Quilted Jonquil

Have you kept up with the happenings on the IBOL website? Art La Flamme, Mr IBOL guy, has been BUSY!  Mr IBOL had a SSP1 (super secret project) in which Sew Mama Sew offered bundles for $15….shipping included.  They sold out in 48 hours! Art also has SSP2 and SSP3 in the works.  Check out the involvment of Quilts Inc.  How cool would it be to go to Houston for the International Quilt Festival and walk around in a shirt like this?

As to my sewing room……..here’s what’s on my design wall:

Yep, that’s it.  It’s the first block in the Quilted Foxes “Asian Surprise” First Saturday BOM.   I cut the alternate block out but haven’t gotten it sewn up.  I was pleased with the way this block came together.  The back ground fabric is a creamy lawn and I’ve not sewn with a lawn fabric before.  It hasn’t caused any trouble……..so far!

The Cards vs Sox red, white & black quilt blocks were finished up this weekend and I have the blocks sew into rows.   The rows are pinned together so I might get them together tonight and then the fun part begins when  I start on the free pieced lettering for the borders.

So my stash report…….not sure when folks count the stash as used but I’m going with a completed flimsy, a completed backing and prepared binding.  If I have to wait for a completed quilt, I’m sure I’ll give up reporting

Stash added this week: 1/3 yd

Stash used this week: 0

Cumulative stash added:  3 1/3 yds

Cumulative stash used:  0

Here’s my addition…..what a wonderful green

From the IBOL website here’s a picture of the first bundles going to their staging area   Mr. IBOL guy is pretty funny.  You should check out his postings!

Check it out:

The front row, right side, top bundle is from me   I know this for certain because I used a blue ribbon in one direction and a white ribbon in the other, woo, hoo!!!  Check out the latest updates on the IBOL project here.

Judy at Patchwork Times has been hosting the “What’s on your design wall Mondays” for a while now.   I thought it might help keep me moving to participate so here’s what’s on my design wall……

Not a surprise :0)  I’m more than half way through the blocks for the Cards/Red Sox wedding quilt.  The fun part of this quilt will be the free-pieced letters in the borders.  I’m thinking I’ll add a 1 1/2″ to 2″ border of solid black to frame these busy blocks.  I haven’t yet settled on the rest yet but it will come to me.  It better come soon since the wedding is Oct 17th!!!

I haven’t joined in on Judy’s stash reports but it’s been rolling around in my mind that I SHOULD participate so even though it is not Sunday, the official stash report day, here’s last weeks report:

Stash added this week:  3 yards

I picked up 2 yards of this Brown Bear, Brown Bear fabric from Andover Fabrics by Eric Carle of “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” fame that had just gotten restocked at Jackman’s Fabrics.  I also snagged a yard of this wonderful dusty pink fabric, on sale

Stash used this week:  0 yards

Stats above are also my YTD numbers….we’ll see how long I keep this up!

I started a quilt this weekend for the wedding gift the couple who’s wedding show I went to this weekend.  I’m ahead of my usual procrastinator schedule AGAIN…don’t know what’s up with that.  The bride is a St Louis Cardinals fan the groom is a Chicago White Sox fan thus a quilt with red, white and black is the plan.  I will do free pieced lettering in the border (thanks Tonya).  This seems like a good fit for a couple that used their Wii avatars for their wedding invitations

Here are the blocks I got finished…….All I can say is, it’s busy!

Hey, be sure to check out the IBOL (Iraqi Bundles of Love) website.  The first boxes have arrived

Here’s a pic of my bundle of love in the box and ready to go….

I included pins, needles, scissors, buttons, ribbons, safety pins, a couple of pieces of solids and several yards of the fabric used to make the bundle.  I’ll mail this off tomorrow so it should make the Sept 7th deadline with no trouble   Wow that’s two things in two days completed before the very last minute…..something must be wrong with me!

Well except for the label.  The most important thing is….IT’S FINISHED AND IT’S NOT EVEN THE DAY OF THE SHOWER!!!  Here’s the front and back in all it’s candy corn splendor.

The Circle in the Square quilt guild hosts the Quintessential Quilt show every other year.   This year, for the first time, ribbons for the Quintessential Quilt 2009 show are being made by our guild members.  I touched on this in my earlier post here.  Well, Nancy Hahn has gotten started and has given me permisson to show her progress

The Purple one is for the Best of Show and the red one is a second place ribbon.   Click the photo to get see the details……awsome!!!

Here is a picture of some of the white streamers I made this weekend.   The directions on making award ribbons are quite good but they don’t indicted how careful you have to be while doing these transfers!

I read a couple of blogs at lunch and found a link to this post requesting sewing materials.  This project is to provide raw materials to Iraqis but, please,  click the link because it does a much better job explaining the purpose than I can.  I intend to scope out my sewing stuff tonight to make a bundle to drop in the mail.  What’s even more terrific is the organizer is the son/brother/husband/father of quilters!  Quilters have great influence, don’t kid yourselves!

So here’s to Iraqi Bundles of Love.  I love the diversity of our fabric choices here in the states but they request we be sensitive to the customs of Iraqis and keep our donations to solid or small print fabric and include the basics of thread, scissors, pins, needles, buttons, etc…..bundle them for easy distribution and send in a priority box.  I think I can handle that

And her name is……SOPHIE.   Sophie is my new, used Nolting quilting machine.  She is wonderful. She is brilliant.  She doesn’t break thread, she doesn’t go out of time at the drop of a pin, she starts stitching when I move, she stops stitching when I stop, she has a wonderful single stitch button AND her needle stops in the up position when you stop stitching.  Here’s what Sophie did this weekend……

I’ve been wanting to do this wavy quilting on a strippy runner for a while now.  Guess you’ll have to click the picture to see the quilting.  I really like it.  I also used Aurafil thread after seeing it recommended on so many blogs.  It is so nice to work with and doesn’t have nearly as much lint.  And Sophie likes it

I like this table runner but I’m pretty sure the other folks at the wedding shower will have that look on their faces.  You know the one where you are thinking, “Why in the world would she give a Halloween table runner for a wedding shower gift?”  Because the wedding is in October and I want too!