Just a quicky

 The night before last, I cut out three buildings/wedges for this latest quilt...Dresden Neighborhood by Kim Lapacek.  Yesterday morning, I finished cutting the wedges and laid them out... TRYING to give them more of a balanced look... it didn't work, but that's ok because it's meant to be wonky.

Except for the background, EVERYTHING else is from my scrappy bins.

TRYING for balance..... 

Here it is laid out with roofs pinned on.
You can see what I mean about it being 'off balance'... 

 

and here is where I left it last night when Buddy (our dog) started whining and wanting to me to go to bed so he could, too ( it was about midnight - past our bedtime for sure).  I've gotten several of the windows done - just a few more to do.

I'm not doing it exactly like the pattern directs.  It says to use a heavier heat n bond for the doors and windows so that you don't have to stitch around them... I don't have a heavier heat n bond ( well, maybe I do somewhere in the deep dark recesses of my sewing room closet) so I'll just use scraps of the light version and stitch the windows and doors on.  

We're supposed to have a 'blizzard' tomorrow so it sounds like a good time to just load this onto Mo'e and have some fun.  I COULD do it on my domestic, but where's the fun in that??  I just want to do some outline stitches and then some outlines of clouds all around.... which means I'll probably spend more time loading it onto Mo'e than it will take to actually quilt, but that's ok.

Guess I'd better get to it... finish those windows up.... more projects calling my name :)

TTYL

Four Foxy Foxes

First up...all four foxes for this month's RSC.

 After finishing the foxes, I decided to work on scrappy blocks using only the fabrics in the new purple/lavender bin. 





Fourteen today.... and still have this much left....not a lot but enough for maybe a total of 20 blocks.


There's another bin with purple/lavender in it, but it's my original bin with larger pieces in it.  I'll go through it to make sure there aren't any small pieces in it.

Tomorrow, I go to have another shot in my lower back so probably won't get any sewing done.  Maybe I'll remember to call Jason and order a new clamp for Mo'e ( the E6000 didn't hold either :(  ) and schedule a date for someone to come out and service Mo'e.  I also have to take 'Marie' (my newer Janome) in for cleaning and service; the presser foot doesn't always want to stay up ( Jason said I sew too much; I think he must tell everyone that).

Ok, off to 'chill' in front of the tv.

TTYL

UNCLE

That's what I'm calling.... I worked for several hours on sorting out the big bin of scraps... the pic below is one I took when I was ready to call "UNCLE"... I admit I 'fluffed' up the stash as I was going through... but there's still a LOT of scraps.

 The blue, the green and the white bins are now full and hard to close... I need to figure out something else for them... I don't know if I have any larger bins that I can swap out; I'll have to look - just not tonight.

There are four more bins stashed somewhere else right now.

After giving up on sorting for today, I started working on this month's RSC - purple/lavender.  I finished one completely and the second one is done except for the bottom two corners.  Three and four are only partially cut out.

Isn't he cute?

and, oh yeah, before I started the sorting, I made up the second BeachBall Dresden plate block and I'm glad that I decided to stop at the two...

I really don't like the way they turned out; I don't know if it's because they are so 'bulky' or what it is... It's just so surprising because normally I LOVE dresden blocks.  I'm really hoping that it's just this particular block because I have three other Dresden plate quilts on my To Do list.

I glued the clamp for my LA with super glue last night and then left it alone until this morning... checked it out and it seemed ok - until I went to clamp it back onto the end of the frame - PING, it broke off and went flying again.  I don't think there was enough glue left in the bottle to insure a good hold.  The second time I went and got the E6000 - there was plenty of that!  I'll cross my fingers and check again in the morning.  I'm sure I'll need a new clamp, but maybe this will do until the new one comes.

Oh!.... and I placed an order this morning... for  the supplies and pattern for one of those tuffets that's been the 'rage' the last couple of years.... only this one is miniature/pincushion size.  It's just so cute and I just HAVE to add it to my pincushion collection.

TTYL

Telekenesis

I finished quilting the tool quilt today after deciding to do this design in the borders... not perfect, but close enough........

trimming and binding will have to wait a little bit because my room is cluttered with the new scrap/string bins and I can't get to my freezer top to trim the quilt and I can't get to my sewing machine or ironing board to make the binding.

Before I finished the quilting on the tool quilt, I went back and started sorting out another scrap bin... it seemed to take f o r e v e r... and I ended up tossing quite a bit into a pillowcase.

Here it is... E M P T Y....that leaves me with one more bin to sort through.  There's still the one for the guild's charity quilts but I'm not touching that - it can stay as it is.

This is the remaining bin.... inside my sewing room closet to the right of the door way...

yeah, it's pretty big.   I had all the blues cleaned out of it at one time when I used them up on making a quilt for my son to take in the semi with him when he was driving cross country.  Now that he only drives local, he uses the quilt on his couch.

Here are the blue ( on the left) and the green bins... I guess I should have gotten a better shot... both are pretty full... only the white/neutrals bin comes close to what blue and green bins have.  Once I start diving into that big scrap bin, I may be wishing I had bought a couple of bigger bins for the blues and greens - and maybe browns.  I'm sure there's going to be some rearranging happening.

So, while I'm chatting via messenger with Katie, I hear a PING.. like something hitting one of the rails on Mo'e.  I went out there expecting to see the fabric that I have draped over the rails has been disturbed by one of the cats.  No, it was fine so I kept looking around trying to figure out what the PING was... then I spotted it.. one of the clamps on the frame was hanging down instead of being clamped to the end of the frame.

 Katie has had a couple of things break on her in the past couple of days.... and, apparently, she is now sharing that with me - literally.  The above pic is what I found when I picked up the clamp that was hanging... the pic below is what it SHOULD look like.

 A whole piece broke off!!  and it's not like I can take one of my other clamps that I have and switch the bungee type cord to it.  It's going to take some McGivering to come up with some sort of solution that will work until I can get a new one.  I'll call the dealer on Monday to see about ordering a new one and then I can schedule a time for them to come out and service Mo'e; I'm sure he's due.

Oh!  and the quilt I decided to do instead of the Beach Ball Dresden is called Modern Puzzle and it was designed by Christaquilts.com... I'll share a pic once I get a block done.

TTYL

Two steps forward, one step back

I decided this morning that today would be the day that I would start the Beach Ball Dresden quilt that Me and My Sister demo'ed on Missouri Star Quilt Company's youtube.  I've had this blue print jelly roll for AGES

  and wanted to use it so I bought some blue fabric, I think from Connecting Threads and then some white from Walmart. 

I did a practice block a few weeks ago, just to see if I'd like it.  It was pretty easy and I thought it would be great to do.  Especially since I love Dresden Plate blocks/quilts.  I watched the video again just to be sure I was going to be doing it right.  Made one 'plate' and put it on a 12" block instead of the 10" that the pattern called for ( the plate would have hung over the edges of the smaller block).  I also had some left over 5" squares from the same line of fabric and decided to stick one behind to fill up the center of the plate.

Before placing square behind 

 With the square behind the plate

 Here it is completed... kind of bulky, which I could eliminate some of it by trimming away excess...

But I've decided I don't like it well enough to make 24 more.  Since I already have the blades for a second one already cut out, I'll finish that plate and stitch it down and then the two blocks can join the ranks in my orphan block pile/stash.

It's ok; I already have another quilt in mind to use the white and the jelly roll.. and MIGHT have to use a strip or two of the solid blue but hopefully not.  I don't have a pic of the pattern and can't remember the name right off so it will have to wait til another day.

I finished quilting the first row of the tool quilt ... all I needed to do was 'meander' in the blue/yellow background of each block.  Then I moved on to the second row and that's completed now... two more rows to go... still trying to decide what to do for the borders. 

Feathers are usually my go-to, but this is a guy's quilt and I don't think a guy would appreciate feathers... and it's a charity quilt so I want something quick and simple.... maybe I'll just do a couple of rows of straight stitching - or, if I'm really feeling ambitious, I could do piano keys... probably not - I have to remind myself that I want S I M P L E.  Will have to think on it, but not too long - there are other quilts waiting their turn with Mo'e (he's a popular guy lol).

When we went to Walmart this afternoon for groceries, I bought 12 tubs (a little larger than a plastic shoe box).. I only needed 9, I thought, but they came in sets of 4 and 8 wasn't enough... in this case, more is better.  Once back home again, I started sorting the scrap baskets that were closest to my sewing machine and taking a snip of each color of fabric and taping it to one end of a 'tub' then putting the scraps in whichever bin was their color.  I might need a bigger blue tub... that seems to be what I have the most of.  Even with sorting orange, yellow and gold into the same bin, I still used 11 of them for the scraps/strings - # 12 has the jelly roll/blue fabric project that I mentioned earlier.

When I get them all sorted ( I think I have two more not counting the charity quilt tub), I'll be able to work on scrap and/or string blocks a lot easier.  Instead of them being a mishmash of different colors, which is fine but not what I want right now - I'll be able to make blocks with all the same color... like all red, all blue. 

The question right now is "where am I going to put these bins now that I have them and have fabric in them???"... I'll figure something out - I'll just have to clear some space for them -- SOMEWHERE. 

Ok, time to kick back and relax

TTYL

Quiet Day

I stitched today, but didn't complete any quilts.  I made string blocks... red string blocks.... about seven of them.  I had this plastic shoebox on the table by my sewing machine and I decided to just reach in and grab some strips... then decided to only grab red ones.  I pretty much cleaned all the reds out of that one, but have three other sources for more... I think I'll be doing them for awhile  lol. 

Tomorrow, when I go to Walmart, I'm going to pick up about 10 plastic bins ... bigger than the 'shoebox' size but not too big.  Then, I'm going to start sorting my string scraps into colors.  The pieces that aren't 'strings' will stay wherever they are and will be used for crumb blocks later this year.

I took EIGHT quilts of various sizes to the guild meeting tonight ... oh, and my cute little camper pin cushion.  There weren't a lot of people there, but that was ok; those that were there seemed to enjoy seeing what I had.  Someone ( my cousin Cathy) even asked how many I'll be bringing next week LOL.  I told her "It depends on who pisses me off and how mad they make me".  I sent her a text after the meeting explaining that I was talking about our insurance company, Medicare, Express Scripts and a couple of others who sent me on a major wild goose chase last Friday and again on Monday.

There's a new quilt on the frame... this one will be a charity quilt.  I stitched along the black seam at the top and on the sides and then stitched around the outside of each black 'frame' and around each tool.  I probably shouldn't have; I probably should have just done a 'meander' over the entire quilt... one and done.  But I just don't think that way... I like to do details.  I think just stitching around the outside edge of each tool and it's 'frame' will be enough for the center of each block and I can just 'meander' in each outer frame... will still need to do something for the outer border; have to think on that.

 Yesterday ( well, last night) I said that I wanted to go get some cream batik for the baking for the Fractured Pinwheel quilt, but I wanted it on the inexpensive side.  Earlier today - actually as I'm taking my shower before guild meeting, I happened to think of some blue and black print that I had in my sewing room walk in closet.  I need three yards... I have about 2 1/2 plus another half yard piece that is split down the middle ( so it's half of a half yard cut ) so that wouldn't work.

I went to The Hen House and headed right for the sale/clearance racks while trying not to ooo and ahhh at all the pretties that I had to pass by.  I didn't see any cream, batik or otherwise and realized that really wasn't what I wanted on the back of a quilt.  Then, I spotted this....

It looks kind of batiky and I like it.  I liked the price, too.  You never know what you're going to find down there on any given day.  I could go nuts, but since I'm TRYING not to purchase any more fabric than necessary, I got only what I needed.  She may have to go back and wipe my drool off a bolt here and there, though.  I saw soooo many lovlies there.

I got my download of Sindy Rodenmeyer's new BOM for this year bright and early this morning... haven't started on it yet, though.  I'd better not put it off too long; I have this month's foxes to do, too.

And on that note, I'm going to say TTYL  :)

Mark another UFO as finished

I don't know when I did the top.... at least 4 years ago.  It was just something I wanted to try after watching the video on youtube.  It's a Missouri Star Quilt Company video... Window Pane 9 Patch.
Because it's small ( something like 46" x 46"), I just grabbed some fabric that I thought I could use for backing fabrics... I ended up having to use two... one is a red Christmas print and the other is a blue background snowman print.

I cannot believe how easy it was to pick motifs and quilt it ( easy as long as Mo'e was running - had a few times when he REFUSED to stitch grrrrr).
Here's a pic of a small part of the backing...  there are straight lines, large wavy flowers and small squarish flowers.

I still have to finish sewing the label down by hand, but that's all.

Next, I decided to find the black batik that I knew I had...

Once I found it, I cut 2 1/2" strips for the borders... they weren't called for in the pattern, but I really felt that they were needed.  Tomorrow morning I want to go down to the local quilt shops to see what I can find ( on sale/clearance) that might work for the backing... I was thinking a cream batik, but chances of that being on sale at a REALLY good price are pretty slim so I'm crossing my fingers.  I may end up with just a cream cotton print.

I'm just so tickled that I'm finally getting some of these UFO's off the 'waiting to be finished' list.  

TTYL