All done!

Yesterday morning I got the furniture rearranged so I had space to do some basting. I got two quilts taken care of! I still have several more I could do but don't have the backs for them yet. After lunch I got the smaller of the two quilted and got the binding on it.

After dinner I finished the binding on this quilt so it is ready for the quilt show and then delivery to North Dakota. Today I might be able to get the other top quilted if I get going soon! That would be wonderful. Then I will need to do some looking for backs so I can get moving on those others.

Quilting Away!

I did get one quilt basted yesterday. I would have done the other but I just didn't have something to put on the back so that one will have to wait. Today I decided to get started on quilting right away and was done by lunch! This picture was taken about 2/3 of the way through.
After a break I also got the binding on so I can work on the hand-sewing this evening. This quilt is for my cousin in North Dakota but it won't go to her until after the quilt show at the end of next month.

Late this afternoon I did some digging through the dressers in the sewing room and found 3 more tops I could get finished off that I probably have backs for. Maybe I will get one basted tomorrow. It would be nice to have a few more done before the quilt show either for display or sale.

Seasons of Hope

Here it is, all finished.
I am excited about this quilt! It turned out so well and I am hoping it will help our Relay for Life team raise lots of money to fight cancer. If anyone is interested in buying tickets for this quilt drawing I would be more than happy to make that happen for you!


Yesterday I got another quilt kit made for the retreat. I had hoped to get more done but my brain just was not cooperating so I thought it best not to cut into any fabric! Today I hope to get one or two quilts basted and ready for quilting and then we will see what else happens!

Quilt done and shopping

The quilt for Relay for Life is finished as of this evening. Hopefully we can get a picture of it tomorrow so I can post a picture here.

My sister is here for the weekend so we did some visiting and then we headed out to see if there was anything interesting in the antique stores in the area. I found this very cool antique cabinet that will be in my sewing room once it is cleaned up a bit. I don't know if it is going to be for fabric, scraps, thread, patterns or projects or maybe a combination of several of those. It will be fun to figure out this next week.

Yesterday as we waited for my sister's plane to arrive we went to a used book store and I found a copy of Scrap-Basket Surprises by Kim Brackett. Pretty exciting! Now I have more ideas for quilts, which might not be such a good thing!

2 More Kits & A Block

This morning I got two more quilt kits finished off. I had them both started yesterday but needed another piece of green fabric to finish one and ran out of time before I needed to head into town for a haircut so I couldn't finish the second. After the haircut I got the green fabric and after stopping at three stores found a carrot button for the snowman on the relay quilt and some little black buttons for his eyes and buttons. I also got a couple other items that I happened to see while I was out and about.

Here is a picture of the two completed kits. The one on the left uses carnation fabrics I got from my sister and husband for my 50th birthday from Northcutt's Flower of the Month line. The kit on the left is made from 4 fabrics that my daughter gave me as a gift a couple of years ago.

As you can see, these fabrics have been around for a while and it is about time I got something done with them!!!!!

Here is the block I made from my chosen layer cake for a current round robin. I have had the layer cake for over a month but I was struggling with what kind of blocks I wanted. I toyed with the idea of making my blocks into a table cloth but I changed that to making a placemat out of each block. The white behind my block is a piece of pellon showing the size and shape of the finished placemats.

Quilt Kits

I got the coveralls all taken care of and the fabric all pressed. As I worked on getting the fabric all put away I needed another bin so I emptied one that had groups of fabric I had special plans for. I realized that this was the perfect opportunity to turn those projects into kits for the upcoming quilt retreat. I got three taken care of this afternoon. Now to see if I can wait until the retreat to start sewing!

This kit uses some sock monkey fabric that was given to me a while back. I found a pattern to use and added a couple more fabrics and cut out what I will need for a baby quilt. I should have enough for the back and binding in the kit so I need to make sure I bring along some batting.

This kit will use some golfing bear fabrics that I have had for ages! Again, I figured out a pattern and got things cut out and ready to go. I think I have enough for borders and backing for this one too.

This one is not cut out yet but I do have a plan. Several years ago a friend gave me several Mary Engelbreit fabrics black/white/yellow/green with Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries on one. I have been kind of waiting for a good time to make a fun quilt out of these and this is the time. I have a plan but it will be kind of figured out as it comes together.

Now I need to get going on the yo-yos for the relay quilt while we watch a little tv this evening.

Keeping on, keeping on

The quilting is done on the relay quilt! And last night at craft night I finished the handsewing on the binding and getting all the threads dealt with. Today I am hoping to get at least part of the embellishments done.

But first...

I need to add name tags to my husband's work coveralls and shorten the sleeves. This is a project I get to do every year or so when he buys a new batch. He is an appliance repairman and prefers coveralls to shirt and pants (and risking butt cleavage) but can't get short sleeved ones so I cut the sleeves off and this time I get to add the name tags since I don't have a fancy embroidery machine to put his name and the company name on otherwise.

Then I also need to finish pressing the fabric that arrived in the mail on Monday. I got about 2/3 of it done yesterday before I had to leave the house. I ordered a load of fabric from Connecting Threads a week or so ago - hard to argue with $3 a yard!

Once all that is done I will figure out the embellishments and also get started on cutting some of that new fabric to have some quilt 'kits' ready to take to the quilt retreat in a couple of weeks.

Another non-quilt sewing project to take care of this week is creating a queen-size fitted sheet for our new hide-a-bed mattress out of a king-size fitted sheet that isn't 'deep' enough for our bed. My sister arrives on Friday for a couple of days and gets to be our guinea pig on the new bed.

Jury Duty

Not much progress this past week because I had jury duty. I went in Monday at 12:30 and was finally done on Thursday at about 10 am. It was a criminal vehicular assault case. The defendant had picked up his cell phone and checked it - didn't make or receive a call or text - but he crossed the center line and hit another car causing rather extensive injuries. It was a huge struggle to make a decision because the instructions we were given were so unclear but it was all we had to go on! We found him not guilty but it was a huge wake-up call that we really need to pay attention when we are driving. Basically a test case for the state working to figure out the testing and driving issue.

Anyway, after we were dismissed I went fabric shopping for a back for the Relay for Life quilt. I ended up at the shop in Port Gamble and discovered another reason to love that shop. They have probably at least 20 different 90-108" fabrics! It is about 20 extra miles beyond the other quilt shops but on a lovely day like Thursday was, it is definitely worth it!

On Friday I got the relay quilt basted and also quilted this baby quilt for my daughter. It is a 1/4 size version of the robot quilt that I made for my grandson for Christmas. Got the binding finished too so I can take it to her the next time I am over there.

Today I started quilting the relay quilt and got all the tree trunks and branches quilted. Then I did the border and sashings and got the background of one of the 4 sections finished. My shoulders were starting to get sore so I decided to put the binding on but the storm outside caused a short power outage so I was didn't get any further than that. Once the power came back I got the rest of the binding on and got started on the hand sewing.

Happy!

That is how I feel about this top! It turned out as well, or better than expected. I am heading out in a bit to find some fabric for the back and then hope to get it finished this week, including embellishments: yo-yo apples for summer, little apple blossoms for spring and a face for Mr. Snowman.

As I have said before this will be the drawing quilt for our church's ACS Relay for Life event in June. If you are interested in buying tickets ($1 each) just comment below!

The big day

Not really sure about the score or injuries or any of that other football stuff but I am paying attention to the commercials!


Yesterday was a great first day back in the sewing room! My niece arrived to hang out and help me get the Relay for Life quilt put together. We got all four panels cut out and got started sewing. We had summer and spring finished before getting dinner in the oven and finished fall just before dinner and then completed winter after dinner. We were tired as we finished so we had to do a little un-sewing but nothing too bad.

And here is how it all came together with a frame around each panel and blue in between.

It will be finished off with a blue border and the words Seasons of HOPE at the bottom but it was time to watch commercials!

Back to the fun stuff

I finished up the business 2010 books this morning so I rewarded myself with a fabric shopping trip. I first met my husband for lunch and then started the search for background fabric for my next quilt. I am making a quilt of 4 trees representing the four seasons. I have always wanted to make a 4 seasons quilt and since The American Cancer Society's theme for Relay for Life this year is Seasons of Hope, I thought this was the perfect opportunity! I am using the tree pattern from Dare to be Square, just making each tree 1/4 size.

My shopping trip turned up 4 different batiks to use as the sky/background for the trees ranging from white-gray to blue. I found them all at a great quilt shop called Quilted Strait. When I got home from shopping I got busy serging the cut edges of all my recent fabric purchases and gifts and got them in the washer and dryer. Tomorrow morning I will get them all pressed and start cutting as soon as possible, unless I get a second wind this evening.

It is so good to be back in the sewing room again!