First Sew Day of 2017

Saturday, I went to my quilting frenemy Barb's house to sew. We haven't sewn together in so long, which is the norm with us. But when we get together, it is for enormous blocks of time and late into the night!

I worked on 3 Snuggies that should've been finished and sent out to have been received by Christmas, but I had so many quilts to quilt that it just didn't happen.

After I got those done and had dinner with Barb's family, I cut out 4 table runners. These also should've been done for Christmas presents. Well, 2 should've been done, but 2 I didn't have the fabric for until the Thursday after Christmas.

And Sunday, I worked on cross stitch and hand stitched the binding down on a customer quilt. One more to bind and they can be shipped back!

LIFO!! Get them done and get them out! Maybe that will be my mantra this year!

Now, I have to get things packed up and shipped out. Baby steps...

Stash Report Weeks 43-44, 2013

Last week, I gave a sneak peek of the fabrics that I picked up when I was running around with Barb. I got a lot of comments about the comic fabric!

I used a tad of fabric when I was prepping the frames for the witch boots blocks.

I got some yardage of the Quilt Girl fabric for pillowcases. I think that I will prep them to sew at retreat. :)



I got these batiks for a wedding quilt. I need to add some more before I can start on the quilt.



And I picked up another black for the black and gray quilt and some colors for the next Quiltville mystery. I'm not for sure on the teal yet, but I have time to finish gathering the fabrics before the mystery starts in a few weeks.



Fabric added this week: 7.40
Fabric added YTD: 169.07

Fabric used this week: 0.19
Fabric used YTD: 74.28

Net Fabric Used: -94.79

Design Wall Monday - 12/31

After my trip north on Saturday for Shirley, the Singer 301 (it's a really great story and I encourage you to click on the link to read about it and see all the pictures!), I really wanted to spend all day yesterday being crafty and creative! I had a bit of cleaning to do, some knitting (the sock and a ruffle scarf), piecing (borders on Scrap Squad #6 and Easy Street Step 1), quilting (one on the frame and load another), and I got the heat resistant material to re-cover my big board. I ended up jumping from project to project a lot!

I did get the big board re-covered. You may remember that shortly after receiving the big board at the 2011 quilt retreat in Shipshewana, someone (ahem, Barb!) cut through the cover. "Accidentally!" I put a patch on it and the patch has been coming off for several weeks so I decided to re-cover the board. I just removed the old cover, left the layer of batting, added another layer of batting and smoothed the heat resistant fabric over it. It didn't take too long at all, but I am afraid that Barb is not allowed near it with a rotary cutter now. :)



I did sew quite a bit with Shirley, the 301. I sewed the strip sets for Easy Street Step 1 in about 15 minutes and that was with loading a bobbin. She sure is zippy! And I got the sets pressed and about half cut down into sub units.



I made the binding and cut and attached the borders to the 6th Scrap Squad. I can only show the binding. I need to get this quilt loaded and quilted so I can post about it and be done with Scrap Squad... I do still need to make the backing, but there is all day tomorrow for that!



After the Scrap Squad work, I went to the basement to do a load of laundry and work on quilting. Wouldn't you know it... After going through part of one bobbin and trying to load up more, I ran out of the bobbin thread. I have another cone on order, but I could have sworn that I had a back up cone of this color. I guess that it just wasn't used as much in April when I went to the IQF show as the other cones that I did get. Or I already went through so much of it that I used the partial and another entire cone. Oh well, the quilting is on hold until I get the new cone because the quilt is so big that I am not removing it and trying to reload it.

And this means that I will have to do nothing but piecing on New Year's Day. I will probably spend most of my time on the Easy Street mystery and piecing on Shirley!

In between cutting the strips down, I threw the Moon Pie blocks on the wall. I should be able to get this assembled this week. I need to throw up the setting triangles and the border needs to be pieced. It is a piano key border and all the parts are already cut out.



Max is very excited about all the things that I did get done yesterday! Well, not really. He wanted off the bed. lol

Monthly Accomplishments - July 2012

I can't believe that I haven't posted my July Accomplishments before now. I've had my list ready for 2 weeks!

1. Spent a lot of time watering grass and flowers at the beginning of the month (by the end, I just didn’t care anymore!) 
2. Had a sewing day with Barb and Lucy after they won new sewing machines
3. Added borders, Angelina bubbles and cauldron applique to Scrap Squad #3 Old Gory
4. Quilted the third Scrap Squad, attached the binding and label and wrote up my blog post for Quiltmaker
5. Quilted Strip Twist for Gillian
6. Got fabric for quilting samplers and then messed up on the quilting and started ripping rows out - 
7. Finished the binding on the Doodle Bugs quilt 
8. Made BOM blocks from 2009 Mystery BOM from Fat Quarter shop - #5, #6, #7 
9. Midget blocks - 37, and 41 and 42 
10. Saw that butterflys finally found my butterfly bush 
11. Finished the second sleeve for my sweater 
12. Bought fabrics for new projects

Books read

1. Abby Cooper, Psychic Eye - Victoria Laurie 
2. Cold Hit - Linda Fairstein 
3. Injustice for All - J. A. Jance 
4. Trial by Fury - JA Jance
5. Ties that Bind - Marie Bostwick 
6. Darkly Dreaming Dexter - Jeff Lindsay 
7. Life Without Parole - Clare O’Donohue 
8. Better Read than Dead - Victoria Laurie

Such a better month in all accounts!

Sewing Day!

I have been writing articles for the Guild newsletter on our advertisers for over a year and in April I talked to a shop and found out some very exciting news. The shop was sponsoring a fashion show at the Creative Festival in June and the grand prize was a Hello Kitty sewing machine. As soon as I got off the phone and wrote the article, I texted my BFF/frenemy Barb and told her the details and that she MUST enter. She had to make matching aprons from a specific pattern for her and her daughter and they had to model the aprons in a fashion show at the festival.

Well, Barb got the pattern and read over the rules and dates and didn't think that she would be able to make the deadline as she was still teaching and they are trying to sell their house so there was a lot of remodeling and renovations to prep the house. (Barb lives on the West Side of Cincinnati so if anyone is interested, there is a blog with a photo walk through.) I was surprised when she sent me a picture of finished aprons, but she told me that the deadline was extended and she was able to get them done.

The day of the fashion show, I had to work, but Barb texted me and kept me informed of what was going on. Lucy was sooo excited and just so sure that they would win and she would get her machine. I told Barb that if they lost, she was going to need to buy Lucy the Hello Kitty machine!

Here are the winners with their machines! Barb also won a Janome 6600 and she is so excited about it!

Lucy was very happy to get her new prize home!

Today, the winners came to my house with their machines for lessons. Barb showed Lucy how to use her machine and I showed Barb how to use hers.



And here is her first seam!



Barb was able to get part of a quilt cut out and a bunch of seams sewn together and I think she loves her machine as much as Lucy does. Lucy enjoyed time with the pups and sewing - in equal amounts, I think. And I was able to get the top assembled for my Scrap Squad! A very productive day!

I'm sure that we will be having plenty more of these sew in days with just us girls!

A distraction

I thought that you all would like to see what kept me occupied on Wednesday night at the CMQG meeting.

I was going to put this in the post last night, but I wanted to get Barb's permission before showing Charlie off. Barb says that he can be fussy, but he was all grins while I held him during the meeting! I love it when I can get him to laugh and he always laugh when I would kiss his cheek. His chubby little cheeks! They just asked to be kissed! lol

Monthly Accomplishments - April 2011

What a month! Lots of fun was had at the beginning on the month and lots of sewing was done after that! :)

1. Cut out and assembled the flamingo quilt and made the binding and backing
2. Cut out and assembled the Maxine quilt and made the binding and backing
3. Made Midget blocks - 9, 10, 11, and 12
4. Got the borders on Split Second Decision and made the backing
5. Took Gayle Bong's Save the Scraps workshop at the IQF with my bestie, Regina!
6. Hosted Regina, Susan, Marj and Carolyn for the weekend of IQF and had a group over for dinner during the weekend that included Jean, Kelly and Barb. We also got to see Jennifer lots during the weekend, too!
7. Drew up an idea for the Modern Quilt Guild Challenge and got my fabrics
8. Finished the Star Struck blocks and got them laid out on the design wall
9. Made 8 pillowcases
10. Almost finished new leaders for the quilt frame
11. Cut out the Paris in the Fall BOM for the UFO Challenge

 And I read!

1. Death Qualified by Kate Wilhelm
2. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
3. Charm City by Laura Lippman
4. While My Pretty One Knits by Anne Canadeo
5. Butchers Hill by Laura Lippman - haven't written the review yet

Now, I need to get started on things for my May list! :)

IQF - Friends and Finds

Toward the end of the class that Regina and I took, the "Southern Intruders" arrived at the show. They came to our class to see us and then went to wait for us so that we could go into the show for Preview Night together. As soon as we were done with class, we ran our supplies to the car, gobbled down some dinner and rushed into the Quilt Show!

Thursday night, we concentrated on the vendors and got a little more than halfway through the rows. I think that we were all pretty worn out though and by 8, we were headed back to my house to set up the beds, do a little show and tell and then hit the sack. Regina and Sue had air mattresses set up in my room on the floor and Carolyn and Marj were in the spare bedroom/current stash room. I told them that there were alarms on the stash and since none went off all weekend, I believe that this was enough of a deterrent!

Here is all of us in front of the photo quilt at the show. From the left, there's Marj, Carolyn, Sue, Regina and me.



On Friday, the Southern Intruders had an afternoon class and we all decided that it would be best to drive separately so that Regina and I could come back and start making dinner for us and the extra guests. Sue, Marj and Carolyn headed down to the show and Regina and I made a lunch for us to enjoy. It was so much sweeter that we didn't have to pay $10 or more a meal! Regina and I shopped a little before lunch and finished the vendors after lunch and then started looking at the quilt before we headed back to work on the food.

In total, we had the 5 who were here at the house, Jean (her name is Lois when she comments), Kelly from I Have a Notion and Barb and almost 2 month old Charlie.

Kelly and Sue here. And can you see how excited the pups are to have new people to pay attention to them? And the piles of goodies in the background on the floor? I'm surprised there was anything left at the show! lol

And Jean and Marj.

And that was the extent of my pictures from Friday night. Although, once we were finished with dinner, a group from Indianapolis came over with Jennifer and Carol, Jennifer's mom, and they enjoyed dessert with us. Most of the ladies were excited to be able to see Charlie and most everyone got a turn to hold him. Barb seemed happy to have a little relief from that. :) Sue was able to get some valuable experience since she has 3 grandbabies due this fall - twins and an 'extra' - within 3 weeks of each other!

Kelly brought me a quilt calendar and it is already hanging up in my kitchen. Great quilts in the calender! Thanks much, Kelly!!

Sue, Marj and Carolyn supplied the rest of us with little goodies from their city and Guild. I think that we were all very surprised when they pulled out the little baggies and passed them around. The gals also surprised me with a quilt kit of dog fabric that they said was for the hostess with the mostess! I think that the pups like the fabric and want it made ASAP!



Sue also made Regina and I totes that we used during the show. They were large and held lots of goodies that we bought. Here is mine! Thanks, Sue!! I am still using it to lug things to and from work!



Saturday, we all went back to the show and split up. We saw Joan Hawley of Lazy Girl Designs before we went into the show and made plans to have lunch with her and her mom and friend.



Then, Regina and I went off to finish looking at quilts. (There will be a special post for the quilt pics!) Once we had eaten and finished looking at quilts, Barb was done working at her shop's booth, but hadn't seen any of the show. Regina and I met her, helped her pick up Charlie when her hubby dropped him off and then Regina and I took turns looking after Charlie and helping Barb shop.

When we were done at the Quilt Show, Regina, Barb, Charlie, Sue, Marj, Carolyn and I headed out to Waynesville and Fabric Shack. We went to the local diner first for a quick bite and peanut butter pie so that we didn't have to shop the Shack on empty stomachs. Luckily, the Shack had extended hours for the show and we ended up just about closing the shop again.

After we bye to Barb, our tiny group came back to my house and had show and tell and some leftover snacks. It was a nice and relaxing end to a great day!

And without further ado, here are my goodies! From the Quilt Show... the only thing that I was really looking for were the thimbles and I was lucky enough to find two.



And the Shack! One yard cuts for $3 each! And some Valentine hunks for pillowcases!! And Fresh Flowers charm packs, layer cakes and yardage. I already have the pattern picked out for this!



And everyone left on Sunday. :'-( It was a great visit and the dogs and I missed everyone as soon as they left! I'm sure we will do it again!

Pants Party!

I finished the pants for Barb tonight and I will be delivering them to her at the hospital tomorrow! I will also be meeting the newest addition to her family!



And after I got a little set up for this pair, I think that I can get working on the rest of the fabric that I washed for pants and get them cranked out fairly quickly. I will start with cutting the fabric out tomorrow night!

Design Wall Monday, 2/7

It's been a while since I have had anything worth reporting on my Design Wall. Heck, since I have had anything but the Midget blocks on my Design Wall! lol

This week, I have a pair of pants cut out to make for Barb who will be delivering her baby boy anytime now. I have to get them finished to be able to deliver them to the hospital so she can wear them while she is recuperating.



I'm hoping to get them finished tonight after my Guild meeting. :)

Stash Report Week 5, 2011

This week, I worked on quilting and binding so I have nothing new to report. I did get 1 large quilt completely bound and started on another one.

I did have a small bit of fabric come in from Barb for the binding on the mini quilt

Barb and I did try and order from Valentine's fabric this week, but they ran out of it so it saved me. It's too bad, cuz it was good fabric!

I do have plans to bust some fabric this week. I am going to make some pajama pants. Woo hoo!

Fabric added this week: 0.14
Fabric added year-to-date: 0.53

Fabric used this week: 0.00
Fabric used year-to-date: 0.66

Fabric Used: 0.13 ( I think my final number was a little low last week.)

Mug Rug pictures

I participated in the Mug Rug Swap with the Cincinnati Modern Quilt Guild. Here is the finished mug rug that I made for Amy. It ended up being roughly 8" by 10.5", but there was one other gal who swapped a larger size and I could have easily gotten away with the original layout. Oh well! I can make another one with the leftovers and donate to the QGI show for the small quilt raffle...



And the back.



And here is the mug rug that Kelly made for me. I love it!!! She did a great job! My mug was pretty plain so she had a lot of liberties and I just love the dresden plate. It lays perfectly!! I'm very impressed! :)



And her quilting of the black pindot is just awesome! She echo quilted zig zags. I tried to take a couple of shots, but I'm afraid it doesn't show very well.




And Barb missed the meeting because she is on semi-bed rest now. So I got to bring her mug and mug rug home and I have been torturing her about what it looks like. I didn't take a picture to send to her on her phone because I just knew that it wouldn't do the mug rug justice.







Of course, since it is sooo cute, I might just forget to give it to Barb.... Holly did say that she could add an 'ie' after Barb to make it a Barbie quilt and then I could keep it! I might just have to take her up on that offer! lol

CMQG Sew In Day

Last Saturday, the Cincinnati Modern Quilt Guild that Barb and I joined had a Sew In at the Fairfield Library. Since we were going to be getting up early to get there anyway, Barb and I decided to have breakfast at Cracker Barrel and we invited Jean to join us. Jean is new to the area, is trying to use what she has and still hasn't been to the Fabric Shack and Barb and I are going to take her under our wings and lead her astray! lol

As most readers know, our normal routine is IHOP, but Barb wanted Cracker Barrel and I chalked it up to her pregnancy hormones. After our less than, ahem, quick service there, I think that our normal routine will be stuck to next time! lol

After we FINALLY got out of the Barrel, we headed to the library to meet up with the other gals. It was a pretty small group, but we were able to chat and still sew up a storm!

On one side of the room was Amy, Holly, Barb and me. We all worked 2 to a table, but there were enough tables that we could have all had our own. I set up my iron and board in between our tables and spent most of my time pressing my witch pieces to the background.



And the other side of the room was Andie, Lynn (who is hidden behind Andie), Heather and Stephanie. Stephanie is opening a new quilt shop in the Cincinnati area and she will be carrying a lot of modern fabrics. She came to talk to us about when the shop will be open and what she will have.



Here are my witches after I got them all pressed together. I was able to get most of 1 of the greens satin stitched while I was there.



Barb worked on the new quilts for her daughter and the baby. She got everything mostly cut out and started making blocks.



This is a block for Lucy's quilt. Lucy LOVES the flowers! :)



It was a very productive day! I think that we will be trying to hold more sew ins in the new year.

Shopping in Shipshewana

While some groups of gals went out exploring and shopping everyday that they were at retreat, Becca and I only went out to the Amish quilt shops twice - once on Friday morning and once on Saturday morning. That was enough for us! We had planned on only going once the whole weekend, but once we looked around Yoder's, I knew that I wanted to see Lolly's before settling on what to get. For the whole weekend, there were only 2 things that I was looking for - more orange fabric for the Which Witch? wall hangings and a Scottie dog 30's fabric for Barb.

I was very impressed with the selection that Yoder's had! A huge color wall with about half of that dedicated to Kona solids. Maybe Bella solids, too, but I didn't look too closely. And it looked like a vast majority of the fabric was $7.98 a yard. Great price for current Moda lines!! I was very impressed with how well it was organized and I found it extremely easy to find things that I was interested in!





The samples were pretty great as well! A lot of variations in the patterns and the fabrics used.



They also had an AccuQuilt GO! out that they were demonstrating. *sigh*



Once I had picked up a replacement jacket and Becca and Sally, our roommate for the weekend, had shopped, we headed over to Lolly's. I didn't take a lot of pictures in there because of the camera batteries, but rest assured that it was also an amazing shop!

With spectacular samples! This one looks to be a postage stamp quilt.


And Becca liked this sample.



Lolly's also had a bargain basement store where everything was $6 a yard and there was a boat of FQs that were pretty cheap, too.

I think that a lot of shops in the 'mall' where Lolly's is are owned by the same people who own Lolly's. I just had to get a picture of this shop because I knew that Barb would just love it!



Can you tell that there is nothing but Minkee in that shop? The walls are even covered by it!!!

When we were done shopping, we headed upstairs and got lunch at Jo Jo's pretzels. YUMMMMY!!! The pretzels were so buttery! I supplemented my meals with grapes and carrots that were in my mug. It was so good, I could've had another pretzel the next day!

I'm retreating!

After what seemed like the longest drive in the world yesterday where I seemed to find every person in Indiana that wanted to drive at or below the speed limit, we finally made it to Shipshewana! Becca drove up and stayed at my house Wednesday night and I packed the car up on Thursday morning and we were off. I had wanted to be on the road by 7, but after being awake well past 1 AM I didn't think it was wise to get up and out that early. As it was, we didn't leave until 8:45.

The following are things that I forgot to throw in the car (Barb, this is for you! HOLLLLLAAA!!!!!!!):

1. A jacket - Surprisingly, it is a lot cooler this far north in the evenings. Really, I am not surprised by that, just kicking myself that I left the jacket at home. On the agenda for today - buy some sort of jacket, just in case.
2. My sewing machine's extension table and knee lift. Not a big deal because I am mostly going to be piecing on blocks that don't extend off of the sewing machine, but the knee lift has been missed!
3. My rotating rotary cutting mat. I do have some projects planned with HSTs and the spinning mat is very nice to have. I can make do.
4. My camera cord. A while ago, I started taking the memory card out of my camera and inserting it into the laptop to download the pictures because I found that it is much easier. Unfortunately, this means that my camera has not been connected to the laptop in some time and the charge is, well, low. I can still take pictures for the time being, but I may lose power totally by the end of the weekend.
5. To pick up the dog doo at my house. Yes, a necessary evil and probably exactly why I forgot it. lol

Barb had asked me last night what I forgot and said that she is getting me a stack of "To Do" list paper pads for Christmas. She knows me well, apparently! :)

The retreat center is very nice and our seats are facing a wall of windows. The view last night was awesome and I should've taken a picture, but that would've meant spending more time outside (see #1 above). I have already made the bottom insert for my Margo bag that I made last week (post later on that) and worked on the Oriental fabric blocks for another neighbor's quilt. I should be able to get those blocks finished up quickly.

Here is a picture of the projects that I packed. The top row is the 2009 Mystery BOM blocks, the Christmas trivet and the 2009 $2 a block BOM setting blocks. The bottom row is the strips for the 9 patch blocks for my grandma's quilt, Whimsy Split Decision and the Orientals quilt. Yep! Six projects!



I got all of this plus some notions stuffed into 2 Art Bins - a medium and a large. Woo hoo!!

All right, enough of this! I need to get ready, get breakfast and then hit Lolly's and Yoder's and then get back to sewing!

Max and Maisy and the condo are being looked after this weekend by my aunt and cousin. I got a text last night that the pups were very happy to see them! :) Max just knew the something bad was going on Wednesday night as the stack to go in the car kept getting bigger and bigger.

Block of the month Prep

I decided that one of the projects that I wanted to take with me on retreat was the 2009 Mystery Quilt BOM that the Fat Quarter Shop offered. It uses Glace by 3 Sisters for Moda. I just love that line! My only issue with taking it to the retreat was that I wanted the fabric cut out first for easy piecing and I wanted it to be easy to take along.

Last month, when Barb and I were shop hopping, she was buying the block kits from a lot of the shops. They usually have the fabric and the pattern in a ziplock bag, but this year they handed out binders to everyone who signed up and the block kits were packaged in neat little envelopes to put in your binder. It was very cool!!

I remembered this little trick for the BOMs that I am working on and decided to put the Mystery blocks in the binder. First, I had to find the binder and get some 9 by 12 envelopes.



I cut off the top part of the envelopes to make them 9 by 11 and then put them all through the 3 hole punch.



By trimming the envelopes down, they won't extend past the top of the binder.



I then punched the instructions and put the baggie with the pieces inside the envelope. I tried to put the extra fabric in the envelope with the cut pieces, but it made the binder super bulky. I also put the instruction pages in the binder in front of each envelope.



And here it is all finished! This BOM has 12 blocks and is ready to be loaded in the car for retreat!



I can't tell if Maxie was more impressed with this way of organizing or his bone....