Cleaning Up

Yesterday I finished getting all my projects ready to go for the retreat but then had to figure out what to do. I was inspired to work on the projects I am taking to the retreat but then I would have to get things ready all over again!

Looking around my sewing room I realized I need to work on cleaning a bit in case someone decides to come and visit and I have to create my guest room again!!!!

I didn't have a lot of time left yesterday so I started with a small plastic bag of fabric scraps and leftovers that some of my fellow quilters at the last retreat gave me since they know I will make good use of them. In it were a variety of things including 20 HSTs made from Christmas fabrics. I put them together as pinwheels and then laid them out and pulled out my Christmas fabrics and came up with this:
It is about 21" square and I hope to get it quilted and finished this weekend as a table topper/wall hanging that can be sold or given away.

When that is done I will move on to some rubber ducky fabrics leftover from a baby quilt that I think can be turned into another baby quilt top. When that is done I think I will turn 14 dog print squares into another baby quilt if I get some fabrics that will go with them.

Lots of Blocks

I've been spending a little time in my sewing room. I have lots of individual blocks to make for various exchanges/round robins. These first three are for the February Quilt Block Exchange over on Flickr. #1 is for Mary who asked for larger blocks to be made into quilts for preemies at her local hospital.#2 is a second block for Mary - it's a good cause! These are both 15 1/2".
#3 is for Wendy who asked for a Red, White and Blue blocks that will go into American Hero Quilts. Another good cause.
I have one more block to get made for this month and I plan to have them all in the mail by the end of the week.

My niece came over on Saturday to bring her block and her mom's block for one of my Quilt Block Round Robins. So far I have gotten a block done for my niece's (the green/brown/blue one) and hope to get my sister's done later today. I can't show what I make for these as we keep them secret until the big reveal at the end of the year. I have pictures of more of the starter blocks here.

I am working on getting things ready for the retreat next week. I have almost all of my little HST's ready for the Lady of the Lake blocks and then I just need to get everything packed up 'neatly' in bins/baskets and ready to go. I will also have to get my machine, cutting tools, notions, etc. packed up.

Second Round Ready to Go

Today I got two blocks done for Crystal's QBRR2010 quilt.I hope to get them on the way to Lynn today or tomorrow since Crystal was ready to send someone else's on to me yesterday!

I hope to also get two from the WIMM QBRR 2010 in the next day or two and then get them done and on their way to a different Lynn! funny how I send to a Lynn in both round robins!

I am going to a quilt retreat in two weeks so I have been working on trimming HSTs for my Lady of the Lake Leftover quilt. I figure if I do some each day I should have them ready before I go. I will probably also bring my crazy quilt supplies to get a few more of those blocks done, but I think I need another project to work on so I don't get bored! Maybe I will work on some black and white with a splash of bright to add to the blocks I have received in the Quilt Block Exchange so I can get a quilt top put together. I might also bring the fall New York Beauty block supplies.

Well, now I will go and do some hand quilting on Ludvina's Legacy - I would love to have that finished sometime soon!

Time to start getting caught up

It has been a while. When last I wrote I was getting started on this quilt.Now it is finished. I ended up hand-quilting around each of the little diamonds and then machine stipled the background. Added a navy binding and I think it ended up pretty great!

In the last three weeks I finished up that quilt, finished getting all the business information (checks, invoices and parts) into QuickBooks so the taxes can get taken care of and also made 4 blocks for the January Quilt Block Exchange...

...I also got my blocks in the mail for both of my Quilt Block Round Robins. The first one is with my sister and two nieces and 8 other quilting friends in Washington, Idaho, Montana and Minnesota. I made a batik house which I posted here. Each person in the group will be making their own little batik house.

The other is the group that I organized over on Flickr. I struggled for a while with the decision of what block to make. I wanted something that could be scrappy and finally chose this one...

The block is called Sunny Lanes and should be fun to put together when I get all the blocks in a year or so.

Lone Star

Just before Thanksgiving, a friend at church consulted with me about an antique Lone Star and getting it turned into a retirement gift. I, of course, was willing to give my opinion and, as usual, I ended up with a new project. I brought it home and over Thanksgiving picked up some wide muslin to applique it on. Once the muslin was prewashed I pulled out the star and pressed it and discovered that there was no way it would ever lay flat.

The holidays were coming and I had a number of other things going on so I put off dealing with it. Push has come to shove and the quilt needs to be done by the end of the month so I pulled it out again the other day. Interestingly, it still won't press flat!!! That night as I was going to sleep I got the bright idea to take the 8 large diamonds apart, turn them and put them back together to see if that would help. I carefully removed the hand stitching and then hand-stitched them back together and it actually worked! Not perfectly but much closer to flat than before.

Yesterday I got the star basted onto the muslin and got started on the hand applique. I finished that up today and here is the quilt top.
Now I will put the rest of the muslin together to make a back and get started on hand quilting the star and background. Does anyone have thoughts on how the star should be quilted?

More Denim/Stained Glass Quilts

Like many people, I have tons of photographs from way back when - you know, before digital cameras! My goal is to get them all scanned and onto my computer. If I want that to happen I need to get started so I spent about 3 hours this afternoon scanning photos. It is so much fun looking at pictures of my kids through the years, seeing pictures of loved ones, etc. Among all the photos I found some pictures of quilts, especially denim quilts so if you are not sick of seeing pictures of denim quilts you can go over to Flickr and see a few more. Included in the group are the table covers I made for our church handbell choir and several made from regular quilting cottons.

Quilt Block Round Robin 2010

I am organizing a Quilt Block Round Robin over on Flickr. We still have room for a couple more quilters so if you are interested please let me know. The round robin will take about a year and your commitment is to make about one block per month. I need to figure out what kind of blocks I want for that!

Also, at our last craft night at my neighbor's house we decided our next round robin is actually going to be a quilt exchange. We really like the idea of getting a finished quilt top in the end but what could be better than receiving a finished quilt? We drew names and now have until next November/December to make the quilt. I drew Linnea and she wants a scrappy quilt so that should be fun to make. I have yet to figure out what exactly I want but need to come up with a play before next Tuesday so Sally can start work on my quilt.

I just realized I am committed to two Quilt Block Round Robins this year, one completed quilt and 4-6 blocks per month in the Quilt Block Exchange. I think I am going to hold it to that so I have some time to get some things done for my self too!