Design Wall Monday - 6/24/13

It's been a very long time since I've posted what's on my design wall and that's because it was still Easy Street.  Well, it is now off the wall and onto my sewing cabinet waiting for me to finish up the rows.  In it's place, I've put back one of my other projects and a new FO for June, a red and blue baby quilt.

A new friend at retreat gave me some leftover blocks from her baby quilt , so I'm going to make one too. They are very easy blocks and a good way to use up scraps.

And this is all I've gotten done on the church liturgical quilt that I started last fall.  I've added the leading to all the pieced blocks.  Now the task comes to design the applique cross and heart for the middle section.  Hopefully I will get more time to get this going.

To see what is on other design walls this morning, jump on over to Patchwork Times.  

Hope everyone has a good week. 

Stash Report Week 25

My how times flies.  It seems like months since I've posted anything on my blog, but it's only been 2 weeks.  I've been busy with lots of miscellaneous things -- cooking, cleaning and going to weddings, and shopping.  But I did find time to go on a retreat! (smile).  All work and no play makes for a crabby lady. Now to confess show my new stash enhancements.

Fabric Used - pieced lots of scraps into string blocks
Fabric Used YTD - 57.71 yds
Fabric Added - 2 yds
Fabric Added YTD - 73.95 yd
Fabric stash enhanced for 2013 - 16.24 yds.

The cause for my fabric additions--our guild has a challenge to make a baby quilt using fabric in a brown paper bag, chosen sight unseen.  I got a cute Asian print fat quarter to work with.  Nothing in my stash goes with it, so I HAD to go shopping, right?! :)  I found a couple of candidates for borders or some other idea.  I saw the orange plaid first and thought it would work, then a couple days later spotted the grey and/turquoise plaid from Riley Blake's "Life in the Jungle" collection   Now since I don't have a clue what pattern I'll come up with, it's anybodies guess as to which I'll use or maybe an entirely different one, yet to be discovered. 

This is exactly how my stash has grown over the years.  Those indecisions on what looks best, so you  get both.

To see what others have been up to stop on by Judy's.

Hexies in my Future

This week is starting out great. A week ago I participated in a Hexie Quilt Blog Hop and Day 1 was hosted by Karen Griska at the Selvage Blog.  Her giveaway was a signed copy of Quick and Easy Hexie Quilts by Dr. Peggy Rhodes and Julia C. Wood.  I'm thrilled that I was the lucky winner.   Thank you so much Karen for such a great giveaway.  I've been wanting to make something with hexies for a long time, and now I have no excuse.  

I can't wait to learn their secret of how they make their hexies with no paper, plastic or basting.!  This will probably be a new FO for next month.  Those old UFO's will just have to wait a bit longer to get finished.  The hexies are calling me now.

Stash Report with Pictures

Today has been a very rainy day here and I've been trying to catch up on a few things.  First the stash report.  I didn't add anything and only used small amounts for some string blocks.  So the numbers remain the same as last week.

But I did make progress on some of the backlog of quilts needing to be finished.  The first one is a QOV that was pieced by Susan C. and I quilted and bound it.  I wanted to do something more than an E2E, so I drafted a border of anchors to add to the outside border since some of the fabric was nautical themed.

 
Next up was this Yellow Brick Road scrap quilt which has been waiting patiently to be quilted.  This weekend was it's turn on the machine.  It looked so fresh and Springy that I thought some young girl would love to cuddle under it when the cold weather returns.   It has a matching pillowcase and was  quilted with big dragonflies flying all around in swoops and swirls. It is so happy to be almost finished (only needs it's binding put on and hand stitched.)  That will be a retreat project for next week.

This last quilt was one our hand quilters finished at QOV.   Isn't it beautiful?  I just love this pattern.  They quilted in the ditch between all the red and white stripes and outlined the stars.  Our leader thought an eagle in the middle would be just the thing to make it special.

 To see how others did on their stash management this week, check over at Judy's Patchwork Times.

Quilts for the Troops

We had a great time this week at our Quilts of Valor meeting.  Our numbers were down a bit -- only 85 in attendance; but we have exceeded our goal of 100 quilts for our Missouri troops.  I promised more show and tell of the quilts I received from our Bits 'n Pieces Quilt Guild plus a few more.

These 3 were pieced by a group that live west of St.Louis in and around Washington, MO.

Chinese coins with brown borders & sashing

Chinese coins with blue borders & sashing

Chinese coins with red borders & sashing

Now some of you may recognize the next 3 quilts.  They were made by my new friend, Kevin, the Quilter.  He contacted me awhile back saying he would like to make some tops for QOV, and naturally I said "wonderful, we'd love them".  Well, he was good to his word.  Aren't these just beautiful??  He also made 3 pillowcases with backings and bindings for each of them.  Thank you so much Kevin!  Your quilts are great, love the bright colors and as you know, scrappy quilts are where it's at in my book!!

Made by Kevin

Made by Kevin

 

Made by Kevin

If you want to see more of Kevin's talents, check out his blog and see his cute quilt he made for the Blogger's Quilt Festival this year.  It's definitely a winner. 

This next one I had a hard time parting with.  I've always wanted to make a blue & white quilt.  Do you think they'd notice if one little quilt didn't make it?? LOL  Just teasing.  It went to the quilters too.

Made by Bernedette D

Made by Mary Lou M.

Happy stitching until next time. :)

New Adventures in the Kitchen

I've been so buy with all my QOV projects currently that I've neglected trying new recipes much this year.  My herb garden is very limited this year (too busy quilting), but I do have a few favorites that I use a lot -- basil, chives, dill; so when I saw what my friend at Cat Patches had done with her chives, I thought I'd give it a try.  Of course my little patch is not very big, but it was enough to make one pretty container of chive blossom vinegar to use for making salad dressings or marinades.  Now I just have to strain it and it will be ready to use.  Hope it tastes as good as it looks. I love the color.

Next I'm making a delicious recipe with grapefruits that were brought back from Arizona by a good friend who winters there.  Will have the results of that adventure soon.

Stash Report and May New FO

Although I've played with and used lots of fabric this week, I really didn't reduce my stash very much.  Most of the bindings and quilt backings that I made were from fabrics given to me for that purpose, so it doesn't count against my "used" numbers. Darn!!  However, I did use a little from my stash in making these star blocks for one member of our piecing group. She wanted non-bright stars with neutral backgrounds.

My numbers for the week:

Fabric Added - 0

Fabric Added YTD - 71.95 yds

Fabric Used - .25 (guesstimate)

Fabric Used YTD - 57.71 yds

Net added in 2013 - 14.24 yds

I'm still hopeful the net number will be in the black before the end of June. I still have my eye on a goal of using at least 200 yards this year.

But the reason my stash is not dwindling down is that I started another new FO in May.  It was planned to be a gift in May, but I ran out of time:  So now it will have be a future gift for someone. lol.

It was a kit from Timeless Treasures called Autumn Plume and the fabrics were so pretty.  I didn't get much done on it.  In fact, I only got as far as taking it out of the wrapper, admiring and petting the beautiful fabrics and drawing up my template to cut the diamonds, but it was started in May.  Maybe I can get the top finished at an upcoming retreat!.

I am linking up with Patchwork Times for the Stash Report and Cat Patches for the May New FO.  Go check them out to see what others are up to. 

.

GID Results and What's Keeping me Busy

Tomorrow (oops, it's after midnight) Today is the first day of June already.  In just 30 days we will be half way through 2013. It's going by too fast for me. Since May is over, it's now time to see how I did on my goals for May.  Here were my goals and the progress I made.

May Goals
1. Cut, piece & quilt a wedding present - did not happen
2. Make 10 more string blocks - made 6 
3. Quilt 1 QOV - actually quilted 4 QOV
4. Finish knitting scarf - made progress, but it's still on the needles
5. Make some progress on putting rows together on Easy Street.- 3 rows completed
6  Extra this month - Made 10 pillowcases for St.Louis Children's Hospital
                               Quilted 5 customer quilts
                               Made 55 yards of bindings for QOV quilts
                               Pieced 6 backings together for QOV quilts
It was very busy this month, that's for sure.  Tuesday night at my Bits 'n Pieces Quilt Guild, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of quilts turned in for QOV.  This group is so prolific and generous!  They donated 7 finished quilts and 7 pieced tops & backings.  Just take a look at some of the wonderful quilts and tops that I received this week.

From Suzanne G.

From Dusty P.

 

From Debbie S.

 

From Kris P.

From Katie F.

From Cherie V.

From Gale S.

I'll post more after I've taken more pictures.  We made our goal with some to spare for the Missouri troops returning from Afghanistan.  We've heard they are back in the states and we are anxious to find out when we can present their quilts to them.

To see how others did on their GID goals, check at Judy's here.