Sunday Stash Report

Stash used this week: 9.5 yards
Stash used this year: 37.25 yards


Yay, me!

Head on over to Judy's blog to see how everyone else is doing.

Attention Long Island Quilters!

I'm teaching a longarm retreat on Long Island in April. Take a look!

Friday finish -- Bill and Lilliean

My husband spends his free time playing video games. Some people think of video games as an anti-social activity, but that's not the case at all. We regularly get together to play video games with his buddies, not to mention all of the time we spend rocking out, as a family, to Guitar Hero or Rock Band. But I digress.

This quilt is for one of my husband's video game buddies:

And a pieced back:

Mrs. Video Game Buddy really loved it!

I gave it to her when the last time we visited them and the reaction was hi-larious. I'm often the only non-engineer, non-MBA, non-technical person in the crowd and this was definitely one of those times. There were five other people with probably 13-15 advanced degrees between them but the first reaction was "Where did you buy this?" followed by "You made this?" Now, all of the folks in the room save me make semi-conductors, for crying out loud, but they were impressed with a quilt. Like, seriously impressed. Lilliean couldn't decide which side she liked better, front or back, and kept switching it around.

All of this for a scrap quilt. This is part of why I quilt.

Stash used this week: 9.5 yards

Stash used this year: 37.25 yards

We now resume our regular weather

Earlier this week we had some very unusual weather for January.

Welcome back, winter:

I've missed you.

Design Wall Monday

I'm a day late with this post, due to yesterday's emergency. A quick update: the rains ended last night instead of continuing on through tonight. We're so relieved!



The design wall now has 4 Topsy Turvy blocks, 1 new Ping block, and more blocks from my scrap nickel squares.

Looking at the photo, I realize that everything is BROWN! I need to assure you that I adore color and will work on some bright quilts, really soon.

Head on over to Judy's blog to see what everyone else is doing.

Q. When is a "finish" not a "finish"?

A. When it's really, really little.



My local quilt guild met last week and we made these darling wool pincushions. I think Mom just may receive this for her birthday!

Moving mountains?

No, but we moved a stream.

We love our stream. Imagine listening to the sound of wind in the trees and trickling water. It's blissful. And then there's today.

The winds are over 50 mph and inches of rain are falling. We live on a mountain, and water runs downhill...... We have a series of culverts above our house to divert water into our much-beloved stream. Sometimes the culverts are blocked or simply overloaded and the water meant for the stream comes down toward the house. That happened today.

My son's car had a foot of water under it, so we were shocked when that wouldn't start. The driveway flooded to the point that water was streaming in under the garage door. Since my driveway runs downhill from the garage doors, it takes a whole lot of water to back up into my garage. Like, in eight years, it's never happened. I guess there's a first time for everything.

Once the water hit the garage, I sent out an SOS and my hubby came home. We got all dressed up and headed outside. I dug a trench away from the house and hubby climbed to mountain to start clearing the culverts. It was a precious, precious moment when the culvert cleared and the water stopped pouring into my garage. I think I cried. Hard to tell since I was very, very wet already.

If you've never done this type of work, it's hard. And wet. And very very slippery. We both fell several times. I got hit on the head by a flying tree branch, but it wasn't too serious. This all will be funny in a week or two, but today? Notsomuch.

There are days I love my house and I hope to have one of those days really, really soon.

Here's my hubby, getting ready to attack another pile of debris so all the water out of the stream can flow freely in to the stream:



And here am I, on the way back into the house. If I show a picture of hubby soaking wet, I have to show one of me, as well:



We have at least another 36 hours before the water subsides. I need to rest up in case we have to go out and do this again. Wouldn't that be fun?

Time for a chai tea latte and some mindless quilting.

What a different an hour makes

One hour later:



And the water is coming in the garage. Ugh.

Design Wall Monday

I've been working hard in the studio, but today I have to work in the yard instead.

My normally trickling mountain stream is roaring (and flooding will continue for another 36-48 hours!):



This is a sure sign that I need to dig out my culverts:

I hope you are warm and dry and have electricity. So far, I have electricity.

Sunday Stash Report

Stash used this week: 4.5 yards

Stash used this year: 27.75 yards

Yay, me!

Head on over to Judy's blog to see how everyone else is doing.

Friday finish -- Round Robin

I am fortunate to work for a great company, Handi Quilter, and fortunate to work with a great bunch of Educators. We live very far apart from each other, but did a Round Robin quilt by mail.

I chose a black cotton lame and each of us quilted a row. The quilt was finished in March 2009, but I, per my usual, finished the binding last night:




This quilt is very, very, very difficult to photograph and looks much better in person. Each educator outdid themselves and the wool batting really helped each design pop! I will treasure this quilt forever.


Stash used this week: 4.5 yards
Stash used this year: 27.75 yards

Free is Good

I quilted a quilt for one of my favorite new designers, and The Quilter Magazine just published it. They are offering the pattern as a free download on their website. Check it out!

Senior Moment

Yesterday I thought of the perfect gift for my husband and today I cannot remember what it was. I was going to buy it at Amazon. That surely narrows it down, does it not?

Design Wall Monday

I took down all the Ping blocks from last week. You don't want to see the same design wall each and every week, do you?



I put up one Ping block that I finished last night. The pieced blocks are made from my nickel scraps. I'm ok with not buying new fabric, but not starting new projects is too much to ask!

Head on over to Judy's blog to see what everyone else is doing.

Sunday Stash Report

stash used this week: 10 yards
stash used year to date: 23.25 yards

17 days into the new year and I haven't purchased any fabric. It feels heroic, but c'mon, it's only been 17 days!

And I still haven't recovered from my recent shock.

Just ...... wow.

I've been nominated for MQX 2009 Machine Quilting Teacher-of-the-Year. So...... wow!

To vote, click here.

Friday finish -- Suzie's quilt

My daughter is a freshman in college and has a wonderful RA. Her RA won't let her call her that, however. Suzie is her friend/RA. Well, this friend/RA is getting a quilt:



with a pieced back:



I've shown several (maybe a dozen?) of this pattern over the last few years. Whenever my 2-inch square bucket overflows, I make one. It uses up my 3-1/2 inch neutral squares and my random 10-1/2 inch squares as well.

stash used this week: 10 yards

stash used year to date: 23.25 yards

What's missing?

I mentioned that I pieced all of my batting scraps together and used them in my niece's beau's quilt. Look at how much batting I have left:



I guess I'll have one less box in my studio. What's that I see in my studio? Floor? Who knew?

Suggestions? Opinions?

My dear daughter-in-law's mother is having surgery and I want to give her a quilt. I pulled this out of my "I started it but never finished it" pile.




It is currently 60x72 inches. The background fabric along the outside edge is yellow instead of white. Does it need a border for size? Or for the sake of the design?

Suggestions, please.

Design Wall Monday

This is my first week with an actual design wall. The wall above my desk was cluttered with posters, comics, cards, photos, and anything else that has caught my eye in the 8 years I've been in this house. Well, NO MORE! I took it all down, saved what was worth saving, and hung up a flannel-backed tablecloth with some thumbtacks.




The project on the wall is about three years old. It's called Ping and is an old BOM from Pinwheels.

Friday finish -- Matt's quilt

At our late Christmas celebration last weekend, my neice's beau received this quilt:



It's remarkably similar to this quilt and this quilt. They are all 60x72 inches and all quilted using Handi Quilter's Groovy Boards in the wide strips. I meandered next to the feathers, and used a ruler to quilt Xs in each small rectangle.

The blue fabrics were all scraps. The yellow check was purchased (last year so it counts as stash now) specifically for this quilt. The backing and binding were from stash. The batting was pieced from all those long leftover strips of batting that seem to multiply like rabbits in my studio.

I have a couple more of these quilts pieced, so be on the lookout for future Friday finishes.

I have a dear blog and real-life friend who would love this quilt. Part of me hoped my neice's boyfriend wouldn't like the quilt so I could give it to her, but the rest of me is glad he liked it.

Stash used this week: 9.25 yards
Stash used year to date: 13.25 yards

My new obsession

These didn't "pop" or "over" as much as other batches have, but my family was happy to eat them, just the same.

First Finish! -- Sharon's skirt

I have a very patient family. I rarely finish gifts on time and they are gracious to accept IOUs. I usually offer, "Your gift isn't done and you have three choices. You can:

1. Finish it yourself
2. Accept a gift card to the store of your choice or
3. Wait it out".

They always choose to wait it out.

My sister has been patient since her birthday in May! We met to celebrate a late Christmas this past weekend and I was finally able to give her a finished birthday present:



It's the Bohemian Skirt from Favorite Things. It's very fun to make. Pick out 4 one-yard cuts of your favorite fabrics and away you go. Warning: it uses tons of thread. As a quilter I have a ten-lifetimes supply of thread on large cones, but if you buy small spools I'd worry that one wouldn't be enough.

You may notice that this years finishes are tabbed "Friday finishes". Yes, I'm late already. I have a good excuse, though. I caught some crud that cut into my sewing/blogging time.

I'm toying with tracking how much yardage I use this year. I probably won't keep up with it all year, but for now.......

-4 yards!