New Year New Start

I hope that everyone had a Happy and Safe Holiday Season. I've decided to made some New Year's Plans. I'm not going to call them resolutions its sound to fake. I seem to never keep up with the one's I make, so I'm calling them Plans this Year. To Start:

1. I would like to reduce my stash and use what I can. I know that I will need to add a few things, but if just a quarter comes out of what I have that will make room for more.

2. I have some quilt kits that I've purchased and Quilt Festival in 2006 & 2007 (Houston & Chicago) that I would like to get done. This would free up at least two of my quilt baskets.

3. I would like to get at least one quilt top done each month. If more get done that that will not count for the next month, but will just be an extra finish.

4. I would like to lose a few pounds. I'm not going to say how many but if a few are gone by the end of next year I will call that a win.

5. I would like to put more post on my blog, I got so busy with our guild quilt show. That a few things got missed. One being my blog.

I think that these are plans that could happen. I sure hope at this time next year I have less in my stash, more quilt tops to quilt, I need more kits to make and a new clothes to wear. All seems good at this time. Hope you have a safe New Years. TaTa for know. PeeWee hope you get time to read the book.

Busy Time of Year

Boy!! This sure is the busy time of year. It seems like the year just started and the end is near. In the past few weeks I've managed to try to move all my quilting items down to the basement. My husband said to me a few months ago-- " I would like to have one room in the House".
I said --" You do have a room in the house"
Husband -- "No, I would like to have a room that doesn't have your quilting stuff in it"(Quilting stuff)
I---- " I don't have quilting stuff in every room"
Husband--- " I think YOUR wrong" (That made me think before saying anything else)
I--- " I don't have anything in the bathroom"

After that conversation I figured it was time to move things from each room down to the really nice quilting area I have in the basement. I have nice baskets, a sewing table for two machines, a flannel board, cutting mat & a peg board. What more could a girl ask for. I've had some time to go threw my stash and pass off the fabric that I knew I would never use. I've brought over 5 nice size boxes to the girls at work to look over. I've managed to get two co-workers in to the Quilt World. So the least I could do is give them some fabric to start their own stash. I'm sure at some point I will asked them to bring the fabric I gave them back.( that's so wrong, but so true) I've also managed to get down to only having a sewing machine upstairs. I don't count the magazines that I have by the bed, or in the living room, because I have to have something to look at.

I've also told my self that this next year is going to be the year of the "QUILT KIT BUST". I've got a list so long of the quilt kits, it's truly something that I want to get BUSTED. I would like to finish a project a month. I tell my self after our guild quilt show that we have every two years. I will not go into overdrive two months before for the show to get everything done. I seem to do the same thing each time, but this year will be different. I want to get a least 3 quilts for the show done this next year. Enough of what I want to get done for next year, when I have so much to do this year.

I still have Christmas shopping to do. I've only got two people on my list done. We're hosting Christmas at our House for my husbands family. I still need to put up a tree, so that I don't totally bum my nephew out. Christmas isn't my favorite time of the year. I'm more of a fall late winter person. I like snowmen so I have those things out, but the tree just does seem to want to come out this year. Last year when the tree was up our younger dog Sophie liked to look at it when the tree had the lights on. We had one of those ornaments that when you would touch it it would turn the tree on. A couple of mornings I would get up and the tree was on. Each night I would ask my husband "did you turn the tree on this morning?" he would say" no". One morning I was putting my shoes on and Sophie jumped up on the couch and poked her nose on the ornament that turned the tree on. She than looked over at me as to say "I'm the one turning the tree on to look at." I told my husband that night and sure enough she did it again, so I think Sophie watched which one we would touch and figured out how to turn the tree on. She is a very smart dog, I sometimes think that if she could talk we would be in real trouble. Well I think this post is long enough at this point. TaTa for know.

Stashbusting in 2009

Judy Laquidara over at patchwork times is doing the stashbusting again in 2009. I've made it my mission to bust some of this stash that I have. I want to really attack the kits that I've got stacked up. I also have alot of fabric that needs to be able to fit in the nice baskets that I have in my sewing room(or should I say rooms). My goal is to be able to have everything in one area, at the present time I'm sewing in a spare room up stairs and also have a sewing area in the basement. I have a great set-up, back a few years ago my husband put those really nice wire baskets in a row of 4 and put a nice board on top so that I could pick out project to sort and go threw. I have managed to fill the top with fabric and the baskets could explode at any moment. That's 20 baskets full each row has five baskets. I also have shorter wire baskets with four in it, the top has a shorter basket, but still there are at least 12 more there. I would like everything to fit in those bins. Oh to dream, I will say all this now but I know for a fact that I will continue to buy more fabric. I will give it a shot at least. I would love to bust threw 100 yards. TaTa for now. Take care PeeWee

A New Post

Sorry for such a long pause. The Guild that I'm in recently had our every other year quilt show. I was also in charge of our Silent Auction, boy this was alot of work. Our show was a great success, we have 143 members in our Guild and 103 of us put items in the show. This by far was our biggest and best show. We had over 520 quilts in our show. We'll I thought I would share the quilts that I was able to get done and quilted for our show. I put 12 quilts in this time. I think I had all the tops done by the end of August and had only two of of the quilts completely done (quilted, bond, quilt label, & a hanging sleeve on the back). Everything else I quilted & bond until the 25th of September. Did I mention that we also went on a trip to Florida for 5 days. Here are a few photos to look at. I also have decided that I'm going to start making smaller quilts. Tomorrow night is our Guild meeting to let us know who will receive a ribbon. I was called and my In Santa's Workshop got at least third place ( picture in an older post). I will post to let everyone know for sure. I also received a vendors choice. TaTa for now. Take care PeeWee

Top Done

Well I got this top done today. I think it turned out OK. This means I have one more quilt to put in our Guild Quilt Show next month. These are blocks from the 2006 Hop Around Houston. That was the first time I went to Houston for Quilt Festival. So when I was there I thought it would be nice to make something marking my trip. What you had to do was go to each of the booths listed on a form. At the booth you got the fabric and pattern to make the block. Each shop had a finishing kit, but nothing really hit me. So a few weeks ago I decided to get these blocks out and make something out of them. I was able to find some of the fabric that went with the blocks. Then I saw a picture of a quilt on point and thought this would be perfect for these blocks. The only problem was the blocks looked to busy together. So I then thought I would sash them to break up the patterns and that seemed to work out pretty good. I had to also figure the setting triangles and then added borders. Hope to be posting more tops in the next couple of weeks. Well I hope everyone enjoys. TaTa for now. P.S. PeeWee hope you have a good night. Call me if you need to vent anymore.

LONG OVERDUE!!

Sorry about not posting anything lately. It's been a busy few weeks. I've been on the LAQuilter Blog and Vicky is doing a Block of the Month Month. I thought I have so many that I'm working on that I should take on this challenge. So here are a few works in progress. The light colored block is a BOM called Fairy Dust by Starr Designs. The other one is The Great Pumpkin Quilt. I'm sure hoping to get these both done by next month. The Blocks at the top are from the 2006 Hop Around Houston. This quilt top should be done by Saturday afternoon. I think these will keep me busy for a little bit of time. TaTa for now. P.S. PeeWee 4 1/2 weeks till FL!!

Tree Skirt

Well here's the quilt top of the tree shirt from "Six Half Make A Whole Christmas". I think it turned out OK. Maybe I'll do some Quilting over the weekend. This was pretty easy to put together the direction were very good. The girls from the quilt branch have good directions to follow. They are really wonderful people. This past year I was Program Chair person for our guild and the ladies from The Quilt Branch came and did a Lecture/Workshop. Their patterns take you step by step which if your a beginner are great. We'll I keep it short tonight. TaTa for now. PeeWee see you tomorrow.

Cleaning

No photo today, because my sewing area is a disaster area. Our guilds quilt show is at the end of September and I am in charge of the silent auction. I've had members brings me things over the last few months for me to put some baskets together with patterns and notions. So last night sometime after 9:00 PM(as my husband would say"my crazy time")I went down stairs to look over some of the things. I noticed I had three good size boxes (that are only about 24"h x 18"w x 36" l) that I've not touched since we moved in our house over 5 years ago. I've come to the conclusion that if I never bought one more quilt related item, I would still be able to make quilts till I die. So lets just say that the silent auction will have a lot more items donated thanks to the brown boxes. To think this wasn't even the stuff I was going to look thru to purge. I have 4 rubber maid containers with that stuff in it. Hopefully by the time I get threw everything I will have a well organized quilt area. To only dream!!!! TaTa for now. PeeWee hope your trip is going well, see you soon.

New Project

Sorry for not posting in the last few days. We were having trouble with our modem. Today was Second Saturday at the Quilt Shop(something else that I do is help at a local shop) and while I was there I had to buy something. I've been looking for the new book by The Quilt Branch and they just happened to have the book. So I bought some fabric to make the tree skirt and cut the fabric out tonight. I've got so many other things I need to do, but instead I do this. I think I'll work on this tomorrow and I post my progress. PeeWee have a nice night. TaTa for now.

My First Quilt

I thought tonight I would give everyone some background information. Just after my husband and I got married I wanted a sewing machine. We went and got a small machine I think it was a Brother. I started making little things like placemats and basket garters. By that following January we had a quilt/sewing shop open in town. So I thought why not learn to quilt. I always liked quilts and how they looked. So I signed up and started my first quilt class in January 1998, it was real basic we learned to make 9-patch blocks, half square tri-angles and something else but I'm not sure what it was. This was a four week class, in class the second week the teacher said that they were going to have a "LATE NIGHT QUILTER". I thought this would be neat to do, so I asked if I could sign-up. I was told that it was not a difficult pattern and should be able to do the project. I bought fabric and I was hooked, the photo above is my first quilt. I was able to finish the top that night. I couldn't believe that I had made this and in one night. That was it from that point on I would go to every class I could and every late night quilter. Pretty soon I was making a quilt every few weeks and have been doing this for over 10 years. Boy time does fly when your having fun. I also got a Viking Rose for my First Anniversary. I think I've talked everyones ears off, so TATA for now. P.S- PeeWee if your looking at the post have a great night in what every city you may be in.

Those crazy dancing ladies

This was a quilt kit that I found at the Houston Quilt Festival in 2007. This was one of those quilts that caught my eye. This was not a quilt style I would have normally picked,but in the end I enjoyed making it. This funky fabric montage is referred to as the "dancing ladies" quilt. I used a variegated thread, and a all over stipple pattern for the quilting portion of this quilt. I like to quilt all my own quilts myself on my short arm Ken Quilt 622, it is a oldy but a goody. TaTa for now.

Pattern for In Santa's Workshop

I've had someone ask where I got the pattern. Here is the website http://withneedleandthread.com/patterns.php. The pattern title is also In Santa's Workshop. Let me know if there are any other questions.

In Santa's Workshop Quilt

This was a class that I took at a Quilt Shop. We learned to us fabric marker & crayons. This was my first attempt at shading. This quilt was done over in about 7 months. I really enjoyed all the different elements. All the fabric in the faces are the same color, just required shading or coloring to make it different colors. This was also the first time a did a machine applique quilt, then I decided to do the circle quilt below. I think I'll be putting this in our guild quilt show in September.

Few more

Here are a few more pictures. The quilting was more of a abstract per request of my co-worker. I have a short arm quilting machine and most of the quilting was done on that machine. I think the quilt turned out quit well. I always fear that if you make a quilt for someone they won't like it when it's done.

Quilt I just finished

I've been working on this since mid-February. This is not actually my quilt I made this for a co-worker. This was a quilt that had started out in an issue of McCall's Quilting. It was pictured as a throw the was 46 1/2 x 66 1/2. The quilt I did was 90x108. I graphed the quilt to make it larger. There are 12", 9", 6" and 3" Blocks. All the large blocks have a smaller circle in the block that I Machine Appliqued. Most 95 % of the small blocks also have smaller circles in them as well. This was also my first attempet at making a Duvet Cover. I think all turned out good.

New To Blogging

I've finally decided it was time to start Blogging!! Here goes I've been Quilting for just over 10 years. I love to look at everyone's works of art and thought I should try doing this. I'm in the process of working on quilts for our up coming guild quilt show in September. So maybe in the next day or so I'll put some of the photo's up for all to see. Take care for know