Three Finishes and Studio Tour

This week, three little quilts “got their wings” (were officially finished) - and none of them are pink. Two are little blue quilts from January and one is an RSC finish of blocks from last year. I will be getting to some pink quilt tops and some Community Quilts once I spend this afternoon pin/spray basting them. I’m hoping to get five finished next week, but if I could only get three done this week (did I really just say “only” out loud?) then I’m not going to hold my breath for five finishes next week. Whatever happens, happens. 

Let’s see which little quilts got their wings. 

First up is this cute little Bow Ties quilt. These were some blocks I did for last year’s Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 

It measures 42x48} and was quilted with a simple stipple. The backing is a piece sent to me by Jo Kramer for her Community Quilts donation quilt program,.

As usual, this one will to to Quilts for Kids.

Next up are the two blue quilts pieced in January. This first one, pieced with dark and bright blue strings, reminds me of frosted winter window panes. So I’m calling it Frosted Window Panes.

It finished at 42x48”, was quilted with loops, and used up most of the rest of this blue print for the backing. The remaining bits will be cut up for Zipper blocks. 

The final finished quilt this week was this Creature From The Blue Lagoon quilt, using leftover blocks, chunks and all manner of scraps. The finished quilt is 44.5 x 60.5”. I forgot to take a backing photo. 

Working with my pink strings, I finished sewing 63 string blocks at 6.5”, unfinished size. I safety-pinned them into four groups of 15 blocks for the QFK quilt kit makers. 

The remaining three blocks will hopefully be incorporated into my pink Creature quilt later this month. I’m open for ideas for a pink Creature quilt name (hint, hint). Last time I did a pink Creature quilt, it was The Creature From the Bubblegum Factory, LOL. 

This next photo is a bad one, but it shows that this next elephant quilt is ready for basting. I promise that despite how wonky it looks on the design board, half hanging and half pinned, that it is squared up. I’ve also assembled a backing from scrap chunks, so this will be a finish next week hopefully!!

 

What follows is a mini-tour of my studio. I’ve had three separate requests (from Linda, Kat and Anonymous) to show how I store my fabrics and scraps. First up, here is a photo taken of my one studio wall after the flood and remodel from about 18 months ago. It will give you a “lay of the land”, so to speak. 

Although things have changed since this photo was snapped, it is the window wall that I’ll be talking about and showing pictures of. I’ll start on the left with the two plastic storage drawers, then move to the right and eight cubbies on which the ironing station rests, then finish with the three IKEA bookshelves. Ready?

Scrap storage for (top down): Kona White, White/black and black white scraps, Kona Snow, Zip Block contrast squares), Low Volume, Brown, Black. On top of this unit rests my bolts (yardage) of Kona White, Kona Snow, Kona Black and Kona Red. 

Next up: 

Fused scraps (appliqué leftovers), Zip Block ingredients, gray scraps, Linens and scraps pulled to work with them (someday I’ll get back to these, and the drawer that houses the Orphan blocks and Parts Department. 

Moving to the right under the ironing station are:

Top Two: lighter (L) and darker (R) backing pieces for Quilts for Kids.

Bottom Left: precuts. 

Bottom Right (in polka dot bin) Low Volume print yardage and pieces greater than a fat quarter.

Moving to the right, here are the other four bins

Top Left: paper, phone books and lightweight backings for string blocks

Top Right (polka dot bin) African fabrics

Bottom Left: backings for personal quilts

Bottom Right: flannel and muslin

Next, we’ll tackle the bookcases. 

Bookcase #1 (two pix)

I think I missed the very first shelf . That houses a long-term clothing project I’m working on. 

Top Down: miscellaneous string blocks, 2022 RSC Bear Paws and on top of that plastic container are RSC 2021 Chips Blocks to be assembled.

Next: three current RSC projects in their storage boxes.

Lower shelf: two more current RSC boxes

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Blogger stopped working at this point; I will recreate the rest of the tour in next week’s weekly post. 

A Blue Kind of Week

Hi all! Here are my eight blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt. January is BLUE, and Angela at So Scrappy gave us this delightful pattern for the first column of the quilt. I have them pinned in a 2x4 layout for the picture, but have since sewn them together in a column.

To see more scrappy blue goodness, why not swing by and check out all the other blues?

Slightly closer up. Imperfections visible, but then I never claimed to sew with robotic precision!  :-)

This week I also made a couple Dresdens, but will show those next week because I may have more. And then I worked with my vintage sheet scraps and made 18 Rail Fence blocks, 9” each.  I’m showing them all together here, even though they will be spread out in a diagonal zig-zag in the final layout.

And I even found a place to store them close to my vintage sheet scraps (not to be confused with my bins of vintage sheets, LOL. I sell them in my Etsy shop). My studio is an absolute mess, and I have decided to begin cleaning up here and there.

This area below will get a refresh. This is the before picture; I did manage to get all the blues (and gray and blacks) on the bottom shelf sorted and wound on vertical cards. The second-to-bottom shelf shows a bunch of cards just hanging out, waiting to be re-used. Ahem.  The scraps are sorted by colors in the bins on the very right.

Today I go back to sewing with blues. I interrupted my progress on Thursday and Friday to whip up a quick red and gray quilt top for my brother-in-law who loves red. We will be going on vacation to Arizona next month and I’ll  take it to him then. Quilts are useful even in southern Arizona. Winter evenings can get quite cold, and 2 years ago in February it even snowed.

Thanks for dropping by!

Bad, Bad Girl!!

Bad Girl..... that would be me. I got lazy this week. More accurately, I just burned out on denim-bibbed aprons, LOL. I DID finish one more (if you're counting, this would have been Wednesday's apron, I think).....

This is a little girl's apron. The colors in the photo look so different, but in reality they match very nicely. I thought I'd include some of the inside detailing. Yes, I did a French Seam where the two fabrics joined at the skirt bottom... And I added some lace - rather vintage-y (from the seventies)...

I spent more time than I had planned hangin' out with sick DH this week, but it's all good. He's going back to work tomorrow. :-) We did go to a couple thrift stores this week; one was a disappointment, the other netted me some Good Stuff, like fabric, crepe paper (for paper doll dresses), a small stand that I can use to elevate some stuff on my boutique table, and some books.

And I've never shown you this GREAT purse I got in October.

I can't believe this was just sitting there in one of the bins..... it had been there two weeks when I found it. I snatched it up real quick, let me tell you. It's in pristine condition. Look at that frame!!! I doubt it's more than 25-30 years old (does anyone know how to tell?). Guess what I paid for it????

Yeppers.... $2.99. I should've shown something for size reference, but I can tell you that the frame measures 14" across, and the length from top of frame (not clasp) to the bottom of the purse is 12". That's a big purse. Don't know what I'll do with it yet.

This is a rather hodgepodge post, if you haven't noticed.

At Crazy Quilting International, I'm the one who handles the monthly Challenge. This month, we're doing Silk Burning as a sort of afterthought, but the main topic is Organizing Your Stash. We've set up a database and a picture album so that members can have a place to both Show and Tell their storage solutions for fabrics, beads, laces, trims, silk ribbon, buttons, art suppplies, etc. etc. I plan to devote a separate post to my pictures. Tonight I uploaded 20 pictures to the CQI photo album, and I realized I haven't even taken pictures of my storage for silk ribbons, dyeing supplies, silkie prints & supplies and a couple other things. Hmmmm... maybe I'll have to do that in two blog postings.....

I've also been trying to update the graphics on my business card, labels, tags & signage for the boutique. Spending way too much time playing around with my Print Shop program....

And finally, I've actually been stitching yesterday and today on a CQ block for our Flower Fairies Round Robin. I should have progress - well, the whole 6" block, that is - to show in a couple days. Stay tuned.

Hugs,