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Friday, November 30, 2018

accomplishments in November

Lana Horse quilt
Thanksgiving Table topper
Thanksgiving Door Hanger
Thanksgiving Dresser topper
Lana Quillow
Lana Charity quilt
confetti postcards
Elm Street - Gray Cancer Quilt
Cherry Blossom for Bobbi
CIL #13
Charity #1
Charity #2
Charity #3
Charity #4
CIL #14
Christmas Postcards
Dee's pillow
Lily's Pillow


UFOs completed
(38) Confetti postcards
(39) Simply Woven (Gray cancer quilt)
(40) Super Hero Pillow
(41) Thanksgiving coasters


Studio

I've been asked to share my studio with you.
I don't think I would like to show how messy it is right now.
I found some cute photos of DD in the new studio.
They were still working on it here.
My desk is one I've had for a long time.
As you can see, it is cluttered with all the things I use daily.
I set the sewing area up in a U shape with the desk and filing cabinet on one side and the sewing machine, embroidery machine and storage on the other side.
This is at the top of the stairs.
We made a window seat for DD to be in the room with me.
Most of the time it is filled with "stuff".
No one comes and sits in the room so the flat space fills up.

Under the window seat is a cabinet where I have all my UFOs hanging out.
I file them on an excel spreadsheet and annotate by door.
When I am looking for something, I have to pull everything out of the door area.
I would like to come up with another plan, but have not figured it out yet.
I also take everything out once a year and make sure my list is correct.
It's amazing how they multiply in there and then some disappear.
This corner is where I have "extra stuff" waiting for a home.
DD needs to find a place for her books.
I need to clean out the upper shelf in the extra bedroom closet for the games from my parent's home.
The cabinets above hold craft supplies and computer things.
the cabinet below holds extra pillow forms, blue jeans, Go cutter and dies, ribbon making items....

They built the long arm in my room.
It takes up the back part of the studio.
I wish it were that clean now. 

DD at my cutting table.
You can see to the left that I didn't have my big pressing table yet.
I was using a normal ironing board.
As is the theme, after 13 years, it is full, but usable.
having many of my rulers right there helps me on a daily basis.
The drawers hold embroidery stabilizer and the extra rotary cutters and such.

One Christmas DH bought a piece of furniture that was the right height and proceeded to build a wooden cover for it.
I drape the silver fabric (ironing board fabric) over it and that makes it easy to turn it around when a spot shows too much wear.
This is wonderful for pressing.
I need to learn to not have lots of items on it, but you know, it is a flat surface.
If I have a project, like the one in the upper left, that needs to be stabilized or pressed, I leave it on the table.
Then, I have my diffuser and essential oils, iron, spray starch, fan (it gets hot up here sometimes), and normal tools that are needed within reach.
The tall bin on the side is from the baby clothing project.
It was full of the boy clothing and when I get that project done, I'll have much more space there.

The first two sections of the wall of cabinets are where I keep my fabrics.
I just reorganized my Christmas fabrics by color

This is the first cabinet.
Fabric is sorted by color or type.
I had a problem with the way the shelving was done in the cabinet, so DH stabilized them, which means they are not movable for height.
I'm trying to reduce the colors to fit in one pile on one shelf each.
The Second cabinet has shelves on top and drawer under it.
I store more fabric in the top part and ribbon, etc in the drawers.

My book case before anything was added to it.
My book shelf is above the bottom of the U.
I've cleaned it out and down sized many times, but it is time to do it again.
I need to figure out how to store magazines and class notes.
My scraps are housed in plastic bins.
There are times when I wish I had others added here.
But, I think I need to figure out how to make more quilts out of the scraps.
The ones that are narrower have cut pieces in them
it's a system that I don't really keep up because I found that I didn't automatically go there and use them.

I keep thinking I'll have a clean room and put in all my new photos, but that is not happening, so I will just go ahead and post what my space looks like.
I'm blessed with a wonderful space that has wonderful things in it. 



Stashbuster numbers for December

#8 is Buffalo Panels
I'll need to play with these and see what I can make for the silent auction.

# 37 is Dragonfly baby quilt
A baby quilt should be easy enough to make up and have on hand.
I have pieces cut in there and I'm not sure what needs done, but it should be fairly easy.

# 140 bonus  is the Tree genealogy
I want to use the Tree UFO and my parent's clothing as leaves.

I need to go into the UFO cabinet and pull these, but that is for another day.

December Challenges

I joined in on quite a number of Challenges to help me focus on my UFOs and such.
I love the accountability and will keep reporting, even if I'm behind
I'm putting them all in one post because it's easier to keep track of. 
This is the current status of the projects I've NOT completed.

 Elm Street OMG -
August - Work on Baby Clothing quilt
November - Gray Cancer Quilt
December - Bread & Butter Stars

February Ann's 2006 NYE project
March  - Jo's Club Teal & Brown
April - Copper & Teal Quilt
May - Tie One On
July - Under the Sea
August - Chicken Makings
September - Color Guard Pillow
October Miscellaneous Fall Blocks
November - Home in the Middle
December - Borachio was done prior to December

September - Harry Potter quilt started
November - Harry Potter quilts begun
December - TQPM test table topper

April - Map of Texas
May - Ann's Mystery Star (NYE?)
June - Mira Red Hat Purse
July - Miscellaneous panels
November - Pixie Garden
December - Dragon Fly Baby Quilt

Scrap Attack - Going through my scrap drawers
March color is green.
May Color is Christmas
June Color is yellow.
July Color is Novelty
September  Color will be Black
October - Catch up month
November -Strips
I changed the color because I needed in the strip drawer and it was a mess.
December - Make some string blocks

November - dark green or sage
December -

February #53 - Fall Panel 1
May # 7 - Bread & Butter Stars
September - #3 Bloom
September - #103 Paris
October - #65 Hawaiian Applique - quilt-smart
October - #110 - Pink & Purple 9 patches
November - #11 car organizer. 
November - #51 Flower shop Quilt 
November -  Christmas Embroidery
December - #8 Buffalo Panels
December - #37 Dragonfly Quilt
December - #140 Tree Genealogy

Binding

CIL #14 is ready to bind.
I'll do this while watching TV or if DH is driving.

Lily Pillow

Zipper added to this one too. 
I really have one more to do for Ashley.
I have a T-shirt that she wants into a pillow.
it's her favorite wolf shirt that is worn out for her to wear.

Dee's zipper pillow

It's a two sided pillow that had directional designs. 
Needed a zipper to close the pillow instead of the way I normally do it.
One done, one to go.

for a really good tutorial on how to put a zipper in, to to this Hobby Lobby Link.

Thursday, November 29, 2018

Last CIL quilted

Finished quilting a large meander on this in white thread.
So many colors and so much activity.
The back is busy too, so I used up some bobbins that were not completely full.
It helps me out and now I have empty bobbins to fill.

2019 UFO Challenge at Patchwork Times

Judy at Patchwork Times is doing a 2019 UFO Challenge once again.
I never know what I want to work on, so I just do a random number generator and will follow along with that.
I could still get some of these finished before the end of the year, but I'm making my list anyway.

1. #36 Fall Miscellaneous Blocks
2. #71 Miscellaneous Patriotic blocks
3. #83 Patriotic pieces
4. #110 Tie One On quilt
5. #24 Courthouse Step panel
6. #52 Hawaiian applique Pillow
7. #33 Equessence T-shirt quilt
8. #66 Mini Scrap Basket
9. #13 Christmas embroidery
10. #78 Orphan Blocks
11. #68 Miscellaneous block pieces
12. #88 Pink Horse Quilt

Honestly, I don't know if some of the miscellaneous one are going to be changed when I re-package items to make them easier to work with. 
I'll start with these and see what happens during the year.
if I need to adjust.
I'll update the post as I find the items when I go through my UFO cabinet.
Thanks for doing this again this year.

Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Progress

Two pillows are ready to quilt and then put the zippers in.

Another Charity quilt for the guild.

Monday, November 26, 2018

Pincushion Swap

I'm so excited.
I received my November pincushions and I received 2 of them.
Are they not just adorable?
One for fall and one for Christmas because she couldn't decide which one to send.
LOL
So very special.
Thank you, Bea!

Charity quilt # 3

As I am waiting for the Christmas Tree folks to call  me back, I quilted this little wolf quilt for the guild charity program.
I did the wood grain across the quilt.
I have one more charity quilt to do for this month.
I told myself I would quilt 4 of their charity quilt kits each month that I could.
They only take about an hour from start to finish on the long arm.
I'll be able to practice my quilting this way and do some good for the community.

Good Fortune

I'm starting something new.
Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville is doing a Mystery called Good Fortune.
The first clue came out on Friday.
I am just now getting to it, so I only have a few of the clue done.
If you want to join along, follow the link above.
It's not too late.
It's an easy clue this week.
I have a few more to make from my red and white scraps.

Design Wall Monday

I'm linking to Small Quilts Doll Quilt's Design Wall Monday.
Bread and Butter stars came out again. 
I've been quilting quilts instead of working on this.
It is going to have rows of what I've already put together and then a border.
I don't care for this process.

Motivational Monday

18-24 November 2018

I have lots on my list, but I'd rather have things I could do rather than go out on Black Friday.
DD wants to go out and I have no desire, so I think I'll suggest she and her brother go for it.
We ended up going and she says that it isn't something she wants to do yearly.
YES!

1. Organizational Challenge 
I didn't get all the thread things done a few weeks ago, and I bought new drawers for the threads in the bottom cabinet, so my challenge this week is to put thread into the new containers.
I'm putting like colors together.
What it was....
Pick something you didn't get done and work on it.
What I actually organized and ran out of room.
I really have too much blue and green thread.
Lots of variegated too. 
These bins have thread that will not fit in the other drawers.
I ordered another set.
I won't be able to fit all of the set in this area, but I think I should have enough room for the remaining threads.
I think I need to stop buying threads!
I found that I still have a couple spools of thread that don't have a home in the cabinet, so they will end up in the drawer.
I really need to use up more, so I have room.
Definitely do not need to purchase any more thread.

2. WITB
Most of the boxes this week have been things that just got moved around and found Christmas presents, so no photos 
I do have all the Christmas boxes and will be going through them to see what I can donate.
With the kids moving on, I really don't want to decorate the house as much.

3. Quilt CIL #13
It is also bound.

4. Continue working on baby clothing quilt

5.  Quilt a guild quilt #1
Decided to go ahead and quilt the second one. 

6. Quilting trip was cancelled
Put away all collected projects.
Done...no pictures for some reason.

7. Clean Embroidery Machine
Done and replaced all the needles.

8. Winter Post cards
these are designed and stitched.
I just need to quilt and put them together.

9. Make a small dresser scarf for dorm
the two fronts 

This is the back for both of them.

25 November - 1 December 2018

1. Organizational Challenge 
OK, we've all been sewing up a storm and fabric 
My toss bin is full again.
I have unidentified fabric on the cutting table
I have unidentified fabric on my string bin.
I'm thinking this might be the backing for the old quilt. 
 I almost never pile fabric on the floor, but Christmas fabric made it there.
My pressing table has fabric on it.
I need to figure out what  is there.
So, lets put away fabric piles in your space.

2. WITB
3. Quilt CIL #14
4. Quilt Charity quilt #3
5. Quiltville Mystery clues (1 & 2)
6. Christmas Coasters
7. Christmas Postcards
8. Winter Postcards
9. Dee's pillow
10. Lily's pillow
11. Wolf pillow