fabric · quilting · quilts · sewing · stash busting

Fun Sewing!


In between work, and stitching the binding on Caleb’s quilt, and hectic wedding planning, I simply had to take a few minutes last night to try out a pattern I’ve seen floating around for a little while. The 10 Minute Block by Suzanne McNeill. I have a new four month old baby grandson and I thought a sweet little baby quilt would be the perfect project to try it out with. I only had a few minutes to spare and I have to say, I love this block! So much fun to put together and you can use it so may ways. Cutesy fun projects or change fabrics for a very elegant looking quilt. Fun fun fun! This may be my new stash busting “go to” pattern! A great one to use for gift quilts, charity, etc. It goes together so quickly and easily that it’s almost instant gratification! So, if you’re a busy quilter who has trouble finding time to squeeze some sewing time in between all life’s other activities, this is a good one to try!

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Wedding plans are progressing, and I’m really starting to have fun with the process and am getting so excited! I have 57 days to get the rest of it together. I’ve been faithfully working out again and trying to bust the extra stash I have put back on this body over the last few months. I’m starting to see some results from that hard work, as well. I just keep chanting “wedding dress wedding dress wedding dress” in my head when I feel like slacking. 😄

Today, I hope to make a final decision on the caterer and make some progress on the reception decorations. Have a fantastic Friday, y’all!

stash busting

Who knew?


Who knew that I could sew something other than a quilt? Tada!

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Thank you to Becca for the pattern.  It’s certainly not perfect, so don’t look too close. There is a shorter version, and I think I will make it, also, as I think it will be my favorite of the two.  I thought that bias tape was going to do me in, but I finally got it on there.  The pockets were the most challenging, and I’m sure I didn’t do them quite right.  Also, the zigzag stitching of the unfinished seams.  How do you do that without it just kind of chewing them up? Can you tell that garment construction is not my strong suit? But, there are so many cute apron patterns, and I won this pattern from Becca, so I had to give it a try.  I’m pretty happy with the end result…better than I thought I would do.  It was a good distraction from other issues on my mind this weekend.

And I used 2.5 yards from my stash making it.  Year to date stash totals:

  • Incoming Yardage to date: 75 yds.
  • Outgoing Yardage to date:  66.75 yds.
  • Total Stash Busted to date: -8.25 yds.

And now this weekend is almost over…way…too…soon.

longarm quilting · machine quilting · quilting · quilts · stash busting

Sunday Stash Quilting Report


I have stash reporting this week! I finished the quilting on my Gracie’s Star quilt.  The pattern is from http://www.quiltintia.com.  I quilted it with Jodie Beamish’s Rosie panto.  Seems I use that one a lot, but this is the only quilt of my very own with it.  Today I got the binding stitched to the front, ready for nighttime snuggling under it, while I do the hand stitching, watching TV.  I used 8 yards backing and binding.  I am going to enjoy using this quilt.  It just makes me feel good.

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I used the red in this star for the binding.

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I love this fabric, that is in some of the blocks, and I used it for backing, also.

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I’m getting kind of antsy to start some new projects, but I’m trying to make myself finish some first.  I want some finishes before this year is finished! I do need to start a commissioned baby quilt soon, though.  I keep forgetting about that, and the baby is due the end of January.  Better start picking some fabric from my stash for that!

My Mom delivered the comfort quilt I made, for our friend with breast cancer, to her today.  She loved it.  She had a mastectomy a week ago Thursday. The test results have revealed that she had two different cancers in that breast.  There will be some chemo, but I think the prognosis is still good.  She has an appointment tomorrow, so maybe we will know more after that.

I’ve had a wonderful weekend, here at home, with my family.  I hope yours has been good, as well!

YTD totals:

  • Incoming Yardage to date: 75 yds.
  • Outgoing Yardage to date:  64.25 yds.
  • Total Stash Busted to date: -10.75 yds.
embroidery · fabric · feather quilting · freehand quilting · longarm quilting · machine quilting · pretty fabric · quilt top · quilting · quilts · stash busting

Stash & Quilting Report


  • 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!
stash busting

The Stash


Judy has challenged us to post pictures of our stash.  I’m game.

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This is more fabric, and my magazine stash, and the very bottom box is more fabric that I have set aside for two different quilts I plan to make.  Someday.  One is a chicken theme quilt, and you can see the rooster fabric in the box, that I plan to use for backing.  Those two sacks there are full of fabric, also.

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And, this was going to be in tomorrow’s stash report, but I may as well spill the beans now! When I’m bad, I’m very bad.  23 yards of batiks were delivered to my door today.  It hasn’t even made it’s way to my stash yet.  I’m just enjoying it’s beauty as it lays there in my chair and across my ottoman.

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In my defense, it was all on sale! I didn’t pay over $4.00 a yard for one piece of it.  Thousands of Bolts is having a big batik sale.  Hurry! Two days left! There’s still time for you to get some, too! Bwahahahaha!

longarm quilting · machine quilting · quilt top · quilting · quilts · stash busting

Stash & Progress Report


First, I will get my complaining and whining out of the way.  I had great intentions to get so much accomplished this weekend.  Then wham! Wake up Saturday morning, early, with a headache.  Get up, take Imitrex, back to bed, next time I wake up it is after 9! And I still feel cruddy.  Head is better, but I feel cruddy, sluggish, achy all over.  So needless to say, my Saturday wasn’t what I hoped it to be.  I did manage to get the cute piggie quilt finished and ready to be delivered this week. Today, I felt better, but my shoulder & rib pain has really been ramped up the last few days, as well as my allergies.  Some of you know the latest on my issues with my shoulder blade & ribs, but for those that don’t, I am now seeing a physical therapist, at the urging of my chiropractor.  I had my evaluation with her Wednesday, and she agrees that it is not normal, the way my shoulder blade is moving.   No one can really figure out WHY I am having the issues I am having, which is frustrating.

I go back next Wednesday, and she is going to show me how to tape my shoulder blade, to try to stabilize it, and will have some exercises for me then, also. She has had one other patient in her eleven years that had similar symptoms. She said my shoulder blade is the only one she has felt doing what mine is doing. Apparently, it is moving around way more than it should, and going where it shouldn’t. And, my chiro has to keep putting my stupid ribs back in place. My entire right side rib cage is lower than the left, and there are three that keep “popping out of place”. He can get them back, and within days, they are out again. My shoulder blade sounds like it is grinding against bone. It sounds, and feels, terrible. Pain ranges from moderate to excruciating, and is near constant. I also think it causes some of my migraines. The PT said she hopes that we can get some improvement, but that it will probably never be all the way better. But some better is better than none better.  Sorry to bore you with all that, but you never know when someone else might be having the same problems, and either you help them with sharing your information, or they might help you with some advice or answers you haven’t found yet.

So now, back to stash reporting.  After today, my stash amount busted is now back in the positive for the year.  A whopping 4.25 yards!  I busted another 4 yds. this week, backing the comfort quilt for our friend with breast cancer.  I got the quilting finished on it today.

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I love the pink thread over the cream strips.

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I also managed to get zippers attached to my leaders on my longarm.  I hope I like using them.  I did NOT enjoy the process of attaching them! But they are on, and I am looking forward to giving them a try.

I’m looking forward to getting started on my next customer quilt, but I still have some finalizing of the quilting plan to finish.  Joanna, I hope to be sending you some more ideas over the next day or two, if all goes as planned.  I will try very hard to be able to get started on it this coming weekend.

Speaking of weekend, I am sad that it is almost over already, especially since I wasted most of Saturday, just trying to feel better.  Oh well.  Have a blessed & wonderful week y’all!

longarm quilting · love of my life · quilting · sewing · stash busting

I love my STASH!


Friday afternoon my Mom called to tell me a dear friend of ours has been diagnosed with breast cancer.  And, being the quilter that I am, I ran straight to my stash.  Oh yes, she must have a quilt!  I had a stack of 5″ pink charm squares, and this is what I did with them.  Started on this yesterday morning, by early afternoon today, it was a completed flimsy.  I can’t wait to watch it be transformed by the quilting.  I’m hoping to squeeze it in, for a quick panto,  between the customer quilt that is on the machine, and the next one in line, so I can get it bound, labeled and off to our friend.  I am going to estimate that I busted 4 yds in the top.  No new fabric in this week.

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Speaking of customer quilts…the next one in line is soooooo cute!  It is appliqued “Chubby Chicks” in cute colors.  I will enjoy working on it.  I will be blogging it, so it’s owner can check in on it.  I just hope I do it justice!  Right now I am quilting appliqued pigs.  I really started second guessing my quilting choices a little over halfway through, and had a mini meltdown.   I took it off the machine to turn and repin it, so I could quilt the last two borders more easily, and took a some pics before I put it back on.  I think it helped to be able to step back and see the whole quilt at once.

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I’m sure I will worry about it a bit, until I get to hand it back to it’s owner and get her reaction.  I’m such a worry wart about that.  And it’s usually the quilts that I think will be the easiest.  Somewhere in the process, my confidence takes a hike, and in comes self-doubt and second guessing, and “oh my God, I’m a failure” thoughts.  Hopefully, she will love it and all my worry will have been for nothing.  Time will tell.

And these are my pretty new flowers that my hubby brought home Friday, to plant in my flower bed.  Purple asters…I love them!

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Tomorrow, I’m off to Amarillo for the yearly “female” doctor visit.  Yucko! Hope your Monday is better than that.

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

I just kept sewing yesterday!


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!

longarm quilting · quilting · stash busting · stencil quilting

How about a little video? With stash report at the end.


I know I have really been neglecting my little blog, as of late.  I have been skipping out on the weekly stash reporting, as well.  I was going to have quilting content this weekend, and then I came down with a migraine , that just would not stop, on Friday.  I felt badly all through the weekend, and am still suffering some after effects.  I did manage to make y’all a short little video of me quilting one of the feathers, from the Georgian feather stencil I am using on my 9P & stripe quilt, which is a big stash project.  I love to watch other people’s quilting videos and see how their quilting might differ from mine, or what similarities we have, or just learn from a different approach.  So, I hope you enjoy my little video.  And remember, it’s just the way I happen to be quilting this particular stencil.  It is certainly not the only way.  And cut me a little slack, as I really wasn’t feeling very well when I was filming it.

Quilting Georgian Feather Stencil:

Since the last time I did do a stash report, I have not had any new fabric in, and no new fabric out.  I did, however, manage to finish that row of feathers, and that completed all the quilting on my kingsize 9P & stripe!  Yay!  I do still have to bury some thread tails.  I got tired of that before it was done, and went back to back-tacking…lol.  I will get some pics of it all finished up on here before too much longer, and will answer all the questions of what stencils, how I marked, what rulers, etc.  After I’m feeling better.

longarm quilting · machine quilting · quilting · quilts · stash busting · stencil quilting

Sunday Reporting!


Hi y’all! I’m back from our trip.  Golf was not kind to my son last week.  But he kept an amazing attitude the whole time.  I am so proud of that kid.  He never lost his cool, and put every hole behind him and tried his best on the next one.

I also wanted to say I am loving using Google Reader to keep up with my blog reading.  I caught up with so many posts yesterday, and it was so easy.  I got my whole blogroll moved over to it, and will be adding some new ones to it, as it makes it soooo much easier to keep up with all y’all.

I looked for a cool quilt shop to visit while in Abilene, but wasn’t able to find one.  So, as far as my stash report, it remains unchanged.  None in, none out.  However, this weekend I have gotten to get back to quilting on my 9P & stripe, and it is a stash project. A big one. I have another set of borders finished, two to go.  And, I’m afraid the final two will be problematic, because I did not follow the rules.  I did not have enough fabric to leave myself enough extra backing on the edges.  Since it’s my own quilt, I’m going to try to forge ahead, but I may end up having to try to add some strips, which will not be easy at this point.  Someone slap me.  I know better, really.   Yesterday, I quilted the swags and beadboard, and today I did the Georgian feather strip.  I love feathers.  I love quilting feathers.  A few progress pics for you, even though they aren’t much different than what I’ve posted from this one before.  But, I’ve been seriously lacking blog content lately, and I guess same old, same old is better than none at all.

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