A List of Quilt A Longs

Here is a list of current, about to happen, or future quilt a longs {QAL} that you may or may not be interested in joining. All are free. There may be options in which you can purchase fabrics and the like; but, I prefer to choose my own.

• As you all probably know, I am desiring to be a part of the Gypsy Wife Quilt A Long. The quilt is unique and fits me to a T. I have been wanting to make one for some time now and even purchased the book. This may help me get into the groove and start making the quilt.
  
• I have been following the Ugly Christmas Sweaters QAL even going so far as to color in some free coloring pages whenever a new block is posted. I think it would be fun and humorous to have a quilt for the guest room in December. If I do make one, I'm going to try to include just a tad more reds and greens along with the orange/gold to make it more "Christmasy".
  
• Craftsy has a block of the month (BOM) that is free! The instructor is Lynette Jensen (founder of Thimbleberries). Check it out here: 2016 Block of the Month.
• If you like stars along with a variety of other blocks, Starry Night Sampler Block of the Month might be the one for you and it begins on February 15th.




• The Splendid Sampler Sew A Long by Pat Sloan and Jane Davidson. A mystery that consists of 100 6" blocks. Two blocks are released per week (Sundays and Thursdays) with two holiday breaks. There are 83 designers and a variety of sewing techniques.
  
• If you or someone you know loves mincraft, this QAL may fit the bill: Minecraft Sew Along. A block is posted every Monday and they are currently on block 5.
  

There are tons more quilt a longs out there. It is just a matter of finding them and picking one (or more) that fits the bill for you.

Weekly Recap #5

{January 31 through February 6, 2016}

DIY

• We emptied out one side of the extended pantry. We are replacing the old shelves with a better system -- one that will save my sanity. We already did one side last year and we are now finishing up the other side since The Container Store is currently having a 30% off sale on all elfa systems. We only purchase the hardware from the store. The shelves are from Lowe's and we are cutting them down to size. The pantry is not quite finished due to the fact that Lowe's only had four shelves. We are hoping they will restock more shelves sometime this week.

  I plan to re-purpose the scraps from the shelves to make smaller shelves on what I call the "wonky wall".

Gardening

• We broke ground for a nice sized garden. There was a rectangular spot on our land that was constantly green whereas the rest of the land was brown. I speculated that a garden once was established there. Once I started the work, I discovered that it was going to be much harder than I thought. The roots of the grass, weeds, and more were extremely dense. I was initially discouraged because it was tough and hard work. Dan joined in and helped and I am so thankful for his help. After we dug quite a bit, we think the green stuff is doing so well in this spot is due to the that fact some clay is present in the soil. It is not present elsewhere. So, my assumption must be correct; the former owners had a garden in this spot once upon a time. Anyway, We managed to get half the plot done. And we were both tired and sore from the effort. The other half of the garden will be done next weekend weather permitting.

Quilting; Crafts

• I did some more hand quilting on Dan's quilt. Making more progress!

• I got started on getting a quilt established on the long arm quilting frame. I needed Dan's help due to the fact that the DVD was not closed captioned. This week, I will be focusing on learning on how the machine works and practicing until the tension is right. At least, that is the plan.

• I just discovered that the Gypsy Wife Quilt has partial seams. Egads! I haven't started on the process yet as I am concentrating on a few other projects first. But, I plan to get started soon. You do know how plans go though, correct? They often go awry. Ha!
  
  
  

Miscellaneous

• There were tons of recipe books in the extended pantry. I took the time to go through them all. I weaned out more than half of the books. This is mostly due to the fact that I am now gluten free and many of the recipes are just calling for ingredients I cannot have. Plus, we now have the internet to find excellent recipes these days. So, why have recipe books? Ha! Anyway, the one category in which I could not throw in the half-price books pile was the canning books.
• We went through a hall closet in a fit of organization and used Space Bags by Ziploc to store sheets, blankets, pillows and more. Those bags rock! I am now much happier with the tiny little hole-in-the-wall closet. I still need to think about how to add lighting in all the closets in the house. (Most of the closets have no lights whatsoever an we have to use a flashlight at times.)

Quotes

The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.

~~ adapted from a line in “To a Mouse,” by Robert Burns

Weekly Recap #3

Quilting, Crafts

• I have been hand quilting Dan's quilt sporadically. I am still struggling with sickness; but, I am doing what I can when I am feeling somewhat okay. It made me happy to be able to do what I could which was a lot in my book. I am struggling with Abby Gail whenever I try to quilt; but, she is learning to wait until I am done and put the quilt away before getting on top of me.
• I have been wanting to make a Gypsy Wife Quilt for quite some time now. I even bought the booklet (much cheaper than what the price is now) and have chosen some fabrics. One of the bloggers I follow, Splish Splash Stash: hydeeann plus a needle and thread, is co-hosting a Gypsy Wife Quilt Along with her friend who also blogs. This quilt along (QAL) begins in March and I am seriously thinking about joining!
  

DIY

• I went to Habitat for Humanity Restore store for a specific purpose. I was looking for doors, including bi-fold, that I could use to hide a litter box from guests. This trip was very successful. I found a bi-fold door for $9.95. I also found a solid wooden door for $5.00.

  Anyway, I plan to sand down and paint the bi-fold doors and replace the handle. I also plan to make a couple of "feet" to make the doors more stable. And yes, the bi-fold doors are upside down; but, I like it best that way. Ha!

  Note: I purchased the solid one in case the bi-fold one did not work. Dan stole the solid door to re-purpose into a workshop table.

Books

• The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls happens to be one of the best memoirs I have read in a very long time. I gave this book four stars (out of five) on Goodreads. It is a heartrending book about the author and three other siblings who was raised in an unconventional environment along with the fact their father was an brilliant alcoholic and gambler and their mother was a brilliant artist and a dingbat (my words). Three of the siblings became prosperous while their parents chose homelessness.

Happiest Moment

• Abby Gail came to me as usual one morning wanting attention while I surf the 'net. She was not only laying on my arm; but, she also adjusted herself where she was belly up with hind legs spayed along with a roaring motor. A first for this spoilt little brat.

  By the way, She is still a chest (not lap) kitty. I hold her in my left arm and she usually rests her head on my right shoulder. This can leave my arm aching. But, at least, I can claim it (the arm) is strong. Ha!

Miscellaneous

• I "Shined my Sink" aka Flylady. I mean, deep cleaned the kitchen sink! It made me happy to be doing this again. I now keep it clean daily. However, I encountered a problem when I started this task. I apparently lost the sink plug for the garbage disposal side of the sink! Dan got me new one from a trip he made to Lowe's and I finished this task the next day. So, it took me two days to do this one little task! Ha!

Quotes

Closets become land of forgotten things.

{A random thought that came to me while doing chores one day. I am sure others have thought of it before; but, it was unique to me! }

Tuesday's State of Affairs: A Finish!

With all that is going on in my life, I am amazed I managed to finish the backing to the Layer Cake quilt. We have been running around looking at houses and whatnot. I have also started up some work to be done around the house. My finger is real sore from doing book keeping yesterday and today not to mention balancing the checkbook which was a nightmare! Yes, I am old fashioned. I fear the death of ALL hard drives; so, I keep a paper record. Ha!

Anyway, Amy's Creative Side puts up a "One Thing, One Challenge" periodically. When she put one up last week, I decided to pursue the goal of "finishing up the backing" to the Layer Cake quilt. And, I managed to finish it in the nick of time!

I apologize for this poor quality picture. I did not have my handy dandy assistant to hold it up for me and it is currently dark and gloomy due to the weather. Anyway, it is done! finished! terminado! finito! I am so happy!

Here's a sneak peek into what I am doing next:

What in the world am I going to do? You will have to wait and see. Ha!

PS I just noticed that the colors are appropriate for Valentine's day. For those of you who celebrate this day, I hope it is/was a wonderful one! We do not celebrate this day much as we feel that everyday is Valentine's day. We are so blessed.

And now, I am off to rush and get ready to leave. We are going to view two houses. That should be fun in this weather. NOT!

What Am I Working On?

On My Design Wall: Backing in Progess for Layer Cake Quilt
I am real pleased with how this is turning out from what I envisioned. The main fabric is my favorite.

On My Ironing Board: A Bunch of Blocks Waiting to be Ironed and Squared
Some blocks will be used to complete the backing for Layer Cake quilt. I am thinking that the leftover blocks will be used to make a small quilt or two. We'll see.

On my Cutting Table: Getting Ready to Cut Fabrics to Make Hexies
I grabbed some fabrics from my stash. They are not perfect; but, it will do for a practice project. I thought that this would be a good project to take on the road. I do not have much time to get the fabrics cut and packaged as I will be on the road again soon. So, I better get going on this little project.

Quilty Tuesdays: Layer Cake Quilt Top

This is currently on my design wall -- the finished quilt top from the Layer Cake Quilt Along.
I made Dan hold this while I snapped several pictures. His arms got tired. Poor man. Thank you for all your help!

I still think the sashing is a little busy; but, the border fabric calmed it down somewhat. I think my binding choice will further complete the project. This quilt top is currently back up on my design wall.

I will be starting the backing soon now that I am feeling more like myself. It was a hard few days struggling with health issues. For the first time this morning, I feel like doing things again. Hurray for that! I will be starting the design process for the backing to use up some leftover fabrics. I can hardly wait to get started! It should not take too long to complete because I have one Pure fabric that I will primarily use. I just want to add some of my favorite fabrics within the backing. Doing the backing has always been my favorite part as it is purely mine and it makes the quilt purely one of a kind.

Quilty Tuesday: On my Design Wall

I struggled with sinus troubles the last two weeks along with a few other issues which slowed me down. I was feeling pretty good the latter part of last week only to have my sinus troubles return over the weekend. It is not just me having troubles, Dan has had several allergy attacks. Something is in the air giving us grief.

I had a personal goal of getting all the sashing onto this Layer Cake quilt done by a certain date. I failed. However, I am making slow and steady progress from the last time I posted about this project.

I am glad I am taking pictures because without them, I do not think I would see progress and get discouraged. I work on this quilt whenever I am feeling somewhat decent. If I try to work on it while feeling miserable, I would be liable to hurt myself. In fact, I did hurt myself the last time I tried. I scraped the top of my big toe on the sewing cabinet pretty good. Once the pain of that passed, I soldiered on and fortunately, I did not hurt myself again that afternoon.

August 9, 2011
As you can see, I managed to get all the sashing in between blocks and the rows themselves sewn up. I am now working on getting the sashing between rows sewn on. I have the top sashing sewn on. I just need to get the other two sewn on. And then, I can get the rows with sashing sewn together along with the outer sashing. Once that is done, all I will have left is the border and then the creation of the backing. Let's see. Can I get the top done in two weeks? Ha! No promises. But, it's a goal.

I wish I had chosen a calmer fabric for the sashing. But, at the time I bought this fabric, I thought it would work and to be honest, I loved the print. So, I am using it even though it looks like it is going to be one busy quilt.


I'm linking up at:

Quilty Tuesday: On My Design Wall

I have been busy cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, recycling, reorganizing, Goodwilling, and trashing stuff. As a result, I have only done a few things in the way of crafting and quilting projects.

I did the garbage container recently as the original was driving me batty.

We are slowing working on the trash-to-treasure nightstand. All that is needed is a couple of coats of polyurethane and that project will be completed.

And, I finished adding the borders to the Layer Cake blocks which I last posted about on June 21st. They are all squared up.

As of this morning
As you can see, I have made very little progress on the quilt. The next step is cutting fabric for the sashing and sewing those on.

I am planning to relax and enjoy a week or two for myself before getting back to cleaning, cleaning, and cleaning! We are trying to simplify and organize our lives. We have already gotten rid of a dining table and two folding side tables via Craigslist and I am planning to sell off more including an antique sewing machine. (No, it is not my Grandmother's sewing machine).

I am anxious to get the Layer Cake quilt top and backing finished because I wish to play with my newest "toy" in the house.


A Sneak Tease



I'm linking up with:
 

Quilting Tuesdays: WIP

It has been awhile since I posted any sewing/quilting related projects. I have a couple of quilting work-in-progress (WIP) projects I am working on.

Quilting Book Club: May

1. Information:
• Book Used: Modern Basics by Amy Ellis
• Quilt Pattern: Basic Ease (page 7)
• Fabrics:
  
  1. "Red" & "Green": Happy by Jennifer Ryan for In the Beginning 2010
  2. "White": Polka Dot Garden by Jennifer Heynen for In the Beginning 2011
  3. Binding: Redwork Rendezvous by Alex Anderson for P&B Textiles (It is a black fabric with tiny white pin dots)
2. Top Completed: May 27th
   
   Closeup Shot of fabrics:
   


3. Back Completed: June 9th
   
   Note: It takes me awhile to complete the backing because I tend to patch up a bunch of leftover fabrics. I rarely buy separate fabric just for the backing. I tend to buy extra fabric required for the front for 1) just in case I make a mistake AND 2) to create the backing with.


4. Sandwiched, Pin Basted, and Ready for Quilting: June 19th
   
   I am one frustrated quilter. There is so much I want to do quilting wise; but, I am so limited with my home sewing machine. I wanted to do something a little fancy with my mother’s Maxine Quilt; but, I could not due to my machine’s limitations. I do not want to pay an arm and a leg to send it out to be quilted by someone else. It is already expensive enough as it is with fabrics. I did a little research and purchased two items for my sewing machine. I am ready to give it a try again. I will have to set it up and practice on a sample first and see what happens.
   
   For now, it is gently folded up and ready for quilting. I think I am going to finish piecing the layer cake quilt (below) and get that ready for quilting too. And then, I will work on quilting two quilts.

Layer Cake Quilt Along

I am way behind on this. Heh. This is what happens when your machine breaks and sits in shop for two weeks -- you lose your focus and dedication. I am unfocused anyway. So, what does it matter? At least, I picked this back up and am working on completing this project. That is saying something. What am I saying? I don't know. I am unfocused, remember? Ha!

1. Block 12 Completed: June 15th
   


2. On my design wall last night (June 20th):
   
   Since my blocks are not all the same size, I am attempting to square them up by corrupting the PURE fabric line with the addition of a “Pound Hounds” fabric by Sue Marel ©2011 RJR Fabrics. This should be a piece of cake since I did the same thing for my mother’s Maxine Quilt (some of the panels were wonky) except I am stressing over the process.

By the way, I have been doing a little research into longarm (or midarm) quilting machines and Holy Cow! How can anybody afford to get one of these machines? They must either desperately saved up their pennies or got into debt by financing one. I do not believe in incurring debt and I would be an old lady by the time I saved up enough pennies to buy one of these machines. *sigh*. Hopefully, I will be able to use my sewing machine to do some quilting things I would like to do. We’ll see.

Layer Cake Quilt Along: Block 8 & 11

I finally got my sewing machine back from the shop a couple weeks ago. It took me some time to get back into the flow of things; but, once I got going, things started flowing. I still have one more block to make, block 12, before I can start making the quilt top.

This Quilt Along is long finished; but, I am determined to plow through and get it done as I am tired of UFOs (Unfinished Objects) lying around the sewing room and in boxes.

Block 8
I love the process of making this block. I think it might be fun to make a quilt out of this one block alone. You can find the instructions here.


Cut Fabric Pieces.

Sew Together into a Block.

Cut Block into four equal parts...

and Arrange to Your Heart's Content. Design 1.

Design 2. I went with this one as I liked it best.

Finished Block!

Block 11


This block was a pain in the you-know-what to make. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get it right. I made sure of the sizes of all the fabric pieces before piecing them together and they still came out terrible wrong. The instructions, for me, were hard to follow and I also believe that it is inaccurate. I do not have the time nor the inclination to figure out what is wrong. But, I like this block well enough that I want to use it in the final quilt.

It is off by 1/2" in one direction; so, I will need to square it. I have decided to add a border to all the blocks in a solid coordinating color and then square them all up before putting it together into a quilt top.

Layer Cake Quilt Along: Block 9

I was well on my way to completing Block 8 for this quilt along. I was even going to take pictures and post about that today. But alas, my machine died a sudden death and I do not have a clue to why. I'm feeling a bit down in the dumps about this.

All I have for you today is Block 9 which I completed on March 31st.

Block 9
I really enjoyed making this block. The instructions calls for making three different units - the center square, corner triangle squares (4) and flying geese units (4). And then, you can play with them. You have a choice of putting them together in four different ways. I chose the above pattern because it seemed to make my fabric 'shine' the best.

As I mentioned before, I had planned on having block 8 done this morning. I also hoped to have block 11 done tonight. But alas, I cannot as I have a dead machine. I want to scream, cry and panic and I am doing all I can do to remain calm. Ha!

Dan will try to revive the machine tonight. I am not going to lie, I have no hope of him being able to do this as it will not even power on. Anyway, I will take the machine to a repair shop tomorrow (if Dan is unable to revive it) and hope the shop can get it running again soon. My fear that it will be costly to get it fixed. My biggest fear is that the repair shop will not be able to revive it and then what will I do? Now, can I scream?

Layer Cake Quilt Along: Block 10

I printed off the instructions for Block 8, 9, 10, and 11 of the Layer Cake Quilt Along over a week ago. Yes, I am way behind.

Block 10
I grabbed a set of instructions out of the pile and made a block. It turned out that it is for Block 10. This means I am going out of order! Oh well. It will all get done no matter what order I go in, correct?

For this block, I dipped into the second layer cake (package of 10" squares of fabric) that I bought for backup. I wanted my background fabric to be all one fabric. I am really glad I made this choice. Also, I used leftover scraps for the dark brown (ampersands) square.

You will have to use your imagination. It is suppose to be a flower. This was difficult for me considering my color palate is limited. The original instructions called for yellow, pink, red, and green fabrics. My fabrics are blues and browns.

I had a personal goal to get at least Block 8, 9, and 10 done by yesterday. Ha! Ultimate Fail! I will endeavor to get another block done today. We will see. I am also hoping to get the rest of the blocks done by next Tuesday before block 12 is released. By the way, there are a total of twelve blocks for this quilt along.

The Flickr group is still going strong; although, activity seemed to have slowed down some. I am assuming that I am not the only one to be lagging behind in this quilt along.

Layer Cake Quilt Along: Block V & VI

Previously: Documentation IV

I did not document making these two blocks as well as I did with the first four blocks. I was struggling with block V and I could not be bothered with taking pictures of the process. And, I was so focused on finishing up block VI by this afternoon. I wanted to be all caught up in this quilt along. But, I do have pictures of the finished blocks.

Block 5
I am seriously disliking this block. Don't get me wrong. I am not disliking this block as a whole. In fact, I love the look of the block. I just do not like how mine turned out. I had to do some "fudging". And, I will have to do some more "fudging" to make this block work in the final quilt.

The designer of this block used every square inch of the 10" squares of fabric. As a result, this block didn't allow a whole lot of room for errors. The biggest problem is that I'm still very much a beginner - I need room for errors! Ha!

For example, I would have cut the stripes a little longer for the stripey Half Square Triangles (HSTs) in order to trim the HSTs to a nice squared up 'block'. But no, there wasn't any room for adding extra eighth or quarter inch. I did my best to sew them up nice and square. Ha! They still turned out wonky. I had to 'fudge' them to make it work in the block as a whole, which I do not like doing.

Ah well, this is as good as it'll get. If I had more fabric, I would try it again knowing what I know about making the block now.

Block 6
Fortunately, this block was a lot easier to make. I deviated from the designer's block. It is exactly the same design except for the fabric arrangement/usage. I went with two layer cakes (10" squares of fabrics) to make the center. I then dug into the leftover scraps to create the border and cornerstones. It is kind of weird looking; but hey, that is me! Ha! Actually, I'm glad I had just enough of the same fabric to use for the cornerstones. Otherwise, this block would have looked too pukey for me to use in the final quilt.

There ya go! I'm all caught up! Hurray! Block 7 was posted today and I have two weeks to make that one.