Christmas in July

One of my favorite websites is Sew, Mama, Sew! and they are having a Christmas in July theme this week. Head over there to find holiday tutorials each day this week. I'm in love with the advent calendar already!

Dear Jane C1

Here's my latest Dear Jane block: C1. A fairly easy foundation-pieced block. I needed one of those!

Stash Busting 2009 - Week 30

Last Monday I started a "block-a-day" quilt along hosted by Crazy Mom Quilts. Pretty simple, really. Just make a 9-patch block every day for 70 days. In about 2 1/2 months you have enough blocks to make a quilt. I have PLENTY of scraps, and I figure I can make one in about 10 minutes. And so I started Monday and so far have 7 blocks. At first I pulled colors that I am comfortable with -- a dark and a light with high contrast (see the blocks on the top left). However, when I took another look Crazy Mom's finished quilt (this is her second go around with this program), I realized that my light lights were not going to work. It's very hard for me to use prints with other prints and to use colors the might blend together, or ones that I think do not go together. So in the interest of expanding my horizons, I started pulling medium value scraps and just put them together. You can see the blocks on the bottom row are much more colorful as I loosen up! I'm having fun with these and it gets me to sew a little every day, which I like.

I didn't make a stash report last week. Somehow time got away from me. Or maybe it was because I bought fabric again! I bought 3 yards of bleached muslin for a project I have in mind and a half yard of a print for another project that's in my head waiting to be put to fabric. In the two weeks I did make three Dear Jane blocks and the 7 nine-patches, so I'm going to call that 1/2 yard out.

Fabric in this week: 3.50 yards

Fabric out this week: 0.50 yards

Fabric in this year: 26.66 yards

Fabric out this year: 17.50 yards

Dear Jane G9

Here's the other block I made today, G9. This one took me hours! It didn't help that I kept making stupid mistakes. Pulling tiny stitches out of a paper foundation pieced block is sheer misery! And I had to do it several times. It's not perfect, but I think it looks pretty good.

Dear Jane A6

I got a couple of Dear Jane blocks done today. I've been wanting to fussy cut some pieces, but the blocks are so small (4 1/2" finished) that I knew it would be difficult. So I chose to do an easy block for my first attempt. I got the center motif pretty close to the center on this one. I suppose I could have fussy cut the corners, too, but I didn't think of it until after it was done. This one went fast -- unlike the other one I made today. That one is coming up next...

Stash Busting 2009 - Week 28

I'm a day late on my stash busting report. We were out of town this weekend -- off to Clovis to visit family. In addition to family in Clovis is my favorite quilt shop, Quilter's Paradise. I just can't go in there an not buy something. I picked up a few fat quarters and a roll of fat eighths for my Dear Jane quilt, a purse pattern, and a larger piece of fabric of a print that I just liked. So unfortunately, I bought a little over 3 yards of fabric this week. But it just can't be avoided when I go to Clovis. I think I was pretty good considering!

Fabric in this week: 3.33 yards
Fabric out this week: 0.00 yards

Fabric in this year: 23.16 yards
Fabric out this year: 17.00 yards

Dear Jane A1

I finally got A1 done for my Dear Jane quilt! I think I started this one three weeks ago. I've only had small snippets of time to work on it, and I finished it tonight. However, when I was going through my blocks (all 3 of them!), I realized that I made one in the wrong color. Argh! That didn't take long! I considered switching it with another block, but I think I want it to be right, so I'll re-make that block. Fortunately, it was the easiest one I've made so far. It will probably happen again, so maybe I'll keep a pile of castaways for another project!

Stash Busting 2009 - Week 27

Here's another report that's a week old already! Last week was the summer class session that I wasn't able to help teach due to work constraints. But because it was Thursday, Friday and Saturday, I was able to join the gang on Saturday and do a little sewing. The class is usually a mixture of students from the afternoon class and the evening class, so some people I only get to see once a year, and others I haven't seen in only a week or two. This session was held at a local quilt shop, and you can see some of their class samples hanging on the walls. I took some pictures of the ladies working. You can see my mom on the right and Erna Koch on the left working away in the first picture. Erna used to teach the class that I teach now.

And here's a few of the evening students working and chatting. Left to right is Karina, Susan, Joan and also Cece from the afternoon class.

I was finally able to get some sewing done today, even though I had a three day weekend. I put the borders on the quilt that I've been working on most recently, so the 1 1/3 yards I bought last week are now officially "out". No purchases this week!

Fabric in this week: 0.00 yards

Fabric out this week: 1.33 yards

Fabric in this year: 19.83 yards

Fabric out this year: 17.00 yards

Moda Bake Shop

Have you all heard about the Moda Bake Shop website? As you probably know, Moda Fabrics sells their fabrics is precise pre-cut sizes/shapes in addition to yardage. They name these pre-cuts after sweet treats, such as Jelly Rolls (2 1/2" strips), Layer Cakes (10" squares), and Turnovers (pre-cut triangles). Moda Bake Shop is a website they created to promote these pre-cuts and they have tons of patterns and tutorials all done by fellow quilters and sewers. The tutorials are for quilts as well as clothing, accessories, and all sorts of other fabric crafts. Go check out the site -- you'll probably end up spending much more time there than you anticipate, like I did!!