Stash Report - Week 22

I was busy this week trying to finish the top from Judy L's Stash Project. I am almost there, all the pieces are done, they just need to be sewn into a top now . . .

Fabric added this week: 0 yards!
Fabric used this week: 2.25 yds

Total added: 99.279 yards
Total used: 73.166 yards

Net: -26.113 yards

What I'm working on!

As usual, I am working on several projects at once . . .the first one is the Charleston Harbor pattern by Leslee Price from Painted Pony 'n Quilts that I am making with our Friday night group Quilters Gone Wild! We are all making it from our stash of civil war fabrics. Linda, the over achiever, is presently working on another project to give Jean and I a chance to catch up to her rapid progress!

The other project I'm working on is the Stash Project from Judy Laquidara's blog. I decided to kick it up a notch and use a lot of my precut scraps and then saw this star sashing on Brenda's blog! It's really busy, but I really like it a lot, and I'm even more excited because I am using a bunch of my stash!

Now totally unrelated to my quilting, I have some pictures of the birthday girls in their clothes from Auntie la-la and Unka Nick in Hawaii. Note the Plumeria flowers in their hair!

Is it Monday already?

Wow! This week is going to go fast, I can tell already. Madison turned 5 yesterday and the twins will turn 3 on Thursday. We made two trips to Pottery Barn Kids this past weekend to get their gifts. First we got the craft table and hutch and four new chairs.

Then from Toys r Us we got a Little Tikes picnic table that I thought came with an umbrella, but of course, as usual, it is pictured on the box, but not included. I just absolutely hate it when that happens.

These are just some random pictures of the girls at a couple of the playgrounds in Columbus, and a picture of Haley passed out on the way home. Too bad she was asleep when we had to stop for the geese and their babies to cross the highway!

Stash Report Weeks 20 + 21

Well, I have been putting this off for over a week now, so I guess it's time to fess up! I was thrown under the no-buy wagon and then it backed up over me . . .

Fabric added: 42.654 yards
Fabric used: .250 yards (that is pathetic)

Total added: 99.279 yards
Total used: 70.916 yards

Net: negative 28.363 yards

Spring Quilt Market 2009

I left for Spring Quilt Market 2009 in Pittsburgh very early Wednesday morning. I arrived promptly at 9 am at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center where I reported to Quilts Inc. and hung quilts for the next ten hours! Fell into bed, got up early again and went to Schoolhouse and took 15 (yes, fifteen) mini classes.

My first and mostest favorite class was What's New from Anka's Treasures with Heather Mulder Petersen! Heather has two new books and a new pattern that she introduced here at Market and I have to say, I love, love, love, everything she does!

Class No 2 was presented by Me & My Sister Designs featuring their Charm Tablets (quick + easy patterns).

Class No 3 was CK Media's Quiltmaker's Secrets Revealed - This was a fun class revealing some of the behind the scenes dirt!

Class No 4 was How to Host a Mystery by Debbie Caffrey. She had lots of ideas I can put to use in some classes . . .

Class No 5 was by Karen Combs who is now designing batiks for Avelyn Fabrics - this was very interesting and we got to see Karen's new line of Indonesian batiks.

Class No 6 I got to meet "THE" Diane Phalen and saw her new fabric line from Elizabeth's Studio and as if that wasn't enough, I won the door prize of a quilt kit from her line!

Class No 7 was with Eleanor Burns and one of her sons (Orion) where she showed her new book Day and Night. She is such a hoot!

Class No 8 was with Terry Atkinson and Liz Lois and they had a great trunk show of their latest quilts + totes from their new fabric line.

Class No 9 was On the Road Again and it was hosted by Terry Atkinson, Linda Hohag & Heather Mulder Peterson. This class promoted an event that shops could host - great ideas!

Class No 10 by Karin Hellaby introduced a new technique to construct pineapples using only squares of fabric, so no waste + no strange angles!

Class No 11 Lynette Jensen of Thimbleberries where she previewed the new Mystery Collection.

Class No 12 was with Creative Grids gurus Rita Fishel & Penny Haren. They both gave us lots of ideas for demos.

Class No 13 was Bargello Quilts with a Twist where Maggie Ball introduced a new concept to create stunning patterns.

Class No 14 was with Daniela Stout from Cozy Quilt Designs. I got all the dirt on Strip Club, Cake Therapy and Fat Quarters Anonymous!

Class No 15 last, but certainly not least, I really enjoyed Patricia Pepe. Patricia is the X-Block Queen and she introduced us to her X-Blocks Fabric Fairy Tale!

I never took a break for lunch, because I didn't want to miss anything, so when the last class was over at 6 pm, I bolted downstairs to look for something to eat. I decided that I didn't want to use any of my money for food, so I found 2 leftover pieces of pizza in my backpack from last nights supper and ate that. After all, I needed to save all of my money for the next event - - - SAMPLE SPREE! Since I had hung quilts the day before, one of the perks was to be released into Sample Spree a full 10 minutes before everyone else! I felt like Bambi in the headlights when I first ran in . . .

I didn't know where to go first and soon I found myself at the Hoffman booth and grabbed 2 Bali pops!

Then, I found the Moda area - it was a mob scene and the throngs of people waiting outside hadn't even been let in yet, but I was able to pick up a fat quarter bundle of Me & My Sisters Birdie Collection and a box of Petite 4's - can you say score? Then I saw the Cheep Trims table and grabbed a 24 yard roll of chartreuse jumbo rick rack!

Then I found Heather Mulder Peterson and picked up her 2 new books and pattern. She autographed them for me!

Ran by Eleanor Burns and got a cute tote, Kaleidoscope Ruler and her new book Night & Day that includes the specialty ruler!

Then I saw the Robert Kaufman table and picked up a couple of batik roll ups.

And then something really, really dreadful happened, I ran out of money . . .

Exhaustion has set in . . .

OMG - What a week, The past week I was preparing for my trip to Pittsburgh for Quilt Market on Tuesday, had to leave before it even began Friday morning to pick up a boatload of company flying in from Boston at the Akron/Canton Airport. Their flight arrived a full 40 minutes early - needless to say, I wasn't there yet, so they rented a van as they didn't want to waste one minute of their vacation and took off for Amish country for lunch at the Amish Door Restaurant in Wilmot, Ohio. I was busy driving from Pittsburgh trying to catch up with them and caught up just as they finished lunch and were paying the bill (it's OK - I should be losing weight anyways). I did insist that we make a pit stop at the Amish Bakery where I picked up a loaf of fresh baked bread, and a small strawberry pie for my awesome husband who made my trip to Pittsburgh possible! From there, Denise left the rented van with the rest of her family and joined me in my car! We were headed for their Hotel in Milan, when I realized there was a Quilt Shop that we could hit on the way home - SCORE! Finally made it to the Hotel where their reservation was messed up, but they made it right and all was well in the world! Later that night my husband had a party catered by a client of his who owns a Mexican Restaurant and they played cards, drank and had a great time. Everyone was gone before midnight as the guys had chartered a fishing boat for the butt crack of dawn Saturday morning. Nick was up all night vomiting, needless to say, he didn't make it fishing, but my son, husband and everyone else did! Denise and I headed out for Shiloh to the Mennonite quilt shop. Denise was in heaven and did some serious damage to her wallet. Later that afternoon, we all went to my sisters in Port Clinton for a fish fry. The guys caught a ton of walleye and several Lake Erie Perch! It was a great feast. Sunday, the water park at Kalahari was on the agenda, and that was another great time! Yesterday was Cedar Point and a cookout of burgers and dogs at our house later in the evening. This morning, the Boston Crew left for the Pro Football Hall of Fame on their way to the airport + home. I feel like we just made a remake of the movie National Lampoons Vacation! I will have pictures to post perhaps tomorrow as I am not even unpacked yet!

Stash Report - Week 19

Well, I did purchase a fat quarter and a bag of scraps from a LQS. I have been really busy preparing for an online postage stamp swap, and I took a lot of those 50 fabrics and cut them up into squares of various sizes ranging from 1.5 inches up to 5 inches in one-half inch increments! It was pretty time consuming, but I plan on making some scrappy quilts, and although I spent time sub-cutting now, I know I will be thankful I did it when it comes time to make a quilt! Here are my figures:

Fabric Added: 2.25 yards

Year to Date: 56.625 yards

Fabric Used: 3.75 yards

Year to Date: 70.666 yards

Net: 14.541 yards

Bustin' Stash

I have been preparing for an online swap of 1.5 inch squares. I had to prepare 25 sets of 50 different fabrics. Well, check that off the list as done! I took the balance of the half yard and fat quarter pieces and cut the balance of that yardage into squares ranging from 5 inches down to 1.5 inches. Looks pretty impressive, doesn't it? It is rather labor intensive though . . .

Stash Report - Week 18

Well, as you can see by the posts earlier this past week, I've been to 3 quilt shops and 1 Quilt Show at Sauder Village . . . . I actually was in one shop and didn't purchase anything!

Fabric Added: 3.625 yards
Year to Date: 54.375 yards

Fabric Used: 2.916 yards
Year to Date: 66.916 yards

Net 12.541 yards

I worked on blocks from Judy L's second Stash Project and one block from the LQS BOM that will require the purchase next week of a fat quarter as I made a cutting mistake!

Another Quilty Day!

Today 9 members of our local Quilt Guild traveled to Archbold, Ohio to Sauder Village for a Quilt Show. We left around 8 a.m. It was a beautiful, sunny day, so it made for a great trip (about 2 hours from where we live). The Quilt Show was great and afterwards, we visited Threads of Tradition, a quilt shop that is located in Sauder Village and then we had lunch at The Barn Restaurant located on the Village grounds - it was an awesome meal! On the way home, we stopped at another quilt shop in Wauseon called Corner Quilts & Gifts! One of the owners was there and she showed us around - it was a great shop! What a wonderful Day!

Quilter's Gone Wild!

Well, every Friday night we meet at Linda's for Quilter's Gone Wild. We eat, laugh, eat some more and work on our quilting projects. We are working as a group on the pattern called Charleston Harbor by Leslee Price. As you can see from the picture of the design wall, Linda aka the overachiever, has been really productive! Jean, on the other hand, has been asleep at the wheel! Really, we have a great time, and I am looking forward to next Friday night!

workin' my fingers to the bone!

I have been really busy sewing this week! I have been working on the second stash project from Judy L. I am loving that everything I have used is from the stash and it's looking really good! These will be 16 inch blocks!

I got a new cabinet for my machine, so that is part of the reason for the increased productivity! It is so nice to sew on a flush surface and there is even a drop leaf on the back of the table for even more room, like when I'm sewing a binding on a quilt!

I'm trouble shooting problems with quilt blocks that my friend Jean made and yesterday I finished a baby quilt that I have had on the longarm for almost two weeks now!