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.

Three Days into the New Year and Procrastination Has Started

January 3, 2010 2:52 pm ⋅


It’s only January 3rd, and I’ve already started procrastinating — and I’m not talking about the laundry or other housework — that’s ongoing. I’m referring to getting those last few seams done on the Double Wedding Ring or putting borders on Ladder to the Stars.

I’ve finished the HSTs for Carolina Christmas Part 4. I don’t have the 2 1/2″ squares cut that are needed to finish this part. To help combat the procrastination, I’m not going to cut them until I finish the DWR top. There’s only 9 4-patches, 23 3-patches and 2 2-patches to finish seaming (see, anything to avoid working on it).  I think I’ve narrowed it down to 3 things.

  1. I’ve worked on this quilt on and off (mostly off) for 20 years and it will be sad in some ways to see the top finished — never mind that I’ll finally get to start quilting on it.
  2. I made the mistake of putting it on the bed before I finished those 4-patches to see if I need to make it bigger. As a result I’ve “seen” the finished top and I’m ready to move on.
  3. I’m not able to simply use a 1/4″ seam.  Each seam has to be measured to see what is going to best work for the particular patch I’m working on.

Truth be told, it’s # 3 which is really holding me back.

As for why Ladder to the Stars is not getting done it’s because if I work on that, I’m not working on the DWR.  Anyone see a theme here other than me?

Well, I said the DWR is # 1 on my Accountability Challenge so I that will be what I work on next.  Right after I get something to drink, read a chapter or two in my current book and perhaps shoveling some snow off the driveway.

Oh , I’ve got a problem.

Posted in: Carolina Christmas, dwr, goals

Stash Report

January 3, 2010 1:12 am ⋅


This is the start of my second year participating in Judy’s Stash Report at Patchwork Times.  It is a new year, so I’ve reset my counters, since I still don’t know the total size of my stash. Although I can tell you how much larger it is today that it was a year ago.

I won’t pretend that I’ll escape the year without fabric coming into the house. Already I’ve received a FQ as a gift (Thank you, C!) and since I’m participating in a birthday FQ swap, I’ll pick up about 4 yards in May. Again the primary goal is simply to be observant as to what comes into the house.

On the outbound side, it would be nice hit the 100 yard mark again. I think I’ve got about 50 yards “planned” if I get everything done on my list. If I don’t hit 100 yards, I’d be happy to come closer to breaking even.

This past week I worked on Carolina Christmas and Oklahoma Backroads. And I cut the binding for Raising Cane so I wouldn’t accidently use it before I needed it.

Here are the totals:

Fabric Added this Week: 0.25 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 0.25 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 5.926 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 5.926 yards

Net Stash for 2010: -5.426 yards

I wonder how long I’ll have more out than in?

Posted in: Stash Busting Report

Carolina Christmas – Part 3

January 2, 2010 10:12 pm ⋅


I’m happy to report that I’ve completed Part 3 of Carolina Christmas, and I’m just over halfway though making the HSTs for Part 4. They are all cut out, and just need to be stitched and pressed. Then I’ll need to cut the background squares for Part 4.

I’ve been making the bonus triangles on both this quilt and Oklahoma Backroads. I figured it out and I’ll have 376 pink and white HSTs and 640 light/dark HSTs finishing at 1 1/2″. Since the box is nearly full, I’ll need to figure out how to use them.

Posted in: Carolina Christmas

Wind-Up for the Weekend

January 1, 2010 2:37 pm ⋅

I’m participating in Tamara’s Wind-Up for the weekend.  It’s a chance to sit down and figure out what you are planning to work on over the weekend.  Since I tend to get in some quilting everyday, I’m going to expand this to include the whole week.

Have I mentioned I get distracted easily?

Starting in the top right corner is Carolina Christmas.  I bought the white fabric a week ago Tuesday and now I want to work on this quilt.  The bottom right is my leader/ender project Oklahoma Backroads.  The top left is Ladder to the Stars.  It just needs the borders to finish the quilt top.  The bottom right is my Double Wedding Ring — I STILL haven’t finished sewing up those last 4-patches and the 3-patches around the edge of the quilt.  This is going to be # 1 on my Accountability Challenge Bari is doing on Wednesdays at My Crazy Quilting Life.

I want to start quilting the music quilt, but once I start that, I won’t be able to piece, so I think I’m going to make my way through these 4 projects before I baste  the music quilt. Because once I start quilting, I’ll want to finish it.

Posted in: Wind-Up

2010 Quilting Goals

January 1, 2010 10:15 am ⋅

Happy New Year!

So here we are at the start of a new year with a fresh slate to work on our goals. Of course if I write them down and more importantly put them out in public, then maybe I might succeed in accomplishing them.  The list is lengthy, but if I don’t list it, it sure won’t get accomplished.  If I do, it might. So here it is:

Ongoing Tasks:

  • Keep up with the Sylvia Bridal Sampler BOW
  • Keep Scraps Cut Up and Make Progress on the Scrap Basket
  • Finish Any New Starts

Complete these Tops:

  • Carolina Christmas
  • Stripy 4-Patch
  • Ladder to the Stars

Quilt and Bind:

  • Double Wedding Ring
  • Music Quilt
  • Stripy 4-Patch
  • Green & Cream Block Swap
  • A Baby Quilt from my Top Stash
  • One of my Bonnie Hunter Designs
Posted in: goals

Reflections on 2009 Quilting Goals

December 31, 2009 3:07 pm ⋅

My quilting goals for this past year were simple enough.

At the beginning of 2009 I have way to many projects in the works. So I’m going to work on getting them done this year, along with not buying speculation fabric – or even fabric that I’m not ready to use immediately. That doesn’t mean I won’t buy fabric, just that I’ll pay better attention to what and when I buy it.

So what happened? Before January was up I had bought a few FQs and fabric for a quilt, which I still haven’t made. There were two more purchases over the year of fabrics for quilts which now sit as PIGS (Projects I Grocery Sacks), but I’d like to think the rest of my purchases were either immediately made up or to fill holes in my stash.

On the other hand, I finished 7 UFOs and 6 new projects. They are recapped on the 2009 Finishes page.

I also moved 11 quilts from the “working on” stage to the “completed top” stage. Only 4 of those were new starts in 2009. There are another 4 quilts which were started last year which haven’t made it to the “complete top” stage.

Overall, I accomplished plenty in the quilting realm of 2009. But I really need to work on FINISHING things instead of starting new.

Posted in: goals

My New Blogging Home

December 30, 2009 10:02 pm ⋅

A year ago I ventured into blogging about my quilting to participate in Judy’s Stash Busting Reports over at Patchwork Times. Not knowing anything about blogging, I picked Blogger. It was easy to use right off the bat.

However, I’ve occasionally wanted to post a pattern in PDF format and I like the idea of pages – neither of which I’ve been able to figure out how to do on Blogger. Then earlier this month while working on my husband’s web page (www.tedavara.com) I discovered that WordPress supported both of these things. So here I am.

I’ve imported all of the Blogger entries, but the links still point back to the original post on Blogger. I’ve thought about editing the posts, but I’d rather simply move forward. This is still a work in progress, but let me know what you think. I had followers on Blogger and I hope they follow me over here to my new home.

Now back to quilting!

Posted in: Uncategorized

What’s On My Design Wall? – 12/28

December 28, 2009 11:58 am ⋅


Another week where I am recycling an old photo. There’s nothing on my design wall this morning.

I finished Raising Cane yesterday and I don’t want to start anything new. Not that I don’t have plenty to work on. My goals for the rest of the year are to get the borders on Ladder to the Stars and finish the rest of those seams on the DWR. I’m not sure what’s up with the DWR.

So last night, instead of doing either of these tasks, or even working on step 3 of Carolina Christmas I was playing with WordPress to see if I would like it better than Blogger. I like the idea of pages and with WordPress I can upload PDF files. So this may be my last Design Wall post from Blogger.

But I will not work on it any more until I get the DWR ready to baste! Keep reminding me of this. I really want this quilt on our bed by the end of November.

Check out what everyone else has on their design wall this last week of 2009 over at Judy’s blog.

Posted in: Carolina Christmas, designwall, dwr, Ladder to the Stars

Raising Cane – A Dorothy Young Mystery Quilt

December 27, 2009 1:58 pm ⋅


This morning I added the borders to Raising Cane.

Originally, I had a beautiful butterfly print for the border, but it just wasn’t working when I finished the center of the quilt. Then I remembered a stripe fabric I bought that didn’t work for it’s intended purpose. It was perfect. The top now sings.


While I was debating the border, I finished up Part 2 of Carolina Christmas.

Posted in: Carolina Christmas, Raising Cane

Stash Report Week # 52

December 27, 2009 10:31 am ⋅

Well, here it is my final stash busting report of the year. I started these reports to play along with Judy at Patchwork Times and to see exactly how much fabric was coming into the house and then being used. While I was at it I tracked all of my expenditures — thread, patterns, notions, classes, etc. I must say it’s been an eye opener.

This past week I had fabric coming in and going out. My LQS had a 40% off coupon — first one I think I’ve ever seen in 5 year. So, I bought 6 yards of bright white on white. I’ll use it to finish up Carolina Christmas and then put whatever is left back in the stash. Along with the WOW I was given a Civil War charm pack. So 6.69 yards in this week.

I didn’t quite use as much as I brought in this week. I made a baby quilt from Dorothy Young’s current mystery quilt Raising Cane. Two more borders and then I have top and 2 yards out of my stash. This week I also made a pillowcase, bound two labels (didn’t discover the error until I started to put it on the quilt), and I’m counting the fabric I’ve used so far in my leader/ender project Oklahoma Backroads. In all that’s just shy of 5 1/2 yards.

Fabric Added this Week: 6.69 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 289.273 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 5.487 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 114.263 yards

Net Stash: +283.786 yards

It doesn’t look like it, but I was more selective in my purchases. I can only think of two or three yards of fabric (or FQ equivalent) that I bought just because I liked it. Most of my purchases were either everything I needed to make a quilt (which I still haven’t done) or to finish something I was working on. The rest of the inbound number is the result of generous friends who know I love making scrap quilts and they where cleaning out their own stash. It’s taken 24 years, but my husband has finally said “no more fabric”. And I agree, until I get some of what I have worked up. Then, we’ll see.

Posted in: Stash Busting Report