Sewing Reports and a Finished Flimsy

Thursday, my daughter and her boys came to visit for a few days. After a busy weekend, made busier by two boys who never stop moving, they left yesterday after the Christmas parade. Hubby went straight to his recliner, turned on a football game, and promptly fell asleep. Not being much of a napper, I started sewing. I finished the Floating Stars quilt, or at least finished it to the flimsy stage. I don't have anywhere to lay out a quilt right now, so quilting it will have to wait awhile. I also feel like I am running out of time to finish UFOs and would like to get as many as possible to the flimsy stage while I can. I did find backing fabric for the stars quilt and made six yards of Susie's magic binding; then I packed everything away.

I can't tell if the photo is in focus. If it's not, sorry about that.  I'll get Hubby to help me with it later.

Finishing this top and pulling the backing and binding fabric out of my stash meant that I used a bit of fabric this week. I also had to buy a yard to finish the borders, but used 3/4 of that. So while I don't have a formal report, here it is:

Fabric bought this week: 1 yard
Fabric used this week: 3-1/4 yards
Total loss: 2-1/4 yards

I sewed 7 out of 7 days this week too. Evenings are still my productive time. So my sewing report reads:

I like that December percentage. lol

Goals for this week:
1. Finish the backing for Gairden Walk
2. Make binding for Gairden Walk
3. Make at least 10 blocks for Depression Blocks
4. Rip seams on varigated EPP stars
5. Cut fabric for scrappy EPP stars
6. Cut fabric for white EPP stars
7. Cut strips for blue and green fabric basket

Linking to:
15 Minute Challenge at Life in Pieces
Sunday Stash at QuiltPaintCreate
Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts
Show and Tell at Bambisyr med sin Quiltglädje! which I think translates to Quilting with Bambi
Main Crush Monday at Cooking up Quilts

Design Wall Choices

Borders are always the hard part for me. I think I auditioned all the fabric in my stash this weekend and what I finally decided I liked was the red and a darker outer border. At first I was going to use the solid gray you can see in one photo below. But when I put the half stars on it, I didn't like the look at all. With the darker borders, my eye was immediately drawn to the center design. With smaller stars in the border, it all seemed cluttered and disjointed. Without the smaller stars in the border, I'm definitely going to use more stars in the center design, and now I am looking at those options.

More of the large stars,

Or the smaller stars.

It's funny how taking a couple of pictures and being able to look at them together helps me see things I didn't see before. After looking at these pictures, it's plain to me which one I should use. Do you see it too?

And of course, now I need to buy a different fabric for the outer border.

Linking to:
Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
Monday Making at LoveLaughQuilt
Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts
Moving it Forward at Em's Scrapbag

Stars Progress

If you recall, I got a wild hair last week to do something with the EPP stars I've been making for a year or more. As if I don't have enough projects going on, right? I should be finishing a UFO. But this will be a fast project, and I'm telling myself it will be an easy Christmas gift too. This week I finished appliqueing the stars onto blocks and this morning, I joined the blocks and rows to finish the quilt center. It's a gray day today, so even with a flash, these pictures are too dark. Sorry about that.

The center looks a little sparse at the moment. I made some smaller star segments to use on the border but wondered what it would look like to have small stars mixed with the larger ones. I think it's too busy, but then I like simple. I'm also not sure I have anymore paisley-ish scraps to make any more. What do you think?

Linking to:
ScrapHappy Saturday at soscrappy
DrEAMi! (Stands for Drop Everything And Make It) at Musings of a Menopausal Melon

On the Design Board Today

It was a cold, gray weekend, which turned out to be perfect for getting stuff done around here. After having a standoff with Hubby about insulation, we both compromised and I cut while he hung it, and we got all the walls finished Saturday. Sunday afternoon, I was able to get in a few hours at the cutting table and sewing machine. After arranging and rearranging several times, I was able to finish only three blocks. But it should go faster now that I have a system and more of the star tips tacked under. Now I'm trying to decide if I want a secondary block in the corners or just have floating stars.

Linking to:
Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
Show and Tell Monday at Bambisyr med sin Quiltglädje! (That translates to Quilting with Bambi I think)
Main Crush Monday at Cooking up Quilts
Moving it Forward at Em's Scrapbag
Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Still Making Stars

English paper piecing used to be relaxing, but this week it has been taxing. I don't know if it is my eyes, poor lighting, or my fabric color choices, but it has been a struggle to sew the black stars with black thread this week even with my magnifying glass. I have to finish one more black star and then I'm not starting any more of them.

As I've been making these, I have been trying to decide whether I want to join them in the traditional manner, or try something different that I can do with the sewing machine. I'm leaning toward the sewing machine after this week.

I'm linking to:
Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
Show and Tell Monday at Quilting with Bambi
Main Crush Monday at Cooking up Quilts
Moving it Forward at Em's Scrapbag
Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Living for the Moment and Design Wall Monday

The other day, I had to run to town for something or other. As I was driving the same dull road I drive every time I go to town, I noticed a car next to mine. It wasn't the car I noticed as much as the passenger in the car, a black dog with hair so long it covered his eyes. The window was down and the dog's paws were on the door and his face into the wind, long hair flying, and an expression of pure joy on his face. It was probably the same road that the dog had been on many times before also, but for him, the thrill of the ride hadn't diminished over time.

It made me smile to watch the dog enjoying his ride, and reminded me that it doesn't take much effort to enjoy the simple things. I get so busy getting my work done that I forget to stop and enjoy what I have right now. Who knew you could learn something from a dog?

Ok, enough deep thinking for one day. On with the design wall, or floor in this case.



I'm still plugging away at the Summer Crossroads quilt, but since it doesn't look much different than it did last time, I'm not going to show it. I've made a few string blocks, mostly in brown since that is the color of the month chosen by soscrappy for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Last month was blue, and it put me on such a roll that I not only made my blue blocks, but I cut up all the remaining blue in my box for either future string blocks, EPP, or half square triangles. I'm happy to say that I no longer have a blue scrap box taking up room on a shelf!

I hope I can say the same thing about the brown scraps next month, but my momentum definitely slowed over a hill this month, so we'll see. When I put these brown blocks down to photograph, I noticed that I cut one wrong, so I really only have two finished.

I also wanted to show progress on my English Paper Pieced stars. I had one block completed before Saturday, but this is what I completed during the three hour Storm Spotter class Saturday afternoon. Doesn't seem like much when they are laid out does it? During the morning class, I worked on hexagons.

In my excitement over eliminating a scrap box, I almost forgot my stash report. Or maybe I almost forgot because there's not much there. Except for one strip of white muslin, I haven't used any fabric from my stash this week. Everything else has been from fabric already cut.

That's it for me. I hope you check out the links below and see what wonderful creations other quilters have come up with this week.

Blessings,
Marti

Linking to:
Monday Making 16 at Love Laugh Quilt
Design Board Monday at Bits and Bobs
Main Crush Monday 18 at Cooking Up Quilts
Moving it Forward 8 at Em's Scrapbag
Oh Scrap! 20 at Quilting is More Fun than Housework