Quilting and Stuff by Knitnoid

Retreat Accomplishments

April 12, 2011 9:02 pm ⋅

Whenever I go to a retreat, I always take more than I can possibly accomplish in the allotted time.  This retreat was no different.  In my bag were the following projects: a twin size red, white & blue mystery quilt – pre-cut ; the letters for the crossword puzzle quilt; Fun with Bricks – partially sewn; my mom’s 4-Patch Stacked Posies- partially sewn; mini Ohio Stars; the red, white & blue shop hop blocks; fabric to make sleeves for the quilt show quilts and a stack of 1 1/2″ squares for leader/enders.

I decided early on, the mini Ohio Stars wasn’t going to work.  I need to be able to concentrate without distraction.  At one point I pulled out the letters.  I got as far as sticking a few letters to the squares, but decided that between the monotony of zig-zagging around all the letters and the height of the sewing machine , I’d be better off doing these at home.  Not a whole lot of progress was made on the quilt Mom started either.  I got the blocks pressed and sewed a couple of 2-patched into 4-patches, but then realized I was going to have to decide on what size to trim the blocks to.  Since this was Sunday afternoon and I was tired, I put them away.  The shop hop quilt blocks never made it out of my bag.

So what did I make a dent in?  I have sleeves on 3 of the 4 quilts I took with me.  The twin size mystery quilt blocks are made and all but one row sewn together.  That’s when I realized that I pressed the mirror top/bottom button instead of mirror left/right and instead of a scant 1/4″ seam, I was sewing the blocks into rows with a generous 1/4″ seam.  I had 4 seam rippers with me (3 were in goodie bags), but decided to fold up the pieces and work on something else.  That was Fun with Bricks.  This quilt needed 2-patches sewn into 4-patches and I finished the blocks with the beige squares.  I about 10 of the double brick 2-patches sewn into 4-patches and then it was time to pack up.

That white tray (it’s a recycled plastic box with a snap on lid) contains the 1 1/2″ squares I’m sewing into 2-patches.  Eventually I want to make a postage stamp quilt.  I think I need 4520 pieces so, I have a along way to go since I’ve only sewn about 176 square into 2-patches.

Now that I’m home, I’ve got to get working on the mini-Ohio Stars.  I’d like to have it completed by the Guild meeting on Monday, but may just have to settle on getting it done in time for the Quilt Show at the end of the month.  The cutting board is cleared, the sewing machine plugged in, so all I need to do now is find the ironing board.

Posted in: retreat

Mystery Quilt Revealed

April 12, 2011 8:55 am ⋅

This past weekend I attended the 10th Anniversary Kaye-Woods-Quilting-Friends (Yahoo! Group)  retreat at Camp Beth Eden in Conway, Missouri.  This was my 7th year.  I had a great time, but I’m exhausted!  One of the activities which you can participate in is a mystery quilt.

A mystery quilt is where you are told how much fabric you need, then are given the cutting and sewing instructions, but not told how what you are making.  Hopefully the instructions are written clear enough that there are no frustrations and in the end you have a finished quilt top which looks like the original when it is revealed.

I wrote this years mystery quilt.  My friend Mary over at Quiltn’ Gramdma’s Blog tested the pattern for me.  After the pattern was tweaked, Terri who wasn’t able to make it to the retreat offered to post the patterns to the list for anyone who wanted to participate, but couldn’t make the trip either.  She also tested the pattern for me.  This is her quilt.

This year we had six ladies complete their quilt tops.

More about the retreat and the shopping I did later.  I’ve got to straighten up my sewing room so I can unpack.

Posted in: 2011 Mystery Quilt, mystery quilts

The Year of the Pig – Question #7

April 6, 2011 7:26 am ⋅

No,  I didn’t get questions #5 & #6 answered.  Perhaps I’ll go back at some point and answer them.

What do you do when you have no desire to sew?
Do you ever get bored with your fabric and look for a different direction?

My youngest nephew will be 8 this summer.  It was when I made his baby quilt that the “Quilt Pox” really caught hold.  Over the past 8 years there have been a few times when the last thing I wanted to do was quilt.  I think once I went nearly 3 months without sitting down in front of my sewing machine!  Fortunately the other times it wasn’t quite as long.

I finally figured out when the melancholy hit me.  It was after I had a big finish, especially if I had spent several intense weeks at the sewing machine.  At the time, I simply walked away from the sewing machine and then read and read and read and read some more.  Reading is another favorite thing to do.  I finally either ran out of books, or heard my sewing machine calling and resumed quilting.

Since that first dry spell, it’s happened a couple of more times, but no where near as intense.  I recognized it for what it was — I wanted to READ.  So, I did, but only two or three books, then I was able to get back into the sewing room.

It’s been a while since I’ve not spent at least some time each day either at the sewing machine, picking fabrics for my next project or playing in Electric Quilt, but I think the reason is because I’ve found Books on CD.   I pop a CD into the player and can enjoy both of my interests — reading and sewing/quilting.  That’s not to say I don’t read paper books, but I since I don’t feel deprived, I don’t spends weeks trying to catch up.

So, I guess the answer to the first question is to let yourself walk away if you need to and try to figure out why you don’t want to sew.

On to the second part of the question.  Sometimes.  I’m a scrappy quilter, so I don’t have a whole lot of yardage.  It’s mostly FQs or what’s left from yardage. Generally the purchase of a FQ or two will get the sparkle back into  my stash.  I will say I don’t have a lot of batiks in my stash — until recently only one or two pieces.  So, I went shopping in a friend’s stash and came home with two dozen batik FQs.  Originally they were intended for a specific quilt, but I don’t know if that’s where they’ll end up.  Regardless, they’ve added a new life to my stash.

See how others answered these two questions by following the links over at Ramblings of a Fabric and Yarn Obsessor.

Click here to see the answers to the questions I’ve answered.

 

 

 

Posted in: PIGS

An Evenings Work

April 4, 2011 9:36 pm ⋅

This evening I finished up the pillowcase to go with the Dresden Plate quilt (I’m still looking for a name — currently under consideration is “Metempsychosis”).  I also cut a 1 1/2″ square off of each unique strip in my 1 1/2″ strip bucket to use as leader/enders.  The thought is these will become a postage stamp quilt – well at least part of a postage stamp quilt.

Tomorrow I’ll dig for ‘ugly’ fabric to make hanging sleeves.

I think this qualifies, but believe it or not, if there is enough, I really want to use it on the back of my Texas Braid.

Posted in: Uncategorized

What’s on my Design Wall

April 4, 2011 12:30 am ⋅

Woo Hoo!!  I finally finished my Dresden Plate quilt. It was February’s UFO Challenge Quilt.

The fabric for the plates started out life as a skirt my mom made for me in the early 1990’s.  I loved that skirt.  But an elastic waistband on a longer skirt and a rolling desk chair just don’t mix well.  I rolled over my hem and attempted to stand up one too many times.  Putting the fabric into a quilt apparently has not solved this problem. As I was binding the quilt, I rolled over the end of it and got tangled up.

This is the back of the quilt.

I’m working on a pillowcase to go with the quilt.  Right now I’m leaning toward a black case with alternating blades and a narrow gold trim.

I hope to get this pillowcase, and perhaps one for the Dragonfly quilt finished before I leave for retreat later this week.

To see what others have been up to follow the links over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: Colorworks Dresden Plate, designwall, UFO Challenge 2011

Stash Report

April 2, 2011 11:37 pm ⋅

I’ve still used more fabric than I’ve brought into the house year-to-date, but the difference has shrunk considerably.  Last week I picked up the backings for two of the “7 by July” quilts, and since they were wide backings I did a bit of math to figure out the 42/45″ wide yardage equivalence.    The only fabric used was the backing for the borders of the Dresden Plate quilt which I have finished quilting.

Fabric Added this Week: 14.4 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 33.094 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 2.16 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 43.791 yards

Net Used for 2011: 10.667 yards

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

Posted in: Colorworks Dresden Plate, Stash Busting Report

Making Progress

April 2, 2011 9:10 am ⋅

The borders are on the Dresden Plate quilt.  I have one border quilted.  Now to mark and quilt the other three.

Posted in: Colorworks Dresden Plate

April’s UFO Challenge

April 1, 2011 5:15 pm ⋅

Judy has announced this month’s challenge number.  It’s #4.  In theory that means I’ll be working on one of these two quilts:

From list #1 (get the quilt to the top stage) is the Red, White & Blue Sampler.  These blocks came from a couple of different sources.   Some of them are from a small shop hop I did in May 2009 and some were birthday blocks sent to me last year.  I’ve tossed in a couple of extra blocks to get the count up to 15.

These blocks are tossed into my retreat bag to take with me next week.  At the moment, I’m leaning toward sashing and quilting the blocks and then assembling them in the same manner I’m doing my Dresden Plate.  If I go this way, the completed blocks with sashing will be my “top”.

From list # 2 (quilt & bind) is “Thangles 2”.  This is one of the two baby quilt tops I made from  my Thangles BOM blocks from several years ago.  I picked the “black and bright” theme but didn’t think the brights selected worked well together and made two baby quilts with 2 blocks left over for “back art”.  Then there was my piecing.  Ugh!  Anyway, in theory this is the quilt top #4 which needs to be quilted.

So, what will I really do?

Last month Judy picked # 1, which is the 4-Patch Stacked Posies quilt my mom started several years ago off my list #1.  I didn’t work on it in March because I needed something to take to the retreat in April.  It is my plan to get this quilt to the top stage at the retreat.

It’s my intention to finish the Dresden Plate quilt (February’s Challenge) this weekend.  I’m in the process of putting the borders on, so with luck, I’ll have it done for Monday’s Design Wall.

Also on this month’s list to complete is the Mini Stars quilt; appliquéing the letters for the Crossword Puzzle quilt (one of the “7 by June” quilts), complete two twin quilt tops (pieces already cut out) and get hanging sleeves on any quilt I’m planning on entering in the Guild quilt show.  I’d really like to quilt the baby mystery quilt, but think I ran out of month three or four projects ago – especially since I want to get The Chain Event (a “7 by June” quilt) done this month.

Posted in: UFO Challenge 2011

March UFO Challenge is Met

March 29, 2011 11:59 am ⋅


Admittedly this pink and blue quilt is listed as #7 on my UFO Challenge list, but I did say there may be occasions where if a quilt needed to get bumped up, I’d swap #s.  So, I’m swapping #7 for #1.  It just didn’t seem right to use my bunny quilt to meet this month’s challenge since it wasn’t list on the UFO Challenge tab — although it was on either the “tops to be quilted” or “quilts in progress” tab at the beginning of the year.  Anyway, this quilt got bumped to the front of the line so I could practice quilting dragonflies.

For the backing, I used a piece of vintage fabric I got from my friend S when she was cleaning out her stash a year ago.  Come to think of it, the blue & white hearts came from her stash as well.

The quilt is approximately 39″ square.  I  used Warm & Natural batting, King Tut # 993 (white) in the top and Bottomline  in the bobbin.  The binding is stitched down by machine — I can’t think of any binding I’ve done by hand.

Now on to the next quilt – Dragonflies.

This is the first of the seven quilts I need done by the end of June. Here’s a closeup of the quilting.  My dragonflies were various sized and going every which way.

I opted for King Tut # 978 – Rosetta Stone in the top.  I wasn’t gutsy enough to use the bright thread.

White thread in the bobbin.  So essentially you can’t see my quilting — which at this point is a good thing.

After washing the quilt measures 57 x 68.  I used Warm & Natural batting in this one as well.

Posted in: Baby Fox & Geese, Dragonflies, UFO Challenge 2011

What’s On My Design Wall

March 27, 2011 11:13 pm ⋅

No piecing this week.  I’ve got the binding attached to the baby quilt and hope to get it sewn down tonight.  Then I’ll trim the Dragonflies and work on binding it.  Stay tuned for better pictures later in the week.

In the mean time, check out the links over at Patchwork Times for great inspiration.

Posted in: designwall, Dragonflies