Ooooops!

Not alot of sewing going on here these days . . .

Too much of this . . .

Has resulted in this . . .

So now there will be this . . .


And probably more than one . . .

Workshop in Progress - February 23, 2011

It's Wednesday so it must be time to play

Workshop in Progress!

(Thank you Cheryl)

I have been collecting fabric for a couple of weeks for a new quilt.

I went to my LQS, my not so LQS,

and to large fabric chain store.

Large fabric chain store shall go un-named for reasons sited below.

I usually don't buy fabric at rather large fabric chain store,

but they had some things I don't see other places,

so I gave it a whirl.

I bought quarter yards.

I never have a plan. I just jump in.
I started cutting up all those lovely quarter yards into 4 1/2" squares.
That should work right? 9" is a quarter yard . . .
My LQS always cut a little extra . . .
Their fabric was fine.

It was rather large fabric chain store that disappointed.
Most of the fabric was cut at 8" and not very straightly!

But . . . this could work for me. I cut the leftover from the quarters at 4 1/2" x 2 1/2"
and then pieced them into the squares.
Not sure what I'm going to do next, but it's all cut and ready to be something.
How do you approach a new project?
Do you plan it all out and know exactly where you are going?

Or do you just jump into a whirl of cutting and sewing and see what happens?



Today, Cheryl asked us what we do for thread storage.

I have two racks that sit on top of my fabric bookcase.

I try to keep same colors together.

Bobbins are stored on this little magnetic rack so they don't roll around.

Some are in the sewing box right behind it.

I don't keep the spool and the bobbin together.

So that's what's cooking today.

What are you working on today?

Sunday Projects #16

This Sunday there was alot of mindless picking up

and wandering around. Cabin fever baby!

We got a taste of spring and then got slapped back to winter reality.

That's okay, I know the warmer weather has to arrive at some point!

Did some playing around today.

In the vein of the disappearing nine patch block,

I took out this pinwheel block that was a little too big

and decided to see what I could come up with.

It's too large for the quilt I'm working on,

and funny enough I was thinking about how to cut it up while

I was trying to fall asleep last night.

I know, I need a life. hahahaha.

I picked a random number of 2 inches to take off of each side.

I kept the right and left side as one length instead of making little squares in the corners.

(Thinking now I should have made the corners and turned them too.)

Then I rotated each piece so it would contrast the center pinwheel.

Nice huh?

I attached the short sides first.

Then realized the long sides would be too long.

I cut off half an inch from the center seam on those pieces.







Here is the finished block.

I think this is going into my orphan block box for my next orphan quilt.






I also cleaned up my fabric, well some of it . . .


Before . . .


Such a mess.



I think if a tackle one area of my sewing room at a time

I can get things under control.


After . . .

It won't last long, but it looks nice for now.

So what did you do today? Clean out a closet?

Finish a quilt? Make a cake?

Hey! Invite me over if you made a cake!

Finally some warmth!

Today the sun was shining and the temperature was in the 60's!!

Can you believe it?

I headed into the city for the last of my orphan block quilt classes.

Such a great day to be in the city!

My top is complete!

Seems like everyone likes my toppling tree the best.
I have met some really fun women in this class
and we are going to try to take another class together soon.
Nothing like bonding with other creative types!



As I was walking down 25th street . . .


Look what I saw! The vintage clothing store had mermaids in the window!


Then I walked down to Lion Brand Yarn Store.
I have never been to their store before,
very inviting.

A big lion on skates in the front window.

Lots of yummy yarn everywhere you look.

And fabulous sunflowers on the wall!

See their petals falling down?

Makes me feel like spring and summer are really on their way!

How did you enjoy your winter melt day?

Sunday Projects #15

Another chilly Sunday!

I did go for a nice long walk with a friend down by the water.

Nice to catch up and get some fresh air at the same time.

I did a very little bit of cleaning . . .

Some laundry . . .

I even went to the grocery store! hahaha.

Then I crawled up to the attic and finished off this beauty!

I am calling this quilt,

"Leftovers, it's what's for dinner"

I am very pleased with how this top turned out.

I think I will keep the quilting simple and stitch in the ditch.

I also tidied up my scrap bin, it was over flowing!

Over at NYC Metro Mod blog, we are being encouraged
to show our sewing spaces.

If you pop over there, you can see where everyone in this group sews!


What were you up to this Sunday?

Color

I don't know about you, but I am craving colors these days!

Some new yarns I bought for another blanket.

This blanket is almost done, and I loved doing it,
so another one is in the works . . . .

The towels at Target grabbed my eye . . .

Some new fabrics I had to have . . .

(I only bought 1/4 yards, trying to behave!)

I treated myself to some rain boots.

I have a really hard time finding ones that fit over my rather

luscious calf muscles . . . hehehe

And of course this wonderful quilt top

has been giving me lots of color inspiration!

Hoping to finish piecing this baby tomorrow!

Where do you find your color inspirations??

Sunday Projects #14

A great Sunday for sewing!

I am now working on a new quilt for a class

I am taking at the City Quilter.

The class is about using your orphan blocks and creating a unique quilt top.

After I saw Victoria's kitchen sink quilt,

(boy she is getting alot of ink, um pixels here this weekend! hehehehe)

I was very interested in learning how design and make this kind of quilt.

This is what I laid out in the classroom.

Judy, our teacher, gave me quite a few of her

orphan blocks to add in.

Just makes it that much more fun!

(This picture keeps loading on it's side . . . )

Hahaha. now I can't change the font size back.

I hope you can all see well enough to read this.

I so need a cute techie to help me with this stuff!

At my house I have a design floor, not wall, so not as easy to move things around.

So, (thank goodness, back to larger type.)

I started to put it together and it was a challenge I have to say.

I put together areas that seemed to be easier to piece first.

As I went to more difficult intersections,

I kinda of ripped the design all apart

and started rearranging.

I have been piecing filler strips and areas,

adding colorful fabric to make things a tad bigger.

It's a bit like playing tetris! I was pretty good at that,

not 14 year old boy good at it, but good enough.

So this is how it looks today,

I'm sure it is going to change as I piece it.

I'll keep you "posted."

Sometmes I crack myself up!

Hope you had a creative Sunday!

NYC Metro Mod Quilters Meeting

Today was our bi-monthly NYC Metro Mod Quilters Meeting!

What fun. New faces and old friends.

And lots of beautiful quilts!

Some of my pics didn't come out well, but if you check over here,

I'm sure there will be quite s few shots up in the next few days.

Margaret brought Jessica's round robin quilt and it is stunning in person!

There are three people in line to take it next.

Can't wait to see what happens to it.

These blocks are for our February challenge quilt,

Quarter Curved blocks.

There was much discussion of placement

and lots of different versions of how it should be laid out.

This is the final look and everyone agreed it was wonderful.

It was so much fun to have so many talented people standing around

offering ideas and seeing what worked.

Amy is going to piece and quilt this beauty!

We also did alot of arranging on our December Challenge quilt.
This month everyone brought a magenta-y piece of fabric
to offset the cheddar blocks.

We still need a few more pieces to be filled in and Kim will piece it all together.

And one of our new members, Terri, brought these fan blocks . . .
They are all hand pieced.
It's her first quilt.
She has 47 of them.
Quite the little over achiever! Hahaha.

She wanted advise on how to set them, and I think she was thrilled with
what the group had to say.


This is the beauty of getting a group of talented, gifted
laid back people all together bouncing ideas around.

It was a wonderful meeting!

I know I can speak for everyone when I say,
Thank you to Victoria for hosting the event.
And thank you to Amy and Victoria for starting this group in the first place!

What a treat!

Workshop in Progress - February 2, 2011

Time to step back into the Workshop at Naptime Quilter!

It has taken me two weeks to decide on the border and finish the top of my disappearing nine patch quilt.

Thanks to all for the wonderful comment and suggestions!

The general consensus was that the blue was too dark

and too much of a contrast

against the explosion of color.

I whole heartedly agree.

This seemed to be the least offensive shot of all my choices.

I played with other options and found a rather nice

magenta batik that worked very well.

I also tried the piano key approach that was suggested.

I cut my 5" squares in half,

(because I wasn't cutting anymore stash!)

but they just didn't seem wide enough to make a statement.

They won't go to waste though,

I will piece them into the back of this lovely lavender

fabric to finish off this wedding quilt.

I love the hatch lines in here, looks like doodles.

So are you ready for the finished border???

Are you wondering what I choose?

Without further delay, drum roll please!

Ta-dah! I made more disappearing nine patch blocks as suggested by one kind reader,

and they did the job! My magenta border contains the chaos,

and the extra row of blocks finishes it off nicely.

My question for you this week is about batting . . .

I usually use Warm & Natural cotton batting, but this week tried a wool batting.

I use the spray baste with the cotton and it works really well,

but on the wool, it just didn't hold at all.

Half way through quilting, I was getting puckers and sliding,

so I had to stop and pin everything in a million places.

The quilt came out better than I thought it would when I was cursing

about the sliding, so I am happy.

Here is the question, what is your preferred method of basting?

on another note . . . .

Has anyone seen the rascally ground hog?

What's the verdict?

Yeah I know dream on and don't put your shovel away!