Tops finished and goals met.

Hello,



I am back again. Sunday, I spent a fun day sewing with some friends. I got three kid's tops done and the blocks for a fourth. Today, I put borders on two of those tops and got the fourth top all done.

This first photo is bright flowers bordered with blue and pink. I purchased the border fabric at a quilt shop that is closing down. Otherwise, all the fabric came from stash. The top measures 41" square. A nice size baby quilt. This will be bound with the pink. I used all the floral fabric and all the blue. Any left over pink fabric got sliced into 2.5" strips and put aside for more Happy Blocks.

This second quilt measures 40" by 48". The center squares are ballet slippers. All the fabric came from stash. This will be bound with the purple fabric. I used all the focus fabric.

This third top has fairy fabric for the center squares and border. The peachy pink and green really compliment the focus fabric. This quilt measures 40" by 48" and was made all from stash. This will be bound with the green. After cutting the binding, there was nothing left of any of these fabrics except a few small scraps.

This fourth top uses the same pink and purple as the ballet top. The focus squares are done with Pink Panther fabric. This quilt will be bound with the pink. It measures 40" by 57".

After cutting the binding strips from the pink and purple fabrics, there was only a small amount of the purple fabric left. I cut that into a 2.5" strip and put that in the project bag for Happy Blocks. I had enough of the pink fabric left to cut into 12 - 2.5" strips. Those have been set aside to be combined with another co-ordinating fabric for another planned top.

Between these four tops, I have used 6.5 yards of fabric. All, but a half yard of that, came from stash.

One of my goals last week was to get the borders on a string quilt. This top is now ready for quilting. Plan on binding it in the green. It measure 84" by 108".

One of my goals two weeks ago was to get the borders on my NYE mystery. I did, but never posted a picture of the finished top, so here it is. I put a thin light green border and then a larger border of the focus fabric. I will bind this one with the dark green.

Well, I think that is all that I have accomplished since the last time. My only goal this week is to make a baby quilt for a friend who I have watched grown up. She is having her first baby.

What have you all been doing??

Darlene

I have been busy.

Hi All,

I have not posted much this week, but I have been sewing. I had a few days that all I wanted to do was mindless sewing. Just feed fabric through the machine. Usually when I feel this way, I end up starting a new UFO, but not this time.

One of my goals for the week was to work on the Idaho Beauty ufo. When, I pulled that project bag, the next step needed was to make light and dark 4 patches. I already had the fabric cut, so I could just sit and sew.

As I was sewing I remembered that several other UFOs started needed the same thing, so I went digging around in my baskets. I pulled out 5 others that needed the same size 4 patch. they all had the fabric cut and ready, so I grabbed all of those pre-cut strips of lights and darks and spent about 5 hours total sewing strips.

Just because I am a bit odd I took a photo of all the strips before pressing. I even counted them. There are 287 strips of all sizes. some are width of fabric, a lot are from FQs. Decided to measure the stack. Ten inches worth of strips, a few are not shown, because I had already started pressing.

I try to keep my scraps tidied up by cutting and sorting them into boxes. I can, at almost any given time, grab a box and start a new quilt. Usually, the only thing I need to cut would be my neutral or lights. This being the case, I can go a long time without having to cut lots of fabric.


Well, after spending a day sewing, I was in the mood to cut fabric. I LOVE to cut fabric. I LOVE to take big pieces of fabric, cut it into smaller pieces, mix it up with other fabrics and then sew it back together.


Problem was, I didn't want to start a new project. I am trying to work on my very large collection of UFOs. What is a gal to do????? I know!!!!! Find a project that needs fabric cut to move onto the next stage!! And, so I did.


I have been working on Happy Blocks to make children's donation quilts. I had plenty of novelty fabrics, but was running out of my framing fabric. So, I spent 4 or 5 hours one day, digging through my stash and finding suitable fabrics that go together. Remember the photo I posted of my nice CLEAN table?? Well, here it is after a day of cutting.


This photo shows some strips that I cut both for the 4 patches I was doing and for the Happy Blocks.

This photo shows piles of fabric sorted for various things. One thing I did during my day of cutting was to kit up several planned Happy Blocks quilts. I have kits that feature fairies, butterflies, Pink Panther, ballet slippers, and bright flowers. I have all the blocks cut and all the framing strips. Yes, I know, all girly quilts. I have some sports fabric that I plan on making some quilts for boys, just haven't got co-ordinating fabrics, yet.

The next time I post, I hope to have a few pictures of some finished tops. I am having a sewing day with a few friends on Sunday. Planning on working on those Happy Block kits I got together.

What have you been up to???

Darlene

Quilt Done!!!

I just finished putting the binding on this quilt. It measures 72" by 97". I have had this top done for a year or more. Ran out of batting before Christmas, so this had to wait until Joann's had their sale over New Year's weekend.

This second photo was taken while I was pin basting the quilt. My ever faithful companion, Smokey, always likes to try out the quilts first. They get her "Meow" of approval.

I had three goals for this week....

1. tidy up an area of my sewing space - I had to clear this table off in order to baste, so check, one done.

2. quilt and bind the batiks squares - as you can see by the picture, check, two done.

3. put borders on NYE mystery quilt - I have the borders all pieced. Plan on getting them attached tomorrow.

Not bad for reaching my goals this week. Will post an updated photo of the NYE mystery tomorrow after I put the borders on.

Goals for the week of Jan. 18 - 25

1. Press Happy Blocks and put one top together

2. Work on UFO - Idaho Beauty from the book "More Nickel Quilts" This has been cut since last summer. Have the HSTs done, now need to begin piecing top.

3. Put borders on my floral string top.

Hope you all are staying warm and sewing up a "storm".

Darlene in ME

More Pictures

Hello,

I am back with more pictures. This first photo shows Hubby with the toilet roll holder. You can get a better idea what it looks like. It is very cute. The second photo, I forgot to rotate it before uploading it. Can't figure out how to do it now. Sorry.

This is a photo of a quilt top that will be finished and donated. The pattern is called "Hen and Her Chicks" from the book "Quilts from the Heart". I love this book. I have made several patterns already and have almost every pattern started in my UFOs. The small 9 patches are made with 1.5" squares. This is a great scrap user, as is most of the patterns in the book. Only the border was cut from yardage. The rest of the quilt, including the white, was all from scraps. I had the 1.5" and the 3.5" squares all pre-cut in my scrap boxes. I dug through my scrap basket and pulled all the white from previous projects, spent a little time pressing and trimming and in no time was ready to put this top together.

Over at a yahoo group I am on called Heartstrings, there is a project going on called Happy Blocks. Basically they are a framed square. This is a picture of just a few of the 116 blocks I have made so far. I pulled as many different brights out of my scrap basket and my stash as I could find. Dug around and found two baggies full of pre-cut novelty squares. This is going to be an ongoing project for me this winter. Not sure how many I am going to use per quilt. Will decide that when I am ready to put a top or two together. These will be donated quilts. There are several of us who make children's quilts and donate them to a local family crisis center.

This is my computer companion, Smokey. She often sits up on that shelf and keeps me company while I am at the computer. The quilt she is laying on was the second quilt I ever made. It is a full sized scrappy Irish Chain. It is completly hand pieced and hand quilted. It was a gift for my then 12 year old son. What was I thinking???!!!! Giving a quilt with so much white to a 12 year old boy? I must say, he absolutely loved that quilt. He was very rough with it, so now it needs some major repair. He keeps asking when he will get it back. I really need to make that a priority in the next few months. That quilt took me two years to complete start to finish. Every little 2" squares was traced from a template and then seam allowances were added. No rotary cutting. I did win a second place ribbon at the county fair. Was very pleased at that.

As you can see by the picture, this is also an area where I keep most of my stash. Those messy shelves actually hold boxes of pre-cut scraps. I trim my scraps into the largest size I can. I have boxes ranging from 1.5" up through to 6.5" by half inch increments. If I took a photo of the other part of this little room, you would see larger boxes where I store my stash by type and/or color.

Now, a bit of an update on my goals for this week. One goal was to tidy up some of my sewing areas. This picture shows my cutting and sandwiching table. It is now all cleaned off, so that I can work on another of my goals. Please ignore the messiness around the table. I keep my UFOs in large ziplock bags under the table. I have several laundry baskets into which I sort my UFOs.

The folded quilt on the table is the one I will be basting later today. The backing is washed and just needs to be pieced together. I have my tin of pins next to the quilt, so all is ready. I have several drawers in the white cabinet. There you will find my duct tape and junky scissors. I use duct tape to tape down my backing while basting. I find it works so much better than masking tape.

This final picture brings me to another of my goals for this week. This is a mystery quilt that I did over New Year's Eve. I love how it came out. I am planning on putting a small inner border of the light green. Then an outer border of the focus fabric. I have the borders all pieced and pressed, just waiting to go on. Will bind it in the dark green. I haven't decided if I am going to donate this one or keep it on hand. It is larger than the children's quilts I usually make, but would be a nice quilt for a boy.

That is what I have been up to so far this week. What have you been doing??

Darlene

Busy Week

Hello Everyone,

This has been a busy week for me. I spent at least 16 hours sewing this week. One thing I did was to put a group of string blocks together that my DH, Rick, has been working on. He made these blocks all out of bright and novelty strings. This will be donated locally to a family crisis center. I am sure it will make some child smile. Here he is with the completed top. It still needs quilting.

This is his first quilting project. He started the blocks last winter when he couldn't get out to his workshop because of snow and ice. He finished them this week and when tried to put the blocks together, his sewing machine kept jamming up and he was getting frustrated. Because the blocks are pieced on a foundation, there is extra bulk. So as to not discourage him from more sewing, I agreed to put the blocks together. He did a wonderful job on the blocks.

Here are some pictures of woodworking projects he has been making. We will have better pictures later. The camera batteries died and needed to be recharged.

This first picture, you cannot really tell what it is, but it is a little wooden toilet that holds a spare roll of toilet paper. It really is cute. I will get another picture at a different angle, later.

This is a picture of a duck planter, painted red, although it looks pink. He can just imagine some red geraniums attracting humming birds in this planter.

Here is another duck planter. This one he stained rather than painted. This was made out of a very lovely cherry wood, so the staining shows the beauty of the wood.

Rick gets a lot of his wood at the recycling center. Brand new wood that people toss out.

I finished the top of the NYE mystery that I was working on. It came out cute. I decided it needed borders, so I have those all cut and ready to put on. When the borders are on, I will post a photo.

I have decide to try and post some weekly goals. I am hoping this will help me stay focused. So this weeks goals are..........

1. put borders on NYE mystery

2. sandwich, quilt and bind Jeff's quilt

3. tidy and organize sewing areas

Okay, that third goal is an ongoing process. It seems I am always trying to tidy and organzie. But, I figure, if I write it down, at least I will spend some time doing it.

I am off for now. Will post again soon.

Keep Sewing!!

Darlene

Fabric used

Good Morning!


On one of my groups, Stashbusters, they have had a challenge the past few years called "100 yard dash from stash". One year I kept track and was amazed at how much I used.

This year I have decided to keep track of all my fabric usage. To be counted, the project must be done with binding or my part is done and it has been passed on to someone else for finishing. For example...I make children's quilts to be donated to a local domestic violence center. I make the top and then pass that on to a friend of mine who has a long arm. She finishes the quilting and binding. So, once the top is out of my house, for my calculations, it is "done."

This being said, I have already used 56 yards of fabric this year. Yesterday, I mailed out three boxes to a friend who makes quilts for homeless shelters. I sent her 210 string blocks, 2 completed quilt tops, 100 log cabin blocks, and 24 chinese coins blocks. Roughly estimated at the 56 yards. All of those blocks and tops had some work that needed to be done. That is what I did the week between Christmas and January 4th.

I am going to try and keep track of the amount of time I spend sewing, also. So far in January I have spent roughly 20 hours sewing. I was working really hard to finish up the things I mentioned previously.

So far this year I am off to a good start. Let's hope I can keep the momentum going.

Keep Sewing!!

Darlene

Happy New Year

Hello Everyone!

I hope your 2009 has started out well. Mine has. I have been very busy working on some mystery quilts. This first picture is called "Mosaic Tiles" and this was a mystery posted on Christmas Day. I got the chance to pop up and get the clues and get some sewing in that day. Finished the top on the 26th. It meausres about 40" square. What looks white in the photo is actually a very light lavender. The focus fabric has butterflies. I thoroughly enjoyed making this quilt. The directions were very clear and easy to follow. I shall make more of these. What a perfect size for a baby quilt. And I am very happy to say that ALL my fabrics came from stash!!!!!

This second picture was also a mystery quilt. I bought the fabric before I had the clues. Since this was the very first mystery I was going to do, I decided to just make a lap quilt in case I didn't care for it. Well, I think it came out gorgeous!! Wish I had purchased enough fabric to make it a queen. However, I think this is big enough for a twin bed. Again, the directions were very clear and easy to follow. I want to make another like this with snowman and snowflake fabrics. This is called "Swirling Snowballs".

My friend, Mavie, has recently gotten me hooked on mysteries. She always makes these beautiful quilts and I asked her where she gets the patterns or ideas and she tells me they are mysteries. So I recently signed up for three or four mystery groups. Be on the look out for more pictures.

I have a New Year's Eve mystery that I am still working on. All the clues were posted throughout the day NYE. I got over half the quilt done. It is next on the agenda to finish. Again, I am really pleased how it is coming out.

I had to set that mystery aside to finish some string blocks and two tops for a friend who makes quilts for several homeless shelters. She wanted to make sure she had a quilt for every resident. I enjoy making quilts for others, so today I was able to send her three boxes full of blocks and two tops. There was the equivalent of 9 quilts. This should help her have enough for both shelters.

One goal I have for this year is to be a better blogger. I am going to try and post at least once a week. I also would like to keep track of how much time I spend quilting. I think that would be very interesting. I plan on keeping track of how much fabric I use, also. Here is hoping that I can keep to those goals. I do need to figure out how to do things more on this blog, too.

Have a happy day!!

Darlene