Stash Report 2010 - Week 9

I busted 6.375 yards this week on things sent to others, but nothing where it counts - in my sewing room! I'm going to do a few things around the house this morning and then turn on my sewing machine to work on something/anything. To quote a football player I once heard being interviewed on TV about 20 years ago when asked what they could do to accomplish their goal .... "I don't know, but something's gotta get did."

No purchases this week. Next week will bring not one but two boxes from The Fat Quarter Shop. One box will contain 8+ yards of Bar Harbor, and one box is a mystery. I have no clue what button I poked - didn't even know I had poked a button - but I received an email from UPS. You know, the one that says "This message was sent to you at the request of Fat Quarter Shop to notify you that the electronic shipment information below has been transmitted to UPS." (sigh) The last time a mystery package arrived, it turned out to be a bolt of cheddar! Lord only knows what's in this package. Well, Kimberly probably knows but I haven't asked her. Stay tuned. It's about time for another give-away, so I'll see if I can't come up with something relating to this mystery box.

I did manage to finish the Botanika binding and get another one done yesterday while watching the earthquake news. Sixteen years ago I would have only noted it and probably changed the channel. Now that I've been living where the earth moves on a regular basis, it's made me aware that at any moment it could happen here. The thing that throws me each time I feel the movement is that it's totally out of the blue. No warnings, no sense of anxious preparation like when waiting for a hurricane to make landfall. Just "wham," day or night. I can't even begin to imagine what an 8.8 felt like and how frightened those people were. My heart goes out to them.

Enough yapping here -- I have fabric to bust in "anxious preparation" for that box landing on my doorstep!

Year-to-Date Totals:

Busted: 86.25 yards
Purchased: 66.625 yards
Net YTD: 19.625 yards busted

Surely the two boxes won't equal more than 19.625 yards! But best get a bigger cushion in place!

Pennsylvania Dutch BOM Block 4 Winner

I can't believe I forgot about the drawing! I even had it on my calendar. I saw it yesterday. I had written "PA Dutch" which I promptly X'd through because, after all, I had already made my block! Sheesh ... next time I'll add the word "drawing"! Sorry about that!

Anyway, without further ado, the winner of the 4th month Pennsylvania Dutch BOM drawing for a $25 gift certificate from The Fat Quarter Shop is ......

Carol of Carol's Craft Creations blog.

Congratulations, Carol. I'll get your gift certificate off to you in a few minutes.

Once again, a gigantic THANK YOU to The Fat Quarter Shop for donating the monthly gift certificates, and for being such an inspiration to all of us! I'm sure Carol will find something awesome on which to spend her gift certificate! Can't wait to see what she gets!

A reminder to all PA Dutch BOM participants, there are few backing sets left, so be sure to grab one while they're available.

Thank you, Kimberly and Kevin!

Stash Report 2010 - Week 8

Pennsylvania Dutch BOM participants, please go HERE to post your finished blocks to be entered in the monthly drawing.

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I was really busy at work this week, getting home later, so not much time to sew. Saturday I vegged. But I did manage to finish the borders on Cobble Stones, the Fig Tree club quilt, and pieced the backing for that. So 3.25 yards busted.



No purchases this week.

Also got the big Heritage quilt squared, and I think I've decided to add a border not called for on the pattern. It needs to be about 10" bigger to drape properly on my tall mattress. I'll work on that tomorrow. Maybe by next week I'll have the borders and backing done. That would be a nice bust. We'll see.

I officially have only one more quilt in the must-do UFO pile - the dreaded mitered borders. Guess I can't put it off any longer. (sigh)

Kind of a blah week, but still in the black - barely!


Year-to-Date Totals:

Busted: 79.875 yards
Purchased: 66.625 yards
Net YTD: 13.250 yards busted

Penny Won Prizes!

Yes, she did!

Jere'e over at Quilted Quickies blog had a give-away a couple of weeks ago. Penny was one of the honorable mention winners! Look at what arrived on her doorstep!



Jere'e made up a batch of Gidget Gobbles for the give-away, and Gidget got to choose the winner! All natural treats just for the most important puppies in our lives! Penny has been given one or two a day since we received them, but when I pulled them out to take pictures, she demanded more! Yes, ma'am!!



And Jere'e, being the wonderfully sweet lady that she is, also included a copy of two of her books, "Quilted Potpourri" and "Charm School Too!" Both of these books have drop-dead gorgeous patterns using pre-cuts. (Gosh, I have a gazillion packages of precuts here and keep buying more!) I picked out a couple of projects from each book that I can't wait to get started on. I'm also going to show these books to local quilt shops because they'll definitely want to carry these! Awww, see Gidget's puppy picture on the cover! She's a star!

Jere'e, thank you SO much! Penny thanks you and Gidget, too! Sorry she can't tell you herself. She was taught not to talk with a mouth full!

Pennsylvania Dutch BOM Block 4

This was a fun block! Love this fabric! I can't wait to put the quilt together. I know there's a ways to go, but these are so my colors!

For all Pennsylvania Dutch BOM participants, the drawing for this month's $25 gift certificate from The Fat Quarter Shop will be held on Thursday, February 25th, sometime around 9:00 p.m., or as soon as I get home from work. Thursdays are usually a little later for me.

Remember, to be entered in the drawing, you have to complete this month's block, post it on your blog, and leave a comment here directing us to your blog. If you don't have a blog, you can always email me a picture of your block to be entered in the drawing. Last month there were a ton of folks who don't have blogs, but I loved having all those great blocks being sent to my email!

If you're behind in getting your blocks done, just skip ahead to this one, Block 4, so you can be entered in this month's drawing. All of the blocks sew up really quickly, so after you are entered here, you can spend a couple of hours and get caught up on all the rest of them!

There are so many new things at The Fat Quarter Shop! Boy, it would be hard to decide what to spend that gift certificate on! I'm sure the winner will find a way!

Once again, a huge thank you to Kimberly and Kevin at The Fat Quarter Shop! You are awesome!

Judy's "Weekend Quilts"

Judy's "Weekend Quilts" arrived last week, and I already have a couple of the quilts on my to-do list! Well, actually, more than a couple, but I did the old stash dive for two of them! Just need to get caught up on some of these UFOs and then I'm going gangbusters on the new quilts in "Weekend Quilts."



I was delighted to see that I already have this one done - or a larger version of Judy's "Just Snowballs" on Page 48 in her book. The one I made from her draft pattern had an extra snowball border on it, but like the one in the book better! And, yes, it was all from stash!

I'll bet everyone thought I wasn't sewing that weekend, huh? Fooled ya!

I highly recommend "Weekend Quilts." Talk about a motivator! Gorgeous quilts!

Congratulations, Judy! You hit another home run!

Stash Report 2010 Week 7

This was a blah week for me. I worked on the borders for the Fig Tree Club quilt, Cobble Stones, but I didn't finish them. I was hoping to get the backing busted. I'll probably get it all finished up today and on the stash report next week.

This week I'm definitely tackling those mitered borders. No more procrastinating. And the last thing in the to-do pile next to my cutting table is the Heritage quilt top that I want to add an additional border on. It needs to be squared up and I'll have to take it to the quilt shop for that. That backing will be a bust also.

I'm ready to sew some really small quilts, 16 x 20. Should be able to get those sewn up in no time flat! These are from the Lori Smith pattern "Reproduction Fabrics Two." I stopped by The Fabric Patch yesterday after a two-year hiatus, and there were some friends there working on them. Got me all inspired! And, no, I didn't buy one single thing while I was in the store. I'm good, darn it!

However ... gosh, how did we know THAT was coming? ... seven yards landed from The Fat Quarter Shop. I have been collecting small cuts of Blackbird Designs fabrics over the past couple of years. The pieces that look like cross-stitch panels. Garden Party has arrived at the FQS, so I picked up seven yards of those pieces. I love using these in applique, for backgrounds and even fussy cutting some for the applique. From time to time I've seen other designers with these pieces in their collection, but Blackbird does it best!

Spent all morning yesterday at the dealership getting things done on my car, oil change, the 30K checkup, and front brake pads. I managed to get about a third of a binding stitched down while I was waiting, so time was not wasted. Until I got home. Then I wasted the rest of the day.

Pictures later of Penny's birthday. She still thinks she's celebrating, I guess. She's SO BAD! LOL.

Year-to-Date Totals:

Busted: 76.625 yards
Purchased: 66.625 yards
Net YTD: 10.0 yards busted

Not where I wanted to be at this point in the year, but at least I'm still in the black.

Penny

Miss Penny decided that the day she turned one year old, that she would turn into a holy terror. I mean, I'm assuming that's what she decided since that's what happened.

I'm going to get birthday pictures of her this weekend, but I quickly snapped this one yesterday morning. See all that thread on the sofa? It's the remains of a spool of Gutermann silk thread. It was everywhere! While I was cleaning that up, she was pulling at the bottom of my PJs and barking. When I got up to toss everything away, she turned over the almost empty trash can in my sewing room. While I was on my hands and knees cleaning that up, she pulled started pulling patterns off of a shelf. While I was putting those back, she overturned her water bowl in the kitchen and was barking away at it. All this in five minutes.

What happened to my sweet little puppy?

Sigh .... I was glad it was time to head off to work!

She received lots of wonderful birthday presents. She has a cupcake all ready for her birthday picture. I'm wondering if she'll sit still long enough to let me capture it on the camera. I do believe it's time to get the larger kennel out of the garage and into the house. Will probably need some "time outs" this weekend.

Right now she's running 100 yard dashes around the house. Do her batteries run low at some point? I think she's related to the Energizer bunny.

But she's cute. And I love her.

I'm just getting O-L-D!!

The Anniversary/Birthday Give-Away Winner!

First, thank you to everyone who left a comment. Wow!! I truly wish I could have given everyone this kit!

Penny sat impatiently while I got all the names in the bowl, and then she didn't cooperate very much getting one out. Wasn't interested in the least! She's developed quite an attitude on her birthday!

So I had to do the honors. :) :)

And the winner of the Robert's Floral Garden kit with the six issues of McCall's magazine is ........

Mimi of Mimi's Passions blog!

Congratulations, Mimi! I hope you get a lot of enjoyment out of the fabric and kit!

Please email me at krz4kwlts@yahoo.com so we can arrange shipment of your winnings!

And thank you again to everyone for participating, and for being a blogger friend the past four years! From time to time I will be having other give-aways. Please stay tuned!

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?