Design Wall Monday - June 9th

It was a really nice weekend.  My Guy and I took Friday off, so it was a three day weekend for us.  Even so, the weekend was just too short.  Not enough time for both chores and stitching, but some of both got done.  

I'm still working on stitching down the binding to the back of Sweet Treat.
 

Sweet Treat
Designed by Judy Laquidara
(pattern available here)

Just one side left to stitch down.  So this should be a finished quilt this week.  

I've been working on a couple of projects over on the machine. One is the May NewFO, which is intended to be a gift for a friend who recently retired.

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

Only 6 blocks done so far.  I've decided to sew the blocks together in groups of 4, then assemble those into rows.  It will make all the required seam matching a little less crazy I hope. I love the pattern these blocks form.  

Up on the other design wall is Mon Ami, my QOV project.

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

There are now 20 blocks done, just 10 left to go.  I've mainly been working on these blocks as a leaders and enders project.  This is not the final block layout, the blocks have just been added as they were finished.  The more blocks there are up on the wall, the more I like this project.  

That's it for what's up on my design walls.  You can share what's up on yours and check out what's up on everyone else's over at Patchwork Times.  

Replacement for Google Reader

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

I've finally made a decision on what to do with Google Reader going away at the end of the month.  After looking around a bit, I'm going to use Bloglovin.  Not that I've claimed my blog.  I'm going to go back to stitching.

Slow Stitching Sunday - June 9th

In last week's Slow Stitching post I said that May had been the month of bindings.  Well it looks like June is going to be another month of bindings.  That's really OK with me as the binding is the last step before a finish and I really like finishes.  

The binding for Sweet Treats got made on Friday and machine stitched to the front.  Yesterday, I got started on hand stitching it to the back.

I've just turned the second corner, so just two more sides to finish.  I have some chores to do this morning, but I'm hopeful that I'll be able to finish up the other two sides during the NASCAR race this afternoon.  If that does happen, I'll have finish number 4 for the year.    

Check out Kathy's Quilts for glimpses of more slow stitching projects.  

Stash Report #23 for 2013

It's been a nice weekend so far.  My Guy and I took Friday off work and just hung out together.  Drama Teen was spending the day at the zoo with the summer camp where she volunteers.  We don't get the chance to just be together as a couple very often. Drama Teen has enough going on that we usually end up using our monthly day off to do something with her.  Not that we usually mind, it's just nice to get to be on our own for a while.  The rest of the weekend has been spent on household chores and laundry.  Since we've not been running so much on the weekends, the house is beginning to reach some semblance of order. 

Some stitching happened this week, but as most of it has been binding work, not a lot of fabric going out.  

Used last week: 0.89 yards 
Added last week:  7 yards

Used for 2013:  46.17 yards
Added for 2013:  104.25 yards

Net stashed for 2013:  58.08 yards

The fabric in is from the Fat Quarter shop.  They were having a sale on some tone on tones, which I'm still a bit short on in my stash.  So I took advantage of the sale to order a couple.  

The red is from Wilmington Prints Essentials Sparkle line and the blue is Rajasthan Basics by Jinny Beyer for RJR Fabrics.  I just fell in love with the richness of the blue fabric, which prompted me to go back and push a few more buttons to order some of the other colors from the line. Bad I know, but tone on tones are something I just don't have much of and at 50% off it was too good to pass up.  

That's it for my stash report this week.  May you have much better luck at resisting temptation than I'm having.  Check out all the other stash busting and enhancement going on over at Patchwork Times.  

June - 2013 Year of the Finished Project

Lynne over at Never too Hot to Stitch decided that 2013 needed to be a year of finishes.  Since it's always more fun to deal with UFOs and other unfinished projects as a group, she's hosting a challenge to help the rest of us finish up our projects too.

I had some pretty ambitious challenge goals for May as I was hoping to finish up 5 quilts last month.  So how did I do?  

May

1.  Evening Star          Done

          Finish binding

2.  The Sofa Quilt          Done

          Make binding

          Sew binding on

3.  OSU Quilt          

          Make binding          Done

          Sew binding on

4.  Sweet Treats

          Make binding

          Sew binding on

5. Calico Cats

          Make 4 blocks                                 Done

          Assemble blocks and sashing            Done

          Add borders                                    Done

          Make backing                                  Done

          Ship off for quilting                         Done

          Make binding

          Sew binding on

Not a bad month at all.  I finished 2 quilts and had a third almost done.  Plus managed to finish the blocks for a fourth quilt and get it assembled and quilted.  Though I didn't get all 5 quilts done, it was still an excellent month.  Evening Star and The Sofa Quilt are my first finishes of 2013. 

So what are my goals for June?  One thing they are not is as ambitious as my May goals were.

June

1.  OSU Quilt

          Finish binding

2.  Sweet Treats

           Make binding

           Sew binding on

3.  Calico Cats

           Make binding

           Sew binding on

4.  Neutral Gems

           Make 23 blocks

5.  Mon Ami

           Make 12 blocks

I have a lot of binding to do this month, which is slow stitching.  I plan to mix that up with some machine stitching on some ongoing projects. Neutral Gems is a gift for a friend who just recently retired and Mon Ami is intended to be a QOV, so these are the next two quilts I want to finish. 

Lynn hasn't posted this month's linky party yet, I know she's been busy. Once that post is up, I'll link up with all the others striving to reduce their UFO piles.