Two completions

The finishing touches of binding for Scrappy Pineapple Blossom and Seven Shirts Seven Clues were completed this morning.  And since my camera has been hijacked, my iPhone pictures will simply have to suffice :)

Scrappy Pineapple Blossom (72" x 72")

Seven Shirts (64" x 76")

AND, being Throwback Thursday....

I figured my Wafer Cookies top had been fermenting long enough!  It was started June 14, 2008; top completed July, 2009.  

A backing was prepped, batting cut, loaded to the frame and half quilted already....

Forever completed; Seven shirts progress

The finishing touches have been completed on Forever for my parent's neighbors who are planning to share nuptials at the end of the month.  I cut and pressed the binding while my embroidery machine was stitching up the label.

My embroidery machine hasn't seen much activity lately so it was nice to have a little project to do on it again.

So, FINALLLLLLY, another finish can be listed for 2013.  It's only my 2nd official of the year.  Good golly.

About yesterday's goal:  I pieced a backing for Seven Shirts and started quilting it.  I put another hour into it this just a bit ago, and I am almost finished with it, but I hit a wall.  Tired.  So, time to shut everything down and relax a bit before softball again tonight, and ALL DAY tomorrow.  

The 7/8 tournament gets underway tonight;  Cass has been asked to suit for the team since they are low on numbers (she's a 6th grader).  She will see lots of playing time this weekend due to two of the girls needing to be away.  I'm very thankful to hear from the coach that she is coachable and doing well.   Last night, she hit a fly to left field, leading to a double and an RBI.  Her favorite part of playing with the 7/8 team is they are allowed to steal home, which isn't allowed at the 5/6 level of play.

Pineapple Blossom - RWB progress & an OLD UFO

Eight blocks are done between yesterday's and this morning's short sewing sessions.

Four more blocks underway...

But after my coffee break right now, I think I'll shut down my sewing room and move over to my quilting area.  

Angela (soscrappy) and I are trying to give each other some incentive in the form of some kind of award for the person who accomplishes more of her quilting Flimsy/UFOs during the month of June.  Neither of us really talked about the details of this "challenge," neither of us know the award/prize outcome; umm, I don't even know if either of us even know how we are going to determine the "winner" since we each have different numbers of flimsies.  LOL.  (Do either of us even really care about the details??)  :D  ... I simply want this little bit of a push to GIT IT DONE!  LOL.  Seriously, I have flimsies packed away from 2009 (maybe even later!).  I have an idea of which one will be coming out next.....

Seven Shirts, Seven Clues (64" x 76");  March 8, 2009.  Of course, it needs a backing!  :\  My ickiest "B" of 'em all!

But today!  That's my goal!

Happy Throwback Thursday!

Unexpected finishes...

Umm....I DID say I was going to work on DD yesterday, right????? Well.............

when I first went downstairs yesterday morning, the Seven Shirts's borders were still laying out in pieces. Rather than picking it all up and moving it to a new location, I just figured I'd get it finished........so I did. By noon, the final stitch was put in place, and now I have another "flimsy" that will await quilting. It is 64" x 76". A nice size.


Hey...where did that term originate? "flimsy"? This is the first time I've referred to any of my tops as flimsies, but I know many of you do........

Once lunch was over, I hung out upstairs, catching up with emails and blogs. Candace fell asleep and the other two were playing nicely upstairs. This really was IDEAL time to head back downstairs to finally dive into some DD work........but....20 minutes later, I was "resting my eyes." *wink* I am KICKING myself for staying up until 1:00 Friday night----I was so tired yesterday! 30 minutes later, Candace was still sleeping and the girls were STILL playing nicely (Barbie's will do that, huh?). Sadly, I still didn't have much ambition to head downstairs. So...........*gasp!*.......I actually dug out the Baby quilt from last summer that I had been hand-quilting. I literally had to blow off some dust.....oh dear!

After an afternoon of hand-quilting, and some machine quilting along the diagonals, she was ready for binding. WOW! After dinner (of FRESH fish that DH caught----yum!), I headed downstairs to sew the binding on. V'iola! An unexpected finish. For Baby is what I have decided to call it.




I have possible plans for this one, all depending on the gender of a coworker's baby that is coming due is April. Although the colors could be considered uni-gender, I still consider this more of a "girly" quilt because of the pink. My school's Science teacher and his wife are having their 5th child; they already have FOUR boys! Holy buckets! I'm hoping for a girl, but........another boy wouldn't be so bad for them either. Afterall, they already have all the boy clothes handy!

When I downloaded all the pics to the camera this morning, I came to realize that the girls must have borrowed the camera on more than one occasion yesterday. Here are just a few of the pics......

Candace was downstairs with me in the morning. I knew she had the camera and took pictures of everything from the movie on the television to her feet while standing on the carpet. Here is a shot she took of the shelf holding my threads. I haven't installed it on the wall yet; currently it is resting on two boxes that hold my 3.5" and 4.5" strips, which are resting on top of a tub that holds some pillow forms. ((Hey Carol---you recognize that wallhanging????--Carol had a giveaway not too long ago and I was given the wallhanging.))

Here is a shot she took of my "folding basket'" ----- ya know, that basket where I stock all my "new" fabric while it awaits washing/folding/cutting/pressing/etc. On the very top are the two pairs of Capris that were purchased a couple of weeks ago.....remember, the ones I bought for ONE DOLLAR.... They are Plus sizes and will provide lots of fabric for some wild colored quilt.

Cassie & Caitlyn took over the camera upstairs. Cassie is feeding her kitty some pizza.......







One of them took this great picture showing our loft view from the living room. That is DH's turkey on the right; pay no attention to the dead plant just to its left. On the left, you might be able to see the Orange Crush Wallhanging through the posts. Also, that "School House" quilt hanging was bought from a local Antique Shop last summer. It is machine pieced, but hand-quilted. The quilting is absolutely beautiful (of COURSE, duh, right??!) You can't tell from the pic, but some of the fabrics have clearly faded from what the originals were and there has been some bleeding of colors onto the muslin, but it's still a beauty.


And here I am, sporting the "no-shower-Saturday" look, working on the baby quilt.


So, today is Sunday. I've already made muffins, tidied up the Kitchen somewhat. DH said he would do up the dishes (he's trying to bribe his way to get fishing again). :0) I need to get some laundry going, and SADLY I have some school work that will need some attention today as well. I would be smart to take care of that first, but I want to get downstairs to FINALLY get some work done on the DD.!!!! Afterall, Andee did NOT lose an hour like most of us in the USA (she's in Arizona where there is NO time change.)

Happy Sunday

Yesterday morning, I started the day by sewing on the borders for Nancy's (Life is a Stitch) mystery, and also sewed together the bonus triangles to make 24 pinwheel blocks. I see Nancy has posted step 6, but I haven't jumped into that one yet----but I sure wasn't expecting Piano Keys (step 6) for this border. How cute! I'll have to see how I can incorporate these pinwheels with her mystery border suggestion.


Once that was set aside, I plunged back into the Scrappy Baskets and Diamond Stings quilt, which I am now calling Grandma & Catherine. I still had to tinker around with the inner border(s) in order to get the outside string blocks to fit nicely. The difficultly I'm having (had) was that blasted light fabric I used in the string blocks. It's SO THIN, definitely NOT 100% cotton! It was from Grandma's stash and I used up everything that was left over from the OC quilt last year.

Anyway, at this point, it'll lay on the floor so I can see it everytime I pass by. I'm not ready to put on a final border (the fabric shown on the bottom left). I will make this bigger, so.......thinking about what I can do to accomplish that. More blocks? More borders? That's what I have to figure out......

DH shooshed me out the door at 10:00 cuz he knew I wanted to go to the LQS (local quilt shop). (and he wanted to go fishing when I returned).

As always, I ONLY had intentions of visiting and do some window-shopping. Yeah right! I saw a crate of FQ's (10 for $15.00); a BEAUTIFUL pack of greens caught my eye. BUT, dutifully, I placed them back and kept window shopping. Then, I went to the back "clearance" room and saw some lovely creams and golds, but once again I was desciplined and walked away. As I walked and chatted, I walked by the FQ crate again; those greens kept calling my name. So finally.....I caved! Then I figured since I had a handful of greens, I might as well go back and see about those creams and golds. In the end, I didn't go too crazy, BUT I did come home with some beautiful fabrics. The entire time I was picking them, I was thinking about the "March" calendar picture. So, upon returning home, I turned on the computer and played around with a layout (using Excel----I don't have any quilt design software. Excel is limited to what you can do, but it works well enough for me.)

Since then, I have been pressing and cutting and sewing and pressing some more and cutting some more and sewing some more. :0) One thing about buying fabrics from this shop---THEY SMELL SO GOOD when I press them! Her shop ALWAYS smells lovely!

There have been two ladies requesting some simple directions for this quilt, so I'm ending this post in order to put another "tutorial" post together.

Happy Sunday!

Seven Shirts progress

Since Nancy (Life is a Stitch) posted yet another step for the Sevens Shirts mystery, I figured it was time to get downstairs to make the blocks from step 3. Ho-hum, ho-hum, an hour-n-half later, not only were the Snowball blocks finished from step 3, but they were also paired up and pieced into the quilt's center (step 4). THANKS NANCY! This went lickity-split!





However, sorry Nancy, but I just couldn't see those little "trimmed-corners" going into ANYTHING other than some bonus triangles! So, I eye-balled up each corner-to-corner piece on the snowball blocks, then double-sewed in order to get 48 bonus tris! Whether these get used up in the border (???), or if they get saved for some other scrap project, it doesn't matter to me. But, once again, just LOOK at what can be saved and "recycled" instead of simply tossing as scraps.!!! I'll be able to piece 24 pinwheel blocks, finishing at 3" (3.5" unfinished).



Last night, after volleyball, DH and I stopped at Walmart to pick up a few odds-n-ends. While walking down one of the center aisles, I noticed a few racks of clearance items. HOLY BUCKETS! These are Plus-sized capris (size 20W). 98% cotton, 2% spandex....I couldn't resist! They were only ONE DOLLAR! Not only did I pick up these, but there was also a hot-pink pair (size 16W) that I grabbed for $1 as well. AMAZING deal! Sometimes my DH can just be goofy! When we got home, he (for some reason) felt he needed to model the capris for our babysitter! We had a good giggle!

Friday tomorrow!!!! Let's see----goals for the weekend:
BESIDES housework: Depending if Nancy posts anymore clues, I might try piecing the Diamond Strips & Scrappy Baskets together since I THINK I know which avenue I'll head down now. THANKS for all the suggestions, by the way! I thought about the name for the quilt while I was mindlessly piecing the snowball blocks tonight-------I'm thinking: Grandma & Catherine. Catherine was my Aunt who passed on from pancreatic cancer many years ago. My mother is thinking MOST of the "stash" I received from Grandma ACTUALLY belonged to Catherine. And since so much of the scraps that were used in both sets of blocks came from Grandma's (Catherine's) stash, it just seems very fitting to me. I can't help but think about both of them anytime I work with much of the stash/scrap fabric anyway.....

Also, I think DD has been on hold long enough; perhaps I'll dig into step 3 with that as well.


Happy "almost" Friday!

Two finishes, so why not another NEW project???

I met my goal on Saturday by cutting through all the shirts and piecing the 24 9-blocks. DUH ME though---I didn't have my camera handy to get a pic. When I was done with that, I was fairly tuckered out after having such a late night Friday. I hung out with DH and the girls Saturday night, watching the HULK as a family, and puttered online perusing Bonnie's site. I was getting antsy for yet another NEW project. WHY??? I have no idea, but I went to peek......

Sunday morning brought anew energy, and I was downstairs by 8:30 am. I had been playing with the idea of creating a quilt label for each of the ladies in my Beginning Quilting class, so.....I DID! Now that they have been gifted (at tonight's 4th session class) I can freely blog them without giving away any surprise :0) At the same time, I created some labels for a few quilts that have been labelless for too long.

I needed to prepare the Quilting & BInding tutorial for tonight's class, so I pulled out the Class Act that was quilted Friday night and plugged away at completing the binding. Rather than hand-sewing the binding to the back, I carefully machine-stitched using a very small "seam allowance." There are a few small spots where the sewing lines show up along the border on the front, but....eh! Minor! This baby isn't gonna be hanging in any quilt show! :0)


So----binding done......slap on the label......Project #4 of the year complete!








NATURALLLLLLLY, with so many other projects laying around the sewing room, what is one to do but start yet another FUN project?!?!?! I kinda got excited when looking at Bonnie's Diamond Strings pattern. My bin of strings had almost reached the "I-can-no-longer-close" stage, so it was time to do something with them. Her method of piecing these babies was AMAZINGLY quick........in no time, I had 14 sheets completely sewn and ready for cutting.

After cutting and taking this lovely shot, I headed upstairs. The girls and I threw in KUNGFU PANDA and they all volunteered to help me tear off the paper backing. What sweathearts!
After the movie, dinner, and some baths, and once they were all tucked in bed, I headed back downstairs to see how far I could get on the blocks. How far did I get??? Finished up 48 corner pieces which would create 12 complete blocks once sewn together. But, it was 10:00, and I was ready for bed........(YES! I DO SLEEP!)

As mentioned, tonight was the 4th night of the Beginning Quilting class which got the ladies quilting & binding. Well.....no one got as far as binding, but I used this wall-hanging (that was created from their Session 1 practice squares) to show a demonstration of a complete binding. It was nice killing 2 birds with 1 stone here :0) My FIFTH finish of 2009!



Oooooooo, and look! Once all the ladies were comfortably quilting away tonight, I pieced the 12 blocks of the Diamond Strings. At this point, I don't think I'll make any more string blocks; rather I'll play around with some wide sashing OR alternate some plain blocks amongst these to make a twin size. ??? I'll play tomorrow night once the girls are in bed.





A few working shots of tonight's class.....

"Class Act" - Night 3 & some homework

Wednesday night was the 3rd session of the Beginning Quilting class I'm teaching. These ladies are the best bunch! I mean, there wasn't ANY complaining at all when I asked them to get crawlin on the floor to start getting those borders on! AND, Janet here had a WONDERFUL night with NO machine problems! Woo-hoo!

The night started with piecing border strips using a 45 degree seam. I used a tutorial from McCall's Quilting: 45 Seam to show the ladies the technique. After a few "unsewing" sessions, all the ladies were able to get the border strips pieced.

I shared Bonnie's method of "measuring borders", which is when the ladies found themselves on the floor. :0)







However, it didn't take too long for all of us to realize that with this quilt being small enough, we could use the counter space that was available in the classroom. Hey---and LOOK! We can see Melissa's face this time!!! :0) *snicker*

Time flew, and it was time to leave before we knew it. The ladies still had the outer border to finish, so they all decided it was okay to have some "homework." They also decided they would be okay piecing the backing together before next Monday's class.

I put a request out via email to my ladies for one more piece of homework, if they are feeling up for it. It should take about 30-60 minutes. Here are some visuals to assist the email.......

Ladies---if you've made it here but haven't checked email, go take a peek. More details are in the email :0)


Layer the backing/batting/quilt top so that 3" of excess remain on all sides.







Baste away using as many pins as humanly possible! *giggle* Okay....don't overkill, but my motto: "You can NEVER have too many basting pins!" It's better to over-baste than not baste enough. You don't want those layers to shift much during quilting, otherwise you'll find that you have tucks and puckers :0( Tip: Pin in the light areas because we will be quilting diagonal lines in the darks. BUT, having said that, I do have some pins in the darks where the quilting lines will not be.

Most people will say to mark the quilting lines BEFORE basting....*shrug*.....yeah, it's good advice, but I've marked after basting in the past, and I did so this time as well. We will be marking on Monday night----OOOOOOO! Bring your rotary rulers to use as a straight edge!!! I didn't think of that until just now. I'll bring the marking supplies.......

Once marked, you'll be ready to quilt away!








From start to finish tonight (BASTING AND QUILTING), it took just about two hours, so Monday night should REALLY bring on some amazing progress, bringing you VERY NEAR completion! Wooo-hooooo!




See you Monday!









Game plan tomorrow: Cut the shirts for the Seven Shirts & Seven Steps. A piecing step was posted last night, so I'm anxious to get started on it. DoubleDelights will just have to wait patiently.

Happy FRIDAY! Ymmm.....Happy "almost Saturday" (just turned 11:30 pm)

Now-n-Forever; DoubleDelight; Seven Shirts & Seven Steps

I added TWO new projects to my WIP list this past weekend.........


The first blocks for the Now-n-Forever that is being shared by Beth Ferrier as a BOM. I am bound to ONLY use my stash without purchasing any fabric.






I started digging through my shirt piles to find the requirements for Nancy's (Life is a Stitch) Seven Shirts & Seven Steps mystery. I'm so glad those shirts are finally finding a project, which is the MAIN reason I'm jumping on board with this mystery! In fact, that "grey" shirt still folded in the pic was just added to the pile last week when DH cleared his closet. I'm excited to see what this mystery will bring.


Finally, I did get Steps 1 & 2 pieced in the DoubleDelight mystery and am planning on taking them to tomorrow night's quilting class in hopes of trimming some of them down while the ladies are sewing on their bindings. I can honestly say I WISH I had some time to work on the DD this week---I would LOVE to have Angela's jaw drop when she returns from her vacation and see a near completed quilt top, but....that just isn't going to happen. I worked the BB game tonight; quilting class tomorrow night, another BB game Thursday night. Friday will be the first chance I have to get back into the sewing room.

Ah well....
Happy Tuesday!

Hold me back!!!

I think this is how UFO's come to be......toooo many awesome projects all come in view in such a little amount of time....

Nancy Singer over at Life is a Stitch invited us to join her in a Seven Shirts & Seven Clues mystery, and my interest was captured. *silly sigh*

So, after spending the day sewing away on DoubleDelight and completing Step 2 (no trimming yet), I spent an hour tonight digging into the shirts that have been stacking since last summer. At least they'll finally get into a project instead of just piling and piling.

So, I have pics to upload:
- First blocks of Beth Ferrier's BOM Now -n- Forever (BOM-NnF)
- Step 1 & Step 2 DoubleDelight blocks (DD)
- Fabrics for Nancy Singer's Seven Shirts & Seven Clues (SS&SC)

...but I'm off to bed right now. I'm beat!