Stash Report & Observations

Fabric used this week: 0
Fabric used this Year: 13.33 yards
Fabric added this week: 0
Fabric Added this year: 29.038 yards
Total used in 2011: -15.708 yard
Still in the red, but maybe this week I can remedy that.

Observations:
Joann Fabrics is a horrible place to be on Saturday.  I went to the cutting table, saw that my ticket would have been 49 and they were on 20.  I didn't take a ticket and just left.  My observation - why can't they open the other cutting table?  Why can't they have extra people work on Saturday morning/afternoon?   They short staff the store through out the week.

Taking classes related to what you are interested in are the BEST!  I took a machine embroidery class yesterday morning.  It was SO worth the money I spent.  I can't wait for the next class.  The teacher would start talking, then someone would ask a question and boy howdy we were off and running.  I learned so many things that my machine could do and had no idea.  I even was able to show the teacher something I do that he had never seen before.

Today I'm sewing.  I'm hoping to get one of the t-shirt quilts done and quilted and then the stabilizer on the back of the 2nd set of t-shirts.

Tomorrow I do my civic duty and appear for jury duty.  I have mixed emotions.  1 - it's just kind of a pain but it's my job so I will do it.  2 - work has been so horrible that I hope Iget picked.  3 - I won't be able to take my knitting loom because knitting needles have been banned from the courthouse.  Oh you naughty knitters.

Have a great day!

Treasure & Amy Bradley

We have a store called Fabric Recycles. I love the concept. It's a place you can take all of your sewing stuff and recycle it. It's like a giant Goodwill store for sewing things. It's fun to poke around in because you never know what you might find. So poking was what I was doing Tuesday during lunch. Check out this little treasure.


It's a cross stitch picture that someone one put a lot of time into. Big whopping $6. I couldn't leave it at the store. I think I'm going to put a border around it and figure out how to frame it. It will make a great baby gift for someone.

Amy Bradley was the guest speaker at guild on Tuesday night. Her quilts are wonderful. Bright colors and very fun. I look at them and just smile. What else can you do?



I'm taking a class this weekend at Missouri Sewing Machine company, which is where I bought my awesome embroidery machine. The class is on placement and hooping and all sorts of tricks. I love classes like these because the teacher says something and then everyone starts throwing in their ideas. I always take a notebook and am furiously writing things down. I'm hoping to be able to ask how to place designs on garments or bags without having to mark the item up. There's got to be some tricks that I can learn. I'm also taking my machine in for service, so no embroidery for about a week. I don't know what my deal is, but that's all I will want to do while the machine is out of my sight. I'm hoping I can quilt some of my 20 tops while my gal is gone.

Have a great night.

Finishes

Yeah for me, two more finishes. After looking in the closest that I have all of my finished quilt tops in, I realized, I have some serious quilting to get done. My hope is to get 2 tops a month quilted. Pretty lofty goal, which is doable in the winter, not so much for the summer months. Maybe I can get ahead while it's cold. Anyhow...

I finished the Lil Twister baby quilt for my friend. I'm going to get it in the mail today so that it can be enjoyed by a little one.

The fabric for the back is probably more Easter-ish, but it was fun to use. I'm game to get some of the yardage pieces out of the stash.


I don't even know when I finished this top. It's been quite awhile. I started quilting it and didn't like the pattern I picked so I picked and picked and picked. Finally, it's done.

Closer look


Grace insists that I learn to knit. I've tried and it's not something that comes easy for me. So on Friday in an effort to get away from my desk, I ran to the store that I have a love/hate relationship with coupons in hand. I bought a variety pack of the plastic looms. My first attempt at knitting - a hat.

Behind me is my absolute favorite baby picture of Grace (now 7).  She is in my husband's arms.  Brandi does such AWESOME work.

TTFN

Artfire - Featured

I was finally featured in a collection. Very exciting.

I'm the Valentine Quilt

Snowy Day

There wasn't any school today because of the snow we got. The weather here in Kansas City is crazy to me, being from the Chicago area. School was cancelled yesterday for today. I don't ever remember that happening when I went to school (in the dark ages).

I tried to work from home this morning, but it didn't go so well since my little helper wouldn't leave me alone. I finally got tired of crabbing at her so I just called my boss and told her I would take vacation for the rest of the afternoon.

So since I was taking vacation, I decided to work on some sewing projects. I can say that I had a very SUCCESSFUL day.

First up, is my rendition of Crazy Mom Quilts (Amanda Jean) Fair and Square pattern. It goes together quickly. I have a box of 6 1/2" squares cut from every baby / kids quilt I've made. So I started digging and pulled out a variety. I'm pleased with how it turned out.




Next is my baby twister quilt.  The top is all together and now I just have to wait on my border fabric.  The shop that I got the charm squares from didn't have any yardage, so I had to order it online.  That should be here by this weekend (I hope).


And last is my first pass at one of the t-shirt quilts I was asked to make.  I sent pictures via email to get comments before I start sewing shirts together.  Every time I cut a shirt or move a shirt all I can think about is the owner of the shirts ran 26 miles to get that t-shirt.  That's a whole lot of miles.  I love the shirt in the middle - it's a caricature of him.


Oh yeah, I finished this quilt over Christmas vacation when I was off.  It's the batiks that my friend brought back from Malaysia.  I LOVE it.






I think my helper and I will head back down to the girl cave and see what other things we can accomplish this afternoon.

Have a great night.

Design Wall & Stash Report

I did get a little something done last week and over the weekend. It really wasn't feeling like it until I took pictures.

So on my design wall:

Charm squares - Girlie Girl from Moda - will be transformed into a Twister Baby Quilt

Embroidered blocks and Kaffe Fassett fabric. 

I love how the top turned out.  I can't wait to get it on the frame and quilt it.  When finished, I think it's going to hang in our master bathroom.  Definitely something bright and pretty too look at in the morning.

In an effort to get rid of some fabric from my stash, I made a bunch of bags that I found on the Green Bag Lady site.  I've given some of the bags to friends and they just love them, so I'm going to just keep making them.  The pattern for the grocery bag is so easy that I think I've gotten it down to about 10 minutes a bag.  Not too bad.  I think that I want to go back and put some embroidery on the plan bags.  Maybe a recycle symbol or the fun grocery list I previously showed.

Supervisor Sissy at the top of the photo

Stash Report

I bought 6 yards of fabric this week, so when added to what I bought last week brings me up to 10 yards for the year.

Used - Awesome week since I made bags.  2 yards (embroidered top), 6 1/2 yards for bags - so 8 1/2 yards total.

Net - 1 1/2 yards on the stash side

Who Knew?

Not me, that's for sure.

This morning I was out reading blogs and drinking the required amount of coffee to get moving. I had no idea that Clotilde had electronic downloads on some of the books they sell. What an awesome concept. I did a little shopping (just one book).   I love that I didn't have to pay shipping to get my book.  I really LOVE that I didn't have to wait for the mailman to deliver my new book.  I really love that I could print my book in color and then shove all the pages into plastic page protectors and off I GO (literally GO).


 Since I LOVE my AccuQuilt Go, I couldn't help myself.  I have purchased quite a few of the dies, but haven't really done much other than one block quilts.  This book should help me step out a little bit. 
I did get a quilt top done this weekend.  I finally incorporated some embroidered blocks and am pleased with how it turned out.  Pictures forthcoming.

Have a great week.

Baby It's Cold Outside

My bags are done for awhile.

The soon to be birthday girl didn't have school for 2 days due to snow and COLD. Yesterday I took her sledding. I remembered how much I don't like the cold and being cold. Thankfully there was hot cocoa after our outing.

The crazy dog loses his mind when he goes out in the snow. The poodle in him causes the snow to stick...everywhere.

I had a lady come to the house last night with 2 HUGE laundry baskets full of t-shirts. She got my name from the local quilt shop. I'm going to make 2 t-shirts quilts for her. She was so excited about getting 2 quilts she called me today at work to come by and give me more shirts. I'm anxious to get started now. I'm learning that t-shirt quilts are either "love them" or "hate them" kind of projects. Luckily, I love them.

Have a great week. Maybe I should say Have a great weekend. We will be celebrating in the form of a slumber birthday party - 6 little girls with high pitched screams. I think I can do it.

Week 2 Stash Report 1-9-2011

I decided that this year I'm going to keep track of the stash.  My buying got a little out of hand in 2010, so I'm hoping to keep it a bit more in check this year.

I missed week 1, but my numbers were all 0's.

So for this week.

Used this Week:    0 yards
Used year to Date: 0 yards
Added this Week: 4 yards  (note for me - embroidered over shoulder bags)
Added Year to Date: 4 yards

Net Used for 2011: -4 yards

I have been working on bags for Brandi.  My hope is to get a head so that I can finish one partitally completed top and get one quilt top quilted.  Given the amount of snow coming down right now, I won't be going anywhere but to the girl cave tonight.

Have a great week.

Some Finishes

I'm here, just have been swamped with life. The holidays got a SMIDGE crazy for me. Here are some pictures until I can come up with something brilliant to blog about.  (Yikes that might take me a while)

Table Runner - to be quilted still.  Used my Go Cutter (apple core die)

Fun Grocery bag that went to a good home

It was a towel kind of Christmas.   Everyone got some.

Finally it came out.  

Before Santa came and deposited more goodies.

My goal is to blog on a regular basis in 2011.