My new blog address is

www.stitchingcircle.com

Come on over and see what I've been up to!

Come visit me on my new blog

I know you haven't seen me post in awhile. Almost a whole month. That's because I'm working very hard on my new blog/web site. www.stichingcircle.com My son is now hosting my blog on his server so I can have my own web playground. I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet. But at the very least, I will be blogging over there from now on. I've already imported all my blog posts from here so I won't lose anything. And, I'm starting a separate page to display my finished quilts.

The new site is definitely under construction while I try to get all my links, blogroll, favorite sites, etc. moved over. I'm learning WordPress as I go so this is definitely a challenge. And, work is really busy for me right now, so I have little time to work on it.

So if you are looking for me in blogland, visit my new site and leave me a comment on how you like it so far.

Weekend update

Just a quick update. I finished piecing OTR. Yay. I actually had to make 10 more pinwheels, but I had plenty of four-patches. I realized when looking at the pattern today, I made all my pinwheels backwards from the way Bonnie did them. Oh, well, I'm certainly not doing them over. It is what it is. No one will ever notice but me. Oops, now I've told the world...

I've got about six long seams to connect the final few rows and the top middle will be finished. It won't all fit on my wall, so I'll have to take a pic when I can get it laid out on the floor.

OTR is all I worked on today, so nothing else to report on. Back to work tomorrow. Dont' know how much time I'll have to work on this during this week. I'll be out 3 nights and off to see my grandkids for part of next weekend.

Have a great week everyone.

Super Bowl Weekend Progress

Well it's the end of the day on Saturday and here's my progress. I've finished piecing and assembling my Double Delight. I'm really happy with it. But I'm going to take a break before I choose and attach the borders. I know I said in a previous post I wasn't going to use the on-point setting, but I changed my mind. The setting triangles are all the same pink. I really like the way it turned out.

So now I'm working on Old Tobacco Road. I've had a lot of the pinwheels and four patches done for several months now, so I started cutting the bricks and assembling the top from the upper left corner. Here's how far I got this evening.It's pretty scrap color controlled. I'm keeping it to the golds, browns, blacks, very dark reds, with a few dark blues and greens thrown in. It took me a long time to decide if I even wanted to make this quilt. Now, I'm glad I am; as usual with Bonnie's patterns.

I really want to join everyone tomorrow with a Strip Twist. But I can't decide if I want it scrappy or controlled colors. I pulled these batiks thinking they might work nicely in the Strip Twist pattern. I'd love to hear opinions from all of you before I actually cut into them.

More on my progress tomorrow.

I know so many of you are freezing, suffering power outages, ice, and snow. But, I just have to say here in the SF Bay Area, we are experiencing spring-like weather. I know I should be thankful we don't have the severe weather the rest of the country experiences, but boy I sure would like some winter. We really need the rain.

Warm wishes and prayers to all those who are suffering with the winter storms and power outages.

Super Bowl Sunday with Bonnie

Just added the Super Bowl Strip Twist logo to my sidebar. The rules are to work along with Bonnie on her Strip Twist (or any of her other patterns) on Super Bowl Sunday.

Haven't decided if I'll start a Strip Twist on Sunday or not. But in any case, I will be working on my Double Delight this weekend. I still have nine blocks to put together to finish the top. If I get all that done on Saturday, I may just start a Strip Twist. I certainly have the 2.5" strips cut to do it. In between, I'm working slowly on Old Tobacco Road. So with all of these, I'm certainly qualified to add the logo. Seems I'm working exclusively on Bonnie's patterns these days. I'm totally hooked on scraps or making scraps from my existing stash.

Added to Stash this Week...

I have to confess. I added to the stash this week. I couldn't resist a sale at Fabrics.com and of course I had to get free shipping so I spent more than $35. Way more, $56.56 to be exact. Here's my additions:

3 yards Kaufman Fusions Floral Ruby
3 yards Kaufman Fusions Floral Turquoise
3 yards Kaufman Fusions Floral Periwinkle
2 yards Kaffe Fassett Stencil Carnation Rose

AND, 3 yards 108" WOC backing

Can't say that I've used any more stash this week. I'm still working on Double Delight and all the pieces have been cut for several weeks now. I may use the WOC backing for the back of DD though. Haven't decided yet.

When I first started buying fabric just for stash, I was grabbing 1 yard cuts, and only sometimes 2 yards. Now that I've been quilting for almost 4 years, I realize 1 and sometimes 2 yards in not nearly enough. So, now, when I buy, especially blenders, I buy at least 3 yards. But I still avoid paying full price. I shop the online sales and only buy brands/lines I know. And, I rarely pay for shipping unless it's for a special fabric that I really need and can only find at that store.

I still shop my LQS (only one in my local area) but I support that store more by taking classes and BOMs, and buying specialty threads, etc. that I really need to see before I buy. JoAnn's and their great coupons is saved for notions, rulers, and books, etc. where I don't have to worry about quality. Occasionally, I'll buy some of JoAnn's better quality fabrics on sale or with coupons. Got great Christmas fabric there for 70% off at the end of the year.

That's it, that's my stash report for this week. 14 yards added and 0 yard used.

Double Delight Blocks Finished!

Yay! My Double Delight blocks are finished. Here's most of them on my wall. I've laid them out in a straight set. I'm not sure I want to put them on point as the pattern calls for.


I'll decide how about that and borders tomorrow, or maybe even Monday. I'm just so happy the blocks are done and I love how they turned out. Thank you Bonnie.

How are the rest of you finishing your Double Delight? I've seen a couple of people who are doing straight sets. Somehow, I like the chain blocks to be on the diagonal rather than straight. I did that with my Orange Crush as well.

Tomorrow, I plan to spend finishing up some quilting that I've been meaning to do. I've got some straight stitch grids to add to a small wall quilt that has been hanging around for almost a year. It's even got the binding on it. So, I want this one off my list. Then I've got more quilting to do on my Orange Crush middle before I mark and quilt cables on the border. And, last but not least, I decided to machine quilt the wall hanging for my mom in my previous post. I tried hand quilting it last night and the fabric and batting are just too tough. So I'll echo the star pattern by machine.

Wow, that's a lot to do in one day. We'll see how far I really get. I've got Monday off too, so some of it can roll over.

I'm still here...

Just a quick post to let you know I am still out here. Since I've been back to work after the holidays, I've had no time to post. Haven't even been sewing much. But this last weekend, I had to get this wall hanging put together for my mother's 94th birthday yesterday. I got as far as it being basted and ready for quilting. She loved it.

So I took it back and now I have to do the quilting. I think I will hand quilt it by echoing the star points. Something to keep my hands occupied while watching TV in the evenings.

Haven't worked much on my Double Delight, but I do have several of each block on my wall. I'll try to get a pic posted and more done this long 3-day weekend coming up.

That's all for now. Back to work...

Double Delight Slow going...

Spent most of the morning out running errands and catching some NY sales. So I didn't start sewing until about 12:30. I'm working on Part 1 and Part 2 of Double Delight at the same time. But it's slow going. I must be sitting at the sewing machine too much. I can only sit for about 15 minutes at a time without my back hurting. My chair is all wrong for the table height, but can't do anything about it right now.


As you can see, I'm making progress slowly. I sew a little, press those, sew a little more, then trim some, etc. I'm not going to move on the Part 3 until I have at least 80 units of Part 1 and Part 2 complete. But you can see my pinks waiting patiently on the left for me to finish. Ah, well, two more days until i have to go back to work on Monday. I should be able to get a lot more done by then. It isn't a race after all...

New Year's Quandry...

Happy New Year! I've been working on Part 1 and Part 2 of Bonnie's Double Delight today. After cutting out all my cheddar pieces for Part 1 last night and then Part 2 today, I'm totally bored with my choice. See it in the pic below.


So I raided my stash to see what else I had to liven it up. The closest thing I could find that excited me was the yellow in the pic below. So i made a block from each part with this color too.

After recently finishing my Orange Crush, I just couldn't work with that blah mustard in the first pic. But what does everyone think of the second choice before I cut up the rest of the yardage?

I'll be busy sewing the light triangle on my blue centers for awhile before I have to decide for sure. I'd love to hear from you.