This weekend is the Kaw Valley Quilters Guild quilt show. I went this morning and saw lots of great quilts and got a few ideas on how to finish one of my UFOs.
Additionally, I had two quilts hanging in the show, which meets one of my goals for the year.
If you get a chance, head over to the show Sunday. It runs from 10 AM – 5 PM at the Douglas County Fairgrounds in Lawrence, Kansas.
Provided the hanging sleeve stays stitched to the Music Lessons while it goes through the wash, I’ve finished my goals for this week. Shhh, don’t tell anyone, but I machine stitched the BOTTOM of the hanging sleeve to the quilt. It was a case of if I didn’t, it wouldn’t get done. I used the blind hem stitch on my sewing machine and the ‘bite’ only bit through the backing and batting. All I have to do now is check it when it come out of the dryer.
The second task was stuffing the pincushions. Again machine stitching to the rescue. This time, a zig zag with monofilament thread in the top and black thread on the bottom.
Now off to look at quilt books.
Last week I had a huge list along with the priorities. Here are the highlights:
This week, just a couple of goals
Of course all of this needs to be done by Friday morning, so perhaps I’ll be able to sneak something else in — like finishing the rest of the Carolina Christmas blocks.
See what others are planning on doing this week by checking out the links at Bari’s.
Oops — didn’t do to well on my list from last week.
Quilt Retreat is this weekend. 3 1/2 days of non-stop visiting, quilting, and eating. I always over pack (don’t want to get bored with just one thing). In my bag are the following:
Priorities will need to be set because I’m not getting it all done. The hanging sleeves absolutely must be done. The quilt show is next weekend. I really want the Carolina Christmas and Oklahoma Backroads tops done by this time next month. Dancing Flowers is on my monthly list, but if it’s done by July I’m OK. I’ve got plenty of time on Mom’s two quilts, so they may go to the bottom of the list. The bonus HST will go into a baby quilt and the baby is due next month. Hum. Perhaps that needs to go higher than Dancing Flowers.
Well, check back next week to see if I overworked myself this weekend. In the meantime, see how others are doing by checking out the links at Bari’s.
Last week a had simple goals — finish my brothers shirts and cut the ‘light’ pieces for Texas Braid. I’m happy to report that I’ve done both. The shirts were delivered Saturday and I now have 296 light pieces and 343 dark pieces for Texas Braid. Since the plan is to make either a lap or twin size quilt, I should have plenty. If not, I’ll cut more in May!
There are 4 things on my list for this week.
The first two should be easy enough. Last night I bought the binding fabric and started working on the backing. I should get the quilt sandwiched tonight. The pillow case I’ll deal with after I get the quilt done. Prepping for the Quilt Retreat is an ongoing process since I’ll be changing my mind on what projects to work on up until I load the car to leave.
I need to make 2 blocks for the sampler this week as I didn’t get last week’s done. This week’s block is B10 and I made it when I first started the sampler, so I’ll pick another block. I HAVE to do this since I also bought 3 yards of the background fabric yesterday.
See how others are doing on their goals by checking out the links at Bari’s.
It’s the first of the month and the start of a new quarter, so it’s time to figure out this month’s quilting goals.
So, I’m going to start with the ongoing goals:
That was easy. Figuring out what else I want to accomplish this month is a bit more difficult. However, since I’m going to a 3 1/2 day quilting retreat later this month, I should be able to get plenty done.
This may be a stretch, but they are only goals.
Check back throughout the month to see if I get any of this done.
Quilting Accountability Wednesday – the basic goal was 15 minutes of piecing primarily on Carolina Christmas or perhaps Dancing Flowers. The point was to get back to quilting now that life was returning to ‘normal’. Although I didn’t sew entirely on Carolina Christmas, I did get several hours of sewing in since I was feeling much better by Saturday. I completed 11 blocks for Carolina Christmas, 2 Sylvia Bridal Sampler blocks, added 3″ to one of my brothers shirts and cut up not the scraps I pressed weeks ago, but pieces for Texas Braid, a class I’m taking with Bonnie Hunter in May.
This week, I really need to finish the rest of my brother’s shirts – although it’s not technically quilting I do get the left over pieces of red 100% cotton fabric so I think it should count. I’ve got to get 2 done, but would like all of them done so they aren’t hanging over my head. The other thing I’ll want to do is finish cutting the ‘light’ pieces for Texas Braid so I’ll have that done. For the record, I’m not counting the Texas Braid pieces in my stash report until May. I think I’ve cut more than I’ll need for a lap quilt.
See what others are working on this week by checking out the links on Bari’s blog.
It’s been a while since I’ve participated in a Quilting Accountability Wednesday. Life has just gotten in the way of my quilting. In fact I’m not certain that it won’t happen again this week. However, I’m going to attempt to carve out the equivalent of 15 minutes a day to sew, probably on Carolina Christmas, but maybe on Dancing Flowers. The other thing I want to do is get these scraps that I pressed weeks ago chopped up.
Check back next week to see if I was able to do it. In the meantime check out Bari’s site to see what other quilters are planning on doing this week.
I’ve added a new tab to my blog, 2010 Goals, listing my quilting goals for the year and my quilting support network. Quilters are some of the nicest people and they’ll cheer you on as you try to reach a goal. Hopefully, with determination and the support of quilters worldwide, I’ll reach most of my quilting goals for the year.
I love Bonnie Hunter‘s patterns. So scrappy, anything goes. I found her site several years ago. Her Scrap User’s System, along with leader/enders has enabled me to make more quilt tops (I’m still working on the getting them quilted).
About 2 years ago, when I was running out of space in my fabric boxes, I pulled fabric scrap smaller than a fat eighth out and tossed them into a scrap box. I’ve been pre-cutting strips, bricks and blocks from that pile ever since.
Last summer was down to half a basket of scraps — primarily pinks, purples and blues.
Since then, when I finish a quilt top, the binding prepared and fabric set aside for a pillowcase if I’m going to make one, I follow my pre-cutting plan and put all the fabric up. I promise I really do – but if you look at my scrap basket now, no one would believe me.
A friend started cleaning her sewing room last fall. Part of her solution was to pass her scraps to me. I love it — her choices in fabric are not necessarily things I would buy (nor the other way around) but it adds sparkle to my scrap quilts. It also filled my scrap basket. This is what it looked like on January 13th:
I’ve set a personal goal to have the basket empty by July 18th. That’s the day we reveal the progress on our goals at the quilt guild meeting. I suspect, I’ll have to spend one or two weeks between now and then doing nothing but pressing and cutting to get the basket empty, but in the meantime, I’m going to do a 15 minute pressing session each week.
However, I can tell you it takes more than 15 minutes to cut up the 15 minutes of pressing. Today I have two pictures. The first is what I got pressed in 15 minutes and the second is the end results.
Here’s the tour: top left are pairs of 5 1/2″ squares I’ll use to make jumbo yo-yos for key rings. moving to the right are 3 1/2″, 2 1/2″, 2″, 1 1/2″ strips and then strings. The letters and the fussy cut bird will end up in my panel box. Below the strips are 2 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ and 2″ x 3 1/2″ bricks and 2 1/2″ and 2″ blocks. The first pile next to the bricks and blocks are bits and pieces which don’t pre-cut nicely. They’ll end up in my crumb bucket either used in a Bonnie Hunter class in May, or sent to a quilter who does crumb quilting. Frankly, they are too small for me. That final pile is the stuff I’m going to toss out. It’s too small to even qualify as crumbs.
I know there are quilters, and I was one of them, who didn’t want to pre-cut their fabric because they might need it for something, but I wasn’t using my scraps. As a general rule I don’t applique or paper piece, so this works for me. And yes, I do make quilts using my pre-cuts. Currently I’m working on Oklahoma Backroads using the fabric from my pre-cut boxes.
Check back with me in July to see if I’m able to empty my basket.
