The Sewing Room Closet

I started this post last year when I was working on cleaning out my sewing room closet. I just realized that I had never posted it, so as doign so now.

There is a closet in my sewing room that I have not entered in, oh about ten years. It is crammed full of things and I finally started to empty it and clear it out.  It was scary to open the door as I was not sure what might fall out on me.
A few pieces of fabric fell out, but nothing heavy.  As I started pulling things out I found some things I had been looking for, and lots of other interesting discoveries.

There was a ton of fleece in the closet, in a variety of colors.  Now I know by the size of some pieces that they were bought to make hats, but other pieces I am not sure why I bought.  For the moment they are piled in the living room, waiting for me to decide what to do with them.

I discovered lots of fabric, some that I am giving away, and some that I am keeping, as well as some I wonder what I was thinking when I bought it.  There were lots of cottons, which I use for quilting and shirting fabrics that at some point I must have bought to make shirts, or something. I also discovered a couple of UFQs, one that I have been looking all over for. I started this when my husband was the the technology coordinator at Benny Benson Secondary School. How it ended up in the closet is beyond me, because I was not storing handwork there then, nor do I store it there now.

My thought at the time was it would be a nice wall hanging for his classroom. Now he teaches art, but he still uses computers as he teaches computer graphics class, so I will finish it for his birthday or Christmas. There is still a lot of hand work to be done on it. I have to finish the applique and do the embroidery everywhere you see blue lines.

I also discovered a set of blocks from a swap where my fabric that I sent out was this beautiful Hoffman.  The blocks are all together and I picked up a blue for sashing and binding last night, so will get this one put together at some point in the near future. I have since finished the quilt and am auditioning backing fabric.

I found tons of interesting things in my closed.  I am still working on many of them but one day in the future I plan to have all my UFQs done. This is not to say that I will not be making more UFQs as time goes on, but all the ones from prior to 2013 will be done or passed on to someone who will love them. 

Friends (Spring 2012)

I had a wonderful weekend with my quilting friends. Friday night we meet at the quilt store for our monthly quilting group.  There are four of us who go together, Sally, Jan, Lisa, and I, but the class is actually about 16 ladies who all get together. We pay a small fee to meet there and bring what ever we are working on to sew. There is a teacher who is there to answer questions or help when needed.

This month I brought a Yellow Brick Road I am working on for advice on an inner border.  The quilt is a gift, but I cannot say who it is for a as I do not want to spoil the surprise. I love all the suggestions and help that everyone gives. I had a fun time.

The four of us had already signed up for another session of this class which started Friday night, and three of us have also signed up for the Piecework by Hand class, which meets once a month and is hopefully going to get me moving on my applique projects. I have several in various stages and need to get them done.  Sally, Jan, and I are also doing a marathon in February to get more things done and Sally and I are doing another in March. Sally and I are taking a tote bag class in February, so now I need to find a jelly roll or Bali pop, or go through my stash and cut strips to prep for it.

On Saturday one of my friends picked me up and we made the rounds of the three quilt stores here in town.  We went to Quilt Tree where we each purchased quilt kits that we wanted as it was class sale day and they were discounted 20%. We had already signed up for classes the day sign ups opened, which was a good thing because the classes we wanted were all full by the class sale day. I also bought some new quilting gloves.  Sally bought her two kits and a machine needles.
 
From there we headed over to the newest store in town for class sign ups, The Quilt Zone. We signed up for the February mystery which is called Black Tie, along with another friend, Lisa. Sally and I also signed up for what is called Get'er Done. It is a work session where you bring in those projects you need to get done, or want ideas on so you can get them done. I also signed up to take Basic Drafting for Quilters.  I want to try my hand at drafting a quilt.  I have several designed on paper, but I have to translate them to fabric and to do that I need to learn how to draft a pattern.  I am looking forward to this class.  While we were there I bought the backing for the Yellow Brick Road, and some Aurifil thread, an awl, a book on drafting quilts, and one of the Buggy Barn quilt books.  I love the buggy barn quilt patterns, but I give them my look with bright colors and wild prints. This book has the tractors on the cover.

Once we were done there, we said goodbye to Lisa and headed over to Seams Like Home. None of the classes interested us, but with fabric on sale we had to look around and I found a wonderful fabric to use for applique backgrounds, so bought the 2 7/8 yards that was left on the bolt at 20% off.  I also bought some of the stuff you can use in potholders to keep from burning your hands. I cannot think of the name of the stuff at the moment, and a couple yards of cute Christmas fabric at 40% off. Sally also bought some Christmas fabric.

From there we stopped to grab a bite to eat before heading home.  It was a fun day with one of my favorite people.

When I got home I started reorganizing my sewing room, but that is another story, for another day.

Crazy Hearts

Pat Sloan asked us to post or share something that is all about hearts. For me that is easy as this blog is named for a quilt made with hearts and the picture is at the top of the page. I am also sharing another quilt with hearts that I made without revealing who the recipient is.
I made this special quilt for someone special.  Due to my issues with my hand and hand surgery it got put on the back burner as I could not finish the binding and the label, but am working on finishing it up now so I can deliver it.  Here is my Buggy Barn Quilt called Crazy Hearts:

Quilters have the Warmest Hearts

A couple of weeks ago I arrived home to a wonderful surprise from one of my online friends. I have never met her face to face, but she is a very special person.
While cutting fabric strips for Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street Mystery she thought of me.  She was cutting her black and white strips, she realized that the newsprint fabric she was cutting had an article about Alaska.
I love surprises!!!
She sent me several 2" wof strips one of which was a bicycle print.  I am planning to use the strips in Bonnie Hunter's current mystery, Easy Street.
I have already cut a couple of strips into 2.5" squares to use in the quilt and will use the others for my corner triangles on other blocks in the quilt.
I love that I am part of such a wonderful group of women.

The Sewing Room

WOW!  I just realized that I never posted this, but then I have not finished my sewing room either, so I guess it like this post is a work in progress.  I started this post back in April and though a lot has been organized and put away my fat quarters, and half yard or less pieces of fabric are still strewn around waiting to be put in some kind of order.  I think I need to make this a goal for the new year, either get them put away or clear them out.
I did give some away, and others I am thinking I will cut into strips to use in strip quilts or other scrapping projects.

The draft I thought I had posted:
I am making progress on my sewing room, you can actually see the floor. I have a ton of half yards and fat quarters to go through and figure out where to put them, and what to do with them.

You would think that I had done absolutely nothing since August considering that I have not posted in several months.  That is not the truth I have been working away on several projects, but a few had to be kept secret as they are gifts, others I have started posts and not gotten pictures taken so I could update them. I have also been busy subbing and had finger surgery to release my trigger finger. My goal is to get things posted and finish taking pictures so I can get them posted.  Now with Christmas fast approaching I am hoping that I can get this done before the New Year, but that may not happen.  I will see what I can get done in the next few days and the week after Christmas.  I do have a couple of gifts to finish up before Tuesday, and hope that I am successful in getting them done.  If not I can always wrap them up with a note that says to finished after Christmas. :)

Quilt Request from a Colorado Quilter

Michelle is a Colorado quilter who lives across town from the Waldo Canyon Fire.  She has been watching the news coverage of the fire and wants to help those who have lost homes and been evacuated. 

 She is asking for anyone who is willing to donate a completed quilt, quilt top, backing, or batting to please contact her. If you live in her area she will collect and disburse the quilts that are received and I am sure if you are out of state she would gladly accept donations by mail. 

She is asking for people to pass the word so that maybe we can bring some comfort to the victims of the fire.  

I am hoping that there is also someone willing do help those in northern Colorado who have been impacted by the fire north of Fort Collins as well. I do not know any quilters in that area, but if there is one I hope that they would be willing to help in a similar way.

Michelle can be reached by email at
 justforthepieceofit@gmail.com
or through her blog Just for the Piece of It

A Special Quilt

This quilt is a favorite of mine, though it is small and may not look like much it means the world to me. When my youngest son, Bryce, was in fourth grade they were studying the pioneers and had to do a project. Tom was working and going to school so Bryce had to pick something that I could help with and that did not include anything that involved power tools, or cutting implements.  We narrowed it down to making hand dipped candles or quilting. He picked quilting.

We went to the library and researched fabrics for the time period and took the book with us to quilt store to help us find fabrics that would work.  A wonderful lady at the store helped us pick fabrics and once they were purchased we headed home to get started.

Bryce traced a square on cardboard to use as his cutting template and with help from mom very carefully cut it out.  Then he traced a second one and I helped him to trace an inner line and cut out the center of the second square to he had a template for tracing his sewing line.  He traced his squares onto the fabric and cut out his squares. He then traced his sewing lines, with help from me to hold the template still.  I showed him how to pin the squares together and my job was done except for threading needles. He started to sew with some supervision from me until he got the stitch length to a workable size.  Everyday for a couple weeks he sewed on that nine patch, put the borders on and then he was ready to quilt.

I helped him cut out the batting and the background, then pinned them together for him.  My job once again became needle threader and he went to work quilting his miniature quilt.

Once the quilting was done I helped him trim the batting and backing down, then showed him how to do a folded over binding and helped him pin it in place.  I threaded a few more needles and got him started stitching down the binding.  He made his project and I am very proud of the fact that he worked so hard to complete it.

At parent-teacher conferences all the projects were on display and as a parent I was very proud of my son, because his was one of the few that was actually done by a student. There were many parents who earned grades on their projects, but very few students who actually earned their own grades. Bryce was one of those and he also learned a very valuable lesson in the process. He can always be proud of what he did, and that he did the work himself.  I feel sorry for those other students whose parents did not let them learn the value of hard work.

Of all the quilts I own, including those that were passed down in my family, this is the quilt that I hold the most dear and am the proudest of. In my mind it is a blue ribbon winner.

Sad Loss

Karen Combs, a quilt teacher, had her rental car broken into in Texas and her teaching suitcase stolen.  It contained quilts from her Patchwork Illusions class and her teaching supplies.  Please read her post at Karen Comb's Blog. 
I have included a couple of the pictures from her blog, to see more please go to her blog, via the above link.

Please pass the word and if you live in Texas, especially the New Braunfels area keep an eye out for her beautiful quilts which are posted on her blog.  If you see one you can contact her at this email.

The UFQ's and Other Things Hiding in my Sewing Room

Today I started going through my Unfinished Quilts or UFQs, though I should call them Unfinished Projects as I have a few that are not quilts. I also went through my kits, and Projects in Grocery Sacks or PIGS waiting to be started. I am listing thing under each category here to document them and to hold myself accountable.

This list is not necessarily complete as there may well be more hiding in my sewing room that I have not accounted for as yet, or that are in other places so I need to find them before adding them to the list, so this will be updated once I locate the others. To help you understand my abbreviations I have included a list of those also.

Abbreviations: 

• HA - Hand Appliqué 
• PP - Paper Pieced 
• MA - Machine Appliqué 
• HQ - Hand Quilting 
• MQ - Machine Quilting 

 UFQ's 

• Mouse Pad -HA 
• Hoffman Fabric Swap have sashing and border fabric
• Solstice Sizzler - PP 
• Celestial Wonders - PP 
• Kuspuk Kate and Parka Pete - MA 
• 15 Minute Swap Blocks 
• Heritage Sampler - HA 
• Bryce's Bunny 
• Homer Spit - MA 
• Hawaiian Quilt - HA 
• 50 States Block Swap x 2 
• Red, White/Cream, Blue Swap - moved to topville
• Table Runner 
• Clay's Stars - progress made, almost a top
• Hand Pieced Stars Blue and Yellow Friendship Stars 
• Cherry Quilt - HA 
• Space Attic Window's  moved to topville
• Butterfly Purse 
• Bryce's Lizard Quilt moved to topville
• Space Sea Purse - HQ 
• Daisy Days - HA 
• Needle Turn Flowers Appliqué - HA 
• Bargello from the Dark-side sent it out the door
  
• Chicken from the Dark-side 1 - HA 
• Chicken from the Dark-side 2 - HA Prep
• Amish Doll Dress 
• Black Bear and Dress 
• Trellis Garden - need to find the pattern to finish 
• Left-over Log Cabin Strips - what to do with?
• Happiness Key 
• The Apple Quilt
• Skier 
• Saturday Sampler moved to topville
• Snowboarder - HQ 
• Friendship Stars -progress made, blocks completed.
• Burgundy and Green Swap -progress made, blocks sashed. 

 BOM - Block of the Month 

• 1997 - 12 blocks not started 
• 1998 - Traditions, two sets, not started 
• 2000 - Visions in Blue 12 blocks, not started
• 1999 - 3 blocks not started (table runner?)
• Unknown year - 10 blocks, not started
• Anniversary Waltz - 12 blocks, seven completed. 
• Chicken Blocks #3 and #4 

PIGS - Projects in Grocery Sacks

•  Baby Quilt - Twirl Fabric quilted and bound
  
• Mauve Quilt 
• Eagle Quilt 
• Wedding Ring Quilt 
• Knitting Bag 
• Hot Cocoa Table Runner 
• Frog Shower Curtain - PP 
• Chili Pepper Quilt 
• Pink Ribbon Pillow Cases 
• Train Quilt 
• Alaskan Fabric Quilt

  KITS 

• Forget-Me Nots 
• Perky Posies 
• Aurora x 2 
• Star Flake -small quilt 
• Angel of Joy Wall Hanging - need to find pattern 
• Liberty Stars 
• Flip Flop Bee Bop 
• Peaceful Enchantment 
• Christmas Carol 
• Vest 
• BQ x 2 
• Amazing 
• Fab Four 
• Snowmen Will Melt Your Heart 
• Snow Flakes x 2 
• Kuspuk By the Yard Shop Hop

Stolen Quilts Alert!

 Patsy Thompson had quilts were stolen from her locked car in Corbin, KY. They also stole her embroidery machine, which can be replaced, but the quilts cannot. If you know anything about these quilts please share the information with Patsy.

 

 Her post regarding the theft with pictures of some of the quilts stolen can be found at here. 

It is scary to think of someone breaking into your car and stealing things from you. It is worse that it was her quilts which are works of love and come from the heart.   Please if you know anything let Patsy know.  Even if she can only recover one quilt, it would be wonderful as it is devastating to have something like this happen. Please spread the word!

So I went through a ton of fabric that was in the closet on the shelving unit in there.  A lot of the pieces were small fat quarters or half yards.  I found a ton of muslin, that I did not know I had, some old costumes from when the boys skated in ice shows, and more fabric.  Some of the fabric is rayon or sateen.  The rayon I am not sure what I bought it for as the colors were very different, not something I would wear.  The sateen I bought back when I was making costumes so I know why I have it.
After going through and separating the different fabric types I started on the other side of the closet.  I found pillow forms, more fleece, some books, including a couple on embroidery stitches, a few magazines, and a quilt from 1995 that was half hand quilted in the big stitch style.

I know it is from 1995 as I made three of them and two were donated to tornado victims in Clarksville, Tennessee that year.  They were originally intended as a gift, but I felt they could be better used in Tennessee at the time. The pattern is called slice and dice and is one where you stack up eight different squares of fabric and slice seven times then shift the fabrics around so each block has the eight different fabrics showing.  You can draw your lines on a square of freezer paper and then cut or just cut.  Depending on the size of your fabric squares your block size will vary once they are sewn into squares and squared up.  It is a fun quilt to make and I enjoyed making them, but I really thought that I had sent this one to someone or donated it a long time ago.  Guess this is another UFQ to add to my list.  I don't think it will take long to finish as it looks to be a little more than half done and is a lap size quilt.

Wonderful DIscoveries

I found some wonderful things while going through magazines.  I discovered quilts by Pat Sloan, in several magazines that I did not realize I had. They date back a while, and I am keeping them as some are ones I am thinking I need to make. I also found several other patterns in magazines that I would love to make and am keeping them as well.
I also found some fabric that I forgot all about. It is beautiful and new patterns and ideas are flooding my mind as I type this.
Backings were discovered as well. I have several fabrics that I seem to have bought 6 yards or more of, and that makes them perfect as backings for quilts.  I love it.  I just need to piece them to make them wide enough and I can back a few more of my flimsies (quilt tops) and either quilt them myself or send them off to be quilted.
I am still working on the sewing and am sure there are more treasures to be found as well as tons of things to send out the door as I continue to work on cleaning out and organizing my sewing room.
Keep your eyes posted as you never know what I may discover hidden in the depths of the closet which is next on my list of places to dig into.
When the room is all together I will post pictures for all to see, until them I am keeping the room under wraps.

What to do with the things I am Sending out the Door.

I feel like I am making some progress in clearing out fabric that I will never use and fabric that is so thin I can read the can of Scotch Guard across the room.  I cannot believe how thin some of my fabric is.  It is wild.  I mean when you can read the label on a can that is across the room, you know that the fabric has to be way to thin to hold up. I am talking several pieces of fabric. I and giving them to my dear husband to use with his art students, so they are going to a good cause, just not into my quilts.
I keep looking at the shelf of magazines and patterns and telling myself, "you need to go through those and get rid of the ones you know you will never make."  I did that with my clothing patterns this weekend, but quilt patterns are harder to let go of.  I kept the clothing patterns for jackets, as I do make quilted jackets and bags, but sent the skirts, and most dress ones out the door. I kept that few that are jumpers that I do like to wear and may make a few more of, but most of those patterns are in the bag for goodwill.
Now, what to do with all the quilting ones? I am thinking this weekend would be a good time to take them with me to the quilt store to let others go through and see if they find treasures in my trash, so to speak.  First off I would rather they go to a good home than to the thrift store, and secondly, I know I could try selling them online and will consider that options over the next few days. The draw back to that is that I then have to take the time to photograph and post them, list prices, and then make the trek to the post office to mail them.  Plus set up a Pay Pal or some other account in order to receive payment. I think I need to sleep on this for a few days before deciding what to do.
Looking in my sewing room and seeing the mess it is at the moment with things here and there and everywhere, I wonder what I was thinking when I decided to tear it apart and start reorganizing and cleaning.  I know I can do it, but at the moment it looks overwhelming.  "Tomorrow is be another day" to quote Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind, and I know things will look better in the morning when I am not so tired.

Reorganization Day Two

"Organize:  To put together into an orderly, functional, structured whole.

2.

a. To arrange in a coherent form;...

b. To arrange in a desired pattern or structure..."

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/organize

Organizing is a very time consuming process and the clearing out of clutter takes a lot of work.
I am having a hard time, but have found some things to get rid of and I still have a way to go before I have the room emptied out.  There is a lot of stuff just dumped in there on the floor.  I have too much stuff. 
I made one decision. Fabric from Joanns from years ago is leaving.  If I have not used it in a craft project yet, I never will. In reality I moving it over to my husband's room so he can use it for projects with his art students. Keeping only LQS (local quilt shop fabric), which is good quality fabric.
Old patterns for clothes are going out the door also. I even have a UFO that I am sending away. It is a skirt I started like 100 twenty years ago and never finished.  I kept thinking, I will finish that and wear it, NOT!  
I spent some time today going through scraps and making a pile of those too small to do anything with, so will take them to the LQS and donate them to the dog beds bag. They are collecting scraps for dog beds for the local shelters.  A couple of the women make them.
I am also trying to organize things that are for specific projects together in bags so I have it all together when I am ready and looking at a few fabrics to move from usable to possible quilt backs, since I have several yards of them. 
At the moment my goal is to empty the room and redo the shelving so I can organize things in a more efficient manner. I am putting fabric into boxes and will sort it as I put things away so they are categorized by color and amount. I do have a lot of the fabric already sorted by color and one yard or greater than one yard increments.  I just need to find a better way to store it.
Beth gave me a great idea. I need to bag and label things with the pattern I plan to use so they are ready to start when I am ready. 
I plan to put kits in fabric boxes on the shelves so they are ready to go, and works in progress in another fabric box, unless it is one I am currently working on. Those are in plastic 12x12 boxes with handles ready for me to carry to class or to workshops.

The Sewing Room Reorganization Begins

Tonight I started pulling things out of my sewing room. The room is a real disaster and I am not posting before pictures just believe me when I say it is a total disaster and there is not room to move around.

First was a box of jeans.  I am saving them to make another denim quilt.  I love the one I made before and though I use it in the family room, I like it in the car in the winter as it is heavy and warm.  I am thinking I may make another and back it with fleece to keep in the car.  I thought of making another denim jacket, but decided that if I did I would want to do a longer one and the weight would be too much, so ruled that idea out.  For the moment I am keeping the denim.

Next came the Christmas fabric, or at least most of it. I folded and stacked it in plastic bins for the moment.  I plan to go through it when I put it back in the room and decide if I want to keep it, share it with friends, or donate it.  This is the plan for all fabric.  I have two tubs of Christmas fabric and I know there is more hiding in my sewing room. Will I ever make that many Christmas quilts?

The third thing I pulled out and boxed up for the moment was quilt/wall hanging tops that are done or in need of borders. I have four 31 quart tubs and one 15.5 quart tub.  Now I should say that some of the tubs also have quilt backs or the fabric for backs folded with the quilts. There is one wall hanging pinned and ready to hand quilt as well as a wall hanging and a table runner that just need the binding hand stitched down  I did not count how many items are in topsville.  Plus there is one top and backing sitting to the side that is ready to drop at the quilters.  (She has four other quilts of mine at the moment.)  One goal this year is to finish these, including binding.  I have several backs cut and ready to piece in these tubs, but am waiting a while before sending more off to the quilter.  I also have several smaller ones set aside with backs for me to quilt.

I stopped for the night and will tackle my sewing room reorganization again tomorrow.  

I am hoping to get it all cleared out tomorrow and start putting things back together on Sunday and Monday.  I sub Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday next week and sew all day Saturday and Sunday.  I really do not want this to be stretched out over several weeks, so we shall see how much I can get done tomorrow.  There is an awful lot of stuff hiding in that room, and I have not looked in the closet in several years. 

2012 Word of the Year and Goals

Lake in Ireland

I am participating in Quinn McDonald's 30 Day Creativity Practice and Pat Sloan's challenge to pick a word for the year to focus on.  My word for 2012 is    

                        CELEBRATE

Lake in Ireland

I plan to celebrate everyday.. It does not have to be a large celebration or even a major event. I can celebrate that I exercised, or finished a block for a quilt, or even that I just got out of bed that day. It is the fact that I will be focused on the positive each day.  Looking at the bright side of things, and not the negative. If you want to join in go to either Quinn McDonald's http://quinncreative.wordpress.com or Pat Sloan's blog http://blog.patsloan.com/2011/12/pat-sloan-happy-2012.  I also found another blogger who believes in picking a word for the year Ali Edwards  at http://www.bigpictureclasses.com/onelittleword.php and I am thinking of joining her class, One Little Word.  To quote Ali:

"Can you identify a single word that sums up what you want for yourself in 2012? It can be something tangible or intangible. It could be a thought, or a feeling, or an emotion. It can be singular or plural. The key is to find something that has personal meaning for you. This is not your mother's word or your spouse's word or your child's word - this is YOUR word.

One little word can have big meaning in your life if you allow yourself to be open to the possibilities. And here's one thing that is totally interesting: sometimes a word will pop into your brain and it will not make any sense to you right now. Give it some time. Let it percolate a bit. I have often found that our hearts speak to us in very unique ways. Maybe this is a word you need to hear but just aren't ready for it yet.

Again, be open to the possibilities."

I also made a list of my goals to focus on in 2012.

• Finish UFQs and try not to add new UFQs, but rather finish projects I start, and this applies to all areas of life, not just quilting, as I have some other unfinished projects I need to finish.
• Simplify and organize, meaning to clear things out that we do not need. Purge things if you will, and pass them on to those who can use them.  This can be as simple as cleaning out a draw in the kitchen, or clearing your closet of clothes you have not worn in the last year.
• Focus on my health, meaning eat right and exercise more.
• Write/Journal, spend more time focusing on my writing and my journals and delving into myself and my creative side. I find I am more focused and sleep better when I write each night before bed, as it clears my head. This includes doing a better job of writing and posting my blog each month.  My ultimate goal is to try to post once a week, but for now I am focusing on once a month and taking it month by month.  I do not know how some people manage to post daily.
• Explore other creative avenues.  I am considering taking a pottery class, or a watercolor class.  There are two books I am planning to read and explore this year.  Quinn McDonald's Raw Art Journaling and Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way.  I have both and have dabbled with them, but I plan to start reading one tonight and take a step forward with exploring this part of me.
• Read and expand my knowledge.  This includes anything from novels to cookbooks, or travel guides. It is the reading that brings me pleasure and increases my knowledge.
• Family, chatting with my cousin this morning we realized that we are the only ones in our family who stay in close touch and even then we are not perfect. I think the connections cracked and it started to fall apart when my grandmother moved to a nursing home and passed away.  Before that her home was the gathering place. 
• Last but not least, is to focus on my word for 2012. CELEBRATE!!

Wow! I did not realize it had been a month since I had last posted on my blog.  I have accomplished quiet a few things over the last month including finishing the tree skirts, one of which is currently residing under my Christmas tree, and making two table runners.






I also finished 15 pot holders for gifts.  DH loves the one I sent my mother and gave my oldest son, little did he know that there were a few in his stocking also. He also dd not know that I found a matching table runner at one of the craft shows and he was the lucky winner.  He was very happy to get them.



I made several table runners for gifts and for myself, in wintery blues that can be used past the Christmas holidays.



I have been busy writing in my journal taking up Quinn McDonald's 30 Day Creative Challenge and working on getting my thoughts in order.



My youngest son arrived home for 12 of leave from his military training.  It is a joyous time.  We decorated Christmas Cookies and are enjoying spending time. We have not seen him since September and have had very few phone calls as they keep a tight reign on them during basic training and AIT.  When he returns home again in February he will be a military policeman in the Army Nation Guard. It is wonderful to have him home.

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas, or Happy Hanukkah

--> which ever you may celebrate. I wish you many blessing in the new year.

Quiltville's Quips & Snips!!: Tools of the Trade for the Serial Quilter!

If you have not read Bonnie's blog today, it is a must read. Not only is there humor, but she has a few new gadgets that are definitely going on my Christmas list this year.

Quiltville's Quips & Snips!!: Tools of the Trade for the Serial Quilter!: A very funny thing happened on the way to --- Doesn’t that line just draw you in? Stories like this have to be good if they start with “A f...

Done Stripping

When I texted this to a friend of mine I thought how funny it sounded. Done Stripping, man can that give the imagination a run for the money.  For a quilter the meaning is very different than what a man thinks it means.

I sewed 88 strips in the last three days, as well as subbing all three days.  I am making a Chevron Christmas Tree skirt, well actually the pattern makes two because of the fact that cutting with a 9" wedge ruler requires you to flip the ruler for every cut and this gives you two different Chevron designs.  One going up and one going down.

I started with these fabrics: 

 

Then cut them into strips ranging from 1 3/8" to 4 1/2".

 I sewed them into sections either left or right, which are each made of eleven strips.

The strips are then pressed and cut into wedges:

Then the wedges are sewn together.

I have sewn together a few sets of two, as I am currently pressing the rest of the sewn strips so I can begin cutting them into wedges.

Hopefully I will get them all cut and sewn before class on Sunday, or at least enough to have one skirt sewn.  Then I need to buy either flannel or batting and figure out my backing. My goal is to have one done before Thanksgiving, or at least by the time we put up the tree.

I think I figured out the binding and I need to cut the square so I can make bias binding at class on Sunday.  It is a new fabric, not in the skirt.  I will keep you posted on my progress, and post the finished tree skirt, and if I am really good both finished tree skirts.