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.

What Was I Thinking?

I signed up for another mystery and I never finished the last one, now I have a new UFQ. I also have a list a mile long of things I want to make and projects waiting to be started. What is wrong with me. I have a pile of UFQs to finish and gifts to make and I started another long term project that will take me awhile to do. I must be a glutton for punishment.

I think I am one of those people who function well under pressure, but sometimes I put too much pressure on myself. I do the same with my quilting by overloading myself with projects that have deadlines. I also have a lot of UFQs that need to be finished and really should not be starting any more new projects, but start them I do. For
example last weekend I started a new mystery. I picked out my fabrics:

Then I spent over six hours cutting strips, rectangles, squares and triangles and another six hours sewing triangles together to make squares. I then sewed those together with squares and rectangles to make sections of the quilt prior to class. Then on Saturday I spent six more hours sewing and cutting and have only completed two panels of the quilt.

 I still have the last mystery I signed up for to finish,

and now I have added the one to the list.

I also have a baby quilt to finish and the baby is due very, very soon. I have to top done, but need to piece the backing and quilt and bind it.

Then I have a class on Sunday to start a Christmas Tree Skirt.

I also want to get my Kitchen Sink Jacket quilted and got put on the back burner when I broke my arm last spring.

Please tell me what was I thinking? I know I retired, but that did not mean I was suppose to fill every waking hour. I am still teaching as a substitute and working two to three days a week, and there are only so many hours in a day. I have hit the point of feeling overwhelmed which I was not suppose to do when I retired. Now don't get me wrong I love subbing and I love quilting, but sometimes I need to say NO! I have friends who convince me to take classes, which I love doing and I have a great time, but sometimes I just need to say, NO!  The good thing about subbing is it pays for my habit, quilting.

I need to rethink things and get some of these UFQs off my pile and onto beds or couches or walls, and I need to get more focused on my blog. Except that today my blog is frustrating me as I am having technical difficulties posting pictures.

I am working on the process of getting myself more organized and setting a schedule for myself that allows me to focus on both my blog and my quilting. I started out a plan and then got lost along the way. I just need to get myself back on track and stay on track. It will just take will power, which I do have. Now should I buy that batik kit Schoolrn1 posted that she bought, it is a beautiful BOM.........

Quilting Friday

     I spent part of today sewing on a variety of projects.  I pieced borders for my purple quilt, and now they are ready to put on. I also started putting borders on my mystery from hell.  I mitered the corners, so guess that I will need to miter the corners on the next five borders also. Yes, it has six borders. This is the quilt that came out so tiny because of an error in the cutting directions. I had to make like 32 more blocks to make it a decent size and now am adding borders to enlarge it.  There are six colors in the quilt and therefore six borders.  I will post a picture soon.
     I also finished cutting out the baby quilt, including the inner borders and realized that I do not like one of the greens so am off to the quilt store this weekend to find a different green, and I know exactly which one I want.  I started putting the rows together since it is a simple pattern, except for where the green fabric goes.
     I also did a few stitches on the binding of my rainbow quilt. I have two sides done and two to go.  My goal is to finish the binding by the end of next week at the latest.  I am subbing 2.5 days next week so that will cut into my sewing time, though I can take my small hand work projects like applique to work on during lunch.
     It is 10:00 PM here and I am tired so am heading to bed. Hope you are getting lots of quilting done and taking time to enjoy the fall weather. We had a lovely day again today, though the rain returned this evening.

Follow up to Sewing the Day Away

I was a little over ambitious yesterday, but still accomplished a  lot. I now have two quilts waiting for me to do the hand stitching on the binding. I made and attached the binding to the front of my rainbow quilt and Bryce's guitar quilt. I also found the wall hanging that I need to finish the binding on, buried in my sewing machine carrier. I knew it was some where. I must have stuck it in there last spring, as I was working on it the weekend before I broke my arm.

I was able to cut the borders for both my purple quilt and the mystery, and pieced the borders for the mystery. I am thinking I may do a little more sewing this afternoon and see if I can get the borders attached to one or the other of these quilts. Both quilts have multiple borders, and I am debating if I want to add a checker board border to the mystery. I need to take a picture and post it to get input.

I have also decided that I want to make a quick run back to the quilt store to pick up some more fabric for my purple quilt so I can make pillow cases to match. If am lucky that they still have some of the one fabric and I have enough of the others to border the pillow cases. I want to make 4 pillow cases, and only have enough for two.

I did fussy cut the bunny fabric for the baby quilt and ended up buying a couple of fabrics to replace what I was originally going to use as they had pink and pale green fabric that was in the Christmas fabric section by the same company that matched the bunny fabric. Now I do not get how pink and pale green fit into Christmas, as they look like they belong in a nursery. They had pretty pink flowers on them and to me that is not Christmasy.

Although I did not get everything on my list completed, I made good progress and I feel like I accomplished a lot.

On a side note I took a break and went with a friend to visit a new long arm quilter. I liked her work that I saw, though she leaves more open space than I like, but I think I may give her a try on quilt or two.

I also found some gorgeous Christmas fabric that just had to come home with me. The dangers of spending the day at the quilt store.  I am off to the quilt stores to pick up pillow case fabric, and thread to quilt the baby quilt. Thinking a pale pink would would work well. (And yes, I do mean stores as one has the fabric and the other carries Aurifil thread.)

Sewing the Day Away

Today is dedicated to sewing. I have the car loaded to head out to the quilt store where I have signed up to sew all day. There is a day and an evening group of ladies of get together to sew once a month. I have always been in the evening group, and now that I am retired I have joined the day time group as well. There are a few of us who do both.
I have several things lined up to work on today starting with binding the rainbow quilt since I finally found a fabric to bind it. I had one all picked out and ready to go, but it was too short and I had no more fabric and could not find any more, so bought a new one and am ready to go.

I also plan to bind Bryce's guitar quilt. It will still need to be embellished, but binding is a step in the right direction.

 I also have a quilt I started several years ago and misplaced the fabric so was at a lost to finish it. I found the focus fabric in my sewing room when cleaning, and some of the secondary fabrics. I was also able to buy more of one of the secondary fabrics and a fabric that blends well since I do not have much left of another secondary fabric and can finally finish the borders so I can send it off to be quilted. As you can see this quilt is in purples so yes, it for me. That will give me a total of three quilts for my bed, including the rainbow quilt.

The next project on my list is a baby quilt, but the fabric is already in the car, so no peeks until later, and to work on the mystery that I started last spring and had to stop working on when I broke my arm and another mystery that needs borders which already to go, I just need to attach them.
I will focus on the first three things to start and then see what gets done today, I am guessing it will be borders on the mystery and the baby quilt, as the other mystery still has a long way to go, and I am putting it at the bottom of the list. Today's goal is to make progress and get as much done as possible.
Hope you have a quilty day and accomplish a lot.
I am out of to sew.