Quilting and Stuff by Knitnoid

Author Archives: Pam

I made my first quilted item as a visual aid for a math project in 7th grade. Over the next 25 years quilting was hit or miss, but quilting took over all the other crafts I've done in 2003.

QA Wednesday

Simple goals last week:

  • Finish cutting up the purple scraps – DONE
  • Cut the remaining blue bricks – DONE
  • Make a decision on the pink Carolina Christmas blocks – DONE — well the decision is.

This week’s goals will be almost as simple:

  • Add the border to the pink Carolina Christmas blocks
  • Make this week’s SBS BOW and 3 make up blocks
  • Resume the hand quilting on my DWR — aiming for 15 minutes a day

I’m still plugging away at my Star Struck quilt, but since I WANT to work on it, I’ll use it as a reward as I check off some of these other items.  Think it will work?

See how others are keeping on track over at Bari’s.

May’s Recap

I’m looking at my list of quilting goals from May 1st and it feels like I missed half of them. But then I take a look at what I accomplished and say “Wow!”

  • Keep up with the SBS BOW & make a few extra blocks – didn’t make a single block.
  • Work on Scrap Basket – specifically blues and neutrals – Not only cleared the blues and neutrals, emptied the basket!
  • Complete the Carolina Christmas Top – Technically this is complete, but I’m not counting it until I get the borders on the 2nd baby quilt.
  • Finish Dancing Flowers – Finished the top and started quilting — I’ll call this one halfway done.
  • Ship out 2 baby quilts – I got one shipped out.
  • Resume hand quilting on the Double Wedding Ring – Didn’t even look at the quilting frame.
  • Make 4-patch pillow case – Done May 1st.

What’s on My Design Wall

Stuck to my design wall this morning is the second baby quilt from the leftover Carolina Christmas blocks.  I’ve pieced the borders and have them up on the wall trying to decide if they work.  I’m leaning toward “Yes”.

But what I’m really working on today is the red white and blue Star Struck.  Since this picture was taken, I’ve finished sewing all of the bricks together and have started sewing the 2 1/2″ light squares to the red and blue to make points.

Check out the links on Judy’s page to see if anyone else is working on a patriotic quilt.

Stash Report

My birthday was last week, and for the last few years I’ve participated in a Birthday FQ Swap. These are the beautiful fabrics which I received.

I also participated in a new to me shop hop. Some fabric came home with me — but not much. A few FQs and a charm pack for my Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler, one just because, a music (it’s hard to stop collecting those) and a 2 yard piece which I’ll probably use for the backing of the 2nd baby quilt from my Carolina Christmas blocks. This shop hop did a shop hop quilt, and since the theme was red, white & blue I only bought the blocks since I’ll put them with the red, white and blue blocks I received in the birthday block swap I’m participating in (post on that later). Since some of the shops have pre-cut the pieces and I just have to sew them together, I’m not going to count that fabric in — nor will I count it out.

I did get some sewing done this week and some I was able to count in this week’s report. Borders sew for the baby quilt and enough blue and white or red and white bricks sewn together to make 34 Star Struck blocks.

Now the numbers (corrected):

Fabric Added this Week: 10.75 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 134.556 yards 120.181 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 3.819 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 42.882 yards

Net Stash for 2010: 91.674 yards 77.299 yards

Are we sure this is not a race to see who can collect 100 yards? Check out how others are doing by following the links over at Patchwork Times.

Extreme Multi-tasking

Clearly I need to step away from the sewing machine and make a decision on what I’m going to work on.

Bottom left – Texas Braid; Top left – part of Oklahoma Backroads; Sewing table left – the borders to the 2nd baby quilt from my Carolina Christmas blocks; Sewing table middle – some of the bricks for Star Struck; Sewing table right – 2″ blue and white squares for Blue Ridge Beauty.

Anyone notice a theme here?

Scraps in Review

Over the years my scraps multiplied. I didn’t really use them — they just sat in boxes and bags. Then I found Bonnie Hunter’s Scrap User’s System.

Around 2008 I started cutting up my scraps into usable pieces per Bonnie’s system. I started off with plastic shoe boxes for my pre-cut pieces. After a year, I finally got all of my scraps into a single laundry basket. For the past 11 months this basket has seen it’s ups and downs.

This year I decided that one of my goals was to empty the basket once and for all. I’ve been piddling with it since the beginning of the year, but this month I set my mind to getting it emptied.

I actually do make quilts from my scraps. Last fall I started Oklahoma Backroads because I couldn’t get my 2 1/2 inch bricks/blocks box closed. As I worked with my scraps this month, I was inspired to pull red, white and blue 2 1/2 inch bricks for a Star Struck quilt.

One thing I have noticed is that I don’t have a lot of “light” scraps. With this last push to empty the basket my 2 1/2″ and 1 1/2″ strips got larger boxes and I pulled the lights out. They are still in the shoe boxes.

Here’s the tour:

Left – Top to Bottom:

  • 1 1/2″ dark strips.  The Christmas tree box contains 1 1/2″ red and light squares for the center of a log cabin quilt.
  • Strings — the shoe box was overflowing.  I really liked the string blocks I made a while back but boy does working with strings make a mess.

Middle – Top to Bottom:

  • 1 1/2″ light strips
  • 2 1/2″ light strips
  • 2″ strips —  mixed and almost can’t close the box.  I’ll use these since I’m making my Texas Braid longer
  • 3 1/2″ strips — this started out as purple and yellow leftovers from Old Tobacco Road.
  • 2 1/2″ bricks and blocks for a red, white & blue Star Struck.  I want to use gold for the accent.

Right – Top to Bottom:

  • 2 1/2″ dark strips
  • 2 1/2″ brick and blocks
  • 2″ bricks and blocks.

Now that my scraps are usable, I’m going to have fun playing in them.

But, to answer your question — No, I do not want your scraps — at least not until I make a dent in these!

🙂

QA Wednesday

Last week I had a simple goal — Get the packages in the mail!

I’m happy to report that 4 packages went into the mail late Wednesday night and as of Monday afternoon they had all arrived at their destination.

Also on the list was “something”. I did a bit of machine quilting on Dancing Flowers, completed another 10 or 20 blocks on Oklahoma Backroads and started 2 more braids on Texas Braid.

But the biggest accomplishment which is on my 6 month list, but not last week’s list was I EMPTIED the scrap basket!

This basket has now been hauled to the bedroom to be used for LAUNDRY.

Ok, I admit it, I still have a bit to cut, but it’s been pressed and some it simply needs to be sorted.

I got side tracked Tuesday tonight. Earlier in the week when I was cutting the red scraps. I thought “I could make a Star Struck quilt using red and blue as my dark.” So there was nothing to do but dig through my 2 1/2″ bricks box and my 2 1/2″ dark strip box and pull red and blue bricks and strips. I have enough red bricks pulled/cut for 40 blocks. I need to cut some more blue strips to have enough blue bricks, but while I’m cutting….

So my goals for next week are:

  1. Finish cutting up the purple scraps
  2. Cut the remaining blue bricks
  3. Make a decision on the pink Carolina Christmas blocks — I’ve got pink fabric scattered about the room and I want to get it put up.

Now, if I could do as well on my Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler blocks and my Double Wedding Ring. Maybe they’ll go on my list next week.

See what others are up to by checking the links over at Bari’s.

What’s on My Design Wall

I can’t make up my mind what I’m working on. All weekend I had the 50 blocks I’ve completed for Oklahoma Backroads on the design wall and I was quilting Dancing Flowers. Additionally, I’ve been working on my red scraps. In addition to my usual sizes, since I’m working on the reds, I’m cutting 1 1/2 inch squares to use as the centers of log cabin blocks. But sometime Sunday afternoon I decided I needed to work some more on my Texas Braid.

My original plan was to make this about 36 inches square, but I’m liking the way it’s turning out, so I’m going to aim for about 60 x 80. So, I’ve got some length to add to these braids and I need another 4 (one is missing from the picture.)

Hop over to Judy’s to check out other design walls and see if anyone else is having trouble staying focused on a single project.

Stash Report

This week I put the borders on Carolina Christmas, started two new quilts in workshops and started quilting Dancing Flowers. When I totaled it up, I used more fabric than I thought. Nearly 2 yards in the Texas Braid, and it’s not finished.

However, the total fabric count is up since I integrated the three fabrics from mom’s stash into my own. I have no idea what I’m going to do with these fabrics, but time will tell.

Too bad I can’t count my scraps as I cut them up for future projects.  I’ve made my way through everything but the purple, pink and red in this picture and I dealt with the scraps from Carolina Christmas. The red is on my ironing board waiting to be cut.

Fabric Added this Week: 14.375 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 109.431 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 5.291 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 39.063 yards

Net Stash for 2010: 70.368 yards

This week I’ve remembered to actually report my totals before linking the report to Judy’s page.

Oklahoma Backroads – Option 2