Quilting and Stuff by Knitnoid

Stash Report

This week there are bits and pieces from three quilts in my count — the Orca Bay string blocks, some of the Orca Bay HST squares (all cut, but only 80 pieced), the HST squares I got pieced for Ocean Waves and 42 log cabin blocks. Who knows, I might just hit 50 yards net by the end of the year — if I can stay out of the quilt shops!

Fabric Added Last Week: 3.25 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 130.686 yards

Fabric Used Last Week: 4.393 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 169.155 yards

Net Used for 38.469 yards

The links over at Patchwork Times will show how others are doing.

Let the Piecing Begin

 

350 HST pairs ready to be stitched into 350 HST squares for Orca Bay.  Now to make sure they don’t get mixed in with the 450 HST pairs sitting on my sewing table for Ocean Waves.

A Cosmic Joke?

Part 3 of Orca Bay was released this morning.  The instructions can be reached by clicking on the whale.

So why the title of this post?

I still have a gazillion 1 1/2″ (finished) HST Squares to make for Ocean Waves and I only have half a gazillion cut. (The strips are for the Log Cabin quilt).

Actually,  since the end of October I’ve made 930 light/dark HST Squares for OW, have another 450 ready to sew and still need to cut another 100 more. So 350 for Orca Bay is just a drop in the bucket.

The good news is I don’t think I’ll need to cut any neutral strips for Orca Bay — I’ll just appropriate the ones already cut for Ocean Waves.

Next Year’s UFO Challenge

As I mentioned earlier today, Judy’s UFO Challenge kept me motivated and got a whole lot of projects done.  Someone asked me if I had started thinking about next year’s challenge.  I have.  Instead of trying to get 12 – 20 projects done, I’m going to focus on three long-term projects which I need to get in gear on.

  • Getting the rest of the blocks made for my Christmas BOM started in 2003 – quilt top and quilting not required
  • Finishing my Double Wedding Ring — I only have 15 rings to quilt!
  • Making progress on my Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler – need 77 more blocks.

I’ve added a new tab for the 2012 Challenge.  Of course I also hope to have some actual finishes along the way as well.

UFO Challenge

Eck!  As Judy pointed out this morning only UFO # 12 is left for the year.  For me that is the Hancock Stars BOM which I’m doing quilt as you go.

I don’t see it happening.  #12 is the same on both of my lists, so I don’t have a second quilt to choose from. Which is not to say I won’t finish some other UFO on my list just to have one finished.

November’s # was 3.  Whew. I finished the quilt top off list #1 early in the month.

I also finished Baby Glow and the Crossword Puzzle quilt.

Baby Glow was October’s quilt top to be quilted.

The Crossword Puzzle also was finished.  It wasn’t on my “official” list, but was on my “Quilts In Progress” tab as of January 1st.

My tally for the year of project which were started prior to January 1st, 2011 is 20 quilts completed (quilted and bound) and another 2 quilt tops off the “Quilts in Process” tab and on to the “To Be Quilted” tab.    Participating in Judy’s UFO Challenge is what kept me on task.

Of course that doesn’t explain this:

These are the three projects I’m currently working on Ocean Waves – started 10/27;  Orca Bay – started 11/18 and the Log Cabin – started 6/1.  The log cabin blocks look HUGE compared to the others (they are 7″ finished).  The orange string block are carefully tucked away in the box with the rest of the Orca Bay fabric.

Stay tuned this month to see what, if anything, I get finished.  In the meantime, check out the links over at Patchwork Times.

Getting Closer

The log cabin blocks on the left (110) need just one more log.  The ones on the right (70) still need two logs.  And 10 more half square triangle squares for Ocean Waves.

Running Around

Monday I ran around doing errands all day, including a bit of shopping that I didn’t do over the weekend.  At the end of the day I wandered into Fabric Recycles and picked up this fabric.  They are anywhere from an 1/8 of a yard all the way up to 1/2 yard.  Since this fabric was last in someone else’s stash, they are not all “square”.  But they are perfect for what I need.

The purple will end up in Orca Bay, the green in Ocean Wave and the neutral in both quilts.

At the end of the day, I actually sat at the sewing machine for a bit and stitched on the Log Cabin Quilt.  This will be my project until the next Orca Bay clue comes out.

What’s On My Design Wall

No, it’s not three quilts — it’s just two.  I haven’t made any progress on the Ocean Waves quilt since last Monday.  Well, that’s not quite true.  I’ve made another 70 half square triangle squares bringing my total to 910 of 1584.  I’ve got another 400 or so cut and ready to sew on the sewing table.  I’ll work on those this week and perhaps get a few more blocks made now that I’m done with the Orca Bay  string blocks.

The black and white quarter triangle square blocks are from part 1 of Orca Bay.  I finished them up Friday night and haven’t taken them down off the design wall — hey I know where they are 🙂  The orange string blocks are for part 2.  I have no idea how these are going to be combined yet.  We all are going to have to wait until Friday for the next clue.

Lots of folks are working on Orca Bay, and you can see how others are doing on the mystery by following the links on Bonnie Hunter’s blog.

To see if anyone is working on something other than Orca Bay, follow the links to the design wall over at Patchwork Times.

Stash Report

This week I finished up the quarter square triangle squares for Orca Bay.  While I was doing do, I stitched the half squares triangle squares for the Ocean Waves quilt as leader/enders.  No new fabric was purchased this week.  I did however pick up a few colored pencils for a Faux Applique project after the first of the year.

Fabric Added Last Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 127.436 yards

Fabric Used Last Week: 2.187 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 164.762 yards

Net Used for 37.326 yards

The links over at Patchwork Times will show how others are doing.

My First Quilt

Bonnie Hunter is doing a Mr Linky of First Quilts.  I’ve posted about this quilt in the past, but thought I’d bring everything together in a single post.

As a young child, I remember sleeping under quilts made by my grandmother “Momma Craft”.  We visited my dad parents a couple of times a year, but I don’t remember seeing her sew or quilt during our visits.  Today, I can’t even remember the quilt, just sleeping under it.

Then around the  Bicentennial , my mom took a quilting class.  I think this was the first time I was exposed to quilt making.  My very first ‘quilt’ was a quilted pillow top.  I can remember the denim blue, brown yellow and red calico  and that it was done for a visual aid for a math class.   I’ve recently looked through old photos to see if I could find a picture of it, but had no luck.

What I really consider my “first quilt” is the one pictured above.  This was an assignment in my Sewing for the Family class (I also made a size 2T middy dress, a man’s dress shirt and a blouse for my mother).  A simple tied 9 patch, tied would have met the requirements, but I wanted quilt for my bed.  So I designed this quilt.

As with many other quilts from this time, I had a polyester batting — and I had to sew two sections together.

This set of pictures show exactly how much quilting was in the the quilt.  Yep — next to none.  Just stitch in the ditch and a little bit of hand stitching around the petals of the flowers.

You know where this is going don’t you?

I used that quilt for years.  Turn it width wise and it fit nicely on our king size bed.  But between the lack of quilting and the bad basting job I did on the batting, the stitching eventually came out and the batting rolled up.  At that point I could no longer use the quilt — but for the life of me I don’t know where it is.

I really would like to find the quilt. After quilting for the past few years, I’m confident that I can fix it.

Now what is really weird, is in the last couple of years I found the scraps!