The Result of Thanksgiving Eating!

 My tummy is still too full. Of course it is because I keep eating leftovers. We pretty much cleared out the refrigerator yesterday. We each being true “fooders”, our term for our eating habits, we are not as sophisticated at “foodies”, would announce to each other each time we finished something out of the fridge. As an example, Gene would say “I made room by eating the rest of the pumpkin cheesecake.” While I was more like “I finished off cheese stuffed celery.” Anyway, tonight will be the infamous, and I love it, Turkey and Noodles.Not much to show today. A quick pix of the Row Along, casually pinned on the wall. See the “leaves?” The newest row.

 

 And then a snapshot of the scrappy rows. I think I will do a red row of scrappy this week. And then on to making some Christmas gifts.

 

Remember, I can’t start any NEW quilts but that doesn’t mean I can’t do blocks! Yesterday was spent doing some sneak peek blocks for Block Lotto. I can’t show those yet, it’s a sneak peek. I’ll show them to you next week. At first I thought “nice little block I’ll do a few for the peek and then be done with it”. After doing five and putting them on the wall, I liked them together more than I had originally thought, so I continued to do more, finishing at nine. Now after looking at them again, I think I need a few blocks with light colors being more dominant so today I will do three more. Maybe, come January, I will win the drawing. Keep your fingers crossed for me! I hope you found some time to relax and enjoy your hobby, or obsession in some cases, this past weekend.

Enjoy!
Toni

Turkey Day in Three~ And I've NOT Shopped

Okay, today will be the day. I will make myself make a list (ugh!) and go the store and actually shop for Thanksgiving day dinner. Hopefully people that had to shop this weekend, as they are not as fortunate at I (retired) did not deplete the stores. There is no way I would have shopped this weekend. Nor will you find me shopping on Black Friday!

Last week I said I would not be doing any new quilts until after the first of the year. That doesn't include swap blocks does it? I mean it's not like a whole quilt.  I found a group on Facebook that does a block swap everyother month. You only play when you have the time and like the block. The blocks for the current swap are Poinsettia's. You can make them any color that Poinsettia's currently come in. Looking that up, I found a rainbow of colors. I'm going to stick with reds, pinks and maybe a cream or two.  Here is the link:

 https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/quiltblockswap/

And here are my blocks so far:
 

 

Also, there is always someone that needs a little help. And right now Quilting for Kids is asking for block donations.

 http://www.flickr.com/groups/quiltingforkids/

I've volunteered to do two, purple and gold with a white wonky star center. The tutorial we are using is very well written and can be seen here:
http://mummastimetocreate.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/reverse-rainbow-starburst-block.html

Here are two blocks already turned in by volunteers, I've not done mine yet but will today.

 

     
If you have gold and purple scraps you might volunteer a block or two.

I did manage to decide on an arrangement and sew the flimsy from last week. 

Now when am I going to get that quilt repair done that I mentioned last week? My sis Joanne says "put on your big girl panties" and get it done. I think she meant ahead of these swap blocks! I WILL begin working on that project beginning Black Friday. Which would be worse on Black Friday? Shopping with hordes of people or repairing a quilt? For me it will be better to work on repairing a quilt! Even if that is not my favorite thing to do, it is better than shopping!

Don't forget, for more quilting inspiration, visit:

http://www.patchworktimes.com/  for Design Wall Monday.

 

Happy Turkey Day! Enjoy!   Toni

 

The Holiday are Coming! The Holidays are coming!

I"m sure everyone has noticed that the holidays are creeping right up on us. What does that have to do with quilting? For most people it means less quilting time. For me it means a promise to myself that I will not start any new quilts for the balance of the year. 

I have a big project to finish before Christmas. And it is not a new quilt. It is repairing an old one. I made a quilt for my son probably about 26 years ago. And then a few years ago my grandson, who just turned 18 took possession of this quilt. It went to wrestling meets and all of the kids activities. Earlier this year, at a wrestling meet, I said "I should take this quilt home and repair it." And so I did and here it sits. Here's a poor picture but you can see it has been well loved. (The spots are from the camera lens, not on the quilt)

My dilemma is this. How much do I repair it? Originally I was only going to repair the one seam that has pulled loose. But then many of the ties are missing so I should replace those. And I had used poly batting, should I replace that? AND the binding, whew!, I do much better bindings now; smaller, with good mitered corners. So between now and Christmas, I have some decisions to make. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. It does fill my heart with joy that this quilt has been so loved and cherished. What more could you ask for?

As for my other projects. I am going to let the flannel quilt sit idle for a while. I'm just not into the dark colors plus I have to find more flannel to match the leftovers that I've used.

My black and pink quilt top is finished. Remember, this tutortial can be found here:http://www.dontcallmebetsy.com/2012/01/star-crossed-block-tutorial.html

I have all the blocks done for my baby Crossroads Quilt,

https://www.threadbias.com/blog_posts/crossroads-block-tutorial

  

I'm just struggling with arrangement possibilities. I say "struggling" as many people think this is a fun part. While I don't. Here are some possibilities, thrown up pretty casually on the design wall. So, blocks of the eight colors? Rows of the eight colors? Diagonals either way of the colors? What?

 

 

Then there is the scrappy quilt rows I am doing.

 

 

These are from "scraps" versus strings. In my definition, scraps are USUALLY pieces less than 2 1/2 inches in width and less than 6 inches in length. Outside those dimensions they become strings or blocks cut to a predetermined size. Just waiting for the next scrappy project.

 

Then there is the Row Along on Flicker:http://www.flickr.com/groups/beeinmybonnetrowalong/ 

 All too cute, but what is wrong with this picture?  I will be unsewing this morning.

All in all, I'm sure you can see why I've said "No more quilt starts this year!"  Visit other quilters at:  http://www.patchworktimes.com/ and Design Wall Monday.

I hope you all are finding time to quilt!

Enjoy!
Toni

What have I been doing this past week?

I don't know! I spent quite a bit of time in the sewing room but I really don't have too much to show for it. I don't have any quilt finishes. Hopefully, as I blog the things I have done, I will feel more productive.

First there was the Block Lotto Sneak Peak. The nice thing about Block Lotto is you can choose to participate each month or not. It's simple. If you choose not to participate, you just don't get entered into the drawing.  If you do participate, you can make as few as one block or as many as nine blocks. And you can enter the drawing or just donate the blocks. There are different blocks and criteria aech month. Visit Block Lotto here:http://www.blocklotto.com/    To see clever versions of mugs and cups.  I made these four blocks month and I am donating them.

And then, there are many quilters asking that blocks be contributed so that quilts can be made for Hurricane Sandy victims. I chose to do some blocks for:

http://vesuviusmama.blogspot.com/2012/11/taking-action-wanna-help.html

 

Erin asked for 12 inch disappearing four patches using a floral and a co-ordinating tone on tone or solid color. She included a well written tutorial. I also did four blocks for that project.

 And I had told you I was going to finish two aprons. And here they are.

And then there was my scrap quilt. I've always loved everyone's "chaos" or "vomit" quilts but each time I started one, I just didn't like it. So now I'm going for a more organized approach to using up my little scraps. This is "little scraps" as opposed to my strips or my more formally organized bags of cut to size left overs. These scraps are all less than 6 inches long and less than 2 1/2 inches wide. When I sorted these by color I was suprised by how much green I had. Probably, at least, twice as much green as any other color.  Here are the beginning rows of this scrap quilt.

 

And lastly, I've have been nuts over little flying geese. When I made the flying geese for the Row A Long,  I wanted a wide variety of geese and sky. Remember this top row from last week?



To accomplish this, the method I used would create four "geese" of each fabric. So I made 48 geese for this row, all different but that still left me about 150 little triangle qeese. I didn't want to just put them in the scrap bins. I mean they were cut to size. So I've been making those triangles into geese also. I don't know what I am going to do with them. Wallhanging? Border on the Row A Long?  I don't know. I have 120, beyond the original 48, finished. Trimmed and everything. And yes, I am going to finish up the last of them too!

So, finishes? Not so much! But I am enjoying every minute of sewing time! I hope you are too!

Enjoy!
Toni