This week I combined two of my favorite things, rich autumn fabrics and string blocks. This is 18″ square, and will be the center to a small wall hanging. I think I’ll surround it with Candy blue, and bind it in a dark print.
I hope you’re playing with fabric this week!
I’m linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.
Yes, a bit of new fabric, but it’s necessary! The solids are Kona Water, Kumquat, Candy, and Bluejay.
And, of course, I finished the Coffee Quilt, so that more than offset the purchases.
This week: +5 yards, -7.5 yards
YTD: +119.5, -180.25
Net stash used in 2013: -60.75
I think I’ll get to my 100 yards destashed goal by the end of the year, don’t you? How are you doing?
Thank you to everyone who left such nice comments on my Blogiversary post yesterday! It was great to hear from you all.
I’m linking up with Sunday Stash Report at Patchwork Times.
I used the Labor Day Sew-In on Twitter ( #LDSI ) to make myself focus and get this quilt completed! On and off all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we sewed and tweeted away. Everyone else shared multiple finishes ( it seemed to me), but they encouraged me through the various steps and cheered me along. Monday morning I finished quilting the border and put on the binding. Yay!
Others agreed that we don’t enjoy piecing a large quilt back, but I really think the results were worth the work. Love this!
I quilted free-form feathers in all the card trick blocks using orange Highlights from Superior, and did a small stipple in dark brown Bottom Line on the espresso backgrounds.
In the borders, I outlined all the cats and books using smoke invisible thread. I swear by Superior’s Monopoly. I zoomed through the borders at a fast speed and never had the least bit of trouble with thread breakage. That’s very important because I can’t see well enough to rethread the needle with that darn transparent stuff! Honestly, I did not sew around every book; I “laddered” back and forth, alternating books, which I think still give the appearance of them all being quilted.
That border gave me fits. I had found three yards of the out-print-fabric on Etsy, and expected to have enough to use on the back, too. Au contrare. First I discovered that the rows of cats did not contain enough space for cutting and seams, so I had to sacrifice a row of cats every time I cut. Then I discovered that the rows were not all the same width. Sheesh. Who’s the nimrod who designed this? So, in two corners the border miters nicely, and in the other two there is no way. I feel that it looks as if I were careless, but it was the best I could do. I trimmed the outer edges in such a way that I think is looks matched, if you don’t look too closely. Oh, well. It is a great border print.
This turned out dark and rich and cozy. I think it will be just right for curling up with a good book, your favorite cat, and a glass of wine or cup of coffee. And one of my Christmas gifts is finished!
I’m linking up with Finish it up Friday on Crazy Mom Quilts.
With the Coffee Quilt finished during the Labor Day Sew-In on Twitter (pictures on Friday!), I was good and cut up all my scraps from this and a few past projects, and put away the piles of fabric that had been accumulated. Of course, my clean slate only lasted about twelve hours, but I felt virtuous.
One of my Getting it Done goals was some fall pieces for my shop. When I pulled out my fall fabrics (I have a little!), I found a ton of scraps to cut up and a lot of strings. I knew I wanted to use them for wall hangings, instead of the applique I did last year.
I designed this log cabin wall hanging on EQ7, to be made from rich fall prints with sky blue “chimneys”. I also worked out the math for a very different one I want to do with string blocks.
Now excuse while I go dive into those gorgeous scraps!
Hope you’re playing with fabric today.
I’m linking up with WIP Wednesday on Freshly Pieced.
I’ve been working at getting back to the sewing this week, making six more of the Card Trick blocks each day that I could get to the machine. All twenty-four for the center of the Coffee Quilt are finished, but I still need to assemble them and add the borders.
The only fabric that went out this week is 1.75 yards I used for these bandanas for firefighters in Idaho. Thank you, Jaye, for passing along this link.
This week: +0 yards, -1.75 yards
YTD: +114.5 yards, -172.75 yards
Net stash used in 2013: -58.25 yards
How are doing with your destashing? As we pass Labor Day, I know things will settle down and we’ll start to see some progress!
I’m linking up with Sunday Stash Report at Patchwork Times.
Yes, six new blocks, like this, for the Coffee Quilt. I will was all thumbs using the rotary cutter after so long away. I wasted some fabric, but eventually cut enough triangles to make these. Even managed to include some yellow Mirror Ball, one of my favorite fabrics. These blocks finish at nine inches. The weather looks to be cooling off, so I may get this top pieced before the month is out; quilted, I’m not so sure. Twelve more Cardtrick blocks
and then mitered borders.
My sewing machine is purring away after being cleaned. However, six blocks were all my back and shoulders could handle. Now to catch up some on reading blogs (don’t even ask how far behind I am on podcasts!)
How are you progressing?
I’m linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.
Twenty-six days and 5960 miles later, I am back where I started after our thirtieth anniversary car trip. DH and I rarely tent camp now, so this one was motels, restaurants, and picnic lunches.
We also stayed in, or at least dined in, all those great railroad lodges of the US and Canadian Rockies. Considering that, I was glad to return home weighing a half pound less and having walked over 50 miles, according to my Fitbit pedometer. And stairs. Did I mention we were on the third floor at Many Glacier Lodge?
We waded across the Mississippi at its source at Lake Itasca. We admired the beautiful farms of Iowa, and the plains and mountains, rivers, lakes, and glaciers.
The weather was moderate to very cool and crisp all through our trip. I wore jeans more often than I thought I would. And wool socks in my Columbia sandals are not only warm, they’re cushy like slippers. Even the plains were not too warm.
We discovered that there are many places where you can still be without phone service, and that not everyone’s idea of “WiFi”actually works.
I think this shot should become a quilt, don’t you?
We saw a lot of wildlife.
Much of the US side of the trip was a repeat of various other years, but the Canadian side was all new. Here is beautiful Lake Louise, but I could not get the turquoise color of the water to photograph.
The laundry’s been done, the house is presentable, I’ve preserved the most pressing vegetables from the garden and the blueberries we brought back from Michigan, and done the grocery shopping. Today I need to pay bills and vacuum my studio in preparation for my machine’s homecoming from the “spa”. Tomorrow, let the sewing begin!
Back from our Odyssey across America and Canada, and only 2 yards of fabric returned with me! I am happy to report that there are hundreds of quilt shops in the northern US and Canada, but I did not shop in most of them. DH kept saying, “Do you want to go in that shop?”, as if it would make up for the hours of staring at the plains or slogging through yet another museum or gift shop. I kept reminding him that I already own plenty of fabric. I did buy these pre-cuts at The Quilt Patch in Moose jaw, SK, with the idea of reproducing some of those plains or mountains in quilt form.
On return, I found that Timeless Treasures had sent me this Tonga Treat Mini as a thank-you for the quilts I donated to Hurricane Sandy Relief. Darn, batiks!
This week: +2.75 yards, -0 yards
YTD: +114.5 yards, -171 yards
Net stash used in 2013: 56.5 yards
How is your summer going? Getting to be time for back-to-school and some serious sewing!
I’m linking up with Sunday Stash Report at Patchwork Times.
Well. I did pretty well, considering I was only home the first three weeks of July. The only thing I didn’t do was finish piecing the top for the Coffee Quilt, and I made a good start on that. Also, the Log Cabin blocks were a bit of a bonus project.
July Goals
1. Piece top for SIL Christmas gift quilt. (Six blocks completed.)
2. Piece top for summer/beachy quilt
3. Take sewing machine in for service
4. Quilt beach quilt.
August Goals
1. Finish SIL’s Coffee Quilt top.
2. Quilt Coffee Quilt.
Only two goals in August, because I will only be home to two weeks. Fair enough?
How did yo do with yours? It’s okay to play some in the summer.
I’m linking up to Getting It Done at Patchwork Times.
No fabric came in, and none went out this week. I finished and arranged the log cabin blocks, ready to sew into a top, and I made decisions and sewed the first six blocks (of twenty-four) for the Coffee Quilt, so there should be some finishes late next month when I return from vacation and retrieve my machine from the “spa” where it’s being cleaned and adjusted. Now, if I can limit the fabric purchases during the trip, all should be well!
This week: +0 yards, -0 yards
YTD: +111.75 yards, -171 yards
Net stash used in 2013: -59.25 yards
I wanted to show you the wonderful vintage lamp I bought last month. I bought it locally as my friend was closing her shop in town, but you can see more of her great finds in her Etsy shop, Finders Keepers. This beauty has a very heavy base that no quilt will ever nudge off the table (as they do my plastic Ott Lite). The first extension is 22″ tall, and the second arm comes out another 12″. It turns and swivels and pours light anywhere in my studio. I’m happy.
Good luck on your destashing. Whatever you sew will be more than I will these next four weeks!
Linking up with Sunday Stash Report at Patchwork Times.
Evening in the Garden Quilts 