So I pinned and pinned

and this stack of tops and backs is still waiting to be pinned. And of course there are still tops that still need backs. I ran out of pins until we went to JoAnn's and used a coupon to get more. But I decided that was enough pinning anyway. Here are the small to medium ones ready to go.

And the larger ones. A couple of these have been sitting waiting for a long time. Especially that big one on the bottom. Its time just has not come... yet.

I pulled all my bindings from the various places they were tucked -- I had outgrown the binding drawer for sure! I think it is a good idea to make the bindings when completing the tops. Except when it is so long before the quilting I can't remember which binding goes with what. (Yes, I have tried to sew one meant for another onto the wrong one. But only once. So far...) I guess I need to pin post it notes to the bindings.

Don't they look nice in their boxes? I just look soooooooooo efficient... ha ha ha! Or as my best friend when I lived in Rhode Island as a kid would say, "snicker, snicker, snacker, snacker, ha, ha, laugh, laugh, ho, ho, hee, hee." Amazing that sticks in my mind. Had to be 5th grade-ish!

Anyway, while we were out we stopped at a thrift store and look what I found! What a lot of work, and so cute. I could do without the pearls but I love the little handle and the edging around the top.

I also kind of delayed the quilting until I had finished this top. It was one of those stacks. The pattern I used did not call for a border but it looked wrong to me ending with such a light colour so I added one. Now it goes into the needs a back stack.

So, did I ever stop procrastinating and start quilting? Well, yes, I did. And wouldn't you know the first few I quilted had NO bindings in those bins! So you are not seeing them. You are seeing some that were quilted later that did have bindings in the bins. This was done from left over half square triangles. I really like the sashing fabric. Kind of a nice light toasty colour background.

Then you remember this one I am sure. I added some borders but I am still not in love with this fabric.

And this one. I know I just showed you the top. This is definitely record top to finished time! I didn't do such a good job on the picture, now did I? Oh, well.

This was made of leftovers as well. The quilt that it is leftovers of is waiting to be pinned. Someday you will see it. The main fabric is some I bought years and years ago when I was about to make a quilt for my MIL who did her house in oriental style. I ended up doing something different so this one sat and sat. I mean for like 10 years. I kind of like it with all these also uncharacteristic florals.

I love this one. It was a panel and some coordinating fabric. I added the green border from my stash and I love the purple stripe border. I worked really hard to make the stripes all be at 90 degrees and straight, not my usual helte skelter scrappy style. Anf it came out cute, cute, cute I think.

I like the kitties. Mr THQ just told me he read an article that house cats can live to be 30 years old! Can you believe that? Ours seems to be feeling her age at 15 or 16 which I thought was the normal life expectancy. We keep having to put helper steps everywhere so she can get to where she used to jump up to. Of course she is not a true house cat as she does go outside all the time. Interesting, no?

Fabric stacking

is something that I do all the time. Even though my stash is basically sorted by colour I have these little stacks stuck everywhere of fabrics that go together really well. That's a problem because, first of all, those fabrics are not really available for use until I have made something from the little stack. And second, because I love to make scrap quilts, it is hard for me to start from the little stack and decide what quilt to make from it.

Usually what happens is I end up making a churn dash or Ohio star quilt from them with a nice planned colour scheme. I really like those two blocks. This time I am determined to do something different. Here is one of those little stacks. See that bottom (blue background) fabric? It is a Thimbleberries that I had just a fat quarter of. I loved it so searched the web until I found more and bought it. I bought those 3 star prints, too. They go great together. I just don't know what to make with them.
Here's another. When I was separating out fat quarters I stacked up these reds and whites. I like red and white quilts whenever I see them in a quilt show. Just need to decide what these should become.

Here's another little stack. I loved that star print when I found it. Red, white and blue with a twist.

Look! I actually decided what to make with it! I forgot to take a picture of it until I had put it on the pile of to be pinned quilts. I was intending to do a star fabric border but decided to end with the blue, yes, blue again.

Here is another. This fabric was actually part of a tote bag kit from Connecting Threads years ago when they sold fabric other than their own. I knew I would not make the tote, though. I love the shade of red --Gingham Rose is the name of the fabric line, I think.

And look, it actually became something, too. Very country French, don't you think? I was working on it while I watched "Julie and Julia" or "Julia and Julie", whichever way it is. Seems fitting. I will have to remember that when it is quilted and it comes time to name it. And, no, I didn't care very much for the movie. I have never been a Meryl Streep fan, and the Julie parts were not all that interesting, either. I used to watch Julia Child on TV but have never owned her cook book. I have made beef bourgenon (or however you spell it) but from my Good Housekeeping cookbook. I used to call it "alky stew" because it has so much alcohol in it -- wine and cognac. Good, though.

But I digress. I took a quick class at my local quilt shop on embroidery as I have not been too successful at teaching it to myself. I could never figure out for sure on the back stitch if you use the same hole. Well, you don't. And I have always hated and made poor French knots. I learned to make decent ones. Yay! I don't have much in the way of Valentine decorations so once this becomes a little pillow it will be a nice addition to next year's Valentine's decorations. Oh, and she recommended always putting batting behind the muslin when you stitch. I really like this idea. I may try it on cross stitch, too.

Boy, this post is all over the place, isn't it? That's what I get for posting so erratically. It's hard to believe it has been so long. I was lazy getting my pics off the camera. Anyway, I like to keep all my empty spools each year. Both in 2009 and 2010 I used 55 spools. Isn't that weird? The year before that only 34. Here is spool number 1 for 2011.

I had decided it was time to make backs for all the tops I had accumulated. In fact my next post was to be called "backs and bindings". Ahem, never happened. Anyway, I have now made backs for about 25 quilts of all sizes. I even made backs for these I just showed you made from little stacks. The pile to be pinned is now huge. I need to get pinning and quilting. Pinning the layers together is the only part of quilting I don't like so I tend to have to go on pinning binges. Look at this mess while I was auditioning backs.

Here was the stack needing to be pinned before I through those two more recent ones on top. Big, yes?

Long post, I know, with lots of pics, but there is more if you can take it! Remember I was trying to use up kits and pre-cuts? Here is a little tablerunner using precuts. It came out cute I think. I would use this pattern again.

Here it is full size.

Remember this fabric from putting together the work squares? I have had this Thimbleblossom pattern for a long time and could not decide what fabric to use for the big piece in the middle. The pattern pic has a pretty plain print. I thought this happy print would look great and it does. I like the big applique, too.

Done with machine blanket stitch of course.

I like it alot.

I liked it so much I decided to do a similar thing with another print for another Thimbleblossoms pattern.

I don't like this one anywhere near as much. Of course it doesn't have the flower applique. I am thinking I will make a house applique copying one of the houses in the fabirc. That will help it I think. Mr THQ was thinking it was just a piece of fabric on the floor when I took this picture. Definitely needs more work.

Sorry about the lumpy picture. Those red and white fabrics are lined up underneath this. I was too lazy to move them out of the way. Oops. Happy Valentine's Day Eve.

Winter but not Christmas

So there are a few decorations that go out with the Christmas things that stay around because they are winter, not Christmas. This for example. They sit in the corner of the vanity in the bathroom next to the flag room until March or April or so. That works, right? We used to move around very very frequently. Like every year or two. A good way to keep the pack rat tendencies under control. But we have been in this house 7.5 years and 13 in the one before that. That means too much stuff! Our neighbourhood has 2 garage sales every year and we have decided to participate in the one that is coming in April so I was in the flag room hunting garage sale items and look what I found. Oops, never got put away.

But that's not the worst thing. A week or two ago my eye just caught this candle. That is not where it belongs but other than noticing it I did nothing further.

Then a day or two ago I noticed this Christmas tree hiding in plain sight! It has managed to escape me for an entire month! It is sitting in the holder where that misplaced candle belongs!

That's better, this is how it is supposed to look. I am not much of a candle person but my daughter gave me these a few years ago and I love the candle holders and the candles are okay, too. Since I don't burn candles they should look just like this forever. Ahem, except for the occasional errant Christmas tree...

On the quilting front I finally got these pinwheels made properly and I really like them. I must say though that the gremlins were still with me for a while as I sewed many of the right angles together with the solid on the wrong side! Must remember to always keep the same fabric on top! So these are really hard fought pinwheels.

And then I managed to get the rest of the top together. Here is the way the kit was supposed to look.

And here is mine. I substituted another row of the big house print fabric for the appliqued row and then did some extra rows of the hour glass blocks. I still don't like alot of these individual fabrics but the top is nice now that it is all together. I am even dealing with the blue border as it has alot of grey tone to it. It's a little too tall for my design floor but you get the idea.

So now I am off to use up my last package of precuts -- the Deb Strain fall set. Soon I will have to make myself do another backing and borders day and get to pinning some of these together so I can get them quilted. The tops are starting to get out of control!

Some days nothing goes right

Or some weeks, or even some months. One month into retirement and let me tell you it has not gone well. Both Mr THQ and I have been sick. Now I must tell you that in all the years I was surrounded by people who were sick or had sick kids, I maybe caught something once every 5 or 6 years. Now that I am not surrounded by them, poof, a cold like thing that will not go away. What's up with that?

I have been sewing some though, and even taking pictures, just not getting them to the blog. So let's start with my most recent mess up in the sewing department. I had decided to clean up some pre-cuts and kits that were sitting around and this experience has made me appreciate just plain stash even more. You know I am not a big fan of pre-cuts and kits and recent experiences have not changed my mind.

When I saw the picture of this quilt in a magazine I fell in love. Finally found the kit at a price I could handle and ordered it. There is always a little pressure with kits, isn't there, about not making any mistakes because you don't have enough fabric to fix it. So what do I do right off? Sew the triangles togethter WRONG! If you look closely at the picture you can see I should have sewn the straight sides together, not the long sides. Grrr.
So the options are to take all of those apart, which will be very time consuming plus I will stretch the bias all out of whack. But since I had already decided that I was going to do something other than those applique blocks in the center row I had enough fabric to just recut and start again. Now I have some nice triangles for something else. Right?

Despite how much I love this quilt I just don't like the fabric that goes into it very much. I hope I like it better when it is finished. Oh, and the directions tell you to cut the two house fabrics lengthwise! But the pattern goes crosswise. I promise you I am not reading that wrong. Honest! Of course, I did it crosswise and had plenty to replace that middle with another of the large house sections if that is what I decide to do.

So in my quest to clean out kits I found this one that I bought many years ago at a quilt show to make this runner. I don't think that is what I am going to do, now, though. I think I have enough Christmas runners. I am busily trying to convince myself to just add these nice Thimbleberries fabric to my stash. There's nothing wrong with that, now is there? Why does it seem wrong?

Here is another kit from the ancient past. A bunch of friends and I went on a "shop hop" in the SW Idaho, eastern Oregon region and this kit for the border of this pattern came home with me. I just dug through all my scraps to find big enough pieces for the leaves. Time to get this one put together, too. It has 64 leaves and I want them to all be different so it will take some stash digging too for sure.

Away from th kits for a minute -- here is a fabric audition. I have had this Thimbleblossoms pattern for a while and at first had auditioned many fabrics with kind of a solid or light print in the middle like in the picture but was never happy. I realized when putting together the blocks from work that this flower fabric makes me really happy so I am thinking of using it as the center. What do you think? I have to contemplate it for a while,

Here is a quickie I did from a layer cake. It is Bliss. I bought it as a deal of the day from the Missouri Quilt Co. One thing about layer cakes, is they do go together quickly.

The biggest problem with pre-cuts is I usually only like some of the fabrics. For example, I love the two pieces here. Red and green are favourites of mine.

And I love this green floral. I might have bought these fabrics on their own. But I do not really like the aqua and white dot above or the aqua and green dot below. And I really am not fond of the red and aqua combination at all. I know it is popular now and even appears in Christmas fabrics. It does remind me of the '50's, but not in a good way!

Here is one I did with a charm pack of French General fabric, again a deal of the day. I am not sure why I even bought this one -- okay, yes, price, but other than that I am not sure. I really don't like the colours at all. This is the same pattern as the layer cake, just to scale. The shades of blue, red, and brown are really a little different in this fabric and I don't know if I like anything from my stash as borders. This really needs borders. I don't want to buy anything to go with though. I have one more charm pack of a Deb Strain fall collection and then I am swearing off pre-cuts forever!

Okay, let's move on to fabric I love. And back to the Buggy Barn Quilter's Village pattern. I did finish the top. This little flower is one of the fabrics in it and I decided I love, love, love it. Of course I used virtually all of it up. The selvedge said it was a Maywood Studios fabric, but of course, no collection information. So I went out to quiltshops.com to search. You have used that, haven't you? Of course, the big issue then is how to look. So I entered in "Maywood Studio". 54 pages came up. I carefully scrutinized each one and along about page 45 I found it! Little Lulu it is called so I ordered some from the only shop that listed it. It's in Bozeman so it should show up pretty soon. Don't you just love it? The red is a little odd but in a good way. Kind of a happy little flower.

So, as I said, I did finish the village top. Here is the funky churndash set of blocks.

And here is the set of pinwheels. For some reason these all came out short on the quilt block side. So I had to dig through my scraps and luckily found some of all of them. I just added a strip on the bottom of each of the quilt block sides. I didn't want to have to cut all the blocks this short. I don't know how this happened but if you don't tell no one will know.

Here is the last set, the heart blocks. They were easy and fun.

So the pattern called for black sashing between the rows. I didn't think the colours I had chosen for blocks would look very good with plain black so had to do some auditioning.

I think the blue was too close to the blue in some of the houses.

Look at me testing out two, count them, two, solids!

I really do like this black with the brown stars as it is a happy print. But I was afraid that cut into narrow strips the stars would be totally lost.

So I went with the tan. Here it is, although it is a little too big for my design floor. I really do like how it came out and oonce it is quilted I have the perfect place in mind to hang it.

Well, I think I have made up for missing a few posts with this one. Now that I can load pictures on my new computer and am not sick anymore (well, almost not sick) I should be able to get back to my regular posting schedule. Or even more often now that I am not working everyday. Let's see how that goes, shall we?

Christmas, come and gone

So much preparation and anticipation and suddenly it has come and gone and here we are at a brand new year. We had a white Christmas -- it was leftover snow, not fresh, but still white. My daughter called from South Carolina Christmas night and they were getting snowed on and expected 5 inches! That east coast storm reached way down the coast.

Today seems like Sunday so it must be time for a blog post. Come to think of it, since I am now officially retired, every day is going to seem like Sunday.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and that this will be a good year. Mr THQ helped me take down all the decorations since my booted broken foot won't climb a ladder. So the house looks a little bare. But not too bare. My house would never be described as minimalist. Oh, no, never!

I did work on the quilt blocks from my retirement party. I wasn't really satisfied with anything from my stash so I ended up hobbling into JoAnn's. This is what I found. I just love the happy floral print.
And here is how the top came out.

Then I moved on to the Buggy Barn Quilter's Village houses. I had made the trees long ago and pulled the fabric. I don't know why I didn't get to the houses sooner. They have been lots of fun. Here is the first six.

And the next six. My productivity is down a bit since I have to push the sewing machine pedal with my right foot. When I first got my Bernina I took the classes and one of the suggestions was to use the pedal with your left foot because that frees up your right knee for the knee lift. I switched right away and have sewn that way ever since. It has been hard to change back. Then it will probably be hard to switch back again!

Here are the trees that have been waiting for their houses for such a long time.

I have a hard time pulling fabric for these cut and stack swap around quilts. It's hard for me to envision how the blocks will look and I end up with combinations I am not fond of. So then I mess around with the swapping the stacks part and end up with two of the same fabrics in one block. I need to quit fussing because once all the blocks are together I always like it.

Happy New Year!