March Month Wrap Up...WIP Completed

I've been very busy. I attended a quilt show 2 weekends ago and then a shop hop this past weekend. I also took a trapunto class and made this Trapunto Rose quilt which is 8.5" square. I like classes where you complete almost the entire project. I had to wait to add binding as I wet the quilt to get the blue marks off while in class. I completed the Magic Trip Around the World quilt. It's called "magic" because it's made with 9-patches instead of long strip sets. On my last post I showed you the doggie bib. Here are some Embroidery Blanks I added designs to. I gave this bundle to the baby-to-be. Don't know if the baby's a boy or girl as the lucky parents wants to be surprised! I'm still organizing designs on my computer and came across some Easter things. I made this free standing lace Chick Basket and Doily as it was just irresistible. It took a little bit of time but was well worth the effort. Then I saw some designs from my embroidery club that was assigned March 2008 and decided to give it a try. These baskets, Bunnies and Eggs and Bunny Basket, looks a little roughed up. I had a very difficult time sewing the sides on the sewing machine. I thought the Bunny Basket would be easier since it's larger but not so. I'll just use them to put odds and ends into in my sewing studio.

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

Works In Progress Update

Well, its been a few weeks since I've written. I've been very busy with a lot of things with family as well as quilting. My husband has been laid off from his machinist job going on three months. The stimulus package helped us to get medical insurance at a reasonable rate, so that's a plus. It's very stressful and I've been having a difficult time sleeping lately. I'm being optimistic in hoping that the stimulus package will eventually trickle down where my husband will be called back to work.

On to more fun stuff...I've been very busy with quilt meetings as well as working on my projects. I wanted you to know that my Dear Jane quilt top is basted and I am doing the hand quilting. I searched high and low but could not find a quilter or group that could have it ready by September for my guild's quilt show. I'm no where near an obsessive compulsive quilter, so the quilting will not be pretty. However, it will be done and I can say I did it myself! I'll keep you posted as I progress. I am machine quilting the Trip Around The World Quilt. I'll post a photo when it's done. I'm basically quilting this one in the ditch but using one of the decorative stitches. Also, I have the Jitter Buzz quilt with backing made.

I'm in the process of reorganizing my machine embroidery designs and I'm falling in love all over again. I just can't stop. I made a Freedom Tote Bag using designs from BFC Creations, design number 737. I had so much fun and I tried her technique for adding the joining strips. I love the accent strips, just could not get it to be perfect though. By the time it came to sewing the bag to the lining, I converted back to traditional bag making techniques. To get the accent at the top, I folded my lining over at the top. I LOVE my bag! By the way, I made the medium size.

Well, I'm on a roll so I embroidered the Window of USA. This one is also a BFC Creations number 605. This one is really neat in that it's made in what are called tiles (12 each 4" embroideries) that are sewn together to make a panel. There are a few ways to put them together. I chose to satin stitch my panels as I wanted the stitching to look like grout. I now have to figure out if I want to frame it or quilt using traditional methods.

I have a baby shower next week and decided to make Baby Bibs. This one is a dog. The design packet also has elephant, cat, giraffe, bunny, snake, and another one or two that I can't remember at the moment. If you really want to know who this design is by, let me know and I'll look it up. It's 10:00 p.m. and since I've been looking through so many designs, I can't remember who the designer is. Anyway...I decided that I'd only make this one instead of 2 more. Why? It took me 3-1/2 hours to make this "puppy" and I really don't think the mother will want to use it. I've decided to give it to the baby along with more traditional style baby bibs.

I'm sure I could find more to add that I'm blocking at the moment, but as I said earlier, I haven't been sleeping well and I'm exhausted. I hope when I look at this post tomorrow that I don't think it's horrible. Take care and enjoy your quilt making...

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

Just so so...

I was productive this week, just not exactly on track the entire time. I only pieced the triangle for my Dear Jane quilt. I did trace the last kite but have not appliqued or stitched the embroidery. I just couldn't do it... I did finish the Magic Trip Around the World quilt top. I even made backing and have it pin basted so it's ready for quilting. Just couldn't bring myself to fight with it under my sewing machine arm this weekend. In addition, I also added border and made backing for Jitter Buzz top. I was really proud of myself that I got this much done. I also pieced and cut fabrics for my Rising Stars quilt top. I decided upon a setting which changed the number of blocks I planned to make. I'll try to add photos in a day or so. Since I've been quilting a lot of quilts lately, I decided to save my sanity and purchased some quilt backing fabrics. I purchase enough for 3 quilts from a local quilt shop and then went online and purchase enough for 3-4 quilts. I just need a break, especially since I have about 30+ quilt tops that need backings. I even pulled out the left over fabrics from previous backs that I plan to piece together (when I feel like it :0). I think I'm in a slump right now... -------------------------- Type-u-later, Tea in MO http://www.teaquilts.com

WIP Update and Quilt Retreat

I had a great week! I finished my Underground Railroad Quilt Code quilt just in the nick of time to take to quilt guild meeting Thursday evening. During show and tell I showed 6 quilts this month. I got a few jokes about "do you sleep?" I got a little carried away as I needed a break from working on the Dear Jane quilt. I hope to finish the last triangle and kite this week, and then add the final border. The best part of the weekend was that I attended a quilt retreat organized through my quilt guild. This was our first visit to Mercy Center in Clayton, MO. It was wonderful. The sewing area was very large to accommodate the 36 quilters. Some quilters had their own tables and we were able to have a few tables set up for cutting. Even the 4 ironing areas were accommodated in the room. We had 3 projects for this retreat: The Dump Bag was completed Friday night. This will make a great grocery bag. I pulled fabrics from my stash as I didn't want to purchase new fabrics for this project. The Jitterbuzz quilt was very challenging. The instructor had some problems with the EQ directions and a few sections had inappropriate cutting instructions, templates and quantities. I persevered and finally got the top pieced as I was determined the process would not beat me. I decided to wait to add borders. :0) I was also supposed to make the Magic Trip Around the World quilt but didn't get a chance to cut it while working on the Jitterbuzz quilt. Yesterday I cut it out and sewed this much of it together. I plan to finish the top tonight then audition border fabrics. Another new activity at retreat was that we had a Secret Quilter where each participant bought 4 gifts under $5 and a final gift of around $10. Prior to retreat, the participants completed a small profile like favorite colors, quilt magazine currently subscribed to, hobbies other than quilting, favorite quilt shop, etc. to give the Secret Quilter an idea of things to buy/not to buy. Then, we provided anonymous gifts for 4 meals in brown paper bags that we gave the coordinator when we arrived. The fifth gift we delivered personally, revealing our identities. Here is my loot. It was good fun and I hope you try it at your next guild retreat. We had one over achiever quilter that brought goodies for all 36 quilters. She started making things last April for the big day. Every year Connie makes wonderful gifts for the attendees that she donates. She is very kindhearted and talented. This year's retreat was themed "Valley Girls Buzz" and the committee provided the machine embroidered bee name tag. It is very pretty. Also, they made charms on shrink plastic. The committee was very creative. I hope I haven't bored you this week and that you'll come back soon. -------------------------- Type-u-later, Tea in MO http://www.teaquilts.com

WIP Update - Getting a Lot Done!

I had another busy week filled with quilting. Last Monday I went to embroidery club meeting at a local quilt shop. It's always interesting to see the various projects demoed and show-and-tell. We had a demo of an Origami Bag that I thought was cute. This is my practice bag. I see I have to play with placement of the embroideries in the next one.

I quilted Splat Attic Window and Wonky Hearts. It's great to get these two off the list.

I also quilted Just String Series: All Together Now which had been a UFO since 2007. Now I have a quilt for my office when it's a tad cold.

Another great accomplishment is that I proofed, printed fabric sheets and sewed the backing for my Underground Railroad Quilt Code quilt.

Had a quilting guild/bee meeting on Saturday. On Sunday I went shopping for my batting. I picked up 6 twin batts and 6 yards of Warm 'n Natural batting too. The way I've been quilting, I need to keep my batting stash stocked. They had sale on batting at JoAnn's and Hancock Fabrics.

Hope you are stitching too. -------------------------- Type-u-later, Tea in MO http://www.teaquilts.com

WIP Update

I worked on my WIPs a lot this past week.

I completed the Batik Quilt which I renamed Batik Rainbow.

First I quilted the Turning Twenty Again quilt. I started this quilt January 1, 2006. Then I went to add binding and don't know where that "special" place is that I would be sure to remember when the time was right. I didn't search too much as I have lots of projects to work on. If I don't find it in the next month, I'll just purchase binding fabric. Most of the fabrics are from Moda Chocolate line.

My progress on the Dear Jane quilt is awesome! I only have one more triangle and one more kite on the bottom border. The remaining three borders are on the quilt. I just needed a break so I started working on a few other projects to save my sanity. I'm still hyperventilating about all that hand quilting in my future.

I had 16 floral blocks that were waiting to be made into a quilt top. I sewed those and have decided that the quilt doesn't need a border as it is 80" square. I even pieced the back so I have another top ready for machine quilting. This top will make a cute Floral Garden quilt. I also worked on the Wonky Hearts. I had only made one block and had pulled various red, pink, and purple fabrics with and without heart/love theme. Then the project just sat in a corner. I needed 8 more blocks to make a quilt about 40" square. I made those and then completed the quilt top. Today I will baste it for quilting.

Splat Attic Windows got basted Friday evening and I quilted about one sixth of it yesterday. I also have an Underground Railroad Quilt Code that needs a backing. I'm putting various historical information on the back of the quilt. I had a draft on my flash that crashed so I spent a few hours retyping the information. I'm now glad that I didn't finished this project earlier since Barack Obama and Joe Biden are now President and Vice-President respectively. I've decided to add this accomplishment to my history as well. So the draft is back in electronic form. I have to proof it. After corrections, I'll print the pages on fabric sheets. My quilting housekeeping consisted of washing a few loads of home dec fabric samples. I'm going to make some simple quilts with these for various family members. My guild had a feature called "First Thursday". A member volunteers to have an open house of about 3 hours and usually provided snacks. I attended one last Thursday and had a great time. The entire family hosted (usually husbands and children disappear) and was so welcoming and interested in us as well as sharing their crafts with us. The husband did wood work and the daughter' creates scrapbooks. The member we visited leans more toward art quilting with various 3-d embellishments. It was really neat to see her quilts displayed as well as her very large quilt studio. The quilts not displayed were stored on pants hangers. I encouraged her to bring a few of those to future meetings to share with the membership. I had a great time! My other out-of-home quilt excursions consisted of quilting with two friends on Saturday, working on our Dear Jane quilts. On Sunday I went to a sale at a local quilt shop. Found two bolts for $2 per yard; will make excellent backs or if I change my mind would also look good on the front. I do hope you come back next week to see what I accomplish this week. I hope you are working through your pile of WIPs as well. Type-u-later, Tea in MO http://www.teaquilts.com/

117 WIPs...so far

Since my flash died, I've been looking in closets, containers, drawers, boxes, cabinets, and even my website to recreate my list of UFOs. To my dismay, I've counted 117 so far and I'm sure I'm missing something. Right here, right now, I vow to finish at least 10 of them before starting a new project (other than machine embroidery as I'm in a monthly club and I get points and retreat project I've already purchased fabric for that's later this month.) I'm just awed that I have this many WIPs, even though I teach classes and some are samples. I found while compiling my list that I have approximately 40 tops that need quilting and another 20 or so that need borders. I tend to make twin size or larger projects and some how the quilting has just gotten lost. Time to correct. So, I'm going to start with projects that do not require custom quilting and work on those first. It is a sad, sad day in my house. How sad is it in yours? LOL I'm sure it can't be as awful as mine.

Last Day of January - Progress for the Month

I'm a little frustrated as a flash drive I have most of my data files on has crashed. I thought I'd backed it up to my computer, but no such luck. The backup only made the file folders, no files. I'm not a happy camper at the moment. I'm in the process of retyping files that I just cannot do without and will have to recreate class handouts as the need arise. If anyone know of a process I can get my files off the flash would be greatly appreciated.

I have quilted Christmas Cookies with Janiacs this week for the UFO challenge. I just quilted in the ditch as I didn't want to mess it up with machine quilting. I'm having a hard time deciding quilting for the DJ blocks. I usually do an all-over style quilting and this just doesn't seem to work with this quilt top.Other projects:

Dear Jane - I need 9 more triangles and 1 kite to complete the quilt. The top, left, and right borders are sewn onto the quilt top. I thought the bottom row would be easy when I was scanning the book as I worked on the blocks, but I was wrong! Only the first triangle is easy. I'm plugging away, finishing 4 triangles and 1 kite today. Go to my DJ page on my website to see actual block chart.
Next UFO project is Batik Quilt I started a few years ago. Pieced the top right away and then let it sit for a long while. I quilted it last week but don't have the binding on yet.
This quilt top, All Together Now, has been waiting for quilting for a while as well. Maybe I'll finish this one too in February.

Christmas Cookies with Janiacs

The block swap I participated in on the official DJ list last year arrived in December. I was way too busy to work on them at that time but they are way too pretty to sit in my UFO projects. So, this week I planned a layout and put this top together. Hope you enjoy it. The second photo shows who made each block. Don't know why photo keeps being imported in sideways and I can figure out through blogspot how to turn it even though my original photo is NOT turned! I'll upload to my website sometime this weekend from the DJ link at http://teaquilts.com . Here are the janiacs that made each block.

My Dear Jane - Scrappy Jane

I'm moving along on my Dear Jane quilt (Scrapy Jane.) Mine quilt is being made from scraps, including the background muslin. The only purchased fabric was the teal batik sashing fabric. I am so excited to be this far after starting this project in 2004. Visit the Dear Jane page on my website to see my work in the block chart: http://teaquilts.com/ Also, I have photos of my left and right side borders. Today I finished the top left corner but don't have a photo available yet.