Buying pre cut fabric on ebay

Awhile back I thought it would help speed things up if I bought pre-cut fabric from people on eBay.  I bought two "kits" of the kaleidoscope pattern (see below for the "Egyptian" top), some pinwheels, and a Carpenter's Wheel.  It has been so long since I bought the last one that I forgot what the pattern looked like.  No picture or instructions were included with the pieces that were die-cut and labeled "E white" or "D floral".  See picture above. There are enough pieces for 12 blocks.

 This is what the carpenter's wheel block looks like.  There are so many half square triangle units! UGH!  This will take me a LONG time to put together. 

I must have ADD!

So the Focus on Four went by the wayside. I started cutting up fabric for a wall-hangings last night. It is one of my UFO's, the Cat Nap kit.  My dear husband remarked, "what about those 43 UFO's you have?"  I defended myself by telling him that this was one of those and I need something to do while watching the SF Giants lose to the O's!  (that is another story)  I ended up knitting some of the beanie that I am working on. 

Ok, ok I will get back to the four I should focus on and leave the others to when I have finished a project first. 

(:

Focus on Four

Now that Tuesday is here, I look at what I have to focus on. Some of you have mentioned "focus on four" and I really like this idea: Four projects to focus on at one time. O.K. So now I need to pick the four...Of course there is the Scrappy Crossroads (1) and the Sunflower Sampler (2).  The other two would be quilting the flag table topper (3) and hemming the drapes for the house (4).  This way I won't feel overwhelmed and start to panic when I read the list of all my UFO's!  Thank you for that great idea!  Once I get a project finished then I can take that project off and add another to the "focus on four" list.

Sunday, my daughter, Natasha (27 years old) is coming over so I can help her quilt the baby quilt she made for a friend of hers.  Quilt in a Day's Eleanor Burns has a method of making two quilts a t a time.  We used this method to make the quilts for Luna, the baby.  I make the "twin" to Natasha's quilt.  I hand quilted moons on it.  Here is the picture of my quilt.


Natasha wants to learn how to quilt, and she has some great ideas.  But, she is very busy with her own life. I was like that, too.  I waited until my youngest child was about 9 before I started seriously quilting.  I had some sewing experience from making clothes in high school.  Natasha does not have much sewing experience at all!  She didn't even take home economics!  I started teaching her to sew about 5 years ago.  She left her machine at my house so I know she is not practicing on the machine!  I think once the estate settlement is completed she can slow down enough to enjoy quilting. 


It would be so nice to have a daughter that I can go on shop hops with and share the ups & downs of a certain pattern...maybe that is what friends are for, not daughters.  And, I have some amazing "quilt-y" friends!! Especially when they tell me that I need to stay focused on the four projects at hand!

 close up the whole moon

close up of the crescent moon

Monday blues.....

As Monday gets on its way to being a very busy week, I think about what I have done this last weekend.  I sewed minimally and didn't accomplish much.  I am making progress on the "1.5 inch square" (3 rows of them) border for the Arkansas Scrappy Road. I should be done with the border by the next millennium!  775 squares to sew up...why oh why did I pick this border?

Once I get a day that I can dedicate at least 8 hours, I will be quilting that sampler on the frame.

Have a great week!

Pictures are the proof I have way too much to do...

I took pictures of some of the finished tops I have. Two of them I did not take pictures of because the cats would not get off the bed and they were too big for the "design wall" I created using my curtains in the bedroom....The first one (above) is Antique Tile in the rows.  I have a white that is consistent in all the blocks. For the corners I cut up one of the blocks into four equal parts.  The second quilt top (right) is scraps of Asian print fabric in the pattern called County Lines.  It went together very easily, and looks great!

The third top was an online mystery I made about 6 years ago, turns out it was a card trick!

I took a class on a new approach to making the Ohio Star. The teacher explained how to make two stars at a time.  I really like the colors in this top.  I bought the border fabric and then I matched the star fabric to it.  Not the usual way to make a quilt top, but it worked for me. 

I purchased some "kits" online and one was this.. The fabric is a Michael Miller design with Egyptian cats, cut into the kaleidoscope pattern.  I even bought fabric to to match and made some pillow cases for this top. (those ARE finished)

I belong to a Yahoo! Group that was having a row-robin where the main fabric color is purple. I didn't think I had enough purple in my stash until I actually sorted through the fabric...I had plenty!  So I joined and this is what I ended up with.

I saw this pattern and really thought I would use up a lot of my scraps. It uses two-inch squares and two-inch strips.  It hardly put a dent in my scrap stash It is called Strip Cocktail

I "won" a windmill template at my quilting group meeting.  I used it to make this scrappy quilt, using animal prints.  Be careful when you use this template that you be consistent with the way you cut the fabric, otherwise you will end up doing what I did and cut some going right and some going left. (Look at the blocks in the border-they are spinning differently that those in the middle section.)

Lastly for today's pictures:

This was from another Yahoo! group I belong to and it started with 6 "happy blocks" and progressed from there as a round robin.













Happy sewing!

TGIF getting ready for the weekend

This weekend I probably will not get to sew much. Work on Saturday will keep me busy until 1pm or so, then back home and do more yard work. Those pesky weeds will not stop growing!

Sunday I will helping out at the San Mateo County Fair selling opportunity tickets to win a quilt the Pacifica Quilters Group has created. Shannon and I will probably spend most of the day at the fair.

Of course I will do my 15 minutes of sewing in the mornings, as always. This morning I sewed the 5 blocks I owe to Shirley for wining the lottery. They turned out very nice! I just need to press them and mail them off.

This weekend I will get photos of the UFO's I have waiting for completion and post them. Not much else going on today. Just glad it is Friday finally and the weekend is almost here.

Adding to the pile of UFO's

Last night I remembered that I did not list a few more projects.

One is a project that I sewed together before I really learned how to make corners match and not cut off points. I ripped out all the sewing and stuffed it into a bag and left it. That was over 10 years ago. It is being stored with my orphan blocks. Another 10 projects in that bin....shhhh don't tell anyone!

Then I remembered that I have some fabric that has US flags on it and I was going to make a table topper out of it for 4th of July, which is fast approaching. So I sandwiched and basted that little feller and will be getting it quilted this week (or maybe next).

I also have a landscape quilt that is still on the "design wall" (fabric I brought to the class that the pieces are rolled up in). I need to piece that guy together. It was a fun class just not enough time to get it all sewn together.

I knew that if I left them alone for too long they would multiply! UGH!

My helpers....

Last night, while watching the San Francisco Giants win another game, I loaded the Sunflower quilt top on the Grace frame. Actually, I only loaded the back end of the top, the backing and the batting. It will stay that way until I am ready to quilt the whole quilt in one “sitting”. If I leave the quilt on the frame half way through the quilting, my cats seem to think I have given them a new hammock. They don’t care if the recipient is allergic to cats or not, nor do they care that when my 22 pound cat sits on the “hammock” it stretches the fabric so out of whack that I will need to take the quilt off the frame and re-load it! They just want to have a nice, snuggly place to snooze.

Speaking of my 22 pound cat, have you ever seen a cat sit in a cardboard box? Well I remember once when my cat, Jake, tried to fit his 22 pound body into a very small 6x6 inch box. It was so funny; I could hardly stop laughing to take the pictures. Jake will also take any straight pins he finds and put them into his food bowl. I have to hide my pin cushion! He has an obsession with plants, too. He will eat up my bamboo knitting needles, rubber stopper and all.


Cats seem to want to help with every aspect of my hobbies. If there is a 2-inch square of fabric on the floor, they will sit on it to guard it from running away (this is my perception at least). When I lay blocks out to see if I like the setting, the cats (all four of them) are there to “help” me decide how I like them. Sometimes the kittens (kittens?? They are now 3 years old) will romp around and scatter the blocks so they are nowhere near what I had planned. Thank you, Stella and Stanley.

Then there is the dog. Myka will leave her toys around the house and make it look like we have a two year old toddler living here. I must first clean up her toys before I can lay out the blocks. Then once the blocks are laid out the way I feel is pleasing to the eye, she will want to play with her ball and drop it right where I am working. Needless to say, I try to do the layout while Myka is on a walk with my DH.

Animals bring such love and laughter to us all. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Except, maybe the slobber on the ball. I need a design wall....honey, can I use the family room walls for a permanent design wall? Please? (;

Being accountable for my addiction......

When I was a child, I had many stuffed animals. At night I had to sleep with each and every one of them. I would stretch my arms straight out while laying in bed. My mom would lay each stuffed animal on my arms. I loved those stuffed animals/friends! When it came time to "grow up" and get rid of these stuffed animals I cried for days. I couldn't get rid of all of them. I still have one or two....I am nearing 50 and I still have some of those stuffed animals.... I guess I have turned my need to have my "friends" near me to the quilt tops that keep accumulating in my UFO pile. I have realized (this morning in the wee hours) that I know that if (& when) I finish these up and get them quilted I will probably give them away or sell them and that is why I can't get myself to finish them up. What an epiphany! This makes me sad....

I received a lot of encouragement from yesterday's post. Most women are in awe that I have that many UFO's, and some even confessed to having more UFO's than I do! WOW. Some suggestions are to post pictures of the progress of the UFO's. I will take some pics this weekend.

Another suggestion was not to cut myself off of new projects completely, but give myself a reward for finishing up, say 5, quilts, then I get to start a new quilt. This might work, but I really think that I will modify it by saying if I finish 5 quilts (quilted, bound and labeled) I get to work on one of the kits I have laying around. I just can't justify buying more fabric when I have those kits just sitting there. I will feel a lot better about getting these UFO's finished!

Today I spent 20 minutes sewing 1.5 inch squares together to make the border for my Scrappy Crossroads top. I will need 775 1.5 inch square for the border....this is very boring for me so I have to be diligent in my efforts to finish this up. I just zone out and go to my virtual vacation spot and just sew. It is sometimes better than meditation.

Off to work now.......

My UFO list

Sit down when you read this because the list is very long. I think I shall stop calling myself a quilter and start telling people I am a "piecer". I just can't get through the final step of quilting the tops! I get to a point in the project where I am easily distracted with other projects. Ones that are prettier, faster, or I want to learn a new technique.

The list is broken down into categories: almost done (minimal work to be done before adding label), tops done, tops almost done, in-progress as "leaders & enders", kits (either purchased or made by me), PIGS (projects in grocery sacks), & WHIMM's (work hidden in my mind).

Almost Done:
Scrappy Irish Chain. I need to finish machine quilting a few more of the squares in the ditch, add the binding and add a label.

Tops Done:
Antique Tile
Purple Row Robin
Reversible Sport Nut
County Lines (a)
Strip Cocktail
Windmill
Sunflower
Card Trick
Star Round Robin
Color Explosion
Christmas Mountain Majesties
BQ
Egyptian
Boxed in
Poppy's baby quilt.

Tops Almost Done:
Scrappy Cross Roads
Gordian Knot
Jungle Kaleidoscope

In Progress:
Blue Ridge Beauty
Crumbs
Zodiac
Whacky Waves
String
Asian nightmare

Kits:
Outdoorsey
maple leaf
snowball
town square
wine country
medallion stars
Flag
Simply Strips
County Lines (b)
Yukata Cut it
Bento Box in Batiks
beaches
carpenter's wheel
catnap
woodsy

PIGS:
Christmas Mystery
Baby 9patch pizzaz

WHIMM's:
native american panel
underwater
fishbowl

OMG!! That is waaaaaay too many projects for one person. If you would like to help me get these down to a manageable stack, let me know.... I propbably will be donating some of the tops to our quilting group for charity. Even if I finished one quilt every other month, that would take me almost eight years! Repeat after me....do not buy any more fabric for a new project
do not buy any more fabric for a new project
do not buy any more fabric for a new project
do not buy any more fabric for a new project


really?? but I wannnaaaaa.

off to get the top on the frame for quilting. We are having a quilt show in August and I should have something to show.
B-

Project UFO 2010

Wow the last post was in 2006...ok so for 2010 YES I said 2010 I will list all my UFO's (unfinished Objects) going from tops to "kits" I have cut up and stored for the last eon. Stay tuned for the list....

Sewing machine Woes

I was quilting on my machine and broke it! UGh I still had stuff to sew for Christmas presents. Oh well, I called my daughter to borrow her machine. She brought it over and it wouldn't work either! Getting other stuff sewed was not in my agenda apparently.
I took my machine in and they said it was the timing mechanism, and it would cost $89.95 to get it fixed. YIKES! oh well, I picked up the machine yesterday and it works like a dream now. And it is very quiet. It wasn't quiet before. I wonder if the timing has always been "out". Natasha's machine needed a new foot pedal. She picked that up as well. We both have working machines and are ready to sew again. She plans on making Elizabeth a baby quilt for the new baby (due in March or April - I forget which). I am very happy she plans on continuing with making quilts. Chuck & Penny were very happy with the quilt she made them for Christmas. (her first quilt she finished ever)

I will be sewing up a storm in 2007. I need to quilt all the tops I have in the garage just sitting there waiting for me to finish them up and give away. I think I have about 15 tops that need to be quilted! Then there is all the fabric I have that needs to be sewn into quilt tops....hee hee

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE

See ya.....Piece!

Brenda

Block of the month started last night

I passed out the instructions for the first block last night at the guild meeting. If you are interested in the BOM here is a link to where you can look at it and get info from there.
http://bomquilts.com/images/fun/BrendaBOM.htm


This should be a great challenge for all.

Brenda
See Ya - piece!

My F8 blocks

These are the blocks that the ladies in my group made for me. Aren't they great? I can't wait to get the other 4 done and make this wallhanging for my family room.

I hope eveyone is as happy with their blocks as I am with mine.

I was quilting away on my regular sewing machine last night (the sunburned zebra is still on the frame) and it broke! UGH It won't pick up the bobbin thread. So now I am finishing the quilting with the big machine but it has no feed dogs so I have to move it manually. At least I have that one so I can finish this quilt up.

I have been working so hard at finishing up Christmas presents but it still looks like I won't get them all done. UFO's are ok to give, aren't they? LOL. I think if I dedn't have to work I would get them all done....hmmm do you think hubby will go for this idea? NO!

see ya.....Piece!

the Fat Eighth Swap

Yesterday, to continue with my 20 minutes a day (at least!), I worked on one of the blocks for the BOM I am hosting for the guild. I also worked on and finished three (YES I SAID 3) blocks for the Fat Eighth swap I am also hosting. I made one with paper piecing a palm. It turned out so nice!! I can't wait to send these off, but will have to wait until Dec. 15 (or is it the 10th? Geez the mind is the first thing to go, ya know?) This swap is great. I am going to make a wall hanging for the office/family room with my blocks. I might have to make more though. I will only get back 5, as I am only in one group of 6 women. If I make 4 more blocks, then I can have a 3 block x 3 block wall hanging (approximately measuring 40" x 40") with a border and all.

I really need to get that quilt finished that is on the frame right now. I call it a sunburned zebra in the barn. It is black & white & red set in the barn-raising pattern. It is cute, but I just haven't the inspiration to finish quilting it. I just need to dive into it this weekend so I can put another top on the frame to quilt that one. And so the cycle goes. I have so many tops to quilt.

I think I will tie the quilt top I made for Amanda's graduation from college. And then there's Brandon's quilt I am making for his graduation...I was in a Batik Bento Box swap and I need to sew those boogers together to make his quilt top. Nice colors for a guy-quilt!

see ya..Piece!

Inspiration from quilting buddies

Last night I went to my quilting "class". It isn't so much of a class now as a get together of a few quilting buddies going over ideas and sharing new projects with each other. It started out as an actual class offered by the adult education department but has now turned into a time of getting together with friends.

I really enjoy the time I get to spend with my "quilting buddies". I can talk about a fat quarter or a paper piecing block that drove me crazy and it can be appreciated by those that I am talking to. Whenever I try to tell my husband or sons the frustrations I am having with a particular block I get a blank look from them. I was told that all they hear is "blah blah blah blah....Jeff....blah blah blah...Hans....etc"

Last night there was no sewing but I did get inspiration from my quilt buddies. One woman, Pat, brought in her quilted (but not bound) quilt of hand-dyed fabrics. She calls it her Easter egg quilt because the colors resemble the Easter eggs she made a couple of weeks before we dyed this fabric in the class. Just stunning. Now what am I going to do with all my hand-dyed fabric? I think I will just hold onto it a little longer so I can enjoy how pretty they all are.

Brenda

see ya...piece!

The challenge continues...

Last night I made the effort to continue with the challenge of 20 minutes a day. I finished two blocks; then I had to undo some of the sewing because I wasn't paying attention and I sewed some of the squares on upside down. YIKES! Then I re-sewed the block correctly!

I finished writing the monthly newsletter for the local quilt guild, Piecemakers-by-the-Sea. Tonight I have a class (quilting class) so I don't know if I will get any sewing done, but I know I will be discussing quilting for at least an hour!! That should count for something, eh?

see ya....piece!
Brenda

20 minutes turn into 45!

Last night while my dear husband took Myka, our 11 month old "puppy" to the beach, I had time to do some quilting/sewing.

I sewed together some half square triangles (HST) for two blocks I am to send off to Sandra for winning the block lottery last month. I won in September, so I got to choose the block for October, the Weathervane. I love this block but it has a bunch of HST's!! I pledge 5 to send to the winner. Now to finish the rest of them!

I am also part of a Fat Eighth swap. We sent a F8 to each participant and in turn we received a F8 from each person in our group. Then we have a month to create a block from each of the F8's. I searched EQ5 for some blocks and printed them out then I cut out the fabric for Lola's last night. Corn & Beans is the pattern I chose. She sent in patriotic fabric. I should be able to cut out the rest tonight. Then sew them up by next week.

I also finished sewing the binding down on 1 pot holder and got half way through another pot holder. These are going to be Christmas presents.

WOW what a productive night, eh?

see ya - piece!

Brenda

November challenge

Ok ladies...and men if you so dare take the challenge!

How about we dedicate at least 20 minutes of our hectic life to quilting every day for the month of November. I know it is already the 6th but if we work hard we can get some of those UFO's (unfinished objects) in our DONE pile!!

I would like to know the progress each of you makes during this month, so please email me and we can encourage each other during the month!!

I can post your pictures, too, if you like.

see ya...piece!

Brenda

Quilting?? No, just piecing!

I still have a quilt on my frame that has been there for about 6 months. I started to quilt it but then we moved and I lost the umph to get it done! I really need to get it done so I can finish up some of the other quilt tops i have laying around. I think I have close to 15 tops laying around!! YIKES
With Christmas just a month and a half away I better get my toosh in gear and get these things quilted, eh?

I really think I am a "piecer" not a "quilter". I enjoy the piecing process much better than the quilting process. But then again, when I am actually quilting, I love the look of the quilts. And I especially love the feeling of getting them done! Then comes the sad part. I have only kept a couple of my quilts. I give them all away. Maybe that is why I don't want to finish them. I won't have them in my hands any longer if I give them away!!

That is a thought I never thought about before....hmmmm....

Anyway, I am wasting time here on the 'puter and not quilting, so, off I go. Hopefully to finish the quilt that is on the frame finally!! I will post pics once it is done!

see ya....piece!