Too Good to Cut Challenge - Wrapup

Rosewillow posted for us to wrap up the Too Good to Cut Challenge, and since I never really put together a final post, today is a good day to do this.....

First:
* Rosewillow's Wrap up post
* Rosewillow's Original Guidelines

I can't believe the year has gone by already!!!!

and even more-so, I can't believe I completed it, but

I COMPLETED IT!

June 30th, gifting to recipient, Dolly for her retirement

January 1, 2010: Day 1
The first day of my challenge, I was so gung-ho and excited to start! Although I was only able to find the "perfect fabrics," it was enough to call it a start.

May 31, 2010: Challenge start {{see end of post}}
Five months laters, {{LOL}} I finally was starting the actual challenge by cutting into the fabrics. :0)

June 11, 2010: Top Done
Then, once school was out for the year, I lunged full-speed-ahead and had the top done within my first week of summer vacation!

June 29, 2010: Quilting
Quilting commenced on June 29th once I determined a recipient for the quilt (and her retirement party was the next day) ;0)

And on June 30, 2010, the quilt was completed just in time to be gifted to a dear coworker. When I shared the story with her about the 'Too Good to Cut' challenge, she had even a bigger appreciation for the quilt knowing I deemed these fabrics too good to cut.

Project wrap up:
* Size: 54" x 79"
* The pattern is by Jennifer Chiaverini: Johanna's Collection.
* The fabric line mostly used was Robyn Pandolph's Moondance.
* Quilting pantograph: Feather Me
* Quilting time: 5-6 hours

My overall feelings/thoughts:
I LOVED THIS CHALLENGE! Those fabrics would still be stashed away in my stash, too pretty to cut in to, if not for this challenge. But now, they are in the hands of a lovely lady who has a wonderful appreciation for the final product. {{and have you noticed that the banner at the top of my page is of this quilt???}}

Moondance recipient smiled :0) and....needle threader!!!

The picture says it all. She said she loved it {{and I believe her}}
I shared the story of the Too Good to Cut Challenge, so that tickled her fancy even MORE, knowing that she was receiving fabric that was "too pretty for me to cut into." I truly truly truly LOVE giving quilts away when the recipients are as appreciative as Dolly!!!



Do you have a threader on your machine?
Do you LIKE your threader??

{{pout-pout}}
I LIKE MINE TOO!

but you see that piece of metal???

And now the question becomes: Just HOW important is this threader to me? Enough to give up my machine for a few days for it to be fixed??? Or can it wait until my annual servicing???

{{shrug}}

I'm fine without it {{I GUESS}} if it means I can sew, sew, sew!!!

Alycia's quilter's accountability post today guilted me, challenged me into pulling out my Carolina Christmas partial top to git 'r done! I am in the process of borders; I can't exactly remember. So, that's my goal tomorrow!

A detoured evening -- but Moondance still gets finished.

Okay---so much for getting Moondance finished last night! Once I went outside at 3:00, I didn't get back in until 9:30!!! Mowing took a couple of hours, and then I decided to spend an hour in the garden. HA! An hour turned into FOUR! But....parts of the garden realllllllllly needed my attention....

I can't believe how one week will do THIS to a previously weeded hill of watermelon...

Can you hear them gasping for sun and water? Those poor things!

And, the weeds??? Junk 'em, right? Psht! No way!
The weeds are a lovely delicious treat for the pork chops, bbq ribs, bacon, pork sausage, hams, pork roast, PIGS, PIGS I mean...[[giggle]]...


So...any guess as to what is here???? {{besides weeds, that is!}}

Ahhh.....'allo little carrots! [[did you hear the french accent???}} ;0)

Ugh! And then there's THIS!!!! HOW did we ever let this go for so long????
Any wagers as to what is TRYING to survive in this patch????

Yeah---that would be a yummy, red, JUICY strawberry! I can't believe any of them could even sprout in this disaster area!

I spent a good 1-1.5 hours working on them. Still not completely done {{and of course I had to sample at least a small few after finishing up each plant!}}. And you can't really see in the pic, but the "spreading fingers" {can't think of the technical name} are growing like crazy! I really needed to be careful not to pull any of them off the plant and to place them just right so the next plant to sprout will find itself in a "safe" area and not in any walking area.

Naturally, I shared the loot!!!

And I EVEN had enough of them left to make a single batch of strawberry jam! YUMMMMM! Yeah, I whipped this up at 10:00 after cleaning up.

I had a little helper Candace raking away weeds between the corn rows at one point of the evening.

Oh! And at least not ALL of our weeds are eye-sores! We have LOADS of wild daisy plants all over our non-mowed areas.

By the time I got cleaned up, I wasn't up to quilting anymore last night. I DID pull out some muslin to make up the label, though.
And put the binding and label on this morning. Actually, I just finished up about an hour ago, and I'm heading off to the party in 30 minutes. Nothing like a last-minute finish :0)

So, my plans for the rest of the day:
Enjoy the party and then play the rest of the day by ear. I have a babysitter lined up and she's AMAZING! The girls ADORE HER!!! A couple of the ladies that will be at the party and myself have plans to see "Eclipse" tonight at 6:45. We were smart and already got the tickets!!!! ;0) So, my afternoon is very flexible. I don't know if I'll just hang out with my lady-friends, or if I'll come back home after the party and do some sewing. I haven't had a chance to even look at Judy's Step #5 of the June mystery. I suppose I COULD spend some more time in the strawberry patch, but I really don't want to have to get dirty and cleaned up all over again....

Happy Wednesday!

Our own lil' Friday Night Sew In...

Yeah, for those of us who don't READ the closest...we realized that the Friday Night Sew In held over at Crafty Vegas Mom isn't until NEXT FRIDAY! But, some of us still perserved :0)

After dinner, before heading downstairs, DH, myself and Cassie played a game called "Easy Money." Cassie kicked our butts; that little turkey has beginner's luck!!!

But, when I eventually made my way downstairs, I spent much of the night working on the borders of the Too Good to Cut Challenge. TRUST ME--I wanted to stop more than once and move on to something more "fun." ANYTHING beats measuring, cutting and sewing on borders (FOUR sets of them).... but....as I said....I persevered and finished up the entire top!!!!
Too Good to Cut (54.5" x 79").

The fabric line mostly used was Robyn Pandolph's Moondance.

And I did find myself chuckling when it came to the final border. As I was hunting through my stash for the perfect outside border, I saw this pink toile and LOVED it! But, ..... LOL..... I didn't want to cut into it because it was "too good and pretty!" After another 15 minutes of looking through the stash, I finally said....."DUH! That's the name of this challenge! Cut into it already otherwise it'll just sit on the shelf for another year+!"

So....anyone have a great name other than Too Good to Cut??? I've considered Moondance because of the fabric line. What'cha think? Have a different name suggestion?


OH! And as I was taking the pics of the top, I noticed this lil' drawing on the wall under the light. Cailtyn must have hung it this afternoon when I was chain-piecing away! How funny!


With the TooGood top done, I wasn't ready to hang up the rotary cutter yet, so I dug out the fabrics I set aside for the Dizzy - QOV Mystery and started cutting all the fabric out. I wasn't going to cut everything out originally, but it's nice to have all the pieces ready to go. Two clues have come out since the cutting directions have been posted, so I think this is what I'll work on when I have some quilting time downstairs this weekend.

OH! And I can't wait until my Stash Report on Sunday! I'll be back in the black for sure! I'm sitting at 10.826 yards used this week due to all the cutting I've done over the past two days!

Happy Weekend!

And the posts keep coming...Judy's June Mystery; Too Good to Cut & Buckeye Beauty sets

I headed downstairs around 6:30 after catching up on some blogs and plopped in Lara Croft-Tomb Raider. By the time the ending credits were rolling, I was pressing the final seams and trimming the last of the dog ears...
I felt MOST of my morning was spent trimming ... 72 HST's that needed to be trimmed to 3". UGH!
I really DO NOT LIKE TRIMMING------but I guess it is one of those very necessary evils!

And just to prove that I trimmed more than sewed...here are the flying geese units, finished, with the trimmed dogears.

By this time, Candance had made her way downstairs, wiping the sleep from her eyes and wanting some breakfast. French-toast, little smokies, toast with jelly, cottage cheese and some Sunny Delight....and now we're ready for the day to take off...

And an update on Cassie's reading: she hasn't given me any titles to post on the blog yet, but that may be changing this morning when she finally makes an appearance. When I headed dowstairs, I noticed Cassie's bed-side light was on in her room. LOL....it appears she fell asleep while reading last night; glasses still on the face....

11:30 AM Update
MORE TRIMMING!!!!!
The Buckeye Beauty block units were trimmed up and pinned, ready for mailing...

And then I trimmed up the 15 blocks for my Too Good to Cut Challenge. Finally making some progress on that baby. Top is partially pieced, with the first border on...but now I'm checking out the site that gave me the directions because I'm not sure about the 2nd border. My print out seems to be missing something. The pattern is by Jennifer Chiaverini; using her Johanna's Collection line by RedRoosterFabrics (link will lead you directly to the pattern if you'd like). I am not using her line; merely her pattern. I have a feeling my quilt will be named "Moondance" due to the line of fabrics I am using....

Okay...off to look and then make up some lunch.

Scraps decluttered; Too Good to Cut progress; Stash report for THREE WEEKS

How does a mess like this go uncleaned for soooooo long?????? I started the day (Saturday) with sewing on the mind, but.....I was COMPELLED and MOTIVATED to clean up and organize this mess. Who was *I* to ignore the urge!?!?!?!!? I'm SURE you all have a mess like this on the edge of your cutting table, right??? The "collection spot" for all those little ends that aren't big enough for the current project, but too big to toss into the "crumb collection"......yeah, yeah.....

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.............Now THIS makes me want to dig right back in....nothing like a clean, BIG area for cutting........AND LOOK!!!! I found my purple-handled scissors!!!!! Yipeeeee! Most of the scraps were cut into 1.5" logs for my scrappy log cabins.....
remember those?
I have 19 blocks completed; pictured are the blocks I did up the first day of this WIP.... I'm feeling inspired enough to dive back into those blocks!!!! Oh......there needs to be more time in this life for quilting!

When I eventually sat at my machine, I did make some more progress on my Too Good to Cut Challenge blocks....
This fabric line is so flowerly and "light"----glad I finally took the plunge to cut into them, but.....eh....I'm really not a frilly girl. What was I thinking when I bought these fabs?

Okay----onto the stash reports.....
Golly! I haven't reported in three weeks....

Stash Report: May 17 - 23
Used this week: .472 yards
Purchased this week: 0 yards
Used-to-date 2010: 122.105 yards
Purchased-to-date 2010: 131.75 yards
Net used: -9.645 yards

Stash Report: May 24 - 31
Used this week: 3.090 yards
Purchased this week: 0 yards
Used-to-date 2010: 125.195 yards
Purchased-to-date 2010: 131.75 yards
Net used: -6.555 yards

Stash Report: June 1 - 6
Used this week: .817 yards
Purchased this week: 0 yards
Used-to-date 2010: 126.012 yards
Purchased-to-date 2010: 131.75 yards
Net used: -5.738 yards

Still in the RED, but I'm close to being in the BLACK!

Okay.....I'm up early this AM. I'm off to get started :0)

Monday - noon update

Okay---super quick update while lunch is cooking

Judy is having a June Mystery (see previous posts). The other day I started sorting through my stash, and I couldn't do much of anything today until I chose my fabrics----they were all over (on the cutting board and ironing board).
At first, I couldn't decide if I wanted to use light colors (left) as Judy's recommended colors, or to use the browns (right).

Yeah---the colors were winning to me....but then I didn't feel there was enough contrast between the dark and medium pinks I choose. I found had this PERFECT dark pink that would have been ideal, but only 3/4 yard :0(

So, I pulled this brown-------hey :0) I like it! This way, I still got my brown in the quilt :0)


Then I moved onto the project of the morning. MONTHS and MONTHS ago, I signed up for a "Too Good to Cut Challenge" (see left side bar.) It was time to FINALLY cut into the fabrics....
organized

the fabric line used...

all fabs cut (with my L-n-E project pictured upper left)

the first piecing.......and, ummm......cutting too fast?????

the status at the start of lunch.....

but I couldn't stop there, so I zipped them through the machine, piecing the next step before running upstairs at mach speed.



So, lunch is on the table and then it's time to get outside to enjoy the weather.......

Too Good To Cut Challenge; Block Swap; and a new WIP....ummmmm....yeah.....

HA!
What else would you expect, right?

Okay, let's do this chronologically...
The first thing I did when I tiptoed downstairs this morning was to search for the fabric in my stash that is simply "too good to cut."
What is it about a lovely bundle of fat-quarters, so nicely stacked and tied off with a ribbon? While holding my breath, I cut the ribbon and had a closer look at these goodies that have been sitting for....umm.....a year? I have no idea how long! How LOVELY! The perfect fabric for this challenge...

After snapping that picture, I took a look around, but wasn't motivated to work on Chunky Churndash. Instead, I pulled out two kits that have been sitting on my shelf for almost TWO YEARS! Doing the ever popular "Eenie-Meenie-Miney-Moe" game, I decided to dive into a new project....simply called Snuggler. ((yeah, not very creative)).

It's made of woodsy flannels designed by a local designer, Debbie Field. ((My husband built her house...a whole long story could follow, but...)) If you have ever purchased a kit before, you know how much excessive fabric that is usually included. Well, after an hour of cutting and piecing, I had the top laid out ((you see Chunky Churndash under it?)), with LOADS of extra fabric. And quite frankly, the quilt was kinda puny. SO, cut, cut, snip, snip, sew, sew---the quilt grew, and I used up just about all of the "extra" yardage! Seriously; it grew by one full row and one full column. I COULD have really burned this baby up today as a finish, but shortly after 10:00, the girls had some visitors, and my quilting space kinda got...demolished!

Pictured are my three girls and two of their friends jumping onto some cushions that are being housed in the basement until they can return to their home in the camper next Spring. I kept my fingers crossed, turned my head, and hoped that no broken bones were on the menu!!!

Upstairs I went for a little solitude away from the noise, and went roaming the web. Just like yesterday, it's a fun journey to just wander and find quilting goodies all over! Somehow, I ended up the Red Rooster Fabrics site, on Jennifer Chiaverini's designer page, and saw the Elm Creek Quilts: Joanna's Collection pattern. LOVELY!!! So, naturally...my head started seeing the pattern in the colors I set aside this morning for the Too Good to Cut challenge. ((careful, a cliche is about to come...).... they were a match made in heaven!

I risked my life heading back downstairs through the war zone to my quilting nook and started pulling other fabs that could "go" with my blessed eight FQ's. Fabrics found, labeled, and stored safely on my shelf for a start.....

and despite how BADLY I wanted to cut into yet ANOTHER new project, I-DIDN'T! YES! That was a huge "non"step forward!

The rest of the day was spent with the girls, putting on/taking off snowpants/boots/the-whole-lot, making hot chocolate, playing checkers, making lunch, and a lot of downtime on the computer!


...which brings me to the final part of this post.....
I had mentioned yesterday (?) that I was interested in taking part in my first block swap. A google search left me (still) with my arms up in the air, so I went off to Quiltvillechat and sent out an APB. Nan came to my rescue and forwarded me to SewManySwaps Yahoo group. And then.....that bad 'ol Murphy was FINALLY on my side!!! She informed me (and opened up the door) that they were nearing the end of a red/black/white Bonnie Hunter Pineapple block swap!!! How perfect!!! ((Angela knows exactly what I mean!!)) Just yesterday (today?) I was telling her how I wanted to make a pineapple block, and Bonnie's pattern makes it SO do-able! Nan accepted me into the group ((THANKS NAN!!)), and I went surfing away, reading the rules and everything else. I have NO red, black, or white fabric that is being requested, so my game plan is to head to the quilt shop tomorrow AM after Cassie's basketball game to buy some goodies. My goodness! I haven't bought fabric in ages!!! Since July????

Once 5:00 rolled around, DH drove the visiting girls home, I made up some dinner, and then headed down to try out a few sample Pineapple blocks, JUST to be sure I could get as accurate as possible. And besides, now that I have two scrappy blocks done, now I HAVE to make at least 18 more of them for (at least) a small quilt...

Happy Friday!!!

Enjoying my first morning of 2010...

I woke at 5:20 am. Not really tired anymore, so I figured a wonderful way to start out 2010 was to peruse some new blogs. It's kinda fun clicking on some sidebar links of new blogs; gems in every corner of the world.

Here are some goodies I came across:
#1) A 2010 "Too Good to Cut" challenge I can't wait to look downstairs later today to find my "special" fabric. Do any of you hoard your fabric too, never cutting into it because it's....well....."too good"????

#2) A 2010 Stash busting Quilt-along. ((I should probably stop looking right now before this list gets too crazy))

#3) Back to Rosewillow's Blog; I like how she (and others) post their weekly Stash usage, purchases, and the year-to-date totals... That might be joining my weekly blog posts this year.

#4) This Block Swap post from Humblequilter got me intrigued about organizing a blockswap. I've been toying with the idea for a good year, but I don't know how to organize a swap! Would anyone be game to join in? Maybe Bonnie's Kentucky (something) block in the latest Quiltmaker magazine?

((hour-n-half later))
I know to you this post is short and a fast-read, but I've been "getting lost" in blog world for the past couple of HOURS! It's currently 7:30, dawn has arrived (okay, so a bit PAST dawn). I think I started this post before 6:00???? I'll find out after I publish it.

((Okay, now it's 8:00!)) Time to publish and get my day started....

Happy Friday!!!!!