Cutting done

All the cutting is done and organized for the new scrap quilt instructions on Judy's website. I was pleased to use up quite a number of small scraps and only returned about five fabric pieces to my stash.

OneHundredNinetyTwo

192 half-square triangles - 12 in each pile - 60 pinks, 60 greens, and 72 blues - all done for Judy's Quilt-along. I'm ready for the next step. My friend Lindsay and I are doing a Round Robin exchange and this is the center she did for the start of her round robin. It is a great start for a patriotic quilt. The next round is "squares" so I thought I would do simple small four patches or nine patches of dark blue and red. I may stick a small gold star on one of the blocks to match the gold stars of her flag.
Today I was pulling some orange fabric for a Fall quilt I want to make and I completely pulled out the drawer that houses my orange fabric. Hmmm - I had a lot more oranges than I thought but certainly a nice variety from which to pick. Elliot had to investigate the open space left by the missing drawer.

Last night's Bee meeting

No pictures..........sorry....... (I lied - there is a new profile picture added.)



Last night Bee was at my house but I did not take pictures. There was some outstanding Show & Tell. I am lucky enough to be in a very talented group of women.



In our discussion we brought up the new "UFO" phrase........PhD (Projects Half Done), and someone also brought up the theory of "Advance Three". In other words, you can start something new as long as you first advance the work on three of your old projects. You don't have to finish them, but make a block, or sew blocks together, or put a border on, etc.



We all think we have too many projects not completed and feel embarassed or guilty when we start something new. The idea of advancing three seemed to strike a chord with some of us last night.



I am so focused on using up my enormous stash that doing some of Judy's projects and some other stash busting things seems to be my concern lately.



Then I have three days in a row when I don't even get down to my quilt studio............ See my sad face.

Stash Report Feb 22

The quilt I finished yesterday does not count in my stash report because it was a kit given to me at the quilt guild. Other than that, I have picked out fabric and started in on the half-square triangles for the Quilt-Along and cut-up fabric for a more organized stash.

Therefore, my stash report for the week is BORING.
Fabrics added - O
Fabrics used - O
Fabrics used to date - 9.75

I'm an old lady...........things go slowly around here! ! ! ! !This is some red fabric I refolded. Looks pretty!

Quilt Day - Part Two

(See prior post for first part of my Quiltathon day.)

After coming home from the wedding shower I got back to work on this charity quilt. Our quilt guild is making these simple quilts for a hospice organization. It is composed of ten 4-1/2 strips which you quilt along the seams and at 6 inch intervals across the quilt. The binding is sewn on the back, brought around to the front and secured with a decorative stitch. It is nice to have once project crossed off my list.Tomorrow is a busy day and I probably won't get home until late afternoon, but I hope to work on my half-square triangles for the Quilt-Along.

Elliot patiently waits in the chair behind my sewing table while I concentrae on my quilting.

And Rudi sits upstairs at the kitchen table checking my Sudoku puzzles.

Quilt Day

Judy at PatchworkTimes.com is holding a Quiltathon this weekend and I didn't think I would be able to participate because of a busy schedule. However, a scheduled meeting was cancelled because of weather and I had some unexpected time at home.

First thing I did was pull out a counted cross-stitch project and spent an hour stitching. Then I worked on a charity quilt for my Quilt Guild. It consists of strips of fabric, all provided, and is all machine sewn including the binding.
I like to spend some time each day cutting scraps of fabric into useable squares and strips, so I spent another hour doing my cutting.

Finally, I worked for a while on making half-square triangles for the Quilt-Along project that Judy is leading. I need 192 of these, so I am using the Brenda Henning's Half Square Triangulations CD to create my paper patterns.

Alas, my sewing time has come to an end and I must get ready to go to a wedding shower. Tomorrow is church and a visit to my sister, so it will be hard to fit in any more sewing time.

A Little Finish

While starting to do some clean-up in my Quilt Studio I found a container with this little counted cross-stitch project with little flower buttons. It only took a little while to add some fabric borders. The binding needs to be hand-sewn on the back and it will be ready to decorate a wall.

Stash Report Feb 15

Fabric used this week............9.75
Fabric used this year............17.75
Fabric purchased this year.............Zero, none, nada.
I'm truly using up my stash.
Confession............I would LOVE to go shopping. I am getting low on some colors......

Quilting Along #1

Here is the fabric I picked out for Judy's new project - Quilting Along #1. (See her sidebar for information) The green fabric with the little circles is the focus fabric. The stripe behind it (which is actually shocking pink and orange) will be the accent borders. The yellow fabric in front will be for the sashing. All the pinks, blues and greens will be the half-square triangles. I bought the circles fabric last summer without any idea what I wanted to do with it - I just had to have it. Now I have a good way to show it off. This should be fun. Thanks Judy!

Happy Dance

Yes, I am doing a Happy Dance. TheCome-On-A-My-House quilt is done, the backing is ready (a huge four-patch) and the binding is prepared. I can now ship this quilt off to be quilted. A final picture before it gets quilted............
One of the blocks has a star fussy-cut in the center of each chimney.

Meanwhile, upstairs, I heard a commotion. The visiting cats were playing so I decided to investigate. Well, well, well. After the last visiting cat left, I found a battered toy and put it in a seldom used trash can in my furnace room. Suddenly it has appeared. "How did you find this?" I inquired.

Almost finished

The blocks and the rows are all sewn together for my Come-On-A-My-House quilt. It is too big to fit on my design wall and I couldn't seem to get the whole thing in my camera viewer. I'll try for a better picture once the borders are on. The first border - the framing border - will be the dark brown. The outer border is still not determined for sure yet. I promised myself I would only take fabrics from my stash, but this red (an old Debbie Mumm print) is the only fabric that comes close to being OK. I'm still thinking about it. I have a gift certificate burning a whole in my purse and just may give in and use it to purchase border fabric. I'm giving myself some time to mull it over.
The picture on the pattern shows a red print border but the picture is small enough that I cannot determine if the print is flowers or just a design. I have been thinking "flowers" all along and maybe that is why I'm not 100% sure on the fabric from my stash.
Do you have an opinion?

It's Pointless........

Up on the design board I slapped all the blocks for Come-On-A-My-House, ready to start sewing them all together and was dismayed to find out I was one block short. How did that happen?????? Thank goodness the whole quilt is made from scrap fabric. I found some leftover pieces from a panel and fussy-cut a piece for the center of a final sawtooth star. The process of sewing the blocks together is slow and I didn't finish today. Maybe tomorrow. There are many, many points in this quilt and because my sewing is less than perfect I think I may have to re-name the quilt to Pointless. However, from that infamous galloping horse the quilt should look pretty good.

While I worked away at the sewing machine, the visiting cats were hard at work taking a cuddly nap. Such a tough life they lead - sleep, eat, nap, purr, nap, get a treat, sleep.

Today I am grateful for -

1. Sewing time

2. Plump sweet blueberries

3. Church friends

Oops - forgot to post Stash Report

At last I have something decent to report.

Fabric Used this week...............7 yards

Fabric used to date....................8 yards

Fabric purcahsed.......................0 yards

Still have quite a bit left.

Cats and a Meme

While I sit at the computer, the visiting cats like to keep me company. Here is Rudi in the midst of my messy desk. You can see a slice of my life lined up - a pink file box, my scotch tape dispenser under the open Bible, Rudi on the Bible, quilt tops piled up waiting for instruction sheets to send to the long-arm quilter and a seldom used piano in the background. While Rudi watches from the desk, Elliot purrs away on my lap and quite often falls asleep - and snores!

On Jeanne's Blog, she had an interesting Meme that I thought I would try. The idea is to answer all the questions using the first letter of your name.

1. What is your name: Bonnie

2. A four letter word: blog

3. A boy's name: Benjamin

4. A girl's name: Betty

5. An occupation: baker

6. A color: blue

7. Something you wear: bathrobe

8. A food: bread

9. Something found in the bathroom: blow-dryer

10. A place: bedroom

11. A reason for being late: breakdown

12. Something you shout: blast

13. A movie title: Born Free

14. Something you drink: Beer (Root Beer for me)

15. A musical group: Boston Pops Orchestra

16. An animal: bear

17. A book title: Bitter Sweets (it is on my book shelf waiting to be read)

18. A country: Belgium

19. A city: Boston

20. Something you value or believe: breathing is good

Cold Feet

Today I worked in my Quilt Studio and finished the backing for the secret quilt I am doing. Since I am on an earnest quest to use up scraps, I decided to use leftover crazy nine-patch blocks and lots of scraps for this backing. Slowly but surely - like removing grains of sand from the desert - I am eliminating little pieces of my stash. My Quilt Studio is in the basement and today I spent a great deal of time in the area that is not carpeted. I got a serious case of cold feet! The forecast is for warmer weather in the next few days. I hope the warm-up reaches the basement floor.

Sweet Gift

See this adorable bowl. It was made by a sweet little girl just for me. (*) This little girl knows that I love quilts and that I belong to two Book Clubs. She went on a Ceramic Painting play date with friends right before Christmas. What a great little artist! I moved the computer forward and now there is no room for poor Elliot in front of the computer. Poor baby.
Instead of sitting in front of this computer, maybe I should go do a little quilting. Ah, but it is so much fun to blog and read other blogs.

* the little girl is me : )

Where is my picture?

Suddenly my profile picture stopped appearing. I have no idea why. Since I have been unable to find this particular photo on my new computer, I need to go search the old computer and try to find the picture.

In the mean time, my profile now shows a picture of the quilt that hangs in my hallway - "You Make My Heart Sing".

Stash Report for January

Fabric used this month - approximately 1 yard
Fabric purchased this month - none

Well now, even though the above report looks sad, I have been deligently working on some projects that I just cannot count until the projects are finished. I also cannot show one of the projects because it is a surprise for a dear friend. Here are some random pieces.

And here are some sewn pieces.

To keep happy those who come to my blog to see quilts, here is visiting cat Rudi, posing on my Bullseye quilt in the guest bedroom.

Today I am grateful for -

1. Encouraging emails from my cousins

2. Delicious halibut for lunch

3. Freedom to NOT watch football