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.

UFO Busting Link Up

January 30, 2015 4:11 pm ⋅ Pam

It’s the end of the month and time to report my UFO Busting Progress.

# of Projects in Process January 1st: 69
# of Projects Completed: 3
# of New Projects Started: 0
# of Projects in Process January 31st: 66

The three projects are Jewels in the Night — it just needed the binding stitched down; Scrappy Trips which needed quilting; and Jared Takes a Wife which also needed quilting.

Additionally I worked on 4 other UFOs. I finished the Christmas BOM quilt top; the rest of the Alphabet BOM blocks; and made 15 stars for my Star-A-Day quilt (as of 1/29). Finally, I’ve pulled out the Orca Bay box and have started attaching the sashing to the blocks.

Above all, I’ve managed to not start anything new!

I’m linking up with Vicki Welsh‘s 2015 .

Posted in: UFO Busting - 2015

Orca Bay Wednesday

January 28, 2015 11:22 pm ⋅ Pam

116 string geese are ready to become sashing in my Orca Bay quilt a Quiltville Mystery from several years ago. That little pile on the right need to be fixed as they in no way measure 3-1/2″ x 6-1/2″. I’m going to have to dig my sewing machine out from the office mess to fix them. My best guess is it will be another couple of weeks before the office is in order again. We are still tweaking the desk area.

Posted in: Orca Bay

What’s On My Design Wall

January 26, 2015 12:45 am ⋅ Pam

This week all I’ve accomplished with needle and thread is 3 new stars (which still need pressing). What can I say? Tuesday afternoon I started tearing the office space apart in preparation for a “new desk”. Well, that and to clean up some broken glass.

I think I’ve finally got all of the glass up and the computers are hooked back up. But there are still boxes to unpack and stuff to put away. There are boxes are piled up in front of the design wall

and on the cart.

Flat surfaces are piled high.

But the quilting books are now on the bookshelf that I swapped out. The wall hanging will need to be moved.

Others hung back up.

I can however say with certainty neither the ironing or cutting boards are piled with stuff. The only decision I have to make now is if this new arrangement is going to work for me. I’ll try it out for a week and in the meantime, put what I can away.

Hopefully there will be better eye candy through some of the other links over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: designwall, Star-A-Day

Stash Report

January 25, 2015 2:59 pm ⋅ Pam

I’m running late with this post, as I’ve been rearranging the computer area in my office. I’ve got the computers back up, but there are boxes of stuff all over the place which still need to be unpacked.

Fabric Added Since Last Report 0 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 11.91 yards

Fabric Used Since Last Report: 6.309 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 16.214 yards

DECREASE in Stash to Date: 4.304 yards

I did not work on my scraps this week – except to generate more as I traced and cut out about 20 stars for my Star-a-Day project. I’m not sure that counts — but it did take me more than 30 minutes!

See how others are doing with their stashes by following the links over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: Stash Busting Report

Prepping Stars

January 23, 2015 12:18 am ⋅ Pam

Earlier this week the modem took a nose dive off the bookshelf and fell on a just emptied glass, breaking it. Why is this important? Because it means I’ve torn my office/sewing room apart to get behind the desks to clean up the bits and pieces. But moving the big desk will be easier with two people – especially since I want to switch some furniture out, so the final push won’t happen until this weekend. Meanwhile, I can’t get to the sewing machine so I’ve been working on my Star-a-Day blocks.

Tonight, instead of stitching a block, I prepped stars. This is some of the fabric I picked back in November. I finally sat still long enough to trace the pieces off and cut them out. I need to find my alternate square fabric and cut a few squares, but all the star pieces are ready now for 9 more blocks. At the moment I have 73 stars made.

Posted in: Star-A-Day

Another UFO Bites the Dust

January 20, 2015 2:46 am ⋅ Pam

Last year I was making black and white 4-patches with the intention of making Bricks & Stepping Stones, but then there was quilt-a-long for Jared Takes A Wife and I repurposed the 4-patches.

I quilted this with the panto “Floral Meander” using Transitions Variegated thread #41062 – Primary Explosion in the top and a burgundy bobbin thread. The batting is Hobb’s Tuscany Collection.

The quilt is bound with Susie’s Magic Binding – the same green as the sashing with a touch of the pink showing.

After washing the quilt measures 65″ x 77″.

While I was at it I also made a pillowcase.

I’ll link this finish up to:

UFO Parade over at Aunt Marti’s 52 Quilts
UFO Busting at Field Trips in Fiber
1st Quarter finish in the 2015 Finish-A-Long (1st qtr goals)

Now on to those stars!

Posted in: Finish-A-Long - 2015, Jared Takes a Wife, UFO Busting - 2015, UFO Parade - 2015, UFOs

What’s On My Design Wall

January 19, 2015 6:32 am ⋅ Pam

Yesterday I put my Star-A-Day blocks up on the wall just so it wouldn’t be empty this week. Not that I didn’t work on other things last week (Scrappy Trips and “matching” pillowcase). Since the first of the month I’ve completed 8 new stars. I think I need to kick it in gear since I would like to make about 45 this month.

On the ironing board is Jared Takes A Wife. I’m off to quilt it later this morning.

The Christmas BOM is the big news. Saturday I got the borders on the quilt! I’ve found the backing fabric in my stash. Now I just have to figure out how I’m going to quilt it and what color thread to use. Needless to say, this quilt top is going to have to age a bit.

See what others have been up to by following the links over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: Christmas BOM, goals, Jared Takes a Wife, Stash Busting Report, UFOs

Stash Report

January 18, 2015 12:01 am ⋅ Pam

Yes, 9 yards of fabric was received in this past week. But I got Scrappy Trips quilted and bound, made a pillowcase to go with it and put the borders on my Christmas BOM. Which is just over 6 yards. So there’s still more fabric in for the year than used, but I’ll have another quilt top quilted & bound and a pillowcase by the end of the week which should put me with more used than brought in – at least until I pick up the background fabric I’ve ordered for a new quilt.

Fabric Added Since Last Report 9.0 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 11.91 yards

Fabric Used Since Last Report: 6.063 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 7.675 yards

Increase in Stash to Date: 4.235 yards

As for the habit of working on my scraps for 30 minutes each week, I only got 15 minutes in this week. I suspect with another 15 minutes I won’t have room to store the shorter pieces in the box and will need to stop and cut them down.

See how others are doing with their stashes by following the links over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: habit, scraps, Stash Busting Report

I Cheated

January 17, 2015 3:12 pm ⋅ Pam

I made the pillowcase on my “new” machine instead of the treadle. The print wasn’t square on the fabric so I had to make an executive decision. Square along the length or square along the cuff. I opted for the length.

Posted in: pillowcase

A Treadle Project

January 16, 2015 11:54 am ⋅ Pam

Scrappy Trips was completely made on my treadle machine “Miss Florence Jane“. Everything from piecing the blocks, assembling the quilt top, piecing the quilt backing, the quilting itself, piecing the binding and attaching the binding – both front and back to the quilt was done on the treadle. The only thing I didn’t do on the treadle was stitch the label down. I did that by hand.

I used Scrappy Trips, a Bonnie Hunter pattern for the blocks, and then set them as one big trip.

The quilt tops was started April 4, 2013 and I finished the top January 11, 2014. I started the quilting on January 10, 2015 and put the last stitch in the label on January 15, 2015.

The washed quilt measures 68″ x 90″. I used Hobb’s Heirloom Natural Cotton Batting. I used a khaki colored thread on the top and a white thread in the bobbin. The binding is red with a gold flange. I used Susie’s Magic Binding. The backing was pieced from two 60″ wide lengths of this Kansas City Chiefs fabric which came from Mom.