Design Wall Monday - June 17

My design wall looks like this today.  Pretty and green.  And neat and tidy. I am trying to decide if I want to put back my design wall how it was before (just flannel tacked directly to the wall) or do something a bit more durable this time. And something that might protect my new paint job.  I haven`t decided yet, but I do suspect that speed will win out and the old sheet will go back up before long.  And I doubt the tidiness will last past the first stitch.

In the meantime, I did pull out a couple of projects to finish.  There was a moment of panic as I found the fabric from one, but neither of the quilts.  Figured out where I`d stashed the quilts, then I had to to go hunting for the remaining fabric for the other quilt.  But, all bits and pieces are found now, and a plan is in place.  2 quilts that need borders, then on to a new project.

First, I`m determined to finish the borders for swoon.  I completed the pieced border at my last retreat, now I just have to put them all together - all 7 borders.

And then, on to this project.  I`ve decided it needs a border because it`s too small right now for my space bed.  A 6" border all around should fix that problem.  At least I hope it will, because I think that even that little is going to stretch the remaining fabric to its limits.

Check out Judy's blog for more design walls today.

Stash Report (or lack thereof)

I have used no fabric in the past few weeks.  I haven't even been sewing.  But, I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now.  I just have to figure out how to put everything back together.

I had grand plans to paint the two "easy" walls of my sewing room yesterday,  and leave the icky, hard walls for today.  But after I got through 2 walls I looked at the open paint, the fact that I was already hot and sweaty and dressed in my painting clothes, and I pushed stuff around in the room, emptied the shelves, and continued painting.

And now it's done.  Took 2 hours, which isn't bad, considering.  Maybe I shouldn't have waited 7 years to do this. But my sewing room is now painted, and I can put stuff back where it belongs later today.  And then maybe, just maybe, I can pull out a project to work on.

As I was finishing the last wall, my youngest came up the stairs and glanced in the room (the first wall is visible from the stairway).  He said "Has that wall always been blue?"  I don't know if I should be happy he actually noticed, or concerned that he had no idea what colour that room was :)

The casualty of all this productivity - my children's dinner.  Bad Mom award, as my oldest left the house at 9:00pm, before dinner was ready.  And I did not escape unscathed from my efforts.  As usual, a portion of the paint attached itself to me. Just a little gift to remember it by :)

And, so I don`t lose track of my stash:
Total stash usage this year: 107 1/4 yards out

Drop by Judy's blog for more stash reports.

Once again I've been AWOL from blogging - and quilting - for a few weeks.  And what do I do when my company leaves?  Do I immediately start sewing again, because I'm going into withdrawl?  No (well yes, I am in withdrawl. But no, I'm not quilting yet).  Instead, I decide it's time to paint the sewing room.

Since I had to clean it up for company, and now have to reassemble it into a sewing space, it seemed the right time to take the plunge and (after 7 years) paint the room something better than the beige paint the builders slapped up.  Unfortunately, that probably means not much sewing for another week or two.

I did manage one hour of sewing this week.  Block party was today, and I had to have the block finished.  So I brought the machine back and sat down to do it Thursday morning at 6am.  What else does one do after a 5am airport drop-off, and before the regular 7am walk?  The wonky star was really fun and quick to do - the perfect project for a short morning break.

And now on to painting. Here's my poor room, with 2 walls exposed and ready for paint.  I think this is going to be a staged process, because there's still a lot of clutter on the sewing table that I'll have to move in order to paint that wall.  So, these 2 first, then I'll tackle the rest.

Get it done! May/June

I can't believe it is June tomorrow.  Time to check in with Judy on her "Get it Done" challenge.  Last month, I set these goals

1. finish 3 quilties for guild
2. quilt a commission quilt
3. bind ugly fabric challenge in time for guild
4. quilt the guild mystery before guild meeting

And I can happily say I finished them ALL!

So, let's look ahead to June.  Visitors in town until mid-month, so I'm going to keep my goals modest. 

1. Quilt bear paw
2. Quilt hunter's star
3. Finish borders on Swoon
4. Bind the quilties that I stacked in a corner when my company arrived (not sure how many there are)

Let's see how that goes, after the 15th of the month.
 

Design Wall Monday - May 27

My design wall today is the floor at quilt retreat.  I am almost done the pieces for the border on my swoon quilt, and now I need to pick the colour a narrow border to run on both sides of that.  Here are some of the options I'm considering.

First, here's the whole quilt - a rainbow of swoon blocks.

Then the border options - light purple, rainbow (which matches the center of each square), or dark blue.  I could also use either of the greens.

What do you think?

Stash Report - May 26

I posted my photos last night, and here is the yardage used for the 2 quilts completed this weekend.

4 1/4 yards - teal quilt
5 3/4 yards - urban candy
used this week - 10 yards

Total stash usage this year: 107 1/4 yards out

Drop by Judy's blog for more stash reports.

Quilting Mojo is Back!

I've been a busy quilter this weekend.  I finished 2 quilt tops, and made good progress on the borders for my swoon quilt.  I hope to get them finished tomorrow.  Apparently I wasn't smart enough to take pictures of the finished quilts, but here they are in partial stages. The black and white curves are from the last retreat I went on, and it is now complete.  It won't have borders, so I'll add it to the pile of "to be quilted" - and hope to get some time in on my long arm over the next few weeks.

This quilt I started yesterday.  The blocks went together really quickly, despite a minor "d'oh" moment.  I was planning to strip piece some parts of this, but when I started cutting I just cut, and cut, and cut every piece.  So, no strip piecing happened after all.  I've put this together, with sashing in the light colour.  Now I have to decide if I want any borders on it - and if I do, then do I have enough fabric to do that.