Sunday Stash Report

I broke down and bought some fabric I didn't need this week, and it felt pretty good! Except for the medleys I get every month, this is the first fabric I've bought this year. When I went to the quilt shop to get the backing for my Springtime Stars quilt, there was a basket filled with jelly rolls and jelly cakes sitting by the register. Jelly rolls are all over the place now, but I'd never bought one until this week. The colors in these two really appealed to me. The jelly roll is called Neptune, and the jelly cake is called Gypsy Rose. I've already started a new quilt with the Neptune fabrics and had to run back to the quilt shop for a couple yards of background fabric to go with it.

Another medley arrived in the mail last week too. They're supposed to come once a month, and they usually arrive pretty close to the same day of the month; but this is the third medley I've received since February 2. I called today to ask why deliveries had been so erratic the last few months and was shocked to discover that I've been receiving Keepsake medleys off and on (mostly on) since 1993. Good grief! I've cancelled them now, once and for all.

Here's the Stash Manager's report:

Fabric used this week: 3-5/8 yards

Fabric used year to date: 19-1/2 yards

Fabric added this week: 14-3/4 yards

Fabric added year to date: 22-1/2 yards

Net used year to date: -3 yards

3 yards in the hole--okay, I can live with that. I'll have a few finishes coming up before too long, and that will take care of it. Provided I behave myself, that is. Last year was a terrible year for stashbusting, and I'll be happy if I break even this year. It's a start.

Here's the quilt I started with the Neptune fabrics, so I counted the jelly roll and background fabric right back out of the stash again. Fig Tree & Co has a pattern for this quilt, but I figured I could wing it without the pattern since the block is in the EQ6 library. I did get a couple other things from them though.

Anyway, it's pretty easy to make without a pattern. All you do is sew a pair of strips together, then cut 60 degree wedges from the strip set. You need 6 identical wedges to make a hexagon, and you can get two different hexagons from each pair of strips. You can make a quilt 6 blocks across x 7 rows out of a jelly roll. Background and borders are extra, so I'll be ordering a little more fabric this week for the borders. I think I'll be using the fabrics in the upper left corner for borders. I like these blocks because they sort of remind me of Stack 'n Whack blocks, but they're a lot less work.

Star BOM -- Done!

Woohoo, the Star BOM top, hereby renamed Springtime Stars, is finished! This quilt was a whole lot of work and well worth it! Today I bought some white fabric for the backing, and last night I ordered a king size batt. When that arrives, my good friend Ann will quilt some baptist fans on it for me.

When I was working on the ribbon border a couple of posts ago, I said I'd share the method I used to make it. The border is foundation pieced, and if you're working on this quilt, you'll get a pattern for the ribbon block. You might consider printing those foundations on freezer paper, which offers some distinct advantages. Even if you're not doing the Star BOM, the freezer paper foundation piecing method is still a handy one to have in your tool box when the occasion might arise.

As far as I know, Judy Mathieson of Mariner's Compass fame invented this method, and an article detailing her method was featured in one of the major quilt magazine some years ago. It has also been discussed in great detail by Barb Vlack and others on the Info-EQ list. If you're a list member, you can probably find that information in their archives.


The concept is simple. Foundations are printed on freezer paper, and each line is scored ahead of time to fold easier. The first piece of fabric is pressed in place, eliminating pins or glue, and succeeding pieces are pressed to the freezer paper after stitching. Instead of sewing through the paper as in regular foundation piecing, you fold the freezer paper back out of the way on the stitching line and sew right next to the line. You can then simply peel off the foundation when you're finished--no ripping off the paper--a real time saver, especially since there are 40 ribbon blocks in this quilt. There is an excellent tutorial, complete with detailed photographs, here.


Another nice thing about using freezer paper is that the foundations can be used over and over. I printed 12 foundations--6 foundations for one half of the block, and 6 mirror image foundations for the other half. I used the same set of 12 foundations for all 40 blocks.


Waste is inherent to foundation piecing, but there are some things you can try to eliminate as much waste as possible. I cut strips of the two purple fabrics I was using, lined all the foundations up on the strips, and ironed them all at once. Then I cut them apart and added the triangles, chain piecing them through the machine in groups of 12. To save background fabric, I cut rectangles first, then cut them diagonally to get my triangles. I used a paper template to figure out where to make that cut. You can cut stacks of these pretty quickly.

March certainly came in like a lion. We had a big snowstorm the first day of the month plus a few other minor snowfalls. We woke up again this morning to more snow, which changed over to sleet, then rain. I really hate cold rain! I keep going to Norma's blog looking at her Backyard Tour and imagining what it would be like to shed all this outerwear and sit outside in the warm sun eating a fresh ripe tomato. Come on, Spring!

Credit where credit is due: Star BOM quilt design by Judy Laquidara. I made a few modifications of my own to her design.

Star BOM Borders -- 5 Down, 2 To Go!

New Socks

My son took most of these pictures yesterday morning at Mary's apartment and emailed them. Not only does Damien like his new socks, but he also adores the Beanie baby dachshund he found at our house. He took it home with him and has carried it around ever since.

Sunday Stash Report

There's not so much to report this week, only a quarter yard out for the backing on the Easter Egg quilt. However, I got a couple of Keepsake medleys for a total of 3 yards. Still ahead of the game, but sliding backwards a little. I'm on vacation for the next two weeks and hope to get some serious sewing done!

Here's the Stash Manager's Report:

Fabric used this week: 1/4 yard
Fabric used year to date: 16-1/8 yards
Fabric added this week: 3 yards
Fabric added year to date: 7-1/2 yards
Net used year to date: 8-5/8 yards

I have been Thinking Spring all week long, and this morning I heard there's a big storm roaring up the East Coast that will arrive here by midnight. They're predicting 8-14. I swear it's the Endless Winter...sigh....

Another Eleventh Hour Finish

Hooray, I've finished my February WISP! I finished the top of this little quilt ages ago, and every spring I told myself I'd finish it so I could display it for Easter, and then it would sit another year. Not this year!

When my kids were young and we lived in Maryland, my mother-in-law lived about two hours away, and we used to visit about once a month. On Easter, Jennie would hide those plastic eggs around her yard for all the grandkids. Some eggs had candy in them, but some also had pennies in them. My kids used to love the ones with the money in them, so I found some fabric that featured coins and used it in the broken egg in the bottom right corner of the wallhanging.
















I do love batiks and love using them, but no one uses batiks better than Wanda at Exuberant Color. Visit her blog sometime, you'll love it.

Credit where credit is due: I'm sorry I am unable to credit this one. I saw a photograph in a catalog or something years ago and simply traced a real egg to create the pattern. The idea and pattern for the broken egg is mine.

Knitters Are Good Bloggers Too

It's been a while since I've posted to my blog. My days have been pretty hectic lately; and even though I only work four days a week, I haven't actually spent a whole day at home in over a week. Life happens, right?

I even missed the Sunday Stash Report, but nothing was added or gained so it didn't seem so important to do one. I don't know if anyone besides me gives a hoot anyway. It amuses me to keep track of my stash, so I've continued doing it.

Life is never boring though, and I'm never, ever bored or idle. Within the last week I finished Master Damien's little socks, finished a dishcloth, and started another. Tonight is Knitting Night, and we are beginning a new project, a baby sweater. It's a month-long class, and I'm sure it will keep me busy for a month.

I've also made a little more than half the blocks for the ribbon border in the Star BOM quilt. It is a foundation pieced border, and I'll share the method I'm using to make these another day.

Now that I've discovered knitting, I spent quite a lot of time trying to hunt down some good knitting blogs. I started by clicking on "knitting" in the Interests category from my profile in Blogger, and I wasted several hours just trying to find a blog that was actually current. Many of these blogs were abandoned one or more years ago, and I concluded that only quilters are good bloggers. This morning however, I hit the jackpot when I found a site called Knitting Pattern Central. They offer piles of free knitting patterns, and I discovered that each of the links goes to some other site, many of which are blogs. You could surf the web for days by following the links, and I succeeded in finding some blogs I thought I'd enjoy.

The problem now, however, is that I already have 104 blogs listed in my Bloglines; and I can't even keep up with all of those, much less leave comments. I could conceivably double that number if I added knitting blogs, so I don't even know what I'm thinking. I know I'm not the only one who has so many blogs they like to follow, and I wonder all the time how much time other bloggers spend online blogging, and how they manage to get through reading all their favorite blogs everyday. An hour? Two? Half a day? All evening? I could easily spend all day on the computer, but gosh, do I really want to spend that much time doing it?

I've considered whether or not to set up a separate blog for my knitting. Do quilters mind reading knitting or other crafting content on a quilting blog? Would they rather read only quilting dialog? I even thought of a name for my new knitting blog. But what am I thinking? I'd like to post at least a few times a week on my quilting blog, and some weeks that doesn't get done either.

All good questions.

We had a big snowfall last week, about a foot. The pile of snow at the end of my driveway where the road and driveway have been plowed now nearly exceeds my height. It was a wet, heavy snow that clung to everything. Beautiful, but treacherous if you were driving. And any road surfaces or sidewalks that weren't completely cleared of snow the next day now have a layer of ice underneath packed snow.

Tomorrow we are expecting more precipitation, possibly in the form of rain. Since there's nowhere for the rain to go, it could be an interesting weather event.