Easy Street, Part 6 et. al.

I completed Easy Street, Part 6 today:

 

I've been doing some other sewing too.  Before Christmas, I made gift bags:

 

 

The light blue bags are humbug bags made of pre-quilted fabric.  The dark blue bag was made out of diaper cover material so that it would be waterproof.  That one is for a friend of mine to carry dog treats in.  The orange one was a cold kit that had hand sanitizer and tissue packets in it.

 

 

 

 

Today I made 6 rice  bags out of left over flannel.  I also made 2 pillowcases that are birthday gifts.

 

 

Last Ornament of 2012

I just got this one done under the wire.  It needed to be completed by this Christmas because the wording on it says ' 2012 The Year of the Dragon'. 

 

This was a quick stitch.  The pattern is by Dragon Dreams and is in this year's JCS Christmas Ornament issue. 

Easy Street, part 5

I just finished trimming up my Easy Street, part 5 units.  This was a quick step for me. 

 

To see more Easy Street Progress: http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2012/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-5.html

Ornament Exchange

This year my yahoo stitching group had an ornament exchange.  We each had to stitch an ornament and add goodies worth $5 to the package. 

I stitched this one for my friend Nancy in California.

 

This is a Praiseworthy Stitching design that was in this year's JCS Christmas Preview.  I changed the wording to a smaller font (using a VS freebie chart).

 

This is what Dane from Germany sent me:

 

 

The candy is chocolate covered marzipan.  I cut off a little piece last night to try--yum!

Here's a close up of the ornament.  It is a Shepherd's Bush design.

 

 

We have been stitching together for many years now, and my tree has lots of ornaments that the ladies in this group have stitched for me. 

 

 

 

Easy Street, step 4

I completed step 4 today:

 

 

 

Here are all the pieces so far:

 

To see more Easy Street progress: http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2012/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-4.html

I've also been shopping,  wrapping presents, making gift bags and cookies for the cookie exchange tomorrow night.   I made cranberry orange shortbread.

 

 

Orca Bay Quilted

I got my orca bay quilt back from the longarmer yesterday.  The backing is turquoise corduroy, and the quilting pantograph is called champagne.  I still have to bind it.

 

 

 

I hope Easy Street turns out as well as this one!

 

 

 

 

Easy Street, step 3

I got the pieces to step 3 cut out Friday morning, but I didn't have any time to sew this weekend.  This morning I got them sewn together.

 

 

Here are all 3 steps:

 

 

To see more Easy Street progress:

 

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2012/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-3.html

 

I've also been making humbug gift bags.  They aren't very Christmasy, but I wanted to make something that could be used after Christmas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Easy Street, step two

This was a busy weekend for us. We went to out to dinner and to a play Friday night, to a friend's house for dinner Saturday night, to a craft show Sunday and visited a friend in the hospital.  I did some sewing, but didn't finish step 2 of Easy Street.  Here's my progress so far:

Two complete, 94 to be trimmed, and 32 to make.  I use Eleanor Burns' flying geese ruler.  It is the most accurate method for me.

To see more Easy Street progress:  http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2012/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-2.html

Easy Street, part 1

I finished my four patches yesterday.  I'm not using all black and white prints because I don't want to cut into my fat quarters unless I have too.  I'm trying to use up scraps.  My neutral is any fabric lighter than a paper bag.  I've used white tone on tones, cream with prints, black and white.  Some of my neutrals have red, blue, orange, pink or green in them.

My constant isn't constant either.  I think I have 6 shades of gray, with one of the grays leaning towards dark green.  If I had more grays, I'd use more, but I don't want to have to buy any fabric for this quilt except for the backing. 

 

 

 

That's also how I chose my quilt colors.  I don't have enough aqua blues without cutting into fat quarters, and I don't have enough yellow-greens, so my colors are orange, green and purple.  I don't agonize over colors for any mystery quilt. I use what I have, and if I don't really like it, I can donate it.  The best part is I'm using what I have.  This is a free quilt for me.

 

 

To see other Easy Street progress:

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2012/11/easy-street-monday-link-up-1.html

 

Request for help:  I started this blog a year ago, and now it seems I've used up all the storage in my Picassa web album.  Do most of you pay for photo storage?  I'd like to keep it free if I can, so I've been deleting photos from my old blog posts.  If you have some technical advice for me, please let me know.  Thanks!

Four Day Weekend

I've had no fabric in or out this week.  Since I bought a boatload of it last week, I didn't even hit the 3 quilt stores in my area that were having sales this weekend.  I took a quilt to the longarmer, but it may not be done before the new year.  I may have  already posted my last fabric usage for the year.

Used this week: 0  yards

Used Year to Date: 80.5 yards

Added this week: 0  yards

Added year to date: 60.25 yards

Net Used: 20.25 yards

 

For more stash reports: http://www.patchworktimes.com/2012/11/25/stash-report-week-47-2012/

 

This has been a fun Thanksgiving break.  The big kids were home for a while.  We had 2 Thanksgiving celebrations (one here one on Friday at a friend's house).  We went to see 'Lincoln', which was very good.  We went out to lunch with friends from college that we hadn't seen in over 10 years.  I gave a knitting lesson to a friend who is making a hat. I sewed a little, and we still have today to play.

 

I'm working on Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street.  This week's clue is to make 4 patches.  I've got about 100 of them done already.  My goal is to buy no new fabric for this quilt.  I'm trying to use up a bunch of scraps.  Some of my scraps just won't die.  I'm getting tired of seeing the same old fabrics in all my scrap quilts.

 

 

Forty-two people came for Thanksgiving this year.  We set up tables in every room downstairs.  We had only 36 seats at tables, but the kids decided to eat on the back porch, so all the adults had a seat.     Here are my parents' grandchildren, in order from oldest (almost 23) to youngest (6).

 

Lotsa Fabric

I bought 8.5 yards of fabric at the quilt shop last week and 6 yards for backing at JoAnn's.  That's a lot of fabric!  Then I went back today and got 7 more yards for backing another quilt.  That's a total of 21.5 yards, which is probably the most I've  bought in a week this whole year.

Used this week: 2.25 yards

Used Year to Date: 80.5 yards

Added this week: 21.5 yards

Added year to date: 60.25 yards

Net Used: 20.25 yards

 

I'm hoping to get a quilt to the longarmer this week, so my numbers should get better soon!

 

I splurged this week on fabric for another one block wonder.  I saw two fabrics that I really liked when I was picking out fabric in August, but used some restraint and only bought one of them.  When I went back this week, the other one I liked was 1/2 price, so I bought the rest of the bolt. I have enough to make the one block wonder quilt and can use it for the border too.

 

A lot of fabrics that work best for one block wonder quilts are big florals.  Most fabric like that is too feminine for teenage boys.  I think this one might work, though.  It has khaki-green palm leaves on a cream background.  There are splashes of red and yellow with a light design of blue too.  I think this would look great with some red cubes too.  I can't wait to get started on this one, but it is a project for 2013.

 

 

To see more stash reports

http://www.patchworktimes.com/2012/11/18/stash-report-week-46-2012/

 

Grinch in the Window

I'm participating in the 3rd Annual Neighborhood Party hosted by Beth of Laugh Love Quilt.  http://lovelaughquilt.blogspot.com/2012/11/3rd-annual-neighborhood-party.html   To join, you make a 12 1/2 inch house block and send it to Beth.  She will group the blocks into sets of 9-12, and the winners of the drawings will get the blocks.   Beth has offered to make a charity quilt if she gets extra blocks, so I've made her an extra house  block.

 

I also finished a couple more pillowcases for my uncle.

 

 

Why I Love Marigolds

Several years ago I received some marigold seeds in the mail.  I tossed them into the flower bed out back.  Since then, they have volunteered every year.  They start blooming in July and usually bloom until Thanksgiving.  This past week has been colder than usual, and the foliage is starting to droop and turn brown.  But they are still blooming their little heads off.

UFO DONE, Stash Report

I got a top completed today.  These were blocks that I started about a year ago.  My plan was to make 2 baby quilts for a friend who was expecting twin girls.  The original pattern came from one of Bonnie Hunter's books,  but I can't find it right now, so I can't tell you which one.  I had the blocks made, but when I went to sew them together, I found that the seams weren't pressed so that they would nest, and when I tried to sew them together, I had bulky seams and sloppy points.

I ended up finishing 2 different quilts for the babies, and put these blocks aside.  http://sewingoutofmycomfortzone.blogspot.com/2012/02/baby-quilts-complete.html

This week I pulled the blocks  out and realized I could fix the bulky seam problem by putting sashing between the blocks.  I used one of the oldest pieces of fabric I have in my stash, a blue calico circa 1988.  All the fabric came from my stash or was given to me by my friend Holly.

 I ended up making one twin sized quilt instead of 2 baby quilts.  I think the blue gray of the sashing helps it look less like a baby quilt than it would with just pastels.  Now I think I could finish it and use it in the playroom (blue couch, yellow walls) or give it to a niece for a high school graduation gift.  I'm not sure who gets this one, but I'm pleased with how it turned out.

 

 

Best of all, I have something to report in the Used category this week!

 

Used this week: 4 yards

Used Year to Date: 78.25 yards

Added this week: 0 yards

Added year to date: 38.75 yards

Net Used: 39.5 yards

 

For more stash reports:  http://www.patchworktimes.com/2012/11/04/stash-report-week-44-2012/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PatchworkTimes+%28Patchwork+Times+by+Judy+Laquidara%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

 

Big Needlework Give Away

The Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe is having a big December give away.  You have to be a follower to enter.  Here's the link:

http://victorianmottosamplershoppe.blogspot.ie/2012/11/25-days-of-christmas-and-25-give-aways.html

How a Project Becomes a UFO

We had minimal damage from the hurricane.  We got off easy this time!

Here are the blocks on my 'design floor'.

 

They are blocks from my 'Test Your Skills Sampler' Variation. 

 

I have been trying to get a lot of UFOs finished up this year, and that got me thinking about why a project becomes a UFO.  I have more cross stitch UFOs than quilting ones.  Cross stitching is more labor intensive than quilting.  You can make a 12 inch quilt block in a half hour, if it is not a difficult pattern.  It would take most stitchers weeks,  if not months,  to cross stitch a 12 inch square pattern.  So size of project is one of the main reasons a cross stitch project becomes a UFO.  It is important to keep up enthusiasm for a project in order to get it done.  If my enthusiasm goes down, the likelihood of a project becoming a UFO goes up, and if the project (whether quilting or cross stitching) takes a long time, there is more of a chance for the enthusiasm to plummet.

 

Loss of momentum is another reason a project becomes a UFO.  If I am working on something daily, I will see progress, and that progress can keep me excited about a project.  If I put a project away, to say, clean up my house for company or get ready for a holiday, sometimes it is hard to get it back out. 

 

A project that I am emotionally invested in like a quilt for a family member will get done on time.  A project that I have been dreaming about for many year and that I have spent a lot for on materials will not become a UFO.  I feel too guilty about spending a lot of money on a project unless I'm going to really complete it.

 

Most of my UFOs are projects that I started on impulse, bought on sale, were a class project or were gifts.  Sometimes I can tell in the first 2 hours of work that this project will probably become a UFO.  Sometimes it is because I'm not good at a particular technique (like surface embroidery, sewing curves or paper piecing).  I'll try to power though these future UFOs, but they eventually wear me down, and I give up.  Some projects become UFOs because I change my mind about the colors or don't like the materials (like floss that wants to shred and tangle).

 

I'm working hard to reduce my UFOs. They take up valuable space and weigh me down mentally.  They make me feel guilty for starting something new if I have a lot of them.  So if I want to start new things with a right good heart, I need to finish up the old ones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Waiting for a Hurricane

We have taken in the porch furniture and anchored the swing.

 

Turned over the basketball goal, so it doesn't fall on the cars.

 

 

The trash cans, grill and pots are in the garage.  We have ice, food and batteries.

 

  My mom said it had already started to rain in Tidewater, and they already have flooding in some places. Some of the schools there have already cancelled classes for Monday.

 

  They are telling us to expect power outages, and the lights just blinked a few minutes ago.  I'm a little concerned about our trees, but we have been good about taking down the dead ones.

 

 

 

Now we wait.

 

I'm wishing the hurricane out to sea. 

 

 

 

 

Mark's Star Quilt, Blogger's Quilt Festival Entry

This is a 'company' quilt.  I put it on my son's bed when we have overnight guests.  My son doesn't get to use it because the dog sleeps in his room, and the dog has occasionally chewed on a quilt.  I don't want this quilt damaged because I really like it.

I chose the combination of blue and orange when I saw a man dressed in a blue oxford cloth shirt and a bright orange tie.  The colors were so pretty together, I had to try it in a quilt.  After I made the blocks, though, the quilt looked sort of dead.  Then I added the yellow, and the whole thing magically worked.  I've only made one 2-color quilt that I really liked.  My 2-color quilts usually end up getting an accent color added towards the end of the piecing.

 

This quilt is 88x88 inches and includes all kinds of fabrics from batiks to 30's repros.  I didn't worry about the style of fabric, just the color of it.

 It was professionally quilted (pantograph) by A Needle Runs Through It.

 

 

To see other quilts in Amy's Creative Side Blogger's Quilt Festival, http://amyscreativeside.com/2012/10/26/bloggers-quilt-festival-fall-2012/