Not so boring anymore...

Binding was added to this little quilt. It is made of the left over 2.5 inch squares from my valentine quilt. The pattern is 9-patch lattice by Oh, Fransson!

I put soft flannel on the back.

I machine stitched both sides of the binding on, I think I'll stick with hand sewing the back of the binding on in the future, I like the finished look better. Binding was also put on the little candle mat that I marked with a continuous line quilt stencil.

Would have been better if I could see where the line was suppose to continue to, my stitching got a little wonky when I went in one direction and was suppose to go in another. I'll use this design again, I'll just practice it first.

What do you do when you have left over Yellow Brick Road squares made out of pastel wovens? Add a pretty floral back and simple quilting.

I'm still working on sewing the pile of half squares into block...those may take a while.

Boring

Nancy came over to sew again today...we have sew much fun when we get together to sew ( get it ... SEW much fun ... sorry). Anywho, Nancy worked on a Turning Twenty pattern that she made up in nice bright green and black fabrics (which I forgot to get a picture of ... sorry again, it is really cute) and everything I worked on was kind of boring...

Binding...really boring.


Backing for a little table topper...boring.


Marked a quilt design on a little candle mat...maybe not as boring but close.


Made up a pile of these, still boring (I really need to remember to take pictures during the day).


The pile will become this block, not as boring but once it's all put together it will be much more interesting.

More odds and ends

I been putting binding on the kid's quilts, nothing very exciting about that. I hope to have them in the mail by Monday.

Since I had so many greens I decided to make a second green and cream quilt. The three quilts are now completely cut out (my poor shoulder). Between the three quilts I used 25 of the 42 green fabrics. I did have to dig into my stash again to find more cream/off white fabrics. I now have four quilts cut out and ready to start. I have four small table toppers left to quilt then I can begin to piece. Two of the quilts I cut out require 3.5 inch 4 patch blocks, 400 (yes, four hundred) 4 patch blocks. I also have 368 half square blocks to make, and 480 cheater corners to sew on...are your eyes crossed yet, mine are.

Between quilting and job hunting it feels like I haven't left the house in ages (the grocery store doesn't count). Yesterday I took the day off and went on a little road trip. I drove to Napa to check out a quilt store there I've been trying to get to for years. The shop is called Quiltmaker and it is located in the Napa Town Center. Great shop! Lots of bright fabrics, quilt samples and the owner was so very nice and helpful. FYI, she has used fusible batting. She did not recommend it for large quilts - too cumbersome to use - but did recommend it for small quilts or art quilts (which is what she makes). Her preference is basting spray. She did offer the tables in her classroom if I want to pin baste a quilt...I will definitely be going back there.

I had lunch, free Ben and Jerry's ice cream (Big Brothers/Sisters was serving free ice cream for "tips") - lemon sorbet yum, checked out a few antique shops then took the back way home.

It was such a pretty drive, two roads I've never been on before that took me by Lake Berryessa and Solano Lake (reservoir?). Everything was so green, and there were wild flowers in bloom everywhere. Since I ended up in Winters, I stopped at the Cloth Carousel, another quilt shop I don't get the opportunity to visit very often.

I did a little bit of budget damage at each quilt shop. Check it out! Self-threading needles! I have been looking for those for ages, and they came with a cute little tomato pin cushion magnet.

Too Many?

So do you think 42 different greens is too many? Maybe. Okay, probably. Most are fat quarters, very few are scraps, the rest are a yard or less. I spent most of last night ironing them.


When I first started quilting I loved loved loved landscape quilts. I took one of Gai Perry's impressionist landscape classes and really liked the results. So then I went out and bought a ton of "landscape" fabrics. All the greens on the table are foliage of some sort. I won't mention all the small florals I also bought.

I have not made another one since.

Friday Night Sew In

Today was a beautiful day! Warm and sunny, the perfect day to visit the local nursery. In the next few months the nursery may be more dangerous to my wallet than the local quilt store.

This is called Physocapus physocarpus or Ruby Spice. The picture does not do the colors justice, it is a rich reddish brown. The blooms are small light pink snowball like clusters. It will get to be about 4-5 ft tall, is drought tolerant and will take the full sun my back yard gets all day long. I also want to plant lots of marigolds again this year, but I'll get a flat of those someplace less expensive than the nursery. I am so ready for spring!

For this month's Friday Night Sew In I decided it was time to cut fabric for two (maybe three) new quilts. I've already cut out a bunch of 3.5 x 5.5 bricks from my scrap bag, now I'm working on Bonnie Hunter's Jared Takes a Wife (finally!). I have the purples, gold, and creams picked out and ironed. Next are the greens.

I'm going to cut out a second quilt from the creams and greens. So it may take tonight and tomorrow to finish cutting.

I finished quilting the third kid's quilt yesterday. One more to go, then lots of binding to add. I'm going to try to machine quilt both sides of the binding. That should be interesting since I've never done it before.

Odds N Ends

Not much going on here. I've quilted two of the kids quilts, two more to go. I'm just griding the center and adding loops in the borders. I added some stars to the turtle quilt border - this is the back.
I'm having some tension issues with my sewing machine. Getting some loops in the back when I was using the walking foot...not happy about that. I didn't notice it until I finished quilting this one. So tomorrow before I start the next quilt I'll change the needle and put in a different bobbin. That normally does the trick.

Have you ever used fusible batting? Not the single sided fusible fleece, but double sided fusible batting? For the kids quilts I used Pellon's fusible fleece, very light weight but makes the basting process much easier.

I've been thinking of ordering fusible batting from Connecting Threads. I've Googled fusible batting and didn't really find anything saying yeah or nay. Thought I would give it a try. I hate basting quilts, I don't have a good place to lay out a large quilt that wouldn't kill my knees (tile in the kitchen) or damage the floor (hardwood in the living room) with the pins. I've heard people talk about laying out quilts for basting on their rugs but I don't think I'd be able to get each layer taunt enough. Plus I'd probably pin the quilt to the rug. And we mustn't forget my three helpers...I've timed Fred, lay a quilt down on the floor and within 3.5 seconds he is walking the perimeter and 2.6 seconds later he is laying in the center. 1.45 minutes later Siddi is doing a run and dive to burrow under (takes about a minute for her to wind up her tush before the attack).

Count'm

One quilt...

Two quilts...

Three quilts...

FOUR!

This last one is the Quilt for Kids kit. The other three are from my stash using the Quilts for Kids pattern. FUN and EASY!! Two will go to Quilts for Kids and two will go to a local group called Binky Patrol.

I'm sad

My favorite local quilt shop, Cabin Fever in Auburn, is closing. Patti and Don are retiring. They tried to find a buyer for the shop but did not have any success. Patty and her staff have always been so friendly and helpful. Cabin Fever was even a featured shop in the Fall/Winter 2007 edition of Quilt Sampler. I wish them happiness in their new adventures. I will truly miss them and the shop.

Every thing in their store is currently 30% off, I happily contributed to their retirement fund this afternoon.

Jayme gave me tulips as a thank you gift before she left. It has been interesting watching them open each morning and close up in the evening. When they are open, they are a real pale pink color. When closed they are almost a light burgundy color. This morning they really opened up, so pretty.

Quilted - Jayme's 4 Patch Star

I quilted Jayme's 4 Patch Star yesterday and put the binding on it tonight - I'm going to let her do the hand sewing on the binding. Part of me wants to put more quilting into the star, but the other part of me has already packaged the wall hanging up for mailing.


I haven't figure out how I'm going quilt my 4 Patch Star yet so it is still pinned to the wall.

I added to my sewing pile this afternoon, this time in a good way not in a compulsive disorder way. I signed up for a Quilts for Kids kit and it arrived today. I also signed up to make a quilt for a local quilt donation group called Binky Patrol. I've decided to make two quilts for each group...all the same pattern, the one provided by Quilts for Kids. I cut everything out today and sewed the strips together for the 4 patch blocks. The quilts are small so they will be very quick and easy to finish. I have so many cat and turtle novelty fabrics that I can see myself making and donating a lot more of these quilts.

Quilted - Fall Churn Dash Wall Hanging

Most of the items piled on my sewing table are small and I should be able to finish one a night, if not more. Last night I finished quilting the fall churn dash wall hanging and sewed the binding on - still have the hand sewing to do on it.

I quilted a maple leave in the center of each block. Not that crazy about how it turned out...wasn't crazy about the template so that should have been enough warning. I think I like the overall design I quilted on to the single block wall hanging better. But that is the learning process ... all of these small quilts / wall hangings / table toppers are giving me lots of practice and I am definitely figuring out techniques and designs that work for me.

I'll have another finish tomorrow.

Is there a cure?

I think I have Quilting ADHD and a compulsion to use up every scrap of a coordinating set of fabrics from previously made quilts.

So I'm suppose to be finishing up the pile on my sewing table...I was putting the rows of the Hot Pocket quilt together, got a little distracted helping Jayme with her wall hanging. Jayme, Mom and Ben left Tuesday (Wow, it's really quiet here now) so I tried to go back to finishing the rows, but I pulled out a flannel that I think with go great with the nine patch blocks left over from my valentine fabric...but I'm not really sure how big the quilt will be and I know I have way too much flannel and the flannel really needs ironing before I cut it...so I put together the 9 patch quilt so I know how much flannel to cut...but there are still left over 2.5 inch squares of the valentine fabric so I made a little candle mat with them ( I'll show both when they are quilted). Where was I? Hot Pocket, putting together rows...Huh? where did this bin of scraps come from, wonder what's in it? Left over fabrics from the bright borders quilt I made...there is a lot of left over fabric bet I could make a cute contemporary quilt out of these, lets find a pattern. Found the perfect pattern, will go together quickly just need to cut a bunch of 4 x 5.5 bricks. Set it on the cutting mat. Oh I wanted to sign up from a Quilt for Kids kit, went online and requested a kit, but I really should make a second from stash - pulled every bright novelty fabric I own out and laid them on the spare bed. Where was I? Scrap bin. Oh, I forgot about all these half squares I made up from the corners of my Pineapple Blooms quilt, how many is there? 194. I should be able to make something with those, lets find a pattern. Found the perfect pattern, put it all on the sewing table. I should cut up these scraps while I digging through this bin but first they need ironing. Spent two evenings cutting up scraps into strips and squares. Found 1.25 x 10 in strings of fabric left over from the trip around the world quilt...bet they would make a cute miniature...found a paper pieced braided miniature quilt pattern that will be perfect, put it all on the sewing table. Wait, I was working on the Hot Pocket quilt. Finished putting all the rows together, need to cut the border fabrics and binding...got that done now I need to get them added. Huh? There are two left over squares from when I made a Yellow Brick Road quilt out of woven fabrics and some left over woven scraps...bet I could do something with them, just sew the pieces and parts together then square it all up - got that all done. Two fat 8ths of woven fabric also...they are too dark to go with the rest, I'll cut them into 5 inch squares and make a little table topper.

Wait, where was I? OH! The Hot Pocket quilt! Must focus, must focus, must focus....it is done!

This quilt is made with some sewing related fabrics from my stash, the rest is why did I buy that fabric and why did I buy so much of this fabric. At first I didn't like it, but now that it is done I kinda sorta like it. It is about 70 x 75 inches. I will probably quilt it myself once I find a backing fabric for it.

This is the new pile on my sewing table.


MUST FOCUS!