More Orange Crush Progress

I pulled out my Orange Crush last night and cut the orange and turquoise squares. The threw them all up on the design wall to see how those blocks were going to look with my purple stars. None of the 3.5" squares are sewn together yet. I guess I just haven't been too sure about this one so far.



Turns out I like the orange a lot. I couldn't decide between the two shades of turquoise for the center square so I put both up on my wall. Looking at them in the picture I think I like the darker of the two. Much more rich in color. The lighter color is actually marbled fabric so it takes on different shade depending on where it is cut.

Maybe I'll start sewing some together today after I get the Sassy Sixteen quilt sandwiched and ready for quilting.

So far this month here's my stash stats:

67.5 yards in; 8 yards used; net 59.5 yards added stash.
But how could I not purchase fabric on my Lancaster County trip!

Sassy Sixteen, Crib Size

Today I finished the top of the baby quilt I'm making for my friend who is about to become a grandmother for the first time. She wanted a crib quilt for her house in pastels. I don't do pastels well so I had to add the rose color for some interest.

I used Kimberly Camou's pattern, Sassy Sixteen, and then found that it was really too big for a baby quilt so I took off one column and one row and now it is the perfect size (42" x 54"). Plus I have enough blocks left over for a second quilt. Here's the finished top. Just need to do the sandwich (groan) and the quilting. Does anybody out there like sandwiching and basting??? Or is it just me...



I used the fabric packs I got at the Old Country Store in Intercourse, PA. It's the Simplicity line from 3 Sisters for Moda. This top went together in just few hours. I'll definitely be using this pattern alot. Thanks Kimberly.

Memorial Day Mystery Quilt Still a Mystery???

I just realized that I hadn't posted the finished top from the Memorial Day mystery. Here's a photo of my completed top. I really like it.


It is Father's Day today. So Happy Father's Day to all you Dad's out there.

My Dad has been gone for many years. But my son is a Dad now, so I'll be off to his house in a little while to visit him and my grandkids before they head off to their other Grandparents in Louisiana for a six week visit. Not only is this great for my son's inlaws to spend some good time with the kids, but since there is no day care during the summer, it takes care of the child care problem as well. I will miss them, but I can't complain since I get to see them any time I want with little effort.

Eye Candy

Well, I'm back from my trip to Pennsylvania and Lancaster County. What a trip. I absolutely loved the two days spent among the Amish. I learned so much about these interesting people. Not at all how they are portrayed in the movie Witness.

But most interesting of course were the quilt and fabric shops. I took so many pictures and have so many ideas for quilts I now want to make. Not to mention, I brought home 65 (yes SIXTY FIVE) yard of fabric. I was shocked when I added it all up. But the prices were just so great. At least 30% less than any of the fabric shops here in the Bay Area.

Here're some pics of my purchases.

I couldn't resist these fabric packs from the Old Country Store in Intercourse, PA.

These are fabrics from the Simplicity line by 3 Sisters for Moda. Perfect for a baby quilt I need to make for my friend's new granddaughter who arrives on June 30th. I think I'll use the Sassy Sixteen pattern by my online quilting friend Kimberly Camou.


The next group is every color I could find of the Fusions 7 line from Kaufman. This is my very favorite blender fabric. I bought at least a yard of each color.


I couldn't resist adding to my slowly growing collection of Batiks. These are mostly fat quarters with two 1 yard cuts.


And, these are some fabrics that just reached out to me begging to come home with me. I couldn't resist.

The last bit are the final fabrics I need to make my Granddaughter's princess quilt for her Birthday in September. I think I'll use the Sassy Sixteen pattern for this one too.


Now all I have to do is figure out where I'm going to put all this fabric.

Memorial Day Mystery

I just can't resist the mystery quilts. QuiltBug is holding one tomorrow, Memorial Day. I've decided to stay with the Christmas theme as shown in the fabric requirements. I've got some really nice Christmas fabric that I've been saving for just the right project. Here are my fabrics.

I had trouble choosing my medium and medium-light, so I took pictures of a bunch of different combinations and then converted them to black and white. That made all the difference. The fabrics I thought would play well together, were all the same value in black and white. I will have to do this more often. Here's the pic in black and white.

So now it is all cut and I'm just waiting for the mystery to start at 6:00AM Pacific Time. Don't know if I'll be getting up that early. Maybe I'll make the second clue at 7:00AM. :)

OC Steps 2-4

Finally, I'm a bit more caught up. This evening I finished step 2 and 3 and got everything cut and stacked together to complete step 4. Had to decide whether I wanted the light or dark purple to be the star. I think the light purple. I'm exhausted so I'll sew the blocks together tomorrow.

Here's Step 2

And here's step 3














And here's step 4 in position, but new sewn together yet.















I'm making only half as many units as required because I don't want a full size quilt. Unless of course I love it and want to make more units. Such indecision!!

So here's my question for everyone. Am I the only one that seems to have trouble positioning pictures when I upload them? I put my cursor in the place where I want the picture and it always ends up at the top of the entry. Then I have to drag it where I want it but of course it doesn't go exactly where I think it will. So frustrating.

I'm tired and going to bed now.

Count me in...

I've decided, after a long time on the fence, to take the plunge and do Bonnie's Orange Crush mystery. I'm hoping to make it smaller than full size so I'm only completing so many of each step. Hope it works, but what the heck, I can always make more of the parts I need.

I haven't chosen all my fabrics yet, but if I waited for that I would never get started. So I just jumped in with both feet (or maybe hands) last night.


Last night I sewed a whole bunch of 2" strips and then completed 50 4-patch units. I've got enough 2-patches cut to hopefully finish off another 30 or so tonight. Then on to complete some of the step 2 units. The pic shows the 4-patches (not pressed yet) on the left and the 2-patches waiting to be matched and sewn on the right.

One more finished

I finished this quilt on Saturday night, putting the last stitch in the binding at 10:45 pm. My eyes were falling out by then. I think I need to visit the eye doctor to check for a new prescription. It's been two years.


Anyway, this is the quilt that I am dontating to our Zonta Day at the Races raffle next Sunday. I'll be sure to get a picture of the winner with the quilt and post it here. I had a hard time letting this one go after it was finished, but as my mother pointed out, if I really like it that much, I can always make another one.:)

We are having a mini-heat wave here in the Bay Area for the next couple of days so I doubt I'll be doing any sewing until at least the weekend.

I'm a Fabricaholic

Well, I confess. I am a fabricaholic. I find myself sitting at my computer at work longing to take a quick trip to my LQS up the street. It's as bad as a food addiction. Fortunately, the shop is a little farther than a quick walk and parking is a bit of a challenge mid-day. Those are the only things that keep me from visiting the store more often. This is definitely an addiction.

While I don't have a huge stash (only been seriously collecting for two years), I do bring home way more fabric than I use. So, I've joined the Stashbuster blog ring. I'm hoping that will give me some motivation to use at least half as much as I bring home.

I'm traveling to PA the first week of June and I'll be spending at least two days in Lancaster County so I'm sure I'll be bringing home lots of fabric finds from that trip. So I'm trying to limit what I buy this month in anticipation.

I got my Economic Stimulus money from the IRS last week and what better way to stimulate the economy and support my LQS than spending it on fabric or other quilting "essentials".

Border Designs

I've finally gotten out the top that I started in 2005 to finish for a raffle quilt. The raffle is part of our Zonta Club's Day at the Races fund raising event on May 18th. Once my friends learned I had many unfinished tops, they asked that I finish one for a raffle prize. We make most of our money through the raffle at this event.

So the challenge for me was how to quilt those very plain, very light borders. I wanted something a little more interesting than my usual diagonal grid. I had some Golden Threads paper so I traced a cable design that came in the Alex Anderson Quilt book I bought a while ago. And, last weekend I stitched the cable. It is by no means perfect but I think it really came out good.

The challenges were that first the backing I chose was only very slightly larger than the front. But I really wanted to use this piece of fabric for the backing and not have to piece it. So I just sat on the floor and very methodically pinned the three layers in place to make sure the top was centered and the backing reached the edges on all four sides. I had to piece about three inches on one end to make it long enough but that was fine.

Then I stitched the cable design. But used my walking foot since I'm not confident enough to free-motion stitch it.

Two lessons learned:
1. Don't try to do this for the first time on a plain, light border where everything shows.
2. Next time put on the darning foot and free-motion this cable design. I think it would have come out just as well, without all the stopping, turning, and starting again.

My Stash

By most avid quilter's standards, my stash is a mini-stash at best. I have four underbed containers full of fabric (not the big ones, the smaller ones), and assorted sweater and shoe plastic boxes filled with fat quarters, kits, UFOs, etc, etc. But, I'm doing my best to grow the stash. I love going to my LQS and browsing through their $4.45/yd area. I get some great stuff there. I also love the remnants, most of them 1 yard or more each. I can't bring myself to pay the $9.95/yd price just to put the piece in my stash. I will definitely pay that price for a specific purpose.

I've also been doing a little bit of purchasing from Marshall Dry Goods. Most of their name brand yardage is $3.99. Good quality stuff. I purchase kits and such from Lazy Mazy and spent quite a bit there this last six months. I've joined their Fat Quarter Club so I receive six fat quarters each month of some really great fabric.

So I thought I'd start keeping track of how much comes in and roughly how much I use each week. I'll never be able to figure out how much I have already, but at least I can see if I'm anywhere near using at least a third of what I'm bringing home.

So here goes. This week I hit by LQS for 15.75 yards; 1.5 yards of that immediately was pulled out to be the back of a quilt I'm finishing for a Raffle for our Zonta Day at the Races in May. So that's a net of 14 yards in. so far this week.

Super Bowl Sunday

Well, today I avoided starting yet another top by doing the QuiltBus Mystery quilt. Instead, I told myself I would get busy and put together two UFO tops and start free-motion quilting. That was my challenge.

I got the tops together and I actually gave this free-motion quilting a try. I quilted two blocks on a pink top I put together a very long time ago from pink scraps. I figured if I hated the result, I really didn't care since I had no specific purpose in mind for the quilt and the investment in the top was minimal (both time and fabric). So here are some pics of my first free-motion quilting attempt. Just some lazy meandering. I can tell with practice I could probably get pretty good at this.

Super Bowl Sunday

Well, today I avoided starting yet another top by doing the QuiltBus Mystery quilt. Instead, I told myself I would get busy and put together two UFO tops and start free-motion quilting. That was my challenge.

I got the tops together and I actually gave this free-motion quilting a try. I quilted two blocks on a pink top I put together a very long time ago from pink scraps. I figured if I hated the result, I really didn't care since I had no specific purpose in mind for the quilt and the investment in the top was minimal (both time and fabric). So here are some pics of my first free-motion quilting attempt. Just some lazy meandering. I can tell with practice I could probably get pretty good at this.

Chicken Challenge

Here's my 2008 Chicken Challenge Carpenter's Wheel block from Quilts Your Way. I've always wanted to make this pattern and thanks to Cindy at QYW, I've done it. Can't wait to see what the next instruction for this challenge will be.

Edison's Quilt

This is what I did last Sunday. It's a baby quilt for Edison Hsu, born Monday, Jan 14 to one of the guys I work with. I need to prepare the backing and get it basted for quilting. I wanted something bright and engaging.

I used the Wonder Cut ruler to make the HSTs, but found out really fast that if you cut the strips on the the straight grain you get bias squares and those are tough to work with. Next time I'll cut the strips on the bias.

Been awhile since I've had a quilting weekend...

But I had to finish all the blocks for the Quilts Your Way 2007 Squishie Swap. And, I did. Two were already finished. Then, I had 3 to finish sewing and 7 more for which I had to choose coordinating fabrics and patterns, and then get them sewn. You can view the results at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/iwritedocs/2007SquishieSwap

It was fun. I cut several out at a time and chain pieced at the sewing machine so it went very fast. I think I am now caught up on all my swap commitments.

More later...

A Very Quilty Weekend

This past weekend was a complete quilt success in my book. Didn't do much actual quilting on Saturday, but I did get all the fabrics scraps and my less than a yard pieces sorted, folded, and put away in some sort of order so I can find them again.

Sunday, I managed to catch up on five months worth of blocks for the Flower Block of the Month on Quilts Your Way quilting forum. You can see the results here. To make it easy, I spent the morning and into the early afternoon, cutting all the pieces for the blocks. Then I just sat down with the ironing board right next to me and chain sewed all the pieces together. If I hadn't done it that way, I probably would have given up after the 3rd or 4th block.

Now if I can do the same with Star Block of the Month, I will be in very good shape to continue. July's was posted yesterday so that means I'm five months behind on that one too.

One down; oh so many to go...

I did it. I finished one UFO quilt this weekend.

This is the 2007 Super Bowl Sunday mystery quilt project. It's been sitting around waiting to have the outer border quilted and the binding put on for a couple of months now. It feels good to have it finally done.

I made a label for it by ironing muslin to freezer paper and then running it through my inkjet printer. I'm not worried about the ink maybe not being permanent because I'm not giving this quilt away and it won't be washed often.

I also finished the top from the St. Patrick's Day Mystery Quilt from Quiltaholics. It's only 34" x 34" so I think it will be a wall hanging. It might go perfect over my bed. Hmmm. I'll have to think about that. But, I still need to layer, quilt, and bind it. Don't hold your breath to see it on a wall anytime soon.

I'm back at my Quilting work table

The big gap in posts is not tied to a gap in quilting. I've just not been posting. But that's about to change. I've done a lot, learned a lot, and actually have some quilt tops finished. Now if I could just get the quilting done.

I hope to post a bunch of pictures this weekend of some of my tops. And, I hope to get some more blocks made as well.

Tuesday, Foundation Piecing

Well, I finally got up the nerve to try paper piecing. It wasn't as easy as it looked. I ripped out all four of the first round of pieces before I got them right, and then I wasn't very good at estimating where the seam would be and if there was enough material to cover the shape. And, finally, I cut the block to the outside border but forgot to add 1/4" to sew it to the rest of the quilt. What a nightmare. I finally just added a 1 1/2" piece all around instead of a 1 1/4" piece to allow for my mistake.

Whew, I'm not sure how much foundation pieceing I'm going to be doing in the future. It does produce some nice results though with very even, straight, matching seams.

Tonight I'll lay the whole thing out and see what I want to do in the four corners before class tomorrow night.