Cutting And Sewing

I had a great time with Jean yesterday, cutting and sewing.  Also a little chit chatting.  I got my magazine autographed. :-)

Jean had a quilt she designed in "McCall's Quick Quilts" August/September 2014 issue.  It's her third time being published!  I'm so excited for her.  You can also find other patterns by her at Craftsy.

Jean did lots of sewing and I did lots of cutting.  I have all my half square triangles cut for "Hard Tack and Coffee"   Each bag has 40 HST and I have one package (on the left) of blocks that are ready to sew.  Today I want to finish getting the bags of blocks all cut and ready to sew.  Then I can just grab a bag of 10 blocks and start sewing!

Little Projects

I was checking for a fabric and I found this fabric.

Notice that the little hearts are off.  I think I bought this fabric to use for making a rug.  It's really a nice weight of fabric and cut up, it would have been fine in a rug.

But I ended up making a curtain for the basement.  My husband became a Master Gardener and was experimenting with starting his own seeds.  He needed a curtain to block out some of the light so I made this.  So another little project, done.

Goals

So I decided to have a quilting goal for this week.  My plan is to quilt and bind "Everything But The Kitchen Sink." I need to get a big project off the list.

I also plan on cutting out some of the green and orange strips I need to make 4-patch blocks for Celtic Solstice, strips for HST blocks for "Hard Tack And Coffee", and some 10 inch squares for playing with the HST technique shown in "Disappearing Hourglass" quilt.

I'll let you know at the end of the week if my goals were too lofty. I really do need to figure out my limits...

Done And Done

Step 2 and Step 3 are done and done!  

Going to be spending some time now cutting out blocks for "Hard Tack and Coffee" along with strips for making 4-patches for Celtic Solstice.

Closets

I've been trying to get some closets cleaned out this summer.  I get them part way done and than I seem to fill them up again.  I have been following a blog called "365 Less Things"  And taking one thing a day isn't moving it out as fast as I want.  So for the month of July I thought I would do 10 things a day.  And guess what?  One of the readers, Sanna, thought the same thing.  So I'm joining the challenge.  I'm keeping tick marks on my calendar to track.

Here are a few things removed from the closet and they are going off to find new homes:

This fabric is going back into the scrap bin as I only wore this outfit 2 or 3 times.

Had button covers of stars for the top white buttons.  Bet those are still around here someplace too!

I want to make a pillow out of this.  

Do You Ever Feel Like This?

Do you ever feel like this?  You are sewing along on your project and you really want to start something new?  I've been looking at this quilt on my calendar all of June.

Very simple, just half square triangles done with light and dark fabrics.  So I resisted all month.  Then Friday, Missouri Star Quilt Company comes out with this tutorial, The Disappearing Hourglass quilt, on video.  I'm watching it and she makes HST with 2 pieces of fabric from a 10 inch layer cake.  Oh. My. Goodness!  It all clicked.  I can make my HSTs using this method.  Now I know I have seen something like this before and I'm sure it's even pinned on my Pinterest boards.

But it felt so revolutionary to actually see this done.  The squares will be a little bigger, but that's OK, as I want to make a twin size charity quilt.  So now what?  Do I drop everything and start this?  Or keep working on my 2014 list?

So, does this ever happen to you?  And when it does, how do you handle it???


UPDATE:  And yes I do want to go buy the materials needed to make the Disappearing Hourglass quilt!!

Yay For Progress!

Yay for progress!  I have 19 Hardtack and Coffee blocks done! I have 200 chevron blocks and 20 pinwheels blocks for Celtic Solstice.

I now have to start cutting more half square triangles for Hardtack and Coffee blocks.  But I couldn't find my Easy Angle ruler!  Achhhhhh.  So a friend has let me borrow her ruler until mine shows up.  Thank You Jeanine!  

The weather has been beautiful and today was amazing.  Worked in the gardens this morning.  Picked lots of lettuce and basil.  Yum!  Also saw these two little guys resting in the shade of a bush this afternoon.  One is hidden by the other.   I love seeing the babies.