These are blocks my young quilting friend is making.  She’s working on a quilt for her mother.  I must say her quarter-inch seam is getting better.  They aren’t a perfect 8 1/2″, but close enough if they were mine I wouldn’t re-do them.

I finished the binding on Lee’s Florals, so I’m flip-flopping between the Scrappy Trips

and Sew Scrappy.

Swing by Patchwork Times to see what others are working on.

Lee’s Florals is finished. This started out as a collection of blocks passed to me back in April  2009.  Earlier this year I pulled them out and decided that with the addition of 5 more blocks it would be OK for a lap quilt.

After washing, it measures 46 x 56.  I used Warm and Natural batting.  The bobbin thread is Superior’s Bottom Line in a deep red.  The top thread is Star in lavender.  It’s the same thread combination that I used on my sister’s quilt a couple of weeks ago.  I had  no trouble then, but the top thread broke 3 times.

The quilting pattern is Floral Echo from Pajama Quilter Reloaded.

The numbers are moving the right direction this week.  I quilted a quilt Thursday and bound it Saturday (it’s in the wash, so no picture until tomorrow), I made a glasses case to demonstrate to my quilting friend how to make hers, I made the Kansas Troubles pillow case and I gave a length of fabric each to my friend S and my sister.

The picture just doesn’t capture the vibrant colors that exist in person.  I was given this FQ – but S can’t remember where she got it.

I also bought some flannel to use as the lining of my eyeglasses case.  Again the picture doesn’t show it well, but it is a light lavender gingham.   The only flannel I had in my stash was blue which  I didn’t think would go well with purple.  The pattern can be found HERE.

Now the numbers:

Fabric Added Since Last Report: 0.75 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 113.619 yards

Fabric Used (or left the stash) Since Last Report:  9.081 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 42.221 yards

Net Used for the year -71.398 yards

To see how others are doing check out the links over at Patchwork Times.

My young friend is spending the weekend with us.  She’s been begging us since mid-February to go camping in the backyard.  I have NO idea what put that idea into her head.  We are not big campers.  Admittedly, I do have camping gear, but it hasn’t been used since May 2003.

The weather is nice, it’s a long weekend, and why not.  This was so spur of the moment. So, we hauled the basics up from the basement — tent, tarp, air mattress, sleeping bag, bug light and I’m not sure what else.

Between the two of us we got the tent setup in a relatively flat spot in the backyard. I worked up a sweat.

She pumped up the air mattress with the foot pedal, unrolled the sleeping bag and brought out her thin blanket.  I had her go back in the house and bring out the Dresden plate quilt for additional warmth.

Yes, that’s a DVD player and electrical cord you see there.  She doesn’t want to get bored. 🙂

Finally, we had her put on her fleece pajama bottoms.  She kicked me out and zipped up the door.

We’ll see if she stays out all night.  At least she says I don’t have to spend the night out there. — This is good.  There’s only one sleeping bag.

They are not quite geese – there’s an extra 1/2″ on the goose.  I also have 178 HST units which need to be trimmed.  Given that I’m not planning on using them in this quilt since I’m veering off from the pattern (imagine that!) I’ll trim them later.

First up is this top which I completed Saturday night.  These blocks are from a 2008 swap I participated in.

This past weekend I also prepped two quilts for quilting. The one on the left I need to have finished in the next 3 1/2 weeks, so naturally I’m going to do the one on the right first.  All kidding aside, my plan is to quilt them both alike, so the floral will be my practice quilt.

There was a bit of bad weather through here during the early evening, so I thought I would do a bit of treadling — I haven’t done any since the 5th – but I had not sliced up my strip sets.  So I did 12 of them – 6 for last week and 6 for this week.  But I still need to rip out one seam before I can start sewing again….

But the weather cleared up and I needed to clear my ironing board to do a bit of clothes pressing (I don’t do that often). The left over fabric from the Kansas Troubles 4-patch Stacked Posies was on top, so I made a pillow case.  That cuff used the last bit of red fabric that I bought and I think I may only have a F8 left of the blue.  I have plenty of the floral, so I’ll use it for the binding.

With this week’s sewing I finished 10 spool blocks.  I need to make either 100 or 130 more before I start sewing them into blocks.

The plan for this week is to work on Sew Scrappy, get the two quilts quilted and bound and get  12 Scrappy Trips blocks made. Who knows what will really get done.

Check out what others are doing by following the links over at  Patchwork Times.

I had high hopes to finish both the 2008 Swap Top, a pillow case and quilt a top for my sister.  Given the excitement this week 2 out of 3 is not bad.  I ran out of steam before the pillow case was done. Tomorrow I’ll show the swap top.

Friday I hit the LQS Bolt Sale looking for backings.  I came home with backings for 2+. I found a wide backing for my Kansas Troubles 4-patch Stacked Posies which is wider than I really need, but the price was right. I ended up with 2/3 yards more than I really needed since that’s what was left on the bolt. The second piece is for the floral quilt top that I finished a few weeks ago.

For my reporting, I’ve converted the yardage to 40″ equivalent.

Fabric Added Since Last Report: 10.7 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 112.869 yards

Fabric Used Since Last Report:  2.92 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 33.14 yards

Net Used for the year -79.729 yards

To see how others are doing check out the links over at Patchwork Times.

The bag was delivered last night in this bright pink package.  My niece tells me she is going to use the zebra and pink bow as part of the table decorations tonight at her party.

My niece picked the fabrics and pattern for the bag when we were on vacation the summer of 2011.    I told her at the time I couldn’t get it made until Christmas at the earliest.  In fact mid-December 2011 I started working on the bag with the intention of giving it to her for Christmas.  This is evidenced by the label I sewed into the lining while I was making the bag.

But the grommets brought me to a halt.  I was terrified to cut the bag.  That and I suspect it was wet outside.  The bag was set aside and taunted me for a year and a half until I finally overcame my fear and made the grommet holes.

Of course now there was the issue of the label, not to mention the grommets not covering the edge of the lining fabric and batting showing after I got the grommets in the bag on a few of them.  While I was pondering these two issues, I made a  coin purse and a pocket tissue cover from matching fabric.

I think the next time I make the coin purse I’ll move the zipper down just a tad – or put it on the top.

The inside of the bag is lined with pockets.

In the side seams I attached elastic loops. One holds a pen…

and the other side has a key ring flashlight on a hook.

The lining fabric came from my mom’s stash.  It’s a VIP Colorworks print from the late 80’s or early 90’s.  My sister, sister-in-law and I all had skirts with this fabric in them.  I’ve since tore into the skirts to make a quilt.

As for the batting and raw edges of fabric from the grommet holes?  My friend Vic suggested using a pink Sharpie and Fray Check.

It’s not perfect, but it worked well enough.

As for the label…

The most important thing is that my niece loves the bag.

This is the quilt my sister made for her grand-daughter Isabelle. She’ll be 2 in the next day or so.  I’m so proud of her.  She has taken to piecing like a duck to water. However, as this is only her second piece quilt (her first one can be seen HERE) she hasn’t learned to do any quilting other that straight-lined and wanted something loopy.

So, I offered to quilt it for her.

We used Hobbs Tuscany 100% unbleached cotton batting.  Bottom Line in Red (used part of one bobbin) and a spool of Star Thread in Lavender for the top. The understanding was if the top thread gave me issues, we were switching. I’m happy to report that once the machine was threaded correctly, there were no issues.

The quilting pattern, was freehand — Dawn Ramirez calls it Floral Echo on her DVD Pajama Quilter Reloaded which arrived on Saturday.  My quilting won’t win any prizes, but I was happy with it.

As for the “with Stitches” part of the post title, after all these years of wielding a rotary cutter I joined the ranks of those needing stitches after cutting myself.

Home alone, I drove myself to the hospital (1/2 mile away) when I couldn’t get the bleeding to stop. No, it didn’t hurt (stung a bit) nor does it hurt now.  They decided on 3 stitches which I’ll have to get taken out in a week.  The huge bandage can come off Friday morning.

These are the 2008 Retreat Swap Blocks. The block is from Block Central’s 2007 Block of the Month. It is installment 3 B and is called Glenwood Avenue.  I ran out of steam before finishing the center of the top, but all of the remaining pieces are prepped and ready to go.

This past week I also finished up another 20 of the flying geese blocks for Sew Scrappy.  I got distracted by the bag and the swap blocks.  This top may end up going to retreat with me next month.  After I get the rest done, I have a ton of 9-patches and 25-patches to make.

While all this sewing was going on I managed to make another 20 spool blocks.  This brings my total to 170 of the 310 that I currently think I need (this number varies depending on how I think I’m going to set them.)

Check out the links over at Patchwork Times to see what others have been up to.