I just had tenth graders working on a 300 word blog post about Elie Wiesel’s Night. This would not stop running through my head……
One, two, three …. 295….
February 8th, 2010Quilt #3 of 2010
January 27th, 2010Quilt #3! Ok, I’m not going to make my quilt a week (overly ambitious) goal, but I’m making progress and a third quilt done in the first month of the year is still good. (It was close to getting done in 2009, so I can’t claim that much credit.)
This is a very overdue “thank you” gift for a colleague. The fabric was a FQ collection I picked up at shop hop a number of years ago and it is the Yellow Brick Road pattern again. (Looks far different than the one in Red White and Blue, huh?)
I’ve made 9 more kids/teen pillowcases for charity, but those will have to come in a different post. (It’s been an unpredictable week.)
Charity Pillowcases – part II
January 19th, 2010Well, as usual, I overestimated how much I could realistically get done over the weekend. I had thought I could get 20 made and instead I completed 9 and have another 10 in progress. But I love some of these! I liked the fabric when I bought it, but a lot of it has been sitting in my stash for 5-6 years. It was time to make it into something useful. And who wouldn’t love almost neon kittens,
blue and brown pupppies,
and a tank full of Nemo’s relatives.
Now I have a good reason why I didn’t get as much done as I had planned – I learned history. I’m a huge fan of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series and I’m listening to the latest book in the series, An Echo in the Bone. As the characters discussed General Burgoyne’s plan to defeat the Continental Army, I decided Saturday was a perfect day for a roadtrip to the Saratoga Battlefield for a refresher in Revolutionary Era history.
Visiting more of National Parks in the area (and museums and other historical sites) has been a recent goal of mine, so I can almost say this is a step toward a New Year’s resolution. And I can say even with the tour road closed to cars for the season, I enjoyed it far more now than I did when my parents took me as a child.
Charity Pillowcases
January 16th, 2010I went digging for a specific piece of fabric in my stash earlier this week and realized that the yardage of kiddie prints I own might better be used for pillowcases for the challenge.
I contacted one of my LQSs and they have a place lined up to donate them once they are finished.
So instead of simply putting the stash back into the bin, I started washing pressing and cutting to make pillow cases this weekend. I was thinking I could clean out about 20 yards out of the stash this weekend (each pillowcase uses a yard of fabric and with the 3 day weekend I figured this was an ambitious, but realistic goal.) But I’m a little disappointed that some of the fabrics I pulled don’t play well with others. While I have enough pieces cut for almost the whole 20 pillowcases, I can’t seem to mix and match more than 15 into combinations that I like. I may have to go rummaging through other bins of stash (not that this is a bad thing….)
A couple folks have asked how I am making pillowcases. There are patterns being posted on the challenge site that I expect to try before the year is out, but I am using the “sausage” method. Judy with Quilts of Valor has posted a GREAT tutorial. In ten minutes, you too can be making pillowcases.
Hopefully by tomorrow there will be pix of bright colorful kid pillowcases (and I will have more space in some of my bins.)
Pillowcases
January 12th, 2010I am hooked on making pillowcases! I’ve seen some of the ladies at sew night making them, but while I had heard the directions, I need to work through something on my own before I really “get” it.
VT had passed off some leftover fabric from a quilt that she had made for her mother, and it seemed perfect for a pillowcase (even if it had to be pieced to make one.)
Then as I was cleaning out I found the leftover fabric from an Ohio Star quilt I made a few years ago. More coordinated pillowcases! I probably didn’t need to make 6 of them (2 each of 3 combinations), but the fabric was there and I expect the quilt will far outlast any number of coordinating pillowcases. They don’t take up much space in the linen closet.
American Patchwork and Quilting is sponsoring a 1 million pillowcase challenge – with the pillowcases to be donated to charity. I can see myself making quite a few of them this year.
http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/millionpillowcases/index.html
Quilt #2 of 2010
January 10th, 2010I am happy to report quilt #2 of the year is done. At first glance it suggests that I may be able to keep to my (unrealistic) goal of a quilt a week. Realistically I would be happy with 2 per month, which means at this point I am good for January.
Though this technically meets the criteria for the UFO challenge (it was in a state of partial completion on 12/31), I don’t get to count it because my registration for the challenge has not been received. Dang.
This is made from a layer cake of Moda’s Wildflower Serenade and coordinating fabric. The pattern is “Ashley’s Journey” from Piece of Pie: 10 layer cake friendly quilt patterns. (www.pieplatepatterns.com)
track lighting
January 8th, 2010The first week back to work after a break is always a zoo. I swear it means trying to do the equivalent of the current week’s and the vacation week’s work in one week. And this week was no exception. Which is why I never even tried to post an entry this week.
But in the early morning before work and the hours before bed I did have a new quilting tool – track lighting in the quilting room. I wasn’t sure when it was being put in that I was going to like the directionality of the light (the corner edges of the room seemed dim), but the benefits are far worth the inconvenience and that’s why I have a crafting lamp in that room.
Before I was largely limited to when there was natural light coming in to add to the overhead lighting to really be able to see easily what I was doing. I could so some of the project in the after/before light hours, but if anything went wrong or was a challenge, then I had put it on hold until daylight. And let’s face it, during January in NY, some days don’t even produce much daylight. (Ok, I admit, the optometrist has hinted that bifocals might be in my not too distant future….)
I’m loving the bright light in there! This should help the process of getting some of that backlog of tops quilted.
Quilt #1 for 2010
January 3rd, 2010I might be the last weekend of the break, but I am finally getting to some serious quilting. This is the first quilt done for the new year. It is a lap sized Yellow Brick Road quilt made in Moda’s Flag Day Farm collection.
Red/White/Blue Yellow Brick Road
Since I seem to have a good combination of thread and who knows what else on the machine, I am going to run with trying to get a couple more tops quilted. I can work on bindings or piecing in small amounts of time, but to use the Monstrosity for the quilting is something that I need to work on in fairly large blocks of time.
reclaiming the sewing room
December 30th, 2009I belong to an online quilting group called Stashbusters. It is part on-line quilt guild and part support group for quilters who feel they have too much fabric. The idea is to look to see what you can do with what you have before going to shop for more. They have challenges to not buy or finish incomplete projects (UFOs), but you can do as little as lurk and take in the ideas for organizing or patterns, or take part in the challenges.
I wasn’t going to participate in the 2010 UFO challenge. I have the last couple years and I’ve gotten 15+ done each year, but I’m kinda up to my eyeballs in professional commitments until May and I figured I wouldn’t put any more stress on myself.
Then I started cleaning my sewing studio this week.
I knew about the almost 20 flimsys hanging on the garment rack in the spare bedroom. (flimsys – completed quilt tops that are ready to be quilted with batting and backing.)
Then I finished up some crumb block (scrap blocks) for charity quilting and when I added them to the other ones I had been stockpiling I was able to make “kits” for 3 more tops. (I will prep projects when I have time like this and then it is easier to work on them for 10-30 minutes at a time if all the pieces and directions are together and laid out.)
Then I found 4 more “kits” that I had prepped over the summer. Then enough Moda jelly rolls and layer cakes for another 7 quilts. Then 3 quilt kits I had bought. Then some of the music fabric I had bought planning to make myself a music themed quilt ( and I think I have enough for 3!).
And I haven’t even gotten into the big Rubbermaid container of projects.
I know 50 in progress or kit projects is conservative and that is not even taking into consideration the raw fabric I own.
This is really embarrassing. I knew I had fabric, but I really thought I was working my way through a lot of it. I know a decent amount was given to me for charity quilting, but I have also managed to stockpile a lot on my own. At least I know I can quilt for a good long while without buying much fabric.
I think I better join the challenge. Just to keep myself honest. And maybe I should join the “No Buy” challenge too….
Blue/brown quilt
December 29th, 2009I’ve gotten one of my in-progress projects completed this week.
This is a gift for a young lady. I wasn’t really quilting when she was born and I wanted to do something for her since she is going to be a big sister again. It’s a quick pattern with nine-patches and hourglasses. The toughest part of the project was trying to come up with a blue/brown color scheme that wasn’t the new, super trendy fabrics that will look dated in 18 months, or a darker scheme that looked like a “guy” quilt.
The pattern is from Better Homes and Gardens, Floral 9-Patch .
I have also been watching some of the ladies on quilt night making pillowcases, so I decided to make a coordinating pillowcase as well.
What fun! I am so pleased at how it came out. I see several more of these in my plans for this week, even if they aren’t near the top of the priority list. The technique is not hard once you figure out a couple tricks.
