Cutest thing ever

So I saw this ADORABLE little quickie project on another blog and HAD to share... I won't steal it, but I will share it - check out this link for this great little project to make a fabric business card holder.

I just had to make one of these great little card holders for myself.  Here's mine:

Enjoy and I hope you had a wonderful Father's Day!

Flower Power

I designed and made this quilt for my guild to use the 2 1/2" strips of floral fabrics we exchanged among members.  I know it's not a 'new design', but normally it's made with squares and 9-patches, and I designed a method of piecing it using the strips.  Probably not entirely original there either, but really, not much is anymore.... I did my best. 

Anyway, I called it 'Flower Garden' and it was very popular among the guild, I saw a lot of them made up after the exchange and they were each unique and very beautiful.  This is the first quilt I've ever made with floral fabrics, and probably my last.  I am not a big fan and don't collect florals, so here is my one and only floral quilt:

I finally got it bound on Wednesday, and it's ready to go to its new home, which is probably with the daughter of a friend, who just graduated high school.  I will wait to give it to her until after she's moved, which will be coming soon - why give her something else she's just going to have to pack and move.  She doesn't know she's getting it, so it will just be a late graduation present.  It's not her colors really - like me she's into black and dark things, but I hope she'll like it anyway.

Tonight I'm going to see a production of California Suite, which I haven't seen in years, so it should be fun.  Next week begins the Southern California Quilt Run, more fun!  Mid-July, I'm going to Sisters, OR for their annual one-day quilt show.... and I'm off to San Francisco for the Japan Film Festival at the end of July.  In August begins a rush of Anniversary and Birthdays... I'm going to be busy busy for the next several weeks.

To top all this off, my doctor wants me to have some surgery and I have NO idea how I'm going to fit it all in.  Sigh. 

And when, in all this, am I going to have time to SEW???  I will just have to make time.  I am working on another UFO (only the binding left).  I have two quilts at Stovers that will need binding when they come back, and a pile of tops I have no idea what I'm going to do with... Gah!!!

I'm glad my two BOM projects are both applique - they go pretty quick and no hand sewing so I can trace and fuse and cut and press in odd times and hours when I have a few minutes here and there.  Just the edge stitching requires some time at the machine, but I'm sure I'll be able to work that in sometime... 

I'm glad my husband has a hobby of his own (amateur radio) to keep him busy, so at least I have time when I am home, I'm not catering to his whims all the time... I highly encourage hobbies in husbands for quilters.  I know too many ladies whose husbands take up so much of their time, they can barely work in some quilting time.  OTOH, there are times when I wish we spent more time together, so I can see both sides of that equation too...   I guess there is no real solution, eh?

I hope if you're reading this, that you have enough time for quilting and everything else in your life!

Does Stash Include Thread?

I've been trying so hard to use my stash rather than buy new fabric when I work on my quilts.  And I've been relatively good... hardly buying any new fabric this year or last, only when I absolutely had to to complete a quilt. 

But today I ordered 6 new spools of Aurifil in colors I didn't have before.  I am working on two applique blocks and just didn't have the thread to match to do the edge stitching on some of the applique pieces.  Aurifil isn't cheap, so six spools is a major investment, even at the discount price of $9.50 a spool.  (They are $12.00 each in the quilt shops, but the shops never carry the colors I needed this time, so I ordered online). 

So I started wondering about thread and whether or not it actually counts as stash too, and I think in my case it does - especially my Aurifil.  I'm sure there are people who have more than I do, but I DO have a lot of this wonderful thread.

Here is a pic of my Aurifil stash:

There are a few more spools that are sitting on machines at present that aren't in here, so there's actually even more... and a few spools in here that aren't Aurifil - like my invisible thread and a couple of Mettlers in colors I didn't have in Aurifil. 

So, I ask you, is this stash?  or just notions?  haha... I am in a quandary about this, to be honest.  If I have to count it as stash, I shouldn't be buying more, because I promised myself it was time to destash my life.  If it's 'just notions', I'm good and can buy more!

I know a lot of folks would say 60 is too young to worry about destashing, but honestly, I own too much fabric - I went a little crazy  buying the stuff when I first started quilting.  My husband will be retiring in 10 years or so, and we will probably be moving.  So I figure the less stash I have to move the better.

Thread is small, but it does add up... so I have this sticky question bugging me... Stash or not stash??

Northern Wilderness Top is Finished

And here it is...

I finally finished making the pieced border and sewed on all three borders in the past couple of days (the last one went on yesterday - Weds. the 22nd of May). 

Making this quilt has been an amazing journey of trying to perfect my applique techniques and precision piecing.  Lots of fun!

I was going to consider sending this quilt to Stovers for quilting as I've seen some wonderful work come out of their company - but their website is disabled and I'm wondering if they're still in business.

It would make me very sad to have to find another custom quilter for this one.  For obvious reasons, an overall pattern or pantograph wouldn't work on this quilt at all.  It needs custom work and I don't want to quilt it myself.

Any suggestions on an alternative to Stovers?

Edit: Hooray!  Today I called Stovers and they are still there... they weren't even aware their website was down (*later edit*:  and it is now back up again).  I can still have them do my quilts!  I have two in the pipe, ready to send to them to have them do before I decide what level of quilting I want on this one (they have custom and heirloom, and I'm not sure which one I want... they also have pantographs, but I KNOW I don't want that).

Anyway, didn't mean to worry anyone - Stovers is still there and quilting away!

Journey to Alaska

Today I put together my Northern Wilderness quilt.  I got the sashing pieced, and the blocks put together.  A lot of fun just staying organized and sewing so the blocks were in the right order in the rows, and the rows in the right order as well.  But I got 'er done!

The quilt measured exactly 57x75 when I got done, which is what it was supposed to measure.  Yay for that.  I cut my border strips at 1.75 inches, just like I was supposed to.  I put borders on the sides of the quilt, and when I got done, it should have measured 59.5 inches wide, but instead it is measuring 60.5 inches wide now.  I can't figure out what's wrong and I'm feeling stymied.

I think I will just fold it up for now and let it sit for a day or two while I mull it over and decide how to proceed.

It's very discouraging to feel like you've done everything right and it comes out wrong anyway.  I'm sure somehow I'll figure something out, but I'm worried about the next border, as it is heavily pieced and the quilt needs to be the right size to put them on properly.

Ah well, it is what it is and I will somehow 'Make it Work!'

Mother's Day

So I know it's not traditional, but I tend to think of Mother's Day as May 5th.  It's the anniversary of my mother's death, and I always think of her a lot, but especially on that day.  So yesterday was a tough day for me.  Luckily I have my DH, who provided a lot of help and small distractions during the day to keep me from dwelling too much on sadness.  Then he invited a friend over to spend the evening with us, and we had a little fun playing board games and relaxing together. 

I did spend the early part of the day keeping busy cutting fabric and sewing, which is something my mother would have appreciated.  She was always the type to keep very busy - if she wasn't cleaning or working in her garden or cooking, she was crocheting or doing something creative.  She wasn't a quilter, but really appreciated the quilted items I made for her. 

So I worked on the sashings for my Northern Wilderness quilt.  I finished the last two pieced and appliqued blocks of the quilt earlier in the week:

These are the glacier and mountain blocks... I had saved the easiest two blocks for last because I'm lazy like that.  I knew I'd want to do the easiest ones at the end.  Turns out with the intricate trees on the glacier block, it wasn't the easiest, but it was close, and doing the two together was great because they used the same colors so doing them together, I had a lot fewer bobbin and thread changes to make.

I also found this little quilt that I'd made on retreat last year.  It is called "Sisters Nesting Dolls".  I bought the kit for it on my trip to Alaska at the QuiltAlaska/Rushin' Tailor shop... I think it was in Skagway, but I could be misremembering the town.  Anyway, I had finished the embroidery on the quilt and lost the pattern, so I wasn't sure what to do with the border fabrics - how wide to cut the strips, so I emailed the shop and they emailed me the information.  I just trimmed the block, and am working on borders now.

I am hoping to have at least the first borders on before Wednesday when I go to my weekly sew-in with my mini-group.  Then I can put the final borders on there.  The outer border fabric has nesting dolls all over it, so it will be very cute!

Once the Alaska quilt is done, I will be down to two appliqued BOMs to work on each month - a much more manageable than working on three, especially since the Woodland creatures blocks are very detailed and intricate.  My last kit was short a little fabric so even though I've partially done the block, I have to wait for my replacement fabric to finish the applique.  The shop was very nice about it and promised to send me the piece with my next block, so I'm looking forward to that. 

I've heard some horror stories about by-mail BOMs from some shops and them not replacing short or missing fabric.  But I have to say that Quilting by the Bay was very nice about it and even offered to mail the missing piece immediately, but it seemed silly for them to spend extra money on shipping when they are going to be shipping me another block in a couple of weeks anyway.

Anyway - I hope you are looking forward to the REAL Mother's Day and enjoying your own quilting journey.

Teaching

Today I had a class with five lovely and talented women.  I taught them how to make origami kimonos out of strips of fabric.  They all made some wonderful kimonos out of a variety of fabrics - one was even a sombrero pattern, that came out looking oriental when it was done.  You'd never know it was sombreros at all.  We had a couple of hours of lots of fun, and enjoyable comaraderie as fellow quilters and it was amazing to watch these little strips of fabric transform under their hands into adorable little kimonos.

Here are some pictures of the kimonos they made, some with finished or almost finished quilts to put them on:

Not the best pictures I've ever taken, but I was limited to using my phone today.  See that yellow fabric?  It had sombreros on it... you'd never know, looking at the kimono!

Aren't these the cutest things ever????

I had SO much fun this morning with these ladies!!!  What a great way to spend a Saturday morning!!


On a side note: Two of the ladies in the class were professional teachers in their fields and said I did a great job demonstrating and teaching the technique, and being patient with them when they had questions.  That made my day, too, as I have been having sleepless nights with bad dreams leading up to the class for a few days now.  Can you say performance anxiety????  I have it in spades, and was sure something was going to go disastrously wrong.  It didn't!  Hooray!!!