NewFO’s and UFO’s and DWM – Oh My!!!

Wow!  I can’t believe September is gone already, can you? 

That means it's time for a little recap and report on my progress for the month.  And since it also happens to be Monday, let me start with what is on my Design Wall today….

This is the expanded block from The Blue Collection that I showed you yesterday.  I'm happy to say it is now completely finished with the exception of a few stems and leaves that I cannot add until the blocks are joined together.  It was already mostly complete, I only had to add some leaves and stems and the upper lip around the bowl …

These little stems & leaves may not look like much work, but let me tell you, I'd rather do ten of those oranges than just one little stem!  They are such tricky little boogers to turn under and get them just right!!!!  These two stems and leaves took me forever to complete!

….and then, because it was a heavy sports day, giving me lots of time for handwork, I finished up another one!

This one I completed from start to finish.

(And yes, I know it needs to be pressed LOL!)

The top went together like a charm - I love the fussy cut lid :*)

I think my needleturn applique is definitely improving!!!   =^..^=

I also prepared the next block for this quilt so I can be ready to work on it next Sunday :*)

It’s been quite a while since I have had a completed UFO to report for Judy’s UFO Challenge, so I was delighted to finish up Girls Just Want to Have Fun while at Runaway Retreat a few weeks ago!  I'll definitely be asking, Can I Get a Whoop! Whoop! on Friday!!!

I've got to get a better photo of this quilt!

This quilt required a lot of cutting and sewing up of a lot of little pieces, but it is well worth the effort, don’t you think?  And as I've said before, it is probably the only 30’s quilt I will ever make, so it will definitely be special to me :*)  I think my guests will truly feel pampered with it on the bed when they come to visit.  Now if I can just get it quilted. =^..^=

For Barbara’s NewFO Challenge, I had quite a few ideas and projects that were calling for my attention, as I reported HERE.  But I finally narrowed it down to these fun new starts…..

Most of you will remember that I participated in the Dots on Dots Blog Hop and made this cute little teapots table quilt which I named A Spot of Tea.  I received the Honorable Mention award that day – yes, I know, I’m special – hahaha!  :*D

I also jumped on the Hawaii Sunset bandwagon and got this block put together before I had to put it down for a while.  You can read more about my progress on this quilt HERE.

I hope to get back to it again later this week.  I just LOVE this quilt!!!!  There are quite a few bloggers working on this quilt right now, which makes it so much more fun! :*)

So that’s it for my September!  A lovely month, made even more lovely by the fact that my daughter came into my life in September.  I love you Christy!!!

October is always a bittersweet month for me.  I love the onset of fall with its cooler temperatures and the trees all resplendent with color and majesty!!!  But it also means winter is approaching, and that I do not like!  I've never enjoyed cold weather, coats or blustery winds – brrr!!!!!  But I know we have to have winter in order to have balance in our ecosystem, and in order for spring to come around once again, so I will choose to ENJOY this winter!  That has been my word for 2012 – ENJOY!  And for the most part, I think I've done a pretty good job of that.  What about you?  What is your favorite or least-liked season?

But today it is still just the first day of October, and I am now on my way to go and ENJOY spending the day sewing with some of my bestest quilting buddies!  I hope your October is an amazing month for you and yours :*)


Hugs & Blessings,
Teresa
=^..^=


Be sure to go over to these fun blogs to see what others have been having fun sewing up ......

Running Away & Stash Enhancement :*)

Boy-oh-Boy did we have fun at Runaway!!!

Sorry this picture is a little blurry, but we were working so fast it was hard to get a good picture :*D

My biggest achievement was getting my Girls Just Want to Have Fun quilt top completely finished!!!

WooHoo!!!!  I have to admit, this one was NOT fun for me, especially by the time I was getting close to the end.  But it is a beautiful quilt and I'm really glad I made it.  This was a class I took last year at Runaway Retreat.  One year in the making :*)  Thanks again Joanne for sharing your 30's scraps =^..^=

Other than the big finish of GJWTHF, I also managed to catch up on my Piecemakers Mystery Quilt.  This was a good deal for me because I had only cut out the fabrics and was 3 clues behind!  I also got a little work done on the August Calendar Quilt, but not a lot.  These are my socks at the end of the day on Wednesday..... LOL!!!!!

Would you say the floors were a little dirty?  I finally had to give up trying to keep my quilt off the floor when ironing it and trust that it will all come out in the wash :*)

I had to share this cute little souvenir I brought home with me....a totally adorable turtle pin cushion!!!

Isn't she just the cutest little thing????!!!!

This is another one, all blinged out with earrings and a necklace, and it already has a little history .... Carol bought it because she loved the colors and the bling.  It suited her perfectly!  But then Lynn - who loves purple - saw it, and fell in love with it too.  Lynn had not gone to meeting that night, so she didn't know about the turtle pin cushions and didn't have a chance to get one.  Sadly for all of her friends here in Nashville, Lynn is moving to Seattle in a few weeks to be nearer to her grandchildren.  So when Carol saw how much Lynn loved this little turtle, she gave it to her!  Now THAT's a good friend :*)

I've decided I'm going to have to add a few little blingy things to mine too.  Once we found out these were available at the vendor, there was a huge rush to get them and options were limited by the time I got there.  I love her bright colors, but it will be fun to see what I can find to bling her out a little :*D

We spent all day Tuesday quilt shop hopping - what a fun day!!!  I couldn't have picked out any more fun people to spend a day with :*)  I wish I had gotten a picture of all of us together.  It did cut down on our sewing time, but we had a wonderful time and I added quite a few fabrics to the stash :*)  I'll just share some of the eye candy now and let the fabrics speak for themselves with a few captions.....

I plan to make a new Stitchery Keeper out of these cute fabrics!  They are from a line called McCall's.  I actually got these at Whittle's on our ride home :*)

The dots on the left are for my In Flight Butterflies blocks, and the yellows are for Hawaii Sunset

I added these solids for a quilt I hope to start soon.....

I absolutely love this lime green print!  It was on sale so I grabbed a couple of yards :*)

These pinks are for Hawaii Sunset.  I also got some poison greens but they just didn't photograph well.  I think I have all I need now to get busy on this awesome quilt!

These one-yard cuts were in a basket marked $3.00!!!  Can't pass that up - no way!!!  I got a few others too :*)

I fell in love with this quilt hanging on the wall of one of the quilt shops!!!  Lime and aqua and raspberry - YUM!!!!
They didn't have the pattern, but they did have one kit left and the binding fabric.... Yep, I snapped them up :*)
I'll have to find the pattern somewhere later.

These are the kit fabrics, binding fabric on the far right.  I'm in love with that aqua with the big white dots!!! 

I sure did have fun this past week, but I'm energized and excited about getting back - and I'm really excited about cutting into some of these new fabrics :*D

Here's the report for this week.....

Stash Enhancement Report - September 23, 2012 

Used/Destashed this week: 13.50 yards

Used/Destashed YTD 2012: 209.25 yards

Stashed this week: 23.00 yards

Stashed YTD 2012: 215.00 yards

Net Used for 2012: -5.75 yards

I'm back in the red, but these fabrics were definitely worth it!!!  And it helped to have a nice finish this week too :*)  Be sure to see what others are stashing this week at Patchwork Times!

Hugs & Blessings!
Teresa
=^..^=

Design Wall Monday - on Sunday???

Go HERE to see my Dots on Dots block! =^..^=

I'm off to retreat tomorrow - whoohoo!!!!!

And since tomorrow is my day to show off my Dots on Dots block, I'm going ahead with my Design Wall Monday post today :*)  You can check out all the other DWM posts on Monday morning HERE.

I'm planning to get a lot done while I'm at retreat!  Hopefully, I'll manage to put together a blog post or two in between projects, but I know you'll forgive me if you don't hear from me for the next few days, right?  You look like a really sweet, forgiving bunch :*)

We'll be at retreat until Friday noon, so lots of time to get some serious work done on several UFO projects, as well one of the Calendar Quilts that I did not get around to in August.

Picture from the book, Calendar Quilts by Kim Schaeffer

It is the Bee Hive design and one of my favorites, so even though August has come and gone, I'll have lots of fun doing this one and will be able to hang it next year :*)

My design wall is currently bare because I've pulled these off and labeled them in their rows, ready for assembly into a top! ................

25 of these.....

and 24 of these!

This is the Girls Just Want to Have Fun quilt.  I still have to make some more of the four-patches before I can finish assembling the inner border design blocks.  Then I can assemble the center and finish up with the scrappy piano key border!!!

This was a class I took at Runaway last year, so I'm happy to have it to the stage of sharing the finished top this year.

I've also pulled the fabrics to begin my first In Flight butterfly block.  I'm starting with the Monarch block because it is just SO STINKING BEAUTIFUL!!!!  ( Okay, well.... I'm glad I've got that out of my system, aren't you?!?  =^..^= )  But seriously.... isn't this just gorgeous?  Of course, this is the designer's block - mine is yet to be created :*)

Photo courtesy of Zebra Patterns
http://www.zebrapatterns.com/Butter_1Monarch.html

I don't know if I'll get around to working on this one at retreat or not.  Because I'm using a relatively new technique on these blocks - Beth Ferrier's Hand Applique by Machine - I may wait until I get home and can really concentrate and be sure I have everything I need at hand.  I'll certainly have enough projects to work on if I decide to wait on this one.  I always take too much with me :*)

 And just to get you in the Dots on Dots mood - I found these oh-so-CUTE little travel tags at Tuesday Mornings this week.... isn't that just the cutest thing???  The other side has a see-thru pocket for name & address info.

Gotta run now and finish packing up!

I hope you all have a WONDERFUL week -- I'll miss you!!!  

Hope you miss me too :*)

Hugs & Blessings!
Teresa
=^..^=

Design Wall Monday - August 27, 2012

I finally have a quilt on my design wall!!!

This is my Girls Just Want to Have Fun, designed by Charlotte Angotti.  All of the blocks are now pieced, but I still have to piece the outer blocks so I can put them all together.  It also has a pieced piano key border, so I'm far from done yet!  

I started this quilt in a class taught by Jean Shaw at Runaway Quilters Retreat last September.  Jean also taught the class at our Piecemakers Guild, so a lot of my friends have made the quilt.  It is a gorgeous quilt in every color scheme imaginable.  I have seen it done in brights on black, brights on white, blue and brown batiks, purple batiks, and browns on cream.  Every one of them YUM!!!

Mine is done in 30's fabrics.... 
  

I have always loved the look of a quilt done in 30's fabrics - so soft and sweet and inviting....

I even used scrappy whites for the background - I LOVE the look of that!

Don't 30's quilts just make you want to cuddle up into them and lie down for a sweet afternoon nap?  They do me!  But I am not so fond of the fabrics themselves.  Given a choice of buying a batik or a 30's print, I'm picking the batik any day, you know what I mean?!?  I'm all about color and splash and boldness in my quilts, right?!?

So as you can imagine, I have maybe three 30's prints in my stash LOL!!!  I really wanted to make this quilt in the 30's prints, but I didn't want to go out and buy up a bunch of fat quarters, use a little bit of each one and have all these scraps left over that I would never use again.  So my friend Joanne came to my rescue!  She had used a million 30's prints for her Dear Jane quilt and offered to let me use her scraps!  What a friend!!!  She handed me two baskets full of scraps, and when I was done it didn't even look as though I had even used any of it.

By the way, Joanne just won BEST OF SHOW at our Wilson County Fair this year for her Dear Jane - Congrats Joanne!!!  She totally deserves it too....

Look at that scalloped border!  And every inch hand quilted!!!  It is shown here in the case of honor with some other blue ribbon winners.  (I'm sure that metal figure is nice, but it really seems out of place on the quilt)  My Dear Jane still needs to be quilted, and seeing hers done and gorgeous really makes me want to get it out and finish it up!  Just sayin'....

In the meantime, however, I really want to have my Girls Just Want to Have Fun done to show at Runaway this year.  The retreat is the last week of September, so I should have plenty of time to finish it up, but you never know, right?

What's on your design wall today?  Go HERE to Patchwork Times to see what others are working on!  I'm also linkup with:
*    Connie's Tuesday Linky Party at Freemotion by the River
*    Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story
*    WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

WELCOME to my new followers!!!  I look forward to getting to know you better :*)  And I wish everyone a wonderful week!

Hugs & Blessings,
Teresa
=^..^=

Stash Report – Week #26

I apologize for not getting this post up yesterday as promised!  With all the fun going on with grandchildren, I have had to find little snatches of time here and there to take care of the normal routine like blogging and quilting.  Definitely not complaining mind you!  I so love seeing the girls and spending time with them. :*) 

Busy times mean the opportunity for lots of handwork, and I really needed to do some catching up on my current stitchery projects.  I finished my latest Promises and Borders block with the exception of the flower centers. 

I sort of got tired of doing all those little French knots and just went ahead and started the next one. =^..^=  She has released another one that I have not started yet, so I’m really pretty behind on these blocks.  There will be 9 of these blocks in total, and these are the ones I have done so far.  (These backgrounds look blue, but they are really a nice creamy white.)

 Then I finally finished up one of my blue-work Winter Wonderland blocks!!  

Because this is just a “fill-in” project that I pick up when I don’t have anything else prepped and need a handwork project, it is going very slowly.  But I am enjoying watching these quirky little snowmen come to life and it is always fun to start on a fresh, new block! :*)

I'm linking up today with Kathy's Quilts for a new Linky Party she's starting to celebrate "Slow Quilting" - the process of slowing down and enjoying the journey by adding hand stitching of some sort to our quilting activities.  Go check it out HERE to see what others are hand stitching.  Kathy wrote a post about Slow Quilting HERE that really spoke to me about the need to slow down and enjoy life.... and she gives some great tips for ways to start slowing down.  I hope you'll go over to read it when you get a chance.  It is well worth your time :*)

The girls left this morning for a few days, so I packed up and headed out to a sit-n-sew at one of my guilds, Lebanon Piecemakers.  These ladies know how to do a sit-n-sew!  They were there when I got there about 10am, and looked like they’d been there for hours already.  When I left at 4pm, most of them were still there sewing!!!  Yep, my kind of sewing buddies :*)

At the sit-n-sew, I managed to get all of the center 9-patches done for the alternate blocks on Girls Just Want to Have Fun.  

And then I got all these pieces ready for making the 4-patch corners on the outside layer of the blocks.  

These will all go together to make 24 blocks that look like this for the alternate block...

Once they are assembled, all the blocks will be done and the center will be ready to assemble.  I will also need to make the pieced border blocks, but I think I’ll wait on those until I get the center done.  A little “finish-reward” therapy, you know what I mean?  This quilt has a lot of pieces and takes quite a while to complete, so I am just taking it in stages and trying to practice that "Slow Quilting" I referred to earlier in the post, enjoying the journey rather than rushing to the finale.

Also, just a reminder that I am working on my block for the Red White & Blue Blog Hop! 

Don’t forget now to come back here on July 3^rd to see what I’ve made.  And for added incentive, I’ve decided to have a little GIVEAWAY too!  Here are a few sneak peeks at my project …  

You can go to Jane’s Fabrics and Quilts HERE to see what the Blog Hop is all about.

I had no real finishes this week, and wonder of all wonders, I purchased no fabric!  So my Stash Report remains the same as last week:

          Used this week:           0 yards

          Used YTD 2012:           82.75 yards

          Added this week:         0 yards

          Added YTD 2012:        112.50 yards

         Net Used for 2012:      -29.75 yards

I'm sure next week will be a different story as the Divas Guild is planning a trip to Whittles Fabrics and I will undoubtedly fall under the siren call of a few choice fabrics! :*)

How is your stash coming along?  See how others are doing HERE at PatchworkTimes!
Also linking up with:
          What a Hoot for BOM's Away!
          Manic Monday at Sew Happy Geek!

Hugs & Blessings,

Teresa

=^..^=