I stopped by the quilt shop to pick up some “in your face orange” and black bobbins for the two quilts I’m quilting this month and they had a basket of pins by the cash register. This one spoke to me.

No, this is not the backing for the graduation quilt – it’s the backing for Orca Bay. My friend wanted orange. I think this counts. I’ll also use it as the binding.  By using this on Orca Bay, I can then use the black which I didn’t use on the Auction Quilt and was going to use on Orca Bay as the backing for the graduation quilt.

Of course if I don’t get it in gear I won’t need the backing.  Ten more full blocks and 32 half blocks plus a border to go.

When I started processing shirts, there were shirts in the box and the basket. Both cats checked out the box – but not at the same time.

A file box was found and the older tax stuff was moved to it, freeing up 4 “shirt” boxes. I’ve filled 3 with the shirts I’ve processed.

Now I have 8 boxes of shirts –

not including whatever is in this box:

But since they are contained and not in front of my design wall, I think I’ll leave them for now.

So, as soon as I finish Orca Bay and Eye Fooler, I think there are a couple of shirt quilts in my future.

It happens so fast.  At one point things are moving along smoothly and then then the next minute there’s fabric everywhere and half a dozen projects or more going on, many which need to be done “now”.

I promise better pictures when I finally get the room put back together, but this one is not bad.  I really like the way my new desk area is working. But I really want to get the room fully functional sooner than later.  So here are the projects:

• Clear the cutting table — that pile of stuff is primarily junk out of my old desk drawers. It needs to be gone through and put away. Which leads to the next project.
• The desk drawers – I’ve simply dumped other drawer stuff into the new file cabinet without regard to whether that’s really where it belongs.  The top two drawers replace the pencil drawer and top drawer of the old desk and need to be cleaned up so I can clear the cutting board.  This is slightly circular in logic.
• On the far left of the ironing board are de-boned shirts. This is a “now” project because there are two boxes sitting in front of the design wall.
• The brightly colored fabric in the next three piles are for my niece’s graduation quilt. I’m a bit late getting it started.
• Then there’s Orca Bay.  It just needs the borders before it can go into the to-be-quilted pile, but it’s not needed immediately. Do I put it away or go a head and finish it?
• In front of the orange and pink fabric is the Star-A-Day quilt.  I need to select and cut more fabric for it.
• Get to the design wall.  There are multiple projects just for that task.
  • The shirts
  • The scraps boxes
  • The boxes which had previously been stacked under the cutting table
  • The stuff which really shouldn’t live in this room.

So, I think I’ll go to the grocery store, then worry about all of this when I get back.

This weekend I hit several garage sales and then a couple of quilt shops.  And I actually bought something!

The first sale I picked up the ruler, cutting mat, and quilt books.  Yes, I already own a copy of the first edition of the DWR book, but can I find it?  The second sale I picked up the crate of “strips” propping the books up.  Turns out it’s not all 100% cotton, but the crate itself is worth the price.  I will have new strips to add to my strips and string buckets just as soon as I go through them.

Now on to the quilt shop purchases. A friend and I drove up to Hamilton to Missouri Star. She was looking for something specific, I was along for the ride. I picked up the two stacks of neutral charm square for my Star-A-Day project.  Since the last time I was up there (either 1 or 2 years ago) they’ve opened up three new stores — a reproduction store, a holiday store and I a store I guess I would call “modern” – solids and blenders.  It’s my understanding they are planning a batik shop next.

Afterwards we stopped back in Cameron at Quilting Connections and I picked up two FQs. I’m going to need to buy the background fabric for my Star-A-Day quilt and I think one of these will work nicely. I want to get a few more stars made before I made up my mind though.

Speaking of stars, I need to pick more fabric as I’ve made up all the ones I traced off last wee.

This week I’ve been buying patterns.

On the right is Terry Atkinson’s pattern All About Me. I first saw this quilt done up in University of Kansas fabrics and immediately thought it would be a great pattern for either my cat fabric or music fabric.  I bought my copy of the pattern at Stitch on Needlework in Lawrence, Kansas.

The middle pattern is Eye Fooler by Krisanne Watkins. I first saw this quilt on Subee Sews Quilts, but then forgot that’s where I saw it. So I searched ‘net and found a version of it at Rouge Quilter. where I found a mailing address. I could have saved myself a bit of time and ordered the pattern on-line, but by the time I found Quail Valley Quilts, I had already sent a check in. I’m planning on making this quilt in brights on a black background for my niece’s graduation.

The pattern on the left is Star-a-Day by  Karen Styles. I’m not even certain how I tripped over this pattern.  I picked my copy up at Quilting Bits and Pieces in Eudora, Kansas. The idea is to make one 3″ LeMoyne Star every day for a year – not repeating any star fabric. They are set together alternating with 3″ squares.  I’m not a handwork person and I am in the process of hand stitching the binding down on my DWR, there is the hexie project in my busy bag along with some red work, a few applique pieces and a bit of embroidery, so there is no reason for me to start a new hand project. But as you can see, there is the first little star waiting for the rest of the setting pieces….

Yesterday I posted that I needed to get it into gear. Well, the sewing machine is out but I’m still stuttering.  It’s been a long time since I’ve had so many spots to fix on a machine stitched binding. But I’ll get it fixed and then move on to this month’s Alphabet BOM and the DWR binding. At least that’s what I’m telling myself.

It’s time for me to get it into gear. The sewing machine is still in its case and not on the table. On the other hand, I have put the design wall backup and cleared the ironing board. No, I don’t really know what I’ve been doing all week – but clearly not using my sewing machine.