Status of Ringo Lake

Steps 4 and 5 are in their little plastic boxes. Both steps used brown, so with the little that was used in step 1, I am hoping that is it for brown. If  not I may have to dig deeper in my stash or bum from friends. I know we have at least one more step before the reveal and I am guessing we will use the aqua and neutrals but that is just my guess. This project has really helped me use up a lot of small pieces of neutrals. I usually by them now in yardage but in the past have bought fat quarter or half yard bundles. A lot of those went away with this project. I'll tell you Bonnie has really got me puzzled with this one, can't figure out how all this is going to go together. My only guess is that step 3 is going to be the border but we will just have to wait and see.

I have not done much quilting since I got past the Christmas rush stuff. I have quilted some placemats  with Cathy and Ivy but I think that is also in a holding pattern until we get a good number needed to finish. If you remember our goal is 325, I know Cathy has a few over 200 completed ready to go. I have four more here at the house to add to that and I know of several others who are binding some that have not been turned in or counted. We hope to have a good count by our January meeting so we can make plans for the final push.

Got to do a little clean up in the sewing room so that I will be ready for step 6 on Friday.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Christmas Rush

Finally finished all the quilts I had to do for others for Christmas. I finished the binding on the last one last night and she is coming to pick it up today. It is kind of like a weight lifted off my shoulders. I still have five other quilts to do for folks but no time pressure on these. Until the Bonnie Hunter mystery came out I hadn't done much piecing, but I have managed to squeeze a little time in for this years Ringo Lake. The first step was quick and easy I had it done by lunch time that Friday.

The next Friday I had my mammogram scheduled that morning and other errands to run in town, but I did get started on it that afternoon. However those 200 flying geese did take a little time and with the other quilts I was trying to finish it was Wednesday before I finished step 2.

Clue 3 came out yesterday but for some reason I forgot it was even Friday until about 1:30 in the afternoon. This week we are working with pink again. I got 61 of the right slant done yesterday and have gotten over 30 of the left slant done this morning. I plan to work more on them today. It is too cold to go out to the quilt shack today. I may not make it back out there until Monday when it is supposed to warm up some. Johnny got me an oil filled heater for the shack and I have to say I really like the radiant heat I get from it, so the temperature is not as much an issue now that it is on all the time.

I hope this step will finish the pink because I am about to use up all I had pulled for this quilt. I may have to dig back into my stash for some less desirable shades of pink or go bumming from my friends. Hopefully the next steps will have more of the brown and aqua since we haven't done much with those colors yet. I am really liking my color variation, it remind me of ice cream, strawberry, pistachio, chocolate and vanilla, so mine may be called Ice Cream Sunday on Ringo Lake.


Hopefully I will have more time to blog now that the Christmas rush is over.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa  
 
 
 

Black Friday Madness

Black Friday madness means a lot of things to different people. At 2:30 this morning I woke up and not to go shopping, I was wondering if the new Bonnie Hunter mystery Ringo Lake was on line yet? No I didn't get up and go check, I did go back to sleep but only dosing until it was time to get up. You won't find me in any mall or big box store today but you will find me in the sewing room working away on step one of the 2017 mystery. This is what I looked forward to this Black Friday and it was a successful day.

Step one complete. I have chosen to go with the softer aqua and a soft pink rather than coral. I think it will still represent the colors of sunrise on the lake. Now to wait for step 2, of course I have plenty to do between now and next Friday.


Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Friday Finish

When I awoke this morning it was with almost a sigh of relief because this monstrosity was finished. That is to the flimsy stage, but that is as far as I have to take it. Ivy will quilt it when it is needed for Habitat. It measures 88 by 104 so it is a very nice queen size top. I really liked how it turned out and it was a joy to have most of the cutting done for me so that I could just sew. Having it cut like that is the only way I could have put this thing together in five weeks. Ivy and Cora cut most of the logs and I had a box of 2.5 inch squares that I used for the flying geese and the center parts of the saw tooth stars. Just about all I had to cut were the rectangles for the flying geese and I had a bunch of light 2.5 inch strips so they just had to be subcut. Yes this one used up a lot of our scrap stash but by no means all of it.

Another project that has taken up most of my time these last two weeks is the placemats the guild it doing for Meals on Wheels. This was brought up at the September meeting and after checking with the organization it is a go. I have been working on different samples and methods to present at the October meeting and I had finished the last of that last night, so that too was part of that early morning sigh.

So what was I going to do today? Believe me there are endless possibilities here in the sewing room so check back later to see just what I got into for the day.

Happy stitching,

Teresa

Placemats

I have mentioned before that a quilt was going to Habitat, that is the charity of choice for the Decatur Quilt Lovers Guild. This is a small group of ladies but with big hearts. We now have more quilts ready than Habitat has homes so we went looking for another project to give. We are going to make placemats for each recipient of Meals on Wheels in Morgan County. That number is 325, which is pretty ambitious for a group of about 22, but I have no doubt it is a goal we can accomplish. February is their primary fund raising month so we plan to have them ready to present at that time. We are also going to ask the ladies at Somerville Stitch Day if they would like to help so I have been working on a few examples to show as an infomercial on Saturday.

Since binding would probably be the most time consuming part this is one that I pieced and then birthed and quilted last. This eliminates the binding.

I have a box of strips so I did this one as a quilt as you go and then sewed the binding from the back and stitched it down on the front by machine. This was a big time saver.

Here is an example where I was short of long enough strips so I pieced the strips before adding to the quilt as you go method. I think it adds interest. Bound this on on the machine too.

When I went to sew the binding on this one, out of habit I sewed it to the front so I hand stitched it down. It only took me about 35 minutes to whip it down so I plan to do a few more to carry to stitch day since we mainly do hand work.

This one I used varying widths of strips, not sure I like it as well. I like to work on 2 or 3 of these quilt as you go style so that I am not getting up to iron so often. On these I have been aiming for darker more masculine appeal, but we will do a variety. 

This was a 12.5 inch orphan block that I added strips to the side. I have a couple of other test blocks this size that I have not done anything with until now. I think this will be a worthwhile finish for these blocks. I also have some smaller orphan blocks that I plan to put together. I'll load a back on the longarm and then float these placemats on top, quilt then cut apart and bind. I'm even thinking about doing some ovals ones using left over bias binding. Just cut the shapes from a large flora print I have and quilt and bind. We have 4 months to get these done but with a little bit of effort and maybe a couple of sew days we will get them done early. Two or three people working together on the quilt as you go can accomplish a lot fast. I showed Carol how to do these last week and we made 3 in less that 2 hours.

This and some quilting for others is what I will be working on this week, what do you have going?

Linking with-----
Oh, Scrap
Slow Sunday Stitching
Monday Making
Design Wall Monday
Main Crush Monday
Moving it Forward


Happy Stitching,

Teresa







 

Friday Finish

This little pink cutie was on my 12 for 12 list and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to finish and mark off the list. The above picture is how I would display it with the smaller blocks at the top with them getting bigger towards the bottom.

But if I remember the pattern correctly this is how they had it photographed. Which do you think is correct or does it really matter?

2017 Project List

1. En Province-------March finish
2. Jamestown landing in green
3. Black and White disappearing nine patch--------June finish
4. Split Rail ---------February finish
5. 100 patch------July Finish
6. Three inch shoe fly----- August finish
7. North woods - king ----May finish
8. Black white and red rails ---------   January finish
9. Pink 1 x 4 x 16------September finish
10. Rick Rack Nines
11. Oversize Dreams   ----- April finish
12. Blue all around

 Three more months left in the year and I am still on target. Number 12 is out in the quilt shack ready to quilt. It is going to require a little custom quilting and that is something I am not that good at, so that is the reason it keeps getting pushed back, but I am running out of time on it. The blocks are all made on number 10 and it is partially assembled. I think I only have 10 more rows but they are the longest ones since it is set on point and I have worked from both ends. Now I have the middle to go. Last is number 2, Jamestown landing in green, I still need to finish some of the string pieced blocks in neutrals and then the border is string pieced in green. Can't put this off much longer if I want to get it finished before the end of the year. I have a few things to do for others plus the guild has made pillow cases for the Harvey victims and we are now tackling place mats for all the recipients of Meals on Wheels in Morgan County so I will be spending a good bit of time on this over the next 4 months.

What have you finished today?

Linking with----
  
Whoop Whoop
Finish it up Friday
Off the Wall Friday
Finished or Not Friday


Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Back on the Wall

One of this weeks goals was to work on one of my 12 for 12 projects. I have three left and I thought they all required a good bit of piecing, so imagine my surprise when I pulled out the pink one and discovered I had all the blocks made and even had the bottom 6 rows put together. It is a small quilt, each unit or block is 4.5 inches or 4 inch finished. So I got the rows put together then sewed to each other last night. I found the perfect piece for the back and this morning I pieced the binding so it is again off the design wall and ready to go to the quilt shack. I would really love to get it quilted tomorrow just not sure if that will happen. When I showed the top to Johnny, his response was "that's different" I think that is code for not really liking it. Probably a little to artsy for his taste. It was a fun little project. I used the same white on all the little 16 patch blocks. I made four patches from 1.5 inch strips and then put 4 together for the 16 patch. It is 10 blocks wide and 14 down.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

The Coming Week

Wow as I logged on today I realized it has been 10 days since my last post. I have not taken time off from quilting in fact I have been very busy. I just didn't slow down long enough to post anything. Some things I don't post, such as when I am working on something for someone else, and others I don't think would be very interesting or is just the same ole same ole. Trying to do better in the future I am not sure what the weather will bring to us this week. You would think we were far enough north here in North Alabama, but apparently not. Our biggest concern here will be possible tornadoes from Irma. I have a lot I need to do so I am making a list to keep me on track, hopefully.

1. Quilt half yard challenge
2. Bind half yard challenge
3. Make label for half yard challenge
4. Quilt both white/off white table runners
5. Bind both runners
6. Work on one of the last three 12 for 12 projects
7. Work on borders and bindings for older tops
8. Keep at it in the sewing room(still have a long way to go )

There won't be any pictures of the half yard challenge yet since it won't be revealed until December guild meeting.

Here are a couple of older tops that I did get backs and binding ready and carried out to the quilt shack.

This sisters choice pattern is made with left over Thimbleberry fabric. I taught the block of the month for four years at Quilter's Refuge and I still have some of the fabric.

This pattern was called Christmas Ribbons. I think it may have been a strip club kit.

Still have lots of older tops that need to move to the finished quilt category.

Linking today with----


Oh, Scrap
Slow Sunday Stitching



Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Log Cabin

Log cabin quilts are one of my favorites. The same block can be turned to form so many different patterns. It is a lot like the half square triangle in its diversity. I was visiting Ivy the other day and we started talking about log cabin quilts as we were going through some of her one and a half inch strips needed for another project. It just jumped out at both of us that we needed to do a log cabin. I mean we had so many strips already cut. We agreed that we needed to finish some other things before we started one. The next Saturday was Somerville Stitch Group and neither of us had pressing hand work so we decided we could start sub cutting the individual logs. Does anyone else see where this is going.

Yep, couldn't leave it alone. That night I sewed these six blocks.

By Tuesday morning I had sent this photo to Ivy. I now have 40 blocks done. Cora has helped with some of the sub cutting. I have taken a break from them yesterday and today. Pretty much took a break from sewing yesterday and today I am working on backs and bindings for older tops. Photos to come later.This is planned as a Habitat quilt or for another charity.


Happy Stitching,

Teresa

12 for 12 finish

2017 Project List

1. En Province-------March finish
2. Jamestown landing in green
3. Black and White disappearing nine patch--------June finish
4. Split Rail ---------February finish
5. 100 patch------July Finish
6. Three inch shoe fly----- August finish
7. North woods - king ----May finish
8. Black white and red rails ---------   January finish
9. Pink 1 x 4 x 16
10. Rick Rack Nines
11. Oversize Dreams   ----- April finish
12. Blue all around


My itty bitty shoe fly quilt is my August 12 for 12 finish. There was a lot left to stitch together when I added this on to my list. I am so glad to get it done. It is not a large quilt but a good couch/cuddle size. The pattern is from the Sept./Oct. 2014 Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting Magazine. Liz calls it "With a Little Help From My Friends".


There are four months left in the year and I have another from the list ready to quilt, but the other three require some stitching. It will be a push to get these finished but I will try.


Happy Stitching,


Teresa

Tie Pillow

A friend I had not seen is a long time asked me to make a pillow for her from her Daddy's ties. He had passed away last May and she had seen these memory pillows on pinterest. I had never worked with ties before so I did a little research before I agreed to try it. It was  a new experience, but not a bad one. She said she might get me to make one for her Mother and I agreed but I said NO on making a quilt from ties. Trying new things is a growing experience and a good thing but you have got to know your limitations and quilting with ties would not be enjoyable for me. The pillow was fun and will gladly do it again.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Progress

Last Wednesday Donna and I took a little road trip and hit 3 quilt shops. I found border fabric for my double nine patch. Actually I bought both a green and a blue, but liked the blue the best. I got the borders on yesterday and hopefully will get the binding made today. I already have a wide back that will work with this, so the the binding is all it needs to move it out to the quilt shack. Got lots of housework today but hopefully will get back into the sewing room this afternoon.

Linking today with ----
Making Monday
Design Wall Monday
Main Crush Monday
Moving it Forward


Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Weekly Goals

It is the last week in August or I should say partial week. Last week was very productive but not a lot of photo worthy work done. I did get my shoe fly quilt pieced and quilted so that was a real bonus there. Hopefully will finish binding it tonight. I'll photograph it then. A lot of time was spent reorganizing some things in the sewing room and I still have a long way to go. My 1.5, 2 an 2.5 inch strips are now stacked neatly in boxes. The drawers now house my neutrals and pre-cuts. I have a big tub of finished tops plus some in a dresser drawer. I have more space in the quilt shack than I do in the house so I am going to work this week on getting them moved out there. That means getting backs and binding ready for each of them.

I did spend one night making these orange and cream log cabin blocks. I have them put together but not quilted.

Weekly goals for 8-27-17

1. finish binding on shoe fly quilt
2. quilt orange and cream log cabin runner
3. add borders to double nine patch
4. pieced binding and back for double nine patch
5. work on backs and binding for older tops
6. make tie pillow
7. continue organizing sewing room

Looks like I have enough to keep me busy this week. What are you working on?

Linking with-----
Oh, Scrap
Slow Sunday Stitching

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Stitch Day

Today was stitch day at Somerville and we had good turn out. Missed Gina, but understand why she needed some time and space. I made a special effort to get pictures today so that those who were not able to be there could share the experience. So on with the show and tell.

First up Barb shared a baby sweater she was making for a friend of  her granddaughters.

Toni is knitting too, shared that this was not a usual color palate for her, as always beautiful.

The first of Bonnie's, this one is called Waste Not.

The second of Bonnie's, she has been busy.

This one is Bonnie's and there was some discussion on color of binding.

This one is Sonia, it is so her colors. It is one I quilted for her last week.

Becky has been busy with other things but did have this block to show.

Sue has one she made for herself. Took a little time away from all the quilts of valor she has been doing.

Sue has also been bitten by that selvage bug. Really like the bag.

Mary H.shows how you can turn tumblers into bow ties.

With the extra tumblers from the bow tie she made a more traditional one.

Mary pulled her patriotic strips and made the Wink Not pattern that I shared.

Faye was knitting today, says she has a few more rows to go.

Francine says she is finishing some items.

She shared that after she added the borders she realize one stem and flower was not stitched down, just pinned, but she has it done now.

This is an Ada and Georgia project, Ada pieced it and Georgia quilted it. They then donated it to Ivy today for her Habitat project.

And lastly here is my itty bitty Shoe Fly quilt. Ada worked on the binding today while Ivy and I cut out strips for a log cabin quilt we are going to jointly do for Habitat.

Also in attendance but no show and tell were Donna N, Gail, Terrie, Mary B. and Ivy. Hopefully I haven't missed anyone.


Happy Stitching,

Teresa

update

The weekly goal list has gone pretty smooth this week, with just about every thing either checked off or at least touched. I got my the little quilt that I was worried about quilting done today. Normally I just do some variation of a free motion pattern but this little one just needed something else. I won't call it custom but it was the next thing to it.

A good thing happened tonight as I was touching on item 6. work on sewing room, I found another piece of the blue fabric that I used in the Itty Bitty Shoe Fly quilt. It is a yard piece so definitely enough for binding.

 I did get a few more of these Jacob's Ladders done. I thought I had taken a photo of 8 blocks on the design wall but must not have uploaded it yet. I hope to make a few more of these later in the week, trying to get caught up with the four patches I have up to this point.

Happy stitching,

Teresa 

Great Start

Sunday stitching was very very successful. I can't believe it but I got all those itty bitty shoe flu blocks put together. I even got the inner red border on and the top and bottom outer border sewn on the top, but at 9 pm I decided to wait until this morning to add the outer side borders.

The pattern called for 4 and 3/4 inch outer border but I had exactly enough fabric for 8 strips if I cut them 4.5, so that is what I cut. I wanted to allow for that 8th strip even though I thought I would only need 7, and that is all I needed. Needless to say not enough for binding. I may check with some of my friends that have a stash of civil war fabric to see if they might have a half yard to share. I may can get by with a little less. I cut my binding 2.25 and if I only need 7 strips that is 15.75 inches, but I have enough to cut a couple of strips since I didn't need that 8th border strip.

Here is a close up of the fabric if any of them are reading this today, maybe they will check their stash. I really like the shoe fly block may do it again only a little larger. This is one of my 12 for 12 projects and the one with the most left to do, so it feels really good to get this one pieced.

Linking today with ----
Making Monday
Main Crush Monday
Moving it Forward
Design Wall Monday

Happy Stitching,


Teresa

Another Week

It is the third Sunday in August and I am not sure where this year has gone. Looking ahead this week it is almost time for another Somerville Sew Day, so I have to make sure I am ready for that. Usually I try to have a quilt ready to bind, but I am not sure that is going to happen this week.

The Shoe Fly has gotten big enough to come off the design wall and move to the floor. I have 22 rows done and the original pattern had 26 but I think I have enough to add another row but that still means I only have 5 more rows to sew and attach. Of course these are the longest rows, but maybe I can get it to the flimsy stage by Saturday.

The pattern calls for a one and half inch inner border, I am using red, and a 3 and half inch outer border of the same fabric as the alternate squares and setting triangles. I will barely have enough of the blue to do this plus binding. If I am short I could bind it in the same red.


Weekly goals for August 20th.

1. Make 4 patch blocks for stitch day
2. work on Jacob's Ladder blocks using exchange blocks
3. quilt 2
4. work on shoe fly
5. piece backing and binding for pink charity top
6. work on cleaning and organizing sew room

Linking today with----
Oh, Scrap
Slow Sunday Stitching

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Friday Finish Not

Well I don't really have a Friday finish it is more like a Friday start. Thinking about it just now I probably shouldn't have started this today, my Mother always said there was an old wives tell that said if you started something in Friday you would never finish it. A lot of my UFO's must have been started on a Friday. But start this I did, no, not another quilt project but a sewing organization project. I guess it is okay that I started it today because this kind of thing really never finishes it just keeps evolving. I have decided to make better use of my 3 drawer chest that I was using for strips. They have become a stringy tangled mess. I have started with the 2 inch drawer because I have used a good bit out of it leaving it a little less stuffed. In fact I was able to get all the longer strips in this one box.

I have a smaller box for 2 inch squares and it is pretty low after finishing all those 100 patch blocks. I still have some really short pieces that I will cut squares from left in a little pile, but the drawer is empty. I plan to use the drawers for excess yardage that just doesn't fit in my color boxes.

In between working on this clean up project and vacuuming the house I also worked on the 3 inch shoe fly blocks. I got all of them pieced last night and the final count is actually over the required amount rather than short. I have 17 extra so I think that will let me made it one row wider.

The rows are growing, I am up to number 11 going across and with the extra blocks I will now have 13 across and 15 down.

I sewed on row on backwards which had my setting triangles flying in the wrong direction. I don't guess any of you have ever done that.

Had to stay busy today to keep from worrying about my friend Ada, but got news just a little while ago that everything went fine and she should be okay.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa 

Thursday Update

I am glad I only had three items on my weekly goals this week because each on them is taking longer than estimated. As you know from the previous post those fabric boxes took two days. Yesterday I did get one quilted and another loaded on the machine. I quilted Sonia's monster, 96 by 96.

I'll deliver it to her next sew day. I know she said she was anxious to get it on her bed. These colors are so Sonia. It is a fun quilt. I have one for Elaine loaded and hope to get it quilted this morning.

On the little shoe fly blocks I had pieced up all the blocks made so far, so I got all the rest of the HST's cut apart and pressed. I thought I had enough strips sewn together for all the  HST's I needed but in counting the remaining strips I may be short some. I am not going to make any more, this is a finish project not an add to project. It was not going to be a big quilt to begin with so reducing it by a row each way won't change the overall size too much. I will just have to wait to get all the blocks made with what I have to see about the exact size.

I have another bag of blocks ready to square, but think I will keep making blocks for a while. With a little luck maybe I will finish the blocks this week and be ready to put them together next week.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa