7 tops and 2 backs

It looks impressive as a title but in reality not really that big a deal. One of the backs was for the baby quilt I finished on Sunday. When I was done with that I was going to put together the back for the t-shirt quilt but I couldn't find all of the fabric. I dug through the sewing room, looking in all the possible places. I just couldn't put my hands on it.

Obviously my sewing room is just too messy if I can't find a 1 1/2 yard piece of fabric. I had a paper grocery sack full of fabric that I have been meaning to make into Lutheran World Relief quilt tops. I was asked by the ladies at church to make a few for them to tie in the next couple of months so I decided I would use up that bag of fabric and get busy. I have spent most of today working on them and I have finished 7 tops and one back. These quilts aren't anything you would put in a quilt show but they will protect someone from the cold or the weather or provide a floor. I usually start putting the bigger pieces of fabric together like a puzzle until it comes out to 60" X 80". The backs are 64" X 84" so that the extra can be wrapped to the front to form the binding.



I still have some smaller pieces to work with so now that my break is over it is time to get back to it.

Oh, I did find that piece of fabric, hiding in a basket under a couple of round robin blocks I need to work on.

Missed a few days

but I haven't been idle.

Let's see...first I made some blocks for the QBRR 2010. Here is Chisholm Trail for Michele

and two batik leaves for Wendy


You can see pictures of all of Michele's and Wendy's blocks over at flickr. I got a large batch of Chex Party Mix made up and packaged for my kids and took it and all the blocks for the swaps to the post office.

Then I got started on preparing t-shirts for a quilt. This is being made for a high school graduation gift. My niece Katie came over on Thursday evening and on Friday we got this top together and I got the borders on it this morning.



We made some Tomalito from the Chevy's restaurant cookbook and then got ourselves showered and headed to the fabric stores to get a couple more transportation prints for a baby quilt I have been wanting to put together. I had a number of transportation rail fence blocks given to me but I needed more to make it a decent baby quilt size. We also got more of the fabric between the t-shirt pieces so I can use it for the back (it was sale fabric) and then the other fabric store had a table of 30% off fabrics so I picked out several fabrics that read as solids since I am a little low on lot of colors.

While we waited for the fabric to prewash and our chicken dinner to bake we set about re-sorting my stash. We took everything out of the bins and got everything back in and tidy. I even labeled the bins. The fabric isn't folded to the same size but I had my husband cut down an old small cutting mat into a size guide that will make it much easier to make them more uniform in the future. Maybe I will post a picture of my tidied stash sometime.

After dinner we cut what we needed for the baby quilt and laid it out and got all the blocks put together and since I figured it wouldn't take too long I got all the blocks together into a top. Tomorrow I will decide on borders and get a back put together so that can get finished and if my friend likes it I will be selling it! WooHoo!

Katie headed home a little while ago as she needs to meet someone at church in the morning and I turned out the lights in the sewing room for another day.

There's an App for that!

Yes, there is an app for quilting even! A few weeks ago Bronwyn over at Whippet Good mentioned a new toy she had and an app she had downloaded for it. I recognized the iPhone and did an immediate search for the app. I found it - Quick & Easy Quit Block Tool. I didn't download it right away as I was busy with the quilt show preparation but my daughter noticed that I had looked it up on my computer when she was visiting and gave it to me for Mother's Day. I had my first opportunity to use it yesterday as I was planning out which blocks to make for the Quilt Block Exchange for May.

It is really great as it gives you a list of 102 blocks and when you choose one it gives you the size and number of pieces you need to cut for 5 different sized blocks! I went down the list and found three that I liked, followed the directions and it worked like a charm! Here are the blocks I made yesterday:


The pink and brown is called Golden Gate, the blue and green is Ranger's Pride and the red and white is obviously Bow Tie. The chicken print block is just a disappearing 9-patch and I have a second one like it that will be turned into a doll quilt in the next few days probably. Now I need to get these in the mail but first I must make some Chex Party Mix to mail to my son (and my daughters).

Triangles and Hexagons

So here is an update on the triangle quilt.
I have started a border but ran out of black Kona cotton so I had to cut some off my bolt and get it prewashed. I hope to get that finished this afternoon so I can post a finished flimsy picture!

This next picture is one of those little gifts I receive every so often - someone else's UFO that they give up on.


I have a feeling the quilter gave up on this because she wasn't happy with how the flowers were going together. Maybe she was doing really well and then placed one wrong and ended up with a gap that needed filling with a green hexagon and then another gap that needed several green hexagons and just wasn't happy with the results. Whatever her reason for stopping and giving it away I now have the 'privilege' of finishing this one. After looking it over I think I am going to either take it apart partially and make it so the flowers are all right next to each other with no green gaps or I will take it apart totally and do organized green spots. Either way, there will be some ripping out involved. It might even end up as two quilts since there are about 20 more flowers waiting to be made and somewhere around 60 flowers all put together.

Who woulda thunk it?

As I suspected I couldn't stop working on this one once the broken dishes blocks were finished! Many of the BD blocks were so small I knew they needed to be put in groups so I got started with that project.

Here is one set of 16 blocks waiting to be sewn.


Here are the groups I have put together so far.


I am letting the number of blocks available in a size or the colorations to determine the size of the groups. Some are strips, some are square and some are rectangles. Not sure yet how it will all go together but I am having a fun Saturday morning working on this one while I listen to the sewing and quilting shows on PBS.

Ta-da!

After several days of sewing, pressing, trimming, sewing and pressing some more I have 251 broken dish blocks.
That equates to 2008 individual triangles! I keep checking out the window for the guys in the white jackets!

I just dug through my basket of random blocks and found several more broken dish blocks along with a few more triangles and I now have 296 blocks equaling 2368 triangles! Now how do I put them all together? That's a dilemma!

Lots of little triangles

So I didn't get started on any of the things I listed in my last post. Instead I looked at some of the little triangles I had sitting around waiting to be used and decided I was going to get them taken care of. I started sewing and then found more triangles and then more. Here you can see the mess on the sewing machine...


and the little pile on the floor underneath.


I got them sewn into HSTs and got them cut apart, pressed and trimmed over the last two days.

Here you can see them all trimmed and sorted by size.


Since this last picture was taken I have started sewing these into broken dishes blocks. Once that step is done I will probably put them aside for a while so I can get some other things done. But maybe I will be inspired to finish this up right now.

So my question to all of you is...Do you save little triangles to use 'someday' or do you just toss them in the trash?

Twin Totes

I haven't posted much recently because my shoulders have made sewing more torture than pleasure! Weeding the strawberries took a toll and then on Saturday I helped count and sort the items our food bank received from the post office food drive and didn't make things any better! Today I finally finished these two totes.One is spoken for and the other is available if anyone is interested. I am hoping to have at least one tote available for display at our Relay for Life event in June. If anyone orders one at relay or before August 1 I will donate half of the price to the American Cancer Society.

I have the fabric for one more now for my friend but that is going to wait until I get my QBE blocks done for May and I also received one of the QBRR 2010 packages so I need to do that one. I also heard from my niece that she has a couple of the WIMM QBRR 2010 packets ready for me to pick up also. Then there is the graduation t-shirt quilt that needs to get made and my granddaughter's big girl quilt that I want to have done by her 2nd birthday in July. I had better get busy!

Another Bag

I hadn't done much in my sewing room this week because I had to take advantage of the beautiful weather and get some yard work done. Yesterday and the day before I worked at weeding the strawberries as they are blooming and the berries are starting to form. I got both rows weeded but about halfway down the first side of the second row there was a rustle in the berries and suddenly a little bird was dragging its wing down the path. It was the first time I have seen this in person but the bird (an Oregon Junco) was trying to draw me away from its nest.It isn't easy to see in the picture but the nest is a little to the left of the middle with one little egg in it. Mom and Dad Junco scolded me until I finally finished the weeding. I haven't been back down there since yesterday but I hope they are settled back into their nest.

The past two days I got 3 tote bags cut out and interfaced and ready to sew so today I got busy (after a fashion) and got the first one put together.
This one is for my sister-in-law in Colorado. We picked out the fabric when I was down there last month. I guess Monday I will need to make a trip down to the post office and get it in the mail.

The other two bags are out of the same fabric (and actually are the same as this one). One of them is spoken for but the other will be available for sale. A friend was here today and saw my bag so I will be making one for her also - she likes purple and pink.

Now it is time for a shower and a neck rub - my shoulders have been killing me today from all the weeding so I told hubby when he got home that he was going to have to take care of them for me! I should have had him do it last night and I might have gotten more sewing done today!

I Made It!

through the quilt show that is! Here is a teaser photo to give you an idea of how things were set up.
For more pictures you can go over to flickr to see all the pictures taken by my daughter.

We had about 50 larger quilts on display and quite a few mini and doll quilts. There were also a number of quilts for sale. Unfortunately the weather was beautiful for the first time in a while so we didn't have very good attendance. It was disappointing but we left up some of the quilts so members of the congregation could see a bit of what they may have missed the day before and also had the sale quilts available. This was a good thing since we sold most of them following worship! It ended up being a pretty good fund-raiser but next year we will again do the show in March when nice weather isn't as likely so we might get better attendance.

For me the stars of the show were these two (my grandchildren)...


but for others this probably won the prize!
This is my niece, Katie's, Dear Jane quilt. She started it several years ago and we finished doing the hand-sewing on the binding the night before the show. It is truly spectacular!

I am now trying to get things put away again around the house after having grandkids here and taking quilts to the show. I also need to get out in the yard whenever the weather allows and I have several projects to get finished soon including two more tote bags and a t-shirt quilt for a high school graduate!

Getting closer...

I finished the quilting on the Disappearing 9-Patch quilt yesterday and then got going on the binding. I got that finished in the early evening and even got it washed and dried! This one is 70" X 85"


Then I got the binding done on this crazy quilt. It is 71" X 78"



I am so glad to have these two done. Now I just have a simple baby quilt to get the binding finished and a larger one and I might get some of the hand quilting done on the larger one so it can get hung in the show. I just did a recount and realize that I have quilted 8 quilts since last Saturday morning! Pretty amazing! So why can't I get them finished when there isn't a deadline?!?!?!?

This afternoon my daughter and grandkids will arrive and I will need to head over to the church to start working on setting things up. My next post will probably be on Sunday sometime with pictures from the show.

Three more finished!

Since my last post I have three more quilts finished. This one is a child's play quilt. Nothing special but will be available for sale at the show. I have had the top done for ages and just never got it quilted. It is about 32" square.
This next one is a denim quilt that has a print for the strips in between the blocks. The back and binding are from the same print as the strips. It is about 52" X 56" and will also be available for sale.
This last one is the Girl Quilt that I put together before we left on our trip. It will be hanging at the show. It is about 53" X 66" and was made from blocks I have received in the Quilt Block Exchange over on flickr.
I have the binding on the quilt I showed in my last post and I am working on the quilting on another quilt. I hope to finish the quilting on that and get the rest of the bindings done before tomorrow night. I also need to get the quilt labels done for all the quilts in the show, and some signs, and...

Confused?

I am having trouble keeping track of the quilts I have gotten quilted since Saturday morning. I think I finished up number 7 a little while ago. Most of them are smaller quilts but today's was around 70" X 80". Here it is on the machine waiting for me to get back to it!
Here is the first totally finished quilt. It is about 48" X 56".

All the rest are waiting for the hand-sewing on the binding.

I do have two more that I would like to get quilted but I am not sure if I can realistically get them all done. We shall see how it all goes.

Off like a herd of turtles...

The weather here in Western Washington is working to my advantage. It has been a bit rainy and cloudy so I am not feeling too guilty for spending time in the sewing room getting ready for the quilt show.

Yesterday I finished the second back and got both quilts to the hand-sewing stage on the binding and still felt like I could do more so I put together the back for a denim quilt and got it quilted and the binding on it too! In the evening I got one of the bindings finished while we watched "The Lovely Bones" and got started on the next.

Today got a child's play quilt basted and quilted and got the binding on ready for the hand sewing and then got four more backs ready for basting. One was for another play quilt so I got that one basted and ready to quilt in the morning. I also cleaned off the sewing table so I can baste the next three which are a bit bigger and will need close to the full 80" length of the table. Maybe I will get one basted tomorrow after I quilt the little quilt.

A friend gave me four of her quilts to hang in the quilt show and I should be getting at least another 10-15 from others so it won't just be a lucysquilts show.

I will post pictures as I get some of the quilts finished and keep you updated on my progress.

April Projects Finished

Another month has passed so it is time to tally up my finished products. I did pretty well considering I was gone for about 2 weeks this month and had company for another!

April Finishes

Quilt Block Exchange Blocks - 6
Quilt Block Round Robin Blocks - 1
Tops - 2 (Double 9-patch, QBE blocks)
Quilts - 1 (Lady of the Lake)
Totes - 2 (sold both)

Yesterday afternoon, once the laundry from the trip was folded and ironed, I put together a back for this quilt and got it pin basted and ready to quilt. Then I wasn't really up to doing the quilting so I started on the back for this quilt which I will finish this morning before I do the quilting on the other.