There’s nothing on my design wall proper but a few threads.  Since I finished both the Irish Chain and Stained Glass quilt tops last week, I was at a loss on what to work on next.  I could have pulled out my list of things which I would like to finish by the end of the year, but instead, I pulled out my shirts.

Back in early July, I restrained myself from cutting into my shirts to start Checkerboard Plaids.

It is from Evelyn Sloppy’s 40 Fabulous Quick-Cut Quilts.

This weekend I resisted no more and made a good headway on my units required for the quilt top.  I still need to make the strips with two plaids and one muslin center before I can start working on the blocks.  Turns out I didn’t have enough dark shirts, but I found a few homespuns in my stash that I was able to work into mix.

Oh, and other good news — I found the missing spool blocks when I was cleaning up the sewing room.  I also cut a few more.

Check out the links over at Patchwork Times to see what’s on others design walls this morning.

This past week I finished my Scrappy Irish Chain top and we pulled the binding for Syd’s quilt from my stash.

Fabric Added Since Last Report: 0 yards
Fabric Added to Date:  96.302 yards

Fabric Used Since Last Report: 4.211  yards
Fabric Used to Date: 78.488 yards

Net Used for the year -17.814 yards

Here’s the link for the stash report over at Judy’s.

It was just past midnight when I stitched the last seam of my Scrappy Irish Chain.  I followed Bonnie Hunter’s Happily Scrappily Irish from her book Adventures with Leaders & Enders.  The top currently measures 68 x 83 so I don’t know if I’ll add a border or simply quilt and bind it.

I’ve mentioned a couple of times lately that my sewing room is a disaster and needs cleaning.  But the question — Is working on these three projects procrastinating or advancing the cause?

Project # 1 – This is Irish Chain I’ve been working on for a while.  Essentially I have 9 more seams and then I’m done with the top – unless I decide it needs borders.  Stitch those 9 seams (4 sets are pinned in the picture) and I can put away the quilt tops and clean up the scraps – even if I does need borders because I’ll have to think on it a while.

Project # 2: This is Diamond links. Way back in January, I started quilting this quilt.  I can’t remember what happened — ran out of bobbin thread maybe? — anyway, I took it off the machine and brought it home.  I need to quilt about 2 1/2 rows of blocks plus the border.  Not to mention rip out some stitching.  I did the ripping during lunch.  This project, along with fabric for the binding and a couple of pillowcases,  has been stuffed in a laundry basket which I keep shifting around the room.  If I get it done, it can go to its forever home and the basket down to the basement.

Project #3: My scrap basket.  I love Bonnie Hunter’s Scrap User System.  I finished cutting up my scraps a couple of years ago and then kept them cut for about 18 months.  Then there was The Challenge and keeping up with my scraps just wasn’t a priority.  So for the past 18 months, they’ve been accumulating.  This is another basket that keeps getting shuffled around the room.

Admittedly, this is not all that I’ve been doing.  I’ve actually have been doing ‘real’ cleaning.  I can actually see bits and pieces of the cutting mat on my cutting board and the piles are not quite as high as they were earlier in the week.  The extra sewing table was cleared — of course now it’s got miscellaneous office supplies and computer parts on it.  The room feels bigger/cleaner — but in reality part of that is simply because I’ve just shifted some boxes/crates around.

I’m going to do cut up the scraps I’ve pressed then see about finishing the Irish Chain.  If the Irish Chain is finished and I’m only using it to procrastinate, let’s get it done so I won’t have it to distract me.

The stained glass top is now finished.  It was made on my Genie and was supposed to be my take along project, but it got bumped up when I started having issues with matching seams on my Irish chain.

I’m open for suggestions on how to quilt it — not that it’s very high in the queue.  Of course that could change if I figure out how I’m going to quilt it.

The best news is that I will have yardage figures for next week’s stash report.  I just realized that I’ve already counted this fabric.  🙁  Now to try to straighten up my sewing room.  It’s a disaster.

After a bit of research, I have determined that this is a Singer Card Table # 314.   A long bed Singer 301 fits this table.  I understand that a Singer 401 will also fit the table.

One of the legs is missing a screw, but I’m sure I can find something which will work.

Now all I need is a matching sewing machine.

There’s nothing new on my wall this week that I didn’t post about last week, so I’m showing off Sydney’s first quilt – actually first sewing project.  We finished it this weekend.

She made it for her cousin whose first birthday is 2 weeks from now.

The quilt measures 41″ square (before washing — didn’t think to measure it after).  The batting is Warm & Natural.  The thread is Coat & Clark Star in white.  The top was made from my pre-cut rectangles and a bit of yardage from my stash.  The backing is from Sydney’s stash that she started a couple of weeks ago. 😉  The center is flannel and the borders are deliberately off-center — we needed to save some of Snow White’s heads.  It was quilted on my home sewing machine.

Although it’s not what on my design wall, I’m still going to link up with Judy’s Design Wall Monday.

I spent last week working on the stained glass quilt, but didn’t quite finish it, choosing to go thrifting instead on Saturday.  Perhaps this week I’ll get the top finished and get to count the fabric.  No yardage came home with me – only shirts – and what we are now thinking is a table for a 301.  I still need to do a bit of research to find out for certain.

Fabric Added Since Last Report: 0 yards
Fabric Added to Date:  96.302 yards

Fabric Used Since Last Report: 0  yards
Fabric Used to Date: 74.277 yards

Net Used for the year -22.025 yards

Here’s the link for the stash report over at Judy’s.

Since this is Judy’s Quiltathon weekend,  I should have sewn all day.  After all my young friend is here and we want to finish up her quilt this weekend.

I’ve been collecting 100% cotton shirts to repurpose, but it’s been slow going since I’m not willing to spend $3.95 and up for a shirt.  But it occured to me that frequently big church and fundraiser sales sometime have by the bag pricing.

Since I knew of two such sales, I scoured Craigslist and came up with 10 possible sales.  This morning before it was light, I was out the door to the first sale.

The pile of shirts in the back left corner was my first purchase.  $1 a bag — and I found 7 shirts.  I left with my wallet intact at the next two stops, but was tempted at the 4th.

There I found this machine in a hide-a-way cabinet for $25.

I don’t really need another machine that doesn’t zigzag, nor do I have space for a machine in a cabinet.  So I left empty-handed.

Then I picked up my young quilting friend and we hit the rest of the stops on my list.  I think we spent a total of $12 or $13 for everything you see pictured — 8 cotton shirts, 2 sets of new cotton pajamas, a home-made long cotton skirt, a pair of suspenders, large gift bag, paper bag book, bird necklace, 3D puzzle, game, cello print and the table everything is sitting on.

Some sort of sewing machine fits in that table.  There is a serial number on both the table and insert which is 7″ x 19 1/2″.  A screw is missing from one of the legs.  I don’t know what is supposed to fit in this table, nor do I have anything which will, but for $2.00 could I go wrong?

As for the quilting we were suppose to do?

I’m not sure what happened.  But I need to work on my machine before we do any more quilting.

One of my early quilting classes was a Block of the Month at Hancock Fabrics.  This was not it.  This was the previous year’s quilt and I bought the blocks on clearance.  I have no idea how the quilt was to be originally set, so the blocks sat waiting for inspiration to strike.

I first found the stripe fabric, then the border fabric and finally the bright green.  My notes indicate I started the quilt in March 2005 and finished it November 28, 2005 – obviously before my UFOs needed to age a year or more.

The quilt measures 70″ x 90″ and is quilted on my sewing machine.  The batting is probably Warm and Natural. The backing (which I don’t have a picture of is a mish-mash of the left over fabric.  I gave it to my oldest niece for Christmas when she was about 12.

I scanned the fabric to grab a bird. The label was created in my word processing program and then printed on “dark t-shirt” transfer material which I fused to a piece of the sashing fabric.