIKES! Woulnd't be so bad, but we are just finishing up having a $9,000 septic system put in. Yes...9,000 for the privilege of flushing..sigh. Anywho, my backyard looks like this:



My front yard looks like this:







We HAVE to get at least the backyard cleaned up ASAP as I have another big vegie garden that needs to go in NOW. Also, as you can imagine with all that dirt around, my house inside is horrible. I planned on cleaning inside all day and working outside all tomorrow. Now to add a quilt in. And after spending all this money on the septic, there is NO extra money around.

So, I know the girl that the quilt is for like purple, so I raided my stash for that. Find enough pieces of batting that I can piece together. I had bought a queen size cotton sheet set on clearance at Target for 3.74 that I am going to use in this quilt also. Brought my machine and supplies downstairs into the kitchen so I can work on it between cleaning jobs. So far I have everything cut and have been chain piecing like mad:



I now have everything chainpieced and now have to cut them apart and put them into blocks.



I have been cleaning something, then sewing, clean something, then sew. Now off to clean again! Will update as I go!!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Quilt league final post



Sorry that you have to crane your neck sideways to see this!!
Well, it was time consuming, but I love how this applique block turned out. It is for the Folk Art Tribute BOM that I am doing. Now just 3 more blocks to go! Wooohooo!
Now, off to do some hub snuggling while watching the tv. Hope you all had a productive night!

Quilting League update #1



My little pile of baskets for my Delfina's baskets quilt grew today. I am now halfway through how many baskets I need. Yay!

Feeling very scattered today, so am going to move onto another project instead of continuing on with the baskets.

Btw...so far I have been called about 14 times from downstairs to help solve some "problem". I keep responding, " I would answer you if I were home, but I am at my quilting league!". Wonder how long it will take them to catch on! lol

Thursday night quilting league

I have been so bogged down lately that I haven't had time to sew. I finally decided I was tired of whining about that and figured out what I was going to do to correct that. Tuesday nights are my hub's golf league. He leaves work early, goes golfing and generally dinner and drinks follow. He gets home anytime from 8:30 to 11. So, I created my own quilting league on Thursday nights. I get out of work early..at 2:45, head up to my sewing room and I am officially "not at home". Hub, Joe and Hannah are responsible for making their own dinner, taking care of Patrick, rides for whomever need them, etc. I am at my league and can't be reached! Today is the official start of this league and I am stoked! I will report in as the night goes by.
The best part of this league? I am the only member, so I am in first place!!!

Well, I got the binding on my Star Crossed Love table runner. I got it quilted finally the other evening and now just need to handsew the binding the next time I am sitting in front of the tv. You can find the pattern at Marie Bostwick's site (link is on the right side of my page). It goes with the second book in her series, I believe.



It is raining out so I had to take the pic inside. I really love this pattern. I even love the colors...and if you have seen any of my quilts, you know I am not a brights person. However, I do think I am going to remake this one sometime..in more homespun fabrics and colors...but only AFTER I get the other 3,000 quilts/projects I want to try done!!! lolol

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Some baskets made

I decided I wanted something quick and easy to work on tonight, so I put together a few more baskets for my Delfina's Baskets quilt by Edyta Sitar. Ah...hst's are so soothing to me...and so are baskets, so what a perfect combo!! I only made a few of them tonight as I am pooped! Well, any progress is good progress, right??