OPAM Project Report

I'm reporting my January 2010 finished for the WIP group I'm participating in.  I finished 8 projects this month.  (Sorry, but Picasa turned my photos in the create mode but in final photo they turned back.

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Type-u-later,
Tea in MO
http://www.teaquilts.com

Playing Basketball

I finished the Playing Basketball quilt yesterday.  This one is for my nephew.  Just simple bricks that I grid quilted.  Now I need 8 more quilts for friends and family.  I have started another one that I will put on my design wall Monday.

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Type-u-later,
Tea in MO
http://www.teaquilts.com

Vote for My Quilt

Quilting Gallery is having a 2-color quilt contest and I entered my Scrappy Trails quilt.  Please go vote for it (okay vote for your favorite if you must.)  It's just a fun quilt activity I enjoy.
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Type-u-later,
Tea in MO
http://www.teaquilts.com

Geta's Drawing

Geta is having a drawing.  Stop by and leave a comment for a chance to win something pretty.  Hurry before the end of the month!

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Type-u-later,
Tea in MO
http://www.teaquilts.com

Design Wall Monday

EDITED:  Thanks for the wonderful comments.  I appeaciate your thoughts and hope you come back next week.

I have a full design wall.  I got more done than I anticipated.  See for yourself. (Click photo for large view.)

Last week I wanted to piece the heart blocks for the "Love is..." quilt.  Well, I set the blocks, added a header and a few borders!  I have the backing sewed as well.  I've paused to make binding as I don't know if I want red or black.  The more I worked on this top, the more I fell in love with it.  I took blocks that I was not too fond of and now have a fantastic work of art.  The blocks were not all the same size so I had to square them up, making them larger than I would have like.  I had fun designing the borders in Electric Quilt software.

I did baste and quilt the "Musical Bricks" quilt for my nephew.  I was disappointed with this one as I used a poly batt made for long arm machine (I sewed on my domestic machine as I don't have a long arm myself) and it was so stiff I could hardly get it to move through the machine.  I like how the batt feels in the quilt as far as weight and it resembles a wool batting.  However, I could not quilt it like I wanted as it shifted my top pretty darn bad, causing puckers.  My nephew will not even notice so I decided to keep going and use it as a learning experience.  I even pin basted the "Playing Basketball" brick quilt so it's ready for a go at the machine (minus the poly batt of course.)

I sewed the "Crazy About Hearts and Stars" blocks into a top without borders.  I now know what I want to add, but don't feel like tackling it right now.

So, I worked on piecing the "Asian Influence" stacked posey quilt I'm making for my supervisor's retirement in May or June this year.  I had 3 rows of blocks sewn and had gotten bored with it.  I now have the top completed with borders and I have the backing and binding ready to go.

I can see that I need to call upon my great friends with long arm machines to make some appointments.  I hate to do that, but my pile of flimsys are getting bigger and bigger.

Goals for this week?  Let's see...

1.  Quilt Playing Basketball
2.  Pin baste the Love is... quilt top; maybe start quilting it if #1 is done early in the week
3.  Make 3rd Saturday block from The Quilted Fox shop
4.  Make border units for Crazy Hearts/Stars top
5.  Before all that, tidy up the sewing room.

Want to see more design walls?  Go here.
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Type-u-later,
Tea in MO
http://www.teaquilts.com

Quiltathon and Design Wall Monday

I'm combining my Quiltathon and Design Wall Monday into one post as they sort of go together.  I've had a productive weekend. Click photo to see larger version that shows all projects. 

I pieced all 27 of the Crazy About Hearts and Stars blocks. 

I then realized I only need 10 more quilts for friends/family so I went shopping to get theme fabrics.  My nephew like basketball and my great nephew like writing lyrics and setting them to music.  So I cut and pieced 2 sliding bricks tops.  I have the backings pieced and the batting cut to size from yardage.

Then, I decided to work on some heart blocks that I won in a guild raffle.  Of course, none of the blocks were the same size, so I added a frame to them first.  Then I added some text I typed into my embroidery machine as the center white areas were plain, plain, plain and that just wasn't going to work.  I then squared them all to the same size. 

My goals for the week are:

(1) baste and quilt the music quilt

(2) sew the heart blocks into a top (minus the border for now as not sure what size I want the quilt to be)

and (3) sew the crazy stars/hearts into rows (still haven't decided on borders yet)

To see what others are working on go here for Quiltathon or here for Design Wall Monday.

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Type-u-later,

Tea in MO

http://www.teaquilts.com

Design Wall Monday

I've been really busy this week.  I finished two quilts.  If you'd like to see them go here. 

I saw the Mountain Top on another Design Wall Monday blog and decided to make a block myself so  that's on my design wall.  I'm using scrap muslin as the background and the left over pieces from sewing bindings together.  I've been looking for something that uses half square triangles and this is it.  I LOVE this block.

In additon, I started the Crazy About Hearts and Stars by Buggy Barn.  The pattern has 20 blocks but I'm making mine with 25 blocks.  But because of how I wanted my fabrics placed, I'm actually making 27 blocks; two will become pillows.  I started out making one block at a time.  After the fourth block I'd had enough.  I chain pieced the next six.  It worked so well that I then chain pieced the remaining 17 blocks.  I have two more seams to sew to complete the blocks.  I tend to get the blocks pieced pretty fast but then stop at the borders, so my goal now is to finish the blocks, determine a border to get the quilt to queen size and then make back and binding. We'll see...

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Type-u-later,
Tea in MO
http://www.teaquilts.com

Two More Finishes

I finished two quilts this week, Heart's Content and Trip Around the Scrap Basket.  The Heart's Content quilt top is for a great niece.  I now have the 6 quilts done for my nephew's entire family.  I'll show them at my quilt guild next Thursday then I will have some free space in my storage area.  I've been working off and on with them for about 3 years.  I'm glad their off my UFO list!

The second finish is Trip Around the Scrap Basket.  I'm teaching this technique at our guild's retreat in February.  I didn't want to teach the class with just a top.  I've started another one to teach with that's all in batik fabrics.

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Type-u-later,

Tea in MO

http://www.teaquilts.com

Red, White and Blue Stripes AND Next Project

I finished the Red, White and Blue Stripes quilt after work yesterday.  The binding was put on by machine so it only took about an hour and a half.  Now I just need one more quilt for this family.

and had time on my hands.

Since I had not basted the final quilt and had time on my hands, I cut the "Crazy About Stars and Hearts" pattern by Buggy Barn.  I wanted to take the lazy route and just use red, white and blue fabrics.  Had even pulled the FQs from my stash. However, after a silent reprimand, I went and pulled the patriotic yardage I'd been collecting for this quilt.  Knowing I wanted to make this quilt, I'd been collecting different patriotic prints for years so it was no excuse to take a short cut now.  Took me about three hours to cut a FQ portion off the yardage, iron and cut the blocks.  I even got two blocks done.  Now I want to sew more blocks and forget quilting the next family quilt.  It's always a delima around here.

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Type-u-later,

Tea in MO

http://www.teaquilts.com

Completed Embroidery Projects

I'm home quilting the Red, White and Blue Stripes quilt and decided to take a break to upload 3 completed embroidery projects.  The wreaths and banner is from PJs in the Hoop Valentines cd from Anita Goodesign.  I made one wreath for my daughter whose birthday is February 16th as a BD gift.  I hope she likes it.

This onee is for my daughter with the purple ribbon.

I made this for my front door, even after Valentine's day.

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Type-u-later,
Tea in MO
http://www.teaquilts.com

Design Wall Monday

Okay, I'm off track already.  I've decided to participate in Design Wall Mondays so here's what I worked on this weekend.  I actually made two of the pink/purple hearts, one with pink sashing and another with purple sashing.  Since the purple sashed one is for me, it's put up with my other tops.  I pieced borders on 3 quilts, two hearts and the red, white and blue stripes shown below.  I also made backings and bindings.  As you can see, I have pin basted one for quilting tonight.  These are the two quilts I need for a family of six.

This quilt is for my supervisor who is retiring around May of this year.  While I'm doing all the work, the department staff will help with expenses.  I have 6 more rows to piece.

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Type-u-later,

Tea in MO

http://www.teaquilts.com

2009 WIPs Summary

For documentation purposes I make this post. I’ll post a few photos in the next post (hopefully later today) of some things I made this year already.


I did not document how many WIPs I started at the beginning of 2009 which is a bummer. Okay, here are my statistics:

I completed 55 projects for 31.43% of my WIPs. This includes UFOs as well as projects I started in 2009. I end the year with 120 WIPs (don’t laugh…it would have been more if I wasn’t keeping track.) Why do I have so many WIPs? I teach classes and lecture. Sometimes Most times I make samples as I feel showing and telling participants is better than just telling alone. It seems as if whenever I finish a class project (even years down the road) that lecture or class is then requested. I can’t get ahead of this process. So, I'm okay with the number of WIPs just don’t want it to get too much larger.

I started 57 projects in 2009 and of those finished 36 of them (do not include the multiple projects like the 64 cell phone cases, multiple bookmarks, etc. I made.) So that means I finished 19 actual UFOs in 2009.

List of projects Completed

January 2009
Christmas Cookies with Janiacs

February 2009
Batik Rainbow
Just Strings Series: All Together Now
Wonky Hearts
Splat Attic Windows
Origami Bag
Underground Railroad Quilt Code
Dump Bag

March 2009
Freedom Tote
Dog Baby Bib
Embroidery Blanks
Bunny Basket
Trapunto Rose
Chicks Basket and Doily
Bunny and Egg Basket
Magic Trip Around the World

April 2009
Window of USA
Challenge Ribbons
3-D Butterfly

May 2009
Ruler Holder/Cutting Supplies Wall Hanger
She Loves Me, She Loves Me Knot Purse
Flying Geese Challenge Quilt
Cell Phone Cases (made 64)
Bookmarks (made 10)
Turning Twenty Again Quilt

June 2009
Missouri Botanical Gardens
Exploding Star
Teaquilts Banner
She Love Me She Loves Me Knot Purse 2
Christmas Charm Tote
Scrappy Ocean Waves
Totes for Charity (made 3)

July 2009
Portable Design Wall
Split 4-Patch
Covered Bridge
Fall Scene

August 2009
Birthday Banner
Block Swap Round Up
Reconciliation
Crazy Pumpkin
Chocolateberries
Floral Garden
Halloween Treat Bags (made 5)
Mirage

September 2009
Bamboo
Pinwheels

October 2009
The Abbey Bag

November 2009
Frosty the Star Man

December 2009
A Star is Born
American Friendship Round Robin
Flower Garden (Wicked Easy Quilt)
Star Explosion (Exploding Star)
Quilted Notebook Covers (3)
Hunter's Star
Marbles
I know, long and boring but I need to get this written down somewhere.

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Type-u-later,
Tea in MO
http://www.teaquilts.com