Busy, busy

We're hading into another weekend where I won't be doing any quilting (or blogging).  I'm off to spending the weekend dancing!  Really looking forward to it, but maybe even more I'm looking forward to getting my schedule back to something resembling normal. Where I can actually spend some extended time in my sewing room once in a while.  It's been a busy couple of months - in everything except my personal quilting.

Dance this weekend, then finish up some Christmas quilts for customers, and then my schedule is (almost) my own :)

Stash Report - Nov 23

I have some fabric usage to report this week. My finished Spectrum quilt used 5 3/4 yards.  I quilted a small wallhanging last week, which used 1/2 yard for the backing.

And binding for my Border Creek Station mystery used 1/2 yard.  So, 6 3/4 yards out this week.  Nothing in.


 The back of this quilt used all the leftover fabric from the quilt, including what was supposed to be the binding :(   So I found a dark purple that coordinated and bound it with that.

Stash totals for the year:
479 yards in
186 1/4 yards out
Total: 292 3/4 yards in


It doesn't look like I'm going to manage to used half of my incoming this year. But I might just be able to hit 200 yards used, if I can quilt a couple projects before the end of the year.

Drop by Judy's blog for more stash reports.

Spectrum Quilt

Silly me, I never did take a photo of my Ombre quilt before I dropped it off at the shop for display for a few days. Still not quilted, but the top is there to show everyone what can be done with those fabulous ombre fabrics.  So, since I forgot to take my own photo, I'm borrowing the one from the shop's retreat photo album. This way, I even get to be in it :)

I'm loving this quilt. And as soon as I get all caught up on the Christmas quilts I've promised people, I'll grab this one back from the store and quilt it with a nice custom design.

The pattern is "Spectrum" from Fresh Lemons.

Retreat Report.

Back from retreat, and so many ideas came home with me!  There were lots of beautiful quilts during show and tell, not to mention all the beauties being worked on during the retreat.

This quilt is done (no, that's not a finished picture - I didn't manage to take one yet of the full quilt).  And I got lots done myself. 5 months of my "Downtown" block of the month.That didn't seem like much, until I counted the blocks (3 each month), and looked at the fact that I have only 4 months left. So I got more than half of them done during the retreat.

I also finished the setting blocks for my block of the week, and started on the 160 flying geese I need for the first month of the guild mystery.  This beautiful one is NOT mine. I love the fabrics that were used in this one, and I can't wait to see mine all put together now that I've had a bit of a preview of what's going on.  But I'm determined to wait until we have all the blocks, before I start assembling them.  10 weeks to go ...

I love these fifteen-degree quilts.  It was great to get to see this one in the two colour-ways, with the light background and the dark.

Another 15-degree quilt - smaller blocks, and a beautiful treatment on the back, with the leftover pieces from the blocks.

There were a couple of round robin projects that came in. The work on this one is amazing - and the fact that each round was done by a different person astounds me. I've never had the nerve to participate in a round robin, but this really makes we want to try one.

And for our last day, Mother Nature provided a lovely view - snow gently falling on the lake.  It snowed lightly all day (despite promises that it would end at noon).  Fortunately, nothing really stayed around, and the drive home was fine.  But this morning, we have a solid covering of snow on the ground.

Design Wall Monday

When I got home from the retreat last night, I quickly put up the blocks I'd spent most of the weekend working on. I'm pretty sure everyone around me was tired of hearing how much I don't like paper piecing.  But I persevered, and finished 5 months of my "Downtown" quilt.  Just 4 more to go, and maybe, just maybe, there's hope it will get done.  I still haven't decided if this is one quilt or two, but I'm leaning towards two at this point.

This is all that's on my design wall for now, but drop by tomorrow for a look at some of the gorgeous projects that we on display during the show-and-tell portion of the retreat this weekend.

Today, you can drop by Judy's blog to see what everyone is up to.

Retreat weekend

Itanother wonderful weekend quilt retreat in Gananoque. I can't seem to upload photos from my tablet, so no pics until Monday. One quilt is already finished. Okay, all I had to do when I arrived was join the rows sio it hardly counts, but it is done, The rest of today was spent fighting with some paper pieced blocks, to finish a block of the month from earlier this yesr. 2 months finally done. 6 more to go.

Tomorrow I'll have to decide whether I plug away at another couple of months, or tackle some of the other projects I brought with me.

Design Wall Monday

I finally have something new on my wall today!  My local quilt shop has had this fabric for a few weeks, and I knew right away I wanted to make something with it. And on Saturday, inspiration struck, in the form of a pattern I happened to walk by at the shop.

I've even got my quilting design worked out already, which is pretty much unheard of for me.  This should keep me busy for a few days, any way :)

Drop by Judy's blog to see what everyone else is up to today.

Stash Report

Finished a quilt!  So I get to count out 4 yards of fabric today.

However, I picked up some fabric recently for a new project - 3 3/4 yards in.  Almost a wash this week, but I do get to share a picture of my finished quilt.  I would definitely do something different next time, but this was a quick project for those batiks.

Stash totals for the year:
479 yards in
179 1/2 yards out
Total: 299 1/2 yards in

Drop by Judy's blog for more stash reports.

Design Wall Monday - Nov 3

Silly me. After talking about my finished quilt, and the inspiration I saw in Florence, I completely forgot to attach any pictures yesterday.  So, let's try that again.

The is the floor of the Duomo cathedral in Florence (I think). I think this would be really cool to do with a 15 degree ruler, or something similar.

 Outside the Leaning Tower of Pisa was this marble "moat"

And these 2 photos are the floor of the cathedral in Sienna. I'd love to make a border of those slanted diamonds.

 And finally, my Border Creek Station quilt ("Quilter's Dessert").  Just needs binding before Friday.

As for my design wall, it still looks the same as it did before my holiday.  No progress there, although I hope by next week to have something new up.

Drop by Judy's blog for more design walls today.

I'm Back!

You might have noticed my absence on the blog for the past couple of weeks.  I was away on vacation with my mother in Tuscany.  We had a great time, and while we were there I was admiring many of the beautiful floors in the cathedrals, and thinking what nice quilts they would make.   Now I am finally back, caught up, and back into the swing of quilting again.  With lots of inspiration for new quilts.

But first, some things to finish up.  I finished one quilt this morning.  This is my Border Creek Station mystery, and since the reveal is on Friday I thought I'd better get moving on getting it quilted.  Just need to get the binding on now.

For my stash report this week, that backing was already counted, so nothing to count out. But I do have about 7 yards that came in right before my vacation. I picked up fabric for this year's Border Creek Station mystery, so I'm all set to go.

Stash totals for the year:
475 1/4 yards in
175 1/2 yards out
Total: 299 3/4 yards in

Drop by Judy's blog for more stash reports.