Holy HST's

This is my brain.......

after spending several evenings making these

I have been on a scrap/stash busting binge for a couple of months now and hate to say I have hardly made a dent on the stash and the scrap bins are now overflowing.  Huh????

I had figured I needed 6?? some hst's for a large quilt and as my mind was wandering aimlessly I realized if I was only to make this quilt 30hst  x 30 hst's I needed 900!  Yikes.

....so back to the cutting board.  Since I was trimming these, I figured I  could eyeball the diagonal line instead of drawing it.  It totally saved alot of time and I just used the theory I use while skiing in the trees; look where you want to go.  So I just put my eyes on on the end corner and voila, that is just about where I ended up. 

I hope to finish these bad boys today while it is snowing.

Can't wait to start putting them on the design wall ;)

I hope someone out there is getting spring and blue sky.

Spray basting question

Hi,
No pics today just a few spray basting questions.  I want to spray baste a queen size.  Can't do it outside cause of all the snow and mud, so what is the procedure.  I can tape the back to the carpet but I don't want all the overspray to end up on the carpet.  Any tips on how to manage that?  Is a queen just too big to spray baste?  I hope not, cause I am hoping to get away from the safety pin gig.  Any suggestions will be very welcome.

Inspiration on the hill

I went skiing today and while the skiing wasn't spectacular I saw some amazing ski jackets (I bet they really were snowboarding jackets)  I couldn't wait to get home to start working on my ideas. 

But I got home and this was still on my design wall!

What! the finishing gnomes didn't come and  work their magic on this?  Well shoot!  But I had a AHA! moment and now I know what to do with this.  Yup, I'm going to finish it before I start one of the new tops.  

I have never been one to draw out my ideas on paper, I'm a fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl,  but it worked.  Imagine that!  If I sit down and draw it out, it gels and hopefully I will not waste as much time, fabric, thread or patience.  Can't wait to get to work.

Have a blue sky day.

To cut or not to cut!?

I had a bunch of strips that I decided to sew together and now I am not sure I like it.  I am thinking about cutting it up kinda bargello like.  Or the other thought is doing some thread painting on it before I sandwich it.  What do you think?  I need some input....please.

yowza!

I finally tried spray basting.  I love it!  When I cleaned my sewing room I found several tops that I had never quilted and don't really love anymore so I thought they would be my guinea pigs.  I practiced doing feathers, never thought I would want to quilt feathers but they are kinda fun.  Lately I have been doing alot of straight line quilting and though I do think there is a place for it.... I really, really, really love free motion quilting.  The spray  baste really held the layers together so there was not a problem with the back getting any wrinkles.

I have 5 or 6 queen to king tops finished and I think I will try spray baste and use my little ol' home machine to quilt them.  But first, I have a finish (well except for the hand stitching) so I can start a new quilt........right?

spinnin' my wheels!

My youngest son just left after spending the holidays with us.  The house seems so empty now. So I thought I would get busy organizing..... took the ornaments off the tree...

but couldn't actually get myself to take the tree
down










Went to my sewing room.......  Yikes!

I really need to do something about that scrap bin.

Lined up my extra glasses....

Decided I needed to do something fun.  I have been thinking about making some letters after seeing some dandies on blogs.  They took much longer than I thought but now I had some fun so maybe tomorrow I will post pictures of my CLEAN sewing room.

Happy New Year!

Time goes faster and faster the older I get.  Wow, can't believe another year has passed.  What a good year it was though so no regrets.
I have more starts than finishes so my goal this year is to have more finishes than starts.  That's a novel idea for me.

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas I started 3 quilts and finished these two  

Last year I had started a wonky log cabin quilt and never finished it so I turned it into 25 hotpads.  They were fun quick gifts to give.

I found loving homes for several of the quilts I had finished during the year.  I LOVE IT when a someone is thrilled with the quilt I picked for them.

My niece got this one.

My oldest son got this one.

Then, and I think the most exciting, I used over 80 yards of (what was I thinking of when I bought this?) fabric from my stash, to make pillowcases that were sent to Afghanistan.  

It did make a dent, WAHOO!

Can't believe I lost the pics of all the pillow cases so you get a pic of my pup sleeping with one of her Christmas toys.

Cheers!

Mary