Design Wall Monday - April 27

My design wall looks pretty much the same as it has for several weeks. No progress on either of those 2 projects.  However, I did start something new, and laid it out on my design floor this morning.  I'm make a Giant Scrappy Swoon quilt, which will hopefully use up a pile of my scraps.

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

Stash Report - April 26

Nothing out this week, as I've been concentrating on a customer quilt. But the good news is nothing in, either.  Need to stay strong - I'm off to the quilt shop today and there's one particular line which is calling my name every time I step in there.  For now, I've stayed strong because I can't find a pattern I want to use for it.

Stash totals for the year:
88 yards in
108 yards out
Total: 20 yards out

 Drop by Judy's blog for more reports this week.

A Finish!

Last night I realized that my guild meeting is on Monday, and I have a quilt that I wanted to take with me and drop off.  One of the members is collecting quilts for the local Roger's House, and I have two for her. One was done last month, the other still needed binding. So I buckled down and did the binding by machine last night, after I got home with my son from university.

This quilt was one of the New Year's Day mysteries that I did this year, so it's not too much of a UFO (although without the push to drop it off, it very well might have become one).  The pattern was a lot of fun, and pretty quick to put together (as a 1-day mystery needs to be).

This quilt is Toes in the Sand, a block of the month from 2013.  I posted a picture before I took it to retreat earlier this month, but this one is a bit better.  The pattern is from Jay Bird quilts, using their Hex 'N' More ruler.

I'm linking up at WIPs Be Gone today, along with Can I get a Whoop Whoop, Finish it Up Friday, and Link a Finish Friday.

Stash Report - April 19

it's not feeling like I'm making a lot of headway this week in my sewing room. no progress at all on my 2 active piecing projects. But I did get some longarm work done on a few of my own little projects.  As I showed on Friday, 3 quilts completed then, and this morning I pulled a baby quilt out of the "to do" pile and did a quick loopy meander on it. I broke a needle on my last project, and wanted something quick to check the timing out.  Seems a bit touchy, but not totally pooched like I thought it was.   Maybe this is a reason to keep a pile of not-quilted projects around :)

Fabric out this week:
1/2 yard - binding for 2 wall hangings
1 1/2 yard - backing for baby quilt

Stash totals for the year:
88 yards in
108 yards out
Total: 20 yards out

 Drop by Judy's blog for more reports this week.
 

Progress on UFOs

Got a couple of my own UFOs onto the longarm last week.  This one is one of my oldest UFOs, so I'm particularly happy about it.  I did this as a quilt-along with Patchwork times way back so I'm glad to see it moving along the process. 

Now I just need to get the binding on them. This one will be a donation to Victoria's Quilts. The other 2 are wall hanging sized, and I don't have a plan for them yet.

I'm linking up with WIPs be Gone today.

Retreat results

I feel like a student writing a "what I did on my summer vacation" report :)

Here are the tops I came home from retreat with.  Pretty good progress for 3 days, I think. Now to finish them up and get back to the 2 quilts on my design wall, before another new project jumps out at me.

This top was from the Saturday night challenge. It is disappearing hourglass blocks. The challenge was starting with 15" blocks, but I just have to be different :)  I decided to cut my fat quarters into 4 10" blocks and work with those.  12 blocks made a lovely quilt, and the remaining background fabric was enough for the border. This will get donated to Victoria's quilts, I think.

But first - let's play spot the mistake :(  I'll have to fix that pink block before I quilt this one.  But it does look interesting, so maybe my next disappearing hourglass will be a bit different.

This top is just a fun 60-degree project. I started it a while back, to do a demo, and wanted to finish it in order to use up all the fabric I had. I mostly managed to do that. The dark yellow and grey are pretty much gone, except for a few scraps.  There's enough of one of the yellows for binding, fortunately. And I found some flannel in my stash which I think will do for backing.

And last but not least, the mystery for one of my guilds.  All the blocks are now finished. I just need to add borders, but I didn't have enough of any fabric at retreat for the final border, so I'll have to find something out of my stash now that I'm home.

I'm leaning towards this combination. The purple is from the same line as the purple in the quilt, so I think it ties in nicely. And I have enough of it, which is equally important. I like the way the bright blue reflects the inner blue round.  That suggestion was given to me at the retreat, and I think it's just perfect.


I ended up making a couple of fabric substitutions when I was at retreat. I didn't have enough of the grey fabric it called for (no idea what I was thinking when I pulled a fat eighth for that). And I ran out of my light brown (sand) colour - I knew it was tight when I pulled it, but I thought there would be enough.  Fortunately, where I had to substitute was in the 4 corners so the fact that the fabric doesn't match is ok.  I simply scavenged a light-ish brown from another project in my bag and made it work.

Stash Report - Apr 12

What a fabulous weekend!  I'm home from retreat, and really should be heading to bed now, but I missed my stash report today, and I have some usage I wanted to report (which offsets the incoming this week).

Before I left for retreat, I finished binding 1 quilt, made binding for another, and quilted 2 small wall hangings.
1 yard - binding for 2 quilts
2 yards - backing for 2 wall-hangings

And at retreat, I almost finished my guild mystery (but not quite - still have borders to go, so can't report that usage tonight.  Finished a 60-degree quilt - 7.5 yards.  And I finished a new quilt, but I bought the fabric for it at the retreat, so we'll just call that a wash and record 2 yards in and out today.

Stash in this week: 2 yards
Stash out this week: 12.5 yards

Stash totals for the year:
88 yards in
106 yards out
Total: 18 yards out

 Drop by Judy's blog for more reports this week.

Oopsie

This is what happens when a quilter gets overtired and insists on continuing to assemble her quilt.

These triangles had been sewn in pairs, and were supposed to form a straight line when those pairs were joined. I think it's time to take a break.

That's what it was

My cut-a-round ruler. THAT's what I forgot to bring. I packed 4 projects, one of which is a modified dresden plate quilt (not yet started, so that was the plan this weekend).  But I need that ruler, and I can see exactly where it is hanging, on the wall in my sewing room :(  I guess I won't be working on that quilt after all.

But that's OK.  3 other projects, should be lots to keep me busy. First, I'm going to catch up on my guild mystery.  3 final blocks to make, and then assembly, so I should get that finished this weekend.  If I can find all the right cables for my camera, I'll take a photo of that one.

However, I was merrily working away at it, and disovered that I brought 1/2 a fat quarter, from which I was supposed to cut 9 5" squares.  THAT's not going to happen.  So I swapped out that fabric for one of the fabrics from the quilt I can't start.  There's always an option :)

What have I forgotten?

Packing for retreat is always so much fun.  And so fraught with "what did I forget" thoughts.  I have my sewing machine, 3 or 4 projects (I actually have no idea any more, but I know I have more than enough to keep me busy), tools, rulers, thread, clothes.  I can't think of anything I've forgotten to pack, but I'm sure something will come to mind as soon as I arrive.  Nevertheless, I'm off for a couple fun-filled days of sewing and laughter.

Before heading out, I finished a project.  Toes in the Sand was a block of the month from 2013 (I think).  Quilted earlier this year, and now it's bound and ready to donate to Roger's House. I'll take it to retreat for show and tell, show it off at the next Modern Quilt Guild meeting as one of my UFOs, and then hand it off for donation.

Silly computer didn't rotate the picture. I'll have to get a better photo before I send it off.

Design Wall Monday

I have a couple of projects on my design wall today.  First, my Chain Reaction is coming along nicely. I've assembled it into a bunch of sections. These went together much easier than I was expecting. The last 2 sections from the right-hand side are at the sewing table right now.  Next step is to put all these sections together, and figure out what size the quilt is. Then I can decide if borders are needed.

Second project on my wall is a small one block wonder. Too small, really.  There isn't enough variety to make a good flow. 

But I was using up leftovers from backing my Grand Illusion quilt, so I didn't have a lot to work with. I think I'm going to add some plain green to this and mix it up a bit.

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

Stash Report - April 5

I made a stop at the quilt shop this week.  Not for anything specific, but I needed inspiration.  I found some lovely ombre fabric in the sale bin, and a fabric which could be an inspiration for a new bargello quilt. They came home with me, and I promptly started a different quilt :)

With a long weekend this week, I've been working diligently to catch up on customer quilts, so that I can get my own on the longarm.  By the end of the day I hope to be loading mine, so I went ahead and pieced the backing. Which has the bonus side effect of letting me count that fabric out today :)


In this week:
3 yards

Out this week:
9 yards - strip tube quilt (diamonds)
5 yards - backing for mystery quilt

Stash totals for the year:
86 yards in
93 1/2 yards out
Total: 7 1/2 yards out

I did it!!  That puts me in the black, where I hope to spend the rest of the year.  Drop by Judy's blog for more stash reports.

UFOs

Vicki is hosting a UFO busting party for 2015, and I'm starting to think I need to join up. I hope it's not too late. I started the year with about 20 tops that needed to be quilted. Since then, I seem to be adding more projects than I am finishing. At least they are all (mostly) coming from stash, but I really need to get a handle on this soon.   So, in the spirit of busting UFOs and being completely honest about my status, here goes.

As of January, 22 tops ready to be quilted.That includes 3 New Year's Mystery tops created this year, plus Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion. And I had 5 ongoing projects - guild mystery, Border Creek Station mystery, Northern Relections BOM. patchwork year, Block of the week

Since then, I've finished several new tops: block of the week, 2 neutral quilts, baby 1000 pyramids, 2 turquoise/brown quilt tops, modern quilt challenge,
And I've started more projects: Chain Reaction, one block wonder, and 2 60 degree triangle projects

I did finish 3 tops since the start of the year - Spectrum, Metro Lattice, and Grand Illusion are all quilted & bound.

# Projects In Progress Jan 31 - let's call this 22, for the tops I had on Jan 31
# Projects Completed - 3
# new project started - 4
# UFOs trashed - 0
# projects in progress March 31 - 26 tops, plus 8 being pieced

Assembly Time!

I have all my blocks made, and pieces cut for Chain Reaction. Now to figure out how to sew all those hexagons, triangles, and 9-patches together, without completely losing my mind. Some might argue that already happened when I decided to tackle this quilt in the first place :)

You may notice that the darker, busy hexagons made it back onto the wall. I decided the quilt was a completely unusable size with just the 8 hexagons, so I tossed the originals back into the mix.

In the meantime, I seem to have gotten distracted by this project. Another tiny quilt - the leftover fabric from my Grand Illusion backing had 6 repeats in it.  Not width of fabric, but usable. So, I cut a bunch of triangles last night, and now I get to sew all those into half-hexagons.  EQ tells me this will finish at around 35x45".  Add some borders with the remaining fabric, and maybe a few extra squares thrown in for fun, and I should have a donate-able quilt in the end.

Found a new linkup this week. Hop over to Needle and Thread Thursday to see what's up.