ScrapHappy Saturday

No big changes here, I am working on Christmas gifts each month by making cosmetic/t oiletry bags in the color chosen by Angela for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. So far I have kept up with the challenge and made a pair of bags each month.

Blue, Pink, Teal, Purple bags

This month's color is Green. Does it sometimes surprise you the fabrics that you have the most and least of? I was definitely surprised when I went to my green scrap bin (and these are truly scraps - nothing bigger than maybe 4"x12"). Lots and lots of green. I sat with my GO cutter in front of the TV and cut about half of the scraps into 1 1/2" strips. Then I mindlessly sewed them to 1 1/2" white strips.

Hmm, seemed like I had an awful lot of strips paired up. Off to the GO again to cross cut them into cute little twosies. (I know I could keep pairing the strip sets and then cross cut but I want these really random and scrappy.)

Back to machine and, sure enough, I had gone way over board in the original cutting of scraps and could now make TWO sets of bags. Woohoo! Not that green is my favorite color but now I'll be that much more ahead of myself with Christmas gifting.

The "fabric" is made for these bags and I will kit it up to take to retreat at the end of the month.  Lots more kitting to do.

Check out other RSC progress at SoScrappy.

Thankful Thursday

Having lost my dad last year makes me ever more thankful to have been able to spend Mother's Day with my mom. Chris and Natalie invited us to a lovely lunch at Arcola Country Club. The day was absolutely spectacular and the views from the club were stunning - the New York City skyline in one direction and the beautiful rolling hills of New Jersey in the other (and yes, there are beautiful rolling hills in NJ). Having Patrick home from Notre Dame this week was icing on the cake.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

Stash Report

Lots of stash movement this week.

Stash Out
Notre Dame quilt finally done done (as they say on Stashbusters). I never counted any of the fabric in that quilt so it is a total of front, back and binding. I try to include stash usages after a top is finished but that didn't happen with this quilt.

Dad's Memorial quilt also finally done done. Backing and binding in this report.

Green charity RSC quilt top finished.

Stash In
My friend, Debbie and I went to the Northern Star Quilt Guild show last week. Although I was restrained, my credit card did get passed over a couple of times. I bought an adorable kit for a little boy quilt (dgs due in August) and I purchased 11 homespun fat quarters.

I also ordered some fabric to be used as borders with a fat quarter bundle I have.

And finally, I order some adorable fabric for charity pillowcases.


Purchased this week: 12.25 yards
Purchased year to date: 35.00 yards

Used this week:  22.5 yards
Used year to date: 51.75 yards

Net used:  16.75 yards

Check out the other stash reports over at Patchworktimes.

RSC charity top

I've been making a charity quilt each month in the RSC color of the month. This month is green and I had some blocks started from the RSC 2012. Started but never finished so I was very happy that green has again become a color of the month.

Here it is yesterday before borders.

And then today after the borders were added.

I apologize for the lousy photos but it's been raining for three days.

I want to get it on the longarm this week as it will be going to a Christian camp to help keep the guests warm, maybe while sitting around a fire on especially cold evenings.

A finish. Always feels good.

Now to work on two green toiletry bags.

Linking up at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
                       Crazy Mom Quilts
                       So Scrappy

May goals

The past week I FINALLY got the Notre Dame quilt off of the long arm. I am unhappy with myself for the quilting design that I chose but I am thrilled to death that it is done.

I got the idea for this quilt design from Mollie (Mary) Johnson at Making Scrap Quilts. I used smaller nine patches but the idea is the same.

Today I put Dad's memorial quilt on the frame. I used several of his flannel shirts as the focus of each blocks. The blocks are string pieced on muslin foundations. I like how the off white and black strips appear to frame those fabrics. I used minky for the backing and a thin poly batting. This sucker is thick and the seam intersections are resistant to the needle. So I'm doing a large overall meander that would go as quickly as possible as well as allow me to avoid those thick intersections. One more pass to go and it will be done.

I would like to give the memorial quilt to Mom on Mother's Day. And Patrick is coming home from ND for a week on the 10th. So this week my focus will be getting both of these bound and labeled. Woohoo!

May Goals:

1.  Notre Dame quilt top - bind
2.  Dad's memorial quilt - quilt and bind
3.  Quilt Beyond Borders - 2 tops quilted
4. Rainbow Scrap Challenge - two green bags
5. Green charity quilt - Christian Camp Quilt - piece
6. Winter Solstice BOM - block #5
7. Pillowcase for Paige - ABCs
8. Sundress for Paige
9. 3 postage stamp blocks - pieced
10. Jennifer Paganelli UFO - pieced
11. Film at Five UFO top - quilted and bound

Sharing at Patchworktimes.com 
                  A Lovely year of Finishes

End of April accomplishments

The last couple of months have had a lot of traveling and therefore, not as much LA quilting as I would have liked. I've been happy with how I'm keeping up with my sewing hopes.

My April Goals were:

Winter Solstice BOM - block #4 DONE 4/30

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Two Purple bags DONE 4/30

Four sets of bags now ready for Christmas gifting

Quilt Beyond Borders - purple charity quilt top DONE but not big enough. Need to cut more charms 4/29

3 postage stamp blocks - pieced DONE - 5 made 4/15

Five of Eight completed 100 patch blocks. Total of 49 needed

Jennifer Paganelli Lattice UFO - top completed Blocks completed but not pieced

Made from Jennifer Paganelli jelly roll

Notre Dame quilt top - quilt DONE  5/1 One day late but done.
I got the idea for this quilt design from Mollie (Mary) Johnson at Making Scrap Quilts. I used smaller nine patches but the idea is the same.

Dad's memorial quilt - quilt and bind NOT DONE
Quilt Beyond Borders - 2 tops quilted  NOT DONE
Film at Five UFO top - quilted and bound  NOT DONE
Pink quilt for Paige - top completed  NOT DONE


Now to figure out my plans for May.

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
                   Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Thankful Thursday

Doenja
August 2005 - April 2014
Pet, Family member, Companion, Protector and so much more.
May you now run pain free thru the fields of flowers. We are so thankful you were a part of our lives for 8 1/2 years.

Rest in Peace, Sweet Girl

Stash Report

It's a beautiful April weekend and if I were a gardener I'd be out in the yard doing some Spring cleaning up and garden prepping. But I'm not. I will enjoy a nice long walk and pay for it after I've breathed in all the pollen in the air. But it will be worth it.

Not much else will be done today other than pouring lots of lovin on our sweet rottweiler, Doenja. This is probably her last day with us as she is rapidly losing her battle with osteosarcoma (bone cancer). I'm dehydrating from all the tears. Ds #3, Chris, came home to spend the weekend with her and she is definitely enjoying every minute of his time.

I will spend some time working on paper pieced BOM #4 while the Masters is on.

Starr Design's Winter Solstice

Stash Report


I bought some charms packs this week to cut up into 2 inch charms. These will add a bit of modern color to my mix of very traditional fabrics.

Purchased this week: 2 yards
Purchased year to date: 22.75 yards

Used this week:  3.5 yards
Used year to date: 29.25 yards

Net used:  6.5 yards - still in the black



Check out other stash reports at Patchwork Times.

Scrap Happy Saturday

How can it be the 12th of April already? Seriously? Well, there is no way I'm am going to do very well with my goals this month but I am having fun anyway. I've been cutting and cutting and cutting. My GO cutter is tired. 2 inch squares! My best guess is that I have cut about 3400 squares. About 1500 to go. No problem.

I've also been sewing a bit. 5 - 100 square blocks. Those are 15 1/2" blocks

I'm loving this project. Five done, 44 to go. Hmmm, may get tired of it before 44 more.

I have worked somewhat on my April goals. My primary objective was to get several things from the list kitted because I will be babysitting dgd, Paige, for several days while her parents go on a vacation before the baby arrives (babymoon). I'll be able to sew while she's at daycare.

• Winter Solstice paper pieced BOM - block #4 - cut out and some piecing
• Quilt Beyond Borders - purple charity quilt top - cut out
• 3 postage stamp blocks - pieced - plenty cut out
• Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Two Purple bags - "fabric" pieced
  
   

I am noticing a major theme here - squares! Plain, simple squares. Yup, I'm loving the simplicity, crispness of them. No thinking involved. They make awesome leader enders. 

Maybe tomorrow I'll get some longarming done. Maybe. 

Check out other purple Rainbow Scrap projects.

The end of March

I knew when I set my goals for March that they were unrealistic since I would be unable to do any sewing for twelve days while I was babysitting dgd, Paige. But I decided to set the goals with an entire month in mind in case the babysitting got canceled. Thankfully, it didn't and I had a blast with Paige. I'm still happy with the month's accomplishments under the circumstances.

March Goals

• St. Patrick's Day pillowcase DONE 3/3
  
   
• Winter Solstice BOM - block #3 - actually this month was two medium sized stars instead of one large one -  DONE 3/30

  

  photo from starrfabrics.danemcoweb.com

  
  
  
•  Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Two "Caribbean Teal" bags - DONE 3/23
  
• Quilts Beyond Borders - teal Crossroads quilt top DONE  3/22
  
• Tumbler quilt - cut out and sewn DONE 3/28
  
• 15 yards green - wash, iron and cut into 2.25" strips DONE 3/3
• 5 yards yellow - wash, iron and cut into 1.5" strips DONE 3/3
• Notre Dame top - quilted - not done
• Jennifer Paganelli UFO - top completed - not done
• Film at Five UFO top - quilted and bound - not done
• Dad's Memorial top - quilted and bound - not done

I'm disappointed with what I accomplished over the weekend in terms of meeting my March goals. I started off well, cutting and piecing the Tumbler quilt for my brother. Then I pieced the Winter Solstice BOM #3. Now, I would have had to time to get the Notre Dame top quilted and off the longarm IF I hadn't started a new leader/ender project:

Two inch charms. I had a small tote pretty full with what I would now guess was about 300 charms precut. I made this first 10x10 block from that tote. Unfortunately, there were many more repeats in there than I thought. I definitely plan to use repeats but I didn't want three blocks using the same collection of fabrics. Soooo, I pulled out more scraps, strips, nickels and the GO and did a lot of cutting whenever I wanted a break from the sewing machine. I know have at least another 400 charms cut. I am cutting 4 of each fabric and dividing them into four separate piles. I will try to keep each pile for each 1/4 quadrant of the quilt top.

I continued doing leader/enders through out the weekend as I worked on the Tumbler and Winter Solstice projects. With the new assortment of charms I made 26 more 10 charm long strips.

I haven't joined the strips yet into blocks. This is a lot of fun but takes a lot of time. On April 1st I will put it away so I can make another charity quilt top as a leader ender (I'm trying to make one each month) in the RSC color of the month - this month is purple. Once it's done I can pull out the postage stamps again. I'll continue to cut more charms while watching tv in the evenings.

Check out what others are working on at Patchwork Times and BOMs Away at What a Hoot.

Stash Report

I've been sewing like a crazy person on several different projects but not much in the way of finishes that would count in the Stash Report.

I did start and finish a Tumbler quilt top for my brother. Except for the borders it is made all out of thrifted shirts.

I weighed it to arrive at 3.5 yards used.

Purchased this week: 0 yards
Purchased year to date: 20.75 yards

Used this week:  3.5 yards
Used year to date: 29.25 yards

Net used:  8.5 yards - still in the black


Sharing at:
   Patchwork Times

ScrapHappy Saturday

March was a good month for my RSC goals. I got my monthly Christmas gifts made:

So I now have three Christmas gifts ready for December:

I also completed a charity Crossroads quilt top for Quilts Beyond Borders:

This was such a fun color to play with. So very cheery. Definitely my favorite color. I can't wait to find out what the color for April is.

Check out the other teal/aqua creations at So Scrappy.