I’m not finished with the pastel shirt quilt, but started thinking about backings since I’m about 1/2 to completion.

I have enough blocks cut to make a top 56″ x 68″ and there is more fabric, so I could enlarge it depending on the fabric combinations I need. I’ve even found a 5 yard length of peach fabric to use for the backing. I think Momma had plans to make a quilt for my brother and his wife years ago as I have a couple of coordinating prints in my stash.

But I kept digging in my stash to see if I could find something a bit more masculine and found some vintage flannel that just screams “use me”.

So, now I’m thinking I’ll make a smaller quilt so I can use this fabric. Something in the range of 48″ x 60″. I’ll put the extra blocks into another quilt.

On another note, since before I started this quilt, I’ve been looking for my copy of Open a Can of Worms by Debbie Caffrey. I bought it off the Guild table at the quilt show in Wichita.  I didn’t think it could be too deep since it’s only been a month, but I simply wasn’t finding it.  Would you believe I had more or less put it up? I found it in the magazine bins.  I suspect there wasn’t room on the bookshelf at the time, but I gave my sister-in-law a couple of my quilting books when she was here earlier this month.

Yes, I’ve jumped on the Jelly Roll Rug bandwagon.  I had been thinking about it since I saw the first class in my area — but it was at the same time as my trip to the MQA June Gathering, so naturally I didn’t sign up for it.

While on the trip I bought a Benartex jelly roll at Tuesday Morning — I had heard fabric could be found there, but personally had not seen any.  Of the 3 or 4 choices I picked Sevilla. I thought the yellow would go in my sewing room and the price was right.

The next step was to get the pattern.  My sister nabbed a pattern at the quilt show we went to in Wichita.

When I bought the batting to recover my ironing board, I decided to use the leftovers for my rug — when I got that far and after I got my own pattern.

But then Creative Hands was doing a class for $30 and it included the pattern and batting.   Sold!

Taught in one day, we started making our ‘rope’ from the center. After about 2 -2 1/2 hours we stopped and started on the rug.  This is NOT the way the pattern lays out the instructions but it worked.

Mine had a “peanut” shape when I brought it home. The thought was it would press out.

But when I straightened it, it waved big time.  So, I ripped all the way back to the first curve.  I started with a seam ripper and realized quickly that was going to take forever.  So,  I got out the eyebrow trimmer that Alison gave me to put with my quilting notions.

Click HERE to see the eyebrow trimmer at work on my rug.

Once I was done ripping, I started again, this time, going around that end differently (no, I’m not sure I can explain it), resulting in a much flatter rug.  I did press it once after a couple of rounds, but after that, I just sewed and the rug is flat!

I ran out of thread this evening working on the new quilt.  This spool of thread lasted me about 22 months 9/9/16 – 7/19/18. Yes, I made a note on the spool when I started it. But then I couldn’t find the spool I purchased in June in anticipation of this day.  Crawled around on the floor under my sewing table since the cats and I are constantly knocking stuff off the table. No luck.  I remembered having it when I was working on my Carolina Chain quilt in the living room, but it wasn’t in that box.  I knew I could make due with another color of thread for my piecing tonight, but I needed to locate the new cone of thread for my class Saturday.  I’m going to make the Jelly Roll Quilt and I understand it takes a LOT of thread.

Naturally, almost instantly after I posted on Facebook that I couldn’t find my thread I turned around and spotted it in another box I had open in the living room last month. Now I have to decide which machine I’m taking to class Saturday. My Husqvarna Quilt Designer or my Singer Genie. In the meantime, I moved forward on the pastel shirt quilt.

This is just shy of 1/4 of the quilt.  It will be 6 more rail blocks wider and 9 more rows longer — if the fabric holds out.

Better lighting is needed, but this in my monochromatic table runner I pieced back in March 2016.  I just finished stitching down the binding.

So naturally I’ve started another quilt.  These are my fabrics.

It’s going to be made with 2-1/2 inch strips and finish at 56″ x 68″. I thought my limitation was the plaid, but it turns out it’s the solid colors. Those were smaller shirts.  This is the current plan.

Well, at least I was off work all week.  Too bad it took me until Thursday afternoon to figure out how to turn off the notifications on my phone for my work email.

My sister-in-law bought us all tickets for a Royal’s game.  They lost, but the fireworks afterwords were awesome.

I’m doing my best to turn her into a quilter.  When I visited with her in June, she showed me some of the fabric she had left over from clothes she’s made over the years. She started cutting 5 inch squares and brought them with her and then we designed a simple quilt based on the number and color of squares she had.

We even found some yardage in my stash that will be a great backing.  I also went through my rulers and found some duplicates which I was able to send home with her.  Then we hit a couple of quilt shops.

At the first one, we found the Christmas Panel. That afternoon we drove to Lawrence for lunch, so naturally we stopped in at the quilt shop there.  That’s where we found the the burgandy, green, and cream to make our wall hangings.

She flew home Tuesday and I stopped at a new to me quilt shop on the way back from the airport. I didn’t get anything this time, but I’ll add it to shop rotation.

Wednesday, I went to an estate sale and came home with a box of ties, Christmas fabric and upholstery samples.

I’ve got the fabric and samples washed and put up, but still need to wash the ties.

Thursday, I decided to swing by another quilt shop. It’s probably been 5 years since I’ve been in it. They’ve doubled their space, are now selling A1 quilting machines and have WAY more fabric than they did on my first visit. Best of all, I think I’ve found a purse/bag pattern similar to the bag I was carrying so I don’t have to figure out how to make it — just follow the instructions.

Finally today I started out at a garage sale where I picked up a couple of patterns, a piece of striped fabric and a new to me printer. Then on the way home we stopped by the book store and I picked up a quilt book on different log cabin quilts.

I’ve also quilted on my monochromatic table runner. I’ve been working on the binding the past couple of nights and should have it done in one more evening.

Tomorrow if it’s not too hot when I get up I’ll go to a quilt show. After that, it will be gearing up to go back to work.

Tonight I finished a quilt. That’s a total of 2 quilts for the year and two more than I finished last year, or the year before combined. It still needs to be washed, but it’s bound.

The top fabric, except for the border, came from a box of scraps that a friend gave me several years ago.  The border fabric is from the early 1990’s and my mom’s stash. The backing fabric came from my stash — I think I bought it around the time I was making the Eeyore quilt.

Simple cross-hatching, measured by wide painters tape.

The quilt measures 39″ square before washing.  I’ll do that in the next few days.

I have a very large room that I use for my sewing room and office (I work from home).  It’s about 17-1/2 feet long and nearly 13 feet wide. It should be plenty big for anything I need to do.  However, if you notice on the drawing which is nearly to scale there is a large window on the west wall, a door into the garage, a passage into the kitchen, a door into the living room (I keep the swing door propped open except when I know guests are coming over) and a fireplace.  Additionally there are 2 AC vents and a return all about 6 – 8″ off the floor.

I’m getting my front window replaced next month and have to pull everything away from the window. Since everything will be disarrayed, I thought I’d take the opportunity to clean up and rearrange. This is the current layout (each square is 6″). At one point I was able to have 4 friends over to sew.  The last time we got together we took over the living room and dining room as over the years I’ve brought more ‘stuff’ into the sewing room.

Currently, on my sewing table I have a printer on the window end and my sewing machine on the other end. There is also a printer on the end of the work table/desk over the file cabinet.  One scans and faxes but doesn’t print, the other prints but doesn’t scan or fax — and I use all 3 functions.  As part of this process I’m planning on getting down to just one printer.

The wire shelves along the west wall is the result of “stuff”. I really think much of the stuff can be gotten rid of or belongs somewhere else in the house. I want at least 2 of those gone.  The ironing station is a large dresser with 3 drawers. That space is not being utilized well – partly because the drawers don’t slide well.  I’ll either replace the dresser or get drawer slides — but I’m not giving up my large ironing board.

The fabric shelves on the west/kitchen wall will be staying. My preference is to keep them together so I can hang tops from them.  The cutting board is one of those fold down boards. I don’t want to get rid of it, but truthfully it is frequently just a flat surface. I can cut on my ironing board.

There are two desks in my office because I have a personal computer and a work computer. At one point I had 3 monitors so I needed the space. I now just have 2 large monitors and they both will fit on the “desk with shelves” – I  just have to get rid of the file cabinet currently under the desk. I think that’s doable. So, I think this is what I’m looking at for the new layout.

The plan is to put a single printer on the shelves over my desk. The smaller file cabinet will hold up the work desk which will become my new sewing table. The other end is held up by wire shelves which will now be accessible. The only thing this layout doesn’t have is a 3rd set of wire shelves.  I suppose I could put it folded in against the sewing table in the middle of the room with a set of wire shelves on the west wall next to the fireplace.

Of course in order to remove storage from the room, I’ll need to be ruthless in what I keep. I currently have a couple of under utilized rolling carts with drawers under my sewing table which are not shown and there is a small set of plastic shelves sitting on top of the cutting table, but as I look at what is on those shelves I have to wonder if they are really necessary.  If I have a shelf or flat surface, it just gets filled up as I get lazy putting stuff away.

If you have a suggestion, chime in. I have no budget, except maybe for a new printer and I hope to get the all-in-one working without having to buy a new one.

Yes, I’ve seen Bonnie Hunter twice in 11 days. The first time was when my sister and I attended the Mississippi Quilt Association June Gathering June 1st. I also took her Carolina Chain class. Today I saw her at the Lee’s Summit Quilt Guild meeting.  I think they said there were 150+ members in attendance and another 92+ guests!  I was running late so I don’t think I would have had a seat if my sister had not saved me a seat.  We didn’t drive over together because she took another class. I had to get back to work. 🙁

Since I’ve been home, I’ve been steadily working on my Carolina Chain blocks.  Last night I finished up all of my light chain blocks. I have some of them laid out here with the dark chain blocks that I’m still working on.  I’ve got another 30 or so ready to press and the rest are waiting to be sewn.

And to think I thought I’d have the quilt top done by this morning…

The last few weeks have been absolutely crazy. Crazy good and crazy bad.

The roof started leaking, so there was no more putting off getting a new roof. The good news is there was hail damage, so my insurance covered it. Got new gutters as well, but this picture is before they were put up.

Miss Sydney graduated high school!

Then there was a Quilting Road Trip with my sister.

• Fabric Outlet, Springfield, Missouri – great prices before sales. The day we were there everything was 20% off. They have fashion fabric in the backroom.
• FM Stores, Springfield, Missouri – great prices and the largest variety of minkee type fabric I’ve seen.
• Ozark Patchwork Peddler, Mountain Grove, Missouri – The owner has seen my sister only once before over a year ago. She knew what my sister had bought! I bought a few FQs and if I decide I want yardage, she’ll be able to pull up my order and tell me what I bought.
• The Sewing Connection, West Plains, Missouri – good prices. Also the local Gammill dealer.
• Six Sisters Mercantile, West Plains, Missouri – Just opened May 12th.  Great prices
• Hancock of Paducah, Paducah, Kentucky – An employee took the picture. Apparently that happens a lot. All those women shopping… they weren’t shopping for themselves, but were employees shopping for YOU. Yes, you can go into the backroom – that’s where the pre-cuts and kits are.
• Naturally there was a stop at The National Quilt Museum. – Pay the extra $3 for the guided tour.
• Sew Many Ideas, Jackson, Tennessee – This wasn’t on the list, but since we were driving through…I can’t remember which type sewing machines they sell.
• Sew Carefree, Jackson, Tennessee — A few more FQs were picked up here as well.

We were headed to Mississippi, to the June Gathering of the Mississippi Quilt Association.

The guest instructor this year was Bonnie Hunter!

I had a whole table to spread out on for my  Carolina Chain class.

There were 50 students spread out in 3 connected classrooms. By the end of the day we had enough blocks made to make a quilt.

The class was actually the day before the gathering.  The trunk show was Friday night after dinner. There were door prizes. I won one!

Bonnie taught Winston Ways Friday and Chunky Churn Dash on Saturday. Saturday if you were not in one of her classes there were other classes being taught or you could just sit and sew — which is what I did. There were also 3 vendors at the venue. Stitch-N-Frame from Vicksburg, Mississippi; Main Street Fabrics from Ackerman, Mississippi; and Featherweight Works from Columbus, Mississippi. Yes, I left some money at those shops as well.

I totally forgot about the shop pictures at the local shops.  Continental Sewing Center in Jackson, The Cotton Blossom in Madison, and Bernina Sewing Center in Ridgeland. I think all 3 of these shops were with in 10 minutes of my sister-in-laws home where we were staying. We even made it to Tuesday Morning where fabric came home with us.

Yes, there was just a tiny bit of shopping going on.

If the shop didn’t have FQs, or the bolt price was less than $9 (much was less than $6) I purchased  1/2 yard, unless the bolt was on sale. Then I purchased 1 yard as that was the minimum cut. I needed a new mat since my Olfa mats are nearly 30 years old. I was going to get one at Jo-Ann’s with my birthday gift cards and coupons, but saw this one by QuiltersSelect in use at the shop in Ridgeland. When a QuilterSelect ruler is used the fabric doesn’t shift, but yet you can turn the ruler/fabric to get that second cut. I opted for an 8″ ruler, but I think I’m going to want a smaller one as well. The bags, Wonky Wishes and the 2-1/2 x 6 ruler I bought from Bonnie. Everyone got some of my money. Now I don’t have any!

The trip home was done in one day as I had appointments on Monday. But I’ve setup the Genie and I’m sewing away on my blocks. I wonder if I can get the quilt top done by Sunday evening? I’m going to another Bonnie Hunter trunk show next Monday!

Yesterday my husband and I drove down to Springfield. The reason for the trip? To purchase a French Horn case for his Conn 4-D horn.  Apparently his older horn is not wrapped as tight as the newer horns and it will not fit in just any case.

There are two great quilt shops in Springfield — Merrily We Quilt Along, and Quilt Sampler. Additionally there are two independent fabric shops in town The Fabric Outlet and FM Fabrics.

I wanted to make it the last two shops since they carry more than quilting cotton, but I allowed my husband to talk me into stopping at the quilt shops – he didn’t have to twist my arm too hard.

When I shop hop, if I don’t have anything specific I’m looking for, I tend to buy “neutral” FQs. The prices were so good at FM Fabrics, I purchased 1/2 cuts. The blue/green solid is to go with the vintage hourglass blocks I was given several years ago.

This wild fabric is an ITY — 95% poly / 5% spandex knit that I’m planning on making into a dress. Is it me? Who knows. but at $4.50 a yard I can use it to make another Agnes – this time with sleeves.

Oh, and the French Horn case? No, we did not buy it.