No Finishes

 
Kinda hard to finish something when you are working on five things at once...

This quilt has been laying on the frame for over two weeks (finished this quilt top in 2009, look what I wrote about it then). I can't decide how I want to quilt it.

I had LOTS of bonus triangles from the Picnic blocks. They are squared up at 1.5 inches. The Broken Dishes blocks are 2.5 inches. Using them as a kinda sorta leader-ender.  Oops, missed squaring up a set.

Speaking of the Picnic blocks. I got them sewed into rows last night.

I have also finished all of the Day Break blocks and sewed the sashing on. Here it is on the design bed. I haven't decided if this is the final layout...or not.

 

Finished quilting the civil war quilt, and have about a third of the binding hand sewn down.

 

While I haven't finished anything my friends have. Nancy finished this cute quilt top. Little Black Dress fabrics by Moda...yum!

 

 

And Angela finished her first baby blanket. Simple tied blanket but I think this is her first sewing project since high school Home Ec (and we won't mention how long ago that was). I wish I'd thought to have her drop one corner so you could see the back... it has the cutest blue, green and white chevron stripe.

 

She definitely has the quilting (fabric buying) bug, so I am predicting lots and lots of quilts from her soon.
 

Did You Celebrate?

 
I did! There was fun, sewing, a TON of food, lots of laughs, and yes, we even went fabric shopping.

Jayme worked on binding. Nancy brought her Day Break quilt to lay out on the design bed (design floor was occupied). Would you believe that is the "lap" size? The design bed is a queen.

Everybody brought food.

Stacey made "biscuits" - the quilty kind. Delicious.

Nancy had also dug out an old UFO to finish...she split the blocks into two piles and made two sweet little quilts for her grand nieces.

Stephanie worked on her log cabin blocks. My picture doesn't do the colors justice.

 

Isn't this a cute idea! Stephanie's sister "numbered" her quilt rows with baby pins. Each pin holds the row number of safety pins.

 

Dawn was making purses - three at once.

And I was trying to quilt this...had to clean the machine first...and socialized... loaded bobbins...and ate...quilted one pass...and went shopping...quilted another pass...and socialized...

Needless to say I didn't get much done, but I definitely celebrated National Quilting Day the right way...with lots of great quilting friends!
 

Day Break

  
I've been making progress on my Day Break quilt.  Here's a close up of the fabrics I'm using:

 

Sun Stone by Paula Nadelstern for Benartex. I think I've had the fabric for over five years.

 

 

Seven made, eight more to go. Which one should I make three of?



He may look like he is sleeping peacefully, but he is snoring big time.

 This is Siddi's new hiding place. I must have spent 20 minutes looking for her. If she's comfy she doesn't care if you turn out the lights and shut the door.

Now I need to go find the hour I lost this morning.
  

Please Accept My Apology

 
I can't believe I whined about my un-quilted tops and fabric stash. Nobody should be allowed to complain about having too much of a good thing. I should be grateful I have the income to splurge on fabric just because I want it and that I have enough good health and relaxation time to spend quilting.  If I have too much fabric or unfinished quilts it's my own dang fault.

Last Saturday I started and finished quilting this wall hanging that I made a year ago.

And I finished Market Day the weekend before. Don't know if they show up or not but I tried some new feathers in the border...some of the loops look like long fingers...I'll have to work on my spacing...but for a first try it's not too bad. I was really pleased with how the corners turned out. I used a variegated thread which I really like.

I still haven't put the Picnic blocks together but I did use the scraps to make this really easy table runner. It's a free pattern from the Fat Quarter Shop. It was supposed to be a leader / ender project but as usually happens patience got tossed aside and it became a finished project.

My civil war quilt is loaded on the frame ready to go.

Lots of progress...

Lots of results...

And I'm not going to whine about how much binding I have that needs hand sewn.  ;o)
 

The Monkey on my Back and the Elephant in my Closets

 
I know. I know. I know I shouldn't let it bother me but it does. I haven't been doing much quilting lately because I feel like I should quilt the 19 quilt tops I have done before I start another project.

 

Market Day is number 20. When I start feeling overwhelmed I start quilting the small quilts first. Which makes no sense at all since they take me longer to quilt as I tend to custom quilt them with a lot of quilting. 

 

 

I have most of the background quilted and all of the nine patches. Now I need to decide what to do with the border and dark blue halves.

 

I met a long arm quilter yesterday who said she spends so much time on customer quilts that she doesn't quilt her own...and has over 40 unfinished quilt tops. So I know there are people with even more unfinished quilts than me, but I still feel like there are monkeys on my back.

 

I took a quilting class yesterday (yes, I started another quilt, and no, I haven't finished Picnic yet - new monkeys). The blocks are Day Break by Jaybird Quilts. LOVE this block. It is much easier than it looks.

The elephant in my closet?  My stash...in the sewing room closet, in the dresser in the spare bedroom, in the dresser in the other spare bedroom, in the dresser in the living room, in every bedroom closet but mine. Most of the fabrics in Day Break are from my stash but it didn't make a dent.

I know. I know. I know people who have even more stash than I do. But every once in a while it just overwhelms me.

On the good side, it rained just about all day today.
 

Baby, It's Cold Outside

 
And foggy. With beautiful clear blue sky's in the afternoons. We really need some rain here.

I am working on my second quilt from Kim Brackett's book Scrap-Basket Sensations. I LOVE THIS BOOK! I want to make every quilt in it.

I'm currently making Picnic:

 

I cut the fabric out over a year ago. The jelly roll is Fresh Air by Moda that I've had for years. It had a lot of strips that read like a solid so I had a difficult time laying it out randomly.

So I finally gave up on random and put the solids at diagonals on the outside edges and opposite each other in the center.  Ended up looking very random. ;o)

Hmmm...I think those two bright pink blocks in the center are too close together. Other than those the colors look evenly dispersed.

It may have to sit for a bit. I'm determined to get a top quilted, large or small doesn't matter, before I continue. My un-quilted tops are starting to feel like monkeys on my back. More on that in my next post.

 

and a Happy New Year!

 
I started off the new year with a LOT of quilting...and not just by me. I started a new project when I was at my mom's during Christmas... hmmm... is it a new project if you cut it out over a year ago and just started sewing it last week? No pictures of it yet. Soon.

I loaded a quilt on the frame and quilted it last weekend. I don't think I've shown this quilt before even though I made it months (and months) ago. Fun easy quilt.

It now has binding, has been washed, and is being stored in a matching pillowcase until it gets donated.

Nancy and Stephanie came over to sew on January 1 and 2.  Stephanie sewed the rows and borders on this baby quilt.

Nancy added the borders to this quilt.

...and started making disappearing pinwheel blocks. She was having a blast making this block. I think the fabric is Be Jolly by Moda. It is going to be really cute when she finishes it.

While they were sewing I was cutting my scraps into 2.5, 2 and 1.5 inch strips and finished up the sub-piecing on the quilt I started. It looked like my house had been hit by a fabric bomb with sewing machines, bags and bins of fabric and scraps, cutting mats set up on the kitchen counter, and the ironing board set up in the family room.

All this was January 1. On January 2, after a little retail therapy, Nancy continued to make disappear pinwheel blocks and Stephanie started making a cute little stuffed wool cat for one of her sisters.

No, not these cats. ;o)

I made a couple of little wall hangings from some embroidered dish towels I had that were stained and torn.

And Stephanie and I both made microwave bowl potholders.

These things are so easy to make and more useful than you would think.

I can't think of a better way to start the year than spending it quilting/sewing with friends.