Thursday, February 12, 2009

Boring - and a little more exciting!

Started this locker hooked rug a year or so ago. Probably just got bored with it. Used up a BUNCH of old brown yardage from the 80's/90's. The light fabric was another 'dog' that I had somehow acquired multiple yards of fabric. This was made with 1 inch strips of fabric. At least this UFO is FINISHED - and I will put it out in my studio where it will get lots of use and appreciation.
Now this next one is the one I started the other night. It does
have a little more 'kick' to it as I am using 1/2" strips of batiks. The colors on this one are awesome! It was hard to cut up the batiks, but I justified it (in my mind) by cutting the strips in 1/2" widths. I'm using a P size wood crochet hook and it is coming out nicely. I had started this to put under my industrial Bobbin winder that gouges the table top that it is on. I think this might be too pretty to cover up, will put this one in front of my shelves of batiks, giving customers a comfy place to stand while perusing their color choices! If there is any interest, I will post tutorial for how to make this rug and the colors used. Will probably finished this one up this evening.
These are the 3.5" rail fence blocks I got back in our BEE exchange on Monday. This is for the (the pattern "Around the Block" by the Rabbit Factory. We start on the houses next, and the due date is in May. I have two retreats before then that I hope to get 10 of HOUSE #2 paper pieced.

Oh, did I mention that I have finished all my quilting for the Quilt show next week? That is great for me. Last time I was still quilting the day before the quilt turn in date.
Tomorrow I am meeting with a new group of ladies- kind of a Beginner Beyond The Borders.... Other like minded wanna be artists that need would like to try new things. It might be fabric dyeing, piecing with selvedges, jewelry making, ceramics or whatever. The whole idea is to help each other with ideas and then it is up to you to do as little or much as you like. We'll see how that goes. I'm really looking forward to meeting with this new group.

Monday, February 09, 2009

Stashbusting Report -

StashBusting doing pretty good! - Got about 1/2 of that 50 pounds of fabric from last week cut into strips. Then we used a 'bunch' of those strips at our Bee on Thursday making a kind of half log cabin block. (Instead of going all the way around, you just have the darks on one side, and lights on the next side. The 'center' square is in the corner. Clear as mud?

Used a bunch of GREEN yardage to make my 48 5 inch green and off white rail fences that we trade tomorrow at the Katy Rotary Bee for the Around The Block quilt that we are doing as a group. I'll take pictures after the exchange and see what I get back.

Fabric added this week: 0 yards
Fabric added year to date: 3 yards
Fabric used this week: 2 yards
Fabric used year to date: 10 yards
Net fabric busted: 8 yards

Got hooked reading a bunch of other blogs last night. Mostly tutorials. I'm going to have to do some of those, but the problem is sticking with a project long enough to finish it AND to remember to take pictures while doing it! No one can relate to that huh.

I cut out the wool for a journal cover. Started cutting out Poinsettia's then after laying them out, thought maybe I ought to go for a more spring type theme. I do love poinsettia's though. I did get some awesome reds, greens and yellows wool bundles at Houston Festival last November from The Wool Garden . However, I still have a bone to pick with them. They were working on a Poinsettia project, and it wasn't finished, but they had it hanging at both Market and Festival. They put me on the list to get the pattern as soon as they finished it, and I still haven't heard from them or seen it on the website. All those gorgeous bundles just waiting for a project.

Started a couple of other type projects. None of them far enough along yet, but after cutting a bunch of the ugly fabrics into 1 inch strips, I dug out my locker hooking project that I had started last spring, and worked on that some more. I need to finish this piece - it is to go under my bobbin winder that I use to wind those big ole M size bobbins for my longarm. The base to the winder has a tendency to scratch (gouge) the wood cabinet that it sets on. The mat is to protect the finish from being further damaged. That should be enough incentive to get it done.

Then the 1" strips reminded me that I could crochet a rug or something with those sized strips, so I cut some 1/2" BATIK strips and started crocheting a round rag type rug. I'm on round 8 and it is really going to be BRIGHT! The center is red, then a mixed up orange/turquoise/green batik, and I just changed to a rich brown batik. Hmm, forgot to measure that fabric to include in stashbusting...

Only one more quilt to finish for the WHQG Quilt Show in two weeks. The turn in date is this coming Saturday, and the customer still needs to put the binding, sleeve and label on it. I figure I will have it completed by tomorrow afternoon. The quilt show program goes to the printer tomorrow. Had several people proofing it, so hopefully we took care of any glaring mistakes. I got permission from Carla to use one of her cartoons in the program It is so perfect to go with the quilt show and judging.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

My First Zentangle !

My first Zentangle!. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, and looks way better than I expected!

This is a photo rather than a scan, so it is a little blurry, but you get the general idea. You break it down into smaller areas, and it makes it a lot easier to manage. This one took about 5 minutes to do.

Just realized that I have not mentioned our upcoming Quilt Show later this month. I'm on the quilt show committee, putting the program together, worked on the ribbons & awards committee, as well as doing the website. We have over 200 quilt entries this year, nearly 30 vendors in our Merchant Mall, special exhibits and so on. Looks to be a great show. West Houston Quilters Guild puts on a show every other year. And our donation quilt this time is another awesome quilt. The Tin Can Raffle is going to have around 10 BED SIZED quilts this time (I quilted 5 of them). The program is ready to go to the printer and only 3 more quilts to finsih up for the show. Will be glad when this month is over!

Sunday, February 01, 2009

Stashbusting Report

Finished quilting and binding this quilt today. It is a signature quilt for a young man (age 14) who is going through some serious medical procedures. He is having open heart surgery tomorrow morning, and this is for him to take with him and offer comfort while he is in hospital. Your prayers and well wishes would be much appreciated for Jordan.

That is Shiner (blue healer) checking out the quilt, and wondering who is standing behind that quilt holding it up!

Not sure how to count donated fabric... hmmmm. A friend of mine left 2 boxes of 'pretty good' fabric. She knows I love doing scrap quilts and she was cleaning out to make room for new stuff. Since she is down-sizing, and moving to a smaller place her sewing area is going to be a bit more cramped. Most of the fabric is older, and I have already cut it into smaller scrap size pieces

Fabric added this week: 3 yards (plus 2 boxes - about 50 pounds???)
Fabric added year to date: 3 yards
Fabric used this week: 3 yards
Fabric used year to date: 9 yards
Net fabric busted: 6 yards

Any thoughts on how to count fabric that immediately gets cut into 2", 2.5" and 3.5" strips? Do I count it as incoming until it is cut up, and outgoing when I use it? Do you count strips out of the scrap bins???