On the wall proper I have the 3″ spools that I’m making as leaders/enders when I’m working on other stuff.  26 of the nearly 400 I would like to have by next August.  Since this picture was taken I’ve made 2 more spools.

Next is the Tetris-Quilt-A-Long top that needs quilting. I hope to get to it this week so it doesn’t become a UFO.

Finally is the center of the baby quilt that my young friend is making.  The next time she comes over she’ll add the border and then start quilting it.  We just need to find something for the border.  She has the backing.

On the ironing board I have the latest release of the Just Takes 2 blocks and one of the Christmas BOM blocks.

All three of the JT2 blocks are pieced in this batch so I thought I’d try to knock them out.  I use the Quilt In A Day flying geese ruler so that was easy – right up to the point where I got carried away with my rotary cutter.  I’ll have to make two more geese to finish this block, so I thought I’d try something else.

I’m taking apart the Christmas Star block.  The pattern was made with HST, but the picture was done with flying geese and squares.  I should have printed off the pattern from EQ when I worked on this block but thought I could get away with skipping that step.  It didn’t work. The good news is I’ll be able to reuse the pieces since they are too large.

Check out what other have on their design walls over at Patchwork Times.

Last month I kept saying I’ll show the finished quilt soon.  I finished these in August, but was thwarted by the much needed rain to hang them for the photo shoot.  The rain cleared, so here they are.

The Kansas Troubles Jelly Roll, Fun with Bricks and Carolina Christmas.  The tops had been waiting for me to quilt and I finally got them done.

Now for more detail.

Kansas Troubles Jelly Roll

Started with a Kansas Troubles Wildflower Serenade jelly roll and added a few more Kansas Troubles strips to enlarge the quilt.  I used a wide backing, but I’m not sure what it is.  Warm & Natural batting, Superior Omni Thread Navy Blue in the top, a pre-wound Coats & Clark poly bobbin. “V-15″ is the only other marking.  It’s a light khaki.  After washing the quilt measures 55″ x 73”.  This quilt was started 10/21/11 and finished on 8/30/12.  Quilted on a Nolting with freehand feathers.

Fun with Bricks

This is a Bonnie Hunter design.  The pattern is available HERE.  I started this quilt 1/22/11 as a leader ender project to use up my pre-cut bricks.  There’s everything in here including, Christmas, Easter and even part of a panel.  The border and backing fabric came from my mom’s stash.  I extended it with extra blocks.  The batting is Warm & Natural, the bobbin thread the same khaki pre-wound bobbin, the top thread is King Tut # 920 Sands of Time. After washing the quilt measures 58″ x 80″.  I quilted it with an all-over freehand floral on a Nolting.

Carolina Christmas

Another Bonnie Hunter design, this was the 2009 Mystery quilt that I started on 11/27/09.  The pattern is now available in Scraps & Shirttails II. I think I made all of the blocks, but decided I wanted a smaller quilt. With the extra blocks I made two baby quilts (quilt #1 and quilt #2) and still had leftover blocks. I used those on the back.  Quilted on a Nolting, I used the khaki pre-wound bobbins and the Sands of Time thread.  Warm and Natural batting.  After washing the quilt measures 57″ x 83″.  I quilted feather in the border and an overall floral pattern in the blocks.

All three quilts sat for a bit waiting for binding, to hide the thread tails and finally wash.  I spent one evening hiding tails on all three quilts, thus the same finish date.

I rent time on a long arm at Quilted Memories to do my quilting.  Now to pick my next quilt top.

No new purchases this week, and not a whole lot of fabric out.  But nearly half a yard is better than none.

I’ve gotten to the point where it’s nearly impossible to work in my sewing room — especially when there are two of us in there.  When I first re-did my sewing room there was at least one or two days when there were 4 of us sewing in the room.  But since then I’ve brought in ‘stuff’ from my mom’s estate — including fabric.

Yesterday afternoon I pulled a box off the shelf and sorted through it.  Some stuff got tossed, the books got put on the overflowing bookshelves, stuff got put up and then there is the pile of cookbooks.  For now they are on my ironing board.  I think I’ll got through another box or two today and see if I can get it down to just one box of stuff instead of two or three.

Here’s the report:

Fabric Added Since Last Report: 0 yards
Fabric Added to Date:  92.802 yards

Fabric Used Since Last Report: 0.446  yards
Fabric Used to Date: 69.349 yards

Net Used for the year -23.453 yards

See how others are doing on their stash busting efforts over at Patchwork Times.

The picture is fuzzy, but I’ve finished my Tetris-Quilt-A-Long top.  The Tetris blocks measure 4 1/2″.  The top measures 12″ x 34″.

See more Tetris quilts over at Melissa’s.

It’s time to report on our UFO progress.

I needed to finish Noah & Memory for August, not to mention that I didn’t get Evergreens & Christmas Star finished from September.  🙁

Of the four blocks, I only finished Memory — and that was back on the 2nd!

The number for September is 11. That means it is the Red & Tan Row Houses.

I may have to rethink September’s blocks since they are appliqued.  I’m still waiting on my stitch card which will allow me to use a stitch other than straight stitch.  I might be able to piece the window panes — or I could do one of these two blocks from another month:

We’ll just have to wait and see if I’m able to get a new stitch card.

See how well others have done on their UFOs over at Judy’s.

I think the red is going to be my best choice.  There simply isn’t enough contrast between the the purple and black.

Today, I should have three quilts to show you — the ones I’ve been working on over the past couple of weeks.  But, I haven’t sat down to hide the thread tails, so they’ve not been washed.

So, today I bring you the quilt my young friend is working on, my spool blocks and my Tetris blocks.

This is the last Tetris block:

I have an 8th spool block finished, but it’s still under the needle.  At this rate, I should have enough blocks for a twin size quilt in a year.

Hop over to Judy’s  for other design walls and Melissa’s to see the Tetris blocks.

Yesterday, I took my young quilting friend to the annual Quilt-R’s Market.  This was the first time I had been, so I didn’t know what I would find.  The pictures above show what I brought home.

The band uniforms caught my eye on the football field.  I didn’t even open it up, just handed over my money   The other side is the same. 1 yard.  The music fabric is a FQ.  There’s two yards of the pigs.  I bought that for my friend J who back in  May was looking for some “cute” pig fabric.  This is by Joe Boxer, copyrighted 1993.  The final pieces were grabbed out of the free pile.  They are just scraps.

Since I don’t have to count the fabric we bought for my young quilting buddy, I’m actually used more this week than I bought.

Fabric Added Since Last Report: 3.25 yards
Fabric Added to Date:  92.802 yards

Fabric Used Since Last Report: 4.82 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 68.903 yards

Net Used for the year -23.899 yards

Hop over to Patchwork Times to see if anyone is making progress with their stash busting efforts.

This week I took two days off from work.  No special reason, just had the time and this was a good time at work to be off.  Naturally, the days filled up.  As of a week ago, there was nothing on my plate — except maybe rent some time on the long arm — if I could get something ready (i.e. backing and quilting design — I have tops coming out of my ears.  See the list HERE.)

Tuesday, between taking my car in to get the A/C repaired and a trip to the oral surgeon, I worked on the backing for Carolina Christmas.

Wednesday I finished the backing and attached it and the quilt top to the zippers.    Quilted Memories had an open machine, so I was able to quilt the top.  Last night I got it trimmed and now it’s ready for binding.

Before Bonnie left for Bali, she announced the new Leader/Ender challenge.  Three inch spools.  I didn’t participate in last year’s bowties.  I’m not sure what I was working on at the time — maybe the log cabin blocks?  Anyway, yesterday I pulled out my 1 1/2″ strip boxes and cut the needed pieces for 8 blocks.  So far I’ve finished three working on the backing for Carolina Christmas.

Originally, I planned to use a blue and white 30’s print, but I needed at least another 1/2 yard.  I’m sure I could have stretched it enough to loaded the quilt top to bottom, but I want to load it sideways.

I dug through my orphan block box and found 7 leftover Carolina Christmas blocks.  Then I dug through the stash I found these four fabrics plus one more not shown.    I think it’s going to be a cute backing — once I fix the pink strips.