Spring Clover

I haven't been very productive in the sewing room but I have managed to make progress with a crochet project.  Does this remind you of the 80's?  Maybe that is because I bought the yarn all the way back then!  This is a combination of clusters and double crochet.

Go visit Judy L to see what everyone else has on their needles or in my case their hooks.

Look What I Found

My corners!!

I put them with the top and border fabric.  Then I put away some PIGS (projects in grocery sacks) and sorted out a few tools and some spools of thread.  Now I just have to carry my mojo in there and start working on it. 

Still No Sewing

Nor any pictures.

I have been gathering projects and fabric and all things quilty into a central location. There surely is a long way to go. I was so happy when I found my Bloomers top and the border fabric together. I decided I would get that topped next. While I was looking at the border fabric and getting ready to cut it I noticed that I had not sewn the corners onto the quilt. I went looking for previous posts about this top and sure enough, I mention that I have to sew the corners on. Sigh....Do I know where said corners are? Sure I do! They are in the garage (I think) somewhere.

I have decided that I am going to make a log cabin quilt from a box of strips a quiltvillechat friend gave me. I know where there is some thread. I have to find a bobbin. May just have to check the machine to see if one was left in it. Not sure when I'll get to it but I really am trying to sew something...anything!!

I now return to my regularly scheduled chaos.....

My UFOs and Judy's Challenge

Since I last posted I have been digging through boxes and trying to setup house. I have had friends over helping me with setup. I had things in their general location. With the help of friends we tweaked things to bring a little more organization to several areas.

In this process I have located many flimsies. I went to see which UFOs had been selected for Judy l's challenge. At this point I cannot licit two of them. I do have one UFO that needs borders and I luckily found that fabric with it. I will take that to the church sew-in to work on as the borders have to be cut length of fabric.

Yesterday I found a tote that had some PIGs in it and several jelly rolls. I also went on another hunt and located my power cord for my main sewing machine. Happiness!! I think the next steps are to get all my tools together and start locating the fabrics needed to work on my UFOs. Well, I know where they are, I just have to get to them!

Sorry for the lack of pics. I will make up for it next time.

Orca Bay Topped

Look what I finished!  It's just a top but that was my goal before I moved back to the house.  I move this weekend.

Design Wall Monday April 23 - ORCA Bay Borders

I pieced my borders for Orca Bay over the weekend.  I also cut my inner neutral border as well.  I plan to get these borders on this week before I move back home!


My daughter came home last weekend.  I had no idea she was coming back and I was completely surprised.  My apartment has a revolving door of all her friends and their entourages.  Hollie came to see us yesterday.  She mentioned to me that she wanted to learn to crochet as a stress reliever.  I told her I knew how to crochet and would be happy to teach her.  I went digging in my things and found a hook and some yarn and got her started.  I think this will be fun for her to do.


Head over to see Judy and what others have on their Design wall.

Co-Worker Quilt Top Done!!

I finished the top.  I have a quilting plan.  When I get back to the house I will quilt it.


I had an apartment full of teenagers but no volunteers to hold the quilt for me.  One of them had their three year old cousin with them.  She enthusiastically accepted the job and I think she did a fabulous job!


 

Corner Decision

I decided to stay with the original look of the quilt since I am supposedly only "fixing" it. I thought a total change was more of a tweak than I should do. I was out yesterday and bought a little more fabric and washed it as soon as I got home. I cut it up last night and started sewing. I should have acted this quickly on the rest of my stash!! LOL!

I am going to finish making the corners and have this round sewn onto the middle this weekend. I will then lay out the borders that were on it originally and see where I am at. I am very glad I took this apart down to the individual piece. It really is going together quite quickly!



Thanks to everyone that shared their ideas on how to finish the corners. I love options and was given lots to think about. I knew in my heart this was the way I should do the corners but my head wanted to see what else I could do!

Corner Options

With either option I have to buy more fabric. I could carry the diamonds from the side into the corners. Or I can make a square in a square and border it with the green. The green shown is not the one I would use.

Thoughts? Other suggestions? Scroll to the next post to see what the top looks like so far.

Design Wall Monday 4/9/2012

I got to sew more than usual this weekend. I sewed four hours Friday night and was able to get one of the side sections completely pieced and many components together for the other three side sections. I finished up the other three Sunday afternoon.

I thought this was a good stopping point since I have to decide what I want to do with the corners. I can continue into the corners with 4 more rust colored diamonds but I think I am going to sew a rust square in a square of the neutral. I will then border that with the green to add a little interest and carry the green a little more throughout the quilt.

What do you think?

Round Three

Didn't feel like sewing but I did make myself layout some pieces so that I could at least play with it in my mind to figure out how I was going to make it work. If you look at the original, the outter diamonds are larger but there was nothing done to make these strips fit properly. They were just smushed together. I will be making a coping strip around the green center to make it fit properly.

Design Wall 4/2/2012

My Design Wall (floor) was occupied all weekend. I did get the green row sewn onto my co-workers quilt. I will be playing with the next round starting tonight.

House Pictures - Part 2

This is the neutral that I have in my living, dining, Gav's and master bed room. I hope it dries lighter than it appears here.



My kitchen. Love it!

Hall bath. This is sort of a milk chocolate color. The floor tile is a blue gray. Looks scrumptious!

My exterior paint with more light on it.

House Pictures

Going with the dark blue on the left for the front, back and garage door.



Dee's room. She likes it. Enough said.



Not loving that counter top. Going for another look.



There will be shelves. I will be able to put my nick nacks and what nots on here. Better than stacking junk on what previously was a wet bar.

My built in AV center.

Next Border Complete and Another House Update

I have the next round complete. I just need to do a little trimming and pressing then I can attach it. I work on this as I get little spurts of desire. Those few minutes here and there really add up.

The rest should be pretty easy to put together since I will be making this section as it was...for the most part. No rearranging just a little balancing.

I was told my house was painted today (inside). The cabinets are being delivered tomorrow and will be installed this week. Windows will arrive this week as well. The built-ins are all done and the dog door is installed. Just waiting for my insurance check so that I can get counters, tile and appliances. That is due to come in any day now.

Progress and a House Update

I sewed a little more on my co-workers quilt last night. I like the progress and even showed her today. I didn't want her to freak out when she saw that I had completely taken the thing apart. She was more concerned about how much work I was putting into it. I told her don't worry about me I am enjoying the process. She told me not to worry about her because she just wants a quilt when this is all over. We will both be fine.





I go visit the house from time to time. There typically isn't much to report because it is all prep work. A little demo here, a little patching and sanding there. Today when I went to visit things are all patched and have been textured and the primer is being applied. They will be painting this week. They are changing a window that I had in my dining area from a double window that opened to a picture window. That is all ready for the new window to come in. The cabinets are supposed to be here this week. The windows will be here next week. I am replacing all my windows. I think we are on a good path. All I need is more money :). Next house update I will share some pictures.

Over the course of the past few years I have one mantra or another that I take on to get me through things. The current one is "If money can solve it, it's not a problem." In other words if that is the fix then it's not a big deal and I need that perspective right now. I feel so much pressure, stress, I don't know what it is flowing away right now. I am usually a pretty positive person so it is nice to FEEL positive.

Thanks for the support all of you give me in so many ways. I know that I am blessed. Would love to hear from you. Please share your favorite mantra of life.

Design Wall 3/19/2012

Imagine this on point. I have started putting my friends quilt back together again. It should be a top again in no time.





Go check out Judy L to see what is on everyone else's design wall.

Stash Report 3/11/2012 and a house update

I have completed inventorying everything that was left at the house by the recovery company. I have typed up the list and am in the process of dating and valuing everything. What does this have to do with my stash report?

I weighed all my fabric to get it's approximate yardage and value. 533 pounds. Multiply that by 4 to get yardage. This is a figure regularly discussed on stashbuster. That means I have about 2,132 yards of fabric.

This knowledge prevented me from buying fabric at the Dallas quilt show yesteday. In fact I didn't even buy a pattern or a ruler. My big splurge was a pair of scissors and a light that straps to your finger. Could be useful when threading a needle.

I did buy 1.5 yards of fabric for the quilt I am working on fixing. My plan is to trade for what I need in the future or sell and buy what I need. I know that I do not need to bring in one more inch of fabric!

Nothing out yet this year but just wait til I get back in my sewing room!

Here is the house update. My builder just ordered the cabinets last week. He had originally told me it would take 6-8 weeks to get them from the time they were ordered. He shocked me when he told me they should be here in about 3 weeks time. What great news! I have picked out the windows, paint and flooring. Just need to come up with the money to get some of these items to keep the job moving forward. Feel free to ask your questions.

More Fixing

Remember this post? I have taken that quilt down to the individual quilt pieces. My next step is to trim things to the same size where needed. This quilt had lots of mismatched points. The biggest issue I faced was that the neutrals in the center were cut much smaller than the colored pieces.

I layed out the pieces and have been playing with the layout a bit. When I look back to the pictures of the original I realized there was an issue with the green on the corners that I had not noticed before. Basically it didn't turn the corner elegantly. I happened upon a solution.

I even changed the layout in the center a little so that everything matches to itself. I also have a fabric that I felt was a close match and will be cutting new neutral patches from it rather than trying to trim all the pieces to the same size. Some trimming is still needed but not as much as the original plan called for.




What do you think?

Design Wall - 3/7/2012

I worked on my pieces for my Orca Bay border for the weekend. Now I just have to start sewing them together and make my QST pieces.


















I was trying to hand sew the holes in the quilt I volunteered to fix for my coworker. It was so frustrating because there is/was a satin type fabric that was in there and is/was shredded. My table mates at my Friday night church sew in suggested I just return it. I couldn't after all the work I had done so far. That is I had deconstructed it too much to return. I felt like the best thing was to take it down to the individual units. That is what I did. I am now pulling all the loose threads from those parts and will be trimming them to a common size once I figure out what that is.





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Go visit Judy L at Patchworktimes to see what everyone else has on their design walls.