Week 33, 2013 Stash Report and Recap

Another drive, another binding.  Knowing that we would be going back down to Madison this weekend, I buckled down on Friday to get A Walk in the Park quilted and the binding sewn on so I could hand stitch it in the car. 

Since I was in a time crunch and I’m not sure what I’ll do with this one I just quilted an overall meander around the frames and some swirls in the centers.

Over the past nine years we’ve made the trip to Madison dozens of times.  It’s usually around 2 hours door to door so that gives me a good chunk of uninterrupted time for binding.  The drive is not that pretty so I’m not really missing any sightseeing.  Typically we head back home late in the day and I drive. Last night we were tired from a long day but truly enjoyed the drive home.  It was a magnificent sunset and the colors were beautiful.  Of course when the pictures are taken from inside a moving car it just doesn’t do the panoramas justice.

This ended up being a very productive week.  I finished three quilts so my totals are inching up.  I bought a little bit of fabric this week, but only white and off-white backgrounds.

My weekly stats:
Used this week:  26 yards (9 Heather Bailey log cabin, 10 blue and yellow UFO, 7 A Walk in the Park)
Used year to date:  245 yards
Purchased this week:  8 (backgrounds)
Purchased year to date: 88 yards
Net year to date:  157 yards used

Check out other weekly stash reports at Patchwork Times.

 

Technorati Tags: 2013 finishes,stash report,A Walk in the Park

You’re Gonna Miss This

My daughter is messy. I mean MESSY as in can't-stand-to-see-a-clear-surface messy. She’s been that way since she was a baby.  This summer she was in full mess-making mode with sewing projects, scrapbooking, painting, photography, etc., etc., etc.  And that’s not to mention the laundry, dishes, papers, books, magazines and other things she left everywhere.  It seems like every day I said, “the table needs to be cleared off so we can eat dinner” and “we have to have a place to sit in the family room.”

This week was particularly bad because she was in a mad dash to finish projects before she had to leave for school.  Just when I thought everything was packed up and ready to go she decided there was time for one last project so she rushed to Wal-Mart for Hanes white v-neck t-shirts and a tie-dye kit.  As luck would have it, the back to school packs have bonus t-shirts so she dyed seven of them! 



This whole week all I could think about was the Trace Adkins song You’re Gonna Miss This.  It was there on Tuesday as we moved her furniture and household goods from one apartment to another and it was with me as she packed her clothes and personal items for the final move yesterday.  It was in my head until the van was packed to the gills and the theme from The Beverly Hillbillies replaced it!! 

Anyway, we got everything down to Madison and spent the day unpacking, organizing and helping her get settled.  Jim put together furniture and shelves.  I put new shelf paper in the kitchen.  She worked on putting new photo collages together.  It wasn’t important to her at all that she couldn’t yet sleep in her bed—what was important is that she was surrounded by pictures of family and friends.  To her, that’s what makes her apartment “home.” 

Since she’ll graduate this year (and hopefully find a job!) she’ll probably never live with us again.  As the day wound down all I could think was I’m gonna miss this.  I’m gonna want this back.  I really wish these years hadn’t gone by so fast.

Technorati Tags: family

Moving Day

Yesterday Jim and I went down to Madison with Jen to move her into a new apartment for school this fall.  Madison is always an adventure on “Moving Day” and we lucked out a little bit this year.  Nearly all leases around campus run from August 15-August 14.  That means most apartments are being emptied on the 14th and belongings are being stored in cars, vans, motel rooms and the streets until students can move into their new places on the 15th.  This year, however, the owners of Jen’s new apartment allowed her and her roommate to move in a couple of days early so we could just move straight from one place to another.  It was so nice and we were able to get everything finished in one day.  Even the weather cooperated--sunny with temps in the low 70s. 

I have never been so happy to move one of my kids out of an apartment more than I was yesterday.  The place she was living is in deplorable condition.  I’m really not sure how they could even get an occupancy permit from the city in order to rent that place to students.  Anyway, she’s out of there now and living in the cutest little CLEAN house on the quiet side of campus. 
Woo hoo!

After the move was finished we celebrated the end of an era by going for pizza at Café Porta Alba.  After nine straight years, this will be our last college moving day because our baby is now a senior!

During the drive I managed to finish the binding on this log cabin quilt.  I just love the citrus colors of the fabric.  It’s from the Pop Garden line by Heather Bailey. 

I’m still working to improve my machine quilting skills and I tried quilting curved feathers in the setting triangles.  They’re certainly not perfect but fairly decent for a first try.

The diagonal stripe was just perfect for the binding!

Technorati Tags: 2013 finishes,log cabin,quilting,Madison

An Old UFO Finished

This quilt started as a sample for a demo I did on mitered borders.

This quilt is finished now, but it has a secret!  About a third of the quilting was finished when I ran out of thread and found out that particular blue and yellow variegated thread had been discontinued.  I tried to find a suitable replacement but had no luck so the project was abandoned.  Recently it turned up in a stack of UFO’s and I decided to just GET IT DONE!  I had a spool of Maxi-Lock blue and white variegated so I used it.  I don’t think anyone will know the difference.  Ugh! I should have finished this a long time ago!

The picture on the left is the original thread and the one on the right is the replacement.  The difference in thread may not be obvious but the difference in my machine quilting skills sure is!  This is a good example of how practice pays off.  LOL!

As I mentioned in the beginning, this was for a mitered border class. Usually I just add straight borders but after seeing this one, I may try for more mitered ones.  I sure like the way it looks, especially when there are three or more borders.  What do you think?  Do you miter your borders or do straight corners?

Technorati Tags: UFO,quilting,2013 finishes,borders