New Job, New Apartment

My son who just graduated in December, got his first real job!  We moved him to Pennsylvania this weekend and have spent the last 2 days building IKEA furniture:  2 desks, 3 bookcases, 2 chests, 8 chairs, 4 tables, 1 sofa and 5 lamps.  He was mostly unpacked by the time we left.  After living in the dorms for 5 1/2 years, he is thrilled to have his own apartment. 

 

 

He is 4 1/2 hours away now, and I'm going to miss him a lot.  But he found a great job in his field  and an apartment that he loves.  I hope he will be happy and make friends in his new town.

 

Here's my stash report for this week:

 

Used This Week: 6.5 yard
Used Year to Date: 13.75 yards
Added this week: 0 yards
Added year to date:  7.125 yards
Net Used:  6.625 yards

 

Scrapitude Top Complete

I finished my Scrapitude top today. I had a hard time finding a place to take a picture of the whole quilt because it is 93 1/2 inches square, and I don't have enough floor space to lay it out.

 

The border fabric is a multicolored batik that a friend gave me years ago.  I didn't think I'd ever use it, but am now glad I saved it.  I think this will be a wedding gift for my brother and his new wife.

 

Gypsy Wife QAL

I was poking around online and found quilt along for Jen Kingwell's Gypsy Wife. I already had the pattern, and I'd already made one of the blocks when I found this quilt along.  I missed the January assignment of choosing fabric, but since I'm going to make my GW out of scraps, that didn't matter.

 February's assignment was six easy blocks. 

 

My goal is to avoid solids and to use as many fabrics as possible.  I'm linking up with Judy's Design Wall Monday.

 

http://www.patchworktimes.com/2014/02/17/design-wall-february-17-2014/

Stash Report: Holding Steady

I haven't got any yards used to report yet, but it won't be long!  Here's what I've been working on:

This is the center of Scrapitude.  I still need to trim off those squares, and it still needs its inner and outer borders.  My cutting table is covered in junk right now, so if I can make room on it tomorrow, I'll finish it soon.

Used This Week: 0 yard
Used Year to Date: 7.25 yards
Added this week: 0 yards
Added year to date:  7.125 yards
Net Used:  0.125 yards

I'm linking up with http://www.patchworktimes.com/2014/02/16/stash-report-week-7-2014/

In other possibly quilting news:  my brother is getting married!  He has been in several long relationships since his divorce.  We have met and said good bye  Cheryl, Bonnie, Anna, and Sue, all very nice women, but he was never interested in committing.  He met Shelley, and in less than 2 months, they are engaged!  My mother has met Shelley, but I don't think any of the rest of the family has yet. We got the news last night that they are going to Las Vegas NEXT WEEKEND  to get married!

Doesn't he know it takes more than a week to make a quilt???  I have a throw sized  quilt top I made last year, but I'm not sure it is big enough to be a wedding gift.  It was supposed to be a Christmas gift for him if I ever drew his name.  I think a wedding quilt should be something special, ideally something that will fit their bed.  I need to do some quick thinking and decide what to do.

I am very happy for my brother.  He is a great guy who picked the wrong woman the first time, so I hope this new relationship works out!

Scrapitude Block

A quilting friend, who does not read my blog,  is going through a hard time now, so a bunch of us have decided to make her a quilt.  We are all going to make one scrappy block in soothing colors .  Scrapitude is the block that the organizer chose.  It isn't a hard block to make.  Here's  what it should look like:

 

I was having quilter's block today, and the first triangle units I made were 1/2 inch too small.  So I put them away tried again.  Here's what I came up with:

 

 

I was pretty pleased with myself because it was almost exactly 12 1/2 inch square, and my corners looked good.  The problem?  Look closely:  The top middle unit and the bottom middle unit are mirror images of what they should be. 

 

So I ripped out the middle row and made 2 more triangle units, and again, one of them was backwards.  On a normal day, I'd have walked away from the sewing machine, but this needed to get done, so I could get it in the mail, so I persevered.  I ended up remaking the middle four patch too to make it more scrappy, more like some of the blocks I'd seen others making. 

 

 

So it is done, but it was painful!

 

 

 

 

 

Stash Report

I finished one more pillowcase since my last entry, which puts me barely into positive net used territory.

This pillowcase is for my MIL for Valentine's Day.  She has Graves disease and has been having a tough time lately with her eyes.  We usually don't do much for VD, but I thought she might need a pick-me-up, and I had the fabric left over.  Her bedroom is white and red, so I think she will really like it.

 If I'd just sew Celtic Solstice blocks together, I'd really change my numbers, but I'm sort of burned out on CS, and sewing blocks into a completed top is my least favorite part of quilting.    I'm waiting for the final clue for Scraptitude.

 Used This Week: 4.125 yard
Used Year to Date: 7.25 yards
Added this week: 0 yards
Added year to date:  7.125 yards
Net Used:  0.125 yards

To see more stash reports:  http://www.patchworktimes.com/2014/02/09/stash-report-week-6-2014/

Pillowcases

I finished pillowcases today.

 

 

The pink ones are made from a line of  Valentine's prints by Deb Strain called 'Surrounded by Love."  They are for my cousin who has pancreatic cancer, and I want her to feel that way, surrounded by love.

 

 

The Downton Abbey ones are for my friend who is a big Downton fan.  These are a Christmas gift.  Hope I can find them in December!  I tend to lose gifts I get too early.