2012 UFO Challenge - June Progress

I wasn't going to post anything for the UFO challenge because I haven't finished anything, but then I realized there had not been a UFO challenge post on my progress since the end of January.  Now that we are at the halfway mark for 2012, an update is probaby a good idea. 

Even though I've not finished any of my UFOs as yet, progress has been made on 3 of the 4 UFO's  included in this year's challenge. (UFO list is here)  Of those 3 quilts, the Purple and Yellow Quilt just needs binding.  That's scheduled for next weekend.  Scrappy Stars hasn't been touched since January.  There has been some progress on the RWB Quilt.  When I pulled that project out of the box back in May, there was only 1 block completed. 

Another 4 blocks have been completed since then.

These stars are time consuming, so they go pretty slowly.  The layout I have in mind will need another 8 star blocks, so there is still quite a bit to do.  But progress has been made, which is what I wanted.  Finishes would be nice, but 2 of the 4 UFOs on the list started with almost nothing.  I doubt I finish this project by the end of July, but even if I don't, any additional work makes it that much closer to being a finished quilt. 

Check out all the other UFO progress posted over at Patchwork Times. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Purple #3

Life has been so busy that I completely forgot about posting the 3rd purple scrap block for June.  I had intended to post last Saturday, but Drama Teen had a swim meet. There wasn't much time to write a post before heading off to the pool.  So here's the third purple block for June. 

 I love the paisley fabric in this cup, so it's become my favorite cup to date.  There is quite a collection of cups to choose from now. 

Cup block patterns from Karen F. Srebro and Janet McCarroll
published in Block Magic and Block Magic Too by
Nancy Johnson-Srebro

The lady bug cup is a very close second.  This quilt has been a fun one to make.  Picking the fabrics for the cups has been a walk down memory lane as it's hard not to think about the original project the scrap was used in.  So far scraps from 8 previous quilts have made their way into this project. 

I'm looking forward to seeing what the color is for July.  I need to finish the last "E" so it doesn't look like "coffee" is missing something.  To see the last of the purple scraps for this month, check out what's posted over at Soscrappy. 

2012 NewFO - Number 4

The NewFO Challenge sponsored by Barbara over at Cat Patches is all about restocking one's UFO pile.  That may seem like an odd idea, but Barbara completed all her UFOs last year.  I'm down to 4 UFOs, but am making progress on getting those off the list.  If those get done, there will be no reason to participate in Patchwork Times' UFO Challenge.  Besides who ever heard of a quilter who didn't like to start new projects or who doesn't have any UFOs? 

The plan was to start 6 new quilts this year.  As of this month, I've started 4.  Only one of the quilts from the plan has been started. The other 3 starts are because I couldn't resist a couple of quilt alongs and the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Sweet Treats and the Coffee Cup quilt are coming along, but I've not made any additional progress on the McCalls Mystery Quilt in quite a while.

This month, I gave into temptation and started another one of Judy Laquidara's quilt alongs.  This one is called Nicole's Sofa Quilt.

Only about a third of the first set of flying geese have been made.  The color in the photo is way off, the dark blue is really a bright blue, not navy. The plan is to get all of the flying geese done by Monday.  Last Monday, I posted a number of color schemes I was playing around with for this project.  They looked good in EQ, but when I went to pull the fabrics, none of the color schemes worked out.  So, I pulled fabric, then did the mock up to reach version I'm going to make. 

Pattern is Nicole's Sofa Quilt by Judy Laquidara

(available here)

The border fabric drove the color choices.

When I bought this yardage, I had no idea what I was going to do with it, I just liked the bright reds and greens with the blue. This photo shows the true color of the blues much better than the shot of the flying geese. 

That's it for my June NewFO.  Check out all the other new projects over at Cat Patches. 

Wordless Wednesday - Sun Baked

15 Minute Challenge - June 26th

Ever have one of those mornings where you get a late start and then can't get caught up.  Apparently it's my turn this morning.  Drama Teen woke me up early yesterday, she was not feelling well.  She stayed home, but I had to go to work.  I guess it caught up with me this morning.  So I have enough time for a very quick 15 Minute Challenge Post before I speed off to work (hopefully, I won't be late to that).

Not much sewing going on this week.  Judy over at Patchwork Times has another quilt along going on that started yesterday.  I fell in love with the pattern and finally decided last night after playing around with EQ last week that I'm going to follow along with this one too (I'm still not done with the quilt from her last quilt along).  So rather than sewing last week, what little time I did spend in the sewing room was spent pulling fabrics and playing in EQ to decide what to use for my version of Nicole's Couch Quilt. 

Tuesday - EQ versions of the Couch Quilt
Wednesday - EQ versions of the Couch Quilt
Thursday - EQ versions of the Couch Quilt
Friday - nada
Saturday - more nada
Sunday - even more nada
Monday - Final EQ version of the Couch Quilt.

That's it for me this morning.  I do hope to get some sewing in this evening and the rest of the week.  How did your sewing plans go last week?

1. Lesley 2. June @ QuiltQuest

3. June @ QuiltQuest 4. Amanda, Seabreeze Quilts

5. Kate 6. libbyQ

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Design Wall Monday - June 25th

On top of it being a busy weekend, it was a hot weekend as well.  The therometer in the car bumped between 100 and 103 all the way home from Oklahoma City yesterday.  We got home sweaty and tired. 

I've spent some time in the sewing room this last week, but haven't sewn a stitch, so there's nothing new up on the design wall.  Sweet Treats and the RWB Stars are still there.  

Designed by Judy Laquidara
(pattern available here)

But there's been no progress on either this week.  The only sewing related activity has been to use EQ to mock up some potential fabric combinations to make Nicole's Sofa Quilt along with Judy over at Patchwork Times. 

Pattern is Nicole's Sofa Quilt by Judy Laquidara

(available here)

My favorite at the moment is the dark and light purple version on the lower left, though they all have potential.  I'm not sure if I'm going to make this quilt or not.  There are three active projects up on the design wall right now.  Is it wise to add another?  I really like the pattern and all of the above designs use fabric from the stash.  Both of those thoughts come down on the pro side of the list.  The only con is that adding another project will mean that I probably don't get as much done on my older UFOs.  Decisions, decisions! 

Check out all the other fun design walls posted over at Patchwork Times. 

Stash Report - June 24th

We all slept in this morning. Drama Teen is still sleeping in at the moment.  The swim meet went OK, she took time off 5 out of 6 events.  But boy was it hot in the stands. I'm glad we didn't have to go back for the late afternoon events,we would have melted. 

After the swim meet and lunch, we ran a few errands and made a stop at one of the quilt shops.  I ended up walking out with a few more red and white prints for the Red, White and Blue Stars quilt I'm working on.  I didn't have enough variety in the stash to finish the 13 blocks needed. 

These 9 fat quarter should help with that.  Thankfully, that's all I walked out with.  I'm so far in the red it certainly didn't hurt the stash report all that much. 

Used last week: 0.66 yards
Added last week:  2.25 yards

Used for 2012:  20.1 yards
Added for 2012:  169.5 yards

Net stashed for 2012:  149.4 yards

On the positive side, over 20 yards out for the year.  On the negative side, the net stashed is closing in on 150 yards.  Not nearly my worse year for stash enhancement, still it's not my best effort either. 

Check out all the other stash busters over at Judy's Patchwork Times. 

Foto Finish Substitute - What's on the SD Card?

It's Saturday, so of course we're headed to another swim meet.  To be fair, this is the first weekend in June we've had to head out early to someplace special.  Still, it means that my writing time this morning is compressed.  We'll see if I end up with anything worth posting before we have to head out. 

As Cat Patches is still in recovery mode from her Ireland trip, Foto Finish is on hiatus till July (or maybe next weekend, I can't remember).  So I've been looking for alternate subjects to cover on the Saturday post.  Have you ever gone back and analyzed what you take pictures of in the course of a month?  While looking for a subject for this post I did. 

There are 11 pictures of my new point and shoot camera, 21 pictures of my fabric stash, 31 pictures of my quilts in progress, 16 pictures of just "stuff", like my favorite cold concotion from Jude's, a Truely Latte.

There are 5 pictures of DT and/or My Guy, 62 pictures of quilts from the Tulsa Quilt show, 6 pictures of what came home with me from the quilt show, plus 29 pictures of Scissortail babies My Guy took with my camera because he forgot his. 

There are no pictures of flowers in the file, which is odd.  There are  always pictures of flowers.  I'm pretty sure there are pictures of some Black Eyed Susans on the Compact Flash card in the Canon, but those haven't been downloaded yet. 

Well, it's time to finish loading up and heading out to a morning of watching Drama Teen swim.  Have a great Saturday. 

Favorite Things Friday - Just for Fun

Yeah for Friday!  Today is a down day for me and My Guy as we've taken the day off.  Mainly because we can and partly becuase My Guy said he'd rather take vacation when it was nice rather than save it all for December when he has to take it or lose it.  We do have a busy weekend planned, so having a calm, quite morning is nice.  So that's one favorite thing. 

One of the fun things, though sometimes challenging, things in life is having a child.  Espeically now that she's old enough to be semi-independent.  We are finding that 13 is an interesting age.  In a lot of ways she's still a kid.

Kind of looks like Alice having tea with the Mad Hatter don't you think?  (Does that make me the Mad Hatter as I was the one sitting across from her? Hmmm?). 

On the other hand she can be an engaging and witty young woman.

Then she goes off on one of her adventures and brings home this

and promptly names him Snowball (it's that kid thing again).  He's so ugly, he's cute .  Unfortuantely the Drama Teen was unwilling to pose with him knowing that I was planning to post the picture (she was back in young woman mode).   So my other favorite thing this week is having a 13 year old who can still appreciate things like Snowball. 

Have a great weekend.  I'm linking up with Shay and her Favorite Things Friday over at Quilting in My Pyjamas.    



Wordless Wednesday - Summer Shower

15 Minute Challenge - June 19th

We are already more than half way through June and closing in on being half way through 2012.  I've already had my mid year review with my supervisor at work.  In another week, I really should sit down and look at where things stand with this year's quilting goals.  The 15 minute challenge actually came about because of my lack of progress on last year's goals.  If you are not spending time in the sewing room, it's hard to make progress. It's amazing how good intentions can simply die once I sit down in the recliner and start up the computer. 


This week actually went better than I expected. 

Tuesday I came home from work with a massive headache and pretty much went straight to bed.  Wednesday there was a work related dinner that kept me out until bed time.   But I managed at least 15 minutes, usually a full hour, up in the sewing room the rest of the week.  So not a bad effort after all. 

How did your week go?  There are lots of distractions that come with summer.  Not to imply that is bad.  For some, quilting (and other crafty pursuits) are just not the priority in the summer months.  Link up and share your sewing progress or your current distraction. 

1. Lesley A 2. Thea 3. Shay

4. June @ QuiltQuest 5. Amanda, Seabreeze Quilts 6. Donna@Lv2sew2011

7. Kate 8. libbyQ

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Design Wall Monday - June 18th

Weekends always go so quickly.  It didn't help that the Drama Teen had both a science project and a writing assignment that needed to be done by the end of the weekend.  Helping her navigate all the scanning and uploading took up most of Sunday evening.  Thankfully, the stomach bug was pretty much gone by dinner time on Sunday.  I did get some sewing in, but not as much as normal.

There is nothing new up on the design wall.  I'm still working on the Sweet Treat blocks as a leaders and enders project.

I just have 5 more blocks to finish and this one will be ready to set together. 

One more Red, White and Blue Star block was completed. 

One other reason not much sewing got done is that I spent most of Friday evening working out possible layouts for this quilt.  I've got a couple of possible settings roughed out. 

This is version one.  I also like this one with red substituted for the white. 

Version 2 uses both the red and white.  I'll probably fiddle with the borders some, but I'm pretty sure that one of these two will be the final layout.  I have enough fabric to make either.  The main reason for deciding on a layout now was to determine how many star blocks to make.  Four blocks down, 9 more to go. 

That's it for me this week.  Check out all the other design walls over at Patchwork Times. 

Stash Report - June 17th

I managed to catch some type of stomach bug last evening, so probably not much going on for me today.  Drama Teen is finishing up an on line application for a national science project competition today, but that shouldn't be too hard to manage if she needs help with the final document uploads.  My Guy is off on a bike ride this morning.  That is how he wanted to start his Father's Day.  Thankfully he prefers the day to be low key, so I'm not ruining any big plans by being a bit off this morning.  My plan at the moment is to just take it easy for a while and hope I feel better later.
Not a lot of sewing this week due to some evening work events, plus I spent one evening working on a layout for the RWB Star blocks.  I now have a rough idea of the layout I want for those blocks and know how many I need to make.  More on that tomorow. There was only two nights of any seam stitching, so this week's stash numbers look a bit anemic.

Used last week: 0.45 yards
Added last week:  0 yards

Used for 2012: 19.44 yards
Added for 2012:  167.25 yards

Net stashed for 2012:  147.81 yards

At least nothing came in last week.  I'm closing in on 20 yards out for the year, so not horrible.  Still the amount out is about 12 yards too low to reach my target of 75 yards out this year.  I still have one back that I need to piece so that should help a little. 

The stash organization is moving along, slowly, but moving.  I finished ironing all that pre-washed fabric sitting in bins back in April.

  
All that fabric now resides on the shelves in the closet, neatly folded where I can see what's sitting in the stash.  What's next?  Finish organizing the shelves.  When I got the shelves back in December, I just moved the fabric from the plastic totes to the shelves. The fabric in the totes wasn't sorted or folded to a consistent size.  In order to clear the totes and get those out of the closet, I ended up just shoving the fabric onto the shelves. 

The fabric that's folded and stacked neatly is what has been pressed since April.  The bottom shelf and a half of fabric on the left hand unit plus the bottom 2 and half shelves of fabric on the right hand unit need to be refolded.  My plan is to tackle that chore using the same strategy utilized to get all the fabric pressed.  Refold and possibly press, one piece of yardage every time I work in my sewing room.  It's not fast, but tackling it that way leaves me time to sew, but still make progress on the stash organization without being overwhelmed.  

That's it for me this week.  Check out all the other stash management efforts posted over at Patchwork Times.    

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Purple Block 2

I haven't had much time to sew this week due to an on site conference at work and the associated mixer and dinner.  I did find some time to cut out and sew up the first of 2 purple coffee cups for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 

I have the fabric picked out for the second purple coffee cup. That might get sewn together this weekend. Other than that block, I'm up to date. 

Cup block patterns from Karen F. Srebro and Janet McCarroll
published in Block Magic and Block Magic Too by
Nancy Johnson-Srebro

Well that's not entirely true.  I still need to figure out what to do about the 3 blocks I missed during the neutrals month.  The quilt plan calls for 36 blocks, which would use all the blocks made over the 12 months.  I skipped the neutrals month since the block background is white.  Maybe substitute some novelty fabrics for those three blocks?  I have some Little Mermaid fabric and some Asian prints that have been used to make quilts.  Maybe some tiger fabric too left over from one of Drama Teen's quilts.  Hmm, wonder what else there might be in the stash bin?   

Check out all other scrappy purple lovelies over at Soscrappy. 

Foto Finish Substitute - A Quilt Show

The photographic genius behind Foto Finish, Barbara of Cat Patches, is still recovering from her recent trip to Ireland, so Foto Finish is still on hiatus. That means I've had to find other inspiration for the weekly Saturday photography post.  I've pretty much exhausted the "first" digital camera premise.  But, since last week was the Tulsa Quilt show it seems appropriate to share some of those gorgeous quilts here.   

The show seemed smaller than the last time I went a couple of years ago. Still there were some fun quilts.  I liked this scrap quilt with the dark stripes running through the blocks and the red corner stones.

Serendipity by Donna Rushing
Quilted by Linda DeVries
Donna's interpretation of Squares and Stripes Layer Cake
by Cheri Good Quilt Design

Another scrap quilt.  I have the book this one comes from and have considered making a my own version without the applique. 

Cobblestone by Emma Goins
Quilted by Carol Furgason
Source: Nickels and Dime Quilts by LeAnn Weaver

I love the colors in this one. The red, white and black with the green border.  Not a color combination I would have considered, but it looks great here.  

Card Tricks and More by Linda Jenkins
Quilted by Marilyn Gore

Bright colors are always a favorite.  Applique is not one of my strong points, seeing quilts like this make me wish it was. 

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Molly's Meadow in Spring by Janie Sutterfield
Quilted by Kim Hull
From Molly's Meadow by Kim Diehl

This quilt won best of show.  I love all the bold and bright colors.  Plus it's flowers, another personal favorite.  

Best of Show:  Glorious Applique by Teresea Marler
Quilted by Donna Titsworth
Modified Kim McLean pattern

There were many more beautiful quilts on display, but these were my favorites. 

Now I should go get busy on laundry and such so I can go work on my own quilts later this afternoon.  Have a great weekend. 

Favorite Things Friday - Weekend Breakfasts

TGIF!!!!  It's been a long week, lots of meetings at work and then business dinners two nights this week.  I'm ready for a weekend.  Drama Teen and I need to run out tomorrow sometime and finish up the Dad's Day shopping.  Other than that, I'm looking forward to a very relaxing weekend with a bunch of sewing time scheduled. 

This is the third weekend in a row that we've been at home.  Club volleyball has been over since the beginning of May.  Drama Teen is still swimming, but we agreed to cut down on the number of meets she swims this summer.  The whole family agreed that a slow summer was needed this year.  Consequently since we're not rushing out of house at o'dark thirty in the morning, we have time to go have breakfast at our favorite morning spot.  Well at least the Drama Teen and I have had time.

Twice this last month, we've had the time to have a leisurely breakfast of Swedish pancakes at Jude's. 

I'm not much of one for whipped creme, but I like the boysenberry spread that comes with them.  Drama Teen is more than happy to transfer my unloved whipped creme to her plate.

One of my favorite things about having breakfast at Jude's is that they have the most amazing lattes.

So not only do I get to indulge my sweet tooth a bit, I get my caffeine fix for the morning as well. 

Drama Teen  actually sets her alarm to get up early enough to go have Swedish pancakes at Jude's.  For a teenager who regards sleeping in on weekends as a constitutional right, that's quite a sacrifice.  For my part, it's nice to start Saturday morning off with something besides a bowl of cereal and house work.  Spending some quite time with Drama Teen is nice too.  Wonder if she's willing to get an early start of it at Jude's tomorrow, then get our Dad's day shopping done.  Hmm, have to see if she'll go for that.  I'm thinking probably not, she's been complaining about how hard and tiring swim practice has been. I'm betting she'll go for sleeping in and skipping breakfast with Mom.  

That's it for me this week.  Check out all the other favorites over at Quilting in My Pyjamas. 

Wordless Wednesday - Where's the Picnic?

15 Minute Challenge - June 12th

Some weeks it's really easy to find 15 minutes to sew each day, other weeks it's a lot harder.  The last 7 days have been one of those times where it's been hard to either find the time or the energy to get into the sewing room, so this week's report is definitely lack luster.

There were only 3 days where I made it to the sewing room.  A bit of a let down after the previous week's 7 days.  Unfortunately, this week is not likely to be much better.  After hour work commitments will keep me out of the sewing room for a couple of evenings.  At least we are home this weekend, so I'll have time to make up for the week day absences by sewing more then.   

How much time were you able to devote to your craft of choice over the last seven days?  Have you been seduced by the great outdoors?  Or are you busy with kids home for the summer?  Whatever the case, link up and share how you are faring with your personal challenges. 

1. ruth 2. Liz

3. Amanda 4. June @ QuiltQuest

5. Kate 6. libbyQ

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Design Wall Monday - June 11th

Weekends always go so fast, especially after the previous two were three day weekends.  A two day weekend is really short in comparison.  I did get in a full afternoon of sewing on Sunday and did add a few blocks to the design wall. 

Right now, I'm actively working on three projects.  The Scrappy Coffee Cups is my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt. No changes to it this weekend, though I did get the fabric cut for the next coffee cup.
Progress was made on the June UFO quilt. 

I don't have a quilt layout for these blocks as yet.  I need to spend some time in EQ deciding how these are going to be set so I know how many star blocks to make.  These are challenging blocks to construct, you have to take a lot of care to match your seams.  I'm enjoying the challenge.  These make a nice contrast to the Sweet Treat blocks which are really easy. 

Progress was also made on Sweet Treats which is being assembled as a Leaders and Enders project. 

Designed by Judy Laquidara
(pattern available here)

Only seven more blocks to complete before there are enough to start sewing the center together.  Not sure how I ended up working on two red, white and blue quilts at the same time, it just happened that way. 

That's it for my design walls.  I'll be checking on all the other design walls linked up at Patchwork Times when I get home tonight. 

Stash Report - June 10th

Life was back to normal last week with My Guy and Drama Teen back from their travels.  We are settling into the summer schedule of swim practice and summer camp. Next week will be a tough one as it's one of those where I have meetings on top of meetings, as well as after work functions that I need to attend.  The after work functions will be fun as I'll see people I haven't in while, still it will make for a few long days next week.  But that doesn't start till tomorrow, I still have this afternoon to watch the NASCAR race and get some sewing in. 

Not as much sewing this last week, but there is a little going out.  Yesterday was the Quilt Tulsa 2012 Quilt Show and I did do a little shopping as well as enjoying all the displays.  Here's how this week's numbers came out.

Used last week:  0.45 yards
Added last week:  6.25 yards

Used for 2012:  18.99 yards
Added for 2012:  167.25 yards

Net stashed for 2012:  148.26 yards

So what came home yesterday?

A few fat quarters.  I have plans for the red and white and the OSU fabrics.  The black made the pile because I liked it. 

A couple of Christmas prints. 

And finally a three yard fabric bundle and the pattern that came with it.

by Donna Robertson

It was a nice show, with a wide variety of quilts on display. I promise to show some of the quilts in a separate blog before the week is out. 

That's it for this week's stash report.  Check out all the other reports over at Judy's Patchwork Times. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Purple

I've been MIA on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge the last few months.  I just got behind on the blocks and didn't catch up till last weekend.   Now all my red, green, pink and yellow blocks are done.  I finished up the first purple block earlier this week.

I hope to get at least one of the coffee cups done this week.  I'll have to wait till next month to make the final E to spell out "coffee" so the current status picture of the Scrappy Coffee Cups quilt looks a bit incomplete.

The cups use a lot more pieces and are a lot more intricate to piece than I'm used too, but it's been a fun project.  The scraps I've used to date come from seven different quilt projects.  It's fun to look at the different cups and think about how those same fabrics were used in the other projects.

Check out SoScrappy to see other scrappy uses of the color purple. 

Foto Finish Subsititute - What's a DSLR?

Foto Finish is on hiatus for the month of June while it's lovely hostess, Cat Patches, is wandering around Ireland.  So as a replacement post, I've been looking back at my history with digital photography, which has really been an excuse to see if the new computer can read those old Cds. 

My first single lens reflex (SLR) camera was a Canon AE1 I bought used at a pawn shop right before I got married.    Getting the SLR was an attempt to learn to love one of the things My Guy loved doing.  Thankfully, I did develop a love of photography and in our early marriage enjoyed many a day of jumping in the car just to go take pictures someplace.  That SLR came on the scene in 1991 or 1992. 

The digital SLR became my go to camera in May of 2005.  The reason, 9-11.  As airport security ramped up after that sad day, it was harder and harder to get film exempted from the airport x-ray machines.  At Easter that year we had flown to Missouri from Texas and my Easter shots did not survive those flights.  To be fair that's the only time I'd ever had problems like that, but we were planning a very special vacation trip to Oregon in July and I didn't want to loose any shots from that trip, so the Canon 20D DSLR was purchased. 

What was the first shot?  As I said last week, I'm a parent, so Drama Teen (aka Kiddo) was the first subject.  She'd have been 6 and at the age she didn't want to pose for photos, so you had to get them on the sly. 

After that I had to play with the special effects. 

How cool.  I could shot in black and white if I wanted to.  (How many more black and white shots do you think I've taken over the years?)

Then finally,

I had to check out how well it worked on getting decent pictures of flowers (it was Mother's Day). 

The 20D is still my DSLR.  It has served me well over the last 7 years.  I still struggle using the on camera flash, the shots work much better if I use an independent flash.  The biggest change in going all digital is the amount of time it takes to download and then archive images.  You have an incredible amount of control an options with your final images, but now rather than dropping the film off to let someone else adjust all those printing parameters and sit around watching the photos print, I have to do that.  Which is one more good reason to have a blog so you can share your photos and not have to print them.