Denyse Schmidt Fabric Palooza

I did get a little bit of sewing in this month.  I am so much happier when I get even 10 minutes of sewing time in.  It truly is therapy for me.

My daughter is doing such a great job of blogging that I feel like I need to get busy so I am not an epic failure.  It is hard for me to believe that she has been gone for a month already.  It is very exciting that she selected textiles for one of her course subjects.  Maybe she will become a quilter some day after all!

I worked a little last weekend on borders (that was one of my goals for this month).  I have 2 borders attached to my log cabin quilt.  I am still deciding on a final border.  I am leaning toward the top border which is navy with a tan star design.  I also like the brown on the top right.  I love this log cabin setting with the stars.  I think it was worth the effort to finish the stars in the border (even thought it seemed like it took forever).  This quilt is on my UFO list, so I am happy to have the first 2 borders on it.  At one brief moment I thought about a pieced border. I decided there was enough going on in this quilt without adding a pieced border.

I have been hoarding my Denyse Schmidt fabrics from Joann's for several years.  I have made a few things with them, but I still have quite a collection.  I decided I would cut 10" off each print so that it would be easier to actually use them in a project.  Now I am on the hunt for the perfect projects.  When I last counted, I had over 90 prints.  My sister inquired as to what more than 90 DS fabrics looked like.  Here they all are stacked up.  

They look a lot more impressive when they are all spread out!!!  I divided them into 2 piles - Warm and Cool (a trick Ellen taught me long ago).  I think they look pretty amazing like this.  I have far more cool than warm.  I have used this trick to balance the color when arranging blocks.  

If  anyone has the dots in the lower left in the orange color, I am sure we can work out a trade.

Three More for January

I am trying to get ahead of the game with my aggressive goal of 35 UFO finishes this year.  I finished 2 more runners yesterday and a wall hanging that were carried over from 2013.  It feels great to not have these items reside on the UFO list.

This is from the X-Block class that I tought.

I am pleased with the quilting on this one.  My daughter Sydney commented that she liked the quilting.   I took that as an extreme complement

I am not sure the fiber content of this batting.  I think it was a sample batting that I won at a retreat.  It is super soft (feels like 100% cotton), but it doesn't have a lot of body to it.  I am curious how it will look after washed.

This is the last finish of yesterday.  This was also a demo for quilt group.  I quilted a pantogram of leaves on it.  I used signature thread called latte on it.  It was the perfect color to blend in with all the colors.

Today is another snow day for my kids.  I have two more quilt ready to go, but I am not sure I will get to them today.

Quilter on a mission - Watch Out!!

Design wall (floor) Monday

I decided to move forward with my tree skirt.  I don't have the pattern any longer, but I am quite certain I don't have my colors in the correct spot.  This seemed like the best option with the pieces I had. 

I have also been working on a container of stocking pieces from about 10 years ago.  These were already partially done, so I am completing them.  I like the colors still, but I have a much better understanding of scrappy now.  

I have 9 stockings in the stack. 

I am still organizing and packing for the upcoming retreat.  I am so excited!!

Check with July L to see what everyone else is showing off this week.

Retreating

I was asked if I quit blogging.  Well, I haven't, but I haven't been doing any sewing.  It was great to have some sewing time with friends this weekend. I worked on several things, but none of them were from the UFO parade.

I finished my braided runner flimsy that I used to demonstrate at class.  I think it looks very Irish (ND) if you ask me.

I put together this tree skirt for a wedding gift next month.  I am pleased that I was able to use the blue snowman scraps, and I had the border fabrics in my resource center.

I pieced this pillow top from scraps that my good friend Dottie gifted me.  

I made 2 more swoon blocks in an attempt to make my quilt not so pink,

I worked a little bit on this jelly roll pattern that I plan to do a little demonstration on.

I guess I didn't take a photo of the other quilt top I put together, so I will save that for another blog post.

I have never posted from my phone before.  I hope it goes well

Finishes from 2012

I just remembered to update my finishes page tab on the right side of my blog.  I was extremely excited to go through my UFO parade and look at all the quilts that have been completed.  I am up to 22 finishes!!  My goal for the year was 20 finishes from the list.  I have finished 1/4 of my UFOs in the first 7 months of the year.  I still have a long way to go, but this is encouraging.  I hope to have 1/3 of my UFOs done by the end of the year.  

At this rate....It will only take me 3 years to get caught up.   Come to think of it, that seems like a long time.  

January Finishes/February Goals

The master plan is 2 quilts/month from the "list" of UFOs 2013

My goals for January were:

1. Finish Spicy Spiral in Valentine's colors 
2. Add Borders to my Twister Quilt and Piece the backing
3. 10 FW blocks and post the tutorials online
4. Put the borders on the flannel quilt and piece the backing
5. Move one project to a new home

How did I do?  

I fell short on getting the FW blocks posted.  I have them done, but I haven't had a chance to get all the photos uploaded.  In addition to this list, I also:

• finished a second spicy spiral from the list 
• quilted the flannel quilt from number 4
• Put together the "8" quilt and added the borders

That gives me 3 finished for January!  (I consider giving the project away a finish)

How many new starts did I have in January?  - 1  This might be a record for me.  In addition, I just finished that quilt so it is not going to be going on the UFO list.

February is a short month, so I am going to keep my goals simple.  I do have a retreat this month which should help a little bit.  

Flannel Quilt 

Crazy 8 Quilt

1. 10 FW block tutorials
2. Quilt the Crazy "8" quilt, and bind
3. Put the binding on the quilt in #4 
4. Piece the backing for the Monkey Tumbler quilt
5. Quilt the Aqua/Tan Quilt and bind

Weekend Progress

I had a lot of fun in my studio this weekend.  I worked on my January goals and remained focused.  Maybe there is hope for me yet!  I added both the borders to my twister quilt.  I am very pleased with the red border I chose.  I decided to also piece the backing so it would be ready to quilt.  I haven't made a quilt this large in a long time.  I used up a large piece of black fabric and some of the fabric that didn't work for the border.


All I have left on my January goal list is 10 Farmer's Wife Tutorials.  I hope to get those done this weekend at the library quilt retreat.

Stop over and visit Judy and see what other people are working on.

No Show Quilt Binding

I did a little demonstration last night at quilt group on No show quilt binding.  This was new to me because I am not a garment sewer.  To those that do garment sewing, you probably call this facing.  I basically used this super fabulous tutorial with great photos.  I quilted this quilt last year and it has been waiting for me to figure out the binding.  It is all ready for hand stitching and a hanging sleeve.

I plan to hang it in my studio to add a little color.

Right is sometimes wrong

 When I started this quilt, I didn't think I had anything in my resource center for the border.













 I found this fabric and I thought it would be just perfect for the border. As I got ready to cut the borders for this quilt, I thought I would hang it on the design wall first.

This is what I saw when I hung it on the design wall.  Yuck!  I didn't like it.  I am not sure if it is because it is too busy or if there is too much white.  Either way, I knew right away it wasn't right so I didn't cut it.

Back to the drawing board I went.  Funny thing is, the first thing I did was go to the computer and look for another one of those perfect pieces of fabric.  I found a few that I thought would work, but I decided to go to my studio and look before I made the purchase.   I found this piece, and I am much happier with how it looks.  It is red with a subtle black pattern.   It is all pressed and ready to cut this weekend.

It looks like the white will become part of the backing or used in another project.  I love the fabric, but it just wasn't right for this project.

Still working my plan

I am working from my January tasks.  I knew I was a list person, but my list of goals seems to be helping me remain focused.

I have the borders on the flannel top, AND I have the backing pieced.  For the last 2 years I have had on my goal  list to use up my flannel.  I failed miserably!  I have too much and I seldom pull it when putting fabrics together for a project.  This top was made from scraps, but the borders and backing came from the flannel mountain.  I can't notice a difference in the stack, but it is a start.  I have been looking through magazines for patterns that look to be flannel friendly.  If you know of any great patterns for this, drop me the link(s)


I think I will go ahead and quilt this even though it isn't on the goal list.  That will leave me with just 2 more tasks for January.

Tonight's task will be to measure the twister quilt that I pieced in 2012 at Shipshe and cut the border strips.

At one time I tried to work on my projects oldest to newest.  That really didn't work for me.  I am trying to pick projects for the month that I feel inspired to work on and go from there.  The flannel scraps are from at least 10 years ago, so they are properly aged.

My kids are always fighting over the flannel quilt that has the Thinsulate batting.  I plan on putting Thinsulate in this one too.  I love the loft and the warmth.  It is very similar to the Dream Puff from Quilter's Dream.

Somehow my helper managed to rest his head on my backing fabric as I was arranging the pieces.  You can see he is hard at work.

Another Topper

This pinning at night thing seems to be working for me.  I was able to get this top all put together without the borders in just a week.  This included re-work from poor workmanship.

I have pulled another project to work on.  I am saving the border work for a different time.  I will have a weekend of borders.  Is this called batch processing?


In order to please my daughter - who exclaimed I had nothing to hang on the wall for Christmas, I pulled some more leftover charms.  I think these pieces will never end!


I saw this pattern on a blog, so I

followed the link to Moda.  I won't have it ready for Christmas, but always get in the mood to sew for the holidays too close to Christmas.  Perhaps it will be finished for next year.  This pattern would make a great tree skirt also.  The patterns calls for this ruler, but if you have been practicing the take away method, you already know how to do this.  If you are still struggling with the, you may want to get the ruler to help you.

Picture Fix...I hope

Well, I found this great blog to help me with my out of space dilemma (I hope).  It took some time to find this site.  I was happy to hear that I was not alone in my "out of space" problem.  She has some great tutorials on blogging.  She referred me to this free photo editing website along with a great tutorial.

Hopefully this will help me have better pictures on my blog and also more memory.

This is the quilt I am focusing on this week.  If you've been with me for lots of years, you will recognize it.

Since my photo uploaded fabulously, I would have to say the tutorials were amazing.  By resizing and cropping my pictures before I upload them, they upload speedy quick too.

Thanks for stopping by.  I am back to seam ripping, pressing, and pinning.  I have learned so much since I started this quilt.

Inspired!!

Bringing out these old projects and working on them is very inspiring to me, yet I still can't focus on doing one project at a time.  I am excited to be getting to know these UFOs once again.  This is where my wheels started turning, and my excitement started building.  Wouldn't it be fun to have sort of a fashion show/parade of all my projects that I have hidden away in containers?

I thought this could have a multi-effect.

1. I could count all my unfinished projects so I knew exactly what I had
2. I would get reacquainted with what I needed to do to finish them
3. I could decide if I wanted to finish them or donate them - perhaps there is some stuff in my studio that I don't want to finish
4. I could prioritize and set some goals on what I want to finish in 2013 - which will once again be focused on finishing 
5. I could put binding fabric with each of my projects so I don't use it for something else

Binding was one thing that really hindered me this year.  When I put most of my projects away, I did not put the binding fabric with it.  Don't make this mistake!  Once fabric sells out, you are generally out of luck, or you will waste loads of time looking for the perfect binding to match.  Is there anyone else that would like to join the UFO parade?

I do realize - this is going to cause a huge mess in my currently clean studio.  And readers- don't judge me when I get over 50 (and I don't mean years old).