Quilting and Stuff by Knitnoid

Progress On Multiple Quilts

February 20, 2015 1:22 am ⋅

orca-borders75

Slowly I’m getting the border pieces done for Orca Bay. I have 75 units trimmed. The other 25 units have issues so there’s ripping and re-sewing in my future. My goal is to get all the units finished this weekend and maybe, just maybe get the border on the quilt.

kalli-brights

Next weekend I’m going to a 2-day quilt day retreat.  22 hours if I last that long. So, I’ve started cutting the fabric for Eye Fooler, the quilt I’m making for my niece to take and work on. These pieces are for the black & bright 4-patches and flying geese.  I still have a few more pieces to cut and of course all of the black fabric. Once I get these units done, I’ll move on to the triangle in a square and half-square triangle units.

 

Posted in: Eye Fooler, Orca Bay

Progress – Shirts

February 17, 2015 12:38 pm ⋅

catsgraciebox-1

 

shirts-basket

 

When I started processing shirts, there were shirts in the box and the basket. Both cats checked out the box – but not at the same time.

catsbutterbox

A file box was found and the older tax stuff was moved to it, freeing up 4 “shirt” boxes. I’ve filled 3 with the shirts I’ve processed.

shirts-processed

Now I have 8 boxes of shirts –

shirts

not including whatever is in this box:

shirts-tocut up

 

But since they are contained and not in front of my design wall, I think I’ll leave them for now.

So, as soon as I finish Orca Bay and Eye Fooler, I think there are a couple of shirt quilts in my future.

Posted in: Uncategorized

What’s On My Design Wall

February 16, 2015 8:03 am ⋅

At the moment, there’s nothing on my design wall — still can’t get to it.  I’ve also taken down the temporary design wall, so there’s nothing on it either.  But that’s not to say I’m not working on things.

Border pieces for Orca Bay are ready to be stitched – and have been since Friday afternoon.

dw0216-orcaborders
Friday night I started de-boning shirts.  Would you believe the last time I bought a thrift shirt was back in June?  They are stuffed in a  box and a laundry basket. My goal is to get them into usable fabric. I have a couple of ideas for quilts and I can’t start either one until I have this task done.

dw0216-shirts

Actually, even when I get the shirts dealt with, I won’t start the shirt quilt. I need to turn this pile of fabric into a quilt for my niece. I need a ton of black and bright 4-patches, bright flying geese in black skies and bright triangles in black squares – at which point I’ll need my design wall.

dw0216-gradfab

Nothing like tasks dependent on each other.  I am making progress getting to the design wall. In addition to working on the shirts, I took two quilts and boxed them up for delivery — then took them out to my car. It may be cold, but the cold won’t hurt the quilts.

See what other are working on by following the links over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: designwall

Out of Control

February 15, 2015 11:21 am ⋅

overwhelmed

 

It happens so fast.  At one point things are moving along smoothly and then then the next minute there’s fabric everywhere and half a dozen projects or more going on, many which need to be done “now”.

I promise better pictures when I finally get the room put back together, but this one is not bad.  I really like the way my new desk area is working. But I really want to get the room fully functional sooner than later.  So here are the projects:

  • Clear the cutting table — that pile of stuff is primarily junk out of my old desk drawers. It needs to be gone through and put away. Which leads to the next project.
  • The desk drawers – I’ve simply dumped other drawer stuff into the new file cabinet without regard to whether that’s really where it belongs.  The top two drawers replace the pencil drawer and top drawer of the old desk and need to be cleaned up so I can clear the cutting board.  This is slightly circular in logic.
  • On the far left of the ironing board are de-boned shirts. This is a “now” project because there are two boxes sitting in front of the design wall.
  • The brightly colored fabric in the next three piles are for my niece’s graduation quilt. I’m a bit late getting it started.
  • Then there’s Orca Bay.  It just needs the borders before it can go into the to-be-quilted pile, but it’s not needed immediately. Do I put it away or go a head and finish it?
  • In front of the orange and pink fabric is the Star-A-Day quilt.  I need to select and cut more fabric for it.
  • Get to the design wall.  There are multiple projects just for that task.
    • The shirts
    • The scraps boxes
    • The boxes which had previously been stacked under the cutting table
    • The stuff which really shouldn’t live in this room.

So, I think I’ll go to the grocery store, then worry about all of this when I get back.

 

Posted in: Uncategorized

Stash Report

February 15, 2015 12:35 am ⋅

stash0215

 

Yesterday was the day that I purchased the background fabric for my niece’s graduation quilt. 6 yards of Black Magic — a deep double dyed black that seems to resist gathering every piece of dust, dirt, fuzz and cat hair in the greater metropolitan area.  Which is good given that Butterscotch decided to take a nap on it.

butterscotch evolution

The three bright FQs are my reward for knocking off 3 of the 10 projects on my Get ’em Done list (Scrappy Trips, Jared Takes a Wife and the Christmas BOM quilt top). Naturally I picked fabrics which will go into the graduation quilt.

I’m still piecing on the Orca Bay border, so officially no fabric was used this week.  Part of me says put up Orca Bay and get busy on the graduation quilt, but I think I’ll just start the graduation quilt with the black and bright 4-patches as my leader/enders.  Of course this means I’ll finally have to clear the cutting board off so I can cut fabric….

Fabric Added Since Last Report 6.75 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 18.66 yards

Fabric Used Since Last Report: 0 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 16.214 yards

INCREASE in Stash to Date:  2.446 yards

See how others are doing with their stash over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: Stash Busting Report

89 And Counting

February 10, 2015 11:13 pm ⋅

staraday0210

 

Remember that Star-A-Day project I started back in September?  The one which says I should be closing in on the half-way mark?  Well, I’m behind.  I lost it in November and I’m stitching to catch up.  This is the latest section I’ve worked on. There are two more rows to attach to this section and then I’ll attach it to the larger section.  89 stars have been completed so far. My current goal is to not fall any farther behind and maybe, just maybe catch up in a 3 or 4 months by doing more than one star a day.

 

Posted in: Star-A-Day

Orca Bay Progress

February 10, 2015 8:34 am ⋅

orcacenter0209

 

The 5 seams were sewn last night. I try to assemble large quilts in 1/4 sections. It wasn’t until I was sewing the last seam – the horizontal one across the middle of the quilt – that I realized just how heavy the quilt top is.

Tonight I’ll work on the borders.  Last night after supper I finished my 88th star and then started sewing the rows together in the current section. I think I only have 6 more stars traced off so it looks like this weekend I’ll be digging in my scraps/stash for stars.

Posted in: Orca Bay

What’s On My Design Wall

February 9, 2015 7:35 am ⋅

DW0209

 

Just 5 more seams and the center of Orca Bay will be done. Also, I made 6 stars for the Star-A-Day quilt. I need to finish 2 more and then I’ll have enough to finish the first section.

See what others are working on over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: designwall, Orca Bay

Stash Report

February 8, 2015 6:31 am ⋅

I’m in quilt assembly mode, so there’s been no new fabric used and I haven’t bought any fabric so my numbers aren’t changing. But that’s OK. I hope to have a finished top before too long.

Fabric Added Since Last Report 0 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 11.91 yards

Fabric Used Since Last Report: 0 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 16.214 yards

DECREASE in Stash to Date:  4.304 yards

See how others are doing with their stashes over at Patchwork Times.

 

Posted in: Stash Busting Report

Orca Bay Progress

February 7, 2015 11:06 pm ⋅

orca-0207

I’ve still have stuff stacked in front of the design wall, but it’s not from the desks.  Most of the desk stuff is put away, but there is still a smaller box on my cutting table.  This means the ironing board & treadle are cleared and I’ve been sewing.  This is half of the center of Orca Bay – the 2011 Bonnie Hunter Mystery which is not available in her book String Fling.

To clear the stuff in front of the design wall, I’m going to have to deal with the shirts which I’ve collected. I have an idea which should use plenty of the fabric and be quick to put together, but it would be a “new start”, and I’m not ready to do a new start yet. Perhaps after I get the Orca Bay top done.

Posted in: Orca Bay