Stash Report

January 9, 2011 2:41 am ⋅ Pam

Three hours at the LQS and I still have used more fabric this year than I’ve purchased.

Saturday was the 2010 UFQ Trunk Show at Heritage Fine Fabrics. I signed up to get 5 quilts either ready to quilt or quilted and bound – I finished 4 of the 5. Over the year as we finished each project, we received a FQ as a reward. At the trunk show, we receive one ticket for each finish for the drawing. I won a $15 gift certificate. So, there’s more fabric in my future.

My only purchase was some Lite Steam a Seam 2 for the Crossword Puzzle quilt – which doesn’t count in the stash numbers. I also signed up for the 2011 UFQ (UnFinished Quilts) Challenge.

Ready-to-Quilt

2008 Charm Challenge/Shangra-La
Mom’s 4-patch Stacked Posies
QIAD Christmas Row Quilt

Quilted and Bound

Miniature LeMoyne Stars
Crossword Puzzle
Blue Carolina Baby Quilt

Sorry for the distraction – back to the stash numbers:

Fabric Added this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 0 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 3 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 4.63 yards

Net Stash for 2010: -4.63 yards

Check out other results by following the links over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: Challenges, Stash Busting Report, UFOs

A Design is Found

January 6, 2011 10:35 pm ⋅ Pam

I’ve been pondering what to do with my 9-patches for UFO # 6. Today I read this post which Bonnie wrote showing a Sister’s Choice quilt which Clare had made. It took a while, but eventually I made the connection and decided to turn my 9-patches into Sister’s Choice blocks.

I have 2 yards of the green and a box full of lights, so I should be able to finish the top from my stash.

Now on to cut. I need a total of 768 – 1 5/8″ green squares, 384 – 1 5/8″ light squares and 384 – 1 5/8″ x 3 7/8″ light rectangles. I could be cutting a while.

Posted in: Charm Challenge, UFO Challenge 2011

The Easy Part is Done

January 5, 2011 10:43 pm ⋅ Pam

I’ve made all of my 9-patches. The hard part is now figuring out what to do with them. The truth is, I didn’t have much of a plan when I started this project back in the spring of 2008. Only a recognizable part of each charm square was required to be in the project. I vaguely remember thinking I wanted to use as much of the charm squares as possible. Thus my 9-patches are a weird size. I think they are supposed to finish at 3 3/8″. There should be 4 more blocks, but I made two incorrect cuts early on and I haven’t figured out what to do about it yet.

Posted in: Charm Challenge, UFO Challenge 2011

The Year of the PIGS – Question # 1

January 5, 2011 3:30 am ⋅ Pam

Jill is hosting a support group for quilters with PIGS (Projects in Grocery Sacks) and UFOs (UnFinished Objects). The idea is every couple of weeks a question will be asked and those participating will post their response. The first question is:

How do you store your UFOs and PIGS separate from your fabric stash?

The good news is I don’t have that many PIGS. But as a general rule, I store all of the fabric and generally the pattern in an appropriate sized zip top or other closable clear bag. There are a couple of exceptions to this. I’ve got one quilt in the Priority Mail envelope it came in, one is in a Moda “lunch box”, and one is in a Chinese take-out carton (it came that way!)

The bags are then stored either in this milk crate, which is usually buried under another crate and then stuff stacked on top of it.

In my crate of UFOs.

Or for my Kansas Trouble Kits, in the Kansas Trouble fabric box.

My UFOs are stored similarly. In clear bags in the box above, or in labeled project boxes on the top of my fabric shelves.

The project boxes may contain more than one project, if all I have are blocks. I also have a LARGE suitcase which contains one of my quilt-as-you-go projects since I’ve got the batting with it.

My finished quilt tops waiting to be quilted are folded up – with the binding and backing if I have it and are stored in two crates. The crates are labeled, so when I decide it’s time to quilt one of them, I can tell before dragging the crate off the top shelf if it’s in that crate.

Check out the links over at Jill’s to see how others store their PIGS and UFOs.

P.S. I guess I should clarify how I use the terms:

PIGS – Project In Grocery Sack – fabric and pattern stored together, but not started. This list is short only 11 projects.

UFO – UnFinished Object – it’s been started but is not yet a quilt top. There are 36 of these, which is why I’m participating in several UFO Challenges.

Top – some times referred to as a Flimsy. This is a quilt top waiting to be quilted. I have 39 of these waiting to be quilted. There are 8 on my list to quilt this year as part of various UFO Challenges, but the rest will be done when I need a quilt for a specific reason.

Posted in: PIGS

What’s on my Design Wall

January 3, 2011 8:18 am ⋅ Pam

This is project #6 from Judy’s UFO Challenge. These are the blocks I had completed prior to putting up the project several years ago. Last night I pulled them out to see what I have. I have no idea where I’m going with this project, but there are another 68 9-patches in progress.

Check out other design walls by following the links over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: Uncategorized

Stash Report

January 2, 2011 8:57 am ⋅ Pam

First report of the year (includes Dec 26th – Jan 1st). It’s short, since I have family coming in for dinner.

Nothing in, and fabric for a pillowcase and binding out.

Fabric Added this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 0 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 1.63 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 1.63 yards

Net Stash for 2010: -1.63 yards

Check out other results by following the links over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: Stash Busting Report

January UFO Challenge

January 1, 2011 7:37 am ⋅ Pam

Judy has drawn # 6.

That means this month I’ll be either get my Charm Challenge into a top

or quilt my Scrappy 5-Patch.

Now for a bit of history on these two quilts.

For several years, my LQS, Heritage Fine Fabrics, issues a Charm Pack Challenge. The rules are pretty simple. Create a quilted object containing a recognizable piece of every charm in the package. In 2008 I think the charm pack was a Three Sisters line. I decided to make 9-patches using the ‘quick pieced’ method where you start off with two squares of fabric and end up with 2 9-patches. I hadn’t thought past that point, and when I didn’t finish the 9-patches and the contest deadline passed, the pieces were set aside.

The Scrapy 5-Patch is a quilt top I completed in 2009. It just needs quilting. The backing and binding are folded up with the quilt top and I’m sure there’s a piece of batting big enough in my batting box (or I can piece one together). I just have to decide how I’m going to quilt it. That’s where I frequently get stuck – although generally, I don’t get as far as making the binding and having the backing ready.

My brother and sister and their families are coming to dinner tomorrow, so I won’t get much quilting done this weekend. Good thing I have Monday off!

Good luck to all of the participants in this challenge. I’m sure we’ll finish lots of quilts by the end of the year.

Posted in: 5-patch scraps, Charm Challenge, UFO Challenge 2011

2011 Quilting Goals

January 1, 2011 6:05 am ⋅ Pam

A new year, new quilting goals.

I’m going to try to keep it relatively simple this year.

There are 4 quilts on my “must” complete list:

Double Wedding Ring – this past November
Miniature LeMoyne Stars – Mid April
2011 KWQF Mystery – Early April
Crossword Puzzle – Late Summer

I’m participating in Judy’s UFO Challenge 2011. I’ve picked quilts to be quilted and quilts which need to get to the top stage. There are 4 which I’m doing using some sort of Quilt-As-You-Go method, so they are on both lists. The UFO Challenge 2011 tab at the top of the page lists my selected projects. It’s my goal to cross off at least one of the two projects each month.

Posted in: goals

Review of 2010 Quilting Goals

January 1, 2011 5:51 am ⋅ Pam

Happy New Year!

It’s January 1st and time to review my 2010 quilting goal.

Tracking the goals here on my blog made me accountable, and helped me meet most of my goals.

Keep up with the Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler block of the week. This is a quilt I started in 2007. With 140 6-inch blocks this is not something you whip up over the weekend. I finished 21 blocks in 2010 before making the deliberate decision to take a break from the quilt in October. I have a total of 69 blocks finished for this quilt.
Clear my scrap basket. I no longer have a scrap basket, but boxes of pre-cut strips, bricks and blocks. I finished dealing with my scraps back in May. Since then for the most part I’ve kept my scraps dealt with as each project was finished. Last night I cleared the small pile which had accumulated in the last couple of months.
Finish New Starts. Mixed results. There were 13 new starts. 4 quilts are quilted. Three got as far as becoming a top. That leaves 6 which I’m still working on. This includes an embroidered project which I haven’t started cutting fabric for, a block of the month which won’t finish until sometime this year, a shop hop sampler from May, a quilt which needs borders, a mini quilt due this April and a quilt-as-you-go strings project.
Complete the top of the Carolina Christmas Mystery Quilt. I used my blocks to make a twin quilt top, and two baby quilts. One is still a top, the other was completed.
Complete 4-Patch Stripy. Completed this quilt in April, along with a matching pillowcase in May.
Complete my Double Wedding Ring Quilt. If there is one goal I’m disappointed in not completing it is this one. This quilt was started 21 years ago. A couple of years ago I decided to get on the ball to finish it for our 25th wedding anniversary. In January I finished piecing the quilt then I spent the rest of the year working on the hand quilting. I’ve completed the quilting on 37 of the 56 blocks, so I’m well on the way to finishing this quilt. This link is to the posting when I finished the 4th row of quilting in October.
Complete the Music Quilt. Music Lessons, as we ultimately called the quilt was completed in January. My husband loves that it’s long enough he can tuck it under his feet and still pull it over his head.
Complete the Green & Cream Swap Quilt. This is another quilt that is further along due to being on this list than it would have been with out the list. Not finished, I am working on the hand stitching from sewing together the first two rows.
Complete one baby quilt. There were three new babies in the family this year. Each one received a quilt. There is Lucy’s Pink Carolina Christmas and Miah’s Tree Farm. I also finished a Bright Tossed 9-Patch and a Modern Tossed 9-Patch. The third baby – Eleanora received Spring Breeze, a quilt I finished several years ago. It’s blue like her big sister’s quilt.
Quilt one of my Bonnie Hunter Designed Quilt tops. Since I found Bonnie’s website Quiltville.com I’ve become a fan. Over the past couple of years I’ve made several of her free patterns and a couple of the mystery quilts. When I started the year I had 3 quilt tops completed: Orange Crush, a black and white Strip Twist, and Old Tobacco Road. Oklahoma Backroads was my current leader/ender project, the Carolina Christmas Mystery was underway and I knew I would be taking at least one class from Bonnie in May. I completed Oklahoma Backroads in September.
Complete Dancing Flowers. Dancing Flowers is an applique project which had been languishing for about three years – primarily because it was applique.
Attend a Quilting Workshop. The Kaw Valley Quilt Guild invited Bonnie Hunter to be our guest speaker in May. She also conducted two workshops – Texas Braid and Blue Ridge Beauty. Now I have six Bonnie Hunter designed quilt tops!
Enter a Quilt in the Guild Quilt Show. I entered Music Lessons and Springtime Flowers.
Move a UFO to Top or a Top to Quilt. I completed this early on by completing my Ladder to the Stars quilt top. Row Quilt, the Red, White and Blue Chain of Stars, and No Blue Geese in my Tropical Garden all became quilts in 2010.

I’m pleased with my results for 2010.

Posted in: goals

2010 Countdown Tasks Complete

December 31, 2010 10:37 pm ⋅ Pam

Prairie Moon Quilts set up three tasks to help us clean up our sewing rooms and prepare for the new year. I have now completed all three tasks and there’s still another 1 1/2 hours left in 2010.

Task #3 was to deal with some scraps. This was my pile which I gathered up while clearing my flat surfaces (from Task # 2).

I sorted through them and decided some could go into my fabric buckets and then cut the rest into 3 1/2″, 2 1/2″, 2″, 1 1/2″ strips, strings and bricks and blocks.