I've Been Busy

I'd say it's time to take a break and tidy up a bit, wouldn't you? LOL

Stash quilt is all cut out! I'm so excited. I did it!!

Nasties

Yes, nasties. That's what I call people who make nasty, often anonymous, comments.

It has gotten out of hand. There are folks, women, who have nothing better to do than to sit at their computer making swipes at those of us who enjoy blogging and quilting, and talking about blogging and quilting. My last comment to those people - get a life. Go make a quilt. Go vacuum the carpet.

I would like to ask everyone who reads my blog to do something for a while until this all settles down.

If you get one of those kind of comments on your blog - just delete it. Delete it. Delete it. If you see one on my blog, please email me and I'll delete it. Just don't respond to it.

After a while when those people see they're not getting a rise out of us, they will go away. You see, what they want is attention. They want to stir up a heated discussion. They want to upset me or you with their comments. Just delete them. They are nobody of interest or importance to us. They're a boil on the butt of humanity.

DELETE THEM!!

Thank you.

Judy's Stash Project

I was going to just throw in the towel on Judy's Stash Project. I tore up my stash room looking for lights and darks and nothing - I mean, nothing - was going together.

So I did what I do best and went whining to Judy. I told her I tried to pull the fabrics, and what I had pulled was horrible. So I was giving it up. I don't normally pass along emails from friends, but hers were good ones!

She replied, "NO! Something's not quite right . . this is NOT hard. Would you please do something for me? Just grab a few and use them. It can be a charity quilt if you hate it. You may hate it but I promise you . . you will do something in this process that will make using the stash easier. Lights and darks -- that's it. Pick them before Saturday!"

So, okay, I said I'd try again Friday night, but nothing was working because of all the blasted florals in my stash; I didn't have many tone on tones.

Now she got REALLY tough with me!! She was NOT letting me off the hook!! LOL

"Mine are tone on tones because that's almost all I have. You can use florals, you can use checks . . just don't use only one floral. If you're going to use florals, throw in a bunch. Lay them out on the floor . . walk away and look. Do they look dark or light . . that's all you need to worry about -- dark or light!

"You can do it. You may not like it but it's time to . . you know what . . or get off the pot! Either use the stash or stop adding to it. You have to decide . . did I buy this fabric to collect or did I buy it to use on a rainy day. USE THE STASH!!!"

ROFLOL. Judy is one determined woman!! She's is not giving me a pass on this one!! When Judy was here in Jan. 2008 she saw the stash and she knows what's there. She totally turned a deaf ear to my whining!

Judy, I love you, kiddo! But you drive a hard bargain!

Before I went to bed last night, I pulled dark florals and lights. After reading back through her post about it, I needed more of both so I pulled more this morning. As I was flipping off the light in the stash room a few minutes ago, inspiration struck! I'm heading back up there now to pull another set of these lights and darks! I think I'll like the second set better, but they would both work for this project!

So, Judy, you win this round!!! I guess I'll be cutting fabrics when I get back from my haircut this morning! Sheesh ....

UPDATE: Stash pull - Plan B!!!! Still need to tweek it some, but I'm going with these!

Well, the "Ayes" Have It!

You voted and, unlike our politicians, I listen!! So I'll be making the basket quilt. I think I'm going to just stick with the size block as designed. Whether I make all 291 is yet to be seen!! Thank you all for weighing in. See? Your votes DO count!! :) :)



Making use of scraps - that's a good thing! I had some scraps segregated by color, so I dug into the blues and found these pieces. I need a range of blues. I'll be ready to start sewing more blocks before the weekend! Yea!

I don't like standing at the cutting table slicing these strips up into 2.250 pieces, but it needs to be done. So you know where I'll be for the next two nights!

Basket

Ever since I saw this quilt in a picture that Kimberly at The Fat Quarter Shop posted on her blog from Fall Market, it has been at the forefront of my thoughts. The quilt is in the book titled "When the Cold Wind Blows" by Barb Adams and Alma Allen of Blackbird Designs. I didn't tell anyone what I was thinking about because -- well, I just didn't.

This weekend while Jane and I were at Calico Horse, I showed her the quilt in the book. (And in process of taking that book down to show her, I knocked every single book off their display. I hope no one from that shop reads my blog. I truly don't want them to know I was the one who did that!!!!!)

Anyway, Jane did not discourage me from doing this quilt. In fact, she was sort of supportive of the idea. However, I didn't look at her when we were talking to see if she was rolling her eyes at me. :)

So last night while watching TV, I decided to try one. I made the templates a couple of months ago. This block is 5.5" unfinished.

This little blasted thing took me two hours to needleturn. There are 291 baskets in the quilt. If I did one a week, that would take me almost 5.5 years to complete just the basket part of it.

I absolutely love this quilt. Probably more than any quilt I've ever seen in the 7.5 years I've been quilting. But I'm a realist.

I already have a Jane Stickle quilt in the works. I have a Dear Hanna in the works, although I'm making this with a friend and my job is to do just the appliqued blocks. I have about 110 blocks made out of 190 something needed for the Dutch Treat quilt. Those are only the ones I can think of right off the top of my head, but I'm sure there are others.

When I was pulling the blue and white shirtings for the James River Blues quilt this weekend, I went ahead and separated out all the black and white shirtings. I have plenty of those, probably more than enough to do this quilt. The baskets are made from fall colors - gold, orange, green, brown, black. Plenty of that fabric around here, too.

I truly appreciate the readers who visit my blog. I value your comments and opinions. I'll do whatever you say. So I'm asking .....

Yes? No?

Simply Sophisticated Month 5 Winner

Sorry. I was busy sewing away and totally lost track of time!

This month's winner is NAT FROM FRANCE! How exciting!!

You can visit Nat's blog here to check out her blocks!

Congratulations, Nat! Your $25 gift certificate from The Fat Quarter Shop will be emailed to you in just a bit!! We can't wait to see what you buy with your gift certificate!!

Nat, please email me at krz4kwlts@yahoo.com. My French is a "bit" rusty and I couldn't figure out how to notify you of your winning on your blog. (My apologies to my mom and dad who paid a lot of money for me to major in French! LOL)

Again and again, a huge THANK YOU to Kimberly and Kevin at The Fat Quarter Shop for the monthly gift certificate drawing! Please go to visit their site and stop by Jolly Jabber blog to say thank you for making this BOM so much fun!

If you haven't signed up for the Simply Sophisticated BOM, you'll be real sorry you didn't when you see our beautiful quilts! It's not too late! Simply click on the Simply Sophisticated link on my sidebar or click here to get in on the fun!

Quiltathon Day 2 Progress - Updated

My progress so far. It took me two hours to dig through the Civil War Fabrics and find all the shirtings scattered about the stash room. They're now residing in a couple of plastic tubs. I've started cutting these fabrics.

Some of these fabrics have been in my stash for a long time. Some of those shirtings are a Judie Rothermel Indigo Collection. I must have gotten those in 2002. I only started quilting in late 2001, and I remember these being the first shirtings I bought. I pulled one piece of dark blue from the Pennsylvania Plain & Fancy line by Anita Shackelford. It has 2002 on the selvedge.

I'm glad worked down all the way to the bottom of the two huge wire baskets of Civil War fabrics. I found my Jane Stickle blocks that I had put in there so I wouldn't lose them! LOL. And I also found a billion Civil War 3" nine-patch blocks from a swap a few years back. I have a plan forming for those. Time to get them into a quilt!

I've had more fun this weekend! I could really fall in love with my stash! I really could! :) :) :)



Update: Well, after cutting most of the day, I decided to stop and make a block. This is going to be another quilt that will take me some weeks to finish, but I'll stick with it, probably working on it between other projects. I have it about half cut. Instead of using half yard pieces as the pattern called for, I've dug in my Civil War stash and pulled out a lot of small pieces of blue, a lot of fat eighths. So I'll have many more than 12 blue pieces. I'm going to enjoy working on this one.