Monday already!

I can't believe I missed both Stash Report Sunday and Design Wall Monday this week.  I'd like to blame Hurricane Irene, but that was a non-event here. Although we did get a beautiful sunset out of the deal.  Lots of wind, no rain around here.  I hope those of you in the path are safe and starting to dry out.

My design wall looks the same as last week.  I have made some progress on the quilting of my Fibonnaci spiral, but that's about it.  I'm afraid that my UFO for the month is going to be late.  Might get done this week, as I have a few days of vacation coming . If I can get motivated in between picking up schedules and paying school fees for my kids, I may get it done this week.

I'll hold off until next week to report stash - there is some to note, as I have the backings for 2 quilts done.

Design Wall Monday - Aug 22

Still up on my design wall this week is the blue quilt.  Progress has been made, and I have just one shade of blue left to do.  You can see some of the blocks sitting on my sewing table, because my design wall is not big enough to hold this quilt.

It's time for a break, so I pin-basted a couple of quilts tonight.  I'll hopefully finish quilting both of those this week, before I go back to working on the blue quilt.

Also in progress but not on my design wall because I don't have room, are my block lotto blocks for this month.  I made 6 violets for this month's draw.  These were a lot of fun to make, and I may make some for myself later - maybe with a light background instead.


Check out Judy's blog to see what other quilters have on their design walls this week.

Stash Report - Aug 21

I had a pretty productive past couple of days.  Some vacation from work, and the text-to-speech on my Kindle gave me the time and motivation to do a bunch of sewing.  I made more blue blocks - 2 yards worth.  Put a border on the Fibonacci Spiral - 1/2 yard.

And made some violets for the block lotto.  2 blocks are done, and another 4 are cut and ready to go in between the blue blocks.  Another 1/2 yard.  So 3 yards out this week.  Not bad.

But then my local quilt store had a surprise sale.  Yay!  But not so good for the stash report.  24 fat quarters = 6 yards in.

Totals for this year:
Overall, 21.75 yards in, 55 yards out.
Net for the year:  33.25 yards out.

Now I'm off to find inspiration for my black & white quilt.  Check out Judy's blog to see what other's have done this week with their stash.

Love my Kindle

I bought myself a Kindle earlier this year, thinking how nice it would be to be able to a few books on a trip, without lugging the extra pounds with me.  I fell in love immediately, and haven't bought a paper book since (with one exception, that wasn't available in e-book format).  But until recently, it never occurred to me that I could tie my Kindle in with my quilting.

I don't think I would buy quilting books for the Kindle, at least not until there is a colour version available.  But yesterday I decided to try something new.  I was starting to read a new book, and I picked one that had text-to-speech enabled  Then I headed up to my sewing room turned on the speech, and quilted for a couple of hours.  I was reasonably happy with the speech quality - not great, and quite stilted, but certainly understandable.  And it meant that I could do my quilting and listen to my book at the same time.

It was quite a treat, and I managed to finish 10 blocks on my blue quilt, the border on the brown fibonacci spiral, and the entire book, in two days.  I even sewed two of the blue rows together.  Now I'm off to start a new book.  Reading it on my own this time - at least for now.

Design Wall Monday - Aug 15

My design wal is showing a little bit of progress this week on the blue quilt.  I'm starting to accept the fact that this one is going to be a long-term project for me.  But progress is progress, and it's good see this one moving along.

I also have the quick quilt I did, to get my mojo back this week.  This was inspired by a block lotto month, where the blocks were based on the "Golden Rectangle".  I did some reading, because I could picture a cool disappearing quilt effect from this.  While doing that I stumbled across a reference to a golden spiral - created by joining the corners of each golden rectangle.  I was going to make that quilt, but the numbers are really awkward for quilting.  So instead, I did a Fibonacci spiral, which is made from nice, even sized blocks.

Stash Report - Aug 14

Now that my mojo is back, I have a little bit of stash busting to report.  1 yard used for the medium blue stars, and 3/4 yard used for my "mojo rejuvenation" project.

Totals for this year:
Overall, 15.75 yards in, 52 yards out.
Net for the year:  36.25 yards out.

In addition to quilting, I finally got motivated enough to mow my lawn.  I'm sure the neighbors are happy about that.  And thanks to a friend's update on Facebook yesterday, mentioning all the gardening and baking she got done, I went out and harvested my rhubarb finally.  The little plant I transplanted 3 years ago has really taken off this year.  I harvested several cups of rhubarb earlier in the season, and now today, this is what I got.  Just need to cut it up in preparation for freezing and baking.

I think I found it!

I got lots of good suggestions the other day, for getting my mojo back.  I may have found the trick that works for me, thanks to some of those posts - thank you all for sharing your mojo rejuvenation techniques.  I pulled out another project I've been mulling over for a few weeks - something easy this time.  Chose the fabric I need for it, planned the cutting, and then told myself I had to do some blue stars before I could cut any of the new fabric.

Today, I went up to the sewing room, looked at the new pile, and sat down and sewed a bunch of pieces for the stars together.  Then inspiration struck - the two quilts can be leaders/enders for each other.  So I sewed the first bit of the new quilt, and then a string of blue, so that I could extract the new bit without cutting thread on the machine.  That's my goal now - finish the new quilt one bit at a time between strings of the blue one, without ever cutting the thread between sections :)

After and hour, two more blue stars are almost put together. And step one of the new quilt is done. It doesn't look like much yet, but the continuous bias is sewn together, cut, and ready for pressing.  I'll do that tomorrow, and this one will be ready to start assembling.  It's just a little one (about 34x21" when complete), so it should go quickly even as a leader/ender project for the blue quilt.

Looking for my Mojo

My design wall looks the same as last week, except the checkerboards are gone, having been mailed to the winners last week.  I've had a really hard time getting myself motivated to get into my sewing room this week.  I don't know if it's because I'm struggling with the current project, or something else.  The blue quilt is nice, and is coming out just like I hoped.  But it is very detailed, with lots of points to match.  Very different from the last few quilts I've done.

The pink quilt went together really easily, with nested seams and straight joins.  No points to worry about.  The dragon was a whole other beast.  What else have I done recently?  Seems to me they've all had nice squares and rectangles, and I've been avoiding triangles and the points that come along with them.

What do you do when you lose your mojo?  I'm thinking I need to start a new project, to work alongside the blue and give me a break once in a while.  Trouble is, the quilt that's been on my mind for months, which I want to start next, is going to be circles.  Not something I've ever done before, and probably not a nice relaxing change from the points in the blue.  So I'm a bit nervous about starting that one.  Maybe I need to spend some quality time with Electric Quilt and see if I can come up with something interesting, but simple.

Design Wall Monday - Aug 1

There has been a tiny bit of progress on my design wall this week.  The dragon is gone, because I finished him earlier this week.  And I managed to put together 4 more squares for the blue quilt.  I guess it didn't get finished in July.  Maybe August.  The block lotto blocks will be heading out soon, and will probably be replaced by the August blocks, because they look fun to make.

I like the way the blue quilt is coming together, but it is very detailed and full of points to match.  I'm sure that's why it is taking me so long.  I think an alternate project, to give me some breaks from the blue one, while still staying focused on quilting, may be what I need.  I can't wait to see what Judy pulls out for the monochromatic challenge this month.

Check out Judy's blog to see what other quilters have on their design walls today.