It has been a busy week … yesterday, I zoom quilted with several guild members … it’s always a LOT of fun and I managed to get 2 tops to flimsy stage. One is next month’s Island Batik challenge and the other is my Squirrel Attack quilt! Both are now waiting to be sandwiched.
I do have a finish to show … one of my blog followers suggested that I finish the baby panel with the kitty on it. I listened to her … and here it is! It was a LOT of fun to quilt … and miraculously the green for the binding was just the right amount! This UFO has Hobbs batting and was quilted with Glide thread.
I believe the guild Garage Sale was a success. I got rid of a LOT of stuff! It was great! I was very happy to only bring a small amount home!
I also was able to donate about 10 quilts to the baby quilt and comfort quilt guild charities! That also freed up a bunch of space!
As my dear hubby was helping to load the car, he gently told me that perhaps I might not want to bring home as much stuff as I took! I had to laugh, as I had absolutely NO intention of shopping at the garage sale …
However, when things are staring you in the face, you HAVE to shop! The blue fleece was at the table next to me and after an hour, I broke down and bought it. It will back 2 baby donation quilts. And the ruler handle … oh yes, the ruler handle. Whenever I’m at a retreat with Patti, she always has a long ruler with a fantastic handle on it. I gravitate to that ruler and absolutely LOVE the extra stability the handle adds. So, of course, I HAD to have it!!!
Now … to get things back in order in my sewing studio!
Overhauling the Craft Room
For awhile this past week, my studio looked WAY worse than it did when I first posted pictures … but that’s OK … sometimes, you have to make a mess to clean up, right? Anyhow … here is the progress this week:
Here’s Before and After pictures of the same spaces!
It looks a little cluttered behind the sewing machine on the right … but that’s my leader & ender project … and it’s allowed to stay there – ready for sewing! Yes, several rulers hang behind this machine.
Another area … The bags on the floor were emptied and things put away. The sandwiched quilts and various other things are in appropriate spots. Finally, there is a permanent home for my Accuquilt … with the Island Batik scraps ready for cutting … much better than putting it away all the time!
My quilting area … the SAD light stays and the laptop gets moved so I can view whatever as I’m quilting or zoom quilting or ??? Another leader and ender project ready when I piece on this machine and the area is clear for quilting. So, hopefully, I won’t quilt spare pieces of fabric into the back of whatever I quilt!
All that is left is my ironing board, cutting table and computer desk! GROAN …. but I will work on them …
Stitching Time
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Kate, from Life in Pieces, is hosting “Stitching Stuff” and the goal is to sew for at least 15 minutes a day. I use Kate’s guideline, but my personal goal is to sew for 30 minutes a day. On those “blah” days, it does motivate me to sit at my machine and 30 minutes often turns into several hours. Thank you Kate for the motivation!
I missed 3 days of sewing this week. Two because I was getting ready for the garage sale and one on the day of the garage sale …
January – Mar: 90 / 90
Apr 1 – 24: 21/24
Total: 111 / 114
Percentage =97%
Stash Report
Donna at Quilt Paint Create hosts a weekly linky party where you can display your stash numbers. This has really kept my stash from growing (somewhat!) Before I buy anything, I am always mindful of the fact that I need to report it on my blog … That sometimes stops me in my tracks!
Finishing this baby quilt used 2.5 yards of fabric.
1. Foodie Blog Hop: These fabrics are from my stash. You’ll just have to wait until May 24th to see what is happening with this fabric!
2. A Squirrel Attack: As I was going through my containers … I found left-over strips from a jelly roll quilt … well, they spoke very loudly to me and said, “USE ME NOW.” Well, I have learned that it’s usually worth listening to fabric when it speaks to you. This is one half of them and there will be sashing added between the rows.
3. I have started Sandra Walker’s Pop Star Quilt … Sandra is a fabulous designer and I absolutely LOVE making her quilts. This one is a sew-a-long … Each week, there are directions on what to do. I have chosen some Island Batik fabrics and they are cut out and waiting. The first sewing directions are available … so I need to work on it. You can access the steps at MMM Quilts HERE.
Quilting:
I still have several baby quilts left to quilt!
Since I have several baby panels to quilt and last week I counted 2 as 1 UFO. I’m going to continue that. It’ll be at least another week or 2 before I get another one finished! So the only change is that I’ve added my new starts.
Here’s a picture of the latest baby quilt panel. It was a fun quilt to quilt! Of course, I adore Winnie the Pooh – so that just made it even more fun! And yes, this is a finished UFO!
I’ve spent the last few days gathering and gathering and pricing things for our guild’s garage sale tomorrow! I even broke down and went through some of my fabric bins!!! I can’t believe I did that! But, I did find fabric that I have had for ages … and even though I know I would use them in some project in the future, I do have a a LOT more fabric that I love more. So, I figured that was the fabric to keep, right?
This is most of it … but there is a couple more boxes …
Joan, from Moose Stash Quilting, is hosting this great blog hop! and she said, “The sky is the limit. Color, world, let’s face it anything fits this theme, don’t you think?”
I went to pack up some “stuff” to take to a class I was teaching and I wanted a small bag. But alas, I didn’t have one! I must have given it away. So, with this blog hop coming up, it was the perfect excuse to make one! Don’t you agree?
I don’t recall making anything with ROY-G-BIV (red/orange/yellow/green/blue/indigo/violet) before – so that made perfect sense for the challenge! I went through my Island Batik stash to see what I had … and voila! I had the perfect random sized strips/scraps for the bag!
The Retreat Bag is a free pattern from Emmaline Bags. You can access the bag pattern HERE. I decided to do a Quilt-as-you-go type of thing and cut out some Annie’s Soft & Stable and stitched the colours on it. If you do this, you don’t need to use the wires that the pattern calls for. The Soft & Stable was left-over from another project. Once the strips of random widths were sewn on, I took a strip of black and put it across – just ’cause. Then I cut the pieces to the size directed in the pattern and continued to make the bag as directed.
And here is a peak at the inside
Now I have the perfect sized bag to put all my junk stuff in!
Visit all the other bloggers that are participating: You’ll be in for a LOT of wonderful eye candy!
A blog follower contacted me and said she would be in the neighbourhood, “Would I like to meet up?” Well, YES, I would!!! We met at Essem Textiles. She had ordered some sweatshirt fleece from Essem and brought in her sweatshirt jackets … they were pretty cool! Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of them. However, when she told the owners who she was and they knew where she was from! They didn’t realize that she was a quilter as well as a garment sewer.
We met and talked about quilts and quilting. She is one talented quilter! Here’s a picture of us – but look at her quilt! Isn’t it absolutely fabulous? If I remember correctly, she said it’s 110″ x 110″. HUGE!It’s a mariner’s compass with lots of other blocks. She designed the quilt. I was in awe!
Here we are taking a closer look at the quilt:
Aurifil Color Builders
Aurifil has a great page out … showcasing the Italian Cities Color Builders and all of the challenges that the Island Batik Ambassadors made. It’s well worth going and taking a look at the fabulous talent that my fellow Ambassadors have! Click HERE.
Wonderful World of Color Blog Hop
This week is this Colourful Blog Hop! Come back on Wednesday and see what I made!
Last week, I showed you pictures of my room. There is one surface tidied up and cleared off (well, 2, if you count the little tv tray that I use as an extra space when I’m piecing!) All of the fabric was put into appropriate bins, not just moved to another spot!
Here’s a Before and After picture of the same space!
I have ALMOST finished going through every container … a few more to go!
This will get DONE!!!
Stitching Time
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Kate, from Life in Pieces, is hosting “Stitching Stuff” and the goal is to sew for at least 15 minutes a day. I use Kate’s guideline, but my personal goal is to sew for 30 minutes a day. On those “blah” days, it does motivate me to sit at my machine and 30 minutes often turns into several hours. Thank you Kate for the motivation!
January – Mar: 90 / 90
Apr 1 – 17: 17 / 17
Total: 100 / 100
Percentage =100%
Stash Report
Donna at Quilt Paint Create hosts a weekly linky party where you can display your stash numbers. This has really kept my stash from growing (somewhat!) Before I buy anything, I am always mindful of the fact that I need to report it on my blog … That sometimes stops me in my tracks!
1. Foodie Blog Hop: These fabrics are from my stash. You’ll just have to wait until May 24th to see what is happening with this fabric!
Quilting:
The following baby panels still need to be completed.
I’m counting the 2 baby quilt panels as 1 UFO that is finished. That means that I only have 6 more UFOs to finish this year! Sigh … I thought I had found ALL of the UFOs before, but alas … there are likely more hidden away! I was secretly hoping that this would be the last year for me to host PHD in 202? But, if I keep discovering more – I’ll be hosting PHD for many years to come!
A few weeks ago, I taught a Teddy Bear class at Essem Textiles. It was very popular and there was a wait list! The class will be repeated on April 21 and 28th! Contact Essem to sign up … there isn’t many spots left!
This Teddy Bear pattern is in the Book “Fat Quarter Baby.” In the class, I offer 2 sizes, along with speedier cutting and piecing directions. The pattern in the book is 33:=”x 37″ and the larger size is 41″ x 46.”
Here are pictures from the class:
Some are busy cutting their fabrics!
This is Madeline’s. She’s started to quilt it with a serpentine stitch.
Linda almost has her top completed … so cute with all the dotted fabric!
Nancy claims she’s not a quilter! I beg to differ with her! She’s done an awesome job with this teddy bear.
I love Lorraine’s with the honey bees! Perfect!
This was Anne’s first Teddy Bear and she didn’t quite have enough fabric for the back … so she learned how to do the diagonal stripe … super simple and very effective!
Anne’s 2nd Teddy Bear
And this is Simina’s first quilt! I think she’s hooked!
And here is the one I made: I used Hobbs 80/20 batting. It is quilted with a thread that is new to me “Seracycle.” It is made by Mettler out of recycled 100% PET bottles. SEW – what did I think? The thread quilted very nicely. The small spool did not contain enough thread to sew this quilt and I had to substitute a white thread to finish the quilt. It’s a great idea, but the spools need to be bigger. If you are interested in using Seracycle, Essem Textiles carries it. I think it would be great for garment sewing.
I’ve had a busy week! And I have gotten lots done! My Macaron Mystery is completed. This was a mystery quilt from Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs. I love her mystery quilts! You can be sure I’ll be following and quilting when she starts the Melodic Mystery in July!
And … did you see Gracie the Gorilla? A Funky Friends pattern for Island Batik’s April challenge. She was so much fun to make! I used Island Batik fabrics, Schmetz needles, and Aurifil thread to make her!
Overhauling the Craft Room
Kim of Persimon Dreams and Kim of Gogokim have joined together and created this Overhaul. If you saw my room, you would KNOW that I NEED to do an Overhaul!!! In a couple of weeks, our quilt guild is having a garage sale … a perfect opportunity to get rid of some quilting junk useful items … I’m not totally following their direction, but I am in the process of going through EVERY container. And I’ll tackle every surface!
Here’s some pictures … as the room was before I started going through things: What a mess, eh? Every available surface cluttered with projects and fabric I need to put away, some baby quilts to be quilted, things to be unpacked from my latest class, fabric to be sorted through, papers cluttering up my computer desk, and left-over batting and fabric on my cutting table!
I’ve already gone through my books … and they’ll be on the free table at the garage sale. I don’t expect the guild library will want them … some are quite old!
Stitching Time
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Kate, from Life in Pieces, is hosting “Stitching Stuff” and the goal is to sew for at least 15 minutes a day. I use Kate’s guideline, but my personal goal is to sew for 30 minutes a day. On those “blah” days, it does motivate me to sit at my machine and 30 minutes often turns into several hours. Thank you Kate for the motivation!
January – Mar: 90 / 90
Apr 1 – 10: 10 / 10
Total: 100 / 100
Percentage =100%
Stash Report
Donna at Quilt Paint Create hosts a weekly linky party where you can display your stash numbers. This has really kept my stash from growing (somewhat!) Before I buy anything, I am always mindful of the fact that I need to report it on my blog … That sometimes stops me in my tracks!
Macaron used 12 yards of stash. I was thrilled to pieces when I realized that I had the perfect backing! It’s nice to be using up my stash.
1. Foodie Blog Hop: These fabrics are from my stash. You’ll just have to wait until May 24th to see what is happening with this fabric!
Quilting:
I have 5 Baby Quilt panels lined up to be quilted and 2 that need binding. Boy, will I ever be glad when I no longer have cute panels in my stash! Some of these were panels that were given to me … I sandwiched them ages ago, but the quilting didn’t happen! And, I did find some of them when I went through a container – part of the Overhaul! 2 of the Baby Quilt panels are partially hand quilted … they will have machine quilting for the finish!
One UFO was finished: Macaron Mystery! That leaves me with 7 more to complete for my PHD in 2022. The New Starts are gradually getting completed! Personally, I really like how completing the New Starts does NOT add to the UFO list! And it is gradually getting smaller!
Funky Friends Factory is sponsoring this month’s Island Batik challenge. We got to choose from a TON of different animals. It was hard to choose! They are all so cute! Thank you Pauline McArthur for allowing us to pick which one we wanted to do and sending us the pattern!
I chose Gregory Gorilla. He looked so cute. I already have made a few Funky Friends and I wanted a different one and I just couldn’t resist making Gregory!
The fabrics I chose are: for the dark – Blackberry, and for the light – Begonia. These are basics and available at all times.
There are lots of parts for Gregory … and here they are, all cut out. The pattern pieces are still pinned to the fabric because many of them contain necessary markings for when you’re making the critter.
The Funky Friends patterns are very well written and easy to follow. If you don’t quite “get it,” there are on-line photos that take you step by step!
And the head is starting to take shape! Can you see his nostrils? They make me laugh! I used Aurifil Thread 2581 (Dark Dusty Grape) to sew with a Schmetz Needle.
I originally wanted to give Gregory away as a gift, but alas, I couldn’t find any safety eyes. Well, I did find some, but they were green and not what I was looking for. I found the googly eyes with eye lashes, so perhaps Gregory should be a girl and I’ll now name her Gracie the Gorilla.
I used a polyfill stuffing for the areas close to Gracie’s ‘skin.’ And the rest of Gracie was stuffed with remnants of Hobbs 80/20 batting — I pulled it apart into very small pieces and it worked great!
Gracie escaped and I found her basking in the sun by the hyacinths and daffodils.
The next time she escaped, she was hanging out in the cherry blossoms with a plethora of bees!
Then she hopped over to the magnolia tree and I could finally rescue her!
This was a fun challenge to make!
Here are the other Funky Friends I have made over the past few years: The elephant, alpaca and rhino. These also used Island Batik fabrics!
This is a mystery quilt that was offered by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs. This is the 2nd mystery I’ve done of hers and I have LOVED doing each one. I know that some of you highly dislike doing mystery quilts, but she offers to give you a sneak peak – so you’re not totally doing a mystery. However, since I LOVE mystery quilts, I do it as a mystery! No peeking for me.
Cheryl’s directions are very clear and easy to follow! Here’s a few of the progress pictures of this mystery:
The fabric all came from my stash. As did the backing fabric. It has Hobbs 80/20 batting and I used Glide thread (Mercury) to quilt it. The binding is the medium blue print.
And the completed quilt! (And yes, I did alter some of the setting triangles to make the quilt symmetrical. The quilt insisted on it!)
And some quilting close-ups! Some free motion and some ruler work.
And … Cheryl has announced that there will be another mystery quilt starting in July! I already know that I’m going to join in! It’s called the Melodic Mystery! Are you going to join?
That’s right, I have MPD … I hadn’t heard of it until today. I seriously have it!! It’s actually a serious case.
My sister sent this to me … sigh! It’s from Quilt Digest’s FB page and apparently you can buy it on Amazon HERE … but it’s currently unavailable. That’s OK … I know I have MPD and really don’t need a sign in my studio to tell me about it! I’m happiest when I’m working on 2 or 3 or 4 projects at once! I love the challenge of keeping them all straight!
Eye Candy
If you want to see all of the Island Batik ambassador projects from March, Mania has them all together in one blog post with the threads that each ambassador used. Go HERE to see them all!
This was mine, made with Island Batik fabrics, Hobbs batting and Aurifil thread.
Stitching Time
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Kate, from Life in Pieces, is hosting “Stitching Stuff” and the goal is to sew for at least 15 minutes a day. I use Kate’s guideline, but my personal goal is to sew for 30 minutes a day. On those “blah” days, it does motivate me to sit at my machine and 30 minutes often turns into several hours. Thank you Kate for the motivation!
January – Mar: 90 / 90
Apr 1 – 3: 3 / 3
Total: 93 /
Percentage =100%
Stash Report
Donna at Quilt Paint Create hosts a weekly linky party where you can display your stash numbers. This has really kept my stash from growing (somewhat!) Before I buy anything, I am always mindful of the fact that I need to report it on my blog … That sometimes stops me in my tracks!
I have NO finishes this week. But that’s OK … I have 2 quilts that are ready for binding and they both use fabric that came from my stash … so hopefully next week, I’ll have some different numbers.
I did use stash in a couple of my March finishes … The backings for the SAHRR (see HERE), the Time in a Bottle Quilt (see HERE) and the GAYG table runner (see HERE). 3 1/2 yards, 1 1/4 yards, and 1 yard respectively. That totals 5 3/4 yards!
Quilting Gail 