Here are my photos from FNSI

It is very late Friday evening or very early on Saturday depending on where you live. I just turned out the lights in my sewing room after taking pictures of my progress.

I have finished all the blocks and have started putting the blocks together. I am placing them on point.

This is a second view of the top. I didn't have time to put up my flannel to lay things out. Instead the top is on my quilter's design table.

These are the last six blocks. Four of them will be used to finish the on point design. I have enough blue stars fabric to fill in the corners.

I will not be able to work on the quilt again until late Sunday. It must be finished no later than Tuesday evening. This is a gift and it has to be given on Wednesday.

Have a great Saturday.

Tonight is another FNSI

My intention for tonight is to finish up all the blocks and put them on my flannel block board to arrange. If I have the time I will start to put the rows together. Maybe with luck I will have the top completed before tomorrow morning.

I have every intention to post pictures before I leave the house Saturday morning. Let's see how that goes.

Have a great day.

FNSI pictures for you

I have up loaded my pictures from Friday. Here they are:

Above are the fabrics I will be using.

These are the initial cuts of the fabric. I am cutting 2 1/2 inch strips of the black fabric. There are 7 X 7 squares of the penguin fabric. The star fabric and the orange fabric will become half square triangles.


These are the first of the half square triangles before squaring up.

This is my first block completed.

This is a stack of blocks ready to sew.

I have completed nine blocks and have eleven to go. All the black strips are cut and all the half square triangles are sewn and ready for squaring up.

I will post more picture later.

Have a nice day.

I broke my word to you.

Last night was very busy and the camera was the last thing on my mind.

I did do some more fabric cutting on this project.

However, I committed to knitting hats for the Lighthouse Youth Services in Cincinnati and had one pink hat to finish. I turned in all the hats this week and now am free to get back to my sewing.

I told DH that I would be in the sewing / craft room this evening. He was not delighted...he'll have to learn to deal with it.

Have a great day. I hope to have pictures for you very very soon.

FNSI -- December 10

I actually had progress Friday. I have a quilt that I am making for a co-worker. It is intended as a Christmas present.

The fabrics are black, rust and blue with white stars. Also there is a coordinated fabric of the blue with white stars with penguins all over. The center square is 7" by 7" and is surrounded by 7" by 2 1/2" blocks in the black and 2 1/2" half square triangles in the orange and blue with white stars fabric. I took pictures and will try to post them this evening.

I have completed one block and have enough half square triangles for an additional 12 blocks. The blocks will be sewn together with the blocks set on point.

After I post the pictures this evening, I will continue to take pictures and post them as the quilt top is completed. It will be tied rather than quilted due to the procrastination of the quilter. LOL.

Have a great day.

Friday Night Sew In

They are having two FNSI this month. The 10th and the 17th. Maybe this time I will get some pictures to post. LOL.

Promises

I promised to show you what I did Friday.

I did take pictures.

Life has been filled with stress related opportunities?

I will post them A.S.A.P.

Sorry.

Have a great day

Tonight is FNSI

This month I am going to take my camera into my sewing area and work and take pictures.

Will post everything before noon tomorrow.

Have a great day

Tonight is Friday Night Sew In

Right now everything is still packed up from our very recent second trip to Gatlinburg. I really don't want to unpack because I have Saturday Breakfast Club to attend tomorrow, so I will just have to do something other than sewing.

I am leaving in two weeks for the 4th Annual Crafty Friends Retreat starting October 1. I am really anticipating a great weekend with many successes. I haven't decided what projects to take with me. Last year I had several and left all that I wasn't working on in the car and only went out for another project when I had completed the first. It was the most productive retreat I have ever been on.

I am leaning on my paper pieced BOM Crystal Reflections. I started one block during the first trip to Gatlinburg and I feel that I am getting the hang of it. I would really like to make a major dent into that project during the retreat.

Have a great day.

Tonight is Friday Night Sew In

I have a few blocks to finish cutting out for the Christmas Quilt for my MIL. I will need this fabric all cut out before September 4.

I also found the pattern for the Apache Tears Quilt for DH. I don't know what prep I need before September 4.

You ask what is September 4? I am going to Gatlinburg all by myself for a week of tranquility. I will take all my food so I don't have to go to restaurants. I will take my swim suit and attend aerobics Monday through Thursday at the timeshare inside pool. I will also swim laps at the timeshare outside pool. I plans to enjoy the activities given to owners at the timeshare. All in all I do not plan to leave the property at all unless the new Jo Ann's store in Severville calls to me or I have forgotten something. I will be saving gas too.

Have a great day quilting.

Friday Night Sit In -- July

Sorry that I haven't posted anything. I did work on the Breakfast Club Dutch quilt and have 24 blocks put together. I have additional blocks under construction. These blocks will continue until I have run out of fabric or do not have enough to add logically to the top. It will be either lap size or twin size.

Have a great day

Fund Raising Quilts Finished

I finished both quilts Friday morning about 5:15 A.M. DD picked them up on her way to work. Everyone she talked to said that they looked great. I took some pictures and will attach later. The camera is downstairs and I am upstairs for the night.

Have a great day.

Fund Raising Quilt Update

I have the binding sewn on the NICU quilt and am hand stitching it on.

The other baby quilt is pieced and quilted. I wanted to use the feather stitch on my machine, but after three unsewing of about 20" total I gave up and just did a straight stitch from corner to corner on the blocks.

I need to sew the binding on and finish the quilt.

DD will be picking them both up tomorrow morning about 7:25 A.M.

Have a great day.

Sorry to be gone so long.

Memorial Day before it got too hot I decided to finish weeding the flower garden in front of the house. Big mistake! While weeding I dislocated my artificial right hip. After a ride in the ambulance and x-rays the doctors attempted a reduction. Basically it is an attempt to put the ball into the socket. They were not successful.

From Monday morning at about 7:30 until Wednesday morning at 11:00 I was totally bed bound. The pain was minimal and I was able to just relax and be prepared for surgery.

The surgery was done and only two parts of the artificial joint were needing replacement. After surgery the pain was so minimal that I did not need pain medication. They told me not to be a hero because pain would slow recovery.

Basically I lost 8 days of anything other than watching TV or reading.

Yesterday my daughter called. A fellow co-worker is off work because her husband is in hospice and not expected to be with us much longer. DD wondered if we could put a basket together for a raffle that our co-workers are planning to help our our friend. I immediately thought of the preemie quilt that has never been quilted. Also I recently learned a very simple pattern that can be made in various sizes from a baby quilt to queen size quilt. DD helped me pick the fabric from my stash to make the baby quilt.

I finished the quilting on the preemie quilt before supper and need to iron, cut and sew the top for the baby quilt. I do not think I have the right fabric for the back of the baby quilt or anything for binding. Guess my DH will have to wheel me around Jo Ann's Fabric this evening to get some fabric.

Have a great day

Scrap Therapy

My LQS offers a class on the first Saturday of the month called Scrap Therapy. It is broken into two parts. The first is to learn what size pieces to cut for usable sizes. The second is to make things out of all the usable pieces.

Last night I ironed for almost 3 hours on what scraps I could find. I have a lovely ziploc bag full of the first of many scrap bags.

Have a great day.

What did I do on the Friday Night Sew In?

I played with EQ6. Did you know that there is a version 7 coming out in June. I still have so many things to learn about 6 that I an in a quandary about what to do. I can get a great price on the upgrade if I pre-order before May 31. I will think it out again.

I decided to see what I could design with only HST. It was a lot of fun. Then I added a border. and when I was finished I had added a total of seven borders.

Would you like to see what I did?

First I designed the center arrangement of the HST. I added a border and this is what turned out.



The I went crazy and added six more borders.



I think it all turned out rather nifty.

Friday Night Sew In for May

Friday, May 21 is the Friday Night Sew In. I cannot wait. I have a list ten miles long of what I want to do.

I have narrowed it down to the BOM for the Civil War Tribute and the Shop Hop last summer in Dayton / Cincinnati. I only have a few blocks left to do.

Talk to you later.

Are you getting tired of Dutch Breakfast Club?

I finished squareing up the HST in red and sewed the final pinwheels together Sunday evening. The next challenge is to sew the sides to the newest pinwheels. After that is completed I will sew the dark HST and med light HST to the rectangles. Once that is completed I will sew the top, center and bottom strips into blocks. I believe that I have in excess of 25 blocks to sew. At a finished size that will be 40" by 40".

There are still additional fabric to sew more HST and rectangles. That will determine the size of the final project. A lap quilt needs 56 blocks to finish up a 56 by 64 lap quilt. I definitely have enough fabric for that. A standard / queen size quilt needs 192 blocks to finish up at 88 by 104. I think that the queen size is beyond my current stash. However, I bought the red and background fabrics within the last 8 weeks and it should sill be available at my LQS.

All depends on my desire for a new quilt in the master bedroom. Also, it would be the 2nd quilt on my new quilting frame. I have no intention of it being the first!

Have a great day

More Dutch Breakfast Club

Friday I finally finished the half square triangles in red. I started sewing them together and then realized that I had sewn the wrong side together. There were almost 20 HST to unstitch but I got it done. After I finished the HST in red I sewed them together to create a pin wheel. A little more unstitching and I finished up with 12 center pin wheels.

Then I started sewing the top row together. I pieced all the light blue HST to a background rectangle. The I pieced all the medium dark blue HST to the other side. I chain pieced them all.

Next was to chain piece the background rectangle to the pin wheel of red HST on both sides. I got all the pin wheels that were done fastened to the background rectangles before bedtime.

This morning I made 50 more red HST for pin wheels. At the rate I am going this is going to be a queen sized quilt top. I would love to have the top totally pieced before the next meeting of the Breakfast Club in May.

Have a great day

Dutch Breakfast Club update

Well I am getting there. Only a few red and pale blue half square triangles to square up and on to the blocks.

Last night was a brief time working on my quilt. DH bought Avatar yesterday and we watched it. I could see this one over and over. What a great movie with a good plot.

Have a great day

Dutch Breakfast Club Quilt

Last evening I spent 2 hours sewing half square triangles for this quilt. Then I squared up each one. I still have 24 red hst to square up and I will start making the blocks. Hopefully that will be my goal for this evening.

It seems that every time I plan something there is an interruption or change in plans. What can I say. Life is a whirlwind and I am caught up in it.

I am waiting for my BOM for the Civil War Tribute quilt. I will sew it the weekend after it arrives.

Have a great day.

Dutch Breakfast Club

We had a blast Saturday morning. As we sew together each month we get to know each other better. We talk about everything under the sun. It is so wonderful to have quilters as friends.

Breakfast was brought in by Carol F. and enjoyed by all. She made a sourdough, egg, cheese and Italian sausage casserole. WOW. It was great.

Then we got down to business. We had a show and tell for two of our members who had finished the tops of the Mexican Fiesta Eggs Breakfast Club. One quilt top was in muted pinks, greens and yellows of the tropics. It was beautiful. The other quilt top was a black background with brown and blue for the blocks. It was very Amish and the blocks floated on the fabric. WOW. Beautiful quilt tops.

I continued to work on my half square triangles and started putting the center of my blocks together. At 12:30 I had to clean up for the next class coming in.

During the evening at home I continued sewing and cutting half square triangles. I have enough fabric for about 80 full blocks but I think I will go with 56 blocks to make a twin size quilt top.

Since Monday is Wash Day I will be washing laundry tonight after work and continuing my homework from Breakfast Club this evening after work.

Have a great day

Friday Night Sew In

I had homework to do for my Saturday morning Breakfast Club. I made 80 half square triangles out of 4 different colors.

Have a great day.

Dutch Breakfast Club

Yesterday evening I started cutting out fabric for this project. I have 100 half square triangles to sew and cut. Then I will be ready to start putting the blocks together.

Fortunately tonight is Friday Night Sew In. I have another excuse to sit downstairs in my sewing room that is becoming a Studio. I am sure that DH will have something to say about this. I cannot blame him. This will be three nights in a row that I have not joined him in the living room to watch TV.

This is the most straight forward of the Breakfast Club patterns. The last one was a total disappointment. It is almost impossible to square up the blocks to meet my absurdly logical requirements. That one is going on the back burner for some time to come.

Tomorrow is Breakfast Club and I am looking forward to seeing my fellow quilters. It is nice to talk and sew together.

Have a nice day.

More progress on Studio Makeover

Wednesday is the night DH watches his "Ghost Hunters" programs. So...I went down to the family room to sew. Oops. I forgot that I had laid out four boxes to go through for the keep, recycle and shred process. I finished all four boxes. By then it was time to go to bed and I never got my sewing done. Drat!

Tonight I am going to go down to the working studio and cut fabric for the "Breakfast Club" Danish pattern. I need to get all the fabric cut and the half square triangles sewn. Then on Saturday I can start putting all the blocks together. How exciting!

Have a great day.

Pictures of my first set of pillowcases

You may remember my discussing the Million Pillowcase Challenge. I have uploaded the photos from my camera of my first six pillowcases.

No Studio Makeover progress to provide

I have been in a reading mood all week long and have not worked in my Studio at all. Hopefully this weekend will give me the energy to continue on it.

Have a great day

Studio Makeover

Great progress was made on Sunday. All of my quilting magazines have been organized into individual magazine holders and placed in the largest of my bookcases in the new Studio. I labeled the front of each holder with the names of the magazines so I can go to exactly which publications I want to look at. Next will be putting them in chronological order and creating an Excel spreadsheet so I know what I have in my library of quilt magazines. I am so excited!

I also took out two boxes of recycled paper to the curb for pick up this morning. I have a third, but I ran out of energy. I will be the 1st box for next weeks recycling.

My LQS has a Weekly "Sew:cial every Thursday from 6:30 to 9:30. I think I will start going once a month to check it out and see if it is worth the $12.50 fee. Another LQS has a monthly sew-in on the 2nd Saturday of each month and it is only $5.00 plus you can purchase $5.00 or more in the store and get a credit of $5.00 off your purchase. Now that I call a friendly LQS benefit.

I still haven't pulled out my sewing machine to start working on my 1 at a time list. It will have to wait a little longer until I get more of the studio in order.

Have a great day.

Studio Makeover

Isn't it funny when you put something off for so long and then find it to be quite simple? Last evening I put in two hours on my studio makeover while watching a movie that DH didn't want to watch. What a lesson. Every time he puts something on that I don't want to watch I have an excuse to work on my studio. How enlightening!

Have a great day

LQS 1 Year Anniversary

Seams Sew Easy in Fairfield, OH celebrated its fist anniversary today. This is the shop that also participates in the Million Pillowcase Challenge. To help them celebrate I purchased the fabric for 6 more pillowcases. If I get them done before the end of April I will have two more chances in the prize drawing.

It was quite a celebration with a CAKE that was beyond description and of course made of CHOCOLATE! I wish I had time to get a piece but I had to get back to work.

Have a great day.

Million Pillowcase Challenge

Yesterday after work I dropped off my six pillowcases. I am now entered into a drawing twice (once for each three pillowcases) for a prize. What is the prize? I don't know.

My LQS is having their 1st anniversary celebration this weekend starting with a grand opening today at noon. I am fortunate that I work less than 1/2 mile from them so I will be doing their celebration during my lunch hour. I cannot wait. Only one hour to go.

Last night I worked more on the Studio Makeover. There is so much stored paper that needs to be separated into recycle, keep or shred. I have all the documents from the five years my DH and I ran a trucking firm. We went out of business in 1999 so I figure that if the IRS or the NTB would want anything they would have contacted us by now. All of that will be shredded.

Then I will start a very big fire. I am burning all the shredded documents a little at a time. Sure hope we have a cool evening ahead for the great bon fire. DH is afraid I will start a chimney fire. He wants to clean the chimney first. DUH. I will take a mirror and look up the chimney first to make sure that there is no tar on the sides of it. If is clear I will fire up with no fears. I have lived with wood burning fireplaces since I was 5 and I will not admit how many years between then and now.

Have a great day.

Studio Makeover

Yesterday evening I spent about an hour working on the mess that is currently the family room and will be a Studio. I am in the process of recycling some things and shredding others. Tiresome, but it is progress.

Have a great day.

No progress on the Studio Makeover

I came home so tired and in such a low mood that all I did was eat supper and go to bed.

Today I am full of energy and ready to take the world on. I have a to do list for this evening and have prioritized it. I will follow it to the best of my ability.

Friday Night Sew In

Today I joined a ring of quilters / sewers that sew together one Friday night each month. I saw it mentioned on another blog that I follow and signed up for it. It doesn't matter where you live you can still enjoy the FNSI by joining.

Studio accomplishments

I have cleared the one bookcase and moved it and a display case back to back between the office area and the hallway from the studio to the sliding glass door. I have started putting quilting magazines into the bookcase. It looks so empty, but when I bring all the magazines from my upstairs office down it will start to take shape.

I move my quilt design table into the official studio area last night. Currently it is being used as a laundry folding table and a sorting table for magazines. I will also start to sew blocks from my BOM club as well as my Breakfast Club.

I still have quite a large area of the family room to turn into the studio. But with the warmer weather it will be easier to work down stairs. I hope to have it all completed and the quilting frame erected in the studio by Mother's Day. What a present for myself and my quilting.

When I get it all finished I will take some pictures and post them here. I am just getting used to posting pictures and cannot wait until everything is set and I can show it off.

Have a great day

Million Pillowcase Challenge

I know that this is not quilting, however my LQS is involved in the challenge and Tuesday I took a vacation day and learned how to make a fantastic pillowcase. In fact I made six. The first three took three hours. The second three too two hours. They tell me they will become even quicker.

Pictures to follow.

I have a quilting frame in my house

Friday the Hinterberg Original Machine Quilting Frame arrived in two separate boxes. I opened the small one and it contained the aprons for attaching the quilt to the frame.

I am debating on whether to finish the wood parts of the frame. There are three possibilities: leave it unfinished, use polyurethane to seal it or paste wax to protect it. I cannot decide. I think I will google it and see what other quilters have done.

During the weekend one of the bookcases was almost emptied. As soon as it is ready to move I will put it out of the way in the downstairs bathroom (temporarily). The area behind this bookcase needs in depth cleaning as it hasn't been moved for almost three years. After this is completed I will empty the other bookcase and put it at the foot of the stairs. I am not sure what I will store in it. Currently it is a combination of quilting stuff and books by some of my favorite authors. The authors can go upstairs in the bookcase with my other favorites and then I can decide what to put in it. I purchased two Sauder bookcases and a desk along with lamps when I first decided to turn the family room into a studio. I wonder if now is the time to pull out the bookcases and start using them? I think I need more work done in the room before I add any more furniture...including the quilt frame.

Have a great day

Family room to a Studio

My husband even complemented me on the progress in changing the family room into a sewing room. I have one large box of things to go through and then I can start to use the TV again. I have a goal of switching out two bookcases and then moving the couch to the north side of the room facing the front windows of the room and facing the TV.

I think I have decided where to put my quilting frame. It will be located on the east side of the sewing room so that I can see the fireplace and TV and look out the sliding glass door on the north side of the house.

One step at a time. I still have to change the east side of the family room before I can put the quilting frame together. I had planned on ordering it Saturday, but with one thing and another I had to put it off. I moved the money I had saved for the frame to my VISA so I can purchase it at any time. I am really excited about getting it.

Yesterday DH and I were talking about the studio and I mentioned that the next thing I want to purchase is the Weekender Mid-arm from Hinterberg. When he found out it was $1,699.00 he hit the roof. I think I will have saved enough to pay cash for it by November or December. It will be my Christmas present to myself.

Have a nice day.

I'll be a blue nosed gopher

When I went to guild it seemed that so many of my former buddy's were so nice to me. Recently I had left a comment on one of these ladies blog congratulating her on her successes in knitting and suggesting a book to help her with the problem all sock knitters have (the second one rarely looks like the first one). This lady has set up her blog to review all comments before publishing them. She graciously published my comment.

Maybe I am mellowing or maybe these ladies are mellowing. I do know that life will be more pleasant than it has been.

Have a great day

March OVQG Guild Meeting

I met such an interesting lady yesterday evening at Guild. I didn't catch her last name but her first name is Ellen. We had a lovely conversation about knitting and quilting and sewing in general. It was so nice to connect with another member of Guild. I would love to connect with her again.

One of our moving forces in guild Carrie is moving to Alaska. What a loss to our guild. She has been a motivating force in the 5 years of membership. I am going to miss her both as a guild member and a mentor.

Several people approached me and said hello. I was pleasant, but I don't want to get involved with that group again. They may think I have changed, but I haven't changed. I have evolved through two crisis with DH and almost lost him both times. The first time they dropped me like a hot potato because I was not pleasant to be around. Anger is my first reaction when I am handling a very difficult situation. In the fall of 2008 it was very stressful and I was very angry.

I can be pleasant to them. I can interact with them. However, I hesitate to ever trust them again. It is sad to have lost people who you thought you could count on through think and thin.

Back to guild. We had a wonderful speaker this month. Although her style of quilting does not compare to mine I took away some very sound advice. ACCURATE 1/4 INCH SEAM ALLOWANCE! I also like her new line of patterns. They are of women of different cultures. I hope to pick up one or two and make them from my stash. Yes, you heard me right. I am willing to cut into my stash to make some small wall hangings.

Have a blessed day.

Working on changing the family room to a studio - update 1

This weekend I was really into working on the family room. I put together a table that I bought two years ago for the studio and started using it. (The table actually is meant for a patio, but it works very well as a place to sort things as I clean up the family room.)

I moved all the Christmas wrapping stuff into the storage area in the basement. I found an old vaporizer for cold vapor and took it upstairs (we are in a bi-level) to clean and set up as the static electricity is getting bad. I found a box of old papers and sorted it. I have about 1/2" of papers to file and the rest is going into the recycle bin for next week's garbage pick up. I put some gardening things together in one box instead of two. When the snow gets a little easier to walk through I will move the box to the shed. On second thought I think I will move all the gardening things into the garage. I think we will have to do some major remodeling of the shed this spring and I don't need to move things more than twice!

This may not sound like a lot, but my family room is 65F degrees and that is cold compared to the 69 to 71 upstairs. Once I get a space cleared out for the heater it will be better, but I want it in the open for safety. I also want to move the couch from where DH thought it was best (with the back to the fireplace) and start a fire. That will also help heat the family room.

There still isn't enough room for the quilting frame. I cannot make up my mind whether to set it up for a king size quilt or set it up for a queen size quilt. There is a difference in the length of the rails and ultimately the width of the frame. This is a decision I have to make before I order it and also it depends on where I set it up in the studio. Decisions!

Have a great day

Working on changing the family room to a studio

DH moved several things out of the family room and I organized things that were stashed on the love seat.

All of the Christmas Wrap has been organized and is ready to be placed in the closet for next year. My Design Sewing Center that I received as a Christmas present was excellent for wrapping gifts. I could sit down and wrap without hurting my back.

Last night was a knitting night and I didn't get much done in the family room. But I will keep working on it until it becomes a studio!

Have not forgetten posting

Sorry about the length between posts. I have been doing a lot of knitting since mid December and the quilting fell by the way side.

You will never guess what I am getting. I am getting my quilting frame. I will buy one that can be used with a home sewing machine and if I ever get the money I will buy a mid or short arm machine.

This weekend DH and I will be making a space for the frame. Until that space is available I will not allow myself to order the frame. The money is tucked into a savings account specifically for the purchase.

Have a great weekend, Karen

2010 Block of the Month: Civil War Tribute

The first package of my 2010 block of the month club arrived today. I have a delema. Do I keep to my one project at a time plan? Or is the bom like homework from a class. I have to make a decision.

I so would like to start the bom and continue it through the year. Maybe it is like a class.

Have a great day.

New Years Resolution (rather goal)

Recently on a quilter's blog I found a process that I would like to start in my quilting. One project at a time. What a concept!

I will take one UFO from my list and complete it. I will start nothing new until I have at least one accomplishment. The only exception to this will be when I take a class. These class projects will go into the UFO list, but only homework for the next session will be done.

This is a major challenge as you can see by the list of UFO's and USO's that I have. My goal is to get these two lists to a managable size and ultimately only be working on one project at a time.

Since I knit, sew clothes and quilt that will be three projects working on concurrently. I think this is a nice way to simplify my life.