Sunday, November 27, 2011

New day.....

all be it that it was a rainy day all day, I am turning over a new leaf. 

Cleaned and purged the sewing room yesterday and I am ready to get back to the applique.

Knitting is what has been taking up some of my time lately.  I just finished this shawl.




Made it with the color changing cotton yarn, but now that this project is out of the way, I am headed into the the sewing room, but first.

Sheila came over to get the two bags of fabric that I purged yesterday AND she brought a beautiful show-n-tell to share, too. 



Sorry, there weren't enough hands to hold this up, but I think you get the gist of it. It's beautiful.  If you are interested in knowing the name of the pattern, let me know.  I will have to get that info from Sheila as I forgot to get it so that I could blog about it. 

She did this as a block of the month through one of her local quilt shops and learned many different techniques of applique.  I think she wants to stick with her favorite technique though. 

Well, I am off to the sewing room to pick up the Cherry Tree block that I was last working on, so hope to be able to show that one to you real soon. 

It's back to work tomorrow for me, but I hope to take a stitch or two each evening. 

Happy quilting.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Am I a hoarder?

I don't think so, but if I had to live in my sewing room, I might say that.

I haven't done any stitching for quite a while.  The sewing room has become a catch all for "stuff" making it very undesirable to go in there. 

The TV show "Hoarders" gives you all these descriptions of people who do hoard and I have to say that while I was in my sewing room "gutting" it today, I found myself saying....."but I could use this 1" strip of fabric for something.  Maybe I should keep it".  But....I was strong.  I went in there with determination. 

I pulled all of this.....


OFF the top of  my stash drawers and totes making it impossible to get to the top drawer AND the totes. 



I pared down.

Two bags full.



and one box full.


Now mind you, my stash buying was never  buying yardage like some of my friends, but a fat quarter here, a half yard there, or buying for a project and then keeping all the scraps from them, so unless I was to spend hours and hours making scrap quilts, this just wasn't going to get used up. 

Even finding out at our latest guild meeting from an AQS appraiser that fabric may go up to $15.00 a yard in the not too distant future did not sway me.  This fabric was not going to get used by me. 

So, my friend Sheila is going to get the two bags full to make scrap quilts for her CASA kids (these are children who are in foster care and she is their advocate) and the box is going to be donated to a local assisted living where they have this huge craft room with several sewing machines.  The manager of this assisted living was telling me how wonderful the ladies that sewed there were.  They made quilts for charity. 
So, I am not feeling too bad about getting rid of some of this stash. 

The good thing though is that I found several pieces that are large enough to make a bunch of baby quilts and some pieces that are big enough to back larger quilts.  So now the majority of my stash looks like this.



Each drawer has been pared down greatly.  One of the tubs was emptied totally and now all my larger pieces of fabric are now in the top bin or on top of the drawers nearly folded and in full view. 

I am feeling much better about my sewing room now.  Hope to get in there real soon now to actually sew.   

While on my hiatus from sewing though, I have been knitting, but I will save that for my next post.

See you soon


Friday, November 4, 2011

Motivation....where are you?

I have been so NOT motivated to quilt  lately. 

Don't know why, but it could be because my mom has been so sick, or the fact that it's Fall and the knitting needles keep calling my name, or just the fact that the warm weather has gone away. 

The latest knit project I have been working on is a shawl.  Remember this cotton yarn (looks more like floss)?

Well, this is where I am with that  right now.




This is the shawl that I bought the shawl pin for. 



Can't wait to use it.

Also, I had two more commitments with my birthday star block exchange.

Got Joanne's made for November.  She requested black and white with a black or white background.



Here is Ellen's for December.  She requested light to medium greens with cream.  I am not so sure the picture shows the true colors, but the block is a very pretty, soft green. I hope they both like their blocks.


I think my goal is to finish the shawl and then I will get back into the sewing room  and get busy on some of my Cherry Tree blocks.  I am so close to the end of this 29 month BOM, I can't poop out now.  Motivation will come back...I am sure. 



Michigan quilters, take note

  Come see us at our first Quilter's to Quilter's sale.   Don't know what that is?  Well, it will be 28 quilters/vendors selling...