Great Givaway

Click on over and check out the great giveaway at Canton Village Quiltworks. I haven't won anything on a giveaway yet, so this would be a great time to start. She has some great quilt market photos to view while you are there.

Scraps, Scraps, Scraps

While talking with Subee, she mentioned that she has all her bolts of fabric from before scrap quilting. I began to think about whether I would ever emerge from scrap quilts. It all started when I found Bonnie many years ago. I don't know if I can go back!! At first it was a goal to use up all the fabric that I had organized in my scrap bins. Well folks, I have been sewing with only scraps now for about 5 years. I don't see my scraps depleting any and I am OK with that. When I look at planned quilts, they generally don't appeal to me. I may emerge from this at some point, but I don't think it will be any time soon.

I have been pondering something Bonnie said about keeping the scrap bin "fresh". I was failing miserably at this one. There were some real "ugly" fabrics in there that I never seem to grab when making a quilt. These were mostly from my pre-quilting days and before I discovered the wonderful feel of quilt shop fabric. I decided it was time to purge. My children already took care of purging my 1 1/2" bin, so I moved on to the 2" bin.
This is what my 2" strip bin looked like before I started. It was organized, but it was full. It was full of fabrics that were given to me a very long time ago. There were also a lot of fabrics from my rescue mission that I blogged about some time back.





This is the bin after I went through and pulled out all the "what was I thinking fabrics" and "gee where did this come from" and the"wow I don't think I can cut this small enough to be pretty" It is hard to see a reduction even after I pulled out the "not so pretties". Does it look any emptier?

Next I went to my tub of fabrics that I had pulled from my stash.

These were leftover fabrics from previous charity quilts, fabric purchases from before I really knew what I was doing, and perhaps some clearance items that didn't work out so well. I know everyone has these whether they want to admit it or not!

I took this yardage to the cutter and cut it all into 2" strips. Have I mentioned how much I love my Studio cutter!! There was at least 10 yards in this pile. It is amazing how things add up. I decide to make a toothbrush rug with my 2" strips to replace the rug in my kitchen that is starting to show some serious wear. I don't know how far these 20 yards of fabric will take me, but they weren't doing me any good cluttering up my scrap bin. I like to have something portable to do when I am playing taxi mom (currently 6 days a week). At some point this rug will be too large to be portable, but I have it started! Sydney commented that she thought I was going to make a "pretty" rug. Her idea of pretty is color coordinated. Maybe I will be able to convert her someday! I think it will look fabulous in my kitchen. Here is the start. It may take me a year or so to get it completed, but the one I made with my 1 1/2" strips went really fast. I don't want my rug as large as the current kitchen rug. This rug was given to me by my sister when she remodeled her kitchen many years ago. It has had a long and good life.

One 40" strip does about 6" of length on the rug. I'm not sure how far this yardage will take me, but I am sure I can find more to cut up. If I was buying yardage for this rug, it would be quite expensive.

I feel confident that everything in my 2" bin is now usable.

I'm glad it's Friday

Even the dog is ready for Friday! He is guarding the monkey hoping that someone will come after it and initiate a chase.

I don't know about you, but this week has been really long for me. I think it was the lack of sun that made me tired. My blog has been really boring lately because I haven't found the time (or energy) to turn on the sewing machine. I did try a really good and semi-nutritious smoothie for lunch. My daughter brought the recipe home from school.

Pumpkin Yogurt Cheesecake Shake

1 14-ounce can pumpkin chilled
3 ounces reduced fat cream cheese (I used regular)
1 6 or 8 ounce container low-fat vanilla yogurt
2 cups milk
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
graham cracker crumbs to sprinkle on the top!

Dump everything into the blender and process until smooth. Pour into glasses and sprinkle with graham cracker crumbs . (It would be tasty with whipped cream added before the crumbs, but that sort of defeats the nutritional value)

Plenty of vitamin A, Calcium, protein, and Fiber. It was a big hit with all the little people at my house today. I will be making these again. Let me know if you try these. I am curious what you think!

Interesting Blog

Well I happened upon another great blog that I thought I would pass along. If you browse around you will find some nice tutorials and a daily shopping special. Take a look and see what you think. If you need some more fabric, check out the daily special they post on the deal a day button.

http://blog.missouriquiltco.com/

I spy a retreat...

I know I mostly have local followers of my blog, so I thought I would post this. Hop on over to this blog and check out the retreat that is being planned for next October (yes, 2010). What could be more fun than a retreat in Shipshe. If you go to the hotel webpage, there is a cool slideshow that shows the accomodations well.

http://threadsofmine.blogspot.com/

Lovely Log Cabin

I am delivering this quilt to my customer today. I had a terrible time with the thread. I used YLI on the top and Aurifil on the bottom. I have used YLI before with success, so I don't know what the problem was. I thought maybe it was a tired check spring, but I quilted 2 more quilts after this one with no problem. It will remain a mystery.

A Finish!

I have to say, I worked my tail off on this one. Ok, I know, I had the shirts for several years, but when I really decided to do the quilt, I got it done quickly. It took soooo long to trim the shirts and get the logos centered that I hope I never do another one of these. I have to thank my non-blogging friend Char for suggesting that I map the quilt out on graph paper before I started the project. That was a big help, and it helped me to keep things on track. My other non-blogging friend Eleanor hand sewed the binding for me in one day (or I never would have met my deadline). I picked the solid colors from a spool of ribbon my oldest DD insisted I purchase. This was given as a wedding gift to my niece. I thought I would at least get a shocked call, but I was mistaken. I quilted it with a medium stipple. I was nervous that the thread would break or I would have tension problems. Some of the shirts had really thick paint. The quilting fairy was by my side - I had perfect tension and not a single thread break