Celebration and Give-Away

There are certainly things to celebrate at the LA Quilter household on February 11th!

February 11th is the four-year anniversary of my blog! Four years! It sure doesn't seem that long! Two things could be said about that -- one, time flies when you're having fun, or, two, I'm getting o-l-d!! I choose to think that I'm getting old having a ton of fun! Hey, it works for me!

And even more importantly, February 11th is Penny's FIRST birthday! She was three months old when she adopted me, and has been pure joy in my life! Penny helped to heal my heart. I love this little puppy so much!

I'd say this calls for a celebration! And a give-away!

During the stash reorganization (which is still going on, by the way) I uncovered several things that I thought might work for give-aways. Here's what I chose for this celebration: Robert's Floral Garden!



This quilt was designed by Robert Callaham and was featured in six issues beginning February 2004 in McCall's Quilting magazine. The quilt will finish 99.5 x 105.5", and all six issues of the magazine are included.

The fabric is gorgeous. So even if you have no desire to make this quilt, you will have 24.875 yards of fabric to play with. Backing is not included. The original price of this kit was $223.95.



At 9:00 p.m. California time on Thursday, February 11th, I will draw one winner from those who leave comments on this blog post. Remember that I must have a way to get in touch with you if you are the winner, so if your comment does not link to your blog, please leave your email address. Penny will draw the name. She's gotten quite good at that!

I will probably make one or two other posts after this, but will give a link back to this give-away.

Good luck to everyone! And thank you for your friendship and support over the past four years!

(Whew! My stash busting has survived another week!)

Stash Report 2010 - Week 6

So you poke ONE button which takes ONE second, and all of a sudden your stash report is in big trouble! It's a good thing my blogiversary and Penny's birthday are this coming week. Whew! In all fairness to me, though, I've had the give-away picked out for a while. Still ...

I was waiting for these items to hit the Fat Quarter Shop. Martinique and Rural Jardin. I picked up the woven bundle, too, of Rural Jardin. Love working with wovens, especially on applique and bindings. So all in all, 28.25 yards came home to roost.

On the busting side, a backing done was 3.5 yards, and then the give-away of 28.375 yards. Total busted, 28.375 yards. Almost a perfect wash again this week.

I have the center pieced together for the Cobble Stones Fig Tree Club quilt, and hope to get the borders on today. At least, I'll work on that until game time. I wonder who I'm cheering for ---- WHO DAT?

Year-to-Date Totals:

Busted: 76.625 yards
Purchased: 59.625 yards
Net YTD: 17.0 yards busted

Progress Halted

Sunday evening I pulled out Cobble Stones to work on. Made all the sashing strips, and pinned them to the blocks. When I laid them out on the ironing board, I noticed something. I didn't twirl the center seam on about half of the blocks. I don't know why I didn't do this except that maybe (1) I was tired or (2) I was having so much fun with the new iron.

You can really see the difference in how the blocks lay. The one on the right is twirled; the left is not twirled. Both blocks had the same amount of pressing.

Before I sew those sashings to the blocks, I'm going to repress and twirl. In the end I'll be a lot happier with the quilt. It's worth the half hour of extra effort, don't you think?

Red and White Slanted Star

I started this thing about two years ago, pulling five yards of white-on-white from my stash and gathering up a bunch of red scraps and fat quarters. Reported this busted two years ago. I thought I wanted to make it bigger, but I pondered it this week. I asked Jane one time when I would know a quilt was finished, and she said I'd just know. I added one more row that was already pieced together, and I'll call it finished, approximately 60" square. I pulled 4 yards out of my stash for the backing and binding, which I just finished piecing. That will go on next week's stash report.

I freed up a tub for a BOM.

And I successfully delayed the mitered borders for a while longer! :)

Stash Report 2010 Week 5

Wow, I'm enthusiastic about the stash reports this year. Or up to this point I am. We'll see how the year progresses. :)

I sewed on three bindings today and pieced two backings. Just have to press the Prairie Paisley top and my weekend list is complete. I did find one more to add to the list that I'll be working on this coming week, Bears in the Barnyard that Judy had as a Quilt for an Hour. I just need to put the final border on, but I got stuck because I've never done a mitered border. I'm going to figure it out this week if it kills me. Those stripes really need to be mitered! Then I'll need to go stash diving for the backing! Hooray! The backing will be another bust!

Since last Sunday I've made three backings for a total of 15.5 yards.

However -- 3.5 yards of backing for the Civil War Tribute BOM from The Fat Quarter Shop came in, as well as 12 yards of Rouenneries linens. So 15.5 yards purchased.

15.5 yards in, 15.5 yards out. I'd call that a wash!!

Year-to-Date Totals:

Busted: 48.25 yards
Purchased: 31.375 yards
Net YTD: 16.875 yards busted

Nine Years in the Making

Botanika, a Robyn Pandolph pattern. I began this quilt in 2001, just a month after I started quilting. I wanted so badly to learn to applique. I didn't know I was supposed to start with something easy!

I had all the blocks made for years, but didn't assemble the top until about four years ago. Then I drug it out fairly regularly to look at it and marvel that I had actually finished the top. I still can't believe that I undertook such a "hard" quilt for my first one.

Finally I decided to get it quilted, and Judy did her fabulous custom quilting on it. I tried to get some close-ups of the quilting but Penny thinks she needs to be in every picture. I'll kennel her and get some close-ups when the binding is finished. Thank you, Judy!! Your quilting truly did make the quilt!



Oh, a funny story. I've been referring to this quilt for years as my funeral quilt. I figured it would take me the rest of my life to get it completed. I mentioned that to Judy when I sent it to her. When I got it back, she said that if she was at my funeral and saw this quilt in the coffin, she was yanking it out! I'm betting she really would do that!!! LOL

This was my learning quilt. I look at it and see things I would do differently now, but the experience was a grand one. All of the circles are needleturned. Some of them are teeny tiny - a quarter inch or less. I was working on this quilt when I was lucky enough to take a four-day workshop with Robyn in, I think, 2003. I had skipped over all the berries, and I asked her if she would show me how to do them. She suggested I practice needleturning them, instead of doing the drawstring around a template. She was right that the tiny ones are much easier to do this way. I'm so grateful that she spent some time with me doing the circles. I now needleturn all circles, big or small. Circles are my favorite shapes to applique!

I'm feeling sort of melancholy about getting this one finished. Why is that? Must be because it's been a part of my entire quilty life.

I guess I need to find another applique project to take to The Home with me!

January Last Weekend Tasks

I had a January goal of backings, bindings and borders. I've done pretty darn good considering the daunting piles of things sitting here in my sewing room.

Here are three quilts that need bindings sewn on. I'll definitely get those done. Then Prairie Paisley needs the million yards of backing pieced. I am NOT looking forward to that, especially ironing all that fabric. But, alas, it must be done.

Drumroll here ..... that leaves only two quilts to work on. One needs to be squared and the backing pieced. The other one needs to be squared, a border added, and backing pieced.

I started out with 16 quilts/quilt tops that needed work. I'm down to two. Not bad for a January, my busiest month of the year!

Penny needs some training about how NOT to help her Mommy while she's in her sewing room. DO NOT pull on the ends of the bindings as they're being attached. DO NOT run off with binding strips. DO NOT turn over the trash can multiple times in a half hour. DO NOT - well, enough said.

But she's so cute!

Bindings

Well, got the bindings machine sewn on four of the nine that needed them. Not bad for a Sunday morning. I might do one more now, and then I'm pretty much done for the day. I have LOTS of hand work to keep me busy for a while!



I decided to do two more before I pooped out for the day. Sitting at the machine putting binding on six quilts in one day has my shoulders all knotted.

Oh, yeah, Penny was a BIG help!

Stash Report 2010 - Week 4

Work is getting a tad bit back to normal for this time of year, so that might mean I can start sewing a little on week nights.

I had planned on working on two UFOs this weekend that only needed the blocks assembled. Then I poked buttons at The Fat Quarter Shop for some Rouenneries wovens and linen. Since those will be arriving next week, I figured some actual busting was in order this weekend. Gotta pad the stash report!!

I finished four backings yesterday. Granted one was a wallhanging but it needed to be done. Started with the smallest one and am working my way through the pile that resides next to my cutting table. Total busted, 12.75 yards.

No purchases this week.

Today will be spent working on getting bindings machined on to this other pile of quilts sitting here. The bindings are already made for most of them, but I should be able to bust a yard or two for the others.

Won't it be nice when the backings pile and the bindings pile are removed from my sewing room? Well, I think so!

Check out what others are busting at Judy's Patchwork Times!

Year-to-Date Totals:

Busted: 32.75 yards
Purchased: 15.875 yards
Net YTD: 16.875 yards busted

Pennsylvania Dutch BOM Block 3 Winner

This month has gone quickly, probably because I was so dang busy at work. However, a bunch of you got your Pennsylvania Dutch BOM blocks made and posted a comment or emailed me a picture.

The name drawn out of the bag for the winner of this month's $25 gift certificate donated by Kimberly and Kevin at the Fat Quarter Shop is .......

Simone de Klerk in the Netherlands!

Congratulations, Simone! I'll email your gift certificate to you in a few minutes!

All of this fun wouldn't be possible without the wonderful generosity of Kimberly and Kevin at the Fat Quarter Shop. You two just get more wonderful every day!

And if you haven't checked out the Jolly Jabber blog recently, please head over there to see all the wonderful quilts that have been donated for an auction for Haitian relief. Please place a bid on one of the quilts, or you can make a donation by clicking on any of the sites listed. Also, a bill was just signed into law that any contribution made to Haitian relief between 1/11/10 and 3/1/10 can be deducted on 2009 income taxes! Just make sure that your charity of choice is a 501(c)3 charity to be able to take your 2009 deduction. All of those listed on Jolly Jabber are. (I checked them out to make sure.)

Simone, we can't wait to see what you purchase with your gift certificate! Congrats!

Thank you again to the Fat Quarter Shop!!

Rain and Oops!

Got up an hour earlier today to get this block sewn together. I didn't even notice the problem until I was downloading the picture from my camera. Guess it's back to the sewing machine tonight! LOL

For those of you participating in the Pennsylvania Dutch BOM from The Fat Quarter Shop, please leave your comments HERE about your finished blocks. I know you'll do yours correctly. It's a case of don't follow the leader!!!!!



It's raining and I love the rain. I love almost everything about it - the "almost" part being the freeways here in SoCal in the rain. I've noticed the past couple of days that most folks are driving like they're supposed to drive in the rain. But there are always one or two hotdoggers who drive like they're in the Indy 500. Yesterday one guy was so close behind me that I thought he was trying to use my draft. Then I saw red lights, and he was pulled over. Yuk yuk.

I've been experimenting with Penny. Leaving her out of her kennel. I had a long talk with her about the honor system, and she's done pretty good. She gets in her nest on the sofa before I go upstairs to bed, and she's still there in the morning - whining to go outside. I hope this works out because I hate that she's kenneled so much, especially with the long work hours going on right now.

I'm off to work. Wish me luck!