July Monthly Accomplishments

July was a very busy month. Reading through my list, I really got A TON done!


Here's the list:

1. Finished piecing the block and assembled the top for the Wagon Wheels quilt. Also made the binding.
2. 3 blocks for the Block of Month that I am doing through Best Friends
3. Completed a Cars quilt from a Joann's kit for Ethan
4. Completed a Christmas quilt top and prepared the binding. I bought it because the Santas reminded me of my grandparents' house at Christmas when I was little. When I showed my aunt and grandma, they totally agreed!
5. Finished a very old UFO - Mom's Halloween Big Shirt
6. Watched part of the Pajama Quilter Reloaded DVD and practiced quilting designs a lot on a white board.
7. Loaded, quilted and buried the thread ends on Hip to be Square, formerly known as the first Stash Pot Pie. I also got the binding attached and completely sewn down. It just needs a label now.
8. Completed a Spiderman quilt from a Joann's kit for Spencer
9. Fixed Bubba when he was acting ornery from over-use and wanted to suck the fabric in when I wanted him to cut the threads.
10. Completely finished the fruit table runner and place mats. I just had to finish hand stitching the binding down on most of the pieces.
11. Completed the entire top of the Lover's Lane UFO. When I started, I only had one block of 20 completed and about 15 4-patches and half square triangle units of 180 each that were needed for the top. I got all of the units done, the blocks assembled and the entire quilt with borders put together. I also have to say thanks the members of Quilted Chaos, the Guild small group that I belong to. They helped me lay out most of the blocks when the units were finished. Thanks so much, Ladies! I'm so glad that you could have a hand in helping me with this quilt! (Note - See pictures of my sweat shop here.)
12. Quilted a funky block Kid Komfort with meandering loops and sewed the binding on. Am still working on stitching the binding down.
13. Stitched a binding down fora quilt from one of the Guild small groups that is going to Alaska. The quilt, not the small group. :)
14. Finished the Lover's Lane top! I know that this was mentioned before, but it was a HUGE undertaking with all of the piecing and ironing that had to be done!
15. Quilted a blue Kids Komfort
16. Completed 4 of my secret projects. Well, I finished 3 and Patrice 'finished' 1. When I post about the projects, this will all make sense. I promise!
17. Finished a paper pieced star block for Heather.
18. Oh, and I got in 160 hours of quilting/sewing. How cool is that? I didn't win the July Challenge, but I still did A LOT!!!

Other non-sewing items:

1. Picked up a gooseneck lamp for Squiggy. It's wonderful to be able to see while I quilt!
2. Tried the ice cream at The Dip. It's good! I'm in trouble!
3. Got my shirts that I ordered with our July Challenge logo on them. Very cool!
4. Picked up a large white board to practice my quilting designs on.
5. Worked at the St Jude Dream Home selling tickets at the open houses for 2 afternoons.
6. Read D is for Deadbeat and E is for Evidence by Sue Grafton
7. Read The Bone Garden by Tess Gerritsen - great author!

So, it was a very, very productive month for me! August is looking like it will be almost as productive! I am going on a retreat next weekend for 2 days. I have already started thinking about what I need to get done before I leave and what I should take with me. Decisions, decisions! :)

Don't forget about the Finish it Up Month this month! Read about it here and come and join us! And if your not already a part of the Prolific Quilter's Yahoo Group, join us here!

Running on empty

Here it is ... 10:30 PM on a Saturday night and I am pooped! I had been sewing since 1 PM with a couple of little breaks for dinner and laundry and I finally gave up around 9:45. My back is sore. My eyes are getting strained. The dogs are ready for bed. I believe it's time to hit the sack.

Of course, I will give an update on the day's happenings. :)

I met Cathy and Maddy at IHOP for breakfast and some chit chat before we headed to Best Friends' for the sale. I made myself a little list of what I was looking for and yardages so that I wouldn't forget anything while at the shop. Once we got done eating, we had a little bit of time and I pulled out a fruit place mat to stitch and got in about 15 minutes. Cathy can verify - she was watching the clock for me!

I have a class that starts on Friday and figured that I should get my fabric for the class while at the shop. 16 fat quarters and 5/8 of a yard for the inner border. It's a Thangles class and the pattern is in the picture. The blue dots at the top is the border that I picked. Most of the fabrics have iridescent dots or accents on them. They are very pretty!



All of the FQs were $2 today and that included all of the sets. I just couldn't pass up this set.



Amazingly enough, this and the fabric for the Wagon Wheel and the Santa quilt and the pass for the Shop Hop were all that I got today. Maddy, Cathy and I discussed the Shop Hop and all bought our passports. As you may or may not recall, Maddy and I ran around together last year for the Hop and we were able to talk Cathy into joining us this year.

After I left Best Friends, I ran to Joann's to get a couple of things that I needed from their sale and WalMart to get a fluorescent bulb for the lamp that I got for the frame. Once I got home, I had a quick lunch, started laundry and headed to the sewing table.

I was able to get the big shirt finished except for the buttons and button holes. I thought that I had bought black buttons already, but couldn't immediately remember when I had seen them last so I put the shirt aside to finish these small details. I only had one other mishap with the shirt and it was that the collar piece had to be re-cut, but it was easy enough to do and I had plenty of extra fabric to handle this.



After the shirt was done, I worked on prepping the backing fabric and bindings for the Wagon Wheels quilt...



... the first stash pot pie quilt ...



... and the Santa Quilt.



I also watched the Beginner's part of the Pajama Quilter and practiced a bit on the frame. I believe that tomorrow I will be ready to load a real quilt to stipple.

I was watched the second half of the season of My Name is Earl. I *love* that show! I hadn't read any reviews on line so all of the episodes were a surprise and I was happy with how the season ended. I also watched Juno. It was a pretty good movie, too.

Right now though, I have a date with some Icy Hot for my lower back. Until tomorrow...

Post-Nap Progress

After my 2 hour nap yesterday, I was able to get something else finished. This is the kit that bought at the Columbus show. The directions were a little funky on this pattern, too. It said to cut the print panel a little short. Very odd. Anyway, it's finished and I can get the backing at the sale today.



After I got that finished, I decided to pull out a very old UFO and work on it. Mom's Halloween Big Shirt. This is what it looked like when I started.



I got the cuffs on the sleeves and the plackets on the front of the shirt finished. I also had to cut out a couple of more pieces for the collar and I got the interfacing ironed on what was needed. I remembered how difficult the collar was and felt that it was too late for me to start it last night. I didn't want to get too frustrated with it and put it away for another year, so I will work on it when I get back from breakfast and shopping.



Hours for second part of day - 6
Total hours for July - 22.5

October 2007 Cleveland Retreat

The retreat weekend started off a little hectic. I took Friday off of work so that I could pack up everything and be ready to go when Maddy called to say that she was leaving work. When she called at 2, I was very close to leaving to drop the dogs off. I just had to pack up the car. I ended up not getting to Maddy's house until just before 3 PM and we were on our way north by a little after 3. Maddy and I both wanted to stop on our way to pick up some fabric that we needed for projects that we had taken with us.

With a lot of luck, we were able to stop at the Glass Thimble in Columbus. They were open until 5 and we got there right at 5. We ran in to make sure that they would let us shop a bit even though they were closing and they said of course so we ran back out to the car to get our fabrics to match. After 35 minutes, we were back on our way only to stop an exit or two north of this store for dinner at Bob Evans. It was yummy! We also saw Quilt Trends, which is really the store that I wanted to stop at because they were promoting a moving sale on their website. It ended up being behind the Bob Evans that we stopped at. Very ironic since we had wanted to stop there in the first place!

After dinner and a long drive, we pulled into the driveway of the sewing semi-house around 8 PM. We started unpacking the car and setting up our areas and then looking around.

This is the view from the door of the place. Directly in front of the door was a huge cutting table that was at a perfect height for cutting anything. And we climbed up on the table many times to lay stuff out. You can see Maddy across the room on the left. That was where she and I sewed. Behind Maryanne, you can see part of Shirley at her sewing table.

The cutting table had shelves on 2 sides and drawers on the other two sides. When we were looking for tools that we needed, we would look in the drawers to see if we could find something. Well, this is what we found:

An entire drawer of thread! And when Dora, the owner, came back from her trip, she brought at least 10 more cones of thread!

In the first picture, there are cabinets behind Maddy and all along that wall that you can see. The cabinets also lined the wall opposite Maddy where the entrance was. This is what was in each cabinet.

This was my view from my sewing area:

The long arm was to the left of the cutting table from the entrance. Needless to say, there was plenty of room for all of us to work comfortably in!

Friday night, while we waited for Carol and Brenda to arrive from Dayton, I worked on the fall big shirt for mom. Here is the finished shirt that Maddy so graciously modeled. I did the buttonholes and the buttons on the machine and it worked beautifully!

I practically had to rip the shirt off of her because she didn't want to give it up!

After I finished the fall shirt, I decided that I better get to work on the Halloween shirt that I had all of the pieces already cut out for. I got a lot sewn on Friday night, but I also realized that I should redo the handouts that were given in the class because I had written so many notes to myself that I was having trouble reading them.

Once I had made progress on the second shirt, Maddy and Maryanne decided that they had had enough and I had to leave with them. We made plans on meeting back at the sewing center the next morning and off we went.

Am home now...

I got back about 3 hours ago and have been chatting online with the guy in Dayton, so I am just now getting around to posting. He is very sweet and I can't wait to meet him and see how things are in person.

Anyway, it was a pretty productive weekend. I got a fair amount of things finished and worked on. And I got plenty of pictures. I will have to upload some pictures tomorrow.

We talked a lot about my blog and they asked how I started it and got involved in everything blog-related. I started saying, "This is SO going in my blog!" a la Barney from How I Met Your Mother. It was funny! I got pictures of everyone with the things that they worked on so that they could all be in the blog. But again, that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Here is my list of things that I was taking with me to work on:

• 2 pairs of pants for Claire - I got one pair done, but not the second - I still have to do the leg hems and the elastic.
• 2 pairs of pants for Spencer - I got one pair done, but not the second - I still have to do the leg hems and the elastic
• 1 pillowcase for Claire - I ran out of fabric for a second pillowcase to match her pants. - Completed.
• 2 pillowcases for Spencer - Completed.
• 1 pillowcase for myself - in the man fabric - Completed.
• fall big shirt and buttons - Completed
• Halloween fabric for big shirt - I started this shirt and got as far as attaching the sleeves to the body. I had to stop because I didn't have the interfacing I needed for the collar and cuffs.
• 2 fabric books for Ethan - a Monkey book and a Cars book - I didn't even start this.
• my first BOM block - I forgot that I had even taken this until I was packing up this morning.
• squares for quilt for kids - I got quite a bit of this done. It went together a lot faster than I had anticipated and I should have the outer rows pieced the next time I sit down to work on it. I just have to get the fabric for the inner and outer borders.
• wagon wheels pieces to finish the blocks. I may got the sashing fabric at the shop that we are stopping at on our way so that I can just finish it all this weekend - I did get the sashing at the shop that we stopped at on the way up to Cleveland, but I didn't take the time to lay out the remainder of the blocks or to sew anything else together.
• the big shirt and the pajama pants book to copy the patterns into my sizes - yeah, this didn't even happen!

Well, it is last and I didn't get much sleep all weekend. I was up until 1 AM on Thursday night, 2 AM on Friday night and the about midnight Saturday night. I am pooped!!

Last Post

This will be my last post before I leave for the retreat. I am about 10-15 minutes away from leaving and thought that I would take a little rest before loading up the car.

I also wanted to post a list of what I am taking with me this weekend to work on.

1. 2 pairs of pants for Claire
2. 2 pairs of pants for Spencer
3. 1 pillowcase for Claire - I ran out of fabric for a second pillowcase to match her pants.
4. 2 pillowcases for Spencer
5. 1 pillowcase for myself - in the man fabric
6. fall big shirt and buttons
7. Halloween fabric for big shirt
8. 2 fabric books for Ethan - a Monkey book and a Cars book
9. my first BOM block
10. squares for quilt for kids
11. wagon wheels pieces to finish the blocks. I may got the sashing fabric at the shop that we are stopping at on our way so that I can just finish it all this weekend
12. the big shirt and the pajama pants book to copy the patterns into my sizes

Well, I think that is a good list. I am hoping that we can get to Cleveland by 7 tonight and that should give us a good 5 hours to sew tonight. I am very excited!

That is it for now. See you in 2 days!

Shop Hop Update #2

I know that it has been a month since the Shop Hop has been over, but I still have pictures to show and figured that I better get it done.

After we left the Victorian Quilt Shop, we ran up to Fabric Shack in Waynesville, Ohio. It was very easy to get to and they had A LOT of novelty fabrics. It was great because I was able to get a jelly roll of the Monkeying Around fabric and a couple of patterns that use jelly rolls. I also got a couple of yards of the pink sock money fabric to use as a light background to make a quilt with the monkey fabric. I absolutely love the monkey fabric! And I got a few other novelty fabrics for a kids quilt.



And that was it for Saturday. As we were paying at this last shop, there were a couple of ladies who actually turned their passports in and they were telling us how they were able to get through all of the shops in one day. It would’ve been too much driving for me and Maddy.

Sunday, I met Maddy and Nick for breakfast at the Original Pancake House. I had never been there before, but it was great! We finished there and ran to our first shop on Sunday – Sew-A-Lot in Centerville.

Neither of us had been to the Sew-A-Lot, but they had such neat fabric that we ended up staying for almost an hour! The first picture here is witches' underwear and then I got some more fabric from the dog line that I got at Victorian's the day before.

Once we finally left Sew-A-Lot, we drove to Best Friends, the quilt shop that I consider to be 'mine.' Jan, the owner, hadn't seen our purses yet, so she had her daughter take pictures of us with our purses for their collection. I think that they are going to put the pictures on the web, but I am not sure. I didn't get anything really noteworthy - a skill builder book and fabric for practicing machine quilting and a book for a class that Maddy and I are taking in December.

Once we left Best Friends, we drove to Stitches N Such. The ladies in there are so nice, but unfortunately, the hours don't work very well for me to take classes. I bought the Pajama Pants pattern from there and then ended up getting the same pattern book in the bag from the Quilt Bug. :)

Next, we went to Aunt Ruth's Scrapbasket. The first thing that I saw in the store was a pack of fat quarters that Maddy picked up and showed me. The colors were very cool! Shades of rose and mauves and olive and mint greens. Very striking! I ended up getting 20% off of the entire kit so I just had to have it. The fat quarters will be used to make a log cabin loco quilt. I picked out a batik for the accent center squares for each block and the border. The border fabric is across the top.

After Aunt Ruth's, we only had one shop left and it was just after 3PM. Maddy wanted to be home by 4. We ran to Sew-Ezy and turned in our passports. I found some really nice fabric to make a big shirt for myself.

We were out of Sew-Ezy by 3:45 and back to Maddy's by 4:10. It was a great hop and I can't wait for the next one! Here is a slide show of all of the pictures from the Hop.

Shop Hop

Shop Hop - Part 1

Here is what you all have been waiting for! The Shop Hop posts!

As you may remember, I spent the Friday evening before the hop mapping out our route and printing everything out on Mapquest so that Maddy could navigate. I also had my little book with notes of what I was looking for and yardages for the Big shirt and the Very Badley bag. I was very much prepared for our trip!

Maddy met me at the Crayons 2 Computers building and we left around 11 AM to drive to the Quilt Box in Dry Ridge, KY. I had no idea what I was expecting, but I was a bit let down by the shop. I don't know if it was the single lane driveway with curves, bends and no way to get out of the way if someone comes up the opposite way or the fact that it was the first day of the hop and the workers were already acting frazzled. I do not think that I will return to the shop on my own because of this and because it is so far from my house. Maddy was able to get her passport there, but they didn't gice her a free fat quarter for signing up and they didn't have a little holder for her papers either. And we were not given a pattern for the block from their store. Needless to say, I didn't buy anything from this shop.

Once we left the Quilt Box, we drove into Burlington to Cabin Arts. This shop was in a little log cabin and it was so cute! They had so many bolts of fabric though, that it was stacked 10-15 deep in some areas and it was tough to walk through the rooms if someone else was also in the room. It also made it difficult to see what was on every bolt. I was able to buy some fabric here and Maddy got some, too. I also got a picture of the shirt that one of the workers had made for her husband. It's amusing!






I plan on making myself pants and pillowcases of my men. Eventually, they will probably been my dream men. :)

I had also gotten some miscellaneous fabrics to use in my I Spy quilt.



Once we left Cabin Arts, we went to the Quilt Bug in Indiana. I got a few patterns there - Little Charmers I and III table runners. This is also the shop where I won the door prize from. We didn't hang around this shop for too long.



We left the Indiana store, drove back through Kentucky and went to the store in Amelia in Eastern Cincinnati - Victorian Quilt Shop. I figured that we would be in and out quickly because I have not always had such great experiences in the store. I was very pleasantly surprised that day. I found the line of dog fabric and bought a few of them. I also found some interesting other fabrics. I am not sure what I will do with the dogs, but I think that they are so cute!!









Also, since we got a 20% discount on one book, pattern or notion at each store, I bought at least a pattern or book from each store.

We hit one more store on Saturday before we gave up. Tune in later and I will continue the update on the Shop Hop! :)

My, I am so tired

It must be because I am just so lazy!! :)

I had my yoga class tonight and got there early enough to be in the front room with the instructor this time. It was a really relaxing time and I wish that they offered a second class a week or I knew where I could go for another class each week. Although, I don't know how I would fit that in, seeing as how lazy I am... :) The class is being held at the Elisha Morgan Mansion here in Fairfield and tonight we had our class in the upper level. I had never been in the 'mansion' before the class two weeks ago, but it is a really neat building. Not really a mansion by our standards these days, but I can see how it held it's own in the 1800's.

Also, in keeping with being productive theme for the week, I am uploading a picture of my mom in her Big Shirt. Well, the one big shirt that is nearly complete. :)

OK, that is enough for now. I am off to bed. It is very tiring answering a bunch of notes from eHarmony and emails from a set up. :)

I am so sorry...

I know that there are probably a lot of you who are anxiously awaiting pictures of my purchases from the Shop Hop and I haven't posted any of them yet. I haven't even taken pictures of everything. I have no excuses. There hasn't been anything going on that has kept me from posting.

Well, I did go to a friend's house on Monday night to sew/quilt. I belong to a small group in my Guild and the ladies there are in the small group. They have been getting together on Monday nights to chat and sew. And they meet about 2 streets from me so it was nice to go over and chat with them and I got the Halloween big shirt fabric cut out. But I screwed it up twice! I had listed the fabrics out with the pieces that I needed to cut for each fabric and I cut the wrong pieces from the wrong fabric. And I cut one sleeve backward and there was not enough fabric to cut another piece. I am going to have to go and get another piece of fabric for this. I am such a ding dong! This just proves that I can't talk and listen and do something else that requires thinking all at one time!

Things are still going well with the Date. He was out of town last weekend and we talked a bit while he was gone. He got back on Sunday and then came over to hang out on Sunday night. I think that things have been going great since our talk a few weeks ago.

Today was my weigh in at work. Yesterday, I was so excited because my scale showed that I was at 26 pounds lost. I guess I got too cocky about it and had too many bad foods yesterday because today, I was up a pound. :( So today I was at 25 pounds lost. Still nothing to sneeze at! :) And tomorrow is my first yoga class. I am excited about that!

Cincinnati Shop Hop

I lost a week last night. I thought that I had a weekend free before the Shop Hop started and that the following weekend would be when I leave for Myrtle Beach. It turns out that the Shop Hop starts Saturday!! Talk about being unprepared!! I need to get some patterns together (big shirt and Very Badly purse) so I can buy fabric for them in case I find fabric that I just have to have.
And I have to check my pile of fabrics for the I Spy quilt to make sure that I don't need any more. And if I do need more, I need to know what I will need - light or dark fabrics and what size prints. I think that I am OK with the I Spy fabrics, but since I will be going to 11 stores, it would be a great opportunity to get anything else that I might need.
So, next weekend is pretty much all planned out for me. Saturday morning, I am volunteering at Crayons 2 Computers and then Maddy and I are going to run to as many stores as we can. And whatever we don't get done on Saturday, we will finish on Sunday. I am confident that we can get them all done in 2 days. But I am very excited to see all the stores and see what specials they might have. Plus, it will be fun to spend the time with Maddy and wee will probably laugh the entire time!Leave a Comment

Untitled Comment
10:37 PM, Monday, September 3, 2007 .. Posted by CountryQuilter .. Edit .. Delete The shop hop sounds like a blast! I would go broke if I went on a shop hop!! Can't wait to see what you buy. Kristie
Shop Hopping
10:39 PM, Monday, September 3, 2007 .. Posted by Anonymous .. Edit .. Delete I've never done a shop hop, but it sounds like a lot of fun! You are lucky to live where there are several shops...the closest shop to me is an hour round trip and the next one is 45 minutes one way. Kim
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8:47 AM, Tuesday, September 4, 2007 .. Posted by VTQuilter .. Edit .. Delete The shop hop sounds like so much fun. Have a great time with your friend. Deb
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2:40 PM, Tuesday, September 4, 2007 .. Posted by cre8tivequilter .. Edit .. Delete Hey, is it really called a very badly purse for vera bradly or just what you named it? =) Have fun at your shop hop. Will you see the date this week? ? for you, why are you looking to make more VBS's when you're going to be a skinny mini in no time? You're not going to want to hide that body under a VBS!!

Another WIP finished!

I went to my granma's today to discuss our trip to Myrtle Beach with her and my 2 aunts and cousin. I had to show off my recent projects - the ugly quilt, the big shirt, my Very Badly purse - and they all loved them. I was waiting for a my aunt and granma to give me orders on what colors they wanted for the purse.
While we were talking, I worked on the binding on my table runner that I made at a class in March. I know - that is forever ago, but I just took my binding class to learn how to put it on. I wanted to make sure that I was doing that correctly. I finished the binding and here are pictures of the full view and close up.

Now, onto important matters. We will be leaving for Myrtle Beach on a Saturday morning and stopping in Asheville, SC to see the Biltmore. We will spend the night somewhere close to there. For the week, we will be in Myrtle Beach and will take a day trip or two to Charleston. I need to find quilt shops in Asheville, Myrtle Beach and Charleston. I am very excited to be seeing Charleston again, but am very excited to go to some new quilt shops.
If anyone lives around these areas or knows of shops in those areas, let me know!!
Leave a Comment

Table Runner
9:59 PM, Monday, September 3, 2007 .. Posted by kim .. Edit .. Delete Jill, you did a beautiful job on the table runner! I like the colors and the design is very striking. :) Have a great time on your trip to MB. :) Kim
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10:34 PM, Monday, September 3, 2007 .. Posted by CountryQuilter .. Edit .. Delete Your trip sounds like a blast! I love your tablerunner, it is beautiful! Kristie
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10:59 PM, Monday, September 3, 2007 .. Posted by hazel .. Edit .. Delete Your table runner is beautiful ,love the design .Have fun on the shop hop I really like doing them ,but it can get expensive .Well if your a silly girl like me and have to buy something at every shop LOL .
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11:07 PM, Monday, September 3, 2007 .. Posted by Luv2Quilt .. Edit .. Delete Looks GREAT, Jill, and have fun on your shop hop AND your vacation! Michelle
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11:50 PM, Monday, September 3, 2007 .. Posted by sewandsnip .. Edit .. Delete Oh I just love the table runner it's such a neat pattern and the colors are great. A shop hop sounds like fun. I've never done one so I can't wait to hear all about it. Cindy
I'm not sure...
9:31 AM, Tuesday, September 4, 2007 .. Posted by NikkersQuilts .. Edit .. Delete why you call your ugly quilt that. Every time I see you write that, I have to stop and look at it. Every time I do I think, "Gee, that is soo pretty." You do really nice work, especially for a beginner. Your table runner is beautiful too. I'd love to have you in any class I teach. Have a great trip. Sounds like y'all will have a lot of fun stuff to do. I would love to see Charleston one day. DH's busy time at work is summer and so with daughter in school it is hard to get away. Be sure to take lots of pictures so I can live vicariously through you. LOL Nikki
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2:41 PM, Tuesday, September 4, 2007 .. Posted by cre8tivequilter .. Edit .. Delete Your table runner turned out fantastic!! -Jen www.cre8tivequilter/blogspot.com

Finished (almost) big shirt

Last night was the last Big Shirt class. Of course, I forgot my brown thread and had to buy a spool of brown thread at the shop. And I forgot to take my owner's manual for Bubba so I couldn't learn how to do button holes on my shirt. So, I will have to take Bubba and my shirt up to the shop in a week and have Raven show me what to do.

Here are the pictures of the shirt so far:



And here is as close as I could get to the detail on the sleeve cuff. My bat-tree is dying in the camera. I will have to take clearer pics when the bat-trees are charged.


I think that it turned out really well!
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Wednesday, August 29, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by CountryQuilter
I love it!!! I would have to use my manual too. I have never made a buttonhole in my life! Kristie
Permanent Link
Wednesday, August 29, 2007 - very cool!
Posted by take2quilter
And I bet that quiltshop owner appreciated your buying some thread. Sometimes that's what keeps a shop going is the sales during classes. And I hope you got a discount too. I love that shirt. Is it for you? Or a gift. I am corresponding with a gentleman in Michigan. We have a lot in common and want the same things mostly out of life. Except I can't get married ever so that could be a problem. He seems like a marrying kind of guy. It just isn't financially feasible for me to remarry. So, I guess I will have to tell him that and see if he wants to continue our cyber "romance". But, I could dig being in Michigan...isn't that near you all? I want to play with you and jen and cindy...please can I? How's the Date? Heard from him? jaja
Permanent Link
Wednesday, August 29, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by jillquilts
JaJa The shirt is for my mom. I had to get more fabric to make her a Halloween shirt, too, since she liked how this one was turning out! I have talked to the Date. I just posted about our dinner tonight. I hope that things work out for you and Michigan. Michigan (depending on the part of Michigan) can be as close as 5 hours away from me. I am not sure how close it is to Jen. We might have to start planning a My Quilt Blog get together for 2008!! :)
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Wednesday, August 29, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by SewAndSnip
Oh I love the big shirt and I'm picturing it in my mind in Halloween and Christmas fabrics. Maybe this is something that I need to look into. You've done a great job on it. I'm glad that you talked to the Date. It's great to be honest with him and see what happens. If nothing else it's just fun to go to dinner or a movie with someone. I'm looking forward to a long sewing weekend too. Cindy

While I am waiting....

for the new cell phone to charge, I figured that I would post pictures of my purchases from Saturday.

First, here is my new cell phone. It is an LG VX8300 and has way more bells and whistles than I will ever need! And it's purty!



I got another fabric book for Ethan, my youngest nephew. My BIL will be happy - this book is about cars and Ryan loves NASCAR. The book has the cars from the movie Cars.


This is the fabric that I got for the Halloween big shirt for mom.


And this is the pattern that I picked to do from the Sew One and Your Done book and the fabric to make a quilt. The pink will take the place of the blue, the green will be the olive and the floral pattern will be the tan patterned fabric in the quilt picture.



OK, the phone is now ready to be turned on.
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Tuesday, August 21, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by CountryQuilter
Looks like lots more projects! Can't wait to see them! I'm sure he will love his new book. I love your new fabric selections, too. Kristie
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Tuesday, August 21, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by luv2quilt
So Jill, no date tonight? Love the fabric!...and the phone! Michelle
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Tuesday, August 21, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by 51050
My daughter Kim would love the pink and green combination. That's her favorite. She just decorated Tina;s room in those colors. It's going to be very pretty. Rhoda
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Tuesday, August 21, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by maryann64
Fabric is pretty. How long will it be before you get all the gadgets on the phone to work? Mine is a lot simpler and about all I can do is use the basis and the camera. Lots of luck. Hugs Mary Ann
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Tuesday, August 21, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Cre8tiveQuilter
I'm going to be starting at least one more of those "sew ond and you're done" quilts shortly. Actually; I love the carpenters wheel block so much I'm contemplating making it, adding two thick borders and making it into a new shower curtain. Just need to decide on a color scheme and then watch my husband curl up and die as quilting enters the bathroom where he holes up to take a crap! LOL.
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Wednesday, August 22, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Anonymous
Oh, boy!!!!! I love the fabric for the Halloween shirt. Are you picking out the fabric for the Christmas one? Ha Ha. I may be going to the quilt hop shop thing with Claire and CArol from work. It depends on whether Claire has to work. Love, Mam

Big Shirt pictures

As promised, here are the pictures of the big shirt after the work done at the class last night,

Front of Shirt.

Back of shirt.

I took the shirt into work to show it off and everyone kept thinking that I would be quilting it into a coat somehow. I wasn't sure what gave them that idea... But everyone agreed that the colors are great together.

It is hot and muggy here and the dogs do not enjoy being outside in the humidity. Of course, instead of getting outside and doing their business, they would rather survey the area and check everything out and then stand around. Dorks!

I have a early morning meeting tomorrow with IT people. They have the biggest egos of basically anyone in the company. They act like they are running everything. The only good thing about the meeting is that it gives my lunch group a great topic to talk about for weeks. I will have to try and explain it tomorrow. Right now, I have to get to bed so that I can be semi-coherent for the Council meeting in the morning.
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Wednesday, August 8, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by CountryQuilter
Love the fabrics in this shirt. Can't wait to see it when you finish. Your little dogs sound like they are so funny... Kristie
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Wednesday, August 8, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by lori
You made me smile Jill ,I haven't heard any one say Dorks in a long time LOL . Are you making these shirts for yourself or as Christmas gifts .I think they would make great gifts ,I'll even send you my address ,you know , just so Santa knows where to drop it off LOL .Enjoy your lunch .
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Thursday, August 9, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Trina
The colors do go together .......I really like it. And I would still like to make one someday too.
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Thursday, August 9, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by orchidlover
what a great shirt and I love the colours love and hugs gina xxx
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Thursday, August 9, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by SewAndSnip
Your shirt is turning out wonderful. I love the colors they go together so well. Aren't dogs just the greatest? I'm up now because my little guy has decided he's done sleeping. Oh sure he's the one who can sleep all day Cindy
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Thursday, August 9, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by 51050
I think I've said it before, but I love that leaf pattern. Don't the IT guys run the show? I do data entering for a school system, and when the computers are down, there's no work for me! I hate it when that happens. That map at the bottom of your blog is so cool! Rhoda
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Thursday, August 9, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Cre8tiveQuilter
It's very cool!!

Tuesday Update

Tonight, I had my second Big Shirt class. We had a great time! Lots of sewing and bonding and learning! I got the body of the shirt done tonight, but I will have to wait until tomorrow to take pictures in the natural light. The teacher also said that we have to change our class from next week until the end of the month. But I got so much done in class today, that all I have to do is trim up the bottom seam and then put in the hem. Yeah!!

I had a lot of running around to do though before class. With it being so humid, I couldn't leave my machine in the car so I had to leave work early enough to drive 45 minutes home, load the car and pee the dogs and then drive the 15 minutes to the store. I made it in time, even with time to spare and time to eat a bit before leaving the house.

Also, I was able to catch up on Jen's blog!! I laughed out loud at the night when you lost your phone and were running all around between houses trying find it! Your stories crack me up! And your energy and the amount of sewing that you do amazes me knowing that you work full time!

Monday, I didn't post anything because I went to a quilt guild meeting right after work. Well, not right after - I did stop at Joann's. I picked up some basting needles (I didn't have any coupons for a basting gun), some batting and clearance fabric so that I can make a quilt sandwich and practice my free motion quilting. And I got my Spiderman fabric for my oldest nephew, Spencer. I have Superman fabric to make him some PJ's and was going to make them for his birthday when he told me in no uncertain terms that he didn't want anything for his birthday unless it was Spiderman. I had to admire his honesty! So I had gotten him Spiderman stuff. Now, I have enough fabric to make PJ's and a matching pillowcase.

OK, back to Guild. At our meetings, we have the business part of it and then Show and Tell where anyone can bring in a piece or several and show them off to everyone. I took my first quilt top that I finished, but that has been it. Then we have a break and the presentation of the night. Last night's was optical illusion blocks/quilts. I didn't stay for the presentation because I didn't want to get drawn into wanting to do something else. Some of the other presentations have been accuracy in quilt making. It was after that presentation that I saw a big jump in the quality of my sewing/quilting. I can't wait to see what presentations we have next year because I really learn a lot.

Through our Guild, we have a Yahoo group for members to sign up on for notices and what not. A couple of months ago, a woman posted about wanting a quilting buddy that she could get together with and sew. It turned out that she lives in Hamilton which is a neighboring town to Fairfield where I live. Once I sent a couple of messages to her, a few other people said that they were also looking for buddies and we decided to meet at a Panera to form a neighborhod group (it's basically a small group within the Guild). There were 7 of us and we ate and chatted and decided to call our group Quilted Chaos and we picked out meeting dates and times. Unfortunately, I was only able to make it to that first meeting because I had signed up for quilt classes before our first meeting. But they have been keeping me in the loop about other meeting dates and getting together to sew. Last night, I got to see some of the ladies in the group at the Guild meeting and they were so happy to see me and told me to make it back to a meeting and that they were looking forward to us getting together to sew. It was very heartwarming to see them and have them remember me and say that they missed me at the meetings! I can't wait until September when I can get together with everyone and not feel like I am missing out anymore. It was also great to look around the 300+ faces and start to recognize more and more of them.

Well I am off to bed! Night!
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Tuesday, August 7, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by SewAndSnip
My my you've been one busy lady. Your guild sounds like alot of fun and really big. The smaller group that you formed sounds like you're going to get alot out of it. That's why I enjoy my BOM groups that I belong to. It's fun to get together and learn from each other. Cindy
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Wednesday, August 8, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by orchidlover
I can't wait to se the pic of the shirt. aren't kids great and so honest. I hope that doesn't change. love and hugs gina xxx
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Wednesday, August 8, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by CountryQuilter
Can't wait to see your shirt finished. Sounds like you have been very busy. Wow, over 300 in your guild...I would die, mine has 22 members, but I haven't been there very long and there has never been all 22 of them there at the same time, usually around 12-14. We are going to be starting our BOM in September, so I am pretty excited about it... Kristie
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Wednesday, August 8, 2007 - 300 in your guild?
Posted by mamanance
Wow, our guild has about 70 and we think that is pretty big! And we never have all 70 there at one time, which is good because we would be really crowded! I want to get some ideas from you about your speakers. Vesuviusmama and I are on a committee to plan our guild's retreat next May, and we are looking for ideas for speakers.
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Thursday, August 9, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Cre8tiveQuilter
That sounds like a nice guild!!! I haven't gotten into the whole guild thing yet. There's one at the library but they always want us working on stuff for the library to raise money for quilting events. I've yet to go to a quilting event that I've liked through them and I do enough community service projects...I don't want to do theirs.

Saturday Update

Here is my second attempt at an update for yesterday's events. The dogs let me sleep in this morning until almost 10 and now Max is a ball of energy and keeps interrupting me to throw a toy for him. Hopefully, he won't be a hindrance while I give my update.

For a reminder, here is the list of what I wanted to get done:

1. Finish sewing the rows together for the ugly quilt.
2. Finish cutting the pieces for the big shirt.
3. Sew the big shirt pieces together per directions for class on Tuesday.
4. Sew a fabric book for my youngest nephew, Ethan.

I met Maddy at 3 at Hancock's so I had plenty of time to sew before leaving the house. In that time, I finished 1 and 2 and I took the ugly quilt to my quilt shop to hang it on the wall and take a couple of pictures of it.



I think it turned out pretty well, so I may have to call it something else. And I think that I am just going to put one 3-4" border on it and call it done. The quilting in the book looks like it is just straight lines through the blocks becauase of all of the 'excitement' in the fabric so I will be able to quilt it fairly quickly.

We went to Hancock's because I looked in the flier and it showed that batting was on sale and there was a coupon for 10% off the entire order Saturday only. When I got there, Maddy had already gotten her batting and backing for her quilt that she wanted to finish up so I hurried and picked out my batting, a pair of small scissors and some St Jude's fabric. I told Maddy that we would have to make some lounge pants out of the St Jude's fabric for our quilt retreats. I paid and we went to my quilt shop. I was looking at the receipt from Hancock's and it turns out that the items that I got that were supposed to be one sale, I was only given the 10% discount. Maddy said that she had asked about the batting being on sale and they said that the Warm & naturals never goes on sale so I was going to go back and look at the flier later to find out. Maddy checked her receipt and they didn't charge her for the 2 yards of batting, only .2 yards so I figured everything evened itself out. Regardless, I don't think that I will be going back to Hancock's. I will just wait for batting to go on sale at Joann's.

At the shop, we picked out our fabrics for a quilted purse class that we are taking. It starts in a week. Here are the fabrics that I chose and the pattern.
The dark color is a purpley brown. Very pretty. The flowers are for the body of the purse, the white with pink dots is the trim and the dark with dots (on top) is for the lining.

Then, we went to my house to sew. We started just about at 5 PM. I was setting my stuff up and showing Maddy how to do her borders and mitering the strips together. I was impressed because I showed her once and she did the rest.

This is after she got all of the red border and one side of the black on. The pattern was Take 5 and the fabric is Michael Miller's retro 50's fabric with the housewives cleaning. She did a really good job with the blocks and the borders were going on quite well. Until she got the the third side for the black and she had to add a little more to the end to finish that side and it left her with 1 strip to do the remaining side which wasn't going to be enough. She was heartbroken! We found a remnant of the black with the name on the selvage and I am going to check my shop to make sure they don't have anymore and then we will order it online. We found a shop that will sell in 1/4 yard incremants and that is all she needs to finish.

Here is the almost finished quilt in a closer shot. I also offered to quilt it for her once I practice on some Project Linus quilts and she said that would be great.

While she was doing that, I sewed the Big Shirt pieces that I needed to for the class on Tuesday. I have to iron on the interfacing, but I will get to class early and will do it then. I don't have much experience with interfacing and don't want to mess it up.

Big shirt front:

Big shirt back and a detailed shot of back:

The topstitching turned out quite well, if I do say so myself! I used a chocolate brown for all of the topstitching. I even got to use some different feet on my machine for the overlocking stitches. Number 3 is done!

After the shirt, we ate dinner and then I started working on Ethan's book. This one is numbers and the colors are so vibrant - it's AWESOME! I got all of the sets of pages machine stitched and turned right side out. I still have to topstitch them or hand stitch them closed and then sew the pages together to make the book. I am going to do that as soon as I reassemble my quilting area.


And Maddy was able to work on her Garden View (my ugly quilt). She had to re-iron some of her pieces, but she was able to make a start and get a few rows together. She said that she may even work on it more today and get it all together today.

In closing, we had a great time and only sewed for 5 hours. Of course, we also ate take out in that time, so we probably only sewed 4.5 hours. And we were very productive! So much so that we had a couple of tired dogs at the end of the night.
Max just wanted to go to bed! You can't tell, but his head was on my shoulder and he was starting to snore a little.

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Sunday, August 5, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by CountryQuilter
Sounds like you had a good night of sewing. Yes, you really need to change the name of your ugly quilt. I think it turned out quite nicely. I love your fabric you piced out for your purse, can't wait to see a photo of that once you finish it. I also love Maddy's quilt, very nice. It looks like you have a good start on your big shirt, that looks great. kristie
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Sunday, August 5, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Cre8tiveQuilter
I think your quilt turned out rather pretty. But I think it should stay "The Ugly Quilt" as a name because it's just hilarious!! If anyone asks you get to explain the story and agree that it turned out much better than you expected it to. You guys got a lot done and I love your friend's quilt with the house wife fabric. That's a hoot!!!!