Not Sure Where the Time's Gone

It seems like from last Wednesday, I blinked and it was Saturday. Then Saturday was a really full day, and it seems like I blinked again, and here we are into a new week. It's been a whirlwind, and I couldn't tell you what I've been doing, but I know for sure I've been busy.

I did manage to finish a pair of socks for my DH last evening. He's happy with them, and I'm really happy that they're done.


I love the blues in this yarn, but the pinks were really annoying me. It seemed like the project that wouldn't end, for quite some time. I've cast on toes for "leftover" socks with the remainder of the yarn. They'll have crazy feet and conservative, one-color legs.

Today, I've got to find some time to sew! Thanks for stopping by to play. Come back again soon.

Quilter's Accountability Report, October 19

Well, it's been a great week, and I've gotten a lot done, but not necessarily anything from my QA list from last week.

Let's see how I did....

1. Continue to work on Mom's jacket, and finish it if possible. I finished the quilting. I still need to do the binding/partial lining of the sleeves, embellish it, and do the assembly and bind the front and bottom edges.

2. Quilt Oak Leaves and Reel. (This has been loaded on the HQ16 for quite some time now, and just needs to be done!) I was glad I hadn't gotten to this one yet, as I found a better thread color at the show. I've started the quilting on this, and hope to finish it by the weekend.

3. Quilt Sugar and Spice. I didn't get to this one at all.

4. Quilt Thimbleberries Goose in the Pond. I didn't get to this one at all, either.

So, what else did I get done? Well, I've been posting as I went along about my class projects last week. But to recap, I got the center (before borders) of a one-block Mariner's Compass made, the center of a Storm at Sea quilt (35" square at the moment) made, a few blocks started for my Improvisational Adventure quilt, a number of shapes bound up to be used as mug rugs from my binding class, an eyeglass case, also from the binding class, made two pins from two vintage hankies, got a hand-pieced Amish style block (17" square) made, and made a wrap (Suzanne wrap). Oh yes, and I also made 3 ready-to-fuse-on turkeys, and the other night I prewashed the towels and fused them into place, though they're not stitched down yet. You can see pictures in this post, this post, this post, this post and this post.

For next week, I'm going to keep some of my list the same, and change some of it. Here goes:

1. Finish mom's jacket, and get it sent off to her. I've really been procrastinating on this, but I want it done and outta here! And the weather's finally getting cool, so she'd actually be able to wear it.



2. Finish quilting Oak Leaves and Reel, and bind it.



3. Quilt, bind, and add a label and sleeve to "Big Bang Theory," which MUST be finished by the first week in November for a challenge. This is actually going to be my first priority this week!

4. Pull fabric and do the precutting for the class I'm taking at Quilt Escape the first weekend in November.

Beyond that, I'll just quilt as many tops as I can get to, which may be none, and may be several. It all depends on how the week shapes up. My friend Renae and I are planning a "binding marathon/party" for some time after Thanksgiving or in early December, so I need to start getting some stuff quilted! Plus, I need to get that UFO count down out of triple digits this year! I'm close, but still need to kick it into high gear if I'm going to get there.

Check out Bari's blog, and see how others have done this week. Thanks for stopping by to play. Come back again soon.

Tuesday's Happenings

Today I'm making a quick trip to Ohio, to check on things and take some shelving units back there, so I can organize my UFOs. I hope to do a little sorting while I'm there, but it's going to be a quick trip, so I don't know for sure what I'll get to.

Here's what I did yesterday -- I cut out the background for the Mariner's Compass I started in class last week, pieced those pieces to the arcs, appliqued the center in place, and got the quilt center made. I also cut the strips for the borders, but haven't yet added them.


And I added the outer borders to my hand-piecing class project. This is now either a finished top, or a center of a medallion quilt, or (most likely) an orphan block that will find its way into an orphan sampler at some point.


The color's still off a bit on that photo -- the outer borders are a hunter green, rather than the charcoal gray that they appear on my monitor.

I was also trying to get some laundry done and get settled yesterday, so that's really all the sewing I did. I did a bit of knitting, but there's not enough progress to really show that yet.

Thanks for stopping by to play. Come back again soon.

Design Wall Monday, October 17

I got home yesterday, and was pretty tired. I wasn't up to much last evening, I just knitted for a while, had a nap, took a really long bath, knitted a while more, and went to bed. Wild party animal, that's me ;-)

Today my design wall is sporting the two blocks I got started on from the Improvisational Adventure Quilt class I took on Friday. I'm not sure how much I'll work on these this week, but I'm leaving them up on the design wall because I enjoy looking at them and pondering what comes next.



Check out Judy's blog, to see what other quilters have on their design walls. Thanks for stopping by to play. Come back again soon.

Recap of the Show, and Shopping Results

So, have you been wondering what I bought at the show? Well, I'll tell you. And show you. Here's a fabric panel I bought, about how quilters think:


And here's one about cats:


Here are the rest of the things I bought on Thursday -- the towels I'll put my turkey appliques on, a book, several stitchery patterns, a jacket pattern, a purse pattern, a small foundation piecing pattern and several quilt patterns. Also several of the Pilot Frixion pens for marking on fabric, and some polish for the machine bed and extension table, to make the surface slick for machine quilting:


I also ordered a giant Sew Steady table to use with my Juki. The table measures 24"x32", and gives a really great size of work surface, while still being able to fit easily on a 4 foot long folding table.

I haven't done any garment sewing for a long time now, but there was a vendor there -- the Wool House, from Toronto -- who had some amazing garment fabrics. I've been bitten by the bug, and got these fabrics, which will become jackets and/or slacks and/or skirts:



It seemed like the show was a bit smaller than last year, although that might have been my imagination. Lots of interesting vendors -- sewing machine dealers, quilt shops, machine embroidery enthusiasts, fashion sewing folks (including Vogue fabrics), and a few odd things like the woman with jewelry and the Bra Lady.

I only got to see one stage presentation, it was about jackets using a sweatshirt as a base. This was done by Connie Spurlock, and had a lot of good information. This is where the concept for my mother's jacket came from, because I took a workshop from Connie, in which I made my jacket, some years back. Their most recent version of the technique is using strips and fabric texturized with Texture Magic. Here are two photos of the sample she showed:




I'm home now, and getting settled back in. I had a great time, but it's good to be home. The cats really missed me, and after snubbing me for a while, have been sticking close. Thanks for stopping by to play. Come back again soon!

Friday's and Saturday's Projects

I only slept for about 2 hours on Thursday night, so Friday evening I wasn't up to writing a post. So now I'll share what I did the last two days of the show.

In my Mariner's Compass class, I got the arcs pieced (the round part is in quarters) and the center circle applique prepared. I still need to cut the background and piece the arcs into it, then applique the center into place, add borders, and then it'll be a quilt top:


In the Improvisational Adventure Quilt class, we started some log cabin variation blocks. I got a good start on two blocks, and made some other units, but didn't get pictures of them yet. I'll post them later -- maybe on Monday for Design Wall Monday ;-)


This next thing seems like a cross between a poncho and a shawl -- a ponchawl? a shawncho? The teacher/designer called it the Suzanne Wrap, which may be the easiest way to refer to it. So, here's my Suzanne Wrap:

The color's off on that -- it's actually a pretty sage green color, not gray as it seems in the photo.

Yesterday I had one class scheduled in the morning, and one in the afternoon. The morning class was another class with Debby Kratovil, called "Sugarloaf Jewels." Unfortunately, I overslept and missed it. I woke up just in time to throw on clothes, rush over to the Expo Center and pick up my kit. So that picture will be coming later.

In the afternoon, I had a class with Connie Spurlock called "Don't Get Caught in a Bind," which was about different ways to bind and otherwise finish your quilts. This class was hands-on, and first we learned how to do straight-of-grain binding on right angles:

then on angles greater than 90 degrees:

then we learned how to do ruffles:

and Prairie Points:

and bias binding, and how to apply it to a round shape:


and finally, I used bias binding to make this eyeglass holder:

I did one make-it-and-take-it at the show, at the Sew Artfully Yours booth. I silkscreened a leaf on one end of this hand-dyed silk scarf, and needlepunched assorted fibers on the other end:


Right now, I'm getting ready to head for home. Thanks for coming by to play. Come back again soon.

Here Are Thursday's Class Projects!

In the morning, I took a class from a woman named Barb Callahan. We each got two vintage hankies, to make two "flower" pins. She had a lot of floral and other print hankies, but I chose simpler ones -- one a white linen with a pretty green crocheted edging, and the other a white linen with a subtle tone-on-tone embroidery motif in the corners, and hemstitching along the sides. I made these pins:


Then in the afternoon, in a class taught by Debbie Kratovil and starting from a precut kit, I got this far on my Storm at Sea quilt:

As you may be able to tell, the blocks and units are joined in rows, but I haven't gotten the rows sewn together. It'll also get a border. The center will finish to about 35" square, and then it'll get roughly 4" finished borders.

Last evening, I learned about hand piecing. The instructor, a woman named Marty Moon, called the class "Portable Piecing." Here's what I got done:

The color's really off on this -- the center square is purple solid, the triangles are a raspberry solid, the border strips are navy solid, and the cornerstones are a pretty teal solid. There are still outer border strips, in a dark green solid, which I haven't gotten to yet. I seem to recall that this will finish to something like 17" square, but don't quote me. Anyhow, it's around that size.

It was a full and enjoyable day -- three good classes, and some time to shop and enjoy the show.

Today's classes are going to be fun, too. I'm taking two quilting classes from Debby Kratovil, who also taught the Storm at Sea class. The first is Mariner's Compass. I've made several of these before, but I'm always up for learning new techniques, and I really like Debby and the classroom environment she fosters, so I'm looking forward to this! Then in the afternoon, Debby will be teaching an Improvisational Adventure Quilt. I took her "No Sneaky-Peeky Improvisational Quilt" class last year, and enjoyed the whole process quite a bit. This time the class is sort of a follow-up to that one, with different techniques. I'm really, really looking forward to that one as well! Debby is the designer who has been patterning the Gee's Bend quilts for Wyndham Fabrics. Then in the evening, I'm taking a class from Emma Seabrooke called "The Suzanne Wrap." It starts with two rectangles of fabric, and its serged. I don't know what to think about this one, but I'm looking forward to it because it seems like it's based on a clever concept, and I always love to learn more clever concepts! ;-)

Thanks for stopping by to play. Come back again soon.