Glad that's done...

Well, I did it.  I taught my first demo last night at my local quilt guild.  It was on back-basting needleturn hand applique. (Say that 3 times fast!)  And I must say I enjoyed it.  They are a great group of ladies and it was all very relaxed.  And for those that bring back their sample blocks in the next couple of months, I'll join them all together into a charity quilt.  Because really, what can you do with a single 8" butterfly or Sunbonnet Sue block?

Sample blocks from demo...

So now that's done and I can move on to the next thing(s).  I'm currently sewing the binding down on the Spider Web quilt and then that too will be complete.  I'd like to get started on making block 3 of the sampler our bee is doing.  The first 3 blocks are all hand-pieced and I'm learning a lot.  I finished block 2 (a 6" and 12" version) just last week.

Blocks 1 (6") and 2 (6" & 12")

Although the stars look blue on my monitor, they're really black.  Block 3 teaches us english paper piecing which I've done a little bit of before.  I made this quilt for my secret sister last year using this method...

February 2009

Finally I thought I'd share a picture of Winston and his new haircut.  He may look funny but he's a lot more comfortable without the heavy coat...

Until later...

"I am ready for anything and equal to anything through him who infuses inner strength into me.  I am self-sufficient in Christ's sufficiency"

Philippians 4:13 AMP

Stash Report Week #10

March 5-11, 2010

It was tough, but I managed not to buy any fabric this week.  I just got an email from Fabric Depot not even an hour ago that I found very tempting.  I even added some items to my online cart, but fortunately, I closed it before purchasing anything.  There are some beautiful fabric lines out there now - particularly Verna by Kate Spain and Martinique by 3 Sisters.  But as nice as find them, I have enough projects to work on.  My UFO list isn't getting much smaller.

I also didn't get much sewing done this week.  My quilt bee started their sampler last week and our talented teachers (Janet and Jan) taught all of us how to draft a pattern, resize it, make templates and hand piece.  Wow!  They were busy.  And for all their efforts, I managed to finish my first ever hand-pieced block.

6" Mill Wheel Block

I'm pleased with how it turned out although hand sewing all the pieces did result in some frayed edges.  I also see from the picture that I would have benefited from a pressing cloth.  The middle square has a shine on it from the iron.

Other than this lone block, the only other stash I used was to make 6 different blocking cloths.  Janet showed us one during bee and I thought it was ingenious!  Why didn't I ever think of it?  It would have come in handy so many times.

I hope you can see the different markings on it.  This one is for a 6" finished block.  I've labeled the usual divisions of this block - 1.5", 2" and 3" as well as the diagonals.  Next time I need to square up a block this size, I can pin this blocking cloth to my ironing board and then pin my block to it to square it up.

In all, I made one for 6", 8", 9", 10", 12" and 15" block sizes.  I'd like to make one for 16" blocks, but I don't have a big enough ruler yet.

This project didn't use a lot of fabric - only about 1 yard of some canvas I had left over from making leaders for my quilting frame.  But I believe every bit counts.

(Here they are hanging up ready for me to use)

I would have liked to have gotten more quilting done, but every time I sat down at my machine, David showed up.

I find it impossible to free motion quilt when he's lying on top of the quilt.  Maybe I'll have more luck next week...

So to summarize...
Purchased-this-week: 0 yards
Used-this-week: 1 yard
Purchased-to-date: 63.25 yards
Used-to-date: 128.5 yards
Net used: 65.25 yards

Until later...