Category: pretty fabric

embroidery · fabric · feather quilting · freehand quilting · longarm quilting · machine quilting · pretty fabric · quilt top · quilting · quilts · stash busting

Stash & Quilting Report

Wild Rose Quilter11 Comments

  • Incoming Yardage to date: 75 yds.
  • Outgoing Yardage to date:  56.25 yds.
  • Total Stash Busted to date: -18.75 yds.
Ok, so my time in the positive was short lived.  But I love my new batiks! (see previous post for the full disclosure with photos you will drool over) So, I’m not feeling too bad about it.  Ok, not bad at all.   I don’t think I will, either, as long as there is movement going through my stash.  Some in, some out…just not all in, in, in.
During my lunch hours, or while I’m cooking something for dinner, and I’m waiting, I’ve been sitting down at the sewing machine and working on the pieced borders for my Boston Commons.
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I also got labels made for my friend’s comfort quilt.  I haven’t finished trimming the jump threads, so just ignore them. It took me right at an hour to get the first one all programmed into the machine.  The stitchout was 74 minutes, and that did not include the time it took me to change thread colors.  I thought I was never going to get done with it.  I started on it after work one evening, so I was already tired, but it was worth it.  I also made a small label to go beside it, just stating that I made the quilt.  Couldn’t fit it on the other label.  A more experienced embroiderer might have been able to, but this was the best I could do.  I don’t have any embroidery software yet, so I have to sit at the machine and program each letter in one by one, and it will only let me put so many characters on a line.  So the machine stops after each line of stitching, and even if I’m not changing colors, I have to be close by to restart the machine.  I hate to invest a bunch of money in embroidery software that I’m not sure I will use that much.  There is a lot about the embroidery that still confuses me.  I may address some of that in a future post.  Maybe some of you embroidery gurus can clear up a question or two for me.
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I started working on Joanna’s quilt a couple of days ago, but until today, I didn’t have anything to show for my efforts, except SID (stitch in the ditch).  I’m sure she is anxious to see how it’s coming, so if you can stand a dose of cuteness, I’ll show you a peek!
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Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and have a great week, y’all!
pretty fabric · quilt top · quilting · quilts · stash busting

I just kept sewing yesterday!

Wild Rose Quilter14 Comments

By the time yesterday was done,  I had worked a bit on FIVE different quilts.  Well six, if you count the prep work on a customer top I’m fixing to start quilting.  But I made a little bit of progress on five of my own WIP’s.  Yay!

I made great headway on my Boston Commons.  I have one more row like these, then adding white fabric around and between, a pieced border, and then I am going to add an additional plain border all around so I have some more space to quilt feathers in.  The original pattern, which is by Darlene Zimmerman, ends with a narrow border of the the squares and white triangles.

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While I was sewing Gracie’s Star together, and while I was piecing on the above quilt, I worked on my leaders/enders quilt, Oklahoma Backroads, and I had my embroidery machine running, cranking out some blocks for a red & white Christmas quilt.

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And then, when I went to bed, I took my 9P & stripe quilt with me, and worked on knotting and burying some of the thread tails I left on it.  I should have done it while I was going along on it…now it feel like I will never get them all done.  😦  I’m glad I decided to go back to a backtack before I finished.  And I still have to bind it!

I did get my backing and binding picked out for Gracie’s Star.  Now I just have to decide on which quilting pattern I want to use.  I think it’s a bit dark & busy to spend a lot of time on custom, but a pretty allover will finish it off nicely.

The first part of this year I just kept starting new projects.  Maybe this last part will be about finishing!  I would like to finish these projects I have started with my stash fabrics!

pretty fabric · quilt top · quilting · quilts · sewing · stash busting

Stash Quilt Reporting

Wild Rose Quilter14 Comments

I don’t think my reports are about stash busting any more, but what I’ve done with my stash.  I added 5 yards of Kona white cotton back to the stash, since I’m using what I had in my Boston Commons.  That is a staple I like to keep on hand.  I finished by sawtooth star blocks, finally.  And, I think I might like them all together, after all.  If you’ve been following my progress on them, you may remember this previous post, where I posted the ones I had finished together, and then divided into different color groupings and settings.  Well, here is the whole lot of them, finished and laid out how I would sew them together, if I decide to follow the original pattern.

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I think I do like it.  My husband likes it.  How about a poll?

To see how they looked divided into orange and no orange groups, click the link to the previous post, mentioned above.  I’m curious to see which one wins.  Doesn’t mean I’ll follow it, but I might!

fabric · one block wonder quilt · pretty fabric · quilt top · quilting · quilts

One Block Wondering

Wild Rose Quilter18 Comments

Ok, so I’ve told y’all that I’m supposed to take a One Block Wonder class with the quilt guild, but it isn’t til April 18th.  Who can wait that long, once they have the book already? Not me! I had to go ahead and do some playing.  I finally felt like fondling some fabric again, and instead of working on one of the gazillion projects I already have started, I wanted to do something new.  Maybe it’s spring fever.  Since we are doing the octagon version at guild, I pulled out the original fabric from my stash, that I wanted to use, but didn’t have enough for the eight repeats needed.  Since the hexagon version doesn’t use as much fabric, I have enough for it.

The fabric, with my new rotary cutter laying on it, just because I noticed that it matches…lol!

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The first set of blocks:

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This is so hard to stop working on, once you start.  Each block is a little surprise.  I can’t wait to see how the next row of blocks turns out, and how they look added into these.  Not only are the blocks a surprise, but you don’t know what the quilt will look like, either, till you get all the blocks together, and start playing with them.  Too much fun!

fabric · pretty fabric · quilt top · quilting · quilts · stash busting

Stash Report, 1-25-09

Wild Rose Quilter5 Comments

This week my fabric busted is gifted fabric.  3 yards for a birthday gift to a guild member, the one who gave me that awesome reindeer ornament, and another 3/4 yds. to another recipient, and another 1.5 yds to another recipient.  But the last two don’t know it yet, so I won’t say who.  I did start that little applique block of the month, but I haven’t figured out how to count that yet.  I had to use bits of two fat quarters, but the rest I am using scraps.  I have a feeling I will be using the rest of those two fat quarters in the project, but will know more when we get the next block.  If I use more of them, then I will count them as busted, in a later report.  At least they are off the shelf.

So my report for this week is:

  • 0 yds. in this week
  • 5.25 yds out this week
  • 0 yds. in ytd
  • 17.5 yds. out ytd
  • total busted ytd is 17.5 yds

I have made some more progress on the stash projects I started right after Christmas.  I cut up some more of the fat quarters for my Gracie’s Star, and they are all ready to sew into blocks.

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I have these left to cut up.

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I cut my Kona white into these.

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Started sewing them onto these.

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I had to go ahead and sew one corner together, just to make sure it was going to work.

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I’m really enjoying my time spent working with these fabrics.  I love them!  I hope to enter this quilt in some shows.  At least some smaller, local area shows.  And I may even get brave and send it somewhere like MQS next year, to get some judge’s comments.  We’ll see.

longarm quilting · machine quilting · pretty fabric · quilt top · quilting · stash busting

Stash Report, 1-18-09

Wild Rose Quilter6 Comments

This will be another short post.  I’ve been busy, but just don’t have a lot to show for it.  I used 3.25 yards of stash this week in my guild project.  Year to date totals:

  • Incoming Yardage to date: 0 yds.
  • Outgoing Yardage to date:  12.25 yds.
  • Total Stash Busted to date: 12.25 yds.

I’m still going in the right direction.  Yay! 

I was coming down with a head cold earlier this week.  Friday and Saturday, I was not feeling so great.  I did get a customer top loaded yesterday, and today, I got all the SID done.  Joanna, these are scrumptious fabrics you chose.  I love them!  I’m going to enjoy looking at them while I quilt this. (Oh, don’t pay any attention to that snippett of football fabric you can see pinned to the leader…it’s not part of the quilt.  It’s just there so I have enough extra backing to work with it on my machine.  Thank you for adding that to make my job easier, Joanna!)

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I said something about ordering some more thread yesterday, and my husband told me that he was planning on buying me thread for our anniversary, which is coming up March 1st.  Yippee!  A gift I will love and love using!  A longarm quilter, or any machine quilter for that matter, can’t have too much thread, now can they?!  I’m sure looking forward to that shopping spree.

Have a great week!

fabric · pretty fabric · quilt top · quilting · quilts · sewing · stash busting

Small Change = Big Difference

Wild Rose Quilter6 Comments

Ok, so I really like these fabrics together.

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I really like the individual stars I’ve been making with them.

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However, I  wasn’t liking them together. It just wasn’t working for me.  I was feeling like I was really messing up a lot of pretty fabric.

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And then I rearranged them…again.  But I used a different approach.  Instead of trying to alternate lighter star/darker background blocks, I quit paying attention to that, and laid them out according to backgrounds only.  Much better!  Now, it’s working for me.  🙂

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Only 29 more to go!

longarm quilting · pretty fabric · quilt top · quilting · quilts · sewing · stash busting

Sunday Stash Busting Report

Wild Rose Quilter13 Comments

This week I have not bought any new fabric.

I have continued to work on finishing the binding on starry log cabin.

I completed the center of courthouse steps.

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I drug out my scrap bin.  What a disaster.

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I began sifting through this mess and pulled out everthing fat quarter size & larger, and am moving it back to the fabric shelves in my fabric closet.  The rest, I am starting to cut down into sizes recommended by Bonnie Hunter. I am trying to do the leaders/enders thing she has on her site.  I hope to end up with an Oklahoma Backroads quilt one of these days from doing this.  I’ve seen Wendy make a beautiful quilt with her leaders & enders. Maybe I can do it, too. Here is my start at cutting this fabric up, and my first leaders/enders.

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Here is the cutting pile. Will I have the fortitude to stick it out?

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Now then, if you are reading this post on a site called Ester’s Sewing Blog, you are reading stolen information that has been copied and posted without my permission! Yes, I have now been added to the list of blog scraping or blog plagiarism victims.  So have several of you.  Be sure to check your incoming links.

pretty fabric · quilting · quilts · stash busting

Exposed

Wild Rose Quilter14 Comments

Others have been showing theirs, so I will show you mine.  My stash!

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This would be why I’m taking Judy L. up on her challenge to use the stash.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love my stash.  I don’t want to not have a stash, but I bought these fabrics to use.  I feel badly that they are just laying around on these shelves doing nothing.  I want them to be in pretty quilts.  One reason I like to have so much on hand is because I live in a small town without a fabric store.  I like being able to “shop” in my closet when I need something, and maybe not have to wait for a fabric to arrive in the mail, or until I can make a trip to a store. I don’t think I need to keep adding to this hoard of fabric until I move some of it off the shelves and into quilts! I have discovered, though, that I do need more of certain colors that I tend to gravitate toward.  And creams and tans and whites…those always seem to be in short supply in my stash. I think that this will help me to make wiser choices when I do decide to do some stash enhancing, rather than busting.  🙂