Design Wall Monday, May 31

Happy Memorial Day to all!
Sunday afternoon found me finishing up my Star Struck blocks and then working on the 3rd of my orphan block quilts. I have a rather chaotic mess on my worktable right now! In the middle of the table is my Star blocks which I am in the process of sewing together. On the upper right corner are still some scraps that I want to keep and cut into usable sized pieces for future scrap projects. In the upper left is fabric I have pulled from stash for the new Carol Doak BOM she recently announced. It came on the Carol Doak yahoo list as a birth announcement! She said she was pregnant with a new BOM and was about to give birth. And it is going to be a spectacular new baby! I have simply got to finish some stuff so I can spend time with the new baby!!!The rest of that stuff is what I'm using as blocks and setting strips and pieces for the orphan block quilt. Today, I hope to clear most of that off, and I'm still working on organizing my fabric. I have to buy three more drawers.

Here's my work table:

And here's the orphan block quilt as it is right now. Probably won't be like that later in the week, because I will add and change things around, but you get the idea.


Since it is raining here today, and I have the afternoon to myself, I will stay in and work on my various projects. I do need to try to finish the YTRR too! It came to a stand-still when I was cleaning and reorganizing.
Back to it NOW!!!

God bless
Mary

Comments

I have enjoyed all the comments on my last post about my adventures in reorganizing. I have tried to answer some of the ones with email addresses attached to their profile. One person commented that if I took the sliding doors down, I could put up a curtain. I want those doors down, but couldn't figure out how to get them down. I think it would help me have better access to that closet. They are on metal slides at the top, but I couldn't see where to unscrew them. I will probably get my DBIL to look at them. My sweetie is not too adept at construction/deconstruction!! LOL!

I'm on a five night rotation of work, so I will be needing to sleep soon!
Thanks again for the comments. That's what it is all about...giving each other inspiration!!!

God Bless

Mary

Design Wall Monday-May 24

Happy Monday All! My design wall doesn't look too different from last week. I have added a few more blocks to the Star Struck I was working on, but not really much sewing was done. I also finished the Carolina Chain top.
What I was really working on was reorganizing my stash. Two things happened this week. First, I decided once and for all that I would get rid of the Monster laudry bin of scraps and I am happy to say it is GONE!!! Secondly, I got a huge wind fall of fabric from my DSIL's friend Wendy. So far, I have prewashed about 200+ yds of nice Benartex fabric. Here's the progress on the Star Struck quilt.

And here is the progress on my scraps:
I have cut and organized the scraps into 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3.5, and 4.5 inch drawers. And there is a separate drawer for 2x3.5 and 2.5x4.5 bricks. These little storage containers are really handy for this!

I also have two large drawers for strips. I have not organized them by size, color or even lt and dark as yet. That is coming!

So here is the scrap users system. Takes up less space and is very user freindly!

Here is the whole starage system. The large drawers have large pieces arranged roughly by colors. I have three drawers with greens and four of blue! I have two for reds and burgandys, one for rose colors and one for pinks. There is one for orangey family fabrics, but I think the bright orange and the peach colors should be separated. I have too much for that one drawer. I need three more drawers for neutrals and browns, and teal/aqua colors. That is why there is a large stack of fabric there; it still needs a home. It is still a work in progress!

I wanted to leave space between my design wall and the stash storage, so I have another set of drawers in the closet. That has all the blues in it. I had to clean that closet out, and I wish I would have taken a before photo. Believe me it was SCAREY!!! Now I can hang up my quilt tops and backings and can pull out whatever I want to quilt. Before, they were in a big pile and very hard to get to. I have an old dresser on the other side of the closet that has four drawers. There is a drawer of christmas fabrics, one with thread, one with rulers, and one with wool fabrics and vintage embroideries. Some day, I will get around to making something with those.I did not take a photo of it. The closet has sliding doors, and make access to the closet kind of difficult, and limits the space. I would like to take those down, but am not sure how.

And here is all the scraps I did not keep. I have some boxes going out next week to various people who said they wanted scraps, and two large bags of scraps I will give either to a local lady who is in WSQ or to a charity organization.

So, that was this last week in a nutshell. My back, feet, legs, and wrists are all screaming with arthritis pain, but I am happy to have a better organiztional system in place. Now, maybe I can get some quilting done!!!

God Bless

Mary

Design Wall Monday, May 17

I made thirty of the Carolina Chain blocks altogether this past week. There they are finished on my sewing table, along with the 2x2 and 2x3.5 inch square bin. looks more full than last week! In between sewing those blocks, I have been sorting and cutting out of the Monster scrap bin! I have many 3.5 and 2.5 inch squares and sme 2x4.5 brick cut also.

I started Star Struck yesterday evening. I am using the 2x2 and 2x3.5 inch pieces. The block finishes at 6" instead of the 8" block in Bonnie Hunter's original design. They are going to be mostly scrappy, but I coordinated the dark star within each block. I like the results so far!

I am also going to send strings to Cricket and Shirley on Heartstrings. I am going to tame that monster scrap bin yet!!!

I worked 5 night shifts in a row this past week. I am loving ACU! I am glad I made the switch. There is so much to learn! I will be taking ACLS (Advance Cardiac Life Support) in June.

God Bless

Mary

So, I was visiting

with this very delightful lady at Walmart today while waiting in line at the pharmacy. If you've ever picked up scripts from Walmart-takes awhile!
Any way, the subject somehow turned to sewing, and quilting! She told me she had made ONE quilt in her life, and vowed never to do another! Can you imagine? Ok, quilting is not for everyone! I said I had to sew or quilt everyday...a day without it is just not complete! She said-oh, do you have a big STABLE...I said WHAT? She said stable-you know-Stash Beyond Life Expectancy. I had to laugh and write that down! Isn't that a great little numonic?
And Yes, I do have a big stable, and I'm not ashamed, nor do I intend to stop adding to it! But I will have to decide some day who will get the stable when I'm gone! That's a subject for another day!!!

Design Wall Monday, May 10

Isn't this a great little bin of 2x2 and 2x4.5 inch pieces? I have been cutting like crazy-doing a little every day until I have enough pieces to make Carolina Chain! All these pieces are out of my scrap bin...that monster I showed a few posts ago. Carolina Chain is a pattern from Bonnie Hunter found in the May/June issue of Quiltmaker magazine. Fun little pattern, and the blocks are fast and easy. I made 36 of them yesterday afternoon after coming home from Mother's Day dinner.

Yeah, I know, I need another project...NOT! But this was calling to me and those 2" pieces are hard to resist!!! I had a four day weekend (yahoo!!) and worked on finishing borders on two quilts, worked on my YTRR 5th round, and then started the Carolina Chain. I did not quilt anything!!! Darn it!!! I ment to, as today is Shara and my day off together, and while we watch movies, I like to have a hand project available. Binding a quilt is a good thing to have on hand. I have my hand applique' tulips to do, so I will work on that. There is always so much that I want to accomplish!
Hope everyone had a nice Mom's Day!

God Bless

Mary

Leftovers for Girl-quilt top done

Just a quick note to show my Leftovers for Girl quilt top. I think it turned out cute. It went together quickly and was fun to make. I'm going to do Rd 5 of my YTRR project, then tackle doing the boy leftovers.

God Bless

Mary

Design Wall Monday, May 3

I just had to first include a photo of Ziggy. As I have said before, the sewing room is his room, he just lets me use it, as long as I keep making things for him to rest on!


My pineapple Blossum top is done except for the border. I'm going to use a dark blue angel print. Yes, I know the fabric is "Christmasey", but it is so cute! And I have enough for the backing! I trimmed the blocks try to make them more even in size and did not realize that some of the corner triangles ended up uneven in size! So alot of them did not match well while sewing them together. I also turned one of the blocks the wrong way while sewing it, and the middle triangles are oriented differently than the outer ones! I think that was the one I was making while half asleep...come on, you all know what I'm talking about! LOL! I left it that way-see if you can find it! I figure it is a charming "oops".

I started putting up a Leftovers Quilt on the design wall. I call them that, but they are really a collection of orphan blocks. The blocks for this one are from a variety of sources. The large star blocks are from the star block exchange with the Carol Doak group last fall. I have a few of my own, a few sent to me from Alycia in Colorado, and I have a few I picked up from our WSQ yard sale early last month. I have another basket of the leftovers as well. I'm going to make one "girly" one and one "boyish" one. These will be finished for our Mountain of Quilts (MOQ) display at the Spokane Quilt Show in October. The Pineapple Blossum is going to the MOQ as well!
As I look at the block arrangement in the photo, I see that I need to redistribute the lighter and the more colorful blocks. I will be playing with them for a few days, then sew together! These kind of quilts are pure FUN!