And the winner is ......

I really, really enjoyed reading the responses to favorite vacations or vacation spots.  A few of the places I had even been to myself - Virgin Islands, Padre Island, St. Petersburg - Florida and Russia!

The original giveaway fabric.

Bonus scrap added later.

The random number machine (Little S with names in a basket!!) chose:

Julie Anne said, "Kansas resident, alone, I flew to Maine, and took a Windjammer cruise in a converted turn of the last century merchant ship. Amazing scenery and food.  Again, from KS, my brother, myself, and a Kowasaki, biked to Padre Island. Two best vacations.  I'd love to be in your fabric drawing.

Congratulations, Julie Anne!  If you send me your mailing address I will get these vacation fabrics out to you in time to sew up something summery.

Thank you to everyone who participated.  Check back tomorrow to see what you could win in the July giveaway.

Monthly Report June 2018

Things got so crazy at work after Christmas that I never got back to making a monthly report or updating the status of my goals.  Well, I need to make the most of my current unemployment and sew while I can and get caught up.

There has been slight progress on some of my original goals and good progress on the deadline/commissioned stuff that has popped up here and there.  Plus, there was a lot of sewing that was not quilty (school, mending, odd jobs) that is not reported here.  I think that under the circumstances of how my Spring went that I did pretty well.  Taking advantage of the Summer I am encouraged to aim for a few more finishes, especially with some of those lingering WIPs.

With the exception of the Hexagon Leader & Ender project nothing new was started that was not commissioned or work related.  The hexagon project was a result of Little S seeing a design she really liked at the store and me running with it because it is rare that she has that kind of interest and everything was on hand including a bag of already cut hexagons!

FINISHES

Alligator Baby Quilt - FINISHED in January & donated to Little Lambs through Hands 2 Help

Carnival Quilt for Ms. D - FINISHED in February and auctioned off in March

Boxy Stars - DONE DONE DONE

Commissioned Chinese Coins - FINISHED in May

Handprint Quilt - FINISHED in March
  
Scraps from a Friend Baby Quilt - FINISHED in January & sold


Thrift Store Baby Quilt - FINISHED in January & donated to Little Lambs through Hands 2 Help

WORKS IN PROGRESS

BOM Challenge with Jo - I'm keeping up so far 


Curtain Quilt - flimsy is finished, backing is ready

Commissioned Carpenter Star - Flimsy finished in June, backing is ready

Hexagons #1 Leader & Ender project - flimsy finished in June, backing is ready

Little Monkey - flimsy finished in June.  It is destined for our new niece.

Quinceanos Quilt - needs borders


Red White & Blue - went to the long-armer because it was too big for me to wrangle and is back, needs binding


Scrappy Mountains Majesty- needs borders and quilting



Spider Web - needs to be quilted


Strips That Sizzle - still trying to figure out what is wrong with the machine I use for quilting, since this is partway quilted and I don't want to unsew it

X Marks the Spot - needs to be quilted

 


I am seeing a trend.  I get things to the flimsy stage and then they stall.  Part of that is the malfunctioning sewing machine and part of that is that my favorite part of quilting is puzzling together the top.  Hmm.

June has been very productive.  We will see what happens in July.

Thanks for stopping by.

Friday Finish 062918

Have you ever had one of the "aaaa..." moments?  When you can't quite believe it?  This quilt was that moment for me.  About a year ago Little S saw this block in a sample quilt in the fabric store and asked if I could make it.  Sure, I can make almost anything.  It turned out that I even had a bag of hexagons already cut - they were about 20 years old and cut by hand, but they were there begging to be used.

Little S can hardly hold up "her" quilt.

I am best when making do, so I figured out the rest of it.  I worked away at blocks as Leaders & Enders and finished quite a few.  Since I was working with what I had and didn't have an overall plan it turned out that my colors were not playing well together.  But since the blocks are huge I could separate into better color groups and make several smaller quilts.

Triangles turn the hexagon into a diamond which join to make a panel.

This week the red, yellow, blue, green group got the attention.  I was pretty nervous when it came time to join the hexagons.  I made the triangles larger than needed so I would have some wiggle room. That helped. 

The half hexagons started as 4/6 ths of a hexie.

Top - Needs trimming, Middle - Ready to join.  Bottom - Panel is done!

YES!  They are going to line up.

I floated it with a white border on all four sides and then auditioned outer borders.  The red polka dots and blue seemed to be just right for framing it up.  It needs a good ironing, but I had to hurry to take advantage of the evening sun to get photos that showed the true colors.

The obligatory rail fence photo!

Disclaimer: I did not design this block and I am not trying to take credit for a amazing idea.  I have looked on-line for this pattern/design, but have not found it. We saw it in a sample quilt at Joanns, so next time I am there I need to see if there is information for who to credit the design to.  The layout is my idea though since we only saw a block of the original quilt and not the entire quilt.

Linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict to show off finishes.

Thankful Thursday 062818

Today I am thankful for girls interested in sewing.  I used to think that maybe sewing was a dying art, but with all that I see on the internet and the fact that in the past month two young girls have asked to learn to sew I am encouraged.  Good old hands-on crafting is going strong. 

This week in our class we made pillowcases.  I thought that all the straight line sewing would be good practice, but the finished product would be super exciting to have, use and show off.

A happy sewer or sewist?

They did everything themselves, except cut and pin.

Lining up the edges just right.

Unfortunately if it isn't straight you have to unsew.  We learn by our mistakes, right?  She asked if this was where the expression "As you sew, so shall you rip" came from.  That's a different sowing and reaping, but great application of the phrase!

No complaints,. She just got it done.

The funniest thing for me is how much they like to iron.

No burned fingers.

She wants an iron for her birthday!

Keeping the edge of the foot on the edge of the fabric.

In our two hour time period they did in fact each get a pillowcase finished, even with some unsewing!  This class is a trial to see how I could do an official class with real customers.  I think we could have had one more person today, but I can see that the skill level definitely dictates the size of the class.

Sweet dreams tonight, girls!  Nicely done!!

I am thankful to be able to share my love of sewing and my skills with a new generation!

Whatever Wednesday 062718

The impromptu sorting/purging/reorganizing of my work space is as done as it is likely to get.

Removed all the little boxes, bins and baskets from on top of and underneath the cutting table.  More work space on top and I'm able to fit the scrapbook paper underneath now instead of being in the middle of the room.

 Where most of the action takes place!

The shelf that is closest to where I work is better, but still holds things that do not need to be front and center.  At least I can get to the things without having to move 5 other boxes.  The bins under the window are non-quilty things.

 This area still need works, but is better.

The shelf for photos is much better.  I even have a little bit of "decor" happening on top!

A good reminder that I need to get some photos in albums - then they'll be more space for sewing!

Shelf #1 in the closet.  The bottom shelf is still exclusively my mother's stash.  Yes, after 5 years I still keep it separate.  Second from the bottom is all flannel - how did I get that much flannel? Third from the bottom is Christmas, my mother's sewing notes & ideas, and black & gray cotton that didn't fit on shelf #2.  Top shelf and top of shelf is misc sewing/craft stuff organized by like items.

Shelf #1

Shelf #2 is my quilting cotton with a small 1/2 section of felt.  I took it all off and put it all back on and purged fabrics that were not appropriate for quilting or I was very unlikely to ever use.  (Check out the June Giveaway!) You would think this would keep me busy for a while!!  Since I got several piles of fabric off the closet floor I can now fit the borrowed sewing machines in there and out from underfoot.

Shelf #2

More stuff.  Some has sentimental value, some is for random crafts/sewing.  The bins had already been organized on a previous reorganization of the room, but this is a better place for them - I think.

Misc supplies

I can actually see the sewing table.  Got rid of all the little boxes, bins and baskets from here too.  The mending pile underneath still needs attention as does the machine my neighbor gave me a few months ago.  I am hoping to have it up and running for the sewing class this afternoon.

Work can happen here.

I use Bonnie Hunter's scrap saver system to manage 90% of my scraps.  It helps a lot to be able to just reach in and pull the right size strip or precut squares.  Those are the bins on the left - 1.5", 2", 2.5" strips and squares.  I already had a drawer for smaller strips as well.  But now I also have a drawer for larger strips and squares and all sizes of triangles.  I moved over the drawers of larger scraps (approx FQ size) and corralled all the WIPs into 2 drawers along with orphan blocks.  So all the scrap fabric options are mostly within an arm's reach of each other.

Usable Scraps

Then there are the drawers of ribbon, trim, lace, Dear Jane, bulky craft stuff and scrapbook makings.

Craft supplies

And this odd assortment of containers needs to find a new home.  Woo hoo!

Heading out!

Now that I have work space on the table and on the floor and have easy access to all of my supplies I need to settle down and get something finished.  Either that or cook dinner for my family!

Linking up to Jo's Country Junction Whatever Wednesday to show something we have done.

Design Wall Monday 062518

Hmm.  There is so much space to work in my sewing/project room that I hardly know where to start.  I have to keep reminding myself that starting something new is not an option.

These hexagons blocks have been my leader & ender project, but had taken over the design wall so much that I couldn't reach to put up any more. I thought I probably had enough to starting finishing it up.  But then when I looked better at the design I realized a 3 x 3 layout was not going to work because the blocks are offset from each other.

Testing the layout.

So I came at the problem from another direction and narrowed down the colors to red, yellow, blue, and green.  (I'll save the turquoise and oranges for another quilt.)  This "problem" of a layout actually worked out well.  Since the center hexagons for this project had been found in a bag of precuts I was working with what I had and sometimes I didn't have 6 of the same or coordinating hexagons.  Now that I need a group of only 4 for the sides I can use up even more.  There were enough in this narrowed down color scheme so I moved forward with the new plan.

Reading for setting triangles.

Since I was not leader & endering the last few went together quickly.  I will do the math on the triangles and hopefully get ths off the floor soon.  I am sure enjoying having my floor space back.

Linking up to smallquiltsanddollquilts to show what we are working on.

Stash Report 062418

Fabric Out: The deep deep cleaning of my sewing/project room resulted in some unplanned outage.  As I put all the fabric back on the shelves I removed fabrics that were not appropriate for quilts and I was unlikely to use for anything else. It is amazing how a little stack of fabric can be so much fabric - 11 yards!!

Non cottons to donate

I also trimmed down the remains of denim jeans for use in future projects.  That saved me half a bin of storage.  Who knew.  I saved the zippers and back brand patches since it seems like they must be good for something, but I don't want them.  If you have a use for them let me know and I would be happy to send them to you.

Free to a good home!

I finished a flimsy for a commissioned project.  2.63

Good use of large scraps!

And I found another piece of beach/surf fabric to add to the June GIVEAWAY.

Surfers to go with the beach fabric!

Fabric In:  I found this cute pink & gray flowered fabric at the thrift store.  2 yards for $2!!  These are the colors that my sister is leaning towards lately when she asks for baby girl quilts, so I figured it was a good piece to have on hand.

Delicate for a baby girl.

Fabric Purchased since last report: 2 yards
Fabric Purchased YTD: 41.26 yards

Fabric Acquired since last report: 0 yards

Fabric Acquired YTD: 22.65 yards

Fabric Used since last report: 11 yards purged
Fabric Used YTD: 66.96 yards

Total: 3.05 yards destashed

At last I am really, really making progress.  It didn't all get sewn, but it is no longer on my shelf.

Kate over at Life In Pieces has challenged us to try to stitch 15 minutes each day.  I was in the sewing room every day either sewing or cleaning or trimming scraps to usable sizes.  I finished the top for a commissioned quilt, found good border fabrics for a WIP that was stalled, and now have the space and motivation to get going on some other WIPs. 

Days stitched since last report:7/7
Days stitched this year: 158/174
Success Rate: 91%


Linking up to QuiltPaintCreate and Life in Pieces to keep accountable.

Friday Finish 062218

I have a finish.  This one went from idea to completed flimsy in less than a week.  That doesn't usually happen.

Finished Flimsy

It is a commissioned quilt and isn't due until October, but I firmly believe it getting things done while you can.

Linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict to show off finishes.

Thankful Thursday

College E has been getting up early to go watch the sun rise a few days a week.   She has been challenging herself to take better and better photographs of it.

Sunrise over the Atlantic this morning.

I am so thankful to have her home for the summer.  The practical side of me thinks maybe she should have stayed for summer classes, but the mother in me is just happy to have her at home - with a summer job!

The Tip of the Iceberg - a box of whites!

It was not my intent to completely reorganize my sewing/project room.  It really wasn't.  Even though I was having a very hard time doing anything because I had to go through layers and layers of other projects and supplies to get to what I needed I had not figured out what to do about it except wait for College E to go back to college in August so I could use her room again.

Supposedly for photos.

I was just trying to clean up and put things away.  We had a yard sale 2 weeks ago so that College E could do a deep cleaning of things she doesn't need now that she has successfully completed her freshman year and knows what she needs to move forward.  But that left me to deal with the remains and the reality that she is still back home and I still can't use her room to store my scrapbooking supplies.  Don't get me wrong - I would MUCH MUCH rather have her than space.

Empty boxes and empty shelf space.

So I was trying to figure out how to incorporate some of the storage pieces that she was no longer using that I thought I might use.  One thing led to another ...  If I had known where this was heading I would have taken some before photos (these are halfway photos)!

I can see the top of the table again.

In finding a place for the small plastic drawer units (I love plastic drawer units!!) I took out odd plastic shoe boxes to make space.  One box had assorted white scraps.  I must have thought that if whites were separate I would be able to use them more easily.  They were odd sizes and I know the Dear Jane quilt uses odd sizes, so I would guess it was related to that.  But ... it was tucked away and I had no memory of it being there so it wasn't being used.

A work in progress, but definitely making progress.

Little S and I watch movies in the evenings in the summer when we can, but I can not sit still while watching.  So I took the box of whites and ironed and cut them down to usable sizes to get added to my drawers of precut strips and squares.  You can see off to the right the progression of sizes.  I mostly use 1.5", 2", and 2.5" but if the scrap is just enough for a 3" - 5" square I will just trim to size and save that size as well.  I can cut those down later to smaller if needed or use them large. I also keep strips that are just under 1.5" to use for strip piecing.

The tip of the iceberg - dealing with the "white" box!

I was also able to destash some fabrics that were not appropriate for quilting (left of the iron) and lots of slivers. Every little bit out helps, right?

Mending & "what do I do with this?" goes under this table.

48 hours later I have a bigger mess than ever, but I now have a plan and I think sewing and scrapbooking are going to be able to coexist in one room.  I also think I'm really going to like it. 

Linking up to Jo's Country Junction to show whatever we are working on! 

Tasty Tuesday - Biscuits & Gravy

I like Biscuits & Gravy and order it when I get the chance at a restaurant and even suffer through the poor versions at hotel breakfasts.  Last summer Little S decided that she also like Biscuits & Gravy so we tried to make our own.  Turns out it isn't that complicated.

Square biscuits

After church last week we decided to try breakfast for lunch at a local restaurant where I usually order Biscuits & Gravy.  Well, they had undergone some changes and nothing we ordered was what we expected.  Very disappointing.

Trying a product from Aldi.

So I was motivated to make it myself and this holiday weekend seemed perfect.  I'm sure there are fancy, healthy versions, but this is what works for us.  And since my Tasty Tuesday recipes are really a way to document family favorites for my girls ...

Here comes the flavor!

BISCUITS & GRAVY

1 package southern gravy mix - any brand.  Make as directed.  I happened to have one from Aldi that I was trying out, but I've used other brands with equal success.

1 lb pork sausage - cooked and drained.  We use as mild as I can find.

1 batch of biscuits - Our favorite recipe found HERE. 

Combine sausage and gravy.  Spoon over split biscuits.  Enjoy.


Surprisingly, it was probably faster to make it all myself than going to the restaurant.  Definitely yummier!!!

Design Wall Monday 061818

My sister need a baby boy quilt.  She tried to find the Over the Moon fabric that she used for the big sister a few years ago, but it was no where to be found.  You can see that quilt HERE, HERE and HERE. So we went with Plan B - stash fabric.

Auditioning Fabrics

I wanted to try a large Carpenter's Star, but with something in the middle.  The pinwheel worked well even though the math was more than I had bargained for.  I just made the triangles in question larger than needed and then mathed my way done until they were right. 

Just before the triangle math got intense!

The inner border I had actually cut first since the neutral had a nice length that was perfect for what I knew my star would end up at.  It was nice to finish the center and move right on to the border.  Usually I have to audition more fabrics and think on it a bit.  This one I knew in advance exactly what I wanted.

First border is on!

Next up is wide border of the blue polka dots with small stars in the corners.

Linking up to small quilts & doll quilts to show what we are working on and Quilting is More Fun Than Housework's  Oh Scrap! to show something made with scraps..