Connecting Through Quilting

The end of November was a hectic time for my family. The hunting trip to Louisiana did not go quite as planned.  Oh the guys did get to hunt and the rewards were three deer and a hog for our freezers. However, our dear friend's mother passed the Monday that we were there.  My days of reading and working on projects turned into days of comforting and helping them get through the difficult times.  I am grateful the Lord chose to put us there at that time.  My son Killian was a pallbearer for the first time and it was a little sobering experience for him.  But all in all, It was a good experience.  

Then the day before her funeral, we got word that my father in law passed away.  This is the second year in a row that we have had a death right before Thanksgiving in our family. Our friends were there for us as we were for them.  Thanksgiving was a rushed affair with my husband, daughter and I flying out early on black Friday. I only packed my hexie kit for this trip.  

When we got to my Mother in law's house, my sister in law was cutting up old uniforms and hospital gowns.  Good sections were being set aside for quilt blocks and stained sections were being set aside for rugs.  You see my in-laws are old school quilters. They quilt from scraps and old clothes.  That doesn't mean they don't or won't use new fabric. It's just they never had much to spare and they make do with what they had.  

Last year my mother in law showed me a bunch of quilt tops she had made out of sheets that she had been given. She was waiting for my sister in law to have time to come tie them with her.  This year it was old uniforms and hospital gowns. Any fabric is game for quilting.  My husband told me how at one time they would go to the thrift store and get the bags of rags and pull out all the good fabric for quilts. 

One evening, I took my hexie kit with me to my mother in laws.  I sat by the wood stove and started basting the fabric to the paper pieces.  My mother in law was fascinated. She wanted to know what I was doing.  I said I was trying my hand at paper piecing. I explained that it was a quilt project that I could take with me. 

I showed her the hexagon papers that I had bought. I explained how I cut the template that I used for cutting the fabric hexagons.  I showed her the lapel stick that I used to temporarily glue the fabric to the papers. I sat and basted several hexies while talking about it.  I showed her how I planned to put them together,  She recognized the grandmother's garden pattern and comments that she had never been able to get her hexagons even. She really liked the idea of the paper piecing.  She liked the idea of it being something she could sit and do while watching TV. We sat and talked about it for a good hour.  She was interested but felt that with her time and work ravaged hands, she would not be able to do it. Then we were talking about her crocheting and the hats she was making for people.  She figured she might end up giving them to a homeless shelter or something since all of her kids and most of her grandkids are grown.

Here's the thing. I don't' have a lot in common with my Mother in law.  She grew up on a farm in rural Idaho. I grew up in in a city in New York.  She graduated from high school but in her world that was going above and beyond for a girl's education.  I grew up with the understanding that I would go to college. She rarely worked outside of the home. I've not been fortunate enough to be a stay at home mom. We are worlds apart. But we do connect over quilting. Neither of us quilts like the other.  Hers have always been mostly using what she has. I am more of a buy what I like. She mostly just uses scissors and templates, I use rotary cutter and rulers. She hand quilts or ties her quilts, I have a Long arm. As I said she is old school quilting and I am more modern quilting. She is fascinated by what I do and I appreciate what she does. It is a way the two of us can connect.  

I am grateful that I can connect with her this way.  It gives us something to bond over beside my husband and kids.

Who do you connect with over quilting?

UFOVEMBER (a month to focus on UFOs)

 As many of you know, I follow Karen Brown of Just Get It Done Quilts. Well in her Quilter's circle she introduced us to Bobbi Gentili of geekybobbin.com. Bobbi got a bunch of other quilt bloggers together and set up a Blog Hop for the month of November. She called it UFOvember. Each day one of the bloggers writes about UFOs. It started with doing an inventory of your UFOs and then moved on to Resuming work. Then maybe Reworking the UFO instead of finishing it as planned. Either make it smaller or into something else. The last part coming up is Rehome. Basically if you have lost your love of it then pass it on to someone else. It has been a really pleasant experience. I highly recommend you look it up and read the articles.  It all starts on geekybobbin.com.

It's nice to get tips from all of these different quilters.  It has even inspired me to get back to work on my UFOs. So I dug out my Irish chain quilt top.  I love the fabric and colors in this quilt top. But it has been over 2 years since I worked on it. Now is the time to get it done.

As you may or may not recall the quilt is much longer than it is wide. Not very bed friendly to say the least. At first I was just going to finish like it was. Then my friend Cindy suggested that I add something to the sides. Maybe a strip with floral appliques. But I am not into applique.  Plus I didn't have any more of the colored fabric to make it coordinate.  

But as I was browsing on Missouri Star Quilt site a couple of years ago, I found some fabric that would work. So I decided to order a bunch of 1 yard lengths of the different colors.  I had plenty of the white fabric left so I decided to make flying geese side panels to make the quilt wider. I had it all planned out. I was going to put a 2 inch dark green strip on either side of the quilt then the flying geese and then bind it with the dark green. I could picture it so well. But I had never made flying geese. So I procrastinated

Well 2 weeks ago, Fueled with inspiration form the UFOvember blog hop, I got out the quilt and started gathering the fabric to cut the geese. Then I hit a road block.  I can't find the left over white fabric.  I had made a point of setting it aside so I would have it, but it is no where to be found. It was a white tone on tone print that I can't find anywhere. I looked at the yards of white fabrics I do have. I even took the time to audition them. I just don't care for the look of the mismatched fabric. Now I am left with 2 choices. I can finish it as is or I can rip out the rows and rework it to a more square size.

I am going to rip out and do it right. I won't be happy with it if I don't. Since this was pieced on the diagonal I shouldn't have to rip out all of the rows. I should be able to just unstitch to the center diagonals. Then I can adjust them to the right width and sew the sections back together.  I think I will diagram it out first this time though.

Working out the issues with the Irish chain has me rethinking the batik strip quilt.  I am going to make it an 8 blocks wide by 8 rows long quilt instead of 7 blocks wide by 9 rows long quilt.  I think I will like it better that way so I will be ripping out apart a row and attaching blocks to the sides of the other rows.  Fortunately life has kept me from stitching the rows together. I already figured out that I need to take the first row apart and use that to add to the other rows.  

This may sound weird but I am actually looking forward to ripping out these seams.  I guess it helps to know that all these professional type quilters have the same issues.  Thank you Bobbi Gentili for organizing the UFOvember Blog Hop.  It's got me excited about my projects again.

Identifying Frogs (or what is keeping you from finishing that project)

Well, I've been back to work for a week and a half and I am really starting to have more energy. Being caffeine and soda free for a couple of weeks seems to have helped. Don't get me wrong I don't expect to stay that way forever but I am sleeping better.  That being said, I haven't done much in the way of quilting. Oh I did finish cutting the strips for the Simply Squares quilt, but I haven't really jumped onto anything. Plus my UFOs are increasing.  I've decided it's because I am not eating the frogs. There are things I am not doing because I am dreading them. So I procrastinate until I have no choice. So with it being UFOvember, I've decided to figure out what my frogs are.

1. Cleaning the studio.  I can't really get moving on anything until I get things cleaned up and put away. I need to be able to move around my machine in order to use it. There are things in there that I need moved out and things I need a place for.  This is a daunting task to me and I am probably going to need some help to do it.

2. Machine Maintenance. I need to give Millie a WD-40 bath and I've never done it before. So I need to get the manual out and read up on that. 

3. Quilt Path Upgrade. I've not used Millie since the Quilt Path upgrade. In one of my face book groups I have heard about all sorts of problems. So I am rather nervous about firing it up and using it. I need to read up on that as well.

4. Making Backing.  It's not that I find it difficult to make backings, I just struggle to make sure they are square.  I've watched some videos on it and I am doing it correctly. I just could really use a bigger surface to do it on.

I think these are my top three Frogs and I think I have them pretty much in order of size. Now I just need to decide when and how I am going to eat them.  

I am hoping to pull Perigrine and Killian into helping me with the studio. I think that Frog is the size of an elephant and will need to be eaten in a few settings. So while it's my biggest Frog, I am not going to be able to get it done before I work on anything else. I do need to sew after all.

Once the Studio is cleaned up and I have things in place, I will give Millie a bath.  She needs one.  I think that this Frog is doable in one day. That is once I've gotten the studio straight. 

In the mean time, I need to do some reading.  I also can complete the Cobble Stones and Windmill quilt top and the Batik Strip quilt top. Maybe I'll even get the backs put together.

What are your frogs?

Eating Frogs (and a couple of epiphanies)

Mark Twain once said "If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first."  Basically the idea is to get the most onerous task done and over with so you can get on with your day. Other wise you spend the whole day dreading the pending task.  

There is always something in quilting that one or more of us doesn't enjoy.  I don't particularly enjoy stitching down the binding.  My daughter Tatianna finds it rather Zen.  I don't care for laying out quilt blocks, mostly because I don't have the surface to do the whole quilt and so I am guessing about placement.  Well, my most recent frogs were the cobblestone and windmill quilt blocks and the batik strip quilt blocks.  These are bigger quilts and I had no place large enough to lay them out.

This past week I have been home due to illness. (Not covid-19 thankfully)  I spent the week in bed. While laying in my bed, it occurred to me that the wall at the head of my bed was about 72 inches wide and there wasn't anything on it. If I moved my bed out away from the wall, I could tack up my portable design wall.

Friday morning I got up just before noon and actually got dressed. I was finally feeling good enough to do something.  I ate some chicken soup and then debated what I was going to work on. There were the strips I needed to cut for the simply squares quilt. And all I needed to do for that was set up the ironing board and press the fabric first. Or I could set up the design wall and lay out the quilts. 

I should mention that I rather like to cut fabric and I don't mind pressing fabric at all so working on the simply squares quilt wouldn't have been an issue with me. Laying out quilts on the other hand is not something I particularly enjoy.  Largely because I can't usually lay out the whole quilt at once since I don't have a large enough space. Which makes it difficult to keep the appearance balanced. A problem I could rectify if I weren't so determined to make random and/or scrappy quilts. 

With the frog quote in mind I proceeded to pull my bed away from the wall.  Then tacked up my 72" x 72" design wall. I decided to do the cobble stones and windmill blocks first. I chose to do that quilt first because the color placement was going to be a nightmare. I knew that I had only one or two windmill blocks for a few of the colors.  It wasn't going to be easy to get everything spread out evenly. Basically it was the biggest of the two frogs. It took a few hours and a some creative thinking but I got it laid out. It is stacked and clipped by rows ready to be stitched together. But after all of that I needed a nap.  It was too much exertion for my still weak body.

After the nap I grabbed the next quilt. This quilt was made from batik jelly rolls that were sewn into strip sets. I cut the strips sets into blocks. These block were larger and I needed to put a sashing strip between the blocks.  Also some of the prints looked...well for lack of a better word..."muddy".  I needed to make sure that the "muddy" blocks were spread out among the bright blocks.  When I pieced this quilt I was going for a random pattern. So there were only 4-5 blocks that were the same of each strip set. Again I needed to spread all of these out.  

Well, I started laying out the quilt and could only lay out half the quilt at a time. Since the whole point in laying the quilt out was to ensure the fabrics were spread out over the whole quilt, that was a problem. Fortunately I am a decent problem solver. After I was satisfied with how it looked. I stacked up the top two rows and put them aside. I moved up the remaining three rows. Then added the next two row to the bottom.  I stood back and moved blocks around. Then sat and looked at it. When I was satisfied I again stacked off the top two rows and moved up the remaining three rows. After the last two rows were added, At this point it was bed time. I would finish have to finish it off on Saturday. I ran some errands Saturday morning then I went back to work on the quilt. Then when I was happy with it, I stacked off all the remaining rows.  I will probably start sewing these blocks over the next few weeks.

On Sunday, I did start cutting the strips for the simply squares quilt. As I was finishing cutting the strips I realized that I didn't have enough of the white fabric I had.  In fact I was 5 inches short. I was two strips shy of what I needed to do the sashing strips and inner border. Time to rethink the border. I am thinking that I will do a narrow black border and a wider green border with black binding. 

I had a couple of epiphanies this week as well.  One is that a 72" x72" design wall is not big enough to lay out a largish quilt. it's great for baby and throw sizes but a twin size is a little bit of a tight fit. I told my husband that I need an 8ft x 8ft design wall. Which is still a little tight for laying out big quilts but is better than what I have.  He is actually working on the design for it.  He said he could go wider but not taller than 8ft. So I am eagerly awaiting my design wall.

The next epiphany was just how easy it is to change the appearance of the quilt. As I was laying out the batik strip quilt, my son told me that my pattern was off. I replied that it can't be off since there wasn't really a pattern. He then said all of the bright colors are drifting down and to left.  I stepped back and looked and he was right. The lower left side did seem to have more bright colors than the upper right side. So I moved two blocks and stood back. The whole appearance of the quilt had changed.  Moving just two blocks balanced out the whole quilt.

I also came to realize just what a good upper arm work out laying out quilt blocks is.  I moved the blocks around a bit on both quilts. I sure felt it in my upper arms for the next two days.  I think I need to do that more often.

The last epiphany I had was while I was cutting strips.  Actually while I was cutting down strips into 5 inch rectangles.  You see, I like gadgets and so I have a Klutz glove and a Gypsy Gripper. I got both of these years ago to protect my hands while using a rotary cutter.  After a few months I just kind of stopped using them.  I have for years cut my fabric without any issue or injury. 

That is until Sunday.  I was sitting at my desk cutting the strips down and video chatting with my daughter and granddaughters. When I all of a sudden I felt the sting.  I had sliced a rather thick piece of skin off my finger. I learned that I am not as proficient at multi-tasking as I thought I was. My rotary blade was sharp and I didn't even feel the cut until the air hit it. The thing is I was distracted and while I was being careful with the measurements, I got careless with my finger placement. I need to be more focused while using my rotary cutter. As a result of that lesson I am nursing a very sore index finger. I did get lucky though, there was no blood on the cutting mat or the white fabric. So Yay for that.

Well that was my week. Funny thing is I've been so busy (and tired/still recuperating) that this post took me a week to write. Now back to eating frogs.

What quilting task don't you care for? 

What's Under Your Needle and Other Social Media Questions.

 Like many others, I spend a little too much time on Facebook.  (Okay, way too much time).  As such, I belong to a couple of groups that deal with quilting. So I get to see all sorts of posts from companies that sell or promote quilting supplies.  One thing these sites all seem to have in common is every so often they ask about what you are working on. I think these questions are suppose to get you thinking about projects that are sitting on your shelf.  It may even push you a little to get moving.  And they also give you the opportunity to show off your work.

One of my favorite questions is "What is under your needle today?"  It would almost make me feel like I needed to sit down and sew something just so I can answer it.  What is under my needle? Right now nothing is under my needle.  I am in a sort of transition stage. I have two quilts that I need to do a layout on and another quilt that I need to cut strips for.  Not to mention the 6 quilts that I need to make backs for. So I am in flux as to what is under my needle.

Another question I see frequently is "How many UFOS do you have?"  If you aren't careful this question can stimulate guilt over the numerous projects that are half done. It can also trigger you into reconsidering starting that new project. It may also prompt you to drag all of those UFOs out and look at them.  Karen Brown of Just Get It Done Quilts suggest that you re evaluate your UFOs.  You may not be far from finishing them and it will give you the incentive to finish.  It also may be you fell out of love with the project.  Either way decide if you really want to finish it or not.  How many UFOs do I have? It depends on how you define the UFOs. If I am talking about projects that I've actually started then I have ten. If we are talking about planned projects, I lost count along time ago.  

"How big is your stash?" is really not a question that I've seen more than once.  It was in a post about managing your stash.  But I think it is worth asking. The post that I saw it in was all about knowing what you have and how you are going to use it.  Karen Brown has a good video about stash management.  In it she talks about inventorying you stash.  I started to inventory my stash. I managed to get all my pre-cuts inventoried but never did get my yardage done. There have been times when I felt guilty about how much I was spending and even tried to restrict my purchasing of fabric to just what I need to to finish a quilt.  That didn't work out too well.

How about "What is the one thing you want in your sewing space that you don't have?" What I want is more space. Okay more space and more organization. And maybe an embroidery machine and or how about a cool cutting table.  If we are fantasizing, I want everything, every cool gadget, tool, machine, furniture and fabric there is.  Dream big or go home.

"What is the one tool you use that others don't?"  I have no idea. I learned about most of my tools from other quilters. Do you have one?  I will say that there are somethings people repurpose for their quilting. One of my favorites is the toilet paper tube for rolling binding strips on.  I new some one who rolled all her strips on toilet paper tubes and the used a toilet paper holder to hold the binding strips as she sewed them to the quilt.

"What one tool/ruler could you not live without?" While I have different tools that I love for different applications, there isn't one that I couldn't live without.  But I have to say I really love my slotted ruler.  I like being able to cut one strip after another easily.  But I also like the square up rulers. Oh and who doesn't love a good sharp blade in their rotary cutter.

One last question "What are you working on this weekend?"  That one puts a little less pressure on the reader.  The answer could simply be nothing or some thing as simple as stitching down binding.  It also could be a new block or quilt.  It could be block mapping or graphing. Or it could be cutting out the newest project. This weekend I worked on increasing my stash (I am in Missouri visit my husband and we found a quilt shop) and cutting out Hexies.  I would have said sewing hexies but I forgot my thread.

So what are your favorite social media questions? How do the questions affect you?

Lights, Camera, Action (or try again)

Since my last post I haven't gotten much done.  We went camping for 3 days down in Tate's Hell National Forest near Carrabelle, FL.  It was a much needed break for all 4 of us. But on the days around this little break it seemed like I was on a treadmill.  So progress on backings and purging was non-existent.  

We had the power go out one night and I decided to do a little prep work by candle light.  I grabbed a project box off the stack and proceeded to review it.  The Pattern is Missouri Star Quilt Company's Super Simple Squares. I am sure this was a freebie since there is no way I paid $9.00 for this pattern.

The fabric is 6 charm packs called Greenery by Maywood Studios and a white tone on tone jelly roll by Riley Blake studios. I got one of the charm packs as a freebie. I loved the line.  The pattern called for 3 packs but with the white sashing, I didn't think the lighter colors would work. So I doubled the number of charm packs thinking I would only use the darker colors.         With project box in hand, I set out to sort the colors by candle light and that is when I hit upon some of re-discoveries.

Lights (and/or lighting) - I have been taking lighting for granted the past few years. I have four 8 foot banks of fluorescence lights in my studio.  My husband and son installed them right before I got my long arm. They are very bright and make working on anything really easy.  

When I laid out my fabric to determine which I could use and which to set aside, the candle light was misleading. The dim light didn't allow me to see the true contrast in the colors. Going by the candle light, I was planning to set aside four of the 11 fabrics that I didn't feel would stand out against the white sashing. 

When the lights came back on I was surprised to see that I could use all of the fabrics.  The light gray still showed up against the white sashing. Lighting is important.

Camera - is the next re-discovery.  I've talked about taking pictures for layouts and record keeping but modern cameras have all sorts of gadgets that we can use. Since this pattern is so simple a lot of the design depends on the contrast between the sashing and the blocks.  I knew that all of the fabric showed up against the white sashing but how much contrast did it really have. I really wanted the squares to stand out.  So I took a picture of the fabric and filtered it to black and white. 

By applying the black and white filter I get a good sense of the true values of the fabric. Some of the prints I considered light actually were a medium value and one print I thought was a medium value was actually a dark value.  But this didn't show me the contrast with the sashing so I took the picture with the lights on and applied the filter to it. 

This showed me that there wasn't enough contrast between the sashing and two of the prints. So I was going to take out all of those squares. That meant I wasn't going to use 7 charms out of each pack.  Now I had planned on not using 21 charms out of each pack so I was way ahead of the game. Now was the time for the 3rd discovery. 

Action - I define this as doing something and that includes making decisions.  I have 6 charm packs. I could make the quilt as the pattern directs and have lots of left over squares, or I could make it bigger and use up most of the squares.  Since I am still in purge mode, I decided bigger.  That meant doing math. I speak math so that's not a problem for me. I had to figure out how many squares to cut for corner stones and how many sashing strips to cut.  When I got through doing the math, I realized that I would need half a jelly roll more. So I went on line to see if I could get it. I bought all this stuff 2 years ago so of course I was out of luck.

I was now faced with ordering 2 jelly rolls or making the original quilt. I decided to go with the original. I am, after all, trying to use my stash. Then I thought about looking in my stash for white jelly rolls.  Unfortunately I didn't have two matching white jelly rolls. I did have two in black but that wasn't the look I wanted. So back to the original again. Then I realized that what I do have is a bunch of white fabric. I rolled up the jelly roll and put it the stash. I will cut my own strips. It would have been easy to just do the pattern, not thought to it, but going forward and figuring out how to use most of the squares allows me to work on another goal. Reducing the stash. Nothing gets accomplished without action. Even small steps are action.

Of course all this didn't yield a lot of progress. But it did a couple of things for me.  It reduced stress. It helped me get a two year old project off the ground. And it got me looking at my stash.  I really need to go through it all. And I really need to organize the studio so I can access it all. 

What have you taken for granted lately? What have you re-discovered?                                                     

Inch by Inch

Three weeks have gone by and I really don't have a whole lot to show for it. Covid life has been rather restrictive. Which in turn makes work life hectic.  Plus home life has not been as productive as I would like. Allergies are not being cooperative despite the meds. But I am still inching along.  Haven't done a whole lot of purging as of yet.  Being tired has put me a little behind.  But Kim has gone through a lot of things in our room.  Killian has purged some stuff in his room. Perigrine is working on her room so we are making progress but it is slow going and not as rewarding as a big push would be.

Good news! I have finally finished the HST quilt top.  It is as cute as I thought it would be.  Not only did I finish it, but I measured it, calculated the size of backing & batting as well as the number of strips to cut for the border.  On top of that I went ahead and got the calculations done for the other 3 tops I have in the to quilt pile.  All 6 tops have the needed measurements pinned to them and are waiting to be quilted.

I hope to get some of the backs made this next week.  A lot depends on what happens at work this week.  My boss will be back from vacation tomorrow, so that is off my plate. Unfortunately they are remodeling the front offices and break room.  The office remodel doesn't affect me that much, I just stay out of there. The break room remodel however is impossible to avoid.  I ended up leaving at lunch on Friday because of an asthma attack.  When I got home, I was just too tired (or maybe too weak) to do much of anything.  I am hoping that they finished tearing up the floor over the weekend and I won't have to deal with the dust this week. I don't want to spend the next 3 days all worn out.  Especially since we are going camping Thursday through Sunday.  If I am using my precious vacation time, I want to enjoy myself.

I've mentioned before that I have numerous projects that I want to do.  There are so many quilts and so little time.  I actually have decided on the next piecing project.  I also have 3 UFO's I need to be working on. The two quilt tops that need laid out and the Irish Chain quilt that needs to be made more bed friendly.  

Despite having more projects than time, I like to look at quilts on Pintrest and Facebook. A couple of weeks ago I saw a quilt that just grabbed my attention.  I studied the quilt when I first saw it. But ti stuck with me. It wasn't on Pintrest or I would have saved it to my board.  Try as I might I could not find it again. But I still couldn't let it go. There was nothing left to do but try and sketch it out.  Time to brush up on those geometry skills.

First I had to find graph paper with squares on point.  Not an easy feat.  I ended up finding an excel file that had the on on point squares amidst the regular squares.  I just deleted the lines I didn't want. 

Here is my first sketch.  It looked too much like an argyle plaid to me.  The quilt looked like stings of diamond shaped ornaments hanging down.  I finally decided that it was the sketch that was throwing me off.  I decided I needed to sketch the block so I could understand how I would be setting it on point.  

Not only did I sketch the block, I determined the size of the components and the direction to press the seams. Basically I made a block map.  Now with the understanding of the block shape and components I was able to rethink the design.  I knew that I didn't want to have partial blocks along the edge. So I would need to plan on setting triangles for the on point design.

My second sketch was much more to my liking.  But I don't think I am done yet.  I am thinking I will offset the strings a little more with plain white squares.  As well as break up the strings of diamonds with plain squares. I am thinking strings of three blocks and a plain square. I figure I have a lot more sketching to do before I eve get started on this quilt.  But that is okay.

I have also started sketching another quilt that I saw and really liked. This one is going to be a little more difficult to do than the strings of diamonds.  But I do have a sketch to come back to when I am ready to work on either of them.

This planning out the quilt in advance is a quite fun.  Who knew that designing ahead of time instead of on the go would be as satisfying. I doubt that I will ever convert completely to planned out quilts.  I have too much of a improvisational personality to be that organized but I think I can handle it for a project or two now and again.

How about you? Have you every planned out a quilt from a picture? Are you strictly a pattern person?  Do you like to just start sewing and see where it leads? Or are you some of each?

The Urge to Purge (or controlling the stash part one)

When I was growing up, my father had a big old metal desk.  It was like the ones they used in the military.  For the longest time that desk sat in a corner of the dining room. And as often happens with flat surfaces, it became a catch all for paper, mail, etc.  Every once in a while Dad would get fed up with the clutter and clean it off. This was not a simple sort & put away. It was a Declaration of War on the clutter.  Trash bags were filled and taken out.  Unfortunately, Dad didn't always pay attention to what he was throwing away.  Eventually my mom learned to go through the trash bags that he generated to make sure important documents such as birth certificates weren't in them.  One of my brothers named my father's temporary but reoccurring affliction as the "Urge to Purge".  It became the stuff of legends in the tales told about my father.

Lately, I have begun to wonder if that affliction is hereditary.  I find myself feeling like I am drowning in my belongings.  This has led me to contemplate backing up the truck to the door and shoveling out the house on more than one occasion.   I admit I can be a bit of a hoarder.  To make matters worse, so is my husband as well as both of the adult children still living at home. If they aren't hording, they most definitely enable the rest of us.

So here I am feeling a little claustrophobic in my own space because of my own habits.  My studio has become cluttered once again and I don't even want to discuss the closets in the various bedrooms.   My affinity with crafting has generated numerous supplies that I don't really use that often. Not to mention tools and books. 

I am definitely feeling the Urge to Purge.  That being said, I have decided to get started before I get to the frantic mindless tossing of everything into trash bags stage.  I want to be more selective about what I purge.  I am proud to say that I actually started this week. I had 5 magazine holders and 2 storage boxes of magazines.  It was time to purge some of them.

Part of controlling massive stashes is to limit what comes in. I used to have subscriptions to 3 quilting magazines. This past month I decided not to renew one of those subscriptions because I didn't really care for the patterns/articles.  That leaves 2 magazines coming in every other month, not 3. I used pick up a random quilting magazine from time to time.  Lately, I don't buy it unless there are several patterns in it that I like. 

With the influx of magazines cut back, it was time to purge. Now I didn't just haphazardly toss anything. First, I sorted the magazines by title.  Any of the magazines from the canceled subscription were tossed. I already knew they didn't appeal to me so there was no sense in keeping them. Besides even if there was a pattern I liked in them, I wasn't likely to make it after all this time.

Next I determined, did I really want to keep all of the magazines that I was still subscribed to? That answer was an easy Yes. Both of these magazines have interesting articles as well as multiple patterns that I like. Not to mention the how to techniques. With that choice made, I sorted the magazines by month and year. 

Funny thing is, I had more than one copy for several of them.  The copy that was in the best shape was saved and the other discarded.  I think I must have picked up the duplicate copies when I thought I had let the subscription lapse. The duplicates were all several months to a year apart.

Lastly the random magazines that I picked up here and there. These took more thought. I went through each magazine. I discovered that with many of them, I only really liked the quilt on the cover. One pattern is not enough to keep a whole magazine.  I decided that if I liked a pattern enough to keep it, I could tear it out and put it in a binder. Strangely enough, I didn't tear out one pattern.  

Now I did keep any magazine that had 3 or more patterns that I liked.  But as I was going through them I discovered that many of the quilts were in more than one magazine, at least the patterns were similar.  I don't need multiple magazines with the same pattern.

So to make the cut a magazine had to have at least 3 patterns that I liked and those patterns couldn't be in another magazine that I was keeping.  I am now down to one magazine holder and 2 storage boxes and the storage boxes are not full.  I feel a little lighter already.

Now onto one of those closets.  The trash run to the dump is going to be huge this week.

What do you do to curtail your massive stash?  

Auditioning Fabric for Borders

It's been a rather unproductive week for me.  Lots going on at work and home. The biggest issue for me this week has been my shoulder.  I hurt it a few months back and am on an anti-inflammatory for it.  I should have gone back to the doctor this week and asked about cortisone shots. But my doctor was killed in a farming accident and I don't have another one yet. So I really don't feel like doing much when I get home. But I did finally get the borders cut and on Scrappy Joy.  It took me months  to decide but I finally got it done. 

Using fabric from my stash has a down side.  I don't necessarily have enough yardage to make borders and backs. Especially if I am doing a scrappy quilt such as Scrappy Joy and Pretty in Pink.  That means finding a fabric that will fit with the pieced part of the quilt.  The best way I have found to do this is to audition the fabric.  I lay the quilt top across the rails of my long arm.  Then I lay the fabric that I think I want to use as borders next to it.  I leave it for a day or two to see if I like it. Sometimes it takes a week or more to decide if it works.  Sometimes it fits right away.  But as I am sure you all remember, I've been auditioning fabric for both Scrappy Joy and Pretty in Pink for months now while I worked on other projects. 

Several months back I pulled some fabric from my stash for the borders of Scrappy Joy  It has been lying next to the quilt top all of this time. Something just wasn't working for me.  The color was good.  Not too dark, not too bright, but it was just wrong for this quilt.  I finally decided it is the print that is wrong.  The print is too contemporary. The print fabrics in the pieced part are much older.  They just didn't harmonize enough for me. 

I had a similar problem with this cute pink bandanna print.  I came across this fabric on clearance and thought that it would be cute on the Pretty in Pink quilt.  The price was right and I bought enough for the borders and backing.  But when I got it home it didn't work, at least not for the borders. Aurora loves the fabric so we are still going to use it for the back.  It's her quilt after all.

So I went diving into my stash and found this bright blue print that seemed more in line with the other prints. I laid it out against the quilt for a few days. But it still didn't work.  It was just too bright.  It was washing out the other colors in the quilt and I really wanted the piecing to take front and center.  So that one was out.

Also in my stash was this light pink solid.  Aurora liked the pink but didn't think it was pink enough.  I felt that it didn't do anything for the quilt.  It didn't scream look at me which was good but it didn't draw your eye into the quilt either.  You want the border to frame the quilt or at least contribute to the appearance. Not just lay there. That was all the light pink was doing.



Next from the stash was this dark blue print. The print was an even better match. It didn't scream look at me but it did make a nice frame for the pieced part. But it gave the whole quilt a darker feel.  Not quite as cheerful as it seemed to be without the border. I wanted it to be more cheerful.

For the pretty in pink quilt I found this bright pink solid in the stash.  Aurora was sold right away. She kind of takes after her grandmother when it comes to colors. Any way she loved it and even told me how big to make the borders.  She went with a wide 5 inch border which made the quilt big enough for her to sleep under even if it's not a twin size.  She's pretty anxious for me to get this one done.  She asks about it ever time she visits.

 I still needed the right fabric for the Scrappy Joy quilt.  I wasn't finding anything in my stash but I did come across this pretty fabric in the store. It's bright enough to keep the quilt cheerful. It doesn't draw attention away from the piecing.  It does draw your eye to the center. It frames the quilt nicely.  I went with a 4 inch border to keep the focus on the pieced part.  It is going to be a large throw size when it is finished.

So I finally have those two quilt tops ready to put on the machine.  That makes five tops that are ready to quilt. I just need to make the backs.

I haven't done any long arming in over a year.  Simply because I haven't had a quilt ready to put on the machine. Since I last quilted, there has been an update to Quilt Path. That's the computerized system that's on my long arm machine. So I need to do some studying on the new program.  There are five you-tube videos as well I need to watch. I want to watch them over and over until they are completely familiar to me. I also need to do a deep clean and oiling of the long arm.  All of which I plan to do by the end of September.  In the meantime, I will keep getting quilt tops ready.  Hopefully I will get enough done that I can really get using the long arm down.  I feel like I am starting at square one again because it has been so long. But that is okay, I am going to do it.

What are you getting accomplished?  How do you decide on fabric for borders?

Finally Some Stitching

Until yesterday it had been more than 2 weeks since I did any sewing/quilting.  Not for lack of projects mind you.  Mostly it was lack of time.  We have been busy canning and well we finally just got all of the jars put away.  The house is still in chaos and I need to focus on getting things cleaned and organized.  I did straighten up the family room today. I spent an hour and half straightening up the studio yesterday.  I did two loads of laundry and folded them and put them away.  I cleaned my toilet and did some general picking up.  There is a lot more to do but I definitely made some progress.

So I rewarded myself with sewing. I spent a good part of yesterday and today just sewing.  I got all of my HST four patch blocks done! Yay!!! And they look really cute! Double Yay!!! I am really excited to start putting the sashing and corner stone on and get it laid out.

I plan to use Mary Anne Fons' method of pre-sashing.  I've done it that way a few times now. I find it easier to do it that way.  What you do is cut your sashing pieces to length. Sew a sashing strip to the left side of the block. Sew a corner stone to a sashing strip and then sew it to the bottom of the block that has the sashing strip.  Then sew your blocks together.

I get my blocks all situated with the sashing and corner stone, then lay out the quilt and make adjustments. Then I sew sashing and corner stones to the top blocks and to the right side of the last column of blocks.  Then I just sew everything together by rows. I am excited to see this top completed as I think it is going to be adorable.

I also got the borders on the Pretty in Pink quilt. I went with a wide 5" border and it really looks good. I went wide with the borders to get it closer to a standard throw size quilt. Aurora will be using it for a TV quilt. I took the time to figure out how big I need to make the backing and how many strips I need to cut for the binding.  I made a note of that information and pinned it to the top. Hope to get that done this week.

I was tempted to cut the borders for the Scrappy Joy quilt. But I finally decided that I didn't like the fabric I had out for the borders.  I had been going back and forth about it for a while now. The print was just too modern compared to the prints in the quilt.  I did see some fabric in the stash that I think will work better.  I will be getting that out of the bins this week as well.

I am going to try doing a task oriented calendar.  I guess it would be similar to a bullet journal.  What I need is to decide what needs to be worked on the next day. That way when I get home and am ready to start 30-30-30, I just start without having to decide what to work on and where to start.  One thing I know for sure is that I won't be going over two weeks without sewing any time soon. It just feels so much better to get things done.

Oh and I did some scrap management while I was at it.  So big thumbs up to me.  It felt so good. I just really don't want to go back to work tomorrow.  So much more I want to do.

What have you been up to? How do you stay on top of projects?

Heritage - How much does it define who you are?

About 4 years ago I wrote a post about having a quilting heritage. I quilt partly because my forebears quilted. But I have much more than a quilting heritage. So this weeks blog isn't about quilting.

I come from a long line of strong women. I know that because how they handled the things they faced, I can face whatever comes into my life.  That doesn't mean I have to like it. that doesn't mean it will be easy.  It does mean I am capable of dealing with hard things. The tumultus time we are currently living in has me thinking about a lot of things.  One of which is how my heritage defines me.   It's about who I am.

This past couple of weeks, my family and I have been canning food.  Both my husband and I grew up in homes where canning took place.  In the first half our marriage, we canned a lot.  We had big gardens and canned what we grew. As well as taking advantage of relatives who were willing to share their extra produce from their gardens and fruit trees. In our home it has always been a family project.  This doesn't surprise anyone that knows me.  People identify canning as being part of who I am. I have been sought out for advice on canning by people older and more experienced than I.

Crafting is another part of my heritage. Growing up, there were always supplies available to me, even if it was just crayons and paper. Mom made us salt clay to play with. My mother was creative. She didn't think so but she was. She sewed our halloween costumes even when my brother wanted to be a T-Rex.  In fact Mom made a paper mache head for the costume. I think other members of the family even pitched in to help. Creativity was encouraged and fostered. We tried to pass that on to our children.  I have three children who draw quite well. The others dabble in other medias.

I come from readers as well. Reading was encouraged and there were lots of books in the house.  My husband's family not so much, but he is a reader. Our house if full of books from all genres. For the most part my children are readers. Again a heritage that has been passed on down.

Both my husband and I were taught to have good work ethic.  My husband more so than I.  I am proud to say that my children have that work ethic. Their bosses have even let us know that they really appreciate it.

We were taught right from wrong.  We were taught to stand up for ourselves and for what is right.  We were taught the violence didn't solve anything. We passed those lessons on to our children.

We were taught that the color of a person's skin is irrelevant. That all men and women are entitled to the same treatment as everyone else.  We were taught not to judge others. Quite simply judging is wrong.  We were taught that we had no idea what a person has gone through or may be going through so be kind. My mother had a gift for accepting people for who they are and loving them unconditionally. A lesson she tried to pass on to me.  I still struggle with it at times. My father had the gift of being calm.

I was taught to be a contributing member of society by learning to be a contributing member of my family. We taught our children that they were a part of the "unit" (family) and that as a member they had a responsibility to contribute to it.  That lesson transfers over to anything they belong to not the least of which is society.

I know I have been blessed in my life. But I work hard for what I have.  My heritage was a gift passed down to me by my ancestors.  But what I have done with that heritage is what makes me who I am.

Someone recently accused me of having "white privilege".  I dis-agreed with them. I work hard.  I've struggled financially and spiritually at times. I've been hurt by those I've trusted. I've been wrongly passed over for promotion based on idle gossip.  I've felt like I was failure at times. I've been judged on my appearance. I've been belittled because of my religion. I've been criticized for choices I made, Some of which were heartbreaking decisions.  I don't have any special privilege.

What I have is a great heritage.  It was the example that was set for me by my ancestors.  It is the skills that were given to me by family.  It is the morals and ethics that I was taught. It is the understanding that working for something makes it mean so much more. It is knowing that I am a member of the unit. It is understanding that I must contribute to that unit. So NO, I am not privileged.

What I am is a survivor, an achiever, a teacher, a mentor, a crafter, a quilter, and the descendant of wonderful strong people who persevered. But most importantly, I Am A Daughter of God! And He expects me to work hard, love everyone, forgive others whether they deserve it or not, and strive to come back to live with him.

Who are you?  What was your heritage? What have you done with it?

Planning Quilter or Evolution Quilter.

My children brag about me.  I have to admit I find it rather gratifying that they do.  But I am realistic enough to know, that my abilities are not quite what they believe they are, My children, however, just think I am being modest.

On Arianna's wedding day, I decorated the cake and then went to check on how the bridal party was doing getting ready.  Arianna asked how the cake turned out.  I replied something to the effect it's okay, it'll work.  Arianna told me I wasn't instilling confidence in her. But Chrissy piped in saying, "Arianna you know how modest Mom is about her work. I am sure it is amazing." The guests thought it was amazing. Arianna and Victor loved it, so all is good. But I wish I was more adept at decorating so I could have done a truly amazing job.  Maybe I am my own worse critic.

This past weekend, we had some acquaintances over for our Independence Day Celebrations.  They are friends with my daughter TaKayren and her husband as well as a co worker of my husband.  We were getting to know each other better and the topic of interests came up.  The wife commented something about me being a really talented quilter. (TaKayren nodded in agreement) I said I enjoy quilting but a talented quilter would plan out her quilts and would be very precise.  My quilts on the other hand just sort of evolve.

The old saying that "Failure to plan is a plan to fail" doesn't quite ring true for quilting and least not for me.  Oh I know that if I carefully planned out each quilt, made sure I had all the materials, and tools I needed, and picked out every mistake/flaw, that I would make competition worthy quilts. I am just not that kind of quilter. For me, most quilts evolve as I make them.

An example of a quilt evolving is the one I am working on now, the HST quilt. I just planned to do some quick HST blocks and sew them all together. The blocks are all sewn and I was pressing them open (trying to use good pressing techniques of course) when I realized that they would be much cuter as four patch blocks with sashing and cornerstones. The number of squares that I have is divisible by four so this was definitely doable.

Now I needed sashing and cornerstone fabric.  At first, I thought I would use white for the sashing but it just looked wrong next to the blocks. It was too white. Fortunately, I was able to get 2 mini-jelly rolls of the same solid fabric I used in the HST. Sashing using the solid fabric and then cornerstones from the print fabric would be really cute. But the print fabric I used has been discontinued so no print cornerstones. (consequence of sewing from your stash) I ended up buying a mini-charm pack of white fabric. With sashing and cornerstones taken care of it was back to pressing open of the squares.

Since the solid half of the HST are all the same color, I figured I would use four random prints per block. I am a big fan of randomness in any of my creations.  I think it gives it a more natural feel. But I also realized that this would make layout a little tricky.  The more I worked on pressing open the half square triangles, the more I realized that the print should be matching in all four patches of the block. 

This change of plans was going to be a little trickier. I had no idea if the number of each of the different prints were divisible by four.  So before I started trimming up the HSTs. I sorted them by print.  Fortunately for me each print has either 8 or 12 squares.  Both of which are divisible by four.  So far the evolution is really coming together.  I can see it in my mind quite clearly now.

I am about 2/3 of the way through trimming up the squares.  I was planning to be done trimming them by this weekend but as usually life got in the way. The sashing and cornerstones should be here tomorrow.  I am hoping that there will be enough of the sashing strips left over to do the binding. If not I am sure the plan will evolve once again.

I'm not saying this is the way I always make quilts.  A few have been straight forward, followed a pattern and turn out great.  But quite often the quilts evolve as I make them.  I like to think that the quilt is talking to me as I work with it. I like to believe I am putting a bit of myself into the quilt.

Now if I had started out with a plan, I would have everything on had before starting. There would not have been two trips to the MSQC website to buy what I need.  I would also know if I am going to have enough strips for binding or not. I defintely would know what size quilt it was going to be. (I am the queen of non standard sized quilts.) But I rather enjoy the creative evolution of each quilt. And the only problem with multiple visits to a website to buy supplies, is I end up buying more stuff than I need. But I will use it all eventually. (Or die trying)

How about you? Do you follow a plan to the letter? Do you have everything figured out in the beginning? Or do you sew by the seat of your pants?

One of Three

I was watching Love of Quilting a few weeks ago. It was an older episode and Maryanne Fons was actually on it. She made the comment that a quilting instructor once told her that if a quilt isn't working out it was one of three things; cutting, stitching or pressing/ironing.

All the tips and tricks that exist in the quilting world boil down to one of three things.  The accuracy of cutting out the pieces.  The precision in the stitching, And last but not least the pressing technique. 

Cutting - When cutting out fabric it is important to be accurate. The pieces must match up of the block is going to be square. Square is very important when it comes to finishing the quilt. A slightly larger or slightly smaller block makes a big difference.  On a more recent episode of Love of Quilting, they were talking about making the blocks slightly over size and trimming them down. Angela Huffman stated that is was perfectly acceptable to waste a little fabric to achieve accuracy. 

I often work with precuts. Largely because I bought a bunch of them.  For the most part they are great for a quick quilt top. But I when using charm packs from two different manufacturers, I run into size problems. This half square triangle project I am working on for example.  I am using 2 charm packs from Robert Kauffman and two charm packs from Moda.  The Robert Kauffman charms are bigger by 1/8th of an inch.  Which wouldn't be bad but the Moda charm pack were not square.  Their size was 5 - 1/8 by 5 inches.  I of course didn't notice this before starting the project.  Always check the size of your pre-cuts.

Sewing - I think most people who sew occasionally run into issues with sewing a straight even seam.  I know I do.  I have taken to using a sewing ledge to keep my seams even and straight.  I first learned this trick while teaching sewing in 4-H.  (I really miss the master sewing training workshops.) Of course I thought I didn't need to use it. After all I've been sewing for years. But I came to the realization that I did in fact need to use one after long arming some quilts with a little bit of extra fullness here and there. The flatter the quilt is the easier it is to quilt.  You can learn about sewing ledges from Karen Brown's Video on beginner quilting. Suffice it to say I now have painter's tape in my sewing drawer.

Another issue with sewing can and does arise in group projects.  A while back I worked with some women to make a quilt for a family who had helped out our congregation at church.  TAtianna and I worked with them to get the cutting as accurate as possible. But the stitching was another story. We had 1/4 inch feet on the sewing machine but no matter how often we explained how to line up the fabric with the feet, we got numerous different sized seams. In the future, when I sew with a group, I will be putting sewing ledges on the machines.

Pressing/Ironing - I once had a good friend explain the difference between pressing and Ironing.  Ironing uses movement, heat and pressure to get wrinkles out of clothing. The things is when we iron the fabric we can and often do pull it off grain.

Pressing uses heat but light pressure and no movement. Pressing involves placing the iron on the fabric then lifting it off the surface and placing it again. So when we are working with small pieces and it is fairly easy to just press. But when dealing with yardage it's a little harder. Pressing is a struggle for me. I always want to iron instead of press.  Karen Brown's video on ironing technique is really helpful.

The biggest thing about pressing/ironing is to not distort the fabric. So this will take practice and and patience. But I think it is very important to develop this technique. After all it would be really sad to have a perfect cut and seam only to mess it up with bad pressing.

In conclusion, if I am being honest, I am still struggling with all of the areas listed above. Sometimes it is one more than the other.  But I think I am getting better at them.  Practice Makes Perfect as the saying goes.

What is you downfall in making quilts? Where do you need to improve?

Will Power, Planning and Goals

This past week my friend, Tom Russell, posted a meme on Facebook that really hit home. It was a quote by Brian Tracy. Brian Tracy is a motivational speaker and self development author.  The Quote was;

"The one human quality that must be developed it the self discipline for success. The will power to force yourself to do what you know you should do when you should do it, whether you like it or not, whether you feel like it or not. Success is tons of discipline." 

Now I don't have any great desire to make millions or be famous.  But I do want to become proficient at quilting. I do want to develop the skill to longarm. I want to have a side business to supplement my retirement.  But I've had the long arm for 3 years now and all I have really accomplished is getting it paid off.  

So where am I falling short? SELF DISCIPLINE!  I get home from work and am too tired to do anything.  I don't feel like doing anything. This week was especially bad for me.  I was dealing with car issues and getting a rental while ti was in the shop.There were so many hiccups and snags that it was emotionally exhausting.   All the turmoil going on in the world has been getting to me as well. I did very little this week other than wallow in my discouragement and frustration.


I need to develop the will power to push through things like that. I did manage to shake off the melancholy a little bit on Friday and Saturday.  I got some sewing and cleaning done on my room. It wasn't a lot but I did feel better after doing it. That is what I need to focus on. the feeling of accomplishment when I get somethings done. It won't be easy to do. But I do believe the 30-30-30 plan is a start. But it's not quite enough. I think I need to define it more. Or at least set up goals in the 3 areas to work on during the 30-30-30 effort.  

So this week I am planning it out a little better. I am going to break areas down into bite size pieces.

Home - work on cleaning my room, starting with the window corner on my side of the bed. That will include going through the craft stuff in the drawer units and getting rid of stuff I won't use. If I get that done this week that will be good enough. Oh and wrap last years christmas presents and send them off.

Studio - Get the floor that is the path way swept, Get the space behind the long arm cleaned out, get the long arm cleared off.  Watch the videos on giving the long arm a deep clean.
then prepare to give it a deep clean.

Quilting - Finish the 168 HST that I've started.  Get the batik quilt put up until I can lay it out. Get borders on the Pretty in Pink quilt. Make the back to it quilt and the tan quilt. I found some fabric that will be perfect for the tan quilt. I broke the only buy what you need rule because it is an awesome neutral print and I think it will add depth to my stash. Plus I didn't know how much I would need at the time I found it. I wasn't shopping for fabric.  I also need to find different border fabric for Scrappy Joy quilt. I decided that the border fabric I had had out just isn't working for me.  Otherwise I would have made the borders already.  I think I have some that will work in my stash though. So while I am at it I will look for backs for the Church Ladies Aprons quilts.  It will require doing some organizing of my stash. Maybe do one bin at a time over the next few weeks.

That is a lot to do over the next few weeks but I am going to try and prioritize in each area. Plus I have a calendar that I can mark what I need to do each day. I am hoping that writing it done will help me to keep going.  I will also try to limit my caffeine so I am not hitting a rebound effect when I get home. 

I just need to do something different. I can't doing the same thing because we all know that leads to the same results.  I will plan to succeed not plan to fail. 

What are you struggling with?

30-30-30 Challenge, Routine or Both?

I am a procrastinator. I put off doing things that I find unpleasant, tedious or just plain boring. This is a life long trait that I doubt I will ever completely conquer. But my current guru of quilting, Karen Brown of Just Get It Done Quilts suggests, that when you're faced with doing something you don't want to do, that you set a timer for 30 minutes and work on it 30 minutes at a time.  Set a day during the week (or more) and do that thing for 30 minutes. That way you will make progress without being overwhelmed.  After all you can do anything for 30 minutes. So I took her suggestion and ran with it.

30 - House. I hate doing housework. I push it off onto my children and have been doing so for far too many years. Now that they are growing and up moving away, I am going to have to start doing it myself or hire a house keeper. And I'd have to get the house clean before I could hire anyone. So I try to come in the door, change my clothes and pick a chore to do. This week it has been folding clothes and  making the bed because my husband has been doing the laundry.  But the laundry is folded and put away and not sitting in a basket waiting to be worn.  That is progress.  Now to be honest, it hasn't happened every day so I still have room to grow. But it is a habit I want to develop. If I can just keep doing it for 28 days or more maybe it will be come one.

30 - Studio.  I am terrible at putting things away when I am done with them, especially craft supplies. So as I am sure you deduced, my studio is a mess.  I am slowly and surely finding a way to keep the things I need handy and yet out of the way. I need to find the proverbial "place for everything". this week, I started just picking up things in the studio. I am trying to put things that do have a home in their home. I've cleaned up one corner of the studio. Now there is a clear path to my front door and it has been swept.  Yesterday, I cleared off my work surface and organized the shelf of tools above it. I even cleaned out the desk drawers. Of course this took much more than 30 minutes, but I found once I started, I wanted to keep going. And that is totally acceptable.  This week I hope to clear behind the long arm.  I have a shelf that I want to put up and a wall quilt to move. I would also like to get some pictures framed and hung up. That or I may organize the parts bins I have on the wall.  Who knows how much I will accomplish at 30 minutes a day.  I might even go past the 30 minutes again.  It all depends on how I feel in that moment.

30 - Sewing/Quilting. This is my reward. I feel my best when I take the time to sew or quilt everyday.  It is a stress buster for me. It helps fight off depression so it is a need as well as a reward. I try to keep a piecing project going. I also need to work on UFOs. So I usually do this for more than 30 minutes. This week, I cut the sashing strips for the batik strip quilt. As I was cutting them I made a design change. I'm not going to put corner stones on the outer edges of the quilt, just in between the blocks. The outer edge will just be a white strip. Fortunately I made that decision before cutting the sashing strips. I've gotten sashing on one side of all the blocks and corner stones sewn to the remaining sashing strips. Now I need to find a place to do the lay out. I've also cut the Borders for the Pretty in Pink quilt. So progress on a UFO.  I really need to settle down and do some planing. Maybe work on UFOs every other day. I am feeling a need to get the UFOs to the finish line.  They are starting to stack up. I think that part of it is, I am stalling. I think I may be a little intimidated about starting the long arm back up. I just need to get on with it.  So this week will be about getting a quilt ready to go on the long arm.

So for now it's go to work. Come home & change clothes. Set my timer and do my 30-30-30 and then repeat it all again on the next day. 

How are you getting everything done? When do you work on UFOs? Do you have a plan or schedule?

Home, Studio, and Sewing - Efforts in Time Management

As I predicted last week, not a lot of sewing got done. But the big audit is over and hopefully I will be able to work fewer hours for the next little while.  By that I mean only working 8 hrs.

While I didn't get a whole lot of sewing done, I did do some organizing, as well as planning and prep work done.  Which in and of itself is an accomplishment for me lately. Between the renovations, work, and life, I very often feel overwhelmed.

So I am trying to break things down into bite size pieces. I have gone back to my 30-30-30 strategy. 30 minutes on the house. 30 minutes in the studio, and 30 minutes sewing. I've only been back to doing it for 2 days but I feel like progress is being made.

In the house category; I managed to fold several loads of laundry, and sort and match half a laundry basket full of socks.  Now that may not sound like a lot but I've managed to get it down from a whole basket of socks. A couple of months ago it was 2 whole baskets of socks.  I've been throwing socks away. Kim's new book shelves have cleared up some space as well.  We no longer have a mountain of books on the floor of our room.

In the studio category: I've cleaned up behind the long arm machine, well at least 1/2 way.  I've cleared the door to the front deck. Then I did some scrap management.  I have a basket that I was dropping scraps in as I was trimming. But then it was covered up so I started dropping them in a little box. I gathered them up and started cutting them into useful pieces.

I got this idea from Karen Brown at Just Get It Done Quilts. She has a video series on Scrap Management. She suggests that once a month (or once a week) you cut your scraps into useful pieces. She says to start with the end in mind. That being said, I have a scrap quilt I want to make. It's a basket weave pattern and I fell in love with it when I saw it on a wall at Sew Blessed Quilts in Hahira, GA.  This quilt takes 3 inch squares and 3x8 inch strips. But not all of my scraps would yield themselves to these dimensions.  So I set out with some standard sizes in mind. 2 1/2 inch strips/blocks & 5 inch strips/blocks. 

As I was cutting, I realized that I had some 2 inch strips, so those were set aside. Then I had some 4 inch by WOF strips that I had cut for a border and changed my mind. I saved those. I had some strips of fabric that were less than 2 inches but more than 1 1/2 inches so I classified those as strings. I also have some 2 1/2 x 8 1/2 inch strips and some 2 1/2 x WOF strips that I put aside. All in all I had a few different piles.  I decided to put them in sandwich bags to keep them clean and neat. To differentiate the sizes, I placed a Post-it note with the size and shape on it in each bag. 

As I was cutting, I started setting the bags in a little shipping box. I realized that it was the perfect size for the sandwich bags.  But it wasn't all that pretty. Since I didn't plan on stuffing the scraps into a box and shoving it in a closet, I decided to clean it up a little. I cut the flaps off and covered it with wrapping paper.  Now I would be able to leave it out on a shelf where it is easy to access and it wouldn't be ugly. The little sandwich bags fit in there so neatly, just like a file. It will be easy to keep up with the organization. I love my little scrap file.

I personally believe that in order to keep up any organization plan, it has to be easy to use and easy to access. I think the old saying "A place for everything and everything in it's place" is a great idea. But it falls short. If "the place" is difficult to access "the thing" will never get put in it's place. Basically defeating the organization plan.

In the sewing category - I cut a bunch of 2-1/2 inch strips for the sashing of the Batik quilt. Then I realized that I actually had two different colors of white. They weren't close enough to use together. I found some more of one of the colors and cut 2-1/2 inch strips before realizing I wouldn't have enough of that color either.  I put all of those strips into sandwich bags and in the scrap file.

I finally used my Missouri Star Quilter's cash.  I had 3 different sets of charm packs that I only had 2 packs of.  To make a throw I need 4 packs.  So I decided to buy enough of coordinating colors to be able to make throws.  I bought 2 each of a blue, purple, ad white.  I also bought 3 natural charm packs to go with a freebie I once got. And I bought 2 ivory charm packs to replace the ones I used on my last quilt top. I am ready to sew 3 more throws as soon as I figure what pattern I want to use.

I did decide to do a four patch quilt of half square triangles. Just all the triangles going in one direction like sails.  I got the diagonal sewing lines drawn on them this week.  So I am ready to start sewing the 1/2 square triangles after work this week. 

Killian cleared a path to my yardage storage. I was hoping I had more of the white fabric that I had started cutting sashing strips out of.  I did not find any. I did find a couple of yards of white fabric that should give me enough sashing strips.  So I will be pressing and cutting sashing this week as well.

Speaking of pressing, my iron died.  I plugged it in so I could press the scraps before cutting them and it didn't heat up.  Kim sent Perigrine a text telling her to pick up a iron for me.  She did an excellent job of selecting an new iron.  It is the Black and Decker - One Step Steam Iron. It has excellent steam power. I could press several layers at once. I am so happy with the purchase.   It also has a stainless steel sole plate.

So I've done some work on the house, I did some organizing/cleaning in the studio and I have planned and prepped for more quilting. It has been a good week.  Long and tiring but good.

How was your week? What are some of your organization tips? How do you manage your time?

Stash Management

So I didn't get another quilt top done this week.  But I did start another one.  It took me a while to decide what I wanted to work on. I thought about doing a slice and flip quilt but I don't have a large enough surface right now to do the slicing so that was put back on the shelf. Then I decided to do the Keyhole pattern from Missouri Star Quilt Company (MSQC). 

I thought I had two jelly rolls of batiks in primary colors. I was wrong.  What I had was three rolls of 20 - 2 1/2 in strips of assorted batiks. I had bought them on Ebay a long time ago. Like 15 years ago. They have been stashed away waiting to be used. This is why it is important to inventory you stash.  You just don't know what you have and what you need.  Karen Brown suggests doing it a couple of times a year.

The strips I had weren't going to work for my vision of the Key Hole quilt.  But I had seen another quilt on Pinterest that used strips and looked to be fast and easy. It was just blocks made out of strips, sashed in white with corner stones from the same prints in the blocks. I thought I would go ahead and use these strips for it.

I pressed my strips and set about putting together strip sets. Now the intelligent thing to do would have been to pull up the pinterest article and read it before starting. Of course I did not. I just started sewing the strips into sets of four.  I didn't even make the sets the same.  I had 10 different prints so I was very random in the pairing of the prints.  I made sure to put darker values together with the brighter values.  Later when I did pull up the article to show my daughter what I was working on, I saw that the block were made of only three strips.  They were also rather uniform in appearance. Oh well I persevered with the four strips and my random composition. I ended up with 67 - 8 1/2 inch blocks and over 100 corner stones. I've decided to go with an off white sashing from fabric that I already have.   

I am going to run into the same problem with this top as I have with the cobblestones and windmills quilt.  No place to lay it out.  I've decided that I am going sweep off my front deck (or back) then lay down couple of flannel backed table cloths.  I am going to get these quilts laid out and put together. 

Once that is done, I will have made 7 quilt tops this year.  That is not very many but all of them will have come from my stash. Hopefully I will be able to find backing fabric for them in the stash as well.  If I can't, I will buy some. But in the end, I will have least put a minor dent in my stash. 

I still haven't finished inventorying all of my stash.  The yardage is still in bins, the bins are in the closet of a room that currently isn't easily accessible.  But as my husband and son start finishing the family room, things will start being less chaotic.  They have another book shelf to build and we have a bunch of painting to do. I am hoping to be able to access that room next week or the week after.

I am also hoping that I will get my cutting surface back.  Kim has set up his office in the family room on my little stone table.  The table is a nice desk size surface of pink granite. It was a steal at $40.  We have found it to be really handy.  Anyways I am hoping to be able to cut some borders out this week. Not sure how much I will do sewing/quilting wise.  I expect to put in some long hours at work since our big audit is this week. I just want to have the area ready if I can scrape together 20-30 minutes.

 I am going to see how many quilts I can do from my stash this year.  Backings are probably going to be my biggest hurdle. Well that is it for this week.  How about challenging yourself to make a quilt with only fabric from your stash?