One Thing, One Week Challenge:2 completed

 Amy challenged us again.......

Amy, it's done! Making a pillowcase is a simple challenge, I know, but it had been sitting there, all forgotten and forlorn for so long.  I am satisfied with the background fabric, although if I had the time and money, I would have possibly picked something a little more colorful.  But it showcased the dino and the band, so it was okay.

 Now, my next task is to wash it, along with two others, and get it sent off to its' new and rightful owners. 

Also, I really need to learn how to add buttons.  In the meantime, click on the link above and join in the challenge next time.  She usually throws out the challenge during the last week of the month.

UFOs are talking to me!

A blog I am following, Quilts by Lee hit the nail on the head for me today.  My UFOs are talking to me so much that there is a constant noise as I enter my sewing room.

I decided that I no longer can handle that.  They have to be put in their place. 

I recently bought a nice set of plastic drawers with tops which can be carried anywhere I need,,,LQSs, another room, to a working place....etc.  There are 7 of them, which are nicely full of UFOs right now. Add 2 more that are not in the drawers, and these are the ones that I really would like to finish.

I am announcing to the blog world the list of UFOs I need/want to work on.

1) I need to finish handquilting this for my daughter.  A little each day is my goal.

2)  A dino-pillowcase for one of my GSs.  This is also the weekly challenge at Amy's Creative Side that  I mentioned a couple of posts ago.

3) These are couple of finished pillowcases that are waiting for more, so I can send them all to my GSs.  At least these are finished.

4)  Construction quilt top to be sandwiched and handquilted for another GS.

5) and 6) 2 quilts tops to be sewn and put together..These are my quilt-along blocks from Amy (again) that I have not finished.  In the middle of sewing these blocks, I read (finally) Amy's hints on making a correct 1/4" seam.  So some of these blocks are smaller than the others and I am trying to decide what to do about them....Also I need to sew a couple of more blocks for the set in the top picture. Don't know who these will go to yet.

7) This is my start of my free-motion quilt along that is just beginning.  Hopefully, I can keep up with this, because I really need practice on free-motion. Like, I have essentially NO experience.....

8) These are cut pieces for another challenge that I have mentioned, The DaChintzty Challenge, that will start September 1.  Clues every two weeks, so hopefully I can keep up with this too..I really like the fabric on this, so that is an incentive.

9)And finally, the long lost crazy quilt for my DH.  I still need to sit down and figure out how to put these "dear sweet blocks" together.  Nothing too hard, just get my mind together and figure it out. 

So the only thing to do now is figure out which ones I will work on first....

I have decided to finish the dino-pillowcase first because the week for the challenge is up on Monday and I need to get this done by then.

I will post again soon when I decide on the order and (maybe) the time allotted for each of these tasks. 

I really need to get the noise down in my sewing room.  It is too distracting!

Ready to learn - free motion quilting

I found fabric for my "practice" quilt.  Christine's instructions on A Few Scraps were, if it is ugly, you got the idea.  I am supposed to use fabric that I wouldn't ordinarily use on a quilt. After sewing it all together, I found that the quilt width was about 2" shorter than she suggested.  I don't think that will matter.

I also found 3 pinned and ready to sew place mats that will be perfect for my scrap try outs.  I already have one that I tried free motion on about 2-3 months ago. 

Now to find some batting for the quilt.  I think I will have enough of the fabric I used for the wide sections to use for the backing. 

One Week Challenge

Here it is the last of the month, and Amy is throwing out her one-week challenge to us.

No excuses, I just have a lot to finish up this week.  I could piggy-back and choose something already on my list, but instead I'll do what I did last time. I will pick something I have been wanting and needing to do for awhile and have just been putting it off.  It is a simple task, one that will take me maybe 1/2 day.  Some of you could do it in an hour or less, but I am slow.  On second thought, after looking at the fabric, allowing a week for this doesn't seem unreasonable.

I need to make at least one pillowcase for my GSs.  I have the fabric and the pattern (thanks to Million Pillowcases)

Of course, I have to decide which or "whiches" dinos I will choose.  This will be a little more than sewing a couple of pieces of fabric together.  I think half the week will be figuring out how to place the dinos....

Mystery Quilt Challenge

One of the members of the quilting forum on About.com is challenging us to do a mystery quilt.  It is called The DaChintzy Code.  I am having trouble today getting the link for ya'll,  but if you are interested, google About.com, quilting, you will get into the site.  Go to the advanced search on the same site as the list of messages, search for a specific message, and type in 60574.1 , hopefully you should come up with the first message that will give you the specifications for the quilt.  It is evidently a simple mystery, it only has four fabrics to work with.

The 13 clues start on September 1, and will be given in a separate post every two weeks (on a Wednesday).  That may seem like a long time between clues, but people requested it because of the time of year.

 

I have never tried a mystery quilt and this seemed to be a good one to start on.  The cutting directions are given first so that all the pieces of the puzzle/mystery are ready to go and the time frame between clues are great for a beginner mystery buff  like me. These were my choices, based on the description of the fabric.  The light colored fabric is actually more yellow/cream than it is shown in the picture.  I am finishing the cutting today. 

BTW, if any of you get to these directions, I would appreciate it if you would attach the link to a comment at the end of this post.  Thanks. 

Catching up , Finishing Quilt B blocks

OK..In week 7, I got behind working on two quilts.  Something had to give, temporarily.  I lacked only one block to finish that week.

During the last two weeks, I have still fallen behind, so I decided to finish the blocks for week 7, which this block does....This is for Quilt A.

 I am now working in week 9 on week 8, which should finish the blocks needed for the quilt.  Because of extenuating circumstances, I was still behind at the end of the week...So I decided to finish all the blocks for one quilt (B) and see if I could at least start the sashing for it.  Quilt A will be done in the near future, I just didn't want to be in a rush and I needed to show everyone what I have been doing.  So here are the last remaining blocks of Quilt B.

Finally, I can show you all the completed blocks for Quilt B, which are not in the order I have decided upon.  They are ready for the sashing, which I hope to work on this week. 

Now, is everyone confused? 

I am anxious to work on Quilt A, because that is the one that I labeled, "out of my comfort zone".  Please keep checking back because it will get done! 

sounds like fun...a Quilty-quilt-along.....

 This sounds like fun....I may join, quietly, because I have another quilt -along I am starting the first of September (but that is every two weeks) and hate to commit myself, but ....OK, you convinced me,,I'll sign up.  May even have a finished quilt top in mind already

Still Here

Sorry, guys,,,been way under the weather.  Just now getting up to par. Back in awhile.

week seven quilt along, half finished

Only finished one of the blocks last week..one for each quilt.  I hope to finish the rest of the blocks this week.  My points are not chopped off, but a couple of them are hanging out in the breeze.  I had fun positioning the "A" block. I decided that since the design was so big and shows really two different colors, that I would just make the inside HSTs the same color.  It worked out well.

Old, but new

This is really the first quilt I made...way back around 2005 or so.  It was made for my oldest son.  Just recently I was visiting and he was nice enough to take a picture of it for me. I tied it instead of quilting.  It is a Turning Twenty design and I used up all of 20 FQs making it.  I didn't know how close to make the ties, and I may have overdone it, but it is still together!

Re: last post,,,,,Temporarily Fixed

This is a temporary fix....I realized that the more table surface I have, the more STUFF I put on it,,so one of these side tables may have to go permanently.  Only I can't have everything on the floor !

Also, please notice that I have a chair with a mind of its' own.  It is a very comfortable chair and I don't want to get rid of it, but its' time is running out....

Every time I get up and leave it for an hr or sometimes less now, it reverts back to its maximum height.  Being only 5' tall, I find that it will not suit.  It has a height lever, which I use to slide it downwards so my feet can touch the ground (and foot lever), but that only lasts as long as I sit. 

May have to get DH to see to it when it finally refuses to obey my command to "Sit!".

Sewing Space in Transition

Me and my mouth can get me into more confusion and disarray! Without a huge discourse of explanation, let's just say that I offered my cafeteria table, use: cutting area, for temporary use, far away from it's home.  This happened the first of the week and I have been discombobulated ever since! Other than using my dining room table, I really have nowhere to cut.  Unless I clear off the other table, which has a drop down "insert" for my sewing machine, which I don't use because the table itself  is a bit more wobbly that the one it is on now.  Oh, I know I really do have room..I see so many of you cutting and sewing on the same table. . I am spoiled..had everything where I could find it, and now I am forced to clean...

I have been sewing, away from the machine, quilting two projects.  But I need to get back to the quilt-along.  So today, I will take the bull by the horns and find somewhere to cut and lay out fabric and at least get started on this week's blocks. 

My room needs a bit of cleaning up anyway.  The dust bunnies are quilting the remnants all around the floor.  And they are starting to look good, too!

A quilt I didn't quilt started me quilting

In 2004, there was a reunion in Brenham of about 30-40 hams, mainly from San Antonio, who had known each other since the mid-1950s or so.  Hams are amateur radio operators. Amateur....only in theory.  They were so much more than that.  Some operators had rigs (radios, transmitters, antenna, etc) strong enough, that if the radio waves, weather, and atmosphere was right, they could call from San Antonio and reach operators a long way away, across the continental U.S., and even in foreign countries.  At that time, they would verify their communication by sending post cards to each other with their call signs, date and time of communication.

These particular fellows, would get together every weekend or so with their mobile sets  and have  a transmitter hunt.  A couple of them would find somewhere to hide a working transmitter which gave off a signal.  The others would get in their cars and, using their sets, would home in on it.  Once they got in the general area, sometimes it would be difficult to find the hiding place.  One time, my DH told me, they hid it on the side of a cliff, in a little cubby hole or cave.  People were tromping on top of the cliff, knowing it was so close and yet so far.

All this is in reference to quilting.....At the time, I was into cross stitching. I bought some cross stitch material that was already sectioned off in squares, a simple computer program, and cross stitched their ham call signs in each square, along with a few pictures....an antenna, a ham radio and operator, a morse code key, and a truck with a ham antenna on it...My SIL sandwiched the quilt, and we used ties to keep it together.  She ended up with the quilt, and I ended up with a picture....and the desire to continue this mysterious addiction of quilting.  Fair trade, and I got the better end of the deal!