Overdye Experiment

A friend gave me a roll of fabric. When I saw it I liked the print but the pink background was meh. I thought I'm going to take this and try overdying it to a plum color.

i started googling about the process and found sights that showed base colors, dre colors used and the results. While researching this I realized the pattern was going to take on color too. I decided to forge ahead before I chickened out. I decided to go with a blue.

i was at Walmart and decided to see what they had in the way of dye. I found a royal blue. I decided if I was going to experiment why not go for it. I also picked a purple.

The instructions say to use steaming hot water in a bucket and stir constantly for 15 minutes. Then occasionally for 45 minutes. Too much trouble! I threw the dye and salt in my top loader on bulky setting. After it dissolved, which was almost immediately, I added the fabric and let it agitate for 15 minutes. I stopped the cycle and turned the machine off and on every 15 minutes for 45 minutes. I let the cycle finish then washed and dried the fabric.

Here are my results. The original is on the right.

As I was typing this I thought a rose color would have been fun to try. Next time. I'll come back later and show the purple.

Hugs,

Swooze

Writers Block OMG Finish

I finished piecing this quilt Monday night and cut and applied the borders yesterday. The pattern is from a 2007 magazine. The suggested cutting of the border made me question my piecing. Luckily I met with my sewing group yesterday and was able to go over the math and dimensions with a friend. The directions suggest cutting the border at 80" and trimming to fit. The actual length needed was 4-5 inches shorter. After I confirmed my piecing was accurate I cut my borders.

I am working on another quilt that I get better piecing results on my Singer 301, my travel machine, so I switched over to that for the rest of my sewing session. When I got home last night I applied those borders.

This quilt is my March OMG. I'm very happy to have it done with plenty of time to spare.

Linking up with Elm Street Quilts for the finish linkup.

Hugs,

Swooze

Design Wall Monday

I was sewing and pinning and pinning and sewing. While pinning something didn't seem right. I opened the pieces a little for a peek. It seemed ok so I ignored that nagging feeling attributing it to pinning two different block sets together. I even went back to the one again and convinced myself it was ok.

it was getting late so I decided to sew until the show I was watching ended. I sewed two sets only to realize my bobbin ran out in the last three inches of the first set. I had a new bobbin, already wound, in and continued sewing. When I got through the sets I opened them to check them all. There it was! I had pinned something wrong.

I threw the offending piece aside and pinned the rest. My show came to an end so I queued up something else. When I finally stopped I had two completed rows, the wrong piece repinned and everything setup to resume sewing this a.m.

All the sashing pieces are done. I have access to a large cutting table tomorrow so I'd like to get my center done so that I can get the final border cut and ready to attach.

Linking with Patchworktimes.

Hugs,

Swooze

Writers Block Progress

More sashing done.

I've been at the Dallas quilt show for two days so not sewing as much.

Hugs,

Swooze

Writers Block

I've been steadily piecing on this quilt. I have the centers of all the blocks done and now have to sash them. I have some of those components done so it should be pretty smooth sailing.

Maybe I'll have the center done this weekend.

Hugs,

Swooze

Chronicles of Sandra Books and Busywork

Linda, my and Sandra's mutual friend, picked me and Eunice up yesterday afternoon. We went to Sandra's with the plan to work on sorting all her books. I was pleased to see that Sandra had already brought some out and had begun sorting them. Linda sat with her and they sorted together. I made myself busy by carrying out the rest of the books.

Eunice came to have something to do so instead of her standing around I asked her to tidy the kitchen. The thought of this task was even daunting to me. The cabinets are full, the drawers are full and the counters and table are covered. I suggested to Eunice that she take everything off a counter and then put back what she thought belonged there. She asked a few questions and I sent her to Sandra a couple of times with her requests. Amazingly that girl made the kitchen look a lot better. Clear, open spaces. She found where the food items were stored and got everything put away.

We managed to get through a large portion of the books and magazines. Those we left were ones Sandra needed more time to go through. Eunice carried the goers out to the truck.

While Linda and Sandra finished tidying and visiting I took Eunice back to the sewing room. Sandra had made a comment that she wished she could get to her machine to sew after I had blocked the entrance again trying to make the living room look neater. I had Eunice move most of the stuff to the guest room. It has to go somewhere and I left that decision to Sandra.

Both Eunice and I went to inspect previously cleared areas. I can tell signs of things moved around but Sandra is keeping areas cleared out. All this activity is tiring her out so we are taking at least a week long break. If you can't tell already I'll be mentally clearing out spaces.

It's just time to let go of the good stuff....

Hugs,

Swooze

Design Wall Monday March 6

In between my decluttering efforts both at Sandra's and here at home I've been sewing on my Writers block. I have all the small units pieced and am currently assembling them into larger units.

Here is the center of one of the blocks. There are only 12 of these units.

Here is a finished sashing unit. There are 5 of these. I am actively working on these then will move to the sashing units that go between the blocks vertically.

I'm linking with Patchworktimes.

Hugs,

Swooze

Chronicles of Sandra Small Goals and a Stuffed Cat

I went to Sandras on Wednesday. This time I took Nate, 19, and Eunice, 22, with me. I had the goal of getting the laundry room floor totally cleared off and getting anything that was non-quilt related out of the spare bedroom. Eunice worked on the laundry room and did an amazing job. I had told her that I was interested in getting all the hanging clothes that were on the door hung up in their proper place. She got all the clothes pull out of there that were either hanging or laying next to the dryer. These are all clean clothes and she put them on Sandra's bed for her to put away. She also got everything off the floor and quite a bit of quilt items out of there. The transformation was amazing and Sandra was very pleased. Sadly there's still quite a bit that does not belong in there but this is a work in progress.

Nate and I tackled the guestroom. I began by pulling out non-quilt items and taking them into the living room for sorting with Sandra. Unfortunately most of it was quilt related and there's just no place to put it any longer. I ended up stacking some things on the bed, which I really did not want to do, just to get access to a book case that Sandra was interested in pulling all of the books from. That was when I called Nate and asked him if he could safely reach all those books and bring them out to the front of the room so that Sandra could get to them. While he was working back there I went to the living room and continued sorting things with Sandra. He called me back when he was done. Sandra asked if we could strip the bed so she could wash everything. I asked Nate to safely stack things on top of the items already next to the bed. He did as much as he could but there were still things on the bed. I told him to just push them to the head of the bed and strip it from underneath things. Sandra asked if the books could be brought out into the doorway where a little alcove exists. Nate shuffled books and placed them there.

With the few goals that Sandra and I had set accomplished we went about tidying up everything again so that there were no trip hazards for her. We carried all the items that she had decided to let go of out to my car and left with a plan of taking a break from all the decluttering. I won't lie I felt a little sad about having to stop working. I think it's because. I have a little bit of control before and now I will have none. It's all up to Sandra whether she continues to sort and get rid of things now.

I did call her later in the day to discuss the books that she wanted to sort through. She had mentioned that she wanted her sister and our friend Linda to be with us while we sorted them so that they could take what they wanted. So I suggested to her that we all get together Sunday afternoon and go through them. Whatever was not taken I would take and try to sell for her. She thought that was a good idea so we are reconvening Sunday.

When the kids and I got back to my house. We sat down and talked about everything that we had accomplished. They were both excited about what they had done and both wished that they could've done more. Nate looked at me with a very serious look on his face and asked me if I knew that there was a taxidermied cat at Sandra's house. I asked him if it was a sleeping cat in a bed. He said that it was and I explained to him that it was a stuffed cat but it was a toy. We laughed about that and I called Sandra later and told her that story. She thought it was funny.

I can't seem to let Sandra stop so I need to work on my own shortcomings and let her rest. Until later...

Hugs,

Swooze

March OMG

I'm obsessed with piecing this top right now so I decided to make it my March OMG. I hope to bring it to a completed quilt top.

I bought the partially assembled quilt from an estate sale last year. All the stripsets were made and some of the cutting was done. There are ninepatches and an eight patch. I'm assembling the last of the eight patches now.

The pattern can be found in the June 2007 issue of McCalls quilting.

Linking up with Elm Street Quilts OMG March goal setting linkup.

Hugs,

Swooze

February OMG Finished

I snuck it in under the wire. It's been quilted all month I just had to bind it. It's 42" square and #3 on my UFO list.

It used about 3 yards of fabric. Linking up with Elm Street Quilts for the finishers linkup. This is also a Q1 FAL goal.

Hugs

Swooze

Chronicles of Sandra Saturation Point and the Evil Pile

I looked back through my texts to see that I began this journey with Sandra on February 8th. I thought I had been working with her longer. Since that first day she has always had this huge stack of paper to her right. She has an end table there that is stacked pretty high and there was a pile on the floor almost to the same level. Each time I go over there I look at that evil pile to see if it's getting any smaller.

Yesterday that pile struck a nerve. I waited for Sandra to get out of her chair and when she did I immediately sat there and started sorting the pile on the floor. I put things into three categories. Quilting, important papers and other items. I removed the quilting items and put them with the others that she needs to go through. I found a basket full of other reading material under that stack and left it as it was. The stack on the end table is still there and will be addressed when I go over tomorrow. The evil pile will be no more!

I've been working on the guest bedroom for two days now. The first day I cleared the entry into the door. This space is outside the room like a small alcove. I grabbed the first thing inside the room and decided I was done for the day.

Yesterday Sandra's best friend Linda went with me. I grabbed whatever was closest to the door and if it was fabric only I took it to the stash room. All other things I took to the living room where Linda and I sorted with Sandra. I got to the point where all I saw was a sea of fabric in there. The stash room is full. I felt so lost and overwhelmed. I just stopped. I'm at the point where I'm going to have to junk up areas that I had cleared out previously. So frustrating.

My plan is to bring Nate over with me tomorrow. He's going to help me haul everything out of that room so we can clean. The fabric will go to the stash room and more than likely be stacked in front of the door. Everything else I will make a decision on on a case-by-case basis. We are definitely at the point where things have got to start going out the door to make room. I think we are at the saturation point. Let's hope Sandra is ready to start letting go of a lot more.

Meet Mr. Lucky.

Hugs

Swooze

Design Wall Monday February 27

I posted a picture of a layout for my 3D bow ties on Facebook and my cousin suggested that I make a swirly pattern. I laid the blocks out as she suggested and showed more pictures. While I was at it I tried another more unified layout. Of course she didn't like her suggested layouts and liked the more unified one.

I'm not sure how many blocks I would need to make a king size. I'm on the fence as to how big I will go.

Linking to Patchworktimes Design Wall Monday.

Hugs

Swooze

Chronicles of Sandra Bringing in the Big Guns

I have been at Sandra's house every day this week except Tuesday. Today I brought in the big guns. Nick and Nate are kids in our neighborhood that are friends with my kids. They are 21 and 19 respectively. I had a lot of heavy lifting that I wanted to get done in a short period of time so I asked them if they wanted to earn a few bucks. They took all the fabric that she had in her stash outside. They were supposed to vacuum and then stick it all back in there in a way that it would be accessible by an aisle in between. Before they did this Sandra had asked them to pull the tubs of fabric off of her back patio. The way that she talked I thought there were only three big tubs. There were an additional 20 to 30 small tubs. She also had them pull out the tub's that had the quilting magazines in them and she told me she wanted to give those to people at the sit and sew and members of the guild.

They brought all the fabric from the patio out into the backyard and the magazines into the house. I was shocked and overwhelmed at the amount of fabric that she had on the patio and that I was now going to try and get into her house and her stash area. Things got lost in translation and before I knew it the guys were putting everything into the stash room without having cleaned out as I had asked. I had them back up a little bit and rearrange things. We were not able to make the aisle as I had requested but the smaller containers are more accessible and also the boxes and other open items are closer to the front so that I can get to them and get them sorted and stored properly.

Once everything was off the patio and the patio was straightened up the guys came in and helped me with some heavy lifting. Sandra also has a request for them and they took care of those things for her as well. I should've gotten all those magazines out to my car because before I did Sandra was going through them and looking at every one. She promised that she would get through them quickly so that the remainder could get taken out of the house quickly. In all fairness she did manage to pull out quite a few and send those with me before I left.

A recurring topic of discussion for Sandra is her desire to have her living room looking more presentable so that when she has company people don't have to look over the stuff that is stacked on top of the card table. While the guys were working so hard to get the patio straightened out and the fabric moved around I was inside getting that table cleared off. I managed to get the table taken down and the guys put it out on the patio for Sandra. There were a lot of lids for missing containers and empty containers with no lids. I left them there so that when their mate shows up I will be able to find it. Her son-in-law is the executor of her will and always comments about her home and its contents. I was mainly getting that task accomplished for both their sake so that he could see that she was making progress. The living room will continue to be our sorting location but it will look less disastrous now.

What the two guys and I accomplished today in 2 and a half hours would have taken me weeks to do alone. Sandra paid them for their time and I'm very appreciative of them and let them know that.

There is one room that remains that I have not gotten into yet. It is her guestroom and was previously her daughters room. I'm not sure what all is in there but I have to get through the door first. I'm planning to go over there while my boyfriend watches NASCAR tomorrow and begin that process.

Hugs!

Swooze

Chain Piecing

I'm working on a quilt that requires close to 300 9 patches. Chain piecing will be my way of life for the next little bit.

Hugs

Swooze

Chronicles of Sandra the catch up post

I have now been to Sandras about seven times with each visit lasting between 2 to 3 1/2 hours. We know that we've made good progress but to anyone else they would not be able to see it. While that is very disappointing she is very motivated to keep going.

I don't want to take away from the people that have helped her in the past. I had one person come up and speak to me yesterday and tell me what she dealt with to help Sandra. There was quite a mess and she did clean up a lot of trash so that I did have a better environment to work in than what I would have if she had not helped. Those helps were quick and dirty and very short term to help Sandra get back into her home after her rehab. But now we're going for the long-term goal of getting through everything and trying to really clean up the clutter. It didn't get like this in a day and it won't get better in a day either.

On my last visit I managed to get her hallway totally cleaned out except for her decorative tissue box. It sits on a pedestal. I teased her that we would have to put a spotlight on that to highlight it. It makes me laugh every time I encounter a tissue box. I think there's at least one in every room, sometimes two. I'm thankful for those because I find myself with a drippy runny nose from dust. It took me two or three visits to clear the hallway with one visit focusing on getting everything to one side of the hall so that there was less of a trip hazard. She proudly exclaimed that she felt like she was in a hotel with her wide open hallway. That made me smile.

On one visit I managed to clear out the clutter from in front of both of her bedroom closet's. There's no telling the last time she was able to get in there to hang up her clothes. But now that she can get in there she has been hanging her things up. We just need to sort her clothes out and get her to let go of some of the things that she no longer wears to make room for everything. Her closets are full with other things as well both at the top and the bottom but I'm not going to worry about those right now. I'm currently excavating the pile of things on the floor at the foot of her bed so that she can get to her dresser and put things away properly. When I was last there she and I agreed that we really need to focus on finishing one room and that her bedroom was the most doable. We are going to focus on that room before digging deeper into some of the other rooms. Last time I was there I left a few things stacked on her bed in hopes that she would work on it when I wasn't there. She said she was not able to get through everything so she just climbed in bed with the stacks. I really did not want to do that to her so I may have to rethink that strategy. I saw her last night at the quilt guild meeting and she was proudly wearing a pair of the pants that I had found. She's been hanging her things up instead of hanging them on doors around the house. I can really see the difference. She told me that she's trying to develop good habits to keep our good work in evidence.

On other visits I managed to get the doorway opened up to both her long arm room and her sewing room. It's just a goat path for now but at least we can get in there when it's time to work on those rooms. I am putting things in there as she directs me and if I have space for it.

I've tried to work on the kitchen a little bit more since the second visit. She stages a lot of things in there to go out to storage or to trash. I can see that things are piling up a little bit and I just think that's an indication of not having a place to put things. I'll have to pick at it here and there as we go to try and keep it from getting really piled up like it was before.

I was supposed to go over there today but she asked me to wait because the stacks of paper have really piled up that she needs to sort through and she wants to try and get ahead of me. I may still go over there and work on areas where there is no paper to try and keep making progress and give her a little company.

Her cat Mr. Lucky is 16 years old. He has not been too happy with me in the house moving things around. Every time I go into her bedroom he gives me a hateful glare and has even growled at me. He's always begging for Sandra's attention but from what I've heard that's a normal thing. Sandra has said that he's a little bit more unsettled than usual. I really don't have a lot of cat experience but I know that he's a little hard of hearing and probably has a vision problem. I'm moving his landmarks which is probably making him upset. I'll keep trying to make friends with Mr. Lucky.

So that's the update. I've been chauffeuring her donation pile in my car and will be dropping it off today. I'll update you as we accomplish our milestones. If you're curious feel free to ask. I'll pass your well wishes on to Sandra in her endeavors.

Hugs,

Swooze

Chronicles of Sandra part two

Let me tell you a little bit more about Sandra. She lost her husband about 15 years ago. Not long after that she lost her daughter to cancer. Each of these times she has used shopping as her therapy. Then fast forward to two years ago when her her son contracted cancer. He fought it with the usual radiation and chemo and then also had to experience some pretty terrible surgeries.

About one year ago Sandra fell in her backyard. She landed on her head when she lost balance trying to take trash out to the curb. She broke two vertebrae in her neck. She managed to get up, get into the house, and call 911. Amazingly she did not experience any paralysis but had to go through rehab for many months. When it was time for her to come home friends came over to clean. They threw away a lot of things and also bagged up a lot of things and then just tossed them into any open room. It was at this time that I heard her talking about not being able to find anything and about the help that she had received. I think this explains why I needed to gain her trust before she would allow me to come to her home. Sadly her son lost his battle with cancer after she returned home. The shopping therapy continued.

When I was with Sandra the first day we talked about her goals. She simply wanted her living room to be presentable. I explained to her that that was the area where we would be sorting things and that it would be pretty hard to do at first. I told her that I wanted to be sure that whenever I left I had tidied up the area so there would be no trip hazards from our work of the day.

On my return for the second visit Sandra greeted me at the door and announced to me that I had chosen what we worked on the first day so now it was her turn. She wanted to clean off her kitchen table and pull a chair out from behind it that someone had put there while cleaning last year.

The table was not totally clear but it was down to a single layer and I managed to categorize things for her so that she could put them away as she went along.

One of my main concerns after leaving the first day was that she would not work on anything and simply would wait for me to return to continue with decluttering. I was very pleased to see that she had been working and had bagged up quite a bit of trash and also had a small stack of items that could be given away. It appeared that she had the concept of goalsetting down now and I expected her to continue with that with each visit.

It was during this visit that I discovered that there was another bedroom that I was not aware of. I looked into that room after I figured out where the light was and felt overwhelmed. I knew this was a room that would have to be addressed later on because to get into the door is going to take a while.

Sandra had made lunch for me on the first day and this day as well. She made the same thing on both days. It was chicken salad and cinnamon raisin bread with grapes. She served Doritos with it. When I saw her putting it together I was worried about what it was going to taste like. Surprisingly it was pretty good. I told one of my friends about it and she made the same face that I had made internally in my head.

This visit was a little shorter than the first one and we agreed to meet again the following week. My next reports will combine many of the days that I have spent with her as all those times are starting to merge together as one in my memory.

Until next time.

Swooze

Chronicles of Sandra

I have an 81 year old friend named Sandra. I have known her for many years but have learned a lot about her more recently. I've heard her talk about how she can't do anything because she has so much stuff. You see, Sandra is a self proclaimed hoarder.

I offered to help her for many months. She declined all my offers. Separately she had told stories of others helping her in the past. Mostly throwing things away without regard to her feelings or just throwing them into one of the spare bedrooms making them totally inaccessible.

At some point she stopped saying no and started saying things like oh my house is a mess I need to clean it up first. She even asked me why I wanted to help her fearing I wanted to take her treasured fabric. I told her I had similar issues of too much stuff in the past and wanted to share what I had learned and to help her be able to get back to her sewing machine. I finally said I wanted to come visit her, not her house. She agreed to my visit.

I arrived on the appointed day. She greeted me at the door and let me in. I had no idea what to expect but had heard talk.

The entry was very inviting. No clutter. I could not tell she had a cat as there was no litter box odor. I stepped into her living room and saw two card tables stacked with stuff. There were things piled underneath as well. She had totebags around her full of paper and who knows what.

I took a seat across from her in the only other open chair. We talked a little and I told her my history of too much stuff. She shared her story and basically told me that shopping for fabric was her therapy. It was the only thing that made her feel good. I told her she was probably going to have to let go of some things to be able to make headway. She teared up and nodded her understanding. I told her it was an option that I not help her. She paused and then asked where I wanted to start.

i asked her if I could take a peek through her house to see what I was dealing with. There were things stacked along both sides of the hallway. The kitchen table was piled high. Her sewing room door was piled with stuff. The guest bathroom was clean and free of clutter. Her bed was clear but things were stacked at the foot and the far side. Both of her closets were blocked by piles of stuff. She uses her master bath for storage and things are piled along the walls. The entry into the bathroom was blocked.

I went back to my seat in the living room. She asked me where I wanted to start and I suggested her clothes because that seems to be something with less emotional attachment. She made many excuses. I reminded her I didn't have to do anything but she wanted my help.

I went and sat on the floor in front of her chair. I just started dumping bags on the floor dealing with the contents as we went. There were a lot of papers only she could deal with and I put them in her stacks. I sorted things into other categories using boxes and bags she had under the table. Grouping like items will allow us to deal with them as a whole later on. After a few hours we had a few bags of trash and a small giveaway pile.

I left after we setup our next meeting. I took the bags of trash and giveaway items not knowing if she would go through them and retrieve items. It will be a long road but I think I can make a difference.

To be continued...

Swooze

Crossroads and 3D Bow ties

I've been working all week on a BOM that I participated in at my LQS last year. I'm generally not a fan of them but this one really caught my attention. I think I managed to do last year was to cut a few pieces but I never started sewing on it. This week I cut out and pieced 12 3 inch finished churn dash blocks. I have assembled those into the center section of the quilts and I'm ready to start adding the rest of the borders.

It is not pressed in this picture but it has been since then and looks really good. I can't wait to get this quilt finished.

Last year I bought several UFOs from an estate sale of one of our guild members. One of them was a red and white 3-D bowtie quilt. There were about 80 blocks complete and another 25 or so that were partially assembled. I finished sewing those together and begin playing with a layout. I welcome any suggestions for other possible layouts.

I'm linking with WIPs be gone. I've never linked with them before and I'm hoping I'll learn what their mission is. It would seem to me its to finish quilts.

Swooze

Wanderlust is a Flimsy!

What's a flimsy? An unquilted top.

I've been piecing this quilt almost exclusively since December 1st. At first I was pushing,almost forcing, myself to keep going. Once I got the blocks done I said I was going to take a break from it. Next thing I knew I was making the border blocks and assembling those borders. I attached the borders today.

I took this class from Bonnie Hunter at Fabric Fanatics in Plano Texas at New Year's 2014. My mother had passed away seven months previous to this. When the fabric requirement email came out I decided I was going to make this quilt from my mothers stash. Everything except the black and orange batik came from her fabric. It include Christmas, pumpkins, batiks and Civil War plus many brights.

it was fun to sew with my mother again in a way. Can you believe this is mostly from her small pieces and scraps?

I'm linking up with Scraptastic Tuesday!

Swooze

February OMG

I did not get my January goal completed. It's sitting on the frame and was just too much for me to handle. The quilting plan was a little more complex than I expected but I plan to get back to it this month and try and get it finished up.

This month I'm going to tackle something a little bit more doable since it's a short month. I had quilted this last month and never got around to binding it so my goal for February is to put the binding on my Hugs and Kisses by Dorothy Young of a pocket full of mysteries. The binding is even already made. There is no excuse!

I'm linking up with Elm Street Quilts.

Snooze

Wanderlust Obsession

I am a woman possessed. I'm like a dog with a bone. I've had my nose to the grindstone.

All the blocks for the center of the quilt are done. I have 3 of 5 columns assembled. Will I pause there to get the quilting done on my challenge quilt. I'll see what tomorrow brings.

48 birds in the air blocks in that border. I might need a break.

Swooze

Wanderlust Progress

I'm trying to spend time on some of my longer term UFOs that require a lot of piecing. I quilt one here and there for my UFO challenge on Stashbuster to keep me from becoming queen.

I need 28 big blocks and 4 half blocks. Then when those are done I have to piece 48 blocks for the pieced border. 7 are done and a dozen are ready for the final assembly step. To finish the last 10 or so I have to cut more black fabric. I'll probably finish those that are ready for final assembly then skip to quilting something else.

Swooze

Second Finish for FAL Q1

I finished this little 12x18 topper tonight. Blocks were adopted from Grace.

This used a total of a half yard of fabric and will be donated to my guilds mini auction held at the quilt show in June.

This is my second finish for the 2017 Q1 FAL goals.

Swooze

WITB and WAYWO

There are two acronyms that are used regularly on the Yahoo group Stashbuster. WITB stands for what's in the box or bag or basket. It is meant to be a decluttering/organization challenge. One of the ladies on the list has 222 bins that she wants to go through. She is working towards a goal of one a week planning to toss or rehome or use the contents. Quite a few of us picked up on this challenge and are working similarly. Not all my B's are quilt related but I may share a few of the quilt related ones from time to time.

I had these three bins sitting next to the door of my sewing room.

I peeked inside all three. Two are projects I bought fabric for and want to make soon. The third had fabric leftover from a quilt top that is now a flimsy. That fabric was intended for the binding but due to miscuts there is not enough. There were some other bits in there. It's all put away or thrown away and I have an empty project bin. Wish they'd all be this easy!

The other acronym is WAYWO which means what are you working on? I thought I'd show my next little project up on the block. This is made from orphan blocks that I got from Grace and are now a top. I have it laid out here selecting thread for quilting and trying to decide on a quilting pattern for it. I plan to donate this to the Mesquite Quilt guild for their miniature silent auction at the next quilt show in June.

I'm thinking about a 1 inch grid crosshatch at the moment. I'll think about it for just a little bit longer before I begin. My other thoughts were to outline stitch around the churndash but the thought of the crosshatch pleases me.

WAYWO??

Swooze

First Finish of 2017

I managed to finish my second bag today. Each bag uses around 3.25 yards of fabric and a little elastic. This is the Fatt Quarter bag on All Free Sewing.

On this one I used full yardage rather than cutting as the pattern suggests. The red is French General Joyeux Noel. I love the fabric. The inside is a gold snake print. The pairing just made me smile.

Here is the first bag.

This is my first UFO Finish and one of my goals for the first quarter FAL for 2017.

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Best Laid Plans

I announced to you all that I was going to quickly finish up the second bag. Right after that post I went to bed and started coughing. I got up and searched for the elastic for the second bag while sucking on a cough drop. I tried going back to bed but would just cough. I ended up staying up until 3 am and was able to fall asleep purely from exhaustion. Sadly I have pretty much been in bed with the crud since then.

Friday my son took me to the doc where I received a steroid shot and antibiotics. By that evening I actually felt hungry and sat up for an hour. Today I still have an appetite and have eaten well. I've been awake more today but still in bed. I got up for a few hours to eat and watch tv. I got a crazy idea to go sew on that bag. What I should have completed in 15 minutes took well over an hour. I also broke into a sweat doing this. I'll try again tomorrow but in shorter spurts.

I'm aiming for a shower tomorrow too. If you don't hear from me send out a search party!

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Partial UFO Finish

One of my UFOs is listed as two FQ Bags. It is a free pattern from All Free Sewing and can be found here. I had constructed the body of the bags last year and left all the fussy work. Inserting elastic, top stitching, handle/strap making. Now that this one is done the second will go together much more quickly.

I'm going to stick with the other bag until it's done and not jump to something else.

Watch this space for my first UFO finish!

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Turquoise Happy Blocks

Some years ago, probably 5 or more, I was at Tirane's house. She was working on a quilt and it was too long for the backing she had so she ripped the bottom row off. I asked her what she planned to do with it. I don't recall the ensuing conversation exactly but I am pretty sure I asked for them. I love turquoise!

Fast forward. I had pretty much forgotten these in my orphan bin. When I did bump into them I didn't really think about doing anything with them. Last year a friend mentioned she was decorating her sewing room in turquoise and black. Insert bright lightbulb here...ding!!💡

Last night I started sorting things in my sewing room trying to locate the row of blocks. My daughter moved out so I now also have a stash room. I have moved quite a bit in there and have been grouping and sorting things. This activity has kept me from buying fabric this year. 👀😳 I digress. By moving things out I was able to unearth the blocks.

Last night I unpicked the row and pressed the blocks.

Today I pulled some black out of the stash and cut it up. I joined it with the turquoise blocks. This is what I will be quilting and giving to her.

I hope she likes it. Two UFOs brought to top stage in two days! I'll get back to Wanderlust but needed some variety in my sewing.

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More Wanderlust

This is not a quick block to assemble. I have gone through and made all the components that I could make ahead except for maybe a few for the half blocks. This does not include the borders which will require a lot of piecing as well. If you look at the black goose you will see that each wing is a different color. In order to assemble this block I have to lay it all out, make the black geese, and then make the block. I wanted to get further along on this one because I don't want to get caught with an intensive piecing project while I'm in the UFO challenge and not have a finish.

I'm going to start working on other things in between to have a little variety in my life. Here is a little table runner that I am making using the orphan blocks I inherited from Grace. I'm going to use that French General pictured for both the backing and the binding which have both been cut. I need to just quilt and bind to complete it.

Consider this a sneak peek until I finish it.

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Wanderlust Scrapping

I've been diligently working on my Wanderlust quilt. As of Christmas Day I needed 67 more units. I thought that I would be able to get through them quickly but it looks like it took me three weeks to make them. I wondered why it took so long because I made a good number of them in just the past few days. I had to go back and read through my blog to see what I had been up to.

Happily I found that I had been accomplishing quite a bit. I quilted two quilts. I bound two quilts. I loaded another quilt on my frame and had started working on that as well. There has also been a lot of cleaning and organizing around here that has not been shown on the blog but it definitely accounts for a lot of my time.

With that said I'm now ready to start assembling my blocks for my quilt. I do need 48 more units that look very similar to the birds in the air block that I just completed but those should go pretty quickly.

A lot of this quilt has come from my mothers scrap basket. I'm linking up with Scraptastic Tuesday.

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First Quarter 2017 Finish Along

Rhonda at Rhonda's Ramblings hosts a Finish Along each quarter. You link to her blog, or one of the other hostesses, with a post about your proposed finishes.

My goal this year is to be a finisher. There are two UFO challenges I participate in. To prepare for those I listed 12 I really wanted to get finished this year. Those will be the main focus of this quarter along with some smaller items.

1 Strip Stacks - purple borders
2 Strip Stacks - red border
3 Hugs and Kisses

4 tumbler

5 4 patch on point - black green pink

6 Avignon Picnic

7 Matchstick Marimba
8 Strip Stacks - green and pink

9 Renee's navy top
10 Nancie's Floral and White Blocks

11 Pieced together contest

12 Pink Poppy BQ

13 FQ bags x2
14 Bandana shirt
15 Grace's Churndash
16 Turquoise blocks
17 Ricci's quilt

18 -? Find and quilt all the charity quilts I have lingering here

The first 12 require quilting. The next five are in the piecing stage. The last ? Require quilting.

Wish me luck!

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Ruler Work

I got a ruler base and some rulers at Christmas for my Avante. I did straight line quilting and some freehand on one of my UFOs.

Now I'm trying to quilt circles. They are so wobbly but by the time I get to the 30th one I should have it down!

I'm operating under the done is better than perfect principle.

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UFO Challenge List

Judy L at Patchworktimes is hosting a UFO challenge and asked us to list our UFOs. No prizes except the satisfaction of a completed quilt project each month.

1 Strip Stacks - purple borders 

2 Strip Stacks - red border 

3 Hugs and Kisses 

4 tumbler 

5 4 patch on point - black green pink 

6 Avignon Picnic 

7 Matchstick Marimba 

8 Strip Stacks - green and pink 

9 Renees navy top 

10 Nancies Floral and White Blocks 

11 Pieced together contest 

12 Pink Poppy BQ

These are all complete tops and just need quilting. Won't you join us?

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OMG January 2017

Elm Street Quilts hosts OMG each month. One Monthly Goal. You show and talk about your goal. You link to Elm Street Quilts in the first 7 days of the month. You have until the end of the month to write about your completion of your goal and then link that to Elm Street Quilts in the last 7 days of the month. And guess what! There are prizes. It doesn't cost anything to join and you get the reward of a finish.

This month I am going to complete a quilt I'm entering in a contest at a LQS in Mesquite. I need to get it quilted , bound and turned in soon. I'm just showing a small peek until the end of the month since there is public voting.

Join us! I'm linking up to Elm Street Quilts.

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Looking forward in 2017

I am starting the year with 43 UFOs. I bought two at an estate sale and I was given two by a friend. So I had lots of help to increase my UFO count.

I have been thinking about my goals for 2017 and the main thing that comes to mind is that I want to be a finisher. That means I'd like to finish UFOs but I'd also like to finish new starts and not have things carryover from year-to-year.

With that said, if I complete one UFO per week then I can finish all of my UFOs this year. I doubt that will happen and I'm sure I would become bored with that plan as well.

There are several things that I would like to try. I would like to make postcards and art quilts. I would like to participate in the RSC too. Then let's add to that all the great sew along's that are hosted all over the internet. Then there are the scraps…Oh the scraps. I have recently been asked to do some commission work as well. Let's face it the universe does not want me to only work on UFOs.

To summarize I want to FINISH, I want to learn, I want to participate, and I want to get a handle on my stash whether it be scraps or yardage.

I will aim for 24 UFO finishes. 0 new starts carrying over into 2018. More fabric going out than coming in.

Here's to 2017!

Swooze

Looking back at 2016

Like many others I'm going through my blog to find out what I accomplished for the year. I was very pleased to see the number of large projects that I brought from the piecing stage to a completed flimsy.

UFOs start of year - 41
UFOs finished - 7

New starts - 12
New starts completed - 5

9 of the UFOs were brought to a flimsy and 2 had major piecing that brought them to a near flimsy. The latter are Bonnie Hunter quilts so you can imagine the work involved.

For the new starts, those not completed were brought to a flimsy except for a tote bag still in the piecing stage.

I repaired an old quilt for a friend. I took it completely apart, quilted and bound it. I got a second quilt from this person and have repaired it. Need to quilt and bi d it now. I even participated in a swap working on three other people's quilts.

i have to admit that I read a blog Karen Quilts. She mainly hand pieces and hand quilts although she has been using the machine a lot more these past two years. I am amazed at what she completes and feel a bit like a slacker because she completes a lot more than I do. Also my yahoogroup stashbuster started a thread called JOT which stands for just one thing. The concept is to do one task no matter how small to move forward on a project everyday. I credit these two things for my forward progress this year.

i hope 2016 was a productive year for you.

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Last Finish for 2016

Along with finishing Raising Cane yesterday I also finished this little 4 patch on point. I bought the squares from the Witchita Falls American Sewing Guild garage sale table while attending their fall retreat in 2015.

I sewed all of them into four patches then made the biggest quilt I could from them. It came out to 38x54. The blue came from my stash. The back is a striped linen that came from my guilds garage sale table probably two years ago.

This quilt is another of my 4Q FAL finishes. I'm linking to4Q FAL.

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OMG I finished my OMG

I went down to the wire. I quilted this Thursday, trimmed and added the binding last night and sewed the binding down today.

This is Raising Cane by Dorothy Young of A Pocket Full of Mysteries. I made this quilt either in 2009 or 2010 all from stash. It's 48.5" square.

My OMG from Elm Street Quilts for December was to finish this. Mission accomplished! I had also tagged this as one of my 4Q Finish Along Goals.

I'm linking with Elm Street Quilts and Finish Along 2016.

Happy New Year!

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Scrap Wrangling

I've been thinking a long time about how I wanted to wrangle my scraps. In fact when I was at my mothers many years ago I had sorted her fabric into yardage versus scraps. She passed away several years ago and so I inherited this sorted fabric.

I'm currently in the process of making a quilt almost exclusively from her fabrics. It uses a lot of 2 1/2 inch wide strips so I finally decided to attack her scraps and get as many 2 1/2 inch strips as I could from her scraps and then 2 inch strips and then 1 1/2 inch strips. For the smaller pieces I've been cutting varying sizes of squares.

I will see how I like this process as I work through it with the current quilt and see what is left. I will have to choose another quilt to make from the scraps to really know if this is going to work for me. If I like it I will adopt the practice for my own scraps or at least the parts I like.

After session 1:

After session 2:

It does take quite a bit of time but if I cut scraps down as I go it will be more manageable. I'm currently using photo boxes to store the strips.

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Merry Christmas to All

 This has been a very tearful holiday season for me this year. I have been really missing my mother. I've been doing a lot of baking and cooking and that makes me think of her. But I have to admit that when Christmas day arrived it turned out to be one of the best Christmases I've had in a while. There was no fighting and everyone seemed to get along. Some of the neighborhood kids, who are friends with my kids, came down and ate dinner with us. They even helped clean up the kitchen afterwards.

We exchanged some nice little gifts and everyone seemed happy.   I got to sew for a few hours and made good progress on my Wanderlust quilt.  I'm working on the birds in the air block which is the corner of the main block. I need to make 120 total and have 49 completed. Slow and steady wins the race.

So from my house to your house I wish you a very Merry Christmas.

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Pillowcase Finish

I was gifted these two pillow cases as kits.  They were all cut, rolled and pinned following the hot dog pattern.  I received these in early 2012.  I sewed the first seam, turned them out and let them sit until last week.

I was talking with some friends about gift ideas for our guild Christmas party.  As soon as someone mentioned pillowcases I remembered I had these.  I went home and hunted them down.  I sewed that final seam and wrapped them.  They were gifted and the recipient seemed to like them.

There were some neat door prizes as well.  I had a 50-50 chance of winning.  I didn't but my table mate gifted hers to me.  These were made by some of the guild members and have a cute sewing theme.

Quilty hugs!

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Wanderlust

 This is a Bonnie Hunter mystery that I took at Fabric Fanatics in Plano Texas in January 2013. This is one in a series of quilts that Bonnie offered as a New Year's Eve mystery. Wanderlust was the one offered about six months after my mother passed away so I decided to use her fabrics to make this quilt. While I was in this class I got a call from my dad that he was in the hospital.  To say this quilt is full of emotion is an understatement.

 I pulled this quilt out earlier this year to work on but was frustrated with the lack of variety that my mother seemed to have in her stash. I learned from working on Garden Party to tackle these complex quilts one small step at a time in order not to be overwhelmed. So I decided to focus on the small 4 1/2 inch star block in the center of all of the bigger blocks.   When I did this I managed to find all the variety that I needed in her stash and completed those small stars today.

 Another realization that I had while working on this quilt was that there is a constant of black and orange in the quilt and my mother had neither of those so I already had to add fabric from my own stash to make this quilt. This makes me feel less strict about sticking with her fabric only but I'm going to select from hers first where possible.

Quilty hugs!

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December OMG

I am repeating Octobers/Novembers goal.  Still helping my daughter deal with the fallout of her accident in October.  Her new to her car has only been in her possession 3 days since buying it on 11/10. I'll tell that story another day.

I have been sewing quilt tops just haven't been quilting any.  Maybe I should call myself a flimsier rather than a quilter.  A flimsy is a term I learned referring to an unquilted quilt.  Some call themselves toppers.  Regardless I need to breakthrough whatever log jam that is keeping me from quilting things.

Again I present to you my Raising Cane by Dorothy Young.   Just needs quilting.

I am linking up with Elm Street Quilts goal setting link up.

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November OMG

I am repeating Octobers goal.  My daughter had a car accident and I've been helping her deal with the fallout.  She is heading in the right direction now.

Here is my Raising Cane by Dorothy Young.   Just needs quilting.

I am linking up with Elm Street Quilts goal setting link up.

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