Stash?

Anyone with one won't ever ask but others feel free. 

They say things like:

What will you ever do with all this? 

My answer is usually the same...when the next 40 days and 40 nights of rain come I'll be set. 

Who knew it would be put to the test this summer.

I had to get out my flannel night gown and it's too cold for bare feet.  I think it will be a non-summer for us this year.

Glad I have my sewing.

Pam

Progress.

I did finish one little cross stitch months after starting it.  Holiday Surprises by The Trilogy. 

I just made a little pillow.  Nothing exciting.  I did make a couple changes to the pattern.  I used a couple buttons that look like presents.  The toys that were meant to be stitched there were sort of creepy looking.  I suspect it was only because they were so tiny.

I also finished May's A Year in Chalk. These are such a struggle but I'm plodding along.

As I mentioned previously...I made a bunch of table runners from border fabrics.  They're all just made by cutting identical lengths then sub-cutting using a 60' triangle.

They all need their bindings stitched down.

I think this is my favorite.

On the quilting front...I was working away on another WIP I finally assembled this past spring when I ran out of thread.

So, another project drops into limbo-land.  I've ordered thread but may not get back to work until after July 4th.

We will have a very busy holiday weekend as we move The Boy Wonder into his apartment. 
Exciting times.

Pam

Anolther old WIP.

My latest finish involved both piecing and embroidery.  Crabapple Hill's Over the River and Through the Woods was a fun project...I just dragged it out over 6 years! 

Sometimes I wonder why I don't just keep moving along on a project.  It's especially true when the final phase is so quick and easy. For whatever reason, a project gets tucked in a box.

Here is the packing list that was in with my kit. 

Probably I was knee deep in some other project.

It's been a year (or two) since I finished all the embroidery on Over The River and Through the Woods.

I think I was a little apprehensive about cutting down the embroidery pieces and making everything fit together but that all ended up being pretty easy.  I also wasn't exactly excited about making 64 flying geese but that also went easily.  Just a few short sewing sessions later and ta-da.  Another finish.  I need to figure out backing but for now it's moved over to the quilting line-up. 

On the quilting front...I quilted Nantucket.  A top I finished over the winter.  Somewhere online I recently saw the same quilt but they inserted little star blocks here and there in place of some of the little 9 patches.  So darn cute.  Wish I'd seen that before I made mine!

I love the ribbons and stars. 

I set out the other day to piece some backing and get another long forgotten WIP on the long arm but I ended up not liking the backing fabric so, for now, it's back in line. 

I had to take a break from WIP's and worked up 6(!) table runners from border fabric that was just taking up space.  Pictures soon. I'd like to get them quilted and bound.  I will saving the hand work part of the binding for when I need an easy travel project. 

Happy summer. 

Pam

Another chick leaves the nest.

The Boy Wonder has landed a job in his chosen field.  So, with a flurry of activity we will be packing another one off to start their new life. 

We found an apartment yesterday and have just two weeks to acquire some furnishings and household supplies.  He can take his bedroom furniture from home and his sister has donated a Laz-Y-Boy (she has 2)  so he won't be moving into a totally bare apartment. 

He will be heading back to the same general area where he went to college.  He'll just be 1 1/2 to 2 hours away.  I can get excited about that.  It was the 800 miles away that was putting me into a panic. 

Is it bad that I'm already mentally re-decorating his room into my office space?  I've been working out of an office space created in our back hall.  The one that everyone walks through to get to the laundry room or to the garage door.  The one where they leave all their shoes, coats, and bags.  The one with no windows.  Oh, the windows!  His room has 4. 

Slow down.  He's still asleep in there!  I've turned into one of those commercials you see on tv when the kid is heading off to college and you think the mother is inside being sad.  Instead she's remodeling the empty bedroom.  I've got the tape measure out and the catalog of desks and shelf units in hand. 

First...a couch.  Yes.  He needs a couch and a kitchen table.  Then I can pick paint colors for his room my office. 

My sewing has dropped off recently but I'm almost done with the binding on a quilt that I quilted a couple week-ends ago.  I'll get some pictures organized soon.

Pam

Take pictures while the sun shines.

We recently had a beautiful sunny day so I headed outside to take some pictures. 

After cleaning the fence I hauled a stack of quilts out and tried to drape them over the edge. Size and wind worked against me so I employed a helper.  A hand model you might say. 

When I turned on my camera I got a message saying: battery is exhausted.  Really...exhausted?  Such a funny word for a camera to use.  I thought...join the club, now take the pictures since I did all this work! 

After finding a different camera and a helper I snapped some pictures.

First, I recently finished this jelly roll quilt.  The blocks had been in a box for a year.  

I made this quilt once before.  It just takes two jelly rolls.  Dark strips are matched up with a light strip to create strip sets which turn into sets that get cross cut then sewn into blocks.  Super easy and super fast.

I used my favorite fabrics. Snowman Gatherings from Primitive Gathering.

Here is Cooper helping me inspect the finished product.

A shot of my In From The Cold quilt.  This one uses a nautical theme and will hang in Florida.

I modified this block to fit the theme.  I found a paper pieced pattern for a sailboat and put it in place of the wreath used in the original. 

 

The rest of the blocks are the same as the pattern including month 5 where we made tiny little pinwheels.

It was fun poking through my collection of nautical fabric. 

This next quilt called Furry Sweetness by Eat Cake Graphics took me years.  When I finally finished it I couldn't even think of which WIP to work on next.  I am just so relieved to finally have this one finished. 

It is so darn cute.

For whatever reason it just wasn't a priority and kept getting pushed aside.  I thought I'd do one block in between other projects but even that simple plan did not work.

Now that I've returned all the fabrics to my stash and emptied the project box it's time to pull out another old and neglected project.  I have an idea of which one it will be but sometimes I think I'm going to do one thing then pick up something different when I walk in my sewing room.  (See how all these WIP's are born?)

Pam

Looky-looky....

Yesterday I went to a quilt show hosted by a nearby quilt guild.  They put on a fabulous show every two years with approximately 550 quilts and quilted items on display.  They also do an Iron Women competition on Saturdays but I will miss it this time around.  I am fascinated by that endeavor and hope to enter it some year.  I just need a buddy to join me.  Someone who can calm my panic!  I am SO NOT creative like that. 

 A view from above.

 

 

And...down there in the mix is this....

  
Chicks Jubilee, a Bunny Hill Design that I posted about a couple months ago here.   Having a quilt judged and getting feedback from the judges is not an easy step.  In fact, I haven't seen the comments yet.  I'm bracing myself.  I mean....look at what won first place in the same category. 

 There were so many lovely quilts.

Love this pattern by Jan Patek.  

I have this pattern along with a variety of fabrics in my stash.  I do love those tiny pieces!

And, given my new plan to finish things I've started, we might be seeing this one in the near future.  I have all the embroidery finished.  I just need to pull out the fabrics and get working on the blocks.

My friend Sally entered some lovely things.



Isn't this art quilt wonderful.  (I should have gotten some close ups.)

Sally entered her In From the Cold quilt from our year long block of the month in our quilt guild.  It gives me a little thrill to see these done since I organized that program. 

I took this picture to show Buttercup what we could be doing with her out-grown Groovy Girl dolls!

On my life time to-do list is a log cabin city scape. 

Finally, and because I just can't show you everything, this very clever art quilt capturing the beauty of the Finger Lakes region.  I wish I had the ability to create something like this. Look at how the sky is an areal view of the region, the middle is a view of a lake over the hills and the foreground features grapes and grape vines.

Phew.  That was a lot of pictures! 

After such an exciting show I need to get back to my sewing room and direct some of that energy towards my piles of projects.

Pam

A hot cup of....

tea, cocoa, coffee?

Indeed, we could use any of those this June turned winter.  It's been in the 40's here in upstate NY for the last few days.  We've had to pull out winter clothes, extra blankets, and turn the heat back on.

That didn't stop us from having an ice cream social, as planned, for the last meeting of the year in my quilt guild.  

Last fall I posted about my quilt guild taking on a block of the month project. In From The Cold was a free pattern from The Fat Quarter Shop using Kate Spain's In From the Cold line of fabric.  When I posted my finish back in August and mentioned that we'd be doing it as a block of the month I got a comment from Kate encouraging the project.  So, in light of the designer's interest, here are some of the tops that people brought to show at our last meeting of the year.

I know there are a few more tops that weren't brought in but isn't the variety great?  So many different looks.  Goes to show how versatile the pattern can be.  You're only limited by your imagination. 

On the home front...watch for a finish or two.  My commitment to finishing old projects continues.

Pam