A Gaggle of Geese & Other Random Stuff

Tax season is officially underway, but I have been trying to carve out some sewing time in the midst of the chaos as it helps keep me sane.  And calmer lol.  I have been working on a few things this week as I've had some snippets of time.

Way back when, a number of years ago, I started a Corn & Beans quilt made with batiks.  I had extra in all of the strips so using my triangle rulers, I cut flying geese units as well as other block components from the extra.  This week I sewed up a bunch of the geese.  And no, I have not yet finished the original quilt.  In fact, I still have probably half of the cutting left to do.  It's going to be a very large quilt made up of 6" blocks :-).  So here are my gaggle of geese for the week:

I also got the binding attached to this little orphan block trivet that I quilted at least two years ago, probably three:

I haven't posted many cat pics lately, so I thought I would remedy that as well.  When I prepare the fabric bolts for sale in the shop, I clean up the end of the bolt and get rid of the wrinkly part and make a nice straight edge to start with.  Of course being a scrap quilter, I am keeping all of those cutoffs.  In fact, I am keeping them separate and have selected a pattern to make a quilt just from those cutoffs.  Kind of a scrapbook for the shop and a record of all of the fabrics I have ever carried. 

I washed the latest dark cutoffs yesterday and had them piled on the cutting table.  Sassy of course thought they were perfect for a nap.  But then she decided the basket with the unwashed light cutoffs was even more comfortable :-).

Chocolate Covered Cherries is Done!

Woo hoo!  I have a completely finished quilt and the first month of 2013 isn't even done yet!  Of course, it was already to the stage of having the binding partially sewn down at the end of 2012, but hey, a finish is a finish and there has been a long, long drought around here with regard to finished quilts.  I believe the last one was in, ahem, 2011.  Ouch.  But I did have a few big things going on since then so I will cut myself a bit of slack.

Anyway, here is Chocolate Covered Cherries, all washed and ready for snuggling under.  I didn't feel like vacuuming up the cat hair to take a picture upstairs where it is marginally brighter than my basement studio (North Dakota in the winter you know) so please excuse the bad lighting in the picture.  The fabrics are batiks, my favorite, in a beautiful fuchsia combined with the brown and pink print.  The block is the bento box block.

 

 

 

 

Mini Strippy Quilted and Ready for Binding!

I am moving along with my goal of getting my scrappy mini strippy quilt completely done by the end of the month rather than create another UFO.  I have plenty of those already.  I got the quilting done a couple of weekends ago and then got the binding made last night.  I put off making binding FOREVER as it's not my favorite thing to do.  I love hand sewing it down, but hate making it.  I don't know why as it never takes as long or is as bad as I think it will be.  But it is what it is I guess.  I like to make it in batches and get it over with.  I have a pile of more binding to make this weekend and then I should be done for awhile. 

Anyway, here is my quilted Mini Strippy quilt with the binding all ready to go beside it:

And a close up of the quilting.  I did simple straight lines in a random pattern drawn from side to side of the quilt.

And the back:

When I showed my husband the backing I had chosen, he ever so gently said "But it doesn't really match the front".  And then went on to say "The colors match though."  Exactly dear.  Now you are getting it lol.

He may have not loved the backing I chose, but he LOVED the quilting :-).  I do too.  It's exactly what I envisioned and totally different than anything I've done before.  And quick and easy, so perfect.

First Finish of 2013!

I am determined to carve out more quilting and stitching time in 2013 so to that end, I cut and sewed the borders on the mini strippy quilt today.  I also cut the binding strips from the same fabric.  It's not a big finish, but a finish is a finish given the drought I've had in that department the last couple of years while I was busy with other things :-).

Year End Sale at My Very Own Quilt Shop

Happy New Year!  I hope everyone had a great transition into 2013.  I actually made it to midnight this year!  lol  We had a great dinner out with the kids at Texas Roadhouse and they are all going skiing today while I play in the quilt studio.  Sounds like the perfect day for all involved!

The year end inventory reduction sale is underway at My Very Own Quilt Shop.  The discount will show up in your shopping cart.

The entire site is 20% off thru January 13th.  I am adding new solids today and hopefully will have some more to add over the next week as I've got new prints on the way and more solids to get on the site as well. 

I've also just added ten new solid fat quarter packs.  Here is a preview of some of them.  They are yummy!