January Accomplishments

With the Waun-A-Quilt challenge, I really got a lot done! I have also been doing what I can to fit quilting in at any given time - at work during lunch, in the mornings before getting ready for work and, even when I get home from work around 8 and am very tired, I usually have binding that I can sit and work on. It would have been interesting to see how much time I accumulated this month while quilting.

1. Finished the binding and attached the label to the red and cream log cabin
2. Made a rice bag to help in healing me of my Cold That Would Not Leave.
3. Finished the binding on the green and orange table topper which I still need to ship off
4. Worked a little more on the purple Not Your Grandmother's Log Cabin
5. Began tracking my net fabric used - to date it is 18.02
6. Quilted and bound 3 Kid Komforts quilt for the Guild
7. Took a machine applique class and loved it! Now, I have to finish a sample for the shop...
8. Made 8 pillowcases entirely from stash!
9. Completed the Cafe au Lait in Every Pot quilt which included finishing the top, quilting, binding and adding the label! Have I mentioned how much I love having Lenny and Squiggy, the machine frame and Mega Quilter? giggle
10. Made 24 criss cross coasters
11. Finished three 6.5" blocks and one 12.5" blocks for the Thimbleberries Club
12. Helped Linda quilt a Nickel quilt on Lenny and Squiggy
13. Made a top for a shop sample
14. Worked on the final pieced border for my Milky Way quilt - more than halfway done! woo hoo!
15. Made 4 coffee placemats
16. Quilted and attached the binding on Lover's Lane. I also have the label ready to be hand sewn down, too.
17. Made 4 blocks for the Teal and Brown $2 a block BOM

Wow! That is a lot!

Wait a minute... I feel like I'm missing something here....

Oh, yeah! I beat Jen in the untweaked version of Waun-A-Quilt! Woo hoo!! But we were even in the tweaked version, so I am still calling it a tie! :)

OK, I am off to try and finish my Milky Way top tonight! I don't have too much farther to go!

Waun-A-Quilt January Results

Last night, after I finished working, I finished 2 more of my weekend goals and got an awesome amount of points!

Here are the blocks for the BOM.



And I started working on the final border for the Milky Way quilt. I got 2 of the shorter borders finished.



Now, with all of this and the points from the whole month, I finished the night and January with 8,472 points in the tweaked system. I was surprised to wake up this morning and see that Jen got the same amount of points! So we tied! Woo hoo!!

We also kept figuring our points in the old system. I kicked her butt!

Me - 17,426.48
Jen - 16,511.18

We do agree that the tweaked system is a better representation of the work that we did and the time spent. We are planning on something a little different for February. Jen is working right now, so once we have a chance to finalize our plans and the file, we will announce our plans.

Check back soon!

TGIF! and goals

I'm so happy that it's Friday! And I am home from work! And I can sew! And I have no plans for Sunday which means that I could quilt Wagon Wheels with Lenny and Squiggy. Have I mentioned lately how lucky I am to have my quilting frame and quilting machine? No? Well, I am!

Anyway, Jen and I are winding down on our Waun-A-Quilt Challenge and I am in the lead! Check out Jen's latest post on our standings! You can also see the latest quilt that her and I quilted together. Well, OK, I wasn't actually there to move the machine around, but I did tell her what color thread and what design to do, so technically I did help. :)

And since I did so well with listing my goals last weekend, I figured that I would do it again for this weekend.

1. Finish shop sample
2. Square up, attach binding and begin hand stitching on Lover's Lane
3. Complete 4 blocks for the 2BB BOM
4. Piece backing for Wagon Wheels
5. Begin final border for Milky Way
6. Quilt a charity quilt

Now, I better get started on that list!

Waun-A-Quilt update

As some of you have noticed, Jen and I were really racking up the points. It seems that some of the values assigned were a little out of whack and the bonuses were being a little over used so we started reevaluating the values. Last week, we decided to remove our sheets from the original spreadsheet because we were spending a lot of time entering data into each sheet and it was getting a little confusing. We also weren't ready to reveal our new values to everyone because we are still tweaking them.

OK, so with the tweaking, here are the updated totals for me and Jen.

Jen - 4896
Jill - 4202

I did finish the binding on the Chicken quilt and started the binding on another charity quilt so I should be able to catch up to Jen within the next couple of days so by Thursday's report on Jen's blog, we should be about even again. And we should be able to reveal our new points on the 31st so anyone who wants to could play again in February.

Thursday Waun-A-Quilt Update

First things first - here are the standing for the challenge between me and Jen.

Me - 7920.8
Jen - 7918.4

That's right! I am in the lead! Woo hoo!! I'm sure this will change real soon, but I'm happy to post that I'm in the lead right now!

OK, onto the pictures.

I have done a bit of sewing this week. I had a quilt on the frame ready to be quilted. Then, I had some major issues with the bobbin thread constantly breaking. I think that I have determined that I had 2 different types of bobbins. I received 4 with the Mega Quilter, Squiggy, and I got another 6 or 7 from the shop where I bought the machine and frame, Lenny. Then, I bought 30 from eBay. The problem is that some of the bobbins that I have used recently are slightly different. I guess that using bobbins that were smidgen too big tweaked the bobbin's tension and everything was out of whack. I spent some time on Monday night trying to get things working, but I gave up. Last night, I was finally able to get Squiggy working well enough to get the Kid Komfort quilt done and off the frame. But there was a lot of irritation and a few curses. I was very upset!



I practiced with a fairly dense stipple because that is what I want to do on the Chicken quilt. Except for the tension issues, I think it turned out well. I used a Superior Lava variegated pink on top and various Bottom Lines on the bottom.



Once I was done with the quilting, I worked on a couple of coasters - I Love Lucy fabric and some Califon.



And tonight, I had my first meeting of the Thimbleberries Club at the shop. For you non-quilters, Thimbleberries is a line of fabrics that has a country/rustic feel to it. I had a good time, but I didn't get a lot finished because I wasn't used to the format. I did get to use the Eleanor Burns flying geese ruler and my geese turned out marvelously! I think I have a new tool!



I should be able to get the rest of this block and the other 3 put together this weekend so expect more pictures.

Oh, and I took my bobbins and the case with me because I was sure that there would be ladies there who could help with the tension issue. We fiddled with the case and bobbins and wasted a lot of thread by pulling it through and having it break. When I got home, I loaded some muslin on the frame and tested it out and it works great again. And I realized that it was the 6 or 7 bobbins that I got from the shop that were bad. It's a good thing that I didn't pay for them! I should have realized when the sales lady was trying to get me to buy regular sewing machine needles for the Mega Quilter when it takes HLx5 needles, or something like that, that are more industrial needles. Sheesh! Well, it's working and that is what counts!

Waun-A-Quilt 2009 Recap

Well, since it's Monday, it's time to see the standings.

1. Jen - 6740
2. Jill - 6712
3. Moneik - 4634
4. Kim West - 4613
5. Trish Metcalfe - 3614
6. Regina Arauckas - 2879
7. Amy - Infinity Quilter - 2657
8. Maureen E - 1990
9. Linda J - 1296
10. Jen V - 1088
11. Ming - 952
12. Beth - mdquilter - 884
13. Jennifer N - 811
14. Nancy - 790
15. upnorthxstitching - 452
16. Cindy W - 338
17. Babs S - 199
18. Cindy - dreamscrapper - 169
19. Michele B - 145
20. Sandi H - 139
21. Bethany F - 131
22. Colleen C - 73
23. Ruthie W - 49
24. Tina - Quilt Dancing - 8

Way to go, Ladies! Keep up the good work!

Waun-A-Quilt Update

The past couple of nights, I have been busy cutting and pressing and trying to get some things in order to have a very productive weekend. Not a lot of points earned, but a lot of little work done. Well, tonight, I got 8 pillowcases done for 8 points a piece and they were all from stash which means 30 bonus points for each of them!



And I am ready to do a lot of sewing tomorrow!

Can't figure it out

I was trying to figure out how to insert the table from the Waun-A-Quilt file to show how the challenge is stacking up. It's not working too well. So here is the not so pretty version.

Jill - 3313.6
Jen - 3733

So Jen is a bit ahead, but she works tomorrow night. I have plans!

For the other players, here are how they are stacking up.

Tina - 8
Kim W - 1762
Moneik - 989.12
Cindy - 338
Beth - 560
Sandi - 65
Jennifer N - 701
Amy - 545
Marlene - 660
Babs - 199
Michele - 4
Colleen - 22.3

Great job, people!! Now, for the rest of you ... What's holding you back from earning some points?!?!? :)

For the rest of the evening tonight, I caught up on blogs and quilted a Kid Komfort quilt for the Guild and loaded another quilt onto the frame. I wonder if I can get that one done tomorrow night. I do have a few other things waiting in the wings to be sewn. I'll just have to see.

Just a mini-update

I am feeling much better today than I have in a few weeks! I got to sleep in pretty late on Sunday (noon-ish) and I really needed that. My ears have started popping and draining and I can hear again and the dizziness from inner ear issues is definitely dissipating.

Even though I was stuck over the weekend with not being able to move around too much, I did get the binding done on the Halloween table topper. I will have to take some more close up pictures and send it off along with another package that will be a semi-late semi-Christmas present.

Last night, I dug around in my stash for a binding for a Kids Komfort quilt, a charity quilt for the Guild. I found about 1.5 yards of fabric that were supposed to be for a birthday present in October. I hunted around and found fabric for the binding and fabric for the cuff for 2 pillowcases. I got everything ironed and cut and then lost my 'ooomph' and went to bed. I know that I have fabric in the stash room for several more pillowcases so I may need to look and see what I can find before sewing up the 2 that are ready.

Tonight was the Guild meeting. I took 2 Kid Komfort quilts to drop off and picked up 4 more to be quilted and bound. I think that I will quilt them and then hand them off to others who have more time to stitch the binding. Or I may machine stitch the binding. I'll have to see how I feel when they are done. We played Quilto for fat quarters. I forgot my FQs and had to stop and pick some up at JoAnn's on my way to the meeting. I didn't win anything so they don't need to be counted in my weekly totals. I was close though, Maureen was sitting right next to me and won 50 FQs! It could've been me....

Don't forget about the Waun-A-Quilt 2009 Challenge! Quite a few people have already started entering their points in their spreadsheets. We are off to a great start! Just click on the badge in my sidebar or the link in the marquis at the top of my blog to see what the Challenge is all about!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope that you spent New Year's Day doing something fun!

I have been under the weather for the past almost 3 weeks. First it was a cold, then the fall on the ice, and then the cold came back with a vengeance. I am feeling so much better now, but it has meant a lot of sleeping and resting and, unfortunately, not much sewing and not many points earned for the Waun-A-Quilt 2009 Challenge. Jen is kicking my butt right now.

On New Year's Eve, I had every intention of coming home from work and sewing for the evening. I was able to do a little cleaning and then started coughing too much so I went to bed at 10:30. I'm so lame! :)

Steve did finish painting the closet and it looks great. I can't wait until February to load all of my things back in it!



On New Year's Day, I was able to sleep in and it was wonderful! While I was eating breakfast, I worked on sewing down the rest of the binding on my log cabin quilt. It was the very first quilt top that I ever made. I quilted it in August and ha the binding attached, but I never made the time to sew the binding down. I am very happy that it's done! It just needs to be washed and a label put on.



I also got the binding attached to this table topper. No close ups yet, but it looks really cool! I already have almost half of the binding stitched down. And since it is a Halloween topper, I get 4 times the points!



And I spent some time on New Year' Day sewing on the log cabin blocks. I squared some blocks up and attached more blocks together.

So here is my points breakdown so far:

• 6 - for 45 minutes spent cleaning on 12/31
• 172 - for 43" of binding stitched down on the log cabin quilt
• 8 - made a rice bag for some moist heat for my neck and chest and ears to try and help with the cold symptoms
• 20 - machine stitched 5 strips to the table topper and then times 4 since it is a Halloween quilt
• 16 - squared up 16 blocks for the purple log cabin
• 14 - joined 14 more blocks together for the log cabin
• 288 - stitched approximately 18" on the Halloween topper and then times for sine it is a Halloween quilt
• 2 - straightened my sewing area a little more

This gives me a total of 526 points so far. Nothing near Jen's outrageous number for her paper piecing, but not a bad start considering I'm diseased right now. :)

Waun-A-Quilt 2009

While our spreadsheet is not yet finalized, we are letting people view our Google doc. Just go here. You can request access for the file. Once we are settled on the numbers and our format, we will set up pages for anyone who wants to play.

It's time!

It’s has been a few months since the Quilting Survivor Challenge of 2008. Some time has passed so all the players could return to their sewing corners and pat themselves on the back or lick their wounds and regroup to try again.

After numerous hours of discussing the options of another challenge, Jen and I finally came up with an idea of a challenge for January 2009. Once we settled on the idea, the real fun began. We had to identify all of the different types of work a quilter would do. We then had to rate the work based on our idea of level of skill needed and the difficulty of the work or task. There were many more hours of discussing and debating the tasks and values. We laughed. We cried. We yelled. I’ll admit it … there was probably some name calling. I mean, Jen’s husband Mike just wouldn’t stay out of our way! *Giggle*

Without further adieu, I bring to you, my fellow quilters, my loyal readers, my peeps….



It is going to be a great way to start off the New Year on the right machine quilting foot!

Here is the premise – whatever you do that is quilting related will get a point value. For example, get 9 points for making a 9 patch block, but lose 10 points if you buy fabric that you don’t use during the month. Total your points for the month and see how you rate against the other quilters.

Now, Jen and I are competing between the 2 of us. But you can join in our fun!

• Use our point values and play along to see how you rate against me or Jen.
• Find a quilting buddy and challenge her to a competition.
• Cheer me on in my quest to beat Jen once and for all!

The competition begins at 5:00 PM on 12/31/2008 and runs until midnight on 1/31/2009.

We still have a couple of things to discuss for bonus point items and any rules that we feel we should impose on everyone playing along, but we should have the file available tomorrow for anyone interested to start tracking their points. Just keep track of what you are doing tonight and tomorrow if you are lucky enough to be able to sew.

Now, Jen is getting a head start on me because she has been off of work since noon. I gotta get to Bubba, my machine, and get to work! :)

*Edited to add - here is the link to the file with our points values and the spreadsheets to track our progress.