Stash Report

October 12, 2014 10:32 am ⋅ Pam

I haven’t reported the last few weeks as there’s been nothing to count in or out. I’ve been keeping up with my Star-A-Day project, but that fabric won’t be counted until the top is finished. I did finish a project last week – I made a lining for a crocheted purse.

Thursday I found out that one of the LQS is going out of business. My husband encouraged me to go. So Saturday, armed with my budget and the list of fabric that I need to finish some of my numerous UFOs, off I went. Pictured above is what I came home with.

The turquoise is for the new Bonnie Hunter Mystery — if I decide to do it. I wasn’t able to find a yellow I really liked. My sister and I will ultimately split this piece. The paisley on the right I bought with the the idea of using it as the border for the Alphabet BOM. I’m considering a pieced sashing between the blocks and the brown and light blue is what I purchased for that. Given I still need to make 7 more blocks and haven’t settled on a layout, who knows if this is really what it will be used for. My sister gets a piece of the light blue as well. In exchange, I’ll get some of the black prints she bought.

Fabric Added Since Last Report (9/7/14): 18.807 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 165.874 yards

Fabric Used Since Last Report: 0.25 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 99.275 yards

Net Increase in Stash to Date: -66.599 yards

It’s a good thing I haven’t been to the thrift shops lately, although I did pick up “scraps” off of the Free Stuff in Craigslist. I’m still wading through them or I would have included them in this report.

Linking up with Patchwork Times.

Posted in: Stash Busting Report

Recap and Goal Setting

October 3, 2014 5:15 pm ⋅ Pam

In September I seem to have limited myself to three quilts. Batik August C, Star-A-Day and the binding on the DWR. Given the DWR and the Star-A-Day quilt are handwork I’m not surprised. Nothing like getting excited about finishing a quilt and/or starting a new quilt – although the new quilt seems to have taken priority.

So it’s October and time to set this month’s goals and the 4th quarter goals for the 2014 Finish Along.

Setting the October goals is easy. 31 Stars, at least half of the remaining binding on the DWR, September & October’s Alphabet BOM blocks and at least half the remaining Batik August C blocks.

The 4th Quarter Finish Along Goals on the other hand…

I always seem to be finishing something that I didn’t plan on finishing. This last quarter it was the Abbey Memories. So, I’m going to do a 4 part list: Realistic; Possible; Long Shots and Just Dreaming.

Realistic:

Finish DWR
Batik August C
String HST

Possible:

Scrappy Trips
Christmas Row Quilt
Christmas Crazy 8s
Diamond Links
Thangles BOM Yellow

Longshot:

These are the quilts/knitting that I’ve said I wanted to finish this year and yet they haven’t been worked on this or have fallen by the wayside.

Green & Cream Swap
Compass Lone Star
Hancock Stars BOM
Hardware
Easy As Pie
AMB August A
Christmas BOM
Candy Sunflower Seeds
Jared Takes a Wife

Dream:

These are quilts that I wanted to get the top done this year, but they don’t count for the Finish Along unless they are quilted. Stranger things have happened, so here they are.

Orca Bay
Sew Scrappy
‘Twas The Night Before Christmas #1
‘Twas The Night Before Christmas #2

Of course having outlined all this I could still pull a quilt out of the stack of tops and quilt it, get a wild idea to work on one of my other UFOs — or start something new. After all I do need to think about Kalli’s graduation quilt and what about Bonnie Hunter’s winter mystery quilt….

I’ll update the link to the Goal Setting Party next week when it opens.

Posted in: 2014 Finish Along, goals, UFOs

What’s On My Design Wall

September 29, 2014 8:22 am ⋅ Pam

My Star-A-Day project is on the wall today. I’ve been pushing myself to get ‘caught up’ on the stars and last night I finished the 28th star and I was able to assemble the section. Spending so much time on this quilt to get it going has meant I’ve not worked on anything else. Now that I’ve I’m only working on a single star a day and it has ‘clicked’ and a star is not taking me 2 hours to make, I should have time to work on my other projects. But first I’ll select the fabrics for the next two weeks of stars.

Check out what others have on their design walls by following the links over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: designwall, Star-A-Day

The Stars Have a Setting Fabric

September 23, 2014 5:15 pm ⋅ Pam

This morning I received an e-mail from the LQS. For Day #1 of their Customer Appreciation Week they were offering 40% off of any one cut of fabric. Very seldom does everything line up — a great sale, the need for a large length of fabric, budget and time. I ran to the shop during lunch hoping I’d find something that I liked as well as what I showed yesterday or better yet that I’d like even better.

I did.

This is an older April Cornell fabric from the Nostalgia line – pattern # 35122. The creamy soft (very soft) yellow works well with all of the existing star backgrounds and the soft blue print gives just enough interest to the setting squares without becoming the focus point. I love that it is going to give a soft look to the quilt.

Yes, two more stars are done. I sat in a different chair (no arms), had a bright light and possibly most importantly, wasn’t distracted by the TV. The stars went together much faster. So, I might just catch up by the end of the week and then can start working on other things after making a star.

Posted in: Star-A-Day

What’s On My Design Wall

September 22, 2014 12:06 am ⋅ Pam

16 of the 3″ (finished) stars. I’m considering the fabric I have them laying on as my setting fabric. I only bought a FQ over the weekend since I wasn’t certain about it, but I think it plays nicely with the star backgrounds I’ve used so far.

Over the weekend I traced off enough stars for the rest of the month. Now if I can come to some sort of balance between piecing a star and working at the machine. Maybe if I had a book to listen to…

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

Posted in: designwall, Star-A-Day

Shopping!

September 20, 2014 5:21 pm ⋅ Pam

This weekend I hit several garage sales and then a couple of quilt shops. And I actually bought something!

The first sale I picked up the ruler, cutting mat, and quilt books. Yes, I already own a copy of the first edition of the DWR book, but can I find it? The second sale I picked up the crate of “strips” propping the books up. Turns out it’s not all 100% cotton, but the crate itself is worth the price. I will have new strips to add to my strips and string buckets just as soon as I go through them.

Now on to the quilt shop purchases. A friend and I drove up to Hamilton to Missouri Star. She was looking for something specific, I was along for the ride. I picked up the two stacks of neutral charm square for my Star-A-Day project. Since the last time I was up there (either 1 or 2 years ago) they’ve opened up three new stores — a reproduction store, a holiday store and I a store I guess I would call “modern” – solids and blenders. It’s my understanding they are planning a batik shop next.

Afterwards we stopped back in Cameron at Quilting Connections and I picked up two FQs. I’m going to need to buy the background fabric for my Star-A-Day quilt and I think one of these will work nicely. I want to get a few more stars made before I made up my mind though.

Speaking of stars, I need to pick more fabric as I’ve made up all the ones I traced off last wee.

Posted in: Uncategorized

More Stars

September 17, 2014 12:45 pm ⋅ Pam

Two stars are from Monday, the blue one is from yesterday. I’m partway through another star, but got distracted by going and getting this sewing rocker.

Well there was also the distraction of thinking I had to replace a zipper in a formal dress by Saturday. After getting the young lady to try on the borrowed dress, it became apparent that the zipper was the least of the problems and another dress is needed.

Additionally, I ripped out the stitching where I attempted to machine stitch the binding down on the DWR. It still hasn’t made it into the sewing machine. Maybe tonight.

Posted in: dwr, Star-A-Day

What’s On My Design Wall

September 15, 2014 7:58 am ⋅ Pam

And then there were six. These are the first of 365 3″ finished LeMoyne stars I need for the Star-a-Day quilt by Karen Styles.

The idea is to stitch one star a day and at the end of the year you’ll have enough stars to make an 81″ x 81″ quilt. The designer recommends that the quilt be assembled in sections as you go along so you don’t end up with a pile of stars at the end of the year. I need a few more stars before I try to assemble my first section.

As for piecing them one a day, I can see an advantage to that – I did three last night and I can feel it in my wrist. Given that I need to also be working on the DWR binding, I need to pace myself.

As for the DWR, I need to get it back to the sewing machine. There’s a section which I need to re-stitch. It won’t take long, but it does require swapping the pressure foot on the machine and changing thread. I guess I’ll do that after work today. That is after I stitch a few more of these blocks. There are six laying on my sewing table ready for me to stitch the 2nd strip to them and a whole stack that need both strips.

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

Posted in: designwall, Star-A-Day

Star-a-Day?

September 13, 2014 10:45 pm ⋅ Pam

I’m not sure I can call this a Star-a-Day — yet. The top left star is #1. It measures about 3″ instead of the 3-1/2″ it should measure. It took me nearly a week to get it finished. Hand piecing is right up there with applique. Which of course explains why I’m trying to embark on making 365 stars by hand.

Star #2 is the turquoise and brown. I started working on it before I finished the first one and it’s just not going together well. It will have to be taken apart and made over again.

Star #3 – the lime, blue & pink one. Well, this is about the 3rd time I’ve put it together. I discovered starching the fabric really well before tracing the templates makes it much easier to line the pieces up. However, my thread (a silk thread I use for applique) kept pulling out so I set it aside to work on star #4.

Star #4, the one with the lady bugs, I finished earlier this evening. It’s not quite 3-1/2″ but it’s close enough and I switched threads. Once I finished it I ripped out the stitches on star #3 and started over. It wasn’t until I tied off the end of my thread that I noticed I have a couple of pieces in the wrong place. My husband suggested it was a design element. Nope, simply the lack of concentration.

I’ve been told it takes about 10 stars to get in the groove. I wonder if doing stars over counts.

Posted in: hand work, Star-A-Day ⋅ Tagged: Star-a-Day