I can hear you asking,

just what is March on the military channel. You are anxious to know, now aren't you? Well, it is World War II War in the Pacific month. Now you know!! That's my dad's war so it is always interesting to me and Pacific battles are less frequently shown.

As you may remember, when last we met, my sewing maching had to go visit the shop. Look at how empty it's space is. And was for 12 whole days! Yes, those are mouse pads. Freebie ones. I keep them under the machine to tamp down vibration. I think it works really well, especially when machine quilting. So what did I do with myself for those 12 days? Well, Mr THQ finished making a cabinet from found drawers and other found pieces of wood. So I re-arranged the dining room a bit to find a new home for it. Didn't he do a great job? Everything is found and the paint is all original. It doesn't all match but we didn't want to decide if it needed to be painted until we saw what it looked like just as it was. What do you think? Kind of shabby chic prim.

I did lots of sorting of recipes. That project is ongoing so I don't have any organized anything to show you yet. I had cut out recipes stashed just everywhere. Now they are all in one place but I am still culling duplicates and trying to make myself throw away recipes for things I know I will NEVER make. Do you do that -- save recipes for things you know you won't make? I come by this habit naturally -- my mom did the same thing. In fact, lots of the recipes are ones from newspapers where she lived and I did not. And lots and lots in her handwriting. Written on just anything that was handy.

I also did quite a bit of cutting. Here are 3 quilts all cut out ready to be sewn. Two of them are from the fat quarter quilt book series since I have been really working those. I still have quite a few fat quarters left to use up though. And I remembered to make myself notes as to what quilt the fabrics are for. I have one plastic box with cut pieces that I have no idea what they are supposed to make. All darks so I must not have finished cutting all the pieces. Maybe someday I will figure it out. It's kind of like putting something away in a "special" place. That's for sure a way to never find it again!

Finally the call came that she was all fixed and ready to go. Isn't this a happy sight? It sure is to me. I had been trying to sew and quilt on the weekends less obsessively so I suppose it is a good thing that I managed to occupy myself so well while she was gone. But, boy, oh, boy am I happy to be able to sew again. Sewed a few blocks, then had to test on the machine quilting. You might recall I pin basted until there were no pins left so I had plenty available to practice on.

And here is my first finish for 2010. Not very big, but an original, and finished in February. I think it came out kind of cute. My intention was for a summery table top quilt and I think that goal was met. Not my usual colours, but it is good to get out of the rut occasionally. And it used up that lemon fabric that I have had for YEARS and YEARS.

You will notice a recurring theme and that is using things up. I really want to use up stash this year. Don't want to get crazy about it but it really is time for some of this fabric to become quilts. Really, it is.

February is sniper month

and you would know that if you watch the military channel while you sew like I do because they tell me all about it on every single commercial break I am sure!


It's been so long since I blogged I forgot to load my pictures in the right order so the post will be a bit inside out. If you remember my last post things had not been going so well around here.


Well, they still are not, but here is a bright spot. Found these books for a buck each at the thrift store recently. They are actually from the 2000's which is remarkably new for TS books and fun to look at. And another bright spot, albeit one forced upon me. This morning this is what my laundry rack of finished tops looked like. As you can see, it is about to collapse from the weight of all of them. I have not finished a single thing this year. Which actually has a bright side, too. Last year I felt somewhat pressured by trying to finish at least one thing a month. Not that I don't finish things -- I do -- but I tend to go on finishing binges so some months, nothing and others, bunches. So today became a pinning binge day for reasons which will become clear when you get to the end of the post. 8 small to medium quilts all pinned and ready to be quilted.

Anyway, I digress. President's day is not a holiday for work but I took it off and Tuesday, too, so that I could work on getting some quilting finished. I had 3 tops already pinned and ready to go.

And had just been on a binding binge making binding and backs for most of those finished tops. See, here is the binding for those gingerbread people who didn't quite make it to the finish line by Christmas.

And you remember this one? The striped fabric is a much better binding than border I think. I actually made the borders from a SOLID colour. Yes, I bought some solid colour Kona cotton at JoAnn's for this quilt. The only time I have used solids is for that dotty quilt and that was because it was a kit and the solids came as part of the kit. Lot's of folks in blogland use solids quite a bit though, so I thought I would put my toe in the solid water as it were and I am glad I did. Don't you think the borders are perfect?

Speaking of borders, after much frustration the Primrose Inn quilt top is also completed. Had a hard time deciding on borders. I finally made one from the dark rose fabric. I made it about 3" wide but after I had it sewn on decided it was too bright. So it will become about a 1-1 1/2" inch strip with the basic background fabric as the final border. I have lots of that background fabric. I am not sure why...

It needs a back and I decided to use lots of leftover strips for the binding I like multiple fabric bindings. Wonder how I missed taking a picture of it? Oh, well. You probably have seen enough binding today anyway.

I also got this top all sewn together. I tried and tried to have all different fabrics but finally gave up. Then I looked carefully at the picture in the Fat Quarter book and realized the display quilt had used more than the minimum number of fat quarters. Oh, well, real life is never the way it is pictured, now is it? Anyway I like it, I think. I auditioned some borders but didn't really see anything I liked and since I am trying to use stash and not buy new fabric (heh, heh), it will be borderless. But it still needs a back and binding. The binding binge didn't quite extend this far.

Back to the Primrose Inn quilt. Like I said, pictures and proper order are strangers today. I think I have said before that I usually don't buy fabric lines. I have never bought one of those fat quarter bundles of all of the fabrics in a line. Mostly because they are so expensive that they scare me, but also because I don't usually like all the fabrics in a line. So the ones I don't like hang around a long time looking for a home. And because I think that one of the most fun things about quilting is deciding what fabrics go with which other fabrics. I like to do that on my own. Anyway, the fabrics for this quilt came totally from stash. The pattern happens to be from Blackbird Designs, and as I was putting leftovers away I happened to notice that several of the fabrics I had chosen were also from Blackird Designs. Different lines, but same designer! Just look. How about that?

My difficulties from last time continued on while I was working on this top. That wrong size triangle thing kept haunting me. Again, I read the directions, but did I follow them? Well, not exactly...

See where it says to trim the setting triangles? It really says that and I read it. I just didn't think I should actually cut into the nine patches. Because once you cut, you can't put it back, so in an overabundance of caution I ignored this part of the directions.

But, lo and behold, the directions were correct. Once they were trimmed up the triangles fit perfectly! How 'bout that?Remember I was saying I took Monday and Tuesday off so that I could go on a quilting binge? Head up to the sewing room early Saturday morning, turn on "World at Wa"r, clear off the sewing tables, don the gloves, drop the feed dogs, and....

my machine won't hold it's speed properly. Foot pedal all the way to the floor and machine s e w i n g s o s l o w l y...

Rethreaded, rebobbined, turned off, unplugged. All to no avail. Machine will have to go in for repairs. Load it up in the car, wait for quilt shop to open, drive it over, and, NO power cord. It is still at home, on the floor. Back home, get the power cord, back to the quilt shop, and, now I have to wait for my baby machine to be returned to me. I only hope it will not be something major and expensive.

Oh, well, best laid plans... you know how that goes...