February 8, 2010 by rosewillow
I’ve made 11 more blocks this week for the purple and green quilt, for a total of 23.
This is the last of these particular fabrics, but happily there are reinforcements in the same colour families in my stash. Won’t have to buy a single thing! 
I’ll probably stop working on this one for a bit now. The turquoise birthday quilt has taken a detour (change of pattern) and needs finishing in the next two weeks, and I am also very eager to baste and quilt the purple and pink Flying Geese top that I completed on Saturday.
To see other quilters’ Design Walls today, please visit Judy’s blog for a list of links.
Happy Quilting!
Posted in Design Wall Monday, quilting | Tagged Design Wall Monday, purple and green quilt, Puss in the Corner blocks, quilting, Sewing | 11 Comments »
February 7, 2010 by rosewillow
I don’t usually make New Year’s resolutions. It seems like a good way to set myself up for failure, and I’ve already been down that road paved with good intentions too many times!
However, this year I noticed that several quilt bloggers that I follow have resolved to finish one UFO per month. That sounds so nice and like something I should do, too. After all, I am supposed to be in the business of finishing UFOs! 
Here is my first UFO finish of the year, from my Flying Geese phase of 2003. I finished it on Saturday evening.
Here is what I started with on Wednesday morning when I pulled this project out of the UFO cupboard.
If I could work so fast this week, why can’t I work that fast every week?
Oh happy day, I get to count a finish in my stats!
Bought this week: 0
Bought year-to-date: 9.75 yards
Used this week: 4.25
Used year-to-date: 10.75
Used (net): 1 yard
To see how others are doing with their Stash Reports this week, please visit Judy’s blog for a list of links.
Happy Quilting!
Posted in Stash Reports 2010, UFOs, quilting | Tagged finishing UFO quilts, Flying Geese, quilting, Sewing, stash busting, stash report | 16 Comments »
February 5, 2010 by rosewillow
This week I have been visiting the blogs of the participants in the “Too Good to Cut” Challenge. This is an awesome group of very talented quilters, and I am so impressed with how organised everyone is, and how busy they have been! I’m going to have to get really, really busy just to catch up!
Amy’s Passions has been making adorable Quilts4Kids, as well as scrappy log cabin blocks and finishing up a UFO project. She’s also hosting a Block of the Month quilt-along, including complete patterns for all the blocks. I love the drawings of quilt designs on graph paper with coloured pencil — still my favourite method, too!
Over at Beth’s Quilty World, she is super-organised with a detailed list of goals for February. She is also working on a monthly UFO challenge and doing so well with her finishes — three already since the first of the year! She’s using a gorgeous stack of Moda fat quarters for her “Too Good to Cut” quilt — can’t wait to see those all sewn up!
Our sweet friend Dakota City Quilter has been baking something yummy and sewing on a lovely Bricks and Stepping Stones quilt. The red and white blocks are very striking and make the pattern stand out in a way I haven’t noticed with that pattern made in other colours. Beautiful! She’s using a “Japanese royalty” fabric for her “Too Good to Cut” quilt, and she’s found the most perfect pattern for it.
Katie’s Salt Marsh Path is also very organised, with a list of weekly goals. She’s been making colourful String blocks and working on a Rail Fence quilt, and her batik fabrics for “Too Good to Cut” are so dreamy. She also has some nice photos of tile floors that look like quilt blocks. It’s so much fun to see “quilts” in other materials than just fabric!
Quilting Junkie also has some fabulous batik fabrics lined up for her “Too Good to Cut” project, and she has chosen such a lovely pattern to showcase them. That is going to be a truly wonderful quilt! She’s also been doing some serious stash busting! Can you believe how much fabric she has already used this year?
For bird-watching quilters, Spinning Star has a link to an eagle cam website and some very cool screen shots of the eagles with their nest. She’s also working on a fantastic pinky-orange and black batik quilt, and her “Too Good to Cut” quilt is being made from a delicious collection of Cherrywood fabrics.
Well done, everyone!
Happy Quilting!
Posted in "Too Good to Cut" Challenge, quilting | Tagged "Too Good to Cut" Challenge, batik fabrics, quilting, Sewing | 6 Comments »
February 1, 2010 by rosewillow
Here are more purple and green blocks, but without the white squares this time. Thank you for all your comments last week — it was unanimous to leave out the white, and you were so right! I’m crazy for 4-patches, and I love the secondary 4-patch design that is emerging.
Nigel the dog has me SO well trained now! Whenever I lay out quilt blocks on the floor, he runs straight over and sits on them. Then he gives me a cute look. Then I tell him how cute he is. And then I give him a dog biscuit. He’s a clever boy.
To see what other quilters have on their Design Walls today, head on over to Judy’s blog to find a list of links.
Happy Quilting!
Posted in Design Wall Monday, quilting | Tagged 4-patch blocks, Design Wall Monday, purple and green quilt, Puss in the Corner blocks, quilting, quilting dog, Sewing | 10 Comments »
January 31, 2010 by rosewillow
Someone else has been using my stash this week — and I am so excited about it!
My 8-year-old daughter started making her first quilt yesterday. I shared with her some of the 5-inch squares that I had cut for the Puss in the Corner blocks.
She started out sewing on her pink Barbie sewing machine.
She has used our Singer 201K several times, and she’s really too advanced for a toy machine, so I switched her over to my big Janome.
She did so well on that one that I turned her loose with the Jem Gold, and off she went!
She also learned to use the iron yesterday to press her blocks.
She was so sensible and careful — no burns and no accidents! I am very proud of my little quilter!
I also did a bit of sewing yesterday on pillowcases, and between us, we used 3.5 yards of fabric. Think how fast we’ll go through that stash if we are both working on it!
Bought this week: 0
Bought year-to-date: 9.75 yards
Used this week: 3.5
Used year-to-date: 6.5
Used (net): -3.25
To see other Stash Reports today, please visit Judy’s blog, Patchwork Times.
Happy Quilting!
Posted in Family, Scrap quilting, Stash Reports 2010 | Tagged children learning to sew, Janome 6500P, Janome sewing machines, Jem Gold, pink Barbie sewing machine, quilting, Scrap quilting, Sewing, stash busting, stash report | 8 Comments »
January 29, 2010 by rosewillow
I haven’t worked on my “Too Good to Cut” Challenge project very much this week, so I’ve nothing new to show today.
How is everyone else doing? Is everyone listed on the “Challenge Participants” blog roll who wishes to be? If I have missed you by accident, please let me know.
And, one last reminder — if anyone else wants to join us, you still have time! Just show us your fabric by Sunday, January 31. Other details are here and here.
To visit other quilters doing this challenge, please click on their links in the “Challenge Participants” category.
Happy Quilting!
Posted in "Too Good to Cut" Challenge, quilting | Tagged "Too Good to Cut" Challenge, quilting, Sewing, stash quilt | 5 Comments »
January 25, 2010 by rosewillow
This is one of my favourite-ever fabrics. It’s called Matters of the Heart by Kaye England for SSI, and I only have a tiny bit left.
I’m still making Puss in the Corner blocks for donation quilts, so I decided to use this pretty green and purple print as a theme for one of the sets.
It’s very bright and wild — even “loud”, although a young person might really like it. I could break up the colour riot with plain setting squares…
…but I’m not sure about using such large pieces of white-on-white fabric. That could be very difficult to keep clean!
I love Design Wall Monday. Always a puzzle to solve, and it’s so much fun!
Check out Judy’s blog to see what other quilters have on their Design Walls today!
Happy Quilting!
Posted in Design Wall Monday, Scrap quilting | Tagged Design Wall Monday, Kaye England fabric, purple and green quilt, Puss in the Corner blocks, quilting, scrap quilt, Sewing, stash quilt | 14 Comments »
January 24, 2010 by rosewillow
I have managed to refrain from fabric purchases this week, but I have bought some parts for the 1908 Singer 27K that I am trying to restore. We named this machine “Cleo” for her Egyptian motif (Memphis) decals.
I bought Cleo last November, and she was in a sad derelict state. She had been converted to electricity a long time ago but was no longer safe to use that way. Her original treadle mechanism had also been removed from her table, leaving it very rickety and unstable.
The good points were that her decals were in excellent condition and all the moving parts ran freely, and she cost less than my lunch in a sandwich shop! I don’t have room for another treadle machine, so I decided to try and restore her to good running order as a portable machine with a hand crank.
Here she is today, after Part 1 of her transformation. I have removed the ugly white motor, and she is sitting in a 1950’s sewing machine base that has a hard case to protect her. I am hoping later to find a nice antique case for her.
My sewing machine man was able to find me a hand crank for a 27K, and my husband put that on for me. It fixes with a bracket that is screwed in underneath the wheel.
Now she is ready for cleaning and oiling!
As far as sewing, I have been working on my “Big Three” projects this week — turquoise quilt, Puss in the Corner blocks, and my “Too Good to Cut” challenge quilt — but haven’t finished anything to count yet. My totals for the week ending January 24 are:
- Bought this week: 0
- Bought year-to-date: 9.75 yards
- Used this week: 0
- Used year-to-date: 3 yards
- Used (net): -6.75 yards
I think I’m very near to finishing a quilt top, so maybe next week I can finally show some real progress in my stash busting!
Happy Quilting!
Posted in Sewing machines, Stash Reports 2010 | Tagged quilting, Sewing, sewing machine restoration, Singer 27K, stash busting, stash report, vintage Singer sewing machine | 5 Comments »
January 22, 2010 by rosewillow
I have finished sewing together my 192 half-square triangles — finally! Now I just have to trim them down to the proper size and starting assembling the little “paws.”
I am using a Bear’s Paw pattern called “Bears in the Farmhouse,” designed by Judy Laquidara.
If you would like to visit other quilters sewing along with this Challenge, they are listed in my blog roll under “Challenge Participants.”
Happy Quilting!
Posted in "Too Good to Cut" Challenge, quilting | Tagged "Too Good to Cut" Challenge, Bears in the Farmhouse, half square triangles, Judy Laquidara, quilting, Sewing | 4 Comments »
January 17, 2010 by rosewillow
Our weatherman says the UK is suffering the fiercest winter we’ve had in 30 years. I believe it. We’ve had snow on the ground since December 17, with more snow falling several times a week, and it’s only now starting to thaw.
Our front hall is always freezing cold. It has a metal door (those are magnets stuck on) and double-paned glass, but in weather like this, it’s just not enough insulation. I don’t know why, but it took me all these years to finally think of a solution!
This beautiful fabric is a perfect match to the Amethyst Cream paint in our hall. It’s called Almost Paradise Batiks and was designed by Ro Gregg for Northcott Fabrics. I don’t know how old it is — it’s been in my stash for many years.
I made one panel the width of fabric and lined it with plain cream-coloured muslin. To save time, I machine stitched the hem. This is more of a utility curtain than for beauty, although I did want it to look nice.
I made it long enough to cover the mail slot since cold air can blow through there, too.
And here it is, all finished! It’s attached with velcro strips at the top of the door and the top of the curtain so it can be removed in the daytime and nice weather.
I used three yards of fabric for this project — 54 inches each of print and lining.
The postman also brought me one last package of fabric that I had mail-ordered two weeks ago — 2 yards of cream background for the Challenge quilt I am working on. That brings my totals for Week 3 to:
Bought this week: 2 yards
Bought year-to-date: 9.75 yards
Used this week: 3 yards
Used (net): -6.75 yards
To see how others are doing with their Stash Reports, please visit Judy’s blog, Patchwork Times.
Happy Quilting!
Posted in Finished projects, Sewing, Stash Reports 2010 | Tagged Almost Paradise Batiks, Judy Laquidara, Northcott fabrics, quilting, Ro Gregg, Sewing, stash report, velcro, window curtain | 8 Comments »
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