More placemats!

This weekend I finished four quilted placemats and yesterday during my day-at-home sick day, I completely made two more! Whoo Hoo!

I just love the backing.

Fun backing!

 I just looked up my order from fabric dot com and I purchased this fabric in 2009! O my.

Color blocks - so fun!

I found several hundred five-inch blocks in the boxes of fabric my mother gave me. I still have not made a dent!

And the reverse side

One closeup

I just love all of the different patterns in these squares!

Resigning as UFO Queen

My reign as the Stashbuster Queen of the UFOs has come to an end as I have officially sent the notice that I completed the baby quilt. It is 41 x 47 inches and used 3.7 yards of fabric.

Yay!

Nice and wrinkly from being washed

Sticking to my design wall

I can't believe how the entire quilt stuck to the design wall. I would have thought it would have been too heavy.

A Finish and a new Featherweight!

I was fairly productive since my last post, in spite of having two grandsons running around the house for two days.

I layered and quilted two place mats (out of four). Need to cut the batting for the other two. The tops and backs are cut and waiting.

I bound my 5-inch D4P baby quilt and got it washed and dried by Sunday. I need to take a picture and measure it to determine my yardage used. Then it will be a totally official finish!

I cut out around 10 10.5-inch batting squares from scraps that were donated from my quilting group. One of the longarmers in the group had leftover batting after cutting it off of completed quilts. I guess she didn't want to just throw it away but she wasn't going to use it. YAY! I took it all since no one else wanted it.

I missed my quilting group this weekend but I had two grandsons with me for a sleep over. A very good reason to miss it.

DH made a lovely turkey for Saturday night dinner. My Mom was also with us so the table was very full. The house smelled so yummy all day!

On top of everything else, someone email me from a craigslist posting, a month after I sent my query about a sewing machine. ONE MONTH!

That began a two-day messaging session (off and on). He had taken the post down so I kept asking for better pictures. In the end, I ran out on Sunday at 12:30 pm and got another gorgeous Featherweight machine for $180!!!

It was in tip-top shape, case and all, even if it is a bit dirty. Even the case was in just about perfect condition! Cord was also excellent.

Just look at those decals!!

Lovely decals even it's a bit dirty

Even the manual!

Look at all those feet!

Even the insert and 5 bobbins

Serial number AH439168 - 1948

What's In The (Muffin-Topped) Box?

So I was going to explore a box full of fabrics that has been sitting in my bedroom, the result of "box cleaning."

It is very muffin-topped! Also a shot of one of my 301a's.

Lovely over-full box.

So last night DH and I went out to dinner so I did not really have enough time to do a full investigation of this box. I did check out a few layers.

Some upholstery samples.

 The upholstery samples came from some boxes of my Mom's. Not sure what I am going to do with them.

Quilting samples and 1 Sashiko block from the 2017 MAQF 

Still overflowing

Well, that did not remove much from the box. Humm....

Supplies for making fidgit quilts

Supplies for Sashiko blocks and some gifted bubble fabric

Still no dent!

Love this fabric! 

The pansy fabric is part of one of my UFOs that I am hand-quilting because my free-motion quilting is still not very good at all.

Ok. Now there's a little dent!

Fabrics that need ironing

 Ok, so these need ironing and sticking in my stash.

Yikes. Not much of a dent either!

 So, I am going to have to continue the exploration of the box tomorrow night, after I iron the uncovered fabrics.

So here is a view of my stash that I can see while sitting at my computer...

Fabrics behind my computer

Fabrics to the right of my computer

Ok, that last picture is pretty bad. I will re-do it tonight.

My sewing machine sits in front of my computer so if I sit down at the computer, I must sew at least one thing! JOT - Just One Thing!

Weekend Plus Monday Sewing

Had a productive weekend with my sewing.

I looked through my large stack of 5 inch squares that came with a few new boxes of fabric that was my mom's (and her sister's who has left this mortal coil). I picked 12 * 4 and made four objects that will become placemats. This is not a UFO. These are NEW!

I made 4 Christmas/Winter placemats last month and I have so enjoyed looking at them that I know we need some more but with a different theme.

I added up the selvage blocks that I have been making and I now have over 55+ 10.5 inch blocks that will finish at 10 inches. Ooo, that's a lot. Spent some time last week figuring out how to complete them into a quilt and decided to go in a Quilt-As-You-Go style. I was thinking about just a solid 10.5 square of fabric for the backs and decided... Nah! Not good enough.

Saw the ModaBakeShop pattern Labryinth quilt and decided to biggie size the block to get the right size for me. That means making an 11 inch square that cut in half and sewn back together is 10.5 inches.

So that would be a 3.5 x 11 inch color strip, a 1.5 x 11  inch white strip, a 3 x 11 inch color string,a 1.5 x 11  inch white strip, and a 3.5 x 11 inch color strip.

I have to be really careful cutting the white strips so I can get 4 across the width of fabric but so far, so good! By cutting the strings to size, it sure cuts down on the later sub-cutting and I can get more scrappy.

I created about 10 of the completed blocks this weekend! Yay me!

I am rising in the Queen ranks for the UFO challenge so I also trimmed a baby quilt in preparation to applying the already created binding that I have sitting beside my machine. I am mentally preparing the label also and will probably leave an area empty on the label as I don't know who will be the recipient of it yet. It's my 5-inch Disappearing Four Patch quilt.

So lots was done this weekend. It also helped that I had Monday off too!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Christmas Placemats - YEA!

I finished one placemat yesterday and then did the other three today, just in time for Christmas dinner!

2 Placemats have fabric on the back

View of the table with the four placemats in place

Full placemat view

2 Placemats have this blue on the back

Another closeup of one of the placemats

Counting UFOs

I have now finished piecing 4 placemats. Need to get them quilted but it's going to be hard to find the time.

My sister arrived from Wyoming to visit with Mom who is living with me and we (DS & I) stayed up until 1:30 am this morning talking.

I only have to work 4 hours today so it's not so bad. Then I am OFF until Jan 3rd! YEAH!

I decided to join the Stashbusters 2018 UFO challenge. So I need to select 2 fat quarters and send them and $1 off to the holder of the FQ kitty. I am officially declaring that I have 49 UFOs.

Just One Thing

Started selecting and cutting more Christmas/Winter fabrics for two more placemats. These bowtie blocks are too stinking cute!

I'm also continuing with my selvage edge blocks that are 10.5" with a fabric stabilizer as a foundation. I used up all my old thin muslim. (YAY!) Now I'm using some old cotton sheeting; very old, very washed and quite supple. So that's also a win.

I have hardly made a dent in my box of selvages.

My nieces came down from Maryland and visited with my Mom last week. That was nice!

Shannon, Mom, and Jennifer

DH, our two DGSs and I went to the UVA basketball game on Saturday in JPJ arena. This was DGSs first experience with basketball. We had a lot of fun!

Aftterwards, DH and I got to celebrate youngest DGS's birthday on Saturday with an ice cream cake.

He blew out the candles before I could take the pic!

The remote control two-car race track present was a success. DH and both DGSs loved it. I played with it too. LOL

O, yea! We also got our Christmas tree, put it up, and the DGSs helped to decorate. YAY!

Looking forward to having the grandsons at Christmas!

Christmas Placemats

Decided to make some Winter/Christmas placemats this weekend. Used the pattern here: http://freshlypieced.com/2011/05/scrappy-rainbow-placemats-tutorial.html

24 different Christmas or Winter prints plus white. Only took a 2.5" strip of fabric each, really less but I don't cut small pieces off my fabrics. The longest part was moving around the fabrics to get it how I wanted.

I don't have an empty table near my sewing machine so I partially unfolded my cardboard cutting mat and put it on the floor. That was a lot bending over and once I actually sat on the floor. OOF! I don't like sitting on the floor. Or rather, I don't like getting up from that position... I'm not a flexible as I once was.

I managed to piece one entire mat by the end of last night (11:30 pm) and started on the second one. Will have to take photos.

It's a big-ish placemat but that's not a bad thing. The bowties look so cute too.

Saturday was taken up by a work emergency. City Hall completely lost power and the computer systems all crashed. Since I am in IT, this means working on the weekend. At least, it was remote work but still.

I made a little more progress on my 10.5" Selvage Squares. They have a 2.5" strip of black fabric crosswise down the middle first. I haven't decided what it will become yet. I cut some more muslin foundations and pinned some black strips down the middle. They really are pretty.

I paid a blogger I follow postage only for a STUFFED priority mail box of selvage edge strips and boy was it stuffed! I even found a few regular strips of fabric in it. I guess she didn't like them or else they fell into the box by accident. LOL

I need to take photos of them too. I'll also have to count exactly how many I have completed so far. I like that kind of work!

I am a little overwhelmed by the amount of stash increase that I have recently experienced. After my Mom's stroke and spending time with her in NC, I came back with three or more large plastic containers of FAB fabric! I am slowly ironing and ruler-folding it and placing them into my stash shelves.

In fact, one of my shelves collapsed onto my computer table; they were in the wall behind my computer and the shelving was not secure, i.e. the shelf just rested on a couple of boards. If I pressed too hard on the edge, it just shoved all the fabric in my face and onto my table. GAH!

DH fixed the shelf with a long screw on both sides. I am now a happy camper. But I also had to straighten all of the fabrics and re-shelve them.

OH NO! So far I have found two of my mother's UFOs! One just needs the binding and a hanging sleeve (and a label). Another is an applique baby quilt that requires some embroidery before proceeding. At least all the applique is attached! It is weird finding Mom's UFOs.

I don't think she will take up sewing any more. She says she doesn't have time for it. Really? I can't imagine. She is 86, after all. I'm only 60 and still working. LOL