DWM--Vernal Equinox!

First things first: go to this blog and vote for Judy for “Best Author” in the 2011 Golden Quilter Awards--

http://sewcalgal.blogspot.com/

...OK. . .

Welcome to Spring! It's official no matter what the weather's like where you are, yesterday at 4:20 PDT, spring officially began. And here's Henreitta Whiskers pulling her cart full of yummy acorns on a windy, spring day on Acorn Lane. This is the 3rd block in Bunny Hill Designs BOM and I'm loving the hand applique, embroidery and embellishments that make these blocks (by Anne Sutton) so charming.

I've also been working on the borders for the Civil War quilt I'm making my husband. I took your advice from last week's post, and will be appliqueing the 150 leaves in an alternate pattern along the vines on the borders. Thanks for your almost unanimous vote!

Borders on my Design Wall

So, which do you like better for the vine and leaf borders

for the Civil War quilt I'm making for my husband: leaves adjacent to each other like the sample on the left or alternating like the ones on the right?

You're seeing the vine just pinned up there and paper leaves, also pinned, but you get the idea. I'm planning on hand appliqueing 150 leaves around the border to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the historic conflict using at least 50 different fabrics. It's truly a labor of love and I'm really enjoying making it!

Check out what everyone else has on their design walls on Judy's blog!

March 12 Stash Report

I have to say, joining Judy's weekly stash report is really helping me contain my fabric-buying habit! (Thank you, Judy!) I was in 2 quilt shops this week and didn't buy a THING!! (Of course, next week is my quilt guild's quilt show and I just KNOW I'm going to be bad . . .

I did a LOT of sewing this week: setting triangles for my Cal King Civil War quit, borders for same, 330" of vine for the applique borders--I used 5 1/2 yards of fabric! YAY!

Fabric added this week: 0

Fabric used this week: 5.5

Fabric added year to date: 55.25

Fabric used year to date: 51.25

Totals: -4.25

Working on my UFO for March!

I'm really proud of myself for (so far) keeping up with Judy's UFO Challenge! I organized a UFO Challenge for my quilt guild a couple of years ago and never once finished a project. I guess when someone else does it, it works better. (Or, I just want Judy to like ME as much as I like HER! LOL)

I do my own quilting on my regular machine but I almost never mark anything--I just quilt where it takes me; stippling, leaves, hearts, swirls, stuff like that. This one though, I felt really needed to be marked and quilted with some traditional and elegant patterns. You can see the blue markings on this one. I'm happy that my calendar suggests I'm going to have time to actually get this done this month!

I'm also hand appliqueing the BOM at Anne Sutton's website:

"Henreitta Whiskers". Really love this little squirrel!

Block number 3 was posted yesterday and I've

almost finished it already!

Now I'll go see what everyone else has on their design walls on Julys blog!

Week 9 Stash Report

These are the blocks my small quilting group is working on for a quilt to donate to the Sutter Hospital Breast Cancer Quilt Auction. Held once every 3 years, a couple hundred quilts are donated and displayed for a silent auction for the month of October in the halls of the 5-story cancer center in Sacramento, California. The live auction is the first Saturday of November and over $100,000 is raised for this worthy cause.

The blocks you see here will be cut in 4 equal pieces and rearranged into new blocks before being assembled into a quilt. I'll show it to you in September before it's donated to the auction. We call it "Hearts for Hope".

So this week I used 1.5 yards for this project, 2 yards for the Civil War quilt I'm working on and .25 yd for the BOM (from Bunny Hills).

I also bought 5.25 yards of fabric for said projects--(boy it's hard to be good on this stash report stuff!!)

Totals:

Fabric purchased this week: 5.25

Fabric purchased year to date: 55.25 yards

Fabric used this week: 3.75 yards

Fabric used year to date: 45.75 yards

Net used: -9.75 yards

So, how did you do on Judy's stash report blog?

UFO #10 Completed!

I finished this skirt early in February and have worn it a couple of times. I altered the pattern to narrow the gores and added pockets. The stretchy red and black fabric feels great!

The #1 for March will not be as easy to finish but I'm committed to Judy's great UFO Challenge so, I'll do it!

You can view my UFO list here.

New Blocks and a Challenge!

I started a new quilt! I figure I've completed so many projects lately I'm due. My husband, the Civil War buff, agreed that he needed me to make him a quilt with Civil War reproductions for the 150th Anniversary of the beginning of this historic conflict.
I didn't have a square of CW fabric in my extensive stash so you know what that meant. . . . I got to buy fabric!!! I found a beautiful fat quarter tower celebrating the CW anniversary by Julie Rothermel for Marcus Fabrics in Nancy Rink's booth at the Road to California quilt show and fell in love. Of course, it didn't help my "Stashbuster" numbers. . .This represents half the number of 9 1/2" blocks I need for the quilt. I plan several borders, probably a pieced one and maybe an applique one. It's

going to be a magnum opus!

I also can now show the Challenge quilt I finished for my quilt guild. The theme is "Bloomin' Fun" and we had to use the border fabric and the green you see in the middle. I saw this idea in a recent issue of Quilters Newsletter. I spent hours cutting and fusing each of those 1/4" to 1/2" 'mosaic' pieces to the background. Trouble is, they started suddenly coming off!!! I tried gluing a few back but that didn't work and I didn't want to machine sew them because it would have ruined the 'tile' effect. So I was forced to put a piece of fine, black tulle over the top and machine stitch around each piece! Tedious and time-consuming and I think the effect damages the idea but, it is what it is. It measures 20" x 30".

Drop by Judy's site and see what everyone else is up to, quilting-wise!