Jackpot

Today we did a bit of community service at work. Our outing was to the Thrift Store associated with City Union Mission. The task was to sort through boxes, in the warehouse, of items donated and put them into boxes based on categories, such as glassware, household decorations, CDs/DVDs/VHS, small appliances, etc.

I don't normally hit the thrift stores, but after today I think I will be spending a little more time perusing the isles. After sorting and stashing, I spent a whopping $10 on the following items:

Tupperware - deviled egg container, cake container, veggie container and just a plain container

Other goodies included a Longaberger basket, buttons, marbles, 2 dog treats and another big basket.

On the folding and organizing front, I'm making progress. I was attempting the cardboard method of control, but my pieces are just too large. Some of the fabric I have is in 5 - 7 yard pieces, which is just too big to wrap. I'm hoping to be done with this little project by the weekend. I did run to Walmart and get an under the bed box. I think I'm going to put the zillion fat quaters I have in there by color.

And a shot of the folding table (in it's messy state). My little helper had to jump into the photo.



Have a great night!!

Seven is the Luckiest Number

I did it. I finished quilt top #7 tonight as part of Peg's Finish 5 in July challenge. There isn't enough time left in the month for me to finish anything else. I'm one shy of what I wanted to get done, but 7 ahead of what was done in June. YIPPEEE!! Cheers to Peg for coming up with such a great challenge.


I think I'm going to work on my own challenge for the first week of August. It will be called Clean Up Becky's Cabinet challenge. I've been having problems finding fabric that I know I purchased which probably means it's time for some sort of intervention. Gee I wonder why when you look at the state of the cabinet.

Scary part is that's only part of the stash. The rest is off to the right of where I took the picture. If my mother could see this picture I would hear her screaming my God given name - Rebecca Lynn clean up that mess NOW!

Jacquie posted pictures today of her stash - I keep trying to invite her over to help me out, but she just chuckles. Now she will shiver with horror.

Happy Zombie has a fabric folding tutorial that I think I better pay close attention to.

Then I found this picture, which I aspire to look like one day. Well it would be nice to have that much fabric right there to pick from. Wait I might just have that much and just don't realize it.

Okay, then there is Carla who talks about comic book boards and corsage pins. HMMMM, so many decisions.

I will be sure to report back in and share pictures of my new organization. I might have to refer back to the old pictures (above) for a short time in order to find what I can't find now.

Have a great night.

Undecided

I bought a layer cake of Maypole fabric and cut it up so that I had 4 packs of 5 inch squares. I knew I wanted to do something with 1/2 square triangles. So far these are 3 of my ideas and I'm very undecided.

The first attempt was randomly putting squares on the wall, no arrangement of colors except for the red paths.

Second attempt was putting the squares on the wall, but arranging them by color going outward. I don't have near enough blocks sewn, so I will have to do more to get a full top.

I really want to make a quilt with pinwheels, so I thought I would try a few. I don't know that I'm sold them them with this fabric combination. Might be a little much with the red fabric.


I think I'm going to put another layout on the wall with the red paths going at a diagonal angle. Can't describe it very well.

Something else I must share. pictures. We took Grace to our favorite photographer for her 4 year pictures. Normally we do them right around January when it's her birthday, but this year waited because we had just had family pictures done in October. Well Brandi does a little tease now and posts some pictures on her blog before we go for the "official viewing". I'm in so much trouble. My child looks like she's about 7, not 4. The boots crack me up since Grace insisted she was going to wear them, even though she knew Miss Brandi would make her take them off. The pictures of Grace in the dress are wonderful. Grace figured out that the skirt was full enough and she could twirl. She ended up twirling so much after we got home that she had to run to the bathroom and hug the toilet. When I asked what was going on she said she thought she was going to puke. I suggested she might not want to twirl so much then, but I got the "dumbest" mom look. Oh well, so much for 42 years of living.

Have a great day!

Do You Know???

How hard it is to machine quilt with a gnat or fruit fly dive bombing you? I learned last night. Boy was that thing pesky. Every time I would move my hand to swat, it was enough motion to shoo the bug away from me. Then it would dive bomb my nose again once I would rev the machine up again.. Brother, not conducive to machine quilting at all.

Have a great day!

Tuesday Guild Meeting

Just a few pictures from guild last night.

Below is my friend Christine. This is her first quilt that she decided to finally finish up. I quilted it for her and she got the binding on.


After 103 posts, this is my first blog appearance. Below is me with 2 of the quilts that I finished up as part of Peg's Finish 5 challenge.

This is Jacquie's Olivia quilt. Jacquie had so much fun playing bingo 2 months ago, that she decided to join the guild last night.
This is Jacquie's Vintage Window quilt. She did a tutorial on this little beauty.

Our guest speaker last night was Renee Nanneman, owner and designer of Need'l Love. Renee started out designing cross stitch patterns. I remember seeing this pattern at the Saltbox Sampler (no longer in business in KC).

This one of Renee's recent quilts that was inspired by an antique quilt she saw. The concept is very cool. All of the squares are squared up after the border is put on. When you look at the quilt up close you can see where some of the borders are bigger than others. I love quilts like that.

This also one of Renee's new quilts. It will be published in the new book she has coming out soon.

Show and tell quilts. I loved this one because of the yellow flowers.
This is the Christmas quilt that I finished up during the Finish 5 challenge. I thought this was a better pictures than the one I previously showed.

Guild was so much fun. As usual, I went home inspired and could hardly sleep last night. Today is going to be a long day, full of yawning.

Have a great day!

Happy Sunday

Good Morning,

Grace has been up since well before 6 A.M. I'm not sure what that's about. She even beat her dad up this morning.

Yesterday we took Grace out to Brandi's studio for her late 4 year pictures. I can hardly wait for the viewing session. We got kicked out of the room so we didn't get to see the picture taking session. I could hear the conversation going on, so my guess is we will have a lot of "hammy" pictures.

After pictures we decided to go to Korma Sutra for dinner. YUM!!! DH had lamb vindaloo and Grace and I shared butter chicken. I love Indian food. Grace was very impressed with the na'an (flat bread) and ate it like it was going out of style.

DH was off early for a bike ride. He was going to try to ride 50 miles today. The man has lost 35 pounds since he started his biking quest back in the early spring. Amazing.

Since summer has finally arrived, I think we are going to head off to the swimming pool for a bit this morning. Maybe by the time we get back someone will be ready for a nap. (Could be me or or Grace, who knows).

As for sewing, I'm hoping to get another quilt on the frame and started. Don't know that I will finish it today. I'm also striving to finish "un-sewing" the stitching I did and didn't like on a quilt so that I can get it back on the frame later in the week.

Have a great day!!!

Angels of Hope

Here is another finish for the Finish 5 challenge. I found the pattern in one of the many magazines that I pick up. Goes together very quickly and without much thought. I used the Effervescence pantograph from Willow Leaf Studios.

Challenge Met

I'm pleased to announce that I completed quilt number 5 tonight. Peg's challenge really got me motivated to finish some things. The pantograph that I used is Effervescence from WillowLeaf Studios. I LOVE their pantographs. They are set up so that I don't really have to think about how to line the rows up or offset the designs. A beginner or intermediate beginner would love these designs.

Now I will stun the crowd by saying... I'm going to try to finish 3 more by July 30th. Two of the tops will be mine and one will be for my mother-in-law.

This quilt was definitely a learning experience all the way around. I think I could hear all of the comments made by the quilters that I previously hired playing in my head while working on this masterpiece. Things I heard them saying: Why can't she make something that is square? Why does the one side have so many waves? How will I ever quilt out all of this fullness? After working on this puppy, I understand why I might have been previously upcharged. I also understand why I really need to try harder to make sure everything is square.

One question I have been pondering that someone might be able to answer for me - keep in mind the technical terms probably will not be correct. Here goes... I know that I'm supposed to be able to put my fingers under the "take up bar" or the bar that I am ultimately rolling the quilt onto as I complete it. If that bar is too high and there is too much space between the machine bed and the quilt sandwich, does that cause tension issues? It dawned on me when I was almost done that I hadn't raised the rollers at all. Hmmmm, I normally raise them 2 to 3 times per quilt. I don't think I lowered the bars when I was done with my Picking and Grinning. Could that have led to my tension issues?

Charm Square Quilt

I was going through some old emails this morning and found the note my "bestest" friend sent me. I made a quilt for her last year and she took pictures holding the quilt since I forgot to. I have known Mem since 6th grade (1977) when I moved from Ohio to Illinois. We didn't really like each other at first meeting, but have grown to be best friends. Mem lives in a houseful of guys, so I thought she needed something "girly" to offset the testosterone. :-)

The quilt is made from charm squares and is my own made up pattern. I wanted something simple that I could put together quickly. Little did I know, this would take me close to forever to finish.

Onto the quilt that I was picking at. I removed all the stitches last night. Makes me cringe to see all of the beautiful thread I wasted. Live and learn - learn to check tension early in the game. So I'm hoping to get some quilting time in tonight and a couple more rows of my pantograph stitched out. Who knows there might even be a show for tomorrow.

Have a great day!

Picking & Grinning

So maybe I'm not grinning as much as I should be! I keep asking When will I learn???? Last night I decided that I would put another quilt on the frame and get it going. Great idea in theory. I should have saved the stitching for today instead of starting it last night. I'm cruising along, thinking the top looks BEAUTIFUL. Boy, do I really need to remember to look at the back of the quilt. Eyelashes and Train tracks, EVERYWHERE. UGH. I got up this morning and started "unsewing". The good thing, my stitching is becoming more more consistent. The bad thing, consistency means the stitches are a bit smaller than they used to be.

Live and learn!

Happy Monday!

Christmas in July

I finished quilting this today. It's a quilt top that I won from the Springhill group that I sew with once a month. Everyone was to bring a Christmas fat quarter to our Christmas gathering. This was the top made from the fat quaters. I was the lucky one to take it home. I think the ladies I sew with never thought they would see it finished.

Thank goodness for Peg's Finish 5 Challenge, because this is #4.

EDIT:
DH went for a 60 mile bike ride today in Lawrence. 3 hours and 43 minutes. Just too much peddling for me. It amazes me that he's taken to biking the way he has. I'm very impressed since he had hip replacement surgery a little over a year ago.

Did a little shopping this weekend. Just couldn't help myself, yeah well... Today was strip club at Harper's and I had to get the charms from Charm School too. Oh well. Since I'm using this month to finish tops, I will have to wait until next month to start sewing tops/flimsies again.

Have a great week.

Looky Looky

No Peg, you rock. Thanks for helping me get motivated. The next quilt will be on the frame tonight.

P.S. - Guess I should look closer at my email.

Dresses

Alas, another project finished. Sad to be reminded by a 4-year old that I had dresses to finish for her. There are now 3 new sundresses to wear to preschool and someone is very excited.

I also made binding and binding and more binding last night. Extent of the evening.

My hope is get another quilt on the frame tonight and possibly start it.

Have a great day!!

P.S. - Thanks Pam for the purple fairy fabric. It's definitely the favorite.

Finish 5 Challenge - Part 2

The subtitle to this post should be Woman on a Mission or maybe Woman Who Has Lost Mind.

I don't think I will be able to keep up at this pace, but I'm going to try for awhile since I have 28 tops to finish.

This is the top I put on the frame last night. It's Moda's Spring Fling Jelly Roll. No really, me use a Jelly Roll - tee hee hee. I figured out that I can make 2 relatively large baby quilts out of 1 jelly roll and some extra fabric for the borders. If this quilt looks familiar it's because it has a twin that I used my Pajama Quilter knowledge on.

Anyhow - Finish #3 for the Finish 5 Challenge.

I think tonight I finally had my break through moment with my machine. Let me introduce you to Bessie. Tonight I think she finally decided that it's OK to work with me instead of against me. Tension was beautiful. At one point I think Bessie was sending me vibes telling me to use a net on the thread cone I had on the machine. Once I did that, not a single break and great tension through and through. I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but Bessie is a Hobby Quilter made by Nolting and she sits on a Hinterberg Stretch frame that is 120" (10' long), taking up one side of the basement.

As I was pulling the quilt off the frame, I thought I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. EEEKKK, a very much unwelcome visitor. Needless to say, it's a big spot on the floor that needs to be cleaned up.

Have a good night!!! I'm off to bed.

Finish 5 Challenge

2 finished this weekend. I showed these tops back here. I used Popcorn from Willowleaf Studios for the quilting. I really like how they turned out. The next top is on the frame and I'm hoping I can get to it this week. I'm going to use another Willowleaf pattern for it.

I also managed to finish another batch of bags for Brandi, although these were blanks, no embroidery.

I'm so tired from the long weekend, I keep wishing I had another day off. Maybe work is really what I need. :-)