OPAM

So the good news is that I finished 2 OPAM's this month! Happy dance here 'cept I'm too sick to do a happy dance. The bad news is that there is no picture. I wanted to get a picture taken today but the kids were busy until right before dark with boy scouts; since they get to climb on the roof for my pictures I decided we'd have time tomorrow morning before church and I'll post the pictures then.

The labels are pretty sad; but I try not to count it finished until a label is on...so I went with EASY. Pigma marker on muslin. It works okay on something that doesn't get washed very much.

Lemon Cookies

I made a single batch of these lemon cookies last night. I should have doubled it. They don't raise so could be put close together on the cookie sheet. I used all the zest of one lemon in the cookie, and the zest of another half in the frosting. Very Lemony. Good.

stash

I went shopping with a friend. If my friend hadn't NEEDED to go shopping for sashing and corner blocks and NEEDED my help choosing the fabric I would never have gone shopping and found something that NEEDED  to come home with me. I bought lining for a linen quilted bag and a piece for a beautiful christmas quilt I'll get out to work on when I FINISH quilting the 2 that had my minimal quilting done on. So today my stash report is;

 in: 3 yards

out: 0 yards

year to date

in: 3 yards

out: 9.8 yards

net: - 6.8

I did have a friend gift me with fabric but I'm not counting it since I didn't spend any money on it. Of course when I use it I will count it against my stash though.  :)

Bias edges HELP!

Here's a block from my Christmas Sampler; I'm half done. For some reason I decided to not backstitch, leave the threads hanging and tie them and hide them later. I don't mind doing this for this quilt but I can't see doing it for a customer; it takes a verrry long time. I'm not through with the quilting yet; but I needed a change and I'd quilted the top and bottom borders. I'll put the headers onto the sides of the quilt and finish the borders and the remaining sashing and blocks soon. I'll get all the threads tied off first;

I've learned my lesson about threads on a quilt. Here's is my story about leaving threads hanging;

Stacked Bricks Story

(The photo doesn't show the colors true; the sashing is a very dark navy). I started this quilt during a class taught by Pat Bishop (I think). During class we exchanged the bricks and end pieces. I LOVED the way it looked, still do, and was taught a valuable lesson on sewing with bias edges.

When I got one strip sewn together I hung it over the bedroom door of our first home; then when the next strip got done it hung over the door and I gave them a few tugs to get them to hang straight.... Oh, my word; one of the strips grew 8 inches from hanging on my door. I really had to work extra to repair the damage I'd done. I'm very careful now with bias edges;

•  starch heavily,
•  no tugging,
• no pulling,
• no hanging, and 
• do staystitch the edge if it isn't resewn immediately.

I had a group baste the quilt; it was basted on a frame and was very stable; I did my minimum quilting; in the ditch of the sashing and border, then I bound the edges and lay it on my bed to see how it looked. It fit the top of our king sized water bed and I thought it looked great. I left it there for ...YEARS? at least a long time. It was years before I finally finish quilting it on my domestic machine. I started it in 1989 and finished it in 2001. (It was not on my bed all that time though.) When I finished it and was admiring it my 4th child told me how much she hated that quilt. I had left the basting stitches in and whenever she climbed on the bed she'd catch her fingers and toes on the long threads. I just thought it interesting that she didn't even notice it's beauty; she noticed it's practicality.

Unfortunately fitting the top of a king-sized water bed does not make it the right size for a conventional queen mattress. So what do I do now? 

doll clothes project

This is what greets me as I walk up the stairs to my room. These are my old doll dresses on hangers I made when I was little - 8? I just remember making them; no idea how old I was. These dresses were made by my Mother, my Grandmother and the neighbor down the street that was hired to make some for us for Christmas one year. I smile when I see them; the dolls from my childhood and some of my daughters dolls are on the shelf below. Lately as I go up the stairs I notice the dust on them. So I've started washing them, by hand, with the idea of doing something crafty with them... I'll post details when I get one finished. 

Don't hold your breath though I'm planning on going slowly with this project since my main goal is to quilt.

stash report

Friday I made Christmas gift bags out of the fabric I quilted last Saturday. I had to have something to post today and I knew Saturday and Sunday would be busy. Soooo these turned out so great I may have to deconstruct some of my stored bags so I can practise my quilting.  :)   

in: 0 yards

out: 5 yards

Year to date: in: 0 yards

      out: 9.8 yards

new OPAM January project

I've hit a stumbling block in my effort to finish the Pinwheel quilt. So I chose a simpler project to finish for January. This quilt; from my 'Little Quilt Exchange Group', is almost finished. It needs quilting in the border and binding. Think I can get that much done in the time I have till January 31?

my face

I must have a face that says; 'I need your fabric.'  Go ahead look at my face in the sidebar...Doesn't it say something to you? Yesterday a friend showed up at my door with 2 boxes of fabric. Luckily only 1 zipper or I'd have had to throw her out! I believe this is the 6th time I've been gifted with someone's fabric when they change paths and decide they are not sewing anymore. I actually enjoy looking through it and deciding if I can do something with it or not.

This is the first time a quilt top has been included! Two of them. I love the liveliness of this. She bought both of them really cheaply 20 years ago at a garage sale. They were made by someone in a nursing home.  Hand pieced. 

I was excited.

Decided to press it. 

Oh My Word, it has ISSUES! Actual tucks in one block, another has the sashing gathered in the last 1/2 inch so it will fit the block. There is one green fabric that has rotted. There are spots where the pink doesn't reach the green so there is a hole. But I still like it. I thought it might still be worthwhile for me to quilt it just to see how much I can ease in and how it will look. It is definitely an eye-catching quilt; but will not be worth repairing and quilting, it will never be flat. It is called Kansas Troubles; aptly named I think. What do you think? I need advice. 

(Evidently 'sashing' is not an English word it keeps coming up as misspelled...I suppose I've been using for so long it seems right to me.)

Christmas Sampler

I decided to work on this since I hit a roadblock on the pinwheel quilt. I had an unfortunately habit of half quilting a quilt, then binding it and waiting until it needs to be washed to finish the quilting. So although I haven't heard of anyone doing this I put the bound, 1/4th quilted, quilt in the long-arm. I'd gotten in the ditch quilting done on both sides of the sashing on my domestic machine. A few of the blocks also got quilted on my home sewing machine.

So now how do I check the tension without any scrap next to it to check on?
Is this going to give me a major headache?

Stash busting report

Before my stash report is a picture of the important part of my life; my son:

 He tied his own tie! (and combed his own hair.)

in; 0 yards

out;4.8 yards-muslim to line Liz's curtains

total for 2009:

in; 0 yards

out 4.8 yards

this is what I worked on Saturday;

Just a piece of Christmas fabric to practice on. I can't count it in my stash busters account until it is cut up into bags. But here are so details; My wonky butterfly?


a holly border:

a pantograph:

Great Music

I've discovered something new thanks to Nikki (my son-in-laws sister) I have found this cool 'radio station' (Pandora Radio) click on this link and enter a favorite artist or even song and then they find similar music and only play that. So nice to find music that I like! I made my own 'radio' station called Dean Martin. It's crazy! Then if they play something I don't like I can check that I didn't like it; it stops playing and they never play it again. I have to have it really loud to hear it in the long-arm room; so Andrew is wearing ear plugs... I know it can't be the music selection... could it?

Judy's Quiltathon

This is a great day to have a quiltathon. My scout is gone with his scout troop camping. My car is in the shop so I can't go grocery shopping ;( . What to do? Quilt of course. Food, food what should we do for food? Do you think I can get Andrew to make us a loaf of his ymmy bread for lunch?

I can't post any new photos until Sunday ... but this is what I'm working on today;

Trying to come up with the perfect quilt pattern for the pinwheel block; and the borders.

This is just a pretty quilt I made about 5 years ago for a new baby. (I didn't want you to get bored with just pictures you've already seen.)

OPAM

Yesterday I posted about goals. Today I found 2 bloggers that have issued a challenge to finish 12 UFO this year. 1 @ month. I joined. Thank-you May Britt and Kris. I put a list on my side bar with a link to this month's project; when it is finished I will change the link to show the finished project's blog.

I got ALL the butterflies quilted in the alternate plain blocks. Haven't decided what to quilt on the pinwheels or the border so I took it out of the long-arm to put a junk piece in to try out some ideas.

Andrew is home sick today. His first sick day in 2 years!

Christmas books and goals

Everyone is talking about goals. I have a big one this year; keep from going under while managing all my stuff.

Here are some smaller goals;

• put away the Christmas stuff...easily done you say, not so. First I have to clean the guest room; then move the boxes of wool out of the guest room closet; then fill and then put the Christmas boxes in, then
• organize my wool scraps; I have this compulsion to buy wool. Wool that has been someones skirt or pants or jacket or sweater. Then I get to store it. I don't actually use it...well I started 1 pillow, made one applique pincushion AND made those 10 little books this year that I blogged about last week and are pictured here (They all have little charms hanging from them now.) Does that justify boxes and boxes of wool?
• Then move them back into the closet in time for my parents to visit in March. (Notice that there is no goal to actually use it just store it better.)
• Then I'm also going to finish some QUILTS! the long-arm will certainly help there. How many is a reasonable number? I think 1 a month is do able since I need to do mostly customers quilts to pay for the long-arm that I got so I could finish my quilts...
• Organize/fold more of my fabric; today I realized that I may need to find the rest of the pink fabric that is in the quilt I'm quilting which means I need to get the pink out and fold it ... How many other projects are going to have that ripple effect...many I think.
• so that brings me to another big goal; feed my family. I've found that it is difficult to pull myself away from the long arm in time to fix food. As we get older I've been fixing simpler food. Tonight was Crash potatoes, salmon and coleslaw. It took 20 minutes. Andrew helped with the potatoes while I made the mayonnaise for the purchased pre-cut up cabbage.
• Seriously a lot of my goals circle around the long-arm... I need to go to the gym so I can quilt for longer periods of time without pain.
• I need to keep my house cleaner since I will have customers coming by...
• I've been making and will continue to make my bed since I now spend time in there and I like it looking pretty.

I can see that the long-arm is a good thing; it got me out of my rut and started me accomplishing more. The more you have to do the more you get done.

stash busting?

Not much stash-busting going on this week. I don't count it busted until it is FINISHED and very little got done this week. 

0 yards purchased in 2009 

0 yards used in 2009

I was very tempted to order fabric online though since a few places are having sales....I was strong. (Actually I could not make a decision so I decided to not make a decision and not buy anything.)

I was tempted to buy another wide back here; but I haven't used the last one I bought.... so I was strong.

If I hadn't just folded all my Christmas fabric I would have been tempted to buy something here.

Then I remember that my daughter lives close to the fabric district in L.A. and I'll need an excuse to visit her this year and will want to take advantage of their deals; so I was strong.

I posted my current project picture yesterday so I need to get busy since Liz wants me to make her some curtains today and I want to quilt....

Pinwheel Quilt

Liz is still visiting so blogging time is limited; so is quilting time and housework time and cooking time and exercise time and ..... I want to talk and play with a baby. She asked today if we have tacos every day normally. We've had fish tacos and chicken fajita tacos and leftover fajita tacos and today we had salad with black beans and fish; looked a lot like tacos but without the shell. We did have 2 desserts today since I had planned one (pear pastry that I blogged about here) that used 1 sheet of a puff pastry so Andrew and I went ahead and used the second sheet and made raspberry napoleons (I think-there was a picture of a strawberry dessert on the package and we made it 'cept we substituted frozen raspberries....) so good!
This is the pinwheel quilt I've loaded into the long arm. It is an exchange I did with the Baytown Area Quilt Guild years ago; when I put it together it was to go on one of my daughters' twin bed, with a pillow tuck- it is very long. Both daughters have left home and I have no granddaughters...but I'm finishing it anyway. We've digitized a pattern of a butterfly that will look great in the plain block. Check back next week for the finished quilt.