Long time no see!!

Its sure has been a long time since I posted on here. Most of that was due to the move and the fact that my quilting time has been severly curtailed. We are all settled in at mom's and so far its working out pretty well. The kids are enjoying school and their new gymnastics and dance teachers. Since i've got so much less space here than i did at the old house i've picked up a smaller hobby-beading/jewlery making. I've added pics here so you can see a few. As always there are baby quilts to be made. My list of pending babys is only 3 right now, i've gotten a butterfly one started and have dug out the fall leaf top i have and a Nebraska Huskers one to fill out the list.

swap runner

I made thie little runner for a "spring swap" and i discovered that if i use a 12 inch block a fat quarter is not quite big enough for the setting triangles but if i can find a 10 or 11 inch block i'll have a great way to use up all those cutsy or large print FQs that i've bought and could not think of a use for. It wont work as well with a directional print which is too bad but still gives me good ideas!

And for those who were wondering about the move, hubby is going away for a year(Air Force) and I'm not up for another deployment so the kids and I are moving back to mom's for the year. This is a good news bad news situation. Bad news: he's gonna be gone, and mom and I have had our share of differences over the years. Good news: Cheap Rent, lots of relatives to help(both me helping them and them helping me), and maybe mom and I will both remember that i'm not a teenager anymore.

off the design wall

I've been busy getting some block sets into tops. We are moving at the end of june and i thought i"m more likely to loose parts if they are not sewn together so i've "topped" 8 sets of blocks. First is a set of swap blocks that turned into a baby quilt-that picture is pretty washed out, the background is kona black. Then a Valentines swap, that one is going to be a table cloth. The 3 tops from a set of leaf blocks. A baby quilt, a table runner and a bitty wall hanging all came out of that set. Then a set of vegetable blocks that i made. This one still needs borders. Its about 73 inches square, but i'm kinda thinking it could go up to 95 or so square and go on my bed. Any suggestions for borders? I've got a multi print with all the veggies on it but i dont think i want a 12 in plain border. How bout Brown(2in?) then more of the green(2in?4 in?) then the veggie print(8 in?) Then the last pic is a mutilation of Bonnie Hunter's "Strip Twist". I've got 2 of those but i'm sure one pic is enough.

stash report

yards in this week: 0
Yards used this week:31

yards in year to date:22.75
Yards used year to date:151.25

Net year to date: 128.5

design wall monday(sort of)

Ok so i'm a day late. This is what i've been working on lately. The browns are the start of my little brother's wedding quilt. I've got all the big blocks done, 24 of them. I've still got 48 little stars to do for the alternate blocks. They are only 6in so it takes longer than i want it to. The Green top is a baby quilt in the making using up a bunch of 2 1/2 strips. I've got 2 of these ready for borders.

stash report

Geez have i been slacking off on this!!
total in for the year: 22.75
Total out year to date: 120.25

Net year to date: 97.5 out

This is pretty approximate cause i was not paying much attention for a while but its close enough to go on with. Next week will be better!

Two more finished

Not the best quilt i've ever made-can you say wavy? this one waves more than any i've finished. I basically quilted it into submission!

This one is a replacement. My mom gave the other bugs quilt to the wrong baby and was too embarrased to ask for it back so i had to start over.

more finishes

This first finish is a round robin from a while back-so its a ufo off the list. The Hearts quilt is #3 from a set of swap blocks from last year i think. So thats another UFO down!

I made 3 of these little blue and white baby quilts. The goal was to have a couple extras around since i've got a whole stack of girly baby quilts but they have all been claimed already! Not ufos, darn it!

These last 2 have been given to a couple cousins who are expecting their baby boys this summer. Both asked for blue and brown quilts so i had a hard time making 2 the same colors but making sure they did nto look alike!

baby quilts

Just some baby quilts from swap blocks i've recieved in the last couple years. i've been busy finishing things the last few weeks.

finally photos

I've finally gotten photos of the 2 twin sized quilts i finished back in early Feb. One is my take on one of Judy L's patterns. The other was a way to use up a big focus print. The backgrounds show how much of a disater my sewing room is. If the weather would ever clear up i'd go outside to take pics!

suggestions?

what would you put in the corners of this project? its going to go on an occasional table as a ta

ble cloth but it will hang quite a ways down. Choices are: plain white, more of the center print, or some sort of pieced block. These are swap blocks that i recieved a few weeks ago and i'm stuck on this one.

design wall

Yesterday was a really good day in the sewing room. I got all the blocks from last time's design wall into the first 2 Christmas tops, now i need to make a few more blocks to get twin size quilts out of them. Then I finished the baby quilt that I showed in the last post. I also made these 9patch's and snowballs out of some more of the Christmas fabrics. And last but not least I started the quilting on another twin size UFO. All in all I think I got more sewing done yesterday than I have since Christmas. Today the only goal is to finish the quilting on that twin, which may be more difficult than I want it to be since Tuesdays are my crazy days. On Tuesdays I leave the house at 8:30 am and don't get home till 8:30 pm. When you add to that getting kids ready for school before and ready for bed after, there just is not a lot of day left.

first finish of 2010!

This is my new niece's baby quilt. She was born in early november while my machine was down, but now the machine is home so i was able to finish this today.

stash report

I missed the stash report last week beacuse we were out of town so this is 2 weeks in one.
this week:
yards in: 2.75
yards used: 4.75
net this week: -2yds

Year to date:
yards in:2.75
yards used 45.25
Net year to date:- 42.5yds

mystery quilt tops

These are 2 of the mystery quilt tops I started New Years Eve. I started one more but its a long term mystery so pics of that will have to wait. They were both a lot of fun and went together well even on the baby machine. I am so glad my Pfaff is home and I can start quilting again instead of just pieceing. Especially since the plan is to get rid of the UFO's not start new ones!

actually ahead of schedule

I've been too busy crocheting to really quilt lately. And since my good machine has been in the shop for so long its been good to have another hobby close by and ready to go. These gals will adorn the top of the curio cabinet in the living room when their holiday comes around. I'm looking for a twig tree to set up there with them and decorate too, but so far no luck. I was going to just go find an appropriate branch outside but with the weather this winter I don't think that's going to work anytime soon either. Ms St Pats still needs her "tam o'shanter" hat attached but I'm not quite sure how I'm going to do that. Ms Valentines needs a heart or itty bitty stuffed critter to hold i think too. And I need to remember to get a couple more stands for them since I prefer to attach the stands permanently. I'm hoping to put Ms Valentine up this afternoon-I think i've still got one stand unused hanging around here somewhere!

design wall monday...already late

I took this picture last night hoping to post it for design wall Monday over at Judy L's blog. But Someone was on the computer until way late last night so this morning has to be close enough. This is the first few blocks of one of my resolution quilts. The resolution was to empty out a cubby full of Christmas fabrics, so I've cut up about 3.5 yards of Christmas and white fabrics to start this quilt. I'm starting with any Christmas fabric that is cut width of fabric(as opposed to true scraps and fq) and less than 1/2 yard.

I seem to have lots of non traditional Christmas colors in my Christmas prints. Would you split them into a separate quilt? Or just toss them all in together? By non traditional i mean hot pink, lime green, purple, yellow, and i think there is a turquoise one in there too. I've probably got enough fabric to do 4-6 twin size quilts so i sure could split them up. I could even split off the blue snowflake/snowman ones and make a January quilt. What do you think? Mix them all up or make 3 disticnt sets?

stash report week #2

I had help this week. Hubby helped me baste 3 lap/twin size quilts so my yards used are pretty impressive until you realize that I STILL dont have my good machine back from the repair place. Its been there since Thanksgiving. Its ready to come home, but its 200 miles away and with the weather we have been having so far this winter I have nto been able to manage that trip. I'm either working or its blizzarding!

With out that machine I have a hard time quilting. My back up machine is good for piecing and making clothing but i'm no good at quilting on it. I can do in the ditch quilting on little things is about it until that machine comes home.

here's the report for the week:
yards in: 0
yards used:13

net for the year:
yards in: 0
yards used: 32

no power

This is what happens at my house when the power goes out. There are 3 dogs, 2 kids and a husband all sprawled out sleeping in the living room. This photo was taken at about 3pm today right after our power came back on after being out for about 4 hours. The power outage seems to have been caused by a line down the street since our whole street was out. With a High temp of about 12f and winds in the 40mph range it could not have been fun fixing it! Since we have electric heat it got a little chilly. We thankfully have a gas stove so we were able to cook some lunch and then we made 3 types of fudge to keep the burner on hoping to keep at least one room warm. It worked sort of but not real well. Blankets and pillows seemed to be the better choice, at least according to the picture!

Plan b? or maybe plan c?

My good sewing machine went in for repairs back on Thanksgiving monday. I got a call on the tuesday before Christmas that is was ready to come home. The shop that specializes in Pfaff machines is about 250 miles away, so going to pick it up is not just a short trip. I've planned to go get it about 3 times since that phone call and so far it has not happened. The first attempt was Christmas week-we had a blizzard so no travel. Next attempt was New Years day, but the shop was closed for the holiday. Boy am I glad I called first! Today was attepmt number 3. We woke up to white out conditions and closed interstates. Guess what? I'm not going to go get the machine today either! Thank goodness Sami has a machine i can use or i'd be going more than a little crazy!

design wall monday

This is perfect timing since i'm in need of a little advice. Can you tell the difference in the layouts? Do you like one better than the others? I'm not partial to any particular layout so i'm hoping for some suggestions. Next bit of advice I need is for the borders. There are only 12 of the 48 blocks up on the design wall but I need to decide on borders. I was thinking skinny green or yellow then wide border of the inspiration print-black background with M&M characters on it. What do you think? Green or Yellow? Or do you have a better idea?

Stash report #1

Let's see....
I started 3 new quilts this week, all mysterys. The first one is already a flimsy, the second is almost in blocks, and the 3rd is just cut out. All 3 are completly from stash so i've done good so far. Thats not saying much since this is just the first stash report of the year.

Yards used: 19
Yards Bought: 0
Net this week: -19
Net year to date: -19

New Years Goals

Last years summary:

2009

120 finished quilty things most of them runners and other small projects
72 pillowcases
23 clothing items sewn
19 assorted bags


This years goals:
2010

60 finished quilty things-I'm planning on more big finished this year and fewer little ones

Use up and empty out the fabrics in the Easter, Music, Ballet, Christmas, Civil War, and 30's Repros cubbys. Some of those will be easier said than done. Civil war cubby has about one big quilt in it but the Music cubby is really almost 2 full cubes.

Sort out the bookcase and put the books i want to keep in the filing cabinet so i can get rid of the book case(or at least move it somewhere else!)

Consolidate my other crafts(scrapbooking and crochet) into the newly empty cubbys.