Five hours and nearly six pre-wound  bobbins later I have finished the quilting on the Birthday Quilt.  Now to decide on a binding. This could be tough.

I swung by the library to pick up a couple of books and while I was there, I picked up two books on CD.  Earlier in the evening, I opened up one of the books and couldn’t get past the first two or three paragraphs.  I think it was a sign that I needed to get back to the sewing machine.  So, I popped in the first disc of The Bone Box by Bob Hostetler and resumed working on Nifty Thrifty.

The missing 5 blocks are done, but the red cornerstones are turned wrong on 4 of the blocks.  The 5th block is missing the sashing.  Looking at the picture now, I see why I was having issues on where the long strips were supposed to go.  I’m missing outer sashing on the right and bottom — but before I can do that, I need to figure out the border arrangement.  I also need to decide if I need to make another 10 blocks.

My young quilting friend has spent the last few days with us.  She’s made significant progress on her latest quilt. I have no idea if this is the order the blocks will be in when the top is complete or not.  She said something about alternating the black and green strips, but as I look at it this morning that appears to be forgotten.

My own quilting/piecing seems to be stalled.  This happens periodically – usually after a push to complete several quilts or believe it or not after a quilting retreat.  Instead of quilting I end up reading.  In fact this past weekend, I finished reading Dan Brown’s Inferno, James Rollins’s The Judas Strain & Sandstorm, plus three of Susan Enoch’s romances – Lady Rogue, Reforming a Rake and The Care and Taming of a Rogue.

I’ve finally found a spot for the batting I bought the other day, so perhaps now that I’m not constantly running into that box I’ll be able to get back to sewing machine – or sit a the treadle.  In the meantime for more inspiration, I’ll check out what others are working on by following the links over at Patchwork Times.

This is the week I get to count the fabric I picked  retreat weekend.  All I have to counter it is the three zipper bags I’ve made.  Hopefully next week I’ll have a backing and binding to count.  And who knows, I might finally get into the sewing machine and finish a top.

Fabric Added Since Last Report: 5.468 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 122.087 yards

Fabric Used (or left the stash) Since Last Report:  1.3121 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 47.267 yards

Net Used for the year -74.082 yards

See how others are doing with their stash over at Patchwork Times.

After a quilt retreat I’m slow to get back into the swing of things.  Could it be the late night chatting that takes place or the full speed ahead piecing?  Anyway, I think I’ve just about got everything put away — at least the bags are empty and stashed away between the sewing table and wall.

But I did get a bit of stitching done this week. First up are two more zipper bags.  They really are easy to make.  When I was at Jo-Ann’s this week looking for a “figure 8” key ring to use for a zipper pull, I eyed the fusible fleece considering more. They didn’t have the key ring — we finally found them at Hobby Lobby.

The second thing I’ve worked on is the Birthday Quilt.  This evening I carefully loaded it on the machine and started quilting where I left off after in the middle of the first pass.  Three hours later I still have another 1 1/2 – 2 hours to go.  And I have no idea how many bobbins I’ve used.  I’ll have to count.

There is a whole lot more quilting in this quilt than anything else I’ve ever quilted (which explains the numerous bobbins).  I have one more column of Pennsylvania blocks and a column of star blocks and the setting triangles to go. Here’s a picture of the quilting in the Pennsylvania block. If you click on the picture it will enlarge.

I still need to work on the outlining of the blocks.  Well, all of the quilting.  But it has been a while since I quilted anything. And since this batting is 100% cotton, I’m hoping shrinkage will occur and hide the bad stuff.

This past weekend my friends and I attended a quilt retreat.  We had a blast.  Even got a bit of piecing done.  The top picture is Nickle and Dime from Kansas Troubles.  My friend S had gotten as far as getting the quarter blocks done, so I didn’t  have much left to do.

The next day after a bit of shopping – bag pattern, FQs, yardage, charms, mini charms, rulers and book (not pictured) I  made the zipper bag pictured below.

The fabric is from a couple of different Kansas Troubles lines and the pattern is Zippy Strippy by Atkinson Designs.  The shop had a “story board” showing how the zipper was put in and I decided I had to have the pattern.

Finally I worked on my Nifty Thrifty blocks.  I got all of them made and started on the sashing.  Now that I see them up on the design wall, may need to make a few more blocks.

Hop over to Patchwork Times to see what others have on their design walls.

June has gotten off to a slow start as far as piecing goes.  Last week I packed up the quilt I was working on in preparation to go to the quilt retreat and prepare for quilting the Birthday Quilt.  We all know how far that got.

The blocks up on the wall are from my young quilting friend.  She called tonight to see if she could come over Tuesday to make some blocks and I had to tell her no because I would be working.  So we’ve made plans that she’ll come the weekend of the 22nd.

So, what’s in the stack? The bottom box really is a box of hanging folders. I’m 99.9% certain the project box is empty (I had Sew Scrappy in it). Then there is a bit of leftover batting. The plastic bag contains the pre-cut pieces for Nifty Thrift, possible border fabric and the book.  I can’t believe I’ve had enough restraint to not work on it since I finished cutting it out back in early April.

The brown box contains a Nickles and Dimes, a Kansas Troubles quilt that my friend S started a while back. I told her I would work on it at the retreat since she’s not going to be able to go. The clear “box” (got to love zipper sheet bags) contains my Sew Scrappy.

The cat bed zipper pouch contains Candy Sunflower Seeds which needs 4-patches made with the correct fabric for one of the borders.  The salad box contains the remaining spool blocks I need to make. Finally the zip bag on top contains the fabric for a quilt for a friend’s husband or grandson.  I’m not sure who exactly it’s for.  It’s a panel and now that I’ve found the right green fabric in my stash it should go together quickly .

I’m rather certain that I will not be able to get all of these quilt tops done during the retreat (noonish Thursday – noon Sunday) so I may leave Sew Scrappy behind since I’m considering taking my DWR to get a bit of hand quilting done.

Generally I take the day before a retreat off to run around, do laundry, pack, pickup last-minute items,  etc. But this time, I have to work, so all of that has to be done over the next 3 evenings.

Hopefully next week’s Design Wall post will have a couple of tops on it.  But in the meantime, hop over to Patchwork Times to see what other’s have on their design walls.

I had high hopes of counting the backing for the Birthday Quilt this week, but since it is nowhere near finished, all I can count out is the fabric I used on the border of a label I made.  Good thing I don’t count batting I picked up 2 Queen and 2 Full batts at half-price.  Of course there is there is the fabric I found at the thrift store.

Fabric Added Since Last Report: 3 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 116.619 yards

Fabric Used (or left the stash) Since Last Report:  0.125 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 45.946 yards

Net Used for the year -70.673 yards

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

Today was the day. I was going to do free-hand custom quilting on the Birthday Day. Got the quilt loaded, took a deep breath and started quilting.

Well, the tan thread is going to be OK…and the quilting is not obnoxious.

Second star. Rats. I missed a star point.  Oh well, I’ll catch it on the next pass.

Star 4.  Why aren’t the loops filling the space like I expected them to?  Oh, I need to be doing 9 instead of 7 in the side triangles. Perhaps no one will notice.

Drat the bobbin thread broke.

I re-loaded the bobbin and it took forever to get the bobbin thread drawn up and secured.  I finished the other side of the feather, did the loops in the side triangle, stitched the star point and got half of the corner square quilted and realized the tension looked funny.  Sure enough, it wasn’t right and needed to be ripped out.

So, since I was hot and time is money at the machine, I decided to carefully fold up the quilt (gee I wish I bought a batting w/scrim) and bring it home to rip out. I just have to decide if I want to start all over again — ripping out what I’ve done, or pick up from where I left off.

If I rip out I can revisit thread color. My husband couldn’t believe that I spent 30 minutes looking at thread and then came home with the decision to go with the tan that I already had.

It’s been a busy week,  not that you would notice it in my quilting.  I’ve been working on the quilting design for the Birthday Quilt and packing a bit for the quilt retreat.  After a stop at Quilted Memories to make sure I have my quilt top and backing attached to the zippers correctly and to look for thread, I stopped in at a couple of thrift shops.