Quilters With Heart

The Friday afternoon charity quilters were finally able to meet again. It was wonderful to hear about everyone's holidays and vacations. And Joyce and I got our daily exercise pushing Jeanne's car out of the snow bank. Wish I had a picture of that. :)

 Debbie cutting and Jeanne ironing.

 Susan and Joyce giving their sewing machines a good workout.

This is the second week working on this project. The fabric is very old fabric I had probably gotten at our long gone Joanns/House of Fabrics before that. The white background is an Ikea cotton sheet that I had heard was a cheap nice alternative to Kona Cotton. Hmm, definitely not Kona Cotton but fine for this use. I had cut out the charms without counting and we sewed without counting. We were thrilled to discover that we now have enough rows for two quilts around 50x70 each.

Winter has definitely come

Pretty amazing amount of snowfall in the last 17 days.

December 26, 2010 - "Blizzard" - 15 inches

January 7, 2011 - 7 inches

January 12, 2011 - 14 inches

This is what the top of the driveway looks like after several passes from the plow.

I'm just glad I'm not the one who does the shoveling.

Sewing Room cleanup - Stage 2

 I made progress on cleaning up the sewing room. I finished what I consider to be Stage 2 - cleaning off the cutting table. 

BEFORE

AFTER

Aren't those cabinets great - I got them for free when a neighbor was redoing her kitchen. I should paint them white but I'd rather be sewing.

AT LEAST three more stages to go.

Tiny Tuesday

So what do you do when you have lots of 2 1/2" batik strips from several swaps?

I decided to make a log cabin quilt with kona cotton black. Several others in Common Threads Friends joined in and we had a swap of log cabin blocks. I finally got my top put together this past fall. This picture was taken before the black border was added.

This picture does not do it justice - it is bright and spectacular (in my very biased opinion).  The blocks used 1 1/2" strips so I had cut my 2 1/2" strips down and set aside the remaining 1" strips for "someday". Eventually I decided I would make the same blocks in miniature - 4 1/2" finished. Perfect solution, right? Well, I made four blocks and decided I wasn't feeling that masochistic and put away the project for "someday".  Then today, Jill featured her Midget Mania blocks on what she is calling Tiny Tuesdays. Although I am not making the Midget Mania blocks, she encouraged those making anything "midget-wise" to share what they were working on.  I thought, "OK, I can do one block a week". So I dug out the bin and made one block.

So now I have 5 blocks. 

Can I stick with it? Probably not every week but I am going to give it a try cuz these are sooo cute and would make a great.......something. Not sure what, yet.

A second finish for 2011

Oh boy, I really do love this feeling. UFO #2 is Done! I finished quilting and binding the string quilt that my niece, Amy, (age 16) made this summer. She very proudly gave it to her parents today. Again, it's not on the 2011 UFO challenge list but it is DONE. I'm very disappointed to have forgotten to take a picture of the finished quilt. This is it before quilting. I know, not a great picture, but it's all I've got.

And now I can work on my crumb quilt which is #6 on my 2011 UFO Challenge list.

Stash Report - week #2 - 1/9/11

Finished 2 UFOs this week. One just needed binding, the other needed quilting. So one back and two bindings.

Used this week: 6 yards
Used year to date: 6 yards

Added this week: 0
Added year to date: 0

Net used in 2011: 6 yards

Click HERE to go and see other Stash Reports in 2011.

I love snow

 One of the reasons I love snow so much is because this is the view I get when I do dishes. Seven more inches yesterday.

FedEx delivery

Oh Baby, look what just arrived from Fabric Hut

What could it be? Let's GO look

I am really hoping this Baby will help me get my scraps out of the bins, cut and organized.
I see lots of playing with yellow scraps tomorrow.

Review of the GO Baby to follow soon.

Where are your PIGS hiding?

Over at Ramblings of a Fabric and Yarn Obsessor, Jill is hosting a Year of the PIGS challenge. A couple of times a month she will be posting questions about our PIGS and UFOs. It should be an eye opening experience and I'm hoping it challenges us to let those PIGS out and find good homes.

Today Jill asked: How do you store your UFOs and PIGS separate from your fabric stash? Hmmm, not a well as I'd like. I'm an messy organizational freak. Is that an oxymoron? I need my things to be completely organized and if they can't be then they get piled up until they can be. So I'm very organized except for the messes. LOL Does that make sense? In my dream of dreams I'd have a huge wall of drawers for the UFOs and projects that I have pulled fabrics for. But a) I don't have the space and b) couldn't justify the expense (well, if I had the space I'd work on the justification). So I have many different containers for my projects to fit the many different locations I have them stashed.

I have all competed tops, waiting to be quilted, in wired cubes next to the long arm.

Under the longarm is most bins of batting and tools but I have room for a few containers for UFOs

Under the table next to my sewing machine I have 20 containers.

On the table next to my sewing machine I have "shoe" organizers holding my nickels and strips (out of picture to the left of the nickels. I have UFOs and PIGS in the cardboard organizer.

Just looking at all the UFOs to take the pics makes me want to work on them.
So many projects, so little time.

Love this feeling

DONE. It's not on the 2011 UFO Challenge list but a DONE UFO all the same.

Binding Freeze Frame

Now that my sewing table is clear, I could do this:

And now I can watch movies and football with the family while I hand stitch it down. I am ridiculously slow at it.

Happy New Year

The New Year always seems to be a time of reflection on the past year and then goals, if not resolutions, for the next year. I have been blessed with much in my life and am especially grateful for my loving family. My wonderful husband is very supportive of my passion for my hobbies, most especially quilting and digital scrapbooking.

Looking Back:
This past year I have very fond memories of good times with my quilting friends, both here in Wilton and on retreats. I certainly wish I had completed more projects and taken more pictures of the projects that were completed. I do have a few pics:

This quilt was made for nephew, Matt, for his 30th birthday. He had asked me to make him a new quilt because the one I made him in his teen years had worn out. Now that's a boy I'll make quilts for anytime.

This Citrus Smoothie quilt was made for niece, Amy, for her 16th birthday.

















 In anticipation of the wonderful arrival of our first grandchild, Paige, lots of burp cloths,

receiving blankets, tag blankets and, of course, a quilt were made - none of which I took pics of.












I also spent an enormous amount of time this fall making a digital scrapbook of our
fabulous trip to Seattle and Alaska. It was a memorable time with my parents that we'll never forget. There are a gazillion years of back pictures to be scraped so I am trying very hard to keep up now. However, the arrival of Paige will certainly challenge that - I'll bet there are already 100 pics that I need to scrap.







Looking Forward:

• Spend as much time as possible with family
• Live each day to the fullest
• Work harder on a healthier, happier lifestyle
• Quilt, scrap and read more

2011 is going to be a wonderful year!