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Archive of entries posted on October 2009

UFO Thursday

Do other people’s UFOs count?  I got three small quilts done this week that weren’t mine.  I used a favorite pantograph on one that I haven’t used for a while.  I have to remember it more often; it was just the right quilting for this throw-sized quilt.  It’s Double Rose Vine by Norma Sharp.  This isn’t a very sharp picture because the light was so bad, and if I used flash, I would lose the quilting in the picture.

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I’m working on finishing up three pairs of socks that are waiting for their mates to get knitted up so they can go in my sock drawer.  Winter’s comin’, and my feet will be cold!

Since I finished the applique class, I’m going to re-tackle the appliqued leaves on the Pinwheels & Posies quilt from 2.5 years ago.  I have 72 leaves appliqued on, and 72 to go.  Hopefully, with my new-found applique skills, the second half will go better.

–Sue

Wednesday’s Puzzle

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The weatherman was right this week, it is a rainy day today.  I looked outside and thought, wow, the colors are really saturated today.  Then I laughed at myself.  EVERYTHING is saturated today — it’s raining!  I have read, though, not to be hesitant about taking photos on rainy or overcast days because often the colors are richer. 

I don’t usually take a picture this direction (it’s toward a road, and I’d rather look at the pond), plus I had to open the window to get a good view without window glare.  This is a pretty shot of the walking path as it comes in from the street and goes around our little pond.  For a little mid-week diversion,  it’s today’s puzzle:

Click to Mix and Solve

Telephoto Tuesday

Ahhh, fall!  I should be outdoors, feet rustling through the leaves, camera slung around my neck, taking wonderful autumn photos, right?  Nooo, I get a sinus headache just thinking of all the dust, molds & mildew, and whatever else is lurking out there.  Here are a couple of Out My Window pictures from this morning.  I thought I should post some real fall pictures, since the last outside pictures I posted had snow in them!  And yes, that was this year!  This morning’s view of the pond:

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Here’s a snowy peek back to the photo from a week ago today.  We have to enjoy the sunshine while we can; rain is on its way.

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The crab apple tree out my kitchen window has been providing apple snacks for the robins.  They will come back and eat the withered left-overs in the spring.  No robin in this picture, just apples:

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Remember my crayon challenge I had on my “design floor” yesterday for our guild meeting last night?  I was a month early — it’s not due until the November meeting!!!  The good news is, I’m done a month early.  Here a photo of the little candle mat quilted:

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  And it’s really true — it isn’t a quilt until it’s quilted!

–Sue

ps:  I’m off to my 3rd (of three) applique classes this afternoon.  I have my applique pieces all stitched down except for five of the berries — I saved those so I would have something to sew during class today.  Then I will have to decide how to quilt it — machine or by hand???

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Design Wall Monday!

I love Mondays — when I have something new to share on my design wall.  Today?  One repeat, two new.  The repeat first:  My design wall is totally dominated by JudyL’s Freeze Frame.  The border made up of boxes in boxes needs to be sewn together, then sewn on, along with three more borders. This quilt is all from stash except for the buttery gold fabric.  I don’t remember the finished measurements, but it will be something like 80 x 100″.  Thank you, Judy, for sharing your patterns!

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Here is the little centerpiece mat for our crayon challenge at guild tonight (where my colors are yellow and orange).  The pattern is from a kit I bought at Rosebud’s Cottage at the state fair; the fabric is from stash:

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And finally is my first turned-edge hand-stitched applique that I’m doing in the class at Quilt Cove:

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This piece is 16″ x 20″, and it’s from a new Lori Smith book (all 16″ x 20″ wall hangings in the book).  I love the interest the pieced border gives, although I didn’t love doing it.  The little blocks finish at 2″.  The applique was surprisingly fun.  Yes, I said FUN.  Who knew?  I always thought applique was a four-letter word.  No, I’m not ready to tackle a queen-sized appliqued quilt, and probably never will be.  It’s just nice to know that I now have the “tools” to do this.

Another note on this little wall hanging.  I used a different border from the book.  This pattern had a border using some long strips for the first borders and I made this from a Moda Gypsy Rose layer cake (10″ squares), so I wouldn’t have had the longer fabric pieces.  Besides, I loved the look of this border!

And don’t you love the pre-cuts (jelly rolls, layer cakes, charm packs, etc.) when you need a variety of coordinated fabrics but don’t need much of each?  And a bonus:  this layer cake was in my stash!  Stash busted!!!

Click here to visit JudyL’s site and see what other people have on their design walls this week.

–Sue

Stash-Busting Sunday

I’m still playing along with Judy L’s stash-busting Sundays, and tracking what fabric gets used and what fabric I buy.  It’s been an eye-opener for me this year.  I agree with the comments I’ve had that you can have success without reaching your goal.  I have to admit that it’s very unlikely that I will be anywhere near my goal of using 75 yards this year. 

This week I bought a wonderful roll of Civil War reproduction fabrics.  There are twenty-two 6 1/2″ x 22″ pieces.  You don’t find an assortment like this very often (or ever!), and I couldn’t resist for a small scrappy project.  Calculates out to be 2.25 yards of CW reproduction goodness purchased this week.

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I took the .5 yard of peach I bought last week back out of stash and it’s going to be the backing and binding on the little 20″ x 16″ applique I’m doing for class.  I can’t wait to show it to you tomorrow.  I can applique!!!  It’s turning out beautifully, and I couldn’t be more pleased with it.  It was so worth taking a class I don’t have time for and doing a wall hanging I don’t need to learn Pam’s techniques.  If you live in the Twin Cities, you might want to look at Quilt Cove’s classes for next quarter (Jan-Feb-Mar) and check out Achievable Applique.  Picture coming on Design Wall Monday.

I also used 1.25 yards of fall fabrics to make a small table topper / candle mat for our guild’s crayon challenge (we each pulled two crayons out of a bag and the challenge is to make something with those two colors.  Mine was almost too easy — orange and yellow).  Photo tomorrow on the Design Wall.  1.75 total yards used this week.

  • Used this week:  1.75 yards
  • YTD:  181.5 yards used
  • Purchased this week:  2.25 yards
  • YTD:  178 yards purchased
  • YTD Net:  - 3.5 yards
  • I’ve learned a lot about how much fabric I actually use in a year.  I would never have guessed it’s this much.  Of course, I wouldn’t have guessed that I buy as much as I do either!  I’ve really made an effort to use fabric in my stash, and so a good portion of what I’ve purchased this year is new stash.  In that light, even though my stash is likely to stay around the same amount, it has improved!  I have a lot of lovely new fabric on my shelves (in addition to some fabric that is still properly aging to perfection).

    –Sue

    Quilt For An Hour

    JudyL’s latest QFAH is called Freeze Frame.  Mine is still on the design wall, waiting for its borders.

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    However, my Aunt Bert finished hers (pictured above).  She did a great job on it, and I’d like to mention that this is her first real quilt!  She made her very first quilted project the end of June during a visit to Minnesota (a pot holder).  She’s come a long way since then!  What a great job, and it will be fun to quilt it for her. 

    Click here to visit JudyL’s site and see links to other Freeze Frame quilts.

    –Sue

    UFO-Busting Thursday!

    I always THINK about my UFOs on Thursdays — I just don’t always DO anything about them.

    Today, I took out my Shine On Bayou Cane (Judy Laquidara’s design) which has  been an on-again/off-again project since last fall about this time.  I started out by making two smaller quilts.  Since that time, I’ve decided to make one big quilt for DS#1 Rob, if he likes it when it’s done.  

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    I have 24 blocks done, and I have 24 more blocks semi-ready to sew together (above).  I’m short 72 of the corner HSTs for the blocks and 23 of the assorted-color centers.  Today I cut the 23 additional centers.  I decided to use Thangles ™ for the HSTs (half-square triangles, for you non-quilters) instead of the draw-a-line-diagonally, sew-1/4″ each-side-of-line, cut-on-diagonal-line method!  *whew*  That was hard to type.  So I have my strips cut and all ready to start sewing those HSTs.  Once they are done, these blocks are easy-peasy nine-patches.

    I have tons of the light and dark background fabrics, so I know I will have no problem changing methods half-way through like this.

    So a QUESTION OF THE DAY:  There are many ways of doing HSTs.  If given a choice, what’s your favorite method of doing HST blocks?

    –Sue

    PS:  Hang in there and keep working on your UFOs.  (I’ve been bad.  I’ved started two new things since I’ve finished one old thing.)

    A Piglet Puzzle

    This picture from the State Fair makes me smile every time I look at it.  Look at the size of his ears!

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    This pink little piggy is today’s puzzle:

     Click to Mix and Solve

    –Sue

    Happy Anniversary…

    to our favorite couple, son Tony and DIL Lynn!  It’s hard to believe it’s two years today since they married.  And look at what a fabulous day they had:

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    May the sun always be shining on you, where ever you go.  We love you! 

    Mom & Dad

    (ps:  aren’t they a handsome couple???  If you follow my blog, you might want to know that they are Milo’s people.)

    Telephoto Tuesday — Is it Spring Yet???

    This was our view out the back yesterday (Monday) morning, and it was still snowing:

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    A close-up view of some sumac bushes:

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    But my favorite sight was of the hummingbird feeder…

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    I guess I should take it down; I don’t think they’re coming back any time soon!

    On the news last night, they said this is only the 4th time we’ve had a second snow this early in October.  We don’t need to be making these kinds of entries in the record books!

    And to add insult to injury, it’s COLD.  It was 28 degrees when I got up this morning.  11:00 am, we are all the way up to 34!

    –Sue