Quilting and Stuff by Knitnoid

Strippy 4-Patch is Finished

April 20, 2010 5:05 pm ⋅

Monday I finished the binding on the Strippy 4-Patch. This quilt was started in January 2008 as a leader/ender projects. The top was finished April 5th and I found the a plaid fabric in my stash that I didn’t think was the best. It turned out to be perfect.

Since it’s a plaid, the photo just doesn’t do it justice, so here’s a close up and if you look carefully, you can see a bit of the quilting. Nothing fancy — outlined the 4-patches and diamonds in the unpieced strips and borders. I used a pink Fairy Frost to bind the quilt.

Posted in: finish, Quilts

What’s on My Design Wall

April 19, 2010 7:56 am ⋅

My design wall is missing. Well actually, I took it down and took it to the retreat. It’s still packed, but I am still working on stuff. The Kaw Valley Quilt Guild Quilt Show is this weekend and I’m making boutique items.

Last weekend I made a bunch of pocket tissue covers using Ami Simms “Almost Free” pattern to take to the retreat for everyone. It was kind of funny as another retreater had the same idea, so everyone got two packets of tissues with covers. The extras are going to the guild sale table.


This morning I’m working on pin cushions. I’ve got one made and have the top of the second one made.

Follow the links at Judy’s to see what other’s are working on.

Posted in: designwall, guild

Retreat Recap

April 18, 2010 11:22 pm ⋅

This past weekend I attended a quilt retreat just outside of Conway, Missouri. Thirty-four quilters, most of whom met on a Yahoo! quilting group. This was my 6th time attending and the 9th for the group. My local quilting buddies S & T traveled with me.

We stopped in at Merrily We Quilt Along in Springfield, MO for a bit of shopping and lunch in the Tea Room. Once at the retreat it was fun seeing old friends and meeting quilters new to the retreat.

Thursday night there was a bit of show-n-tell. I wish I had thought to get my camera out as there were some great quilts. That night I finished quilting my Scrappy 4-Patch and attached the binding. When I realized I made the seam too wide, I decided to head to bed. Even though the quilt wasn’t bound, I slept under it anyway.

Friday morning, we were back up and at our sewing machines. While some quilters worked on the mystery quilt, I worked on the quilt binding for a bit. Getting bored with that, I started attaching the hanging sleeve to Mom’s quilt (finally finished it this evening). Since my wrists begin to hurt if I do to much hand work, I alternated stitching it with working on my Carolina Christmas. After lunch, S, T, V and I took a road trip to Cabool, Missouri to visit Ozarks Patchwork Peddler. It is a cute store.

Once back at the retreat, we had dinner and then for S, T and I a change of plans. Instead of quilting all weekend, we rushed back home to bring T to her doctors. She’s fine now, but we had a bit of a scare. Would you believe we were completely packed – sewing stuff, bedding and clothes and the car loaded in 20 minutes or less? Once the others realized what was happening half of the ladies helped pack up our sewing stuff and the other half packed up the bedding. All weekend we sent text messages back to the retreat to keep them updated when we heard from T and her family.

While T and her family were dealing with her health issues, S and I spent the weekend quilting together while waiting for information. During this time I finished up the Poinsettia Star blocks for Carolina Christmas, worked on the hanging sleeve and started putting the second block together.

The plan is for more quilting Monday, but since we are back in town, we may end up working.

Posted in: retreat

Stash Report

April 17, 2010 11:38 pm ⋅

This past week I managed to get into 4 quilt shops, but yet, I didn’t bring home much fabric. Quilt shop #1 was a stop for my secret sister gift. 4 great 1/2 yard cuts, plus a book mark for each of us. Quilt shop #2 I couldn’t find an exact match to replace a binding (I did make the binding nearly 4 years ago), so only a FQ to make a couple of quilt labels. Quilt shop # 3 a couple of 30’s FQs for my SBS, a red and green diagonal stripe for my Christmas sampler and the cutest music panel and coordinating yardage (1 yard). Quilt shop # 4 sent a gift bag which included a FQ to each retreater (darn — I forgot to get it in the picture). A very cute store, I only bought Thread Conditioner, as I bought more than I intended at store # 3.

The array of 30’s FQs on the right and the cow FQ on the left came from my secret sister.

Fabric used this week was minimal. Dark squares on Oklahoma Backroads and fabric for a hanging sleeve.

Here’s the report:

Fabric Added this Week: 5.57yards
Fabric Added to Date: 43.181 yards

Fabric Used this Week: .379 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 29.921 yards

Net Stash for 2010: 13.26 yards

See how others are doing by following the links at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: Stash Busting Report

QA Wednesday

April 14, 2010 12:12 pm ⋅

Oops — didn’t do to well on my list from last week.

  • Quilt and Bind Stripy 4-Patch – still quilting – can I finish it tonight?
  • Make pillow case to match – no – won’t do it until the quilt is bound
  • Prep for the Quilt Retreat – this I’ve done — if you don’t count gathering my clothes!
  • Make 2 Sylvia Bridal Sampler Blocks – didn’t do this either

Quilt Retreat is this weekend.  3 1/2 days  of non-stop visiting, quilting, and eating.  I always over pack (don’t want to get bored with just one thing).  In my bag are the following:

  • Carolina Christmas
  • Oklahoma Backroads
  • Dancing Flowers
  • Mom’s 4-Patch Stacked  Posies
  • Mom’s Thangles Buck a Block BOM
  • Hanging Sleeve for Music Lessons
  • Fabric for Hanging Sleeve for Springtime Flowers
  • Bonus HST from Oklahoma Backroads and Carolina Christmas

Priorities will need to be set because I’m not getting it all done.  The hanging sleeves absolutely must be done.  The quilt show is next weekend.   I really want the Carolina Christmas and Oklahoma Backroads tops done by this time next month.  Dancing Flowers is on my monthly list, but if it’s done by July I’m OK.  I’ve got plenty of time on Mom’s two quilts, so they may go to the bottom of the list.  The bonus HST will go into a baby quilt and the baby is due next month.  Hum.  Perhaps that needs to go higher than Dancing Flowers.

Well, check back next week to see if I overworked myself this weekend.  In the meantime, see how others are doing by checking out the links at Bari’s.

Posted in: goals

Read the Manual

April 13, 2010 6:55 pm ⋅


Somehow, this is fitting. I bought my Husqvarna Quilt Designer 8 years ago today. I still love it as much now as I did when I bought it.

Today, I pulled out the manual to look something up. Page 6 is titled Accessory Tray / Sewing Surface. Huh? Turns out that piece attached to the lid of my the accessory tray extends the bed of the sewing machine by 1 3/4″.  Who knew?

I wonder what else I’d find new about my machine if I were to sit and read the manual cover to cover?

Posted in: Uncategorized

What’s on My Design Wall

April 12, 2010 10:08 am ⋅

This week, I’m quilting Stripy 4-Patch. Nothing fancy — cross hatching in the pieced strips and probably a simple cable the floral strips.

This weekend I got distracted did no quilting on this quilt. Instead I made some quick gift items for the retreat and quilt show — I’ll show a picture next week. They really were quick, but anytime you start doing multiples that 5 minutes starts to add up! I also make a hanging sleeve for one of the two quilts I want to enter into the quilt show. I’m not looking forward to all of that hand stitching.

Check out what others are working on by following the links at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: designwall

Stash Report

April 11, 2010 3:06 am ⋅

This was a good week fabric wise. I finished the 4-patch stripy top which used a bit of fabric for one border (the other 3 were already cut). Then the quilt needed a backing. There were also bits and pieces to the pieced band in the middle of the backing, background fabric for Dancing Flowers, 50 2″
squares for the Oklahoma Backroads leader/ender project and a couple of yards of fabric for gifts and quilt boutique items.

Inbound was nearly as good, considering I was in 2 quilt shops this week, plus Jo-Ann’s. At the first shop I picked up the binding fabric for the 4-patch quilt, and background fabric for my Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler — all of this was part of the semi-annual Bolt Sale.

The only other inbound fabric was the Laurel Burch panel and coordinating fabrics. These fabrics came from my mom’s sewing room. Last week I did a quick dig and brought some fabric home. Yesterday my sister and I went through all the fabric on the shelves. Turns out she had more quilting cottons than I thought. I haven’t figured out how much I brought home yet. I’ll count it as I integrate it into my stash.

Fabric Added this Week: 5.833 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 37.611 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 7.454 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 29.542 yards

Net Stash for 2010: 8.069 yards

See how others are doing with their stashes by checking out the links at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: Stash Busting Report

Stripy 4-Patch Backing

April 7, 2010 7:11 pm ⋅

I really do need a better name for this quilt. I stopped by the library and checked out Quilt-Lovers’ Favorites Vol. 2. They call the quilt — or one similar to it — Candy Stripes. But back to the backing. This is really growing on me. Two widths of the fabric wasn’t quite long enough for the length of the quilt. So, I pieced another string of 4-patches to insert in the middle. It turned out really cute. I don’t know if I’m going to attempt to center the strip, or let it fall where it may — which will be an inch or two off from center.

If you don’t have a Companion Angle Ruler, or something similar, consider getting one. I became a fan of this ruler and the Easy Angle ruler after working on one of Bonnie Hunter mystery quilts. This strip went together so much easier that the ones on the front. On the front I cut triangles from squares – and I can’t promise you I cut them on the diagonal twice so the edge was on grain. One reason this top sat so long was I didn’t look forward to squaring up the strips. I still had to square this strip up, but it was so much closer to being ‘right’.

Well, off to sandwich the quilt. Have to pull out the ‘big board’ now.

Posted in: notions, Quilts

QA Wednesday

April 7, 2010 12:15 pm ⋅

Last week a had simple goals — finish my brothers shirts and cut the ‘light’ pieces for Texas Braid. I’m happy to report that I’ve done both. The shirts were delivered Saturday and I now have 296 light pieces and 343 dark pieces for Texas Braid. Since the plan is to make either a lap or twin size quilt, I should have plenty. If not, I’ll cut more in May!

There are 4 things on my list for this week.

  • Quilt and Bind Stripy 4-Patch
  • Make pillow case to match
  • Prep for the Quilt Retreat
  • Make 2 Sylvia Bridal Sampler Blocks

The first two should be easy enough.  Last night I bought the binding fabric and started working on the backing.  I should get the quilt sandwiched tonight.  The pillow case I’ll deal with after I get the quilt done.   Prepping for the Quilt Retreat is an ongoing process since I’ll be changing my mind on what projects to work on up until I load the car to leave.

I need to make 2 blocks for the sampler this week as I didn’t get last week’s done.  This week’s block is B10 and I made it when I first started the sampler, so I’ll pick another block.  I HAVE to do this since I also bought 3 yards of the background fabric yesterday.

See how others are doing on their goals by checking out the links at Bari’s.

Posted in: goals