Quilts of Valor Day & IQF

As you are reading this, I am high in the sky heading to the International Quilt Festival in Houston. I told you it was going to be a very special Halloween for me this year. I hope to meet some bloggers that I follow and lots of wonderful quilts and quilty stuff.  Can't wait!!. My morning started at 4:00 a.m. (ugh!! not my favorite part of the trip).  Once we touch down in Houston though, all this early morning suffering will be forgotten.   Hope your Halloween is as much fun as I'm going to have!

Wednesday we had our last Quilts of Valor quilting day for 2013.  It was a record day with 148 quilters attending.  It was also the day we drew for our raffle quilt winner.  This year we have hand quilted over 300 quilts and since our first meeting about 8 years ago, we have presented over 1,300 quilts from our Eastern Missouri Chapter.

Here are a few quilts that were finished recently.  There were many more but I was busy sewing and didn't get all the pictures when they were taken out of the frames. The first 4 were pieced by Linda H. She wants to be sure the ladies in the military are not forgotten.

Pieced by Jackie H.

Close up of quilting

Pieced by Carol S.

We are now on a break until 2014.  There will still be some ladies finishing up hand quilting those that were left on the frames today or putting on bindings and stitching them down.  We will start again fresh in January. 

Design Wall Monday

My design wall is empty at the moment.  The liturgical quilt has been taken off the design wall, all the applique is finished and it's now loaded on the longarm in the process of being quilted.  I've got a good start on it, so hopefully before the end of the week, this little baby will be done!

Also, because it's Trick or Treat time of the year soon, I put out a few items to get in the mood.

Here's a little tablerunner I made for decorating at Halloween along with pumpkins and other "wicked" items scattered around the house.  A motion-activated ghost, a witch that hit the telephone pole while flying through the night (she's not IN the house), and orange and black candles placed around the house for when the lights go out and the wind is blowing and strange sounds can be heard howling at the full moon.

 This is the back.  I just love those little ghosts on there.

This Halloween is going to be a very special one for me.  I'll tell you more about it later.  It involves a trip with friends and lots and lots of eye candy.  Did I mention there would be lots of wonderful things to see?  I might even see some of you there.

Stop by Judy's and take a look at more Design Walls.  There's are lots of design walls that you will enjoy.

Finishes and Stash Report - Week 43

My stash report changed a bit this week. I bought a yard for a specific use and made a binding for a QOV quilt to use a half yard and gave 3/4 yd to a friend, so there's a little movement.  I'm still adding more to my stash than used this year, but when the cold weather sets in and I've caught up on my customer quilts, then I am planning to use lots of yardage from my stash.  There is still 2 months left to get out of the red!!

Fabric Added - 1 yard

Fabric Used - 1.25 yds

YTD Fabric Added - 88.95 yds

YTD Fabric Used - 87.36 yds

Net Added for 2013 - 1.59 yds.

Now for some positive accomplishments this week.  Here are a couple quilts that I quilted for friends. Their "finished" lists are looking a whole lot better than mine. lol

Irish chain by Becky 

Her granddaughter picked out the fabric she wanted.  It had pictures and scenes from Paris.She loves pink and black and anything French.This had poodles, the Eiffel Tower and little sidewalk cafe scenes.

A Christmas "Pick Up Sticks" pattern

Hop on over to Judy's to see more stash reports for the week.  Hope you are making lots of progress on using your stash.

On and Off The Needles 10/18/13

This is what just came OFF my needles--a set of the multicolored dishcloths.  Just have to weave in the ends and they will be ready to use.  These were fun to make, but this yarn did discolor the tips of my fingers as I was working on them. I've never had that happen before. Maybe this yarn is not colorfast. It is the Sugar'n Cream - new super size, which I used for the first 2 I made in solid green.  No problems noticed there.

Now that I've finished 4 dishcloths, I think I'm ready to try my hand at the 3S Shawl.  This is reportedly an easy shawl - the 3S stands for Super-wide, Super Simple.  We'll just have to see. I'll let you know if it's easy for a beginner.

There are more knitting projects to see over at Patchwork Times.  Check them out. 

Design Wall - Oct. 14

Happy Columbus Day!!   Hope you are enjoying the time off by playing in your sewing room.  My design wall has not changed much since last week.  I'm still working on the applique on the liturgical quilt.  But I did finish quilting a couple other quilts for friends.

The first one is a cute pattern that was real popular several years ago.  I've seen it made up in soft colors for a baby quilt; in bright, bold hot pinks and lime greens for a wild child and now the trend is in Halloween fabrics.  It is cute no matter what fabrics are used.

A Buggy Barn Pattern

A close up of the quilting.  This was a fun to quilt.

This was another recent quilt that I thought was unique. Unfortunately I don't know the name of the pattern. Edited: I talked to Carol who made it and the name of the pattern is "Check It Out" by Maple Island Quilts.

It's quilted with variegated thread (YLI Great Barrier Reef)  in the same colors as the bold colors of the big squares. I'm not sure if you can see it very well in this picture.

I'm linking up to Judy's Design Wall Monday.  Check out more design walls there.

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Stash Report Week 41

My stash report would be the same as last week if it were not for a generous gift from a friend.  I had this plastic salad bowl that had been a special purchase years ago, and I filled it with some pickled cucumber slices that I gave to a friend.  When she returned the bowl back to me, she filled it with fat quarters to resemble a salad.  There are various shades of greens to resemble lettuce, spinach, chard, kale; purple for eggplant or purple cabbage, red and orange - tomatoes, peppers, carrots and even one that has chili peppers on it.  I LOVE IT!!  This had been the original packaging when I first purchased this container about 7 years ago and she remembered.  What a wonderful surprise.  She is a very special and  thoughtful friend who is always doing things like this for people.  Thank you so much Jeanne.

Here are my numbers this week.  I'm back in the red again.  Time to get busy "finishing" something.

Fabric Added - 3 yards 

Fabric Used  - 0

YTD fabric Added -  87.95 yds

YTD fabric Used -    86.11 yds

Net Stashed in 2013-  -1.84

To see more stash reports, check at Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday 10/7/13

Here's part of my design wall today.  These is an old, old UFO that I was experimenting with to learn how to do reverse applique.  I used my own hand-dyed fabric.  The blocks still have the 2nd contrasting piece of fabric behind the top one and they are not very well done, but I can't throw them away. I'd like to something with them and not have to make any more.  Maybe I should just add these to my orphan box with other partly finished things and incorporate all of the orphans into a backing for a scrappy top. Any ideas you might have would be welcomed.

Reverse applique schoolhouse blocks

The other design wall has the liturgical piece on it.  I'm working on the applique section and it still needs some tweeking, but here's a peek.

Drop on by Patchwork Times to see more design walls today.

Stash Report - Week 40 and Much More

My stash has changed very little since last reported.  Really nothing bought and a little used for my block exchange and gifted a little to a friend for binding.
Fabric Added  - 0 yards
Fabric Added YTD - 84.95 yds
Fabric Used last week - .875 yds 
Fabric Used YTD - 86.11 yds
Fabric Busted for 2013 - 1.16 

More interesting is my stash enhancement from a couple of weeks ago. Remember those 11 yards I mentioned adding to my stash, here's some of what I got.  Keep in mind, most of these were on sale. I'm trying to rationalize my purchases - lol - but fabric doesn't have an expiration date and when the fads or color trends change over the years, scrap quilts really come into their own and sing with the variety of "old and new" fabrics. Since I'm a big scrap quilt fan, I want to be prepared for the future. So, take a peek at some eye candy.

Macaron Bali Pops by Hoffman

Winter themed batiks

These have winter mittens, snowmen, holly leaves and snow flakes.

Stonehenge panel by Northcott
I added a few FQ and yardage in case it becomes a tablerunner in a future life.

La Scala by Robert Kaufman

This Kaufman panel has the cutest selvages.  I'm not sure what I will do with the panel, but I couldn't pass up those unique selvages and it was on sale to boot!

more Fall batiks

Harvest by Timeless Treasures

Ambrosia by Jinny Beyer

 "Autumn Harvest" by Jason Yenter

These beautiful fall fat quarters and yardage are from In The Beginning fabrics.  I'm planning a tablerunner from "Simply Modern Christmas" by Cindy Lammon.  This is her newly released book and her 4th from AQS.  The tablerunner is called Simply Simple and it looks real easy and quick.  Cindy is a friend and neighbor and does beautiful work and her patterns are very well written and easy to follow. The Fall tablerunner is my NewFO for the month.

I'm linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times for my stash report and Barb for New FO.
Take a look and see what others have been doing this week.

On and Off The Needles

I can't believe it is already the end of the first week of October and my last post was almost 2 weeks ago!  The knitting bug has started taking over my extra time these days.  I guess because Fall is in the air and cooler weather is due to arrive this weekend, I found myself visiting my local knit shop, Knit and Caboodle Yarn Shop in downtown St. Charles, MO.  They have so many beautiful yarns that it is very hard to get out of there without buying something--yarn, needles or patterns.  I'm still practicing my knitting and trying to get the rhythm and technique to be more fluid before attempting a bigger project; so I bought more dish cloth yarn and some wool blend yarn for one of the popular shawls.

I've finished 2 green dish cloths like the one shown and am starting another one with a new variegated Sugar 'n Cream yarn called Psychedelique. After I finish 2 more dishcloths, I may be ready to start the 3S Shawl that everyone was showing earlier this year.

I am linking up with On the Needles at Patchwork Times.  Check there to see what others have on their needles this week.