On the frame and on the sewing table...

The main part of the day, I spent piecing a backing for Jen's Diamonds. I didn't have enough of any one, or two, or three fabrics, so I pulled as many blues/browns/cremes I could to create a pieced backing. Mostly made of 10" blocks checkerboarded, with a few strips of fabs here-n-there. At one point, I planned on taking a picture of it before loading it on the frame, but......yeah.....I kinda forgot by the time I came back down from "momma-style-cleaning" in the loft.

MY GOODNESS!!! Will those girls EVER learn how to clean without "momma-style-throwing-into-a-garbage-bag" cleaning?? {{giggle}}....I'm wondering when there aren't going to be any toys LEFT up there because I've tossed all of them in a garbage bag at one time or another. Hmmmm....must be like scraps; they simply multiply over night without knowing how.


Anyway....so Jen's Diamonds is loaded on the frame and will await tomorrow or some other crunch time this week. I simply am too pooped to quilt this tonight; not even starting. Blah....


Gotta LOVE Leaders-n-Enders method! If you haven't heard of this method yet, TRULY TRULY take a few moments of your time in order to SAVE you time in the long run.

Today, while piecing the backing for Jen's quilt, I finished up RRCB Step #2 units, so my game plan tonight is to printout Step #4 and see about prepping that for L/E.

I still have a backup L/E project lying around...my Buckeye Beauty - Fall Swap blocks that I'm making MORE of in order to have a nice large quilt. I have been sewing the L/E for a few months now....very leisurely....so I wanted to have an idea of how many I have in all at this point....

Sixty-seven (67) complete sets to make sixty-seven 8" blocks. So, I'm thinking.....a 7x9 layout (that's 63 total blocks for a center measuring roughly 56"x72"). Four blocks will be left over to use at corner blocks to complete the borders I'll piece together for it.

Hmmm.....guess all these twosies will be pieced for some "extra" 4-patches for some other project in the future.

I'm sure this will come as NO SURPRISE to any other quilter out there.....

I have SO MANY "gonna-be-made" quilts floating around in my mind AND in my sewing room. I made up my mind that this little some-day-to-be-made-into-a-quilt fabric roll is going to be a Christmas gift for my MIL. Oh----soooooo hard to part with it, but....psht! As if I don't have enough other 'some-day-to-be-made-into-a-quilt' fabrics all over my sewing room!!!

I'll share this Random Reflections pattern with her as a possible use for the fabrics.

Okay---still have some energy so I'm off to see about prepping RRCB Step #4.

Happy Saturday Evening!

A full, motivating day & Stash Report 11/8 to 11/14

5:55 AM---wide awake! BUT, I resisted climbing out of bed....I was going to give myself until 6:30. The last time I recall looking at the clock, it was staring back at me saying 6:23, but I OBVIOUSLY fell back asleep before I looked again....because the next thing I knew: it was 7:15. Time to start the day.

French toast and scrambled eggs for breakfast; a lil' bit of mass tidy-ing up by all parties; and then by 8:30, I had my nose in my Statistics book with the intent of prepping for the upcoming week. These few sections I accomplished today will be more than sufficient to get us through this shortened week (no school on Friday).

SO......6 hours later....

... I finally made my way downstairs and I jumped right back in to the In Flight units; I needed to finish piecing 120 triangle units, and then....

...LOTS of pressing! 240 total units need pressing; I'm only half finished.

Taking Bonnie's advice (and because I have NOT been liking the fact that I have needed to cut my threads between chains...), I prepped some more leaders-n-enders pieces. I have been working on my Buckeye Beauty Fall swap units, so I chained up a few more strips and twosies in order to make another batch of 4-patches.


And I have an update on the June Mystery quilt's name...Linda from NZ suggested "Crossing over to Winter" which DID get me thinking about the possible name. Since this quilt is most likely destined for a DEAR DEAR graduate in May 2011, the name "Transitions" is striking me as quite appropriate. So, Linda....thank you for kick starting me towards this quilt name!!!

And a drum roll please......
it has been WEEKS!!! since I've updated my stash report.....

Stash Report: November 8 - 14
Used/week:
5.646 yards
Purchased/week:
0 yards

Used/year
189.049 yards
Purchased/year:
185 yards

Net used:
4.049 yards BACK IN BLACK!!!

DIZZY PLUS quilted; some family life; & Blue Ridge Beauty update

I'm still working on my Wednesday Goals. The list is slowly getting checked off.

I stepped outside to photograph Dizzy Plus. The temp isn't too bad; mid 80's. Not NEAR as bad as the East Coast today. I feel for you guys over there!!!!!
With the busy-ness of the pattern, it really is difficult to see the quilting. Mary (maryquilts) wrote about this pantograph back in October, 2009 that she uses with many of her QOVs, so I thought I'd have a go at it. Ebb and Flow, 6" pantograph. (the linked site has other AMAZING pantographs that I'm resisting at the moment, but oh....so hard to resist!). I had to adjust the pantograph just a little bit; once the quilt reaches the last couple of turns on the roller, it gets quite thick, and with only a 8.75" (max) throat space on the Juki, a 6" pantograph JUST gets clipped on the edges. This is a very "forgiving" pantograph because of the flowiness.

I DO know the limits of my Brother and my patience level, so the binding will need to wait until Bernina returns.

Bobbins used: 12 1/2
Quilting time (start to finish): 6 hours

Some family life at the household today...

Most of you know that I have three girls, but really only one "girly girl." I'm kicking myself that I didn't get a picture of her outfit yesterday!!! Full length, pink dress; tights-n-all, and heel shoes. She is SUCH SUCH SUCH a girl! Here's the outfit of choice today....

...and "monkey see, monkey do." Candace wasn't far behind her with her own "pretty dress."

...but she's not as much of a girly girl :0)



Oh, and....Does this happen to you? I have NO idea any more how exactly this happened today, but Surgeon Candace thought she'd attempt to help Mom out....


....yeah...she gave up after not too long ;0)

No pics of Cassie today; she's still in her skimpies, PJ's. Pay NO attention to the time!!! ;0)

On a final note...I forgot that I spent some time pressing my leaders-enders project Blue Ridge Beauty yesterday evening before starting Dizzy.
Here was my status in January....

and with a few other leaders-enders inbetween, I added another 60 4-patches to the stack. Current numbers: 120 4-patches and 150 HST's. If I recall correctly, the pattern for a big ol' queen requires 448 of each. Okay....a bit to go! ;0)