Still making sashing....

Ok Susanne, I may be able to sew from EQ.... but I have a really hard time with the math that I have to do after the designing. :(
It helps a lot if I'd count the pieces right. Sheesh!!
I missed counting a dozen sashing strips. OMGosh!!
That's a LOT!
12!!!
How could I have missed that many???
Well I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder!! heehee

I now have my third row together (it's lookin' good) .... so today I'll be preping the rest of the sashing and getting them sewn together. I'll post another pic later when the blocks are all done.
Then I'll just have to make my mind up about the border. I have a simple strip border already designed .... but ..... I always think....hummmm what if????

I wish I knew if there was a way to respond to comments personally. But I'm pretty sure that unless you have your email enabled I can't "reply" directly to you.
So I'll just do it here.
Mary, Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.
Jacquie ... Thanks girl! :)
Crispy. Yes I do love EQ. In fact.... every single quilt I make goes into EQ first before a stitch is taken. Even if I have a pattern I still like to play with it and see if I can tweek it around just a bit. Glad you liked my place. Come back anytime.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Sashing plan...

The last few days I've been cutting and sewing the sashings and squaring up all the blocks for "Dee's" Baltimore.
I designed the quilt layout in EQ6.
When I was ready to cut the sashing I started with the star points and cut all of them out by using the printed templete.
Then I did the same thing with the muslim strips and then sewed the points on.
The sashing measures 3.5" x 12.5".
It took me a day and a half just to get them finished.
If I knew then what I know now I would have used my Tri-Rec ruler for the points. But I was too far into it before I thought of them. And since I'd already cut my red I didn't want to waste it. But I do think I made things a lot harder doing it the way I did.
Oh well...live and learn.

I thought I had all of the applique' blocks finished.
When I was ironing and squaring up..... I was missing one.
I still have the last one in my sewing basket. Waiting!
I had layed it aside and completly forgot to finish it.
So ..... looks like I'm going to have some handwork for awhile as I watch tv at night.

Here's a sneek peek at just two of the blocks on my design wall.
I've laid out all the blocks on my floor and OMGosh it is going to be sooooo pretty.
Thanks again Dee for the patterns.

Quilting this baby will be a whole 'nother story......

I've been playing...

Last year I bought these cute little mini wall hanging kits (12 month BOM).
The patterns are from Patch Abilities and the kits were put together and sold through Quilters Delight in Holdrege. Each month's design is just soooo cute and when I saw them I just HAD to have them.
I brought them home and that's as far as I got with them. Sheesh!!
I've had them sitting in one of my drawers all this time.... so yesterday I decided to get started on one of them. They measure 6" x 21".
I figure it will qualify for one of my UFO's completed this month. I did a blanket stitch machine applique' using black thread. So easy!!
I'll probably do a few more while I'm in the mood.

Here's my choice....

And it looks like this is the one most of you also picked. We have good taste huh? heehee It's about 15" square. I'll probably get it quilted and the binding on today.
Remember those scraps I've been cutting up? I pulled out my 1.5" squares and set them in the border for this.
Ok I did have to cut the white squares....but it was sure nice to have all these assorted scraps to just pull out and sew. This little piece has sure made a believer out of me. I am much more inclined to finish trimming up my scraps now that I know how handy it is to have pre-cut squares.
Thanks for your opinions everyone. Jacquie it looks like you and Don are two of a kind. LOL

Tell me your choice please.

At our guilt meeting Monday night the mystery was solved. (see Tue 10th post)
We were told to draw a line diagonally on the back of the light squares and sew 1/4" on each side of the line.
We then found someone to partner with and we each were to cut along the line to make (2) half squares and we each keep one half and give our partner the other. We wound up with scrappy squares and could then take them home and put in any layout we wanted.
I've played around and have these layouts to choose from.















I think I have decided on the one I like the best but I thought it would be fun to see what you all think.
Don picked out his favorite one and it wasn't at all the one I like. Isn't it fun to see how different people have such different ideas?

Which one do you like the best?

Which would you call this?

Romantic???
or Thrifty?

Yesterday morning started out just like any other normal day.
D made his regularly scheduled trip to the grocery store to pick up the usual milk and bread etc that we always seem to need.
I spent a couple of hours in my sewing room as usual.
Keep in mind that, by now Valentines Day had come and gone without incident or fanfare .... pretty much just like any other day around here.
No big deal.

Then along came lunch time yesterday.
By this time Don had already made it back home and had put away the needed groceries.

I walked into the kitchen to fix lunch......
and saw this....
sitting on the table......

OMGosh!! I laughed so hard I cried.

Check out the price!!


Yep!! That's my guy!!!
hahahaha

SCRAPs....SCRAPs....SCRAPs....

Boy do I have SCRAPS!!
I've saved scraps of all sizes!
I've saved scraps of all colors!
All kinds of scraps!
All shapes.
I have scraps from the very first project I made when I started quilting.
(And that's only been about three or four years)
You see.....I spend a lot of time surfing the web and I've learned a LOT about quilting.
And one thing I've learned is.... I must save scraps if I want to be a real quilter!
Quilters save scraps! That's a fact!!
And I'm a quilter.
Hence...... I now have this......









Beautiful aren't they?

Oh but wait...... Let me clarify something here... there is a limit to the size of scrap I will save though.
I only save the bigger scraps.
I do NOT save triangle ears...OR selvage edges!
NO no no!!!
There is a limit to my madness! ;)

Sooooooo Yesterday I was in a mood!
An organizing mood. (I get in these moods occasionally)
I decided I really needed to organize my scraps.
So I could make 'something' really nice.

Now this was not just a hap-hazard cutting spree I went on.
I have been thinking about what I want to do with these scraps for a loooong time.
I've read a lot of different blogs (that's how I learn stuff) and I know lots and lots of quilters make really nice quilts out of scraps.
So I thought..... hummmmm
OK I can do this!!!
Time to roll up my sleeves and start getting these scraps in some kind of order.
And I started cutting!
I cut strips and I cut squares.
Lots of different sizes.... (just in case)
I probably spent about 5 or 6 hours yesterday cutting.
See those drawers up there?
This is pretty much what I have left after cutting through one drawer.
Sheeeeesh!
I'll be at this till the national debt is paid off!!!!!

Our guild surprise...

We have our guild meeting next Monday night and our email notice told us what we are to bring.
We will be sewing ?? something ??.
This is what we're to take to the meeting along with our machines etc.
There are 36 - 2.5" squares and apparently we won't be using our own. Lee is being VERY secretive about it so I guess we've got ourselves a mystery!
This should be interesting.???

I had the last of this series of shots in my knee yesterday so I'm good to go for another 6 months or so. Yeah!!


The sun is coming up golden this morning.
Have a good day

Whew!! I'm finished!

The monster is done and out the door. I finished quilting on the donation quilt just after lunch. It was all my poor little frame could handle and certainly all that I wanted to do.
I had to take it off to do the borders on each side since I just didn't have enough space to do the bead board border all in one swipe.
4 times on and 4 times off! That's sure enough for me.
Here is a pic of just one corner of the quilt. It is so big (90 X 103) that I wouldn't have anywhere to hang it to show anyway.... so this will have to do. (I forgot to get a pic of the back) :(

I did a freehand meander in each block and ditched the pink sashing and used a ruler for the bead board.
It seemed like evey time I turned around I was replacing the bobbin. I was surprised how many it took. I counted 6 empty Bottom Line pre-wounds.

I'm very glad it is done. Now I can concentrate on my own stuff.
Hummmmm???? What to do.....what to do????

Guild donation quilt...

This is what I've been working on for days now. Our guild will be donating this quilt to our local Hospice auction they hold every year. One of the ladies in our guild bought the fabric and we had a sew night at our guild meeting where we set the strips into blocks.
The fabric that was chosen is just beautiful.... but the Rail Fence pattern just didn't show nicely and the quilt was looking a bit blah after she had the top layed out. So the gal that was setting the blocks together brought it over and I EQed it and we made the decision to use pink sashing to set each block apart. That worked! It's now very pretty and soft and very much worthy to be a Hospice quilt.

I'm now in the process of quilting it. And OMGosh it is big! It's just about all that my poor frame can handle. I don't usually do Queen size quilts so I'm a bit intimidated by it's size.

However....after a few sleepless nights of pondering what in the world I'd gotten myself into.... I decided to Keep It Simple!
I'm doing a beadboard outer border and a meander in each block. I'm also SID the sashing. I'll have to take it off the frame and turn it to do the side borders.... but that should be easy enough. I've never done it tho....so I'm hoping I have it figured out.
Keep your fingers crossed for me.