Oh My, Stars! :: A Finish

I am thrilled to have this one finished. I sewed the binding on at my retreat last weekend.

The top has been finished since June 2012. Click here to see the post where I showed the completed top. I started this project in January 2012.

I asked my friend Peg to quilt it on her long arm. She did a beautiful job. Here is a close-up so you can see the quilting better.

This counts as my UFO finish for February.

For details on this quilt click here to go to the Thought & Found blog which hosted the quilt along.

Retreat Report

I had a wonderful time at my retreat over the weekend. It was a nice break. I'll be really busy this week preparing for my store opening on the 15th. 

The mystery blocks this time were "hugs and kisses" blocks. Here are the two I made.

And this is the completed top.

One of the ladies will finish it and turn it in for our oncology project.

I only worked on two of the five or six projects I took with me. My main project was my Postcard from Sweden quilt. I showed you the fabrics I was using previously. Click here to see them all.

There was quite a bit of snow up at the retreat center so I took my project outside after I had a few rows together for a photo.

I came home with half of the top together and all but one row of HST units made. I will finish it up this week and get a photo for you. This will hang in my shop as a store sample. I plan to make up kits for my version of this quilt. The original used all Kona solids. My version uses all Moda fabric, because this is mainly what my store has at the moment. The fabrics are a mix of Grunge, Crossweave Wovens and Bella Solids.

The original quilt is gorgeous, but I really like the movement the Grunge and Wovens add to the solids.

I'll show you the other project I worked on later this week.

Postcard From Sweden

Have you seen any of the Postcard From Sweden quilts? I saw my first one a few months ago and promptly downloaded the free pattern. Click here to see the original and get the free pattern.

Here are the fabrics I am using.

This is a mix of Bella Solids, Grunge and Crossweave - all from Moda. I plan to offer kits of these fabrics in my shop. I'm making the smaller size that requires 5" squares.

I'm off to my guild retreat this weekend and these fabrics have gone with me. This will probably be my last opportunity to go to my guild retreat for a while since I am now a business owner. I plan to enjoy my "last hoorah."

Two Cute Things

I didn't make either of these things but thought you might enjoy seeing them.

First thing: 

Last week I was given a fun pin.

All the ladies at Kathy's Fabric Trunk were wearing them and this one went so perfectly with my outfit that day. It was made by Char, one of the ladies who works at Kathy's. She does beautiful beadwork and jewelry. I wore it on Halloween too.

Second thing:

Even though I didn't get to attend my recent guild retreat, I still got a goodie. How cute is this?

The yo-yo on top is attached with a magnet so it can easily come off.

The jar is a spice jar. The maker left the hole part on the inside so that you could use this as a sewing tool. 

The idea is that you can put a couple spools of thread inside and feed an end of the thread through a hole. I suppose you could put five bobbins inside and feed one thread per hole. I haven't done anything with it yet except photograph it and give my son the candy. I'm using the yo-yo as a magnet on my magnet board in my sewing room.

Charley Harper Kitchen Towels

My guild retreat is coming up at the end of October. This time we are exchanging "kitchen items." For some reason in my stash have a collection of kitchen towels. I pulled out two of them and added two Charley Harper prints.

My criteria for these exchanges is "Would I like to go home with what I contribute to the game?" These definitely measure up. I'd love to have these in my kitchen. I may need to make a couple more for myself!

A Finish :: Second Scrappy Log Cabin

I'm on a roll! This is my third finish of this week!

For the back I pulled from my stash.

And if you look closely you will see that the binding is also scrappy. I used the left over purple binding from the quilt I posted yesterday as well as three other pieces from my leftover binding bucket.

This one finishes at 42" by 56". It will go to my local hospital for my guild's oncology quilt project.

A Finish :: UFO Busting

While doing some sorting/organizing in my sewing room I came across a completed top I pieced at a retreat a few years ago. My mom sent it to me as a kit, complete with binding fabric. It is now finished.

She even sent me this cute backing fabric although it wasn't part of the original kit.

It finishes at about 42" by 48". It will be donated to a local charity. It feels good to have it finished!

Speaking of finishing, I've had it in my mind that I'd like to shoot for finishing one completed top from my stash per month this year. I'm stating it here to make it official. I can of course complete more than one per month, but my goal is to finish a minimum of one per month. In January I completed my Modern Monday project. This is my project for February.

Second Scrappy Log Cabin Top

This is my second one of these quilts. I really love this pattern! All but one of these blocks were made by my guild retreat buddies at our retreat the first weekend of February. In keeping with my new "don't let things linger" philosophy, I've already got the blocks together.

I even have it already basted and ready to quilt. Hopefully I'll get to that soon. My goal was to have it finished before our next guild meeting on Saturday. We'll see how close I get to that one.

Retreat Report, Part 2

At a past retreat one of the ladies had everyone make blocks that she turned into a table cloth for us to use at our retreats. She had diva blocks too and told us to pick one that we liked then sign it. These are included in the quilt along with our blocks.

This was the first retreat at which we used the table cloth. We were all a bit afraid of spilling on it, but I think it made it through alright. It's so busy that most stains will be hidden anyway.

We always do some kind of swap. This time it was pin cushions.

We play our version of dirty Santa to do the swap.

Someone usually brings a clothesline that gets hung up in the office area of the place where we stay. Folks hang their completed projects on the line.

We had a great time, as usual. It is a lot of work to pack up your sewing room, drive to the retreat location, unload and set up only to do it all over again in two or three days. However, it is so much fun! The uninterrupted sewing time it worth the effort. As is the good company.

Retreat Report, Part 1

I got back yesterday from a weekend of sewing with my quilt guild buddies. I was in charge of the retreat mystery block this time. I chose to do more of a "group project" block rather than a mystery.

They made a stack of scrappy half log cabin blocks for me.

There are 48 blocks here, enough for a good sized charity quilt for our local oncology department.

When I got home last night I put a few of the blocks up on my design to see how they look. The lighting isn't the best since it was night time, but you can get the idea.

There is another row of blocks but I ran out of energy. I think these are such fun blocks! I hope to get the quilt finished before our next guild meeting in two weeks.

I have more to show you from my retreat but will save that for another post.

Show and Tell :: Quilts for Oncology

First, I'll give a brief retreat report. I had a great time. I have nothing to show you because the only thing I worked on was my 2014 Sue Spargo BOM. I made myself a little corner on one of the sofas and stitched and chatted all weekend. It was wonderful!

Now for the show and tell. All three of these quilts were made by my friend Debbie. She is a member of my scrap group and two of these three were scrap group projects.

First is her Scrap Jar Stars.

Second is her Scrappy Trails.

I showed you my Scrappy Trails last week. Click this link to go directly to that post to see my version.

This last quilt is not a scrap group project, but it could be at some point because I love this one.

And check out the back of this one.

It really shows off the beautiful quilting too. All of these quilts were quilted by another friend, Peg. She is a local long arm quilter and she has a nice website. Click here to go to Peg's website.

I photographed Debbie's quilts for oncology last week thinking that it would be nice to start photographing all of the quilts for oncology that I receive to deliver to the hospital. Then I received 10 more quilts for oncology! I would still like to photograph them all before delivering them, but I didn't expect to get so many at one time. It is sunny with no wind this morning. I hope to get at least some of them photographed once the sun gets high enough as long as the wind doesn't pick up. My plan is to sprinkle in posts of photos of quilts for oncology as nice eye candy for you and when I want to post but don't have much of my own work to show you.

Retreat Preparation Project

A couple retreats ago I decided that I needed an iron cozy for my iron. Something I could put a warm iron in and not worry about scorching it or setting it on fire. The night before the retreat I whipped together this sad looking item.

It's just a rectangle of pre-quilted ironing board cover I had left over from something. I took a rectangle that was a little wider than the height of the iron when it is sitting on it soleplate and twice as long as it is tall when sitting upright. Then I folded it in half and sewed one long seam and the short seam. I then slapped my iron inside and called it good. I intended to make a nicer version when I got back from the retreat. That didn't happen until this past weekend.

Essentially I just made an outer cover for the cozy I had been using and added some ties. It's not perfect. It would have been much easier to start over from scratch, but I couldn't find any more of the pre-quilted ironing board cover fabric. I'm pretty sure I have more, I just couldn't find it. This will do for now and looks much better than it did.

Previously, I never took my iron cozy out of my bag. I didn't want anyone to see it because it was so ugly - functional, but ugly. Now I can take it out of my bag.

Friday Finish

This is the third quilt I quilted the week I was home alone. I just got the binding finished last weekend.

It is the jelly roll race quilt I made at my guild's last retreat using 2.5" strips I cut from my stash. For the back I used a flannel my mom sent me. It says "I love my cat" all over in various fonts.

The best photo I could get of the backing fabric is the one above with Spooky quilt testing for me. I had it laid out on my big tables to trim up the sides before attaching the binding. It received her stamp of approval even before it was finished.

It is now washed and ready to be donated as soon as I decide which group I'd like to donate it to.

WIP: A Quilt of Valor

I realized at my recent retreat that I was short on white/gray half square triangle units for my Star Value Quilt of Valor. This is why I didn't make more progress on it at the retreat. I remedied that yesterday.

Now that I have the required amount of units I can finish this up. Here is the layout of one block.

I don't know how much progress I will make on this today though. I am planning to do a tutorial for you on the scrap project I showed last week. I took a bunch of pictures yesterday for it. Today I hope to edit the pictures and hopefully have the tutorial written by the end of the week. I realized after I made the post last week that I miscalculated how many scrap rectangles this quilt will require. So I also need to recheck my calculations before I post the pattern!

Halloween Challenge Blocks

In October my LQS did a Spooky Block Challenge. Everyone purchased a little kit with some fabric and two trims. The challenge was to use some of every piece of fabric in the kit along with some of both trims to make a "spooky" 12.5" unfinished block.

Ten blocks were turned in.

One of the ladies who attended the retreat last weekend was the winner of the blocks. She used nine of them for the front to make a wall hanging.

The tenth one will go on the back as the label. She got the blocks set together, got it quilted and got the binding sewn down to the front all at the retreat. I just love how this turned out! It was a fun challenge and all of the blocks were so creative.

Retreat Report

A good time was had by all!

The only thing I finished was a Jelly Roll 1600 quilt top.

We did a race on Saturday morning after breakfast. It took me 1 hour and 20 minutes to complete it. I came in second place. I was only a couple minutes behind the first place finisher. Instead of purchasing a jelly roll for the race, I brought 40 strips from my stash of 2 1/2" by WOF strips.

I made and squared up 360 half square triangle units.

I got the red/white and blue/white ones sewed up into their units but then ran out of steam on this project. I made a start on a project that has traveled with me to several retreats only to travel home in the same condition in which it left. I also finished the blocks for one of the samples for an upcoming class. I didn't have a design wall so I didn't attempt to sew any of the blocks together.

In addition to sewing, I did a little shopping.

The striped fabric on the left will become binding for at least one of the Quilts of Valor I am working on. I just liked the dot fabric and the charm packs.

We did our usual exchange game (dirty Santa style) to swap our containers. I came home with these two.

We laughed a whole lot, ate well and talked about everything under the sun. It is interesting how well you can get to know people by spending a weekend with them. Case in point: the pin cushion below belongs to one of the attendees. She had used a few of the pins by the time I took this picture, but it started out with all the pins evenly spaced and pushed all the way in. I never knew she had OCD tendencies. Sheesh! In all fairness, she said the pins are pushed all the way in to make it harder for her cat to pull them out. There was no explanation for why the pins are so precisely spaced. Frankly, I find this a bit scary but love her anyway. I'm not naming names to protect the guilty, but she knows who she is. It was so fun to get to know you better!

We put down our deposit for our next retreat which will be the last weekend in October. Looking forward to it already!