Stitching Circle

Design Wall Monday

admin — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 15:18:33 +0000

I didn’t intend to, but I ended up having a sewing marathon yesterday. I just about finished the Celebration of Freedom top. Only have to attach the corner units and it’s done.

I’ll work on the borders next weekend. I just want to thank Judy at Patchwork Times so much for sharing her pattern with all of us.

Take a look at what’s on everyone else’s design wall at Judy’s blog.

Stash Report July 11

admin — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 16:11:49 +0000

How to do you calculate your stash used? Do you count it when you pull it for a project? Do wait until it’s in the quilt? Do you take the easy way and use the yardage measurements on the pattern? Just curious.

I don’t count it until I cut it. So my numbers look very low for the work I’ve done on my Celebration of Freedom quilt. I’ve been cutting yardage as I am ready for it. Surprisingly the center medallion took very little yardage. I’ve used mostly the cream background fabric.

So here is my report for this week. I’ll be cutting a lot more today, but that will go in next weeks report.

I’ll show my progress picture for tomorrow’s Design Wall Monday report. I’m almost finished with all the blocks so it is progressing nicely.

As you can see, I’ve broken my 90 day run of “no buy”. I’ve been watching the Missouri Star Quilt Co’s Daily Deal and when the Breathe of Avignon was listed last Tuesday I could not resist. This is a fabric line I want to collect. So I will be grabbing it every chance I get.

Enjoy your Sunday and hop on over to Judy’s blog to see how everyone else is doing.

Design Wall Monday 7/5

admin — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 16:42:33 +0000

On my design wall today is the center medallion for Judy’s Celebration of Freedom quilt. Judy very generously shared her instructions with us and it just caught my eye.

This is a stunning quilt and I just had to make it. One evening last week, I recreated the quilt in Electric Quilt so I could get measurements and yardage requirements. This was really fun since I don’t use EQ very often. Judy gave us the block names so it was a simple matter of just placing them into the layout and then adding borders that I liked.

Then, I spent all day yesterday on the paper-piecing of the medallion, which is not my favorite thing to do, but it was kind of fun. The good news is that all the fabrics I need for this quit are from my stash.

Not sure what I will do today. Probably cut the squares to make all the quarter-square triangles needed. But I really have a stack of tops and backs that need to be sandwiched. Depends on what mood stikes me. I am on holiday today after all.

Head on over to Judy’s blog to see what’s on everyone’s wall today. And if you are in the mood for a giveaway, visit Karen’s blog for her Sunday giveaway, a day late…

Fabulous Give Away…

admin — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 18:21:44 +0000

I couldn’t help myself. I had to post about this great give-away going on over at Stash Manicure.

Head on over here to get in on the fun for yourself. Oh but wait a minute. Never mind. I want to win this one.

More later on what I was up to last night.

Stash Report 6/27

admin — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 16:33:57 +0000

Well, it was Grandkids-2, Sewing-0 around here last weekend. So not much progress on the stash until yesterday. My grandkids are gone for the next four weeks now so my weekends can be devoted to finishing up these WIPs that have been hanging around for too long. Here’s my report for the past two weeks.

I’m still on a roll not purchasing fabric. On Wednesday, it will be 90 days since I’ve purchased any fabric.

I made some progress putting together a couple of backs for baby quilts. And, I’ll be doing more backs today, but I’ll count those next week. In the meantime, I did make a nursing cover for my niece’s baby shower next Saturday. It was so easy. And, to think they charge $35 in the stores for these.

My niece picked the fabric from my stash and then I looked at a couple of tutorials (here and here) to get the measurements, etc.

It was hard to take a picture because the fabric is black with colored polka dots. I flipped the bottom corner to show the pocket on the inside. There is one on each side. The trick is the boning that you place in the middle of the top. That’s what holds the cover away so the mother can see the baby while it nurses. Cute idea actually. What will they think of next.

To see how everyone else is doing in the stashbusting efforts, check Judy’s blog.

Design Wall Monday

admin — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 22:53:32 +0000

Here’s what’s on my design wall right now. Blocks I’ve been putting together for a Double Hour Glass baby quilt.

These were made from my 1.5″ scrap bin and some white muslin 1.5″ strips. I have three baby quilts to make this summer and these are for one of them.

I got the idea from a tutorial on the Cluck Cluck Sew blog. My blocks are much smaller finishing at just under 4″ square. I’m not sure how big this will be or what kind of borders I’ll use yet. It’s just developing as I go along.

For more Design Wall Monday links, visit Judy’s blog.

Finally a Stash Report

admin — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 15:57:07 +0000

Can’t believe it’s the middle of June already. Where has this year gone. My last post was two months ago!!!

I’ve got so much to share. I’ll try to do it in the next few posts. I’ve been quilting up a storm and working way too hard. No time to add any posts to my blog.

So let’s start with this weekend. I finished my Christmas Lights top, finally. Sewed together the last of the rows Friday night and added the three borders yesterday. Whew. It’s probably one of the largest quilts I’ve made yet at 79″ x 67″. I tend to work on smaller quilts because the quilting is so much easier and I like to get things finsihed. Ha Ha.

Also, I received my box of strings and blocks that I won a couple weeks ago on Amy’s blog. Thank you Amy. Can’t wait to start making more blocks to go with the ones you sent.

As for Stash, well here are my stats. The good news is I haven’t purchased one scrap of fabric since March 20th. I’m on a roll here.

Given all the quilting I’ve been doing I haven’t used that much yardage. That’s because I’m trying to get my scraps used up. I’ve made three tops all from scraps so no yardage used there. I count the scraps as used when I cut up the yardage for whatever quilt they come from.

What’s on my wall today?

admin — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 22:32:45 +0000

These are blocks I’ve been making over the last four weeks or so, all from scraps. They are laid out in Bonnie Hunter’s Patches and Pinwheels pattern. So far I’m really liking it. Very scrappy.

I need to make lot’s more 16 patches and a few more pinwheels. They won’t all fit on my wall, but this gives a good idea of what they will look like when sewn together.

I had a three day weekend this past weekend, and here’s what I accomplished.

A Trust Me or Square Dance top. Started on Friday morning, cut apart and sewn back together on Saturday, and borders added on Sunday.

I didn’t have a pattern. I searched on Google and found a couple of web shot albums that showed in progress pictures. So I calculated how big the template needed to be to work with my 5.5″ finished squares and away I went. The inner border is made up of all the squares left over from cutting the pinwheels. It really was a “Trust Me” project. I was very doubtful that it would come out right. I took pictures along the way so I can write a tutorial for when I want to make this one again.

This will be perfect for one of the baby quilts I need to make between now and November. The top finishes at 45″ x 53″.

Want to know what everyone else is up to? Visit Judy’s blog today.

Starbucks

admin — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 17:32:51 +0000

I’m sitting in the Starbucks across from the Flagship Nordstroms having my reduced fat turkey bacon egg white whole wheat English muffin sandwich for breakfast. Sounds awful, right? But it really is pretty good and only 340 calories. I know I supposed to be on vacation but I was horrified when trying on pants last night at Nordstroms. Walked out with three pair of Not Your Daughters jeans and they were tight and a size larger than the ones I bought two years ago. Sheesh!

Here are some pictures from my phone from yesterday. The view out my window and the original Starbucks at Pike Place. It was in the high 60’s and absolutely gorgeous. I walked until I couldn’t go any further and then shopped till I dropped.

I did visit the quilt shop at Pikes Place. Walked out with the end of the bolt of some Raspberry Dimples (about 3 yards) at 40 percent off.

Well, it’s stopped drizzling now so I’m off to do some more exploring before the conference starts.

On my way to Seattle

admin — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 17:02:41 +0000

Today, I’m on my way to Seattle. I’ll be attending a User Assistance conference this next week that starts tomorrow evening and decided to go early for a mini vacation. My colleague, Shannon, will arrive tomorrow afternoon so until then I’m on my own.
I’ve been to Washington several times before but never Seattle. My son was stationed at the Bangor submarine base in the early 1990’s while in the Navy so we always visited that side of Sound.
Of course the first thing I researched were quilt shops and found one on First and Union Streets about a block from Pike Place. Not sure if I’ll go there today or tomorrow morning. And, of course, I’ll be visiting the Flagship Nordstroms which is about a block from my hotel.
I’m looking forward to posting from my iPhone to keep a journal of this trip. This post is being written somewhere near the California and Oregon border at about 30,000 feet. But of course it won’t actually post till we land. We took off about 15 minutes late because the tow vehicle broke and they had to round up another one to back us from the gate.
More later…