A finish and a start

When I last wrote I was waiting for my new serger so I could get my fabric in the washer.

On Thursday I got a back ready for the Spider Web quilt and got it basted and first thing Friday I got it quilted and got the binding sewn on. I finished the hand sewing over the weekend and it is ready to take to the guild meeting next Wednesday.
The package arrived on Saturday morning and I went to work on getting it threaded and running. It is very easy to thread and works like a charm. Here is the pile once I was done!And here is the fabric on Monday after it was all prewashed and pressed.
Yesterday I pulled out the batiks I bought for a quilt I have been commissioned to make. The customer wanted a beach and ocean quilt using strips. I talked her into using curved seams instead of straight and I got the beach and ocean parts done yesterday. Today I went shopping and bought some fabrics for the sky - a sunset. This is what I came up with.
Tomorrow I hope to get it trimmed even and straight and maybe I will go and buy the border/frame and back fabric so this one can be finished soon!

Then it will be on to the next commissioned quilt...

Here comes the sun...

...okay, just sunbreaks but it is a start. I have gotten out in the fresh air a couple times so far but not nearly enough! Still working on apple tree pruning when I should be planting and weeding. I am not going to be doing that for a while though because the ground is just too cold and wet! Here is a picture of some of the daffodils that are blooming profusely right now.


I am finally getting things accomplished in the sewing room though. I got blocks made for 5 people in the round robin I am in. We only have 10 in our group so we decided to make 2 blocks per person so that means I got 10 blocks done this past week and they are in the mail to the next person! I think I have done 7 of the 10 backets (including mine).

Last Saturday my niece, Katie, and I made the trek down to Fabric Depot in Portland OR. We spent about 5 hours in the store filling our cart 4 times! From most of the bolts I only took 1/4 - 1/2 yard but it was still quite the pile! Halfway through we took our load out to the car and ran over to Burgerville for lunch. It is just across the street and not available around here so it is our favorite restaurant on fabric buying trips. I was able to get fabric for two quilts that I have been commissioned to make (and hope to get started on soon) and also fabrics for my neighbor for our quilt exchange. Sally has asked for neutrals for her quilt so I went to the cutting table with a wide range of neutrals. The cutter said "You are making a quilt with just whites?" In reality, none of them were white, more a range of creams to dark tans. Obviously , this woman has never seen some of the stunning quilts made with only neutrals!

So Sunday I started serging the edges of my fabric in preparation for prewashing and my serger just gave up the ghost! I got it third hand probably 20 years ago in a joint purchase with my mother (we each paid $25!) and it has served me well all these years. I went online to see how much new sergers are running these days and was pleasantly surprised to find that the prices are much lower than they were years ago! I checked reviews and decided to purchase the Brother 1034D. It should arrive on Monday. I am planning on taking the old one to my local sewing machine repairman to see if it can be salvaged or maybe just let my husband play with it and see what happens.

So my sewing room is full of piles of fabric waiting to be serged and piles on the floor waiting to be prewashed and I can't get started on those quilts so it forces me to get some other things finished. Yesterday I got the borders on the spider web quilt I am putting together for the quilt guild for a foster child's graduation quilt.


Today I hope to get it basted and quilted so it is finished before Monday when my new serger arrives!!!

Catching up...

...but it isn't too hard! I have had a woefully scantily productive first quarter of 2011 both in blog posts and sewing/crafting!

It has been so busy around here...

Two weeks of the granddaughter visiting,

One week of watching both grandkids at their house,

One quilt show,

One quilt retreat,

One year of appliance repair business records that needed to go into the computer...

and that is just the big stuff!

I did get...

33 pairs of mittens crocheted,

2 owl hats made for the grandkids,

1 binding done on someone else's quilt,

Seasons of Hope Relay for Life quilt finished,

6 quilt kits made up for retreat (finished the tops from 5 of them at retreat),

2 wall quilts/table toppers finished,

2 baby quilts finished,

2 block exchange blocks made and mailed,

2 quilts quilted and bound for other quilters,

20+ stemware coasters made,

120 spiderweb blocks finished and trimmed,

6 tops quilted and bound

...so I guess it wasn't too bad.

I am hoping to do better for the rest of the year but I am sure it will never be as much as I am hoping to do!

More Recuperation Needed!

This week my house needs the recuperation! I didn't do much around here last week as I worked on quilts and getting ready for the quilt show. I quilted and finished 4 quilts last week! Then I sort of trashed the sewing room and the rest of the house getting things for the show. And after the show I just brought all the quilts, etc. in and dumped it. I think all the quilts are put away but the sewing room, that is another story!

First, here are three of the quilts I got finished before the show. These are all ones that I had available for sale if anyone was interested. One of the others I finished was just quilting and binding for a friend but it was hanging in the show also.

The show itself went very well. Lots of people came and lingered. Overall we raised about $600 for the American Cancer Society! I will admit that I prayed for rain so people wouldn't be able to work in their yards but I don't think that is so wrong, is it? I never got around to taking pictures once all the quilts were hanging but I took some during set-up and you can see those here.

Catching Up

I am back home and almost recuperated from my time as a single mother of 2 little ones! I had a great time with the kids but boy do they wear you out! Their parents had a good time in NYC though it was too short (for them, not me!). I decided to make a detour on my way home to my sister's house to help my niece celebrate her 18th birthday. I even had the honor of making her pirate duck birthday cake.

I left there at 8 AM on Saturday and got home about 1 PM and fell on the bed exhausted! After a little rest my husband took me out to dinner and a movie.

Yesterday it was church in the morning and after a second cup of coffee I got two more quilts basted and ready for quilting. Today I hope to get at least one quilted and maybe two. I would like to have all three done before the quilt show on Saturday.

Here are pictures of the quilts I've gotten finished since the quilt retreat. I got the quilting done while my granddaughter was here and finished up the bindings while watching the kids at their house. This first one is a baby quilt. The large squares are made from some golfing bear fabric I have had for a long time.
This is a fun wall hanging from the book Dare to be Square. I am sure I will make more from this pattern.Here is another baby quilt. This one is an adaption of the Chatterbox pattern in the Dare to be Square book. I used some sock monkey fabrics that were given to me a couple of years ago. And lastly, this is a table topper made from fabrics my daughter gave me for Christmas a couple of years ago. It will be on the trunk we use as a coffee table in our living room. It is another adaption from Dare to be Square. Well, time to get busy at the quilting machine!

Look what I made!

This is what I have gotten done while I have been watching the kids. Owl hats for both kids. They seem pretty pleased.

Whirlwind

Wow! I am finally getting a moment to breathe but only a moment! Had a great time at the quilt retreat and got 5 of my 7 projects done. That is pretty good! That is just the tops but a start. I had a bit of a cold but it didn't really slow me down. Here are a couple of pictures of the tops on the wall.

My daughter and son came up to the camp on Sunday to bring my granddaughter up so she could come home with me for a week. That explains my lack of posting this past week! I was lucky to read other people's blogs and my email and Facebook posts but that luck did not extend to writing blog posts! That little girl kept me busy from the time she got up until she went to bed and then I was ready to sleep too!

I did get some crocheting done - several pairs of mittens - and a bit of quilting but not too much. I had to fit it in when my little one was napping or playing outside. I did finish off this little quilt. It was one of the projects from the retreat.Its home is on the old trunk we use as a coffee table in our living room. I got three more of the tops from the quilt retreat quilted and I will post pictures once I get the bindings finished this week (I hope!).