How you doin?

I read other bloggs frequently and it amazes me how much some of you guys can get finished in a week. I was catching up on my reading this morning and came across http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/ and she posed the question, what's on your to do list -- so here goes.
In the next 2 days I need to get the background blocks finished for my paper piecing quilt -- I have been a little lazy on this one the weekend and always like to go to class prepared. I did get the final(ish) layout drawn out last night to include all my elements now I just need to cut the blocks to prepare for including the sashing (latice) to put hte top together.

 Before this weekend I would also like to at least pin several of my UFO's so that I can work on the quilting this weekened. I have 2 charity tops waiting and another quilt top that needs to be sandwiched

I feel insprired by that first top that way poasted in the above blog and think that this would be an excelent use of some of the other blocks that I was provided by my guild. This is what I love about blogging -- all the inspiration I find from other great quilters (enought ot add in another UFO).

Looks like I better get a move on and head off to work. Happy quilting everyone.

Insult, shock and UFO's

Last week I was getting ready for my ongoing paper piece class and encountered an odd event in the realm of quilting --- an insult, rude out of the way insult. Another lady in my class was admiring my blocks as they were on the table while I was shopping and I had another project in my hand when I came in to take my seat. The lady behind me complimented me on the blocks and asked about the item in my hand -- so as I was showing her some of my UFO's another lady came from across the room and interjected herself into our conversation. At the start she was fine and called me an over achiever because all my blocks were ready for class, no problem I've got that one before (even though this was the homework for the class). As the three of us continued talking about the other projects she decides at that point to drop this gem --- "obviously you have no life." REALLY, WHAT? I kinda stood there for a brief moment saying nothing and then the lady walked off. The first lady then looks at me and was like I can't believe she just said that about you, and neither could I.

I love quilting, it's one of my top 5 favorite things to do. I love all most all the parts of the process, the joy of completing a project and seeing the joy that it brings to other people to receive a quilt and knowing the difference a quilt can make in someone's life. So guess the joke's on her. As a matter of fact I added to my UFO's this weekend with another project for the guild charity drive. This one is inspired by the new Easy Quilts magazine I got a few weeks ago.

I also found another 4 completed blocks to pair up with the other 4 from my scrap bin to nearly have another quilt top in a throw size -- I just need to add a ban on each side.





I also finished my Block of the Month block for Sewingly Yours in preparation for the February meeting.                              

                                                                                  I'm very pleased with the projects and now it looks like I need to get to pinning and quilting them so that I will be able to turn them in soon. It's a good thing that I have all these projects to work on and all the items here at home to work on them because here's the shock, due to a paperwork error it looks like I owe some money to the feds and the state because according to my W2 I not having taxes withheld for the last 9 months (and I work for the state, so I really don't know how this happened). I hope this is an error in the paperwork that was sent to me and not actually a truth that I will be facing in the next few months. I have a wonderful father that is helping me out but it looks like I will be home much more on the weekends and finishing up these projects. ( I checked on this issue today and was put in the system as tax exempt -- so the error falls on me to make up for) unfortunately this also means that my machine upgrade is on hold and I won't be getting a Singer featherweight unless I find an amazing deal on one -- I almost had one on Ebay earlier but the price spiked in the last hour.

Thanks for reading and as always that's the dish Happy Quilting.

LQS Love and an Expirenent in Photography

Local Quilt shop day was Yesterday and I was out at my home shop attending week 3 of the paper piecing quilt. Ms. Elen helped me with the overall design that I will be attempting over the weekend and I got some fabric goodies to complete this project. I also finally got a single needle plate for my Viking Baby and am in the process of considering another upgrade to my machine as I am starting to become more interested in adding embroidery into my projects. Time will tell on this one as I am in search for a smaller machine for easier transport to classes and sewing events --- did someone say featherweight maybe?

I also went out to experiment with taking better pictures of my quilts in Yadkinville and found a few spots that might come in handy in the future. I also discovered that my camera is outdated to the point that my hubby's IPhone takes better pictures so the time to upgrade my phone is looming to replace both the camera and the phone I've had nearly 5 years.

Contemplating going to the Statesville Quilt Show tomorrow if I can find someone to go with and if the roads aren't bad or it may be another weekend of quilting and watching movies.

Happy Quilting everyone.

Blog hop and update

It's official I'm going to be in the Hugs and Kisses blog hop on Wednesday Feb 13th. I'm lucky because there are going to be quilte a few other bloggers that I currently follwo in the hop and they are all such great quilters. thanks to Jane at http://janesfabrics.blogspot.com/2013/01/hugs-and-kisses-blog-hop-schedule.html for being the host. Looks like that pink beauty has moved her way to the top of the list to be quilted. I wanted to get it finished by the next guild meeting any way so looks like all will work out.

now for the update part -- all paper piece flowers are complete at this time and on the design wall.

Now it's time to move them around and determine the layout and start making the background elements. I am leaning toward a darker brown latice or black at this time because I think white would be to distracting on the other hand it could add an extra pop and make thoes flowers stand out even more.

So I did go out and do a little shop hopping on Monday. FirstI went by Joannes to grab some thread that is 40% off till the end of the month. Next, I went to Knit one Smock 2 to get the black text fabric that I have been admiring from the merona road challange. I also got soem yarn on clearance to remake a gift for my husband that I sold at my craft fair last year.

I then bopped over to Sew Original to check out fabrics since Sunday I spent the whole day sewing instead of looking around. I found quite a few coordinates for a fabric that was in my stash and a cute Tula Pink fabric that I had been looking for recently. Lastly I made my first trip over to the Little General Shop. Gina has such a cute store over there in renolda Village and I rounded out my fabrics to match the stash fabric. This was the first time I have ever been offered to have my fabric wrapped -- which turns out I am a big fan of because that way I can wrap up coordinates in tissue papaer and when I unwrap them it's like a gift to myself all over again. It's the simple things that excite this girl.

I didn't make it to my home store Sewingly Yours today because of other obligations but I will be there on Local Shop Day Tomorrow.

Today's blog has been brought to you by Hurley --- mostly because he wanted his picture taken on what he considers his quilt. Yeah he knows how pretty he is and is not afraid ot tell you about it.

Long weekend -- great time to get in some quilting

We had some snow here in the triad last week on Thursday but this gal had to go to work on Friday so I didn't get a 4 day weekend but 3 days off is almost as good. I spent Thursday evening attending week 2 of my paper piecing quilt class and got all my petal blocks put together. Friday evening was spent trimming the blocks up

and starting to think more about the design look I want. No offence ot the authors of the book or Ms. Elen Lee but I don't buy the perspective that this quilt takes and want something different. (sorry this picture is sideways).

I went on pinterest to help with inspiration -- these blocks remind me of a clematis plant that my mother had  when I was growing up so that is where I started. ( https://pinterest.com/katieyoakum/quilting/ here's a link to me in case you want to check out things that could show up later on here)  Most of the pictures online are single color clematis but my mother's plan was both pink and purple on the same vine due to a genetic cross breeding. I will be doing something similar to one of these two pictures.

I am leaning toward the purple picture where my latice would be black and the background a textured white but that arch on the white latice does call to me and the wooden background. I plan on using some of my time today to start laying this out on my design wall and mating up the petal pieces, and this will help with determinig the colors that I choose.

Saturday I did some cleaning in the craft room to get things better organized because I always find this to be motivating for getting more projects completed because I am not distracted by the clutter in my space, and getting things together in preparation for the sewing time with the guild on Sunday. I decided that this sewing time would be best spent working on one of the charity projects that I mentioned in my last blog about joining the guild. I a also preparing for the opportunity to be a part of a blog hop that is coming up in early February called Hugs and Kisses showcasing pink and red quilted items. (if I can ever get the icon thingy to post on my blog -- I keep getting an error message when I go to add it and I know I'm following the directions to get it added.

I started again on Pinterest for inspiration and found this lovely quilt for a starting point, and brought in some of the blocks that I got from the guild to tie several of my goals for the year together. Sunday afternoon I went to the Sewing time -- that I keep calling a crop on accident, from my years of scrapbooking but I don't like the term bee for some reason because that in my mind refers to my grandmother's time when the women got together to share the work of hand quilting. I vote that we as modern quilters need a new name for quilting get togethers -- if there is one I don't know about it and need to be brought into the loop. So I'm guessing if you have read this far you might be waiting for the progress that I made at the sew yesterday and here she is.....coming in at 36x45 inches.

Isn't she lovely. I know who ever receives this one is going to love it because I sure do. The backing and border will be the medium pink that is just above the white square in the lower right hand corner, adding an extra pop to the overall design.  

I'm thinking of making a shop hop in Winston today and I will let you all know soon my treasures that I find. Happy quilting and as always thanks for reading.

One goal accomplished with plans for working on another

Well, I've gone and done it again --- added more onto that quilting plate of mine but this is a good thing. I elected as one of my goals for the upcoming year that I would join a quilters guild and participate actively. Tonight I took that first step and attended a meeting with the Triad Modern Quilters Guild and determined that this is the place that I could see myself growing as a person and a quilter. Everyone was very open, sharing and welcoming. We had a great speaker tonight and several great show and tell projects were brought in. One thing that is going to be great about this guild is the charity work that they participate in -- making quilts for those in need. Well I had been wanting to participate in something like this as well so after the meeting I grabbed a scrap bundle to start on my first project. There were several groupings to choose from but this one large group appeared to be having avoidance issues. This picture illustrates probably why .... at first glance it's huge a 4x4x4 cube of fabric but I felt that this had great possibility. even though it was a brick of blocks that i had no idea what it contained.

 When I got home I unwrapped it and started sorting blocks out to see what all was luring there and begin to get an idea what might be possible (and determine if this was a monster I should have skipped over). Here are a few groupings I am looking at and I think that this will be an opportune time to work in another goal of completing projects from Pinterest because the projects are smaller in nature and going to a good cause.

and there are so many other blocks that I haven't gotten to or aren't included in these pictures. I think that my initial determination in dividing up the blocks put them on in about 8 groupings. I can't wait to get started and see what develops. I also won a door prize at the meeting and think it's just a super cure little take along bag that I am sure will get it's share of use.

Cna't wait for the next meetingto get ot meet more wonderful quilters in the area. Blogging has linked me to a few members already including Lee Monroe  http://www.maychappell.com who is hosting a great giveaway at this time. It's early in the morning so time to try and get some rest -- gotta have energy to quilt another day.

Easy Peasy

So small update -- I have started the paper piecing process using pink and purples from my scrap bin and I think things are starting out well. I have been down with a sinus infection so I am not as far along in getting my blocks together as I had hoped but I have been able to get 7 blocks worth of petals completed -- that's 56 petals. Here are some of the inital picures but keep in mind most of them are not trimed and they have not been sorted out for best grouping. I have plenty more to work on but I think this is a good start

 

Here are some small projects I found in my stash bin that I have been putting together recently. I found all these pieces in my scrap bin.

 

Looks like at this pace i should be able to get most of my quilting goals completed this year.

Conquring Mt Scrapula

I have succeeded in organizing my scraps so that they are contained in one area and organized in a more accessible manner. I was needing to go through them in preparation for the upcoming paper piecing class and decided it was worth the extra time to go ahead and clean things up while i was at it. When the project started I had 3 paper boxes mostly full of scraps. they were mostly separated into large zipper baggies by color or project or I'm ot lazy to sort this out now. Many of the baggies would not close and if you tried pulling something out you were just as likely to create an explosion of fabric as get the piece out. At first I considered the clear shoe box method but determined that this was much like the bags and takes up more room. I have seen on Pinterest using the clear over the door holders for scraps but knew with having cats this would also not be a good plan because the only non accordion door that I could use is the main door to the room meaning they would have full access to something shinny that they were not supposed to mess with -- I would have given this solution about a day. I knew I needed something divided and sturdy that could easily be transported around the room thus the solution that my husband found -- an under the bed shoe organizer.

and this is what it looks like all closed up and ready for putting away

In working at this process I also discovered that I had completed blocks from previous projects and
with the addition of a few more I will have a wall hanging top. I'm frequently amazed at how a small change makes such a grand difference.

 

Happy Day the scraps are sorted and now I have plenty of scraps to start on my paper piecing project coming up.

Quilting Goals for 2013

I am an obsessive list maker and most of the time this keeps me on track and motivates me to get stuff done – because let’s face it there is great satisfaction in being able to cross something off the list and eventually see that the list completed. Well in quilting the list is never per say completed just revised, so I decided that this year I would set some goals for myself ---

1.       Join a Quilting Guild or Quilting group – I find that I am far more motivated to get things accomplished when I have the support of others pushing me along.

2.       Start a Blog and actually keep up with it – I get my best ideas and motivation from seeing the work that other people at doing

3.       Complete at least 2 projects off my Pinterest quilting board – there are so many to choose from.

4.       Learn to paper piece– I’ve had the book for over a year now and think it’s time to put that into motion.  

5.       Participate in at least one class per quarter at my local quilt shop  -- 1^st quarter is taken care of with the fabulous paper piecing class that I will be taking with Ms. Ellen starting just next week.

6.       Complete 2 or 3 different block of the Month / Week quilts – currently on board with Sewingly Yours BOM and getting ready for Quilter’s Loft BOW that are both starting next week. Any ideas on another group to join let me know.

7.       Get the scraps under control – I have tons of scraps and it’s time they made something great. The problem with this goal for me is one of the shops that I frequent (Wish Upon A Quilt in Raleigh) has a great scrap program where you get a large baggie of scraps for a great deal and I always get one or 2 each time I go because you can pick your own scraps rather than the prepackaged ones that some stores offer and I love it. So we can make this goal two fold – make something with the scraps I have and also find a better organization system so that I will know what I have to work with.

8.       Set up at 5+ craft shows this year to get my name out there.

9.       Have my quilts displayed in an exhibit – either for sale or as part of a showing. – I have no idea how to make this happen.

10.   Become a better free motion quilter -- I got an excellent book for Christmas on broadening your motifs and skills and can’t wait to put this to use.  

Well I’m sure there are more but this is a good place to start. Happy Quilting in the New Year.

Shop Hop 2012

This past Saturday I had a day to myself and decided to head out to the quilt shops and see what kind of jems I would find. I started out at the Quilter's Loft to take part in a big sale and preview the upcoming block of the week project that they are running in the new year.

I'm thinking about combining the 2 looks and use batiks in the small bed runner size.

Next I found a new to me shop that was a real treasure. The Quilted Thimble Cottge in Belmont, NC. http://www.quiltedthimblecottage.com/ This is a great shop with super nice staff, great fabrics and a true passion for quilting. I had a great time here and found fabric for 3 new projects.

 Next I headed over to Mary Jo's -- this place is huge so I know I'm going to have to go back in the future when I have more time and need something more specific. They have something for everyone and it realy deserves a full day to itself. I was then heading over to Charlotte when I got side tracked by a sign saying Sew Much Fun -- this I had to check out and it was so worth it. I found a great sale and a collection of Alice in Wonderland fabrics that I had previoulsy bookmarked in a magazine. having sold my Mixed Media Alice quilt last year I knew it was time to pick these up.

My day was winding down so I started making my way back toward home. One more quilt shop to go and that was We're So Creative in Concord. I found some great gold holiday fabric and two new patterns to help me use some of this new fabric (and perhapse some of my scrap hoard). The Sparkle Plenty made me think of a Kelly Wood and I have been wanting to do a Jaybird Quilt for some time.

Happy Quilting to come in 2013 --- can't wait ot get started.