That Girl's Quilt Along

Jennifer from That Girl, That Quilt is having a quilt along with weekly posts on her blog. It looks like a good one! Fast to make and, even better, stash busting! You'll need a charm pack (or 40 5" squares), and some solid fabrics. She's already gotten started, but is still in the beginning stages. Right now she's on the fabric cutting step. I have so many things going on right now, but I might have to sneak this one in...

You can find the previous posts here: First post (not the quilt in the picture), Week 1 (supply list), and Week 2 (cutting).

Design Wall Monday - 10/04/10

This Dear Jane block (J4) as well as block L12 are on my design wall right now. I am in between projects and I decided to make a couple of these since I haven't made any in quite a while. I started with this one because it was simple and I wanted to ease back into it. L12 was more difficult. Very small (foundation) piecing, which is done. Now I just need to applique four teeny tiny triangles onto the corners. I'm not great at applique and I'm not looking forward to doing such small pieces. Just gotta do it, though!

Check out Judy L's blog to see what is on everyone's design walls!

Stash Busting 2010 - Week 40

I haven't made a stash busting report in a while. I didn't do much sewing over the summer and then I started to lose track of what I had been using. I need to start using a spreadsheet to track as I go. I believe I've used about 5 yards since my last stash post. I made the entire pinwheel quilt and pillow from stash (yay!!). Now to figure out how much I've purchased. I'm pretty sure I've only bought 1/2 yard for a possible border that I didn't end up using. I've certainly looked at a lot of fabric online that I would love to buy!

Check out Judy L's blog to see how the others are doing!

Fabric added this week: 0.50 yards
Fabric used this week: 5.00 yards

Fabric added this year: 24.00 yards
Fabric used this year: 25.00 yards

I'm Still Here

I'm still here! I feel like I keep saying that lately. Lots going on and then there's that pesky work thing that takes up most of my day...

The fall session of the quilting class that I teach began last night and I have a pretty good size crowd this time around. The pillow that I was working on in my last post (last month) came together very quickly and is one of the projects that I am presenting in class. Everyone seems pretty excited about it, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. Now I just need to make a matching one for Lance to keep the peace! I draw the line at making one for Bear, our cat. He claims everything as his own anyway, so he's got plenty.

Next I made a twisted pinwheel quilt that was really fun and surprisingly easy to put together. These have become really popular lately, but the concept has actually been around for years. My mom pulled out a pattern from the early 90's that used the same technique! It just goes to show that there's rarely (if ever) anything truely new in the quilt world! And best of all, the entire quilt top was made from stash fabric, as was the pillow!!

The third project is the same one that I taught at a local quilt shop in the Summer. This one is so fast it can be put together in a day. One student is on her second top and we only just had the first class! To be fair, I gave pre-cutting instructions at the end of the last session, and she figured out the rest on her own. No stash used on this one - I splurged and bought everything I needed. I don't have a lot of batiks in my stash and I felt that they would look really good in this design.

Now I need to calculate all of the stash I used so I can add it to my (non) weekly report. I've been lax on that so I need to put a little work in on that. Next up, two charity quilts, one Christmas gift and a lovely quilt show this weekend.

Design Wall Monday - 08/23/10

Here's my design "table" for this week. I thought I'd try out a technique I've had in my head for a while now. I appliqued (fused) a "K" onto fabric and will turn it into a pillow. I think this one will be fairly simple, but I have all sorts of ideas for piecing around the letter. I bought the print fabric a year or two ago and didn't have a plan for it - I just liked the unusual design. It's hard to tell from this picture, but there are lots of overlapping circles, and inside each circle is a design - mostly flowers and leaves, but some have clock faces and other things. I keep pulling it out of the stash to try to use it, but nothing worked before. This will be perfect for this pillow. I think it will turn out very elegant looking.

Hop over to Judy L's blog to see what is on other people's design walls!

Design Wall Monday 8/16/10

Well I didn't get much farther from last week. The top is all together and I decided not to put borders on it. I got delayed because I really wanted to use Minkee for the backing and I couldn't find it at my usual LQS at first. But I did find some this weekend, so I'm back on track and hopefully I'll have the whole thing done by Thursday when it supposed to be given to the new baby. The picture above was taken when I was cutting the Minkee to size. I always forget that Minkee is a little heavy, so I need to go out and get a thinner batting so it doesn't end up too heavy for the baby. I'll just tie this one instead of quilting.

While I was at the shop getting the backing, I finally broke down and got some Paper Pieces to make hexagons - or "hexies" as they are being called now. They are SO popular right now and there are all kinds of tutorials for making them so that you don't have to baste them to the paper foundations. I prepped two just to get it out of my system. They go pretty fast, so we'll see what happens with those. Maybe nothing or maybe a pillow or something. We'll see...

I'm So Excited!!

I am a huge fan of The Quilt Show with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims. It is an on-line quilt show where members can view a new episode premiering every two weeks. But it's more than that. It is also an on-line quilting community with forums, patterns, projects, and a blog that is updated at least once daily. Last I heard, there were over 30,000 members (probably a lot more now) from all over the world. Each member gets a profile that they can update if they choose, and even post pictures of quilts that they have made. In an effort to create a database of quilts, when a member posts a quilt, they fill out all kinds of information about it, like when it was made, size, techniques used, etc.

Anyway, here's the exciting part -- a while back they started featuring a Quilt of the Day pulled from the database of member quilt photos. I recently got an e-mail from them saying they were going to feature one of MY quilts as a Quilt of the Day! How awesome! There are literally thousands of quilts on their site and they picked one of mine! I'm on cloud nine!

You don't need to be a member to look at their blog, so anyone can hop on over there on Tuesday, August 17th to see my Double Pinwheel quilt.

Design Wall Monday

In addidtion to hosting the stash reports on Sundays, Judy over at Patchwork Times has Design Wall Mondays, where everyone links to their post showing what is currently on their design wall. I don't really have a usable design wall right now, but I do have my dining room table! I've been working on this baby quilt and I'm just about done. Here I have the blocks sewn in to rows, but the rows are separate. there are actually five rows there, but I couldn't fit them all on the table. My preliminary design printout from EQ7 is there, too.



Below is a closer up view of the focus fabric. Monkeys, of course!

Stash Busting 2010 - Week 32

I hadn't been doing much sewing this summer. I guess I really needed a little quilting break. So many deadlines started to take the fun out of it all. However, I did still manage to buy some fabric since I posted last. Gee, how ever did that happen!! Above is a fat quarter pack from the popular Hope Valley line. It 's not my usual colors, but I like looking at them and I can't wait to figure something out to use them in.

It also suddenly happened that I had a baby quilt to make, so I decided to do a quick pattern that I had already worked out for my class. Just an cute all-over print boxed with two different fabrics. I found a great monkey fabric that I really wanted to show more of, so I altered my original pattern slightly by making the focus print square bigger and the box borders narrower. The fabrics are below. I ended up not using the plain green with the tiny brown dots in this quilt, but I have enough fabric left over to make another baby quilt in possibly a different pattern.

So I have 2 yards of the Hope Valley fabric, and I ended up with 4 1/2 yards of the baby quilt fabric. I wanted to get some Minkee for the backing of the baby quilt, but my LQS isn't carrying it anymore. I'll either have to order it online or try for another shop farther away. Which means I'll have more to add next week.

Fabric added this week: 6.50 yards

Fabric used this week: 0.00 yards

Fabric added this year: 23.50 yards

Fabric used this year: 20.00 yards

Total stash busted this year: -3.50 yards

I'm a Henderson

I've been a huge fan of the Bizarro comics since I was in high school, and now that I read Dan Piraro's blog, I have found out that this was around the time he only just started in the comics business. I (of course) found the above comic especially funny, and I hope he doesn't mind me borrowing the image from his blog. He also has an iPhone app where you can see all of his daily comics as they are released, which Lance has already downloaded onto his iTouch. If I were ever inclined to get an iPhone, this would be the first app I would get!

Summer Drought

Sorry for the lack of postings lately! My quilt classes are finally finished until September and I've been savoring a little non-sewing time. And I've also been sick with a summer cold, which has not been fun. I'll be back to sewing soon, hopefully on a few Dear Jane blocks. It's been a while since I've made one of those and I can't wait to get back to it!

I did find a new blog that sounds really interesting, called Quilt Story. The gals behind the blog were inspired by different quilts they would see online that have interesting stories behind them, so they started a blog to highlight such quilts. The blog has only been around a few months, so it will be interesting to back to the beginning and read through all of the posts. Enjoy!

Stash Busting 2010 - Week 25

Not much going on this week in the sewing department. I had made the green block above a little over a week ago for Anna Maria Horner's Rainbow Around the Block program. I didn't get around to posting it until now. I made the pink block this weekend. She is asking for monochromatic 12" blocks to put together for flood victims in Tennessee. If you are interested, the pattern for the green block can be found here, and the pattern for the pink block can be found here. Both great resources for free quilt patterns!

Nothing added this week. Between the two blocks I'll call it 1/4 yard out of the stash.

Fabric added this week: 0.00 yards

Fabric used this week: 0.25 yards

Fabric added this year: 17.00 yards
Fabric used this year: 20.00 yards

Total stash busted this year: 3.00 yards

Stashbusting 2010 - Week 24

I finished the quilt for the summer class, which I'll also be teaching in the Fall. I went with all batik fabrics on this one. I haven't used batiks for a while and I thought the mottled colors lent themselves well to this type of design. I'm really pleased with it, and it went together very quickly. So now I'll be teaching the Zig Zag quilt as well as this one at the three-day workshop later this month.

I did add to my stash since I posted last. I bought all of the fabric for this quilt plus 1/4 yard, which came to 4.5 yards. But then I get to count 4.25 yards back out for finishing the top!

Fabric added this week: 4.50 yards

Fabric used this week: 4.25 yards

Fabric added this year: 17.00 yards

Fabric used this year: 19.75 yards

Total fabric used this year: 2.75 yards

Jelly Roll Quilt Along Blocks 3 & 4

I got the next two blocks done for the Jelly Roll Sampler Quilt Along. They've actually been done for a little while, but I haven't had a chance to post them until now. I'm still three blocks behind, but I have some other things to finish before I can make another one. I'm having a lot of fun with this project and it feels good to use all stash for something!

Quilt Blocks for Flood Victims

You may have heard about the recent devastating floods in the Nashville area of Tennessee. Anna Maria Horner is a fabric designer and quilting/sewing author who lives in the area, and has decided to help out her community. She has put together a program called Rainbow Around the Block, where you can make 12 1/2" blocks (see specifics) and send them to her. She has a crew that will assemble the blocks into quilts and distribute to local families. She will also accept completed quilts -- hop over to her site for all of the details and help out our community!