Give Thanks!

For getting things done. Over the Thanksgiving week I managed to finish two quilt tops and get a raggedy quilt ready for assembly. I went shopping with my friend Marcia at the big warehouse store and found a Turning 20 pattern. Everyone has been talking about them, and true to form, I am behind the trend. Decided perhaps it was a good way to get rid of some fat quarters. It was! Although I can't say I am in love with either of them, they are done and are rather nice quilts.

The first one was done with a run of fabrics from Connecting Threads called "Twilight." It's OK. I changed the blocks around several times so there were a variety of combinations. I think it made it a bit trickier to lay out. I am thinking of giving it to the head of the assisted living place where Mom lived for 3 months - he was so good to her and certainly part of her "twilight years." I dunno.

The second one was done with fabric from the same source but the run was called some body's "Garden" so the colors were more springy. If I had it to do over again, I would cut out some of the yellow and replace them with purples to push the range a bit. It's a nice happy quilt - just right for a little girl. I think it will be nice in a guest bedroom if we ever get a new house built.

I just finished sewing the flannel quilt but now I need to clip all the seams and wash it so it "fluffs." I'll post a photo of that next.

If I manage to get over to Marcia's house to use her long arm during winter break, I might get these two finished! I figure I will just meander quilt them for the most part. Nothing fancy. I have finushed 10 quilts ofmy own this year and 10 chairty quilts!!! It's a personal best!

I hope to get several quilts quilted over the break to get off to a good start for 2012!

FINISHED!!!!!!

I am in such a good place!!!! I have finished 9 quilts this year. By far the best is the batik swap that Vickie and Kathy and I did a couple of years ago. I added blocks to it to make it a queen size quilt and borders. Had it quilted by the long arm lady in The Dalles. She did a nice job.

It looks beautiful on the guest bed. I would like to have it on our bed, but since Miss Alice Cat likes to use her claws on everything, I can't. Perhaps some day I will have a hom made quilt on our bed too. The photo really doesn't do it justice.

I will set a record this year with finished projects. I have 4 more charity quilt tops ready to go and several more in the works. I also have a few tops that I can quilt at macia's on her long arm.

String Quilt

Managed to get interested again in my Christmas string quilt. I was so unhappy with the skipping stitches on the quilting that I couldn't get motivated to finish it. After finishing the little baby quilts and feeling better about myself, I was able to finally tackle the string quilt again. I had to convince myself that this thing is NOT going into the fair and no one is going to look at the stitches on the back. Got the straight stuff all done and am now on the little motifs in the white centers. It's going OK - I am still not happy with my tension, but it won't be noticable unless you stick your nose on it.

If I can get the centers done, it will be the borders and FINISHED!!!! I'll even have it done for the holidays! Woo Hoo! I am seeing this puppy done within the month. Of August, anyway.

Charity Quilts and More

Really went on a rip tear this weekend, sewing. That means I actually FINISHED nearly 4 quilts - have one left to hand sew binding down.

The first one was the BW bento that I did at Marcia's on the long arm. Not a bad first effort if you ask me. Too bad it isn't a more attractive quilt. Not sure what on earth I will do with it - pile it up with the rest of the them, I suppose. I have enough bento blocks to do a second one. I am thinking of making the blocks and then making tote bags or something. Not interesting enough for another quilt. Charity is always good too. Good will loves that sort of thing.

Next were the charity quilts for the Guild. This is my "signature pattern." I made it up and it really is cute. I like it best with the solid borders. The orange one was the first one and I had to experiment a little to get it right. I've cut our several "kits" for guild, but I am being silly about sharing the stupid "pattern." I finally convinced myself that I didn't have to sew all of the little blankie and that I had enough of my own stuff to sew. It isn't like I get brownie points for the dumb things. I even talked Jean Stone into cutting out squares for the meeting. There is one more- a blue one that needs the binding sewn down.

Last, but not least, was a panel quilt that I just machine quilted. Not my best effort, but it was good practice. It turned out OK-good thing it is for charity and that who ever gets it won't know who made it. I shouldn't be so picky about my work. I know I am not a professional machine quilter and that it takes hours of practice, so I wish i could get past my "perfectionism" issues and just enjoy sewing.

BUT the good news is that I have FIVE, count them, FIVE finished quilts- OK, four of them are small, but they are DONE . I have two more at the long arm quilters, so I should have them done before Labor Day weekend!!!!! This is amazing! I also have the potential of finishing a couple more if I can get over to Marcia's in the next couple of months. I am actually feeling like I can make new things for a change!!!

I signed up for a couple of long arm classes at the NW Quilt expo, so that should give me some ideas for finishing quilts other than just meandering around. I also plan to look through my books and photos for ideas. I can't do the fancy stuff, but I can do the simple stuff.

Feeling good for a change!!!!

FINISHING!!!!

This has been such a good month for finishing UFO's. I took two to the long arm lady in The Dalles. Nothing fancy - the red, white and blue charm quilt I made last year and the Waste Knot scrappy quilt. She is going to do some meandering plus pantogram patterns for me - leaves on the WK and stars on the RWB. They will look quite nice when she gets them done and I get the binding on. Hope to have them done by end of August.

Then, I went over to Marcia's, my friend with the long arm who rents it out. She gave me the beginner's lesson and then I finished quilting a BW bento I had made. I am in the process of binding it now. It's isn't anything interesting - not sure what will happen to it - give it to the school for the carnival, maybe???? Anyway, it's done!

For the past several days, I've been cutting up kids fabric for charity quilt kits for guild. Marcia is in charge of the charity sew next month and I told her I had loads of fabric to get rid of. By making the kits, people cans tart sewing ASAP. I've got over 10 kits done already. That's a batch of stuff GONE!

Then yesterday, I started cutting up fabrics that I found - African stuff. I managed to make two kits from it - lap size quilts. One was so simple, I decided to make it up Only took a few hours. The hardest part was making sure I had enough of the background fabric - took a bit of fancy cutting, but I did it. It's a BQ2 pattern using fabric from the curtains in the trailer that was demolished at school.I think Robert will get it as a Christmas gift. It's just the right size for him to snuggle under. Since he loves zoos, I think this will be a good match.

Today I plan to machine quilt a couple baby charity quilts. At the rate I am going, I will have at least a half dozen quilts done this year. The good news is that I've managed to move all the fabric into the new cupboard in my sewing room, so all my fabric is now together with all the other sewing stuff. Makes it idea of quilting more fun. I really like my new arrangement - but that's another blog.

Mother's Day

Plugging along on the birthday quilt. I estimate it's about 1/2 quilted. Only a few more blocks to go, most of the sashings and then the outside border. I am really happy with how it's all turning out. I doubt if it will make it to our bed since the cat insists on "marking" the bedspread with her claws. It will probably end up on the guest bed. I can make another one for our bed someday.

On the other hand, I am really UNHAPPY with the Christmas string quilt. I am having a heck of a time with the quilting - the machine keeps skipping stitches, no matter what I do. I am nearly done with the ditch quilting, but am doubting if I will bother doing the snowflakes in the white spaces. It would be so much better if I did, but I am so disgusted with the skipping that I just want it to be done. Hopefully, once the straight stuff is done I can "get into" the quilt again.

In the meantime, I'll keep plugging away....

Finally! One is Finished!!!!

Yahoo! I have finally finished a quilt - a REAL qult and not just a charity baby quilt. It was a quilt iI started last year at a class with Linda Ballard - a mystery quilt. I had planned to take it with me to the guild retreat over spring break, but ended up working on it at home when I couldn't go. The title of the pattern is Latitudes. A nice little number cut using a special triangle ruler. The points matched up pretty well and I was very pleased with the results of using ONLY stash fabrics.

After I got the top done, I decided that it really wasn't going to be hard to quilt, since most of it was straight lines. Turned out to be pretty easy. Then I decided I needed to figure out something good for the border. I had a great stencil for the border but I needed to figure out how to transfer it to the dark, leafy border. I found the answer - Golden Threads transfer paper. You trace the stencil onto the paper, then pin the paper to the quilt and quilt over the lines, tear the paper off and presto - you're done. I wouldn't want to do it with a larger quilt - it was pretty flakey handling it. Perhaps, if I worked with it a bit more, a larger quilt wouldn't be such a big deal.

I was pretty pleased with how the border turned out, though. It was really the first time I've tried to do anything kind of "fancy" and it really went pretty well. Not sure the details show in the photo, but up close it looks great!

End of Spring Break

Tomorrow it's back to work. I may have missed the retreat, but I did manage to get quite a bit done this week that I would have taken with me. Finished on snowmobile raffle top, one Linda Ballard mystery top from last summer, and put together all the chevron log cabin blocks I won at guild last time. Also made 8 place mats and hemmed two pairs of pants. Not bad considering how much time I've spent at Mom's. I even got the Ballard mystery top sandwiched and some of the quilting done. Decided to just do it in the ditch. Nothing fancy - just get 'er done. The failure to finish things is making me totally crazy. I promised myself that I wouldn't make any more tops until I finished at least 3 quilts. I even got the bug to just box up the fabric and give it away this weekend just to take down the stash. Good thing I wrote Kathy who talked me out of it. Probably wouldn't have done it anyway, but I really am feeling overwhelmed with all the fabric and unfinished tops. Of course, tonight I was looking at Facebook quilt sites and found several very cool patterns.... so now I need the stash and want to make more tops. Having some of the quilting done on the Ballard feels really good - I think I can finish it this week. It isn't that big and I simply need to find a border pattern that I can do with the walking foot. I think I have a fairly simple one that will work. If I could just finish ONE!!!!!! I know it would help me realize that I can finish another. The other idea is to get the charity quilts done for guild in May. If I can get them going, I will also feel like I am getting somewhere.....

Hunter's Quilt

This morning I finished an over sized lap quilt that I will finish up for the snowmobile convention next January. I've been going to do these quilts for years; finally decided the pattern I was going to us was too ambitious, found some good substitutes and got around to cutting and sewing. Overall, I think it turned out fine. Have to figure out how to quilt it..... probably some simple thread play and some general motifs in the borders. It's nice and masculine, which should work perfectly for the snowmobile crowd.

I guess it makes me feel a little better about having to back out of the sewing retreat this coming weekend. I was really looking forward to spending time with friends and sewing. This was a project I had planned to bring with me to finish.

The reality of my life being put totally on hold has finally hit me. I won't be going anywhere this summer unless Mom is in some kind of care facility. I don't think this has occurred to John yet. I honestly don't think he has a clue how overwhelmed I am right now with work and now Mom. I am pretty depressed, tired and sad. I just don't see how I am going to keep my sanity for the next couple of months. I guess I am going to have to simply focus on one day at a time, say no to as many things as I can, keep lists and try and take care of myself.

Good luck with that.....

President's Day 2011

So I didn't accomplish much this time on a three day weekend. I would have love to hide in the sewing room all weekend and just sew. Did go to the Quilt Guild meeting and on a couple of door prizes, including red/purple blocks in the block of the quarter contest. Not a quilt I would make for myself. It will be a good one to practice with on the longarm.

Since the dry wall guy came on Monday I had to put the machines away to avoid getting dust in the machines. I did go through the kits I had and discovered I don't have that many - I've managed to get tops made! Now I need to get more kits cut up = I've got several things that need to be cut up and made ready for assembly. I also think I am going to make an effort to just put things together to make lap quilts for charity. I don't need any more quilts in the house. I am even wondering what to do with the ones I have. I haven't been very clever about choosing colors that go with anything like drapes or decorating....

I also rearranged the furniture yet again. With the paneling gone, I am motivated to use the room differently. I think I am going to really like it. I managed to create an "office corner" and then a sewing area with a "reading spot" on the opposite wall. It's obviously my room and NOT a living room anymore.

Now, if I could just retire and spend more time there.....

Three Day Weekend

President's Day is coming up. Wonder if I will get anything done? I have a small charity quilt ready to machine quilt and of course a ton of other things that need doing. I am so tired from all the stress at work that I look forward to doing nothing but sleep.

Not very productive, huh?

End of Vacation and New Year's Resolutions

SO it's the end of the winter break and back to the salt mines. I didn't get as much done over the break as I'd planned - sewing wise anyway. I did manage to get the bedroom and bathroom painted, get Christmas up and down, visit friends and family, go snowmobiling, work two days (blah), clean out two closets and knit 2 scarves and 5 hats. In the sewing department, I finished a purse and a small winter wall hanging. I also started two baby charity quilts - got one top done and the other halfway finished.

I did spend some time thinking about my UFO goals for this year and looking at what I did last year- I didn't finish much in the UFO department, but I did finish a bunch in the new department, using us scraps and making tops. I now have 23 UFO quilt tops. It's ridiculous. So, this year, I am determined to finish some of the UFOs on my list. I have to let go of the "fancy" quilting wish and start stitching in the ditch, meandering and doing a few "pattern" shapes and get things done. I also need to send a couple of the nicer tops to the long arm quilter and bite the bullet to pay for the quilting. If I spend my pennies on quilting and NOT on fabric, I should be fine.

Have two baby quilts to make for the upcoming Nelson babies.... we know one is a boy and should know soon what baby #2 is..... one in May and one in July, so I've got lots of time! Hopefully, I can minimize any spending for faric on those.....