Couch Pillows not Couch Potatoes !

As I finish projects and WISPs, I am also trying to use up the leftover fabric from those projects.  Typically the fabric goes back in to the container/bag/basket/tote from whence it came, collecting dust and wasting space until I come across it again.  Then I usually say, wow, I really should do something with this . . . and nothing happens.  This time I sewed the tops of these pillows right after completing the quilt in January, but I had a
few other irons in the fire that were getting pretty hot, so to speak, that needed tending to first.  Once those irons cooled, I found a piece of backing in my stash that was big enough to quilt them both on the long arm at the same time, I quilted the pillow backs on my regular machine (just straight lines) and stuffed them with cut up bits and scraps (just like the pet pillows I made last year).   Actually, only one pillow is on the couch, the other one is on a chair, and they are both in the same room as the wall hanging, which we moved from the family room to the living room. STILL have fabric left over, but not as much and I will do one smallish wallhanging to fullfill a requirement from my sewing bee that is due in May.  I guess I better start planning!  Happy Quilting !!

March Madness

March is mad for many reasons this year!  I am crazy busy with the children's activities, customer quilts, my own long lists of WISPs and ideas and this completely insane weather is not helping one bit!  I was able to complete the two T-shirt quilts on my WISP/UFO list this month.  It's a pretty new WISP, but I knew if I didn't put them on the list, they might not have gotten done so soon.  My stash count hardly changed because the quilts were done as a favor for a friend, so although I purchased the fabric, I am to be reimbursed, along with the cost of the batting, quilting and binding.  I did use 1 3/4yds of scrap fabric to put together a sample first to see if I needed to change my needle type on my longarm and how the quilting would go. Just four extra blocks with sashing, didn't want to mess up while working on the "real quilts".  I didn't have any problems with the t-shirts, they were stabilized with pellon on the reverse and although I had to really slow down on the t-shirt fabric, it was worth it because I didn't experience any thread breaks or irregular stitching on the back.  It went very smoothly YAY!  Obviously my first T-Shirt quilts, and now that they're done, I wouldn't mind at all doing that again.

 It was SO cold when I got my DH and DS to hold the quilts up to take pictures, only 39 degrees.  Of course my DS doesn't feel the cold, so he wears shorts practically year round!  Today they say it's going to hit 80 degrees and that was just 2 1/2 days ago.  No wonder my sinuses and allergies are going wild.  My DD took the picture below on Saturday, the poor daffodils don't know what to do; although this little fellow is not nearly so droopy today!  Happy Quilting!

Cold Winter Noses

I Cannot say that we have experienced very many cold winter noses this winter, and if we have, we don't have to endure it for very long as it warms up again in just a few days! I could say that this is my late February 1 XMAS Item, but I prefer to put a postive spin on it and say that it is my final February finish and a very early finish for my March 1 XMAS Item!  This Sandy Grevais panel has been hanging on the wall of my studio for over two years, right after I finally sewed the border on it, but I must have purchased it over 5 years ago.  I had to close the blinds to take the "before" picture, and as you can see Samantha was bored by the whole process.  I finally quilted it, bound it and sewed the sleeve on it, and that's also 1 2/3 yards to add to  my Stash Out tally as well as another UFO to mark as FINISHED!  Happy Quilting!

Being a Little Naughty Was Very Nice!

I was naughty in my failure to complete my project in time for One Xmas project a month, but I was having a lot of fun - which is always very nice!  The Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival was nearby in Hampton, Virginia so I went on Thursday with a few of my friends in my Quilting Bee.  Mere words cannot adequately describe the experience!  Visual overload?  Amazing? Awe inspiring? It was fabulous, we didn't even want to stop and eat lunch, we inhaled our sandwiches so we could run back in and feast our eyes!  Of course I forgot my camera.  The vendors were a lot of fun to look at too, and the best part about visiting the vendors was that I could bring a little bit home with me! The bag was made by women in Madagascar, gorgeous - it was so hard choosing just one! 3 in our group of 5 each purchased one.  The template was intriguing, I have a few projects in mind for that!  The glue is actually a business necessity, and the fabric? Well, I was actually very good - I went home with the least amount of fabric in our group!  Both bundles of fat quarters were such a good price and just so irresistible!!

On Sunday, the last day of the quilt festival, my dh suggested we go!! Obviously he is campaigning for husband of the year, and doing a pretty good job, too!  We had ribs slow cooking in the oven so we could only go for a few hours, but it was wonderful.  There were less people so it was much easier to see the quilts and wearables and to take it all in.  I was able to see a few demonstrations, which sold me on the cans of 505 and 606, which I will offer my opinion once I get a chance to try them.  I have quilts in mind for the two large parcels of fabric, they are both backings, 2 yards by 108".  In terms of tallying up Stash Count In will be adding about 9 1/2 yards, not bad considering most of it is backings.  Fun, Fun, Fun!  Happy Quilting!

Pastel Lucky Stars

I sewed down the binding, sewed on the buttons to the wall hanging and finished the snap bag yesterday morning, all in plenty of time to bring it to today's guild meeting for show and tell.  Tomorrow I will mail it to Milan, Italy, where my husband's cousin resides with her husband.  She is due March 1st, and I hope baby is patient until the quilt arrives!  It's kind of neat how things work out(sometimes)I orignially bought this in 2006 as a kit from my favorite quilt store, Quilt Corner, for a neighbor who was expecting.  But then I heard her tell another neighbor that since she was having a boy, her entire color scheme was going to be blue and white . . . Oooops!  When I asked my cousin which colors she would like the quilt to be, I was sooooo thrilled when she said yellow and green!  I had forgotten about the kit until last March when I cleaned up/redecorated my quilt studio!  7 1/2 yds of fabric GONE! I used it all except a tiny strip left from the background and bits and pieces from the backing.  I used the snippits from the half square triangles to make pinwheels to make the wall hanging and the label.  I haven't written in the label yet, I am waiting for input from my DH.

The buttons I used on the wallhanging are so sweet!  I bought them over 25 years ago when I used to knit a lot of baby sweaters.  They are perfect as there are ducks in one of the fabrics.  I guess it pays to be a pack rat ;D  Today was my lucky day overall - I won the blocks for the block of the month, which I am so thrilled about, I just LOVE them.  I also won a drawing for a fat quarter!  I should go buy a lottery ticket! Happy Quilting!

Wild WISP Tamed!!

I am so excited to have this WISP FINISHED!!! It isn't wasn't my oldest WISP, but it was one that I thought about frequently when I would see it sitting there, so lonely, on the "to be quilted shelf".  Month after month, year after year.  Poor thing actually started out as someone else's project, I bought it about six years ago at a white elephant sale that my favorite quilt shop would hold each Winter. It was a terrific opportunity to get rid of fabric, notions, UFOs, WISPS, etc., and in exchange we would receive store credit.  I came across this kit, very reasonably priced and couldn't resist.  Once I started the project I noticed that the original owner had cut out everything except the flowers.  Then I noticed that had cut much of it out incorrectly, possibly why they stopped and got rid of it.  Too bad for them, YAY for me, the flowers are a bit closer than intended, but not by much.  The kit fabric requirements were very generous and I was able to re cut the green and red fabric to the correct size.  I have a good amount left over that I am attempting to do something with, but those projects are not done yet. I was very excited about this quilt so I started it that summer and actually finished the top pretty quickly, I would say within a year.  I even had the back pieced.  I put it away because I wanted to have it quilted kind of fancy and my skills were not up to par at that time, so it just sat.  Well then of course, my skills improved but then I became busy and since it wasn't a gift for someone else, just for me, it was always bumped to the end of a very long line! THEN, while reviewing my blog entries for 2011, I noticed that I had drifted away from the original intent of this blog, which was to WIELD WILD WISPS!!  So I looked at how few WISPs, UFOs or WIPs I had successfully tackled versus how many new ones I created . . .  Not Impressive. Very embarrassing actually.  So . . . I am grounded.  I cannot start a new project unless I complete one of my WISPs!  I updated my list, deleted the few projects I had finished and shamefully added the WISPs I started in 2011.  This month has been a great start - only two things finished, but both of them WISPs!  One of the new WISPs, a gift for someone else, and one old WISP, for ME! :D
 Happy, Happy, HAPPY Quilting !!!!

Happy New Year!

I am so surprised that this is the first post of the year!  I certainly thought about posting enough times that I guess I thought I really had posted previously . . . at least once!  Well here it is, almost the end of the month and I am posting my 1 XMAS item for January.  I started this while on a quilting retreat in November, I was speeding along when my Janome finally quit, the next morning a generous quilter lent me her extra machine and I was able to almost finish it except for the last two borders.  Now the borders are on, it's quilted and bound.  I did not add the label yet because this may be a wedding present down the road, I am going to eventually add two stockings to complete the gift.  It's so nice to have a Christmas project done as well as finishing up a WISP!  I was able to hang it on the clothesline to take a picture - it was sunny and beautiful today, 66 degrees and it's the end of January!  This is by far the craziest winter weather I ever remember, I guess no snow this year.   Happy Quilting!