Happy Monday!  Here’s what’s on my design wall

All the free pieced letters are mug mats I made as office warming presents for the folks that work for me……we had to move from offices with windows to an interior office space with no windows.  You can imagine the complaints….so I thought these might help.  New to the wall is the alternate April First Saturday block.

And check out my reject letter.  Cute, huh?  Why is it a reject?  Because all the other letters have only one fabric for their backgrounds and I wasn’t sure if there was only one scrappy one, if someone feel they got the better/worse end of the stick

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Stash Report –

• Fabric in:  0 yards
  
• Fabric out: 1 yards (8 mug mats)
  
• YTD Fabric in: 93.5 yards
  
• YTD Fabric out: 21.5 yards
  
• Net Fabric In/(Out): 72 yards (must remember the goal is no more than 25 net in )
  

 Happy Quilting, Cherie

The big news of the week is  —-  I completed the Animal Quilt, binding, label and all!!

Here’s the April First Saturday blocks.

I free pieced this yellow circle which was such fun!

The yellow circle will be quilted and wrapped around a CD to make the rosette of a yellow award ribbon for the Quintessential Quilt 2011 show.  Our guild directs this judged and juried show that hangs in the University City Public Library for the whole month of October.   For the first time last year we made the award ribbons and they were a big hit.  Directions for making these ribbons can be found here.

I’ve continued making half square triangles as my leader/enders for the RRCB quilt…..and I have 380 sewn & trimmed and a total of 425 sewn.  Woo hoo…..only 175 more to go.

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Stash Report:

• Fabric in:  0 yards, yep nothing new
  
• Fabric out: 0 yards
  
• YTD Fabric in: 27 yards
  
• YTD Fabric out: 16 yards
  
• Net Fabric In/(Out): 11 yards accumulated - the same as last report

Be sure to click over to Judy’s DWM post to check out all the links

I caught up on Barbara Brackman’s Civil War BOW with the addition of these three blocks:

If anyone noticed I was MIA last week, it was because I was invited to a wonderful quilt retreat at Jeanne’s summer get-away home.

There were five of us all together and we had a great time.   I was particularly happy to be invited as I the other women know each other outside of quilting but they chose to include me   Here are some pictures.  My sewing space (retreat made possible by Bill, who bought the land and built the house, nice that I got to use his chair )

Darlene & Jeanne

Me, Carol & Marilyn

Carol’s Tie Pillow Project

Marilyn’s chair pads

My project hanging from the balcony – the quilt for Lily

Thanks Jeanne, Carol, Marilyn & Darlene.  It was wonderful and relaxing.

I waited until the deadline was upon me to finally get to the “Bah, humbug” free pieced words for Tonya but they are in today’s mail, woo hoo!

Last, I finished cutting up the last of the thrifted shirts I bought a while back….some nice greens, a lovely pink and a bold strip

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Stash Report:

• Fabric in:  6 yards, thrifted shirts
  
• Fabric out: 0 yards
  
• YTD Fabric in: 27 yards
  
• YTD Fabric out: 16 yards
  
• Net Fabric In/(Out): 11 yards accumulated

Do you like the landscape orientation above or the portrait orientation below better? I can’t decide.  I’m planning to add more embellishment in the open green and purple areas so perhaps the landscape orientation will win out in the end.

Happy Quilting, Cherie

Here’s the SAHR in more detail.  Round 7 was the last pieced blocks so for round 8 we begin embellishing.

I’ve been plugging away on step 5 of RRCB getting more squares cut, sewn & trimmed.  I have more than 100 trimmed so I’m at least 1/6th of the way there

I had a bad sewing weekend.  Despite a special trip to The Quilted Fox to by white Aurafil thread for the animal quilt, Sophie was not a good girl.   The problem this time wasn’t with frayed thread.  Nope, she’d sew along nicely for about 12″ and then the top thread would break…..a nice clean break as if it was cut.  Then when I tried different things to solve the problem, I started getting large portions of skipped stitches.  I didn’t try long because I was fit-to-be-tied.  I mean seriously, I dread trying to use Sophie.  She was so nice when I first got her and now it’s just one long exercise in frustration.  You’d think $4,000 would make life easier.  Heck, I should have just hung up my long arm days when Cranky went bad.  GGGGRRRRRRrrrrrrrrr.

Then I switched out the thread on my featherweight and I couldn’t get the tension adjusted on it to save my soul.  So that means I didn’t get any sewing on my January 2011 UFO Challenge, Moon Glow or quilt the pink reproduction quilt either

I spent some time cutting fabric because my rotary cutter still worked.  These are blocks 4 & 5 of Barbara Brackman’s block-of-the-week.

Happy Quilting, if your equipment works :-[

1 -10 Moon Glow – complete one of the remaining 10 star blocks

Picture from Jinnybeyer.com

11 First Saturday Foxy Fassett quilt – backing, quilting & binding

12 Crumb Quilt – backing, quilting & binding

1a Pinwheel Party Quilt Navy – backing, quilting & binding

2a Pinwheel Party Quilt Orange – piece top & backing

3a Flower Wall Hanging – finish hand quilting & binding.

4a Vicksburg – applique borders & sew together the top

5a & 6a Antique Reproduction Baby Quilts 1 & 2  – quilting & binding

(Picture from Instructions)

7a Seeds of Time – quilting & binding

Picture from Instructions

8a – 10a Moon Glow – complete 4 of the 12 alternate blocks

Jinnybeyer.com

11a Topsy Turvy Nine Patch – borders and backing

UFO’s I’d like to get done but will take longer than a month or didn’t make the list:

Hand quilt Cherrywood Bricks -

Quilt  & Bind Liberty Quilt -

Quilt & Bind Summer Cabins -

Set First Saturday Asian Surprise blocks -

Set First Saturday Tipsy Fox blocks –

Finish & set Scrappy Star blocks –

Quilt & bind Technicolor Yawn –

Folk Style Sampler – applique three remaining blocks

Wowsa!!  I think this is, perhaps, too challenging of a list to accomplish in one year.  I do, however, work best with deadlines so perhaps Judy’s challenge will be just what I need to drive me over the edge help me finish up some things that have been hanging around.

Then I made a four letter word for Tonya:

Then I put words in a quilt:

And another Quilt:

Now known as the Unruly Quilter,  Tonya’s first book, Word Play Quilts,  is out today!!

Check out the word in the upper left side…..it’s my GLEE!!!!!!!

Click over to Judy’s Design Wall Monday post to see what other quilters have on their walls

Next up I finished my Recycled Cabins quilt!  It’s made completely from re-purposed shirts and I’m so pleased with it.

As you see on my design wall I finished my First Saturday BOM blocks

I completed the 3rd SAHR block.

While I was gone, I did a little shopping

Check out the Cheddar…..I’m loving it!

What this means of course, is my stash report must be update

Stash Report:

• Added:  8.5    Cumulative Added:  119.5 yds
• Used:  0            Cumulative Used:  38.75 yds
• Net Out/(In):   (80.75 yds)  I had a math error a while back and no one even noticed!!  Instead of ~50 yds in it’s ~80yds …must have been wishful thinking
  

OMG, it’s on the cover too!!!!  Top right, see it??  Woo hoo, now I -have- to get Tonya’s book although that was never in doubt   Lynne has used letters in her quilts a lot and they are terrific.  She’s an artist and, boy, does it show in her work……I’m not surprised at all that Lynne may have a quilt pictured in Tonya’s new book.