January 11th Already

Happy New Year

Yes, I feel like a pathetic blogger/quilter and for someone who is unemployed, it's even sadder.  All the time in the world and not getting organized.  Oh well, this too shall pass.  I truly believe busy people get more done and having a job keeps me on a schedule that I like.  I continue to apply and interview and I'm confident that the right opportunity will present itself.  In the meantime........

I have been working on all my own projects and have made some headway in the clean up of the sewing room.  My Sisters Choice is 35% bound and I continue to take a few stitches at a time.  With all the football this weekend, I'm confident it will be completed before bedtime on Sunday.

 There ended up being 81 blocks set on point and the finished quilt is approx 100 x 100.  I chose to bind it with scrappy blacks, I really thought it needed a frame to finish it off.  All the shirtings were swapped out as well, so the variety of them is fabulous.  Quilts made from swaps have the potential to be amazing.   This will be taken to Arizona and go on  the spare bed at my fathers winter home.  I've claimed it as my room, as I'm  the one who visits the most often.

The center 9 patch blocks were from an online swap and the variety of color and print is amazing in this piece.  I absolutely LOVE this quilt and I'm glad the final home for it is where I can enjoy it for a few days per year.  It might just spend a few nights on my bed at home before it travels south.

With a busy top and lots of seams, an all over texture is the perfect pattern for this.  The original plan was to hand quilt it, but I think that's my plan on all my tops! *insert belly laugh here*

If you are a football fan and your team is still in the hunt, I wish you tv time and lots of luck this weekend!
I will be stitching and cheering on the Seahawks!
Sharon

Sisters Choice Revisited

I've looked around my sewing room and decided it was time to get these blocks into a quilt top.  I think I used up my piecing mojo in Feb and March when I was frantically making two class samples.  I kept the petal to the metal and now I'm finding total zen in my hand applique and hand quilting.  However, sitting on my butt for hours and hours does nothing for the old joints and bones.

last week

This is just loaded with glorious colors and prints, I've said it before, a swap is the best way to get all these great prints and colors. Or one could just go sewing at Kathie's house!.

First half together

 I'm making headway on piecing the second half.

Second half on the design wall this morning

I had to make a few more blocks, that's because the 81 blocks I had weren't enough as I got a little carried away in the setting of the blocks. I'm not sure how big this is going to finish at, but I'll keep you posted. 
I am lucky have some of Kathie's fabric in a few blocks. 

 Don't you just love these fabrics?  The two pieces in the 9 patch came from Kathie, I think this is now my favorite block. Every time I look at the blocks, I find a new favorite one! Is it possible to only have one favorite when there are 85 blocks in your quilt?  I think not.

 And a final picture that I had in my files.  Here is my dad with his baby. She is such a sweetie!

I'm still poking along with this Sisters Choice top, and I think this one will be called Unemployment Enjoyment!  My goal is to have this into a top by the end of the day and cross it off my list.  This, and a plethora of other things are on that list.

Sharon

Decisions, Decisions.

It's fabulous to be at this point. I'm now in the decision making stage with all the blocks. Do I straight set them 9x9 for a 90 x 90 top?

or set them on point for a 98 x 95 top with 22 blocks left over for a small quilt?

There is more work to set it on point, but this hasn't been a fast project anyways.
So what's your preference, straight set or on point?
Sharon

Bloomin' Tree

Happy Easter. 

It's that time of year when this tree "blooms" for all the neighbours. I'm so glad people still make an effort!

Show and Tell from our guild meeting on Tuesday.  Jan H., our resident applique expert, showed her "Never Enough Cherries" quilt.  Pieced, appliqued and quilted by her.  No doubt she has ribbons for this piece.

JT2 met Sat morning.  Big shout out to Tracy for demo'ing her hand piecing techniques.  I think we all learned something from you.  It motivated me to start my Grandmas Compass block last night. 

With our JT2 group, I decided to have a drawing for those who had the quarter section together at the meeting following the instructions on how to put each quarter together, but I hadn't expected the degree of difficulty and time that the blocks would be.  But there's always a keener in the group *wink*
Beautiful!

And a close second, look at this one being done in pink and brown. 
Spectacular!

Close up of her hand embroidery.

I'm still working away on my Sisters Choice, here are 10 of the last 20 blocks.

I've been making the sashing stars with Bonnie Hunter's leaders/enders system and it has been amazing.  I'm on the home stretch, my last piles of pieces are ready to go. I just need to find some time to do some piecing on my Red and White JT2. Then these babies will be ready to sash the 9 patches and my 81 blocks will be finished.

Speaking of time, good things come to those who wait.  Carol at Fabric Etc ordered this 12 wt Aurifil for me and we were wondering if they were still picking the cotton for the thread.  It arrived, it's the PERFECT color, and soon it shall become the cherry stems on my BTCT.  Once that part is done, I can trim down and piece the center. Again, time factors into this statement!

Speaking of time, my buzzer just went off, which means it's time for me to step away from the computer and get in front of the longarm.  I've got about 2 more hours and I'll be finished a king quilt for my customer.  Thank goodness the strong, young man showed up and mowed and edged my yard yesterday while I was out playing with my quilting buddies!

I can see blue sky for the second day in a row, dare we think spring has arrived in the Pacific NW?  I'm sure all the Easter egg hunters are glad to see sunshine.
Have a fabulous day!
Sharon

Bouncing Around

I finally am cutting into this FQ bundle of brushed home spuns. Using Primitive Muslin, color Pie Crust as the background, each FQ will produce two 12" liberated stars. 25 for each quilt. Yes, I'm making two quilts at the same time with the same fabric. Both will be gifted, one to my cancer surgeon when I graduate his 5 year plan (2014) and one for the Hospital Foundation to raffle off for funds for a digital mammography machine.

I've been making the sashing pieces as leaders/enders, so I finally had enough for another stack of 10. Making headway on this one, Sisters Choice, and I'm still loving it when I took out the stack of 9 patches this weekend.

Couldn't resist these charmers, I finished up the 1/2 square triangles I made last week. Using the sheets of paper, you get enough for seven blocks. I'm sure there will be more sewn on a future sew day. Just what I need, another WIP!

You may have seen a few of these around blogland. JT2 (Just Takes 2) is going to be a great skill builder for some and for others, a great refresher on techniques that we maybe don't use that much . My first set is at the LQS where we are going to meet once a month. If there is enough interest, a second group may be formed so check with Carol if you are interested.

And finally, a finished top. After auditioning all the possible colors for a border, I ended up with blue. Binding is made (same fabric) and the quilt is hanging in the "to be quilted" closet. 

I LOVE this quilt, now that it's together.

All the customer quilts I've done lately have been large and the one on my machine is no exception. (pics in next post) I bounced from the studio to my sewing room, back and forth, all day and worked on all the above projects. Yes, I took time out to walk my dog, the weather finally broke and the worst we had was wind on our walk, I'll take that over the rain any day.
Hope you all had a great weekend and got in some sew time.
Sharon

Counting and Sorting

This is what I do when I get over 1/2 way through a project. I start counting and sorting all the pieces. Then I start to break it down into sections. If I get 40 sashings done, then that's 10 blocks.....
If I make 40 sashings, I need how many corner blocks?.....
Then I start making piles and count.

So far I've got 51 blocks made.

I've decided on 9 x 9 blocks for this top, that will finish it out at 90 x 90 and that's perfect for my bed. So I need to make 40 more blocks. I've got the centers finished thanks to an online swap.
Now to make all the sashings with the star points.

I've sorted and counted and I'm good on all sections.

Now to find the time. I like making these sections using them as leaders and enders, makes this part of the project a little less tedious.
Oh, so maybe I have to start a new project!
Are you starting anything new this weekend?
Sharon

Light at the end.....

August 11, block is prepped and a couple of leaves have been turned and stitched.

August 23, I've been packing this piece all around with me. I get 15 - 20 minutes of stitching at lunch, a few minutes here and there at home, and I'm almost finished.  There is one more "corner" piece, the ones with all the fingers, and that bottom layer with the fingers takes me about an hour to stitch down.

On Point??

Straight sets??

As I move along with customer quilts, I always take a few minutes before and after longarming to work on a project.  This has been the one that's gotten the attention the past few weeks.  Slowly, but surely, it's coming along.  I've working on the 3rd set of 10, I have a stack of sashing with corners piled up beside my machine and a tupperware container of the 1/2 sq tri's that I have been cutting off. 
I'm going to have to look at the math with the on point, it might turn into a carport cover! Maybe some night stand covers with the extras?  I'm a long way from that point, so I'll just keep sewing along!
Hope you've got to sneak in a few minutes of sewing, it really does all add up!
Sharon

Six Sisters

Here are six more of my Sisters Choice. 19 done and 53 more to go! These are my "whenever" blocks. I'm making the star points as leaders and enders, then when I have a stack of them, I make the blocks. Having the 9 patches all ready to go from the swap is certainly making this project far more doable.

I also have way too much fabric, I've got bolts of striped fabric I bought years ago for this exact project. Fast quilts for someone. Think about it, you just cut up squares, sew them back together and you have a fun top for someone who really needs one. Add a star block or 9 patch here and there, that would add an unexpected element to the top. I'm sending off a few bolts to my friend to cut and sew, I'll quilt and bind.

Hope you get some sewing time in this week.
Sharon

It Only Took 5 Years

These were pre printed pillow case panels that I purchased back in the winter of 2005. I stitched them and then decided I wanted to make pillows out of them.  Fast forward to about 2008 when I purchased the backing, a creamy yellow w/red toille print in a home dec fabric.  I put the zipper in the backing, then sewed the back and the front wrong sides together, added binding to the quilted side, turned it and hand finished it just like  a quilt.

So here we are, pushing on into the spring of 2011 and I have the pillows finished.  My gal pal Muriel came over a few weeks ago and we got the zippers in and this weekend I did the assembly. The good part was that the pillow forms were 1/2 price last weekend at Joann.

I also did a bit more piecing on my Sister's Choice top. Here are four more blocks, I have about 60 more to go. This is a "whenever" project, so blocks will get made "whenever".

I guess you have figured out that my camera surfaced. Can you believe I lost it in this?

I just dove into my red and white/cream scrappy blocks, I can't imagine working on anything else right now.
Sharon

Quilting out of Boxes

For those who think I've abandoned my blog, I'm still here! As much as I'd like to post every day, not enough is happening that is blog worthy on a daily basis. I'm at a stage of several projects where there is still a lot of work to be done before there will be finishes, so I thought I'd share a few things that are in progress.
Beyond the Cherry Tree is a 25 BOM. Here is the box that I am working from.

I started after 12 months had been posted. I've been able to do 2 per month and here are the first six blocks.

 I think January is going to get the best of me as block #7 still needs about 40  5/8" circles sewn on. I keep poking away at it.  I thought this was a lot of circles, then I saw the pattern posted this month.....100+ grapes. Yikes!

The second box I'm working from is the 9 Patch swap I did through a Yahoo group.  I have 72 block centers that are all civil war repro's and I'm working on the sashing. I'm using shirtings and black or navy for the star points.

I needed to cut something like 550+ 2 1/2 " dark squares for the corners.  I'll end up with this many bonus 1/2 sq triangles that will finish out at 1 1/4".  They are getting trimmed and tossed into another box.
I've got seven blocks done.  I'm loving this pattern, it's a Bonnie Hunter pattern, Sisters Choice

This last box is the fourth piece I've made from this pattern.  I have also quilted a few tops for customers from this pattern.

Yup, it's also a Bonnie Hunter pattern, Pineapple Blossoms

I want to make this for my bed so I need 100 blocks for a 90 x 90.  So far I have 10 finished, but I work this pattern in rounds.  Currently I have 5 stacks of 10 blocks all in various stages.  For some reason I feel like I make more progress doing it this way.  This box sits on my sewing table, so whenever I sit at the machine, something is done on this project. I use this for my "leaders and enders" when I'm working on anything else. Every strip brings me closer to a finished block. Working on this gets me excited about my trip to NYC! I have also just loaded a blue and cream version of this onto my longarm and will post some pictures when it's finished.
So even though my blog has been a bit quite lately, not to worry, I'm stitching away in my corner of the world. 
Sharon

Bouncing Around

It's been a mixed bag of projects that have gotten some attention this New Years weekend. I've bounced  from machine quilting, hand quilting, piecing and hand applique.This one is for a special someone.
No kidding that quilting makes the quilt. Here is the before....

And after. I'm almost done, I have about another hour to finish, then add the binding. I turn the binding and finish  by hand, that's my favorite part of making a quilt.  This one already has a label, I remembered to add it to the back before I loaded it on the machine.

Speaking of hand work,

This prompted me to start the machine quilting yesterday afternoon. I am now on round two of the Baptist Fans, so I'm going to bind this today. I did a scrappy shirting binding, it will just make it more portable with the binding on.

And when I felt like sitting at my DSM, I have worked on a few of the sashing pieces for this block.  2 done, 70 more to go.  This project requires a LOT of cutting. 288 sashing pieces, 288 corner squares, and 576 dark corner squares! The upside is that I'll end up with 576 bonus 1/2 sq triangles that will finish at 1 1/4" for a later project.

This is Sisters Choice by Bonnie Hunter. The center 9 patches were from my Nov swap through this Yahoo group. It's called a Nickel swap group, but it's so much more than that. It's worth checking out if you are into swapping 30's and Civil War prints and blocks.
And my shadow all weekend. Because I her, I have to get dressed and move my feet. We did a 3+ mile walk yesterday, it was beautiful, cold and sunny. We'll be doing it again today!

Yes, she has her own quilt!

I love 3 day weekends!
Sharon