Quilts and More - Home Made Creations

January UFO

2012-01-31T21:48:00.002-05:00

My January UFO quilt is complete - with 2.5 hours to spare :) My sore finger made this a bit of a challenge, but I was determined to have this UFO off the list on time this month.

I designed this quilt in the fall, with the goal of using up the pink and flower fabrics that I had in my stash. The goal was almost successful, between this quilt and an earlier one - which I finished but apparently never photographed. I have a few blocks left over, so I'll try to put them together into a final quiltie.

The backing of this quilt was a sale fabric at one of the inventory sales before Christmas. The sales lady at the quilt shop thanked me for taking the rest of the bolt on this one, She wanted it OUT of the store :) I thought I'd have plenty, and some left over, but it turned out to be exactly the size I needed, with nothing to spare. So, not only out of the store, but out of my stash too,

Design Wall Monday - Jan 30

2012-01-30T07:38:00.002-05:00

My design wall is looking pretty lonely today. The two quilts I was working on have both come down for quilting, and all that's left are the BOM blocks. And I can't even show progress there, because I haven't done this month's block yet.

But, the January UFO quilt is quilted! Now it's just waiting for binding. That had to wait yesterday for some laundry to finish. I'm still trying to finish washing all the fabric I bought at the Christmas sales, and the binding fabric is one of them. But the laundry is now done and hopefully I'll get this binding done tonight.

Unfortunately, a minor accident may slow down my quilting this week. A combination of two things going on in this picture. I've been suffering from what I think is carpal tunnel for the past couple of weeks, so I got myself a brace to try to ease the issues. Fortunately that wasn't having much impact on my quilting - more on my blogging, because I've been trying to avoid aggravating it with computer use. I'm learning to use my left hand for the mouse, and that was going pretty well.

Then yesterday I was doing some work in the kitchen, to install a new faucet because the old one was leaking. Success was achieved, but at the cost of a cut down the center of my knuckle. So now I'm trying to keep that finger immobilized so I don't re-open the cut. Makes typing a challenge, and I haven't tried quilting yet. If I could move the finger, I'd have it crossed that I'll be able to do my binding tonight :)

Stash Report - Jan 29

2012-01-29T08:18:00.003-05:00

I finally have some usage to report for this year! The January colour challenge used 2 yards of fabric this week. And I basted 2 quilts last night - the backing for those is another 3 yards.

totals for this week:
5 yards out
0 yards in

Total for the year:
5 yards out, 28 yards in
Net: 23 yards in

Hop over to Judy's blog to see more stash reports today.

January Colour Challenge

2012-01-28T21:59:00.001-05:00

The top for my January colour challenge is done, and ready for quilting. This was an interesting pallet to work with - not something I would have chosen on my own, but I like the end result.

This probably won't get quilted before the end of the month. First I need to quilt my January UFO, and that will likely fill my quilting time for the next few days.

I'm looking forward to the next colour challenge, because I need some inspiration. I've been in a bit of a quilting funk the last few weeks, and I'm not motivated to start anything new right now. I have about 4 quilts waiting to be quilted, so maybe getting some of them done will provide the kick I need to get back into quilting mode. Can't blame the lack of stash for my funk, because I hit a few sales before Christmas and have lots of stash ready to go. Which reminds me - I should put that load of fabric into the dryer before it gets too late.

Design Wall Monday - Jan 23

2012-01-23T07:23:00.000-05:00

My design wall is busy today. I got started on my January colour challenge this afternoon, and it is coming along quickly. That's the blue/burgundy/green in the lower left. This is one of the quilts in the calendar I received at Christmas and I decided it was just right for this month's challenge. Two more corners, and then the border to complete. It looks like this will even be done on schedule - the top anyway. I doubt this one will get quilted this month.

Also on the design wall are the blocks from the blogger's block of the month. I just finished December's block, and since January is due out on the 25th, I decided to leave them on the design wall for now. And on the right is the Monday mystery from last year that I finally finished. That ones goes into the quilting pile, and will hopefully be finished before too long.

Check out Judy's blog for more design walls today.

Stash Report, Jan 22

2012-01-22T09:22:00.004-05:00

Still nothing to report in my stash. But nothing in this week, either. Check out yesterday's post to see what I have been up to - finally back in the swing and I hope to have actual usage to report next week, finally. For now, my report is the same as last week:

0 yards out
28 yards in

Hop over to Judy's blog for more stash reports.

Back to normal

2012-01-21T22:09:00.003-05:00

My guest room has turned back into a sewing room today. It took me 4 days, but I finally put everything away and setup the ironing board and sewing machine again. And, I even sat down and did some work.

First, the Blogger's block of the month for December. A bit late, but the next one isn't due out until the 25th, so I'm still on time :)

Here are the first 4 blocks in the series. I can't wait to see what comes next!

And, I finished the last Monday Mystery. This isn't exactly what it was designed to look like. I widened it, and moved the border to one side only (rather than opposite ends to a table runner). And, apparently, I messed up the border and put it together wrong. But, since it doesn't look much like the design anyway, I'm leaving it. I like the zig zag border on this one. If I move quickly, I can get caught up on the next Monday mystery, before the sewing actually starts.

I wonder what I should work on next? The January UFO. The January colour challenge. The block lotto blocks. Or maybe Orca Bay. Decisions, decisions.

Design wall Monday - Jan 16

2012-01-16T10:33:00.003-05:00

I didn't do much sewing this week, but I did steal away for a few minutes, in an effort to have something to show today. On my design wall is my last Monday Mystery project. It's almost done - I just have to attach the top border. The original design was a table topper. I added a few blocks and moved all the border pieces to one long edge, to turn it into a baby blanket. I haven't decided yet if it needs a border, so I think I'll just let that stew for a few more days.

Check out more design walls over at Judy's blog.

Stash Report - Jan 15

2012-01-15T10:03:00.002-05:00

It's Stash Report Sunday, and I have absolutely nothing to report today. No new usage, and very little progress on any of my dozen January projects. I did manage to get the center of my last Mystery Monday quilt put together, so I guess that is progress of a sort. Not much left, and the blocks are made, so I may be able to finish this week.

As for usage - not an inch. So my stash report for this year is still the same:

0 yards out
28 yards in

Stash Report - Jan 8

2012-01-08T05:12:00.000-05:00

In this week:
4.5 yards for colour palette challenge
1.5 yards backing for Jan UFO
22 yards - LQS sale :)

My goal for 2012 is to use more than I add. And hopefully to use at least as much as last year. I do expect to make some purchases throughout the year, especially if I try to keep up with the colour palette challenge. My stash is sparse enough that I doubt I will ever be able to participate in that challenge without adding some fabric. So, just ending in the black may be all I can hope for this year.

For now, I'm starting off in the wrong direction, with nothing out.
28 yards in

Check out Judy's blog for more stash reports this week.

Kitty's quilt

2012-01-06T13:30:00.000-05:00

My silly cat loves getting under covers. I left a quilt folded on a chair, and she worked her way into the folds.

She's been here for over an hour, and shows no signs of moving any time soon :)

January projects

2012-01-05T08:34:00.000-05:00

I'm thinking I may have bitten off a bit more than I can chew this month. Here is my "active" list for January:

Orca Bay
block lotto "eclipse" blocks
need to finish the last Monday Mystery before Jan 10
there's a new Monday Mystery starting this week
colour challenge for January
January UFO
December's Blogger's BOM
January's BOM will be out on the 25th
I was planning to join the Free Motion Quilting challenge (see side bar)

Fortunately "Dancing with the Stars" doesn't start until February.

Maybe I should get busy :) Never mind having 12 UFOs for the year - January alone is probably several month's work. Especially when I consider that I won't get much done before the middle of the month.

I've picked the fabric and pattern for the colour challenge. And the January UFO backing has been purchased. But perhaps I'll put those and Orca Bay aside for a couple weeks and try to finish the Monday Mystery before the 10th, and get the BOM finished before the next one comes out.

New colour

2012-01-04T19:07:00.002-05:00

On consideration, I decided that the pink was really not the right colour for the challenge. So I dropped by the quilt shop - for the third time in 3 days - and picked up what I think is a slightly better match to the palette.

Here's my new fabric set (on the left).
Hopefully I won't change my mind before I start the quilt :)

This is the pattern I plan to use.

It comes from the Quilt Calendar I received for Christmas. Hopefully I have enough of the blue and green (fat quarters). If not, I'll resize the quilt down a bit so I don't run out.

Colours for Palette Challenge

2012-01-04T08:10:00.003-05:00

I got sucked into my local fabric shop yesterday, because they were having their annual fabric sale. I decided to pick up some fabric for the January colour challenge - I really want to participate, but the fact that my stash didn't have anything usable almost kept me out. I'll join in this month, but I may have to rethink later months, because I don't want to be buying fabric every month this year.

Here is the colour palette from Vicky for January. On Friday she's going to give us a colour lesson, but I wanted to get the fabric for this challenge while the sale was on, so I went ahead and did that. I had a bit of trouble, because my printout was really dark - so I was trying to remember the proper shade while at the store.

This is what I chose. Looking at the palette now, the pink is not really right, but I may just go ahead with this anyway. I don't have anything in my stash that fits better. Hopefully there won't be any quilt police around for this challenge :)

Design Wall Monday - Jan 2, 2012

2012-01-02T07:32:00.000-05:00

My design "bed" contains some of the parts from the Orca Bay mystery. Bonnie revealed the final part yesterday, and I have a few of each piece done. This is a (very small) sample of what the quilt is going to look like - when I eventually finish all the piecing that is required.

I discovered that my 2" half-square triangles are a bit too big, which throws off the wing triangles. So I'm having to cut down all 354 of those in order to put this quilt together. Slow and steady, I guess. I'll keep plugging away at this one as time permits.

Check out Judy's blog for more design walls today. And Bonnie has a link-up for all the Orca Bay progress.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T07:05:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year, everyone! 2012 is upon us - I hope everyone is gearing up for a great year, and has had a wonderful final few days of 2011. This is one of my favourite gifts this year. From my sister - a calendar of quilts - complete with instructions! This should keep me busy in 2012 :)

For today's stash report, since the usage happened prior to Jan 1, I am adding to my 2011 stash report totals. After today, usage is going under 2012.

1.25 yards - step 6 of Orca Bay
.75 yards - step 5 of Orca Bay
.5 yards - step 7 of Orca Bay

Purchased 2.5 yards blacks for Orca Bay

That makes me net zero for this week, my final purchases/usages for 2011.
Totals for 2011 stash report:
Overall, 107 yards in, 108.5 yards out
Net for the year: 1.5 yards out

Not bad, considering my stash was down to almost zero a couple of months ago, requiring a replenishment trip in October. My next stash report will be my first for 2012.

Orca Bay Eve

2011-12-31T15:22:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year's Eve! And, apparently it's also the Eve of Orca Bay. Step7 of Orca Bay came out yesterday. And the final step is coming out TOMORROW! just in time for New Year's. So, I thought I should get a bit of work done today, to ensure that I'm not totally behind when the assembly instructions arrive in the morning.

This is what I did today. First a few wing triangles from step 5 (finally). I only did about 10 of these, but I have lots more pieces cut and they have been going together pretty quickly. However, I am still working on the 1/2 square triangles that form the basis of these (54 more to go). I had to buy some more blacks to finish these pieces, but I'm back in motion now.

From there, I attached the wings to 2 of my purple string triangles. Just two - but it's a start and I can officially say I started on step 7 now :)

I can't wait to see the final step tomorrow - although I suspect it will be a couple of months before I actually finish all the remaining pieces for this quilt. But I'm not complaining ('cause Bonnie says we can't :)

Orca Bay progress - Dec 26

2011-12-26T10:30:00.002-05:00

Happy Boxing Day! Today is a day for staying home, in my opinion. I try to avoid malls on boxing day, so I'm planning a quiet day at home. That does not, however, mean I'm going to get much sewing done. I snuck off for a few minutes this morning to do a couple of blocks from step 6 of Orca Bay.

So this is what's on my design wall (floor) today. I'm not likely to get much more done, but at least I have one of each for this step, before step #7 comes out. I still need to finish step 3, and start step 5 - and I suspect step 5 is going to feed into the clue this Friday, so I may have to find a few more minutes to disappear.

Check out more Orca Bay progress on Bonnie's blog today. And hop over to Patchwork Times for more design walls.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T07:54:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas, everyone! It's still early here. We have a lovely light snow falling, so it is officially a white Christmas, despite expectations to the contrary. Yes, those are actual snowflakes in the picture - the flash did a really neat job of lighting them.

One of my sons has been wearing a Santa hat around the house for the past week. They may be growing up, but they still get excited about Christmas. Of course it's now 8:00 and neither teenager is up yet. What a change from years past, when they'd have me out of bed at 6am for stockings. I wonder if I can do some quilting before they get up :)

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Day!

Design Wall Monday - Dec 19

2011-12-19T07:00:00.002-05:00

There isn't much on my design wall this week. In fact, the wall is empty. On my ironing board, I have a few more blocks for step 3 of Orca Bay. This makes 140 done, 210 left to go. Step 5 builds on step 3, so I guess this should have been the one I finished earlier. I'll keep plugging away, and hopefully a bit later this week I'll get some of step 5 done, before Friday's clue. Bonnie says we get to start assembling units on Friday, and I can't wait!

Check out Judy's blog to see what others have on their design walls. And the Monday linkup for Orca Bay has lots more progress there.

Thinking ahead

2011-12-17T08:26:00.001-05:00

Grant's quilt

Colin's quilt

Watercolour

Indigo

Pillow Cases

I've been thinking ahead to 2012 recently. Judy is going to run another UFO challenge, so I'm rounding up my projects to see what I have to add to the list this year. The 2011 challenge was great, and I finished 10 projects out of the 12 on my list - and I didn't join the challenge until June. So in 2012 I should be able to make excellent progress. I love to play along - but next year I think my biggest challenge might be that I did such a good job this year, that I don't have very many UFOs hanging around. That's a good thing, I know. But I'm a little sad that I might be left out of the fun.

Here is what I have so far on my list to finish next year:

Grant's quilt
Colin's quilt
Watercolour star
Indigo star
pink and green baby quilt
pillow cases for ConKerr cancer (one of the 2 projects from 2011 that didn't get finished)
a stack and whack quilt that is cut out

That's only 7, so I need 5 more projects. I have a number of small quilts waiting for binding, so they go on the list. I have a "quilt as you go" project that I'm not enjoying, but I'd like to finish and get out of my house. And a few orphan blocks that could possibly be turned into medallion quilts. But I think it's going to be a stretch to find 12 items for the UFO challenge. I suppose that's good news, but I don't want to be left out of the fun.

In addition to the UFOs, and the Colour Palette Challenge, I'm thinking about challenging myself to make one baby quilt every month, for donation. I tried that a couple of years ago, and petered out after about 4 months. But maybe if I make it part of my UFO challenge (in that I don't want these to turn into UFOs :) ), then I'll be able to keep it up all year. I really would like to see the end of some of my novelty fabrics this year.

Design Wall Monday - Dec 12

2011-12-12T07:58:00.003-05:00

My design wall is pretty empty today, I cleaned yesterday in preparation for Christmas visitors, and removing all the loose blocks from the wall was one of the steps. Eariler yesterday it looked like this

Orca Bay is moving along. I didn't get as much done as I had hoped this weekend. 22 more blocks still needed for step 1, and hundreds for steps 3 and 4. But I have done a little of each step as it came out - these are 10 of the 22 blocks I have now finished for Step 4.

Rather than sewing yesterday, I cleaned. The room is almost at a point where I can make the bed, which seems to be a requirement for having a visitor for the next 5 weeks :) So I'll finish the cleaning tonight, but hopefully keep a little corner for some sewing - I do want to keep up with the new Orca Bay steps as they come out - at least one or two blocks each week.

Check out Judy's blog to see more Design Walls. And hop over to Bonnie's for more Orca Bay progress this week.

Stash report - Dec 11

2011-12-11T07:47:00.000-05:00

I haven't been up to much this week, but I did get a bit of work done on the Orca Bay mystery. So I'm going to report my yardage for steps 2 through 4 today.

.75 yards - black and white half-square triangles for Orca Bay
.75 yards - orange string blocks for Orca Bay
1.5 yards - purple string blocks for Orca Bay

That's a total of 3 yards out for Orca Bay this week. Nothing came in, so I am officially into the black again! And over 100 yards used for the year. This is probably where I will end up, since I have to turn my sewing room into the guest room tomorrow, for the next few weeks. I will keep Orca Bay handy, and hopefully do at least a couple of blocks for each step, just to keep current. But other than that, there won't be much sewing going on until January.

Stash Totals for this year:
Overall, 104.5 yards in, 106.0 yards out
Net for the year: 1.5 yards out

Check out Judy's blog for more stash reports.

Purple Strings!

2011-12-10T16:57:00.000-05:00

Step 4 of Orca Bay came out yesterday. This time, Bonnie is letting us play with our primary colour. In my case, that means purple. And course this is a Bonnie mystery, so that means more string blocks! 128 triangles, to be exact.

This pile of purple is now strings. Soon (I hope) to become blocks. I looked at Bonnie's directions, and all the cutting and trimming, and thought about alternatives. Instead of 5-1/8" squares, which then get cut on the diagonal, why not a long 3-1/2" strip of strings, cut into triangles? I don't know if that will save me any time, but it means I can simply cut all my bits to the same length to start. I suspect there may be a reason my plan isn't ideal, but I'm going to forge ahead anyway :)

Perhaps in the end I'll have a number of shorter pieces, and I'll switch to making a few squares to use them up. And I did notice as I hung my blocks that a lot of them have teeny tiny pieces in the corners. Hopefully that won't cause me a lot of grief later.

In any event, here are my first 10 purple string triangles. Only 118 more to go :)

Design Wall Monday - Dec 5

2011-12-05T08:13:00.000-05:00

My design wall this week is an Orca Bay wall. Step 2 and 3 are on the wall - parts of them, anyway. I have the final 31 orange string blocks from step 2. And the first 12 (of 350) 2" half-square triangles.

In addition, the Blogger's BOM is still up on my wall. And the latest Monday Mystery from Sherri.

I didn't make as much progress on Orca Bay as I had hoped over the weekend. I had great plans, but this cold has knocked me flat, and I only managed about 2 hours of sewing in total all weekend. That was enough to convert this pile of strings into 41 blocks to finish step 2. And I pushed myself through a few half-square triangles, just so I would have some progress on step 3 to show today.

So I guess it's back to black and white land for me this week. Need to finish 40 more blocks for step 1, and 338 for step 3. Hopefully before step 4 comes out on Friday.

Check out Bonnie's blog for more links to Orca Bay progress.
And don't forget to have a look at the other design walls over at Judy's blog.