May NewFO

It's the last day of a very busy May.  We celebrated Mother's Day, took Drama Teen on her 8th grade trip and also celebrated her graduation from 8th grade.  I'm still recovering from all the fun stuff that went on this month.  Lots of sewing happened too, well except for last week.  I needed some recovery time after all the end of school activities, so I took a few days off to catch up on sleep and a few chores. By the time the Memorial Day weekend got here, I was ready to get back to sewing something new.  

Back in March, I pushed a few buttons and ordered some yardage from Connecting Threads' Neutral Love line.  

I wasn't sure what I was going to make with it, but not long after it took up residence in my stash, one of my friends from work announced that she would retire this summer.  These fabrics are just so her that they have to end up in her house.  About the same time, I got a copy of Patchwork Palette by Donna Lynn Thomas and found a beautiful pattern called "Gems".  

After mocking up the blocks in EQ and playing around with the fabric placement, I came out with this layout.  

Neutral Gems
Pattern is "Gems" by Donna Lynn Thomas
found in the book Patchwork Palette

After washing, pressing and cutting out all the strips needed, only 2 blocks have been assembled.  

I'm happy with how it's turning out.  Hopefully I can finish this project up before the end of the summer.  So far I'm 5 for 5 in 2013, five starts in five months.  

Not only did I add a NewFO this month, two NewFOs from 2012 were finished off.  The Sofa Quilt was the June 2012 NewFO.

The Sofa Quilt
Pattern by Judy Laquidara of Patchwork Times
Quilted by Trudy Lindemann

Evening Star was the September 2012 NewFO.

Evening Star

Pattern from Calico Carriage

Designed by Debbie Maddy

Quilted by Trudy Lindemann

That leaves 5 NewFOs from 2012, plus the 5 NewFOs from 2013 to make a total of 10 uncompleted projects from the last 2 years.  I have a lot of stitching to do!  

Hop over to Cat Patches to check out more NewFOs from across the globe.   

15 Minute Challenge - Running On Empty

Last week's 15 Minute Challenge post didn't happen.  It was supposed to happen. The post was a victim of too much too do in too short a time.  In hind sight, I should have realized just how much was on my plate last week and just canceled ahead of time.  But I didn't, so my apologies if you were looking for that post and didn't find it.  We'll play catch up this week, you can report how successful you've been with finding time to create neat stuff for the last two weeks.  

I managed to spend 8 days in my sewing room over the last 14 days.  That doesn't really sound too bad, but if you look closely, stitching only happened 3 out of the last seven days.  Monday and Tuesday were very busy days, I had to finish up the slide show for the graduation reception and there were technical problems that slowed that down.  Then Tuesday was Drama Teen's 8th grade graduation, which as the 8th grade parents have to do a lot of the prep and organization, was extra stressful.  I'd been working really hard on finishing up 5 quilts.  All of this added to together to produce a pretty significant crash on Wednesday.  I didn't want to even think about doing anything for the next few days.  I was just simply burned out. 

The fostering creativity theme for May has been "explore other creative interests".  Most of us don't have that problem as I pointed out in the May 7th post.  Last week was representative of the down side of being a multipotentialite (defined in the May 14th post).  It's easy to get overwhelmed by all the commitments we've made to our various creative interests when we have deadlines and then just loose the spark to work on anything.  So I took a break, rested and was then ready to get back to the sewing room last weekend.  I basically followed the strategy proposed over at Accidental Creative.  I admitted to being overloaded, then focused on meeting a significant deadline at work, and pretty much said "no" to any new commitments over the holiday weekend.  By Saturday, I was ready to spend the day in the sewing room.  

How well did your creative mojo work over the last 14 days? 

1. Kate @katiemaequilts 2. Julie in GA

3. Amanda 4. Thea

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Design Wall Monday - May 27th

Monday, already?  It's the last Monday in May. June will bring us to mid year (I know, don't remind you).  Being busy sure makes the time go faster.  

We had so much going on early last week that I didn't have time to write a post for last week's Design Wall.  To be honest, there's not much up on the design wall.  I've been working on binding quilts when we weren't running around with Drama Teen's school stuff. Two of the five quilts that need to be done by the end of the month are bound, my first finishes of 2013.  

Evening Star
Pattern from Calico Carriage
Designed by Debbie Maddy
Quilted by Trudy Lindemann

I really like how this one turned out.  The quilting was done by Trudy Lindemann.

The meander in the white spaces really makes the star stand out.   

The backing is a very pale floral print and the binding is the same dark purple as the last border.  Evening Star was the first finish of 2013. The second finish was The Sofa Quilt.

The Sofa Quilt

Pattern is Nicole's Sofa Quilt by Judy Laquidara (available here)

Quilted by Trudy Lindemann

 I love this pattern.  My only regret is that I didn't make the final border just a bit wider so I could show off more of that print.  Otherwise, it turned out beautifully.  This quilt was also quilted by Trudy, she used a floral motif on this one. 

The quilt is backed with a floral striped print that my sister gave me 12 yards of a few years ago. This is the second back that I've managed to eek out of that gift.  

The binding is a green Andover Dimples. I had wanted to use blue, but I was out of the darker blue used in the blocks and the lighter blue in the blocks didn't look right.  

I'm busy binding the OSU quilt right now.  Don't know that I'm going to finish the last three quilts that I had hoped to have done this month, but I've got 4 more days in the month to make that happen.

That's it for what's going on in my sewing room.  Hop over to Patchwork Times to see what's up else where.  

Stash Report - Week 21

The US is celebrating Memorial Day tomorrow, so it's a three day weekend for many of us.  I'm very grateful to have the extra day as it's been a long and busy week.  Drama Teen's graduated from 8th grade this week.  

Hard to believe my baby will be a high school freshman next year.  Someone once warned me that they grow up fast.  That's an understatement!

I've been off the computer for most of the week.  It's just been too hectic with graduation and work.  Not only was I off the computer, the sewing room hasn't seen much of me this week either and sadly that is greatly reflected in this week's stash report.  It doesn't help that I pushed a few buttons a couple of weeks ago to ensure that these two prints were part of my stash.

I couldn't decide between the black or the cream Autumn Fauna by Benartex, so I ordered both.  These will be added to my extensive stash of butterfly fabrics.  At some point, I'm going to need to figure out what to do with all of those.  But for now I just enjoy looking at them.  The damage to the stash report won't hurt for too long. 

Used last week:  0 yards
Added last week :  8 yards

Used for 2013:  44.54 yards
Added for 2013:  97.25 yards

Net stashed for 2013:  52.71 yards

Not a stellar week.  I still have three quilts to bind and a new project to start this month, so hopefully I'll make some ground in the "used" column this weekend.  

For more stash management posts, check out the links over at Patchwork Times.  

Catching Up

It's been almost a week since I last posted.  Between Drama Teen's graduation from 8th grade and work deadlines, there just hasn't been time to get on the computer.  When I was home, I was sleeping.  We were so busy with graduation that I completely forgot about the 15 Minute Challenge post this week.  I'll do a catch up post next Tuesday.  

Thanks for all the notes checking up on us after the tornado hit Moore, OK last Monday. We live about 150 miles northeast of that community, but most of my immediate family lives just 20 miles to the north of Moore.  They are all just fine.  My heart goes out to those who lost love ones and those who've lost their homes.  The track of the 1999 tornado was visible from the highway until just recently.  It's the cruelest of fates to have a second F5 follow almost the same track and reopen that old scar.  

There was a tornado, a much smaller one, just south of us Monday. It was close enough to have our downtown offices send people to the shelters.  Drama Teen had walked from school to the company recreation center to work out and texted me that she was heading to the building shelter, which in that building is actually a basement.  It's one of the few in town.  The soil here makes it difficult to build basements, so few homes have them.  We do have a storm shelter in the garage, I blogged about it here.  

We have no plans for this holiday weekend other than to just hang out and catch up on a few things around the house.  Drama Teen's had a busy couple of weeks with finals, 8th grade trip, graduation, last day of school swimming, a sleep over and the end of the year dance.  She finally hit the wall yesterday and was not feeling well.  She slept most of yesterday and was asleep on the couch by 9 last night.  Hopefully she will feel better today when she wakes up.  

Enjoy your weekend!  

Stash Report - Week 20

There are times when life seems to move at the speed of light.  Why that's always when you have way too much stuff to do, I've never understood.  It's the end of the school year and we've got a few extra things to take care of for 8th grade graduation.  So it's been a busy week.  

Unfortunately, last week wasn't so busy that I didn't have time to push a few buttons on the computer.  Connecting Threads came out with a new line called Moonlit Blooms and there was this one print I kept coming back to, so I finally broke down and ordered some of it.

The company also introduced a new swirl pattern in their Quilter's Candy basics line so I ordered some of the white on white.  I'm pretty convinced you can never have too much white on white.  

Thankfully there was some fabric stitching going on to balance out the incoming fabric.  The back for Calico Cats was pieced and then the binding for The Sofa Quilt came out of the stash as well. 

Used last week: 4.8 yards
Added last week:  10 yards

Used for 2013:  44.54 yards
Added for 2013:  89.25 yards

Net stashed for 2013:  44.71 yards

I'm still under a net stashed of 50 yards, which is really pretty good. I've used more fabric the first half of this year than I used the whole of last year.  I'm not meeting the goals I set down for myself at the beginning of the year, but I'm still pleased with the progress I have made with stash management this year.  

Check out all the links over at Patchwork Times to see more stash reports.  

Finishing Projects - Mid Month Update

Hard to believe we are already half way through May.  Lot's going on this month, especially with Drama Teen graduating from 8th grade this year.  Even with all the extra stuff going on, good progress has been made on this month's sewing goals.  

Goal number 1 was to finish getting the binding on the Evening Star quilt.  That's done.

Evening Star
Pattern from Calico Carriage
Designed by Debbie Maddy

That's my first finish of 2013.  If I get the rest of this month's goals done, I'll end the month with five finishes.  

Goal number 2 is to make the binding and get it sewn onto The Sofa Quilt.  The binding is made, attached to the front, and I'm working on hand stitching it to the back.  

The Sofa Quilt

Pattern is Nicole's Sofa Quilt by Judy Laquidara

(available here)

I'm just about to turn the corner on the first side.  This will be finish number 2, hopefully sometime this weekend.

Goal number 5 was to finish the Calico Cats quilt.  Since the beginning of the month all the blocks have been made, the blocks have been sewn together, and the borders added to make it a finished flimsy.  

Calico Cats
Pattern is Fat Cats from the
The Quilter Magazine (July 2006)
by Lucy A. Fazely and Micheal L. Burns

It was sent out for quilting, which is finished now.  It should be back here next week all ready for binding.  

I'm feeling really good about what's been done so far.  Goals 3 and 4 were to make and sew the binding on the OSU Quilt and Sweet Treats.  No progress on those two goals as yet, but I'm sure it will happen this next week.  

Hope your sewing plans for the month have been going well.  I'm ready to get these 5 quilts done.  It's been a bit of a forced march with these as they are gifts that need to be done this month.  It's definitely made me manage my time more effectively, but I'm ready for a few months being able to sew without deadlines.  Too bad, I really should start looking at what I want to get done for Christmas gifts.  

Wordless Wednesday - Spring Memories

15 Minute Challenge - Do you have Multipotentiality?

It's really spring.  How can I tell?  I have the sinus headache to prove it.  I don't get these headaches as often as I used to, which is a really good thing, but it would be an absolute great thing to never get another!   But as I have one, distraction is often a key to surviving what is often a multi-day affliction.  So this morning I've been contemplating and researching this month's fostering creativity theme  which is explore other creative interests in hopes of forgetting I even have a headache.  It's sorta working.  

The value of exploring other creative interests is to keep your mind stimulated and allow you to approach quilting from a different perspective.  As I pointed out last week, many quilting bloggers  have multiple interests that creep into their blog posting.  Even writing a blog is a creative endeavor.  So exploring other creative interests doesn't really seem to be lacking in the crew I follow.  Maybe the biggest challenge for many of us is finding a way to balance all those creative interests.  I certainly struggle with that. There weren't any complete answers in the Google searches I did, but there were some interesting concepts about balance.  

• Developing a Balance by Adam Singer
• Managing Multiple Passions by Anuj Magazine

I also learned a new term "multipotentiality".  According to Wikipedia, multipotentiality refers to "an individual whose interests span multiple fields or areas".  Check out the link, it's an interesting definition.  

So how well did you do this week with staying on task with your quilting, knitting or whatever your craft de jour was last week.  I did pretty well with 6 out of 7 days with at least 15 minutes in the sewing room.  

Link up and share how well you did or didn't do this last week. 

1. Julie in GA 2. Kate @katiemaequilts

3. Lesley A 4. Thea

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Design Wall Monday - May 13th

I was thinking this morning how the tempo and rhythm of life in this house has changed as Drama Teen has grown.  From making sure that she had clean outfits in her diaper bag for daycare to making sure that she has clean spandex and jerseys for a weekend volleyball tournament.  From chasing her around the house when she wanted to play, to driving all over town for 8th grade pictures.  From taking her to the park to play on the slide to dropping her off at the movies for a "date".  In a few years she'll leave for college and the rhythm will shift as dramatically as the day she come home from the hospital.  I'm both looking forward to and dreading that day.  But that is a few years away, so for now I'll just enjoy the ride.  

One reason for all the reflective thinking is the time I've been spending in my sewing room working on 5 quilts that need to be finished before the end of the month.  The last of those five , Calico Cats, became a finished flimsy on Saturday.  

Calico Cats
Pattern is Fat Cats from the
The Quilter Magazine (July 2006)
by Lucy A. Fazely and Micheal L. Burns

The backing was pieced yesterday.  Hopefully this will be on it's way to Trudy for quilting before the end of the day.  The colors are actually brighter than what the picture shows.  I like how it turned out.  I just hope the family friend enjoys it.  This quilt has been on my bucket list since I saw the pattern in the magazine.  It feels good to get one more project off the PIGS list and the fabric out of the stash.  Now that this one is going out for quilting, I'll be spending the next week binding the previous four quilted projects.  There should be lots of finishing in May.  

That's my design wall this week.  Check out Patchwork Times to view more works in progress.  

Stash Report- Week 19

No big plans for Mother's Day here. My Guy made me date nut scones for breakfast, which is one of my favorites.  There is talk of making something on the grill for dinner, My Guy and Drama Teen are still working out what that will be.  No plans to be out and about, so I should get in some nice stitching time this afternoon.  

Calico Cats became a finished top yesterday and I got a start cutting out the back, but didn't get it all sewn together.  So this week's stash report is a bit anemic.  

Used last week: 1.76 yards
Added last week:  0 yards

Used for 2013:  39.67 yards
Added for 2013:  79.25 yards

Net stashed for 2013:  39.58 yards

Not a bad week though.  Nothing in and a bit out.  My net stashed is just under what I've used this year.  So I'm not too far out of balance with my the fabric in versus the fabric out.  Definitely better than I've done in past years.  

Check out all the reports from fellow stash "busters" over at Patchwork Times.  

Wordless Wednesday - Oklahoma Spring

15 Minute Challenge And What Else Do you Do?

It's Tuesday already?  Time flies when you are having fun and when you have deadlines.  I'm working madly to finish up Calico Cats, which needs to be done before the end of the month.  On the bright side, it's been easy to get in my 15 minutes each day and then some.  

I'm finding the deadlines are extremely helpful in getting one into the sewing room. One more week with 7 out of 7 days that I've found time to sew.  As much as I enjoy playing in my sewing room, having a deadline is a lot like having a job.  I'm ready to finish up the 5 quilts for this month so I can go back to playing a bit more and not have to focus on just a few projects.  On the bright side, having to finish up these projects has been really good for the stash report and I will have 5 finishes by the end of the month.  

With the new month, also comes a new fostering your creativity theme.  This month we'll explore how other creative interests can influence your overall creativity.  Quilters have a lot of other creative interests.  Lynn at Never to Hot to Stitch also knits.  Shay at Quilting in My Pyjamas does a lot of home decorating, as well as, expressing her creativity in the kitchen when she's not at the sewing machine.  Marti over at The Next Fifty Years makes furniture in addition to stitching up fabric.  Barbara showcases her beautiful photographs as well as her beautiful quilts on her Cat Patches blog.  Thea of California Dreamin' fame makes some awesome diaper cakes and other baby shower creations from baby blankets, burp cloths and other baby stuff.  The list of alternate creative interests is endless, these are just a few examples.  

Do you have other creative outlets besides quilting? Does having other outlets affect your quilting projects?  Or maybe it just affects the time you have to quilt?   How did that go this week?  Did you find 15 minutes to stitch or did you pursue your other creative interest for the week?  Use Mr. Linky to share where your creative time went this week.  

Design Wall Monday - May 6th

It was a wet and cold weekend, which was perfect for sitting in the sewing room doing some stitching.  I did get to do a bit of that before and after the volleyball tournament this weekend.  Club ball is now ended, but this week are the try outs for the high school team.  So practice sessions may still be going on, but at least there won't be any weekend games for a while.  

Over the last week I've been working mainly on Calico Cats as it needs to be finished this month.  

Calico Cats
Pattern is Fat Cats from the
The Quilter Magazine (July 2006)
by Lucy A. Fazely and Micheal L. Burns

The blocks are all done and the sashing has been started.  The rows haven't been sew together yet, hopefully I'll finish adding all the binding strips and make some head way on sewing the rows together tonight.

The Mon Ami blocks are back up on the secondary design wall. 

Quilt of Valor
Modified from Mon Ami
by Miss Rosie's Quilt Company

The half square triangles that make up the Friendship Star blocks are a good leaders and enders project while I finish up Calico Cats.  

That's it for my Design Wall Monday.  Check out all the other Monday design walls over at Patchwork Times.  

Stash Report - Week 18

It's cold wet and rainy, so yesterday was a good day to spend some time in the sewing room.  Actually, it's been pretty much cold and wet most of the last week.  We actually had snow flakes coming down Thursday night.  It's been such a weird spring for us.  We really needed the rain, the last two years we've had drought conditions.  So I'm glad to see the rain, but I do wish it would warm up a bit.  My winter coat is more than ready to be retired for the season.  

I've been able to get in a solid hour of stitching most nights this week.  Sweet Treats needed a back before it could be shipped off for quilting.  That made up the bulk of the out column this week.

Used last week:  5.48 yards
Added last week:  0 yards

Used for 2013: 37.91 yards
Added for 2013:  79.25 yards

Net stashed for 2013:  41.34 yards

At least my amount stashed isn't much bigger than my amount used. This has actually been a pretty good year for me, less than 100 yards in total and almost 40 yards out at just about midyear.  I've definitely been in worse shape by this point.  So even though I'm not meeting my goals, it's still been a good year in terms of stash management.  

Check out more tales of the stash over at Patchwork Times. 

May - 2013 The Year of the Finished Project

It's the first Thursday in May, time to fess up to what did and didn't get done in my quest to finish up a few quilt projects.  I'm linking up with our lovely hostess Lynn over at Never to Hot to Stitch.  

My list of goals for April was pretty ambitious.  How did it work out?  

April
1. Evening Star
	Finish binding
2 The Sofa Quilt
	Make binding
	Sew binding on
	Hand stitch binding to back
3.  OSU Quilt
	Add borders				Done
	Make backing				Done
	ship off for quilting				Done
4.  Sweet Treats
	Assemble blocks and sashing				Done
	Add borders				Done
	Make Backing				Done
	ship off for quilting				Done
5.  Calico Cats
	Make 8  blocks				4 done
	Assemble blocks and sashing
	Add borders
	Make backing
	ship off for quilting

Here's a visual of last month's progress.  

So two finished tops and one more row added to Calico Cats.  Really not a bad month.  I'll have to step it up in May as I need to finish the above three, plus get the binding on two others.  

May
1. Evening Star
	Finish binding
2 The Sofa Quilt
	Make Binding
	Sew Binding on
3.  OSU Quilt
	Make Binding
	Sew Binding on
4.  Sweet Treats
	Make Binding
	Sew Binding on
5.  Calico Cats
	Make 4  blocks
	Assemble blocks and sashing
	Add borders
	Make backing
	ship off for quilting
	Make Binding
	Sew Binding on

A very ambitious list.  I'm sure 1 through 4 are doable, but number 5 is going to be a stretch.  Wish me luck!  

Click on over to Never to Hot to Stitch for more finished project progress.