Monday, April 18, 2011

Design Wall & Etc........................

I have been a busy bee.  Our guild is participating in the Just One Star can comfort a soldier program.  They have asked us to make a star and send it to Moda where it will be added to other stars into quilts for our military who have been injured in Araq and Afghanistan.  They have asked that the stars be made with a cream colord background and a medium red or blue.  They will do the trimming and squaring of the block.


Perry and I are making the quilt "Gone to Market" (see right column).  This is sort of like a block of the month.  I am trying to make a few pieces each month for the quilt.  Sunday I got busy and made 13 more baskets to go with the 3 I had made previously.  I have 44 all together to make.  Then I will start to make one of the other baskets.  At my rate, I might be finished by the end of the year. 


And then on my other design wall I have "Off the Grid."  This is a neat little quilt.  Fast compared to what I usually make.  I like the colors.  This is an old line of fabric (my stass), Tranquiltity.  The colors are nice.  I may make more of this pattern.  I certainly have a lot of stash to use up.

 Not a lot going on here.  Went to Curves this morning then went to Larry's (owner of The Quilt Shop, now closed) with my friend Willey.  She wanted to see a cabinet he has.  She needs a place to store fabric ( what else would you store?).  He had had it made locally.  It is a nice cabinet seven feet tall, five feet wide.  You could store a lot of fabric in it.   From there Willey and I decided to go to Mr. Bill's for lunch.  They have great cat fish.  On my way home I stopped at Judy L.'s parents to see how the filling of the pool is coming along.  Her dad has been more than busy.   Everytime I go by, I see him laboring away in the yard.  He has done a lot of work.  I talked to her mom for awhile and then headed home where I have oodles to do.

Hope all is well on your end.............

Monday, April 11, 2011

Design Wall and etc..........

I have finished up the spinning stars quilt and have decided to name it "Rolling, Rolling, Rolling." I am now working on the back. I will put at least one spinning star on the back. I have used almost all of that background fabric and I bought all that the shop had, so thus am limited to what I can do.  I have saved enough for the binding.  I bought about 8 1/2 yards of background.  It doesn't seem possible that you would use so much fabric.  It is a paper-pieced quilt so there is a lot of waste.  If I made it again, I would widen the strips by a half inch, and then you could use the piece that you cut off (waste) for the next triangle.  It would save considerably. 

In the corners to make this a rectangle quilt instead of using large pieces of fabric, I cut triangles the same size as the triangles used in the spinning stars. It also has a three inch border.






This is a little project that I am doing to use up fabric.  Most of my quilts are little pieces and they take a long time to make.  I am slow anyway.  I am going to make several quilts with larger pieces and quilts that go together faster just to use up some of the excess fabric that I have.  I do not want to buy anymore storage containers.  It is like living within my means, no more storage containers.

I found this pattern "Off the Grid" on the net.  It is a Moda pattern.  It is made with nine nine-patch blocks.  I made it one row longer.  With nine it would make a nice table topper but with twelve it could be use as a leg warmer. 

I made this pillowcase this weekend for my grandson.  He lives on Whidbey Island in Washington state.  I thought he would like the bugs.  This is a closeup of the fabric.  I think it is so cute. 

And then there is my pesky cat, JAC.  She follows me everywhere I go.  My desk is much too small for my "junk",  keyboard and etc, and then a cat that thinks she can spread out.

Hope all is well on your end.........



Friday, April 8, 2011

On my Agenda..........

I have a busy day ahead.  Lots of little things that need to be done.  Nothing exciting going on.  I went to the Quilts Bayou sale yesterday.  I dropped a few coins, but not too bad.  I bought a new mat.  Mine was getting rather cut up and I had had it for a number of years.  I also bought this little cushion.  It is called The Gypsy Sit Upon.  It is suppose to help your tush, back etc.  I thought it would be great for my chair in the office and also in my sewing room.  I managed to keep my fabric purchase under control.  I only bought 2 pieces of Batik.  Also, 3 pieces to make a pillowcase for my grandson and the other fabric to go with what I already have.  I was very tempted to buy another line of fabric, but I controlled myself and didn't do it.  Hooray for me. 

I have a lot of fabric.  I have decided to make an easy quilt with bigger pieces maybe once a month or when I finish a quilt and before I work on another one that takes a lot of time.  I really need to use up some of this fabric.  I have enough until I am 125 years old.  So thus I have put this little thing together, but it is going to change.  This is only the beginning.  Be sure to come back and see what I do with it.  I found this pattern on the net.  It is called Off the Grid.  I have made it a little larger.  What you see here, will have another row added to it.  It is a nine-patch block.  I have 3 blocks to go. 

This weekend I must work on the Market baskets.  Of course this is a block of the month, so I will be happy if I can get a few of the little baskets made. 

Hope all is well on your end.................