Area 51

Straightening up my sewing room I found UFO's I don't remember piecing...now that is bad! I am joining an open sew group once a month and I'm only bringing UFO's starting with Taylor's graduation quilt. I pieced the top at a retreat in May but he's grown a foot since I bought this pattern. I picked up a green check homespun for the first border and will use left-over pieces from the top for the outside border. Not sure what I'm going to use for the backing but it will keep him warm at college in Burlington, VT.

The star's on Spencer's quilt needs to be machine appliqued before the borders can be put on. I was originally going do do another pattern but he saw this one and I was over-ruled. The nine & four patches were part of my round robin for guild. In the guild's round robin we pass out baggies of pre-cut blocks w/directions and a picture of how the block should look. Your name gets put in after you've made 6 blocks for other members. This is the second quilt I've made with round robin blocks. Hopefully, my name will get pulled soon, I already have my next pattern picked out.

Some of my other UFO's:

The was a guild BOM using common fabric. Going to be a runner for my bureau.

Totally forgot about this one, 2005 Thimbleberries Club, will be made into a tablerunner.

This was from an Alphabet Block Swap I ran at guild. The background on the blocks had to match the letter. Mine was the X block, the background is a black & white check with X's from a crossword fabric line. I decided to be different and started adding wonky borders on my set.

2008 Little Lamb Quilt Shop BOM, maybe I'll finish a few more or maybe these will be a runner.

I stopped this 12 block series deciding that I would like it better in wool. This will make a nice little walling hanging for the dining room.

Oh look, the aliens are starting to show up!

Dot gets a "Dot" Quilt

Wow, its been a long time since I've had done some serious sewing, but with some help I managed to whip up a quilt for our quilting friend Dot's 90th birthday. Dot is a prolific quilter and over the years has given countless quilts to Odyssey House in Hampton, NH. I don't remember how I came up with the idea, but I thought it would be fun to make Dot a quilt of dots.


Last spring I stumbled on a wonderful quilt from a block swap on about.com using the bricks and cobblestones pattern. I had a wonderful pile in my stash of polka dot fabric from several Keepsake Quilting medley's that I got at Christmas from my sister-in-law. Cutting up the fabric into 2.5" strips, I joined an open sew group on a Saturday and pieced together most of the blocks. I made a baby quilt with some of the brighter ones.

Funny thing is that I just remembered I was at a retreat with Dot when I pieced this top. The owner of the Inn let us tack batting up for a design wall. I placed each block on the wall thinking I would only have to move a few. WRONG! Sitting a few tables back, Dot started "instructing" me as to which blocks to switch and didn't stop until she was satisfied. After piecing the top I brought the ladies to Little Lamb Quilt Shop for some fabric shopping in our PJ's. With the help from my fellow retreaters, I picked out the two border fabrics. With the top completed I sent it home with my friend Terri to be quilted.

Fast forward to Dot's birthday in December, pulling out all the left over blocks I began to square them up. Yes, Virginia, I squared all the blocks up! I could not make a quilt for Dot and not square up all the blocks. Just the thought of not squaring up the blocks gave me nightmares, all of Dot's discussions (lectures) about squaring up blocks were coming back to haunted me. With the squaring up complete, now I play the design wall game. Satisfied with the layout but realizing I'm running out of time I call a few of Dot's friends for some help. The first pass off was to Lynne at McDonald's who puts the borders on. Next is the mother, daughter dynamic duo of Kris (who did the machine quilting) and Pat (who did the binding). WOO HOO...the quilt is done, and what does Dot do? She goes to Florida! We decide to give Dot her quilt at the January meeting of the Seabreeze Quilt Guild.

As you can see Dot loved her quilt.

More Storage

I purchased these 3 drawer units to organize my growing piles scraps, they are sorted by color and need 1 more unit.
Notice the large stack of blue yardage on the left, for someone who says she's not into blue, its the largest pile of fabric.

I picked up this unit at staples, it fits nicely under the cutting table. I will use the large bottom draw to toss scraps into while cutting then when its full I can sort them into the larger drawers under the fabric shelves.

This area still needs some work. Now onto pattern, book & magazine organization!

The Captain and his Pilot

I made some progress in the sewing room. 4 bags of scraps went to the guild for the quilt show scrap table, and a large box of FQ's & patterns for the guild penny table. The I vacuumed and washed the floor, repositioned the cutting table and set up my SewEzi table.

Turning the cutting table made the room flow better. Of course my biggest problem is flat surfaces which I can not help pile stuff on. That's why my husband is the captain and I'm the pilot. When my husband gets annoyed with all my piles I it pick them up and pil-ot them in another room, then a pil-ot them to another spot.
I set up my SewEzi table instead of sewing on the high counter top. The SewEzi was a great investment, its easy to set up and transport.

I put my big board close to my sewing table, not exactly the desirable sewing triangle but its working out better than the old layout. Next project is to find a storage for the plastic project boxes.

Quilt Shows

The Seabreeze Quilt Guild had their bi-annual Quilt Show last weekend. As usual I gave away most of the quilts I made last year, but managed to put 3 quilts in the show.

This quilt was a kit from Moda using the Hello Betty fabric line. I made this for a shop sample for Little Lamb Quilt Shop. I really wanted to use my Wonder Cut Ruler to make the half square triangles but the patterned called for Triangles on a Roll. I'm so in love with the Wonder Cut Ruler. It makes half square triangles fast and accurate.>

This was another Moda shop sample, Pampered Pooch. I think the dog bone border is such a hoot. Cecile of Meandering Stitches in Barrington NH did the quilting. She quilted in dog bones and bow wow wow, ruff ruff. She does most of the quilting for the shop now and does a great job.

My first embellished quilt. This was a guild challenge, blue & green batiks were the challenge fabrics and I could only add 4 additional fabrics. I was so frustrated because I wanted to add more than 4 fabrics. Finally after a week of whining I came up with the embellishments. The comb is needle felted with red roving and has small red beads running along the outside. The scarf also is beaded because it was getting to matchy, matchy. The wing & tail have blue & green feathers. I blended blue & green roving and used it to needle felt the feathers to the quilt. The sneakers have thin blue/teak leather strips for laces, I great find in the scrapbooking department at JoAnn's. And yes, that is real cracked corn that my husband sprayed with a coat of poly, then I glued them down with tacky glue.

UFO's

Oh, how I miss my digital camera...this cellphone camera isn't cutting it. I decided to take pics of my UFO's, hoping this will get me motivated to complete a few.

I have a request for a brown & blue baby quilt. I'm having a hard time with putting those colors into a baby quilt. I hate working on quilts when I'm not in love with the fabrics. Poor boy will be in kindergarten by the time I get finished with it. I've settled on this for the pattern & layout...I think


I started cutting out a Turning Twenty Again with different racing them fabric. The nights can get really cold camping at the September race at Loundon



I decided if you can't find your favorite drivers fabric, make it yourself


I scanned "hero" cards we picked up at the track and used Printed Treasures to make my own fabric squares. The pic of Robby & Tony's shoving match is my favorite.

I Need a Director!

When my son has to clean his room it can be overwhelming and often doesn't know where to start, I help by playing the role of "director". First, I tell him to pick up all the clothes, second pick up toys, etc...after awhile I don't say anything and he continues along. I finally got the motivation to clean my sewing/quilt room and now I was the one who desperately needed a director!
Janet-Lee Santeusanio , the Queen of Machine Quilters & co-found of the Machine Quilters Expo suggested I take before and after pictures. When I downloaded the pictures I was horrified at the state of my room.

My feeble attempts at organization


This didn't work at all, too small of a space, too many patterns.

Notice how everything leans to the right, the post serves as a bookend.

I cleaned off the top shelf which used to have squares in bins sorted by size. I keep saying I'm going to make a scrap quilt but eventually gave up that fantasy and gave the squares to my guild's queen of scrap quilts. So far she's brought in 3 full size quilts made with my scraps that she gave to teenagers living in a group home. The next shelf holds my pieces of 1+yards, mostly sorted by color. I fold the yardage using my 6.5 x 24.5 in rule, a method the book Creating Your Perfect Quilting Space, the Happy Zombie has a nice picture tutorial on her blog. The shelves with bins hold FQ's & half yard cuts sorted by color.

I'm off to search the internet for some organizational inspiration. Stay tuned....