It’s a good thing I have the blog because I’m forgetting lots of things! Keith and I were talking about Maine earlier and I was reading back over the blog entries from last October which lead to me reading entries from other months and I came across this quilt I’d drafted based on a vintage quilt found on eBay … I’d forgotten all about it!
Luckily, I have categories on the right sidebar so I can look for my posts by category (quilt designs in this case) always assuming I remember to categorize them!
I got the second Strippie cut and pieced this afternoon thanks to the storms passing us by. I pinned it up on the design wall after piecing the smaller strips – while it’s not a directional fabric, depending on where the cuts occur some sections do seem to have an up side!
I now have 3 of these to practice on when the new longarm arrives.
I won’t sew over the weekend since Keith heads out again on Monday – his travel schedule has been very hectic – but I’ll work on the shell afghan after he goes to bed and next week, I’ve got some binding to do.
My layer cake Hourglass top is quilted. Pantograph is Ebb and Flow.
This top was made as part of our Precut Party and it taught me that I’m not a fan of layer cakes – no real reason other than I found it a challenge to come up with a pattern that would suit the fabrics included. I feel I have more options for adding in stash fabrics if I need to with a Jelly Roll or Fat Quarter bundle.
I was thinking as I was quilting that I should be working on UFOs but then realized that quilting tops pieced this year WILL impact my UFO number for next year by not ending up on the list.
I did run and look for my Quick Trips book but didn’t find it. I did however find a stack of 13 books that I either wanted to review or that I’d forgotten I even had!
The stack includes Tradition with a Twist which also has Trip Around the World Quilts.
I know there are patterns available online but I really want to find my book!
The last of the Maine Happy Block tops is quilted! This one had a note on it that it was pieced by Suzy. Pantograph is Happy Times. I’ll get these last two bound and washed in the next couple weeks. I have 4 or 5 of the 8 to take back to Maine. A few were already donated.
When I went up to quilt tonight, a storm had just passed and while I thought it was done, I heard a little distant rumble of thunder so I straightened up my blues while I was waiting for the all clear.
I do not like the shelves I have and they were always meant to be temporary – it’s just too much wasted space and it’s hard to see what I have but at least the blues aren’t falling all over the place now.
What I’d really like is to get another set of cubbies like I had in Minneapolis. I wasn’t able to take them with me when I had to move the longarm to our GA condo in 2014 and my stash lived in bins for the 3 and a half years the longarm was there. Maybe once I get the new longarm settled in and after Mom’s extended visit this fall, I’ll do something about finding new cubbies.
This is a partial shot of the wall of cubbies I had along with my quilt model Chesty! I had two of these units that took up the whole wall in my sewing room. The bins were great for holding my scraps which were also separated by color.
How do you store your stash?! I know some people don’t like to expose it to light but I’ve never had a problem with mine being on open shelves.
The other day I mentioned I was going to piece a couple more Quick Strippies so I could use them for practice when the new longarm gets here and I pulled a couple “kits”. While I have a bin that I toss my novelty prints in, every now and then I go ahead and pull the coordinating fabrics from stash and put them all together so I can grab one and go. I decided I’d make these two.
I started with the animal print – it’s not directional but with such a large motif I wanted to decide ahead of time which way was up so I lined it all up on my design wall after I got the smaller strips sewn together.
I also got the last Maine Happy Block top loaded on the longarm. If I feel energetic enough tonight I’ll get that started, if not I’ll work on it tomorrow.
