First, I have not fallen off the face of the earth.  I’ve just been busy.  First with preparations for Christmas, then for a party and for my husband’s birthday.  I thought I  had pulled it off, then woke up this morning and realized that I don’t have his birthday present wrapped!

But the title of this post is “Quilt Show”.  For the party, my husband suggested that we display a some of my quilts throughout  the house.  “Some” turned out to be all but three.  The pictures start in the back of the house and end up in my sewing room office.

Ted’s Office

In the Hallway

‘Hiding” Exercise Equipment

Guest Bedroom View 1

Guest Bedroom View 2

Our Bedroom

Living Room View 1

Living Room View 2

Buffet After the Party

Table After the Party

Sewing Room View 1

Sewing Room View 2

Sewing Room View 3

Sewing Room View 4

Sewing Room View 5

Sewing Room View 6

Sewing Room View 7

Sewing Room View 8

The quilt stands/racks in my sewing room were built by my husband. I’ll do a post on them when we disassemble then later next week.

My fabric counting is mixed.  I’m not even sure I can explain it.  But, I’ve got my trusty spreadsheet with multiple tabs which keeps me on track.  Apparently when I started Orca Bay I counted the fabric as I stitched it into units.  I show 20 purple string geese last December.  This week I made 18, so I’ll use last year’s number, minus two for this week’s count.

Surprisingly, not fabric came into the house – and I wandered through both Hobby Lobby and Jo-Ann’s a couple of times this past week.  I even fondled a roll of 2 1/2″ strips at Big Lots!

Fabric Added Since Last Report: 0 yards
Fabric Added to Date:  165.192 yards

Fabric Used Since Last Report: 0.344 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 90.65 yards

Net Used for the year -74.542 yards

I best get to sewing if I’m going to use 100 yards by the end of the year.

To see if anyone else fabric #s moved follow the links over at Patchwork Times.

I haven’t sat at my sewing machine for the past couple of days.  There are a variety of reasons, but I think the most fundamental reason is that I am not loving my Orca Bay.  But I may have found a solution.

The picture above is ‘as designed’ if you factor in my color choices (one string geese is turned wrong).  The orange, which I love, leaps out and is almost confrontational.  My DH suggested using another color for the orange — but for the life of me I’m not sure what I would use — and I really don’t want to have to re-make those blocks.

I tried something different.  I turned the geese blocks the other way (well, perhaps all but one block).  I can’t explain it, but something about this layout works.  Maybe it’s the more even distribution of light and dark.

Side by side I still can’t explain it.  I haven’t decided if I need to turn the orange blocks or not.  But at least now I feel I can continue working on this top.  Of course the whole thing may get packed up as I need to finish a couple of other things before the end of the year.

A few more purple string blocks were pieced and I have a few more to go before I can start to assemble the quilt.

Early last week I alternated the star blocks and decided to make my quilt one column narrower than the original pattern  The added bonus is that means I have to do fewer of those purple string blocks!

Last night I managed to make two purple string squares resulting in 4 of the flying geese units.  I pulled everything out and started putting it up on the wall.  As dark as some of those geese are, with the lighter squares in the stars the whole quilt feels lighter.

The other good news is I now just have the small crates in front of the wall — although I’m not sure that having the large crates in the living room is an improvement.  But, the music is now roughly sorted, so we are making progress.

Check out what’s on others design walls by following the links over at Patchwork Times.

Two pillowcases and a dust ruffle with no purchases.

Fabric Added Since Last Report: 0 yards
Fabric Added to Date:  165.192 yards

Fabric Used Since Last Report: 3.944 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 90.306 yards

Net Used for the year -74.886 yards

I’d really like to be able to say I used 100 yards  by the end of the year, but that’s probably pushing it.  But check out others’ stash reports over at Patchwork Times.

Periodically I’m surprised by my stash.  Earlier this week was such an occasion.  I decided that I needed a couple of Christmas pillow cases.  In fact I purchased a couple of plain white cases with the intention of decorating them with applique (what was I thinking?)

When I got home I pulled out my box of Christmas fabric and found two fabrics with enough yardage to create a couple of pillow cases.  For the most part I don’t buy holiday fabric — the Halloween fabric I’ve purchased lately has been an anomaly.  I’m pretty certain the stripe fabric is from my mom’s stash — it has a weird piece cut out of each end.  The red fabric possibly came from a friend when she was clearing out her stash.

These were for the White Elephant gift exchange at the Christmas party I went to earlier today.  I used the packaging  from the pillowcases I bought to put together my own package of pillowcases.

What do you think?  At first glance do they look “store bought”?

This is the back of the package.

Sure enough the woman who picked my package thought they were “store bought”.  It wasn’t until I asked her to read the back of the package that she realized I had made them.

Earlier this week I posted that I finished my dust ruffle.  I’ve subsequently been asked if I could do a tutorial on how I made the dust ruffle.  This is my attempt.  A printable version is here: DustRuffle

I had an old twin size dust ruffle on the day bed. It didn’t fit well, was starting to fall apart, had to be adjusted every time I changed the sheets on the bed and finally wasn’t a good color to go with my quilts (it was a green and black plaid – which surprisingly worked OK with the pink quilt, but clashed horribly with anything else). The distance from the springs to the floor is only 11 ½” so I discovered after an on-line search that I wasn’t going to be able to buy a replacement dust ruffle. Clearly I was going to have to make one.

There wasn’t a pattern – only a vague notion of how long the ruffle needed to be and that I probably wanted 2 ½” the width in fullness. The first thing I needed to do was measure the width of needed and the length. Bedpost to bedpost measured 76″ and the length from the top of the springs to the floor was 11 ½”.

I bought 2 ½ yards of fabric and 2 1/4 yards of Decorator Velcro. Decorator Velcro is sew-in on one side and sticky backed on the other side.

Step 1 – measure the bed to determine the finished width of the dust ruffle.  I wanted mine to go from bed post to bed post which worked out to 76″.

Step 2 – measure the length of the dust ruffle.  From the edge of the bed frame to the floor is 11 ½”

Step 3 – determine how big and how many pleats are needed.  I decided I wanted 4″ pleats and an odd # of pleats – 7 sounded good and as it turned out was perfect for the math.

Here’s the math:

4″ pleats times 7 pleats = 28″.
76″ width minus 28″ for pleats = 48″
48″ divided by 8 flat sections = 6″

Flat + Pleat 1 + Flat + Pleat 2 + Flat + Pleat 3 + Flat + Pleat 4 + Flat + Pleat 5 +Flat + Pleat 6 + Flat + Pleat 7 + Flat

But before cutting can commence, the TOTAL width of the pleat needs to be determined. The pleats I made touch in the back like this line drawing:

That means that I need 12″ for each pleat.  4″ for the front of the pleat and 4″ for each side folded under the pleat.  Now to figure out how long a piece of fabric for the width of the dust ruffle.

8 flat sections times 6″ = 48″
7 pleats times 12″ = 84″
2 side hems times 2″ = 4″
Total width needed 48″ + 84″ + 4″ = 136″

For the length, I decided on a 2″ hem top and bottom plus the 11 ½” finished length or 15 ½”.

So, I need a piece of fabric 136″ x 15 ½”.  I decided that I would cut my fabric across the width instead of the length since it is easier cut than cutting down the length of the fabric.  I determined that I needed 4 lengths.

136″ divided by 40″ = 3.4 strips.

I cut four strips 15 ½” long.  Before stitching them together, I pressed up a 2″ hem on both the top and the bottom and turned under 3/8″.  It was easier handling a 40″ width of fabric instead of a 160″ piece of fabric.

Next I stitched the sections together, matching the press creases.  I used a 3/8″ seam, which I pressed open and then top stitched down.  Finally I stitched the top and bottom hem.  I did NOT stitch the side hems.

Once the fabric was prepared, I marked the pleats.  I started in the middle of the fabric marking 4″.  I didn’t want my seams to show on the front of the pleats so I started in the center folding the seam into the pleat.

When the center pleat was marked, folded and pinned, I measured 6″ either side of the first pleat and marked the next pleats.    I continued until I had all 7 pleats pinned in place.  Then I pressed them – all the way to the hem.

Next I stitched the pleats in place – two lines of machine stitching and a little bit of hand stitching.

Finally, I measured for the side hem.  I cut 8″ from the last pleat on either side of the dust ruffle, pressed under 2″ and then turned 3/8″ under again.  I stitched this down.

The last sewing step on the dust ruffle was to stitch the Velcro to the top of the hem.  I used a narrow blind stitch and stitched down both sides of the Velcro.  I did NOT cut it to size, but simple started at one end, trimming the Velcro when I got to the other end.
Finally it was time to attach the ruffle to the bed frame.  I wiped down the frame with an alcohol wipe to make sure the frame was free from dust and dirt.  Then starting on the left side of the frame, I pulled about 6″ of the backing from the Velcro and pressed it on the frame – about 1/4″ from the top of the frame.  I worked 5 or 6 inches at a time trying to keep the Velcro straight.
I lined up the top edge of the bed skirt with the top edge of the bed frame and pressed it in place.  Now I can easily move the mattress to change the sheets or tuck the quilt in on the back without moving dust ruffle.  Pulling the trundle out from under the bed won’t pull out the dust ruffle either.

I’m considering making a custom ruffle for my king size bed.  I would attach the sticky side of the Velcro to the top of my box springs.  I don’t know if I would make 3 ruffles like this one with the ruffle on the bottom of the bed long enough to wrap around the foot of the bed a few inches and then hold it in place with a pin.  Or if I would make it in one continuous piece, allowing a little extra fullness to get around the corners.  If I ever get that far, you can be sure I’ll post a picture on my blog.

I hope these instructions make sense.  I’d love to see a picture of your dust ruffle if you make one from these instructions.

The number for November was 9 so the blocks were Snow Family and Pieced Santa.  You’ll notice that there is not a Snow Family in the blocks pictured above –what can I say hand work falls to the bottom of the pile, but I still have this evening to redeem myself.  But on the other hand, earlier this year I fell way behind  I used November to catch up!

Once the Snow Family is completed the only block left will be Here Comes Santa.

I’ll use fusible applique on this block as well – then I can finish the center of my quilt!

Check out the links over at Patchwork Times to see how others are doing on their UFOs.

The theme for this week’s contest at the Quilting Gallery is Stars.  Over the years I’ve made several quilts with stars, but chose to enter the log cabin quilt in the contest.  There are 36 quilts in this week’s contest.  To see them all click HERE and pick your favorites.