Sunday, March 30, 2008

Weekly to do list

First and update on last weeks list...i got all the valentines tops done, and the laptop is now in the sewing room. I cut out 2 spring breeze tops and a queen sized turning 20 out of my st pats fabrics, but i did not get a stitch sewn on them. So they are now at the top of to-do list.
  • Spring Breeze top #1
  • Spring Breeze top #2
  • Turning 20 st pats
  • find new homes for 2 bags of scraps and 2 bags of yarn/thread
  • find all the pieces for Jenny's baby's quilt so i can work on that again

Thursday, March 27, 2008

whatever's left

This is the second turning 20 quilt top i've made with my valentine's fabric. Queen sized..again! Dh is completely confused as to why i needed to make 2 big ones like this. He says i should try to sell one, and i'd actually be ok selling both-either as-is or if i can figure out how to quilt and bind them. I've gotten enough of the buggy barn valentines blocks squared up that i can start assembling those 2 full size tops tomorrow. I have put away what i have left that is a FQ or bigger and what's smaller than that i'm doing crumb/string blocks with. I do not know what i'll do with those blocks in the long run but for now they are just content to be "in-process" until i have enough for a baby or lap quilt, then i can donate the top to the local guild for charity.

one top done


I got my turning twenty top finished yesterday morning. Its Queen sized-HUGE! We really dont have a place indoors for taking that big of pics but by the time dh got home from work yesterday it was snow/rain/sleeting, so the fromt porch was off limits for photos. This quilt started life as a lap or twin sized top. Then the Plan was 2 lap/twins. Then i decided i might as well make one big one for our bed, surely that would take up all my Valentines fabrics right? NOT!! I have 24 more blocks cut out and will probably have enough fabric to make the full 30 that i used in this queen sized quilt. So, 2 queen sized tops and 2 full size tops(still in blocks that i need to trim from a buggy barn pattern), and i still have 2 big pieces(2+yds each), about 6 FQ and a big handfull of scraps. My goal was to use up my Valentines fabrics....i truly did not realize just how far they would go! By my figures by the time i make up the 2nd Turning 20 queen sized top i'll have used close to 20 yards of fabric. I bought 4 yards of black to use as a background for the buggy barn pattern. So something like 16 yards out of my stash-wow!

Monday, March 24, 2008

weekly to-do list

Let's see...what am i gonna get done this week.
  • turning 20 valentines top(queen size)
  • turning 20 valentines top(whatever's left)
  • "spring Breeze" full/queen size st pat's top
  • Turning 20 St pats top(Queen size)
  • re-arrange sewing room to make room for laptop & something to put it on

This is very do-able because the turning 20's are so fast. I think the re-arranging will take up the most time.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

baby rr

These are pics of a new rr i worked on this morning. The little red block is only 4inches finished size. This one is not mine but i forgot to take pics of mine before it left for California in the mail. I am hoping this will be a fast rr even tho it has 13 or 14 rounds to it.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Stashbusting

This is what's left of the about 40 yards of valentines fabric i had. The biggest piece is 2 yards and the rest is all smaller than fq i think. I have 2 full sized tops, 3 lap sized, and a couple extra blocks and runners out of what i had.

This is an empty cubby that used to be overflowing with my m&m prints and a few other prints.

And this is my next target. There are probably 45-55 yards of fabric in this crate. I'm just guessing at how much is in there, but i know its more than the amount of Valentines fabric that I used up. At a guess i'm looking at 6-8 twin to full sized quilt tops! Yikes! As for what am i gonna do with all those quilts when i'm done? well....thats a VERY good question! OH! and i just remembered that i have 2 big pieces of st pats flannel, that means i have at least 2 backs for all those quilts too. I'm giving my self until the end of april to get all the st pats tops done, then i'll start on the easter fabric i have. Believe it or not this stash of holiday prints came from a desire to make runners for my family members. Even after i make all these quilts i'm still going to have plenty i think.



Back a while I posted this picture:


And at the time i said it was almost all of my stash. Since then i've been keeping track of how much stash i've used. So far this year i'm at something like 140 yds used! And i've brought about 30 yards in for the year to date. Not too shabby right? Well check out these pics.

Friday, March 14, 2008

monthly mini's

I did it! I got the 8 monthly mini's done and ready to be shop samples...well almost. I have to finish the binding on the 2nd iris but other than that they are done. I have to do 2 of each so each of the 2 shops can hang one. The next 2 pairs are sandcastles and butterflies. But i'm not even going to think about them till at least next week. Or more likely, next month!

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Summer Dresses


My DD had the exact opposite problem that i do when it comes to clothes. She's tall and skinny and well......i'm just not. So I made her some new summer dresses so they would actually be long enough. I put a size 10 bodice(which is kinda big) onto a size 14 skirt. And i'm still wishing i'd have added another 2 inches to that hem. The dresses just hit her at the knee so they are ok, but I have always prefered hems that come about 1 in below the bottom of the knee cap.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

this weeks to-do list

Lets see if i can actually accomplish a to do list again, shall we?
  • 8 monthly mini's ready to turn in-see the previous post
  • dd's easter dress-yellow eyelet
  • my easter dress-peach eyelet
  • hair ties for dd(at least 5)-using leftover fabric from the dresses i've made her lately
  • shopping bags(at least 4)-gotta go green dont ya know!

And after that I can go back to "Real" quilting.....on that batik diamond quilt i've been trying to finish for way too long!

She's right again

These little wall hangings are about 6x24 and designed by Patch-abilities. The LQS where I work decided to do them as a mini-class once a month and i got elected to make the samples. Now these top 2 were employee chosen colors and are cute enough. The bottom 2 are boss/owner suggested colors. What do you think? She's right again isn't she? My boss is a wonderful woman, incredibly talented and probably gets more done in a day's time than most people get done in a week. But does she have to be right every time? I have to make 2 each of 12 different designs in the next year, so far i have 4 ready to bind and the fusible part done on 4 more. I've also got the 4 after those cut out. That will put me at halfway and I can't wait to get them done and turned in so i dont have tho think about it anymore. I just hope they don't expect me to teach them too!

catch up pics

I've got a couple pics that have been requested and i've been slow to upload them so here goes. This is a round robin made with red and blue 30's reproduction fabrics with one of my yahoo groups. It's going to have one more dark border then i'll be ready to baste it. So far its about 50 inches square.
Ok Beth-here ya go! Its all done and is wonderful to snuggle under. Dh had a hard time getting tall enough to hold it for a pic, he had to stand on the arm of the couch for it to work. I did not realize when i was putting it to gether that it was that big! The 30's repro bowties were a swap done with the same yahoo group that the round robin was. Are we seeing a theme here? Oso (the dog) thought dh was playing hide and seek which is his favorite game so it was hard to get the pic with out the dog trying to "uncover" and find dh. Funny game but not one allowed to be played with quilts because that dog has some big teeth that he uses to pull the blanket off whoever he is playing with. The usual hide and seek blanket has several holes in it from the game.