February accomplishments

It's the last day of February and time to take stock of the month's accomplishments. Under the wire, today I finished the Winter Solstice BOM #2.

I also finished a third charity quilt for Quilts Beyond Borders. I did this one in all pinks to go along with Angela's Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for February.

February Goals and Accomplishments

1. Winter Solstice BOM - block #2  DONE 2/28
2. Wonky log cabin block for guild meeting  DONE  2/6
3. Rainbow Scrap Challenge - two bags DONE 2/14
4. Notre Dame quilt - quilted and bound - not done
5. Dad's Memorial quilt - top finished Done 2/14 and quilted - not done
6. Quilt Beyond Borders quilt - top completed  DONE  2/6, second one DONE 2/14, pink one DONE 2/28
7. Homespun Bear Paws - top completed  DONE  2/5
8. Quilt for brother - shirts deconstructed DONE 2/27 tumblers cut - not done
9. Pillowcase charity fabrics organized and put away - not done

 March Goals

1. Notre Dame quilt - quilt
2. Winter Solstice BOM - block #3
3. Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Two "Caribbean Teal" bags
4. Dad's memorial quilt - quilt and bind
5. Quilt Beyond Borders - teal quilt top
6. Tumbler quilt - cut out and sewn
7. Jennifer Paganelli UFO - top completed
8. Film at Five UFO top - quilted and bound
9. Pillowcase charity fabrics organized and put away

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   Confessions of a Fabric Addict's Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?
   Fort Worth's Fabric Studio's Friday Fabric Frenzy 
   Crazy Mom Quilts' Finish it up Friday
   What a Hoot's BOM's Away

Coming off the couch

 I've been hunkered down on the couch for most of the last week. I hate being sick for the obvious reason, cuz it's no fun, but also cuz I get nothing done. I feel so guilty for being such a sloth. But "it is what it is" and I've come off the couch today and pulled out a UFO to work on.

I saw this quilt over at FilmintheFridge.com several years ago and fell in love with it's simplicity. I had one jelly roll of beautiful Jennifer Paganelli fabrics and wanted to do a simple quilt pattern that would showcase the fabrics. This is a relatively recent UFO - I believe I started it last March or April. I have about thirty blocks currently made and squared up. I can make 40 blocks with the jelly roll and then will cut some 2 1/2" strips from my Paganelli scraps to make a total of 48 blocks. Jennifer actually lives here in my town and I am lucky enough to go to her regular SIS Boom sales. I love picking up her scrap bags and fat quarter bags. Such treasures.

I also spent a little more time on the Kathleen Star Winter Solstice BOM. I want to get this block finished by the end of February so I guess tomorrow (Thursday) is the day. I won't meet all of my February goals but this one I can do. I only have the center tips to make and then assemble all the parts. When it's finished I'll get a picture with natural light.

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Thankful Thursday

Today is my wonderful husband's birthday. I know it's so cliche, but I love him more today than ever. He is my best friend and so much more. Happy Birthday, Joe!

Our family's other big announcement came in the form of a Facebook picture:

"ONLY CHILD, EXPIRES AUG 2014"

Total joy! Our son, Tim, and his wife, Nicole, had decided a while back that Paige would be an only child. They felt their family was complete. And what a wonderful family it is. However, to our utter delight, they changed their minds and decided that they wanted to give Paige a little brother or sister. Paige insists it will be a little sister and it will be named Elsa (her current fixation with the movie Frozen showing here). She is going to be a wonderful big sister.

Truth be told, they gave us this wonderful news at Christmas time but it has been a secret till now. So as soon as we know the gender of the baby the shopping will begin. Hey, if I'm not buying fabric I should be allowed to buy lots of baby stuff, especially since they sold all of their baby things.

So very much to be thankful for.

Measure twice...

cut once, AND make sure there isn't anything under what you are cutting. I was happily moving along with my 136 piece paper pieced star, I had 4 of sections A finished and 4 of sections B. That's when I went to trim them up and this happened:

Ugh. I had grabbed the first section to trim and didn't realize that I had actually grabbed two sections. But thankfully it wasn't as bad a repair as I feared. I taped the paper back together, took off fabric pieces 5, 6, and 7 and replaced them. Voila, back in business. I sewed the As to the Bs and now have this:

Hopefully by next week I will have my February BOM finished and it will go nicely with this one:

That's it for my design wall for this week. I have lots of quilting to do this week. I must get to that quilting.

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Stash Report

As I posted earlier this week, I had two quilt tops and 2 pouches finished.

Dad's Memorial Quilt top - 7 yards

The triangles are from four of Dad's shirts

Charity Charm Quilt top - 2 yards

This will go to orphans thru Quilts Beyond Borders

Two pouches - 3/4 yard

These will become a Christmas gift

Purchased this week: 0 yards
Purchased year to date: 13 yards

Used this week: 9.75 yards
Used year to date: 20.50 yards


Net used:  7.5 yards

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   Sew Many Ways
   The Elven Garden

Rainbow Scrap Saturday

I seemed to have neglected the Rainbow Scrap Challenge all week so last evening I pulled out the bin I have those pink scraps in and found the completed side pieces for the two pouches I wanted to make.

It was a few hours of sewing to get those cute little pouches completed. I now have two sets of pouches ready to gift at Christmas time.

I also started using my collection of pink nickels as a new leader/ender charity project. I hope I have that finished by the end of the month.

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   SoScrappy

Finishes

Two more quilt tops finished this week. Actually it would be disgraceful if I couldn't get a couple of tops finished when I've been stuck in the house three times in the last 10 days because of snow storms. I love snow and I love being stuck at home. And most of all, I love finishes.

The first finish is the quilt I'm making using Dad's shirts. It was sooo hard cutting up his shirts and working with the fabric but I know that mom will enjoy being wrapped in this quilt. At least I hope so. Now to get it quilted.

This is the snow mound at the top of the driveway. yikes

The second finish is another quilt for Quilts Beyond Borders. It was the leader/ender project this week.

I've been really happy with these charity quilts as they go to children and I think the Kona White helps make them so bright and cheery. Now this week I hear that using white in a charity quilt might be frowned up cuz of the dirt/stain issue. I have a billion and two brightly colored "nickels" and I love how they look with the white. Plus it stretches the charms twice as far. What do you think?

Sharing at:
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   Crazy Mom Quilts 
   Richard and Tanya's Link a Finish Fridays

Design "wall" Monday

Yesterday I spent a bit of time quilting on the Notre Dame top for ds #4 (he is a current ND junior). I made a stupid, stupid, stupid decision to straight line quilt this on the LA. Stupid, stupid. Back breaking ruler work. I did about two hours yesterday and couldn't return to it today cuz my back was killing me. Stupid, stupid.

On the sewing machine, I've been working on the memorial quilt for my dad. It's just string blocks, using some of his shirts for the final triangles of each block. I had hoped to complete them over the weekend but.......that didn't happen. 37 blocks done, 11 to go. Maybe yet tonight. Probably not.

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Stash Report

Do they have a skin patch for fabric addiction? I really need one. Maybe a rehab program for fabriholics? One at a spa in Arizona would be nice. I've been good, I haven't purchased any fabric this week but I. Wanted. To!  This is much harder than I thought. This week I've been to online quilt shops, I've been to Etsy, I've been to Ebay. On each one I've drooled and thought of all the things I could do with the fabrics I was seeing. But somehow I was able to close those pages without buying anything. But I'm getting weaker and weaker. It's been 40 days. 141 days to go in the pledged 6 month fabric buying fast over at The Elven Garden.


One week at a time!

Now for the good news - two finishes this week. My way of recording fabric used is to report the fabric used when a top is finished and then to report again when the quilt is completely finished which would then include only the backing and binding.

First finish - the Homespun Bear Paw, size 82x100. Weighs 31.6 oz. = 2 lbs x 4 = 8 yards.
 

Second finish - Charity top for Quilts Beyond Borders, size 45x54. Weighs 8 oz. = 1/2 lb = 2 yards.

Purchased this week: 0 yards
Purchased year to date: 13 yards


Used this week: 10 yard
Used year to date: 10 3/4 yard


Net:  -2.25 yards   :(

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Rainbow Scrappy Saturday

This month over at SoScrappy, Angela has chosen pink for us play with.

Dig out our scraps and use up those oldies but goodies, just oldies.

 

Who remembers these? Definitely from the early 90s. They were all the same - "calicos" - little flowers. And although it's hard to tell in these pictures, these are all that ole favorite - dusty rose.

So, cut them really small and pair them with Kona Cotton White and they start to look better.

These will become a toiletry bag and a cosmetic bag. The small bag 2 pieces are set 6x9, and the larger bag 2 pieces are 8x12. A total of 300 pieces, 2 zippers and 2 linings.

I'll work on it some more this week, in between some other projects that are slowly getting done,  and I'll soon have a pink matching set for these:

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Thankful Thursday

It is no secret that quilting is my choice of playtime. I enjoy it, it's relaxing, and there is a beautiful product (IMHO) at the end. And my purpose in keeping this blog is to help me stay focused, with goals well defined and keeping me motivated to meet those goals. And by joining in on Linky Parties I am forced to come up with something to actually post about.

But the main happiness of my life is my family and this blog is a kind of journal that I'm able to go back and enjoy so I've decided that, although this will be mainly my quilting journal, Thursdays will be "Thankful Thursday" where I post family pictures/happenings.

So, with that in mind, yesterday our wonderful daughter in law, Nicole, was browsing her Facebook newsfeed. Nicole is a passionate animal lover and belongs to several animal related Facebook groups, one of them being K-9 Heroes (this being a natural attraction since our son/her husband, Tim, was a K-9 Marine handler and is now a K-9 handler in the Secret Service). So she is scrolling her Facebook newsfeed when, to her dismay, she comes upon this post and picture.

"RIP K9 Clue Thoughts and prayers to all. Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office K9 dies: Photo: During his time with the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, Clue took part in numerous fund raising events. (PHOTO/Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office)
http://www.mynews13.com/content/news/cfnews13/news/article.html/content/news/articles/cfn/2014/2/5/palm_beach_county_sh.html"

She said her eyes nearly popped out of her head as that was her daughter, our granddaughter, Paige, in the picture. Who would have thought!! The picture was taken a year ago Halloween when we were all down in the Palm Beach area for our son, Chris', wedding on November 3rd. We spent the week before the wedding in Florida helping with and enjoying all the prewedding preparations. Halloween fell that week so we searched the internet and found a Trunk or Treat hosted by the Palm Beach County Sheriff's department was happening not too far from the house we were renting. Paige was not quite two and this would be her first real exposure to Halloween and we were hoping for something low key, safe and requiring little walking. This Trunk or Treat fit the bill perfectly.

If I remember correctly, there were maybe 15 police cars, emergency vehicles and private cars decorated for Halloween and passing out candy. Perfect! Paige seemed to enjoy the experience well enough, slowly getting comfortable with walking up to these strangers to get a treat. Just right! But then we came upon this fabulous bloodhound with his handler. Paige was enthralled. This wonderful, relaxed dog let her hug and kiss him and that was without a doubt the highlight of all of our evening. So to have this picture show up 15 months later on a non-relative Facebook page was such a surprise for all of us.

We now learn that this gentle giant's name was Clue and he was quite a hero! He apparently found 2 missing children during his career as a "trailing" K-9. He will certainly be missed by his handler, Luis Ledbetter, and the entire Palm Beach County Sheriff's Department. 

RIP Clue. You were a hero in life and will always be a fond memory of Paige's first experience with Trick or Treating.

Snow Days

Yesterday we had a snow day (8") so I stayed in and sewed. It was fun to have lots of projects to choose from. I got the homespun Bear Paw top finished and wanted to try photographing it today in the snow.

So first thing in the morning I headed out in pajamas, boots, quilt and camera. I wanted to get the picture before the snow started to melt from the warmth of the sun.

Next time I will wait till the sun is higher to have less tree shadows. Next time could be Thursday as they are predicting another 6-8 inches tomorrow, followed by ICE! Yup I'll be staying home and hopefully finishing something.

In the meantime, this WIP/UFO top is done, done!!

Linked at:
   Freshly Pieced, WIP Wednesday
   Confessions of a Fabric Addict
   Thank Goodness it's Finished Fridays 
   Crazy Mom Quilts

Design Wall Monday

FEBRUARY GOALS

• Winter Solstice BOM - block #2
• Wonky log cabin block for guild meeting  DONE  2/6
• Rainbow Scrap Challenge - two bags DONE 2/14
• Notre Dame quilt - quilted and bound
• Dad's Memorial quilt - top finished and quilted Top Done 2/14
• Quilt Beyond Borders quilt - top completed  DONE  2/6, second one 2/14
• Homespun Bear Paws - top completed  DONE  2/5
• Quilt for brother - shirts deconstructed, tumblers cut
• Pillowcase charity fabrics organized and put away

I am very happy to have finished the Homespun Bear Paw quilt top today. It's at least a 15 year old UFO so....Yippee!!!! I couldn't take a picture today as it was dark and snowy all day. Maybe tomorrow I'll take it out and lay it on the snow. Until then this is the top almost finished.

Today I also started the new string blocks for my dad's memorial quilt. I am much happier with the new center fabric. I got 7 blocks made. It's a start.

New blue gray center

Oh I also reversed the order of the black and cream stripes. I'm still not sure which I like better but I'm sticking with the new.

These blue centers were just too bright.

Then I pulled my pink scraps for the RSC. I had guessed it would be pink. Maybe I should have bet on the Super Bowl also. :)  I got the pink scraps ironed and will run them thru the GO tonight during TV time. These are some old, yucky fabrics - from the days of SoFro/House of Fabrics even.

I'm thrilled to cut them all into 1 1/2" strips and then whatever is left after my scrap project will go toward a postage stamp type project. My plan is to make two bags each month - one set in each chosen color. Then come Christmas time I'll have 12 sets. So far I have the blue set ready to go. Those were also very old, yucky fabrics but cut up small enough and paired with bright white, I love how they came out.

I've been using a huge stack of juvenile 5" charms as a leader/ender project. They're getting paired with a cute light fabric and I'm surprised at how quickly it's coming together. These tops will go to QuiltsBeyondBorders.

Here's to a productive February.
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Stash Report

I've been so good in not buying fabric. Well, that's not true. I bought a lot of fabric this weekend. However, like a true "...aholic", I can justify it all most of it.

I bought 2 yards of St. Patricks Day fabric for a pillowcase for Paige (3 yo dg). I always buy two coordinating pieces - one for the body and one for the cuff. Then I use the leftovers in the reverse for a donation pillowcase. I'm really happy with these as they have a very nice hand. So many holiday themed fabrics are not soft enough to be comfortable for a pillowcase. These are really lovely. Paige is old enough this year to be enjoying these themed pillowcases and I don't have any in my stash. In my fabriholics "rules", I excluded fabrics for Paige projects from the fast. So, justified.

I bought 2 yards of blue fabric for the "sashings" for my memorial quilt for my dad. I tried to use a stash blue that I had but it really was too bright for my liking. So I'm hoping this fabric works better. I also excluded from the fast sashings and borders needed to finish a project. So, justified.

Too bright, right?

Absolutely impossible to get the color right in this pic, but the fabric is actually Kona's Cornflower Blue. It's not quite as gray in reality.

Here comes the hazy part. I want to make a quilt for my brother. He's been struggling with some health issues and I know he sleeps on the couch not infrequently and might enjoy a quilt.  After whipping thru a tumbler top yesterday at the Quilt of Valor Sewing Day, I thought I could do the same for him. I have the tumbler die for the Accuquilt GO so it would go quickly. BUT I'm now all out of homespun fabrics. So, my friend, Debbie and I stopped at a thrift store yesterday and I bought 6 beautiful XXL mens shirts. These shirts cost an average of $6 a shirt but the fabrics are all fabulous. I sure wish we could get the awesome prices I hear other quilters get around the country.

Then we went to Joanns and I used my 60% and 50% off coupons to get a homespun for a border, and two more homespuns ( none of which were

half as nice as the shirts) to pull all the shirts together.

The bottom green fabric will be the border as well as used in the quilt center.

SO, was it justified? I certainly could have pulled from my stash and made a less manly quilt. But in my mind, it's justified. I will, however, count them in the stash report.

I'm questimating that an XXL shirt yields 1 1/2 yards. I'm going to try to figure that out more accurately when I cut these up but for now, 1 1/2 yards each. Nine yards for the shirts, 4 yards homespun yardage.

Purchased this week - 13 yards
Purchased year to date - 13 yards


Used this week - 0 yard
Used year to date - 3/4 yard


Net =  -12.25 yards 

I hope to be back in the black next week by finishing the Homespun Bear Paw top and quilting the Notre Dame Quilt.

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