DWM Feb. 17th

Just a short update.  I finished all the setting blocks and started piecing the top.  Here's everything laid out.  You can see the potential borders over there on the right.  

Here's a closer look at the assembled rows, upper left hand corner.  

This is one of the 9 setting blocks.  I counted up the pieces.  There are 2625 pieces in this top!

Ann

The catch-up post and DWM

I haven't been doing well at blogging my finishes, so this is my 2013 catchup post.  I didn't do a lot of quilting last spring and summer since I was out in the garden.  Actually I didn't mention any of my finishes last year (yikes).  

Without further ado, here they are:
St. Patrick's day table topper

Baby quilt for Bentley.  I got the cutest thank you note for this.  The bow tie was adorable.  Oh, and by the way, Grandma N's rule on baby quilts is now in effect.

Brown squares quilt which takes a UFO off the list.  

Turquoise tree skirt for the living room - mentioned on the Christmas post

Scrappy lap quilt that got donated.  I don't have a finished picture for this.  This was taken before the binding went on.

  

No pix for the Halloween table topper that has been packed away with the decorations

I did bits and pieces of other sewing...a few scrappy blocks, a couple of almost completed lap quilts, started a reproduction quilt, a few gifts.  I finished the Designer BoM blocks, but haven't done the quilt.  And I got a few more lap quilts close to being done.  

And for those of you here for Design Wall Monday:  

I've finished 1 of 9 middle blocks.  Eight more to go.

Ann  

New Design Wall

I don't know if any of the rest of you have experienced this when you moved.  It seems to me that the craft/sewing area is always the last area to get set up or unpacked.  Other people wanted coffee cups and cereal bowls (sigh), clean sheets and towels (really?), and curtains (gasp!), more than they wanted fabric and yarn unpacked.  Go figure.

Main blocks and setting triangles

My sewing studio is very slowly coming together.  At our last address I had two areas for quilting: one corner/half of the dining room and a closet in the back bedroom.  This meant I had supplies, tools, and fabric in two areas.  (I won't tell you how many places I had stashed yarn.)  Since I have a dedicated studio now, everything is reunited again.  Which is both good and bad.   I have a door now and I'm not in a "public" area, so it's easier to hide the mess, which is good.  All my fabric is in one room again, also good.  The fabric has been unpacked and sorted by color which is good and bad.  For some reason, the two fullest to overflowing bins are polka dots and civil war reproductions.  If you skim through my blog, you'll see that I really don't make reproduction quilts.  I have two 9 patch quilts in repro fabrics that are both 30" square or smaller.  I have enough fabric to make a couple of bed-size quilts. Where did it all come from??  Why don't the Amy Butler prints do that?  I must not have a size-able enough breeding colony yet.  

Detail 1

My biggest achievement in tackling the mess is remaking and putting up my design wall.  I've had parts of this at three addresses now.  It's sheets of styrofoam with a layer of batting and a layer of cotton fabric.  I added another section, so now it's about 8' square.  The white fabric is two or three different kinds.  It's what i had on hand.  I stripped the outer layers off the old sections, washed them, then replaced them.  I had to get additional foam for the new section and all they had at the hardware store was pink.  It actually has a layer of fabric, then batting, then more fabric and it still looks gray.  Oh well.   I chose foam so it would be pin-able.  

I used screws to attach the sections to the wall.  I should have used longer screws, but it seems to be holding well enough.  Pretty much once you use a power screw driver, those screws are now permanently part of your foam.  Screws get hot; foam melts.  Of course the screws looked ugly, so I decided I would hot glue a button on each one.  So, yeaaaah.  I mentioned that it's 8' square?  And it's 18" off the floor so I don't cover up outlets. So the top is 9 1/2 feet high.  I have to have a step ladder to reach the top.  So I'm climbing a 6' step ladder one-handed while carrying a slippery button covered in volcanic hot glue.  I'm proud that I only glued one button to the carpet, and none to my fingers or the ladder.

Here's what's on my fabulous, new design wall right now:

This is Bonnie Hunter's mystery Easy Street from last year.  I got overwhelmed around step 3, so set it aside.  I was looking at the pile recently and realized I really loved the fabrics.  I blew through steps 3-7 last week and over the weekend.  I'm piecing the blocks now. I switched out her dark purple for navy because i have  a lot more of that.  Pretty much the entire quilt is out of stash. 

Stay tuned for more posts.  I'm getting caught up!

 

Detail 2

Fabriholics Anonymous

 

 So, you might have noticed a new button over there on the right.

It goes to : http://www.makingrebeccalynne.com/2013/11/fabriholics-anonymous.html

She's taking a 6 month fabric fast and inviting us along.  I'm just squeaking in by the deadline.  Good thing I haven't bought fabric since the first.

I realized after moving my entire studio and trying to organize it that I have a lot of fabric.  I also have a lot of unfinished projects.  I also have a truckload-sized pile of things I want to make - unstarted projects, if you will.  I'm also out of storage space for the most part.  Which is why I haven't put up many pictures of my studio.  I got tired of shifting the piles. Well, I could cram everything into the closet, but I'd like to be able to actually find things when I need them.

So, I pledge:
For the next 6 months, I will not buy random fabric.  I am allowed to buy fabric to finish a project (borders, backings, bindings) because I usually don't have yardage for those.  I am allowed to buy vacation fabric.   And I think there's a quilt show in my area in June, so I will allow myself shopping there, guilt-free.

This is actually kind of peripheral to my actual goal which is to FINISH STUFF UP!!

FINISH Four, START One!
My goal is to finish 4 projects before I start anything new.  I can work on anything I want when I go into the studio.  I can mess around with scraps, play with the colored pencils, make three new blocks then put the project away, but I can't start any new project til I have completed 4 old ones.   I also do not have to finish the "start".  I can, if I like, and it will count as one of the next 4 finishes, but I don't have to.  I'll still have a net gain on the unfinished list.  Hey, quilting is supposed to be fun.

So far, so good!
I've finished:
Brown squares quilt originally for the living room (December, '13)
Birds jellyroll quilt

Pale green broken dishes lap quilt
Living on Key West Time

My new project is a pair of valentine quilts.  I'll get pix up soon on these.  

I actually have a number of posts almost ready to go.  Stay Tuned!  

Ann