Posted on

WIP Wednesday: The Force is With Me

I have been making a conscious effort to practice what I preach and PAM some things in the sewing room.  As Lynn and I hurtle towards our pattern launch on July 16 (at Red Hen Fabrics at Marietta, GA - come by or visit The Stitch website to check them out), we’re also doing legitimate things like register for EIN numbers and other small business things. One note about that:

It’s delightful, is what I’m saying.

But in between business things, I’ve been making progress on quilts! Here is my Bonnie Hunter quilt under the needle, complete with Star Wars fabric on the border.

I put the finishing stitches on the binding for the quilt last night, and moved on to making a class sample Aeroplane bag, since I’m teaching a workshop (!!!!) on it at Red Hen as well. on July 23rd.  More details to come if you’re interested in signing up - we’re working out class times and supply lists and it should be up on their calendar this weekend, I think.  I should wrap up my Aeroplane bag tonight, and then move on to a final sample for one of our 3 patterns being launched. Whew.

Posted on

Hogwart’s Required Reading - Finished!

I’m just now getting around to posting these pictures after finishing this over the Christmas holidays, but here, finally, is “Hogwart’s Required Reading”, my Harry Potter Project of Doom from FandomInStitches.com.

For the most part, the quilting focused on outlining the piecing for the various blocks.

Particularly this stinker.

Some things got fancier treatment, like bubbles in the butterbeer and feathers on Hedwig.

Here’s the bottom section of the bookcase, which shows a little more on the books themselves.

If you’d like to make your own, go download the patterns!

Posted on

WIP Wednesday - Pottering Along

Note: I wrote this on Wednesday, and yet it did not post. Why, interwebs, why?

This week has been flush with free motion quilting as I finally got to work on quilting the Harry Potter bookshelf quilt.  Since I’m matching thread colors to the fabric color, there are a ton of thread changes and thread, honestly, so it’s slow going to bury the threads as I go.

So far I’ve done orange, red, yellow, blue, gray, and brown.  I’m in the middle of gold, and still have green, purple, lavender, black and cream to go. And then all the background around the bookcase (which is lime greenish).  My goal is to get three colors or more done per day so I don’t get crazy neck from bending over so much. It also helps break up the monotony of quilting book spines over and over and trying to come up with new designs

Sometimes there’s fun bits, like monogrammed cauldrons.

In between quilting, I’m working through a pile of scraps to be trimmed down as my scrap basket overfloweth.

As I work through it to trim down sizes, I’ve decided to do a Scrappy Trip Around the World quilt, so some of these are getting cut into 16 x 2 1/2″ strips so I can piece those blocks as leaders and enders when I feel I need something different to work on.

 

Posted on

2015 Year End Stash Report

Well, I was not quite as productive as I’d hoped the last few days, but I did finish the Quilt of Valor Disappearing Nine Patch quilt I was working on. The Harry Potter bookshelf quilt is still under the needle - all the books and tidbits are quilted, and I’m working on the black background of the bookshelf and then the green outer background. It’s doable with another couple hours of work, but ultimately not doable tonight!

  • Used since last report: 7.25 yards
    • 7.25 for QoV N9P
  • Used year to Date: 297.5 yards
  • Net Used for 2015: 141.75 yards
  • YTD Used for Charity: 152 yards (51% of total used)

Graphs!

Compared to prior years, my 2015 net used yardage (the green line), is below prior years.  I’m okay with that- having knocked out an average of 200 yards each of the three prior years, it was time to restock the stash a bit.  That, coupled with 30 weeks of slow productivity due to the focus on the Harry Potter bookshelf quilt and some extra work travel, means that I simply didn’t do as much sewing. Oh well.

What is interesting is the charitable portion of my total yards used.

2015 numbers are WAY up.  This is actually tied to the first graph, actually - having not done a lot of big quilt projects between travel and intense paper piecing, I focused on accomplishing some “quick hits” of charitable donation quilts which drove up that portion of my usage.  While I’m glad these benefit the community, there’s some personal gain as well since donated quilts in my guild equate to raffle tickets for a variety of gift certificates to local quilt shops.  For the third time in a row, I won a gift certificate to a local shop! Conveniently it’s even one that a friend of mine is a part owner of.

I expect some quick hits in January for usage- the Harry Potter quilt, the king-size Christmas quilt (which is super early for next year’s holidays!), Allietare, and a number of others I’ve been working on as leaders and enders for pattern designs. For now, I’m okay with where I’ve ended up.

Posted on

Sunday Stash - Alas!

I’ve been doing A LOT of sewing in finishing up the top for the Harry Potter Project of Doom, but am still a bit far off to actually finish the quilt.  The bookshelf itself is done, so I’m working on a dragon for the top of the bookshelf (the sword will fit on the left side okay, but I’m still adding crown molding!), and I’ve already finished a Cornish Pixie and a flying key to have hover over either the sword or the broom.

My plan is to create some bias strips to make a cage for the pixie, but I need to get the full side panels to flank the bookshelf to put together first.

For the dragon, I’ve finished 6 of the 8 pages of pieces for the block, which will finish at 10 x 20″. It is no joke, and I’m hoping to get the last two pages of pieces done by Tuesday evening, which is also when my items for the consignment sale for the kids is due as well.

  • Used this Week: 0 yards
    • Sad trombone!
  • Used year to Date: 148.75 yards
  • Added this Week: 4.5 yards
    • 4.5 yd of panels for a One Block Wonder quilt (a birthday coupon splurge!)
  • Net Used for 2015: 65.5 yards
  • YTD Used for Charity: 73 yards (49% of total used)

See more Stash Reports at Patchwork Times!

Posted on

WIP Wednesday - Skinning My Teeth

I’ve just now remembered it’s Wednesday. That is sad, and also understandable if you know the full list of stuff I’ve been doing.  Not only is work nuts (final presentation for the project started with the week in NYC in June is being presented in NYC next Tuesday), but I also had orientation for Good Mews for their new shelter, which is opening soon, a furniture refinishing project, my birthday, and some other behind the scenes stuff I can’t reveal yet but will be made known by the end of the month.

Each evening I’ve had a list of “3 Things To Get Done”, which includes elements from all the various projects, and so far I’ve kept on task this week.  AND I’ve made progress on projects. Whew.

First, the Harry Potter POD.  We have our last regular week next week!  Here are the two latest official blocks:

I also finished the MASSIVE Sword of Gryffindor block (with Jett shown for scale):

So this week I also need to finish 2 zipper pouches, 1 large block holder,  luggage tags, 6 small coasters, and start a purse. I’m hoping I can get the zipper pouches done tonight, alone with the last bit of furniture stuff.

See more WIPs at Lee’s blog!