Quilt Rush!

Before my report, take 2 minutes to watch this U-tube video, already seen by almost 3 million people, in preparation for next weekend's Royal Nuptials.


The 12th annual "Quilt Rush" shop hop in Northern California is going on as we speak and I'm pleased to say, that for the first time, I completed it!! What fun! If you've never gone on a shop hop before, grab a quilting buddy or your significant other and head off. A few of the shops I'd never been to and, let me tell you, I now know which shop has the best selection of Civil War fabric is AND which shop has the best batik selection. I bought everything on my list and then some! (I like to save up a list so I buy at least a little something in each shop although it is certainly not required). 

Of course, this means my stash report took a hit--although I did make a couple of backs so all is not so bad. I could not resist these fat quarters of "Charlevoix Summer" a 1910-1935 repro by Moda from a shop I like to support that's 80 miles away.


Added this week: 10.75 yards
Used this week: 5.5 yards
Added this year: 80 yards
Used this year: 67 yards
Stash NOT busted: -13 yards
                              HAPPY QUILTING!!

My newest WIP

How to go from this . . . .                                

1 Layer Cake with 6" border

I tried out a Lil' Twister ruler with a 
Charm Pack last week (here) and loved it. So I 
made a 7 1/2" template and tried it with a 
 Layer Cake.
(don't you just love the Moda "Salt Box
Harvest" fabric?) 
After you finish cutting all the 'wonky' 
blocks you're left with 42, 5 1/2"
squares (a Charm Pack!!) to create 
the border. This quilt measures about 62"x 65. 
It's a very quick and satisfying project, 
I'll tell you! 
I know, I know; now I have another UFO!!   
LOL!!
I also worked on a couple of hand-applique 
projects which I'll show you next week.
Thanks, Judy, for giving us the opportunity
to show our stuff here! 

          


 to this?

Add a 7 1/2" Lil' Twister ruler (or equivalent)

LEAP!!

Before I give you my stash report, here's a thought:

This is my credo etched in a tile that hangs in my sewing room. We women are more resilient than we believe and that's been proven by history time and again. I truly believe that most of us can turn lemons into lemonade easily and shoulder whatever life throws at us.

Don't be afraid to try something new--a project without a pattern, an art quilt, curved piecing, applique, one of those decorative stitches on your sewing machine, a color you think you hate. The net WILL appear!

I've decided I needed to get off the computer every night and start hand work again. Here's the first  block of a redwork pattern I'll bet many of you have already made. It's amazing how quickly these blocks finish up!

I bought fabric this week (a Layer Cake that I used in a quilt you'll see if you check out my Design Wall Monday tomorrow!) but I also used more fabric than I usually do--2 3/4 yards for a background and borders and 2/3 of a yard for a couple of applique projects--YAY!

Added this week: 3 yards

Used this week: 6 1/2 yards

Added this year: 69 1/4

Used this year: 61 1/2

total stash busted: -7 3/4

 Check on Judy's blog and see what everyone else has LEPT into! LOL!!

Designing Woman

The 16 quilters in my Calendar Girls group decided to donate a quilt to the Sutter Hospital Breast Cancer Auction coming up this September. They do this every 3 years and receive over 300 quilts each time to raise funds for their cancer center. We call this quilt "Hearts For Hope".  It's only a top at the moment but with the quilting we plan to add, we hope it raises a good bit for their cause.

Judy's UFO Challenge has actually gotten me to finish 3 quilts this year and I intend to keep it up. She picked #4 for April and this is the top that awaits me. . . . . I love this quilt which was a mystery class I took three years ago. I want to quilt it with multi-colored, variegated thread, maybe feathers or some other wonderful pattern but I'm just not sure I'm good enough to do it justice. Think I should pay a long-armer to do it for me?

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

Stash Report April 3

I bought fabric this week. Plain white to do some redwork embroidery. Yes, I have a ton of white fabric but I don't have very big cuts of it and I want all the redwork on the exact same background--you understand. . . Here's one block I made so far.

So, a yard of that and a yard and a half of the background for the Civil War fabric I'm using for the mystery retreat in June--decided to make it larger than planned. I cut leaves for my appliqued borders and cut the other 2 sides of the CW quilt so I used about 1 3/4 yards for that. Not bad for me!

Bought this week: 2 1/2
Used this week: 1 3/4
Bought this year: 66.25
Used this year: 55
Total busted: -11.25

Finished!!

Three for three! I've finished my 3rd UFO Challenge project in as many months! If you know me, this is totally unexpected! I'm the one with 2 stacks

of finished tops never to be heard from again! Yet,

Judy's encouragement has some sort of magic effect on me and I'm actually finishing projects!

I loved this quilt top, begun in 2008 at a "Strip Club" (tee-hee) in Sacramento. Why didn't I finish it? Same reason as always: I hate to pin! Love to piece, love to quilt, love to hand stitch binding, hate to pin! And another thing I did that is astonishing: I marked this quilt before I quilted it! I don't like to mark (takes too much time for a peddle-to-the-metal quilter like me--that, and the fact that I've always had trouble "coloring inside the lines") so I'd rather just wing it with free-motion quilting. Here's a little detail of my "fancy" quilting for this quilt though:

Once again, thanks to Judy for the support! (Peer pressure from the other fabulous quilters on Judy's blog doesn't hurt either!)

Designs Galore!

I've had quite a bit of time to quilt this week! With all the rain we've had (over double normal for the month of March and there's lots of flooding) I'd rather be in than out so it's been perfect.

I did some hand-applique on my DH's Civil War quilt borders. . .

I also started another hand-applique project:

They're not sewn down yet but the freezer paper/starch method I love has them all ready to be.

And this beautiful stack of Civil War fabric (took me a while but I'm hooked on the colors and 'flavor' of it) are for a June Mystery Retreat my quilting buddies and I will be going to.

Check out what everyone else has on THEIR design walls over at Judy's Blog.