Design Wall Monday 4/2/12

I finished making the many units for my Storm at Sea quilt a few days ago.  Yeah!!  Now it's time to play with arranging them on the design wall.  There has been lots of moving parts around to avoid having the same fabric too close to itself or similar colors right next to one another.  It is inevitable that there will be at least one spot where two pieces of the same fabric are right next to each other.  In fact, I have already spotted one instance, but for now I will leave it as is.

I have been laying out pieces for the center section of the quilt first and decided to trade out a few of the darker fabric pieces for ones that have a little more spark to them.  Once those substitutions are done, I can get going on joining the parts together, then add the pieced border.


See more design walls at Patchwork Times

Julie

Stash Report Sunday 4/1/2012

No change in my stash report this week, but I hope to have a finish to report soon.  I have been working hard on making the parts for my Storm at Sea quilt, and I finally got all the different components made.  Time to begin assembly!

Used this week: 0 yards
Used year to date: 9-1/8 yards

Added this week: 0 yards

Added year to date: 2-3/4 yards
Net year to date: 6-3/8 yards used

Check out more stash reports at Patchwork Times.

Julie

Design Wall Monday 3/26/12

My design wall looks the same as last week, but I am making progress on the Storm at Sea quilt.  I have continued making the parts I need for this quilt, and there is finally an end in sight.  At one point a few weeks ago I figured out how many pieces are in this quilt, and the total came to almost 3700!  No wonder it has seemed to take a long time to finish putting them together.  This quilt pattern is not for those who want immediate gratification.  I am so eager to see it together.

See more design walls at Patchwork Times

Julie

Stash Report Sunday 3/25/2012

There wasn't any change to my stash this week, but I did realize that I forgot to report the fabric used for a pair of pajama pants I made at the beginning of the month.  My husband attended Florida State and still follows their football team. 
He had a pair of FSU pajama pants that wore out, so I made him a new pair for his birthday from this fabric.  They were a big hit!

Here are the numbers for this week:

Used (3 weeks ago):  3 yards
Used year to date:  9-1/8 yards

Added this week: 0 yards

Added year to date: 2-3/4 yards
Net year to date: 6-3/8 yards used

Check out more stash reports at Patchwork Times.

Julie

Design Wall Monday 3/19/12

The stacks of Storm at Sea parts have been growing.  I was able to spend close to 7 hours sewing on Saturday, and I managed to finish up the many 9-patch square-in-a-square units that I need for the border design.  I didn't get a chance to get them up on the wall to see how everything looks together until Monday evening.  It's impossible to get a photo of the whole thing because my design wall is in a hallway and I have to stand inside the bathroom and shoot through the doorway.

See more design walls at Patchwork Times

       Julie

Stash Report Sunday 3/18/2012

This week has been more productive for quilting than most weeks of late, although nowhere near what I would like to get done.  It is such a balancing act, isn't it?  Trying to squeeze in time for the things we love, like quilting, around the things we need to do like go to work, cooking, laundry, etc.  I am so fortunate to have a sweet husband who takes care of the main portion of the household chores like grocery shopping, he is better about keeping the house clean than I am, and most nights he has dinner going before I get home.  I am a very lucky woman! 

Anyway, back to this week's quilting.  I finished up another string block for the Scrap Club quilt.  This time it was a pinwheel block.

The majority of my quilting time this week was spent on the Storm at Sea quilt.  I am trying to get all the different units made so I can start putting the parts together.  There is still plenty to do, but I have been able to check a couple of items off the list.  For the first time in several years, I was able to spend most of Saturday, National Quilting Day, doing just that--quilting!  I must have been at the sewing machine or ironing board for about 7 hours, my idea of a perfect day!  I wish I could do that more often.

Here is a collection of most of the completed parts for the Storm at Sea quilt.  I will try to get a photo with these up on the design wall for Monday's post.  I still need to make more of the diamond units and the small square-in-a-squares.

Here are the numbers for this week:

Used this week:  1-1/2 yard
Used year to date:  6-1/8 yards

Added this week:   0 yards

Added year to date:  2-3/4 yards
Net year to date: 3-3/8 yards used

Check out more stash reports at Patchwork Times.

Julie

Design Wall Monday 3/12/12

This week I finished up two more string stars, bringing my total to four.

I also pulled out some red, white & blue LeMoyne Star blocks that I had made several (maybe 10?) years ago.  I think the whole group plays together very well.

The LeMoyne star blocks are from the book "LeMoyne Stars Made Easy" by Sharyn Squier Craig.  The book includes 12 different star variations, and Sharyn's instructions are very clear and easy to follow.

See more design walls at Patchwork Times

       Julie

Stash Report Sunday 3/11/2012

Two more string stars were completed this week.  I am loving the way they are turning out, and the construction has gotten a little easier.   

Our homework for this month's Scrap Club at Intown Quilters was to join strips together to make usable fabric.  I made two more strips sets of red and blue similar to the ones for my string stars.  Check out the fabric with yellow and green dots near the center of the photo --it's tomatoes!

I also started making sets of all red and all blue, but discovered that I needed to get more variety in my prints.  The reds especially were all looking too much alike.  Time to slice into my red stash, plus I bought a few fat quarters at the quilt shop, my first fabric purchase of 2012!

Here are the numbers for this week:

Used this week:  1 yard
Used year to date:  4-5/8 yards

Added this week:  3/4 yards

Added year to date:  2-3/4yards
Net year to date: 1-7/8 yards used

Check out more stash reports at Patchwork Times.

Julie

Stash Report Sunday 3/4/2012

OOPS!  I meant to write a new post for this week's (3/11) stash report, and mistakenly changed last week's report instead of creating a new one.  Let's see if I can recreate the previous version.

I know there was a photo of a new strip set for another scrappy string star.

I also made two little zipper pouches for a fundraiser at work.  These are from the pattern "A Little Duffle Do It" by Karen West.  The pattern includes four diferent sizes.  They are easy to make and very cute.  I made around 20 of them as gifts last Christmas.

Here are the numbers for this week:

Used this week:  3/4 yards

Used year to date:  3-5/8 yards

Added this week:  0 yards

Added year to date:  2 yards
Net year to date: 1-5/8 yards used

Check out more stash reports at Patchwork Times.

Julie

Design Wall Monday 3/5/2012

This week I cut more blue fabrics into strips for my scrap bins.  I also made up a couple of red & blue strip sets, which will make two more scrappy string stars.  This strip set started with 4 strips 1-1/2" wide x 18-20" long and 2 strips 2" wide x 18-20" long.

I cut 45 degree diamonds from freezer paper to use as cutting templates and ironed them to the strip set, leaving space next to each diamond.

The next two photos show the leftovers after the diamond shapes were cut out.  The leftovers  were sewn together along the outside edges, and the middle seams were taken out, which made it possible to cut another set of diamonds.

Once the diamonds are cut out, it's time to play with all the different layouts.  I think I like the arrangements in the last two photos best.

See more design walls at Patchwork Times

       Julie