A UFO Finished and Stash Report!!

Well I have finished my first UFO of the year!! My sailboat quilt will soon be hanging in my office!!

I also quilted my valances and just need to bind them and then I can hang them in the dining room!!

Here's my stash report for the week:

• I used 3 yards of fabric to finish the blocks, sash, border and bind the quilt. I also used 2 yards of wide muslin for the backing. So that's 5 yards out of the stash permanently!!!



• I bought 8 FQs and 2 yards of Hawaiian fabric for a wedding gift. This fabric will not sit in the stash as it has an intended purpose and was only purchased because I have no Hawaiian fabric in mty stash. I needed the Hawaiian fabrics for a wedding gift for a friend that will be moving to Hawaii in July. The wedding is May 11th.

Here are my goals for the coming week:

• Bind the valances



• Cut out the Hawaiian fabrics for the wedding quilt



• Choose and prepare projects for guild retreat in April



• Avoid buying fabrics for the stash!!!

Wish me luck!

Quiltathon Tuesday!!

Well I managed to get some quilting in during today's Quiltathon! I selected and cut the sashing for my sailboat quilt. I also managed to get the top pieced :)

All that I need to do now is add the border (I'm planning to use the swirly blue from my previous post) and then quilt and bind it.

This quilt will hang in my new office. I'm so happy that it's almost finished!!!

I also want to thank everyone that left me a comment about my sashing for this quilt. Alot of people liked the swirly blue that I will be using for the border and I had several people suggest that I use a darker blue for the sashing which is what I chose to do.

I Need Some Opinions

OK.......I need some help with sashing for my sailboat quilt. I plan to use yellow for the cornerstones but am not sure which fabric to use for the sashing strips. Please leave comments and tell me which you think would be best. The fabrics on the left are all greens and the fabrics on the right are all blues.

Thanks!

Stash Report & Clearing off the Frame!

Well I haven't posted a stash report lately because I have been crazy busy with work and family. But here's what I managed to do stashwise this week:

• Cut fabrics for a Pineapple Blossom that I'll be working on with some friends at our guild retreat. We all cut fabrics into the necessary rectangles and will put them all in the middle of the table and start sewing. I cut 20 FQs and 2 yards of background = 7 yards of stash!!


• Bought no new fabrics!!!

Here are my goals for the coming week:

• Cut the white rectangles to finish off the sailboat blocks and sew them to the top of the blocks


• Choose and cut sashing for the sailboat top
  
• Finish my addition to a 30's round robin


• Bind triptych pieces


• Make birthstone postcards


• Avoid buying any fabric for the stash!!

I also spent alot of this afternoon clearing off my HQ16 frame. It became a dumping ground for all of my sewing related items that were in other parts of the house. Today I finally went thru everything and put the "stuff" away.

Here's the frame before:

And after:

It's so nice to have the frame cleared off and ready for me to load the valences I plan to use to practice my "Wonky Feathers" before loading a customer quilt. Here's hoping I can get everything finished this week and still work 3 of the 5 days LOL

My Pincushions!

There's a contest going on at Blueberry Lane to show off our pincushions in order to be entered into a drawing to win a pincushion book by Lynette Anderson. So here are my pincushions.... The wool pincushion that is front and center is my "Ewesful" pincushion and the one that I use on a regular basis. The others in this photo are very special to me. The 2 cusions to either side of my everyday pincusions are from a swap and were given to me by my friend Becky. The pink chicken is my newest pincushion and I bought it from a studio in Delaware while I was there for classes with Sharon Schamber last weekend. It has real pink feathers and hot fix crystal eyes.....being a pink chicken I just couldn't pas her up :) The last pincushion pictured was a prize from a blog drawing on Darlene's blog several months ago. It's very heavy and I just love it!

So there you have it....my pincushion collection! I hope you's enjoyed looking at them :)

I've Actually Been Sewing......

Believe it or not, even though I haven't posted much the last few weeks, I have actually managed to get some sewing done!

I have made 2 purses (I'm on the quest for a perfect purse pattern) and will continue making purses until I find a pattern that will work well for me.

This one I made is by LazyGirl Dsigns and is called the Sassy Bag and it is perfect for my 14 year old daughter because she doesn't carry everything but the kitchen sink in her purse. It's great for her pencils, glasses, cell phone and other little lightweight extras. It is not good for my heavy wallet, cell phone, etc.

This one is called a "Scoop Pocket Tote" by Whistlepig Creek and is included in the Charming Totes Pattern. I made this purse for my mother for Christmas out of red hat fabrics and it is perfect for her. Once again, it's not so good for my heavy items so I'll use it when I am going somewhere that does not require me to carry my wallet LOL

I also managed to finish a block for the theme applique swap I am in. We are over 1/2 finished this swap and I'm getting excited about getting my blocks back! The theme for this block is "Life on a Pond" so I chose to do a snail. This was my first try at Misty Fuse and I must say that I am quite impressed!

I'm still doing pretty well on the stashbusting front. Everything I made above came from my stash. I did buy some fabric to use as borders on my scrappy bargello. I also bought a piece of wide backing fabric that was on sale and I do have a quilt top in mind for that backing. Those fabrics will not sit in the stash for long.

My UFO of the Month!

I am in a couple of UFO challenges this year because I really do need to get a handle on my UFOs. At this point I have over 100 projects in various stages of completion. One of the challenges is helping me to focus on a single UFO a month. Those of us in the challenge listed 9 UFOs and each UFO is assigned a number. Each month the hostess draws a number and that UFO is the one that we concentrate on (and hopefully finish) that month. For March the number that was drawn was assigned to my sailboat quilt. I really want to get this finished because I want to hang it in my new office (I work selling charters on a 74 foot sailboat). I need to add a strip of white to the top of each block and then sash, border and quilt this quilt. Hopefully I can get it finished this month and get it hanging in my office before the season begins :)