Shop Hop

I took a quick scroll through my blog, and it looks like I haven't bought fabric since August 4, when I added 3.5 yards.  Today starts the Tour de Quilt of Central VA (  http://tourdequilt.com/  ), and I always try to go to a few of the shops. I won a $50 gift card last summer from one of the shops on the tour, so I went to Quilting Adventures today and spent the whole thing plus a whole lot more. 

I bought 7 yards of a bright floral for a quilt for one of my sisters.  It is going to be another one block wonder, so I also bought a bundle of coordinating fat quarters to use for the cubes in the quilt.  Later today, I met a friend at The Blue Crab Quilt Company and found fabric to make a pillowcase for another sister.   All told, I bought 12 yards of fabric.  QA threw in an extra 1/2 yard for free. 

If this were a normal weekend, I'd at least finish a pillowcase.  But this is not a normal weekend because were out of town, so I didn't get any sewing done.

Used this week: 0 yards
Used Year to Date:  79 yards
Added this week: 12.5 yards
Added year to date:  80.375 yards
Net Added:  1.375 yards

Even having made 2 big scrap quilts and one recycled fabric quilt the past year, I'm still bouncing around the net added/net used line.  I really feel like I'm close having the perfect amount of fabric in my stash, and as long as I keep using up my scraps, I feel mostly ok about buying  more fabric. 

http://sewingoutofmycomfortzone.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-critical-mass-of-quilting-stash.html

To see more stash reports:  http://www.patchworktimes.com/2013/10/13/stash-report-week-41-2013/

Cross Stitch Update

I have been working a little on Sleepy Hollow.  I've finished the graveyard and started working on the church. I got an hour and a half of stitching in while I was in the car waiting for my son to finish soccer practice.  The field is about 25 minutes from my house, and it doesn't make much sense to drop him off and then turn right around a half hour later and go pick him up.  They switched practice to 5:30 to 7:00, so last week I had enough light to stitch almost the whole time.

 

I also did an ornament for a Halloween exchange, but I didn't want to show it until I got it mailed out. 

 ***Spoiler alert for Nancy:  Stop reading now, if you want to be surprised.  ***

 

 Cheryl stitched a spider web for me.  If you look closely, you can see the spider charm in the web.  No matter what light I tried, the ribbon she used looks blue in the picture.  It is really purple.

 

 

This is the center part of the Ink Circles Design that is in this year's JCS Halloween issue. 

 

For my partner, Nancy, I stitched Little Owl Sampler by Knotted Tree NeedleArt. The chart is in JCS 2012  Halloween issue.

 

 

I like to personalize the ornaments I stitch for friends with our initials or names, but there was no good place to do that on this ornament, so I did it on the back. 

 

This is my September ornament for the Ornament  SAL. To see more ornaments:

 

http://stitchinglotus.ca/2013/09/ornament-sal-septmeber-check-in/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crazy Quilt Piecing Class

There is just one block on my design wall.

Yesterday afternoon I took a crazy quilt piecing class.  We were told to bring a 12.5 inch square of muslin and 5 fat quarters.  I didn't want to buy any fabric, so I found 5 fat quarters that have been in my stash for quite a while and brought them.  They are not what I would have chosen if I had gone out and bought something new, but they worked just fine.

 

This was an easy technique for me because it is very similar to the paper piecing I did for the Harry Potter quilt.  It was a lot of stitching and flipping. It took me a about and hour and a half to make this 12 1/2 inch block. 

 

 We did not get to any embroidery in class yesterday.  Embroidery is a separate class, as is silk ribbon, and beading is yet a third.  I don't think I need her first embroidery class.  It looked like she was using very simple stitches.  I know I can do the stitches.  What I need is practice to get my spacing right.  I'm used to stitching on linen, where there is a thread grid to guide me in how big and how far apart to stitch.

 

I think crazy quilting is an easy thing to do, but it is a hard thing to do well.  A lot of the pieces the teacher showed yesterday looked messy to me.  I could see she had spent quite a bit of time on them because there was SO MUCH JUNK on her work:  lace, rick rack, ribbon, buttons, beads, found objects. 

 

 That might be the look she was going for, but it just looked like too much  stuff  competing for attention.  Those of you who have seen some of my scrap quilts know I have a high tolerance for mish-mash. Her art quilts made my scrappiest quilts look positively dull. 

 

That said, this block is my practice block, so it will probably end up  similarly over-decorated.

 

To see more design walls:  http://www.patchworktimes.com/2013/09/30/design-wall-monday-28/

 

Stash Report

My net used numbers are up again this week because of my Lazy Sunday finish. 

Used this week: 6.75 yards
Used Year to Date:  79 yards
Added this week: 0 yards
Added year to date:  67.875 yards
Net USED:  11.125 yards

For more stash reports:  http://www.patchworktimes.com/2013/09/29/stash-report-week-39-2013/

I won a crazy quilt piecing class at my LQS.  It is this afternoon from 1 to 4.  I think I could probably figure out how to make the block without a class, but I always learn something from classes, and I'm looking forward to it. 

Lazy Sunday, Quilted and Bound

I got Bonnie Hunter's  Lazy Sunday finished last night.  I waited until today to take a picture, but it is gloomy out, so the lighting isn't great.

 

 

 

 

I have mixed feelings about this quilt.  I don't love it because of the fabric I used, but I think it is a very good pattern.  I like the pieced border, but I had stretching problems with mine (user error, nothing wrong with the pattern).  This quilt is made entirely of scraps and stash. 

 

 The backing is a Civil War print that I've had forever.  It is also a fabric that I don't love.  It is 'quilt shop quality', but it feels coarse to me and was  stiff with sizing before I washed it.  I know it will improve with each wash because I've used it on another quilt.  I am glad to be rid of it, though!

 

I'm linking up with Sarah at Can I Get a Whoop Whoop http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/

 

 

 

A New Mystery and Stash Report

I've just started  Charlotte's Scrapitude Mystery quilt found over on Sandy's blog ( http://quiltingfortherestofus.com/blog/ )  This is supposed to be a low key mystery compared to the Bonnie Hunter mysteries. So if you've always wanted to make a mystery quilt, but quilts with thousands of pieces intimidate you, try this one to start.

 So far, I've just gotten my 4 patches made.  My quilt is going to use batik scraps.  I'm not sure about my background.  I had a bunch of 2 1/2 inch jelly roll strips that were cream batiks, so that's what I used for the 4 patches.  I haven't decided yet if I'm going to buy more background fabric, so the whole quilt will be batiks, or if I'm going to use other cream fabrics from my stash. 

 

I haven't done any of the rest of the cutting.  Some of the directions sound suspiciously like squares to make HSTs because they end in 7/8.  I don't like to make my HSTs that way, so I'm going to wait on cutting those.

 

This has been a productive week for me since I got Pineapple Blossom quilted and bound.  I am glad to see my stash numbers headed in the right direction again.

 

 Used this week: 6 yards
Used Year to Date:  72.25 yards
Added this week: 0 yards
Added year to date:  67.875 yards
Net USED:  4.375 yards 

To see more stash reports: http://www.patchworktimes.com/2013/09/22/stash-report-week-38-2103/

Pineapple Blossom Quilted and Bound

I got my Pineapple Blossom quilted and bound this week.  This quilt has been a long time in the making.  It was a class project with Bonnie Hunter in Virginia Beach in 2013. 
http://sewingoutofmycomfortzone.blogspot.com/2012/03/bonnie-hunter-class.html

It sat in my floppy pile for over a year before I saved up enough to buy the backing (white corduroy with pink, orange and red owls) and get it longarmed.   I'm very happy with the way it turned out!

 

 

My major worry with this quilt was that some of the dark pinks would bleed.  Many of them are scraps of unknown origin.  Some of them were batiks.  Since there was so much white, I decided to baste color catchers over the pieces most likely to bleed.

I'm glad I did!  Look at the excess dye: 

I used a whole box of color catchers for this quilt.  It's probably overkill, but a box is only $4,  and it beats trying to get stains off of the white parts.  I was surprised that even some of the orange fabric bled a little.

To see more projects:  http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/2013/09/can-i-get-whoop-whoop-some-more-pretties.html  and  http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2013/09/missing-u.html